Chapter Text
- New York City, present day -
Ajaw peered down with his cold, red eyes at the small child standing in front of him. Her wide eyes stared back at him in shock, as if she couldn’t believe the summoning had actually worked. Her entire body quivered with fear—from the tips of her fuzzy, round beige ears all the way to her feet—as she stood rooted on the floor. A tome lay open in her trembling hands, its ancient pages frayed at the edges and yellowed with age.
He knew how imposing and terrifying he must have looked to her. His tall and broad-shouldered figure was cloaked in all black, and dark, sharp horns twisted up from beneath his long, vibrant yellow and green hair. Folded behind his back were massive black wings. His striped tail, which shared the same colors as his hair, was thick and scaly, long enough to curl against the wooden floor. Small, orange squares were tattooed in a tight cluster on his left cheek in the shape of an “X,” and multiple earrings in a variety of sizes hung from his long, pointed ears.
“I-I’m sorry to have summoned you, Mr. Demon…sir,” the girl managed to squeak out.
He said nothing as he studied his surroundings. Less than a minute ago, he had been strolling in the gardens at the main palace of Hell, but here he was now, suddenly teleported to a room in an entirely different realm. The room was small—an office, perhaps—with shelves filled with books lining the walls and a desk near the window, where the afternoon sunlight peeked in between the drapes. A large magic circle drawn in crimson ink glowed beneath him as dark smoke from the summoning slowly dissipated around his feet.
“My name is Kachina,” the child whispered. “There…there’s someone currently trying to break into the house. My parents aren’t home, and I called the police, but they haven’t arrived yet. My parents had always told me that I could ask for help by using a magic circle if there was ever an emergency, so I…”
The girl trailed off, and sure enough, he could hear a quiet sound of something metallic—most likely a doorknob—rattling from outside the room.
“Can you please make that person go away?” Kachina continued. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. “As for payment…” She pulled out a thick stack of thin, flat pieces of paper from behind a row of books on a nearby shelf and held it out for him. “My parents said this should be enough.”
He stared down at the cash. It was his first time in the human realm, as it was quite rare for someone with such high social status as him to be summoned. He knew nothing of the currency used by humans, but seeing how desperate and scared the child looked, he presumed what she held out was a considerable amount.
He broke into a vicious grin and finally spoke. “This barely covers half, little girlie,” he sneered, taking delight in how she flinched at his voice. “The Almighty Demonlord, K’uhul Ajaw, requires the other stack hidden on that shelf.”
She hesitated and glanced back at the bookshelf to see another wad of cash peeking out from behind a book. She looked confused; clearly, her parents had taught her that what she was offering was more than enough. But the demon’s greed was insatiable.
She jumped again as heavy knocking echoed down the hallway.
“O-okay,” she stammered hastily. She gathered the rest of the money and handed it all to Ajaw.
“The Almighty Demonlord will eliminate the threat in exchange for monetary assets,” he confirmed as he pocketed the cash.
“Please don't kill him!” Kachina said in alarm. “Just…make him leave.”
“It’s a deal.”
He stepped out of the magic circle and held up a flat palm towards the girl. She nervously reached out and touched her own trembling hand against his. A sharp gasp escaped her when black tendrils of smoke appeared from where their hands met. She instinctively tried to pull away as it entwined around both their hands and forearms, but her hand would not budge, held fast by magic not of this world.
The dark smoke settled into their skin and vanished as the spell took hold. Ajaw lowered his hand first.
“Relax, human,” he called back to the girl as he strolled confidently out of the room. “It’s just something to show that a temporary contract has been formed between us. Once the intruder is gone, you and the Great K’uhul Ajaw will no longer be bound to one another.”
He passed by the dimly lit living room, ignoring the couches arranged around a large, sleek black device with a dark, flat screen—human technology was completely foreign and uninteresting to him. He slipped silently into the foyer and edged against the wall. He flexed his fingers against his sides as his black nails lengthened into razor-sharp claws.
As he approached the front door, the sound of the lock jiggling abruptly stopped. He heard hurried footsteps retreating on the other side, as though the person had rushed away—only for the steps to return, but slower and lighter this time.
Ajaw quickly unlocked and flung open the door.
On the doorstep was a human man dressed in a stiff, navy blue outfit. His dark hair was in a messy wolf cut mixed in with gold and blue-green strands. His fist was held up, as if he was about to knock. He looked up at Ajaw’s otherworldly appearance—horns, tail, wings, and all—in surprise.
Despite the situation, the man's demeanor and posture suggested that he was neither dangerous nor a criminal. But Ajaw wasted no time. With his claws extended, he lunged for the human.
But the man’s reflexes were quick—he managed to twist out of the way just in time. The human grabbed the outstretched arm and tried to pin it behind Ajaw’s back, but Ajaw wrapped his free arm around the other’s shoulders instead and pulled him close.
“What are you—” the man spluttered out.
But before the human could finish his sentence, Ajaw suddenly toppled backwards. With the man still tightly locked in his embrace, they fell off the porch steps and crashed onto the sidewalk. With a swift motion, Ajaw rolled on top to pin the man’s back against the pavement and used his knees to restrain the human’s arms at his sides.
“You’re so done,” Ajaw cackled.
He stretched out his wings to their full span to appear as intimidating as possible. With a malicious grin, Ajaw opened his mouth and inhaled deeply. A small, green ball of fire began to form at the back of his throat, and it grew rapidly as it crackled with intensity.
Though Kachina had specifically told him not to kill the intruder, Ajaw couldn't help wanting to burn the man’s face before letting him flee—after all these years, he would finally be able to enjoy human suffering.
The man struggled to break free from Ajaw’s grip as he glared up with fierce eyes—dark orange and green with flecks of yellow surrounding strangely narrow pupils that were more akin to slits than circles.
The strange eyes looked uncannily familiar.
Ajaw gasped as excruciating pain suddenly shot through his head. He clutched at his temples and shut his mouth, immediately extinguishing the fire inside.
Memories that Ajaw had not remembered for more than fifteen years came suddenly flooding into his mind, and it was then that he realized that this was not his first time in the human realm.
He had come here once before, to make a contract with a young human boy. The child who, despite always being covered in wounds and living with such unfair circumstances, still managed to give Ajaw the brightest of smiles. The child whose green-orange eyes would light up with hope every time he saw Ajaw.
That boy—did he survive? If so, where was he now? Surely, he wasn't still trapped in that dark, oppressive room…right?
Did he think that Ajaw had betrayed him?
And his name—what was it again? If Ajaw recalled correctly, it was—
The man froze from underneath when the name wrenched itself out from Ajaw's lips.
“Kinich.”