Arthur stood for quite the moment in the middle of the kitchen, just waiting for something to happen. Just as he was about to leave the house to check if the car was still there though, Steve emerged from the bedroom, dressed entirely in a dark navy suit. Josey kissed him goodbye, Steve said “love you” and she said “love you too”. He went outside, and Arthur followed along silently. Steve sighed as he walked along, clearly wanting to ask if Arthur was there or if he was coming along, but being unable to, since Arthur was probably invisible(God knows how) and talking to himself would be a one-way trip to a therapist. He ever met one of those and he would get a diagnose slapped on his ass, something which would be quite bad for his reputation.
The moment he stepped into his car, he noticed the putrid stench of rotting human flesh. Goddamnit. He really should have cleared everything out last night, but then again, he had a contract to sign, so… Well, wahetever. He can handle that later. His first stop would be down at the pier. He quickly turned the car around and drove towards the sea. The second he couldn’t see the house anymore, he heard someone take a deep, sensual breath beside him. A digital beep sounded, and Arthur was sitting right next to him, breathing in the putrid air with a big, goofy smile on his face, as if he was smelling roses, and not the corroding flesh of murder.
“Ah, sorry, this smell just reminds me of grandma’s place is all~” Arthur said, clearly lost in nostalgia at this point. “How is it like there? In Hell?” Steve asked, being unable to hide his curiosity at this point. “Hm? Oh, yeah, it’s really nice! I’m not too strong, so I usually just scout out the humans and let everybody else kill and butcher them,” Arthur said with a wry smile. Steve kept himself from saying that he could probably kill just about anyone by simply spitting on them. He wanted to ask Arthur more about Hell, but he could see the sea coming into view, and instead decided to just finnish up with yesterday’s work.
He parked the car in a rather secluded location, right next to an abandoned warehouse. The smell of the sea was gorgeous, as usual. It was one of his favourite smells, and he figured that his obsession with it was almost entirely from it’s delicious smell that reminded him of his old grandfathers house by the sea. But enough about that. Arthur stepped out as well, stuck his nose in the air and gave it a great big whiff. Arthur didn’t really know if he liked the smell or not, but for the moment, he could do well by it. Steve noticed that Arthur’s suit was clean and dry, despite him having snuck off into the night with a bag of bloody meat and ravaged it. Already having come to trust the truthfulness of Arthur’s word, Steve inquired about it. “Oh, yeah, I figured I might get it dirty if I ate with it on, so I ate naked~” Arthur said with a smile, happily thinking back to the night before. This man is even worse off than I am, Steve thought to himself.
Steve shrugged in response to Arthur before opening the boot, removing the three remaining bags and carrying them inside the abandoned warehouse. Arthur followed obediently and curiously.
The warehouse was dark and cool and filled with iron and rust and chains and everything a warehouse used for fixing old ships could ever use. Arthur felt a bit spooked by it all. He could recognize exactly nothing of all of these things, and really, the only thing he could understand in the dim light was that these inanimate objects were, well, threatening. Spooky scary, even. Arthur would have tucked his tail between his legs in any other scenario, but he had already gotten used to the voider, and so, at this moment, he possessed none of his demonic qualities. He desperately wanted to do something to calm his anxious mind, such as grabbing Steves hand or asking them how much further, but he was a strong, scary demon from the 8th circle of hell! No way could he show Steve how miserable he was!!
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The odd pair continued through the dimly lit warehouse for around a minute or so, before they came to a door, locked with a pin-code. Steve entered a code so quickly that Arthur didn’t even have time to ask what the heck that little thing was, and then, the thick door slid open. A light went on, making the room get bright enough to just barely see what was in there. The wall that Arthur and Steve were met by was entirely covered by shelves, and on the shelves, an innumerable number of heads could be found. In jars. The fluid in the jars was slightly green, suggesting the liquid to be formaldehyde. As for the amount of heads… Arthur could barely read, education was hardly a necessity down in Hell, but when trying to count the heads, he quickly ran out of fingers, toes, wings and tails.
All of the heads were female. Young females, around 20-30 year olds. There were at least more than 50 of them. Arthur could only barely move his gaze enough to notice that Steve was looking at these heads with a wry smile, his eyes touched by the most gentle of sorrows. Arthur turned his attention to the left and right sides or the small, rectangular room. To the left, there was a square opening in the wall, with a pair of chains and a large lock keeping it shut. To the left of this opening there was a pitcher and a long blunt metal object, like the stick used to grind herbs in a mortar.
“Ah, the oven, yes,” Steve said in a calm, almost lackadaisical voice, very much unlike his regular, monotone voice, especially in it’s strange, serene joy. Steve easily carried the rather heavy bags over to the oven, fished a large, metal key out of his pocket, inserted it into the lock, turned it around once or twice, and grinned as the heavy chains fell to the floor with a loud clang. “Would you like to help?” he asked genuinely, smiling a curious little smile. Arthur was curious about the machine, but he would much rather observe than enrage Steve with a mistake. If Steve wanted to, he could probably kill him with one well placed stab! Steve really didn’t want to take this risk, so he politely declined. “All the more fun for me,” Steve said, shrugging.
He operated some sort of lever that was on the hatch, allowing it to slide open. The hatch itself was around 5 centimeters thick at the least, and it must have been made of steel, considering its use. The inside was black like charcoal. Steve started humming as he thrust one of the bags, the lightest one, containing the clothes, into the hatch. He placed the cloth bag containing the head out of the way, apparently unwilling to put it in the hatch with the rest. When he picked up the last bag, he suddenly looked a fair bit confused. He quickly put the bag back on the floor again, opened it up, took a look inside, and looked back at Arthur, who suddenly realized why Steve looked so suspicious. “Did you eat the legs?...” Steve asked, narrowing his eyes. “I-, I was just hungry! I figured you didn’t need them!” Arthur argued, averting his gaze out of guilt. Steve didn’t like Arthur raveging his prey, but he didn’t really cherish the legs, so he just gave Arthur a warning to never touch the face and that was that.
He threw the bag into the hatch, pressed a couple button on the side of it that Arthur hadn’t noticed before, and closed the hatch again. Arthur noticed that just as he closed the hatch, it became bright in there. Oven, Arthur finally thought. Steve sighed and made his way back into the main part of the warehouse, leaving what Arthur could only consider a secret room behind. Arthur followed, having gained even more respect for Steve.
They got back into the car that smelled like a rotting corpse, and started driving once more, this time, heading to Steve’s work. Steve didn’t really know what to do with Arthur, but he thought that he might be able to get Arthur to join the team if he vouched for him. But he didn’t know if he should. That’s a thought for later, he thought.