Accidental Summoning

VWAP.

"UNH!"

Paul had the air driven from his lungs as he landed flat on his back. The ground was made of some sort of spongy material that stretched like a trampoline, which was fortunate because they had materialized in mid-air. Desdemona was still wrapped around him, and he had managed to land with her right on top of him. He lay dazed for a moment, his anger and fear momentarily forgotten in the fact that it was suddenly really hard to breathe.

"Whoops!" said Desdemona cheerfully. "Sorry about that, babe. I haven't done a two-person teleport in a while." She gave a large, sharp-toothed smile down into his dazed and angry face and gave him a quick kiss on his forehead. "C'mon, let's go." She pushed off of him and got to her feet. Paul lay there in shock with his brain still trying to catch up with events. He'd been kidnapped to Hell, or as near as made no difference. And all because he'd decided to be clever and try to use actual ancient Sumerian in his art project. And then, because he was an idiot, he had gone and fucked a demon.

The demon in question put her hands on her hips and looked down at him. "Are you gonna lie there all day?" she asked. She had a little sardonic smirk on her red face that made Paul's blood boil. He just wanted to jump up and punch that smirk right off her face, but he figured that was never going to happen. She looked strong enough to pull his arms off if she wanted to.

He took in a painful breath. "You take me back home right now!"

"Nope. Now stop being silly and get up."

He knew it was foolish, but he couldn't stop his own mouth "Listen, you little-" his mouth stopped dead as he looked up beyond Desdemona's head.

The sky was on fire.

It was filled with a deep amber glow that shifted and rolled like surf crashing into shore. The sight drove home like nothing else the fact that he was no longer anywhere close to home. He was well and truly in Hell. Paul felt a great despair rise in his chest as he realized he was never going to see a blue sky again. He would never again talk to his kid sister. Poor Liselle was going to be frantic when he was reported missing.

And all because of this...this

bitch

.

"Paul," said Desdemona. "It's a done deal. You're here. Just accept it."

He wanted to curse her out, but decided that keeping his anger in check was the best strategy for now. Desdemona was the only person he knew in this place, and she was probably the only one who could get him home.

Paul rolled over and pushed himself up off of the floor. They had landed in the center of a large shallow bowl that was the color of bleached skin. It was about a hundred feet across. The perimeter of the bowl was ringed with black basaltic rock, and beyond the lip he could see a multitude of different shapes milling around.

As he looked around in a mixture of fright and curiosity, he heard another 'VWAP' and a demon appeared in mid-air nearby. The newcomer gracefully tucked and rolled as she landed, then sprang to her feet. The new demon looked in general like Desdemona. She had the same short hair, the same glowing yellow eyes, the same horns, and the same long prehensile tail-cock. And like Desdemona she wasn't wearing a single damn thing. But she was deep green instead of brick red. She was also shorter and more slender, whereas Desdemona looked like she could wrestle a grizzly and win.

The new demon walked up and gargled something at Desdemona, who gargled right back. Their language was very guttural, to the point of almost sounding subsonic. Paul realized what his captor had meant earlier when she said he couldn't pronounce her real name. He would need to add about ten inches to the length of his throat to recreate those sounds.

Beyond the lip of the bowl, he saw other demons walking past, as well as the occasional human. The demons were every color of the rainbow, from blue all the way to black. Each of the humans had an odd glowing rune hovering above their head. The runes were an assortment of different twisting shapes and colors. The humans were just as naked as the demons...or for that matter, as naked as himself. Desdemona had whisked him away before he'd had a chance to get his pants back on. Ordinarily, he would feel embarrassed but right now he had bigger problems to worry about.

Everything was bathed in a twilight orange glow from the flaming sky. He realized he was sweating slightly. It was hot, but less hot than he'd expected for a hell dimension. Thankfully it was not humid. Maybe the heat was why everybody walked around naked?

"Who's the new guy?" asked the green demon in English, and Paul snapped his attention back to her. She had a rounder, more cherub-like face than Desdemona, and she was just about his height. The green demon gave him a wink. It was not an innocent wink; she also stuck out the tip of her black tongue and waggled it at him.

Paul felt Desdemona step up behind him and hug him to her, which coincidentally smashed his head right in between those impressive tits of hers. He didn't exactly mind that, and felt a little of his fear and anger ebb. "He's mine," growled Desdemona. "Cripes, Alichino, can't you even wait until I get my sigil on him?"

"Just teasing, Des." Alichino gave him a blatant up-and-down appraisal. "He's cute." She leaned forward and sniffed. "He smells interesting. Kind of spicy. Where'd you get him? Did the Alkenor give him to you in exchange for you

not

smashing them into little tiny bits?"

Desdemona sighed. "No, I still need to go do the Alkenor thing."

"What? I thought you already headed out to show the flag."

"It's a long story, Ali. I'd love to stay and chat but I've got to get this guy all squared away and then head back out. Can I call on you later?"

"Sure. But it better be a good story. It's been ages since you've actually put a sigil on one of 'em." Alichino gave Paul another wink and walked away.

Desdemona gave Paul a little tighter hug. "Watch out for that one," she said. "She's almost as randy as I am. Now we really should get going." She stepped away, and Paul felt a brief sadness that he wasn't in contact with that magnificent rack any more.

He though briefly about making a break for it, but dismissed the idea. Right now, he should keep by Desdemona's side. The two demons that Paul had met so far seemed at least somewhat pleasant...well, aside from the whole 'kidnapping to Hell' thing. But he had the uneasy suspicion that there were other beings around here that would be perfectly fine with fucking him to death, eating him, or both. Besides, he had no idea if there was any safe place that he could run

to

.

They walked to the edge of the bowl and stepped up and out. The bowl was set in the middle of a huge plaza paved with the same black basalt as the bowl's edge. Desdemona began walking through the crowd with long strides of her muscular legs. The crowd, both demon and human, parted to let her pass. Paul had to jog briskly in her wake to keep up. He noted that the humans avoided looking at them both as they passed. As for the demons, they avoided looking at her but seemed to be very interested in him.

Paul had an intuition that Desdemona was pretty high up in whatever sort of demonic hierarchy they had here. He also very certain of his own place here. He was her pet at best, a walking fuck-toy at worst. If he hadn't been jogging, he would have kicked himself. When she'd mentioned that the demons controlled certain timelines of Earth, she had referred to those timelines as 'domesticated'. That hadn't been a mis-translation or euphemism, it had been the literal truth. And he had completely misread that 'care' he thought he'd seen deep in her eyes when she had first truly dominated him...right before she had fucked him silly. That apparent affection had been nothing more than that of a teenager gushing over a cute puppy.

The jogging plus the dry heat was making him sweat like crazy. He was beginning to understand why nobody wore clothes around here. Not that it made him feel any less ridiculous to be running along with his wang flopping around. Maybe he could at least ask Desdemona to spring for a loincloth or something before she shoved him into that cage she had mentioned.

They finally reached the edge of the circular plaza. There was another, larger basalt lip. Perched around the perimeter were huge beasts, each the size of an elephant. Paul looked at them uneasily; these creatures looked like giant spiders made out of raw meat. They pressed the little switch in the back of his hindbrain that said

Run the fuck away!

, but his captor just marched right up to them.

Desdemona patted the leg of one in particular and yelled up at it. "Helknor, ya great lump! How are you doin'?"

The giant creature shuffled around on its long red legs and regarded them both. It had four eyes arranged in a line on its...face, for lack of a better term. Those eyes blinked wetly and were almost human-looking, although they were also the size of dinner plates. Below the eyes, where the mouth would be on a terrestrial spider, was a multitude of long grasping digits. Each digit was the size of Paul himself, and they all twitched as if the beast wanted to grab and devour him.

It spoke to Desdemona in a booming, modulated honk that sounded like a yak being beaten to death. Paul almost wanted to clap his hands over his ears at the horrible noise.

"I know I just left," replied Desdemona. "I need a lift back to my place. Well,

we

need a lift back." She placed one arm over Paul's shoulders and curled her tail around his midriff. The bulbous tip of her tail-cock poked him teasingly in the back. Paul would have blushed except his brain was too busy trying to climb out through his ears in sheer terror.

Those huge eyes turned to Paul, and he thought that Helknor actually looked surprised. The beast gave another booming honk.

"Yeah, I know it's been a long time. What of it?" She sounded slightly defensive. "Can we just get going?"

Helknor gave a shrug of several glistening red shoulders and leaned forward, reaching for them with those horrible grasping mouth-digits. They were red and raw, and their surface was striated like muscle tissue. Paul also saw they were tipped with small black claws. He would have run except for Desdemona's firm arm around his shoulder and tail-cock wrapped around his waist.

Paul drew breath to scream, but then those limbs were on him. Desdemona let go of him as the limbs gently grabbed him around the waist and buttocks. They easily lifted him up off the ground. He was held under the thing's head right alongside Desdemona, who had gotten a similar treatment. The creature's skin was not as slimy as Paul had expected. It felt more like damp leather against his bare skin.

She gave a glance at his fearful face. "Oh, shit. I forgot you're from a time-line that hasn't seen a xemite before. Don't worry, they're friendly...mostly. And Helknor is an old friend of mine." She affectionately patted one of the limbs holding her, and Helknor rumbled a pleased response.

Paul was about to ask about the 'mostly' part, but then with a jerk they started moving. Helknor scuttled away from the plaza, moving much faster than Paul would have expected for something that big. The beast, the xemite as Desdemona had called it, ran along what looked like a roadway made of red brick. The surrounding ground was dry and dusty, but otherwise normal. It rolled in small hills as it stretched away into the distance. Paul could see what looked like a range of dark mountains just at the horizon. There were also a group of black mountains closer by. The nearer mountains looked odd to him; they were much too skinny for their height. As Helknor ran along the roadway towards those odd mountains, his view of them got better and better.

And then he realized they weren't mountains. They were buildings.

Their black surfaces were covered with thousands of little bubble-like windows. As they drew closer, those little windows became much bigger. And the buildings soared overhead into the fire-streaked sky, taller by far than any skyscraper on Earth.

"The city of Hastur!" said Desdemona, and pointed at the cluster of buildings. "Home sweet home." She actually looked like a happy little kid. They reached the 'city limits' and sped between the huge black shapes. There didn't seem to be anything like streets; the buildings of Hastur were just plonked down at random like trees in a forest. Paul felt it get even hotter, and he could see a yellow glow in front of them. The source of that glow was blocked from view by the buildings. Helknor scampered around one building, and then Paul could see the source of that yellow glow.

It was a lake of fire. Although given its size, Paul thought perhaps 'sea' would be a better term. The vast expanse was filled with a bright yellow glow that almost looked like a plasma as it churned and rolled. It seemed to mirror the orange sky in its movements.

There was another jerk, and then Helknor started moving up the side of a building that was right by the sea of flame. Somehow those huge legs of his were able to find purchase in the slick obsidian surface of the building. Paul clutched at one of the limbs holding him as the ground dropped away with surprising speed. He tried not to whimper.

"Don't worry, baby," said Desdemona. "He hasn't dropped anybody in at least a week." Helknor gave a rumble that could be a laugh.

Paul glared at her. "I'm so glad I could be amusing to you!" he snapped.

"Oh come on, Paul, are you still mad? Fine, go ahead and get it off your chest. Really, go ahead."

He ground his teeth. This was probably a trap, to give her an excuse to abuse him later on. But right now he just didn't care. "Am I

still

mad? You fucking bitch, I just got here. You kidnap me to fucking

hell

of all places, you run me around, I'm being carried in the mouth of a motherfucking spider the size of a goddamn bus, and now we're running up the side of a building that's..." He looked down and immediately wished he hadn't. The ground was very, very far below. It almost looked like he was in an airplane. "Oh, shit-burgers-"

"And here we are!" said Desdemona cheerfully. Before he could panic some more, Helknor scrambled up onto a large ledge at the building's top, mercifully cutting off any view of the ground. The beast set down the two of them gently, then withdrew its grasping digits.

Paul resisted the urge to kneel and kiss the obsidian floor of the ledge. He turned to look at the xemite. "Um, so do we pay him for the ride, or what?"

"Father's the one who takes care of their room and board. They do accept tips, however." Helknor leaned his great head down and Desdemona gave him a vigorous scratching with the nails of one hand right below his eyes. The beast gave a

chuff

of pleasure and wriggled like a happy puppy. She turned to him. "Go on, give him scritches."

"Scritches?" But Paul hesitantly repeated Desdemona action. It felt to his fingers like he was rubbing a huge piece of uncooked beef. The xemite seemed to like it however, and gave another pleased

chuff.

"I'll see you later, Helknor," said the demon as she patted one of his huge legs. Helknor gave them a nod and scuttled away back down the side of the building.

Paul was now very aware that there was nobody else around. "Alone at last," said Desdemona. She gave him a grin like she was going to take a bite out of his neck.

He suddenly regretted yelling at her. "I, um, look...about what I said just now, you have to understand this is all a big shock for me..." he trailed off as she reached out and placed one sharp talon in the middle of his forehead.

"I let you yell at me," she said softly, "because I knew it would get your mind off of how high we were. I'm not a hard-ass, and I don't mind a little sass now and then. But don't think that you have permission to yell like that going forward. Are we clear?"

He nodded, not trusting his voice right now.

"Good." She took her nail away and gave him a happy smile. "Now let's get you taken care of." She strode away towards an archway on the side of the ledge farthest from its lip. After a bit of shaky breathing, Paul followed.

The archway led to a vaulted antechamber that enclosed a huge gray marble door. The door looked almost big enough for a bank vault. Desdemona placed one hand on the door and it swung silently inward as if motorized.

Paul expected the interior to be a bunch of black obsidian floors and black walls along with some black stone furniture all trimmed in black. But it was surprisingly colorful. They walked into a huge circular room that seemed as big across as a baseball diamond. The floor was the same gray marble as the door, and overhead was a large round skylight that showed the rolling orange sky.

The furniture was red and yellow in color. It was actually comfortable-looking, if larger than what Paul was used to. There were many chaise lounges arranged in concentric circles around a large circular basin made of the same obsidian-like material as the building itself. Across from the entrance door was a panoramic picture window that looked out over the yellow flaming sea outside. Several archways around the perimeter led out of the room.

Desdemona spread her arms to indicate the space. "Here we are, your new home."

The door closed silently behind them, cutting off that avenue of escape. Of course, it would only lead out to a ledge with no way down, so even if Paul could somehow get through the door then he'd have to learn how to fly. He began looking around with trepidation. There didn't seem to be any cages out here. Maybe they were in another room? He wondered if there were any other humans being kept here. He wondered if they ever thought about escape. Maybe he could organize a resistance, like in the old movies about World War 2 POW camps. Unless this was indeed the afterlife. In that case, maybe there were some actual WW2 veterans floating around that he could team up with.

"Paul," she said, and he looked over to see her standing by the big central basin. "Come here."

The basin was bigger than a hot tub and filled with clear water. There were large metal mugs placed on the floor all around it. Desdemona picked one up and filled it with water from the basin, then handed it to Paul as he walked up.

"I give you the gift of water in a dry place, O guest of my house," she said in a formal manner as Paul took the mug from her. It sounded ritualistic. He suddenly realized how thirsty he was, but paused before drinking.

"I thank you, O kind host," he replied. "I, um, is there something else I should say?"

She laughed. "You were close enough. The traditional response is 'I accept your gift gratefully, and give my thanks to those of this house.'"

Paul repeated the phrase, then took a sip. It was indeed water, cold and refreshing. It was the best thing he'd ever tasted, and he started drinking greedily from the mug.

Desdemona's tail reached up and caressed his shoulder as he drank. "Make sure you drink enough. You humans tend to get pretty parched here in Abbadon."

Paul finished the mug. "That's the name of...well, this whole place?" He motioned at the orange sky outside. She nodded, and he couldn't resist asking more. "Is this place....is this the afterlife? Am I dead?"

She smiled as if he'd said the cutest thing. "No, Paul. This is not where you go when you die. It's just another place. " The demon then took the mug from him. He was sure that now she was going to grab him by his neck and drag him off to his cage. Although she had called him a 'guest', which didn't really fit with that notion.

Instead of grabbing his neck, she bent her head down and stuck out that long black tongue of hers. She lapped at his neck and shoulders affectionately as her tail wound around his leg and squeezed. He shivered with a mixture of pleasure and fear. Desdemona gave a little hum and leaned back. "Hmm. And you definitely don't taste dead. You're nice and salty. I wish I could stay and clean you off."