"You're..."
"Madonna?"
"H-how...I thought...you're..."
"Beyoncé?"
"But y-you're..."
I snapped my fingers. "God. I'm totally God." I smacked my lips together and brushed a casual hand off my shoulder. "People say I look like God. Well, they do with a knife to their neck but I don't think that affected their highly intelligible reasoning."
He yanked off his glasses, rubbed the daylights out of his eyes and shoved up the black frames. "Jessie?! You're supposed to be dead."
My body gets strung by this high tension, throat disturbingly tightening like my curled fingers on the steering wheel. The only movement were the rolling tires under our seats and my neck slowly cranking sideways. The sun crept across the dunes, sand flying behind the spinning wheels as we moved further across the dry land in silence. Singular words managed to crawl up my mouth, slowly dripping out, "Dead...dead...dead?" I slap my hand across the chestnut leather and cackled. "Me...dead...that'll be the day! The only reason I'd be dead is because of laughter."
Isaac scrambled back into his seat, inching his nose closer to my face. "B-But I know you! Since kindergarten! We were-are best friends! We'd watch the stars in Central Park and share ice cream sundaes!"
"Tell me, did we braid each other's hair and dress up our dollies too?" I said excitingly. Immediately I dropped the gleeful look and faced my torso back to the dashboard. "What makes you think I should believe you? You're claiming I am a girl named Tessie-"
"Jessie."
"Right." I waved my hand, continuing. "So you think I'm a girl named Tessie who was best friends with a dorky loser, and disturbingly watched burning balls of gas for no particular logical intention and ate desserts that originated from squeezing cow dingles?"
His elbow slipped off the armrest in exasperation. "Yes!" he wallowed. My gaze dropped to the spray of his spit landing on my shorts.
His hand clapped onto his mouth, tomato colours warming his features.
"Did you...Did you just spit on me?"
"Mhmno," he blubbered behind his trembling palm.
My foot hovered over the breaks, words threaded by frustration. "I should just eat your soul now. The spoiled demon brats would quit complaining, I wouldn't have to feed them for another twelve hours, I wouldn't have to deal with your obnoxious theories, and with the demons being satisfied, I could actually eat real food!"
"Eat my soul?!" Isaac squeaked.
"Are you telling the truth, kid?" I uttered at the same time. "Because if this is your lame attempt to stay alive and lie your way into survival, I've heard that one before."
His head bobbed up and down. "It's the truth! We would have movie nights, listen to the same music, have dinner at your place." He combed his fingers through his hair again, clutching his chest. "Jessie. I-It's, I can't believe it!" He leaned over to touch my cheek but I smacked him away.
"If you get any creepier I'm gonna kick your ass off this car and leave you to die in this God forsaken desert." His mouth clamped shut and he plopped into his seat, keeping his body frontward.
Daylight surfed the dunes, waves of heat striking our skin. I hardly realized my nails grinding against the wheel, and quickly dug through the compartment to happily find sleek black sunglasses. Perking them on my nose, I still found my nails stabbing into the leather. Was I to believe this fool really was once my friend and I was...human at one point? I was created to be Hell's Personal Purge, I have always been the Purge.
"H-how do you not remember?" he softly whispered.
I heavily sighed and dragged my hair up, glimpsing at Isaac. "Lemme give you some Hell's Personal Purge 101. You know when you're that ugly, annoying, monstrosity that cries every five seconds and doesn't give a damn about anyone else but their own wants?"
"Babies?"
"Yes, that. How you don't remember your 'baby' memories is the same thing for me. Instead of baby memories, I can't remember my childhood or much of my preteen years. I get some snapshots of my past. Other than that, all I know is that I was created by the demons of Hell, crowned as their Personal Purge, and was tossed onto the mainland to dispose of their anger, wrath and assassinate those they wished to seek vengeance on." My eyes twinkled in amusement. "Fun, right?"
"S-sure," he said.
I removed my eyes from the road and arched a brow. "Now, assuming I was Tessie-"
"Jessie."
"Jessie. Right. Now mind explaining why you thought I was dead?"
His missed the window to respond as a low moan whisked across the dunes. I accelerated the car, my gaze zooming on the tiny grains that began to shift. The mine wasn't far now. Just a few more minutes... "D-did you hear what I said?" he stuttered. I hardly noticed he was speaking as I kept a sharp eye on the shifting sand and pressed the pedal a bit harder. "W-w-was the monster from earlier a Purge too?"
"No," I said distantly. I poked my head out the window and checked the behind, nothing following us. "I'm Hell's only Purge. Demons aren't allowed to come onto the mainland except for me. When an unauthorized demon enters the mainland, we call it a demon leaking."
The sand grains tumbled faster, rolling into growing mountains. Isaac frantically whirled around on his seat, watching the sand lift off the ground. Darkness weaved through the tiny beads, the sand turning black as it lifted higher. Suddenly the black crystals rained over our car, Isaac screaming as the pitter patter of sand hit the windows.
I slammed onto the gas pedal and our backs stuck to the seats, blasting through the sand. "D-Do you know w-where you're going?!" Isaac shrieked, cheeks flapping with gums widely exposed.
The mineral mine was now a little dot in the distance. The demon shriek lashed into our ears, shaking up our bodies. I felt my muscles tighten. This was unusual, three leakings in an hour?
"Throw your knife at it!" cried Isaac, shielding his eyes.
I didn't want to know what 'it' was and focused on the mine that laid kilometers ahead.
He thrust his head out and raised his arms. "We come in peace!" I yanked at his shirt, throwing him into his seat. "The demon needs to know we're just passing travelers!" Isaac insisted.
"Demons don't know shit!" I yelled above the wind. "Demons don't think, they do. No brain, no feelings, no emotion, and have an empty heart. One goal: To release their anger that regenerates every day. And they do that by feeding. I'd rather not get eaten on a beautiful day like today. You?"
"N-n-no."
"Good." I swerved the car to the left, dodging a sudden eruption of sand. "Can't this car go faster?!" A black tail made of sand appeared in the rear mirror before disappearing. Then lumps underground started surfacing, it beginning to snake closer to the car. The demon screech rumbled the ground.
"Hold on!" I warned, rapidly approaching the mine. The car skyrocketed under the wooden boards, entering the tunnel. I whipped my head around as piercing red eyes narrowed at me. Quickly averting my gaze, a darkness swallowed the car before the torches immediately lit as we passed, driving under the big dune.
Isaac's worried voice echoed down the tunnel and he constantly kept looking back. "W-w-where are we going n-now?"
I skid around a corner, gravel ripping on wheels with a howling screech. Isaac flinched at the sound and shrunk deeper into the cushion, hugging his own waist. "To see my ex-boyfriend," I answered.
"I-I-I don't think this is a time to deal with broken relationships," he claimed.
"I need to ask him something important," I insisted.
He covered his eyes as we darted along a turn. "Can't you send him an email or something?"
"He might know about the demon leaking and how to deal with your absurd accusations." I flashed a wicked grin. "Why don't you want to meet my ex?"
"Because he must be either more than or just as crazy as you." Isaac's eyes widened at his own response and before he could hide, I burst into laughter and playfully punched his arm.
"You got that right! Look at you, growing out of your shell."
"T-T-Thanks," he muttered, rubbing where I punched earlier. "S-S-So is your ex n-nice?"
I grinned ear to ear. "Yes, he's perfectly nice. An utter puppy lover full of innocent cuteness that you'd die from."
I noticed his shoulders loosen and he relaxed against the headrest. "G-G-Good. I thought h-h-he was going to be s-s-scary. What's his name?"
I shrugged. "His friends call him Timothy."
"T-that's a nice n-name."
"I call him my little tulip."
"T-that sounds cute."
"His mom calls him honey buns."
"That's adorable."
"Humans call him the Grim Reaper."
His head bumped against the ceiling. "Y-your ex is the Grim Reaper?!"
+++
You have no idea how much I missed writing. More than two weeks without my keyboard under my fingers was torture.
I sound like an author whore.
200 votes maybe? :)
Any comments? Like Hell's Personal Purge? How about Isaac?
Thank you so much for continuing to read this story!
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HEY: You don't need to read the previous story to understand this one since they both stories have drastic differences in plot, character and setting.
Xoxo
j_street