Page 47 of How Not to Date a Demon

“Is it safe?” she asked.

Galen rolled his eyes at her. “I wouldn’t let you get hurt.”

“Fine, fine. Yes.” Dammit. Curiosity killed the cat. Hopefully it wouldn’t kill her.

He placed a fingertip against the woman’s forehead and held the other hand out to her. Carefully, she placed her palm in his care.

She gasped as the gray walls and the white floor swirled into nothing, the dull lights and the boring floors and the never-ending corridor all disappeared. What took its place was… just as Galen had said. A supermarket.

She was shoved to the side by a bickering mother, whose face was just a blur. No identity. No mouth, yet her voice carried just the same. In fact…

Turning her head, she found more of the same. Blank faces, yet their voices carried, lifted to the fluorescent lit ceiling, and bounced around in a deafening roar. Like a Walmart on Black Friday, but worse. A list appeared in her hand, and it was in that moment Maeve realized she was experiencing what the other woman was.

The list contained things like diapers, then ketchup. Then hair bows, bread. It went back and forth, items listed in the most chaotic order, making the woman rush across the store just to have to rush back through the pushing crowd and the buggies taking up too much room and the voices kept getting louder but she couldn’t talk to any of them and—what isle was she supposed to be on? What item was she supposed to be looking for next?

And why wouldn’t this line just move?

Maeve gasped as the vision disappeared and the original room took shape around her once again. Dropping her hand from Galen’s, she placed it against her chest and felt her racing heart.

“She has to do that for eternity. Every time the list is completed, it just adds new items for her to have to collect.”

“That’s no ordinary supermarket,” she remarked.

He nodded. “Yeah. It’s Hell. Every punishment is curated for each person. They each get to live in their own hell for eternity. There’s no day and night. No sun and moon. No… essence of the time passing.”

Her heart thumped in her chest.

“So they just sit in those rooms? Stuck in their heads forever?”

“Yep.”

That did sound hellish.

But she guessed that was the whole point, wasn’t it?

“How come you’re allowed to leave? Why aren’t you stuck here?”

Galen squeezed her hand. “Earth is an extension of Hell, simply referring to any place God doesn’t reside. That’s why we’re allowed to exist there, because he’s in Heaven. But obviously when it comes to going back and forth, there are rules because we don’t want our secrets getting out.”

“Did you break a rule by telling me?” she wondered aloud. The last thing she wanted was him getting in trouble.

But he shook his head before her worries could ever manifest.

“Why not? Seems pretty serious, telling a human about something like this.”

“Because I love you,” he said confidently and met her gaze.

It took her breath away.

“That’s the perk of becoming the Seventh Devil of the Seventh Region of Hell. I’m allowed to look for a partner. So I did. And I found you.”

“But aren’t you just now getting promoted?” They’d been fretting over this promotion for months. “We’ve been dating for over a year!”

“Well, yes. But, we’ll just keep that to ourselves, hmm?” he suggested, adding a wink. “Besides, I’m not the only one bending the rules a bit. We used to have dragons.”

“Dragons?” Maeve squeaked. A flash of an image, great big wings and a spew of fire. She blinked.

“Yeah, but they are long gone. It’s been close to a century. But that—I’m getting sidetracked, none of that matters now though, as I am finally allowed to wed.” He looked proud at this announcement.