The show "Brimstone" belongs to Fox and their underlings. And  also lots of thanks to John Glover for doing a excellent Devil  and Peter Horton for doing a good Ezekiel Stone. If you try to  sue me for this, you'll get a ragged broom. And a dog with a  taste for garbage..not mine, fortunately.
This story brings up  several puzzling things the Devil said to Ezekiel Stone in the  first episode, and puts them in a slash context. And slash,  ladies and gentlemen, means male/male sexual and emotional  relationship. Got that? Don't like that, get out. And..how'd you  get here anyway if you don't like slash? Now, with all the  disclaimers over and done with...on with the story.
Oh, by the  way--this takes place after the Gwen DuBarres episode. The second  one, if that helps. This is the counterpart to "The Devil's  Side".

(Devil/Stone)
 

               Ezekiel Stone's Side

                  By Ladyserez

                    I don't think I've ever been that frightened in my life,
               when Gwen DuBarres tried to burn me..and take me back to Hell
               with her. I can just hear your voice now, you know. "Well,
               well...so a little pip of a girl took you down, did she?"

                    That'd've been what you said, if I had lost. The woman was
               600 years yours, and you know it. Just like the priest who
               believed in the Four Beasts of Revelations..and he had sulfur in
               every inch of him. I wonder if he even believed where he had
               landed up after they hanged him for the murder of eight boys.

                    I didn't want to send her back. I didn't. All I could see,
               all I could remember was my wife. The rape. I blame myself for
               it. Even now. Oh, I know. It wasn't my fault work kept me late.
               Wasn't my fault..no. I know, but I still blamed myself. Very
               normal, the psychologists told me. What the hell did they know,
               huh? Had they ever had a wife who'd been raped? No. I think
               that's part of why I wanted to find her. To make sure she was ok.
               That..that she hadn't suffered anymore.

                    I remember the day I died. That punk shot me full in the
               face, and how that hurt. Hurt..Heh. I couldn't believe it when I
               ended up in Hell. When they told me I was there because of the
               murder I committed...my wife's rapist. She wasn't the only one he
               did, you know. Just the latest in a long string of women he left
               behind to pick up the pieces of their lives. But this time, he
               paid for it. It felt good. But then *I* paid for the murder.

                    Yeah. I'd heard the rumors about you, Lucien Morningstar.
               Son of the Morning. The most loved, the most respected angel in
               Heaven. And then you fell. I wonder..do you have wings? Or is
               that just another lie about the reality of Heaven and Hell?

                    I also heard other, more darker rumors. Of your favorites.
               And I thanked..God, I suppose, that you had never come down to
               our part of Hell. Never saw me. I had a hard time anyway, with
               being a cop. That eventually got straightened out.

                    Then one day, that big guard, Ohren, comes and gets me.
               "Morningstar wants to see you, Stone. Don't you feel honored," he
               said. I said the only thing that came to mind, "No, I don't." He
               hit me. And then again. That's why I showed up in your office
               with blood all over my face. I know better, after 15 years, not
               to do that to the guards. But something pushed me to say it.

                    Imagine my surprise when you tell me 113 souls escaped from
               Hell. And then tells me you've chosen me to hunt them down. If I
               wanted the job, of course. That was like holding out meat to a
               starving dog. Then you whisper something about suitable
               rewards..like allowing me to go back to Earth and be with my wife
               again. The dog chomped down.

                    The night they put the tattoos on was pure torment. I don't
               know what was in the ink, but it *hurt*. And you stood there, by
               the pillar, smirking as that old Chinese guy tattooed me,
               murmurring all the while. I get up, put on my clothes, and then
               you walk over to me. "Never forget I own you, Stone." you
               whispered.

                    The incident with the murderous, insane priest was
               unbelievable. I don't know why, but I kept feeling as if I had to
               fight you, try to hold my soul. The soul you hold captive in your
               hands.

                    Every time we meet, you look at me strangely. Like I'm a
               rare species you've never seen before. I wonder why, then I
               forget in the heat of the chase. And then when I think about it
               later, I realize I've seen that look before. When you looked at
               one of your old favorites.

                    You own my soul. I don't want you to touch anything else.
               And then I remember. I can protest, I can complain...but the
               truth is, you own my captive soul. And you can do anything you
               wish to me. You showed me, that night when you pushed me off the
               fire escape.

                    That just adds to my incentive to hunt the rest down..be
               with my wife again. Because I don't know what I'd say if you
               demanded *that* from me. Deep inside my soul, I'm frightened of
               that moment.
 

               The End
 
 


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