by N. P. Martin
When I changed into a pair of black leather pants, tight black top, black leather jacket and boots, I stared at my reflection in the mirror for a moment like it was the last time I’d ever see myself alive. I gave my reflection a final dark look before I left the room and joined Frank and Eva outside in the car.
An hour or so later, all three of us sat in Frank’s car outside a large warehouse in the Harbor District. It was just past dark and the docks were quiet, most of the activity was done for the day. The warehouse was surrounded by shipping crates and it had two huge doors on the front. Light poured from the few windows that ran along the top of the building.
“Seems quiet from out here,” Frank said looking out the window. “We should find a side entrance. I doubt the front doors are open for us.”
I sat in the back seat, the Demon Blade lying across my lap. “Let’s go then,” I said, impatient to go in.
“Hold on,” Eva said from the front passenger seat. She was dressed in leather pants that were a bit looser fitting than mine, plus some kind of leather top that seemed to double as body armour. It was the first time I had seen her dressed for battle. She looked pretty badass and I was glad she was with us. “Shouldn’t we do some recon first, see how many are in there?”
“We don’t have time for that,” I said. “Abigor could break the last seal at any time and then we’d be screwed. I think we should we just go straight in.”
Eva and I looked at Frank who sat and thought for a moment. He nodded. “Alright, this is a suicide mission anyway,” he said. “Come on.”
We got out of the car and Frank and Eva went to the trunk to get their weapons. Frank strapped on an assault rifle, two handguns and the demon-killing knife. Eva had two shiny short swords, more like big knives , that looked to be made from a chrome-like substance. There was two sheaths attached to her leather body armour, one either side. She put the swords in the sheaths so that they hung at her sides. I couldn’t help but smile. With her serious face and focused blue eyes, she looked as ready for battle as I’d seen anyone.
The Demon Blade was in my hand.
It was all I needed.
“Let’s move,” Frank said after he slammed the trunk closed.
We moved quickly towards the warehouse, looking around us as we did to make sure no one was around or hiding by the shipping containers. No one was. We moved up the side of the warehouse until we came to a side door. “We go in here,” Frank said, his assault rifle at the ready. He checked the door and it was unlocked.
“This doesn’t feel right,” Eva said in a hushed voice. “It’s too quiet. Frank?”
Frank paused with his hand on the door handle. “It does seem kind of quiet,” he said.
“Come on, guys,” I said. “We don’t have time for this. We’re here, let’s get in there.” I acted braver than I felt. If my cave experience had taught me anything, it was that you had to swallow your fear and forge ahead anyway. The consequences of not acting were worse than actually trying to do something.
“Alright,” Frank said. “If we die in here I’m holding you responsible.”
“Yeah, whatever. Nothing you’re not used to anyway.” He shot me a look that I ignored and I gripped the Demon Blade tighter. “Open the door.”
The interior of the warehouse was cloaked mostly in darkness except for a few lights that shone from the office space on the top floor, which wasn’t really enough to illuminate the ground floor. The sulphurous smell in the place was unpleasant to my nostrils, but damned better than the stench of bat shit.
The silence was ominous.
“Where the hell are they all?” Frank asked in a whisper.
“Just be careful,” Eva said her own voice a whisper in the silence.
We moved further into the warehouse and I soon became aware of a presence in the massive open space, though I wasn’t sure what kind of presence. I tingled all over from the Light Energy that ran through me and I wondered if the other two felt the same. Squinting into the near darkness, my hand gripped the Demon Blade so tightly my knuckles whitened. Just as I moved towards the middle of the warehouse to affirm my suspicions of a presence, the lights came on all at once. We stopped dead in our tracks, our backs to each other as we stood ready, looking around, and expecting demons to come running out at us.
No demons came.
But there was someone else standing in the center of the warehouse, a tall figure in a long, dark overcoat, his head bowed as if in prayer. He stood in the middle of a magic circle that was obviously designed to keep him there. The three of us looked at the tall man in the circle, unsure of what was going on. Then Eva spoke. “An angel,” she said in a voice that conveyed an angel was the last thing she was expecting to see.
I frowned. “An angel?”
What the hell is an angel doing in here?
I walked towards the man in the circle and he lifted his head and looked straight at me. He appeared to be human but after a second I caught a glimpse of his true form, a being of light with huge wings on his back. “My God…”
“Wait!” Frank said as he came beside me. “Don’t go any closer. Something’s up here.” He was looking around as if expecting Abigor and his demon soldiers to appear at any second.
The angel in the circle was silently staring in our direction. Despite Frank’s warning I took a few steps closer. “What are you doing here?” I asked it.
The angel didn’t answer, just kept staring at me, an intense look on his face. I stared back until I heard a voice to my far left. “He’s waiting for you,” the voice said and I snapped my head around to see Abigor standing there, along with Josh. “We’ve all been waiting on you.”
“Josh,” I said softly, resisting the urge to run to him. I knew there would be no point as he was too far gone, but it was still my brother stood there, demon or not. “What is this?” I said to Abigor.
The architect of Hell stood about ten feet away, Josh by his side. “This is the party I’ve set up for you. I think you’ll enjoy it.” He looked at Frank, who had his assault rifle trained on him. “You can lower that weapon. You won’t need it.” He stared at Frank, his eyes glowing a deep orange, until Frank slowly lowered the gun; he then turned his attention back to me. “You’re probably wondering who our guest is.”
“He’s an angel,” I said, my hand gripping the Demon Blade. Every part of me wanted to run at Abigor right then, to run at him and lop his head off with the Demon Blade, but I resisted. I would wait until I knew what his game was first.
“That’s right, he’s an angel. His name is Cassiel. You may have heard of him. He’s quite famous amongst the folks upstairs.” He raised his eyebrows and motioned with his head towards the ceiling.
“So? What’s he doing here?”
Abigor and Josh looked at each other and smiled. That little act sickened me. It killed me to see my brother in league with such a monster. “I brought him here—well, trapped him here actually—so you and he could break the last seal for me.”
I frowned, confused. Eva looked at me, the same confusion on her face as well. “What do you mean? That’s never going to happen.”
Abigor snorted. “I’m afraid it is, whether you want to or not.” He pointed to the sword in my hand. “I see you found the sword. Did you think you were coming here to kill me?” He laughed, amused at something. Josh laughed along with him and my face darkened at the sound. My grip on the sword got tighter.
“I am going to kill you, Abigor,” I said in a low voice that could have been a growl.
“I admire your spirit,” Abigor said, walking over to the angel in the circle. I took a few steps back and raised the sword. “Relax. I’m not going to fight you, Leia. I need you. Besides, that sword you have there is useless. It can’t kill me.”
What?
I tried not to look rattled. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?” He looked at the angel. “Cassiel, am I lying?”
The angel didn’t look like he appreciated being Abigor�
�s puppet, but he answered anyway. “The Demon Blade only has power when wielded by a demon. In your hands it is useless.”
“So you see,” Abigor said as he walked slowly around the outside of the magic circle. “The sword won’t do you any good. It’s just another sword in your hands.”
I felt sick. The angel wasn’t lying, neither was Abigor. I looked at Josh who was smiling smugly at me. I deflated.
“It’s a Demon Blade,” Abigor said. “You’d think the name would have given you a clue. Humans, Nephilim—you’re all the same. So easily manipulated. I knew you would contact the crossroads demon after I mentioned trading your soul. The demon you signed the contract with, he was expecting you. He brought you to the cave where I put the sword for you to find. I knew you would come looking for me after that, and so here we are…”
I shook my head. It felt like the floor had dropped away beneath me and I was spiralling down out of control. “But why?”
Abigor laughed. “Because I could…because I enjoyed giving you the run around and because I needed time to capture myself an angel. They aren’t easy to catch, you know. Slippery things, angels .”
I looked at the angel Cassiel who stared at me with pity in his face, somehow affirming everything Abigor was saying. “I’m still going to kill you.” I moved towards Abigor until I felt a hand on my arm. I turned to see Frank shaking his head at me. “Let me go!” Anger replaced the loss and despair and I let it consume me, to the point where I no longer cared if I lived or died.
“Let her come, Frank,” Abigor said. He was stood in front of the angel, his arms outstretched. “Take your best shot, Leia. I won’t stop you.”
I wrenched my arm from Frank’s grip and walked towards Abigor who still stood with his arms out, waiting. I looked in his eyes and saw nothing but coldness mixed with deep amusement at the games he was playing. Raising the Demon Blade, I ran forward and put the blade right through his chest and out his back before pulling it out again. The demon grunted, fell back a couple of steps but stayed on his feet. Dark blood seeped from the wound in his chest. He glanced down at the hole I left there and smiled. “Told you, didn’t I?” He started laughing.
I stepped back away from him, the blood -stained Demon Blade trailing along the floor as it hung in my hand. I shook my head, unable to believe that Abigor hadn’t died when I stabbed him with the sword. He was supposed to die.
“Enough of this messing around,” he said, the smile leaving his face. “You’re going to do as I tell you now, Leia. You know why?” I didn’t answer, just kept staring at him, back to feeling powerless. “Because if you don’t, I’m going to kill your brother.” He shot out an arm and squeezed his hand together like he was choking somebody.
I looked at Josh who was stood with both hands clutching his own throat, gasping for air. “Josh!”
“Don’t!” Abigor commanded in a tone that resonated through me. His other hand was out as he telekinetically held me in place. I could no longer move a muscle. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to kill the angel, or I’m going to kill your brother, then I’m going to kill your friends as well, very slowly.”
I could speak, but do nothing else as Abigor’s power held me. “Why?”
“The last seal, of course. A pure blood Nephilim must kill an angel in cold blood. You’re going to kill Cassiel here. Now.” He released his grip on me and I nearly fell to my knees as I suddenly got control of my own body again all at once.
I looked back over at Josh who was now on his knees, gasping for air as he looked back at me with pleading eyes. I didn’t see the demon in him anymore. All I saw was my brother who I loved more than anyone else in the world, the life slowly draining out of him. “Stop!” I shouted to Abigor. “You’re killing him!”
“That’s the point. Do as I ask and I’ll stop. Otherwise your brother dies along with everyone else here, including you.”
I looked at the angel, Cassiel. That same look of pity was still on his face. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Do it. It’s okay.”
Eva appeared suddenly at my side. “You can’t do this,” she said urgently. “You kill that angel and the gates will be opened. We’ll all be dead anyway.”
She had a point. I wouldn’t deny that. It wouldn’t make any sense to save Josh just so Abigor could enslave the entire world in a new Hell on earth. But I wasn’t thinking logically; I was thinking about my brother, about how he was dying and how I needed to save him. I didn’t care about the rest of the world in that moment, only my brother, the person I had gone through so much to try and save. I wasn’t about to let Abigor take him away from me, and Abigor knew that. He knew I wouldn’t say no.
I stepped up to the angel, Demon Blade in my hand. Frank and Eva where still behind me, shouting for me to stop, to think about what I was doing, but I hardly heard them. All I heard was the life being squeezed out of my brother’s body. I had to save him.
I raised the Demon Blade, ready to run it through the angel’s chest.
“Not with that,” Abigor said. He handed me a long silver dagger. “With this.”
I took the dagger. It felt heavy in my hand, deadly. I still gripped the Demon Blade in my other hand. It was like I couldn’t let it go after what I had been through to get it, as useless as it turned out to be. “I’m sorry,” I said to Cassiel.
Cassiel looked at me with compassionate crystal blue eyes. “Do what you have to do,” he said. “Have faith.”
I frowned at him a second, wondering what he meant by that last comment.
Faith? What did faith have do with anything?
I plunged the dagger into the angel’s chest, holding it in there for a second before ripping it out again. Blinding white light poured from the angel’s eyes and mouth before it suddenly exploded all at once in a huge ball of light that I had to turn away from, so blinding was it. When the light stopped there was nothing left of the angel except for a scorch mark in the center of the circle. I dropped the silver dagger on the floor and looked at Abigor. “Let my brother go.”
“With pleasure,” Abigor said, dropping his arm to his side again. I ran to Josh, despite the protests of Eva and Frank. Josh was up on one knee, breathing hard as he rubbed at his throat.
“Josh,” I said kneeling down beside him. “Are you alright?”
Josh looked at me with black demon eyes and smiled. “I’m fine, Sis,” he said. “I don’t think you are, though.” He stood up, towering over me. “You’ve just been played.”
The realization of what I had done, of what I had allowed Abigor to do, hit me all at once like a sledgehammer to the chest. I could only remain there on my knees as I looked up at my brother through eyes that were now blurred with tears.
“Good job,” Abigor said to me after he came and stood by Josh. “Exactly as I had planned.” He put an arm around Josh the way a father would put a loving arm around his son. That ripped the guts out of me. “Well, time for us to go. See you all in Hell very soon.”
Then the two of them disappeared and I fell sideways onto the floor, crawling into a fetal position as I sobbed loudly. I wanted to die . If I still had the dagger in my hand I would have stuck it in my chest. In the vast space of the warehouse, my cries echoing around it, I never felt so alone, so broken by anything, not even when I was stuck in that cave. When I felt hands on me I screamed for them to leave me alone and the hands left me. I don’t know how long I lay there on the cold warehouse floor, sobbing like a child who had just lost her parents to some evil monster. All the while there was one terrible thought going through my mind.
It’s over…It’s all over.
Chapter 25
Frank drove to Eva’s house first, where we dropped her off. From my position in the front passenger seat of the Chevrolet I barely nodded at her when she told me not to worry, that we would think of something else and I thought about telling her to wise up, that we were screwed and we had fucked up—I had fucked up—but I didn’t because I couldn’t bring myself
to speak. I was ashamed. I allowed my own selfish feelings to override the greater good, allowed Abigor to play me so easily.
I broke the last seal.
Hell wasn’t just coming.
It was here.
“It’s over,” I kept saying as Frank drove back to the cabin. “It’s over…we lost…I lost it for us.”
Frank drove in silence. I knew what he was thinking. It was written all over his face, it was clear from his every vibration—the stupid little girl let herself get played and now the world is going to end, all because she couldn’t keep her emotions in check.
Loss engulfed me like a hurricane engulfing a small town, wrecking everything in its path. I had never felt so hollow.
When we got to the cabin, I didn’t move from the car. Neither did Frank. It was like it felt pointless to do anything anymore, so we just sat, staring out the window at nothing. We stayed like that for a long time as if waiting for the end to come.
It was Frank who finally broke the silence.
“Well,” he said. “We have two choices as I see it. We can sit here and wait for Hell on earth to arrive or we can go to that cemetery and fight.”
I could see he was just trying to be optimistic in the face of despair. It was an optimism I didn’t share. “To die you mean,” I said.
“Better to die fighting. That’s what I’m thinking.”
I shook my head. “I can’t Frank. I just can’t. It’s over.”
“Goddamn it!” he slammed the steering wheel hard and I jumped. “Would you stop saying that? You’ve shown yourself to be a fighter. Why stop now?”
I looked at him and laughed. “Because it’s fucking over, Frank!” I shouted. “Don’t you get that?”
“Yes, I get that!” he shouted back. “Of course I fucking get it. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to make it easy for that sonofabitch Abigor. If I’m going out, I’m going out fighting. I can’t just sit here and wait for some demon to grab me.”
