Down in Flames

by Jennifer Siddoway

  “And what are you?”

  I chuckled dryly, returning the glamour to my face so it was the one he recognized. “I’m a demon, but you don’t need to be afraid of me. I would never hurt you.”

  His eyes grew wide at the admission, and he looked me over with new eyes and new understanding after the struggle we had been through. My hand started trembling once again and I held it down with the other to calm the violent tremor. “What’s happening to you?”

  “I haven’t used magic for a while. It’s like an addiction, there’s still some residual yearning for the power to be released. I can’t use it though, because angels are tracking me and if they sense it and find me here then I’m a goner.”

  He nodded, looking somber. “Does it hurt?”

  I gargled out a laugh while trying not to cry. “Yes.”

  His aura seemed brighter, calmer than how I found him, with his thoughts dwelling on something other than the death of my beloved sister. Kevin stood up and scratched the back of his head, looking out across the living room. “This really needs some work done cleaning, doesn’t it?”

  I nodded.

  Without a word, he started moving around the space and putting things away to make the environment more hospitable. Every step he took brought his aura back, shining that much brighter. It would never be the same as it was before the horrible loss, but it was better. He was fighting back now – he was going to win. For the first time since I arrived, I could see for myself that he was going to be okay.

  “What are you going to do now?” I asked him.

  He sighed. “Maybe I ‘ll take your advice, go back to medical school. It’s what Elyse would want for me. That’ll also give me something to do with my time.”

  I stood up, stretching my hands above my head and said, “I think you’re right and that’s a very wise decision.”

  “You don’t have to leave,” Kevin insisted.

  “Actually, I do. Dad will get worried if I don’t come back soon. Are you going to be alright without me?”

  Kevin actually smiled, giving me a gentle nod and said, “Yeah. Don’t be a stranger though. Come by next week sometime and you can tell me all about this Caleb character.”

  I chuckled. “Will do.”

  I rushed out of the apartment and started running. I didn’t want to be anywhere near him if my alter ego decided to come around.

  The streets were dark and I ran through the parking lot in search of something to destroy. It was the only way to break the tremors’ hold on me. Eventually, I found an area secluded from anywhere else and released the glamor on my body.

  The feeling was incredible.

  As the shimmering, electric tingles trickled across my skin and revealed the scales below, I breathed a euphoric sigh, stretching all my muscles at once. The painful memories of my time in hell came rushing back to me – a curse that I didn’t think I’d ever truly be rid of. It brought me back to the time when I was seen as nothing more than amusement in Aidan’s game.

  He had a twisted sense of kindness.

  I turned at the sound of my door being opened, looking up from the book I was reading and glanced over to see who it was. The wooden door creaked open and Aidan stepped inside, holding a lit torch and beckoning me to come with him. He had a wicked gleam in his eyes as he reached out to me and smiled. “Come with me. I have a present for you.”

  I set the book down on a side table and raised an eyebrow at him suspiciously while I rose from the armchair. “What kind of present?” I asked him cautiously.

  His smile widened, the flickering light of the torch casting long shadows across his face. “You'll see.”

  Slowly, I went toward him and he placed one hand around my waist and guided me gently from the room. My heart thudded faster, playing along with his game and following him out into the corridor. It was almost midnight and everyone else was asleep in their chambers – it was just the two of us. Aidan led me down the hall to the service elevator. It wasn't used by royalty, or for any other purpose except to bring food and supplies to the various levels of the castle.

  The only exception to that rule was if we were going down.

  I glanced up at him nervously, seeking confirmation, but his eyes were on the wall ahead. The elevator compartment had two doors, one on either side, and the hallway bridge leading out towards the dungeon was only accessible through this gate.

  As he held it open for me, I swallowed hard and then stepped inside. Neither of us spoke as it descended to the ground floor of the palace, also known as “the pits”. He smiled, seeming pleased with himself as our journey continued onward, the tension in the air between us building steadily. When it finally landed on the prison floor, the back door opened, leading out the opposite direction than we had entered by, and let us out to a bridge. It connected the palace to the dungeon keep where all the prisoners were being held.

  “Come,” he insisted firmly.

  I set my jaw and followed as he lead the way across the stony path. The bridge was longer than a football field and covered with a glass archway overhead. Aidan's steps were calm and deliberate as he opened the door to Avernus dungeon and led me through winding halls, lit with torches exactly like the one he carried. I walked in silence around some corners, almost losing my direction as I followed him through the roundabout route before finally ending at one doorway in particular.

  “This is it,” Aidan muttered, pulling out the key and unlocking the metal lock. “This is what I wanted to show you.”

  As the door swung open, I went inside and found an older man, chained loosely to the walls, with smears of blood across his body from where the guards had beaten him.

  “He's all yours,” Aidan told me.

  I turned, glancing up at him, confused. “Why would you do this? I don't even know who that is.”

  “Oh, my mistake,” Aidan laughed. “I should have started with introductions. Wynn, I'd like you to meet your grandfather, Richard.”

  My heart stopped when he said it, the tips of my fingers growing cold. “That can't be my grandfather, Mom told us he was still in prison.”

  “Oh, he is,” the demon assured me with a smile. “I made sure of it. That's the man who used to beat your mother and uncle on a daily basis in a drunken stupor. That's the man who would whore your mother out like a prostitute and keep all the earnings for himself. He nearly killed them more than once, unapologetically I might add. I'm giving him to you so that you can return the favor.”

  The man slowly raised his head to look at me. “So, you're my granddaughter – the bitch that everyone here keeps talking about.”

  I glared at him, unwilling to answer such unabashed belligerence.

  “You want me to torture him?” I asked.

  Aidan smiled wickedly. “Yes.”

  “No, I don’t want to do that,” I shot back angrily. “That’s what makes me better than him, I don’t go around beating defenseless people and getting off on it. My grandfather was a cruel man and I’m not going to lower myself to his standards.”

  The Demon Lord frowned. “You confuse me, Wynn. You don’t like it when I make you torture people, but it should come as no surprise to you that we’re in hell. They didn’t get here by being good people. So, I got you someone who you know deserves it. Here I thought you would be impressed. I’m giving you the man who ruined your mother and helped shape her into the person she is.”

  “I don’t care.”

  Richard snorted. “Don’t go thinking you’re superior to me, brat. I gave your mother everything she needed to succeed in life. I gave up everything for her, she never gave me anything in return. I should have bloodied her up sooner and taught that girl a lesson. Who did she think she was throwing us aside like dirt so she could run off with some rich kid? Ungrateful whore.”

  My jaw fell open as I stared at him in shock. “How can you talk about your own daughter like that? She was a child, and it was your duty to protect her. You don’t regret a single thing, do you?”
>
  He shook his head. “Why should I? I made her after all, she owes me. Without me, she wouldn’t even exist.”

  I spat at him. Aidan smiled and offered me the whip. “Go ahead, love. I won’t tell – this is between you and me.”

  My hand tightened around the handle as I took it from him, wanting to beat the prisoner senseless and become the monster Aidan was urging me to be. And Richard, this, this man—I couldn’t remotely think of him as any kind of relation—was so unapologetically evil, with such unthinking cruelty, unable or unwilling to self-reflect or think about his actions at all, he himself was almost begging to be slapped, beaten, whipped. It was so easy to think of him as an obvious, evil thing that needed to be punished, and it would be so satisfying to do it myself. It would be totally without any judgment from Aidan — in fact it would be with full approval and admiration. It was that little bump that jostled my rage enough to relax my grip on the scourge, something dad had tried to teach us. “Character is the way we act when we’re alone. It’s what you do when nobody is watching, with only yourself to judge.”

  Was this who I wanted to truly be on the inside? Hiding under a façade of the rebellious daughter, the surviving sister, the college girl, under it all, the torturer and murderer? With a literal devil at my shoulder, delivering a delicious morsel to stoke and gratify my awakening dark appetites, I had to be my own guiding angel—Caleb wasn’t here to hold my hand or tell me to be good. I had to really decide who I wanted to be.

  With that hesitation, I finally and firmly threw the whip away to the corner.

  As I came reeling back from the memory of Aidan’s cruelty, tears of rage pricked at the corners of my eyes. My wings flexed into the cool night air and I arched my back, screaming out the pained release. The cry had barely escaped my lips when I sensed another demon nearby. I looked around trying to find the source of my unease, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

  Damn, I shouldn’t have used magic.

  The creature was on me in a flash and I hissed in fury, throwing her off so she went crashing to the asphalt. “Gaa!”

  She spun around on her back and flipped herself until she was crouching on the ground in front of me. I Blinked across the street so I was standing beneath a lamp post, quickly assessing our surroundings and how I could use them to my advantage. It was a risky venture, but in a split-second decision I quietly summoned a portal to the Demon Realm from the shadows on the ground behind me where my attacker couldn’t see. When the demon followed and tried to grab me once again, I gripped the metal post and swung around to kick her in the face.

  Black ooze spurted from her nose as she stumbled backward and I grabbed her by the collar, spinning around to throw her unceremoniously into the swirling portal. The whole exchange was fast and over in a matter of seconds. The last thing I heard was her screaming as she disappeared into the void.

  For a moment I stood there panting, eyes wide from the surge of adrenaline that was coursing through my body. I clutched my hands tightly into fists and breathed out steadily through my nose, wondering if I or my loved ones would ever be safe. Every move I took to make things better seemed to backfire in my face. There would be no rest for any of us until Aidan and his minions were finally defeated.

  Chapter Eleven

  My Other Half

  ML

  “Thirty-eight! …oomph! Thirty-nine! Forty!”

  I fell back onto the floor after finishing another set of sit-ups. Sweat dripped down my forehead and I was panting from exertion. Wearing myself out physically was the best thing I could do to get my mind off Caleb, off Aidan, and stay focused on how I was going to finally defeat him.

  I lay there for a moment, drenched in sweat, and let the overhead fan cool me off while I took a break. Just then, I heard some giggling down the hall and cocked an eyebrow curiously. I rolled over and pulled myself up when there was a knock outside my door. “Come in.”

  The door to my room swung open and Charlene and Lacey were standing outside, with punch drunk smiles on their faces. Lacey’s silken, black hair was braided back part way on either side of her face and hung past her shoulders like an obsidian waterfall. Her dusky, olive skin and crystal blue eyes sparked with excitement and a hint of mischief. Even her green aura had taken on a playful hue and was dancing around like flames.

  Charley was smiling next to her, with the shimmering chain of her hourglass necklace hanging down against her chest. The ink from her tattooed arm softened in the dim lighting and revealed the scene from Alice in Wonderland. Her aura twinkled with excitement as they gazed back at me in a brilliant purple cloud.

  “Hey, girls. What’s going on?” I asked them slowly.

  Lacey wrapped her arm around Charley’s shoulder and said, “We’ve come to kidnap you! Charlene is in desperate need of a bachelorette party and now seemed like the perfect time to do it.”

  I stared back at the two of them like a deer caught in the headlights. I had almost forgotten, in the plans for battle, that there was still reason for us to celebrate. My best friend was getting married and I’d be damned if I couldn’t be there to support him.

  Charley nodded. “That’s right, and I need both my bridesmaids with me, so no excuses.”

  Her excitement and enthusiasm about what we were doing was infectious and I couldn’t help but smile. “Really? I didn’t even know you were having one of those.”

  “Neither did I, but Ryan is insisting. He and the guys are out somewhere. I don’t know, I didn’t ask. So, come on and get your stuff, we’ve got a reservation waiting!”

  “You want me to be one of your bridesmaids? That’s so nice of you, but are you sure?” I looked at my still heavily bandaged body and the scars that now ran up and down my arms and face from the stint in hell. “I’m not suited to be part of anyone’s wedding party.”

  “Of course I am,” she countered firmly, with a sisterly tone I recognized. Her eyes were deep and sincere as she pleaded for my company. “You can take a break from all your plotting and come have a few drinks with us, we’re going out.”

  “I dunno, Charley…”

  “This is the most important day of our lives and it wouldn’t feel right without you there with both of us. That’s why I came to get you, so you could be a part of this.” I opened my mouth to object when she stopped me. “You once said that Ryan was family to you, and that made me your sister by extension. You’re not getting out of this. I don’t have many friends up here in the Mortal Realm and I kind of love you. Please?”

  I groaned at her textbook display of Bambi eyes and knew that it was hopeless. It would be good for my mind to take a break from all this. I could come back to it with new eyes in the future. “Ugh, alright fine. But I’m not going to be very good company tonight. Caleb’s moved on and I’m not feeling particularly romantic at the moment.”

  Lacey stopped dead in the hallway and bonked me on the nose. “NO! We are not having any more of that tonight, you’re going to have to deal with it on your own time. This is about Ryan and Charlene.”

  We stared at each other for a moment and I knew she was right. It was always adorable when Lacey tried to put her foot down, but rather than concede that fact, I nodded stiffly as she headed for the door. “Okay.”

  “Come on,” she beckoned gently.

  I grinned slightly and grabbed a leather jacket off the hanger, pulling my hair into a ponytail. As I secured it with an elastic, I asked them, “Where are we going?”

  She put her arm around my shoulder as we walked down the hall together and said, “Where I go to blow off steam.”

  HJ

  Charley ducked behind the corner with me and tucked her gun tight into her shoulder. The hourglass necklace which bound her and Ryan together was tucked inside the collar of her shirt to keep it safe. She’d pulled her hair up into a bouncy ponytail, which looked ridiculous over the suit of armor we were each wearing. Her watercolor tattoo crept all the way down her arm and was visible even in the low lighting. L
eave it to Charley to make even the most tactical of war games an adorable fashion show. I couldn’t take her seriously. All the lights in the arcade were off, except the neon black lights overhead that marked the way around the obstacle course.

  Techno music played from the loudspeakers overhead and made me feel like we were in a rave. The carpet was dark blue, with swirls and stars in a funky pattern from the eighties, but in this lighting, it looked almost black except for the splash of color from the neon stars.

  “You know, when you said ‘blow off steam’ I thought you meant getting pedicures or something. Not playing Laser tag,” I hissed at her in a whisper. It was difficult to see in the dark, with only the outlines of neon green tape marked on every corner. Lacey seemed to be having a fair amount of difficulty, but it still looked like she was having fun. It made me happy to see her unleash a wild side, especially since she was not a fighter like me or Charlene. Occasionally, there would be a burst of movement from one of the other players, but they were all hiding in their barricade.

  My heart was pounding like a jackhammer as she looked back at me across her shoulder and grinned. “Are you complaining?”

  “Hell no, this is way more fun.”

  “That’s what I thought,” she laughed. “That Boy Scout troop is going down.”

  I laughed quietly to myself at her enthusiasm. I hadn’t played like this in ages and it was refreshing. I got the thrill of the hunt without feeling miserable about it afterward. Though, in some ways the armor and adrenaline did remind me of living in the Underworld, and I had to shake it off before I started hyperventilating. I was safe now – well, safer. “I find it a little discouraging to know our biggest contenders are pre-pubescent boys.”

  Charley grinned, “Well, it’s the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. I guess that’s the demographic this time slot tailors to.”