A bag of common magic supplies and a bag of long-lasting foodstuffs set on the table, Addison untied the pouch from her wrist. She hadn’t trusted it to stay put in the bag as usual, and she didn’t want a fight about gold to be the last conversation they had.

Her arms were sluggish, tired from carrying everything home at once.

“There you go. You know it won’t last you the entire time though,” she said, tossing the coin pouch into Matilda's open hands.

The arthritic knuckles closed around the clanking object with ease, an action that at first glance looked painful.

“Not your concern when you are down in hell.” the old witch jabbed, not bothering to make eye contact.

Addison rolled her eyes. It was another one of her senseless statements that didn’t help either of them. As if the witch forgot that it was the same series of deals that allowed her time to run her errands as well.

“I’m sure they are waiting now, at any rate.”

With the words out of her mouth, Addison took a wide step backward, putting herself closer to the middle of the room. She didn’t want to risk the table and all its edges as she made the transition out of the human realm.

“We all wait, Addy. We all wait, and we all wait for the witch to do her magic,” Matilda said, her hands toying with the pouch still.

“I’m asking you to send me down, Matilda. Please don’t wait for them to do it,” Addison began to plead, crossing her arms and leaning her weight on one hip. “I’ve told you how unpleasant their way is.”

The old witch let out a cackle that made the hair on Addison's neck stand up.

With that, she knew that it wasn’t going to be the easy way. She would go from her favorite place to two realms that didn’t care one way or another. She let a heavy sigh escape her lips, and closed her eyes. Bracing herself against a wall or on the floor had never helped in the past.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Once she was summoned, her relationships to the human realm and its laws of physics was utterly disconnected, making everything go weird.

It was easier if she didn’t start with an expectation of comfort.

“You will be back whether you like it or not.” Matilda’s voice had begun to distort at the edges of the sentence.

Her timing hadn’t been too far off, but she was still caught by surprise by being pulled down so soon. Either her parents were beginning to get itchy, or her internal clock was throwing her the wrong signals. It was difficult to tell which one it was at that moment however, as her gut felt like it was leaving her body through her throat. She felt pulled in multiple directions at once, but her heart was going downward.

Her legs fell out from underneath her, and she could feel the hot wind rushing past her bare arms. She wished that she had remembered to wear longer garments for the trip.

They made her feel hotter, to begin with, but they protected her skin a lot better than the thin T-shirt she had worn that day.

The transition from the human realm to the homes of the demons wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t necessarily fast. Lucky for Addison, her thoughts ran so far away from her while it happened that she lost track, and was usually surprised when she landed so suddenly.

She smacked into a solid surface, what little breath she had shoved from her torso.

“Aaahh, Fudge it all to hell!” Addison yelled when her lungs expanded again.

“We don’t like fudge in hell.” A voice said behind her, the sound similar to a rake against a pile of rocks.

“Can you like…learn what a turn of phrase is already, Abbadon?”

She got no response. After a moment of silence, she heard a series of scraping sounds that usually signaled Demon number 1 had walked away from the immediate vicinity. Another sigh left her mouth, more dramatic than the last had been.

“You guys really are the worst,” she mumbled and forced herself to stand up.

They had summoned her to an area even dustier and dingier than Matilda's shack, forcing Addison to brush the red dirt off of her clothes. She spent several moments trying, only to have her hands feel chalky, and the legs of her pants still look dirty. She clenched her teeth and took a look around her.

It didn’t matter where she was, but it did matter where Abbadon had gone. He was the only way she could move through the doors of his region. Without him, she was utterly stranded.