Sinful Darkness

"Hey Sove. Sove. ... SOVERIN!"
"Mm... wazzat...?"
"Tch, for a mercenary you're not too aware, huh?"
Thump, thump, click... "...Exil Imma kill you. It's three in the morning. Go to bed."
"But I can't sleep."
"Not my problem."
"Oh c'mon, I listened to your bullshit earlier, at the cost of my gummy bears."
"Go. To. Sleep." Wumph... "Damn it, and take your blasted pillow back."
"Well now that I've got your attention-- Don't roll your eyes at me. I know you're doing it even though it's pitch black in here."
"Then you'll also know you're tempting fate. Ever hear the expression 'Never poke a sleeping dragon in the eye'?"
"Well I threw a pillow; completely different story. Now then, what did Xat'iu mean by 'You bear the mark of the gods'?"
"The array the Sins put on my back. Two are needed to summon the dead from the Twisted Path. The one Lust drew in the dirt, that was the array of the afterlife. The one summoned and branded on my back is that of life. All six elements, intertwined over life and death. Was that all?"
"Mm, for the most part. If I think of anything else, I'll wake you up."
"I'll change the saying to 'Let sleeping dragons lie, wake them and you'll surely die'."
"Oh hey, you rhymed."
"...I hate you sometimes."

So much has happened... So much will happen... Where will this circle end?

"'ey Sove! Che' i' owt!"

Soverin pulled himself out of his daze to look over at his friend next to him on the sleeper sofa, who had decided to see how many gummy bears he could fit on his fangs.

"Wha' do ya thin'?" Exil said, spreading his arms wide as if proud of his work. He continued on, mouth still full of the chewy sweets they had acquired in town. "Go' twel' so far, six on eech. Tri' i' to fla'en 'em firt'."

Soverin stared at the purple-haired demon. "Tell me, what the hell are you on?"

Exil pulled the bears off his teeth, allowing him free speech once more. "Oh have some fun; you've been staring at static for ages now." He popped one of the previously impaled bears in his mouth. "At least flip the channel, Dragon."

"Sorry," Soverin mumbled, flicking the remote to Exil before standing to leave the room. He paused at the doorframe. "There's a lot of pointless things in life, huh?"

Exil looked back at him, puzzled. "And you dare to ask me what I'm on."

"Shut up."

"But you just asked me a question."

"I mean stop being a jackass."

"Then I wouldn't be myself." He sighed and slouched down in his position on the couch, shutting his turquoise eyes. "Carry on to your point; you'll do it no matter what I say."

Why couldn't Seraph be my roommate for the night? Even so, he began to pace. "Like what is our real purpose?"

"Yours is to save Kyten, remember?"

"Yes, but I mean the ones you, I, and the others have to save. Why do we even have to save them?" His pace began to speed up, his spiked green dragon tail swaying erratically behind him. "Like what if it's all for naught? We're risking everything and for what?" He was thrown off-balance by Exil's bag of gummy bears being chucked at his head. "What was that for?" he yelled. Then he noticed his friend's laughter, causing him to narrow his mismatched blue eyes into slits. "I'm being serious here!"

"I know, and you're getting upset over nothing. Chill your ass down and give me the bears back."

Now irritated at the demon in front of him, Soverin took the bag and ran from their room in the inn.

"Hey those are mine! Soverin!"

Soverin knew he was right, turning the corner once outside the inn and pressing himself against the wall. He knew all too well, answers come with time, and he just hoped, as he stuck his foot out and tripped Exil, that time was on his side. He dropped the bag on his friend's chest. "You're slow."

"And you're an ass." He sat up, clutching the bag of sweets to his chest in a protective manner, managing to crack a smile on the dragon's face.

"Only to my friends. To my enemies... well you don't want to know." He helped Exil up. "I am getting a little stressed over nothing. Thanks for reminding me that not everything can be taken seriously. Not at this time."

Exil nodded to the path of confused heads they had left in their wake. "I think it's time to go hide for a bit though, don't you?"

"Ah, yeah, that might be best right now. Less explanations." He shoved his hands in his pants pockets, gazing up at the dusky sky. At least for now, I can leave my mind at rest. For now...

After a fun-filled day of looking for Christmas presents, Soverin Daemon, the Green Dragon demon, Exil Lücke, the unknown breed of demon, Vincent Argon, the water-elemental pirate, and Seraph Asche, the Glacyer Rapticle, emerged from the enormous mall into the parking garage, loaded with gifts for each other and their other friends.
“Wait, this doesn’t look right,” Exil said, peering around his boxes. “I don’t think we parked here.”
“Yes we did,” Soverin said. “We parked in the purple.”
“No we didn’t,” Vincent said. “We parked in red.”
“No, you were sitting behind Exil, and got confused with his red top-hat.”
Vincent thought. “Oh yeah…”
Seraph looked around. “I don’t see purple signs anywhere Soverin. I think we’re on the wrong floor.”
“We couldn’t be. I remember coming in that part of Flourance’s Department Store.”
“No we didn’t,” Exil said. “I knew it didn’t look the same.”
“It was the right floor.”
“No it wasn’t,” Vincent said. “We came in over by where they were chasing down guys to try out cologne, and that gay man caught Seraph and sprayed him with nasty smelling stuff.”
“Who buys that junk?” Seraph asked, wrinkling his blue snout.
“Well wait, what floor was that then?” Soverin asked.
The other three didn’t say a word as they only shrugged.
Sighing and drooping his shoulders, Soverin suggested, “Then let’s just wander around for awhile and see if we can find the car.”
“Alright,” Seraph said, “but I’m telling you, I don’t see purple signs anywhere.”
After an hour of walking around that level of the garage, the purchases were beginning to weigh them down. The fluorescent lights continued to hum overhead as they walked back to where they started.
“I told you there was no purple,” Seraph said, sitting and putting his boxes next to him. They had found every color of the rainbow, aside from purple. Or violet, whichever.
“Then we’re definitely on the wrong level,” Vincent balanced his boxes with one hand and wiped at his brow with his other arm.
Soverin bit his black clawed thumbnail. “Then is it upstairs or downstairs.”
“I’ve got a brilliant idea,” Exil said as he shifted the packages. “Why not continue the search inside, where there’s A/C and people to ask?”
Admitting defeat, they left the oven called a garage and went back into the store, asking for directions to the cologne desk.
“It’s right downstairs,” the lady directed them. “You look like you’ve been lost for hours.”
“Just one,” Seraph said as they took the escalators downstairs. It was then that they saw the evil cologne sprayers with their arsenal of smelly liquid fully loaded. “Oh not again…”
“We’ll have to make a run for it,” Exil said. “They run fast, we have to run faster and get out those doors before they take us down.”
The four nodded and gripped their purchases tighter.
“On three. One, two-“
“Wait, on three, or three then go?” Vincent asked.
“On three. It’s always on three,” Soverin said, rolling his eyes as Exil began counting again.
“One, two, THREE!”
Each ran as fast as they could without dropping anything past the counter, but to no avail. They had been spotted. Well really, how could they not be? One was 6’2”, another 6’ with a right red top-hat, another completely blue, and the other wearing a pirate bandanna as if he had come right off of his ship.
“CUSTOMERS!” the cologne sprayers shouted and the chase began.
The boys managed to get to the doors, but they didn’t see the sign “pull”. One by one they became victims to the horrible smelly spray against their wills.
* * *
Once finally in the car, the boys swore that if they ever had to go back there for something it’d be on another level, far away from the smelly doom. The whole way back, none of the windows remained closed.