"I walk in, and there's smoke all over the place. And then, I see Luci lying on the ground!" said Bean, holding Luci close to her chest. Bean was sitting in the knight's barracks along with Elfo and Koga. Elfo sat on the floor before Bean and Luci while Koga lay in bed. Luci was still dazed after the magic tug-of-war with Tavish, Cloyd, and Becky. "I can't believe Tavish would do this! I mean, I'm not surprised but shocked he would kidnap Luci and torture him!"
"That's extreme..." said Elfo, frowning. "Are you ok, Luci?"
"Ugh...god..." Luci groaned. "Everything freaking hurts..."
Bean was petting Luci's head softly. "Don't worry, Luci. Tavish won't hurt you again..." She whispered.
"What made the clone want to do this anyway?" Koga asked.
"He was trying to figure out who sent Luci or whatever," said Bean angrily. "That doesn't give that asshole any reason to hurt him! UGH! He's just like Zog!"
"Who sent Luci? I thought Luci just appeared and started hanging around. I didn't think anyone sent him," said Elfo. "Who sent Luci to Bean?"
"Who cares?!" The princess said irritably. "All that matters is that Luci gets better!" She looks down at Luci, concerned. "How are you holding up, Luci?"
"I think I'm ok..." said Luci. "You can let me down. I can walk..." Bean carefully, let's go, Luci. He wobbled a bit but could stand on his own two feet. Or so he thought before he fell over. Bean catches him before he hits the floor, and she holds him close to her chest once more. "Ugh...never mind..."
"What the hell did he do to mess you up that badly?" said Koga, rising from his bed.
"He used that weird freaky lightning stuff that Bean can do," Luci replied weakly. "He used it on me, and then I blacked out. When I came to, I felt like I was getting pulled around by two different people...or three. I don't remember the details too well..."
"So Tavish does have the same magic as Bean," said Elfo.
"Whatever," said Bean as she got to her feet. "I don't give a damn about what he has. I'll knock his teeth out if I see him next to Luci!" She walks out of the room, holding Luci closely. Elfo and Koga were now alone in the room.
"I'm starting to think Luci is her favorite," said Elfo, looking at Koga.
Koga shrugs. "People will kill for their pet cats,"
Bean power walked down the stone halls. Luci opens his eyes slightly and looks up at Bean. "Where are we going?" The demon asked tiredly.
The Princes would reply. "You're staying with me in my room tonight,"
"Come on, Bean, that's not necessary..."
"Yes, it is,"
"I just need to nap, and I'll be back to making your life miserable again..."
"Well, you can nap in my room. I'm not taking any chances," said Bean as she opened and slammed the door to her room. Bean walked over to her bed and slowly laid Luci on it. "How's that?" she asked soothingly.
Luci lets out a sigh of relief. "Wow...this is nice...I see why bunty sneaks in here to sleep when you're not around," He curls up into a ball on her bed. "Also, I think she had a few kids in your bed."
"Huh...so that explains the wet stain on my mattress," She sits on the edge of the bed. She reaches under the mattress, pulls out a silver flask, unscrews the cap, and chugs it. She burps and falls back onto her bed. "It never used to be like this...everything used to be so simple..." She let out a long sigh.
On the verge of falling asleep, Luci opened his eyes and said, "Huh, what?" He looks at Bean. "Did you say something?"
"Like...Tavish used to be fun. He taught me so much of what I know now..." Bean took another swig at her flask. "Tavish and I used to spend so much time together...we were there for each other when mom passed away...and now...I don't know anymore..." She felt the tears appear in her eyes and quickly wiped them away. "I don't know who that person is. He's not the brother I grew up loving." Bean takes another longer swing of her flask.
"Whoa, easy, champ," said Luci.
Bean lets out another burp. "You sound like my bartender," she said. She checked the flask to see how much she had left. "Uh oh, running low." She drinks the rest and puts her flask away. "Where's that book I haven't finished yet?" She gets up from her bed and walks over to her bookshelf. It wasn't anything like Tavish's many bookshelves and wasn't as complete as Tavish's. Bean reaches for a book and walks back over to the bed. Luci looked at the book when she opened it. Inside the book was a flask placed inside a square hole. "Here it is!" She takes the flask out of the book and downs it, falling back on her bed as she does so. "You know what else he did that really got me angry at him?" She started to sound tipsy. "There's this little event called the Hayman burning. Tavish promised me that he would go with me. I went to it and waited for him...but he never showed up. He left me there all alone. And THEN he shows up at the last minute..."
"Ouch," said Luci.
"Honestly, it was after that we started drifting apart," Bean looks at her silver flask. We stopped hanging out, we stopped talking like we used to, and...I hardly see him anymore." Bean begins to feel her eyes water again. She quickly wipes them and then downs her flask. But whatever...I don't need him...or dad..." Her eyes begin to weigh. The silver flask falls out of her hand, and Luci catches it with his tail.
He placed the flask on her shelf and cuddled up with Bean. "I'm only doing this once...you're welcome..." he closed his eyes. Bean placed her arm around Luci and brought him closer, causing Luci to yell an "OOF!" as his face was against her chest.
Luci groans. "I knew this was a mistake..."
***
"Luci..."
Luci mumbles in his sleep.
"Luuuuciii..."
"W-What the hell? Who's calling my name?" Luci opened his eyes slightly. His eyes fell onto Bean, who was sleeping peacefully next to him. He yawned and looked around the room, lit by the moonlight shining through the window. Nothing was out of the ordinary. It was quiet. Luci yawned again, lay his head down, and closed his eyes. At that moment, he heard the voice again.
"Come out Luciii..."
Luci snapped his eyes open and looked around the room. "Come outside, Lucii..." said the voice. Luci looked towards the window. He freed himself from Bean's arms and strolled over to the window. Luci opened it and looked outside. The breeze hit the demon's face as he looked around. Again, there was nothing.
"Psst...look up,"
Luci up, seeing the tall demon Fuscu with long horns staring him in the eyes. "Hey Luci," He grinned. Luci's eyes widened. "FUS-" Fuscu would whack Luci in the back of the head, sending him plummeting to the ground below. "AHHHHHH!" The small demon screamed as he went splat on the ground. "OW! Ughhhhh..." He rubs his head.
"Long time no see Luci,"
Luci looks up, and he shouts in shock. Standing before him were two familiar demos. "Eligor? and Pazuz?" He gasped.
"Heeey Luci," Pazuzu smiled at him. "Looking well, I see."
Eligor let out a raspy laugh. "It's good to see you, our favorite little friend!"
"Eligor..." Pazuzu side-eyed him.
"I know...I know..." Eligor rolls his eyes, clears his throat, and spits on the ground. "Better?"
"Nasty..." Pazuzu shivers.
"Oh, stop being such a drama queen!"
Fuscu lands beside Eligor and Pazuzu and looks down at Luci. His wings would slowly ease into his back. "It's been a long time, Luci. How ya been?" Fuscu said as his grin widened.
"H-Hey guys!" said Luci. His voice trembled a bit, but he began to regain his composure. "I've been doing pretty good! So, uh, what brings you guys around these parts?"
"We just wanted to see how our old high school buddy was doing!" said Eligor, bending down to wrap his arm around Luci's neck tightly and pull him close. "We missed you, is all! We had a lot of good times in hell high!"
"Yeah... good times..." Luci looked away from Eligor awkwardly.
"So Luci, we heard that you're on princess duty. How's that going for you?" Fuscu asked.
"You know, corruption, manipulation, and all of that. I also have this idea of a betrayal! That'll be the best part," said Luci, followed by a nervous laugh.
Fuscu looked up. "The princess is up there, huh?"
"Uh...n-no," Luci lied. "She's uh-HEY WAIT!" The three demons sprout their wings and fly up to Bean's window. "Oh, goddamn it!" Luci sticks his hands onto the stone wall and climbs as fast as possible. Once Luci reached the top, he looked into Bean's room and saw Fuscu, Pazuzu, and Eligor standing over Bean and staring down at her as she slept.
"So, this is the princess?" said Fuscu.
"She's pretty cute," said Puzuzu.
"Check out those buckteeth, though. I bet she can chew through a log with those," said Eligor.
Luci was so hurried that he slipped and fell into the room on his head. He quickly gets to his feet, hurries over to the bed, and climbs onto it. "Ok, guys, you saw the princess! I gotta get back to work and haunt her nightmares and stuff!" The small demon said, "I'm going to enter her dreams as a laughing skull! It's going to be so funny!"
"What's the hurry, Luci?" Fuscu asked, smirking. "Come on, let's all do this together, shall we? But first," The uber demon raised his hand and waved it over Bean. Bean began to stir in her sleep. Fuscu sat on Bean's stomach, putting all his weight onto her. "There we go..." He softly laughed. Bean's face twisted, and she began to squirm helplessly. "Hahahaha...that's what I like to see..." Fuscu formed a malicious grin on his face. His eyes glowed red as he began delving into Bean's mind.
"F-Fuscu! Stop it! She's-" Luci saw that tears were beginning to fall from her eyes. "Ok-ok fuscu, that's enough!" He shouted.
Bean clenched her teeth and then opened her mouth to cry silently. "M...mom....D-....Dad...Ta....Tavish...!"
"FUSCU, STOP!" Luci yelled at the top of his lungs.
Fucus's eyes stop glowing, and he bats his eyes at Luci. "What's the problem, Luci?" He asked aggressively.
"I...I..." Luci stuttered.
"You don't care about this princess, do you?"
"W-What? No! Of course not, I-"
"Because demons don't care about anything," said Fuscu, staring Luci right into his eyes. "A demon who cares for others and shows any kindness is a worthless demon..."
"T-That's right..." Luci nods. "I don't care about Bean. I'm just here to do my job!"
"That's my boy," said Fuscu, grinning as he gave Luci a rough pat, causing him to fall forward onto Bean. "Come on, let's go." He said to Eligor and Pazuzu. The three Uber demons sprout their wings, and they all fly out of the room. Luci hops out of bed and heads to the window to watch them fly off. He could hear Fuscu's laughter echo into the night.
It was right after that that Bean would spring her eyes open with a gasp and rise. "Luci?" She looks around the bed. "LUCI?" She cried out.
"Hey, I'm over here!" said Luci, moving from the windowsill and hurrying to Bean.
"Oh, thank god!" Bean reached out her arms and pulled Luci close to her. "D-Don't leave my side like that...please...I...I can't lose you, Luci..." Her voice quivered.
Luci stared up at Bean as she held on tightly to him. He felt a tiny teardrop hit his head. He sighed and softly said to her, "I'm not going anywhere, Bean...I promise..."
The two would fall back into slumber as soon as they lay down.
***
Fuscu couldn't shake this thought out of his head once he left the castle. As he, along with Eligor and Pazuzu, sore through the air, he looks back at Dreamland castle. He stops flying and hovers in the air. Eligor looks behind him and stops, and so does Pazuzu. "Hey, Fuscu, what is it?" He asked.
"That was a very odd place, wasn't it?" said Fuscu. "Did any of you feel something was off about that castle?"
"A little bit," said Pazuzu. "It was very soothing to me,"
"I guess," Eligor shrugged. "Why?"
"I've always been terrible at utilizing my abilities to look into the dreams of humans. But when I was at that castle...It was easier," Fuscu rubs his chin. "Not just that, I felt something surging through that princess when I looked into her mind. It felt very close to home..."
"What do you mean?" Eligor asked.
"I think...we should stick around that castle just a little longer," said Fusuc. "I have a feeling that it will benefit all of us..." He laughed while slowly rubbing his hands together. "Come on...let's go."
The three uber demons would turn around and begin to make their way back to Dreamland.