Chapter Text
I tried to write 2 POVs, but their thoughts were so intertwined!
The threshold of Heaven glowed faintly as Pentious materialized in the lobby of the Hotel. He hurried up to his third meeting with Cherrie in person, which Heaven had allowed after such a long time. Plush red sofas, deep crimson carpets, and golden filigree curling around pillars and walls were all the same as before in the good old hotel. By the time Cherrie darted out of the adjacent room, however, there was something new.
"Good morrow, my dear," he said happily and mischievously, eyeing her tenderly as he approached the round redwood table and Cherrie started doing the same. He held her hand for a brief moment. She angled her head. "G'day, Pentious? What's that?" she rattled out, moving swift as the wind.
On the table, there was the game she’d never learned as a human. Board games seemed too peaceful for her taste. The black curvy pieces and the white ones poked out of the board with the squares matching them.
“There’s a dark side and the light side. Like the Hell grounds with their denizens and the Heaven's gardens with their residents, respectively," Pentious mentioned wisely.
He had to teach her some quiet ways of entertaining herself for her not to want to blow heaven when she gets there, right? Strange as it seemed, Cherrie was only going to take up tranquil pastimes having spent more years in Hell than on the Earth. And only with him.
"I figured out I'm not allowed to fire my death ray or usssse some machines even here in Hell. Ssso, we could fight in a different battle… the end of the game isss called the checkmate."
Cherrie looked puzzled, like a cat beneath falling snowflakes. “So, let me introduce you to everything. In chessss, these are knightsss,” Pentious said, showing her the figurine and a typical L-move.
“Strange thing, I guess…Couldn’t they have just called them horses? Sheer horses, huh? ”He smiled mildly.
Oh, what a damned fool you are, Pentious. Instead of closing the distance between yourself and your hot Nemesis, you've put a table between you two. Could he be any more stupid?
“These with the adorned tip are Queens, yours–”, he glanced in her eye, making sure she follows and is interested, “– and mine. They can take any sstepss, basically. Move any number of sssquares. Various directions.” He urged her to help him put the king in the right place, and caught a spark of amusement in her glowing scarlet eye.
“The ancient freaks did know something about fem domination, didn't they. What?? It goes to show! Sold me on it anyway. Let's get fucking started.”
And the wonder began.