Mental Inferno [Lilith]

[Judex Peccáto]

It was quite a nice day out. Nice and sunny, with the sun rather bright in the sky. And warm, it was nice and warm. Not that the weather being nice, and the sky being blue was unusual for him. Judex had been there when weather had been created, for Christ’s (not really, to those who were listening) sake, and after that he’d had to soddin’ lived through every type of weather that could be, including a blizzard. He’d died in a blizzards. Compared to a blizzard, a nice sunny day like this was pure heaven. Metaphorically speaking.

He was sat outside Caffeine Buzz, the little coffee shop with the crappy name. Sitting outside was the best place to sit – the shop was busy, and he was claustrophobic. Plus it was warm, and the bright sun meant he had a chance to try out his new shades. He hadn’t had a chance to wear them yet, not with all the rain they’d had recently. A cooling cappuccino in one of the elegantly shaped white cups sat in front of him, place neatly on the circular saucer. And a lightly smoldering cigarette was place to the side of it, resting gently just out of his fingers, and being tapped lightly against the table. He wasn’t actually smoking. No, smoking was icky, he’d never found a body which cared for it, but the smoke was fascinating. And it was something to concentrate on rather than the general...weirdness.

He couldn’t explain it. The weirdness in that air, that is. He could try, possibly, but Judex had a limited grasp on being...well, being sane, and being sane was a help when you were trying to think of something serious. So instead, he was looking up at the sky, following the track of the birds that occasionally skittered over. Pigeons. How he hated pigeons. Rats with wings, just dirtier.

Concentrating on that also made it easier to block out everyone around him. There weren’t many, it was true. Most were inside, or moving past too fast to actually hit him too hard, so he could ignore them. Or...he thought he could. Until one seeped into existence, one in his head (or not in his head?)...Shouting, growing louder as it grew closer, and he couldn’t figure out whether everyone was hearing it, or just him. Either way, when it grew louder and more screaming rather than shouting, he slammed his hand down against the table. Hard. Pain and noise blocked out the worst. Unfortunately, it just gave him a sore wrist this time.

“Oh, for crying out...Would whoever who is shouting just SHUT UP?!” Ahh...now, that had been him. Starting out quietly, then ending in a shout. He wrung out his aching wrist, muttering under his breath. Damn this hell....

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[Hope Taylor]

She was walking down the street away from the house of Arya. The girl who she had woken up next to when she had gotten free of the mind of Hope. It had taken allot of her strength to do that and she was quite tired though she would never admit it even to herself. She was so confused at all the neon signs and other things that she had never seen before. She really had missed allot while she was trapped in the urn.

While she was walking by what could only be something like a gathering area for people to drink a beverage of some sort a man started to scream at her to shut up. She turned and looked at the man in shock. She hadn't said anything at all but he looked at her with such anguish and what could only be pain painted all over his face. She was confused at the whole thing but nobody spoke to her like that. Nobody.

She approached the man with angry eyes but she couldn't hide her confusion as well. "Who are you yelling at! I haven't said anything but you scream at me? Me?!" If she had the energy to spare he would have made him a stain on the ground for what he had done but she didn't. She looked at him closer. She only felt human coming off him. But she got a strange feeling about him. She looked at him with her cruel and evil eyes thinking about tearing him in half and leaving him for everyone to see. But she couldn't. Not right now anyway.

[Judex Peccáto]

Ow. Ow ow ow oww...It wasn't so much as words, what he was hearing, more like...screaming. He would say burning, if burning actually could sound like anything but in all his time he'd never quite figured it out. Perhaps it could. Hey, maybe he might look into that, if his mind didn't decide that he should die from his brain blowing up this time around. That had never happened either, and really? Judex didn't exactly want it to. He was enjoying this life. Well, not enjoying, but he'd finally got around to coming here, hadn't he?

The...sound was getting louder, which meant it was getting nearer, which meant that whatever it was coming from was getting nearer. Oh, hell... "No! Don't come closer, you moron. Stay where you are!" he heard himself yelling, over the pain and the noise and then looked up...and saw a girl. A girl about half his age. No, half the age of his human body, that one, not half his mental age, because then they'd just be bones and maybe a little bit of ash. But...what?

The girl's mouth was moving, and her eyes were narrowed, glaring at him with a fierce intensity, but he couldn't hear the words. Well, he couldn't make out the words from the surrounding torture. He kept shaking his head, swearing to himself, and pushed his chair backwards away from the table, away from her. "Ah...crap. Wasn't yelling at you, chick. Run along home like a good girl now."

He might be insane, but even Judex knew that screaming at little girls in a public place was a Bad Idea. To be fair, it was probably almost as bad as simply smiling at them, but there you go. But whoever this girl was, he wanted her gone. He would say that the faint stirring's of fear were starting to make themselves known, for the first time in a long while, but that would be wrong. Hell, he was scared everyday. Scared that he'd be killed by some moron and have to start all over again.

[Hope Taylor]

It was all she could do to contain her rage at this man. Was he trying to get her to hurt him? He had to be. Then she remembered she wasn't in her demon form and only looked like a small teenage girl. But even so this wasn't the norm. Nobody else had talked to her like this before. She had done enough things to get screamed at but she didn't know this man at all... or did she?

She walked up to him until she was within reach. When he told her he wasn't talking to her and for her to just run along she just couldn't take it anymore. She might have been able to let it go until then but she was not going to be dismissed by a human. "Are you insane or something? Do you know who I am!!!" She grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him down to his knees so she could look him in the eyes. When she looked closer however she saw an old spirit in those eyes. Much older then the 30ish he looked to be. She looked closer, something was not right and she knew it.

"Who .... and what ... are you. Don't lie to me or this will get very... very unpleasant for you. She could always rip it from his mind but this man seemed to be crazy and riping memories from the insane was not a fun experience for her. She gave him a cruel glare. She got the feeling she had looked at this man before. She knew it was impossible because humans didn't live that long but she just couldn't shake the feeling.

She would never admit it even in her own head but she felt a twinge of what only could be anxiety. Nobody could know who she was or know of her past. It would make things a little more difficult for her.

[Judex Peccáto]

The screaming in his head had intensified with every step the girl had taken towards him. Never...well, not for a long time, for many lives, had he encountered something like it. Judex's mind was a mind of an Angel, after all. Thoughts gave his headaches, and too many simply hurt, but this...this wasn't little thoughts, this appeared to be a world of fire and pain and it was horribly familiar, in a not very familiar way. His mind was secure though, he knew that much. No matter who the girl was, or what she was, his mind was his and his alone. Well, in a sense. He read minds, but no one could read his. Probably the only advantage of having an Angel mind in a soddin' human body, come to think of it.

He was fairly suprised to find himself being jerked to his knees. But hey, at least he could look the girl in the eyes now, that was rather pleasent. It gave him something to focus on, to push that mental fire away so he could bloody think for himself, for once. Although, he did chuckle slightly. "Way to go, luv. Gonna attract attention? Yep, you're doin' it. Bet you there's loads of people walkin' past right now, looking at you like a freak. Congratulations. And yes. Thank you for noticing." That last bit was in response to the 'insane' bit. It was good she'd noticed, really. It wasn't something Judex ever bothered to hide, because that just...took too much energy.

He didn't like this though. He couldn't block it out, at all, and focussing on her eyes lessened it, but made him anxious in another way as well. This was odd, and strange, and he didn't like it. Of course...she could just be a very crazy, sadistic person. But there was anger and rage, and bursts of how dare he running through her mind, dancing between the flames, so for some reason he didn't quite think that to be the case.

"I'd let me up, sweets, if I were you," he whispered, tilting his head to the side, "Because I'm not going to tell you. So don't bother trying."

[Hope Taylor]

This man was playing with her and nothing made her more angry then thinking someone was making fun of her. "I don't care if these pathetic humans see me" she hissed. She kept getting angrier and angrier and she saw the pain on his face getting more intense. She couldn't understand how he could be feeling her emotions and mind but he was somehow.

"I said.... what are you" trying to cause him pain with her anger just to make him tell her. But he was stubborn and simply wouldn't tell her. She gazed into his eyes that she couldn't help from changing into her demon color. She saw the surprise on his face as he turned away and refused again. She thought, this man is ether stupid or has something to hide. Lilith loved secrets, because she could always find out what they were.

She held his head in her hands and entered his mind. She almost stumbled when she felt the amount of lifetimes in there jumbled together. It was no mystery why he was crazy. She tried to look through and see what was going on in there but it was so jumbled and mixed up she had difficulty finding anything inside his mind. Then she stumbled on some memories that she wouldn't have believed possible. She was so surprised she let down her own shields that prevented him from seeing her own thoughts and memories. His look of shock let her know that he had seen more then she wanted him to. He must have seen who and what she was as she had seen who and what he was. She pushed him away from her as she stumbled and fell to her own knees.

She growled at him at him as she tried to get to her feet but it had taken more energy then she had to spare and was weakened herself to much. She wanted to kill this man. Though that wouldn't be entirely the truth. He was one of the reasons she had been sealed away for so many years.

Her thoughts were of pain and vengeance.

[Judex Peccáto]

Bollox. That...just about summed it all up, if he was frank. Of course, there were worse words he could use, plenty of them, but now his mind was hurting even more. He...hadn't been able to even move while she had done that. Forced her way into his mind, tried to rip it apart, delving deep, and damn, that had hurt. He was gasping, forced to retreat into her own mind in an attempt to get her out, and there...Well, he hadn't expected that. But really, it did explain quite a bit. A demon like that would have no trouble breaking into a fallen angel's mind, would they? But it didn't make it right.

Their minds snapped apart with a sharp gasp, on his part, and he collapsed back in his seat, oblivious to (or just plain ignoring), the odd looks they were recieving for the humans. He was insane, he could get way with it. Of course, it probably looked like he'd hurt her...and hell, after that? He wished he had. But she appeared to be weakened, which was definately something. He wasn't that bad off, except for the pain, and the screaming still coming from her mind was number now, masked after actually being submerged in that fire, just long enough for him to see who she was.

"Lilith..." he heard himself whispering, more like hissing, from afar, as he brought his mind back to him, soothing the violated feeling out as best as he could. He hated not having control of his mind, even for that short a space of time.

She was trying to get up, and yep...that was bad. She shouldn't be here, she should be locked away...Of course, he hadn't planned for that, initially. He'd simply seen the fight, been intrigued, and then stolen her weapon because it had been pretty. It had been so long ago, as well, but the moment was clear in his mind, as clear now as it had been then. But still...her...here? That was bad. And he knew...so hey, he should try to stop it, shouldn't he? Before she got back to her feet, that was. His eyes instantly turned black, like ink quickly spreading out from his pupils, and he unwrapped the package of mental power stored at the back of his mind, lashing out with it towards the figure on the floor, using emotions and screams and cries and things from her head and the human world around them to press her down. He guessed it was instinct as much as anything else. He was still an angel...sort of. Angel's and Demons. Enemies to the end.

[Hope Taylor]

She was completely exhausted. She really should have stopped herself from doing that. But she just had to know. It was one of her faults and she knew it and now she was suffering the consequences of it. She was trying to get to her feet when she felt the pressure on her body and her head. She was shocked to think that even now he had that kind of power. She would have had no difficulty in blocking it if she wasn't so spent but she had nothing left at all.

She rolled onto her back and looked up at him with her eyes widening in pain and yes, a bit of fear. She screamed in pain and anguish. He was hurting her. This pathetic excuse for a fallen angel was hurting her. This was impossible. She hadn't waited 2000 years trying to escape her prison, finally doing so only to be destroyed by him. This was simply not allowed.

All her anger and rage amounted to nothing in the face of his attack however. If she could only had some more power. Then she saw the man looking at them. He didn't know what was going on but he saw a small girl laying on the ground with a much older man looking aggressively at her. While it would hurt her pride she had to do something or he would kill her. She had no doubts about that.

She screamed for help and started to cry crocodile tears. The men around started to yell at Judex and one of them jumped on him while the others kept him down. The surprise on Judex's face was worth the effort. The pressure on her head and body eased and one of the men helped her up. She continued to play her part and told them that he had pushed her down and wouldn't let her back up. While they were dealing with him she slipped away. Completely exhausted. When she was far enough away she called her demons. She didn't even have the strength to walk home. He had won this round.

But she smiled a cruel smile. The next round would be hers and she swore that there wouldn't be a round three.

[Judex Peccáto]

Judex wasn't a cruel man. Angel's weren't cruel, after all, and he had literally been created to be good. Ok, so the programming may have gone off the rails a teeny bit, and he was insane, but he never really enjoyed causing pain to people. Vampires...meh. He'd died as a vampire, and while it was probably the single most painful experience of his life (well...he'd have to stop and perhaps compare that memory to today at some point; it might have a new challenger), he had no qualms about making other vampires die. But that's what he was meant to do. Angel here, thank you very much. Sort of an angel, anyway.

So he was rather pleasently suprised to feel rather good about himself, when the foul creature was writhing and screaming in pain in front of him. Oh, he didn't disillusion himself. If she'd been up to full strengh, he would have thrown the table at her and then run, because no matter how strong his mind was, he was still a soddin' human. She could snap him like a twig, even in that body. But she wasn't, and he was quite enjoying the power it gave him. Perhaps...that's what he had to do? Finish this demon, then he'd be redeemed? Well, it was worth a try.

But a shout distracted him, and he glanced away from the screaming creature in time to see another man, and managed to get in a look of complete surprise before he was jumped on. "Hey! Hey, what? Gerrof!"

[/b] he was yelping, his eyes having faded back to their original icy blue as he concentrated on wrestling with the man instead. And then the other ones...what the hell?

Oh. Oh, bollox, he'd just realised how that might have looked. Bugger, damn and blast. "Oh, that? That was nothing, lads. Misunderstanding, y'see, uhh...let me up? I wasn't actually doing anything...hey, no need to bloody hit me, she's the bad one!"[/b] he was too busy protesting against the humans to notice the demon had slipped away. And he kept fighting, because this was unfair, fighting demons was alright, couldn't they see that? He only stopped struggling when the sounds of a police siren cut through the air, and then just slumped, groaning and banging his head against the ground. Oh, wonderful. Police meant there was explaining to do...

Judex just wasn't good at the explaining.[/size][/blockquote]