Hellfire Saga

by Third Cousins

  Daniel

  I should have told her the truth from the start. I should have told her everything. I should have told her about how Gabriel had hunted down the girl that I loved and mercilessly slaughtered her. She seemed to understand so much better now. She seemed to accept that my lies hadn’t been to hurt her. I’d spent so long as Daniel that it was strange to have her look at me as though I was the person that I used to be, before I came up topside to join her. It was strange to think that after all this time had passed that she could finally remember who she was and what she really meant to me.

  The news about Gabriel was tainting everything though. I couldn’t believe that he really intended to attack whether or not I struck first. I couldn’t believe that he’d managed to talk my brothers into fighting against me, when I’d done nothing to any of them. All I had done was fall in love a long time ago.

  I looked over at Lucy, who was sleeping soundly on the sagging mattress. She looked peaceful. She looked as though her nightmares had finally left her alone. I watched as she shifted slightly in her slumber. When she had been arrested and taken away from me I’d wondered whether I’d ever be able to find her again. I’d known that I couldn’t just call out to her. Her memory block had interfered with all the ties to that world from her. It seemed almost too good to be true to have her back. It seemed almost like a miracle that she’d finally managed to forgive me.

  My time without her had left me torn, though. When I’d heard her calling out to me in the woodland I’d gone to her without hesitation because it was her that I wanted. I’d spent so long trying to get back home that I’d forgotten the real reason why I’d been expelled. I’d wanted love. I’d wanted real, consume-me love. I had that with Lucy and I didn’t need anything else.

  It seemed ironic that I would be forced into a battle that had been my idea to begin with. It seemed ridiculous to me that I’d been dreaming about going home for countless years, but now that the opportunity was so close I wasn’t sure whether I wanted it. I sighed as I turned away from Lucy. I needed some time to think. I needed some time to work out what I really wanted. I needed some time to see whether my army was even still being built. I’d left hell with the strict instruction to Johnathan to keep it going, but I didn’t know whether he’d followed through with those orders.

  I stood up and walked over to the door quietly, pushed it open and stepped outside. The motel parking lot was empty. The orange florescent lights splashed up against the tarmac in strange unnatural pools.

  I stepped away from the motel door so that I was sure that I wouldn’t wake Lucy and then I called out into the still night around me. “Johnathan,” I said, and then I waited.

  “It’s been a long time,” Johnathan said from behind me, his footsteps crunching on the parking-lot gravel.

  “That it has,” I said with a friendly smile. But I needed to get straight to the point. “How have things been going?”

  “I was unsure whether you wanted me to continue with the plan,” Johnathan said a little hesitantly.

  “I told you to continue in my absence.” My entire plan was based around having an army. I stood no chance against my brothers unless I had force to deploy; ideally, overwhelming force.

  “The army was completed some time ago,” Johnathan said quickly. “I did as you instructed and didn’t deploy them. But there are people who are starting to push for the war to begin.”

  “What people?”

  “Lilith has started a small fraction of those who believe that Lucy should be killed. She believes that the army should be used to hunt her down and she’s trying everything she can to make it happen. It’s been some real work holding her back, I can tell you that for nothing,” Johnathan said with a tired sigh.

  “How many are in her fraction?” I asked as I tried to get some idea of the trouble she could cause.

  “I’m unsure. Most of them aren’t open about their loyalties. I’ve found that I can’t trust anybody beyond myself down there, and I doubt you will be able to, either.”

  “I shouldn’t have left you without me for so long,” I said. I realized that I’d been letting the side down. “I shouldn’t have left you all, just so that I could be with Lucy. I did to you what my own father did to me and for that I am truly sorry.” I meant every word.

  “You have no reason to be sorry,” Johnathan said quickly. “You are our leader and you shouldn’t be questioned for your actions. I have remained loyal and I believe a good portion of your other men have too. Your army at least is ready. if and when you are ready to deploy them.”

  “They are not to be deployed yet, but I can assure you that it will be soon. Gabriel intends to attack whether or not we make the first hit. I believe that we should allow him to strike first. I think this will look better when I try to talk to my brothers,” I explained.

  “It’s a good plan Daniel,” he said. “I hope for your sake that it works out.”

  “As do I,” I said with a small nod. “As do I.”

  CHAPTER 3

  Lucy

  My mind was full of uneasy dreams. I wasn’t in my nightmare. I hadn’t had my nightmare since Gabriel had restored my memories. But the dream wasn’t pleasant.

  I was in the woods. The darkness of night was surrounding me and I couldn’t see. The heavy weight of the damp, earth-tainted air hung heavy in my lungs as I walked forward and tried not to trip. I kept losing my sense of direction, so it felt like I was walking in circles. I was there for a reason. I knew that. It was the only thing that I did know as I walked forward.

  Before I could get used to the silence, it was broken. The sound of agonized breathing tickled my ears. I followed the sound to see who was hurt. It was Caleb. He was curled into a ball under one of the trees. “Lucy,” he called out when he looked up and saw me standing in front of him. “Lucy, this isn’t a dream,” he said, and then my eyes flew open and I found myself back in the motel room.

  Everything was eerily still. The strong smell of damp returned to my senses and I wondered for a moment whether I’d preferred the earthy smell that I’d found in my dream. I pulled the sheets further over my body as I felt a sudden chill run over me. It was just a dream, I told myself, although I couldn’t actually force myself to believe that. Caleb had seemed too real; his words had seemed too convincing. He’d told me that it wasn’t a dream and he’d been pretty hurt.

  I looked over at Daniel. He had fallen asleep in a chair, his arms and head resting on a small rickety table that had been pushed under the window. I wondered whether I should wake him up and tell him about my dream. I wondered whether he’d be able to do anything about it. I wondered whether he’d send people to look for Caleb. There was a heavy feeling in my stomach, as I thought about what Daniel might do, The feeling was telling me that it was me who was doing nothing, that the message was for me and that I should act on it.

  Caleb had saved me from Gabriel. He’d returned me to Daniel. He’d risked his own life so that I might be safe. I owed him the same in return. I couldn’t expect anybody to take my side in the great fight unless I proved that I was worth saving.

  I pushed the covers away from me and stood up quietly, so that I wouldn’t wake Daniel.

  I knew the forest that Caleb was in. It was the one that we’d run into after escaping from Gabriel. It was close to Gabriel’s base, but I knew that I had to go. I knew that I couldn’t just leave Caleb in the cold and the dark to die. I pulled open the door to the motel room and hesitated briefly when Daniel started to stir, but then he shifted back into deep sleep and I walked out into the empty parking lot.

  The sun was just starting to break through the inky blue sky as I crossed the parking lot to the sidewalk. I headed to the outskirts of the city where the treeline started, glancing behind me to see if anyone was following. I stepped off the sidewalk into the thick bushes that felt sharp against my legs. I winced in pain as thorns started to cut into my skin, but I didn’t stop pushing through the bushes until I found myself standi
ng on a thick blanket of fallen leaves.

  I wasn’t sure which direction I should go in, so I let my gut decide. I started to walk up a gentle slope that was covered in tangled tree roots that made every step a challenge. I walked for what felt likes hours, before I started to notice the trees that I was walking past looked familiar.

  I stopped and closed my eyes. “Caleb?” I called out in the hope that he might be able to hear me. “Caleb are you there?” I asked, but no reply came.

  I was starting to feel desperate. I could sense a feeling of dread filling my body as I got closer to Gabriel’s compound, and I had to fight my urge to turn back. I stopped in front of a tree that I’d seen in my dream and tried to remember which way in the dream I’d turned. I headed left. The forest was alive with the sound of the wind rustling the leaves and the birds waking up and singing their morning tunes.

  I stopped when I heard a noise that didn’t fit in with the sounds of nature. It sounded like something had been hurt. I could hear the way the breaths were slow and shallow. I followed the noise and found Caleb curled up on the ground.

  I spoke his name as I stepped closer to him. He didn’t move. I could see his face and it was covered in deep purple bruises and nasty looking cuts.

  I knelt down by his side to see whether I could wake him, but I couldn’t. He’d passed out, I assumed from pain. I tried to roll his body over, but he was heavy and I could hardly move him an inch. I sighed in frustration. I knew that I was going to have to call Daniel. I knew that he’d be pissed when he realized where I was. I tried again to move Caleb, but it was useless.

  “Daniel,” I called out quietly. “Daniel, I need you,” I said again softly into the open space of the forest.

  “What have you done?” Daniel asked, as he appeared beside me.

  “I dreamt about Caleb being hurt. The place in the dream was this place. I had to come out here. I had to make sure that he was going to be okay.”

  “Lucy, you don’t know whether this is a trap,” he said with a serious look on his face.

  “Daniel,” I said, looking at him firmly. “Caleb helped me to get away from Gabriel. He helped me to get in touch with you; you cannot possibly be suggesting that I should leave him to suffer?”

  CHAPTER 4

  Daniel

  I couldn’t believe that Lucy had dared go so close to Gabriel’s compound. I could tell from the slight ringing to the air that Gabriel had summoned my brothers to him. The sound was only ever so loud when all my brothers came together; normally it was so weak that it was unnoticeable.

  “We need to get out of here,” I said as I looked from her to Caleb’s hurt body. “We should leave him here,” I added, because I didn’t trust what I was seeing. Caleb had always been strong and I doubted that Gabriel would have been able to hurt him so badly unless Caleb had allowed it.

  “We can’t leave him here,” Lucy said, and her eyes had filled with disgust. “How can you say that after everything that he’s done for us?”

  “Lucy, I don’t trust this. Something isn’t right and we are too close to the war to be taking risks now,” I needed her to see sense.

  “He took a risk for me. He’s been badly hurt because of that risk. If you won’t help me take him back Daniel then you will just have to leave me here with him,” she said defiantly.

  “Lucy, you know I won’t do that.”

  “Then help me.”

  When she put it like that, there was no real choice. I nodded and leant down so that I could pick Caleb up. He was heavy in my arms, but it was nothing that I couldn’t handle. We walked back through the forest quickly. I didn’t want Lucy in the forest any longer than she had to be. I knew that Gabriel would have people patrolling the space.

  It took us a while to get back to the motel and I was glad to put Caleb down on the bed so that my arms could rest a little. He looked badly beaten, but that didn’t explain to me why he’d passed out. My brothers and I could take much worse treatment than what was showing on his skin without passing out.

  I knew that Lucy was worried about him. I knew that Lucy wouldn’t listen to reason about him. I knew that I was going to have to be careful, because I’d only just gotten Lucy back and I didn’t want to lose her again.

  “When do you think he’ll wake up?” She asked me, as she sat down on the small metal chair in the corner of the room.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happened to him,” I said honestly.

  “Well, he’s been beaten,” she said. “He’s probably passed out from the pain.”

  “I don’t think it’s that,” I said with a small shake of my head. “Lucy, my brothers and I are a lot more equipped to take pain than humans. We don’t just pass out because we’ve taken a few punches to the head. Whatever has happened to Caleb is serious and we need to be careful around him.”

  “Caleb is the person who brought me to you. Why are you so suspicious of him?”

  “It’s just a feeling I have,” I said.

  “Well, get over it,” she said quickly and sternly. “Caleb told me that he didn’t agree with you being expelled. He told me that he thought my life should be spared. He saved me and he brought me to you. He is our friend, Daniel, and you need to start treating him that way.”

  “We don’t know what happened to him after he left you in the woods.”

  “It doesn’t matter what happened,” Lucy said stubbornly. “He’s our friend and that is all that matters. Do you understand?”

  I stood in shock. No one had ever spoken to me like that before. I half wanted to shake my head and explain to her that I made the rules, but I knew that it would only lead to more fighting between us. “I understand that he was our friend Lucy,” I said carefully. “I just think we should be careful when war is so close to starting.”

  “We have nothing to worry about with Caleb,” she said confidently.

  I wished I could believe her. I wished that things could really be that simple, but the feeling in my gut was telling me that something was deeply wrong.

  Caleb stirred on the bed and I could tell that he was waking. I glanced out the window and saw the sun was fully up in the sky. “Lucy, I think you should watch Caleb. I have to go speak with someone.”

  I walked out and closed the door before she had a chance to speak. I knew that the parking lot would be too exposed to call Johnathan to in full day, so I walked away from the motel.

  I stopped at the thick line of trees that led into the forest that joined the outskirts of the town to Gabriel’s compound. “Johnathan,” I called out.

  I did not have long to wait. “I’m surprised you’ve called me again so soon,” Johnathan said as he stepped out from behind a tree.

  “I need you to find something out for me,” I said. “One of my brothers has been badly hurt, but something doesn’t feel right. I need you to look into it and see whether I’m just being paranoid.”

  “What brother?” Johnathan asked.

  “It’s Caleb. Lucy found him in the forest last night. He was passed out, but starting to come around when I left to talk to you. I don’t know what it is, but something isn’t right. He took a beating, that’s for sure, but it shouldn’t have knocked him out. There are only a handful of things that can do that and all of them spell trouble.”

  If Johnathan was moved by pity, empathy, or even just curiosity, he didn't show it. “What do you think has happened?”

  “I don’t know,” I said with a small shake of my head. “I just know that it isn’t good.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Lucy

  I watched as Caleb slowly woke up. His face was full of surprise at first as he took in the dingy surroundings that the motel had to offer. “You’re safe,” I said to him gently as he sat up.

  He turned to look at me with confusion in his eyes. I could tell from his look that he had no idea about how he’d got to the room or what had led up to it. “You were badly hurt,” I explained. “I found you in the forest close to Gabriel’s
compound. I think you must have escaped when he was torturing you, but then you passed out from the pain.”

  “You found me?” He asked as he rubbed his hand through his hair.

  “Yeah. I mean, I had this crazy dream last night about being in the forest and I saw you. You told me that it wasn’t a dream and then I woke up. I wasn’t sure what to do at first. I mean, I’ve had so many bad dreams in my life, but this one felt real. It felt as though it was trying to warn me. So I snuck out when Daniel was asleep and I came looking for you. I found you, but you were unconscious. I couldn't wake you up. I tried to move you myself, but I couldn’t pick you up, so I called Daniel.”

  “What did Daniel have to say?”

  “He wasn’t happy,” I answered honestly, because I felt as though Caleb deserved the truth. “He thought that something was going on. He thought that perhaps you had motives beyond our knowledge, but I told him that he was wrong. I told him that he had to help you or I wouldn’t come with him.”

  Caleb took some time processing that. He looked around again, and then back at me. “Do you trust me?” He asked. His eyes met mine and I could feel them examining my thoughts when I paused before answering.

  “I do trust you,” I said. In truth, Caleb was probably the only person I did trust. He was the only one who hadn’t lied to me or tried to kill me. He’d never given me any reason to doubt him and even if it was naïve I needed a person to trust. I needed someone that I was sure that I could rely on, because it felt like a great big storm of bad things was going to start crashing down on me at any minute. “You’re probably the only person I do trust,” I added.

  “Good,” Caleb said with a small smile.

  I didn't want to weary him with questions, but I had to know. “What happened to you after you left me?”

  “I went back to Gabriel. I knew that I needed to buy you some more time. I knew that Gabriel wouldn’t be able to resist taunting me if I showed up. And if he was doing that, then he couldn’t be looking for you.”