by Amy Barrett
Nick tried not to look at the strip of her stomach exposed when she did this. “We kill the next one too.”
Abyzou sprang up. “You want to kill every demon in hell? I don’t think that is even possible.”
“I think with a wolf gang, a gargoyle, an angel and a demon, we have the fire power covered.” He was oddly happy about being able to say this. He smiled.
Abyzou laughed. “What’s with the grin?”
“I know people other than wolves.” It was such a simple statement, but he couldn’t believe he was saying it. Although it was too early to call them friends, he thought with enough time they could become close. All his life he had never been around anyone who wasn’t a wolf and didn’t think he was going to save them from eternal damnation.
“You do.” Abyzou smiled and ducked her head.
Nick walked to the door. “Come on. We will go and get the others and then make a concrete plan to find this asshole on our own terms and tear him in half.”
“Yea,” Abyzou agreed and followed him out the door. Her tone was muted, and she didn’t meet his eyes.
Outside, Nick came face to face with a long road and deserted countryside. There were fields on every side and trees set about in sets of two. Beside the dully lit road sat a car. It was blue and small. There was no moonlight to fall on it, so it faded into the dark.
Nick assumed that Abyzou had stolen it on the way here. It was something a demon would do.
“Keys?” Nick extended his hand towards her, while half turned. She tossed the keys to him without a word. He didn’t catch them and had to stoop to lift them. He squelched over the muddy path and jingled the keys until he had the right one. Clouds rolled through the sky and the moon and stars were hidden away. Nick waited for Abyzou to get in the car.
He looked in the rear-view mirror at her, even though she was seated right beside him. “This will work.”
Abyzou nodded. Two purple pompoms hung from the mirror. They played with each other as Nick pulled the car away from the tiny house.
The engine sang shyly with the radio. Trees and the occasional light zipped past. Each light cast a golden aura on Nick’s profile.
“We will all be together when he strikes.” Nick spoke without turning from the road. He had one hand on the steering wheel and the other rested close to Abyzou’s leg. One of his lips was cut and swollen slightly. He licked along the wound.
“It won’t be too hard once we are prepared and have a plan.” Nick gunned the car and it squealed in protest. His foot pressed on the pedal. His trainers were covered in the mud from the path and it flaked off.
“You and I, we can take him down. Zerachiel can weaken him, the wolves will have our backs. I promise you; we can do this.” Nick could see the lights of the city on the horizon. It wouldn’t be too long now till he reached the wolves and the others. They would take down the bloody demon for good.
All the while that he spoke Abyzou watched him..
“After all of this is done and the wolves are saved…” Nick didn’t finish the sentence.
Abyzou lashed out with one arm. Grasped in her hand was her demon knife. It caught the glow of the streetlight as it arched unseen towards his body. She whimpered as the knife punctured his throat. Blood began rushing down the front of his shirt, pooling on his lap.
Nick felt the stabbing pain, he struggled for air and reached for his throat. One of his eyes turned to that of the gargoyle but it could not maintain the change. The wound was accurate, and Nick lost strength fast. Once he had let go of the wheel, the car spiralled towards the ditch. One of the front wheels caught a bump at the edge of the road. The car tipped and rolled. The smashing and crunching of the tumbling wreck roared around Nick’s head. Abyzou watched Nick through the first and second roll. His life dropped from his eyes, into the blood, then all over the car floor. Abyzou closed her eyes and the dark took Nick away.
***
When Nick died, demons were waiting for him. He woke in an eternal darkness. The air around him looked like smooth walls but the demons passed him through them. He heard screams and moans. He walked through blood on the floor and flicked it up with his heels when he stumbled. Chains appeared around his wrists. They had spikes on the insides and chewed through his bones. He gagged at the smell. One of the demons leading him, a faceless shape through his dazed eyes, pulled on the chain. It stung him.
“Come on worm, we have a special plan for you and the other filth.”
Both the demons laughed. The sound seemed to bounce around until it was coming from everywhere. Nick cringed and fell. Out of the ground, wailing could be heard. Hands clawed at him from above and tore off his jacket before he was dragged to his feet again.
They kept walking, passing many chambers. Nick could hear familiar voices calling out to him for help. He was too confused to see who it was. Steam rose from the ground. It heated him until he sweat through every pore. Sweat burnt his eyes and was inhaled up his nose. The rubber on the bottoms of his shoes melted. Soon, his feet blistered with each step. The demons pulled him on. He tossed his head about and tried to focus. He needed to turn. He searched inside himself for the monster, let the anger take the wheel. Nothing changed. The part of him where the gargoyle lived was empty.
They walked for several minutes. Nick wanted to rub a layer of his skin off to make the burning stop. He worked at his face with his chained hands but to no avail. The metal of the cuffs heated up and burned his wrists. He howled in agony and lost consciousness. He woke to the demons kicking him awake. He couldn’t see their faces through his pain haze. The burns had gone but were forming again. Nick struggled to his feet. A few more steps and they turned into a chamber. He got close enough and saw Dan, hanging from the wall like a fish prepared for skinning.
“Hey man, its better once you get off the lava floor.” The rest of Dan’s words were lost in Nick’s hazy mind.
Abyzou was across the room, cutting a man’s penis off with a blunt knife. One of the demons called to her with a bark. She glared around and caught sight of Nick. He may not have known it at the time, but she stopped thinking for that moment.
None of this happened the second time he died.
***
When Abyzou came to she was strapped into the upside-down car and one of her legs was crushed under the dashboard. All her other wounds had healed. Blood had rushed to her head, so her face was pink. Her hair was stroking the pool of Nick’s blood that had formed on the dented ceiling. Beside her, Nick dangled. His arms were hanging down past his head. The hand closest to the window was cut from the smashed glass. His legs were both free and hung as if trying to fold his body in half. The puncture on his neck dripped blood. The tapping of it was accompanied by a hissing from somewhere within the car. His skull had been knocked in on the side, now held in place by the caved in ceiling. Pieces of brain tissue were splattered here and there but in the dark it was difficult to make out.
Abyzou yelped when she opened her eyes and saw him. Closing them again, she desperately wriggled her leg. It was wedged tight and the movement caused a stab of pain up into her hip. She still didn’t open her eyes. Trying again, this time she put all her fury and strength behind it. If she had been human, she would have been trapped. As a demon, she managed to bend the dashboard up a bit and broke her shin in order to slide the leg out. The searing agony made her eyes water and her vision blur.
Once her leg was free, she groped for the buckle of the seat belt. She knew the general area of it but patted around it several times. Her hand splashed in a sticky substance. It coated her fingers. Finally, she found the buckle and hit it. There was a loud clunk, as she toppled out of the grasp of the seat. Her neck hurt on impact, but her demon body soon began to repair the damage.
She knew that for the next bit she would need to open her eyes. She moved her hand over the objects around her. Grazing the rough seats, she eventually made contact with something familiar, Nick’s hair. Some sections had soaked up blood and dried the
strands into spikes. The rest was still as soft as she remembered. Abyzou got lost in stroking those sections of hair. She pictured in her mind that mental photograph she had taken. The one of his lustful stare while they were tangled in each other’s bodies. She gripped the soft strands tighter, trying to recreate the moment in her mind. There was no resistance in his neck and the image began to recede further into her memories. Cursing, Abyzou turned her head in the opposite direction to where she felt Nick. A breeze chilled her cheeks and she knew this was the safe way.
She opened one eye first, just to see if it was safe for the other. Once able to see, she noticed that they were down the side of a grassy bank. She remembered that the road had such banks on either side. Abyzou crawled over the broken glass. It rolled and chattered beneath her. Once out of the car, she felt cold and as if it was too silent. Without glancing back, she took the bank in three steps. The top felt better. From there, she could look around and see only the ordinary world but her feeling of peace did not last long. The image of his face lurked around her like a sadistic presence. Abyzou jogged onto the road. She intended to run until the car was far behind her and she forgot this feeling eating at her insides. She didn’t make it too far before her legs gave up. The right stopped working first and she stumbled. She tried to use the left to balance but it went next. She was on her knees in the middle of the black tarmac.
Abyzou looked up at the sky and begged it with her mind to rain. Rain would wash her clean and make her the heartless bitch she had always been. Rain would rinse his touch off her body so that she didn’t still feel the heat, like his hands were still there. It could rinse the blood from her clothes, so she couldn’t smell him. His scent was everywhere, and she tried to hold her breath so she wouldn’t breathe it in. Maybe the rain would kiss her. It would land softly on her lips and she could close her eyes and imagine it was him. That he had held her in that tangle of limps and kissed her like he wanted her. She could picture looking into those fierce brown eyes one more time and then it would be enough to let him go.
Yet when she thought about him and could not see him it felt like her organs had ruptured and she doubled over, mouth open in silent agony. Her throat and eyes burned but she couldn’t cry.
After a few minutes, she felt able to stand again. Her legs trembled, and her heart beat wrong, but she made it to her feet. Abyzou turned and looked at the grassy bank. On the other side lay everything she had ever wanted, and everything she had destroyed.
She strode to the grass. It was as if life were a dream and she was watching the bank advance on her rather than the other way around. It ploughed towards her, merciless with its approach. When it reached her, she stumbled over the top.
The car lay on the other side. It still hissed. Glass was spread around it like flower petals blown in the wind. Abyzou marched towards it. The closer she got the more she wanted to run. The muscles in her legs were tensed and ready. She tiptoed over the glass and around the front end of the car. Blood was on the field and made it look black in the darkness.
Abyzou took a breath and crouched down by the driver side window. She had not realised that she was going to close her eyes again until she was down there.
“Come on,” she whispered, “you need to do this.” She tried to open them, but they were stuck shut.
“He would say goodbye to you.” This one certainty made her able to open her eyes. He deserved a goodbye and he was worth more than being abandoned in a wrecked car. Nick was there as she had seen him before. This side of his face was dirtied by the remains of his skull. Abyzou brought her sleeve down over her hand and gently wiped the mess off. It smeared away, and he looked less painful for it. His head was still a strange shape but if she focused on the lower face, he was normal.
Abyzou touched her finger to his lips. There was the slightest bit of warmth left behind. Swallowing tears she closed her eyes again. She saw his face as it was when he had smiled about knowing more than wolves. She saw his determined eyes when he had said it would all be okay. She kissed his lips and held his face one more time.
“I found you somewhere safe,” she whispered.
Afterwards, she found and collected her knife from the wreck. As far as anyone would know, Nick had been killed by Mephistopheles in a surprise attack. There was nothing she could have done. She left the car where it was. Once she had dealt with the wolves, no one would come looking for it. She didn’t call anyone to come and get the body, there was no point. They would match his identity with someone who died years ago. Striding down the road, she wiped any specks of tears from her cheeks. She steeled her gaze and steadied her breaths. Her soul would not stop cracking, but she could mask the pain until it shattered her.
***
Ivan and Zerachiel were walking together. They had got a text message from Ciara saying that she was fine, and she would meet them in the café in an hour or so. Ivan supposed that she didn’t want him coming to Hannah’s house to get her. It might be a little awkward for him to spend time with Hannah at this stage.
The street was dull as it was early morning and people milled around them every now and then.
“We should never have gotten her involved,” Zerachiel said suddenly. He was a few paces ahead so Ivan couldn’t see his face, but he could imagine the frown on it. “We shouldn’t have come here in the first place.”
Ivan examined his nails in an effort not to look at his friend. He knew that Zerachiel was trying to do what was best. He knew that all his friends, even Nick, assumed it was best for him to go back to work. It just so happened that he strongly disagreed. He had to think of a good way to bring up the subject with Zerachiel.
He had been so lost in his own thoughts that he hadn’t noticed that Zerachiel had stopped walking and was watching him. His eyes were soft, and his lips were pressed together.
“What?” Ivan asked.
“I’m sorry I dragged you into this.” Zerachiel sighed.
“You didn’t drag me anywhere mate. I want to be here.”
Zerachiel opened and closed his mouth before shaking his head.
“Nevermind, we will go and wait in the café for Ciara. I am not sure if it is crowded enough here to be safe from Mephistopheles. We don’t want a fight with him until the demon and Nick get back.” Zerachiel spun slowly to examine the area.
There was little on this street and the café was still a five-minute walk away. All that was out here was a butcher shop with a smiling pig painted on the front. Ivan thought this was odd. Surely a screaming pig would be more accurate.
He started to follow Zerachiel again when he saw the reaper. She looked the same as always and squinted at Ivan. Not a hair from her bun moved in the breeze. Ivan tried to walk past her, but she followed. Within a few steps she had caught up. Zerachiel, under the impression that Ivan was right behind him, continued walking.
Ivan whirled on her. “I know when you show up its gonna be a marvellous day.” He put his hands in his pockets and tried on his best bitch face.
The reaper moved silently. Even when her heels hit the pavement there was no sound. “Reaper, you must return to where you belong.”
Ivan dramatically yawned. “You have practiced this speech so much, move on mate.” He tried to pat her shoulder, but his hand passed through. She was still a reaper at work.
“Don’t be stupid.” She narrowed her eyes and looked into his. This made Ivan uncomfortable, so he looked at the sky instead.
“What do you hope to achieve?” she asked, “If you don’t reap the souls who are waiting for you their anger will get worse.”
Ivan waved his hands about in the air. “Ohh scary. They are angry shadows. Harmless if not a bit creepy.”
The reaper shook her head and walked away from him. “You know that’s not true. You saw them take lives.” She faced him from a few feet away. “If you already know the danger you have created, and you won’t give in and help there is nothing I can do. Remember that you are a reaper and your job is what you are.
These souls are your responsibility.”
“What?” Ivan scoffed. “You have no idea what you are talking about. When you live there is so much more than one single thing. You don’t know cause you live with some masters hand stuck up your arse and he does all your thinking for you.”
“The highest authorities have warned me that once they get you back, you will not escape again. This is it reaper. It is too dangerous to leave the spirits here and you know it. Come back and reap them. We can put an end to all of this, and you don’t need to come into conflict with anyone else.” She held out her hand to him.
Ivan sauntered up to her, keeping an eye on her outstreached hand. “I know one thing for sure, one thing.” He held up one finger in her face. It was the middle one and even Ivan knew what that meant. “My name is Ivan not “reaper”. Maybe if you had a name you would feel more like a person and less like a tool.”
The female reaper curled back her lips and narrowed her eyes, taking a step away from him.
Ivan rubbed his chin as he mulled it over. “Betty. I will call you Betty.”
The reaper glared at him. “Call me what you like but, in the end, I know my place.”
Ivan heard Zerachiel discovering that he wasn’t with him.
“I have to go and see my friend.” He pointed in Zerachiel’s direction with his thumb.
The reaper started to walk away, hips swaying. “That angel is diseased. Infected by humanity. I hope the demon destroys him and the infection can end there.”
Before Ivan could defend Zerachiel she vanished.
Ivan turned to face Zerachiel and was smacked over the head with something. The pain was dull and stomped all over the side of his skull. He toppled to his left and then got a kiss on the cheek from the concrete as he fell.
“What the hell?” His words were slurred. Ivan looked to see what had hit him and found he was staring up at Mephistopheles.
***
Abyzou liked to walk alone. It meant she could let what had happened twist inside her and she didn’t need to hide the hurt. She didn’t pay attention to where she walked but she knew where she would end up. She found herself standing outside the wolves’ hideout. The place was as much of a shit hole as she had remembered. It seemed like a century since she had stood here for the first time and plotted to send all of them to hell. Now she didn’t care where they went. She didn’t care once they were not here anymore. She would say she did this to solve a problem. To have no one looking for Nick. She really did it so there would be no one to remind her of him.