Hellhound: Prince of Fire

by Volley, Rue

  I placed my fingers to the rolling water in the center of the ring and felt it was cold to the touch. I took a breath, a true one and held it in my lungs as I stepped through shedding all of my fear, every bit of it. Because that is what truly being human is all about. It is being fearless when you least expect to be.

  I stepped into the road as I saw fighting all around me. I looked up and saw the blood red moon, black creatures raced back and forth across its surface and then I turned as I saw him, Gunner, fighting Tercia as she fell on her back before him. I saw Jet jump down from a large black dragon and pull his sword as he ran towards Gunner. My heart beat sped up as Gunner did not see him, but Jack did. He picked up hiss sword and started to run towards Jet. I ran towards them, holding the front of my dress up, my feet being cut my small shards of road and not caring, not one bit. That pain was so minimal compared to my love for Gunner, for Jet, and for all things. I had my humanity restored and it brought with it my compassion, true compassion and that is a gift that neither God nor Lucifer would ever be able to duplicate or steal from us. They could not understand it, how could they? They came to merely survive and they remain because without us they will die. I knew everything now, everything I needed to know.

  I ran up in between Jack and Jet just as he was about to reach Gunner and I turned. Jack continued to rush forward and in a blink of an eye his blade sliced through my stomach and severed my spinal cord. The gift was that it immediately killed the pain and I stood, my hands trembling as I grabbed the blade and I could hear Gunner scream as Jack pulled it out of me. I stood for a moment as another black dragon rose before us and Lucifer sat upon its back, his expression one of anguish as he saw me standing there in the red dress. I held my stomach as the blood started to roll over my fingers. I started to fall only to feel Gunner catch me before I hit the ground. He looked down on me as Jack backed away and Finna stopped fighting as did Ari. The battle slowed all around as did the time. My eyes felt heavy but remained on Gunners as the tears rolled down his cheeks and he touched my face.

  “Halo, please…please stay with me.”

  I smiled and reached up to touch his face as my body started to get colder and colder and then a black dragon landed behind us as Lucifer jumped down and ran towards us. He stopped as he saw me laying there, his chest feeling heavy and strange for the first time in his existence. He looked at Jet and then back to me.

  “Was this your intention? To kill the only thing I have ever truly loved, to strip me bare?” Gunner said as he slowly looked up to Lucifer.

  “Mother?” Jet said as I looked at him and my vision blurred.

  “Jet?” I said as he stepped towards us and Ari and Finna both put their axes to his throat from each side.

  Gunner looked up at him as Jets eyes became as glossy as his own and tears ran down his cheeks. Gunner waved them off and Jet lowered to one knee and looked at me and then to the wound on my stomach.

  “I forgive you for leaving me,” he said to me and I smiled as his words settled my soul.

  “I did not leave you, I would never leave you,” I said to him as he narrowed his eyes and looked past us to Lucifer. He stood up and started to walk towards him with his blade drawn.

  “You said she left us.”

  “She…she did.”

  “You took her from me, didn’t you?”

  Lucifer looked up at him as his eyes looked as if they were filled with sorrow.

  Jet stared at him and then screamed.

  “Draw your sword and fight me!”

  Lucifer looked upward and a black dragon swooped down, he caught its wing and jumped onto its back rising into the air and looking down on me as I lay there, my red dress spread out like a river of blood around me. He then looked upward as he saw his brother descending from the sky and cried out as the angels descended and started to fight every demon back to the hole that had formed in the earth. Lucifer was last to retreat into the hole as God rose above it, his black wings spread wide and he held his hands out in front of him. He closed his eyes and a bright flash of light started to come from his hands as he sealed the hole up and prevented the demons from rising again. He then started to descend to the earth and landed one foot after the other. His wings started to grow smaller and they were gone before he reached us. He stopped and then knelt down to one knee as he looked at me.

  “She is dying.”

  He then rose and turned to Jet. He stopped and looked him over and then stepped up to him and touched his face. Jet closed his eyes and God grinned as he turned back towards us. Jet walked towards us and knelt down next to me as I reached up and touched his face. He placed his hand over mine and then looked at Gunner.

  “If you are going to destroy us then I would ask that you do it quickly and allow her to feel no pain.”

  Jet shook his head ‘no’ as God stepped up to us and Gunner looked up at him.

  “He is your son, not Lucifer’s. I would guess that my brother knew all along and deceived Halo only to appear as if he was the Father of her child. She was already with child when she entered Hell. This is why you received no replacement. Jet is the 5th Hellhound.”

  Gunner looked at Jet and tears filled his eyes as they both looked down at me. I felt tired, but happy as I looked up at Gunner and his son, my son…the best gift I could have given to this world, the gift of life. It was then that my heart slowed and my eyes closed as peace started to rest inside of me, a peace I had never known before and one that could only be that of salvation.

  ****

  I woke in a soft bed, bright room, smell of flowers all around me. I reached up and felt the sunlight coming in through the window on my skin. The warmth told me two things; I was no longer a vampire, but human, as I had suspected. Then I sat up quickly and looked around the room as I remembered dying. The sweet embrace of it bringing me here I would guess, but what is ‘here’ and had I only left one place to be imprisoned in another since I now knew what God and Lucifer, as well as all of the angels and demons really were? I sat on the edge of the bed and touched my stomach. The wound was now gone, no trace of the cut the sword had inflicted upon me. I stepped onto the cold floor and flinched as the stone beneath my feet caused a wave of tension to crawl up my muscles. I had missed that, I had truly missed all of the normal sensations of being human. The appreciation of what I had lost not becoming clear until this moment. I actually loved this, the sensations, the smells, the gift of life itself and knowing it would not be forever.

  I walked to the window and closed my eyes before I reached it. I feared I would look out and see rolling lakes of fire. I barely opened my eyes and smiled as I saw it. It was nothing but blue sky and rolling fields of green. I grinned and touched the window. It was warm as the sun lit it up. I turned and ran to the door, opening it up and running out into the long hallway. I made my way around the corner and down the stairs, all of it familiar, the mansion I had come to call my home. Only now, it was filled with light and everything looked new. It had mended itself, almost as it appeared that the world had also done the same.

  I raced to the front door and swung it open, the breeze hitting me and making my red hair fly up and behind me. I smiled as I took a deep breath and smelled the grass, the flowers and the clean air. I stepped out and looked everywhere, but I saw no one and for a moment. I felt sadness. Was this heaven for me? Perhaps a gift, one that would be perfect if I had anyone I loved with me. I looked down and then heard laughter in the distance. I ran down the steps and away from the mansion, out into the field and kept going until I could hear rolling water. I slowed as I saw figures up ahead. I shielded my eyes with my hand as the sun beat down on me. It made things look out of focus, but as I saw a hand rise up in the distance and wave at me I started to run. I saw Gunner. Just the sight of him filled me with more joy that I can really explain. He turned and started to run towards me and I almost stumbled and fell as I continued on, so happy to see him and wanting so badly for it to be true. I stopped as he did and he looked me over.<
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  “Halo,” he whispered. I looked behind him and saw Jet and Ari as well as Finna. I ran to him and jumped into his arms. His lips pressed against mine and although this is all a dream, his taste was the sweetest I had ever had. He lowered me as he continued to kiss my lips, going from sweet to passionate. I touched his face as tears ran down my cheeks and I was surprised as he cried too. He held my sides and I hugged him as he held me and touched my hair. I closed my eyes.

  “I could live in this dream forever. “ I whispered.

  “It is no dream.” I turned as Gunner held me and I saw Dorin walking towards us. I tilted my head and then grinned as I left Gunner and ran to him, almost knocking him down as I hugged him. I stopped and stepped back to look at him. He felt warm. He looked as if he had color in his flesh.

  “I can’t believe it, but wait.” I stopped and looked back at everyone.

  “Did we all die?”

  “No,” Dorin said as I turned to look at him.

  “This is the world now, they are gone.”

  “What?”

  “Yes,” Gunner said as he stepped up behind me and I turned to face him.

  “There is no Heaven and no Hell, it is just this planet and the humans on it.”

  I turned back and touched Dorin’s face to feel his warmth.

  “You are not a vampire?”

  “No,” he said as he touched my hand.

  “But how?”

  “It was a gift, from them. They are leaving us as they found us, mortal and flawed.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you showed them the beauty of what we truly are to each other, you showed them love and sacrifice. You broke the curse when you achieved salvation,” Gunner said as we all looked towards the sky.

  I stared up at the sun, feeling it’s warmth on my face and knowing it was that small ball of fire that held us in place in a vast universe of the unknown. I also knew that no matter how dark things became, it was a constant that fed us life. I watched as golden streaks raced across the sky as each angel left us. Knowing it may be a gift from God and perhaps even Lucifer himself. Would they ever return? I could not say. Perhaps one day Hellhounds will once again be needed, and we will be here…the human race, ready to defend in one evolved form or another…

  The End