It was hot for mid-May, but Cecilio couldn't know this since the AC was keeping the shop fresh. If he wanted to see someone struggling due to the heat he only had to lift his eyes and see how the demon across the street was fighting to keep his cool demeanor even if he wasn't cool at all. It didn’t help that he was dressed in some gray jeans, a black tank top and a leather jacket that made him look bigger than he already was. To any outsider, that tall man standing still in the street looked unbothered, but Cecilio knew how much he hated being covered in sweat. An ick of his.
This demon’s name was something in a language that predates society as we know it, and that brings in panic and misery if you even dare to mutter it. Cecilio didn’t care much to remember it after hearing it once and opted to name him André.
He worked for Cecilio after getting in a really bad contract with him, one where Cecilio had complete ownership of him. How did that happen? Well, not all witches worked with demons. Most of them, against popular belief, didn’t even like the assumption of those deceiving creatures being involved in their craft. Cecilio himself didn’t even consider himself a satanist since he was raised catholic, yet one day this silly demon that was starting to feel the wetness in his forehead committed a great offense against him, and now he has to pay it with his whole immortal life.
The opportunity presented itself for a contract to be signed, and who was Cecilio to turn down a powerful ally? A nice deal if u asked him.
A demon possessed many abilities that Cecilio craved, and when the deal was done, he enjoyed having a hellhound as an errand boy and bodyguard. You needed one when you were so busy having to organize the assembly, dialogue with the non-human creatures of the earth, and keep the overall peace and secrecy of this bussines. A nice side of this arrangement is how Cecilio was constantly entertained by him. Today the show was seeing how André made people across the street uncomfortable with his human form.
If his nasty aura and muscular physique didn’t terrify you already, the ornamented tattoo around his neck that resembled a collar made out of vines, a tongue piercing he showed to a bratty boy that was annoying him, and the permanent scorn on his face made people cross the street as quickly as they saw him. Thankfully André covered that pair of unnerving yellow eyes with sunglasses, the same eyes that were staring right at Cecilio with a frown so he would let him in.
Cecilio made André wait 5 minutes more just because he felt like it. Only when he saw Lila about to get out of the bookshop with a broom in her hand ready to get the demon away from her bussines is that Cecilio made a gesture with his hand, giving him permission. André crossed the street and walked into the now empty store, turned around the “Open” sign, and closed the curtain before approaching the counter and softly putting his hands on it.
“I waited an hour,” Whispered André.
“Good boy, you could’ve waited longer.”
“Is hot today, Cecilio,” he was ignored, his boss being more interested in the book he was reading. “I burn easily.”
“With how pale you are I thought I was making you a favor,” he said, passing the page and ignoring his company.
“I hate sweating too. Is the most disgusting thing a human body does.”
“There are worst things but you wouldn’t know, you’ve been stuck as one for only a year now.”
André growled but controlled himself. Even if he despised this human form there was nothing he could do. In his contract, it was stipulated that he needed to look this way to walk around the city and make himself useful to his boss. The problem wasn’t because of his looks since he found himself really attractive, André only thought that being a human was disgusting. When he was a hellhound, he didn’t sweat or needed to take showers every day. His beautiful fur was always pristinely clean and smelled freshly of sulfur. Humans got dirty so quickly that it bothered him a lot.
“I don’t like how my tan always gets uneven…. And I don’t tan at all. I get all red and it itches,” complained André. “I burn.”
“Why are you so worried about getting burnt? Isn’t hell hot already? Wear sunscreen, but don’t ask me for a raise to get it.”
“... You don’t pay me.”
André backed off when Cecilio looked up, and the tattoo around his thick neck started feeling tighter. It was just his mind playing tricks since Cecilio wasn't doing anything to his collar.
“I don’t get paid to hear you complain, now stop it. How’s the city?”
“Radiant to the point it disgusts me,” he frowned.
The comment made Cecilio laugh. “That means is clean from the likes of you that don’t ask permission before passing by.”
André rolled his eyes in disinterest at his boss’ joy. If it were by him, he would’ve left a city as pure as this as quickly as he saw there was close to no room for sin, especially in this street. It was as if it was washed with holy water and impregnated with cleansing oils every night. It made his skin tickle whenever he stepped on those accursed cobblestones, but that's what he gets for working under a Grand Witch that oversaw the balance in that territory, and that liked peace over chaos. He took off his glasses to look at Cecilio, who still ignored him and passed a hand over his black hair.
“How long do you think this peace will last?”
“Why do you ask?” he wrote something in the margin of the book before passing the page.
“Just a feeling I got… Because you know it, that peace doesn't last forever and...”
André was interrupted the moment a bundle of dried herbs that was hanging from the ceiling fell on his head, and the thorns from the dried roses poked him in the forehead. He bled a little, a substance that looked and smelled like tar, and that he immediately cleaned with the tissue box Cecilio, still not looking at him, pushed his way.
André swiped clean his blood from the already closed wound and pouted. “That was childish, witch.”
“I didn’t do anything other than read my book. Now I’m done. We have work to do,” he closed his book and lifted the counter so André went with him to the back of the shop.
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