Hecate took a slow breath. The infernal circle drawn on the ground around her kneeling form glowed red. Gabrielle stood behind her, hands on her shoulders, and the divine circle in the air around them flashed gold. They both began to chant in languages older than the first men who walked the earth, primordial tongues to which all future languages owed their existence but that could not be heard by humans without turning their minds to madness and their brains into a kind of gross paste. 

 

After a few seconds, there was a red-and-gold flash, and before them stood two people, one in black and one in white. 

 

“You have s--”

 

“How may w--”

 

They paused after both starting at the same time.

 

“I’m sorry, why d--”

 

“No, you go fir--”

 

The person in white took a deep, exasperated breath, and extended a hand to the other in the universal symbol of “Please go first, I don’t want to do this dance for another five minutes.”

 

The person in black, an androgynous character that really pulled off the tall-dark-and-handsome look, smiled apologetically.

 

“We are so sorry. We are still setting things up. Ahem.”

 

They coughed and straightened their back.

 

“You have summoned us, what do you require?”

 

Now the person in white, who appeared as somewhat softer and kinder, but no less professional, cleared their throat as well. They didn’t take a step forward, but seemed to slide into the foreground of their perception.

 

“How may we help you, by the grace of the Divine?”

 

Hecate and Gabrielle looked at each other with confusion.

 

“I thought that was obvious?”

 

The two messengers looked at each other sheepishly.

 

“We’re sorry, these protocol scripts are garbage, honestly.”

 

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. “I step away for one century…”

 

Hecate smirked and squeezed a hand on her shoulder.

 

The person in white retrieved a clipboard from thin air, and went down the list. 

 

“I see we have heeeeere… hold on… Which one of you is Scarlett?”

 

Hecate got up. “I’m her mother.”

 

“Ah, good, next of kin is good.”

 

The person in black retrieved their own clipboard that appeared in a tiny puff of fire and smoke. Hecate raised an eyebrow. “It’s hard to unlearn old theatrics,” the messenger laughed, and offered the clipboard to her. 

 

“Sign here, please. One delivery for a Scarlett.”

 

Hecate took the clipboard and drew her jagged signature on the paper with a fingernail. Equally theatrical, the paper hissed and singed where her finger touched. 

 

“If I might ask,” the person in white interjected, “why this delivery? Discorporation isn’t all that common, certainly, but you can just make a request in person, surely?”

 

“It’s not for us,” Gabrielle answered. “Human soul getting a replacement.”

 

The White Messenger frowned, trying not to look accusingly at Hecate. “Human soul? I thought your side didn’t go in for that sort of thing anymore.”

 

Both Hecate and the Black Messenger shot them a withering glance, and they shrunk a little bit. “You know what I mean,” they squeaked.

 

“There’s no more sides,” the other messenger said. “I’m going to have to find a good reason not to report you for workplace discrimination.”

 

Hecate, though furious, just wanted this over with. “Let’s just… The transfer was voluntary.”

 

“Oh?” The two people turned to her with surprise. The Black Messenger had a look of amusement on their face. “Voluntary soul bargain? Those are rare. Even before the merger. How’d they do it?”

 

Hecate grinned. “Fiddle.”

 

The messenger shot finger guns at nobody in particular. “Nice. Classic.”

 

Hecate handed them back the clipboard, and, the person in white, still feeling guilty over their remark, clapped their hands twice. Between them, a sarcophagus of a kind appeared in the air, which immediately slammed to the ground. It was a beautiful, ornate coffin, inlaid with black and gold, showing a carved figure on the front of it that was vaguely familiar, if it wasn’t for a pair of wings that extended in the engraving on the sides. The wood parquet creaked.

 

“If you scratched my floors,” Hecate began. Almost as if to cut her off, the person in black made a twisting motion in the air with one hand, and then there was a small glass ball in their grip, which they tossed at Hecate. 

 

“I believe that’s it. The sarcophagus will be recalled once the full transfer is complete. We hope you have a nice day, and we apologize for the inconvenience.”

 

The messengers looked at one another, then took a slight bow and vanished like a mirage in the air. Hecate looked at Gabrielle with the glass ball in her hand.

 

“Do you think we should let Scarlett do it?”

 

Gabrielle shook her head. “No, she’s been eating herself alive, she’d be too scared to do something wrong. Let’s just get it over with.”

 

Hecate nodded, and slammed the glass ball down on top of the sarcophagus. It shattered, and the shards evaporated like smoke. Immediately, the lid of the golden coffin came off. Well, “came off” was an understatement. It shot up, slammed into the ceiling and ricocheted off the couch. Hecate grimaced at the damage that was being done to their living room.

 

A lithe demon jumped up. Allyssa looked around and saw Hecate and Gabrielle, and bounced out of the sarcophagus, which dissolved into thin air. Without saying anything, she ran up to them and hugged them. Then she took a step back and looked around. 

 

“Where’s…” she mumbled, just as Gabrielle hit send on her phone. The door slammed open with so much force it nearly creaked out of its hinges. Hecate groaned, but neither Scarlett nor Allyssa cared. Scarlett was in full demon form, wings out, horns tall, hooves thudding on the wood floor as she stampeded towards Allyssa, who responded in kind, and they collided loudly in the living room and wrapped their arms around each other.

 

“It worked!” Scarlett squeaked, tears of joy streaming down her face. “I was so worried.” She managed to fit her words in between the shower of kisses she was raining down on Allyssa’s face. Allyssa could only giggle and cry herself. 

 

Gabrielle and Hecate’s fingers intertwined as they looked at the reunited pair with a smile. 

 

“Hey, we’ll give you two some time in a minute, but let’s have a look at you first, okay?”

 

Allyssa and Scarlett nodded, hesitant to let go, but agreed nonetheless. Allyssa took a step back and everyone took stock of her new body. The face was pretty much that of Alli as she’d looked in her late twenties, though a deep red, with bright yellow eyes, and two short horns protruding from her forehead. She opened her mouth and felt her newfound fangs with her newfound forked tongue. That was new. That was interesting, she thought, and tried not to make a horny face at Scarlett. Her legs ended in a pair of hooves, and she had a pair of black, leathery wings. Which she stretched tentatively, almost knocking over a flower arrangement. 

 

“Heck,” Scarlett said.

 

“Hell yeah,” Allyssa said. 

 

Gabrielle and Hecate both clapped and brought both of their girls in for another hug, then left to give them some privacy. 

 

As much as Allyssa and Scarlett wanted to immediately “try out” this new form, Allyssa sat down on the sofa and had some questions. The piece of furniture in question creaked dangerously and then collapsed, due to earlier impact of the sarcophagus. Alli sat there sheepishly. Scarlett laughed.

 

“How was the funeral?” Allyssa asked. “My sisters…”

 

Scarlett sat down on the coffee table and folded her legs. “It was good. It was a good little agnostic service. The catering was a bit ehh. Your sisters did fine, though. Melanie was a little overly dramatic, if I’m honest. She’s seventy and I don’t know where she gets the energy to bawl like that. I’d have been worried if she hadn’t winked at me.”

 

“Cheeky little shit.”

 

Scarlett giggled.

 

“Kat’s kids were there too, by the way.”

 

“Oh! I’m glad they could make it!” Allyssa looked happily surprised.

 

“Me too! They flew in and really added to the sullen funeral procession. Gosh, they got so big.”

 

“Yeah, they’re, what? In their forties, now?”

 

Scarlett nodded. “Something like that. I remember when Jason was still small enough to go ‘do the thing with the fire again, Auntie Scarlett’. They’ve got their own kids now!”

 

“Time flies,” Allyssa sighed. 

 

“Your family made a good show of it,” Scarlett said, “but, you know, they’d all been informed. They’ll want to see you tomorrow, but we told them you’d need to ‘recuperate’.” 

 

“But I feel fine!”

 

Scarlett grinned cheekily. “I want you all to myself today.”

 

“Oh,” Allyssa said.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“How long was I… away?”

 

Scarlett sighed. “Three days.”

 

“Are you okay?”

 

Scarlett joined her on the collapsed couch, and leaned against her, their hands finding each other. 

 

“I was terrified, Alli. I kept thinking something would go wrong, or misplaced, or it’d be denied.”

 

“I’m so sorry, baby,” Allyssa said, and reached out to touch Scarlett’s cheek. She could tell that Scarlett had been stressing out, and she felt guilty that she hadn’t been around to soothe her wife. “I’ll make it up to you, love.”

 

“I’m okay now, but thank you. Mom and Gabby helped.”

 

Scarlett leaned back in the sofa with her hands behind her head, deflating a little now that she could finally relax. 

 

“What did they say?”

 

“Well, Mom pointed out that, if they, and I quote ‘don’t get their shit together, they’re going to have two angry WMD’s running around until shit has been gotten together’.”

 

“Gosh,” Allyssa said. “There’s an image. And that does sound like your mother.”

 

“M-hm! That helped.”

 

“I’d still like to make it up to you.”

 

Scarlett smiled innocently. “What did you have in mind?”

 

“Well,” Allyssa said as she straddled Scarlett’s lap. “Why don’t weee…. Renew our vows, next week? We’ll make a party of it, invite only the people who know.”

 

Scarlett sighed like a gay and kissed her. “That sounds amazing. I can’t wait to marry you all over again.”

 

“And until then,” Allyssa interrupted, and very softly ran a finger along Scarlett’s horn, “let’s put this new body through its paces.” She shifted her hips suggestively. 

 

“OwO,” Scarlett said.