All's Well That Ends

“What do you know?”

The virtues of Joan of Arc were, and are vast. As a strategist her genius was in courage, more than tactics. She’d roused the souls of a meek nation, and turned those mice into cats. “Morgana has cast a glamour over your entire show, Satan is the true master, of these illicit depths at least.” Ever head on she met her goals.

Skylar who was a snake in a cave of snakes did not trust such a straight forward charge, for it is the nature of a snake to go this way and that, and slither, when a straight line would do just as well. “Satan? The Devil? How would I even…Living in Sin would make a lot more sense as a title…What are you up to?”

“We both want the game to reach it’s completion. This Morgan stands in our way, we must do away.”

The punk crossed her arms. “I know you, drew, and the entire crew think I’m a dummy, but come on. You’ve been talking about how you’re going to kill Morgan since this thing started. This is just more of the same.”

Joan sighed, and brought her hand to Skylar’s forehead. It felt like the **** of the ocean had been pressed against an egg. Skylar could sense such an immense weight behind this woman. The host really had bitten off more than she could chew. Regardless Joan did away with the glamour clouding Skylar’s mind as easily as you would wave away a cob web. The entire season came flooding back to her in an instant. “Dang that’s good television. Man…. I am so fired!”

“You see Morgan is a threat now, no?”

“Yes, she obviously is.” Skylar was sorting through her memories, lucky for her she worked in an industry where this sort of thing was common place. She relived her brief stint as a contestant and felt no small amount of pride that she crushed Boudica when it came to their vote.

“Good.” Joan smiled. “Now you snap away.”

“I can’t.” Skylar started trawling through her phone. “She’s holding The Devil hostage somewhere. We need to get him back before we banish her.”

Joan nodded. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Corner her, defeat her, make her tell us his location.”

The host looked half ready to strangle her phone. “I don’t even know where she got this magic from. I have everything disabled, this should be impossible.”

“Regardless. She has it now. I can handle her tricks, do you have a way to protect yourself?”

“I’m the host, of course I do.”

Joan raised a contemptuous brow. “You must forgive, if you I don’t find that convincing.”

Skylar gasped with indignation. “What about you farm girl? How do I know you’ll be immune?”

“Please.” Joan rolled her eyes. “I sit in the court of Jesus Christ and receive the prayers of the faithful, what is a witch? Hmm?”

“Yeah well…” Skylar crossed her arms. “Not a lot of sex up there.” She sighed. “Fine, so long as she doesn’t do anything to alter reality, I can handle it. If she changes the world again, then you’ll just have to handle her.”

Not a great reassurance, seeing as the witch had already done such things to Skylar twice, but Joan figured it was better to have Skylar than not. “Fine. We go.”

Together this odd pair of beings, left the stage, leaving the losers with a PA, to help them to their room. Wu squeaked happily as the crew whisked her away for their own pleasures while the boss had her back turned.

As they were passing through the lobby to head to the master suite, they passed Erica and Boudica who seemed pleased with each other. Both were leaned against a wall near the elevator sharing conspiratorial whispers. Skylar loved to see the game being played. “Erica.” Joan said. “We have a situation.”

“For both of you actually.” Skylar looked at Boudica. “You both want to kill the mistress right?”

“It’s time.”

The two needed to share but a single look. “Let’s go.” They both said, sinister smirks at the ready.

And so it was.

Boudica returned to her prefereed dress, tartan and animals skins. In one hand her spiked shiled, and in the other the spear she’d thrown at Satan at the start of the game, though she recalled it being Morgan who cowered before her.

Erica likewise returned to her leather jacket, and had slung over her shoulde Joan’s sword. The very sword she’d prophesied to be burried under a catherdrial, which was rumored to have been weilded by charlegmane or one of his Paladins. In short, it was a bad ass sword, and had traveled quite a way to reach the girl who just a month ago was cycling down the riverwalk.

“This is gonna feel good.” Boudcia breath, her bloodlust alive and well. A good contrast to Erica’s pensive mood. She’d never killed before, but the woman who’d felled the perfect kingdom seemed a good first target.

Skylar breathed through her nose. Why her? This game was supposed to be sexy! “Just remember, nobody kills her until I get Satan back.”

Erica gave Joan a concerned look. “Seriously?”

“He must return.”

“Then let’s snugglin’ do it! Woooooo!” Boudica kicked the door, and shocked everyone by actually knocking those great doors off their hindges into the room. That bimbo body, hadn’t done anything to quell the warrior in it, and a great soul inbiggens even the meekest body. Boudica screamed and charged in, ready to pillage.

Bouda and Joan likewhise, flowed in, each covering one of the spokes of the center room. Skylar cautiously entered behind them, ready to counter whatever spells Morgan might throw at them, but the only thing to hit the group was silence.

Boudica poked her head into a few rooms. “She’s gone.”

Skylar grabbed her phone. “I need a camera on Morgan. Where is she?”

“Witches go to their lairs to plan.” Joan said, thinking aloud. She traced the tip of her own spear across the granite statues in the room. “Why wouldn’t she be here, she can’t seriously want to play this game.”

“No.” Erica shook her head. “She was hardly paying attention to the game. She’s not intrested in girls, she would have noticed Eve, beleive me.”

Skylar grunted, and put away her phone. “She’s not on any Camera, she’s hiding.”

“She’s trying to escape.” Joan concluded, then looked around the empty room. “And she thinks she knows how…”

Boudica, gasped and ran out of the room. “I know where she is!”

The redhead rushed them all down stairs, back into the basement, she’d discovered during the week. “A ghost showed me the way, there are no cameras in employee areas right?”

“A ghost?” Skylar questioned, and eventually the four girls did indeed find the service tunnel Boudica had wanderes into the day before. “How did you find this?” Skylar boots clicked on the bare concrete , this place was not on the map.

“More importantly…” Erica whispered taking a step down the hallway. “What is that?”

Down the hallway was a pair of double-doors, familiar rusted things, painted over by cheap blue paint. Boudica had encountered them before, but now they were dented, and broken. Cracked open, revealing the room behind them, which was… nothing. Darkness.

“I am so fired!” Skylar cried, as the group ran to doors.

“What the hell is that? Hell… Hell… can I say hell?” Boudica looked around.

“I don’t remember.” Skylar sighed, tracing her hands along the broken edges of this door.

“What is it?” Erica asked again, sword at the ready.

“That.” Skylar pricked her finger on a shard of metal, for dramatic effect. “Is a hole in reality.”

“You mean… she did it?” Erica gasped. “She escaped?”

“She escaped.” Skylar nodded.

Without any of the hesitation she was so well known for Boudica dove forward, but Skylar grabbed her by the skirt of her outfit, and stopped her from jumping. “That’s not a good idea. We don’t even know if she survived. That could go anywhere, or nowhere.”

Erica was so confused. “Don’t you have security stationed around the set?”

“For what?” Skylar snapped, for once sounding truly angry. “In case Erica from San Antionia breaks reality? Satan can’t even escape reality, this is insane. Crud!” She kicked the door. “The show’s over! Helen’s due in the master’s room in an hour, and we don’t have a master.”

Boudcia jerked away from Skylar’s grasp. “Can’t your producers do nothin’ this seems like a good time to step in.”

Skylar just shook her head. “They’re going to cancel us… they’re going to cancel me! We… we need to find Lucifer, she must have hid him somewhere… or, or taken him with her, no, no, no, no!”

Joan rolled her eyes. “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer girl.” She placed her hand on Erica’s shoulder. “Come Erica, we’re leaving.”

Erica looked up. “Like… leaving leaving?” Joan nodded. “We have to at least tell the others.” Though usually it was Joan who could not be moved, or negotiated with, Erica’s command was as iron clad as the word of god.

Joan wanted to get her free, return her home before this world collasped, and the producers did whatever they wanted with the souls within. “Of course.” She draped her arms over Erica like a cloak, and vanished.

Erica looked to Boudica and held out her hand. “You comin’?”

Boudica smiled wide, and nodded. “You bet” She took the hand and together the two of them walked up to the lobby to find the other girls. “When I get back to hell.” Boudica said, opening herself to antoher wound of the heart. “I… well… I’ll be thinkin’ of ya, that’s all.”

Erica looked over and saw tears streaming down Boudica’s eyes. Though the proud woman wouldn’t even allow herself a sob to go along with them. She just stared ahead as they walked.

“Boudica…” Erica smiled and held that indomitable queen in her arms, all dirt and animal smell. “I’m going to miss you like crazy!”

Skylar watch the two of them leave, arm in arm. Boudica thought she was was going back to hell? She had no idea. Even so…

“It must be nice to have someone… at the end of everything.”