Cryptic Apocalyptic

"Baby," Jimmy kissed Lila's shoulder, nuzzling his face into her neck, "we gotta get up."

"No," she wined, holding out the 'o' much longer than it usually should be.

"We've got to babe, it's time to go home."

"Who says? My apartment is so far away," She paused, stroking his back as he was still lying on top of her and her arms were already flung around him. "And I really like this. It can't be time to wake up yet, can it?" She pouted, looking at him sadly. He laughed, pecking her lips.

"We aren't going back to your apartment, love, not unless you really want to. I think it's time we went to my house so I can introduce you to my friends. They're like my brothers and you'll love them." At this he got off of her, grabbing his pants from the passenger headrest and looking for his boxers, he had to exit the car to get them. Lila still looked a little skeptical.

"Will they like me?" she asked in a little voice, with big round blue eyes staring up through her long lashes at him. He just laughed again.

"Of course they will. They'll love you." She grinned widely and began to throw her clothes on. "Now we just have to figure out how to get this bitch off the roof. Do you have any clue how we got it up?" She shook her head laughing.

"Jimmy, I hate you." Lila huffed forty minutes later as the taxi pulled up to the impregnable gates and stopped at the voice box.

"Oh come on Lie, you're telling me that hours of crazy kinky sex and days and days of crazy drugged pranks you're fine with, but I ask you to walk down a measly fifteen flights of stairs and suddenly you have a grudge?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you. I worked up such a sweat that I swear to god I was hallucinating again!" she exclaimed her arms flying.
"Don't say that," Jimmy ordered in a stone cold voice that almost scared her. "Don't say his name. And you probably were hallucinating. The chemical in LSD that makes you see shit actually stores in your fat so when you burn that fat you have acid trips all over again."

"You're shitting me." She looked at him with her mouth agape.

"Trust me." He kissed her, finally paying attention to the driver, a very fat man with a bushy brown mustache and a Brooklyn accent.

"Come on fella' get your ass out, I gotta get back ta work, capiche?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." Jimmy pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket, but was too lazy to count it and so just thrust it at the cabbie. "Keep the change."

Lila raised her eyebrows but said nothing. She was clean and sober now and she began to understand the fact that if he were a simple druggie like she was he would never have been able to afford all the shit he had been feeding the two of them, for fuck only knows how long.

She held his hand looking around. But he said his friends lived here, no his parents or anything, so somehow all that money was his despite the fact that in all the time they were together he never showed any signs of having a job. She bit her lip as she wondered just what she'd gotten herself into. Guys on drugs that had fucking private roads and security like this were usually dealers.

She would follow Jimmy to the ends of the earth, but she didn't aspire to being some dealer’s plaything. She'd seen that happen so many times before and did not envy the life.

She was too wrapped up in her thoughts to notice what Jimmy was saying into the intercom but the large iron gates swung open and he gave her a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand before leading her down the winding drive. She groaned as she noticed that this wouldn't be a short journey. She wasn't usually this bitchy, but the effects of all manner of hallucinogens, depressants, stimulants, and other manner of intoxicating substances was more than enough to make her body feel like her own vomit was running through her veins and worse.

"I'll give you a ride," Jimmy offered, winking at her. She giggled.

"I think I could handle that, Mr. Sullivan." Jimmy felt bad about what Lila was going through. His own body recuperated so much faster that he would never feel as bad as she was at that moment. She jumped on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and feeling him grab just under her knees.

She kissed under his ear, not really giving a fuck if he was a dealer or a mass murderer. He was Jimmy, and a giant sweetheart, and that's all she needed him to be. He began humming a soft tune, and Lila closed her eyes, resting her cheek on her arm and coming quite close to actually falling asleep.

"Lila, Lie, wake up." Lila groaned, lifting her head and yawning. Jimmy set her down, and she grabbed on to his surprisingly muscular arm to keep her balance. He defiantly didn't look it, but he had some formidable muscle under that pale tattooed skin of his.

She opened her eyes and looked at Jimmy questioningly, wondering what he'd wanted.

"We're here," he explained, gesturing toward the house. She turned her head and gasped.

She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but what she got was definanty not that. The house was the sort of thing Sir Elton John might have owned next to some palace that belonged to the royal family, only much more sinister. Had Lila had any doubt that Jimmy was a wicked man the mere sight of that house would have wiped that straight away. She had to admit; she did love the fountain of Eve though. She blinked, not even having realized that Jimmy was trying to tell her he wanted to go inside now. He held out a hand and she took it. He entwined their fingers, leading her right up to the enormous front doors. He didn't bother to knock.

"Son of a bitch Sullivan, where the fuck have you been?!" A man with the physique of a body builder came storming into the grand foyer, only a sleeveless Motörhead shirt covering his extensive tattoos.

Aviators hid his eyes and a backwards baseball cap and a bandana blocked all view of his hair. His muscles were bigger than some of Lila's limbs, and she cowered into Jimmy involuntarily. He was frightening when he was angry. She hoped he wouldn't hurt them.

"It's been almost two fucking weeks you crazy shit! What were you fucking thinking?! What were you on?!"

"Dude, I was out of my fucking mind. I was gone dude! The whole time- it was amazing, you have to try it. I don't even know what the fuck I was on." Jimmy smiled as he spoke, seeming comfortable and happy around the man. By then however, more men had come pouring into the room, swarming around the pair, making Lila tighten her grip on Jimmy even more. Most of them had their eyes on the taller man, but some of them were eying Lila strangely and it made her nervous.

"What the fuck is this?!" one of them screamed angrily, gesturing to the girl.

"[b[She is my girl, and her name is Lila, dickface." Sighing he rubbed his eyes, hidden under the brim of his fedora, before looking back at his friend.

"You are seriously not just walking into our house with a total stranger, are you? Haven't you thought she could be fucking working for the enemy?! What if she fucking goes to the cops! She's a liability Jimmy, and you have to get rid of her." The green eyed man next to him pulled a nine millimeter out of his back pocket and was cocking it. Lila contemplated going for the knife she always had hidden on her, but held back seeing that Jimmy wanted to handle things.

"You are not fucking killing my girlfriend you motherfucking dicks!" he screamed, moving Lila behind him.

"Wait, did you just say 'girlfriend'? You can't be serious!" The shortest of the group's jaw hung down.

"This is Jimmy, of course he's fucking serious," Mr. Fedora replied with a bit of a laugh and a smile, tipping his head back and groaning animalisticly. Lila was confused and just a little terrified.

She trusted Jimmy never to lead her into a situation that he thought she wouldn't come out of, and she understood that these were people he was really close with. She was hopefully assuming they would have more sense than to kill someone who made Jimmy happy. Besides all that, the thrill that ran down her spine as Jimmy referred to her as his girlfriend for the first time was to overpowering for her to be afraid just then. She hadn't even realized that was what they were- not that she was complaining.

"Jimmy," the bigger one said in a warning tone. He turned his head sideways a bit was shaking it back and forth as if in disbelief.

"Couldn't you have just gotten a puppy or something?" shorty asked.

"Oh my vodka, Lila, you wanna go get a puppy?!" Jimmy whirled around and was holding her shoulders looking at her with huge eyes.

"Hell yes! We have to get one of those cute wrinkly ones!" She smiled broadly and they jumped up and down together.

"You mean a Bloodhound? Let's get a Bloodhound!" he said too quickly, grabbing her hand and jogging with her towards the door. She squealed, trying not to fall on her face on the marble as he half dragged her.

"Hey boys, is that-" Jimmy stopped at the sound of the voice, muttering 'so close'. Lila had no clue what he meant. She knew he'd been trying to get her away from his friends, but she didn't understand why this new person was such a big deal.

"Who the fuck is that?! Who brought a girl into the house?!" The man's voice got higher as it rose in volume. When Lila turned she saw that he was just an older version of Fedora man.

"Papa G, this is Lila, my girlfriend," Jimmy introduced calmly. "We're going to get a puppy, I hope that's alright." Papa G just stood there for a moment and then burst out laughing. After a second all the other boys chimed in too.

"You can not get a fucking puppy, because I'll just end up having to take care of it. And Rev, I'm not looking after your fucking girlfriend either, got that? It's bad enough that you've got me cleaning up after you like some kind of maid, I'm not breaking up with her or killing her for you."

"Why do you all have so little faith in me?! I'm not killing my girlfriend, you're not killing my girlfriend, fucking no one is killing my girlfriend!"

"She'll probably kill herself after two days of being sober with you[,/i] Jimmy," The green eyed man quipped, making them all laugh again.

"Where are the Berry's?"

"Oh, they're out shopping. Someone realized it's easier to just buy the food." Papa G answered. At Lila's extreme confusion he looked at Jimmy inquisitively.

"Aren't you going to tell her?" Jimmy shifted.

"I haven't exactly had time, but I will. In fact I think I will now." Jimmy briskly lead Lila in the opposite direction he'd been about to take her in, up one of the grandiose staircases and down some hallways into a room that she instantly knew was his just by the decoration. Her mind was too overwhelmed. This was nothing like anything she'd ever experienced before and she wondered if she was still on all those drugs and just dreaming all of this up. But Jimmy was too... Jimmy. He couldn't be anything but himself. No one could make that shit up. But all of this was too much like... fiction. She smiled as she remembered her and Jimmy's first time in the library. He smiled too, reading her thoughts. They sat down on the bed and Lila crawled into Jimmy's arms. He stroked her hair.

"Baby, this is going to sound completely insane, but I need you to believe me, okay?" he began.

"Of course, Jim."

"I'm one of the Four Horsemen, and three of the men you just met are the sons of the Devil." Lila looked up at him, speechless.

"I'll prove it!" he said quickly. He held his hand in front of her, a long stemmed rose appearing in front of her. It was the most beautiful, most velvety red flower she'd ever seen, and she gasped.

She watched as tendrils of black crawled up it, turning the whole thing so dark it seemed to absorb all the light around it. He let go of the rose though it remained floating. It turned upside down and dripped into a puddle that remained suspended in mid air. It looked like really thick ink. Once the whole thing was liquid it rose upwards and became a rose again, a perfectly red one, which fell just in front of her and sat there as normal ones would.

"So... does this mean we're going to have a very low florist's bill or would it be too difficult to make these in mass amounts?" she asked, twirling the rose between her fingertips as if this were nothing out of the ordinary.

He tackled her, hugging her and kissing her, laughing ecstatically as he did so. He ran his hands over her hair, his eyes roaming all over her face.

"I knew you would believe me, Lila. I knew you were the one. The guys don't have any faith that we're going to last, but they've never felt this way. It's kind of hard to fall in love in Hell, you know?" His voice was higher than normal by a few decibels and almost to fast to understand.

"Wait a second! I get it now! You said everything would be better once we died and went to Hell! At the library... " She looked into his eyes as she continued, "when I die, I'll just go to Hell with you, won't I? I know I've been no saint, just the opposite. I've broken so many rules... Should I be afraid?" Her lower lip trembled.

"Not at all baby!" He was kissing all over her, caressing as much of her as he could. He never felt the need to take away someone's pain before, mostly because he'd never had a reason to. In Hell the only ones who suffered were the ones who deserved to.
She laughed. "A simple 'no' would have be fine Jimmy." He just gave her his goofy smile, letting her know that he couldn't help himself. He had flings before, and he was far from being a virgin, but he still felt like a total novice when he was around Lila. She was so much more important than all the others.

"So what will it be like to die?" Lila asked him quietly as they cuddled in the dark twenty minutes later. Jimmy was lying behind her, both of them on their sides with his arms around her. He gave her a squeeze.

"I can't tell you Lie, I'm an immortal being. But I could give Death a call and ask him for you." She laughed, thinking that he must be joking. According to his uncomfortable shifting he wasn't.

"Does he have a scythe?" she asked excitedly, looking over her shoulder.

"Actually he does, but he just uses it to scare the crap out of people. He has a real sense for dramatic shit and his games with the poor fools he goes to get personally keep us really fucking entertained. He's a really cool guy named Gerard, but you'll probably meet him soon anyway. Don't worry though, he's not gonna take you as long as you're with me. Horsemen don't do that shit to each other."

"Jimmy, I'm still going to age," her voice was dry and reasonable, as if it were obvious and inevitable. Her lover almost wanted to go over that whole part about where his closes friends were direct relatives of Satan. He figured he could hammer in the finer details about what that really meant later when things were a little calmer. Over pancakes sounded good to him.

"Don't worry baby, I'm sure Papa G is going to tell Lewis you're here anyway. We should probably be expecting him to show up screaming and shooting flames any minute now," he laughed, though she couldn't fathom why. "I might as well just ask him for a favor while he's chewing my head off."

"Who the fuck is Lewis and why is he so fucking important?" Lila finally asked, exasperated and totally lost.
A deafening roar from down stairs cut her off. She couldn't make out the words, but damn, did that person sound pissed.

"That's Lewis, and you're about to find out first hand."