and telling me to fuck off,
“Yes, yes, I heard you…Asshole!” I shouted back when suddenly the door swung open and my body went falling backwards. I was flat on my back in the mud looking up at a huge demon. One, I should add, that currently had all of its six eyes staring down at me. Each one ran in a line down the length of his face and was positioned at the start of where six antlers began. Each antler joined up to form two huge arch shape horns high above the top of its head. It was also hairy, smelled like rotting cabbage, and had a row of large yellow teeth that looked jagged and in desperate need of a dentist. Although, I was also pretty sure if this guy turned up next in line for the chair, then that dentist would run out of the building screaming from looking at his teeth alone. Forget about the creepy bug eyes.
He was as hideous as he was mean, and he looked like the asshole that I had claimed him to be. However, he also looked about two seconds away from being the last face I would ever see before he killed me, meaning that I had to act quickly and hope the big bastard was slow.
His hands were a combination of antlers and bone, so that when I scrambled backwards, his fist connected with the earth and not my face. He tried to reach out and grab me, but my foot was caught in the middle of the two sharp ends of his antlers, thankfully missing my skin. I pulled my foot through the gap quickly got to my feet and ran for it down the muddy path.
“Get back here, mortal scum! Seize the girl!” he bellowed as I continued running, trying not to get my foot stuck in the mud as the rain was making the path difficult. Thankfully though, it was also one that wasn’t well lit, which meant that the second I rounded a corner I did the only thing I could think of and that was jump over a small fence before curling up against it.
I pulled the hood over my face hiding myself in the mud and hoped it was enough to camouflage me. I waited as I heard the gatekeeper catch up to where I was lay hidden and heard him barking out orders to his men,
“Find the girl and when you do, crush her skull, for she can't have gone far!” Great, that sounded fun…not! Thankfully I still had the Eye strapped to my back and boy didn’t I know about it, as I had felt it when I fell backwards, landing on the damn thing! If I finally got back to the mortal realm I could now add a trip to the chiropractor to the list of things I would need to do to get over this ordeal.
I gave it as long as I possibly could lying there shivering in the mud and trying not to gag with the stench, now praying that it was actually mud and not just demon faeces. Well, I was gonna look the pretty picture when Lucius did finally find me, I thought with a groan and a roll of my eyes as I pushed my body up, ignoring the squelch of mud between my fingers.
By the Gods, but what I wouldn't have given in that moment to come across a vacant house that had a bathtub full of steaming hot water, a bottle of wine, and a plate full of food…I would have added pizza, but I didn't want to push my luck with the wishing. Besides, I very much doubted they had an Italian takeaway around these parts.
I got up and looked around to find that if I stuck to the back alleys and in between the houses, I had more chance of finding somewhere or someone without bumping into the guards. I added to my list of wishes and I hoped they got bored of looking for me sooner rather than later.
The town wasn't the same as the one where Nero’s shop had been. This one was definitely more of the rustic kind, as the houses were made of mud and some strange netting. The roofs were spiked with bales of dried grass dumped on top of them. It could have been soul weed and the thorns were used to hold the straw like substance in place.
None of the roads or pathways were