Into the Abyss

At this point Tom was in the corner puking his lunch out.. which, since he hadn’t eaten anything in the last week or so, shouldn’t have been much; however, from who knows where he was able to vomit some truly obnoxious green and orange bile. Finally, Tom’s puking seemed to come to Boggy’s notice and he shut up and went over to where Tom was heaving. “What’s the matter, my boy?” asked Boggy, concerned.

“How could you do such a thing?” Tom asked in disbelief.

“Well, I may not be as strong as you... but I’m still pretty damn strong, It really is no problem to rip a human apart, they are really quite fragile,” answered Boggy in his apparently inebriated state.

“No, no you fool. The boy means, why would you do such a thing,” corrected Tizzy.

“Oh,” Boggy responded, understanding now. “Why, for the best reason of all... REVENGE! I had served that S.O.B for eighty years and his master before him for ninety two. Not to mention his master’s father for seventy six years. Not once in all that time did I ever get a single thank you! All I ever got was abuse. Never could I seem to please any of those jackasses, all I could do was screw up... and then they’d punish me. During that period of two hundred and forty eight years, four months, two weeks, five days, thirteen hours, twenty seven minutes and four point oh-one-three-four-nine seconds, I received two hundred and seven Dalton’s Demon Darts, three hundred and fifty two Wargol’s Wracking Wrenches, one hundred and thirty six Sargum’s Soul Slicer’s, four hundred and seventy Spirit Wracks, three hundred and thirteen Davalon’s Degradations, as well as six hundred and forty nine miscellaneous tortures. Each of which hurt me as much as anything I did to him today.

“Now, you tell me if he didn’t deserve everything he got and more!” Boggy exclaimed passionately.

“I don’t know... maybe... it’s just so horrible all the things you did to him,” Tom complained.

“Oh, and the tortures he put me through, were any better... let me tell you, some of those things were visual and physical as well as spiritual. Believe me, anything he got... HE DESERVED!

“However,” Boggy finally said, calming down to normal level. “I understand how you feel. You are new, I suppose I would have felt just like you, when I was new. It’s just after so many centuries of pain and suffering, you just have to say... enough is enough. Thus when you get the chance to stop it for a while... you take it. And although from a human point of view, maybe this vengeance is petty and morally wrong, regardless of what they did to me. But nonetheless, it felt good. And I really don’t care what anyone else says, they haven’t been in my position, so they can’t know that they wouldn’t act the exact same way in the same situation.”

“I guess, I’m sorry... it just... I don’t know...”

“I do though... you just feel rather squeamish about the whole thing.”

“Yeah, well I mean I used to get a thrill out of watching that sort of thing in horror and slasher-type movies, but now, your describing that sort of thing seems worse.”

“That’s because it’s real. Even though you didn’t have to see it happen, this time you know it was real and not just theatrics. Look, it’s not like I enjoy going around and doing this sort of thing, I don’t. Except in certain well deserving cases, like this one. Actually it’s the first time I’ve ever done this. The first time I killed my master, I just beat him over the head with an ax and left him.”

“I guess I’m really not much better; after all, I killed that soldier in the woods, the dragon, the third order demon on the field and lightning bolted another demon. It’s just that then it was a fight, I don’t think I could kill someone in cold blood.”

“Well, my lad, that may be, and that’s probably for the best. Remember this however; if you ever want your freedom, nine times out of ten you’ll have to kill all those Astlanians who know your name. Very seldom do they die on their own, at least not without passing on your slavery to some other master.”

“Is that the way it always is?”

“Pretty much... oh, according to legend there might be other ways, but I’ve never actually heard of any.”

“OOPS!” interrupted Tizzy. “My doorbells ringing! Gotta go!” and with that the octopodal demon faded out.

“Scum!” shouted Boggy. “You took the wine!”

∼

The small shelter was finally complete, it had taken him some time to get it built, he wasn’t used to doing such things. Although building the little shelter had been easier than trying to bandage his master. Demon claws just weren’t made for working gently with human flesh. He’d gone slow, trying to be careful, every now and then stopping to inspect his patient everywhere to make sure he hadn’t accidentally caused more harm.