This one’s getting close to done. Hurray! – Mind you, I wrote most of it months ago.
I was worried as I went deeper into the warren of rooms and alcoves that had used to be a long-term storage facility. For starters, this was way too big for a cultist lair. There just aren’t that many people out there in an area that honestly groove to the idea of ritually murdering people; which is great, right? It is great, but it was also not what was happening here. Besides, cultists don’t play well with others. Any group this size should have ripped itself apart by now, instead of me and Old Lou doing the ripping – and then I smacked myself in the face, hard.
That got Old Lou’s attention. What’s the matter? he whispered, inside my head. Having too much fun?
“Yes,” I gritted out. I don’t like Old Lou, but I try not to lie to him. But that’s for my sake, not his. Lying’s dangerous. “This isn’t a video game.”
It sure isn’t! Old Lou sounded chipper about it. Video games don’t have smells. Speaking off, that one over there shit his pants like all the rest, but he’s still alive. Gonna murder him?
“No,” I said as I bent over the broken-backed form that had once been a human being. “But he is going to trade me information for a quick death,” I said, loudly enough for the man to hear over the sound of his own agony.
Liar, said Old Lou. You’ll give him a quick death anyway. What did I ever do, to get saddled with such a fucking loser like you?
“Summoning rituals have two participants,” I muttered too low for the heap on the floor to hear. “The human, and the demon. We both made our choices.”