"What did you do to my sister⁉" Michelle demanded. Amon turned to her impassively. Did she have to be so melodramatic about it?

After Amon had shoved Nora through the portal, Ian had leapt in after her. Sophie hesitated before following suit.

Now, Amon and Michelle were standing alone in the middle of the forest, in front of two swirling vortexes. Admittedly, the one he wanted to go through looked decidedly healthier, but the other one was still perfectly fine. So what, exactly, was the sister whining about?

"She's fine, don't worry." Amon told her. For now, at least. He wasn't quite sure what they'd do to her if she was caught in the Realm of Rage. He made a move to enter the second portal, but Michelle grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop.

"You pushed her!" she screamed. "Into who knows where!"

Yes. Yes, he did push her. But he was pretty sure they all knew exactly where she'd gone. He was about to point this out, when Michelle's glare softened and her eyes became watery.

"What if we can't ever find her again?"

Amon sighed. He guessed he did owe the human some sort of explanation. Especially since he was going to need her.

Amon thought back to last night. As they'd made their way up to the hotel room, that boy had pulled him aside. "Michelle doesn't know...about any of this." he'd whispered urgently.

"Who's Michelle?" Amon asked. He'd been introduced to a lot of people recently. And sure, he'd met some of them before. But Amon had never been one to bother learning other people's names.

"Nora's sister."

"I see." Amon said. So, as they went over what was happening and what they were going to do about it, they were all going to have to pretend to be human— for the sister's sake. And now, everyone else was gone, and it was up to him to explain it all to her. Somehow, this hadn't been the game he'd thought he'd end up playing.

"She's in the Realm of Rage." Amon told her. "With her boyfriend."

He still found it strange that the human was dating someone from Rage. The denizens of Rage weren't known to tolerate humans all that well.

"But how do you know?"

"The ring she has. It's clearly from another realm. When I first met her...I thought she was from there— not the ring. And she was able to pass through the portal— that one goes to Rage or it doesn't work at all. Now, are you ready for our part?"

That seemed to satisfy her. She hesitated, but finally she managed a somewhat shaky nod. He took her hand, trying to act like a gentleman for once. There was no sense in alarming her before they even crossed over; this was supposed to be the easy part.

They stepped through the portal.

The world seemed to spin a bit, and the air left for just a second or two. Then, everything snapped back into focus. Michelle leaned heavily on his arm, gasping for breath. Clearly, she was more bothered by the travel than he was.

The sky was dark, like a storm was brewing in the ominous orange sky. That's how it always looked in the Realm of Terror. The coal-black cliff they'd landed on was cracked and barren, and the city below was full of dark, jagged buildings.

Home.

He'd almost forgotten how much he loved the place.

"...Where are we?" Michelle asked quietly.

"The Realm of Terror." Amon told her, not taking his eyes off the glorious sight. Then he added, "Humans sometimes call it Hell."

He didn't know why he said that last part. Maybe he thought she deserved the truth just once; she had apparently been lied to an awful lot by the people around her. Or maybe, he simply wanted to see the hope melt off her face. But after he said it, he felt just the tiniest bit guilty. Amon scoffed at his own weakness. Clearly, he'd been away too long.

"You dragged me to Hell?" Michelle asked, eyebrows practically in her hairline. He couldn't quite read the expression on her face. He did know she didn't look happy. He was surprised that the look didn't give him the joy it used to.

"I believe you volunteered to come with me." he reminded her. She hadn't wanted her sister to be alone with him.

"...So, where do we go?" Michelle asked, ignoring his last comment.

Amon bent his knees until he was at her eye level. He leaned close, and, looking over the cliff, extended his arm. "See that building over on the left?" he asked, pointing at the tallest, most craggy building on the horizon.

"The super foreboding one?" Michelle asked.

"That's the one."

"Oh good." Michelle rolled her eyes. But she couldn't hide her fear from him.

"Ready?"

"Oh yeah. Bring it on."

Amon grinned. If nothing else, he admired her moxie.

They crawled down the narrow path from the top of the cliff, only skidding a few times. Once, Michelle slipped, and he had to catch her to keep her from falling off the edge of the mountainside. There was, of course, that little part of him that wanted to just let her fall. What was a human life, in the grand scheme of things? And if she died and her soul ended up here as a direct result of his actions, it would only enhance his reputation. He had the distinct impression that his reputation had taken a terrible hit since he'd stationed himself in the human realm. Any boost to that could only be a good thing.

But he didn't. He told himself it was only because having a partner on this journey was to his benefit. There was no other reason. It definitely was not because humans and their empathy were rubbing off on him.

They got down to the bottom of the cliff. This was where the hard part would be. They were either going to have to go around the outskirts of the city to avoid any demons lurking inside, or they were going to have to stroll right through, acting as if they belonged. Amon turned to Michelle.

"Do you trust me?" he asked. Her reply was instantaneous.

"Absolutely not."

"Really?" He had to admit, he was a little taken aback. "But I saved you four times up on the mountainside."

"Three times." she snapped. "And one of those was only because you bumped into me in the first place."

Amon grinned despite himself.

"And that has nothing to do with trust anyway." Michelle continued on. "That only has to do with not murdering me."

"It wouldn't have been murder." Amon insisted. "It would only be—"

"Negligent homicide." Michelle cut in.

"That's not what homicide is." Amon scoffed. Then, he got control of himself. "That's not the point. I wanted to know—"

"If I trust you. Yeah, I heard."

"Well, that's irrelevant." Amon said. Seeing Michelle's face, he found himself backtracking. "I mean...I..."

"Yeah?"

Amon cleared his throat. Who was this human? Why was he allowing himself to be unbalanced like this? He was a Marquis in the Realm of Terror. And she was nobody in either realm.

"I was merely going to warn you. There is an easy way to go through here and a hard one."

"Oh, oh! Let me guess! The easy one has some weird catch, doesn't it?" Michelle asked. "...We're going to go with the hard one, aren't we?"

Amon fought down a growl. He was getting really tired of this little human.

"We can spend almost a week skirting the city. Or we can go straight through." He could see she was about to open her mouth again, so he hurried on. "But in order to go through the city, there's something you should know."

For once, Michelle didn't seem to have anything to say. Instead, she waited with arms crossed for him to continue.

"This realm... This is my home." he told her.

"Oh, I'm sure it is." Michelle rolled her eyes. "I mean, just look at you."

"Yes." Amon grinned. "Just look at me."

This was it, she'd practically asked him to do it. And not only was he getting tired of kowtowing to someone so much less than he was, but he was tired of hiding who he was in general.

He smiled at her, allowing his wings to rip from his back. Long black horns swept up from his forehead, and his incisors lengthened into fangs. He looked back at Michelle just in time to hear her scream.