Possession.

 The sound of the god awful screaming coming in over the microphone, followed by the horrid slam of the table, the wire must have been destroyed. Charlie switched back over to the audio from the listening device Rodney was carrying and all we heard was the screeching of rats, followed by a thud, and a groan.

"Shit, Rodney!" I said suddenly, my voice was silent to Charlie, who knew I was next to him. I just didn't want him to see me worry about Rodney. I have an image to maintain after all.

I made myself visible, it isn't hard, just a twinge of will, and said "We have to go help him."
"SWAT's on their way." "Do you hear that thing? You are going to need more than a few 9mm rounds to take that out, and I think I heard the roar of a really powerful demon in there too. If you send somebody in there, they are going to have their asses seasoned, roasted, and handed to them on a platter. With stuffing and grilled leeks!"

"Didn't need that visual Lass." I didn't like that he was calling me that. The guy looked like Danny Trejo if he had one white parent, In short, wasn't pretty enough to call me that. But I didn't have the time to be picking at it. Before I even had the chance to think up a witty reply, he asked "What does being Possessed feel like?"

This question was both concerning and dangerous. "From what Rodney tells me, awful, from what other demons tell me, its more addictive than cocaine." I replied "You aren't going to ask me what I think you are going to ask me are you Charlie?"

"If I'm possessed, you step over the lines yeah?" I stared at him. He couldn't be serious.
"You can't be serious."

"Lascivious, answer the fuckin' question."

"Yes, I would be flying under the radar. I basically cloak myself in your soul, sitting inside you, puppeting you from within. Rodney says the victims he's treated are both aware of what the demon thinks, and they see exactly what the demon is doing, but have no influence whatsoever. I can cross salt lines, sit in church, even sing hynmms without even feeling so much as a twinge."

"And what makes it so addictive?"

"Imagine being freezing cold your whole life, so cold your entire body has completely numbed, but never cold enough for frostbite or hypothermia to set in. Then put on some warm clothes fresh from the dryer. That lovely heat you feel? That's what's so addictive.

God, Yahweh, Allah, whatever the hell you decide to call him loves you people, not even the biggest bastards in the world lack that warmth in their soul, and when someone sits inside you, when you let one of us in, we get wrapped up in that love, that warmth, and fly under the radar.

The Fallen haven't felt that in millenia, that's why all the big names still possess humans, they long for that warmth again, to feel that succor. Not even Haephestus could match that warmth, and I used to hang out with half of Olympus on the weekends."

"Have you ever done it?" His hands were white knuckle on the wheel. We could hear the rats still moving over Rodney, Thank Lucifer for his shittty fashion sense or they might have been ripping through flesh instead of faux leather right now.

"No, I have done a lot of capital E Evil things in my existence Charlie, but that is the one thing I wouldn't touch. Most demons see it like Humans see trying Heroin. One shot and you can't stop, you would sacrifice your whole life, every last soul you have, just for one more taste."

Admittedly I had suggested it to Rodney, but I knew he would have said no, and even if he had said yes, he could force me back out if I couldn't bring myself to leave, being a Nephilim and all. Charlie on the other hand, he was a regular human, with a good soul, and a good family, and... Kids.

I can't hurt anymore kids....

"Is God real Lass?" He asked.
"Weird question to ask while we listen to our friend be eaten by rats, but, yes. The Creator is real."

"Does he forgive? Truly?" I looked at him. "That's what the Angels and your Sunday school preacher man says yes."

"Then let's do it."

I stared at him, mouth agape, he shuddered at my appearance, in this situation I couldn't blame him, but at the same time, as I heard the tearing of fake leather and the smashing rampage of whatever was inside that building... I knew I couldn't say no.

"Shake my hand." I said.

Charlie looked confused.

"Come on boy, won't you shake, a poor sinner's hand?" I grinned at him. Objectively the best Disney movie and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. Louisiana has remained my favorite US state ever since, it also helps that you can get any woman to flash her tits for some beads on Mardi Gras.

He shook my hand, and it was as if I had cracked open the front door to a furnace, and thrown myself inside.

I was surrounded by light, blasted by its purity, by its warmth. This was no dryer, this was the fucking incinerator, Rack Shack and Benny would have been sweating in this heat and they had Angel AC for fucks sake.

I reached out, trying to grab for something, anything, and I found myself inside of a house, leaning against a wall. I was in a hallway, cream coloured paint with texturing, a simple bowl light lit the room.
There was a chick, a drop-dead gorgeous one at that, Hispanic, all curves, with long black hair down to her waist. standing at the other end of the hallway, smiling at me. She had just showered, and her hair was sticking to her skin, as well as her dress sticking to her body. I realized it wasn't me she was smiling at after all, as I felt the heat pass through me when Charlie stepped through me, his face was smooth, less creased and scarred by his job, young.

He hugged the woman, kissed her, and I felt the depth and warmth of that kiss, I felt the lust flare in his heart, but something like the sludge I crawled out of seemed to shrink away from the raw and pure love he had for her. The memory faded.

Another memory. A lullaby, something in spanish, but too new a dialect for me to understand, nothing like how the Conquistadors spoke. I looked around the room to find myself standing next to a crib, a baby lying in it, cooing gently at her father as he sang to her. She laughed, and that love poured through me again, burning me like hot coals, but it felt so fucking good, like the difference from holding a coal and having hot rocks along your back.

God this was better than sex, this was better than a soul torn straight from a person, this was even better than that one time I had a full human sacrifice devoted to me. Not a damn thing in all my years ever felt this good, and this painful, it was agony and ecstasy, and I wanted it to last forever.

But I had to move, I remembered who I was doing this for, I kept that in my mind even as my very soul burned with the pure and raw love that a human soul contained within it, it's no wonder the demons of old wanted us to target good people instead of assholes and monsters, if their souls were this pure, this full of love. His love, but also their own love for the world and people around them, it could keep a whole army of demons fed for centuries.

That was it, that was what lie at the core of the human soul, the capacity for goodness, the capacity to love thy neighbor, that was what me and my kin feasted upon in order to keep our sorry hides kicking.

I was disgusted in myself, disgusted that my irredeemable soul was digging through the soul of this man to find something to latch on to, and finally I found it, the Original Sin. A fig, or was it a pomegranate? Apple maybe? I couldn't tell, the fruit from which the free will to choose had bloomed, the most solid place from which a demon could puppet, and the only seed of cold in this whole soul.

Grasping it, I felt the warmth fall over me like the blanket all my coworkers had described to me before, it was so remarkably comforting, so peaceful, so unlike Hell.

When I opened my eyes, his eyes, the eyes of Charlie, I felt the part of his personality get shoved somewhere dark and cold, somewhere empty, as far away from this warmth as possible, punishment maybe for letting me in. I saw the steering wheel, my hands, his hands. I needed to not think of him as if he were me, not like that, couldn't let myself get too used to it...

I stepped out of the car, drew Charlie's service pistol, and started moving at speed towards the factory, I heard the sound of the roaring man, only seconds must have past from when I had entered Charlie's body, and I stepped over the salt without any difficulty. Ordinarily it's like a solid wall, invisible and painful. That stupid Supernatural show managed to convince most of humanity it works like that, so through that faith, so mote it be.

I moved as quickly as Charlies legs could take me. I contemplated turning off his bodies limitations, an easy enough task, I could control every bodily function he had, it was how you ended up with the demons crawling up the walls with just the fingers. Turn off a humans sense of pain, self preservation, their capacity for avoiding total destruction of the muscle fibers inside them, and Humans could lift cars off the ground to save screaming babies.

It would just kill him if I did it for more than a few minutes. I tried to see if I could talk to him, communicate with him, I needed to stop feeling so damn euphoric for five seconds so I could focus, having another voice could help me out here. Even while running around through his body it felt like I was running while high on something strong.

I stopped thinking to myself when I saw the massive wall of flesh in front of me.
What was once a man, now a 13 foot tall monstrosity of muscle and flesh towered above me. He was completely nude, his clothes unable to confine the hideous musculature. I saw the qualia pouring off of him, rage, unabated and pure, greater Wrath than even a demon of that circle could muster, as well as hundreds of Futhark runes glowing from beneath his pulsing veins. My choice was made for me.

"Charlie, this is going to hurt, I'm really sorry."
I turned off his bodies limits, and felt power surge through me as the adrenaline flowed, all these extra hormones and endocrine systems and such were causing weird pops and fizzles through the body, probably joints that really had no right to be moving like this popping out of place.
He was going to feel this.

I reached into myself next, reaching into that pitch black ooze that is my soul, and pulled out the strength of my blood, pushing it into Charlies soul, staining it black as I did so. It felt like shit, but we were going to need every chance we could get, and I had no idea if any more salt was ahead that I might need to step over...

Right Lascivious? Right? That's why right?

Fuck since when did I grow a conscience?

I holstered the pistol, wasn't gonna do a damn thing here other than piss him off. I pushed off of the ground, going into a dead sprint, moving through the machinery and rust. I think I must have been running along some kind of mechanical presses. The sound of crashing steel and smashing metal suggested the big fucker wasn't far behind.

I reached inward, looking around Charlies memories, searching for anything that might help me in this situation as I continued to run the fuck away. I had a sensation like something was being shoved into the forefront of his head, seemed his soul still had a little control.

I reached for the memory and heard Charlie's voice "These old places are often still on the grid, something about taxes and it costs more to pull out of here than it would be worth." This was a weird and clunky method of communication, but it did help.

I started looking around the room as I sprinted, and saw a massive power box on one side of the room, with big red lettering that said "Danger! Caution! High Voltage! and the like. It was up against the back wall, near the fallen remains of some metal supports, and still had dozens of wires hanging all over it. 

"Hello darling, I don't think we have met, I would really appreciate it if there wasn't an arc flash quite yet..." I said to the glorious green machine as I tore off the metal door like it was paper.

I slammed my hands into all the switches in the box, I heard a massive arc flash go off nearby, and the whole plant nearly went right back down again, I could smell burning copper and figured there was a penny doing a whole hell of a lot of work in a fuse box somewhere.

I spun around, hoping all the machines would start up, and saw a couple angry flashes of electricity spark out of damaged wires, the hulking mass of flesh was still after me, and not a damn thing was happening to all the machinery, just a whole hell of a lot of angry pixies releasing magic smoke. I was pretty certain something in here was about to catch fire, so much for evidence.

"Sorry Charlie, needs must when I'm driving."

Suddenly, I saw a spark come from the front of the switchbox, and I dived backwards, an arc of lightning, a good four or five inches thick, slammed through the air with a sound like a thunderclap. The mass of flesh came stomping up, sprinting at me on all fours, slamming one palm against the switchbox to catch itself, and all those pixies found ground through him.

I ran around the area, giving the box a wide berth as I did so, hitting the ground I felt something sprain as I slid under a conveyor to put some distance between me and the hulk as it spasmed, eventually the box just exploded, the sheer force of all that electricity leaving all at once slammed through the body of the man, leaving a massive charred ball of flesh and intestines scattered across the room, punching a literal hole in him.

"If we get out of this alive, I need to have a conversation with Tyr. And Zeus apparently." I doubted lightning and arc flashes happened for this long, and the smell of ozone in the air suggested an act of a god. From the looks of things, this was bigger than just a little squabble between humans. The gods were arguing about this too, and Tyr looked to be on the side of the world destroyers.

The fire started to crawl up the walls, and I realized something as the smoke began to burn my lungs.

"Oh shit! Rodney!" I started to sprint to the other end of the plant, away from the machines and the fire, though there were some hot wires trying really hard to set fire to the cinder block walls, and I suspect that with enough time, the heat would break down the concrete between the blocks.

Moving with preternatural strength and speed, the demonic influence pumping through Charlies soul pushing his body to its limits, I leapt over a massive hole in the wall, finding myself in the remains of a breakroom, or maybe a conference area? The lightbulb was flickering rapidly, this was probably causing power fluctuations around the whole damn city.

I threw the grate off the wall, rats started pouring out of the hole, whole fucking hordes of them. Which one was this now? Hel? Loki?
I reached into the mass and allowed that demonic energy to pour out from my hand. "Children playing God, lets show you what one of His creations truly looks like!" The rats suddenly began to twist and screech, biting at my arms and scratching, but I had a body now, I had a soul, I could reach out and touch them.

There was a sudden echoing crack, as a hundred necks were snapped in an instant. I allowed an evil chuckle, this was like having power again, I felt like a god again, who the hell would ever want to remain in hell grinding out souls when you can just take the power you want, kill whatever you want to kill. So freeing, so powerful... So...

Wrong... Why is it wrong? Why would such power be wrong? We should be able to crush this world under our feet! We should be able to take everything we want from them! Everything...

I reached into the vent, and pulled out the bleeding form of my dear friend. I could feel something burning against my fingers as I did so. So much blood, he was soaked in it, the rats I killed managed to dig through his jacket, ripping through his clothing, ruining it... Only the gentle rising and falling of his chest was enough to remind me he was alive. I reached out to him, trying to take him up in my arms, realizing again that these were not my arms... but Charlies... Bruises were crawling up the skin from torn musculature, and his veins were black as pitch.

Wrong! Wrong! I am no better than Legion!

I cried out, lashing about within the soul, trying to pull myself out. But I realized in that moment that I was so deeply entrenched, had stained the soul so deeply, that I could no longer escape, he was mine, I had claimed him... I couldn't leave, not unless someone pulled me out, and he would suffer for it...

"Charlie! I am sorry! I am so so sorry! I don't want to hurt you anymore! I didn't mean to! I'm stuck... I'm stuck... Fucking Shit..." I looked around at the flames slowly growing around us, like the lake of fire seeking to swallow us whole...
"Please... God. I am so sorry, please, cast this devil into the pigs, get them out of here..."

I suddenly felt a warmth behind me, a horrible dangerous warmth, one I recognized all too well.

"You really shouldn't have done that, spawn of the fallen." I turned around, nearly blinded by the light of the angel before me. "Azrael, please, get me out of this man... I made a mistake, I should never have done this!"

"Mistakes you have made, that is for certain, but I have come to claim the soul of the man whose death was by the hands of Gods. You had best move quickly demon, the shaky peace we have with the Pagans is beginning to deteriorate."

"Please just get me out of here... I don't want to do this anymore. I need to get these two out of here."

"I cannot change the fate of the world, it would be against my purpose. And I cannot remove you from this person, you have rooted yourself too deeply. You will need to deal with the consequences of your actions. If I or Rodney were to pull you out now, his soul would be damaged beyond repair. What I can do however, is separate you both. I can partition you from the rest of him, so you stop doing any more damage, but you are stuck with him until he dies, then it's up to him to let you... drive, as it were."

"Seriously?!? I just want out! Just let me out!"

"I cannot, Lascivious, Demon of Flirtation, face the consequences of your actions. Know the evil you have done, and regret it. Judgement may yet come someday for the both of you. The soul you possess included, but I can help, somewhat."

She reached a hand forward, and the alabaster skinned hand entered my... Charlies... Our chest.

I felt her hand burn against my soul, pressing against the corruption I spread with my very touch, pushing it away. Placing a barrier of sorts between my soul and the soul of Charlie, locking me away, quarantining me like antivirus software does a trojan.

"There, now you can cause no more harm, should someone pull you out, the damage will still be significant, the part of the soul you corrupted will still be burned and broken, harm will still be done, but now it can be up to you, Charlie, and Rodney, instead of it being merely my choice. Now move Demon, move quickly, for this place will not hold together much longer."

I looked around the room, realizing just how right she was as the sound of cracking cinder blocks resonated through the room, falling steel beams were heard on the factory floor.

I took Rodney's form up from the ground, and with one final surge of power, sprinted out of the room, and leapt out of the nearest window, the heat of the flames having already shattered it. I wreathed us both in my infernal power, channeling Hell itself to prevent the flames from burning us as I passed through. The heat was still intense, whatever the angel had done weakened my powers somewhat.

"Charlie?" I spoke into my head, and his voice came clearly, no longer an effort of shoving memories in front of me, just a voice speaking to me, like he was right over my shoulder. "Yeah Lass?" "I'm sorry..."
"You said that... This sucks." "Yeah, it does... But not as much as it's going to suck for you in a few minutes."

"Why is that?" I sighed internally. "Because once I give you the wheel, you are going to suffer from me turning off all your bodies failsafe's. You are gonna be practically comatose from pain."

"Why not keep them off?" "And let the cops see you running around with black veins and amber eyes? Best not, time to let the cop drive... Let me think, don't call me unless you absolutely need to... And please don't tell Rodney, he might try to rip me out right away."

"I don't have much choice do I?" Charlie said in reply.

"Of course you do, we both do. It's just now the choices we make are a matter of your soul and body. I'm sorry Charlie."

I drifted into the background of Charlie's mind, as I heard the sound of ambulances and SWAT trucks moving in our direction, the fire roared in our ears, before I shut myself out from his soul, hiding in the dark part of him, building my own personal hell... A loveseat and some cigars might do me some good, maybe a carpet, shag, love the classics...

Ohh yeah, Rodney's definitely going to kill me.