Hellfire: Chapter Ten- Plans with Friends

"She's not in the east corridor, either. Let's double-check near the west exit."

"I can't let them find me... I have to get out of here and find a real home... if there is one for me..."

"Mother may be full of herself, but I still call this place home for my sister's sake. Would you like to meet her over a dinner party?"

"I have never attended a party... but I suppose this is an invigorating opportunity."

"Have you ever had the opportunity to attend a dinner party? I think we could both use something to cool ourselves down."

"Mother and I attended many in our village..."

"My village can wait! I won't leave you after all you've done for-"

"STAY WITH ME BECAUSE YOU WANT TO, NOT BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO!"

There is a being who can decide what will be burned. 

What she chooses to burn depends on who makes her decisions.

HELLFIRE

Chapter Ten: Plans with Friends 

"I'm fine, Bethany. I promise you have nothing to worry about."

"Teran, you sound like something is really bothering you."

"Well I am pretty sore, but other than that I'm all good. You look really tired, though."

"I've tried not to get worked up worrying about you, but it's really hard not to."

"You really should go do something fun to ease your mind. It's not like I'm going anywhere, y'know? Plus Ricky and Suzy are gonna come visit me, so I won't be alone!"

Was he telling the truth? Bethany thought, clutching her lavender handbag tightly as she walked down the street on a partly cloudy morning. The paramedics said that the person who called 911 heard him scream in a voice that sounded like it belonged to an older woman. She started to slow down, narrowly avoiding bumping into an older lady. Still, she's showed up before while he's at school, so why should I worry? She gritted her teeth. I can't believe I'm actually thinking that! I should be worrying because what's-her-name is most definitely responsible for him standing in the middle of the street while a car was heading straight for him! How can I be out here trying to have a good time while he's-

Her thinking was interrupted by her bumping into somebody. Her knee-length orange skirt hit the ground, purse falling onto the stomach area of her sleeveless brown top. She pushed her lavender scarf away from her face and looked up at Tanya, who offered a hand.

"Long time no see," Tanya said, grinning from ear to ear. "Cliche phrase, I know, but people seem to end up saying it anyway when they greet somebody they know."

After being helped up, Bethany looked at Tanya's black sweatpants. "How's your leg?" She asked, winking. "It must be perfectly healed if you're out of the hospital already."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Alright," she reached into her jacket pocket, "how much do you want? I'm willing to go up to a hundred if it means keeping you from calling the cops."

Bethany shook her head and smiled. "If I did that, my teenage self would be cursing my existence. After all, lord knows I snuck out of the hospital back when I hated doctors."

"You hated doctors too, huh?" Tanya started walking, tightly clutching her plastic grocery bags and stepping hard with her forest-green tennis shoes. "Sorry to suddenly start moving, but I have some gals waiting for me back home." She stopped walking and grinned at Bethany. "If you wanna join the hair dye hullabaloo, you're more than welcome."

"I..." Bethany's smile faded as she turned back in the direction of the hospital, orange flats scraping the pavement. "I'm afraid I have somebody who needs me..." she turned back to Tanya, "except he doesn't want me to worry about him..." she turned again, "but I'm his mother, I can't leave him in the hospital and act like nothing's wrong..." she tossed her handbag onto the pavement, "but I couldn't do anything anyway because doctors aren't allowed to treat family members except he's still seriously hurt because I'm absolutely useless as a mother! How can I possibly ease my mind knowing that he could just jump off a building without warning?!"

Tanya looked taken aback when Bethany suddenly hugged her, but she shrugged and stood still as Bethany sobbed.

"I think he'll be fine," Tanya said. "I don't know the kid personally, but I know that doctors are very stubborn. If they want to save a life, they'll raise hell to do it." She winked at Bethany. "They're annoyingly persistent that way."

Bethany's smile returned. "You're right about that. I know what it's like to get that feeling of annoying persistence when I'm trying to save the life of a patient." She looked toward the hospital. "He doesn't want me to worry about him, but-"

"The two of us," Tanya interrupted, firmly squeezing Bethany's hand, "have faced too much shit to let worry consume us. We've both escaped so-called families that treated us worse than dog crap and have successful jobs, right? If we've done that, no negative emotion should be able to keep us down."

Bethany nodded her head. "It's like those two ladies in the waiting room told me: if I can fight worry and be happy, I'm doing something good for both him and I." She started walking. "So to answer your question, I'd love to join you, but first I have a question of my own."

"The janitor's cart," Tanya replied without hesitation. "He looked like a pretty old fella, so I figured he wasn't likely to notice it being heavier than usual. When he started chatting it up with the floor nurse, I just snuck inside the trash bag when nobody was looking, covered myself with some of the junk in there and waited until he was heading toward the dumpster. The rest," she gave Bethany a thumbs-up, "is history."

"I am starting to question why this network calls itself the History Channel. This is the fifth episode of Pawn Stars in a row, and it does not look like the marathon is going to end soon."

Raina sat on the couch, teal dress running down to the floor; her hair, tied in a straight ponytail, ran down the back of the couch. She heard giggling coming from the kitchen as she began flipping through channels.

"My my, you're so squirmy, Alisa!"

"I'm trying my best to hold still, Milady! I didn't think it would be this difficult!"

Raina chuckled and turned her head to see Alisa sitting at the kitchen table, covered in a black hair-cutting cape. Yuriko stood over her, wearing a gold-trimmed white blouse, knee-length black pants and white flat-footed shoes. One white-gloved hand held a pair of scissors while the other held Alisa's blonde strands. Large chunks of blonde had already fallen to the floor, and hair that once made up Alisa's braided ponytail only went slightly past her shoulders when un-braided.

"It's been a while since your hair was this short," Yuriko said, snipping a few strands. "I'm going to miss your braids, but your hair looks pretty no matter what."

"I may be the least eager of us when it comes to getting my hair dyed," Alisa replied, "but I want to be polite and make sure Tanya doesn't have too much hair to deal with, even though I doubt she'd mind."

"Speaking of which," Yuriko grinned from ear to ear, "have you two dears decided what color you would like your hair to be?"

"I have decided to be what one might call adventurous," Raina opened up a page of "Paint Your Hair" and held it up. "Having yellow on one side and light green on the other side would allow my hair to match the color scheme of my usual robe. Even though I am not wearing it at the moment, I still think it will be nice to try something different."

"That's why I decided to go for a color I seldom wear on my person," Yuriko said. "I found a shade of blue in that magazine that is supposed to match the color of the oceans in the human world." Her expression softened. "Parting with pink hair is going to be hard..." the scissors were shaking, but she steadied her scissor hand by grabbing it with her other hand. "It's going to be hard parting ways with a color I've..." she slammed the scissors down on the table and covered her mouth.

I believe in you, Yuriko, Raina thought. I believe you can fight this, even if you may doubt that.

Yuriko let go of her mouth and let out a long sigh. "Luka wore a lot of pink because she wanted to be like me." She started to cry, but she kept a smile on her face. "I may be crying, but believe it or not I'm actually feeling delightful at the moment. I know my precious sister would want me to enjoy myself during our little activity, so that I shall do, for her and for us!"

The front door opened just as Yuriko finished talking, and Tanya walked in with Bethany behind her, both of them grinning and holding grocery bags.

"It's nice to see you all again," Bethany said, waving to Tanya's company while she and Tanya set their bags in the recliner. "I hope you don't mind somebody joining in on your dye party." She shook her head. "I mean hair-dyeing party, because I certainly don't mean the other kind of die!"

"I too was confused at first," Raina said with a soft laugh. "Part of me believed Tanya was speaking of murdering hair."

"Speaking of dyeing," Yuriko patted Alisa's hair, "somebody never got to share the color she wants her hair to be."

"If I must," Alisa ran a hand through her bangs, "I will choose red. It matches my usual dress and," she smiled sadly, "it's a color mother was fond of."

Ah yes. Yuriko ran her hand down to Alisa's back. I heard Alisa's mother possessed red Hellfire that was said to be among the most powerful of any living demon at the time. Her hand fell from Alisa's back. It's no wonder Zakura's followers wanted her...

"While it's not my favorite color in the world," Tanya patted her head, "I'm gonna go with pink. It's one of the few colors my hair hasn't been dyed before, so I should give it a chance to shine."

"I remember dyeing my hair bright orange when I was a teenager," Bethany said, blushing a little. "I think it would be fun to sort of resurrect my rebellious days. My youngest patients at the hospital would probably love it as well."

"Since we all know what we want," Tanya started emptying the bags, "let's give our hair some love! Fortunately I bought a bunch of different dye colors, so all of the ones you asked for are with us and ready to be used."

She opened the closet door and pulled out a few clear, plastic sheets; she covered the recliner with them and pushed the nearby ottoman over to it. She happily said "so we can kick back and live like we're on the beach" before dragging the table from near the couch to the left side of the recliner. She put all of the dye bottles on the table, went to her room and came back with many other supplies.

"Have you two ever dyed your hair before?" Bethany asked the rest of the ladies.

"Tanya is responsible for my hair being its current green color," Raina said. "Her work was my first experience with dyeing hair, however."

"I'm surprised Milady and I have yet to do so," Alisa replied as her cape was removed to reveal a hot pink top and skirt that matched her hair ribbon. "Tanya has asked to dye our hair before, but we've always been able to avoid it until now."

"Oh hush," Yuriko teased, walking into the living room with Alisa, whose white heels gently clapped. "It's not going to be as spooky and nasty as you think, my sweet."

"Definitely not," Tanya said, putting an empty bowl of dye and a dye brush on the left arm of the recliner. "In fact, why don't we prove it right away by having you be first?"

"Wonderful idea!" Yuriko squealed, pushing Alisa into the recliner.

"I guess Milady insists," Alisa mumbled, her face buried in the recliner.

"In that case," Tanya covered Alisa with another black cape, "would she like to be the one who de-blondes those blonde locks?"

Yuriko's eyes lit up. "ABSOLUTELY!" She ripped the bottle of red dye from Tanya's hands just as the latter grabbed it. "Let's get that hair to match your dress, Alisa!"

Yuriko stepped forward, squeezed the bottle tightly and thrust her arms out, but she was grabbed from behind by Tanya. The surprise caused Yuriko to jump, making her let go of the bottle, which flew right at Alisa. Tanya watched Alisa's face get splattered in red dye, but she didn't get the chance to say anything before Yuriko grabbed her by the throat.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" She screeched. "WHY DID YOU THINK THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?!"

"I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO JUST GO CRAZY WITHOUT HAVING A CLUE WHAT YOU WERE DOING!" Tanya shouted back.

"THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME WHAT TO DO BEFORE I SQUEEZED THE BOTTLE?!" Yuriko shot back. 

"Both of you stop it!" Bethany cried, pulling a cell phone out of her pocket. "If I have to call the police, I will!"

"You will do no such thing!" Alisa shouted at Bethany. "Their intervention will just-"

"Enough."

Everyone turned their heads when they heard a crash of thunder. Raina stared into Yuriko's eyes, a furious expression on her face.

"You promised you would fight," Raina said, fists clenched. "You told me on that day that you were not going to give up. When you were trembling, crying and screaming, you-"

"I said I wouldn't let it control me," Yuriko said, letting go of Tanya. "I vowed to battle against it, no matter how strenuous it may be."

"Ummm..." Bethany put her cell phone back in her pocket. "I don't really get what's happening, so I'm just gonna-"

She tried to take a seat on the couch, but she tripped over the bottle of red dye; the accident caused the bottle to be flung in the air, splattering dye all over Yuriko. Everyone fell silent, but the stillness was broken up by giddy laughter.

"I really have no idea what I'm doing!" Yuriko exclaimed happily. "Tanya better tell me what to do before things get any messier."

As Tanya rubbed her neck, she heard Raina whisper "please have faith in her" in her ear. Tanya mumbled "and risk having my neck snapped off?!", but Raina put a hand on her shoulder and said "we are all burdened".

"Tanya had also better know that I..." she wiped some dye from her face and flicked it on Tanya's nose, "think she needs to join the dye party!"

Tanya took a deep breath, wiped the dye from her nose and flicked it back at Yuriko. "If it means staying on your good side, I guess I'm game!" She whispered "if she tries that again, you've got my back, right?" to Raina, who smiled and nodded.

"Are things always this... exciting with your group?" Bethany asked Alisa, handing her a towel.

"You might say," Alisa replied with a grin, "we're far from ordinary."

This child is far from ordinary.

She drifted in the black void, violet ponytail flowing, black flames surrounding her naked body. Her piercing red eyes gazed into the blackness while her ears listened to Teran's soft snores.

How and why was he infused with my soul? There must be a reason, and I must find it.

She gritted her teeth and glared, unable to do anything but float, look and listen.

I can feel it... my Hellfire is trapped in that accursed crypt, doomed to do nothing more than exist. She lowered her head. The great Lady Zakura, she who is destined to carry out the extinction of every trace of human and angelkind, sits in the body of a filthy human child. She cringed. How utterly humiliating.

This humiliation is what I deserve.

From her place high above the crypt, Adreis endured the sting of the golden, flaming strings suspending her in the air and forcing her to slap herself in the face again and again. Her silver hair flung about with each slap, though not much of it remained; a string of fire wrapped tightly around it had reduced it from shoulder-length to ear-length.

I must use this, Adreis thought, royal blue eyes looking down at the crypt. This pain shall give me the strength necessary to fulfill my mission. She was slapped across each cheek simultaneously. I will bring you home, dear sister. Father will show you that you are not beyond redemption, and then... a tear fell from her face and soared down toward the crypt.

We will be a happy family, Raina. Just like Mother wanted.