Who Needs a Diary When You Have a Demon?

Hell was hot. Really hot. But then again, what would you expect from a place basically made of fire and lava. He could hear the screams of souls being tortured as well as the laughs of the demons supervising the torture. Frank took a deep breath and smiled at the smell of sulfur and brimstone, realising just how much he had missed his home. The apartment was fun but Hell will always be home.

He walked down the stone path, feeling the waves of heat hit him from the streams of lava running along side the path. Frank supposed that the landscape resembled something like a boardwalk, with the stone path leading souls over the lava to a towering stone castle and surrounding houses. The demons lived in either houses or apartments, where the estates were organised similar to a university. Everything was constructed from stone and metal (they had tried using timber at one stage, but it didn't end very well considering it was flammable when exposed to lava), so some houses were constructed into odd shapes to distinguish between them.

Frank approached a dome shaped house with a circular door with a front yard covered in skeletons. The demon tradition was that a demon would display the remains of all the souls they've tortured or kill, so most demons used the skeletons as the ground cover in their front yard. This particular house was owned by Frank and his best friend Bob. Between them they had collected the most skeletons in that section of the underworld, they were both well respected and high level demons.

He walked up to the door as bones crunched beneath his feet, before the door was pulled open by Bob. Bob was tall with broad shoulders and blonde hair, which made him intimidating without having to use any of his powers or physical strength.
"Long time no see Pipsqueak", Bob greeted Frank.
Frank shrugged.
"Only a few years. Next time I'll make it longer", Frank retorted.
He shouldered past the taller demon and collapsed on the sofa in their living room.

The walls were a deep red throughout the the whole house, except the basement and bathroom which were black and white respectively. The wooden furniture was dark brown and most of the fabric was black. The walls held paintings various stages of torture, or random pictures of flowers (demons can appreciate art too). Bob followed Frank into the room and took a seat on the armchair to the left of the sofa.
"So where have you been? Still playing house demon?" Bob asked with a smirk.
Frank scoffed at his friend, "I'm no more of a house demon than you are Bob."
"I'm not the one that's been hanging around one house for nearly a decade", Bob reasoned.

~~~~~~

Bob and Frank arrived at the castle several hours later. The castle was home to the Devil and so all demons arriving back from Earth needed to report in. They walked through the long corridors slowly, Frank taking his time to readjust to his old workplace. He used to be an advisor to the Devil, along with Bob, where he was expected to torture important humans and go on missions to the surface world. They stopped to talk with other demons as they made their way to the grand hall, they passed Gabe, Andy and Joe as well as Alex and Jack. Some of them were pulling humans on chains with them which meant that they were the next souls to be tortured.

They approach two large oak doors intricately carved with swirls and symbols. Frank recognised several symbols for protection and wisdom as well as strength, he was glad to see that Pete finally took Patrick's advice to use his magic. Bob knocked on the door and the two demons entered into a long room. There was a blood red carpet on the floor that lead from the door to an elevated platform which held a throne made from human and demon skulls. There were chains on the walls from which several humans hung covered in their own blood, there was even a demon hanging from the chain closest to the throne. There was even a flock of small demons flying around the chandelier, small bat-like wings flapping to the sound of screams.

On the throne sat the King of Hell himself, Pete Wentz. He looked up as the two entered causing a smile to spread across his face.
"Frankie and Bobbert, my two favourite demons. I'm glad to see that Frank has graced us with his presence again."
Frank rolled his eyes at Pete. Despite being the King of Hell, Pete and Frank had been best friends when they were human and Pete had worked hard to earn his title.
"Did you have fun on the surface playing house demon?" Pete questioned.
Bob had to stifle a laugh behind his hand.
"I came here to let you know I was back, not to be lectured by you Pete", Frank said as he glared at Pete.

"So why did you stay in one house for so long? You are one of my highest ranking demons even though you don't have many powers on Earth yet. Have you found yourself a human? You have, haven't you Frank! FRANK HAS A HUMAN!" Pete yelled.
"Shut up! I don't have a human!" Frank yelled back.
The bickering between the two combined with Bob's laughter brought Patrick, Pete's advisor, out from a back room.
"What's going on?" Patrick asked as he approached the other demons.
"FRANK HAS A HUMAN PATRICK", Pete told him.
"For the last time, I DON'T HAVE A HUMAN!" Frank tried to defend himself.

"It's normal for a demon to claim a human Frank", Patrick pointed out.
Frank just turned and stared at him. His face was blank as he waited for Patrick to continue. Patrick just sighed.
"Of course Pete never told you", Patrick said as he pushed Pete over on the throne to take a seat.
Pete made a protesting noise but moved over anyway.
"Demons are quite possessive, as I'm sure we all know, so it's not uncommon for a demon to form an attachment to a human that they have spent a lot of time around. This can be both platonic or romantic, but the human does become 'marked' in a way that links them to the demon", Patrick explained.
"So you're saying that I can claim any human I want?" Frank asked.
Pete and Patrick both nodded.

Bob and Frank soon left the castle and began the slow walk home, Frank thinking of Gerard the whole time.

Notes

I was kind of stuck on this chapter for a long time so hopefully the story will move along now.
Uni has gone back too so updates won't be regular.

Hope you enjoy this chapter :)