Hellfire Saga

by Third Cousins

  “You know it isn’t really fair to push her into a corner and then expect her not to attack,” Caleb said stubbornly.

  “Life isn’t fair Caleb. Get used to it,” I said coldly. “You need to start rethinking whose side you’re on with all this talk. I’m starting to wonder whether I can trust you. You’ve already warned Daniel about Lucy, so what other damage are you planning next?” Caleb had always been a good brother and it made me sad to think that he was going soft.

  “I was doing the right thing, Gabriel. Perhaps, you cannot see that, but I can,” he said with a sudden confidence that caught me off guard.

  “You are not the decider of what is right,” I said to him weakly. A playground taunt; but I had to say something.

  “Neither are you,” he said, holding my stare. “Gabriel, I know you think that you’re in charge of all of your brothers and sisters, but there is a difference in people choosing to follow you and being forced to. It might be wise that you remember that.”

  A voice in my head hissed, Who does he think he is, to warn me? “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked him, but he just shook his head at me.

  We stood in silence for a time, staring as if seeing each other for the first time. But there seemed to be no more to say. “I don’t have time for this,” I said. “One of us is going to have to sort out the mess that Daniel has made, and it clearly isn’t going to be you,”

  I gave Caleb a parting look of disgust, and turned away without giving him time to get in a last word of his own. I pulled open the door to my office and walked through it. I didn't look back, but I hoped he was still staring at me so I could shut the door in his face.

  “Lucy,” I said with a smile as I sat down in my seat. “Where were we?” As though there was a remote possibility that she might cooperate with me.

  “Well, I think we were at the part where you were going to explain to me what this place actually is,” she said with a sharp tone.

  “Do you know what Lucy? I think I’ll give you some of those paranoia pills. You know, just to take the edge off for you.” I pulled open my drawer and pulled out a small white bottle from my collection. “I’d suggest you take these twice a day,” I said, as I passed them over to her.

  CHAPTER 3

  Lucy

  I’d made it my mission to check out every room in the institution that wasn’t locked. I’d managed to cover about half of them without discovering anything that was out of the ordinary. Most of the rooms were like my own. They had a bed, a desk and bookcase that weren’t stocked with anything other than dust.

  A couple of the rooms had been offices, but there wasn't anything worth mentioning to find in those. It wasn’t in fact, until my second week at the institution that I came across anything that I felt might help me prove that something was wrong.

  I’d been walking down the west wing of the building. Its hallways had all been painted bright white. The sun beamed in through the healthy number of windows and made it nearly impossible to see without sunglasses on, but I had a feeling that had been done on purpose. I could tell from just the atmosphere that hung heavy in the hallway that I wasn’t supposed to be there.

  I tried all the doors that I passed, but they were all locked. I was starting to run out of hope when I reached the last two doors. I tried the handle on the first and nothing. I tried the handle on the second and to my surprise it pushed open and revealed the room inside.

  The room had been painted white, but there were no windows. The walls were all lined with bookcases like the ones that had been in the guest rooms, but these bookcases had more than dust on them. I walked into the room slowly and closed the door behind me so that no one would be able to tell from just looking that I was in there.

  I walked over to the bookcases and ran my hands along the thick leather spines. The room smelt like old books. It had that richly glazed vanilla and dried grass smell that comes from old stories that have been marked on paper. I looked at the gold-leaf writing that picked out the titles for each of the books, but I couldn’t read them. They looked as though they were in old school Latin, which made sense considering their obvious age.

  I pulled out a thick purpley volume from the shelf and sat down with it on the floor. I opened the yellowing pages of it slowly so that I wouldn’t rip the delicate paper. Around the writing on many pages were colorful illustrations that had obviously been hand drawn.

  I worked my way through the book looking at the pictures until I was forced to stop by the illustration that I could see in front of me. It was of a young woman and a man. The man was pulling his hand out of his chest. There was something in his hand that he was pulling out. Whoever had drawn the pictures had made it a small, blue glimmering sphere.

  The girl in the picture was turning away, as though she couldn’t look at what he was doing. She looked sickened almost by his actions.

  None of that is what made me stop though. It was who they looked like. The man had dark blond hair and gray eyes that seemed to pierce through me, even though they were made out of ink. The girl was pretty, her eyes of the lightest blue, and she looked just like me. He looked just like Daniel. I stared at the pages, as though they might come to life at any moment and explain to me what the pictures were about, but of course they didn’t.

  I turned the page eventually and found that the story about them continued, and that there were more illustrations. In the next picture he was holding the blue sphere out to the girl, as though he was offering it for her to take, but she continued to look away from him, as though she was ignoring what he had to offer.

  I turned the page again. This time the man was forcing the blue sphere onto the girl. Her face looked upset as he pushed it into her chest. I could almost feel her sorrow as I stared down at the old pages. I closed the book and sat in silence. I didn’t move. I couldn’t move. It felt as if the book had drained all of my energy from my body.

  I couldn’t get the image of the girl and the boy out of my head. There was something so familiar about the scene that had been drawn out, and it was more than just me looking like one of the characters. I sighed in frustration. I realized that finding the room had only given me more questions and had answered none of the questions I’d already had.

  Then I heard footsteps breaking through the silence, and I held my breath. I could hear them getting closer to the room that I was in and my body started to fill with panic. I’d been able to sense that I shouldn’t have even been in the hallway, I’d been able to sense that it was hiding something that I wasn’t meant to see. And now I was about to get caught red-handed looking through texts that were probably never meant for my eyes.

  Gabriel pushed open the door and saw me sitting on the floor next to the book I’d just been reading. “Lucy, what are you doing in here?”

  “I was looking around.” I tried to shrug casually, but the panic in my body made my shoulders jitter instead of glide.

  “You shouldn’t be in here,” he said tightly. “Come with me now.”

  He held the door open for me and I could tell from his eyes that he was not to be disobeyed. I stood up quickly and walked out of the room, leaving the book on the floor behind me.

  CHAPTER 4

  Gabriel

  There were only two possible reasons behind Lucy getting into the prophecy room. It was either because she had started to break through the memory wall in her mind or because someone was trying to sabotage the operation. The room was meant to have a cloak on it. The whole floor was meant to have a cloak on it. She shouldn’t have been able to see that part of the house. She shouldn’t have been able to walk down that hallway and she certainly shouldn’t have been able to just walk into the room. It should have been locked.

  I kept her in front of me as we walked back through the large house. I had to find out what she’d seen. I knew that she’d had the purple chronicle. I knew that meant she’d had her very own prophecy in her hands. But had she found it?

  “We’ll go into my office and ta
lk,” I said, as we neared the room.

  “What is there to talk about?” Lucy asked me in the cocky manner, she so often addressed me in.

  I tried to hide my utter disdain for her existence. “We have plenty to talk about, Lucy. Are you forgetting that you started a fire that severely injured several children?” She often acted as though she’d done nothing wrong. That was proof to me that even a soul couldn’t save a demon.

  “Right,” she said with a quick nod. “Sure, we can talk about that.” She came to a stop at my office door and shoved her hands in her pockets.

  “I’m glad that you’re being so compliant.” I unlocked my office door and held it open for her to walk through. She took her usual seat across the desk from my own. I She looked nervous, as she shifted in the seat and tapped her fingers against the armrest. “Is something the matter?” I asked her after processing my observations.

  “Why would anything be the matter?” She asked me.

  I walked over to my seat and sat in it, before I said anything else. “You seem nervous,” I said.

  “I’ve got no reason to be nervous.” Her eyes were darting to left as she spoke.

  “You’re right: you don’t,” I said calmly.

  I could tell that she was starting to feel backed into a corner. I knew without asking that she’d seen her prophecy. She was being too compliant with her answers. I couldn’t help but wonder what she would do if she felt completely trapped. I’d seen some powerful demons and their abilities over the years, but she had no idea that she was one. Would she be able to draw on her abilities? Was that what had happened back at the home? Had she lost control of her powers because her nightmares had scared her that much?

  “What did you see in the room, Lucy?” I asked, not because I needed to know, but because I wanted to see what she would say.

  “I saw some books,” she said cagily.

  “Did you look at any of the books?”

  “I pulled a couple down from the shelves, but I couldn’t read them. I mean they’re in Latin, so I put them back and then you came in.”

  I nodded. She was telling me the truth, no doubt. It wasn’t like Latin was a widely understood language any more. I could tell from the way that her eyes were still darting left, though, that she was thinking about the pictures she had seen. She had a look of panicked confusion on her face because she couldn’t understand what they had meant. I almost felt sorry for her. I mean, if she hadn’t been an abomination, I probably would have felt sorry for her.

  “I’d appreciate it, if you didn’t go back up to that floor,” I said evenly and sternly. I wanted her to know that it wasn’t a request, but I didn’t want to make her feel any more afraid than she was already. She had information my brothers and I needed, and that meant we had to get inside her brain before we let her turn into a volcano.

  “Can I go out into the garden then?” she asked, because she obviously thought that she was in a position where she could barter with me.

  I lifted my eyes up to her in surprise and found her staring right back at me. Her pupils were dilated, so she was still afraid, but there was a shallow sense of firmness that she was trying to convey through them.

  “You know, it’s cold outside,”

  “I’ll wear a coat,” she replied quickly.

  “Will you be more willing to answer my questions during our sessions if I allow you out into the gardens?” I wanted something to sweeten the deal on my side, too.

  “I’ll answer anything you want me to,” she said.

  I was surprised. She seemed to be genuinely yearning to go outside. I understood the feeling. It was something angels feel, because we are at one with the very fabric of nature itself. This wasn’t something that demons shared with us, though. They don't care about nature. They can't even distinguish it from everything else that makes up the universe. They only care about the power of their abilities and the destruction they can cause.

  “Then you may go into the garden for one hour a day,” I said slowly. It wasn’t something I really wanted to say at all. The garden was my space. It was a sanctuary that I’d created and I didn’t want her walking among the pure leaves and innocent petals.

  “Thank you,” she said. She sounded sincere.

  “Just remember your promise,” I said as we stood back up. “You should probably go now if you’re going to have your hour today.” Evening was fast approaching.

  CHAPTER 5

  Lucy

  The garden was beautiful. It had a Zen-like feeling to it that I couldn’t even begin to describe. Everything seemed to flow through the vast open space. I could see a large pond with water much stiller than the wind should have allowed. There were flowers everywhere. They were incredible with bright colors and light perfumed pollen.

  I could tell that whoever had designed the garden cared about what they’d been doing. It was stunning. I walked down a small red clay path that seemed to wind in and out of the flower beds and open spaces. An hour a day wasn’t enough. It would take me at least an hour to get half way around, and then I would still have to walk back.

  I breathed in deeply. It had been so long since my lungs had felt the crisp hit of fresh air. I could feel the muscles in my legs starting to ache quickly, as I walked up a slight incline. I’d been at the house for nearly two weeks and I’d barely been able to exercise. My body felt tight; as I tried to push, it passed quickly out of its comfort circle.

  All the beauty in the garden couldn’t distract me from my thoughts, though. My thoughts were overpowering everything as they replayed the pictures I’d seen in the book. Gabriel had known that I’d seen them. I knew that’s why he’d wanted to talk to me. I knew that’s why he’d asked me what I’d looked at in the room. I had a feeling that Gabriel could probably read the books. I had a feeling that he knew what the story was that went with the pictures of Daniel and me.

  The thought of Daniel sent a pain bouncing into my chest. I’d seen him every day for years and now I’d spent the last two weeks without any contact at all. I missed him. I missed him more than I had ever thought I would. I missed him in the way that you might miss your arm after having it amputated. He’d been a permanent fixture of my life and I didn’t feel right now that I was without him.

  I wondered whether he felt the same. I wondered whether he was back at the home missing me, or whether he’d already forgotten about me. I couldn’t help but listen to the quiet voice in the back of my mind that was whispering to me that he’d be glad that I was gone, that he’d be glad that he’d finally be able to get some rest at night and not deal with how crazy I was.

  “Lucy,” Gabriel’s voice called out from behind me.

  I turned and squinted as I tried to find him. I spotted him, a small speck dark against the house, back by the entrance to the garden, and started to walk over. The sun had sunk below the trees in the time that I’d been outside, but I hadn’t wanted to turn around. I’d just kept on walking out into the garden.

  “You know you’ve been out here well over an hour,” Gabriel said with an annoyed look on his face.

  “I hadn’t realized. It’s a beautiful garden out here,” I said, as I turned back to the small paradise that was hidden behind the strange house that I was being held in.

  “You shouldn’t push your luck,” Gabriel warned me as he held open the door so that I could go back inside.

  Gabriel left me after locking the door. My body felt tired from the walk, but my mind was still on alert from what I’d seen in the book earlier that day. I wanted to talk to Daniel. I wanted to tell him everything that I’d seen. I wanted to tell him everything that had happened to me since I’d been moved to this house.

  I’d only seen one telephone in the whole building. It was in Gabriel’s office. I walked over to the office and checked the door, but it was locked. I sighed with frustration. I needed to talk to Daniel; it wasn’t even a want any more. I could feel in my gut that he would know just the right thing to say, even if he didn’t miss
having me around.

  I tried the door again, but this time, I didn’t stop when the handle started to show resistance. I could feel my anger surging down my arm from being locked in the house. I could feel my desperation to talk to Daniel taking over my body, and the lock started to crunch in on itself and the door pushed open. I looked down at the broken lock in surprise. It wasn’t masterfully done. Gabriel would know that I’d been there as soon as he looked at it, but I was in, even if I couldn’t explain how I’d managed to break the door with my body's strength alone.

  I crossed the room quickly when I realized that Gabriel might return at any minute. The phone was one of those retro types that you had to spin to dial. I pulled through the numbers, dialing the home’s number. I listened to ring after ring after ring until someone answered. “I’d like to speak to Daniel, please,” I said quickly.

  “I’m sorry, we don’t have a Daniel staying with us,” the house warden said. I recognized her voice. It was the same woman who had been working there when I’d been there.

  “Please, it’s Lucy. I really need to speak with Daniel,” I begged her.

  She paused. I could feel judgement rolling down the phone without her having to say anything. “You’ve got some nerve calling here,” she snapped at me. “Do you know how many people your little stunt hurt?”

  “I don’t remember doing that.” It sounded like a feeble defense even to me, but it was the simple truth.

  “Don’t you understand, girl? It doesn’t matter whether you remember or not. You’re still responsible for it. You still did it. You can’t hide behind your excuses forever.”

  “I just need to speak with Daniel,” I said again. I knew there was no point trying to defend myself against her any further.

  “Daniel’s not here. He left the night of the fire. It’s good riddance, if you ask me. You were both little weirdos.” Then the phone clicked and I knew she’d hung up.