“WHAT?!” Both Sonata and Su-Z shouted.
“Whoa, hey, you two have already proven that you’ve got impressive screaming skills,” Justice said. “I don’t need any more convincing of that.”
The Dazzling and PostCrush girl quickly turned to face one another, each of them sporting looks of renewed shock and anxiety on their faces. Had they just heard Justice correctly? Had the demon girl really just said that she wanted to know who Sonata wanted to send to Hell? And then said that she’d take them to Hell? The whole thing sounded like complete and utter cockamamie, and if it weren’t for the fact that it’d come from an actual demon that’s exactly how both Sonata and Su-Z would’ve perceived it. Nothing but cockamamie. But each of them very much believed that Justice was being one hundred percent serious.
And that seriousness lit a fire of animosity within Sonata.
Despite the young Dazzling’s normally chipper and up-beat demeanor she was no stranger to feelings of anger or hatred. Like everyone else she had occasional moments in her life where she found herself so upset with someone that she would utter a curse word or even yell at them right to their face. But only once in her life had she ever been so angry with someone that she’d wished for them to be sent to the fiery inferno that was Hell. Other than that though Sonata had never wished for anyone to be sent to Hell, and for Justice to even insinuate otherwise filled the girl with nothing short of great rancor.
“I don’t want to send anyone to Hell!” She asserted as she shifted her attention back to the demon girl.
“You don’t?” Justice asked.
“No!” Sonata replied heatedly.
“Huh,” Justice said before quickly looking down at the tablet for a moment and then just as quickly returning her attention to Sonata. “Ya sure?”
“Yes!” Sonata affirmed, sounding even more heated than she had a second ago.
It was at this point that Su-Z started to notice just how unnerved Sonata was becoming, and how quickly she was becoming unnerved at that. Part of the PostCrush girl thought that she should speak up and try to diffuse the situation before her friend blew a fuse and did something to potentially incur the wrath of the demon girl before them. But another part of her – a much louder part of her - thought it better to remain silent and on the sidelines for the time being. Mostly because of the fact that, as far as she was concerned, Sonata had surpassed Justice as the most frightening and dangerous figure in the room.
Justice, for her part, simply looked down at the tablet again for a moment before returning her attention to Sonata once more.
“You sure you’re sure?” Justice then asked. “’Cause if you don’t want to send someone to Hell then why’d you read the tablet out loud?”
“I don’t know!” Sonata hollered back, having finally reached her breaking point. “I don’t know why I’ve done any of the things that I’ve done with that stupid tablet! I don’t know why I brought it into the house, I don’t know why I begged Aria to let me keep it, and I don’t know why I read the inscription on it out loud!”
Now feeling downright fearful of Sonata, Su-Z took a few steps off to the side to give her friend some room to vent. Though not too much room just in case she needed to intervene before things escalated to a level she didn’t even want to think about.
“But what I do know is that I didn’t do any of that stuff because I expected a demon to show up asking me who I wanted to have dragged off to Hell!” Sonata continued to holler at Justice, though not quite as intensely now. “So why don’t you just go back to Hell, Justice, because I’m not going to ask you to send someone down there for me!”
A few seconds of extremely uncomfortable silence - save for Sonata’s heavy breathing - followed the Dazzling’s tirade. During which time Su-Z continued to argue with herself about what she should do. Intervene, continue to remain silent; neither option seemed particularly good at the moment. If she intervened she risked ending up on the receiving end of Sonata’s newfound fury, but if she continued to remain silent she risked Sonata incurring Justice’s wrath – if the Dazzling hadn’t already done so that is. Fortunately though it appeared that Justice hadn’t been agitated at all by Sonata’s verbal assault on her, at least as far as the PostCrush girl could tell. So for the time being, she decided to continue to remain a quiet observer.
“Yeeeah, that’s going to be a bit of a problem,” Justice replied. “See I’m not allowed to go back to Hell until you have me send someone down there first. It’s kind of a rule.”
“…What?” Sonata then said in a manner that was soft in volume but intense in tone.
By now Sonata’s frustrations had gone beyond the realm of simply being evident verbally and crossed over into the realm of being evident physically as well. After the Dazzling finished asking her one-word question her face quickly began to turn a dark red color as steam started to blow out from both her right and left ears. Or at least Su-Z could’ve sworn she saw steam coming out of Sonata’s ears. But even if the steam was just her imagination playing tricks on her the PostCrush girl knew for certain that her friend’s face was rapidly turning red, and that if she didn’t intervene now there wouldn’t be another opportunity to do so before things escalated to the point of no return.
And so, reluctantly, Su-Z swiftly took a few steps forward and placed herself in-between Sonata and Justice.
“O-Okay. Maybe we should all just calm down a bit, huh?” The PostCrush girl said tentatively.
Both Sonata and Justice immediately shifted their attention from one another over towards Su-Z, but neither of them said anything in response to her plea for calm.
“S-So, yeah, this whole situation is, um…kind of crazy…and confusing,” The PostCrush girl then said, finding herself at a near complete loss for words as a cold sweat started to come over her. “But I think if we just, you know, pause for a moment and take a deep breath then maybe we can figure out how to make it, um…not so crazy and confusing?”
Su-Z gave out a few nervous chuckles after she finished her less-than-articulate plea for calm in the hopes that they’d help lighten the mood in the room. Initially though it seemed that neither her chuckles nor her plea had any effect on Sonata or Justice, as both girls simply continued to stare silently at her with unchanged expressions for a few seconds.
“Not a bad idea, Suz,” Justice eventually spoke up.
“Su-Z,” The PostCrush girl corrected her.
“Right, sorry,” Justice apologized. “Anyways, I think you’ve got a good idea there. ‘Cause truth be told you two are really starting to confuse the hell out of me. No pun intended.”
“We’re the ones confusing you?” Sonata replied, with no small hint of irritated obfuscation in her voice.
“Yep. Frankly I don’t think I’ve ever been more confused than I am right now,” Justice said. “I mean, I just don’t get it. What kind of cultists would summon a demon if they don’t want her to send someone to Hell for them?”
“Wait, did you just say ‘cultists’?” Su-Z spoke up. “We’re not cultists.”
“You’re not?” Justice asked.
“No!” Both Su-Z and Sonata answered simultaneously.
“Huh,” Justice replied. “Are you revolutionaries then? Like with the Judean People’s Front or something?”
“No!!” The Dazzling and PostCrush girl once again answered in unison.
“Hmm,” Justice then uttered as she brought a hand up to her chin and tilted her head slightly downward.
For a few seconds Justice maintained her phlegmatic appearance in silence, much to Sonata and Su-Z’s chagrin. Though neither of them could complain too much as the silence meant that the demon girl wasn’t asking them if they belonged to any questionable groups. However, they each assumed that Justice’s current state was just one of contemplation, and that soon enough she was going to ask them yet again if they were affiliated with some sort of contentious organization.
“Oh!” Justice said excitedly as she came out of her stoic state. “Are you members of either the Democratic or Republican party?!”
Sure enough, Sonata and Su-Z had assumed correctly.
“NO!!!” The Dazzling and PostCrush girl answered simultaneously for a third time.
“Damn. Thought for sure I had it that time,” Justice said. “Well if you two aren’t cultists, revolutionaries, or politicians then I give up. The only other reason I can think of for why you summoned me is that you want to make me your demon bride or something. But given everything that’s happened so far I’m guessing that’s not the case.”
Despite the fact that Justice had outright disregarded her latest theory as to why it was she’d been summoned, both Sonata and Su-Z found themselves speechless that she’d even considered such a crazy idea as a possibility.
“Ah geez. That is the case, isn’t it?” Justice then said after a few seconds of silence. “Look, I’m flattered and everything but the answer is a hard no. There is no way in hell I am going through something like that again. Pun intended that time.”
It was at this point that Su-Z turned around to look at Sonata once more, half-expecting to see the Dazzling on the verge of a full-blown meltdown. But much to the PostCrush girl’s surprise she saw that her friend appeared to be more befuddled and fatigued than enraged.
“I need a minute,” The Dazzling said wearily as she turned around and headed for the living room. “I just…I need a minute.”
Su-Z said nothing as she watched Sonata exit the kitchen and promptly take a seat in a nearby living room chair, mostly because she didn’t know what to say. Or rather, she found herself unable to say what it was she wanted to. From the moment she saw the Dazzling turn around and make for the other room she wanted to tell her to stay so as not to leave her alone with Justice, but given just how dejectedly Sonata had sounded she figured that the girl truly was in desperate need of a minute or two to herself.
“She going to be okay?” Justice asked the PostCrush girl, regaining her attention. “It seems like she’s taking my rejection pretty hard.”
“N-No, it’s not that,” Su-Z replied. “Just…look, Sonata doesn’t want to make you a demon bride or have you send anyone to Hell for her or anything like that. She – we – didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Sonata just found that tablet outside and then I used an app on my phone to translate the inscription. Neither of us knew that reading it aloud was going to summon you.”
“Oh. Well that certainly explains a lot,” Justice said. “Why didn’t you two just say so from the very beginning?”
Su-Z couldn’t help but facepalm in response to Justice’s question, finding it frustratingly stupefying that the demon girl hadn’t interpreted the screams she and Sonata had let out earlier as a blatantly obvious sign that they hadn’t meant to summon her.
“Welp, I suppose I should give you the run down on the tablet and everything then,” Justice then said as she took a seat at the kitchen table. “I don’t normally have to do this so if it seems like I’m skipping over anything important just let me know.”
Happy that she was finally going to get some answers, Su-Z swiftly took a seat at the table as well. But just as the PostCrush girl sat down she came to the realization that Sonata should probably be present for all of this as well.
“Hey, Sonata,” She called out into the living room.
“Yeah, I heard. And I’m coming,” The Dazzling replied as she got up from her seat and made her way into the kitchen once more.
Once Sonata rejoined the other two girls in the kitchen and took a seat to Su-Z’s left, Justice put both of her feet up on the table and placed her right index finger on top of the tablet.
“Okay, so for starters this thing is called a perdition tablet,” Justice began explaining. “And as you’ve probably already ascertained it’s used to summon demons for the purpose of sending someone to Hell on someone else’s behalf. They were created by Lucifer, the Queen of Hell, about four thousand years ago as a means of sowing massive chaos on Earth without drawing the attention of Heaven.”
“S-Sorry,” Su-Z tentatively interrupted as she slightly raised her right hand up. “But what do you mean by, ‘without drawing the attention of Heaven’? I thought Heaven saw everything.”
“That’s what Heaven wants everyone to think, but in truth they’re not nearly as all-seeing as they claim to be,” Justice replied. “So knowing that Heaven doesn’t see everything that goes on up here Lucy came up with these tablets to allow demons to come up to Earth in such small numbers and for such small amounts of time that Heaven wouldn’t notice them.”
“But why?” Sonata inquired. “I mean I get that it’s so someone can send someone else to Hell, but I don’t get how sending just one person to Hell could sow massive chaos?”
As soon as Sonata finished asking her question a small, rather impish-looking smile appeared on Justice’s face.
“It sows massive chaos if the person you send to Hell is someone who’s in a position of power,” The demon girl explained. “That’s why Lucy always tried to make sure the tablets ended up in the hands of dissidents like cultists or revolutionaries. She figured those kinds of people were more than likely to have a highly influential and powerful person sent to Hell, and end up causing some serious chaos as a result.”
The more Sonata and Su-Z thought about what Justice was saying, the more the logic made sense to them. Throughout the world there was certainly no shortage of powerful people who helped shape events on a global scale every day, people who were things like lawmakers or military leaders. It certainly wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that sending even one of them to their untimely demise would generate a lot of chaos in the world.
The thought alone of how the world could potentially change overnight if a president or a general were suddenly sent to Hell was bone-chilling to both of the girls, and each of them couldn’t help but wonder just how many times throughout history a perdition tablet had been used by someone to drastically alter its course.
“Unfortunately though, Lucy figured wrong,” Justice continued, now sounding a tad dejected. “As it turns out cultists and revolutionaries are just as petty and stupid as everyone else up here.”
Subconsciously feeling that they’d been indirectly slighted, the Dazzling and PostCrush girl both shot Justice a brief, peevish glare without even realizing it.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how many unimportant people I’ve sent to Hell for trivial reasons,” The demon girl continued. “Like this one time when I was summoned by a French knight during the Caroline War for example. I thought, ‘Awesome! This guy’s going to have me send someone important like John of Gaunt or The Black Prince to Hell and create some serious chaos!’ But as it turned out, I thought wrong. Rather than have me send someone in-command of the English army to Hell he had me send this other French knight there instead. And why? Because the other knight’s stallion knocked up one of his mares! Just…crazy, am I right?”
Needless to say, it was incredibly difficult for Sonata and Su-Z to agree or even sympathize with Justice’s disposition - for a multitude of reasons. But despite this they each felt that they should at least appear to be sympathetic by subtly and silently nodding their heads in agreement. Though the gestures were a bit of a mute-point since Justice couldn’t even see them.
“But getting back to the tablet itself,” Justice continued. “It acts as a sort of contract between the demon who’s summoned and the person who uses it. A contract that states that the demon must send someone to Hell on behalf of that person before returning to Hell herself. Ergo, the demon has to remain here on Earth with that person until the contract is fulfilled.”
Even though Sonata had essentially been told this part earlier when she’d heatedly told Justice to go back to Hell, the reality of what it truly meant was only now starting to sink in for her, as evident by the look of extreme trepidation that quickly overtook her face.
“Oh god,” The young Dazzling muttered inaudibly to herself.
Just then, Justice removed her feet from the table, got up from her seat, and began to walk around the table towards Sonata’s left.
As the demon girl made her short journey to the other end of the table, the reality of what her words meant sunk in for Su-Z as well. And just as Justice took a seat on the other end of Sonata she too dawned an expression of great anxiety.
“So since you don’t want to send anyone to Hell, Sonata, it looks like you and I are going to be spending a lot of time together,” Justice concluded as she wrapped her right arm around the Dazzling’s shoulders.
Hearing Justice say out loud what she’d already realized only made the reality of the situation sink in deeper for Sonata, and before the Dazzling knew it she was hanging her head in almost total dejection.
“Oh god,” Sonata repeated - this time audibly.
“Hey, come on, it won’t be so bad,” The demon girl amiably assured the distraught Dazzling. “Just think of all the fun stuff we can do together! We can stay up all night and make crank calls, or we can go out and knock over some mailboxes! Hell, we can even open up a bakery and then burn it down for the insurance money if you want!”
Just then, Justice leaned in ever-so-closer to Sonata, causing the Dazzling to snap out of her despondency just enough for her to shift her head ever-so-slightly away from the demon girl.
“Please tell me you want to open up a bakery and then burn it down for the insurance money,” The demon girl playfully begged.
“N-No, I don’t want to do that,” Sonata barely managed to say.
“Shoot,” Justice replied as she let go of the Dazzling and leaned back in her seat. “Well whatever you want to do just let me know and we’ll do it. I’m game for pretty much anything so long as it doesn’t involve tax fraud.”
“Tax fraud?” Su-Z said as she too regained some of her composure.
“Yep, tax fraud,” Justice confirmed. “Lucy said that we’re not allowed to do that when we’re up here. Something about not messing with the IRS because they’re worse than Heaven or whatever.”
This, Su-Z could genuinely agree with. After all, it was thanks to the IRS that she and Kiwi had ended up living in a van down by the river after they’d been dropped by their label.
Sonata, on the other hand, had little-to-no opinion on the matter. The Dazzling found herself too overwhelmed with anxiety over being stuck with a demon at her side to focus on anything else at the moment. Anxieties like how her sisters would react to all of this when they got home, or how her beloved Dashie would react when she found out. Were Adagio and Aria going kick to her out? Possibly. Was Rainbow Dash going to break up with her? Also possible. Rainbow had almost broken up with her after she’d learned about Dolly, so it was entirely plausible that the Rainboom would react similarly when she learned about Justice. These and various other nightmare scenarios quickly flooded Sonata’s mind until the poor girl once again found herself in a despondent state.
“Oh god,” She uttered for a third time.
“Tell you what,” Justice spoke up in an upbeat manner, completely oblivious to the Dazzling’s current state. “To celebrate our new friendship I’m going to bake us some apple pie. Not to brag or anything, but I make a pretty mean apple pie.”
And with that, Justice got up from her seat and made her way over towards the oven, leaving Sonata and Su-Z alone at the table.
With Justice now gone - or at least preoccupied elsewhere – Su-Z was able to fully regain her composure. At first the PostCrush girl watched as the demon turned on the oven and started randomly opening cabinets in search of ingredients, but soon enough she diverted her attention over towards Sonata. And when she did, she noticed just how forlorn the Dazzling was truly feeling. In particular, she noticed the thousand-yard stare emanating from the girl’s eyes as she stared down at the table.
It was a truly haunting sight for the former popstar to behold. One that filled her with immense concern for her friend.
“Are you okay, Sonata?” She asked delicately.
“This is bad. This is so bad,” The Dazzling stated absentmindedly. “If Adagio and Aria come home and find out that I summoned a demon from Hell they’re going to disown me. And then when Rainbow Dash finds out she’ll break up with me. And then I…I don’t know what I’ll…”
A couple of teardrops started to form in the corners of Sonata’s eyes as she voiced her fears to Su-Z. Tears that did not go unperceived by the PostCrush girl.
“Listen to me, Sonata,” Su-Z said firmly as she leaned forward and took hold of the Dazzling’s hands, earning her the girl’s attention. “Nothing like that is going to happen. Adagio and Aria aren’t going to disown you and Rainbow Dash isn’t going to break up with you, because none of them are going to find out that we summoned a demon.”
Sonata’s expression immediately changed from one of despondency to one of confusion and slight irritation.
“Su-Z, they’re going to find out,” The Dazzling replied bluntly. “You heard what Justice said. She can’t leave my side until she sends someone to Hell for me, and since I refuse to do that it means I’m stuck with her for the rest of my life!”
“I know, I know. But I don’t care about what Justice said,” Su-Z said in an ataractic manner. “There’s got to be another way we can get rid of Justice before anyone else finds out we summoned her. I don’t know how exactly, but I know that we’ll figure something out.”
As soon as Su-Z finished speaking, Sonata gave a soft, defeated sigh. The Dazzling certainly admired her friend’s optimism, but she couldn’t help but feel that it was greatly misplaced given the reality of the situation. As far as she could tell there was no other way she could get rid of Justice other than by having someone sent to Hell, and there definitely wasn’t any way for her to keep either her sisters or Rainbow Dash from finding out about the demon girl either. She was screwed, plain and simple, and the only reasonable course of action now was to try and figure out a way to minimize the fallout.
Sonata opened her mouth to recapitulate her viewpoint to Su-Z, but just before she got word-one out she was struck by a great realization; when Su-Z had talked about finding another way of getting rid of Justice, she’d used the plural pronoun ‘we’.
“W-What did you say?” She then inquired, wanting to make sure she’d heard her friend correctly.
“I said we’ll find another way out of this,” Su-Z reiterated, with no small hint of conviction in her voice. “I know there has to be some other way to send Justice back to Hell without sending someone else there first, I’m sure of it. We just have to figure out what that way is before anyone else sees her.”
And that was all the confirmation Sonata needed. The Dazzling now knew without a doubt that, as far as Su-Z was concerned, the two of them were in this together. This despite the fact that the PostCrush girl had no obligation to continue being involved with everything that was happening and potentially had so much to lose by continuing to be involved.
The kindness and loyalty that her friend was showing her right now was enough to bring another teardrop or two to the corners of Sonata’s eyes. Though this time they were tears of joy.
“Yeah. You’re right, Su-Z,” The Dazzling said as she started to feel a bit choked up. “We’ll figure something out. Together.”
Su-Z then flashed Sonata a warm and reassuring smile which the Dazzling was quick to return. And for the first time since Justice had appeared in their kitchen, the two girls felt a sense of serenity and sanguineness.
A moment that was tragically cut short though when the sound of a cell phone ringing could be heard coming from S-Z’s pocket.
“Oh, that’s probably Dolly,” The PostCrush girl said as she got up from her seat, pulled her phone out of her pocket, and headed off towards the living room. “Be right back, Sonata.”
“W-What? Su-Z!” Sonata called out to her friend as she left the room, hoping that doing so would get her to turn around and come back.
But Su-Z didn’t turn around and come back, much to the Dazzling’s dismay.
As Sonata watched the PostCrush girl advance through the living room and take a seat located well out of earshot from her seat in the kitchen, she felt like she’d just been on the receiving end of some cruel cosmic joke. Right after she and Su-Z had said that they were in this together Su-Z got a phone call and had to leave her. Of course the young Dazzling knew that her friend would come back - Su-Z herself had said that she would - but seeing the girl walk off so suddenly just made her feel that the proverbial rug had been pulled out from right underneath her.
The sense of loss didn’t last long for Sonata though, as it was soon replaced with renewed feelings of anxiety over what Su-Z and Dolly were talking about.
In all the madness of having summoned a demon from Hell, the Dazzling had completely forgotten about Su-Z’s earlier mysterious phone call with her daughter. Admittedly, part of this forgetfulness was because she’d chosen to believe Kiwi’s theory that this correspondence was no big deal. But now that Dolly had contacted the PostCrush girl once again, Sonata was starting to wonder if Adagio’s theory of something being up was more accurate. Was Dolly okay? Was she really in some sort of trouble that she didn’t want her or Adagio or Aria to know about? The more Sonata pondered these and similar questions, the more her anxiety began to rise.
“Oh god,” She softly and apprehensively said to herself as she started to assume the worst.
It wasn’t long before Sonata’s worries got the best of her and she found herself getting up out of her seat with the intent of going into the living room and demanding that Su-Z reveal what was going on with her daughter. Forcefully, if needed. Something was definitely going on with Dolly, and as the girl’s mother it was her right to know about it.
Sonata took a few firm steps forward towards the living room, determined to find out what Su-Z and Dolly were talking about by any means necessary. But as the Dazzling approached the threshold between the kitchen and the living room she became aware of just how impulsively abrasive she was acting right now, and it gave her pause.
What in the world was she doing? Was she really just about to confront Su-Z and demand that the girl disclose the contents of her private conversation? Was she really about to forcibly intrude into her adult daughter’s personal life? Was this really the kind of friend and mother she wanted to be?
Feeling ashamed by how she’d almost let her fears and anxieties get the better of her and make her do something she would’ve later regretted, Sonata took a few steps back.
“Oooh, honey crisp apples. Nice!” The Dazzling then heard Justice exclaim from the other end of the room.
Sonata immediately turned her attention over towards Justice and saw that the demon girl was still hard at work making her apple pie, which strangely enough helped convince her that she shouldn’t get involved in whatever was happening between Su-Z and Dolly. Right now she had a more pressing issue to attend to in the form of a demon in her kitchen, and if she wanted to have any hope of rectifying that issue she needed to give it her undivided attention.
And so Sonata decided to trust that the situation between her daughter and her housemate was nothing too serious. For now at least. The young Dazzling certainly still had her reservations about their mysterious phone calls, but she knew that all that would have to wait until a later time. A time when hopefully she would feel more level-headed and be able to approach it in a healthier way than she’d almost done just now.
“Okay, Sonata. Think,” She said softly to herself as she refocused her mental energy. “How are you going to get rid of Justice before Aria and Dagi get back?”
For a few moments the Dazzling simply stood silently there in the kitchen as she contemplated potential ways she could send Justice back to Hell without sending someone else there first. Or rather, she tried to contemplate potential ways she could send Justice back to Hell without sending someone else there first. Not surprisingly, no solutions were coming to mind.
But despite this initial lack of revelation, Sonata kept at it. She thought back to everything that Justice had said about the perdition tablet and how it worked, figuring that perhaps there was some pertinent piece of information that she might have missed. But alas, no such piece of information came to mind. All she could recall was Justice explaining what the tablet was, why Lucifer had created them, how they acted as a contract, and how one time a knight had used a tablet to send another knight to Hell over an impregnated mare.
“Wait a minute,” The Dazzling said aloud as a great epiphany began to take shape within her mind. “That’s it!”
“Hey! Sorry about that, Sonata,” Su-Z said as she re-entered the kitchen, her phone call supposedly now done. “So back to what we were talking abo -”
“Su-Z, I’ve got it!” Sonata interrupted the girl elatedly as she took grabbed ahold of her friend’s shoulders. “I know how we can send Justice back to Hell!”
“Really?!” The PostCrush girl just as elatedly replied. “How?!”
“We just have to get Heaven’s attention!” The Dazzling answered.
“Get Heaven’s attention?” Su-Z then queried.
“Yeah, get Heaven’s attention!” Sonata reiterated as she let go of Su-Z’s shoulders. “Remember what Justice said about why Lucifer created the tablets? She said they were created as a way for demons to sow chaos on Earth without drawing the attention of Heaven. So all we have to do is find a way to let Heaven know that Justice is here!”
“Yeah. Yeah!” Su-Z asserted as she began to understand Sonata’s logic. “Once Heaven finds out that Justice got out of Hell they’ll probably send her back down there in a heartbeat!”
“Uh-huh!” Sonata uttered before assuming a more stoic demeanor. “The only question though is how do we go about getting Heaven’s attention?”
“What about by praying?” Su-Z suggested. “Heaven’s always listening to prayers, right?”
“Nah, not really,” Justice said from right beside them.
“GAH!” The Dazzling and PostCrush girl both hollered out, having been caught off-guard by the demon girl’s sudden appearance by their side.
“Man, you two really like to scream, don’t ya?” Justice stated facetiously.
For a few moments the only sound heard in the kitchen was that of heavy breathing emanating from Sonata and Su-Z as the two girls tried to catch their breath.
“What do you mean by, ‘not really’?” Su-Z asked once she could speak again.
“I mean that Heaven isn’t listening to prayers anymore,” Justice explained. “Or maybe they still are and they’re just ignoring them, I dunno. Either way they’ve pretty much stopped paying attention to anything short of an apocalypse around here since The Big Guy’s Son got crucified a few centuries back.”
“Of course they have,” Sonata remarked acerbically.
“I tell ya, Heaven just went from one extreme to another after that happened,” Justice expatiated. “I mean back in the old days they were so involved in everything that went on up here that whenever Lucy left Hell they’d have her ass back down there within a day. But now they’re so indifferent to everything that she’s been able to stay up here for seven years and counting! Which, you know, is good for her and all, but when she’d left I had bet on her being back in Hell within four to six hours.”
The demon girl then trembled ever-so-slightly.
“Boy, was that a bet with Pandemonica I regretted making,” She concluded.
Sadly most of Justice’s words had been ignored by Sonata. After the demon girl had said that Heaven no longer listened to prayers the Dazzling’s mind tuned her out as it went about trying to once again find a solution to the problem at hand.
Conversely, Su-Z had listened quite intently to Justice’s words. And as a result, she learned a piece of information that she believed could potentially lead to the solution she and Sonata were looking for.
“Wait, did you say that Lucifer has been up here for seven years?” She asked the demon.
“Give or take a year, yeah,” Justice answered.
“Do you know where she is?” Su-Z then asked.
“Sure. Why do you –” Justice began to reply before abruptly stopping herself and dawning an impish smile. “Oh. Okay, I see where you’re going with this.”
“Huh, wha?” Sonata chimed in as she precipitously broke out of her cerebrations. “Who’s going where with what now?”
Neither Su-Z nor Justice immediately answered Sonata. Instead, the PostCrush girl and demon simply looked at each other for a moment as if silently deciding between the two of them which one was going to speak up. Eventually Su-Z decided that she would be the one to speak up, if for no other reason than to get Justice to stop staring at her with that overly-impish smile.
“W-Well since Lucifer is somewhere here on Earth, I wanted to ask Justice if she could maybe, you know, take us to see her,” The former popstar explained tentatively.
“WHAT?!” The Dazzling reacted expectedly.
“The answer is yes, by the way,” Justice interjected. “I can take you to Lucy and I totally will if you want me to.”
“Are you crazy, Su-Z?!” Sonata continued, ignoring Justice’s statement. “It isn’t bad enough we’re stuck dealing with a demon, you want to add The Devil on top of that?!”
“J-Just hear me out, Sonata,” Su-Z beseeched her friend. “Lucifer was the one who created the tablets, right? So if that’s the case then maybe she can help us. She might be able to break the contract between you and Justice or…or undo the summoning, or…something along those lines.”
Sonata said nothing back. All she did was continue to stare at Su-Z with a look of pure bewilderment on her face as her mind desperately tried to process her friend’s suggestion.
Was Su-Z really being serious right now? Did she honestly think that the goddamn Devil would help them? Even if Lucifer could break the contract like she’d speculated, would the Queen of Hell do it simply out of the kindness of her heart? Unlikely. While it was true that Justice had turned out to be so unexpectedly friendly for a demon, it was doubtful that The Devil herself would turn out to be so surprisingly amiable as well.
The more Sonata thought about Su-Z’s idea, the more she became convinced that it was a terrible one. But unfortunately, it was the only idea they had. Despite how hard the Dazzling continued to try and think of another alternative she found herself unable to come up with anything better. Like it or not, the only options they had were to either go and appeal to Lucifer for help or stay at home and do nothing.
After a brief moment of deliberation, Sonata made her choice. And when she did she let out a very defeated-sounding sigh.
“I can’t believe I’m about to say this,” The Dazzling started to address Su-Z and Justice. “But yeah, okay. Let’s go see Lucifer.”
“Awesome! I was hoping you’d say that!” Justice said as she once again wrapped her right arm around the Dazzling’s shoulders. “You two are going to love Lucy! I mean I can’t guarantee that she’ll help you, but I can guarantee that you’re going to love her regardless.”
Feeling a mixture of mild annoyance and exhaustion from the demon girl’s overly-enthusiastic temperament, Sonata couldn’t help but roll her eyes in a quick and discreet manner. Though not quite quickly or discreetly enough to escape the notice of Su-Z, who couldn’t help but find the whole scene just a little bit humorous.
“Well I guess we should get going then,” The PostCrush girl said gaily, right before suddenly casting her eyes around the room in a nervous fashion. “You know, before Kiwi, Adagio, and Aria get back.”
“Oh, yeah. Totally,” Justice replied as she let go of Sonata and turned around. “But not until after we’ve had some apple pie first.”
As soon as Justice finished speaking she started to walk away and back on over towards the oven. However, she only made it about two steps of the way there before Sonata took ahold of her left arm, forcing her to stop.
“No! No pie first! We’re going now!” The Dazzling stated fiercely as she tightened her grip on the demon girl’s arm.
“You wanna go now?” Justice inquired - seemingly unfazed by either Sonata’s grip or ferocity – before quickly looking over at the oven for a moment and then just as quickly returning her attention to Sonata. “Are you sure you wanna do that? ’Cause I already put the pie in the ov -”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Sonata interrupted the demon through gritted teeth as she used her right hand to grab hold of Justice’s right arm as well. “Now do whatever is it you have to do to take us to Lucifer this instant, missy.”
A small chuckle escaped from Su-Z’s mouth immediately after she heard her friend refer to Justice as ‘missy’.
“All right then,” The demon girl replied as Sonata let go of her arms. “If you just wanna scooch in a little closer, Su-Z, we can be on our way.”
Following Justice’s instruction, Su-Z moved in closer until she was about as equidistant from the demon girl as Sonata was. And once she was in place, Justice placed one hand on her right shoulder while simultaneously placing her other hand on Sonata’s left shoulder.
“You both might wanna close your eyes,” Justice then advised. “I’ve been told this can be a bit harsh on the ole peepers.”
Sonata and Su-Z looked at one another for a moment. It wasn’t difficult for either girl to pick up that the other was feeling anxious about whatever it was Justice was about to do, but figuring it best to heed the demon girl’s advice they did as she suggested and closed their eyes.
“Are your eyes closed?” The blind girl asked them.
“Yes,” The Dazzling and PostCrush girl both answered.
“Good. Now don’t open them until I tell you to,” Justice then told them. “Here we go.”
As soon a Justice finished speaking Sonata and Su-Z heard what could only be described as the sound of flames encircling them, causing the two girls to tightly clinch their eyes shut more as their anxiety levels quickly spiked. Thankfully though, the fiery sound only lasted a couple of seconds, and as soon as it stopped a wave of relief washed over the Dazzling and PostCrush girl.
“Okay, we’re here,” They then heard Justice tell them. “You can open your eyes now.”
Very slowly, Sonata and Su-Z started to open their eyes.
As the Dazzling and PostCrush girl started to take in their new surroundings, they noticed that they were now in a very large, fairly ornate room and standing in the middle of what appeared to be a dancefloor. They also noticed that there was a bar located to their far-left, a performing stage to their far-right, and a number of empty tables spread throughout the room.
“Wait a minute. I…I know this place,” Su-Z said as she continued to scan the room. “This is the club that Adagio and Aria brought Kiwi and I to when we had our girls’ night out. What was it called? Chess, or Chews, or -”
“Chaus. It’s called Chaus,” Sonata informed her friend. “And you’re right, that’s definitely where we are.”
“Wait, you two have been here before?” Justice chimed in. “So…does that mean you two already know Lucy?”
“Well we know a Lucy Beel who owns this club,” Sonata started to reply. “But I don’t see how that relates to Lucif -”
The Dazzling found that she had to stop herself mid-sentence as a very large lightbulb suddenly lit up inside her head.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” She then uttered in bewildered astonishment.
“I don’t get what’s going on here,” Su-Z then spoke up. “You said you were taking us to see Lucifer, Justice, but I don’t see her anywhere.”
“Maybe that’s because you haven’t looked up yet,” A familiar voice called out to the three girls.
All eyes, including Justice’s, immediately shot over towards where the voice had come from. And there, standing atop the platform located near the club’s entrance and looking down at them, was none other than Chaus’ owner, Lucy Beel.
“Yo, Lucy!” Justice hollered up to the woman. “How’s it goin’?!”
Lucy said nothing in response as she hastily yet adroitly made her way over towards one of the nearby staircases and started to descend it, never once diverting her gaze from the group of girls on the dancefloor as she did so.
As Su-Z watched Lucy advance towards her, she began to wonder how it was that Justice knew the woman. At first she thought that perhaps the demon girl knew Lucy because the club owner had once used a perdition tablet just like her and Sonata had done, but not long after having that thought the same lightbulb that had turned on inside Sonata’s mind also turned on inside hers.
“Whoa, h-hold on a minute,” The PostCrush girl said in pure shock and awe once Lucy stepped onto the dancefloor. “Y-Y-You’re Lucifer, Lucy?!”
“Oh don’t act so surprised, Su-Z,” Lucy replied dismissively as she walked right past the former popstar.
But Su-Z was surprised. Flabbergasted even. She just couldn’t believe that Lucy Beel, the woman who’d offered her and Kiwi an opportunity to perform at her club, was in actuality the Queen of Hell.
Sonata, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as surprised by this grand divulgence. She was still surprised, to be sure, but given her and her sisters’ past experiences dealing with Lucy’s shady and unscrupulous concordats it wasn’t too difficult for her to believe that the woman was the literal Devil.
“So, been a while, huh, Boss,” Justice said as Justice stopped right in front of her. “It’s good to see you’re still looking as sharp and sexy as ever.”
Both Sonata and Su-Z found themselves confused by Justice’s remark seeing as how the girl was blind and therefore unable to ascertain Lucy’s current appearance, despite the fact that the club owner did indeed look sharp and sexy. But when they heard a small, light-hearted chortle emanate from Lucy’s mouth in response they figured that the demon girl’s words had been spoken in jest.
“Why thank you, Justice, dear,” Lucy said back cordially. “And let me say, it’s good to see that you still have that incongruous sense of humor of yours.”
“Hey, you know me; always awesome,” Justice boasted playfully.
“Undoubtedly,” Lucy replied genially, right before she abruptly grabbed Justice by the collar and dawned an astringent expression.
“Whoa, Lucy,” The demon girl said as she was taken hold of. “I know it’s been a while but do you really wanna catch up right now…on this dancefloor…in front of Sonata and Su-Z?”
Sonata and Su-Z could only speculate what it was Justice really meant by ‘catch up’. But as soon as they each came to the same fairly reasonable guess they immediately tried to not focus on it.
“I don’t want to catch up, Justice!” Lucy replied acerbically. “What I do want is for you to tell me why you suddenly showed up at my club with a Dazzling and a member of PostCrush right before we open!”
“Oooh, gotcha,” Justice said. “Well, ya see, Sonata over there summoned me using a perdition tablet. Thing is though she doesn’t want me to send anyone to Hell so she wanted to see if you could maybe send me back down there without having to take someone with me.”
“A perdition tablet?” Lucy said perplexedly as she let go of Justice and turned to face Sonata. “You found a perdition tablet?”
“Yep,” Sonata answered very candidly.
“Huh, well I’ll be damned,” Lucy then said right before turning back towards Justice. “I thought the last of those was used 50 years ago on D.B. Cooper.”
Justice simply shrugged her shoulders in response.
“Well I suppose that’s not important right now,” Lucy said as she started to walk back on over towards the staircase she’d descended from only moments ago. “What is important is that we take this conversation somewhere more private before the club opens. Follow me.”
Doing as instructed, Justice immediately began to follow Lucy as she walked away. Sonata and Su-Z then followed behind Justice moments later.
As the four women ascended the staircase, Sonata and Su-Z started to wonder just where it was Lucy was leading them. The club owner had said that they were going to continue their conversation somewhere more private, but neither of them knew where that somewhere was going to be. They figured that Lucy wasn’t going to lead them somewhere outside of the club, which meant that, in all likelihood, she was going to take them to what they assumed was the only truly private place in the building; her office.
Once Lucy, Justice, Sonata, and Su-Z reached the top of the stairs, they proceeded to walk past the front entrance to the club and over towards an elevator located at the far end of the room. Upon reaching the elevator they all stopped as Lucy pushed the up button next to it. Much to Sonata and Su-Z’s surprise though, the doors didn’t open right away. They had to wait a few seconds for the elevator to arrive.
“Hey, you got any apple pie around here, Lucy?” Justice inquired while they waited. “’Cause I started making some earlier but didn’t get a chance to have any before we came here, and I still kinda want some.”
“No, Justice, I don’t have any apple pie,” Lucy replied.
“Shoot,” Justice simply remarked just as the elevator arrived.
When the doors of the elevator opened, the four women were greeted by a compartment so opulent and grandiose that it riveled those belonging to some of the fanciest hotels that S-Z had stayed in while on-tour.
“Wow,” The PostCrush girl remarked as she and the others entered the elevator.
“I know,” Lucy said boastfully.
Once all four women were inside the elevator – Lucy and Justice in front, Sonata and Su-Z in back - Lucy quickly entered a five-digit code on a nearby keypad, causing the doors to close. And as the elevator compartment slowly started to move upward Sonata reached out and took hold of Su-Z’s hand, which Su-Z accepted graciously.
The Dazzling knew not what awaited her within the lair of The Devil herself, but she knew that whatever it was she would be able to face it, because she would have her friend right there with her to help her do so.