//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 : Allow me to introduce myself. 
// Story: Shout At The Devil 
// by Bucket of Skies 
//------------------------------//

“That’s so fucking badass.  Maybe when you’re drunk you come up with some cool stuff.”, Biff said smiling at the sudden tattoo.
    “Oh my lord what did I do?”, I just said seeing it more closely.
    “Technically, you didn’t do it bucko! It was the drink that summoned me to put it on you.”, the stranger said holding a newspaper and a mug of something.
    I needed to know for sure if he was real. If Biff could see him then I could know that I’m not crazy.
    “Do you….see that guy over there?”, I said pointing at my “demon”.
    “Uh yeah. The guy is a regular here, always drinks till he passes out like he is now.”, Biff said pointing to a guy passed out on the bar.
“No no. Not him. The guy right there in front of him.”, I said pointing again.
    “Uh…. there is no one there.”, Biff said with a confused look.
    “You really don’t see him?  He is sitting there with a newspaper and mug.”, I told him trying to point it out.
    “I think you’re still high on whatever you drank last night. You okay?”, Biff said putting his hand on my shoulder.
    “Oh god….I’m not okay. I’m seeing shit thats not real and I got some tattoo. I need to get that removed. Then I need to go to reha- THATS IT!”, I exclaimed aloud.
    “What, what's going on?”, Biff asked confused.
    “Where is the nearest tattoo place that can remove tattoos?”, I asked perking up.
    “Uh….there is one down the corner. I don’t know what that means for you.”, he said.
    “I can get rid of him there. I can get rid of him there! Ha ha, I’m going to be free!”, I said running out of the door.
    I made a beeline to the corner to make it to the parlor. When I made it past the light pole, the “demon” was there leaning on a wall.
    “Whatever you think you hope to accomplish won’t work. This is just you trying to comprehend what is going on. Trust me, after doing this for about two hundred years I know when someone is starting to lose it with me.”, the “demon” said.
    “Oh screw off. It’s all a mind game. You’re not even real.”, I said while still continuing to the tattoo parlor.
    “You’re going to be disappointed with what you get Rocky! You won’t get rid of me like this!”, he said as I walked away from him.
    I ignored his warning as I walked inside the parlor and approached the first artist I saw. She was sitting there with a weird ink looking medical mask. She looked up as I made it to the counter.
    “Hey, so I may have had a crazy night and got a tattoo on my back by accident. You think you can get rid of it?”, I asked her anxiously.
    She nodded as she pointed to a chair for me to lay on. I threw off my shirt and sat forward on the chair. Not long after, I heard the tattoo artist grab her tools to remove my tattoo and switched a needle on. Before the night before, I never got a tattoo removed before. Actually, I never got a tattoo before. Well, never consciously got one before.
    It felt sudden, but I felt the needle begin to go to work on my back without warning. Kinda wished she would have let me know that she was starting, but from what I could tell she was a strong silent type. Though she was quiet, I could tell that she was having a problem with removing it. I felt that the needle was pressing hard against my skin, but it was almost like it wasn’t doing anything. Honestly, it felt like nothing. It was like that for a few minutes before I all of a sudden heard the needle stop. I looked back up to see that the needle she was using had bent, rendering it broken.
She looked back at me and gave me a shrug as to say that she has done all she could do.
“Is it still there?”, I asked her.
She gave me a sad, disappointing nod. 
I looked over to the mirror on the side to see the progress she had tried to make removing it. I was severely disappointed to see that it was still there, but it almost looked cleaner than it was when I first discovered it. This was not some regular upper tramp stamp.
Accepting my defeat to get rid of this burden, I took my shirt and threw it back on and left the parlor. Not long after I left, I heard the door open up with the demon popping out.
“Well, while you were busy being disappointed with trying to get rid of me, I freehanded a tattoo on my ass. Check it out, ‘No Regrets’”, he said pulling down his pants to show me his tattooed ass. 
It wasn’t exactly what he planned, it said “no regerts”. Since I thought I was losing my mind,  I thought I might as well address it.
"Regrets is spelled with the r before the e.", I said pointing it out.
"Oh damn it! I knew it was a bad idea to freehand it in the mirror,  but whatever. I'll get a new ass in hell.", he said pulling up his pants. 
"Okay ,I am going to cave in. Who are you?", I asked him.
"Oh now you're going to let me speak like a human being? Even though I am a demon? That's wonderful.  But first,  lets go off to the side of the building to discuss. ", he said.
"Why?", I asked.
"Because they think you are cracked up on something", he said pointing behind me to the group of people looking at me confused. 
I nervously smiled before quickly making a dash to the side of the building to meet this "demon". 
"Why am I the only one that sees you?", I asked as I hid behind a dumpster. 
"Can we back up to the first question you asked? Sweet Lucy I thought this generation would make more sense to talk to. Well, allow me to introduce myself. I am...BRIMSTONE THE HELLSING! THE DEVOURER OF TORTURED SOULS! AND INQUISITOR OF THE PURE…...Or you can call me Brim for short. ", he explained with sudden hellfire behind him.
"Okay, Brim, why am I the only one who can see you?", I asked him.
"Oh that's an easy one. You simply called to me, so I am exclusively seen by you and you only.", Brim explained. 
"Wait wait wait….I called you?", I asked genuinely confused. 
"Yeah. That's why it is called,'Shout at the Devil'. You shout at the devil if you need something fixed in your life. In your case, you said, and  I quote, something something about being better and something about releasing stress. Or some shit like that. And then you drank this and your request was heard.", Brim said snapping his fingers and making the missing bottle appear from small flames.
"So wait, your job as a demon is to help someone out like a therapist?", I asked him.
"Not exactly on my resume, but if you look here I have several years of experience with possessing people, women especially, raising hell, and of course the unfortunate end of five souls who weren't ready for my guidance. Let's hope you don't make it six.", Brim said turning the bottle into a clipboard with a document on it.
"Good Grief,  so all this time heaven and hell is real?", I said realizing what was reality. 
"That's right. Don't believe the rumors those damn blue collar priests tell you. It's not the pain and despair as they describe it. It's more like an office job than slavery. ", Brim said making the stuff disappear. 
"Oh god, this is heavy. Of all times to have all this happen to me.", I said rubbing my hands on my head.
"What? You got someplace to be?", Brim asked me. 
"No. Today was supposed to be the day that I study for a  part of the exam.  Now I got a demon for a partner and a trashed apartment. Oh this is fucking hopeless! I'm never getting out of that shitty job. ", I said putting my back against the brick wall and slumping down.
"Whoa whoa, first of all, I'm a guide, not a partner. Second of all, I was brought here to do one thing and one thing only: to keep your bitch ass from being a stressed out bitch ass. Now I'm not gonna let you slump here and sulk about it because I don't want to be stuck here until you die from being a week sister to not man up. Now what we're going to do is head back to your apartment and we're going to fix this mess. You got me? Or I'm going to drag you there like I did last night", Brim said lifting me up from the ground. 
"That was you who brought me? How did all the trash get there?", I asked him. 
"Long story, the author doesn't have time to explain. ", Brim said to me.
"Author? What author?", I asked. 
"Never mind that Rocky. You and me got a bigger goat to fry. Where is your apartment? I forgot the place.", he said pushing me out the alley way.




After managing to walk my way home to catch my breath, I got to work on cleaning up the place. Whatever happened that night must've been crazy. I managed to find thirteen different shirts covered in glitter. Along with that, I found a bunch of trash from some fast food joint around the corner. It was honestly gross to mess around with. Though it was a lot of trash, me and Brimstone were able to do it. And by that I mean, I did most of the cleaning while Brim sat on the couch and just pointed in the general direction of the garbage. 
“You know, you could be helping me move all of this trash that you brought in.”, I said pulling a large trash bag.
“Yeah, but that is not my job. I stated that earlier when you asked who I was.”, Brim said slouching on the couch.
“Well while you’re there, do you mind explaining to me something you mentioned earlier?”, I asked Brim as I threw the last bag down the chute and sat down on the couch with him.
“Sure, shoot.”, He said sitting up.
“You said something about being responsible about five lost souls and that I should hopefully not be the sixth. What do you mean by lost soul?”, I asked.
“Oh I should’ve clarified earlier. That means past people who died from me trying to guide them. It’s a pretty regular thing for demons.”, Brim explained.
“Regular thing? How is losing a person you are guiding regular.”, I asked him.
“Let me explain my case. First person I had was a colonist who couldn’t comprehend what was happening so he offed himself. Then the second person understood what was happening and made the mistake of telling everyone he had me.”, Brim said.
“Why couldn’t he tell people?”, I asked.
“This was the middle ages, they called him a heretic and burned him at the stake. Anyways, my third person lived in denial that I existed and ended up dying of old age, fourth ended up going to a psychiatric ward, pretty much rendering him unsavable. And fifth, we don’t talk about him.”, Brim said.
“Why not?”, I asked curiously.
“He did some pretty fucked up shit with kids. Like I mean fucked up shit by devil standards. I was so disgusted with him I left him behind. I hope he got beat to death in whatever prison he was in the sick bastard.”, He said cringing in disgust.
“Oh well that makes sense.”, I  understood.
“But looking at you, you don’t look like the denial type or the one that fucks children.”, Brim said.
“Good Grief man that's a bit much!”, I said.
“I’m just being honest. But anyways, you look like an easy fix. I think I might be gone within a few days. Maybe less than that.”, He said pulling out a cigarette from thin air.
“One last thing, is that magic that you are doing?”, I asked pointing out the cigarette he made appear.
“Was that not obvious? It’s demon magic. All magic is real, demon is just a branch of it.”, Brim explained.
“That’s not possible, what explanation is there for it?”, I asked.
“Here’s the secret, there is no explanation. It just happens. There is magic everywhere and you probably don’t know it. For all you know, you could be talking to someone who travels to alternate dimensions with some sort of unicorn magic or some stupid shit like that.”, Brim said puffing  his cigarette.
‘Oh god this is so heavy. This is so much info to take in that I won’t be able to study the notes for the exam tomorrow. Speaking of which I need to start on that.”, I said getting up from the couch.
I went over to my bag to reach in for my notes to study. When I opened my binder, I saw that my notes weren’t where I put them. I checked around my bag to see if I misplaced them in another binder and couldn’t find anything.
“Dammit, where are they?”, I said aloud.
“Where is what?”, Brim asked.
“My notes. They had the title ‘Situations’ on it.”, I explained.
“Oh wait that was important? Shit that’s not good.”, Brim said looking down.
“What, What’s not good?”, I asked turning around.
“I may or may not have used those notes to make my cigarettes last night.”, Brim said looking at the cigarette in his hand.
“WHAT!? I thought you could make them appear from thin air.”, I exclaimed.
“I said I could make stuff appear, not make them with magic. That is too complicated. I did it by hand with paper I thought was worthless last night when I threw you in bed.”, Brim said.
"So why'd you use the one thing that seemed important to make cigarettes out of it?!", I asked in frustration. 

"Do you want to smoke this one with me? You might get some of the knowledge from the paper used. ", He said holding out his arm with a cigarette in it.
"Good Grief this is not going to go well for tomorrow. I'm never gonna get a real job because of you.", I said with visible frustration. 
"Okay Rocky let's relax for a minute. I can get you through this.  I have my demon ways to fix this situation. ", Brim said putting out his cigarette.
"Can you bring back the notes?", I asked.
"No. That shit is long gone. But, I will make sure you pass it tomorrow. You just gotta trust me.", He said slouching on my couch. 
"What are you gonna do?", I asked.
"Don't worry about that.  You just get some sleep and I'll work my demon ways tomorrow. ", Brim explained. 
Not wanting to argue with my demon and have him do more stupid stuff,  I decided to obey his advice to get some sleep. It was early, but at that point I needed the sleep from the madness that ensued.
"Alright. But you better fix this Brim. My sanity rests on tomorrow. ", I said taking off my shirt to go to my bed.
"I have to. It's my job as your demon to make sure you have zero stress.", he said sitting up more.
I went over to my bed and took my glasses off. I felt my body fall like a sack of weights as I collapsed in my bed. I deserved this rest, a demon told me so. Laying in bed, I let my eyelids fall ad I drifted into a rest.






I woke up to the light from my window to see that it was finally morning. I reached over to grab my glasses before turning over to the otherside to grab my phone. However,  when I turned over, I saw Brimstone in my bed with a grin on his face.
"Morning sleeping beauty.", he said with a sing song voice.
"AHHH! What the hell!?!?", I screamed as I fell out of my bed.
"Oh what's wrong? Never heard the phrase of sleeping with your demons?", he asked with that smile still on his face.
"That's used to describe sleep paralysis! Wh-What were you doing in my bed? I thought you would sleep on the couch?", I exclaimed. 
"Listen I live in hell. If you think I'm not going to sleep in a bed, you deserve to go to hell. But that doesn't matter now. Today's the day I fix your problem.", He said getting up from my bed.
"Oh god. I remember now. Can you explain how you plan to make this work?", I asked.
"What did I say last night? To trust me on what I do. You don't need an explanation.  What you need to do is get dressed. We got a huge day ahead of us princess, let's get going, chop-chop! The reader doesn't have the time to hear you question my choices.", Brim said clapping loudly. 
I quickly threw on some clothes and made sure I didn't look like I had a crazy night with a demon sleeping with me in my bed. Thankfully it didn't take long since I could use a small comb to fix my bed head. After I did all of that, I grabbed my bag and phone and headed out the door, this time with Brimstone. I trusted what he had planned,  but I think it wasn't enough.  We needed to assign some ground rules.
"Listen Brim. If you are going to be with me, we need to establish some rules because I don't want to look crazy when I talk to you.", I said walking down the stairs.
"Uuugh, I hate rules. But please, torture me with your proposal.", He said shrugging.
I quickly pulled out my phone and put it up against my ear.
"What are you doing?", Brim asked me.
"First rule, if I'm going to be talking to you I will need to have my phone against my head to make it look like I'm talking to someone on the phone.", I explained. 
"Ok, that's not really a rule for me but sure please go on.", Brim said looking at me funny.
"Next rule is to not use any sort of magic on anyone.  This includes possessing people. ", I said still holding my phone. 
"Okay, now that's bullshit. It's the one magic that I love. You can't just do that to me Rocky.  It's like cutting off a dog's balls, you get rid of its purpose for its dick.", He said clearly annoyed by it.
"Look, it's a moral thing. Just deal with that and we will be okay.", I explained to Brim.
"Err, fine, I'll only use it if absolutely necessary. ", He said pouting. 
"And lastly, try not to talk to me or make comments if I'm talking to someone else. ", I added on.
"Why should that matter?", he asked.
"It's a distraction for me. Especially if it is between me and someone important. ", I explained.
"Well alright fancy pants.  I'll make sure when you talk to your delegates to not piss in your tea and crumpets.", he said mockingly as I finally reached the door to the streets of Manehatten. 
Making my way to MBC was surprisingly easy, considering I know had a demon following me. He managed to follow the rules I put in place. Or at least from what I saw, I kinda got suspicious when I saw a woman squirming a bit odd. The train ride was smooth and had nothing to worry about.
I lifted my phone up to say that I wanted to talk to Brim.
"So far, so good. If you keep this up it is gonna work well.", I said to him.
"Uh yeah. About that, for me to make sure you get it, I'm gonna need you to let me off my leash.", He demanded. 
"What why? What does it achieve for me to pass?", I asked. 
"I said you need to trust me for this to work. Now do you trust me Rocky?", He said as we both left the train.
"I do but I don't want anyone to be harmed. ", I said walking down the stairs to MBC.
"Rocky, if I wanted to hurt someone,  I would have done it by now. But then I would be out of a job from me having to kill you for all the rules you give me.", He said arguing with me.
"Good Grief!", I said making my way to MBC.
I was right there on the steps of MBC before I heard that familiar voice that I was hoping to miss so he wouldn't see her.
"Rocky! Hey wait up!", Sunset said running up behind me.
"Brim, I need you to stay quiet for a minute", I said putting my phone in my pocket. 
"She can't see me dipweed. It won't matter if I'm quiet-", Brim said before I interrupted him.
"One Minute Brimstone!", I exclaimed to him.
"Alright,  I'll be in your bag if you need me.", Brim said diving into my bag.
"Hey Rocky. I was hoping to see you before you go take that test. I wanted to give you this for good luck.", Sunset said handing me a cup of coffee from some cafe not to far from here.
"Oh S-Sunset. You shouldn't have. ", I said to her.
"Woah!  Who is the fine looking chick with a plus breasts?", Brim said from inside my backpack. 
Subtly, I elbowed my bag.
"Ow, fuck you I was being honest!", Brim exclaimed to me hitting him. 
"Hey, you look like you have bags under your eyes. You feeling okay?", Sunset said pointing it out.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine. I-I-I just stayed up late last night to study.", I said trying to cover up my secret. 
"You should've said that you were busy sleeping with me. Hot chicks like slightly gay guys.", Brim said again before I elbowed him again.
"Ow! I was fucking kidding Rocky!", He said after getting hit.
"You sure?  You seem a little twitchy. Kind of like an old friend of mine, although she was twitchy for different reasons. But anyways,  I just want to make sure you're not going to fall on your face with this exam.", Sunset said looking down at her books.
"O-oh I'm fine. Just had to meet a friend to help me out with st-studying.", I explained while scratching my head. 
"That's good. A teacher is always the best way to get better with studying. ", She said smiling at me. 
"If I could study her completely naked while I ate bacon I would be the happiest demon ever.", Brim said before proofing out of my bag as I got ready to elbow him again to say," Stop hitting me,  or else I'm not going to help you. Dear Lucy that last one hit me in the eye". 
I darted my eyes at him to let him know he was breaking the rule I put in place to not distract me. Unfortunately,  this was also when the awkward silence came in for me and Sunset. 
"Well, I'll see you later. Best of luck on your test Rocky. ", She said walking away.
"O-oh yeah and to you as well and stuff and…", I said awkwardly trailing off before looking at Brim with an annoyed look.
"What? Did you honestly think that I was gonna follow the rules? I'm from hell, we don't got rules, we have torture.", Brim said explaining himself. 
"Oh my god you better do your charm in the test today", I said rubbing my eyes in frustration. 
"Well we got one less distraction out of the way. Let's go do this shit.", Brim said pointing at the door. 
"Yeah, I really can't wait to try and get rid of you if you keep this shit up.", I said following him.





I approached the door to Professor Wings' office and stopped to discuss what Brim had planned. He had told me to trust him, but given what he had done already, I deserved an explanation. 
"Okay are you going to finally tell me what you're going to do Brim?", I asked him.
"Alright I'll bite. I was gonna possess whoever's in there watching over the test so I could give you the answers. When I possess someone,  I gain their thoughts. And therefore the answers to what you need for the questions.", Brim explained. 
"Hold up. First, that is wrong, and second, won't he realize he has been possessed?", I asked.
"I've been doing this for hundreds of years. I know how to possess someone without them realizing it.", He said.
"I don't know about this Brim. It just feels like cheating. ", I said looking down.
"That's because it is cheating.  I told you that I would get you to pass it, and that's how I'm gonna do it. If you don't act like a Jackass, we can do this quick and he won't even pick up on it at all.", Brim said trying to consult me.
I took a deep breath before looking back up at the door. Finally accepting that I was doing something very wrong to get what I want. I pushed the door to walk into Professor Wings' classroom. Right away, I saw him at his desk waiting for me to arrive. I looked around me to find where Brim had went, but I saw that I couldn't find him.
"Is something wrong Rocky?", Professor Wings' asked me. 
"Huh? Oh nothing, just looking around for no reason. ", I said nervously. 
"Ooookay? Well anyways,  I hope you are ready for this exam. This is the one I hope you do well.", Professor Wings said handing me the test at my desk.
"Yeah, I sure am.", I said sitting down at my desk.
"You may begin when you are ready. ", He said sitting down at the table across from me. 
I took a look at the part, thankfully it was the same as last time; six situations And six correct answers. I wrote down all of my personal answers first to get that part out of the way to let Brim do all of the work he needs to do. For five minutes I sat there waiting for him. I almost thought he wasn't able to do it. 
"Hey bucko!", yelled Brim from behind Professor Wings. 
He was bouncing up and down with a huge protest sign with all the answers labeled in the order on the page. As ridiculous as that was, it was exactly what I needed. As swiftly as I could, I copied down all the answers and let Professor Wings that I was done.
"Thank you Rocky. If you don't mind, could you wait outside my class while I grade your paper? I'm hopefully going to have the letter ready.", Wings said taking my paper. 
"Sure thing.", I said grabbing my stuff and headed to the door.
Me and Brim sat out of his classroom for a little while, so much so that me and him got into a discussion about who his boss is. Apparently whenever he says ,"Dear Lucy", that is him talking about the ACTUAL devil. The way he described her made her sound like a fun boss. Well, for the most part until she gets angry.
As we were talking, I saw Sunset walking down the hall. She seemed to have her head down a little bit. I specifically asked Brim to stay behind to not ruin it like he did this morning with Sunset.  When I got closer, I began to notice that Sunset was sniffing a little bit. I feel that she sensed that I was near because she was quick to clean up.
"Oh, it's just you Rocky. What's up?", she said.
"Nothing much, I was just waiting for my exam to be graded, but I saw you walk by. A-Are you okay?", I asked.
"Yeah yeah. I'm just a little stressed with class. It's a little bit much. I think this is the hardest I had to work for college.", Sunset explained. 
"Well, you're not alone on that. I'm a little worried for the test, but think I should be okay.", I said trying to sympathize with her.
I heard the door to Wings' office open up. I knew he was ready for me.
"H-hey, I have to go now, but I'll talk to you later. It's going to be okay Sunset. I know you got this.", I said awkwardly. 
"I'll try. Talk to you later Rocky.", she said softly.
I felt bad, I think she needed someone to talk to about it, but from what I could tell she didn't want me to see her like that. Or at least not yet.
I walked in to his office to see if I made it. I was met with a happy face and-
Oh for Lucy's sake,  I'm finishing this chapter. Rock boy here managed to get a perfect score for him cheating and he received the letter. My Devil you take forever to explain stuff in the simplest form. 
Well sorry, I was gonna go in depth with it. 
 We have about four or five chapters left. We don't have the time to hang onto every single detail. 
Alright fair enough,  we'll continue with the story next chapter, I promise to try and speed up.
You better. Or I'm going to make all the fantasies of the reader come true.
What?
Nothing, just ignore that part.