Redemption Road

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Sir Kaltao

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It was a hot Minnesota night in the city of St. Paul. Surrounded by the bustle of a busy city, a graveyard sits unwatched. A group of four teenagers know this, and have been using it to dabble in the occult. Or drink, as was more often the case. But tonight was an occult night, and the kids were in all black with a small fire burning. With sticks and chalk, they had drawn symbols in the earth and on the face of a tombstone they had selected at random.

"Give me the power I beg of you!" intoned the leader of this amateur group of occultists while the others chanted nonsense in a circle around him.

"Come forth! And stand at the feet of your master!" He finished and waved his hands over the grave. The chanting stopped, and the graveyard was quiet. Then there was the sound of stirring earth. But not from the grave they were trying to enchant, but a fresh one a few rows down. The four of them put their ears to the earth and were petrified to think their ritual had actually worked.

But their ritual and the stirring of the earth had been purely coincidental. The fresh body had been reanimated and now housed a demon who wanted nothing more than to get out of the darkness.

A hand sprung forth. Then another, followed slowly by the rest. The three-piece burial suit had been ripped in places but remained intact.

The demon took several deep breaths, and looked around to try and gather where he had risen. He spotted the group of teenagers looking disappointedly down at the grave.

"Hello there! What city is this?" He asked. Naturally when a newly risen corpse says anything to you, even something so innocent, your natural instinct is to run in terror. And the teenagers were no different. They were practically tripping over each other trying to get away.

"Well then" The demon said, looking at their setup and shaking his head. He brushed most of the dirt off him and walked toward one of the many sources of light to find out where his exile had begun.
 
Karou looked up as a knock sounded at her door. Gabriel stepped in, great wings tucked against his back. She raised an eyebrow, wondering what he could want. "News just came to us from an angel on Earth that teenagers in Minnesota just ran into town screaming something about corpses coming to life. I want you to go check it out."

Karou sighed before she nodded and stood up. Gabriel gave her the coordinates to the town then left. The small angel gathered some supplies in a bag, slung it on her shoulder then was on her way. She quickly made the flight down and soon she landed just outside of St.Paul. She slung her cloak around her shoulders to hide her wings just in case someone saw through her glamor then headed into town, eyes on the lookout for anything strange.

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"Saint Paul?" The Demon said aloud after reading the front of a newspaper that had been discarded on the sidewalk. Apparently Lucifer did have a sense of humor.

"Now what?" He asked himself as he rolled up the newspaper and started walking again. It was about midnight and there were still people milling about on the streets. Most passed him by without notice. Any who did appeared confused, wary. He supposed it wasn't often one saw a man in a dirty suit just wandering about.

"Get a job you bum!" said the first woman to acknowledge him. She had her nose turned up as she passed.

"Yeah, I'll get right on that" He replied under his breath as he continued on. But he likely couldn't. Not in this city, anyway. He was trapped in the body of a man who's supposed to be dead. He knew enough to know that to work up here you needed a number and a name attached to your face. And even if he did he was liable to be discovered by someone who knew this guy and cause a sensation.

His stomach growled. That was odd. He saw up ahead that there was a hotdog cart. Alas, this guy had been buried without a single item of value. Which meant he would have to steal his first meal.

Oh how the mighty have fallen, he thought to himself approaching the cart. He ordered a hotdog with relish, and a can of cola. Soon as both were in hand, he ran.

Luckily for him no one cared about stolen hotdogs than the vendor himself.

All the same he'd have to complete this demeaning first hour on earth looking for a dark place to eat.
 
Karou walked unseen through the streets, humans passing by her without a glance. She looked around, wondering what her first move should be. Should she try to locate the teenagers that had witnessed the incident? But that would take a while seeing as she would have to make herself seen first. She sighed, wondering why out of all the angels, Gabriel had picked her.

She was walking down the street when she saw a man in a dirty suit run away with a hotdog, the vender shouting curses after him. She would have dismissed it as a homeless man stealing a meal but..it was the scent of graveyard soil that caught her attention. Curious, she trailed after the man.
 
Settling in a vacant bus stop several blocks from where he had stolen the hotdog, the demon sat down and quickly devoured it. Most of the relish had fallen out and it was lukewarm, but a meal's a meal.

He cracked open the cola and looked at the city bus map. He couldn't keep drawing attention to himself by stealing food, so he decided his next stop was one of those shelters So far he didn't need to sleep, but it would be nice to get out of this conspicuous suit and into street clothes. And from there....he honestly had no clue. He had never entertained the idea of how to survive without his direct link to Hell. If he were mortal, he'd probably freeze to death. From what he knew of Minnesota, these hot summers weren't going to last very long.

As he sat on the bench, already shivering since he was useed to being engulfed by eternal infernos, the Demon felt a pang of something in his reanimated heart. What did the humans call this emotion? Oh right....despair.

Wasn't as fun being on this end of it.
 
Karou silently followed the man to the bus. She blinked either he was a homeless man or this was possibly the reanimated corpse. Karou quietly stepped onto the bus. He was mortal all would be well, he would continue with his non the wiser. But...if it was the reanimated corpse, meaning a demon dwelled inside, he would be able to see right through her glamor. Karou took a deep breath and stepped into view, violet eyes studying the man curiously.
 
Damn. Just what he needed. An Angel.

The Demon thought to run, but what would be the point? He stood and looked from side to side through the transparent walls of the bus stop shelter. Nobody around. The buses had likely stopped running some time ago.

"Well, you found me" The Demon raised his arms in surrender. If he was in a fighting mood he could probably conjure a few bursts of hellfire. But in his weakened state it would be like assaulting her with a flyswatter. He'd seen Angels take a good beating and still stand up for a fight after. No way he was walking away from this one. The cute, innocent visage had to be just a disarming rouse.

Then again maybe this Angel would do him a favor by vaporizing him with Holy Light, spare him an eternity as a transient.
 
Karou blinked. Well, the homeless man possibly was out the window. Karou took a step closer, tilting her head to the side. "Demon, why are you in a corpse? Don't you have a body of your own? Why inhabit a used up one?" She asked curiously, tense but not worried. The demon didn't seem to be hostile and she sensed his aura was very, very faint; weak.
 
She's....not going to smite me?

The Demon lowered his arms and mimicked the tilt of her head. All this time he had been under the impression orders for both sides were to burn on sight.

"I'm not in here by choice," He began and finished his can of cola before going on "they just tossed me in here"

Corpse was probably not the right description, at least in time it wouldn't. The tissues and nerves were obviously operating. And the other brain functions were firing back on. Soon he'd be sorting out what remained of the previous inhabitant's memories.
 
Karou could tell the demon was surprised she didn't destroy him right away and hid a smile. "So you were exiled? Do you know the reason?" She inquired, taking a seat on one of the benches on the bus.
 
"Well....turn out Big Bad Lucifer doesn't like it when you point out how pointless everything is down there" The Demon sat down again but couldn't bring himself to relax in the presence of an Angel out of instinct.

"I mean we all know how it ends," He started crushing the can out of frustration but remained visibly calm, if irritated "We're cutting deals and condemning souls around the clock and it's not going to matter when Lucifer actually gets off his throne to fight"
 
Karou smiled despite herself. "So basically you were condemned for merely pointing out the truth?" Karou just shook her head. She wondered what she was going to report to Gabriel. The demon clearly wasn't harming anyone..yet. But knew also knew that if she reported this at all to the Arch Angel, he would come down to finish the job himself. Hmmm, what an interesting development indeed.
 
"Basically, yeah" The Demon set the can down on the ground and wondered to himself why this Angel was chatting him. Obviously she was in good standing or he wouldn't be feeling her aura pulsing vibrantly.

Well, this was a rare opportunity he could ask questions just like her.

"So why exactly am I not a pile of ash right now?"
 
Karou shrugged. "Because you have given me no cause to turn you into a pile of ashes. And besides, I have never meet a demon who would speak up to the Devil himself." She answered, brushing her hair our of her face.
 
"Oh there have been plenty. But those were demons who had been humans once; if they remembered their humanity and got uppity, he just snuffed out the ir hellfire," He snapped his fingers "and dropped them in The Pit, one more soul in his corner" The Demon stood and chucked the crushed can far as he could.

"But since I used to be an Angel, I'm not as dispensable; he figures if I'm up here a while I'll beg to come back into his service."
 
"Oh there have been plenty. But those were demons who had been humans once; if they remembered their humanity and got uppity, he just snuffed out their hellfire," He snapped his fingers "and dropped them in The Pit, one more soul in his corner" The Demon stood and chucked the crushed can far as he could.

"But since I used to be an Angel, I'm not as dispensable; he figures if I'm up here a while I'll beg to come back into his service."
 
Karou watched him throw the can away, watched it hit the street and bounce slightly. She then turned her violet eyes to look up at the demon. "And will you? Beg to return?" She asked curiously.
 
"Hell no" He replied with the pun completely intended. He sat down again and looked into her eyes in turn. She really was cute. It occurred to him that he hadn't even looked in the mirror yet. He went through his pockets and as luck would have it, this body had been buried with a shiny lighter. He touched his face and found a rather large, square chin and hollow cheek bones. His eyes were either grey or light blue. It was hard to tell.

"Did they at least put me in a good-looking corpse?"
 
Karou laughed at the odd question, the sound tinkling like bells. She smiled as she studied him. Black hair, unblemished face, light blue eyes. "Yes, the body you were put in is very handsome." She said, laughing quietly again.
 
"Well at least I have that going for me" The Demon put the lighter away and posed another question to her "So what are you going to tell Gabriel? I imagine he's still in charge of the Heavenly Host"
 
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