This is day 19 of 
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This story is part 6 of the series #HellOnEarth. You can read the first part here
If you don't want to read from the beginning, or read the previous post here is a quick summary:
Kizzle is a demon. Usually he "welcomes" souls as they descend into Hell. But the supply has dried up. There has been a shift : Earth now has more evil in it than Hell. There are no more evil souls coming down. But the ones that were down there...
...well, looks like they are coming back up.
Needless to say Satan is not happy. Things have definitely been worse.
And Satan wants Kizzle to make sure they're worse again.
Which means Kizzle is going to have to round up the escaped souls and bring them back. Which means dealing with loathsome humans. And if that wasn't bad enough, it looks like he has to work with an angel. Kizzle really hates angels.
Meanwhile, on Earth, Billy has gone to visit his Scottish grandfather, who was on the verge of death, and had lost the power of speech a few months ago. He finds Gramps sitting up and looking 10 years younger. And speaking. But with the voice of someone else.
Billy has a dream about talking cats, that probably is definitively NOT about talking cats. When he wakes he finds that someone had broken his window. And that someone is the someone or something that looks like his Gramps. Defying all sense, or logic, he decides to climb out of his bedroom window.
HELL on Earth (part 6): Hearts and Minds
Kizzle stood on Earth looking back longingly at the Gateway to Hell. The fires burned brightly, even if they were beginning to run short of souls. He scowled.
He hated being topside.
Fucking humans with their arrogance and their attempts to do the right thing.
But the thing that really disgusted him - and gave him a raging hard on - was the basic human weakness that usually ended up in them screwing everything up and doing the wrong fucking thing. Out of greed, out of selfishness, but usually it was just out of the belief that they were right and everyone else was fucking wrong.
He turned away from Hell’s Gateway and began to make his way to the Meeting Place. He hated walking. Particularly on all fours. It was beneath a demon of his stature to be crawling on the floor like a common beast.
At least they didn’t have far to go.
Like all Gateways to Hell, this one was slap bang in the middle of the city.
Squeal, his Witness, accompanied him. But at a distance. In their current body costumes, she was feeling more vulnerable than ever. Kizzle smiled. He liked it that way.
The meeting in the Neutral Place had gone as badly as it could have done, he supposed. But it should have been worse. It worried him that the Neutral Place had been infiltrated like that.
The boy.
Belonging to neither Realm, the Neutral Place was where demons and angels could meet when it was necessary. But it was no place for a human.
And certainly not one that was still alive.
Above him the sky lightened and he saw a shaft of light beam down from Above. She had arrived. He scowled again.
She.
“Maria”, she called herself - of course she fucking did. His so called co-worker.
A fucking angel.
Goodness oozed out of every pore of her being, and it made Kizzle want to vomit. Actually it made him want to stab her repeatedly and then defile her body. Nothing Kizzle liked more than defiling the body of an angel. Well, he enjoyed defiling in a general way.
But defiling angels was particularly sweet.
It was agreed that they would continue to wear the same physical body costumes as they had in the Neutral Place. Human bodies were so restrictive. So once again he was disguised as a white cat.
Kizzle liked cats.
They were basically really evil creatures who had tricked humans into thinking they were "cute" and fooled them into worshipping them with food and "love". He had hoped to put the angel on the back foot by choosing white. But if wearing black distressed her in any way, she hadn’t show it.
Stupid fucking angels.
She was waiting for him by the agreed Meeting Place, by the dumpsters at the end of a particularly dark and dank alley. Again, Kizzle’s choice. And again, Kizzle was disappointed to see she didn’t seem at all ill at ease in such a location.
“Hello Kizzle,” she said, her bright and cheerful voice sent shivers of repulsion down his spine. She turned to Squeal, who had taken the body costume of a particularly ugly brown rat. It suited her, of course.
“Hello, you must be Squeal. So pleased to meet you.” Squeal cowered behind Kizzle, terrified. Kizzle gave her a swipe with one of his claws.
“Where’s your Witness?” Kizzle asked, licking Squeal’s blood from his paw. Not that he actually gave a fuck.
“He’s up there,” Maria said, pointing one of her black paws into the sky.
“You’ve left him in the Other Place? You’ve come alone?” Kizzle’s mood brightened a little. If there were no Witnesses, then maybe, when the mission was complete Maria could ‘disappear’... Kizzle thought longingly of his defiling room.
“Oh, no, silly,” Maria said, in that sappy voice that made Kizzle want to wrap his fingers round her throat and squeeze until her eyes popped.
“He’s not UP THERE,” she pointed again into the sky. “He’s up there!”
Kizzle looked. Circling high above them was a bird. An eagle.
Bollocks.
Why hadn’t he thought of that? Flying was way cooler than padding all over Upside on all fucking fours. Not that he would have chosen an eagle, of course. Disgusting creatures. A good old fashioned raven or a crow. Or perhaps a vulture.
“Dave!” Maria called. “Here, he comes,” she said, as the large bird swooped down towards them. Squeal cowered under a nearby bush. “Dave meet Kizzle, Kizzle meet Dave.”
“Alright, Kiz!” The eagle said in a deep voice. “Do you mind if I call you Kiz?”
Kizzle hoped that the expression on his feline face said Mind, Dave? Oh yes, Dave, I mind it very much. I mind it so very much that when we have finished with this little charade I will take great pleasure in tearing off the top of your head and taking a huge shit on your brain. Hope you don't mind, old chap.
He ignored the offer of Dave’s outstretched wing, and spat on the floor.
Maria smiled at both of them. “Dave is an apprentice angel,” she said. “He’s a little bit rough around the edges, but his heart is in the right place.”
Kizzle looked at Dave’s big feathered chest, and licked his lips. Always good to know exactly where to find the heart. You never know when you might have to rip the bloody thing out.
“Right,” Maria said. “Shall we get on with it.”
“Where do you suggest we start?” Kizzle said pulling out the long list of escapées.
“The boy,” Maria said, looking Kizzle straight in the eye. “We start with the boy.”