It certainly threw her own revenge goals for a loop. Not that she could do anything with the stupid vow binding her. But she’d still wanted to pretend, damn it, and that little display had pretty much ruined the fantasy.
Yet another reason to hate him.
She looked around her new quarters. The room was surprisingly comfortable and not at all what she’d expected, considering she was in Hell. But then, what did she really know about the underworld? Not all demons were mindlessly evil—some were cunningly evil, apparently—and it made sense that they would’ve found ways to acquire comforts from Earth.
She was too tired to care about it now, however. Unzipping and kicking off her boots, she pulled off her socks, pants, and jacket, leaving only her underwear and T-shirt on. She was dying to wash, but there was no way she was doing anything until she napped for a bit.
Moving her precious food to the small bedside table, she climbed into the bed and passed out in seconds.
Suyin awoke after a “nap” that had turned into a full night’s sleep, her stomach gnawing with hunger. Apparently, a single apple and carrot didn’t do much to quell one’s appetite afterstarving for multiple days. Outside, the red sky seemed darker than it had before her rest.
She sat up in bed, grabbing a water bottle off the nightstand and drinking half of it in three swallows. Then she ate two apples and a carrot before her stomach declared that it wouldn’t let her eat anything else acidic. In fact, she had to lay back down again and wait for the burning to stop.
While she lay there, she got good and pissed at Murmur, remembering that, in their bargain, he’d promised to feed her. Well, what she had wasn’t going to cut it, and if he wanted her to stay put and shut up, he needed to cooperate too.
Once her stomach had calmed down, she got out of bed, all fired up to go upstairs and disturb Murmur, just like he’d told her not to, until he got her some more food. Some actual food.
She was halfway through getting dressed, stabbing her legs into her pants, when she noticed the pile across the room on the vanity.
She yanked her pants the rest of the way up and went to inspect. Fresh produce and colorful packaging in Hell looked no less bizarre than before, but she’d never been happier to see a loaf of bread.
There was a selection of veggies, sandwich materials, tortilla wraps, and more fruit. There was also a flat of water bottles. She wasn’t going to find any typical comfort foods, but she didn’t care. She didn’t drink caffeine, and she didn’t like sugar. Iris often joked that she was concerned for the sanity of anyone who didn’t like chocolate or ice cream, but Suyin had always hated the syrupy taste of sweets.
She remembered Murmur mentioning that he had servants who would bring water and clean sheets, and she figured he’d also had them bring her food. She smiled evilly, imagining that prideful prick being forced to accommodate her human needs and send his servants on special missions on her behalf.
Good. She wished she were more high maintenance. Maybeshe should have him bring her entire makeup kit. She felt exposed without her eyeliner and dark lipstick.
But if his servants had dropped by while she was asleep—she tried not to be creeped out by the thought of demons sneaking around her while she was unconscious—that meant there might be fresh water to bathe. And that was worth investigating.
Sure enough, when she stepped into the hall and tried the first door, she found a bathroom with a stack of fresh towels and a big tub of steaming water. It wasn’t quite bath sized, but she wasn’t complaining.
Almost frantically, she stripped her clothes off and sank into the hot water, letting it soothe her aches and pains from days spent in the dungeon cell. She found a bar of soap and a comb, and she swore never to take such things for granted again. After washing her hair and scrubbing the remainder of her makeup from her face, she relaxed in the tub until it got cold. It wasn’t like she had anything else to do.
When she got out, she used the soap and bathwater to scrub her filthy clothes, hanging them to dry over the edge of the tub and bathroom vanity. Then she tucked one of the towels tightly around her middle and decided to explore her new-and-improved prison cell.
Through the last door in the hall, she found a study with a fireplace, though all the furniture had been covered in white sheets. She busied herself pulling them off. Beneath the coverings, she found a sturdy desk built for a Murmur-sized demon, an equally large chair, and a claw-foot sofa and two armchairs facing the fireplace. Bookshelves were built into the walls, but they were all empty.
Once she’d made the room as homey as she could, the boredom set in. She dropped onto the sofa and stared at the fireplace’s empty grate, shivering in her towel. The damn demon couldn’t have left a single book on the shelves for herto read? She yawned and then figured she had nothing better to do besides sleep off her ordeal in the dungeon, so she went back to the bedroom, ate a light dinner, and went to bed.
When she awoke, the sky was dark. Not black, but it had deepened to a burgundy red the shade of dried blood. Which made no sense. She was sure she’d slept for at least eight hours, and she’d been awake for several before that. Shouldn’t the sky be lightening?
There was no sun or moon or stars, making it impossible for her to track the passage of time the usual way. Combined with being stuck underground for what she presumed was several days, she was majorly confused.
It felt like time wasn’t passing at all. Like she was living a waking dream, where things moved at both a snail’s pace and break-neck speed at the same time.
She thought about the red plains and distant mountains and wondered if all of Hell had a similar landscape, or if there were forests and oceans like on Earth. She had to admit that the underworld didn’t seem overly terrible. She was under no delusions about the vileness of demons, but as long as she kept away from them, she didn’t think she’d mind exploring a little.
How many people could say they’d been to Hell and lived to tell the tale? Humans were terrified of the idea of Hell and demons. And in her mind, the best way to conquer a fear was to face it head-on.
After eating a surprisingly delicious wrap for breakfast, she found another fresh bath of hot water. She had to wonder how a demon hauled buckets of piping hot water up the tall tower, but then figured that was what minions were for. If she were a demon master with little servants, she’d have commanded them to bring her fresh water every day as well. Hell, she’d command them to go to plumbing school and rig up some state-of-the art pipes.
After her bath, she checked her clothes. They were dry,thank god, so she dressed, and then went to the sitting room, sat on the couch, and stared at the empty fireplace.
With every passing hour, her boredom grew, and her curiosity grew with it. For a time, she lost herself in plotting idle revenge schemes and escape plans that wouldn’t work because of their stupid vow.
Then she started to obsess over what Murmur was hiding upstairs.
He’d forbidden her from going up there, which meant there was something he didn’t want her to see. Which, of course, meant she needed to see it. She’d always been hungry for knowledge and persistent to a fault. Once she got an idea, she fixated on it with single-minded purpose, to the detriment of all else.
