14 Distance

Everette.

"Calm down..." Asmodeus begs me nervously.

"Calm down?" I ask mockingly. "If you want me to calm down, make this human transport work!

"It's called a car!" he exclaims.

"I don't care! Repair it!"

"I'm a goddamn demon, not a mechanic!"

"That's enough!" Death grimaces.

I blink in astonishment and feel the rage take hold of me.

"Death, my soul is alone and vulnerable in this world." I remind him.

He sighs and nods.

"I understand, but we have to fix the car and none of you are doing anything productive to solve our problem."

"You don't help much either." Shameena spits irritated.

"Why don't you use the speaker box to call a human who can fix that stupid thing?" I ask.

"None of us has one..." mutters Asmodeus.

I have never felt so useless, I have a couple of centuries of not visiting the mortal realm and now humans don't do anything by themselves, they only use machines.

Stupid machines.

"Maybe... we can stop someone and force them to give us their car!" suggests Shameena excitedly.

Not bad...

A noise echoes in the sky and small drops of water begin to fall.

"Great, now the sky is crying!" Asmodeus snorts.

"It's rain." I roll my eyes and grimace.

I hate rain, I'm so unaccustomed to it.

"I insist that we kill a human and take their car." mutters Shameena.

"Or we could do what we naturally do." suggests Death.

"Steal souls?" I ask.

"Torture?" Asmodeus follows me.

"Seduce?" says Shameena.

"Give orders." he rolls his eyes.

"Humans are useless." I snort irritably.

"It's cold!" exclaims Shameena.

Asmodeus sighs and opens the car door for her.

"Get in and shut up." he orders.

She snorts indignantly but gets into the car without a word.

"We don't even know where Aisha is..." I mutter, feeling the water begin to trickle down my back.

"Can you feel her?" Death asks, settling down next to me.

"I feel a strange sensation in my chest, from time to time it becomes uncomfortable." I explain.

The rain falls more intensely and Asmodeus curses from below.

"I've had enough." he declares.

"I still don't understand why we can't just materialize somewhere else." it would be much less complicated.

"I've already explained it to you." Death growls. "If we materialize and appear out of nowhere somewhere else, the humans will go crazy."

"We don't care what happens to them!" Asmodeus raises his voice, as the sound of the rain is quite loud.

"You should, you know we have to be careful while we are here, the humans are very fragile." Death assures.

"If any of them die, we have you, just transport their souls to your forest to wander for eternity." I give him a friendly pat on the back.

"I'm not here to take the humans you kill." he glares at me.

"At this moment, the only one I want to kill is the celestial that generates this rain!" Asmodeus shouts, looking up at the sky with difficulty.

After a few seconds, the rain stops.

"Coward." I mock, referring to the celestial who stopped the rain. "Very well, since we can't fly and we can't materialize either, I guess we should walk." I conclude.

Death and Asmodeus look at me as if I had said that I will be a Celestial.

"Walk?" they question in unison.

"You know... that thing that humans do to get places and that we do occasionally in Hell." I explain.

"Now that think about it, the idea of killing a human and taking his car doesn't sound so bad..." mutters Death.

"Why are we still here?" Shameena complains, getting out of the car.

"We can't repair the car." Asmodeus explains.

I roll my eyes and start the long walk that awaits us.

"What is he doing?" I hear her mutter.

"Something that no demon should do..." the red-haired man says resignedly before I hear his footsteps following me.

(...)

"Let me kill her." Shameena pleads.

"Just ignore her." I sigh tiredly.

"That human is practically raping you with her eyes."

"Well, that mortal man is doing the same to you, you know that's their nature, just ignore them." I whisper softly.

"They are disgusting." she grimaces.

"Don't remind me."

After what I estimate to be three human hours of walking, we arrived at the cafeteria where we are sitting.

"That human is about to approach." Death warns me.

Without giving me time to respond, a human with brown hair and eyes of the same color smiles flirtatiously at me.

"Hello." her voice sounds quite different, I guess in an attempt to make a seductive tone.

I ignore her and just watch Asmodeus eat.

Gross.

"You should go." Shameena replies her.

"I'm talking to him." the girl analyzes Shameena up and down and grimaces. "Not with his dog."

We all look at the girl dumbfounded.

Well, I guess her living time has come to an end.

Shameena laughs low and menacingly and gets up from her seat to face him.

"If you don't want me to end your pathetic existence right now, I suggest you and the silicone you carry in your body get the hell out."

Silicone?

Asmodeus grabs Shameena and pulls her back.

"Calm down." he asks her in a low voice.

"This pathetic human dared to challenge me!" she exclaims angrily.

The girl only laughs, causing more anger on her part.

"I suggest that Death gives her a good handshake." I hint maliciously.

My friend glares at me.

If Death touches a human, it will take all his life energy, it won't kill him, but it will leave him without strength for a long time.

"Death?" the girl asks, shifting her gaze from me to him. "Now that's an interesting name."

"More than you think." assures Asmodeo.

"I guess you're not from around here." she approaches Death and tries to touch his arm, he quickly gets up and walks away from us.

Spoilsport.

"He's kind of shy." I mockingly excuse him.

She nods and sits down next to me, I notice that Shameena is more than ready to put up a fight but Asmodeus carries her

over his shoulder and takes her away.

The last thing we need is another fuss from her.

"I see you're not shy at all." she winks at me.

"You disgust me." I report with a grimace.

She lets out a laugh and denies.

"Playing hard to get only makes me willing to do more to be with you."

"More?" I question mischievously.

"For a guy like you, I'd do anything." she caresses my forearm.

"Would you be willing to go to Hell for me?"

She smiles haughtily and nods.

"Of course."

I smile broadly and lean in until my lips brush against her ear.

"Your wish is my command."

I see her skin crawl and laugh, I wonder what I'll do with her soul, I could torture her for eternity for daring to even come

near me.

Disgusting human.

I focus my dark energy on one thing, to steal her soul.

"Everette..."

Damn it.

I smile falsely and look away from the girl to focus on Death.

"What can I do for you?" I ask sarcastically.

"You were going to steal her soul." he indicates the girl with a nod.

I roll my eyes and release the girl from the trance in which I kept her, she gasps and looks at me scared.

"What...?" she tries to ask.

"Just stay away." I order her.

She quickly obeys and with that gesture, I notice that we have already drawn too much attention from the other humans.

" Don't you dare to carry me again!" Shameena and Asmodeus approach us arguing.

I roll my eyes in annoyance.

I want to go home, I want my soul back and I have no idea where it is in this pathetic world.

"Let's go," I indicate them.

Everyone nods and we leave the place.

"What now?" asks Death.

"No..." I try to speak.

A strong pain in my chest stops me, it's a pressure I've never experienced before. I stagger and Asmodeus approaches in alarm, Shameena watches me in fear while Death holds me.

I don't know what's wrong, I feel the most agonizing pain in me.

"What's wrong, brother?" Asmodeus' voice sounds really worried.

I don't blame him, never before has anything managed to make me fall.

"I..." My breathing becomes heavy, but I slowly manage to sit up, with everyone's eyes on me. "I'm fine."

"Getting out of Hell really suits you bad." Shameena takes my face and examines it. "You are cold."

"It's only Aisha." assures Death. "Being away from her is affecting you."

"In such a drastic way?" Asmodeus questions.

Death shrugs his shoulders.

"The distance is only making Everette crave her more. Consider how my own mark affects me, Everette is Lucifer's son, he is much more powerful, that includes his mark, we will never know what he feels as it is the weight of his own power and desire, however, I know it is all because of the distance with Aisha." he explains.

"I have not even been able to locate the Infernal beast." I murmur.

"This is all her fault." Asmodeus blurts out with his gaze fixed on Death and Shameena.

"It's not my fault she is such a coward and let go from his hand." she shrugs.

"You shouldn't have disrespected Everette." reprimanded Death.

"Well, you shouldn't have come in the first place." she assures him.

"I want to see Life." replies in exasperation. "I just want to see her without the celestials judging her for being tied to me."

Shameena blinks in bewilderment at the intensity of his words.

"You should have said it in the first place..." she mutters under her breath.

"I don't have to explain myself to you." he glares angrily at her.

"That's enough." my voice sounds much firmer. "Aisha must be in a much worse situation, she is alone and far from me."

By damn profanity, I'm too affected by that mark. Knowing that she is so weak is not helping either.

"Let's hurry up and establish a search point, we can't wander all over the human realm without having the slightest idea of where we are and where we are going." clarifies Asmodeus.

"Besides that, you can't steal the human souls." Death reminds me.

"She said she had no problem with going to Hell." I shrug.

"She didn't know I was talking to the son of the Devil!" he exclaims obviously.

"All right..." I give up. "But Asmodeus has to stop eating human food, it's already disgusting to see him eating in Hell."

"It's not disgusting!" he shrieks.

"It is." the three of us say in unison.

"We are wasting our time." Shameena rolls her eyes. "I think the best thing to do is to split up, so we can cover more of the human realm, it's not too big."

"Remember that the Celestials sent their people undercover, if they realize that something goes wrong with the mission to catch the beast, they will use it as an excuse to take it." and I will never allow that to happen.

"Celestials are a pain in the ass." Asmodeus spits venomously.

I feel a gaze fixed on me, I scan the place and find a small human analyzing me. I could become his worst nightmare...

"Are you listening?" Shameena waves her hand in front of my face.

"That human could listen us." I point out.

Death turns and looks at him.

"It's a child." he informs me. "He's harmless, if he hears anything and tells his parents, they won't believe him."

"Why?" I frown.

"Human adults are like that." he shrugs, playing it down.

"As I was saying..." Shameena speaks. "If you concentrate maybe you can locate Aisha, you know, your mark is her link, so maybe you can track her. Plus it's your human soul, that creates a pretty powerful bond."

"In Hell."I emphasize. "Here the connection is weak because human sins distort reality." as always, humans are simply a hindrance.

"Perhaps Death could take their souls for a few minutes." Asmodeus suggests. "Then you can find out where Aisha is."

"I will not take any souls." he declares. "My forest is already full and for now I don't need any human souls."

"What do you think of a banished celestial?" I ask.

Everyone looks at me confused, not knowing that I feel the presence of a celestial quite close, but there is something different in the power he emanates.

It has a sinister touch.

I smile mischievously at the thought that a corrupted celestial will want to confront me. I'll use his remains as decoration.

As that enticing idea occupies my thoughts a pounding headache comes over me.

I stagger once again startling my companions, I see several images flash through my mind and one of them takes my breath away.

Aisha is being chased.