Page 2 of Hellfire & Bowties
He watched them take in his words, horror painted on their faces, screams echoing around the room as they shuffled farther away from him, the ones at the front clearly wishing they could just sink into the ground and disappear.
“No need to be shy. I’m not gonna hurt you,” Luc cooed. He gave them a few precious moments to relax a tiny bit before grinning. “I have people for that.”
He turned to Zorun to see if he liked the joke but got nothing but an eye roll from his second-in-command.
Rude.
“Okay, we need to be fast and organized.” Luc dropped the act, waving the clipboard and his colorful sticky notes in the air. “You’ll be divided by sin and sent with your group leader to the appropriate level. Your pain tolerance assessment starts in half an hour. You’ll be tested for various forms of torture, and then the most suitable one will be chosen for you. If you disagree with your torture method, you can fill out a form and appeal within two weeks. You will be reassessed if need be.”
He walked over to the crowd, who were still shivering and watching him with fearful eyes. He knew they were confused, but they’d get over it soon. Once the torture began, they all found their footing and knew their schedules, so they settled in easier. The first day was always the hardest, especially since their numbers had started growing. Luc had no idea what was happening with the world, but if it continued, he’d absolutely have to talk with Upstairs about some extensions to his space.
“All right, I want all the adulterers over here by that pillar. Kassel is your group leader. The purple one with the eyes. Kassel, please wave so they can see you. You will be Team Green for the orientation,” Luc said, watching them shuffle silently past toward Kassel, who had waved once, his array of multicolored eyes blinking languidly.
Luc reached out and stuck green sticky notes on the adulterers’ shirts as they passed, feeling them flinch when he touched them.
“Thieves, you’ll be Team Red. Azoth and Tarik are your group leaders, over there. No, you’re not seeing double. They’re twins.” His words were broken up by the high-pitched whistle Tarik letout to let them know where to go. Several of them kept checking their pockets with one hand while simultaneously reaching into others’ pockets to steal whatever they had on them.
Luc didn’t bother to tell them they hadn’t brought anything but the clothes on their backs. And even those wouldn’t last very long. The fires of Hell were no joke.
He shook his head and continued dividing the groups, breaking up a few fights and raising his voice to quiet down a few of the chattier ones in the murderers’ group. They were always the most annoying to him. Something about their constant excuses grated on his nerves.
When all the groups were standing where they were supposed to, color-coded and matched with their group leaders, Luc smiled and put the clipboard down.
“Okay, great. Good job, everyone,” he said. “I know this is all confusing and weird, but if you listen to your group leaders and follow instructions, you should have no issues fitting in. After all, these are your people here. You’ll be escorted to your rooms now to get settled in, and you’ll get a schedule for the rest of your eternity here. We’ll make sure it’s never boring. Thank you for your attention and have a pleasant stay.”
He clapped once then looked at Zorun.
“That went well, I think,” he said. He was turning to leave when Zorun cleared his throat.
“Um, boss?”
Luc looked over his shoulder. “Hm?”
He followed the tilt of Zorun’s four horns to the middle of the lobby, where a tiny figure stood all alone, looking at everything and everyone with bewilderment.
He looked young. Messy honey-blond hair floated around his ears and neck, and huge green eyes framed with thick, dark glasses took everything around him in with a slight gape on his lips. He was slim and short, and he kept his arms wrappedaround his torso as he stood frozen in place. His pale blue slacks were tight around his thighs and paired with a darker blue shirt, a yellow blazer, and a blue-and-yellow checked bowtie. He looked like a ball of cotton candy. A very shocked, very out-of-place ball of cotton candy.
Luc had to admit that even after an eternity in Hell, he had never thought of any human who’d come there as cute. But pits of hell was this man cute. Luc didn’t usually go for that vanilla human vibe, but he couldn’t deny the stirring of interest way down south that urged him to take that small body and see just how they could fit together.
Luc bet he would stretchjuuuustright.
He cast his mind away from the sinful thoughts, more pressing matters taking precedence. Like why the human was still there at all.
Luc walked over slowly, a frown on his face as he stared down at the young man.
“Why are you still standing there?”
The man blinked up at him, craning his neck to account for the height difference between them. The top of his head barely reached the middle of Luc’s chest, which didn’t help the whole ‘wanting to fuck him right on the spot’ predicament. It just gave Luc even more interesting ideas for positions.
“Um…” the human said, his voice cracking and words getting lodged in his throat as he stared up at Luc in awe. Luc had been on the receiving end of those sorts of looks for centuries—a sprinkle of fear mixed into a cocktail of horniness.
Luc had never felt even slightly tempted to respond before. He’d never had to fight for professionalism. He was the boss of Hell, for Heaven’s sake.
“Name?” Luc asked, trying to get something out of the man.
The human shook himself out of his stupor and held out his hand to Luc. “Oren.”
“Okay, Oren, hi. I’m Luc,” he said, indulging in the silly little human display of politeness and reaching out a clawed hand to engulf Oren’s with it. His skin was warm to the touch, his palm tiny and fragile in Luc’s hold. “Why aren’t you with your group?”
