It was quite easy to disappear from the ballroom. As a waiter, nobody cared one way or the other where Paul was and who he was, as long as they were having their share of food. And this place was filled with all sorts of foods. No, Paul knew he wouldn’t be missed. However, the same couldn’t be said about Mandy. Though Paul wanted nothing more than to take her away, he couldn’t, not as a human. The irony struck him at that moment, and if he were in better spirits, he might have smiled at it. Satan would surely know if his wife was missing for more than the appropriate time, so Paul desperately needed to ensure that Mandy was returned in only a few short minutes.
Paul entered the first room on his right and left the door slightly ajar, in hopes that Mandy would recognize that this was where he wanted to see her. It appeared to be bigger than a closet, but still some sort of storage room, with towels and blankets piled high onto the white shelves.
It felt like forever, waiting for Mandy to walk through the door. Paul couldn’t even stick his head out of the room to see if she was coming at all because someone might see him and recognize him. Instead, he paced as long as he was allowed to, which was six strides before he had to turn around and go six strides back. Although, Paul had to admit that for a storage room, it was quite roomy.
In reality, Mandy walked in only a few minutes later, her eyes filled with worry but her jaw locked into place, determined to see him. Despite the fact that Paul had only allowed himself a few minutes before saying goodbye to Mandy, the first thing he did once Mandy was securely inside and the door had closed behind her was to envelope her into his arms and kiss her lips as passionately as he could. Her taste filled him with such a longing, and she, herself, was matching him with her own desires as well.
When they broke apart in order to breathe, Paul noticed that Mandy’s eyes were filled with unshed tears. He reached out, placing both hands on her cheeks, and said nothing. His eyes, however, spoke for him, and for a moment, the two didn’t speak. It was perfectly acceptable – even wanted – to be with the other, no talking necessary.
But that couldn’t go on forever. Mandy had to say something, and when she did, she forced her eyes back into Paul’s once more. “What are you doing here?” she asked softly, trying to figure it out simply by reading his pale blue irises. “You shouldn’t be here, Paul.”
Paul knew that she was right. He dropped his hands so they rested on her shoulders, hoping she would understand what he was about to say. “I shouldn’t be here,” he agreed, “but I don’t give two shits whether I should be here, there, wherever. You shouldn’t be here Amanda.” He furrowed his brow. “Why did you do this? Why are you here? We would have figured something out.”
“I didn’t want to take that risk, Paul,” she told him. Though she wanted nothing more than to look away from him, she couldn’t bring herself to. She was captivated by his eyes, and they were killing her quite slowly because she knew that sooner or later, he would have to leave and move on with his life while she… while she stayed here, without him. “I remember having a conversation with you a while ago and I remember” – she smiled - “I remember how badly you wanted to be mortal, to be a human and to feel what it’s like to be human. And I wanted you to have that.”
“I would much rather have you!” he exclaimed, though his soft-spoken voice masked the loudness it might have inflicted. He clenched his teeth together before forcing his tense body to relax. “I love you. I don’t want you to be with him. I want you to be with me.”
“You could honestly say you wouldn’t do the same if the roles were reversed?” Mandy asked skeptically, but her tone lacked the defensiveness that usually accompanied it. A beat went by; they both knew that he would do the same for her, even now. He would sacrifice himself as long as she was safe. “And,” she continued quickly, “it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. There’s no going back.”
“We could have made it work,” Paul said firmly, his eyes shifting back into Mandy’s. “We could have made it work somehow.”
“Really?” Mandy asked, her brow furrowed, her voice frustrated. “And please, tell me how that would work. We would never feel safe, Paul. We would never live any sort of normal life. We’d always be on the run. We couldn’t make friends because they’d just be used against us.”
“You think you live a normal life now?” Paul asked, looking at Mandy as though she was daft.
“I can deal with this,” Mandy said. The tears in her eyes had reappeared, and she had to bite the inside of her bottom lip to keep them at bay. She would not cry.
“See, you think you can now,” Paul told her, taking a step towards her, “but you have no idea what He is really like. He’s cruel and unforgiving. He’s abusive and yet, He’ll win you over with His heartless promises and pleading eyes. I’ve seen it happen too many times. When the two of you make love, it will solely be for His benefit and not yours. You’ll be nothing more to Him than wife in name and body, but not in heart.” He placed his own hand over his heart. “But, Amanda, you live in mine. And you always will. I can’t let you go through with this.”
“It’s already done, Paul,” Mandy said, and this time, a tear freely eclipsed her face. “To be honest, He doesn’t mention you except to say that He wants me to love Him the way I love you. But other than that… it’s always been me He’s wanted. You were just an end to His means, and I… Well, He has me and you’re safe. I mean, you’re not safe now because you’re being ridiculous. Because you think you can just walk in here and -”
Before Mandy could finish her frustrated tirade, Paul reached out and pulled her towards her, crushing his lips onto hers. He just wanted to kiss her, to forget their reality. “And what did you say?” he asked her when he broke apart with her. “When He told you that, what did you tell Him in return?”
“Never,” she whispered in such a soft voice, Paul had to strain to her it. “I told Him that would never happen.”
“I’m sure that upset Him,” Paul said, tilting his head downwards and leaning it against hers. He knew that he would have to let her go sooner rather than later, and he really didn’t want to do that, not when she felt so good in his arms.
“I think He was amused,” Mandy said with a sardonic smile. “He said that my love for you would fade, but I told Him that was impossible because love – our love – was immortal, even if we aren’t.”
“Mandy, you can’t go back to Him,” Paul said, feeling his grip on her tighten. “I can’t – I won’t – let you go. I would rather live a life of hiding and running than have to live without you.”
“You say that because you’ve never –“
“Don’t finish that sentence,” Paul said firmly, placing his fingers over her lips. “Even when I was a fallen angel, even when I was immortal, you made me feel alive. You still do. Feel this.” He grabbed Mandy’s hand and placed it over his heart. “This beats for you.”
Mandy opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, the door burst open, and there was Satan Himself. He didn’t seem surprised to Paul standing there. In fact, He looked as though He expected it. Paul didn’t even think twice; he pushed Mandy behind him and levelly matched Satan’s stare with his own.
“Well, well, well,” Satan said. “I can’t say that I’m surprised.” He nodded at His guards that had accompanied Him. “Take him to the dungeon.”
Twenty-Six
Satan was not a happy camper. Not when He threw open the closet door and saw his new wife locked in an intimate embrace with one of His own – Paul, the demon, the demon He created in order to get the human wife He had needed to complete His plan. Mandy was always supposed to be His, the King, the Ruler, the Creator, not some demon’s. And yet here she was, admitting her love for Paul and refusing to even acknowledge the possibility that she might fall in love for Him.
Satan relished in Mandy’s utter look of fear when she saw Him, and her face paled even more than He had thought possible when He had ordered His guards to take Paul to the dungeons. Just t
o further her suspense, Satan decided to follow the guards who currently had a hold of one of His own demons. In fact, Satan had wanted to talk to him anyways. There were too many questions He needed answered before He fully understood Paul’s betrayal. And for the life of Him, the Creator truly did not understand Paul’s reasoning behind the entire thing.
Surely love wasn’t truly the motivation behind it?
When Paul was locked in the dungeons well below the ground of Satan’s castle, Satan dismissed His guards, telling them to be in the strategy room because He would need to speak to them soon. Once they were gone, the Creator turned back to look at Paul. He had to give it over to the demon; despite his recent-found mortality, Paul didn’t appear to be intimidated by Him in any way. He meet His cool stare with those pale blue eyes, and… Well, upon becoming human, Paul had lost those beautiful wings Satan had given him. It was very disappointing.
“You were,” Satan began, slipping His hands loosely in the pockets of His slacks as He regarded the man before Him, “the best, quite frankly. Out of all the demons I had created, I had brought to life, you were one of my favorites. A pride and joy, I guess you could say. I took My time with you because… Well, because I had to. You would be the sole demon who I wanted to get My wife. That was your only job, and yet, in My mind, it was the most important. Once I had her, you see, I would be invincible. And you would have been rewarded handsomely. You would have taken Griffin’s place as My right hand. I felt as though… You were like the son I never wanted, Paul. You had such potential.
“When you showed Me Mandy, the girl, I was smitten. Well, not smitten as humans know the word, but I knew that because she was aesthetically pleasing, it wouldn’t be a burden to fuck her. She was also pure, maybe not to the full extent, but she had this naiveté, this innocence, that only made her more alluring. And then you told Me what she was capable of. Well, I knew she was the one. She was the one I had been looking for in order to corrupt humanity – a humanity you are now part of.”
Paul said nothing, but when his Creator began talking about Mandy, he couldn’t help but clench his jaw in order to refrain from saying something that could get Mandy hurt. He knew Satan, and he knew that Satan was not above using Mandy to get to Paul, and, most likely, vice versa.
“You were the best, Paul,” Satan said after a long moment, studying what would have been His prodigy had things turned out differently. “I expected a lot from you only because I knew that you wouldn’t let Me down.” This time, Satan’s cool patience failed and He glared at Paul with fiery eyes. “And what caused your downfall? A woman. Love. Love made you weak. Love was your destruction, and now I have to decide what to do with you.” Another pause because truly, Paul had no idea what to say. “I should kill you, you know, and I probably will.” Satan smirked. “In front of Mandy. I don’t think she’d like that.”
“If You want to impress her,” Paul said, “why don’t You just fight me?” An idea was already forming in Paul’s mind, and he hoped beyond a reasonable doubt that Satan’s vanity would now be thrust into use.
“Excuse me?” Satan asked him flatly, regarding Paul with an inquisitive stare.
“You want to kill me in front of Mandy,” Paul stated nonchalantly, as though he didn’t quite mind talking about his impending demise. “Which, of course, might intimidate her. I’m not exactly sure if that’s what You want. But if You want to impress her, You should allow me to fight for myself. A duel of sorts. Do what You can in Your power to make it fair. Do You see what I’m saying?”
“The idea is ridiculous,” Satan said, placing His hands on His hips. “A demon fighting a human – how could that possibly be fair?”
“I never said it was going to be fair,” Paul pointed out, “in those terms, but it would show Mandy that You’re not just going to kill me. You’re going to allow me to fight for myself.”
“What’s in it for you, exactly?” Satan asked after a long moment, arching a brow.
“If I win, You must let Amanda and I leave this place no matter what,”
Paul replied. “No chasing after us. No sending Your people to chase after us. We are free from You and Your world.”
Satan knew that there was absolutely no way Paul could ever win which was why He agreed to Paul’s deal. If Paul wanted to die in a battle, who was Satan to deny him that? He had always been Satan’s favorite.
It had to be a couple hours later, and Mandy knew that her husband – were they even married if they hadn’t even had a ceremony yet? – was up in the Strategy room with His people. She could hear Him pacing up and down the room and had a feeling He would be there for a while. Mandy took the moment to visit Paul down in the dungeon, just to check on him, and to see what the hell he had talked to Satan about to make Him so… serious? Was that the word?
All the guards were in that room, so Mandy wasn’t worried about getting caught. She was currently in a thin nightgown with a blanket pulled around her shoulders. Dungeons were always decidedly colder than the rest of the house, and this one proved to be no different. When she reached Paul, the first thing she did was make sure he hadn’t been hurt in any way.
“What are you doing here?” Paul asked when he saw her. He stood and quickly strode over to the bars separating them, sliding his arms through the metal in order to hold her.
“I had to check on you,” she replied. “What’s going on between you and Him? I haven’t seen Him since He caught us in the storage closet, and I hear He’s in His Strategy room, whatever that means.”
“He’s probably coming up with the best way to kill me in a duel,” Paul told her. “I challenged Him to a duel. Me against Him. If I win, He’ll let both of us go. He’ll never follow us or chase us or anything. Mandy, we’ll be free. Free of Him. We’ll be able to live our lives without worrying about Him. Once a demon promises something –“
“I know,” Mandy said, recalling her bargain with Kesha. “But Paul… don’t you think that’s silly?”
“Do you really have no faith in me?” Paul asked, disappointment clearly written in his pale blue eyes.
“Of course not, Paul,” Mandy said. “But it’s logic. You are a human. He is a demon. There’s an unfair advantage already. How do you think that you’ll actually defeat Him? He has power that you don’t have any more. And I…” Mandy quickly cut herself off, clenching her jaw so the tears that had quickly accumulated in her eyes wouldn’t fall. “…I don’t want to see you die.”
Paul didn’t speak for a long moment. Instead, his fingers mindlessly caressed her soft hair as his thoughts raced on how to explain everything to her. He wanted her to know how important this was to him, how he would risk everything for her just as she had done for him.
“What He doesn’t have is love,” he finally said in his soft-spoken voice. His eyes locked with hers as he continued. “He doesn’t have your love. Which means He doesn’t have anything to lose in this fight. And as a result, this fight, this duel, won’t mean anything to Him. But me? I have everything to lose, most importantly you. And I’m not going to lose you. Not again. You have to understand that I have to do this.”
“Please don’t,” Mandy said as the tears finally began to fall. She didn’t want to see Paul die because of her. She wanted him to live his life as a human, what he had always wanted to be. “Please don’t do this.”
Paul felt his eyes flicker at her words, but he kept his voice firm. “It is already done,” he told her.
Twenty-Seven
Mandy opened her eyes. She was in her bedroom Satan had given her, waking up the same way she fell asleep; alone and worried. She hadn’t gotten that much sleep last night due to the fact that this supposed duel between both Paul and Satan would take place today. Mandy glanced out the window, expecting to see the sun shining through the cracks, but was disappointed to find that it was as dark now as it was when she went to sleep. Apparently not even the sun could touch the deepest bowels of Hell.
After another moment, Mandy pushed herself
into a standing position and headed over to the wardrobe. Her eyes quickly searched for a dress that was comfortable without being too revealing, and they finally narrowed in on a gold dress that fit that description quite beautifully. It wasn’t as casual as she had hoped for, but then again, none of the dresses were. If there was no sun, then she would be the sun. Maybe it would help Paul, remind him what he was fighting for.
I highly doubt he’s going to forget, a voice in her mind murmured dryly, as though Mandy’s thought was quite silly. He is fighting for you.
He was fighting for her. Mandy felt the tears well up into her eyes so quickly she had no chance to stop them. But somehow, it was all right; she needed to take a moment anyways and indulge her worries lest they eat at her away and appear when she did not want them. She had no idea what she would do without Paul if, in fact, he did lose and Satan did kill him. If anything, he would probably die.
But where would he go? As a demon, he would most likely end up back in Hell. Satan had created him after all; wouldn’t God think that a creation by Satan was an abomination? However, God couldn’t possibly overlook the fact that Paul was a human, could he? Paul might not have started out as good, but his nature revealed him to be, especially when he was going to give up everything for her. Did God judge on character, where people were people? If each child was born a sinner, did that mean that Paul could ask for forgiveness and that he could possibly be granted it?
Despite the fact that she was currently clad in a ridiculously expensive dress, despite the fact that it would wrinkle, despite the fact that she wouldn’t look perfect, Mandy felt herself fall to her knees. She was completely helpless, uncertain of the results of this battle, and there was only one thing she could think to do. She clasped her hands together and bowed her head before silently praying to none other than God Himself. She knew that God might have already made His decision, that every story was written, but she wasn’t sure if Paul counted. Was he born, now that he was a human?
Killing by Captivation: A Gods & Monsters Prequel (Gods & Monsters Trilogy Book 0) Page 12