The Pleasures of Hell 01.002

"I expect you'll survive longer than most souls, Mia. So sleep for now. Your feet will heal, and you'll wake up hungry. Diogo or me will find you a forbidden fruit. Or, you know, some goort flesh to tide you over."

That was a lot of information that Mia couldn't contextualize at all. David could. But for now, she had to do what she could. Her feet would heal over night, and she'd wake up hungry? Fast healing, inducing hunger? She hadn't felt hungry since she'd died.

The rules in the afterlife were different. She'd have to learn them.

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~~Day 17~~

~~David~~

He woke up to the sounds of moans.

The amber veins grew in brightness slowly, like a sunrise, pulling his eyes open with far more gentleness than he expected from Hell.

Oh, right, Hell. Wow, that hadn't take long to remember after waking. Probably a product of not dreaming, not having to get his brain realigned with reality anymore.

Arms, still bound. Ass, still on stones. Feet, feeling surprisingly better, so at least he had that. But for the first time in seventeen days, he was hungry. It didn't feel like normal hunger, or thirst, but something deeper, something in his bones that ached and told him he had to refuel or he was going to starve. Maybe not immediately, but it'd happen eventually.

Hopefully there was something to eat in Hell, then. And hopefully it wasn't the hearts of other humans, or demons.

More moans. He lifted his head and looked to the only source of movement, and more memories flooded his brain as he put yesterday's events back together. Two demons had rescued him purely by accident, but had decided to keep him around when they'd realized he was an unmarked soul. Two ladies, at that, tall and fit and scary and sexy and...

And currently having sex on the weird leather sheets, less than ten feet away from him. He stared, frozen, eyes wide, mouth dropped, as he devoured the sight of the two naked women. Their bodies were much redder than yesterday, the black parts now dark red, and the dark red parts now red, and soft. Very soft. Daoka was on her back, legs spread, and Jeskura was between them, head between Daoka's thighs.

It was almost hard to tell who started where. Jeskura's wings were relaxed and loose, half spreading out over her back and the blankets, while her tail slithered over her legs. Her arms were hooked underneath and around Daoka's muscular, curvy thighs. The satyr held her gargoyle friend's... lover's two black horns in her grip, and she quivered from head to hoof, her own four black ram horns rubbing against the bed as she quivered. Her dolphin clicks came out slowly, deep, mixed with quiet gasps and moans.

Each time a tremble pulsed through the voluptuous satyr's body, her huge breasts rippled over her chest. David gulped, eyes locked on the satyr, her open mouth, her beautiful eyeless face, and the way her massive breasts jiggled, hitting against the sides of her arms since she was holding onto the gargoyle's horns.

She turned her head, and aimed her face directly at David, as she came. He said nothing, made no noise, did absolutely nothing. He just stared at her, hypnotized. She knew he was awake, watching her. She said nothing, or at least her clicks didn't make Jeskura stop eating her out.

And as she came down from her orgasm high, she smiled at David, let go of the gargoyle's horns, and cupped her breasts. Careful of her claws with the grace of someone who'd had them her whole life, she squeezed and massaged the huge pillows, causing the soft mounds to spill over her fingers. For him. She was showing off for him.

Movement drew his eyes down, to something between his legs, something long.

"Holy shit!" He snapped his head back, and everything went white. His brain rattled around in his skull, and a wave of pain flooded him. Hitting his skull against the wall behind him was not his smartest move, but he managed to force open his eyes again long enough to see... his penis, shrinking back to its usual size. Arousal gone in a puff of nauseating head pain.

Both demons hopped up, and Jeskura spun and faced him with hands up, claws pointed toward him, her eyes wide with surprise. Ready to slice him or anything open at the drop of a dime, apparently. He stared at her, gulped, and waited for her to pounce him and bite him like a panicked cat.

She didn't. Slowly, she stepped off the bed, and lowered her hands as she came out of her fight-or-flight mode.

"Dude, you scared the shit out of me. The fuck you screaming for?"

"I... I thought I saw..." He thought he saw a snake, a big one, between his legs. But, nope, just his penis. His regular, perfectly normal, average sized penis, deflating. Right?

Maybe hitting the gate of Heaven with his face had actually given him some of that 'prime' body the angel had talked about? He didn't feel like he'd gotten one of Heaven's prime bodies, but that thing between his legs was nowhere to be seen. So, it was... his... body? No, not a chance. Maybe it had been a snake, that'd just happened to be between his legs, and slithered away when he banged his head? And yeah sure, he'd been aroused, watching one beautiful demon eat out another beautiful demon. But... it was so weird.

"Ha, sorry about that," Jes said. "Saw us moving around in the dark, right?" Shrugging, Jes came over to him, her body still throbbing red, large breasts rippling lightly with her hopping steps. They swayed gently underneath her when she leaned down in front of him, and undid the binds holding his wrists. "Just got really fucking horny. Came out of nowhere, too, like really weird. So Dao and I had some fun."

"Oh." He forced himself to look away from her breasts, though she didn't seem to give a shit if he stared right at her. Even her vagina looked so much more... vagina-like, compared to how it'd looked yesterday, barely existent and as hard as the rest of her.

And as she undid his second binding, he could see the red flush of her skin fading away. Her breasts stopped shifting with her movements, hardening. Her skin darkened, the red areas becoming dark red, and the dark red areas turning black.

That, was an interesting physical property. Demons showed physical arousal through their whole body? And their whole body reacted? Very interesting.

Daoka clicked softly a few times, eyeless face looking at him. She was calming down, too, body darkening, but it took a bit longer than her gargoyle lover. She grinned. He squirmed.

"Wouldn't normally just fuck like that in front of fresh meat," Jes said. She picked him up, set him on his feet -- oh, they were healed -- before she spent some time walking around the cave. Looking for signs of an intruder, probably. "Just, damn, got super horny for no damn reason. Couldn't help myself."

Daoka clicked and nodded, and once her skin had fully darkened, she half walked half hopped into another area of the cave beyond view. David watched, hoping to see her huge breasts jiggle some more, but nope, they were firm as stone. Once they weren't aroused, the busty demons like Dao had nothing to worry about when it came to running, or hopping, which must have been especially important to a satyr.

Hell was proving to be strangely... real. It wasn't a mess of chaos and insanity, where nothing made sense. There were rules, some that seemed like they could have been evolutionary, and some that felt like divine laws passed down from God or whoever.

If it was a system, with rules and concepts that could be understood and used, then it was a system someone could learn to exploit. That included him. And he was damn good at figuring out how things worked. Shit at finding the balls to actually do shit, though. That was Mia's domain.

"You're probably hungry, right?"

"I... I am." He looked down at his naked body and checked the bottom of his feet. Healed, mostly, and they felt tougher too, calluses aplenty. At this rate, his feet would be ready for trekking across Hell all day without issue in just a few days. But Jeskura was right, he was starving.

"My tree has a couple tiny fruits growing. You can have one, and it should tide you over until the next time you hurt yourself. Assuming you're still with us."

"I don't need to eat every day?"

"Humans don't, sometimes going months without food. Demons usually eat once or twice a week." She grinned at him as she leaned in close, only inches away from him. "Dao doesn't want me to eat you, and I won't. But damn, you are a cute little thing, aren't you?" She ran the blunt side of her claw down his chest, grinning at him. "Maybe I'll eat you anyway, and I bet you'd enjoy it."

He stared at her, and gulped. That was too close to flirting and a death threat for him to tell which was which.

Dao hopped back, clicking loudly and quickly, and she gave Jes a gentle shove away from David.

"Oh come on, I'm only kidding. He's your pet, I know!" Laughing, Jes hooked her wings around her shoulders, and stepped around the curving wall of the cave where Dao had just come from.

Dao nodded, clicked happily, set her hands on David's shoulders, and guided him to follow. The fact they were nude meant nothing to them, but he had a damn hard time not staring at Jeskura's ass and the tail swaying above it as she walked ahead. Her raptor feet and slightly forward posture only meant it was even harder to ignore. The only reason he didn't have a boner, was pure nervousness at this point.

There was a tree. A ruined, withered thing, but a tree, much bigger than the bushes outside the cave, and conveniently, not on fire. A couple small pieces of red fruit dangled from some of its dark, thin branches, no bigger than plums. The color was way too close to blood.

"A tree grows here?" he asked. "I... I suppose if burning bushes are growing everywhere, and don't burn away, this is normal."

"They're normal, but rare," Jes said. "This little cave of ours is pretty awesome. If you tell anyone about it, I'll rip your dick off and make you eat it, got it?"

He nodded hard and fast enough to make his body shake.

"Good. Yes, forbidden trees exist in Hell. No one really knows how they work, but hey, it's Hell, a lot of shit is like that. You want answers, ask Lucifer." She shrugged as she reached out, and plucked one of the blood plums. "These are full of essence and resonance, probably Hell sucking it up from the little bits that don't get eaten. Hell's a bitch, but she throws us a bone every now and then."

She tossed it to him. He managed to catch it with both palms, and he stared down at the strange thing. It was warm, and it was soft, a texture he recognized from the many steaks he'd eaten in his life. If Jes's theory about how it was created was true, biting it would be like biting into a juicy piece of regrown human and demon and whatever else existed in Hell.

But he really was hungry, in a strange way deep inside him he couldn't ignore. And holding the forbidden fruit sent a tingle through his skin that told him this was for him, that it was special. He didn't believe in any of the stories in the bible, at least not at face value, but considering where he was, he'd have to start reevaluating his views. This was forbidden fruit, and it was important.

"You're letting me eat this?"

"I am. If you screw me over on the plan though, I'll do more than rip off your dick. This cave is important to be, but killing Diogo is more important. Get in the way of that and you'll wish I just killed you."

Eyes wide, he slowly nodded, and looked down from the gargoyle's intense gaze. But Daoka reached around him and pushed up on his hands, guiding them toward his mouth. He managed a smile, and bit into the fruit.

It was blood, and it flooded his mouth like he'd just bit into a juicy grape mixed with a juicy slab of meat. He'd had a feeling it might though, and he made sure to not spill a drop, all of the warm liquid squirting into his mouth. The first thing he'd eaten in seventeen days. It tasted good.

It tasted great.

He blinked down at the second half of the fruit. No seed inside it. He tossed it into his mouth and chewed, and let the meat-like texture remind him of his favorite restaurant as he devoured. Better to think of eating a cow than another person. The flesh went down his throat like he'd eaten these things a thousand times before, and within seconds, he felt good. He felt whole, and full, and alive; it took some effort to not laugh at that.

"Okay. Plan time," Jes said, and squatted down by the tree. Maybe perched was the better word, with how she put her hands down on the floor between her raptor feet, perched like a carved gargoyle hanging out on a stone wall. "Tacitus, a bailiff in Gazra Crag, wants Daoka back. It led to problems, since Daoka is my friend. Diogo found out, and questioned Leos, a friend of ours. The stupid bastard didn't say anything, so Diogo killed him."

"Stupid bastard? He--"

"He should have given us up, told Diogo where we'd been hiding." Jeskura slapped her tail against the floor and growled at him. It didn't sound human. "He knew Daoka and I could escape. He knew..."

Daoka clicked slowly, squatted down beside her lover, and nuzzled into her side, rubbing the sides of their horns together. Jeskura returned the kindness, and pat the satyr on the knee before looking back to David.

"I'm telling you this because I'm going to need your help. We need to trick Diogo, so you'll need to be able to think on your feet. I could leave you in the dark, but you seem like the nerdy type."

"Nerd?"

"What, you're not a nerd?"

He groaned and folded his arms across his chest. Apparently he was comfortable enough with his two demon rescuers to be grumpy.

"I am, but how do you know? How do you even know the word? And why do you talk like a human?"

"Oh, I get you. Right." Nodding, she got up and took him around the other curve of the cave wall. Three big alcoves then, one for the bed, one for the tree, and another for a big cup made of metal and stone.

It was innocent-looking enough, a big circular platform about three feet high and four feet wide, and on it was a cup, just as wide, and only a few inches deep. No bones or skulls or weird hellish designs. Just a big block of metal with a dark metal cup on it.

The surface inside was reflective, and apparently liquid. It shifted around slightly, like a breeze was hitting it despite the still air, and when he leaned over it, the reflected image twisted over the small waves in the liquid. It almost looked like mercury.

"This is a scrying pool. Tell it what you wanna watch, and it'll show you."

"Tell it?"

"Yes, dumbass. Speak. Use words." The gargoyle shrugged. "Too complicated?"

"No, I just..." He touched the edges of the cup with his hands. No reaction. He watched his reflection bounce around a bit more. "Can it show me my sister?"

"She's in Hell, right? Then no. It can only show you what's going on on the surface right now."

"Oh." Then what was the point of the bowl? What use was it to anyone if they couldn't use it to look around Hell?

"It's a torture device," Jes said. She smirked at him, probably reading the confusion on his face. "I can tell you're wondering what the fuck, right. It's a torture device. Scrying pools are pretty common, and fresh meat use them to look at the world they used to know. Nothing hurts quite like looking back at the things you used to have, right? Or all the things you could have had."

"That... is cruel." For most. What did he miss? His computer? The internet? Shit TV and only a handful of good books? The sex he never got to have? His dream of being a nerdy game developer, sitting in his room with his porn and sex toys, living a quiet life?

Damn, he really did have shitty dreams.

"Show me..." He tapped his chin. Show him what? Maybe he could catch up on some TV shows he'd never got around to watching? Nah. "Show me... the shower room, at my university dorm." He half expected the bowl to not respond at all, considering he hadn't specified where that was, just said 'my'. But the image changed, and sure enough, it showed him the shower room he'd peeped on a few times the first few days he'd been a ghost, from an overhead angle that let him see into the stalls.

Lucky day, there were a few people showering.

"Show me... Oh, that's Lindsy Leblanc. Show me her."

Without hesitation, the image moved into the girl's stall, and showed the beautiful woman showering. Tall and slender, she washed her long dark hair, humming quietly to herself. Damn, nothing sexual.

Wow, ten seconds with a magic mirror and he was using it to spy on someone again.

"I'm going to Hell for this," he said.

Daoka and Jeskura stared at him, looked at each other, and burst into laughter. Daoka clicked rapid fire until she had to grab the bowl for support, and Jeskura opened her wings to catch some air and so she didn't fall over. They laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

He laughed, too. Quietly, but he did.

"You are fucking weird!" Jeskura came up beside him, wrapped an arm around his neck and head, and gestured to the bowl with her other arm. He did his best to ignore her nudity; being surrounded by two hot naked demons had his mind on porn, evidently. "I mean, better that than looking at something that'd hurt. Some humans stare into this thing, watching the shit they don't have anymore, or the shit they never got, until they starve to death. And if you're not getting injured and burning essence to recover, starving to death takes fresh meat years."

Years, staring into a bowl that was nothing more than a window to the surface? Self inflicted torture. Fucked up, and understandable. He'd known people who put their whole identity on the things they owned, or the things they'd accomplished. None of that meant anything down here.

Daoka clicked a few times, gesturing to the bowl.

"She wants to know why you didn't look up something more personal. Fresh meat always does."

He shrugged, glancing between Dao and Jes before looking back down at the bowl again, and the beautiful woman showering.

"Nothing personal to look up. No family, no close friends, nothing like that."

Dao clicked softly as she stepped around the bowl, and she slipped an arm around him, replacing Jes.

"Dao, stop it. He's not actually a puppy, you know."

With a scrunched up nose, Dao frowned at Jes, before rubbing David's head with her other hand. He didn't mind.

"Anyway," Jeskura said, "scrying pools are how demons keep up with the surface. We watch them all the time."

Dao clicked enthusiastically, nodding a few times.

"Agreed. Demons were pretty surprised by the whole television invention. We watch movies, TV shows, everything."

"Demons watching movies is... difficult to wrap my mind around."

Dao and Jes laughed, before Dao nodded back toward the bed with a few clicks.

"Good idea," Jes said, and she wiped a hand through the silvery liquid. The image disappeared, and Dao guided David away back toward the red leathery blankets. She sat down with him, and Jes squatted in front of them, elbows on her knees. "The only reason Dao and I are telling you all this shit is because we need your help. Yeah, try and screw us and I'll make you suffer. But I'm not so stupid to think I can just bully you into doing what I want. You'd flip the moment you saw the opportunity."

Dao clicked a few times.

"Okay, maybe you wouldn't. Any other fresh meat would. So, the deal is, you help us, we help you. I mean originally I was just gonna throw you to Diogo and figure out a way to make it work. But it looks like you got a head on your shoulders, from the way you handled yourself at the river. And Daoka likes you. Do right by us and we'll try and make sure you don't die horribly."

He took a deep breath, and nodded.