by Riley London
The apartment I’d shared with Charlie had felt like my first.
It was kinda’ funny, I guess, how ending up at the Angel Academy felt a lot like moving from one foster home to another, like I’d be starting my life all over again, whether I liked it or not.
I pushed down those feelings, though, as I hopped up on the bar, and used my arms to push myself over onto the other side.
“Whoo!” One of the regulars seated at the bar shouted as I deftly landed on my feet. “You go, girl!”
I gave the patron a quick bow, before I grinned back at her. “Thanks! I’ll be here all night. What can I get for you?”
“Just the tab.” The regular slid her phone across the bar to me. “Oh, and can you call me an Uber, too? I’m way too wasted to figure that app shit out right now.”
“Where do you live?”
“Uh, North Cooper area? Right across from that bakery. The one with the baby cupcakes.”
I swiped my finger along the screen, as I entered her address into the app. “Got it. It’ll be here in five minutes. It’ll cost about ten bucks, too.”
“Five minutes? Good. Just enough time to finish this beer.” She smiled at me, as she took her next sip.
I then turned my attention towards the rest of the bar to see if anyone else needed me.
Nope.
None of the other patrons were looking my way, which meant that I had the all-clear to do something else with my time at the bar, like wash it down or clean out a few glasses.
As I grabbed for the bar rag, out of the corner of my eye I saw Charlie taking a seat.
“Did Garry already get you your White Russian? Or did he want me to make it for you?”
“You look just like your mother.”
“...What?” I leaned across the bar, unsure if I’d heard Charlie right the first time. “What did you just say to me?”
“Forgive me. I never thought I’d get to see you in the flesh.” Charlie’s voice sounded weird, like it was being distorted in his chest. “You are just as beautiful, just as shining.”
“Charlie, what the fuck? Are you alright?” I playfully placed the back of my hand on his forehead. “I know it’s been a stressful day, but you need to chill out a little bit—”
Charlie batted my hand away from him, as he let out a hiss. “Do not touch me! I am not worthy to be touched by your hand. Not yet. I have yet to fulfill my tribute.”
“Charlie, what—” My eyes went wide, as I realized what must’ve been going on.
Bait.
Charlie was supposed to be bait.
Which meant that some demon had fallen for it, hook, line and sinker, and now whatever demonic energy happened to be in this bar had latched onto Charlie’s spirit.
Shit.
I didn’t know something like that could happen so fast.
“What the fuck did you do to Charlie?” I kept my voice low, as I glared back at him. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I serve Abaddon.” Charlie’s eyes seemed to glaze over as he spoke. “The one true Prince of Hell.”
“Get the fuck out of my friend. Now.” I still managed to keep my tone at a whisper, even as anger began to fill my veins.
“Not yet. I have yet to fulfill my tribute.”
“Yeah? And what’s your tribute?”
“Forty bodies.”
“Forty bodies?”
“Yes.” Charlie nodded, as he reached for something inside of his jacket pocket. “You should leave. I do not wish to harm you. At least, not tonight.”
I caught a glimpse of something reflecting back the light of the bar, and I reached out a hand to slam Charlie’s wrist down towards the bar’s wooden surface, keeping his wrist in place and the gun pressed down in front of him.
Shit.
The gun.
There was a gun.
Charlie hadn’t brought a gun.
No one had given him a weapon at the academy, either.
Holy shit.
Was he really going to kill these people?
“Charlie, what the hell are you doing? You’re still in there, aren’t you?” I pleaded. “Please. Don’t make me hurt you.”
“I do what I must, to please Abaddon.”
“No. You don’t have to do this.”
“If you stand in my way, you will become a body, too.” Charlie slipped his wrist away from my hold, as his fingers went towards the weapon again.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
As my lungs filled with panic, I did the first thing that came to my mind. “Gun! Everybody get out of here! He’s got a gun!”
Several of the people at the bar seemed to scream in unison, as they rushed towards the bar’s exit doors. There was a group of college kids near the pool table, who soon followed suit as they noticed the commotion.
“What are you doing?” Charlie growled. “Do you not respect the tribute?”
“No! You can’t just kill people, asshole!” I yelled right back. “These people didn’t do anything to you!”
“Traitor.” Charlie’s eyes glowed a fiery red, as he stood away from the bar. “You will die screaming.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that.” I shifted the sword away from my waist, as I whispered my next word. “Auxilium.”
The sword started to glow gold in my grip, and I felt a jolt of electricity make its way up my skin.
“You speak the angels' tongue.” Charlie took a step backwards. “But how? Those words...the angels ripped them from our mouths.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, buddy, but you need to get the hell out of my friend. Right the fuck now.” I bounded over the bar, with the sword held out in front of me.
I had no idea how to use it, but the demon didn’t know that, right?
When I’d landed on my feet, I kept the same posture, with the sword firmly in place. “You either get out of Charlie, or I make you get out of Charlie.”
The demon then let out a piercing shriek, so awful that it felt like it was driving knives through my eardrums.
Shit.
I dropped the sword on the ground, as my hands went up towards my ears.
I didn’t know what else to do.
There was no way that I could fight that thing, not with it making that noise.
I crumbled towards the floor, as the sound made its way through the filter of my fingers, driving deeper and deeper into my skull.
I then heard what sounded just like gunshots, firing one after another.
And I saw Charlie’s body fall beside my own, his t-shirt filling up with blood.
No.
“Charlie? Charlie!” I grabbed for his frame, as I immediately rolled his shirt up towards his neck, wanting to see the size of the bullet wounds. “Charlie! Shit!”
“Sorry! I’m sorry! You said he had a gun!” It was the female bar regular, and she was holding her own weapon beside her waist. “I’m sorry! I just wanted to slow him down! Is he going to be okay?”
I ignored her question, as my hands raced towards Charlie’s ribcage, not stopping until they reached his sternum.
I needed to hear his heart still beating.
I needed to.
I rested my head against his chest, as one of my hands went towards Charlie’s wrist, taking it into my palm. I figured that my odds of getting some sense of his heart beating would be better if I approached it from two different angles, and so I waited until his body gave me some sort of sign.
But it never did.
“Charlie...” My eyes became blurry from my tears, as I looked down at my best friend. “Charlie. No. Please. Don’t go. Don’t go, Charlie...”
“What the hell happened here?” Zachary asked, as he came upon the scene. “What happened to him?”
“There was some demon inside of him, talking about Abaddon. And I was going to try to get the energy out with my sword, but someone shot him. It’s my fault. I said that he had a gun. I just wanted to get everyone out of the bar, so no one would get hurt but
—” My voice caught in my throat, as tears rolled down my cheek. “I didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry. Charlie, I’m so sorry.”
“No. You did the right thing.” Zachary bent down towards me, as he stared at Charlie’s corpse. “You chose to save a bunch of lives, instead of only saving one.”
“I killed him, Zachary.”
“You made a sacrifice.” Zachary nodded. “That’s what angels are supposed to do. I’m sorry it had to be someone you cared about, Celeste, but this is the way of our world.”
“Fuck your world.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Fuck your world. Fuck your world!” I leaned away from Charlie’s body. “I don’t want anything to do with it.”
“Huh. Well, it’s good to know that you’re not some infiltrator.” Zachary replied. “You’re just some spoiled little girl who isn’t cut out for the academy.”
“I’m not cut out for the academy because I can’t stomach that my best friend is dead?” I laughed, but it came out broken and manic. “What the fuck am I supposed to do right now? Be happy about this shit?”
“No. You’re supposed to learn how to accept it and move on.” Zachary’s words were cold. “People die. It’s what they do. Wait long enough, and you’ll see them on the other side. And, assuming you don’t fuck up too much while you’re here, you might even make it into heaven with them, too.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you? What happened to you?” I wiped tears away from my skin. “How could you say something like that? How could you be so...heartless?”
“My parents were halfies.”
“So? What does that have to do with anything—”
“It made them susceptible to demonic energy. I came home after school one day, and they were both already possessed. But I didn’t know it. They just kept asking me about the names of other kids in my class. They wanted address, phone numbers, everything.” Zachary looked straight into my eyes. “I was a kid. I did what I was told. I didn’t think anything of it, until the first kid went missing. And then, the second. And then, the third.”
“Zachary, what—”
“My parents had been kidnapping them, stealing them from their beds. I found out, thanks to an innocent trip to the basement. I’d gone down there to look for something for a school project, I think I just needed another stick of glue. And that’s when I found all the missing kids. They were alive, sure, but they were never the same. It’s hard to come back from a thing like that.” Zachary shook his head. “But when I told my parents about all the kiddos I’d let go from the basement, they came at me with kitchen knives.”
“What did you do?” My question came out underneath my breath.
“I did what I had to do.” Zachary’s gaze turned to ice. “I did whatever it took to survive.”
Holy shit.
Zachary had told me that his parents died, but I never would’ve thought that he was the one who’d killed them.
Oh God.
Oh my God.
“Zachary. I’m so sorry. That must’ve been so awful for you to—”
Zachary held up his hand, as if he was calling off the conversation. “If I’d never done that, I never would’ve lived with my aunt, and I never would’ve found out what I really was.”
“So, what? You’re happy you killed your parents, then?”
“No, but I don’t regret the sacrifice. It’s what brought me here.” Zachary peered back down at Charlie’s body. “And it made me so much stronger, just like this will make you stronger, too.”
“You don’t have to be in pain to make you—” I had to stop talking, as my tears choked me up again. “It shouldn’t have to be like this.”
“But it is.” Zachary rose up to his feet. “It is, Celeste, and you can either accept that or you can run.”
I didn’t know what else to say, as my shoulders began to heave with emotion.
I couldn’t do this.
I couldn’t handle this.
I knew from the very beginning that I wasn’t cut out for the Angel Academy, and this just proved it.
Losing Charlie like this was going to ruin me, forever.
“I’m so sorry, Charlie. I’m so sorry...” I apologized in a whisper, as I ran my fingers along his cheek. “You should’ve gone home. You should’ve—”
I screamed, as I felt Charlie’s body rumble underneath my fingertips.
What the fuck?
His limbs began to twitch and jerk, as his torso convulsed, pushing away from the floor in what looked like a steady rhythm.
“Charlie? Charlie!” I called out, even though I had a feeling that he couldn’t hear me. “Charlie!”
The convulsions eventually stopped, as his body plopped back down onto the ground.
And then, his eyes flew wide open.
I checked their color, as soon as his eyelids cracked.
Brown.
That same, beautiful brown that once made my heart skip a beat.
Charlie had come back to me, with no trace of that awful demon in sight.
“What happened?” Charlie groaned, as he sat up on his palms. “Fuck. It feels like somebody kicked me right in the chest.”
“What the hell?” Zachary eyed Charlie with suspicion. “You were shot. Multiple times. How the hell are you still alive?”
“I’m just lucky, I guess?” Charlie answered Zachary’s question with a question of his own.
“Charlie! You came back! You came back!” My tears continued to flow, although this time they were coming from a much happier place. I pulled Charlie into my arms, as I nearly jumped into his lap. “Oh, God. Thank God. I thought you were dead. I thought you were gone.”
“Nah. Not yet.” Charlie shrugged. “Hey, did we catch the demon?”
I moved away from Charlie, with a big grin plastered all over my face. “You don’t remember anything, do you?”
“The perimeter is all clea—What happened in here?” Benjamin asked, as he walked up to where we were seated on the floor. “What happened to all the people? Did the bar close early or something?”
“Charlie got possessed, and then he got shot. But he didn’t die.” Zachary pointed towards Charlie on the ground. “No idea why not.”
“Huh.” Benjamin tilted his head to the side. “How interesting. We should get back to the academy, then. Update everyone on what we’ve discovered. Celeste?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you have direct contact with the demonic energy?”
“Yes.” I nodded, before loudly sniffling.
“Then that’s all we need. Let’s go.”
Chapter 5
“He said he served a demon named ‘Abaddon’?” Mrs. Deveraux stared over at me from across her office desk.
“Yeah.” It was still pitch-black outside, but Benjamin had insisted that we meet with her as soon as we got back to the academy. “The one, true Prince of Hell.”
Mrs. Deveraux sighed, as she shuffled through some papers that sat in front of her. “Fanatics. Still cultists, even after all this time.”
“Fanatics?”
“Yes, Ms. Venoix, true fanatics, indeed. You’ll discover over time the different kinds of demons and their energy, but the ones that claim to follow the true Prince of Hell seem to be the most annoying of all.” She sighed, yet again. “There is no true Prince of Hell, just as there is no true Scotsman. There are only Lucifer and Lilith, king and queen, ruling Hell side by side for all foreseeable eternity.”
“Who’s Lilith?” I leaned towards Mrs. Deveraux’s desk. “I’ve never heard of her before.”
“Hmm. Well, that is the one of the downsides of coming into your freshman year so late in the semester.” Mrs. Deveraux smiled. “Lilith was Adam’s first wife.”
“Adam had a first wife?” Charlie hummed right beside me. “Learn something new every day.”
“Yes, well, there’s a reason she’s not so often discussed in human circles. Your kind have done a good job of scrubbing the history of
her filth from existence, outside of Jewish mythology, of course.” Mrs. Deveraux continued. “She was God’s first demon, although he did not know it when he created her alongside Adam. For reasons unknown to any of us, she thoroughly refused to obey the man that God had created her for, and once Lucifer caught sight of her in the Garden...well...that was that.”
“Lucifer fell in love? With Lilith?” I asked.
“Love is too weak of a word for what they share.” Mrs. Deveraux paused. “It’s obsessive. It’s toxic. It’s dangerous to any of those who get too close. They’re wicked, wicked soulmates. The most awful pair.”
“Which is why they’ve been together for so long.” Zachary smirked. “If they were good for each other, they probably would’ve broken up the month after they met.”
“Wouldn’t that have been a blessing?” Mrs. Deveraux returned Zachary’s expression, before she looked back over at me. “Ms. Venoix, did the demon say anything else while he possessed your friend? Anything that we might find useful?”
“Yeah.” I thought over my words, as I slightly adjusted in my seat. “He told me that I looked just like my mother.”
“Hmm. Typical, provocative demon talk. Maybe when he was inside of Charlie, he was able to access his memories, find out some information that would’ve thrown you off your mission.” Mrs. Deveraux shrugged. “He wouldn’t be the first demon to play mind games.”
Yeah, but it sounded like he meant it as a compliment.
I kept the rest of my thoughts to myself, as I nodded in agreement with Mrs. Deveraux. “Yeah. I think you’re right. He was probably just messing with me.”
“I’m quite happy that all of you were able to come out of this unscathed, especially you, Charlie Collins.” Mrs. Deveraux moved the papers around on her desk, once more. “I was worried that you tagging along on a night like this may have had deadly consequences for you.”
“Nope. Totally fine.” Charlie replied, and I noticed that his hand was shaking.
Nerves.
He didn’t want Mrs. Deveraux to know about his little slip into the afterlife.
I then shot a look over at Benjamin, who quietly stood in the corner of the room. I was waiting for him to say something in response to Mrs. Deveraux, waiting for him to spill the beans about what happened with Charlie.
