Ominous Tower

France.

The country of wine, cheese, gourmet food, beautiful women with a strong personality and… The Eiffel Tower!

Of course it had to be the Eiffel Tower. If it had to be any place, it would be France's most famous monument.

Mike was trembling, nearly hugging the structure of this huge metal thing. Once he allowed himself to open his eyes, he saw a little girl next to him, doing the exact same thing and looking at what seemed to be her family with big pleading eyes.

"Mom… Can we go now? Please?"

Poor thing… She was shaking with fright while the other tourists around were oohing and aahing and taking pictures of the city.

Kim seemed impressed by the view as well, and took that opportunity to look for a way out of there. Mike was still fixated on the little girl, admiring her courage for coming all the way up here.

She noticed him and gave him a small smile of empathy. He put a finger to his lips, hoping she would understand, then motioned to Kim.

"Time to go!" When the flying flame was nestled between his horns, he gave an encouraging nod to the girl and made a whooshing motion, poofing them away. He still hadn't mastered the actual 'whoosh' sound, but he was working on it.

They arrived at the foot of the Tower and were instantly crushed by hundreds of tourists waiting in line to get up. This is, after all, one of the most visited places in the world, and people can wait in line for hours on end to visit it.

It was originally made for some sort of international contest in the 1900s and was supposed to be dismantled, but... To this day it remains erect. Tall, proud, a monument to the glory of overcompensating Frenchmen and their creative ways to prove themselves a point.

Now back to our heroes, it is their story after all, not a history lesson.

Completely lost and with absolutely no idea of what was happening around them, they ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction.

After about an hour in the densely populated city, they found a little park that seemed quiet and secluded enough for them to hide.

A few children were playing while mothers and nurses chatted and chirped instead of watching them. A couple of teenagers were breathlessly kissing on a bench, oblivious to the happy looking thief that was taking his time going through the inside of their bags. Just a normal, quiet, peaceful park in Paris.

As they entered it, the first thing that Mike noticed were the flowers. Flowers!

Everywhere, and in color! A smile of pure childish joy appeared on his face, and he sprinted straight to the nearest bush. He tried grabbing Kim's attention by declaring: "Look, colors! All these colors! With real flowers underneath, and smells of… I don't know, but not ash! Kim, isn't it great?"

But she was preoccupied by the fact that people were looking at them. She knew how to turn herself into a small human like form, but could not get rid of her purple hue. Not to mention, Mike was very obviously grey blue and triple horned.

"Oh look, his costume is very well made, isn't it? The horns look almost real! And it must've taken him hours to apply such vivid colors on himself!"

Hold on a second, they thought it was all a disguise? They're crazy, those French... That was when Kim decided that she loved Paris and the credulity of people.

She allowed herself to relax and float closer to Mike. The flame was almost transparent now, so nobody noticed her anyway.

Mike was ecstatic at this point, running from one flower to the next. Trying his best not to damage any while smelling their sweet perfume and sneezing every so often. When he raised his head to smile at Kim, the Demon noticed a change.

She was still the same and yet different. Floating next to a rose bush, red ones because this is the city of romance, she seemed to gain more color. Not purple, but more reddish. And the roses seemed to grow paler and paler next to her…