Hellsent

[Kuzuru]

The demon paused. His narrow eyes rested on the screen of Luci’s dataverse device. That was a lot of OM, every jackoff looking for a payout would be on his ass. Furthermore there was that sloppy tendril of hers pawing at his mind. He locked eyes with her and she just smiled politely. Kuzuru exhaled and leaned back in his plastic chair. Outside a commercial truck rumbled past, rattling windows and shaking the floorboards. The demon gripped his teacup between two fingers, pretended to take a sip, and stood up.
 
“You’d do well to be careful snooping around in other people’s heads,” he said, his voice adopting a serious tone, “you never know what you might find, plus it’s quite rude.”
 
She shrugged.
 
Kuzuru waved away the remnants of another cloud of rainbow smoke. The room seemed to breath, pulsing with painted life. A snake slithered across the wall, its body a menagerie of colors. The demon turned his back on the dreamer and walked over to the painted serpent. He studied it for a moment before pressing his thumb against the snake’s skull. It writhed and thrashed against his pin.
 
“You think you’re the first person to try running away?” he asked, and continued without waiting for an answer, “I can catch you.”
 
“You underestimate just how fast I am,” she replied.
 
“You underestimate my persistence, and the chase will just make me want you that much more,” he said, keeping his eyes on the wriggling cobra beneath his thumb.
 
“In half a second I can be five-hundred feet away from here, and you’ll never find me afterwards,” she smiled as the paint melted from her face. It shifted and melded into a more mundane face, one that was unfamiliar to Kuzuru.
 
“You ever hear of a vita compass?” he said, “It sniffs out your essence, and no matter what mask you wear darling your essence doesn’t change.”
 
Another truck trundled past. The snake shuddered and fell limp, its body melting into an unrecognizable blob of colors. Kuzuru pulled his thumb away, revealing a small hole punch into the wall where the snake’s head had been. An inch-and-a-half long spike jutted out from the pad of his thumb and after a few seconds it receeded beneath his skin. He glanced at the dataverse device and for a moment he considered trying to lop her hand off at the wrist. If she was reading his mind, he figured, she was playing it pretty fucking cool.
 
“Either way you’ll never be fast enough to actually catch me, you’d just be wasting your time.” She shrugged.
 
“What about your little base here? Are you going to just forfeit it? What about your gangsters? Are they as fast as you? What about the Deathblades? You think I’m above killing children?”
 
She looked away, “they can take care of themselves.”
 
Kuzuru stepped closer and waved his hand across the room, “Then why aren’t they here?”
 
He frowned and sat back down across from his quarry. He tapped out a quick little beat on the table and then leaned closer to her.
 
“Bottom line is your ass is mine, your actions have consequences and you’re looking right at them,” he said, “why are you so afraid of dying anyways? You’re a prime aren’t you? Death is more of a vacation than anything for us, and hell I just want to kill you, what are you gonna do when someone badder than me comes along and wants to banish you for the extra cash?”