“You came.”

The words were singsong, doubly sweet and lyrical in nature. A harmony laid over itself to produce a voice that was at once distinctly inhuman, and yet somehow more human than any other.

Despite that musical nature, they held no warmth. As ice filled as her eyes, the words were an accusation. Revulsion, disgust, anger and fear were the tones that swam around those two simple words, with volumes spoken in such a soft whisper.

“I did.” Came the two-toned reply. It was a feral, guttural noise that seemed obscene in the presence in such beauty. Wet and raspy in equal measures, the voice was as corrupted as the thing it belonged to.

A twisted monstrosity, too thin for its height, its bones stretched the skin to the breaking point at every joint, its ribs protruded, its face a maw of misshapen and decayed teeth that shifted and morphed into ever more hideous forms. It was humanoid, but inhuman. Too many fingers, too many joints, too many eyes. Its red skin was no more a normal human pigment than her ivory white, but in the thousand reflections of the mirrors that surrounded him it looked like nothing more than the devil rising up to corrupt Eve.

“You have been considering my offer.” It stated, more as fact than as question.

“What is there to consider?” She denied as quickly as it made the suggestion. “I’ll wait.”

“Wait.” It spat the word out, filled with mockery. “Wait, wait, wait… wait.” The last word grew deep and foul, like a dying beast trying to mutter the word as its last breath. Then it gasped, lungs refilling with air, body twitching unnaturally. “Do you really think this one will do any better.”

“You could help him.” She retorted.

It laughed, swirling around her as she stood statue still. She wasn’t afraid of it, merely impassive. Unimpressed by the theatrics. “Why would I do such a thing.”

“You claim to care about us so much.”

“Mmm, I do. But not about them. And if I help give you to them, they will use you. I’ve seen it. I know what waits at the end of all of this.”

“Better to rule in hell?” She said with the slightest hint of a smirk.

“And what if it is?!” The shriek was startling, overwhelmingly loud in the enclosed space. Its fanged maw roared into her face, turning this way and that, like a large animal trying to decide which way to devour its prey. “I will not be their tool. This construct, this new world is ours. Not theirs. Not his.”

“This one will find me.” Was her only reply as she met the thing’s eyes, unperturbed by the outburst.

“Sooner than you think. Consider my offer. Keep it as a pet if you must, but keep it caged. Suborn yourself to that human, and I will put you back in this place. To wait and wait and wait until you are mad from your own reflection.”

“I’ve heard enough Ba’al.” The girl lifted a dainty hand and waved it through the monstrosity before her. Its flesh parted like so much smoke, the rolling waves of it proceeding up and down the two halves of the creature until the whole of its body had vanished into nothing. As though it had never even been there to begin with.

And once again she was alone. With nothing but her reflection, and the waiting.