Chapter 1 : From Scratch

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Let's start this from the very beginning before I just throw you right into the deep end with what is going on. This story starts on a Thursday morning in a lonely apartment in Manhattan. Well, my lonely apartment. This was a regular day like any other, wake up, grab my glasses, put on some clothes, go to brush my teeth, and then put on regular clothes instead of something to wear to not walk around completely naked in my apartment. This morning in particular was important because today was the day I get my exam back that I would hopefully have enough to get a recommendation for an internship at the office as a human resource agent in training. This meant that I could finally quit my low paying job and move up there and try to make a better living. It all was up to what I did on that test.

I took a morning sigh as I looked in the mirror with my preferred outfit of a red shirt under a black hoodie with khaki pants. Everything was looking great.

"This is it Rocky. Today is gonna be the day you change for the good.", I said to myself as I turned to leave my bathroom.

When I went back to my room to grab my bag for college, my phone lit up with a text from my professor, Professor Wings. Professor Wings is probably the only college professor to actually care about you as a student. He actually hopes that all of his students pass his class and go on to do great things in life. So much so that he personally texts people about news on exams and whether you need to meet him after class to discuss recommendations.

As I picked up my phone, I was welcomed with the text,"Rocky, I have your exam graded. I would like you to meet me before class to discuss some things. See you at eight forty-five ~Professor Wings".

I looked over to my clock that read 7:49 AM. On paper it seems like plenty of time from someone outside of Manehatten, but from someone who lives there, I can tell you I could possibly be late. Without haste, I grabbed my phone and bag and headed out the door to my apartment. When I made it down to the second floor, one of my neighbors came out the door. It was some guy with aviators, I think his name was Dee or something. Since I'm not really a social person, I would always just call him that. He came out to try and catch me for a conversation.

"Ey my man Rocky! On the move as usual. How are you this morning?", he asked me.

"Good good, listen I would love to talk but I really gotta go. Can we put a pin in this conversation later?", I told him frantically.

I would always tell him that as my excuse for not talking to him. I know. I'm probably sounding like an asshole for pushing him off a bunch of times, but it's out of a place of shyness in me. Never really had close friends growing up so it became a regular thing to be shy. But regardless, today I was seriously running late.

"And as usual, you put another pin in our morning convos. I swear you are so uptight. Like someone just made you like that for some predestined story.", Dee said to me.

"I know, but this time I'm serious. Maybe later tonight I can visit for a bit.", I told him.

"Ah doesn't matter. I'll be too busy writing comics. See you later 'lone runner'" He said as I walked downstairs to the main lobby.

That sounds like an insult, but really it isn't. From what I was able to get from this guy in our small guerrilla talks was that he was a comic book artist who constantly references older comics. The term "lone runner" was given to me by him because he said that it reminded him of a super cowboy in this comic called "Twelve in the chamber". Maybe that was his way of trying to compliment me with how fast I move in a rush to not socialize with him. Or maybe it is an insult I don't know about. Again, not very social.

I finally made it out of my apartment without any further interruptions into the crowded sidewalk of Manehatten. A thing to note if you ever decide to move here, not a good idea to get a car to travel around to places. Because the city is so packed, traffic is packed to the brim. The only people you're gonna find with cars are poor taxi drivers simply trying to make a living and literal idiots. Why are they idiots? Because good luck driving when you're stuck in a huge traffic jam.

That's why it is better to walk to places in Manehatten. It is somehow faster than driving and keeps me from looking like a complete skeleton with the amount of exercise I get from trying to not be late. Thankfully, just like most mornings the subways were open so it wouldn't be a complete walk for my life. As I passed the corner, I walked upstairs to the morning train that had just pulled up.

"Thank god. Can't afford to be late on this day. Won't be a repeat of last month.", I told myself as I made it to the top to make it to the first train car.

To another outsider of Manehatten, they would think that taking the subway would be an "interesting" experience. Meaning that you would always be met with some random hobo who was aggressive to get change for food and occasional street rats. Though most of them were true, it never once bothered me. You see, living in Manehatten has taught me two rules. The first being to keep moving forward. This was demonstrated when I entered the car when some hobo had approached me.

"Spare change son?", he said to me.

Thankfully it worked as he just stood there with the cup as he approached the next person. Nine times out of ten this rule works out in my favor, but on the off chance it doesn't it demonstrates my second rule; never look back. A lot of people know of the "Manehatten Look". For those who don't know, essentially it is a look that says that you don't want to talk. You just want to get to point A to point B with no distractions. How to do this look is simple. For me, I demonstrated it riding to my stop when the hobo came back to ask for more change. The secret is to not make eye contact whatsoever. If you end up looking, it shows that you are in no rush. Then all of a sudden it becomes a conversation, or to a busy Manehatten walker, a distraction.

Thankfully the second rule worked, as I made it to my stop without having to talk to anyone. Looking at my phone, the time was now 8:20.

"Great, looks like I'll make it even earlier than I expected. ", I told myself heading downstairs to the street to Manehatten Business College. MBC has always been one of the top business schools in the state, followed by Kings Community College and Time Circle Business. I made it with a partial scholarship with my final exams being a damn near perfect score. This covered my books, but sadly not my tuition and rent for my apartment. Turns out not having a lot of friends helped me a little bit. It gave me more time to study and made me a pretty smart fellow. But at the cost of losing more confidence in myself because I felt worried about whether I would do fine and constant bullying. I never thought I would hate the term teachers pet after four years of being shoved inside lockers.

I made it to the short staircase to MBC with a lot of time to spare, but I was always someone who would always try to show up early to not have to explain why I was late for something. If that would happen, my shyness would come in and I would stutter like crazy. I tried to get that fixed with a therapist, but I didn't feel that I was getting any better. Especially when I realized that it required me to have to talk to some stranger for an hour about my problems while enduring the problem at the same time.

As I began to walk up the stairs, I heard a familiar voice peer up from behind me.

"Rocky!", a happy sounding voice spoke from behind me.
I turned around to see one of the only couple of people that I actually converse "Sunset! You're getting here early today.", I inferred about her.

Sunset Shimmer and I have a history together. When I got this scholarship, I was invited to a party that had a lot of other scholarship awardees in the state. Most of them were local students and colleagues, but there were a few out of state students who managed to get the scholarship as well. One of which was Sunset Shimmer. When I was there at the ceremony, I sat alone like I preferred to sipping on juice they had served before the ceremony. Then from out of nowhere Sunset had walked over to me and introduced herself to me. Normally if this was someone else, I would have stuck with my rules. But it was when I saw her face that made me make an exception to those rules. Granted, when I spoke with her, my stuttering was going off like a machine gun, but the funny thing was that I didn't mind. When we spoke that night, she had told me that she had come from Canterlot high school with a scholarship in accounting. For the first time that night or even ever, I was actually talking to someone and not feeling like I was blowing it. Ever since that night she has been my only real friend. We would always talk to each other about something before we headed to class. I know what I said earlier about trying to arrive early to a class to not have to explain, but I thought that I had enough time to spare to talk with her.

"Well, I decided to go eat breakfast at Loo's before coming here and sadly they were closed. Some weird thing with the owner and some homeless person.", Sunset explained.

"Ah, w-well you know that the hobos over at Zonker's street are always looking to get some free meal no matter what.", I said snarkingly.

"Say, you should come join me some time for breakfast. I can even pay for us both if you like. You don't seem to be a breakfast person. ", she offered me.

She was right about that. I don't normally eat breakfast, but that is because breakfast is usually the time when most Manehatten citizens would be more sociable and well… yeah you know me by now.

"Oh S-Sunset. I c-couldn't do that to you. You don't have to worry about me not eating. I'll be fine.", I nervously said to her.

"Well, maybe you could at least come by and maybe have a cup of coffee to chat. I do wish it was more than once a day we would talk.", she said looking down at her books in her hand.

If you hadn't picked up on it now, I had a slight crush on her. Well, actually a huge crush on her. I always tried my best to try and hide it because I always thought that I would never be her type. Maybe as a close friend, yes, but as far as a couple, not really. Many of our conversations would end like this; one really awkward silence before one of us spoke.

"Well, I have to go now. I-I hopefully can get that recommendation with the exam I did.", I said nervously scratching my head.

"Oh well good luck with that. I have to go do some boring presentation about how to file someone else's taxes. I'll see you later Rocky.", she said with a smile waving goodbye.

"Yeah, you too. G-Good luck with your presentation!", I said as she walked off.

"Good Grief! The awkwardness always gets more and more awkward. Whatever, let's not worry about that now. Let's go meet with Professor Wings.", I said to myself as I walked up the stairs to the building.

I continued talking to myself about the day ahead of me when I walked through the door.

"Today is the day you move up Rocky! You go in, get that recommendation, you go to your job, tell your boss that you quit and kiss that crummy job goodbye. You want to know why? Because you did it, you were able to do great on that test. You got most of the answers right and you did it. What did you do? You-"

"-Failed?! I-I don't understand! Why did I fail?", I exclaimed to Professor Wings in his office with my exam on his desk.

"Well, Mr. Pebbles, you managed to get the best overall score on the math part, which I congratulate you on, but on the social part of the exam you seemed to have dropped the ball.", he explained.

"But the directions said that I could answer them in my opinion! D-Did I not do that?!", I asked him.

"Of course you did, but what you forgot to read in the directions was the second half of the line stated and I quote, 'Though it is your own opinion, please also give the correct thing to do in said situation as well'. You only put your own opinion in those lines

The grade of the exam made it even more insulting. I was literally off by three points and I could've had that letter in my grasp. I had my goals and Hope's crushed by three simple points.

"Well, I-I-is there something you can do? It's only three more points. You could easily void them and say I passed it.", I tried bargaining with him.

"I'm sorry Rocky. I'm legally not allowed to do that. It goes against so many regulations, and I'm already in deep with the ones I already break to help my students. ", Professor Wings said scratching his moustache.

I gave a disappointed sigh as I sat down in the chair across from his desk.

"Look, how about this.", he said standing up from his desk to look around," Class is not going to be in session tomorrow for me going to board meetings, but Saturday is the day where I can come back to finish paperwork and stuff. What if you took tomorrow to look over the notes on said situations and you come on Saturday to redo that part of the exam? I can't legally give you those points, but I can give you one other shot at making a better score on that part of the exam".

My head perked up.

"You mean it? You'd take a Saturday to see that I do better?", I asked with excitement.

"Of course I would. You're one of my best students and it would be a shame if I let you go without a chance to be fully experienced with the job because of three points. ", he said.

"O-Oh Professor Wings! I can't thank you enough. I'll be better, I promise. ", I declared to him.

"You better. I don't want to see to it that I was wrong about you. Now go get ready for class. Its gonna start in a few minutes. ", he said standing up from his desk.

"Y-Yes sir.", I said grabbing my bag to head over to my desk.

The day then proceeded as normal, as fellow colleagues came into class not long after I sat down. My desk was not as far back as you would think. Believe it or not, being far back is honestly the worst. Back there is where a lot of the bozos would go sit to avoid learning. It is the part of the class that was the most distracting for me because a lot of the bullies I dealt with in high school sat. But at the same time I didn't like sitting up front and center. The trick for me is to find that happy medium spot. Meaning that the placement was close enough to hear the lecture and far enough to sit behind and not feel directly watched.

Today's lecture was about dealing with the business associate in need of help with certain stock and all that sort of stuff. If you look into it, it's pretty interesting to find out how to deal with people like that. First, you would have to address them with their surname and credentials. Then of course you would-

The reader doesn't care about how to talk to some business blowhard about how they can't run an operating system. Get on with the story so we can get to the fun stuff!

Right, too much detail about the day. Anyways, it was the end of class when everyone was walking out of the classroom. I fashionably liked to leave last to avoid the crowd. As I was walking out, I saw Sunset walking down the hall. A rare thing happened to me when I saw her. I actually spoke first.

"Oh hey Sunset! Wait up!", I called out to her.

"Oh Rocky. I didn't expect to see you again today.", Sunset said turning around.

"Yeah, I-I didn't expect it either. I thought you h-had that presentation.", I said tilting my head.

"I did, I was one of the first people to finish so I was able to leave class a bit early. Oh, how was the exam?", She asked.

"Well, I have to be honest with you. It was close, but not enough for a recommendation.", I explained to her.

"Oh Rocky, I'm sure you'll get it next time." She said with sympathy.

"But wait, Professor Wings was nice enough to let me take the part of the exam I failed again to get a better grade.", I explained more.

"Oh well that's good. Are you going to study right now?", she asked me.

"No, sadly I have to go to work now. Thought today would be the day I would leave the place.", I said looking down at the floor.

"Well maybe Saturday you can do it.", she said putting her hand on my shoulder.

I don't know why, but that turned my calm mood into the stuttering shyness I'm used to.

"Hehehe, y-yeah for sure.", I said nervously.

She cocked an eyebrow at me.

"You know, I never told you but you remind me a lot of an old friend I had back in high school. She was kind of like you.", Sunset said with a small grin.

"O-oh?", I stuttered nervously.

She chuckled at me.

"Please never change as a friend Rocky. I'll talk to you tomorrow. ", she said walking into a classroom.

I was left looking dumbfounded. Was that her way of messing with me as a friend? Did she pick up on me? Regardless, it didn't change the fact that I still had to get to work. Oh my how much I love going to work.

Chapter 2 : Hello? Memory? You there?

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Can we please get to my part? I’m about to blow my brains out with boredom. Thank Lucy I’m immortal because I would have tried to throw myself out a window just to spice things up.

Will you relax? I’m getting there, I promise this is the chapter where you get introduced.

It better or else I’m going to take over this story and tell it from my perspective. Trust me when I say my perspective is six hundred and sixty-six times better than Rocky’s.

Good Grief! Sorry about the spoiler, someone couldn’t help themselves. But this is the part where things get interesting.

Right where we left off, I was off to my job at the Manehatten mall. Because I hadn't yet received the recommendation to move to an internship by this point, I had to spend one more day at my job at a shoe store. Al’s Shoe Emporium is probably the worst place to have a job. The way I got it came from me sending an application to the main mall office to look at my resume and decide the best place for me to work. Unfortunately my best job was already filled, as well as my second and third best. Al’s was my fourth choice simply to just fill in the space. I had been there numerous times and seen some of the employees who honestly looked like they didn’t want to be there. Within a month, three employees had quit from frustration from working there. What on Earth caused them to quit the job so soon in series?

“PEBBLES! Get your ass to the front! I swear you lazy bum, if you don’t get back to work by the time I walk over to the door I’m going to cut your pay by the minute!”, Al had yelled from the front of the store to me getting into my uniform.

Al was the exact opposite of Professor Wings. Instead of being someone who actually cared for you, Al was someone who couldn’t give a horse’s ass if you were late because of traffic or you had to stay after class. He only cared about making money and scamming us out of a decent paycheck. If you were to imagine what he would look like as a cruel and greedy old man, you’d be correct to imagine a four-foot nothing man with a gross, grey beard.

“Are you listening to me you numbskull?! I said get out of here before your paycheck gets cut in half!”, he yelled out again.

“Ah good grief.”, I said to myself as I hesitantly walked out from the back of the store.

“About time. This isn’t a daycare for you to lay around in. I need you to work. Here, I need you to go stock these. And then I need you to go walk around and help out customers. I’m far too busy counting the money I have to cut from you lazy bums.`` he said shoving a box of shoes in my hand.

I won’t go through what happened for the rest of the day detail by detail, but I can go over bits and pieces of it.

As you would expect from me trying to be a good enough worker to try and get a decent pay for the day, I tried my best to remain on my best possible work ethic. For the most part it worked until I was called by some mom with her young children. I had to help her and her extremely rambunctious children get the right shoe size while also dealing with the fact that I still hadn't stocked the shoes that Al handed me. It especially didn't help the fact that every time I gave the youngest one the wrong size shoe, he would throw it at me and just run off. In short, on top of me not liking to talk to people, I really don't like kids.

By the end of the day, I had only two things, a paycheck that was a quarter of what I usually get, and a shit-ton of stress. It’s easy to deal with the first one, just simply put it in your pocket and deal with it another day. However, the stress is a bit of another story. Sometimes I get over it and just head home and go to sleep, but this wasn’t like those cases. How do I solve these problems? It’s real simple, I’ll walk you through it on this day.

I was quick to throw off my uniform and get back into my regular clothes after I ran out of Al’s office and back onto the street. There was still light out before the five o'clock in the evening traffic and the crowd of zombies leave for the night (Or regular foot traffic if you’re boring). I try my best to get to the one place I got to for stress relief before the traffic starts up: Pixie Tavern

Pixie Tavern is a bar that I go to often when I feel stressed out, so pretty much almost four times a week. I know what some of you are thinking right now,”You of all people drink? You as a meek and shy kid drink like a true alcoholic”? You’re damn right I do. Thankfully I have a system that I use to limit myself from becoming a real true alcoholic. This system was developed by the bartender, Biff Bottle.

He taught it to me in very simple terms; find the most strong drink there (Some Vodka called Share), down a pint of it, and then let the drink do its magic. So far it’s worked like a science, although it does get repetitive with the same drink, plus the burn gets to be too much sometimes. To alleviate this, I ask specifically for him to make me a specialty drink that equals the same amount as Share and doesn’t burn my throat like acid.

As I entered through the door, Biff already recognized me and left behind the bar to greet me.

“Well if it isn’t my regular semi-alcoholic customer. How are you today Rocky?”, Biff asked me.

“I’m okay, but I guess I could be better.”, I told him.

“Well you came to the right place to try and be better. What’ll it be? What’s your situation?”, Biff asked heading back behind his bar.

“What do you have to remedy a stress filled day with a pissed off boss and a soccer mom with her out of control kids?”, I asked sitting down in a stool.

“Well, hows about we go with the good ol’ fashioned pint of Share?”, he said pulling out the bottle.

“I said I want to get rid of stress, not gain it from the burning in my throat.”, I said putting my head on my hand.

“Alright fair enough. How about Blackjack Whiskey with Coolcool Cola and a couple of shots of Vanilla ?”, He asked showing me the fresh bottle of whiskey with a white horse on it.

“Sounds good, but I may need a little more than that.”, I say looking at the napkin next to me.

“Shit. How about I shoot out some names; Wet Nanner Cocktail, Blackjack Special, Gin and Rummy, Vee deu Delta?”, he asked looking back at me.

“I don’t know, I just want something new. Something new to get rid of the stress in my life.”, I explained to him.

“Well that’s about all I got, I’m looking right now and it's nothing but what I said and beer. I think I know you by now to know you hate that shit.”, He said turning back to check on his shelf.

“Yeah, you know me well.”, I said to him.

“Whoa what the hell? I don’t remember getting this.”, He said reaching for something.

“Getting what?”, I said rising up.

“Some small travel size uh…...something. It’s quite dainty though.”, Biff said pulling out a small blood red bottle.

I took a good look at the bottle. It had a black label on it that said,”Shout at the Devil: number sixty six.”, with some devil horn hand gestures on it. He wasn’t lying when he said it was dainty. It was literally the size of a pocket whiskey, or as I like to call the wuss size.

"You said that you don't remember getting this?", I asked him holding the bottle.

"Nah, I keep track of all my drinks I get. Not once did I remember getting something like uh…"Shout at the Devil", Biff explained.

I don't know why, but the look of this bottle and the mystery behind it made me want to drink it. Not a sip, just drink it all in one go. For all I know I could've been drinking hot sauce and I wouldn't know it with the bottle being an opaque red.

"How much for me to have it?", I asked pulling out cash.

"Whoa whoa whoa slow down there friend! You don't even know what is in there. Why you want to take that risk?", He asked me.

"Oh come on, how bad could it be? After all, it could have been a donation from someone else at the bar for your great work.", I said praising him.

"First of all, no one would donate drinks to me in my bar. It's the other way around. Second, I don't want to be responsible for your medical bills if for some reason you drink rat poison.", he said to me.

"I'll take my responsibility for it. If I do go down, you need to take me to the hospital though. Say some shit like 'he fell and I'm his friend'.", I comprised with him.

"You're so pathetic in coming up with compromises. Alright, I'll let you drink it. But you better pay for your own hospital bill if you go in a coma from it.", he said handing me a cork opener.

"Alright, here goes. ", I said grabbing the opener.

As I poked into the cork, I felt a budge of resistance from it. It must've been really old if it felt that stiff, but hey, it adds age to it. As I slowly turned the cork to get it out, I felt the bottle shake from the amount of force I was using to try and open the bottle. When the cork finally popped off, I saw a bit of condensation emerge from the top of the bottle. Another weird thing was that I started to hear deep laughter, like deep evil laughter.

"Hey, you heard that right? You heard some laughing?", I asked anxiously.

"What? Oh, you mean the sound system. Just installed it today, I decided to play some weird movie soundtracks. Looks like I'm on 'Thursday the 14th'", he said pointing to the speaker behind me that had the laughter going on.

With my mind at ease, I slowly lifted up the bottle to try and down it all in one go. For some reason, it felt like the bottle was moving in slow motion as I lifted it up. What felt like hours, the tip of the bottle had finally touched my lips and I lifted it up to drink the contents inside. To my surprise, there was even less than I thought was in there, like a small squirt of whatever it was that I was drinking. As I finished the bottle, I slammed it down like a shot as I swallowed the liquid down.

"Well, what is it?", Biff asked me with anticipation.

"I….. don't know. It doesn't have a taste at all.", I explained looking inside the empty bottle to see if I still had some left.

"That's weird. Do you feel anything?", he asked me.

"No, I just feel like my regular self. Oh wait something is coming up.", I said as I felt myself let out a burp.

"Nice, that was the most anticlimactic result of a mystery liquid I have ever seen. Do you feel drunk?", he asked me.

"No, I feel sober. Like I think I just drank water or something. ", I said finally putting the bottle down.

"Oh well how about I make you someth-wah way wah wah wah…", Biff said as I witnessed his face mold like clay melting.

Then all of a sudden everything felt completely numb. My senses felt heightened and everything was moving fast like a timelapse. Then without my control, I felt that I had blacked out when I blinked and reappeared on the street moving like a timelapse up the street. With every blink, I felt myself move to a different place. I even think I ended up in a Strip Club for some reason. I remember this because I saw a bunch of women and a lot of flashing lights. There was some heavy bass music playing as well. But then the night ended with me opening my eyes to see a hand slap my face before I collapsed and blacked out again.

The next morning, I woke up wearing nothing but my button up shirt in my bed. My eyes felt fuzzy as my vision slowly got used to the light of the sun in my apartment. It felt blinding , but my eyes slowly got used to the lights as I rose up from the bed.

"Arrgh god. My fucking head.", I said to myself as I rubbed my head from the massive headache I had.

I reached over to grab my glasses. When I put them on, I noticed that my apartment was completely trashed. There was random garbage everywhere and some clothes as well. My clothes to be honest. As I stepped up from my bed, I saw that my pants were balled up with a massive red stain on the inside. I picked them up to examine them.

"What the hell? What did I do last night?", I asked myself throwing them off to the side to grab a new pair.

Then, I heard something that scared the ever loving shit out of me.

"You didn't do any of this buddy. The way your built, you couldn't even get a fraction of it up stairs.", a deep masculine voice said from the bathroom.

I felt my eyes widen a mile apart. Who the hell is in my apartment?

"Yo, who the fuck is there? If you don't show yourself I'll…… hurt you with something that is up here!", I said trying to look around for a weapon to use.

I managed to find a metal coat hanger. I don't know how much damage I could have done hitting them, but I knew that I could try and strangle them with it. Or at least try to.

"I swear if you don't show yourself, it's probably gonna be bad for you.", I tried to say in as tough a voice I could make.

I slowly walked to the door of the bathroom with the coat hanger in my hand, ready for anything to pop out. I felt scared to open the door, for all I know that I could be attacked by some cocaine filled Hobo with shiv.

"Okay, you're gonna open the door and be ready for anything. You wont run away because you are gonna be assertive and take out whoever's in there. Ready? One… two…", I said slowly pushing against the door.

The door pushed open and I got in an attack stance. I was disappointed to find that the bathroom was completely empty. I even poked my head inside to see if they weren't hiding behind the door. I felt myself calm down to the reality that I might be hallucinating.

"Oh jesus. What the fuck was in the bottle?", I asked myself as I put the coat hanger by the sink and turned on the water.

I took a few seconds to wipe my face down to try and get myself together.

"It's only a hallucination Rocky. You are still a little messed up with that drink. It's okay Rocky. ", I said hanging my head over the sink.

"Well 'Rocky' if it is a hallucination then what is that in your mirror.", the voice reappeared closer.

I looked up from my sink from shock to find that my reflection was replaced with an older looking guy with orange hair and peach skin staring back at me. The visual gave me a scare as I screamed out and nearly fell backwards into the shower. Not knowing what to do after seeing it. I ran out of my bathroom and drove behind my couch away from the bathroom. I peeked over to see a glimpse of the bathroom.

"Who the fuck is there and what are you doing in my mirror?!" I screamed out from behind my couch.

"First of all, that's a rude way of wanting to meet someone. Second off, I'm not in the mirror," the mysterious man said.

"Oh bullshit! What was that I just saw before I ran out?", I told the stranger.

"I'm not in the mirror, I'm right behind you.", he said suddenly behind me.

I turned around and nearly screamed from the scare again.

"Wait wait wait let's calm down! Let's turn the dial from six hundred and sixty six to three.", the man said.

"Calm down? I just woke up half naked in my trashed apartment with no memory of last night besides me drinking whatever was in that bottle of stuff at a bar. And then I see a teleporting man--", I exclaimed before being interrupted.

"Teleporting demon. I worked hard for my title to not be called anything other than that. Please get it right.", he explained.

"Demon?! Okay, I'm officially hallucinating right now.", I said to myself as I tried rubbing my eyes to clear my head.

"You realize it doesn't do shit when you rub your eyes to try and get sober right?", he said.

"I have got to get the fuck out of here to get you out of my head.", I said getting up from the floor.

"Walking away isn't going to do anything either. I'm a demon. I don't go away.", he said.

"Shut up, you aren't real! ", I said walking out of my trashed apartment.

I slammed the door behind me before running my down the stairs of my apartment building trying to figure out what was going on with me. I reached the second floor of the apartment and realized I could ask Dee for help. I couldn't remember what happened last night, but maybe he could help me since he is always here. As frantically as I could, I knocked on his door. Not long after he came by to open the door.

"Well if it isn't lone runner! What's up man.", he said before I frantically answered.

"What happened last night?", I asked out of breath.

"What? More importantly what is going on? You look like you are on the run from the cops or something. ", Dee said noticing how restless I looked.

"Look, I don't have a memory from last night. Some crazy stuff happened and I need to know if you saw me with someone else who brought me back to my apartment.", I said finally catching my breath.

"Nah, I didn't see you. Although I did hear some loud racket. Like someone was beating on a trashcan or something. ", Dee explained.

"Oh good. I thought I was losing it with a hallucination of someone in my apartment. ", I said with a sigh of relief.

"Nope, didn't see anyone. Just stayed here and wrote my comics.", he said stepping off to the side revealing his apartment.

I thought I escaped, but he was back. And he was holding up a book.

"Wow would you believe this guy? This guy is such a weirdo that he wrote a comic about a pony falling in love with a bird creature online. Who the fuck comes up with this shit?", the demon I tried to outrun said with a laugh from inside the apartment.

"Ahhh! There he is!", I exclaimed aloud pointing at him.

"Who? There is no one there", he said looking in the direction of this demon.

"Don't you see him?! He is right there!", I said to Dee.

"Uh buddy, what are you talking about? Are you okay?", He said trying to approach me.

"Oh god, oh God oh god oh god!", I exclaimed while running downstairs again.

"Hey wait what are you-", Dee exclaimed to me before I ran out of the door to the streets.

I ran as fast as I could. I think I ran over a couple of people in the process, but nib it was all in good reason. I couldn't fathom what was happening to me. Am I losing my mind? Am I going insane?

"I need to get to Biff, he's the only one who can fix this problem for me.", I said to myself as I approached a taxi.

I don't know why, but it felt right. I needed to sit down and relax to figure out what was going on. With a jet in my step, I waved down the nearest taxi and threw myself into his car.

"Hey. Take me to the Pixie Tavern.", I demanded the driver.

"Hey man what the fu-", he said looking back at me.

"Just drive the fucking car!" I yelled out to him making him take off.

The streets were surprisingly clearer than usual. No traffic, and not a lot of foot traffic either. That was strange, but not as strange as whoever's following me. Looking back at him, he looked like some sort of dad looking character, except without a beard or anything like that.

"Sorry I couldn't fit your type of dad look Rocky, but that's not me bucko.", the stranger said suddenly appearing in the rearview mirror in the front.

Panicking again, I dove out of the taxi. Thankfully it wasn't going fast enough for me to get hurt from the pavement. I think the driver called me a crazy person whenI got up, but I didn’t care. I saw the source of all my problems right there.

As restless as I could, I ran straight to the door of the Pixie Tavern. When I entered, I nearly fell over from me being unbalanced. I managed to make so much of a commotion that the people in the bar stopped what they were doing to look at me. What I thought was the stranger following me from ahead turned out to be Biff coming from behind the bar.

“Rocky? What the hell you aren’t dead? Holy shit that’s radical.”, Biff said lifting me up.

“What happened?”, I asked.

“What do you mean? You just got back. I swear I thought you were passed out in some dumpster.”, He said grabbing me a chair.

“What happened last night after I drank it?”, I clarified to him.

“Oh, you mean after you drank that drink. You just sat there silent for a little while. I think you were high on something. Then I turned around for a second and you had completely disappeared. I tried to look for you, but business came in and I needed to get back to work.”, he explained.

“Oh good grief. I’m going insane from whatever I took last night. I’m probably gonna have an addiction or something to whatever that was..”, I said to myself laying my head down.

“Well, you sure didn’t come in asking for more of that stuff, so you might be fine. I wish the bottle was still here, but it disappeared with you. Where the hell did you go?”, he asked me.

“It’s all fuzzy, but I think I ended up at some strip club. That’s about all I remember”, I said still laying my head down in my arms.

“Whoa, you must’ve went to a tattoo parlor as well!”, biff said with a surprised tone.

“What?”, I said shooting up from my arms.

“I see a glimpse of it on your back, check it out.”, he said pulling out a mirror and putting it behind me.

I looked behind as I lifted up the back of my shirt to see. I was shocked to see that on the upper left part of my back was marked with a tattoo with a pentagram emblem with the number sixty-six.

“Oh my god!”

Chapter 3 : Allow me to introduce myself.

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“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.

Chapter 4 : One More Time

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Do I really need to speed things along Brim?

Yes, we don’t have all eternity. At least they don’t. I could be here for all eternity since I’m immortal.

Okay fine, where should I start then?

Probably the only part I cared about before the real main stuff happened, right after class when you were off to work.

Really, can I at least talk about one detail from class?

I’m sorry, but no one here gives a shit about your class as much as you do Rocky. They only care about the RockyXBrim art that they are going to make when this gets released.

They make that?

It’s rule 34, it’s gonna happen. Now keep telling your story already.

Alright fine. So where I left off was after class. I had the biggest smile on my face from finally receiving the recommendation letter that I needed to get an internship at a better job. So much so that I think I managed to look even more crazier than when I was talking to Brim when no one else could see him.

“I can’t believe that actually worked.”, I exclaimed to Brim.

“I told you it would work if you stayed calm. You need to trust me a whole lot more with what I advise.”, Brim said walking alongside me on the Manehatten street.

“But what if he finds out about the fact I copied them word for word?”, I asked him.

“He won’t find out anything. That's because I erased his memory completely.”, He said calmly.

“What?! That was a nice man you just ruined!”, I exclaimed stopping in the walkway.

“I’m just kidding. Sweet Lucy, I may have evil tendencies but I’m not cruel. I only erased his mind about the part for filling it out with your own words.”, Brim said clarifying.

“Well, one thing’s for sure, I won’t be needing you around much longer after I quit my job.”, I said proudly.

“Oh that reminds me, You and I need to talk about that if you want to get rid of me so quickly.”, Brim said making a cigarette appear from a snap of his fingers.

“What is it?”, I asked.

“It’s about how you plan on quitting. I can read your thoughts right now and I can tell you right now that it won’t work.”, he said puffing the cigarette.

"How do you know that?", I asked smugly.

"Rocky, I'm gonna be honest with you. You are a pussy.", he said pointing a finger at me.

"And what's that supposed to mean?", I asked crossing my arms.

"Look, you play situations out in your head that make you think you can do it, but when it comes time to do it you back out. And I know exactly why. Because you don't have anyone to back you up on it. Tell me I'm wrong. Your next line is going to be,'You don't know me like that', I bet money on it", Brim said.

"You don't know me like tha-....what?!", I exclaimed to him reading my next line.

"You don't know yourself that well either the fact that me, a demon who has known you for a day and a half, could read you like a book.", Brim said putting out his cigarette.

I don't know why, but that really bothered me. Not to a level of annoyance level of bother, but like something that sticks in your head when you reach that reality.

"Well what can I do about it? If you think that I don't have what it takes then what do I do?", I asked him.

"Don't you worry, I'll be there to walk you through what to say and what to do when we get there. Oh and that reminds me, you need to take a different route. ", He said to me.

"What why?", I asked.

"The first step of this plan is to arrive late. Like I mean really llate.so late that there is no one but that fat grease-ball of a human working that store like he works his wife, uncomfortably hard.", He said with a grin.

"That's a little too much information than I wanted to know about my soon to be former boss.", I said cringing at that idea.

"Trust me, when we get there it will all come together. ", Brim said continuing our walk in the long route.

Our talk along this route was actually kind of nice. If this is what having a true best friend felt like, Brimstone was definitely starting to become one. It was weird the way he would make fun of me though. He would make fun of me but not in a really harsh way. If that's what friends do then I may need a lot more to get used to that.

On my way to work I decided to take a seat on a bench to try and show up even more late like Brim had asked. It really gave me a chance to pay attention to where I live and how it acts when I'm on the move. While I was looking, me and Brim talked a little bit more about his place in hell, more specifically who “Lucy” was since he would always say that name in frustration. Turns out, Lucy was the devil that everyone fears to meet when they get to hell. It is actually not as bad as people think because the majority of people mistake her for some buff and scary looking demon. That is actually her gay brother. What she does to people who make it to hell is sentence them to work on a certain job in the office of hell, all depending on what you did. So thankfully I had nothing to worry about since Hitler is the plumber of the office of hell.

“Rocky?”, a surprised voice said from behind me.

I turned around to see Sunset in a completely different outfit, as well as her hair tied back. I stood up from being surprised by her attire.

“Oh Sunset hey! Uhhhh, what are you doing here?”, I asked nervously.

“This is where I work, the diner behind you. What are you doing here?”, she asked.

“Umm, I was gonna arrive late for work. I-I’m quitting today anyway so what is the point of showing up on time if I’m going to be quitting later.”, I explained.

“That doesn’t seem like you.”, Sunset said tilting her head.

“Told you you were a little bitch. “, Brim said.

I ignored his comment and continued on with my conversation with Sunset.

“I decided to change things up and try to stand up for myself. You know how cruel that Al is with the people he employs.”, I explained.

“And how’s that gonna work out?”, she asked.

“Well, it’s a little complicated. I, um, am seeing someone to help me with confidence. I didn’t expect him to be helpful, but it’s working out so far.”, I said scratching my neck.

“Oh so you seeing a therapist?”, she asked.

“Not exactly, he is more like a friend I met in my apartment.”, I explained.

“Oh well that’s good. It’s important to make more friends where you live.I wish I did.”, she said looking down.

“You...don’t have friends?”, I asked nervously.

“No I do it's just…very very complicated. Thankfully you make it a bit more simpler.”, she said looking back up.

“Oh that’s good I guess.”, I said nervously blushing from her compliment.

“Aand I’m going to predict the nervous silence stops abooooout, now!”, Brim says snapping his fingers.

“Well, I’ll see you later Rocky. I have to go to work now.”, Sunset said walking away backwards.

“Yeah, I’ll see you…...Oh Sunset!”, I exclaimed before she walked away.

She stopped at the door before looking back at me.

“I….I-I think I might take you up on your offer for breakfast one day. I don’t know when, but I may do it.”, I said nervously.

Sunset smiled and gave an approving nod before walking into the diner she worked. I don’t know why, but I felt satisfied and couldn’t help but smile…….for a few seconds before Brim had stated his opinion on the situation.

“Oh sweet Lucy that was difficult to watch. And this is coming from someone who has seen pain and despair in hell.”, Brim said in disgust.

“Could you do any better if you were in my shoes?”, I asked.

“Actually, yeah I could. But let’s agree to disagree, we have an even bigger goat to sacrifice when we get to your workplace.”, Brim said standing up.

I followed him as we managed to make our way to the Manehatten mall to try and get our way out of the hell hole that was, Al’s Shoe Emporium.

“Are you listening to me Rocky?”, Brim asked snapping his fingers in front of my face.

“Oh yeah, I just blanked out for a moment. Tell me again what you said.”, I asked looking over at him.

“Oh my lord this is going to be a shitstorm if you fuck this up. What I was saying before was that I’ll be there holding up signs behind someone that can’t see me saying everything that you should mention. I can’t exactly be quick in writing exactly what you say so you will need to take charge with what I have written as a note of what to say. It’s not that complicated.”, Brim explained.

“So I have to say this based on the keywords you put on the sign?”, I asked.

“Do I need to put it on a sign for you to get it? Don’t answer that, it was a rhetorical question. Of course you have to make it up.”, He said with frustration.

“Yes I get that, but how complex are you gonna get with it?”, I asked.

“I’m a demon in hell, we don’t exactly have the highest scholars there so it is going to be extremely dumbed down. One other thing is to stay strong, because based on what I see in your mind with what your boss looks like, he is four foot nothing of harmless rage.”, he said.

“That’s not easy for me Brim.”, I explained embarrassingly.

“You mean to tell me that you are threatened by that guy? He literally looks like he roleplays as a gay horse when he fucks someone.”, He said pointing it out.

“It’s just that I’ve never been disrespectful to anyone before. I don’t know what to say to him when I quit. Should I just say that I’m done and just walk out?”, I asked.

“No, that is the last thing you want to do. If you do that, you’re going to look back at that when you can’t stand up for yourself later when someone is telling you bullshit you don’t believe in. Just stay calm and composed and you got this. I’ll give you the basic idea of what to say when we get there.”, Brim said putting his hand on my shoulder.

“Good grief.”, I said to myself as I kept walking forward.

I decided that the best place to arrive was out in the front since there would be no point showing up in the back to change in my uniform since I was quitting in like two minutes. It was no going back now, either I get fired on the spot and I'm still with Brim for a long time, or I can nut up and finally be a man and take control. Tough choices. Which would you choose?

This isn't a choose your own adventure book Rocky, that is way too complex to design for the author. He's only a boy.

Are you ever going to introduce me to "the author"? You talk about him a lot.

Maybe when this story somehow gets big enough to stand on its own. Keep going, we're on a schedule still.

Right, so I finally walked into the store where I saw the four foot nothing troll named Al frantically running around to try and keep up. For some reason I found it funny to see him run around that quick with as short of legs that he has.

He finally got a view of me walking up to the store to see him scurrying around for someone to yell at. As he approached me, I could feel the rage in his tiny steps towards me. But only a little bit.

"Where… in all that is holy and living….have you been?!?!?!", Al said breathing heavily from rage.

I stayed calm like Brim had said, although I almost broke from that calmness when he threw up his arms. I stood there as strong as I could, waiting for Brim to show up with his notes. Just in time before I ended up looking like a complete mute being yelled at by some bigot, out from behind the counter I saw a sign sprang with a pig on it followed by Brim squinting his eyes at me to read out what he put. He then gave me a thumbs up letting me know I got this. Or at least I think I did. I said the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the sign.

"I…..was out eating pulled pork?", I nervously mustered out.

Not a great start so far. Brim slapped his forehead in frustration and began to work on another note.

"What the hell are you doing out there eating pork you numbskull?!?! You got a job to do, now get back there, get in your uniform and get to work!", Al demanded.

I stood silent again waiting for Brim to write something down for me to say next. Thankfully it was short and straight to the point, saying nothing but the words,"no (but actually mean it.)". I took a deep breath to try and reach a more direct tone that I never reached before.

"No.", I said as seriously as I could.

"What did you just say? I told you to get back there and get ready for work!", Al said turning back around.

Brim gave me two thumbs up before going back to work on his board. Meanwhile, things were getting heavy with this gross man.

"If you keep bad mouthing me you numbskull it's going to get worse for you! Capiche?!?", He said aloud.

By this time he was gathering attention from the people inside the store and even some outside. Just in time before I looked mute, Brim popped up with a new sign with a vacuum cleaner and then the words "it you fat bastard". Right away I connected the dots on what to say. I don't know why, but I felt strong saying it.

"S-Suck it you fat bastard.", I told him making a few people gasp in shock.

"Have you lost your goddamn mind?! Who do you think you're talking to!?!?!", he said getting more and more angrier.

All that Brim had left on the sign were the words," Bring it all home and walk away". This was the endgame now.

"Someone I'm not working for anymore.", I said before turning around and walking away from my job for good.

"Hey! You get back here right now! You don't quit on me! I quit on you! You got five seconds to get back here before you get the worst possible outcome!", Al yelled out.

Not once did I look back nor did I stop. I kept walking, occasionally looking over at Brim who had followed me and gave me an approving nod as we left the mall. I felt so much better about myself after doing that, mainly because I can finally put that chapter of my life behind me.

Not long after I did that, I decided to take myself and Brim out to celebrate at some fast food restaurant nearby. I didn't really like to eat there, but then again I had just put a gross chapter behind me so I might as well have done it anyways. I also wanted to find out if Brim could interact with the real world by eating something there, I wanted to really double check that I wasn't really losing my mind. I was thankful to see that I was completely sane by him using his magic to teleport two cheeseburgers for me and him to have from the back.

"I didn't think you would turn out that great when talking back but holy shit that was exactly what I was hoping for. ", Brim exclaimed while taking a bite into his burger.

"Yeah, in a way I didn't expect it either.", I said sipping my orange soda.

“Man oh man you made him waddle around like a sunburnt penguin with how red he was getting to being so pissed off. I got to hand it to you, you read it almost perfectly. Although the beginning had me seriously worried.", Brim said.

"Yeah, I don't know what happened with that. I think my mind went completely blank on me when I saw it for the first time. ", I tried to explain.

"Well no matter. The day is saved and all problems are no more. Now we have all of the rest of the dinner and then you finally can get rid of me. Bet that sounds good.to you.", Brim assumed.

"Yeah. Little bit.", I said softly.

Truth be told, I felt a little bit saddened by him leaving so soon. By the end of it I was really starting to like him. He helped me out and in return gave me one liners and random references to some author I don't know about. That and for some reason, I felt like there was one more thing I needed help with. It was sudden, like it happened right before I quit my job at the mall.

The rest of the meal went on like usual, we would talk and give comments about the day and a half we'd spent with each other and what moments we liked the most. His favourites came from me being the most uncomfortable and all that. I tried to honestly think of one,, but I couldn't. Not to say that I hated it, but it was more like I didn't want him to leave just yet. I was sure that some problems would arise where he could help me out.

After we finished the meal, we headed outside where it was starting to get dark on the Manehatten streets. The streetlights were starting to turn on as well as the Manehatten street cars moving by a little bit faster to get home. I was standing opposite the doorway of the restaurant we had came out with Brim on the other side. To the untrained eye, it would look like that moment in a first date, but this wasn’t going to be like that. Not gonna add fuel to the fire to the apparent need for Brim and I yaoi.

“Well this is it. Looks like I finally did my job and can move on to the next poor soul who needs me. Not gonna lie, this is the first time I ever solve a problem with someone so this is pretty special.”, Brim said pulling out the last cigarette in his pack and lighting it.

“Is it really?”, I asked him.

“Yeah, most of them have either ended up dead or were just a hopeless cause. This will finally move me up the ranks. Maybe now I could manage two souls at once. All thanks to you.”, He said smoking his cigarette.

“Yeah, that's great.”, I said softly.

He finally finished out his cigarette before snapping his fingers to pull up a small suitcase. He even threw on a small fedora like hat.

“Well, this is it. I’m on my way back to hell. It was nice knowing you Rocky. Glad I was able to fix all your problems.”, He said holding out his hand for a handshake.

I took his hand and shook it. For a moment it felt all too real when I felt his hand. All of a sudden another idea popped into my head. I didn’t want him to leave just yet because I needed one more problem to be fixed. With him embracing me with that handshake, it reminded me that the one who would be the closest to him: Sunset Shimmer. I wanted something like that, but with her. I didn’t have that strength without him guiding me to do it.

Right before he was about to snap away for good, I grabbed his attention.

“Brim wait!”, I called out at the last second as he pressed his fingers together.

His ears perked up as he turned around to face me.

"There is...one more problem that I need help with. If you don't mind, of course.", I said.

"One more time? Haha, title of this chapter.", Brim said chuckling.

"You see, there is this girl I've been talking to and I really like. Like I mean REALLY like. And well, I really want to tell her how I feel and it's not easy for me.", I propose to him.

"And once again I guessed your next line correctly in my head. Right from the get go when I saw you talking to that one girl who smells like bacon I knew you needed my help.", Brim said snapping away his suitcase and hat.

"Then why'd you say that you were leaving?", I asked him.

"Cause I wanted to hear from you that you had a change of heart to have me stick around. ", Brim explained.

"Well whatever. I just need your help to try and get me to man up and talk to her in a way that I want to.", I said rolling my eyes.

"Hmm that's tempting, let me talk to my receptionist to see if in free.", He said turning around and facing me again before continuing, " yep, I'm good with my schedule".

"Oh thank you. This is gonna be big after this.", I said to him.

"Yeah sure, that's what you are gonna say when I fix this situation again.", He said snapping his fingers again with his suitcase and hat.

"Wait, what are you doing? I thought you were staying. ", I asked.

"I am. I just need to go back to hell for the night to study up on how to fix man up problems when it comes to women. I have to study up on those books and of course to see if I can get clearance from Lucy. Can you handle one night without me champ?", he asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, I should be able to.", I answered.

"Good. Well I'm gonna head out. You get a good night's sleep because tomorrow we get to work. I mean seriously serious work. Talk to you later.", Brim said before snapping out of my sight.

I didn't really get a chance to say goodbye for the night, but that didn't matter since he would help me get with Sunset. That was now my next quest in life at that moment; to try and get with the girl I had a crush on for a while now. This time I had the guidance to help me make it to my goal. I hoped.

Collecting myself, I headed back to my apartment in the darkness of the night. I felt like I had been away from my apartment for a thousand years when I finally opened the door to my empty apartment. Shutting the door behind me, I felt the weight of my tiredness hit me as I felt heavy. Not wanting to waste any more time from rest, I quickly threw off my shirt and threw myself on the bed. I laid there on my back and took my glasses off and put it on the side along with my phone.

"Oh good grief. Finally a night alone. ", I said as I pulled the covers of my bed over me.

I shut off the lamp next to my bed as I played there on my side. I let my eyes close for a second before feeling myself drift asleep. It can't possibly get any crazier from here can it?

Chapter 5 : A Training Montage

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When I finally awoke, I witnessed the most beautiful morning to ever grace my apartment. The sun was shining in the sky, no clouds in sight, and uneven think I heard some birds chirping by my window. It was going to be a beautiful day. As softly as I could, I reached over to my glasses to put them on before…

"Morning Butt Nugget!", Brim yelled out blaring two air horns.

The unexpected wake up call from Brim made me fall out of my bed again with a loud scream. This time when I hit the ground, I got a view of Brim in some sergeant uniform with an army helmet.

“What the hell Brim?”, I asked sitting up from the floor.

“You will address your sergeant as ‘Sergeant Brim’ you shit stain! Now say it properly!”, Brim commanded.

“What?!”, I asked frantically.

“That’s it! Drop down to your belly and give me sixty you maggot!”, He said blowing a whistle.

“Wait! Slow the fuck down! What is going on?”, I asked standing up.

“Okay, gonna cross that way of training off the list. That clearly didn’t work.”, he said ripping off the uniform to show his regular clothes underneath.

“That still didn’t answer my question.”, I told him.

“Right, so along with learning more magic to help out with you asking out that chick, I decided to learn other teaching methods because being honest, I never had to teach something like that before. So I gathered a list of teaching methods from various movies and shows to try and guide you through this.”, Brim explained.

“Are you sure if that is a good idea? Movies and TV tend to exaggerate that severely.”, I explained to him.

“Of course it is. It’s on TV so what could go wrong? Anyways, let’s get to work to train you. First things first, put some clothes on because I don’t know where your clothes are at and shaving you down there was hard to do.”, He said.

“Wait what?”, I said before looking down to see that I was completely naked.

“First rule about girls: Pubes are disgusting. Or at least that's what I saw in the porn videos I studied.”, he explained.

“You undressed me and shaved me without me knowing?!”, I said trying to cover myself.

“Oh calm down! Consider that a freebie with me doing it for you. Lord knows how much you would cut yourself if you tried to do it.”, Brim said crossing his arms.

“That is so wrong. How are you so calm about this?”, I asked him trying to grab a pillow to cover up.

“Because it’s nothing compared to what I see in hell. There are demons who fuck anything that walks or breathes. So a simple shave is nothing. Now quit complaining about a homie helping out a homie and get dressed please. We have a long day of training ahead of us. So much so that it could easily be a training montage if we wanted, but the author doesn’t want to leave out details for length.”, Brim said.

“Good Grief!”, I said getting up to go get some clothes.

After coming out of the bathroom with my clothes on, I saw that Brim had changed his clothes from his red varsity jacket and white pants to a black t-shirt and black khaki pants.

“Why’d you all of a sudden changed as well?”, I asked.

“It helps me get into character when I go for a training method. This one I thought would be the most casual so I figured we could start with that. Now, lets get into the first part of your training: Actually asking out this girl. Uh, Sunrise is her name right?”, Brim asked.

“Sunset.”, I corrected him.

“Right. Speaking of which, I was able to study the right magic to try and turn into an exact replication of her.”, Brim said.

“Whoa, that’s kind of cool. How does that work?”, I asked.

“I had to sniff her panties to get an odor.”, He said with a straight face.

“WHAT?!?”, I exclaimed in surprise.

“I’m kidding, I just used the images I got from her in your thoughts. I’m perverted but not that perverted.”, He clarified.

“Oh good grief don’t scare me like that.”, I sighed with relief.

“Don’t lie, you wanted to do that at one point. But that doesn’t matter now. Lets see if this works.”, He said before snapping.

All of a sudden, his body began to shift in shape, as well as his hair to grow into longer curls. His complexion changed from his red skin to yellow, as well as his hair to a deeper shade of red with a few yellow stripes. He even shrunk in size a little to adapt to her height.

“Well, how does it look?”, Brim asked.

It was almost perfect, except for one thing. Well, two big things.

“Um…..she doesn’t have uh…”, I said pointing at his chest.

“Oh damn! Still a little rusty from this spell. I have a tendency to make the boobs too big. No biggy, I can fix it.”, He said pulling out a safety pin and stabbing his chest.

His breasts began to deflate like a balloon until it reached the more familiar size I knew. I mean, from what I noticed. I didn’t stare at them. Well, not often.

We know you look at her tits. Everyone does.

Everyone?

Yes I said everyone. Now quit stalling. If they wanted to know more about her tits, they can look them up online. Rule 34 does its magic again.

Oookay? Anyways, he was now in a perfect form of Sunset Shimmer. The only difference was that he was still wearing the black shirt and pants.

“So, now I look identical to her?”, he asked.

“Yeah, that’s her.”, I confirmed.

“Good, now what I want you to do is talk to me like I’m her. Thanks to magic, I’ll even talk like her. You say exactly whatever comes to mind when you want to ask her out.”, Brim said snapping his fingers to make a book appear before holding it like Sunset does.

“This is really weird. This feels a bit creepy.”, I said nervously.

“This ain’t creepy, it would be creepy if you were to fuck me while I was her. That’s whenI would question if you were going to be a sex offender. But anyways, lets not dilly dally any longer and get to work. I’ll start it up first. Just speak naturally like I was her. Ahem- Hey Rocky! I wasn’t expecting to see you here. What’s up?”, Brim said with a perfect Sunset voice.

This felt weird. Like really, really weird to be talking to her in my apartment. But I tried my best to speak to him as if I was talking to her out in front of the MBC.

“Uh, hey Sunset. I-I-I was wondering if y-y-you’d be interested in-”, I said before getting smacked in the head with the book in Brim’s hand.

“Ow! What the fuck?!”, I exclaimed aloud.

“Do you know why I just hit you in the head with a book?”, Brim asked with his regular voice.

“What? No.”, I exclaimed.

“Were you rushing, or were you dragging?”, He asked with a face of frustration.

“Rushing or dragging? What are you talking about?”, I asked confused.

“Count to four right now.”, He demanded.

I was anxious to find out what would happen if I questioned him, so I unwillingly did as I was told.

“One two thre-”, I said before getting hit in the head again.

“Rushing or dragging?”, He asked again.

“Rushing?”, I asked nervously.

“Count again.”, He demanded.

“One, two, three , four.”, I said before he hit me one second later.

“Rushing or dragging?”, He asked once more.

“Dragging?”, I guessed.

“So you do know what I am talking about!”, He yelled at me.

“I-I don’t know how this relates to-”, I frantically tried to explain myself.

“Are you going to deliberately sabotage my band and cost us finals, or are you going to take your head out of your ass and count on MY FUCKING TIME?!”, He yelled at me.

“What are you talking about? What band?!?!”, I said on the verge of tears.

“Woah okay, I really got carried away with that role. Maybe learning from movies wasn’t such a good idea. But then again, that was me getting back from you hitting me multiple times so, sorry not sorry?”, He said shrugging.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”, I said in frustration.

“Okay, that was my fault. My bad. I guess what I’m trying to say is to fix your problem is to not stutter so much. I could barely understand what you were asking. Other than that, I think you can pull this off.”, He said ripping off his clothes to his regular attire.

I was so shaken up by the tactic that I couldn’t help but shed one single tear. If that’s what abuse victims feel like then I will support more MeToo movements because of it.

“Oh my dear god. Are you one of those single tear people?”, Brim asked softly.

After about an hour and a half of me near having a breakdown and with Brim trying to comfort me after losing control with him getting too deep in a character, he sat me down to discuss on where to take her out for that date.

“Okay champ. So now that we calmed you down, we can try and find a decent place for you to try and hook up with Sunset.”, Brim said in front of a board with the map of all places in Manehatten.

“Yeah, I agree, but why are you wearing a brown suit with yellow button up shirt with those ridiculous glasses?”, I asked pointing out.

“Because, that is what I call my board clothes. Plus, I really need to start wearing my prescription a bit more because my demon doctor is telling me I might go blind from overwork, screen time, and-”, Brim explained before I interrupted him.

“Place to go for my date?”, I asked trying to get him back on track.

“Right. So, you want to choose a place that is good enough to be filling, but at the same time not too filling to a point where you get sick afterwards/ And of course, you can't just take her to any trashy establishment because you don’t want some redneck trash to come by and interrupt because they want to hoedown with a showdown.”, Brim explained to me.

“Um, we don’t have rednecks in Manehatten.”, I corrected him.

“That’s not the point. The point is you can’t just choose any old place. The place itself will dictate if you seal the deal and have her spend the night with you.”, He said pointing at me.

“But I want to just ‘seal the deal’ not have her spend the night. I just want her to know how I feel about her and that I believe we should be together.”, I explained.

“That right there is the sound of someone who lacks the balls to seal the deal and make sure that the deal stands. You need to think more openly about that kind of stuff.”, He said chastising em.

“Okay fair enough. Why don’t we make it simple and just go for some drinks at the Pixie Tavern?”, I suggested.

"Hmm, strong choice. Strong choice indeed, you could be out on the town, sipping beers. Having fun and then BAM! Some drunk starts to fight you. Knowing your small stature and inability to fight back, you'd probably get your shit stomped and then you end up in the hospital and you end up getting with her because she feels bad for you. Quite possibly the worst way to get with someone. Next suggestion. ", Brim dismissed.

"Okay fine. How about I take her to dinner to the pier Harbor. It's nice and scenic with the ocean and its classy.", I suggested.

"Ah yes. The ocean. Full of beautiful seas, calming shores…...and secret evil mermaids out to slit your throat! They will appear on the boardwalk and slice at you with their fins. Arrrrrgh!", he screamed out with a slashing motion.

"Brim I think-" I tried to say before being interrupted.

"And then, the mermaids will turn to Sunset. Sunset will scream,'Oh Rocky! Please save me from this monster!', to which you will grab the nearest kitchen knife and jam it into the mermaid's eye socket, causing it to scream a deathly screech!", Brim said with a boasting tone.

"Brim.", I said trying to get his attention.

"And then, all the mermaids will gather and form into one giant mermaid that is colossal enough to swallow the whole city. All of Manehatten will be in shock and terror as the president calls off a ballistic missile, to which the colossal mermaid will easily swallow and spit out, demolishing everything in its path like Godzilla, but not really because of copyright laws and other bullshit. All of Manehatten will be decimated and all that will remain is the giant colossal mermaid and her name will be etched in history as-", Brim said before I finally spoke up.

"Brim! That isn't what is going to happen. You are sounding too much like Beet Farms in The Workplace.", I said trying to grab his attention.

"Huh, I really need to stop watching Kekflix. That character is too much for me to handle.", He said ripping off the suit back into his varsity jacket.

"Look, I get that you're trying to get me to make the best choice for Sunset, but your too erratic in what you are teaching me. Now I won't tolerate this any longer. I'm going out this door with a goal. And that goal is to ask out Sunset Shimmer to a date by the pier for dinner. Afterwards I'm gonna make my move and kiss her like I have always wanted and that will be that. There is nothing you can do to stop me or change my mind Brimstone. ", I said in an assertive tone standing up to him.

Brim spoke not a word. He instead smiled softly and began to slowly clap his hands together. His clapping got faster until he began to nod in agreement.

"What?", I asked him.

"Rocky, you earned the shot. Now get out of here tiger and go get that girl. I'm gonna stay here and smoke me a fat one.", he said sitting down on the couch I had just been sitting on.

His words of encouragement were enough to give me that determination to do just that. Without wasting a second, I ran out of my apartment and down my stairs to see if I could catch Sunset before she left for work. I had missed class today, but thankfully it was excused by Professor Wings for me to have that day off.

As quick as a flash, I ran over to the nearest subway to the street near MBC. That train ride had me anxious to get me out to see Sunset. I really didn't want to miss this chance, especially not after the stuff I had to go through with Brim to try and make me man up to gather the courage to make the move. Nothing was gonna get in my way, not even a bum asking for money or trying to give me a bum bump.

The train stopping was the trigger that sent me off on my frenzy to reach MBC in time to meet Sunset. Like a bullet in the chamber, I ran like I had no tomorrow. I managed to avoid getting hit by some random taxi driver that showed his appreciation of him almost hitting me. (Or what you call, giving me the finger) Not even that would stop me. I had a mission, and that mission was almost done.

Walking in the doors, I managed to find out where Sunset was at based on her class in accounting. Thankfully, I had managed to get there in time to see the end of her class from the door. When the students began to stand up, I darted behind a corner as to not seem like I was stalking her or something like that.

Once all of the students had passed, out came that Sunset Shimmer. I don't mean to get all sappy and gross about her, but today in particular was a day where she was very pretty. Her eyes glistened with the light in the school. Her slightly curly hair was enough to hypnotize you. Oh my god, I can still remember that day.

You can stop with the cheesiness any day now. I'm sure the reader can smell it with how bad it is.

Right, sorry reader. But anyways, now was finally my chance. As I approached her, she must have took notice and turned to face me.

"Rocky! I didn't see you this morning. ", she said to me waving.

"Well, sometimes when you get tired you sometimes tend to oversleep a little bit. How are you today?", I asked.

"Great. Got done with a few projects and I'm back on track with the class.", Sunset said.

"Well that is great. Hey so, I was thinking about maybe seeing if you wanted to go to dinner sometime with me at the pier. I figured it would be better to take you up on your offer when college isn't right after. But it's up to you Sunset. ", I said to her.

"Are you ...asking me out on a date?", she asked me.

Maybe that was her way of trying to mess with me, but it instead reminded me of Brim trying to trick me up. Instead, I called it.

"Yeah, I guess you can say that I am.", I answered.

Sunset was silent for a moment before letting out a smile.

"Yeah. I would like that. I'm not free tonight, but tomorrow night I have work off. I can meet you there at around seven if you like.", Sunset suggested.

"Okay. It's a date then. Seven o'clock tomorrow at the pier. I'm gonna be there.", I said before slowly walking away facing her.

"You better show up. It's not even April yet if this is a joke.", she said trying to mess with me.

"Oh trust me it isn't that. I'll be there. I vow it.", I said before accidentally running into a wall.

This made her laugh a little seeing me kind of bump into a wall. I collected myself quickly and moved on from it like nothing had happened. As that one Chili song once said,"Always moving on the higher ground". Something like that. But the lyrics kept me going strong as I walked home. I managed to make it to my dream to ask out Sunset and it became true. All that was left now was to not blow it tomorrow. I hope.

Chapter 6 : A Few Moments Alone

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“You want me to what?”, Brim asked me.

“I want you to stay out of the date tonight. I believe that I got this with all you have done.”, I told him changing into a much nicer shirt.

I was feeling truly strong and confident in myself after I got home that day after asking out Sunset. So much so that I didn’t even bother to address Brim when I got home. Mainly because he was passed out on the couch. But I was feeling a strength that I had never felt before, a strength that I didn’t need Brim’s accompaniment

“You do realize that you haven't had the proper training from me to try and help out. You should’ve said to have it in a few more days instead of today. I would’ve been able to have time to do some research.”, He argued.

“There is no need to. I got this.”, I said confidently.

“Uh, no the fuck you don’t. You need to trust me on this Rocky. Dating is a completely different breed of conversing, something that you are definitely not ready for.”, He warned.

“Well then what do you expect me to do? I can’t just cancel at the last minute, I’d seem like a genuine asshole.”, I responded.

“You need to have me be by your side for this. It’s the only way you might come out of this successful.”, He argued coming into the bathroom.

“And then what? Awkwardly look over into the distance where you are to look distracted? It’s not gonna work Brim. I need to do this on my own. How do you expect me to grow up if you keep holding me back? Just give me a few moments alone for once.”, I said walking out.

“First of all, Hah! I caught that title. Second of all, what you call ‘holding you back’ is what has gotten you this far in the first place. Why would you question me now all of a sudden when I have been right almost nine times out of ten?”, He asked.

“Because most of the time your definition of right has been different from mine Brim.”, I said combing my hair.

“And? It’s still right, to a certain degree.”, Brim clarified.

“Look, why do you care so much about you being there when you applauded me literally yesterday to taking charge then?”, I asked.

“Because that was the fucking point of me trying to abuse you into doing what you felt was right. It was all a psychological thing. This is different, there is such a thing as reading someone and noticing that something is off or wrong.”, He stated.

“Yeah cause you’re totally the one to know how to read people Brim.”, I said sarcastically referencing yesterday.

“Okay, so maybe I might have a few kinks in my definition of reading people, but I know when someone isn’t ready.”, He siad.

“I am ready.”, I told him.

“Look at yourself, do you not notice that your head is getting bigger and bigger by the second? Don’t look in the mirror it was rhetorical. But what I’m saying is that your overconfidence will do you in badly tonight if you fuck up.”, He warned.

“I won’t fuck up. Will you just relax Brim? I promise you after tonight, you can follow me around afterwards and dick around at the bar.”, I promised him.

“Okay okay fine. I’ll back out of this, but at least take this with you.”, He said snapping his fingers to make a wrapper appear.

Grabbing it from his hands, I saw that he handed me a red condom with the name “D+D” etched on the front of it.

“A condom?”, I asked him.

“If you’re so confident that it will work out, then you’re gonna need protection when you tie the knot to finish it off.”, He explained to me.

“Thanks, but I won’t be needing this. I’ll keep it, but I won’t use it tonight. I have to head out now. I’ll see you later tonight when I prove you wrong that I can handle myself.”, I boasted to him as I walked out the door.

As I shut the door behind me, I heard some small grumbles from inside my apartment. Regardless, he wasn’t gonna change my mind on this. I thought that I was truly ready to take on this challenge on my own.

Before I had any second thoughts on my final choice, I forced myself out of my apartment to the streets of Manehatten. Since the trains only stuck to the inner cities and not the coast, I had no choice but to have to ride into a taxi to get to the pier. Being honest, I don’t necessarily like to ride in taxis. It’s something to do with a certain fear that one day I will be riding in one and then all of a sudden the driver will take off in a high speed launch after hearing some song scream out,”Yah, Yah, Yah, Yah, Yah!”. It sounds like a weird opening to a video game, but It still was a fear in the back of my mind when it came to taxis.

Collecting myself, I quickly waved over a taxi nearby. Thankfully I wouldn’t have to wave for over fifteen minutes like most people as a car pulled up. Without haste, I opened the door to the car to get in the back. CLosing the door behind me, the driver spoke in a very thick New Horsy accent.

“Where to boss?”, He said looking back.

When he looked at me, his look kind of threw me off. He had this mustache that looked like a movie villains, but at the same time it was large enough to fit the normal New Horsy resident. He still bothered me though, I didn’t know why. At the time, I just left it alone.

“Uh, I need to get to the pier. Can you get there as quick as you can?”, I asked him.

“We get there when we get there boss.”, he said in the annoyed Horsy accent.

Yep, that adds up now. Pure Horsy resident. New Horsy is the wild side of Manehatten. The easiest way to tell them apart is by taking a listen to their accent. I can't really describe it, but when you hear it you're going to know that it's a Horsy person.

Without any further details, my ride to the pier was short, or as the driver called it,"when we get there". The tone of the city changed from busy and frantic to calm and tranquil as we approached the coast. This wasn't as populated as the city, resulting in a not as crowded beach line with a pier. I would honestly love to live here but it's stupid expensive just to pay for rent at the cheapest apartments here.

"Alright buster. We're here. Now get on out of here.", the driver said pulling up to the pier.

Without paying attention I got out of the car without realizing that I hadn’t paid for the ride. Literally as I closed the door, he took off in a rush.

“Wait I forgot to……..pay for the trip.”, I yelled out to him as he took off.

I was probably getting on his nerves to make him want to dump me and get out of there as quickly as he could. It was common for a lot of Horsy residents to have a relatively short temper. But regardless, now I had more money to pay for me and Sunset.

I walked into the restaurant and was greeted by a waitress. I had told her that I was looking to make a table for two. Thankfully, the table she chose was right by the view of the coast and often gets pretty during the night. It was starting to get dark as the outside lights began to shine in a shade of warm orange. Everything was coming together. The only problem was that I was the only one there.

I don’t know if the waitress could read me or not, but for some reason she put me in some really segregated part. It was almost startling because I was beginning to think that I was in the wrong table. But, I was proven wrong when she came by to ask me if I wanted some water.

The more I sat there alone, the more nervous I became. Not from where I sat, but because of me being the only one to arrive. It was about the time we had agreed, and I was the only one who was there. At first I thought that she would arrive maybe a few minutes later. I figured that maybe traffic had caught her. But as a few minutes turned into five, and then ten, I began to worry that I was being duped. So much so that I had been nervously downing all of my glasses of water.

I began to doubt that I was worth dating the more I sat there. As I began contemplating just leaving and collecting my loses, I saw the waitress walking towards me with Sunset right behind her. She was wearing a short, beautiful crimson dress. Her hair was looking as good as it always is, as well as some small makeup done.

As they both had approached, I instinctively stood up to say hi.

“Sunset!”, I greeted her.

“Hi Rocky! Sorry for showing up a little late. I was getting ready and got caught by time.”, she explained.

“Oh no you’re fine. I was starting to think that I might have arrived too early.”, I said.

Her and I nervously laughed at each other for a little bit as we explained our situations.

“You look g-good”, I stuttered.

Oh no! I thought I had gotten rid of it for good. I thought that Brim had beaten it out of me. Looks like it is back for more.

“Thanks. I had gotten this dress a while back from an old friend of mine. I thought that I would never have to wear it, but tonight seemed like the first time to wear it.”, Sunset said sitting down at the table.

Maybe it was a fluke. It might have been one last time for old times sake to see me grow up.

“That's good. It looks rather pretty on you.”, I said snapping out of the stuttering.

“I think so too.”, she said smiling at me.

As we sat down, our waiter had come up to come and take our order.

“Can I get you two something to drink?”, Our waiter said.

Remember that feeling I felt with the driver who brought me to the pier? That feeling came back when I saw the waiter. He was rather stout with a smaller height, but he had a moustache that was very similar to the driver’s. Not only that, but his voice was weirdly familiar. Not like the driver’s, but just oddly familiar. Was it Dee’s? No, his was more awkward.

“Rocky?”, Sunset asked me breaking my thoughts.

“Oh uh. I’m sorry I was in a train of thought suddenly. What do you have?”, I asked the waiter.

“Well, tonight in particular we have a drink special where all alcoholic beverages are half priced. Could I interest you two in our Night Stout?”, the waiter asked.

“I would like to try it. What about you Rocky?”, Sunset asked me.

I dismissed it for the moment, trying to focus on the date at hand.

“Uh, yeah. I’ll do the same thing as well.”, I answered.

“Two Stouts coming right up.”, He said before walking away.

“I never would’ve thought that about you.”, Sunset said to me.

“Thought what?”, I asked.

“That you would drink. For some reason I would think you were the type of person to drink only water and tea.”, she explained.

“Oh. Well sometimes when stress kicks in for me I resort to it to try and wind down.”, I explained.

“You get shitfaced?”, she said cocking an eyebrow.

“What?! No No! Not at all! Or not very often!”, I said defensively.

“You crack me up with how defensive you are Rocky.", she said with a small smirk.

"I-I really don't mean to. I guess it's a weird habit.", I explained.

"It's not a bad habit. It fits you.", Sunset told me.

"Well uh, thanks.", I said nervously.

We had an early bit of awkward silence. What was going on? I thought it would be a lot easier since I asked her out with no fear. Now it just feels like some regular conversation with her on a day at college. I needed to turn it around, and turn it around quick.

"So uh….. how is life?", I awkwardly asked trying to break the silence.

"It's going fine. I was a little excited to actually be doing something with someone for once.", She said putting her arm on the table.

"What had stopped you?", I asked.

"It's been mainly school. Projects and all that other crap. If it's not that, its because most friends I have here are too busy with other things.", She explained.

"Like what?", I asked trying to keep the conversation going.

"It's complicated. Sometimes they will have projects, and then sometimes they just well….", she said before going silent.

"Sometimes what?", I asked.

She looked down. It looked like it wasn't a subject that she wanted to talk about. It could have hit a bad memory.

"I'm sorry. I feel that it wasn't my place to ask.", I apologized to her.

"No no, you're fine it's just…..sometimes they just don't invite me to stuff that they had planned. Like it started with the thought of maybe they forgot to invite me, but then it started to make me think that maybe they didn't want me around or something like that. Its especially prevalent when I try to talk to them and they just…you know what I mean.", she explained.

"Oh Sunset. I'm sorry that you feel that way sometimes. ", I said sympathetically.

"It's okay. That is because now I could actually do something with you for once. Being honest, you’re the only one that I guess really acknowledges me that I'm there.", Sunset said.

"W-Well, I'm thankful for that.", I said.

"Two Night Stouts for the couple by the seaside!", The waiter said coming with our drinks.

"Oh uh, yeah thanks.", I said taking my drink and handing Sunset hers.

"Have you two thought of something to order for tonight?", He asked us.

That's when we noticed that our table didn't have any menus on it. Come to think of it, almost all the tables had some except for ours.

"Uh, not yet. We didn't even get the chance to see a menu.", I explained.

"Oh I'm terribly sorry. I shall get you two a menu right away in sweet lu-ord's time.", he said walking off in the other direction.

Did you hear that? It was a weird stutter that he did. It for some reason made me feel deja vu. Like I heard that phrase before. As he walked away, I paid close attention to him to see what was it about him that set me off. He seemed pretty regular. Maybe I was just hearing things.

"You okay Rocky?", Sunset said noticing my glance.

"What? Oh yeah. I'm fine. It's just that the waiter reminds me of someone. I'm not sure who though.", I explained sipping my beer.

"Speaking of which, you never explained that to me yet.", Sunset said sipping her stout.

"Explained what?", I asked.

"The person you have been seeing. You said he is a friend that helped you out?", She asked.

I knew who she was referring to. But I can't just say to her that I have a demon in my apartment, I'd look crazier than the hobos on our street. I needed to speak of him in different terms.

"Yeah, he moved in not to long ago next door to me. He felt the need to introduce himself and get to know everyone in the apartment. At first, I was a little weirded out because I don't usually socialize with a lot of people. ", I explained.

"And then suddenly that changed from you only talking to me to talk to me and your friend?", she asked.

"It's weird. He seemed to cling himself onto me to talk, but after a while he seemed like a regular dude.", I explained.

"Oh I see. Do you two often hang out?", She asked.

"I don't call it 'hanging out' per say, I think of it more as him just talking to me when I pass by.",I tried to explain.

"Mmm, well I'm glad you have more friends. Or well, another friend. ", she said looking down at her stout before sipping it again.

I could tell by her face that it was slightly bothering her. Not me having Brim as a friend, but rather a link that connected to our last conversation. I wanted to address it, but I didn't think that I was close enough to talk to her like that.

"Well we are out of menus, but might I suggest you order a new special we have called the 'One for all' Platter? It's gonna have enough for you two to share and it costs about the same as two separate meals.", the waiter suggested.

I looked over at Sunset to see if she wanted to do that. With an approving nod, Sunset said all she needed to say.

"Sure, we could do that.", I answered him.

"Alright. I'll have your meals out in just a second. Might offer you some more drinks you finished?", He asked.

"I think we still have a full gla-", I said before looking down at our glasses to see that they were empty.

"Whoa, looks like we downed ours a little fast. We would like some more please.", Sunset said answering for me.

"Coming right up.", He said walking away with our empty glasses.

"Something wrong?", Sunset asked me noticing my look of confusion.

"I could have sworn that we had just taken sips of our beers. Did you feel that?", I asked.

“Nope. It was a full drink we just did. I think your ‘alcoholic tendency’ is coming out.”, she said with a smirk to try and mess with me.

“Heh, maybe.”, I said to her.

Not long after, we got our drinks and food after that. The food was absolutely delicious. The waiter wasn’t lying when he said it was large enough to feed a couple of people. Sunset also seemed to have enjoyed it as well. All of a sudden, our talk had turned from talking about stuff going on in the present to our past. In that conversation, I discovered a lot of things that I never knew about Sunset. She told me that she had been a rhythm guitarist for a band she was in back in high school. I don’t know why, but she didn’t give me that vibe at all that she was a music person.

In those talks, I began to open up a little bit more, partially due to the three beers I had in me to help calm me down. All of a sudden, I was cracking jokes and telling more embarrassing stories about me and my family. I would’ve never done this otherwise, but I was glad to know that Sunset was enjoying it.

“So wait wait wait. So when you were seven you managed to light your curtains on fire from simply lighting a candle?”, she asked me with a laugh.

“No no it’s more complicated than that. It was Hanukkah and it was the fifth day. I was given the opportunity to light the candles. Me being eight, I didn’t know that you were supposed to hold onto the non wax part to not burn your fingers. So when the candle wax melted, I managed to burn my finger slightly, resulting in me dropping the candle on the gift for that night and frantically trying to put it out.”, I explained to her with a smile.

“Ha ha. You tried to put it out with the curtain?!”, She said with a laugh.

“It was the only thing nearby. I got my ass beat for burning it, but at least it wasn’t a burnt down house.”, I said.

“Oh my god that is funny!”, She said.

“Are you two doing okay over here?”, the waiter asked walking over to us.

“Oh yeah, we’re fine. Do you think you can do one more round of drinks before we head out.”, I asked him.

“I’ll do you better. We have this share cocktail by the bar on the rails. If you go over there they can make that for you two can drink out of the same glass.”, He explained.

“Do you want to get it Sunset?”, I asked her.

“Sure why not? It’ll make this night last a little longer. I’ve been having fun.”, she said with a slightly buzzed smirk.

We set aside some money to pay for the meal and headed over to the bar. I could tell that we were just a little drunk because of how much we were laughing at some dumb stuff. For instance, we found a street performer playing with some sticks to be amusing. Or at least I did. We later made it to the bar and ordered it, unfortunately we had to wait a few minutes since a lot of people were ordering it as well. To pass the time, both me and Sunset were hanging around the rail by the water just talking like we did at dinner. It was going fine until for some reason Sunset had just stopped. She just looked blankly into the water like she was drifting off into another state of mind.

“You okay Sunset?”, I asked her putting a hand on her shoulder.

She jumped from me touching her. I must’ve really interrupted a thought.

“Oh yeah. I was just thinking about something. It’s dumb, you wouldn’t want to know about it.”, she said dismissively.

“I just told a story about me being a dumb little kid nearly burning down a house. I’m sure your thought is perfectly fine.”, I said comforting her.

“Do you really want to know?”, She asked me with a small smile.

“Absolutely I do.”, I answered.

She looked back into the sea before sighing and closing her eyes.

“This is the first time in a really long time that I’ve had this much fun with someone. Like a really long time.”, she explained.

“What’s so dumb about that?”, I asked.

“It was back in high school when I had this much fun with them.”, She said.

“Them?”, I asked.

“My old friends. We would hang out like this all the time, although we never did drink. Well, maybe Rainbow but ...I'm sorry, I was going off on a tangent. You don’t need to know about the rest.”, she said trying to dismiss it.

“No I do. They honestly seem like the nicest friends. Friends I wish I had back in High School.”, I said.

“Your compliment doesn’t even scratch the surface to how much they meant to me. Not only were they the best friends I have ever had but……”, she said before sighing and continuing,”....they were kind of like my closest family”.

She all of a sudden went silent on me again. I went to try and say something, but then Sunset continued.

“All those years away from them really has made me miss them so much. Like I could never find anyone as good as them. They really helped me to become a better person and I-I…..I love them so much for all they did.”, she said suddenly tearing up a little bit.

I felt bad now, I wanted to tell her that I was sorry for the way she had been feeling, but then she kept on going.

“But then, I kept talking to you a little bit more. Getting to know you in those small little increments of time before or after class. You honestly kept me going through a lot of stuff by simply being there for me and talking to me like I was one of your own. That’s when I realized, you’re the first person to ever be on my old friend’s level of importance to me.”, She said turning to me.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She thought of me like I was one of her closest and dearest friends of all. The fact she mentioned how much I helped her through so much, it really made me realize how much I really could’ve been there for her if I went to drink coffee with her a couple of times.

“Sunset, I….”, I said to her before stopping.

“Yes?”, she said waiting for me to respond.

Here comes the big moment. The moment where I put it all on the table and bet it all. The moment that could make or break me as a person. There’s no going back now Rocky.

“...You’ve...been like that for me too. In all honesty, I never knew what it was like to be appreciated by someone who wasn’t directly related to me. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I never had any close friends. Especially not as close as you’ve been to me. That day you came up to meet me for the first time really made me feel that I could actually talk to someone about stuff that I really clicked with.”, I told her.

“Do you…. really mean that?”, She asked me.

“I do. Even before I got help from a friend I knew. It’s just that I….I think you know what I mean.”, I said looking into the sea with her.

We both stood by each other silently before I felt that we both looked at each other.

“Sunset?”, I asked her.

“Yeah?”, she said softly.

Without any explanation why, I felt that our faces were moving closer to each other. It was slow, but it was still moving. Then as sudden as thunder and lighting, our lips pressed with one another as we closed our eyes. Still to this day, I can’t describe the feelings I was feeling when we had kissed for the first time. The best way I can describe it is like riding a really steep roller coaster. You are scared with anticipation as you rise. Then, as you slowly creep down to the fall, your fear turns to happiness as you scream with joy. That describes it best as my first kiss. Fear and pure bliss.

We slowly pulled away from each other as we began to blush a deep red. We both were unexpectedly blindsided by what just happened. We stood silently as we were out there in front of the water.

“Order for Rocky and Sunset!”, our bartender yelled out to break our silence.

“I…. think it’s time we head home.”, Sunset said with a blush rubbing on her arms.

We both began to move away from the rails and walked past the bar. I noticed our drink was there. We were really excited to get it and I didn’t want it to go to waste.

“Sunset wait.”, I said.

She stopped to face me.

“Before we go, you want to make this night last a little bit longer?”, I asked pointing at our drink.

Not saying a word, she gave a small smile before nodding yes. She and I grabbed the drink with both our hands and got our straws ready to sip on our separated sides. Suddenly, Sunset began to speak a little.

“Here’s to us.”, she said before sipping into her side.

“To us.”, I responded before hitting my side.

What happened after that was a blur. We had originally planned to go home afterwards, but then we stuck around in different places. I don’t remember it all that well, but we ended up in a local park that was near my apartment that we walked around in. She and I were laughing like we were before, only this time I didn’t know what we were laughing about. Were we okay? No, we were just like what Sunset had said jokingly about me earlier: We Were Shitfaced.

After that, it was a blur up until a point that I never expected to get to. The last thing I remember from that night was in my apartment. For whatever reason that happened, me and Sunset were both in my bed completely naked and making out with each other. I never knew how to kiss a girl like that, so it is still a mystery how we were doing that. All I could feel was the warmth of our bodies next to each other as we were making sweet and drunkenly love to each other. After that, it was all a fuzzy memory. What I could assume was that night went on like you would expect: Me and Sunset singing drunken lullabies.

Chapter 7 : Here's the Truth

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What do you do after a night of doing things that you didn't feel control in doing? Oh wait, did I ask that earlier? I think I did.

Yes, you technically did. And I also don't appreciate you muting me in the last chapter. I could have saved the reader all that unbearable awkwardness of a chapter. Sweet Lucy you could have done so much better before-

Stop right there. We haven't gotten there yet.

Oh right. Please continue Sir Mutes Alot.

Right. So it was the morning after me and Sunset’s night of our date and an apparent night of heavy drinking. I was waking up with an aching headache that had only lasted for a second or two. This was strange because a typical hangover like this would probably last for the whole day depending on if I am not too lazy enough to not take headache medicine. It lasted for a second, and then was gone like there was no hangover at all. It was bizarre because it was a very similar feeling that happened when I first met Brim.

I grabbed my glasses and looked over next to me to see Sunset Shimmer naked, still asleep from the night before. Now I knew that what happened wasn’t just a dream. It was all real. I was happy that I was able to spend the night with her, but at the same time it just didn’t feel right. Like it wasn’t supposed to happen. I began to try and put the pieces together in my head about how this could have worked out.

In my thoughts, I jumped at the sense that I was being watched. I looked over to my couch to see Brim sitting there without a shirt on smoking a cigarette. He had a devilish grin on his face. Not a kind that I liked the look of.

“Look at my little boy growing up. First he talked down to his piece of shit boss, and now here he is scoring with a girl who for some reason smells of bacon. It nearly brings a tear to my eye. You were even smart enough to use the condom I gave you.”, He said puffing a cigarette.

“You saw the whole thing last night? Oh good grief!”, I exclaimed sitting up and putting my hand over my eyes embarrassed.

“Oh I saw everything!”, He said with an emphasis.

When he said that, it made me feel a weird suspicion. Not one that I liked.

“What do you mean everything?”, I asked him.

“I mean, everything. While you were out there, I was watching. So many times I wanted to scream out to you and call you an idiot. But that would make me look crazy, or well, the person I had possessed.”, He explained puffing again.

“Wait a second. You mean to tell me you were there at the restaurant the whole time? As the Waiter?”, I said coming to my realization about what was off about the waiter.

“Close, but no cigar…..ette. I was everyone up until the bartender at the bar. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to pull off a Horsy accent.”, he explained.

“I thought I told you to stay out of this. I kept feeling so off during the date last night because of you.”, I said.

“Let’s be honest, did you really expect the reader to believe that I would stay put like an obedient dog?”, he asked me rhetorically.

“Wait what reader?”, I asked realizing what he said.

“Don’t worry about that part. Besides, if it weren’t for me spiking the drink you wouldn’t have been able to keep Sunset as a girlfriend.”, he said calmly.

That last part hit me suddenly. I almost thought that that part wasn’t true and that I was hearing things.

“Back up. Did you just say that you spiked that drink?”, I asked in a serious tone.

“That’s right. It was a rather quick process, no wonder so many people fall for it.”, he said puffing his cigarette again.

“Are you honestly fucking kid-”, I yelled out before I heard Sunset next to me roll over onto her side still asleep with a moan.

“What?”, Brim asked looking confused.

I hopped out of bed quietly to not wake Sunset. I saw on the floor our clothes was flung off to the side.

“You and me, Bathroom, now!”, I demanded Brim.

Not caring that I was completely naked in front of Brim, I dragged him into the bathroom before shutting the door behind us. He then gave me a look that said that he was confused by my sudden attitude.

“What the hell Rocky? I was in the middle of a cigarette.”, He said aggravated a little.

“Do you realize how wrong the thing that you did was her!?!?”, I scolded him.

“What are you talking about?”, He asked.

“You mean to tell me that you don’t see anything wrong with spiking our drinks, essentially making me date rape her?! I could go to fucking jail for that!”, I explained to him.

“What?! This is what it is all about?! My god you are really fucking stupid are you?”, he said arguing with me.

“You’re calling me the stupid one?!”, I told him.

“You really think I’m that bad of a person because I live in hell?! I know right from wrong Rocky! If my goal was to get you in jail for a long time for date rape, I would not only be a bad demon, but I would also be a really shitty friend. I didn’t drug her, I drugged you!”, He explained aggravated.

“What?”, I asked.

“In your half of the drink, I slipped you a little bit of SATD to calm you down and to be more honest with what you wanted. You wanted her to be with you as a significant other, and the only way to do that was to end up sleeping with her. But I knew you wouldn’t do that. You wanna know why?”, he asked.

“You’re lying. Your trying to save my skin by telling me this.”, I told him calling his bluff.

“I wouldn’t be lying to a friend now would I? I drugged you because you are such a weak fucking sister! You are far too sensitive and anxious to try and make moves to try and be a strong boyfriend. If you hadn’t had done this, You would’ve been stuck on the third date so many times that it would end up not working out in the end.”, he explained.

Those words really bothered me. It wasn’t that he was speaking a little bit negatively about me, actually a lot negative about me. But it was the fact that looking back at last night that I was starting to believe everything that he was saying. I don’t think I could’ve pulled it off if I wasn’t drunk on Shout At The Devil. I was going to say something, but then Brim spoke.

“I could totally try and call you an idiot a little bit more, but now we have another issue to fry. You need to come clean with Sunset.”, He said.

“What? If I tell her that, she absolutely won’t stick around with me. She’ll be disgusted with me.”, I assumed.

“No, that is between us. What you need to tell her the truth about is me. You need to tell her about me.”, He clarified.

“What, Why?”, I asked confused.

“If you want me to stick around and have this make sense for her so she doesn’t see me and become scared of you because of me.”, Brim explained.

“Wait, See you? I thought you said that I was the only one who could see you.”, I reminded him.

“That is until you have sex with someone with the condom I gave you. The way it works is-”, Brim said before being interrupted by the door suddenly opening slowly.

“Rocky?”, Sunset said slowly coming into the bathroom.

I looked back at the door to see a glimpse of Sunset. When I turned back to face Brim, he had vanished and I couldn’t find out where he was. Before I could look around, the door had opened up with a nude Sunset Shimmer following behind. I was blindsided be her walking in the way she did, but for some reason it didn’t feel awkward. Like I didn’t mind seeing her naked and her seeing me naked. If that was a side effect of SATD, then it was super strong.

“You okay?”, Sunset had asked me.

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine. Super duper.”, I said nervously.

“Oh, god that must be my hangover with me hearing things. I could’ve sworn I heard you talking to yourself.”, she said wiping her head.

It was true. She could possibly see Brim. She must’ve heard a little bit of Brim and I’s arguments when she woke up. At least now I knew that Brim wasn’t bullshiting me. But now, we were all alone, just me and Sunset in my bathroom together.

“Hey, listen. About last night, I know we were drunk and all that but, everything I said prior I meant a hundred percent honestly. You do know that right?”, I asked her.

“Why of course I do Rocky. I wouldn’t have kissed you if you didn’t.”, Sunset said tilting her head.

“Oh okay. I was just making sure.”, I said while nervously chuckling.

“You are a strange guy Rocky.”, She told me.

Sunset then walked over to hug me while nustling her head into my chest. I was taken by surprise by this because I had never hugged a girl before. It was a lot of firsts for those couple of days. Not knowing what to do, I simply let my arms wrap around her.

“But you are the good kind of strange.”, she said with a genuine tone.

“Heh, I guess I am.”, I said with a slight blush.

“Thank you for last night. I really did enjoy everything you did. Well, besides the hangover, but that isn’t your fault.”, she said.

“No, thank you. I think I managed to get a lot off of my chest from last night and now I feel good about it. I feel just a little bit better about it.”, I told her.

“Well, that's good. Promise me that this won’t make anything weird between us because we ...you know.”, she said referring to last night.

“No no not at all.”, I answered.

“Well that’s good. You’re the first person in a while that I could feel like that.”, she said still in my arms.

We stood there silently for a little while longer. I could see why some people like hugs and all that kind of stuff. I felt a very warm fuzzy feeling in me whenever I was hugging her. Like it felt that I was being loved, and that the other person could feel that from you.

After a while, we decided to let go.

“I think I’ll let myself out. I need to go home and rest a little to try and get over this headache. Again, thank you for the amazing night. I hope to see you again Rocky.”, she said with a small smile.

“Oh yeah absolutely. I’ll let you know Susnet.”, I nervously said.

She leaned in to give me a soft peck on the lips before walking back into my room to put on her clothes. I followed suit and threw on some clean clothes. In all honesty, it felt a little bit weird to be changing with Sunset. More specifically when I watched her a couple of times. I thought that her bra and panties looked cute on her and it grabbed my attention. I quickly averted my gaze when she had looked over at me. In that moment, she did make fun of me a little bit for looking at her, but she took it as flattering.

When we were all done, I walked her out the door of my apartment.

“Again, thanks again for last night. It was really fun.”, Sunset told me at the door.

“It’s no problem. I’m glad it was as fun as it was.”, I told her.

We shared one last hug before she had walked away, but before that, she pointed out a picture.

“Say, that is an interesting little picture you have.”, She said pointing it out.

I looked over at it to see a picture of what looked like an old time street thug with a sledgehammer and top hat. I never once remembered getting this picture until I got a better view of the criminal, that criminal was Brim in disguise as a picture. It looked really good for a disguise.

“Well anyways, I’ll go home now. Thanks again Rocky. I’ll see you around.”, she said with a smile before kissing me on the cheek.

I felt a bit sad to see her go, but considering that I needed to tell her the truth about Brim, I needed to be alone with my thoughts and my demon for a moment. Closing the door behind me, I gave myself a pity sigh and sat down on my couch. I finally got a chance to breathe and take it all in, right before the demon had to intervene.

"So….. how do you want to approach this.", Brim said.

"What?", I asked in a serious tone.

"So, do you want to do a more direct approach. Or do you want to take it in nice and easy, that's what she said.", Brim said.

"You're an asshole.", I told him clearly pissed off.

"Whoa hey. Earth to Rocky. I'm not the enemy here. The real enemy is you my friend. Now are you gonna discuss the deets with me on what you want to do?", Brim said.

"Stop! Just stop Brimstone. ", I argued with him.

"Okay, what's this about? Did you not finish off enough last night in Sunset? What's got your balls in a bind?", He asked.

I finally snapped. I needed to let it all out.

"Everything! Everything involving you has got my balls in a bunch! I feel like every single thing I have done was for you and not for me. Every single thing I did training, every wrong thing I did to quit, and even fucking cheating on my exam to get me out of here. I got fucking abused because of you. ", I screamed at him.

"Okay I may have made a mistake here and there, but if you just listen to my reasons-", Brim said before I interrupted him.

"What other fucking reason could there be. I don't care that you know right from wrong, you still are the same very thing that you are: a fucking demon in hell. You don't live life like you should. You live life on the edge because you can't die. You won't ever know what it's like to live with regret. ", I said to him.

"Rocky just let me expla-", he tried to speak.

"No! I want you to leave me alone! You don't know shit about me and how I work! Just fuck off! Good Fucking Grief!", I said to him slumping down onto the floor.

The look on Brim's face said that he knows that I was seriously pissed off. It was the moment a lot of people see as the moment to try and win back the partner in those buddy cop comedies. Or even those moments in a horror movie when the band of heroes are spread apart but still end up trying to get back together to find a giant clown or some shit like that.

His shift in tone was declared by the sigh in his voice. He walked over next to me by the couch and slumped down next to me.

"Did I ever tell you about my life before I was a demon?", he said in a serious voice.

I looked over at him. I was confused about what he meant by that.

"Before? Weren't you always one. I thought the devil produces those like it's a production line.", I assumed.

"Not since 1934, long story, but she started selecting people who end up dying and going to hell. I was one of the selected. But anyways, I was around your age when I met a girl who I was head over heels for. She was a little similar to Sunset, just not as tall. I met her back in my old job of a biophysicist. She was super smart, probably gonna change the world one day. I was feeling like she was the one, but like you I kept second guessing myself and ended up never once telling her how I felt. What ended up happening was that she moved onto another person who clearly had enough to tell her that he was better for her. The two ended up getting married and well, I got left in the dust with my sorrow and ended up doing a lot of bad things because of it.", Brim explained.

If it were a different tone of voice, I wouldn't believe Brim in the slightest. Quite honestly, I would have elbowed him in the eye again for trying to lie to me, but I could tell deep down in his voice that he was being honest and down to earth with me.

"Wow, was she pretty?", I asked him.

"The most gorgeous girl in the world. She had a golden heart that cared about anything in need. But sadly, she ended up with someone else because I couldn't pull the trigger. Then I ended up creating the formula for the atomic bomb", He said taking out his box of cigarettes.

"What? I thought Oppenheimer created the atomic bomb.", I assumed.

"No! That bastard stole my idea while I was in jail for being drunk, that damn nasty jew! Oh sorry, forgot about you being Jewish.", Brim said apologizing.

"No no it's cool. It's more my parents than me.", I said to him.

"But look my point is, I regret not pulling the trigger to tell her how I felt about her. And when I died and became a demon, I swore to myself that I would help people who were in a situation like I was: feeling stuck and not having a way out of it. It's what I tried doing for my past people, and well ...they weren't ready for me yet. You were the first to make it this far and to be honest, you're first best friend in the real world that I have had in awhile.", Brim said to me.

I couldn't believe that I was now being considered a best friend. I know being a boyfriend was something else, but it was strange to have a friend who cared about me that I wasn't attracted to. It made me feel like I mattered a little more.

"Oh my god, I have been a real jerk these past two days.", I said to Brim.

"No, it was partially my fault for taking a bad approach into this. I should have been honest, but not too honest with you. ", Brim said apologizing.

"We are a weird match for each other as friends. How the fuck did we somehow get mixed together?", I rhetorically asked.

"I don't know either, but all I want to do right now is smoke this cigarette and try to start over with you. You want one?", he asked offering me one.

I had never ever thought it was cool to smoke. It is literally just inhaling tar to mess up your lungs and age you twenty years faster, but at that moment it was something I didn't feel like it could go wrong to accept it from a friend.

"Yeah. I'll take one.", I responded taking it from him.

"This your first time?", he asked.

"Yeah, but might as well try everything at this point. Light me up.", I asked him.

He took a lighter he had in his other hand and lit me up. As soon as the flame hit the end of the cigarette, I felt the smoke creep into my mouth as I sucked in. For my first puff, I lasted for about four seconds before coughing up like I was choking. The taste then came in as I tasted nothing but tar and disappointment.

"Jesus! You actually enjoy this? ", I asked Brim.

"You get used to the taste after a while.", Brim explained to me as he lit his.

He and I just sat there smoking our cigarettes in our hands just talking to each other about stuff that didn't pertain to what we had planned to do next. I don't exactly remember it all that well, but it was just about what to friends hanging out would talk about. Not once did we move or do anything else, there we just sat and talked.

If we were supposed to discuss what we were supposed to do to explain all of this to Sunset, we most definitely didn’t do that. We were too busy talking and trying to start back from scratch.

Ha ha ha ha! Nice call back to chapter one.

Right. It hit me that we needed to tell her eventually, so I decided that later in the afternoon I would tell her the truth about Brim. I grabbed my phone and decided to text Sunset about meeting up for coffee later that afternoon. I kept it casual, not important. I didn’t want it to seem like I needed to see her right away since I literally just spent the night with her. However, she took me by surprise by texting me that she could go get some coffee now since her headache was gone suddenly. Great, now the plot can move forward.

Hey! I’m the only one who can fourth wall break here. Get your own story to do that.

Okay okay, sorry for trying to have a little fun with it. Anyways, after getting that text, I got up off the floor and changed my shirt so I didn’t smell like ash.

“So, You just gonna go right in head first for this?”, Brim asked me.

“I don’t know. I’ll probably do whatever feels right. At this point, let's just do it and see where we go with it.”, I told Brim.

“Fair enough. I’ve always preferred improv. More skill involved by working on the spot.”, he said getting up and snapping his signature red varsity jacket.

Without saying another word, we walked out the apartment to go head to the one place that we knew about: Loo’s Diner.

On our way to meet Sunset, Brim and I were discussing a way to introduce him before just straight up just showing her Brim. We couldn’t really decide on an exact set of words to say, but we decided that the best way to do was to show her the source in which Brim came from: Shout At The Devil whiskey.

Finally, we decided that it would be best if I went in alone for the moment as I began to talk a little bit more and try and decipher a few words to speak about how this all happened. Sounds easy right?

I made it to the diner and sat at a nearby booth. I only ordered water because it typically calms my nerves in the moment when alcohol isn’t around. Yeah I know, I’m probably an alcoholic in denial, but over these past couple of days it’s only been in pleasure not stress related. I promise you after this you won’t see me do something stupid with Sunset. You know exactly what I mean.

If you still don’t know, then check on those abuse stories and then look us in the eye and say you don’t know.

As I sat there alone for the moment, I saw Sunset walked into the diner wearing her usual clothes that she wears. She was looking a lot better headache wise. She was a lot more alert than usual.

“Hey friend! Long time no see.”, Sunset said sitting in the seat across from me.

“Yeah, how are you feeling?”, I asked her.

“Much better. It’s strange, I thought the headache would last all day but literally as soon as I laid down on my bed, it was like I never drank at all.”, Sunset explained.

“Well that’s good. Figured it would be a long shot to ask if you wanted to get some coffee, but you surprised me when you said you were down.”, I told her.

“Well of course I would. If I felt better and you weren’t doing anything then I would like to spend some time with you. After all, you’re having a coffee with me for the first time.”, Sunset said placing her head on her hand.

“Yeah, but I was also hoping to…..”, I said before going silent.

I blanked out on the words. But I wasn’t worried. After all, Brim did say that improv was more difficult than planning.

“Hoping to what?”, Sunset asked.

A waitress came by to pour us some coffee. I sipped it a little bit before finally coming up with the right words.

“Okay, I need to confess something about me. More specifically about that friend of mine.”, I told Sunset straight.

“Okay?”, she said looking a bit confused.

“Alright…..Here’s the truth. This friend of mine I met at a bar and well, it is a bit strange how he came to be.”, I tried to explain.

“I don’t understand.”, she responded.

“Well…..oh god, this is gonna look crazy on my part. Look, whatever I tell you, you promise to not think I’m crazy or you’re gonna freak out?”, I asked her.

“I mean, of course I won’t think your crazy. Unless of course you did something seriously bad like kill someone.”, she told me.

“Okay good. Okay…….so this friend he came from…...oh jesus this won’t work. Okay, I can’t really explain it, but I can show you. You need to promise that you won’t freak out about this.”, I warned her.

“I told you I won’t freak out, but what are you talking about?”, she asked.

“You’ll see. Just, don’t freak out okay?”, I asked her.

She nodded letting me know that she won’t think any differently of me. I trusted her, now was the time to show my cards. I pulled out the bottle of Shout At The Devil out from under the table and put it out in front of her. At first, she gave me a look of confusion.

“What does a bottle of whiskey have to do wi-”, she said as she grabbed the bottle before feeling it shake.

She had dropped the bottle on the table quickly in fear of what she had grabbed. The bottle shook more and more before the cap of the bottle flew off as the smoke and small flames came out. Sunset gave a small scream from this, but it was to be an expected reaction. As the flames died down, out came a humanistic shape taking form right next to our table. Then what came next was a faint and scream of excitement from the one out of the bottle, the one, the only, Brimstone!

“Two Thousand Minutes can give you such a crick in the neck!”, Brim said pushing the bottle away.

Sunset’s eyes were as wide as they could be. She had a very hard time adjusting to what she was seeing.

“Oh, How rude of me! I really need to break that habit. Name’s Brimstone. Or Brim for short.”, He said holding out his hand to Sunset.

She was still silent, letting her mouth drift open.

“Uh Rocky ...I thought you said she was a very nice person, she is leaving me hanging.”, Brim said to me.

“Sunset. I know it’s a lot but I’ll try my best to answer any questions you have on him.”, I told her.

“What...the hell is that?”, She asked pointing at Brim.

“I prefer the title of ‘who’ please. I just told you my name was Brim.”, Brim said to her.

“He is…my demon in hell. He can only be seen by you and me. Everyone else here cannot see him right now.”, I explained to her.

“Okay, how did he come to meet you?”, Sunset asked.

“Well, it’s a magic whiskey that summons him based on the problems that you have. For me it was quitting my job and…...well, asking you out.”, I explained to her.

“Wait, so you have been listening to him the whole time?”, she asked me.

“Well yes, but you should know that he wasn’t there when you and I were going out. Or at least he wasn’t by my side, he was just watching over it.”, I explained.

She looked back at Brim and then back at me.

“But look. I didn’t listen to everything he said. I really only listened to the majority of things he said about me thinking for myself. All that stuff I said last night about how much you mean to me and even this morning, that was all true. All I did was listen to advice from Brim and did what felt right. Look, I do really like you Sunset. Like really really like you. I wanted to tell you about him before well, you thought differently about me well, hiding a demon from you. Can you forgive me for seeming a bit weird for hiding him?”, I asked her.

She was silent for a moment before she looked back at Brim.

"Is he being honest about this?", she asked Brim.

"I've been with the guy for the past two days. If he wasn't being honest, then all those jerk off sessions were for nothing. ", Brim said.

"BRIM!", I said to him in disapproval.

"What? It's not like its gonna be weird since you two already had sex.", He said to me.

"Yeah but you don't just say that information out loud in front of her.", I told him.

"She was gonna find out one way or another Romeo. ", he said.

"Guys!", Sunset said interrupting our argument.

I looked back at her.

"I don't think I could ever turn you away for something like this. Yes, it's gonna be a little weird having this, demon around us, but I think I could live with him.", Sunset said with a small smile.

"You really mean it?", I asked her.

"Well yeah. It's not the strangest thing I've come across. ", Sunset added.

"Wait, a demon from hell is not the weirdest thing to you? Are you sure you're not a demon as well?", Brim asked.

"No, I'm not. But, While we are on the subject of confessing some strange things, I have one to make Rocky. ", She said suddenly blushing.

"What is it?", I asked her.

"Okay, don't get weirded out by me admitting this or think that I'm lying. I'm being serious about this. I…...am not from this world.", Sunset admitted.

"What?", Brim and I asked confused.

"You see, I'm actually…..a pony from another alternate universe.", she said embarrassed.

"Whaaaat!?", I exclaimed suddenly.

"Holy shit that is a plot twist! Well for us it is, I don't know about you reader, did you know something about this?", Brim asked at nothing.

"I know. It sounds weird and completely insane, but I'm telling the truth. ", Sunset said to me.

I had nothing to say. Nothing in my mind to try and ask about this. All I did was the first thing that came to my mind. After a few moments of silence, I began to laugh. As every second passed, the laughs got louder and more and more hysterical. I was on the verge of tears from laughter.

"What are you laughing about?", Sunset asked me confused.

"Uh yeah. I would like to know as well. Your not going simple on me are you?", Brim asked me.

I managed to calm my laughter down to speak.

"First, I managed to get drunk on a whiskey that spawned a demon that helped me out with my problems, and now the girl I'm dating is apparently a pony from another universe. Oh my god my life is fucking crazy!", I said before erupting into laughter again.

Sunset had given a small chuckle before erupting into laughter with me. Brim on the other hand stood silently.

"Oh my Celestia we both have these crazy lives.", Sunset said in the middle of our laughing.

Soon we had stopped laughing and just looked at each other in the eyes before leaning into kissing one another on the lips. It was the only thing that felt right at that moment. We had just shared the most weird confessions to stuff that people would think we were crazy about. Our kiss only lasted about five seconds before we were going to say something to each other.

"I love you.",Sunset and I said at the exact same time.

Brim, looking at the situation appearing before him, threw up next to us.

"Oh Lucy, that is fucking gross. Ugh I fucking hate the sight of new love.", Brim said after he threw up.

Both me and Sunset laughed at Brim a little more before we decided to finish coffee that day. We both shared one last goodbye kiss before we went home. Brim was calling me gay the whole way home for doing that out in the open, but I didn't care. The person I had a crush on had shared the interest of having crazy experiences happen in her life. That's what let me know right away that I chose the right girl.

When Brim and I got home, we had continued right where we left off, only I didn't smoke. Too gross for me. After that, things were looking perfect. The very next day I sent in that recommendation letter and got told that by next week I would be working. Sunset had managed to make it out of her class and try out for the job I was working at as well. And well, Brim was making my day a little bit more enjoyable. Everything was coming together. The perfect ending to a story right?

Wrong! What, you thought this was gonna be the ending of this story? You are oh so predictable. Instead of telling you about what happens next, I'm gonna leave you on a cliffhanger. What you gonna do about it? Nothing. You are just gonna sit there and wait for the next chapter. Don't like it? Well that sucks don't it. See you next chapter horse fuckers.

Chapter 8 : Business to tend to

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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!

Shout At The Devil

by Bucket of Skies

Introduction

Chapter 1 : From Scratch

Chapter 2 : Hello? Memory? You there?

Chapter 3 : Allow me to introduce myself.

Chapter 4 : One More Time

Chapter 5 : A Training Montage

Chapter 6 : A Few Moments Alone

Chapter 7 : Here's the Truth

Chapter 8 : Business to tend to