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"Hoooly s**t...." Mandy wasn't sure if this was real or if she was hallucinating from hunger. She moved forward to touch the dog, to make sure it was all real, but she quickly stopped herself. She hadn't contracted the daemon, if she broke the seal it could ravage her. And from the eager stance of the Grim, he knew the rules well.

Pulling her hand back, she put on her best stone face she used for disgruntled customers. "Are you Grim?"

"Yes..." His voice was rich and dark, and feral.

"... I need you to help me, a man named ehmm..." Mandy looked around a bit uneasily. "... Marten took my powers and I want them back. Until the time when you kill him you will be my substitute and serve me as I see fit... oh! And you can't tell anyone about my powers or what we do at night..."

"What powers?" It was at this question that Mandy realized the monstrous dog was not speaking, well, it wasn't opening its mouth. It hadn't been born to speak or construct complex thought. It was in death that it was allowed to express itself by pushing its base emotions onto people to form simple words. Kinda cool.

"Many many powers..." She wasn't dumb. She wasn't going to tell him and limit herself to what she could command of this mutt. Nice try bub!

"... What... do I get?"

"My soul of course, you demons like that sorta thing right?"

The bear-like dog laughed and it made Mandy shiver in horror. "Steep..."

"Dude, I know where it's headed, at least this way I get something more for it..."

Grim wasn't picky. "I accept..." The seal dissolved away from the garage floor and the large spectral dog stepped forward, towering over little Mandy who sat stunned by her washer and dryer.

"........ Can.... Can I pet you?" He was a DOG after all, they like that stuff.

Grim snorted and sat back on his haunches. "If you must..." The daemon was amused this little girl had the balls to ask such a question so early on in their relationship.

Mandy lifted her hand and rested it on Grim's head... or tried to. Her hand went right through him. "What the hell?! How are you supposed to help me if you are ******** transparent!" She just sold her soul to a useless ghost dog. ******** have a physical form too..."

"Well get physical! Ehmm... please..." She took her hand out of the dog lest she become part of him and Grim became a solid form in reality. "Thank you..." It was always good to be polite, especially when the other being could eat you in two bites. Her hand brushed across his coarse black hair gently, rubbing her fingers against his cheek and muzzle. His ears fell back against his skull in warning and catching the smell of blood, he began licking Mandy's fingers.

"Aww you're so cute-- OW! No biting!" The young woman took back her hand and gave Grim a soft pop on the jowls.

"Do not call me cute..."

"Fine..."

The sizzle of bacon and eggs enveloped the kitchen and drowned out Mandy's insistent humming. Which was probably for the best as Mandy could barely hold a tune, but she continued forth nonetheless. Grabbing her last egg, she clicked it carelessly on the side of the pan and, instead of a smooth slip into the grease, the egg splat on the brunette's clean white tile floor.

"Ahh, ball sack!" She groaned most unladylike, spatula in hand shaking gently. Oh well. She stepped her bare feet to the far right and kept tending to her breakfast. Grigsby would have heard it and come on in to slop it up, one of Mandy's favorite talents of her dog. But by the time her bacon and eggs were finished and placed on a clean plate, her foot slid across raw egg and almost skulled herself on the cabinets below. "Jesus Christ! Grigsby... Grigsby!"

What the ********? He wasn't deaf. "Ugh..." Wiping the nastiness from her foot with a paper towel and the floor since she didn't think grim would eat her foot egg now. She strutted over into the living room to find Grigsby sitting by the window, his black fur standing on end and making him appear twice as large. His short ears were perched high as he listened to something very critically.

"Hey... Hey!"

Finally, grim looked back at her with a bored stare.

"I almost killed myself in there and you didn't come to my aid!"

Snorting, his ear perked back up and he turned to the window once more.

"....."

Mandy had never appreciated her own home until now. Living with a silent spectral dog, she had taken for granted the true value of peace and quiet it held. Now, stuck right in the middle of The Tempest, listening to the constant comings and goings of her girls outside her door, it was absolutely maddening. She hadn't had a great night's sleep since her employment and it was starting diminish her upbeat personality. Or what was left of it.

No, the most maddening thing was the fact that she had been woken up by the silence. Practically face first into her pillows, the young woman felt consciousness resurface and that was not acceptable. Her face lifted and heavy-lidded eyes looked to her night stand where her alarm clock sat.

Midnight

That couldn't be right. Mandy stilled, staring at the wall before her as she concentrated, ears straining for the tell tale sign of escorts moving through housing. No heels clacking, voices giggling, nothing. Maybe the power went out or something. If it really was 12, their housing should be bursting with primal activity. If her women were slacking, they were going to regret it. Midnight was a peak hour for The Tempest, and by God she was not going to be blamed for a lack of funds rolling in.

"God almighty..." She only had two hours of sleep left if it was midnight, she just wanted to go back to snoozing, was that too much to ask? She'd rather knock skulls on paid time, not when she was supposed to be taking her break.

Rolling over to stretch out across her bed, Mandy looked for the sheets that had migrated down her stomach in the night and froze. Stilling her breath, Mandy dared to look behind her.

"Grigsby...?" She asked quietly, but nothing responded. If he was doing his rounds in the casino then what the ******** was in her room? As slowly as she could, the brunette rolled over in her sheets and almost pissed her panties. "Why are you in my room?" She remembered to lock her door hadn't she? "This is not a place for clients, get out!"

He didn't even turn around, just rocked himself back and forth as if he was tweaking. Jesus, was he on drugs? Was that allowed at The Tempest? "You have five seconds to get out before I throw you out, a*****e!" Mandy was almost happy he didn't turn around, it gave her the chance to dish out some street justice. Sliding her hand down beside the mattress as slowly as she could, the Madam gripped a baseball bat and rolled off the bed with experienced stealth. All she had on unfortunately was a silk teddy and matching underwear, not exactly good for combat, but she wasn't going to take the time to put on some pants when she may only have one chance at surprising this crazy voyeur.

"Last chance, man. Get out or I'll splatter you against the wall..." With every step she took toward the man, the more her stomach tightened into a heavy knot. She'd kicked the s**t out of plenty of men, this was nothing knew, but... this man unnerved her. This wasn't just a man. This presence was evil, and she knew what evil felt like. She had sold her soul to evil and it had its own feel. It invaded your senses like sulfur.

Holding on to the last shreds of courage, Mandy pulled her bat back and aimed for the man's shoulder, but all she hit was the side of her wall with a mean crack as the drywall fractured. The impact sung through the bat and up her arms, ending in a blood-curdling scream as the wood dropped from her shaking hands.

"Holy s**t..." How could she have hit nothing? How... he wasn't there anymore! She couldn't have just imagined this! Was this the start of a mental breakdown or the result of working for demons? Taking deep breaths to calm her nerves, Mandy could hear the murmur of the crowd outside her door again. Suddenly the room was lighter, brighter. It was like she had been in a vacuum of time.

"Miss Young, are you okay?" One of the girls must have heard her scream. Talk about embarrassing.

"Y... Yeah.. I just..... h-had a bad dream... it's not important..." Well so much for her last hours of sleep. She couldn't go back to bed in sweat-soaked clothes.

--

Miss young was thankful she made sure to op for a private bathroom. Sharing anything with the gaggle of women she managed would be complete and utter hell, and she was pretty sure elbowing an employee in the face to get to the flat iron was frowned upon in this establishment. Though Mandy wondered derisively if all the males would say no to a cat fight.

Grabbing a new set of clothes and a towel, the young woman padded over her fuzzy bathroom mat and turned on the shower head. The water gushed free with a loud churn and Mandy took the opportunity while the shower heated up to disrobe her underwear and silk top she had worn to bed. Once the mirror in her bathroom had fogged up, Mandy stuck her hand under the rushing water, adjusted the temperature and stepped under the spray.

Despite the enveloping heat, she was still shaking and it had nothing to do with cold. She was rather convinced it hadn't been a nightmare, nothing of the sort could have riled her up so much. From expansive experience being the nightmare lurking in the shadows, it would take much more than a flippant nightmare or even some perverted sicko to terrify her. And it was the very fact it was something demonic that made her ashamed. She was supposed to be a boogieman as well, true devilry was what she aspired to become and yet her humanity dragged like a rotting layer of skin she just couldn't completely shed. Her fear dragged and it was not acceptable. To be afraid of this evil meant she was not truly apart of them.

Of course I'm not, a more rational voice interjected. She had only been here, what, a few weeks if that. Being a complete sociopathic b***h didn't change what she truly was. She was a human in a demonic world. Emulation was nothing more than a mask and, as she saw earlier this morning, it was easily broken.

Spending more time than she had meant to under the steaming spray, Mandy turned the shower head off and slid the towel perched on top of the shower curtain off the rail and began to dry herself off, leaving her hair for last as she wrapped her thicket of curls up on the top of her head. The curtain rattled lightly as she pushed the hooks to the side, stepping carefully onto her fuzzy bathroom mat.

"Ugh..." was the only noise she made when she looked down at her chest. Her skin was completely pink. Great. The brunette had raised the temperature a little too high. Oh well, it'd clear away soon, she didn't have to be "at work" for another hour or so.

She fixed her hair first, unwrapping it from the towel and blow-drying it into it's usual massive halo around her head. She sprayed a few dollops of product in her hand and began to scrunching her curls so they didn't become a giant fuzzball. That was highly unattractive. Knowing full well she would get something on her dress if she put it on too early, so the towel was just as good. She wrapped it a little tighter than usual, convincing herself it was because she had some clean up to do, it had nothing to do with the fact someone had infiltrated into her room when she was at her most vulnerable last night.

Her room was littered with dirty laundry and a few papers that probably were supposed to be filed away in the casino. Keeping a hand secured to the line of her towel, Mandy kicked up the dresses and underwear across the carpet and put them in a pile by her laundry bag. She began pulling papers from her desk in the corner and howled when her flat-screen television mounted on the wall turned on with a blip and a loud rush of static. The sound was deafening, swallowing up Mandy's scream as she jumped away from the desk. Taking deep breaths to calm her pounding heart, Miss Young scrambled across her desk for the remote to turn the ******** off before her whole floor of clients beginning to complain from the noise. She heard it hit the carpet with a thunk and quickly pounded on the buttons until one of them turned it off.

"Jesus!" God this day was already testing the limits of her patience and it wasn't even dawn yet! She put the remote back down on the table and suddenly felt light headed. Her palm was wet and shining with blood. Mouth hung slack as she noticed her desk pooling with the crimson fluid, bubbling up from the remote beside her. The television blipped back alive, static slowly picking up volume but there was a more chilling sound present amidst the snow. A faint voice crackled over the air waves, undiscernable as any kind of language. With ever mumble, the snowy static shifted. Almost like a face. Almost tripping over her chair, Mandy scrambled for the flat-screen that began to ooze blood from the seams and collected on her dark carpet, losing her hold on her towel as she dropped to the sodden ground.

"What the ******** is going on? Who are you?!" But nothing changed, only the soft mumbling of the deranged. "Grigsby! Grig--Grim! Grim! Please!"

The demon appeared behind her. "What is wr--Do you ever wear clothes anymore?" Not that he minded, but...

"Wh-whas.. L-Look! Look a--!" The young woman's words caught in her throat as she turned back to point, but... nothing was there. All of the blood was gone. The carpet wasn't damp and the television wasn't even turned on. "No... no this isn't--No! There was! The TV kept-kept turning on! And then and then the blood--"

"Blood?"

"Yes, goddamnit! There was blood all over my room and--th-there was! This man! He was in my room in the night! He was in... in the corner! Just standing there! And-and I hit.. Look at the wall, I went to hit him and he ******** vanished. He vanished! And.. and--"

The giant dog watched her summoner critically, gravely concerned. She was not a woman to freak out over every little thing. In fact, he had never seen her this distraught over anything. He padded over the wall she had dented, his big nose sniffing across the painted drywall for any hint someone had been there. But all he could smell was Mandy. "I don't smell anything--"

"I'm not making this up!"

"I didn't say you were--is that blood?" Grim narrowed in on Mandy's hand. He quickly ate up the distance between them with his long stride and sniffed. Snorting, he pulled back and circled one time. His giant tongue laved across her entire palm and immediately yelped and began to balk and gack across her room.

"Grigsby--yah!" The brunette snatched her hand back that she tried to console Grim with as he snapped at her. And then he disappeared in a whuff of spectral smoke, leaving her alone once again.

Not wanting to spend another minute alone in her own apartment, Mandy pulled herself off the floor, grabbed an extra set of clothes, her phone and went to one of her girl's room to change so she could give Mischa and Theros a recap of her morning.