by Justin Wayne
***
An older man wearing only a torn and tattered breechcloth and iron manacles walked forward with chains dragging along behind him. His face was weathered and aged with matted hair left upon the top and a grimace set into his wrinkles. Scars and blisters covered his body like an imperfect pattern partially overlapped by a rash. He hobbled across the dark room with a severe limp from his broken legs and bowed back with his fractured arms hanging low, almost touching the ground. A noose hung from his neck.
He looked up and his bright eyes shone with some vast knowledge and even humor. His grimace eased into a slight smile and he beckoned him forth with a gentle wave.
“Do not be afraid my child, I mean you no harm.” His kind yet rough voice wheezed. “I have watched you for a very long time now and have yet to be disappointed.” The broken man stepped closer and held out his hand. “My name is Asylann and I know pain and suffering even the likes of you could never understand. I have shared this with everyone and everything for millennia across the entire universe.
“Most who suffer ailments, disease, and physical harm can only strike back out or take it, with those two choices being the only choices. However there are those such as yourself who can accept the pain and give it back, as well as being able to decide who should receive it. This is far more rare than you might think.”
“So you’re in charge of Hell?”
“Hell?” His eyebrow arced and an amused grin wrought its way through his grimace. “Why would you think that?”
“Cause that’s where I’m going isn’t it?”
The old man eased himself down into a chair that couldn’t have been there before. “Please, take a seat my child. This is not a conversation you will want to miss.” He folded his hands on his lap and smiled warmly. “That’s better. Now, if I may begin; let me tell you why I am here so that you may save the both of us time. I am here to offer you life if you choose to take it, though at a cost.”
“How much?”
“A lifetime of pain and woe.”
“Doesn’t sound like anything new.”
“This will be. It will be not only your pain you shall feel but others’ as well. I cannot say how exactly, as it varies from person to person, but I can promise you to some degree you will suffer with others for others.”
“Why?”
“Why so you can understand better, my child, as well as to receive a second chance; something too few are ever offered. I can admit I would choose not to give you this extra pain if I could, but it is beyond me to do so. I can only empower you with what I have.”
“And you have pain?”
“Everyone and everything’s pain from everywhere.”
“When?”
“Now.”
“All the time?”
“All the time.”
“And that’s what I’ll have too?”
“No, no, nothing so extensive. You shall perhaps, feel the pain of those around you within several feet, or those you touch, or maybe only those you come to know well; I cannot say.”
“Are you sure it wouldn’t be better if I just stayed dead?”
“No, I am not, which is why I leave it up to you to decide.”
“What will I have to do?”
“Live, suffer, be happy, die…again; really whatever you choose to do with it.”
“Then why offer it to me? Why not someone else, someone better?”
“Because you specifically know how to suffer and still make the right decisions. You do not let the pain cloud your judgment and guide your hand. This is most respectable, I find.”
“But you don’t require me to do anything?”
“Only one thing.”
“Here we go: the catch.”
“Yes, of sorts. You see, demons cannot truly die on your plane; they can only be sent back to their own. More powerful demons such as Cancer will be first in line to return and often seek revenge on those who banished them; but this can be overcome by various magical means. It is this I wish to circumvent.”
“You wish me to go to the Pit and slay him there?”
“Oh no, that would be suicide. If Cancer had wished to end you it would have and had plenty of opportunities. No, I want to entrap it within you.”
“To what?”
“I can bind its soul to you and your body; giving you enough energy and power to survive the resurrection and the amount of pain I would be forced to share with you. This way you can return to life, Cancer cannot come back for revenge later, and you have some new tricks.”
“This is madness, you really expect me to accept this? To take a demon’s soul inside of me?”
“Admittedly no, however I always leave the option…just once.”
“This one time is the only chance I’ll get to accept your offer?”
“Cancer’s soul is traversing the planes to return to the Pit as we speak. Any later than this and it will be already be too late.”
“So this is more about Cancer than me.”
“Both, rather equally. Cancer is powerful but young and therefore brash. Had he been smart and learned wisdom and strategy you and your group would not have stood a chance. As it is, he did not and purely took pleasure by causing pain.
“Something you can take and accept while remaining you. Too often do I see and feel others warp and bend beneath such weights. It just seemed a natural fit and a means to an end. Just imagine who you could save and protect with such abilities.”
“What abilities?”
“Well you would have your pain empathy of course, as well as enhanced bodily functions from having two souls; much like the way a sorcerer empowers himself. Yet I do not know what kind of changes they will be with it being a demon soul.”
“I still don’t know if I should be the one you ask.”
“Tell me, do you have to feel yourself breathing to know that you are?”
“Well. I’m not breathing, I’m dead.”
“Yes, but…it is just an expression. Pain for you is like breathing; something that will always happen and you have little to no control over. Even if you were to hold your breath until you passed out, your body would just keep on breathing while you were unconscious.”
“I understand.”
“Do you see why I would choose you for such a thing?”
“I must admit it is a tempting offer.”
“I do not offer it easily. Such transactions are rare; few and far between, for they are dangerous.”
“I could become a monster.”
“Indeed, which is why I have watched you for some time when this was seen forthcoming. I honestly believe you will be the optimal choice.”
“Are there others?”
“At the moment? No, you are pretty much it.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, sorry; no pressure.”
“I suppose I don’t have much of a choice do I?”
“Of course you do, there is no obligation unless you impress one upon yourself.”
“I can’t let Cancer come back after the others with me dead and gone.”
“You can.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Then you are decided?”
“Yes…give me Cancer.”
“This may feel uncomfortable.”
A warm feeling passed from Asylann’s hand and into his guest’s palm where it remained. Then suddenly the warm feeling ignited to flames. The fire spread up his arm and burnt away his flesh; charring the meat and bone. He screamed and fought against it and thrashed about violently. He slammed himself against the ground and rolled back and forth but the flames would not relent.
“I can only give you this, Outsider.” Asylann’s voice echoed above it all as he cringed and contorted in white hot agony. “Spiritual and mental are my gifts; everything physical you shall have to find on your own. Go to a gnome tinkerer named Reginald Quadrillionus, I believe you have met before some time ago. He does not know you are coming but he has something you should see. Farewell
.”
Asylann vanished and left him sitting there in the dark alone.
Then there was light.
The flames scorched him more and more and passed his torso and down to his waist. His ribcage visible and limbs fully eroded to the bare bone, the fire spread down his throat and consumed his face as he tried to breathe but had no lungs left to do so.
The inferno slid down his esophagus and into his chest where it devoured his heart.
