A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 12

He drew back his fist and clocked Monnie on the temple.

It surprised him a little that all that the blow really earned him was her hot glare, so he put a lot more into it and she went limp. He stood up and turned to go.

"Can she teach us about Heaven?" the other demon asked before he reeled backwards from the hard slap from Elkington.

"Idiot. Any girl can get you a little close to it. Then again," he sighed, "I guess that you'd take that literally. Let's just skip it. I'll be back in two nights, maybe three at the outside. Have fun."

-----------------

Monnie clawed her way back slowly. When enough of the pieces had returned, she opened her eyes and would have jumped. She was looking up into the faces of the pair as they looked at her with concerned expressions. Instead, they jumped back a little.

She tried to move and found that she was still tied securely with her arms out at her sides and her legs about as far apart as they could possibly be. So much for dignity.

"Well?" she snapped as the first of her angry tears began, "What are you waiting for? Aren't you going to tear pieces off me and eat me? Aren't you going to fuck me, or have you already done that?"

"We didn't do anything," one of them said a little defensively. The other one turned and beckoned and the first one handed him a bucket. He set it down nearby and looked at her.

He pulled out a rag and squeezed excess water from it and began to dab her head very gently. Monnie winced at the touch.

"Sorry," he said, "We, ... thought of it, but we wanted to wait for you to wake up first. We have questions."

"Yes," the other one nodded, "We don't want to do this wrong. We thought that if we waited and if we did it right for you, then you might take us to Heaven. Can you really do that?"

Monnie shook her head to clear it and instantly regretted the act. Her head pounded something awful and her jaw was making her ear hurt as well. She didn't curse all that often, but if there ever was a time for it, she thought, then this just had to be it. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

The one with the cloth sighed, "She doesn't know what we mean," he said over his shoulder, "He was lying to us again -- just like he always does." He worked carefully to try to get some of the cool water onto the abrasion on her chin as well.

"Just like he always has and always will," he said sadly.

Monnie heard a rather odd sound -- considering that she thought that she was the one here who had a right to make it. The other one was sniffling a little.

"We haven't hurt you or done anything to you," the one with the rag said, "Rest a little. I think the Colonel is already gone and he won't be back for two or three days, but I'm not sure of it yet. If he even remembers you then, we'll tell him that we had a lot of fun before you talked us into untying you and you got away after that. He'd believe that story, since he thinks that we're just idiots.

That is, if we don't make it out of here ourselves by the time that he comes back. We've been getting ready to leave here for a long time, and thanks to you, he's just handed us the chance.

Just relax and we'll free you in a little while," he said, "We're not going to hurt you. I don't think that you should get up right away or you'll just fall down and you'll feel worse after that. Just rest. We'll get you some food and water in a few minutes, and in the morning, we'll take you in whatever direction that you want to go. Just don't ever let him see you again, or he'll beat us for letting you go, once he finds us."

"I might have fallen for a pack of lies once," she said, "but -- "

"She doesn't believe us," the other one said in a worried tone, "She thinks we're lying."

"It doesn't matter," the first one said, "Nothing matters anymore.

You should believe us," he said to Monnie, "we're really the only chance you've got. If you want, we'll untie you and you can try to stand up. You'll just fall over and throw up. We've seen this before. We'll leave you alone if that's what you want us to do, but then we'll have to leave you here. We're leaving soon."

He sat back and looked at her, "You oughta think a minute. Why would we want to eat you when we've got plenty of food and want to share it with another person that he's screwed up? You're in the desert here. The only time that you can live to travel very far is now, at night. But he's awake right now. He sleeps in the daytime. I don't know if he's still close by, so it's best that you stay until the morning at least.

If you travel at night, he'll find you once he knows that we didn't kill you. Why do you think that we'd eat you anyway? You're so, ... beautiful. We don't want to hurt you."

Monnie smirked, "Now I know that you're- "

"She doesn't believe us!" the other one said.

"Stop that!" Monnie said. She thought for a moment and as much as it hurt to do it, she raised her head, "I suppose that you think I'm beautiful too?"

When she saw his adoring nod, Monnie dropped her head back and regretted doing that as well. "Shit!" she hissed through her teeth from the pain.

"I keep telling you, just rest a while," the one nearest to her said quietly. "I'll untie you and we'll help you to sit up, but don't try to stand yet. We'd help you up, but we already know that you'll fall down."

He turned to his brother, "Get another bucket."

"What for?" He asked.

"Because," the first one said patiently, "She won't believe us no matter what we tell her and when she tries to stand up and beat us to death, she'll throw up at the very least, so go get another bucket, ok?"

He turned to Monnie again, "The Colonel thinks he's the smartest person in the world. He thinks everybody else is an idiot. I heard the way that he talked to you, and I didn't believe it. Maybe I was wrong, though. We can tell the way that you think. That's why I keep telling you that we really do just want to help you. We could leave you here and go on with getting ready to leave. But we thought that it would just be really cruel, and you haven't done anything to us."

"Where are you going?" she asked, adding, "Look at this from my side. I've had my life ruined by demons and I came here to kill the one who brings them here. I've killed more than a couple of demons, but they've never spoken to me at all. I never gave a thought about how they looked before."

She sighed heavily, "And I haven't exactly woken up feeling peachy, you know?"

She looked away, "Other than my mother, nobody ever said that I was beautiful, either. Even Artemis never said that to me. All that he ever said was that I was a little pretty."

"Look," the demon said, "I'm not going to sit here and hand you my explanation. Ask my brother why he feels the way that he does. He's better at words like that than me. I read just about all of your notes. What you've just said is either a lie, or you're learning a little about us.

As far as leaving, the Colonel just leaves us alone almost all of the time. We found a few things and found out a lot more about the things that humans had once, long ago. We taught ourselves what we could from their books. Humans can't fly like we can, and we can't carry much for a long way. But we've wanted to get away from here -- from him, for a long time. We found a way to fly the way that humans did once, and now we have our chance.

Let's wait until Billy comes back. I already know what you're gonna try to do, so I'm not gonna untie you until then."

"Billy? Your brother's name is Billy?" She was very surprised.

"Uh-huh," he said, "I'm Hank."

"Where did a couple of demons get human names like those?" she asked.

"What's wrong with our names?" He asked her, "Why can't we have those names?"

She could see that he felt a little defensive, so she just smiled a little, "There's not a thing wrong. I think those are really good names. I even think they fit you. I didn't mean anything by it, I was just a little surprised."

Monnie didn't really understand what he'd said about flying and she could see that there was no point to arguing so she just lay still and it led to several minutes of silence where he daubed her head very carefully. She was surprised to see the look of careful concentration on his face. He sat back and ran his fingers through his rather spiky-looking hair once.

"You're lucky, you know," he said after a little while, "He didn't bite you. I guess he doesn't think that your blood would be any good for him."

"I got that part about how ugly I am," she said.

"You're only ugly to a four hundred year old snotty-nosed asshole," he grinned a little, "You're really lovely. We've seen pictures of females all over this place, but none of them are as nice as you. We're sorry if we misunderstood about Heaven. We don't know any better. We've been here alone for a long time and we can't go back home.

Anyway," he said, trying to lighten things a little, "you're still lucky he didn't bite you or try to turn you. He does that sometimes, trying to make another of what he is. It never works out for him and if they even live through it all, they always end up hating him for doing it to them. He's had to kill every one."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because to his surprise, they don't all love him to death for what he did to them," Hank said. "Almost all of them resent it. He thinks he's so great. It never comes to him that the rest of the world sees him for what he always was. He was born hundreds of years ago, but he hasn't gotten over himself yet. He came from a rich family and thinks that the world ought to kiss his ass, and becoming what he is hasn't exactly changed that. So you see, you are lucky that it hasn't crossed his mind to turn you."

"I'm still trying to decide on how lucky that makes me," she said. Her eyes drifted over him. He was about average for a demon male, a little taller maybe, but he looked healthy as far as that went with slightly more musculature than she'd seen on them before. His hair was black and long, the top a bit shorter, for some reason.

She looked at his face and it wasn't the usual mess of contorted features that she'd often seen. He looked sane. As far as that went, he didn't look all that nasty. Her eye drifted down and hung on his genitals for a few seconds. He looked healthy there too. She moved her gaze on quickly, settling at last on his clawed feet splayed widely as they were on the floor next to her.

She forced her eyes back to his face. "Your hair," she said, "it's different on both of you, from what I've ever seen on demons here. The other one, Billy, ..."

"He's my little brother," the demon said, "Where we are here was a big place to test their flying machines a long time ago. From what we can tell, some of them were couples and some weren't. There are places where it looks like only males lived. This building was for females as far as we know. My brother's found things to take care of hair -- brushes and scissors and stuff like that. He cuts my hair for me so it stays out of my eyes better while I'm working on getting us out of here. He just brushes the heck out of his own. That's why it looks so shiny, I think. He keeps it tied back like that mostly."

"I've never heard a demon speak like a human before," she said after a few moments.

"Yeah well, we're a little different, I guess," he shrugged, "We're just as fucked up as anything else that he takes his hands to. He was trying his method out of grabbing us from where we lived. He used to suck human blood before then. He wanted to grab a child -- someone who couldn't kill him or hurt him too much and we were near his trap, so he sucked us here and we've been here ever since. He can't send us back. We were just little then. He taught us to talk like he does. I almost can't remember how to talk to another demon -- not like I ever get much of a chance to. Since we're not girls, he's left us alone."

He looked at her and pointed a little, "You shouldn't make fun of us if we tell you that we like the way that you look. We meant it -- even if you don't want to hear it."

"I wasn't making fun of anything," Monnie said, "It's not something that I hear every, ... few years, that's all. I just remember a boy at school a long time ago. I had a bit of a crush on him. It was the kind of thing that a kid feels before she gets to know that she's not what everyone thinks is pretty. He made a big to-do about how lovely I was."

She frowned after a second, "It took me a few days to see that he was making fun of me."

Hank looked at her and shook his head, "Well we're not like that. If we say something, we mean it -- unless it's to the Colonel. To him, we just say what we think he wants to hear so he'll leave us alone again. I wish we coulda been there then," he said looking away for a moment. "We coulda fixed him for you, Billy and me," he nodded once and grinned a little.

"Why would you want to do that?" she asked.

"You don't get it yet, do you?" he said, "We like you a lot. We just don't know how to say it right.

I guess it just shows that we're pretty fucked up, but we didn't do anything wrong while we waited for you to wake up. We did touch you though. I'm sorry if it was wrong to do, but we've never seen skin like yours and we just had to," he shrugged as he looked down. "We also touched, ... that place there a little. We've only seen pictures."

He sighed a little, "Sorry about that too if it was wrong to do. We didn't mean any harm."

Monnie tried to think about it clearly, and if she put herself in his place, ... "I think I'm glad that I wasn't awake then," she said, "I wouldn't have known why you did it. I guess it's ok, as long as that's all you did."

He didn't look up. He just kept looking at the floor for a moment.

He looked up a second later and leaned forward a little. She heard his words as he spoke and she saw his teeth in that mouth of his, wondering why she wasn't really as repulsed by the sight as she'd always been before. She guessed that it had to do with him not looking crazy.

"I know you don't believe me, but we think you're so beautiful to look at. We spent a long time just sitting here staring at you."

Monnie was a little shocked. "You -- you really mean that?"

"Yeah," the demon said, looking self-conscious for a moment. He set the bucket aside and slowly reached out to the unhurt side of her face, careful in case she looked as though she was about to bite him or something.

"We did, and you really are. We know that we're ugly to you. It's ok. We understand," he said a little sadly as he sat back.

"We um, ... we kissed you. Both of us did. It was nice, but you weren't awake, so we guessed that it was about all that we could do."

"What do you mean?" she asked, a little more surprised now.

"Well, you didn't have any reason to, especially since you got spelled by him and brought here. You don't have any reason to want to kiss us, and we knew that you never, ... you never would want to, so while you were asleep, we, ... kissed you as lightly as we could."

Monnie might have been there against her will and restrained the way that she was, but she was coming to see that she had a couple of the strangest admirers in the pair of them. She wasn't really repulsed by it, but she had to know something.

"You really will untie me?"

"Yeah," he nodded emphatically, "If he hadn't hit you or spelled you, and if we found you here tied up like this, you'd already be untied. Please, I just want to hold off until we get that bucket. I'm really afraid that you're gonna need it. I just know that if I untie you now, you'll sit up and puke for sure. You're nice to look at, but I don't want to see you tied up like that. I'd hate that if it was me."

"Why did you kiss me?"

She held her gaze on his eyes, and though he wanted to look away, he took it as a test of some sort and looked right back into hers. "I've never kissed a girl before."

He snorted a little angrily, "I've only seen female demons as he brings them back for a half a second and then he moves them somewhere else, so I guess I've never even seen one for longer than a second or so. I wanted to try it and you were there and all. It's probably the only chance I'll ever get."

"Maybe not," Monnie smiled a little, "You never know. I never had anyone for my whole life until one night in an awful blizzard. A man came to my farm half-frozen and I took him in. We were together for a long time after that, until he was killed by demons. That's why I want to kill Elkington. He didn't know about it, and he doesn't care anyway, but I want to kill him for it."

The demon began to look away.

"Don't you look away from me," she said, "You didn't do it and it's not your fault. I didn't mean to tell you that part. I just wanted to say that you can never tell. Look at me," she said.

He looked at her again, trying to hold her gaze.

"You haven't harmed me in any way?" she asked.

"Never would," he said, shaking his head, "unless maybe you were hurting my brother and he didn't deserve it."

His answer made her smile a little, though she tried to maintain her serious expression, "And you will untie me, after your brother gets back with that legendary bucket that's taking longer to arrive than the second coming of Jesus?"

"I promise to untie you then," he said, "I'll even untie you right now, but you've gotta promise me that you won't try to sit up or stand yet. You've gotta believe me, you will see everything spin when you do. He's spelled us before, and we puked for a whole day after. From what I read in your stuff, you've got some kind of magic to you. Well that won't work for over a day after getting spelled."

It was true. Monnie had been trying to use her abilities every now and then since she'd awoken, but nothing happened and her nausea came back whenever she did.

Monnie didn't know why, but his remark did make her smile then, and she couldn't hold her expression any longer. The look on his face as he stared at her softer look was worth a lot to her. She shrugged, "Would you want to try a kiss from me instead of just kissing me while I'm out cold?"

His mouth fell open, but he recovered after a second, "You won't bite me or hurt me?"

"Alright," she said, "let's make a promise out of this. You kiss me as your promise to untie me when the magic fabled bucket arrives with your cute brother, and I'll kiss you as my promise not to jump up and pound the crap out of you both as I wanted to at first. You're not the raving mad things that I've ever seen. In fact, I can tell that you've got your own tale of woe in all of this. I'm starting to like the way that you look at lot better. Maybe we all need those glasses things that some people wear if you think I'm beautiful and I think you and your brother are turning into a handsome pair of males the longer that I lie here. So come on, Cutie. Come here real slow and I'll kiss you at least once."

He looked as though he was struggling with his own trust issue, but he leaned forward slowly and his knees touched the floor as he slowly placed his hands on either side of her. Monnie caught one quick glimpse at his already hardening shaft and then it was out of her view as she looked up through his long hair. In spite of everything that had happened to her, she found herself wanting him to lower that mouth a lot quicker for some reason, but she was savoring the slow way that he brought his lips against hers so carefully.

They both sighed for a moment, and then she pushed back with her head to get some space, "MMphff."

He drew back instantly, "Did I do it wrong?"

"No," she smiled up at him in an almost whisper, "not at all. I just want you to kiss me again just a little softer. The only way that I've ever been kissed by a male is when Artemis kissed me, and he was always too hard about it. He never listened to me when I asked for softer kisses. But I think I've got a chance here with you, since you're new at kissing a girl. I might not always want to be kissed softly, but right now, yeah. That's what I want from you. Now try it again."