Page 85 of Interior Design for Demons
“You picked up all these, and nothing we need for actual design?”
“The wood,” I tell her. “I’ve got wood. We can have as much wood as we want.”
“You’ve got wood.” She stares for a second, then cracks into giggles. I join her, laughing hysterically, helplessly, until Apollyon stalks over and inspects us with a quizzical expression. “Everything all right, ladies?”
“Just fine,” I gasp. “Look at these. Aren’t they cute?”
He lifts an eyebrow at the miniature TV and Blu-ray I’m holding up. “Very cute.” Then his eyes flick up to mine, warming with an unspoken,And so are you.
There’s a moment of breathless tension as the air thrums taut and hot between us. Then he inhales, quick and sharp. “Please place your items in that receptacle—” he points to a white bin on a table behind us— “while I check on the other teams.”
As he walks away, Hisae and I do as he requested. Aghilas and Amanda look moderately pleased with their collection of items, but Zade and Maksim are arguing in low, vicious tones over their mishmash of resources.
“The tension between you and Apollyon,” says Hisae quietly. “It is powerful.”
“It’s nothing,” I murmur. “It can never become anything.”
She nods, sympathy shading her features.
“Excellent work, everyone,” Apollyon says in his smooth crowd-pleasing tone. “In the absence of our judges today, I will announce the rooms you’ll be decorating. Many demons are hedonistic, as you have probably noticed. We like to enjoy ourselves in so many delightful little ways. You’ve already designed demonic chambers for sleep and sex, and you’ve created dining spaces—so for this round you’ll be creating other areas where we can enjoy ourselves. Recreational spaces. And this is a broad assignment, open to your own interpretation. Do what you like with it. Please discuss your concepts for the next few minutes, until your demonic teammates arrive to show you to your assigned spaces.”
I grip Hisae’s wrist. “We should do a movie theater. Demons love TV and movies! And they probably like human games, too! The Sims and The Walking Dead and Resident Evil—stuff like that.”
She grabs my other hand. “Movie and gaming theater!” And we squeal like a pair of high-schoolers.
My random assortment of items is going to pay off after all. No one else took any electronics, except for Aghilas, who had the presence of mind to grab a small lamp.
“It is weird that I’m actually excited for this round?” I whisper. “A test of our skill without all those extra advantages? Without relying on anyone else’s furnishings or art?”
“Your excitement is weird, yes, but good.” She gives me a small smile. “We can do this, you and I. But our styles are very different. We will have to plan carefully.”
She’s right. I tend toward rich, dark, luxurious rooms, while she likes airy, crisp, minimalistic spaces. We could be good for each other. She can help me pare down my style, and I’ll help her with layering more elements into hers. Besides, the whole movie theater thing tends toward darker, richer styling anyway, so I’ll be in my element for this round.
My excitement lasts for most of the following three days of hard work—constructing a slanted seating area within our recreation space, requesting a giant version of the TV I picked up on assignment day, hooking up normal-sized versions of the other equipment.
Rusala and one of Hisae’s helpers work on the chair frames I designed, while the other demons craft padded seats and upholstery with the cotton and the material Hisae picked up. She chose a durable creamy fabric, and we end up having to use it not only for the chairs but also for the walls, as well as turning it into makeshift carpeting. Under the material on the walls and flooring, we layer more of the cotton batting, both for aesthetics and for sound control. The room doesn’t have scientifically perfect acoustics, but hey—we’re designers, not engineers.
Thanks to the paint she grabbed, Hisae is able to spruce up the creamy walls with some stenciled designs—gorgeous sprays of poisonous flowers and carnivorous plants, crooked skeletons locked in deathly, beautiful dances, and tall sketchy figures with horns and wings, trailing curls of smoke from their bodies. It’s the touch of darkness we need, the acknowledgement of where we are and the clients for whom we’re working.
By the end of deadline, the room is a comfortable movie theater with deathly pretty walls, cushy seating, and a gigantic screen hooked up to a Blu-ray player and gaming console. Artificial plants cover the ceiling and drape in long tendrils like a hanging garden. Since I grabbed the doll-sized Blu-ray case, we were allowed to request some games and movies to include in the room, too. The only thing we’re lacking is some really good speakers. The built-in ones will have to do.
“These chairs are fantastic,” Hisae says, sinking into one of them with a sigh.
“Thanks,” I tell her. “I actually love designing furniture, and the software on here makes it fairly easy.” I tap my work tablet. “If I had to build it all myself, though, it would look a lot different.” I elbow Rusala, and he leans in to snap playfully at my earlobe.
“You’d be lost without me, sweetling,” he croons.
Slate moves in on my other side. Unlike Rusala, she looks grave beneath the heartbeat tattoo across her face. “Do you think this is enough?”
I scan the room—custom built-ins and seating area designed by me, walls beautifully stenciled by Hisae. She and I made some extra pillows, too—hand-painted with skulls and vines, artfully placed in some of the chairs. There are no lights—we’ve had to use portable lamps while we worked. But since we plan to leave the TV on to provide light for the judges, hopefully our lack of lighting won’t be too obvious.
It’s plainer than the other rooms I’ve done. But there’s a restrained, simple beauty to it, too—a blending of comfort and airy loveliness, with a touch of ingenious luxury in the slide-out design of the movie storage I created.
“Is it enough?” I repeat the question slowly, meeting the eyes of each person in the room, one after another. “I’m not sure. But I’m proud of it.”
Episode 7 proves to be more painful to watch than I anticipated. It’s a long one, with lots of screen time devoted to our tearful meetings with our loved ones from the Pit. But worse still are the interviews the demons conducted privately with our loved ones, without our presence or knowledge. Amanda’s sister is a torment of tears, barely intelligible. Hisae’s guy—apparently an ex-boyfriend and her first love—speaks in Japanese, which of course the demons can understand but I can’t.
And then there’s my dad, whose earnest eyes bulge at the camera, whose lips tremble as he confesses, “I was the world’s worst father. My choices were like—like a cancer, mutating and destroying everything I touched. It’s no wonder Grace hates me. I hurt so many weak, helpless, pliable people, and I—I didn’t care, not for a long time. I despised those people for their vulnerability. And Grace is the same way. She hates weakness. She’s so determined to be strong, and she’s suspicious of every man who has ever tried to get close to her. She’s afraid they have hidden wickedness, you see, like I did. But with this red-haired demon, this Apollyon—she has no secrets to fear, see? That’s why she likes him. His sins are all out in the open. He may be the only one who can ever really know her.”
