Shout At The Devil

by Bucket of Skies

Chapter 8 : Business to tend to

So turns out I hadn’t paid attention and saw that the next chapter was already available. Boy do I look stupid for saying that I left you on a cliffhanger. You know, It’s a habit that I think started-

Are you done?

Erm, right. I’ll let you just finish up the story for me.

Good, no further interruptions. Anyways, where we left off, I told you that my days were beginning to change for the better. Sure, I was still going to class and then had to work right after, but I was happy doing it. Especially at work because I was now getting paid decently and wasn’t getting yelled at by some four foot nothing freak. I was working a job as a mail boy and occasional paper filer at a paper company. It was fine, although one of the guys that works in sales creeps me out with an odd scent of beets.

As I mentioned before, Sunset had managed to get hired as a receptionist for the company. Her job is a little bit more simpler than mine, but I can’t complain because she was the occasional escape from the little stress I had from the job. Why do I say occasional instead of always?

Brim was the one who managed to make my job so much more enjoyable as well as my girl working with me. If ever I thought something about a person at work, he would give his honest opinion. I mean, really honest. When I told Brim that that one guy who smelled like beets creeped me out, he told me that he was a possible Nazi, or at least that’s what he got from his vibe. It was entertaining to hear Brim and his Nazi jokes against the guy. It was a bit sad because I didn’t really talk to the guy, but he seemed like a nice guy. Just the smell of beets really made me feel off about him.

It was then topped off with a nice drink at the Pixie tavern at the end of the day. We wouldn’t slam shots, but instead we had a beer or two as well as the occasional food that they had there. I swear, I must’ve scared Biff when I walked into the bar for the first time with Sunset. It had been a long time from Biff’s perspective since I had come to the bar. With a half true explanation about how I was taking a few moments to myself to try and become better, I was able to convince Biff that I still was the same person that he knew, just not getting as hammered as I used to.

Though me and Sunset were both really close with each other at this point, we were still living in separate places. We had discussed an idea of one of us moving in with another, but with work and college, it wasn’t really our focus at the time. It was a thought though.

It was all coming together. But then one day, something felt completely off.

It was a regular day like usual, I woke up in my apartment in between class and work with Brim trying to mess with me. This day in particular, he decided to make it look like Sunset was in my apartment trying to seduce me. It wasn’t until he tried to throw himself onto me that I realized it wasn’t really Sunset. He found it funny, I didn’t because I thought it was real for a second.

"Oh come on. Admit that you found me slightly attractive for one second. Was it the lack of bacon smell?", He asked jokingly.

"Oh ha ha funny. Can you do me a favor and grab the mail by the door. I am gonna get dressed real quick.", I asked Brim the favor.

"Ugh, fine I'll be the bottom boy on this one.", he said walking towards my door's mailbox.

My uniform for work was almost like what I usually wear. It was a white shirt and black pants. The only part that I didn't like as much as the others was the long black tie I had, or as Brim calls it,"the workman's noose". It was often a bit tight, but if it was loose, it looked so stupid that I might've might as well not have gotten one at all.

"So any good mail?", I asked Brim.

I got nothing but silence. I thought he couldn't hear me at first.

"Brim? You got someone waiting for mail?", I asked again.

"Oh yeah sorry. I was having withdrawal from cigarettes. H-here's the mail.", Brim said walking back towards me with the mail, clamping one letter in particular.

He handed me all except one bright red letter. I tried to grab it, but he held onto this letter with a hellish grip.

"Uh, you gonna hand the letter over?", I said pulling on the letter.

"What letter?", he said still gripping the letter.

"The one you refuse to let go of.", I explained still holding on.

"That's your hand.", he said.

I looked down to see that it was my hand. I could've sworn that there was a letter there. Could have this been a trick? Could he have used his demon magic against me this one time?

"Oh, would you look at the time, we have to get to work.", he said frantically pointing at the clock.

I looked up to see that my clock was flashing that the time was 12:46 PM. It was strange that I had to leave so suddenly, but it felt like it wasn't that long ago when I slept. Not questioning anything about it, I accepted that I was about to be late and headed out.

The walk to work was strange. For some reason, Brim was a lot more quieter than usual. Come to think of it, he wasn't really there whenever I was walking to work. It felt odd because he would usually make fun of the homeless people that lived on the side of businesses that were on the way to work. Kinda messed up for looking forward to homeless jokes, but it made the day a little bit less dead inside. I made it to work, sadly with no jokes about homeless people.

When I made it inside, I was greeted by the lovely receptionist of the paper company.

Gross. Like you don't need to call her lovely. We know you two are madly in love. You don't need to clarify it to us.

Anyways,

"Well someone finally decided to come to work. You were on the verge of being late.", Sunset said to me.

"Well, when you take naps between work, it tends to happen. ", I explained to her as I kissed her on the cheek.

"Say, where's Brim?", she asked me.

"I don't know. He was fine when I woke up. But then when he managed to look at the letters, he got all...weird.", I explained.

"Huh, you think that it is because of us?", she asked.

"Oh god no. He wouldn't be like that. It was all for a letter that I thought I saw. I don't know why, but it was…..it's hard to explain. ", I tried to explain.

"Well… we can figure this out a little later. Right now you have a couple of things to file. And of course a few letters to deliver to some of the people in marketing. ", she said handing me a folder with all the things I needed to deliver.

The day went on like usual. Papers to file, letters to deliver and of course the smell of beets giving me chills. The only problem was with Brim. Just like with the walk to work, it felt very off without Brim. I even began thinking about trying to stay away from the beetle loving nazi, but it didn't feel right without Brim calling me a skeptic Jew.

When I had a moment to myself at my desk, I decided that it was the best time to see if Brim was really there.

"Brim. You there? You been awfully quiet this whole day since this morning. Want to talk about it?", I said hoping that he'd heard.

Nothing. Zip. Nada. Just like this morning on the walk. Right as I was about to walk out. A sudden flame appeared in front of me with Brim following right after. Only, he was a bit off. He was wearing a suit and had his hair pulled back as well as clean looking.

"Yo what's up?", Brim asked me.

"Uh, few questions. First, what's with the suit?", I asked him.

"Well, it's a thing I decided to wear. Wanted to switch things up.", he said passively.

"Okay? And second, what's going on with you? This morning you weren't there like you usually are.", I asked.

"Okay I can't lie about it. I lied about the first question. I got the suit because of this afternoon. I um, got some last minute business to tend to.", he explained.

"Wait, you aren't gonna make a joke about the you know…", I asked him.

"Yes the fourth wall break was funny, but I'm being serious. I have one last thing to tend to so I need to be out for a little while. In fact, I have to leave now. I don't want to be late, not for something like this.", Brim explained to me.

"Um okay, it's not very specific about what your talking about.", I said to him.

"Look, there are rare moments where I need to do some serious things. This is one of those rare moments. It's gonna be fine I'll be back in no time. Check a look!", He said before snapping away.

Right as I was gonna say goodbye for a split second I was with him, Sunset had walked up from behind me.

"Dammit, I was a little too late. What's going on with him.", She asked.

"It was weird, but he said that he had some last minute business to take care of. Then he just vanished like that. No explanation of what he had to do or anything. Just, poof! And then he was gone.", I explained.

"Oh, well that's a bit weird. Hey, you forgot about a letter to deliver. ", she said suddenly.

"What?", I asked.

"This one right here. The one with the bright red envelope on the floor.", she said picking it up from where Brim stood.

It was that letter! The letter that Brim was so adamant about hiding. I knew for a fact it was real and that I wasn't going insane.

"Yes! This is it!", I said frantically grabbing the letter.

"What is it?", she asked me.

"The letter that I knew I saw. This might have something to do with what Brim is acting really weird about.", I explained as I opened it.

The letter was on some really fine, black paper. The writing was in blood red and was in a really formal cursive. On the bottom of it was a stamp with the numbers"666". The letter said something like this:

Brimstone,

this is a letter informing you that you and I need to meet immediately. I cannot waste any time so please do not be late for your sake. We have some things that we need to discuss regarding your recent "endeavors" outside of Hell. Meet me in the Cafe de Noire at around 1:30. Do not be late. Unless you want it to be the last thing you do on this earth.

-LF

"Well, what is it?", Sunset asked me.

"It's a letter asking for Brim to report somewhere for a meeting. I don't know why but, I get a bad vibe from this letter.", I explained.

"Do you think he is in trouble?", she asked.

"I don't know. I think I need to find out for myself. Can you cover for me?", I asked Sunset.

"Uh, sure. Where are you going?", She asked me.

"The Cafe de Noire. I need to go make sure he isn't in trouble. I hopefully will be back later. Thank you Sunset. I love you so much I want to move in with you.", I said quickly running out.

"Wait what?", she asked catching the last part.

"We'll talk later about that last part. Gotta go now before shit happens to Brim.", I said running into a closing elevator.

---

I used an app on my phone to try and find the place as quick as I could. It wasn't what it was called on the app, but I followed it because I thought it was the closest thing I could find of that name. I ended up strolling to a black coffee shop looking place that was by the corner. As I approached the corner, I hid around the corner to make sure I wasn't seen by Brim if he was there.

I poked around the corner to see if he was there. I was right to see that he was there. He was at a table smoking like he usually does. He looked like he was waiting for something or someone. I kept my distance right there to wait and see without him noticing.

In my glance to observe Brim, a fury of smoke and flames erupted in front of the table. The flames weren't like Brim's, as this one was a bit more violent and powerful. It was like it was signaling the arrival of someone powerful. Could it be?

Out of the hellfire came a red woman like Brim's color in a pair of glasses and a black business dress. Her hair was black like the souls she looked like she could crush. She was a bit shorter than Brim, but the kind of short that you don't try to talk back to. It could be only one person, that person is…

"Lucy! How is the best boss in all of Hell?", Brim asked holding out for a hug.

"This is not the time nor the place to do this Mr. Brimstone. We have some business to address. ", Lucy said sitting down in the chair in front of the table.

"What? No love for your favorite demon of hell?", he asked her.

"If you are smart, you're going to sit down and discuss what we have to discuss for your sake.", She demanded.

"Yeesh, someone's goat must've gotten sacrificed.", Brim said sitting down across from her.

Lucy then snapped her fingers to pull out a velvet colored suitcase and put it on the table. Brim had pulled out his cigarettes and pulled one out.

"Before we begin with this business date, would you like to-", he said before Lucy snapped her fingers to make his cigarettes disappear in front of him.

"Cut the shit out Alchemy! I am not in the mood for your games this time. Especially not for the trouble you have caused for Hell. Now, do you want to be professional about this to make it easier or do you want it to get ugly for you. Honestly, I could care less which way you choose because it will end the same way.", Lucy said to Brim frustrated.

"Whoa whoa okay! I got the message as soon as you said my old name. Please proceed with business like you usually do Captain.", Brim responded.

"His real name was Alchemy? My goodness he really wasn't lying when he said that he was a scientist. ", I thought to myself.

I listened in closer to try and hear what they were going to discuss by sneaking to a nearby table with a newspaper to hide behind. It looked stupid, but it was enough to not be seen.

"You seem to have caused a lot of problems since you were sent out by form SATD 12 in this town. A few mortals in Hell ended up solving their problems with suicide and ended up getting the sympathy way to heaven.", Lucy said pulling out a document.

"So? A few lost souls won't hurt the infrastructure of Hell. They probably would've been a lost cause on your part.", He explained to her.

"Those 'lost souls' were the muscles I needed to reserve for the repair of the hellhound infestation we had. Now I had to reach out to our rival company in heaven to get some muscles for a huge price. So to correct your statement, yes, it did affect the infrastructure of Hell.", She explained.

"Okay, so maybe I might've missed out on a few. But what I have been doing here have been benefiting our future. ", Brim explained.

"Really? Then explain to me why you still have an outstanding fee in the library of fire for multiple books about shape shifting, love making, and a book called,'How to raise a Pussy into a Man', as well as multiple movies that could be used for more useful demons.",She asked pulling out a tab.

"You just gotta trust me on this. He will turn out a great disciple in hell.", he said to her.

"You said that for the last souls you had to help, they ended up in Hell doing absolutely nothing to benefit us. I don't need more useless subjects, I need actual work to come out of this. Not excuses from a clearly shitty liar who happened to make a mistake in sleeping with that angel when I was out on a trip.", Lucy said in anger.

"Whoa hold up! I know that we are since broken up about that, but you're not still mad at that are you?", he asked.

"Of course not. I wasn't hurt at all when I caught her in our bed, wearing my lingerie while she was giving you the ride of your life. I am the better devil here.", She said placing the paper down.

"That sounded like sarcasm. ", Brim pointed out.

"That's not the point of why I am here. I'm here to tell you that you are gonna be forced to come back immediately after we finish this meeting to transfer you to the lowest possible level since you can't handle a few souls.", She said.

"Look you can't do this to me. Me and the kid have something going on here that you can't separate. ", He tried to talk his way out of.

"And so was our relationship, but I can see that it was different for you.", She said in frustration.

"Look, Lucy I can fix this. Just give me a few-", Brim said before getting interrupted.

"No! Pack your things and get ready to be transfer- hold on one second.", Lucy said pulling out a cellphone before saying," Lucy Fer, Hell Department. What? He is trying to exterminate our Jews again?! Dammit, I'll be there in a second".

"Something wrong?", Brim asked.

"I have to go back to hell to stop Hitler again. I want you to sit here and think about what you can say to try and make this better for yourself or else I will personally drag you to hell.", She said snapping away.

The situation was clear now. Brim was in a bunch that had the odds against him. Odds that pitted for him to be transferred away from me without warning. He needed help. After all, he helped me out with my problems. Now, it was my turn to help him out with his. For that, I would need to stare the Devil in the eye for that. Lord knows how I was gonna do that.

Without waiting any warning, I got up from my table where I observed and walked over to his. He had his head bent over on the table like he was in a bind. It was now or never to help him.

"Brim?", I asked him.

He shot up frantically and turned around with a shocked look on his face.

"What the fuck are you doing here Rocky?!", he exclaimed at me.

"I knew something was up. I needed to follow you to find out what was going on with you. I followed you with the letter you dropped.", I explained.

"What are you talking about, the letter is right he-......oh my god this is fucking terrible. ", He said reaching into his empty pocket.

"I'm here to help you out Brim.", I told him.

"No. You're going to head back to work and let me handle this. If she comes back to see you here it's gonna be bad for the both of us. More so me than you.", He said pointing in the opposite direction.

"Why didn't you tell me?", I asked him.

"So I could stop a situation like this from happening, but I realize now that I might as well have shut the fuck up about it. You need to leave now.", he said still pointing.

"No, I'm gonna help you whether you want it or not. ", I said standing my ground.

"So help me Lucy, if you don't head back to where you belong, I will personally make sure you stay there when I end up telling Lucy to-", Brim said before another voice speak.

"Tell me what?", Lucy asked appearing behind him.

"Oh Lucy! You came back so soon. I can explain this situation easily.", Brim said nervously.

"You better have a good explanation for why this, mortal is here with us when the rule states that you must be alone for meetings with me.", She said crossing her arms.

"Well uh you see…. When you make lemonade with limes….no, shit. Bad analogy. What I'm saying is..", Brim said stammering through excuses.

With every excuse he was giving, the more visibly frustrated Lucy was getting. I felt that at any moment she could lash out and burn us both. I couldn't let that happen. It was time to nut up or shut up motherfuckers.

"I told him to stay.", I said pushing myself in front of Brim to face Lucy.

Her attention turned to me.

"And who the hell do you think you are standing up for this lazy piece of shit?", she asked me.

"I'm Rocky Pebbles. And I am his friend who will not let you take him away from me.", I told her with a straight face.

"Rocky, you need to shut the fuck up before-", Brim tried saying before I continued.

"Look I don't know what happened between you two that caused this really toxic relationship in the workplace, and quite honestly, I could see why you'd be pissed at him for whatever he did. But you can't let him go back to hell.", I told her.

"And why shouldn't I? I can easily kill you and take Brim while you are stuck in purgatory for all eternity. ", She said getting up in my face.

Here comes the bomb drop. The moment where you go all in and hope that you have the better cards than the other person, or in this case the Devil herself.

"Because I want to trade my soul for his.", I told her.

"What?", She said backing up in surprise.

"Rocky, What are you doing?", Brim asked me.

I knew exactly what I was bargaining with the Devil. I was gonna go to hell if it meant I could keep my best friend.

"That's right, I will personally agree to go to Hell if it means you keep Brim with me. He has helped me out so much that if I hadn't had him, I would probably be in heaven helping against your company. I might as well give you my soul when I die if Brim can stay with me until then. Surely you can see it in the blackness in your heart to keep him with me if I were to trade his soul for mine. Come on, give my soul in place of his.", I said with a straight face.

There was a moment of silence as I saw Lucy calm down to ponder a thought. I was ready to be sent to Hell, if I could spend the rest of my life with Sunset and Brim for it, then so be it. Finally she gave a small sigh before returning to her normal state.

"Rocky, you got yourself…", she said dragging on the last word.

This was it, I had it.

"A really stupid plan to try and save your friend Brim here.", she explained.

"What? I thought it was a fair trade.", I said to her.

"Let's be honest, err Rocky? The way you're built and how easily I can break you, you wouldn't even last a second in Hell.", she explained.

I looked down in defeat, I thought that it was the end of it for me. I had Sunset in my life and I was happy, but that void without Brim would be too much for me to try and handle alone.

"However, you trying to stick up for him gave me a better idea to deal with Brim. Brim, you are fired. You can no longer come to Hell, but you can keep your magic and your friend since well, I'm gonna be the better Devil here.", She said to Brim.

Brim's eyes shot up.

"You mean I could stay here and not work for you?", he asked.

"That's what fired means so yes.", she explained grabbing her things.

"Whoooooo! I can finally be free from Hell and the one who runs it. Put it there old ex!", he said ripping off the suit to his Varsity Jacket holding out his hand.

She only looked at his hand in disgust before looking back at him.

"Suck my dick you asshole! Enjoy your buttbuddy you piece of shit!", she said before snapping away from us both.

We were now alone on the sidewalk at a cafe with no other hindrance to separate us. Like I mentioned earlier in the text, it was one of those scenes in a buddy cop movie where each partner comes back together as pals in the end.

"So, you managed to face my ex in the face and do something noble. I'm flattered. ", Brim said turning to me.

"Well yeah man. You're my best friend. I would stick up for you any day because I love you. Not in the, gay kind of way but, you know what I mean. ", I said nervously explaining.

"Ah let the rule 34 artists decide that. Thank you Rocky. You've proven me wrong again. You really aren't a weak fucking sister. You're a strong fucking brother.", He said slapping his hand on my back.

"Yeah. Thanks Brim.", I said smiling.

"Now, I'm feeling a bit hungry for something sweet. What places are around here?", He asked walking next to me.

"Last I checked, there is an ice cream place nearby. Was gonna try it out with Sunset first, but I guess you deserve it. ", I said walking alongside him.

"Cool. Let's hope they have Goat Blood flavor. Or at least strawberry.", he said approaching the curve to the street to cross.

"Goat Blood is a flavor? What does that taste like?", I said stopping at the curve as Brim stopped in the middle of the street.

"Well you see, when you mix taste of-AHHHHHHHH!!!", Brim screamed out as an unsuspecting car hit him from out of nowhere with a need for speed.

This scared me so much that I didn't have time to scream. All I had were looks of shock and horror on my face. Collecting myself, I ran over to where Brim had landed. He looked fine, but I still needed to make sure.

"Brim! Are you okay?", I asked him.

He slowly rose up from the ground, with me seeing that he had no scratches. The only injury that made me jump was that he had no bottom right arm.

"What? It's only but a scratch. ", he said getting up.

"A scratch?! Your arm's off!", I exclaimed.

"No it isn't.", he said.

"What's that then on your right arm?", I said pointing it out.

He looked down at it to see that it was really off. He didn't look very surprised when he saw it.

"I've had worse. Now I have an excuse to use my metal arm from that one guy in Hell who smelled of ash.", he said snapping his other fingers to make a robot looking arm appear on his nub.

"Is that permanent?", I asked.

"Oh it's gonna grow back. I just want to admire this metal arm. Groovy.", he said looking down at the new temporary hand.

"Are we still gonna go get ice cream?", I asked him.

"Why of course, you never skip ice cream. You would be worse than Hitler if you did. Let's go. ", he said getting up on his feet.

After that, we became the best of friends. I don't mean to brave but I think me and Brim had a friendship more powerful than a group of six friends. After all, we couldn't ever leave each other since we were stuck together. We just learned to deal with each other and accepted our habits. If that's not what friends are for, then you have the wrong idea of what a true best friend is. And that's what we were from that day forward: Best Friends.

That my friends is what we call in the demon business as an end to end all ends. So Rocky, tell them about what happened after that.

Well, me and Sunset finally agreed to move in together in an apartment that we had bought together. It was not too far away from work, and of course was by the beautiful coast where me and Sunset shared our first romantic moment.

And of course I slouch around all day to have to follow this gay boy as he gets all lovey hubby with his girl. Overall, I felt really good about myself after leaving Hell. Could finally be somewhat human in a world that could not see me. And of course I grew back my hand. I still keep that metal hand just in case I need to reminisce about it.

And of course, Biff had closed down the Pixie Tavern to move onto the pier for a surf and bar. Kinda dangerous considering people could drown from drunk surfing.

Eh who cares? More retards for my ex to deal with. Anyways, apart from that, that was all she wrote. I mean he, the author of the story I mean.

Are you ever gonna introduce me to him? You keep saying that you will.

Eh, when this story gets popular maybe. But right now it's the end of this story. Er, maybe a sequel to be in place in the future? I don't even know. Anyways, roll the end credit music!

Author's Note:

Maybe a possible sequel? Maybe it's in the works right now? Who knows? Thanks for reading my story.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Who is Colin "Dr. Fred Greyheart" Mamba?

[Bucket of Skies]

9919495
He was a very close friend of mine who passed away due to a coma. He was one of the first people I met in the brony community.

[TheHardie-Boy]

Was this inspired by the Mötley Crüe song?

[Bucket of Skies]

9934941
Actually, the only thing that inspired the title was that song. Everything else was my idea. A couple of parodies here and there. Let's see if you can spot them.

[Daybreaker218]

Interesting story, a little meta for my taste but still good