10 HOURS LATER

It took a while, but they had finally explained everything to Brody who was surprisingly cool with it.  Just in time too. 

The world was falling apart. Quite literally.

A jagged line stretched across the street, chunks of cement building up around the cracks. They felt it. The whole world felt it. 

 Brody couldn't stop flipping channels as newscasters were either running or pouring dread or defeat through the screens, grabbing the hearts of viewers and crushing them with news:

The end had come.

Special monuments and historical spots had broken down or crumbled into dust. Buildings were swallowed in the ground and people were frantic and frenzied and under pressure. No one knew what was going on. This couldn't have been human done.

"There was a hiccup," Paris explained. "In the universe."

"A hiccup?" Lucan asked.

"A hiccup," said HB. She threw her head back with a laugh. "That's great."

He picked up the marker and drew a straight line across. "So this is our universe." He drew a big circle on one end and wrote 'Good' and at the other end, he drew another big circle and wrote 'Bad'. Then on the line, from 'Good' to 'Bad', he put some words down: 'Time', 'Karma', 'Little tiny people (humans and other dumb creatures)'.

"So. This is our whole universe." He circled everything on the whiteboard. "It's half bad and half good." He scribbled something on the side.

"Is that Delilah?"

"It's Delilah," he explained. Then he drew more scribbles on the opposite end of the spectrum. "These are angels." He scribbled more, one especially fatter than the other. "And this is us: the cosmic spirits."

"Who is the fat one?" asked Brody.

"HB," Paris said.

She grabbed the marker out of his hand and made the other figure really round. "And that's you."

Paris grinned from ear to ear. "Someone give us couple of the year," he said.

"So this is a diagram of the balanced universe," Brody said, still trying to grasp his head around what was going on.

"Yeap," he said. Then he grabbed a red marker and gave us a smile. "And this our universe now." He drew more scribbles on the bad side. 

 Suddenly, with magic in the room the straight light began tilting on the bad side, everything falling down the line and colliding into the bad side. Then he whipped out his gun and shot the line many times before smoke poured out of the barrel. 

 "That's what will happen. We'll all fucking die as long as her children are alive."

"You want to kill Delilah's kids?" Lucan asked.

"That's sick," Brody spat, stepping away.

"I'm not asking," Paris said.

"We're telling." HB took a step up. "They have an instinct to kill her as well. Even though they ran off last night, they're going to come back to murder Delilah and Ryland."

"Why the fuck are their children so vicious?" Brody shouted.

"Because they are literally the children of Delilah," Paris explained. "Like, I feel I don't emphasize enough that Delilah is actually the Devil."

"She doesn't act like it," Brody said. "Where's the horns and fork?"

"Her stay on Earth has been extended. The more the cosmic spirits are on Earth, the more it humanizes them," Paris said.

"We've been humanized immensely," said HB.

Brody rubbed his fingers across his temples, shaking his head like mad. "I can't. I'm sorry but I can't kill children. You're fucking insane."

"They're not even children!" HB exclaimed. "They're fucking demons that are fucking up our universe. And if we don't do something soon, they will not only fuck up all the planets, your world and your town, but they'll get into the time chambers and fuck up time and the cosmic forces and essentially—everything will be destroyed."

"All because Ryland's sperm was a fast swimmer," Paris concluded.

"Fuck, Ryland," Lucan grumbled.

"Why do you have to have a vagina?" whined Paris. "God—this is why protection is important people. You could be sleeping with the Devil."

Delilah glared at all of them, grabbing the air and smacking them over the heads with it. "Can I just have one moment without mockery about my sex life?"

"Or love life," coughed Paris.

"So what's it gonna be?" Lucan said, standing in front of everyone. "What are we going to do?"

"We're gonna kill two devils," HB stated, already getting up from her seat.

"No." Brody got up too but for different reasons. "I can't do it. I can't fucking kill children! That's sick and disgusting and-and-and fuck you all!" He stalked off, leaving the room with a door slam.

"I left the spirit world for a reason," Lucan said. He glanced at Delilah with longing eyes, deep with sorrow and pain that she contributed to at one point. "But I won't forget my place. I'll help."

"Delilah?" asked HB.

"Do you even have to ask?" she said, giving her friend a small shove.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." She clapped her hands together, already grabbing the marker out of Paris's hand. She began making a list until Paris cleared his throat.

He stepped forward, voice a bit uneasy. "What about Ryland?"

"Ryland can go fuck himself," said HB, and continued scribbling.

Lucan scratched the back of his head. "I hate to say it but Love boy has a point. We need to know if Ryland is in or out."

"Has anyone tried calling him again?" Paris asked.

Everyone's gaze darted to Delilah who looked awfully offended. "What? You think I'd call him every fucking second? He could be dead in a priest hole for all I care," she lied. She watched her friend's faces change to shock, and she was glad at least she could lie to someone in this room.

Lucan pulled his phone out and dialed. HB, not giving a fuck, rambled on about all the things they needed to bring. "We'll leave tonight. We can't waste any time. Who knows how long it'll take for the demon children to come back."

Suddenly Lucan's voice cut everyone's thoughts in half. Delilah's heart pumped in her chest and she was seconds away from ripping that phone out of his hand if it weren't for Paris who grabbed her wrist.

Lucan nodded. "Yeah. Okay."

Delilah tried reading his face but failed to make up of anything that she was certain about. He nodded again and noticed everyone was staring. He softly put the phone down, putting him on speaker.

Ryland's voice came pouring out, not realizing he was on speaker. It seemed like he was already talking about something with Lucan and he wasn't stopping, voice fast and slightly frantic.

"What's with all the voicemails and messages? Have you ever tried waking up to a stranger's bedroom? How the fuck do I get out of here? Shit—she's breathing. Hold on. Let me move."

Everyone's bones stiffened, all eyes falling to Delilah. Her face was emotionless and still, and no one could read what was going on in her mind.

"Okay, Lucan," he said, voice a little louder. "I'm free for a little while until she wakes up again. What do you need?"

The silence never felt so deadly. Their gaze felt like needles but instead of squirming, she let it sink through her skin and hit her bones, sending every nerve off except the outside.

"Lucan? Hello?" he whispered a little louder.

Paris quickly grabbed the phone and hung up. The silence still felt just as fragile and Delilah hadn't moved.

"So he was fucking some girl when you were in labor with his children," said HB. She paused. "I've heard worse." She continued scrawling on the whiteboard.

Delilah knew she should've taken the same action, ignore it all and move on because there was nothing she could do.

But the human part of her was coming in like a flood and she felt her bones crumble under their stares, feeling the weight of emotions that sat on her shoulders.

She crumbled down to the floor, legs breaking out as she sagged to the ground. HB dropped the marker and kneeled to her side, stroking her hair.

Paris quickly ran to the kitchen to fetch a water or something else he thought was useful. Lucan just stood there, arms crossed and watched Delilah break down into an ugly sob.

"Why does it hurt so much," she rasped between sobs. She clutched the blanket thrown over her, wanting to wrap it around herself so tight that she couldn't breathe. Maybe it'll all go away if she couldn't breathe. That seemed reasonable.

"It's supposed to," said HB. "Trust me. I would know." She rubbed her hand up and down her, speaking sweet nothings and lies into her ear that somehow soothed her. A bit.

Delilah didn't want the support or comfort and wanted to bury herself in a corner and die but Delilah opened up to them, as her sadness brought them closer.

She hated it but it was what a human would want.

It was what Delilah wanted.

+++

A/N:  

Please vote and comment on my story!! :)

Love you lots, 

xx 3.14