Hellfire Saga

by Third Cousins

  CHAPTER 6

  Gabriel

  I couldn’t put to rest the feeling that Caleb had something to do with the cloak not working. I’d known since he’d seen Daniel that he was wavering on the line, but I’d been sure that he would see sense. I was sure that he would realize that he was fighting for the right side, even if the sentencing of Lucy might seem harsh.

  I knew that I had to speak with him. I knew that I had to ask him whether he’d played a part. I couldn’t have someone I didn’t trust on my team. I couldn’t have somebody I didn’t trust knowing the inner workings of the operation. I sent out a call to him, a message through the wind, so that he knew that he was expected to come and talk to me.

  It didn’t take him long to arrive. I waited perhaps a second, maybe two, before he was standing in front of me.

  “Brother,” he said with a nod.

  “Caleb, I’m afraid I had grave matters to discuss with you,” I said, as I returned his nod. “We should go to my office, so that we can be sure we are not being overheard.” I turned on my heel and headed towards the sweeping staircase that took us down to the floor where my office was located.

  “I hope that everything is going well with the plan,” Caleb said as he followed me down the staircase and over to my office.

  “I hope that all is well with the plan too,” I said, as I stopped. I could tell something was wrong before I could see it. I could feel the shift in the energy in the space around my office. I scanned the door and noticed the broken lock. The floor below it was covered in what looked like glitter, but on closer inspection, I could see that it was flecks of shaved metal from the lock above it.

  “Is something the matter?” Caleb asked me, as he watched my inspection of the door.

  “I believe that my office has been broken into,” I said quietly. I pushed the door open and scanned the room for evidence. Nothing seemed to be changed. I couldn’t see anything missing from a quick first glance, and nothing seemed to have moved. I walked further into the room and took my seat at my desk, before I gestured for Caleb to take a seat. He chose the one which Lucy often sat in.

  “Has anything been taken?” Caleb asked as he took in the neat room that looked impeccably organized.

  “Not that I can see,” I said, as my eyes finished scanning the room and settled on Caleb. “Do not worry about that now anyway. We have much more pressing matters to discuss.”

  “Ah, yes: the reason you called me here,” Caleb said with a small nod. “You know I was surprised to hear your message being sent, so publicly. I would have thought with Daniel looking for us that you wouldn’t have wanted him to hear.”

  I could feel my eyes starting to narrow at Caleb’s mention of Daniel. I opened my mouth to speak, but my words fell flat in my throat when the phone started to ring beside me. “One minute,” I said, as I picked up the phone and placed it next to my ear.

  “Lucy, it’s Daniel. The home said you called me?” a voice I know oh, so well said from the other end of the line.

  I hung up and looked at Caleb. “Do you know who that was?”

  “Who?” He didn't look guilty; just puzzled. I realized I wanted him to look guilty.

  “That was Daniel, calling for Lucy,” I said in a steady voice. I could feel a great anger starting to swell inside of me as I realized that Lucy had broken into my office and used the phone.

  “What are you going to do?” Caleb asked me.

  “I’m going to need you to come back later,” I dismissed him without answering his question.

  “Are you sure? Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do?” He asked as he stood up.

  I couldn’t tell him anything. I didn’t know whether I could trust him and I couldn’t risk my plans getting back to Daniel. “No, it’s fine. Just go,” I said.

  He nodded and walked out of the room, leaving me to my thoughts. I had to do something about Lucy. I couldn’t keep waiting for her to break through her memory walls on her own. I had to start pushing her. I had to find out the things we needed to know before Daniel got into a position where he could stop us from destroying the abomination.

  I pulled the wire away from the wall so the phone disconnected, and then I cut off the small plastic adaptor. I couldn’t risk Lucy making any more calls and I couldn’t risk Daniel getting in touch with Lucy.

  I walked out of my office briskly and headed to Lucy’s room. I knew what I had to do. I knew how I was going to get the information out of her. It was going to hurt, but what did I care? It wasn’t going to hurt me. I stopped at her door and knocked quickly. I heard her light footsteps approaching the door and then it opened. “I’m going to need you to come with me,” I said in a tone that didn't come close to sounding calm.

  CHAPTER 7

  Lucy

  There was a kind of determination in Gabriel’s eyes that made me feel uneasy. I could tell that he was planning something. I could tell from the way that he kept glancing back at me that his plans involved me somehow. I thought about making a run for it, but I knew that I had nowhere to go. Every door that led to the outside was locked, and although I’d somehow managed to open Gabriel’s office, I didn’t want to put all my bets on that happening again.

  He stopped outside his office door and gestured for me to go in. I watched his face as I walked past him. He didn’t even look at the broken lock, which was what I was sure had sparked his sudden visit to my room.

  “You know it’s kind of late,” I said. I didn’t take a seat.

  “That’s fine,” Gabriel said without paying any real attention to me.

  “Well, it might be fine for you, but some of us have to get our beauty sleep,” I said in a jokey kind of way.

  “That won’t be a problem either, because you’re going to be asleep for this,” Gabriel said, finally following me into the room. “I’m going to need you to lie down over here.” he pointed to the end of the room where there had been a fancy Chinese paper screen. It was gone. In its place was a white hospital type bed with a metal frame and straps at both the head and the feet.

  “I’m really not going to lie on that,” I said and I could feel my feet backing, away from the new addition to the room.

  “You promised to be more cooperative,” Gabriel said, a frown pulling across his forehead.

  “I promised to answer your questions. I never promised to get strapped down to some torture bed. Why would I willingly do that? Do you think I’m an idiot?” I started to eye the door. I didn’t care any more that I had nowhere to run because anywhere was better than being in the office with Gabriel even one more minute.

  “Lucy, you can get on it willingly or I will force you,” Gabriel said. He took a long step forward so that he was standing in between the door and me. “This doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t even need to hurt you much,” he said, as though that made everything okay. “I can put you to sleep before I start. It will all feel like a distant dream to you.”

  He’d used the wrong phrase with me there. “I’ve had some bad luck with dreams,” I said, shaking my head. “If it’s all the same with you, I think I’ll skip this session.” I stepped over to the door, but he grabbed me by the arms and forced me over to the bed.

  He was stronger than he looked and I was no match for him. I tried to kick out as he fastened the straps around my wrists, but it did no good. He had me trapped within minutes. The cold leather of the straps pressed firmly into my delicate skin as I struggled to break free.

  “There’s no point in wasting your energy. You won’t be able to wiggle yourself out of those,” Gabriel said, shaking his head in pity. “You know, I really didn’t want it to be this way,” he said, as though he was starting to tell a story. “I thought we could talk and get to know each other a little. I thought you’d work it all out on your own. But apparently we have to do this the hard way.”

  “Work out what on my own?” I asked. Nothing he’d just said to me made any sense.

  “You really are clueless to it all,
aren’t you?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I started to feel—well, I'll call it frustrated because I don't have a right word for it. The frustration pumped around my body and filled me with the same sense of strength I’d had earlier. I pulled against the straps in the hope that I might be able to break free from them, but they wouldn’t budge.

  “It doesn’t matter what kind of strength you use to pull out on those straps,” Gabriel said, as he pulled out a long, silver knife from a chest of drawers that was pushed up against one of the walls in his office. “This rig is designed to keep creatures like you secure.” He walked slowly back over to me.

  “Creatures like me?” I asked him. I could feel myself getting more panicked with every second that was passing. It wasn’t just the knife that Gabriel was bringing steadily towards me, but the things that he was saying. I was starting to wonder whether he’d gone mad. I was starting to wonder whether some police officer would find my murdered body in a few years’ time.

  “Oh, you don’t understand now, but you will,” Gabriel said, as he reached the bed. He lifted the silver knife and drew it across my top. “You see, back in at the start a person’s soul wasn’t as easily removed from the body as it is these days. Back then if we wanted to judge a soul, before we let it in, we had to cut it out. It was the ultimate sacrifice made by a person, to have their soul stripped away. It almost always got them in on that act alone, even if they’d been bad in their long lives.”

  “What are you talking about?”I had to keep talking to not to pass out from fear.

  “I’m trying to tell you, Lucy, that we’re going to do this old-school. It’s time that I cut that soul away from you, because we both know it doesn’t belong to you, don’t we?” Gabriel said, as he edged the knife into my top. It sliced through the fabric desperately smoothly and the top fell away so that my chest was on view to anyone who cared to look.

  CHAPTER 8

  Gabriel

  I could see the fear in her eyes, but I was impressed with how little came through in her tone when she spoke. I didn’t blame her for being afraid. It was good that she was afraid. It meant that she was paying attention to what was going on.

  I lifted the silver blade up and brought it down into her chest. It sunk right in and her eyes drifted closed at almost the exact moment that the cool metal broke through her skin. There was no blood, though. It wasn’t the kind of knife that left damage you could see.

  I felt the tip of the blade catch on something. I wiggled it to make sure that it had fully cut into what I wanted. Then I pulled out the blade. It was covered in what could only be described as goo that looked as though it was made from smoke. It was bright blue and it seemed to create its own light as it shone brightly against my knife.

  I took her soul away from her and placed it in a small wooden box that I’d had specially blessed so it had the strength to hold a soul for an unlimited amount of time. I knew the next part of my task would be tricky. I had to wake Lucy back up. I had to let her see herself for what she really was. I’d taken her soul. I’d taken the one thing that made her slightly less of a monster, and now she was nothing but a demon like the rest of Daniel’s creations.

  I was convinced that, without her soul, she would be able to remember what had happened. I was convinced that, without her soul, she would be able to tell me everything I needed to know about what Daniel was planning.

  I opened the wooden box and poured her soul inside. Then I gave it a real examination with my eyes. It looked smaller than most. My first thought was that it was because it had lived inside a demon, but that didn’t make any sense to me. A soul shouldn’t get any smaller just because it’s being carried by evil. I picked the box up and pulled it closer to my face. Had Daniel really done what I thought he had? Had Daniel really sacrificed a part of himself, so that she could be less of a monster in his eyes?

  I walked over to Lucy’s sleeping body and placed my hand on her forehead. She felt hot. She felt as though she was starting to run a fever, but that made sense. Her soul wasn’t soothing the hellfire that burned through her blood any more. I closed my eyes with my hand still on her forehead and I started to concentrate.

  I let my mind drift down into my arm and through to Lucy’s mind. She was dreaming. I could feel the sense of panic that was surging through her body. I could see the darkness that was consuming her sight. I called out into the darkness. I called out for her, so that she could find me in the dark and come back with me into the land of reality. “Lucy,” I whispered into the silence. “Lucy, where are you?”

  I could hear footsteps. She was moving quickly. I started to follow the sound of her running away. I ran quickly and before long I could see her blurred shape in the distance in front of me. “Lucy,” I called again and she looked behind her. I felt her eyes make contact with me. The look on her face was pure fear. I couldn’t even be sure that she recognized me. I could feel the space around us getting hotter. I stepped forward, so that I could pull her out of her nightmare, but flames burst out in front of me. I couldn’t get past them. They burned with the heat of hell.

  “Lucy, you need to come back,” I called over the roar of the flames. “You need to find your way back and wake up now.”

  She looked back again. I was sure that she could hear me, even if she couldn’t recognize me. I pulled my thoughts back into my own body and then moved my hand away from her forehead. I’d done all I could and the rest was up to her.

  My office was quiet, but not silent as Lucy’s gentle breaths broke the still air around her. I sat down at my desk. I had nothing to do other than wait to see whether she would wake up. I’d always know that there would be a risk of losing her this way. A body wasn’t designed to have its soul cut out and continue living. I just had to hope that the demon in her was strong enough to pull her through, or I’d never know what Daniel had planned.

  A noise from Lucy’s direction pulled me from my thoughts and I stood up quickly. I could see her starting to move on the bed and I walked over. “Lucy?” I asked.

  “Gabriel,” she said, as she struggled against the straps that held her down.

  “Lucy, what do you remember?” I leaned over her face. “There isn’t any point in struggling. You can’t break free.”

  “I’m not telling you anything,” she spat at me as she pulled at the straps in a rage.

  “You might as well tell me. I’m the last person you’re going to speak to,” I said as pleasantly as the threat would allow.

  “You’re not a person and I’m not telling you anything,” Lucy said. She stopped struggling all at once and became still on the bed.

  “What do you remember, Lucy?”

  “Gabriel,” she said, her light blue eyes darkening into black pools as she spoke, “I remember everything.”

  Hellfire

  What She Remembers

  Paranormal Romance

  Book 3

  By: Stacia Ford & Third Cousins

  A SYNOPSIS...

  Lucy remembers everything. She remembers the moment she was born. She remembers how she was born and she remembers what that makes her. Gabriel has managed to unlock her memories and now she can’t escape them as they play out inside her eyes. She’s finally getting some answers to the questions that have plagued her life, but will they be what she wanted them to be?

  Daniel wasn’t always called Daniel. In fact, he didn’t take that name until he made a decision that he knew he would regret for eternity. What forced him to change his name and what was the choice that led him to it?

  INSPIRING WORDS

  “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

  - Lao Tzu

  CHAPTER 1

  Lucy

  I could remember everything. It was like my memories had buried themselves deep down in my brain, but had started to resurface. They all came back at once. They hit like a violent smack to the head and for a moment I was
left spinning. I couldn’t believe what I was remembering. It didn’t seem real, even though it all made complete sense.

  I’d been born from fire. I’d been born from pain. I’d been born in the fires of hell licking at my skin, as I forced my way into existence. There had been nothing at first other than pain. There couldn’t be anything else. The pain was everything. It felt as though it would never end. It felt as though there would never be anything other than pain and hurt.

  Then, it all stopped. The pain was gone. My skin still felt hot, but it was cooling slowly. There was nothing to see. Everything was black, but I could feel my mind stretching itself out for the first time, as I started to question where I was and in fact whom I was. I could feel my body. I could feel a deep pain in my chest, as though my heart had been torn in two during the great fires.

  “Lucy,” a voice called out in the darkness. “Lucy, can you wake up?”

  I could hear the words, but at first they meant nothing to me. I didn’t know what or who Lucy was. I didn’t know what waking up meant. I felt my eyes starting to shift and then a splinter of light slipped passed my eyelids. It was painful to see. I could feel the sharp white light burning my eyes. The pain was nothing compared to where I’d just come from though.

  “Lucy,” I heard the voice call out again.

  I forced my eyes to open. There was nothing at first, but the bright white light. I wondered whether that was it. I wondered whether life consisted of total darkness or total light, but then it started to fade away and shapes started to reveal themselves to me. It took another few minutes, before I could see properly, but whoever it was that was talking to me was being patient.

  “Lucy, it is okay,” I heard him say, as I turned my head frantically. “Just give yourself a minute to get used to everything. Don’t rush yourself. We have all the time in the world.”