This might be a bit of a spoiler for the chapter but I didn't want it to be confusing so here is a short guide to how a character which you will meet shortly speaks.
Soft s sounds are portrayed by me writing three of that letter, so:
us becomes usss
pierce becomes pierccce
explosives become exxxplosssivesss
However, words that have a double s like happiness would be written as happinesss

Kai's POV

Zorander cautions me against going back into the room until they return, and I nod and blow Raziel a kiss before waving to Zorander and heading out of the room.

Shadows dance on the walls as the lights mounted on them flicker. The crackling of fire whispers in my ears and a cold shiver runs down my spine. I jump backwards when I hear ear piercing screams coming from the room I just left. I shuffle farther away from the door, going deeper into the hallway and away from the wailing.

A sudden whooshing sound rings through the air before there is silence. I look back at the room I just exited before shaking my head and continuing in the opposite direction. I open a door on the right to find a spacious kitchen with black and white décor.

My eyes widen when I open the door on the opposite side and find an indoor sauna, a hot tub and what looks like a small sleeping pod. The smell of lavender wafts through into my nose as I walk into the room. Several lotions and body wash line the left wall and I giggle as I sniff some of them, finally settling on rubbing a very berry lotion on my hands.

Come to usss, voices hiss in my mind and I shriek, glancing around frantically.

"Who...who said that?" My voice is barely above a whisper as I creep towards the exit.

Come to the room of our massster, they hiss again.

I hurry from the sauna room hoping that the voices are only in that room but to no avail because as soon as I close the door, the voices sound again.

Come to usss. The nexxxt door on your left.

I release another squeak but decide to follow the voices. Zorander wouldn't leave me alone in his house with something that could hurt me, would he? My footsteps are drowned out by the sound of my pounding heart as I make my way down the hallway.

I halt outside of a plain black door with a gold door knob and take a deep breath before turning the knob. "Hello?"

What am I doing? Why am I listening to the hissing voices in my head?

To your right. Behind the curtainsss.

I slip past the round bed with black and grey bed sheets and head towards a set of floor to ceiling curtains which take up the entire right wall. My hand trembles as it reaches towards the small gap in the curtains, tugging them to one side.

A gasp escapes me and my eyes widen. "Woah." Behind the curtain is a huge room with three white walls and thick glass making up the fourth wall.

Trees stretching up to the high ceilings, large, misshapen rocks, boulders and lush, green plants adorn the room. A large lake with semi transparent greenish-blue water sits in the middle of the room. Closer to the glass are little grey pebbles and pretty red flowers, while vines hang down from the sturdy trees.

"What is this place?" The awe I'm feeling cannot be hidden. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, and not only that, but it carries a soft warmth to it in every detail.

Our home.

"Who are you?"

Our name is Melkopniusss. We are one of the lassst remaining Ssserignipen, a creature from Hell.

"Hi, Melkopme-"

You may call usss Mel.

"Hi, Mel. I'm K," my voice cracks and I take a deep breath before continuing, "I'm Kai, a human."

A soft hissing laugh rings through my head. I know, young one.

The shaking of the curtains to the left of me catches my attention. I gulp as the shaking increases. My feet shuffle backwards, inching towards the door.

Do not fear, young one. We will not harm you.

Some part of me believes the voice, and I stop in my tracks. A little white tongue flicks out from behind the curtains, just above the floor, followed by a large orange and white striped head of a snake. The colours are vibrant, like leaves in autumn against a puffy white cloud.

Another head slips out from behind the curtains, and this one has a little black tongue. Its strips are orange and black like a bonfire against the night sky. As they continue to slither towards me, I notice that the two snakes merge into one body, and the stripes on the body alternate between orange, black and white.

They glide across the floor, revealing the rest of their large body. As thick as both of my arms combined and at least four feet long, the snake inches closer. My breathing becomes shallow, and my heart feels like it's in my throat. I'm about to take a step back when they finally halt about a foot away.

Would you pick usss up?

I gulp, wondering if I still have time to bolt. Instead I whisper, "Won't you be too heavy?"

Now that the full length of their body lays out before me, the snake looks a lot more intimidating. My eyes shift towards the door. A quick sprint would get me out of the room in seconds. My eyes return to the snake. But they're close enough to me that pouncing and attacking would be a piece of cake.

We are asss light asss feathersss.

I glance between the door and the snake. Maybe if I play nice, they'll be less likely to hurt me? I suck in a shaky breath and scoop up the snake which, as they said, is extremely light.

Their tail slings around my neck, and I immediately try to drop the snake. My body convulses and I wriggle in an attempt to shake off the creature.

Nope. This was a bad idea. I'd rather die fighting.

Relaxxx, Kai. No harm will come to you, they hiss, and the orange and black head lunges towards my face. A scream is ripped from my throat as my eyes squeeze shut. I jerk my head backwards and raise my arms in defense.

Instead of feeling a painful bite like I suspected, I feel a cold, wet lick on my elbow followed by another on my other arm. Their tongues are soft, yet a little coarse and feel like the outside of a strawberry is being rubbed against my skin.

I slowly lower my arms and open my eyes. The four vibrant green eyes of the snake stare at me as they release low hisses and flick their tongues out.

We did not intend to ssscare you.

Two more gentle licks on both of my cheeks, replace my fear with tiny giggles, and I tentatively reach out to stroke their heads. They nestle into my hands and their eyes squint as their mouths open slightly giving me a toothless smile. I giggle harder and coo. "You're cute! How did you come to earth? How did you come to be living in Zorander's house?"

Now that I'm no longer scared, my words gush out like a waterfall.

A hissing laugh sounds in my mind. Ssserignipen are known throughout Hell for their abilitiesss. We have sssharp fangsss that can pierccce all known elementsss, and we can sssee the future, sssometimesss only for a few minutesss or hoursss bit on rare occasionsss we can sssee much farther. Mossst importantly we exxxplode thirty sssecondsss after death, killing anything in our path and that made usss very ussseful in warsss.

After the lassst war between Heaven and Hell, there were very few of usss left. A demon captured the hundredsss of usss that remained, sssaying that keeping usss on hand would sssave time when the nexxxt war came becaussse they would not have to hunt around Hell to find usss.

Mel's piercing emerald eyes are filled with such sadness and pain that without thinking, I kiss both of their noses. Their expressions don't change but I can see their appreciation of my actions in their eyes.

For four centuriesss, hundredsss of usss were kept in a tank which wasss barely big enough for usss to move. Yearsss of being in a cramped ssspace and being underfed finally caught up to usss and a fight broke out. A lot of usss killed one another during the fight, but a lot more of usss died when thossse bodiesss ssstarted exxxploding.

The tank broke and the few of usss that sssurvived hid in the deepessst partsss of Hell, but we were badly wounded and did not make it very far.

My mouth is agape as I listen to the horrors that Mel faced.

We were dying when Zorander found usss. He brought usss to earth with him and nursssed usss back to health. He even built thisss room for usss and allowsss usss to roam the houssse asss we pleassse. We will forever be in hisss debt.

"I always suspected that Zorander was a big softy." Mel laughs at my comment and agrees. "I'm so sorry that happened to you." I couldn't even imagine how hard they struggled to survive or the years of torment they endured. "But I'm glad you're safe now."

A tear slips from my eye as I continue stroking their heads. Mel licks my eyelids and I smile.

A loud clack echoes through the house, and I gasp and sprint out the room, Mel still in hand, I rush into the living room to find Raziel flung to one side of the room and Zorander to the other.

"Raz! Zor!" I yell, my eyes widening in horror at their dishevelled state.

"I see you met Melkopnius," Zorander chokes out between coughs. 

Thank you for reading! ❤

What did you think of the chapter? What did you think of Melkopnius?

If you enjoyed the chapter, don't forget to vote and/ or leave comments!