The Market

My feet stopped suddenly and my senses were assaulted. Wonderful smells of cinnamon and vanilla surrounded me. Noises broke through all around me from squeaky wheels to people calling out to customers with items they were selling. I slowly peeked one eye open to see B, Horde, and Seli looking back at me with unimpressed faces. Looking past them, I saw a flea market type setup but the goods being sold within my view were elixirs, food, drinks, and weapons. Looking up, I could see strings all colors of the rainbow and some I had never seen before. "Pretty cool right?" B said throwing up an eyebrow and crossing his arms. "Wow" I replied my eyes growing wide and my mouth staying open in awe. We began walking and I followed. Creatures of all sorts were walking the streets in their original forms, Demons being the majority. "This way" B said motioning to the right with his head but as we turned the corner, a human figure with large glistening white wings stood in the middle of the pathway lined with vendors. The wings were outlined with gold and a light shone off of them as if they were covered in leds. That wasn't what caught me off guard though. The creatures string was gold with varying hues of blues and yellows coursing through it surrounded with platinum. "Ugh I hate these guys" Horde rang out with disgust. Seli echoed the feeling "I know right? Always so 'high and mighty'.". I was pondering if it was an angel and if that was the case, it's string looked really similar to what we saw the last time we visited Lilith. "That's an angel and I think we know now who that string belonged to" Lamia rang out in my mind. Before I could reply to her the winged man pointed at me, everyone within the perimeter following his finger including our party. In a voice that demanded attention he called out, "Why is there a human in Domtivir?". Everything stopped. The noises and passerbys stopped in their tracks. The only noise was meat sizzling on a nearby cart. B being nonchalant answered him back, "Yea she's not a human bud. Maybe go home and get your spidey senses checked." repeatedly touching his temple with his finger. "That is a human, demon. Why is she with you?" he said making his way over to us. As soon as he got to us, I forced Lamia forward bringing our marks to the surface but that didn't stop him. He stooped down getting within inches of our face studying me. Almost at a whisper he asked, "Demon how do you not have a black string?". Studying him, his face was round with golden eyes. Specks of white swirled on his skin like he had been dotted with stars. Lamia and me began panicking. My thoughts raced with wondering how he could also see the strings, what color mine er ours was, and how did he still think we were human. He read the panic on my face and when he looked straight into our eyes, his eyes went wide. I looked at B and when I did, the angel flew to him picking him up by his collar. "Chill out dude. She's a demon, you see the marks yourself." B said throwing his arm in our direction. At only a whisper the angel replied, "Are you going to treat me like I was born yesterday or should we move this conversation to somewhere private so that you can explain to me why that demon still has humanity in it?". B's eyes grew big. Horde and Seli took defensive stances towards him in front of me when B put his hand up seeming to say stand down. He looked back at the angel who still had him by the collar and you could see the sweat beading on his forehead. "Um Let's go get a drink?" B asked him with a half grin and a nervous chuckle. The angel set him down saying "Thank you." and taking the lead of our group. Horde slapped B's shoulder and B turned around sticking his head forward as if saying fock off. After the angel set B down, everyone resumed as normal about their business. After many turns, the people er demons er creatures? "Creatures Mia", "Thanks" began thinning out and it became quiet. Strings were even becoming far and few between here. We rounded one last corner and to the right was a small hotel or maybe bed and breakfast? "An Inn Mia.". "Whatever it is Lamia. I don't know these things." Anyways, the Inn sat to the right. The angel lead us there through the door. Walking in, B approached the angel, "I'm Balthazar, that's Horde, that's lamia/Mia , and that's Seli." saying pointing to each of us. "I am Mika'il." He replied bluntly. B threw his arms out saying "What are the odds?" his voice becoming higher towards the end of his sentence and rubbing his cheeks. I had no idea who that was. "Mika'il is the angel of humanity Mia. He mostly walks among the humans." Lamia stated. "Well what a coincidence that was." I replied. B walked up to the front desk and got our rooms. The angel stood with the rest of us in an awkward silence. Walking back towards us, B handed each of us a room key, "I need a beer. Let's go get this conversation over with.". He walked down the hall and went through a door to the left. A quiet restaurant laid behind it like some well kept secret. A small bar and kitchen was off to the right. A waitress with pointed ears and pink skin approached us and got our orders for everything and stepped away. We all sat in another awkward silence until our food and drinks were brought out. The angel made us wait to eat until he was praying which everyone was surprisingly respectful of. "We must be respectful Mia. We may not agree with God, but he is still the creator.". Lamia told me. Once we through eating and after an eternity of silence, Mika'il spoke first. Pointing at me, he motioned his finger up and down, "So care to explain this?" eyeing B like he was ready to fight. B looked down at the table, "Your guess is as good as mine." He replied. Maki'il then turned and looked at me saying flatly swirling his hand, "So how did you get wrapped up in all of this?". "I don't know." I replied shrugging my shoulders. He leaned towards me across the table in a threatening manner, "Did Lucifer put you up to this demon?!" his eyes beginning to light up a bright white. I shrunk in my seat and B put his hand in front of Maki'il's chest guarding me. "Mika'il, there's a human in there so you might want to tone it down.". The angel immediately calmed and his eyes looked full of sorrow, "Why is she not in paradise?" he said looking between me and B. I blurted out, "And what makes you so sure I would've gone to Heaven? I was an atheist.". My eyebrows furroughing together I slumped back in my seat crossing my arms. With a look of pride he answered back, "So us angels are given this," he stopped tapping his chin, "I guess humans call it gps? Well it let's us know immediately what kind of human you are. Demons are black, Yellows are borderline, Reds are awful souls, and they vary throughout different colors meaning different things. Colors can represent sins by speckling the main color. They can also be entwined with another the purest being white. Judging by your string, I would say your soul is pure with something I'm not sure of yet but you looked for love with your body not your soul.". My mouth gaped open and I stared at him with wide eyes. "Well I'd say he knows his strings." Lamia internally teased. I rolled my eyes not in the mood to deal with her. "Are you not impressed?" Maki'il asked. "Oh no, it's an amazing thing to have but I wasn't rolling my eyes at you." I responded. B chimed in, "Her soul wasn't burnt away when the demon transition occurred. There's a demon in there to.". Maki'il's face became distorted with confusion. "There's no possible way. We created safeguards for those kind of mishaps." He placed his hands on the table and emitted anger, leaning towards B bringing his voice to an angry whisper, "If Lucifer finds out," "We are doing our best to make sure Lucifer doesn't find out." B interrupted and continued, "We did hit a minor speed bump though." He said pinching his index and thumb together. "What 'speedbump'?" Maki'il questioned. B began again shrinking his neck into his shoulders appearing to look smaller, "Well you remember Belphegor right?" On the edge of his seat, Maki'il prodded "Yes Belphegor fell with Lucifer. What about it?" "Welllllll, she ate him." B shrinking lower after replying. The angel sat back in his seat seemingly in shock staring right through us. I slammed my hand on the table chastising B "Why are you telling him everything? He doesn't have to know everything!" I said in hushed anger. "He has to help us Mia. He's the angel on humanity for God's sake. Quite literally." B responded. "Also, one more thing Maki'il" he continued, the angel looking at him, "You know how you guys go all white lightning when you fight? Well her demon marks do that to and she can see the strings." looking at me he put up his hands, "Mia don't kill me, he has to know. He'll have answers". I forced Lamia forward taking a backseat. B had utterly betrayed me to this stranger within 5 minutes. "Well you sure pissed her off." Lamia said flipping our hair, staring at B. The angel stared between us, shock still etched all over his face. Horde and Seli sat in silence, confusion and disbelief coating them. After an eternity, Maki'il finally spoke up. "Belphegor was crass. Good riddance. I apologize Mia, I failed you in my duty. I will find you answers soon." He reached out and grabbed my hand, Lamia immediately jerking it back and looking at him angrily. "I'm going to guess, with the marks, the demon is in control." He stated plainly. Lamia only nodded yes to him squinting our eyes. "We are going to bed B" Lamia said putting emphasis on the B, "Ya'll enjoy your little kumbaya group." she continued motioning a circle with her hand around the table. She stood us up and stomped away leaving the restaurant behind. I would have told her to stop acting like a child but I was mad to. B ratted us out so easily when he was the one who told us to never tell anyone. We haven't told anyone. He told Horde, Seli, and just now a frigging angel. How am I supposed to protect myself from an angel?! "Same way you did with Belphegor Mia.". I got even more frustrated hearing her response. Lamia saw the room number on our key and we went up the stairs, seeing '4' to the left. Putting the key in we heard the deadbolt unlock and we were finally in silence. A small room with a homey looking bed sat in front of us. "I need sleep Lamia." I pleaded. "Yea and I need a shower. I'm in control Mia, you can go to sleep anytime you want." "Can you close our eyes just until I fall asleep? I can still feel and see everything you're doing." "I guess so. If I don't, you'll just assume control and do it anyways." Lamia said rolling our eyes. Her words hit me hard. I didn't know if it was because I was tired or just mad but I was engulfed in guilt. I never even thought about how insensitive it was that I forced Lamia back and forward. If she didn't have control, she was stuck in our mind. "Ewwwwww quit its getting on me!" she internally lamented. "What?" I questioned not knowing what was getting on us. Our vision blurred and I realized we had tears forming. "Your guilt, quit it. It's making me sad." Lamia laid us down on the bed and shut our eyes. "Ya know just because your demon, Lamia doesn't mean you don't have feelings." "Demons don't have humanity Mia, I think you've forgotten that." I grunted back, "You can still have feelings." Before finally drifting off to sleep.