I approached the huge steps to Lust. They seemed more monumental from the top. I didn’t want to go down them. I could only imagine what Asmodeus would do to me if he found out that I was sneaking back into his realm. On one of our first encounters he did torch one of his personal guards. If he was willing to do that to one of his own, I could only imagine what he would do to me. The guard was an Elohim after all, so I knew that as soft as Asmodeus was, he was still a force to be reckoned with.
I stepped down and when my foot touched the first step, I paused. I was listening for anything that would sound like a demon approaching me. I didn’t want to get caught. I wasn’t worried about the upcoming fight. I had a weapon and Trevor most likely did not. I beat Ferrum, so this man didn’t pose a threat in my mind, but I was, however, worried about Asmodeus. I knew that no sword would best him as easily as it did Ferrum. I couldn’t take any chances.
I took another step and paused again. Still nothing, so I continued. The internal pain lightened as I ventured down the steps. The sinful baggage I was carrying was lessened as I approached Lust. I remembered what my father had told me about the way sin works in Hell. I figured that I was moving away from the realm of sin that had cast me in this underworld I was in.
Finally I was in a familiar, however unwelcoming, place. I needed to find this Trevor person as quickly as I could. I knew that if I tarried to long, Asmodeus would find me and want to “talk” about what I was doing there. I headed for the nearest building. Stuart had said that the lived on the outskirts, so I thought it was a likely place to check. I approached the rear of the building. It was stone, so I had no idea if there was anyone inside, but I had a feeling I was on the right track. I walked around the side of the building. There was no door, so I looked inside. There was a man sitting in the middle of the floor with his legs crossed in a pool of blood. He had brown hair and lacerations. He was a pretty big guy. His eyes were closed so I approached staying as quiet as I could.
When I was in striking distance from him, I asked, “Are you Trevor.”
Before answering, he swung his legs and knocked me to the ground. “Who are you, stranger?” he asked.
I rolled back and sprung to my feet. He was already upon me.
“Answer the question!” he demanded.
“My name doesn’t matter,” I responded.
“Then what are you doing here? And why do you have that weapon?”
“This weapon?” I asked.
“Yes, that weapon.”
“I have it to strike at you.”
“Wrong answer.” He punched me in the stomach and I cringed back and my head flew forward and down to meet his other fist as it came up. I flew backwards and hit the wall.
“Wait!” I screamed.
“Do you have something you want to tell me?” he asked.
“No, I just wanted to snap my fingers.” I did and I reappeared behind him. I brought the sword down across his back and he flew forward in pain. He spun around and charged me again. I parried with my sword at my side. I let his momentum do the work and he dragged across the blade, opening his arm. He fell to the ground and started coughing and wriggling in pain.
I walked over to him, feeling, once more, victorious. As I neared him, though, he grabbed my leg and pulled it from under me. I fell to the ground and he jumped on top of me. He started pummeling my face screaming, “You will not take me! I will not let you do what they have not!”
I snapped my fingers again and appeared at his door.
“Stop doing that!” he yelled.”
He charged me once again. I held my sword at my side. As he approached me, he leapt into the air. Instinct took over and I held my sword firmly in front of me, pointed at him. He fell upon it, and his eyes opened wide as the sword entered his chest.
“Why…?” he asked.
“I’m sorry…” I said. I was shocked. I didn’t expect this to happen. I didn’t want this to happen. I just wanted to do as I was told and rough him up. I didn’t mean for him to die. I didn’t want him to die. I wanted him to live. I wanted to get this done with and never see him again. I wanted to grant him mercy. He slid down the sword and let out a final breath. It was official, I was a killer. I pulled the sword from his body and turned.
There were a few people standing around outside the door. They were all watching, some in horror, some in support. I didn’t know what to do.
“I didn’t mean to kill him! You saw it! He jumped on my blade.”
“I can’t believe you did that…! You killed him…! What a monster… Get him!” they said.
I ran to the unseen corner of the building and snapped my fingers to go to Callista’s home in Gluttony. I didn’t know where else to go, and I had to think quickly. It seemed like a safe place to go.
When I arrived I immediately started for the door, but I was tackled before I made it.
“Get off!” I yelled. I pushed up with my arm and knocked my assailant over. I flipped to my back and before me I saw Callista standing with a smile on her face.
“Welcome back, Jon,” she said. “I didn’t expect to see you again for some time.”
I turned my head to see her goon getting up and ready for the next attack. “Will you call him off, already?” I asked. She waved her hand and he unclenched his fist and walked to the back part of the house.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “And how did you get in?”
“I needed to get someplace safe and fast.”
“What? What’s going on?”
I had to think for a minute. I trusted Stuart and he ended up betraying me. I knew a little more about Callista, but not all that much. “I don’t know if I should tell you or not.”
“Why not? You can trust me.”
“I’ve heard that before. The last time I trusted someone I ended up being worse for wear.”
“Look, Jon, you are in my home. If you’d like I can always call him over again. And why do you have a sword? Is that blood?”
“Okay, fine. I found this sword and it was covered in blood. There were some people and when they saw me holding it, they started chasing me.”
“I don’t believe you, Jon. You know, when you lie, you raise your eyebrows like you’re astonished.”
I laughed. “Do I?”
“Yes, you do.” She walked over and put her hand on my shoulder. “Now come on, Jon, tell me the truth, friend to friend.”
‘Did she just refer to me as a friend?’ I thought. ‘I guess I was right.’ “Maybe you’re right. I will trust you for now.”
“Good,” she said with a smile and jump. “So, what happened? And don’t lie. Remember, I can tell.”
“Okay, the truth is, I had to go back to Lust. I had to get out of there before Asmodeus caught me.”
“Yeah that would be bad if he did. He would probably torture you.”
“Exactly, so you can imagine why I wanted to get here so quickly.”
“Okay, so that explains that, but how did you get in? I didn’t even here the door open.”
“That’s just a trick I picked up along the way.” I wasn’t lying to her, it was a trick, and I did pick it up.
“Okay, so what about the sword?”
I paused. “I don’t know if I want to talk about that.”
“Why not?”
“Because, I just don’t, okay?!” I really didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to accept that I had ended someone’s life. It might have been in self-defense, and it might have been just a job, and it might have been a man that was already condemned to be in Hell, but that didn’t make it any easier. I couldn’t accept that he was dead or that I was the one that had killed him; a man that was basically a complete stranger to me. I did, however, take comfort in the fact that I wouldn’t have to deal with Stuart or his annoying voice, anymore.
“Fine, have it your way. I guess you can stay here as long as you need to.”
“I really appreciate that, Callista. I’m glad we ended up being fr
iends.”
“Me too!” she said with an excited high pitch.
“So what happened to you?”
“What do you mean?”
“The last time I was here, I ended up falling asleep and when I woke, you were gone.”
“OH! I got bored of watching you sleep so, I left.”
“You didn’t sleep?”
“No. I haven’t slept in years.”
“What? I can’t help but sleep sometimes. How do you just not sleep?”
“I’m not sure. One day, I just didn’t sleep anymore. I don’t think I really noticed it. It was a relief, though; I used to have such bad nightmares.”
“Yeah, I know. You have to remember how you did it. I can’t take it anymore.”
“I really don’t know what happened. After I started working with Asmodeus, I just kind of stopped sleeping. I didn’t complain about it, so I didn’t notice it, either. I was so busy, that I guess I just got used to not sleeping and I just stopped.”
I didn’t understand. “That’s strange. I’ve been busy, and I still end up going to sleep, no matter how much I don’t want to. No matter how much I don’t want to have another nightmare.”
“Don’t worry about it, Jon. Most of the people here sleep. It just happens. Nothing you can do about it. Maybe it just goes away after a while.”
“Maybe.” I didn’t believe that such a harsh punishment would just disappear on its own. We were in Hell after all. I decided to sit down and rest for a little while. Besides, if Asmodeus was looking for me, I thought it would be best to hide out, at least for a little while. I did have things to do.
“So what are you going to do now?” Callista asked.
“I have some business to take care of,” I responded.
“Need some help?”
“I don’t think so. I think I need to just do this stuff myself.”
“Have it your way then. You know, I’m pretty good in a pinch. I might be able to help you.”
“I really appreciate it, Callista, but I think I need to do this by myself.”
“Okay. What do you have to do anyway? And don’t just say “business”.”
I laughed. “Okay then, I guess I will tell you. I just need to return this sword to the owner and I need to talk to a friend…I mean I need to talk to a man.”
“Wait, what do you mean?”
“About what?”
“You know what about. You said “friend” and then you changed it to “man”. What is that about?”
“Well I thought he was my friend. He ended up not being one, though.”
“Oh, I see. Is that what the sword is about?”
“In a way. Hang on; I thought I told you that I didn’t want to talk about it?”
“Can’t blame a girl for trying to get it out of you.”
I laughed. “Yeah, I guess not. You sure are a curious one.”
“Yup!” she said as she smiled and leaned back on the bench next to me.
I still wasn’t sure what to think about Callista. She seemed genuine, but at the same time, Stuart did, too. She seemed like a nice person, but first impression last for a while, and I couldn’t forget ours. I wasn’t ready to completely shut the trust off, so I thought I could stand to at least give her a chance.
“So, when do you think you are going to leave?”
“Here in a minute or two.”
“Aww, that’s too soon!”
“Is it?”
“Yeah it is. I haven’t seen you in a few days.”
“A few days? What are you talking about? It’s only been a day tops.”
“No, I haven’t been back here in almost a week. I went to Greed for a few days.”
“How is that possible? I saw you before I went to sleep and then when I woke up, I went off on my little mission.”
“Well that’s why. When you sleep, you sleep for a long time. It isn’t like on Earth. You don’t just get your eight winks and be done with it.”
“Oh. I didn’t know that.”
“Well, now you do!”
“That means I need to get moving soon.”
“All right, I guess you can go, but you have to promise to come back!”
“Why?”
“No reason. I just like having company.”
“Umm, okay. What about your guards?”
“I can’t really hold a conversation with them. They bore me. And besides, they are just here to protect me.”
“Yeah, I guess so. Are you going to be here?”
“Yup! I’ll wait right here for you.”
“Okay then, I promise to try and come back.”
“I’ll take it! I’ll see you soon.”
And with that, I was off. I headed back to Terentu to inform Stuart about what had happened.
When I got there, everything was as I left it. I walked over to Stuart’s building and knocked. He answered the door with a smile on his face.
“Hey, Jonny. Did you get it done?”
“Yeah, and then some.”
“What do you mean? What happened?”
“Well I went there and I approached him, he freaked and started attacking me. Eventually it ended with him dying on my sword. It was an accident.”
“Well that’s not good at all. I didn’t want you to kill him. In fact, I remember telling you just to rough him up a bit. Why did you do that?”
“I didn’t mean to. It just kind of happened.”
“There are no accidents! You did this on purpose!” He started marching towards me.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” I said, twirling the blade in my hand.
“Maybe you are right, for now. There will come a time, Jonny, when you don’t have that sword. I’ll be watching you. You didn’t do what I told you to, so we are not even. If you do another job for me, then I might see my way to forgiving you.”
“Absolutely not! I did what you wanted. I even killed a man, for you. I will not doing anything else! Now I have things to do. I‘m leaving.”
“Then we are at an impasse. We will meet again, Jonny. Perhaps it will be on good terms.”
I didn’t respond, I just left. I headed for Malphalgor to return the sword to Ferrum. When I looked down I realized that it was still covered in blood. I didn’t want to return it to him like that. For that matter, I didn’t want to keep walking around with a blood covered sword at my side. I didn’t want any more attention than I was already getting. I walked up to a small crowd of people. As I passed, I brushed the sword against someone’s clothes to wipe it off. I didn’t want their attention either, and I figured that would be an easy way to do it.
I walked off and just as I thought I had gone unnoticed a voice came from behind, “Stop.”
I didn’t obey. I didn’t even break my gate. I just acted like I didn’t hear them.
“Stop,” the voice said again. It was odd though, because the voice sounded like it was coming from the same distance as before. So I stopped and turned to see Marcus.
“What do you want, Marcus?” I asked.
“Why did you kill that man, Jonathon Cowley?” he asked.
“I didn’t mean to. He jumped on my sword.”
“So you would blame the man that fell on the sword and not the man that was holding the sword. You don’t really believe that, Jonathon Cowley.”
“It doesn’t matter what I believe.”
“Yes it does. It always matters. Your beliefs are what separate you from everyone else. You believe in life, and yet, that belief didn’t even cross your mind until you had already taken one.”
“I didn’t have time to think.”
“I think you did. You have descended to the ranks of the rest of the hell-spawn that surround you.”
“No I haven’t! I am not like them!”
“No, you aren’t. You are worse. You chose to be like them, even after I told you there was a way out.”
“What way out!? Why don’t you just say what you mean? For that matter, why are you e
ven following me!?”
“The way out has shut for you already. I do say what I mean. You are the one that does not comprehend what I am saying. That cannot be considered my doing. And I am not following you. You are alone in the dark. I just happen to cross paths with you more often than once. Goodbye Jonathon Cowley. I will see you again.”
He ran off again. I didn’t try to follow him.
‘Why is he doing this?’ I asked myself. ‘Why won’t he just leave me alone? Can’t he have something better to do than to follow me around all day? And, I don’t care what he says, he is following me. That’s the only way he could possibly know what’s going on. I really didn’t mean to kill Trevor, and I already promised myself to stop. It was an accident, nothing more. I am not a killer!’
I started running towards Malphalgor. I was pretty angry about the whole situation and I just wanted to get it done with. I wanted to start working for my ultimate goal again. I wanted to get back with my wife and my life and be done with this horrible nightmare known as Hell.
I made it to Ferrum in no time. I didn’t stop for anything or anyone. I ran into a few people that were too slow to get out of my way, but I didn’t do more than knock them down. I didn’t think I harmed anyone, too bad. I could have just teleported there, but I decided that I didn’t want to use Asmodeus’ “gifts” any more than I had to. The only thing I had found them good for was cheating in fights, and since I wasn’t going to do that anymore, I wouldn’t have too much need for it. I didn’t want to end up like the rest of the malcontents surrounding me. I wanted to heed Marcus’ advice, even if I did think it was ludicrous.
Hellbound: Chronicles Page 16