The Black Door Opens

The door to hell slid back silently. Red lamps inside beckoned them in. The two women released each other, but didn't bother to straighten their clothes. Instinctively, Lois' hand slipped into Jacindas—and they strode together through the Black Door.

Lois felt more than heard the door close behind them, moved by an unseen hand. She let her eyes adjust to the red murk, all of her senses alive and alert.

The reporter could smell **** and a kind of serpentine musk on the air. Hear low, human moans, soft as whispers. Otherwise, it was quiet in the club...quiet as a pack of wolves in the wilderness. Lois could feel the hair rise on her neck, hackles on edge...and her demon prick began to swell, pressing against her pants.

When she could see, only the sudden tightening of Jacinda's grip on her hand kept Lois from flinching.

There were booths along the wall. Demons lounged in them. Not cartoon figures with horns and batwings, pitchforks and cloven hooves. These were...Lois didn't have words for some of them. A vaguely humanoid pile of black sludge in a stained pinstripe suit was smoking quietly in the corner. Beside it, a naked black woman with the head of a horned bear; serpents coiled in and around her legs, constantly passing in and out of cleft and asshole. There were others too—some shadowy, some fantastic conglomerations of human and animal. All looked deadly...

...but what caught Lois' attention was the furniture. Everything was made of humans. Every "chair" was a living human being, naked and contorted, eyes wide but apparently unable to move. They stood interlocked to form the walls and benches of booths. A trio of men with pricks erect were twisted into a kind of sculpture near the door and used as a coatrack, fedoras hanging from their cocks. Demons set their drinks on the bare backs of young women.

There were humans too, mingling with the crowd, talking in low tones. The waitstaff appeared to be naked, except for golden chains on their wrists connected to golden collars.

"This is where they come to relax," Jacinda whispered. "To feel at home. They let humans in for entertainment." Lois felt eyes on them as a few of the patrons started to stare at the newcomers. "We need to find Blaze. Quickly."