by Rue Volley
“Tell me what I am!” Johnathan yelled out.
Lizzy looked back at him and dropped Jonah on the ground.
He rolled on his side and grabbed his throat, as he coughed and sucked in air.
Lizzy turned and started to walk towards him.
“You wish to see?” Lizzy asked him.
Johnathan straightened his shoulders up and gritted his teeth.
“Show me,” he said, as he glanced at Jonah on the floor.
“Well, Johnathan… your Daddy wanted change, for himself and for all the protectors… He couldn’t breed. Therefor he reached out to me, and I sprinkled a little bit of myself into you, to give you life,” Lizzy said.
Lizzy stopped and leaned in, staring at his face.
“Elie did not have you, Johnathan, this vessel did… and I will tell you, human birth is a bitch.”
Johnathan crinkled his eyebrows and stared her down. He suddenly realized that he did resemble Lizzy, her lips… her cheek bones… just enough to make him suck in his breath, realizing that Elizabeth Crowley had carried him and given birth to him.
“You see… Caine slept with me, well… with Lizzy’s body, and together we created you,” she said.
“Why?” Johnathan asked, as he moved back from her.
“Oh! That is the million dollar question isn’t it, Johnathan...? You see, Caine knew that only a bastard could kill the creator.” She said.
“I am not an assassin,” Johnathan said, as he looked at his hands.
“Oh, but that you are, created with one purpose and one purpose only. To seek out and destroy the creator, who rose to battle you. You see your birth prompted the creator to walk the earth. You were both born the same night,” Lizzy said.
“Who is it?” Johnathan asked her.
Lizzy started to laugh.
“Wish that I knew...! But that will not matter. When you turn twenty-one, as will the creator in whatever body it took, you will both know and then it begins. The battle that will change everything forever. You will slay that creature, and the demons will rise again to control the world,” she said.
“Why would Caine do such a thing?” he asked.
“Oh, he thinks that protectors will rule… I didn’t mention to him that when you win… and you will, all protectors fall to dust as the tree burns to ash,” she said.
“You are a bitch,” Johnathan said.
Lizzy laughed.
“No, I am a demon who is tired of eating scraps, bowing to monkeys… I want glory, and glory I will have with you as a sword.”
Jonah stood up and looked at the two of them.
“Elizabeth,” he said.
Lizzy turned, and her face softened.
Her eyes went from black to green, and her skin regained its color.
“Elizabeth, I am sorry,” Jonah said.
Lizzy looked at him and shook her head.
“Jonah?” her voice came out soft and confused.
“Elizabeth, listen to me… this demon controls you, listen to your heart. You, of all humans that I ever encountered, have more love in you than anyone I have ever known.”
“Jonah…” she whispered.
She gritted her teeth and hit herself in the face, then again… with more force.
“Shut up!” she screamed, as she clawed at her face. “Stop, stop… STOP!” she yelled out, as she dropped to her knees and then started to laugh.
She peeked up at Jonah and grinned.
“You murdered her, Jonah; don’t try to woo her now.”
She rose up, as Jonah sighed and bit his lip.
He looked down at his hands.
“I regret,” he said.
Lizzy shook her head and grabbed it, pulling her hair.
“Quiet down!” she screamed, as she pulled out a chunk of hair and gripped it in her hand.
She quickly ate it.
Jonah turned his face and Johnathan crinkled his eyebrows.
“She will not be free,” Lizzy said, as she turned and started to walk towards the door.
“Wait,” Johnathan said.
Lizzy turned and looked at him, wiping sweat from her forehead.
“What are you going to do...? Leave us here to rot?” he asked.
“Oh…no. Tonight we have a party, and I have invited everyone. Once I have them all here, we will see if the creator exposes himself,” she said.
“Especially with you eating your guests,” she said.
“I am not eating anyone!” Johnathan yelled to her.
“You will, or all your friends will die.”
Lizzy walked out the door and slammed it.
Johnathan looked at Jonah and tilted his head at him.
“We are fucked,” he said.
Jonah sat down and looked at his hands.
“It would appear so,” he muttered, as he touched the black binding on his ankle and shook the burning sensation off.
“I… I need for you to get out of your binding, Jonah,” Johnathan said.
Jonah looked at him and grinned.
“Don’t you think that I am trying?” he asked.
“I just... Jonah, I need you kill me,” Johnathan said.
“Oh, I see… we are jumping right to the martyr part of the conversation.”
Johnathan sat down and looked at the black binding on his ankle.
“I know that you can do it. I can’t live… without me, there is no problem.”
Jonah laughed, and Johnathan tilted his head.
“Oh, okay… and who will protect me from Rue Volley? I would assume that she would kill me, knowing me or not… after such a thing.”
“Oh god,” Johnathan whispered, as he stood up and looked around.
Jonah leaned back and waited as he stared at him.
Johnathan looked at his hands and back at Jonah.
“It’s Rue… she is ummm, oh shit,” he muttered.
Jonah pushed himself up and rubbed the side of his neck.
“You are not suggesting that Rue… that little girl, is the creator himself?”
Johnathan looked at him and gritted his teeth.
“She is not a little girl, and who’s to say that the creator is a boy?”
Jonah laughed.
“Listen to me, you are jumping ahead. The creator is a powerful being, one of unimaginable grace and light. I doubt very seriously that you have come to the right conclusion,” Jonah said.
Johnathan looked at him and rubbed his hands together.
“I came back to Calvary because I could never get her out of my mind, Jonah. I met her when I was young, in the library, and after that, I spent years keeping myself busy to avoid thinking about her,” he said.
“Sounds like you may have been suffering from a crush,” Jonah said.
“No… no. It is more than that. In fact, I felt the same way when I met Josh.”
“Oh,” Jonah said, as he stood up. “Are you gay?”
Johnathan grinned.
“You wish,” he said.
Jonah tilted his head and looked him up and down.
“Well, I wouldn’t mind,” Jonah said.
“No, I am not gay, Jonah,” he said.
“Mmm. Shame,” he said.
Johnathan sighed and leaned down. His hand started to pulsate with light, and then it fizzled out. He cleared his throat and tried again, and once again it fizzled out, like it had been doused with water. He looked up at Jonah.
“I can’t seem to harness any energy in here,” he said.
Jonah looked up and pointed.
Johnathan looked up and slowly stood up, turning and staring at the ceiling.
“What the hell?” he said.
Jonah laughed.
“Binding spells, many… or all, I would assume. This room has been prepared carefully, to not allow us to use anything that would help us escape.”
“That bitch,” Johnathan muttered, as he scanned the ceiling and it glowed with many symbols, overlapping each other, like a vast network of knowle
dge.
“More like ‘dick’,” Jonah said.
Johnathan looked at him.
“It is a boy. Of course it is,” he said, as he looked down at his foot.
Johnathan looked back up at Jonah.
“Do you have your blade?” he asked.
Jonah grinned.
“Sure, Aiwass threw me in here with it,” he said, as he rolled his eyes.
“Sorry, I had to ask,” Johnathan said.
“Why don’t you keep the questions to reasonable ones? I mean, you are smarter than that.”
“Thanks,” Johnathan said.
Jonah tilted his head.
“No one ever calls me smart; they always use the word ‘idiot’.”
“Oh, not me. I know what you are, and ignorance is not part of the equation.”
Johnathan sat down and stared at him.
“What I am,” he whispered.
“Like it or not, you are a hybrid of something that has never been created before. Demons are not ignorant, Johnathan. In fact, they are among the most intelligent creatures in existence… So in turn, you are not stupid.”
“Demon… that sucks,” he said.
Jonah laughed.
“Oh come now, it could be worse. I mean, you could have been mixed with rogue, now that would have been a mess.”
“Like it isn’t a mess now?” Johnathan asked him, as he raised his eyebrows.
“No… you have a heart. In fact, that is how you lead yourself… red swirls all over your skin. I am sure that is why you have not freaked out and killed everything around you.”
Johnathan laughed.
“Oh, that makes me feel so much better… thanks.”
Jonah smiled at him.
“It is meant as a compliment; it truly is. I have to admit; it makes me jealous,” he said.
Johnathan looked at him, as confusion swirled in his mind.
“I mean, you have always had compassion. I lost mine before I became rogue. It is not a pleasant thing, never caring for anything… besides my sister. Even with her… I only protected her because of the bond that we shared. It was much more a survival tool, instead of love,” he said.
“Jonah, you chose to regain your morality. I think that says everything about you.”
Jonah grinned and the door opened up. Lizzy came flashing in and stopped in between the two of them. She looked up at the ceiling and then back at Johnathan.
“It is time,” she said.
Johnathan stood up quickly and looked at Jonah. Jonah stood too. Lizzy flashed to Johnathan, as the symbols started to pulsate in light on the ceiling and then under their feet. Johnathan gritted his teeth, as his ankle burned as well as his entire body. Lizzy looked at his face and smiled. She raised her hands up, and Johnathan placed his hand up, to shield himself from the light pulsating from her.
“Listen to me…” she whispered.
Johnathan felt his hands start to tingle, and his whole body vibrate.
“I call out to you Demon; your blood flows black in your veins.”
Johnathan laughed.
“Mine is red,” he said.
Lizzy bit her lip and tilted her head.
“Rise, and accept your nature,” she said.
Johnathan glanced at Jonah.
“Give me a blade, and I will show you murder,” he said.
Lizzy laughed and lowered her hand.
“You will mind me,” she said.
Johnathan tilted his head at her.
“Don’t think so,” he said.
Lizzy gritted her teeth and screamed out.
She stormed out of the room and slammed the door.
Jonah stood there and smiled at him.
“You just pissed him off,” Jonah said.
Johnathan looked at him and smiled.
“I am not good at taking orders… I mean, what the hell is she, or I mean, he trying to do anyway?” he asked.
“Looked like he was trying to call out to you, summon the demon in you… but you said no. I can’t believe it. I mean, he is your master, as is Caine, and he can’t seem to control you.”
Johnathan looked at him and smiled.
“Well, I felt something… but it was more like someone was tickling me with a feather.”
Jonah laughed.
“Okay, next time he comes in here… we need to get the blade. You have to get it, understand me?”
Johnathan nodded, and they both looked, as they heard more screaming outside the door.
“I really did piss him off, huh?” Johnathan asked.
“I am starting to understand why Joshua gets so irritated with you.”
“Why is that?”
Jonah laughed again and ran his hands through his hair.
“You have no idea what you are doing,” he said.
“I know.” Johnathan said, really not knowing.
“And you claim that you do, oh my. I am shocked that he let you live; I really am.”
“I am so not interested in discussing what he thinks about me.”
“Oh,” Jonah said.
Johnathan looked at him and squinted his eyes.
“What’s with the ‘oh’?”
Jonah stood there and looked at him, grinning.
“I think that you like him,” Jonah said.
“What...? I mean, yea, I guess in guy way.”
“No, I think it is in a much deeper way than that.”
Johnathan snorted, as he laughed.
“You are so not implying that I want to hump on him.”
Jonah shrugged his shoulders.
“You do have demon blood in you. Demons are bisexual; they do not care.”
“Oh, that is… that is gross in so many different ways. I can’t even… oh god,” he said.
“Well, perhaps it is jealousy… of Rue being with him and not you.”
Johnathan crossed his arms on his chest.
“Oh sure, that is it, totally. Wait, Rue and Josh haven’t done anything with each other,” he said.
“Denial is the first step on the road to hell,” he said.
Johnathan uncrossed his arms.
“She said that nothing happened,” Johnathan said.
Jonah smiled.
“Oh, you keep telling yourself that.”
Johnathan closed his eyes and felt his heartbeat speed up.
Jonah stood there, and his image glitched a little.
Johnathan looked at him and tilted his head.
“You are not Jonah,” he said.
Jonah’s image shifted, and the black binding disappeared from his ankle.
Lizzy stood there and smiled.
“You are a hard nut to crack,” she said.
Johnathan looked around the room.
“Where is Jonah?” he asked.
“Oh, he is in the house, no worries,” Lizzy said.
Johnathan laughed.
“So, what is your plan...? You want to get me upset, by calling me gay and telling me that Josh and Rue did stuff?”
Lizzy stepped towards him and smiled.
“Both of which are true,” she said.
“You are a liar,” Johnathan said.
“Why do you think that you never did anything with her, Johnathan? I mean, you had opportunity; she wanted you. She really did, and you just let it pass you by… Oh, well… except for when you were in the desert, but that wasn’t her… it was me,” she said.
Johnathan bent over and hurled on the floor.
Lizzy stood there, grinning.
“You were not even that good, all nervous and fumbling to figure out where to put it,” she said.
Johnathan wiped his mouth and looked up at her.
“I did not do you,” he whispered.
“Uh huh. Okay… you keep telling yourself that. It wasn’t Rue’s image that got you all flustered; it was the fact that I am a boy,” Lizzy said.
“Shut up.”
“Mmm. Okay, well you just hang out here and wallow in denial. I am go
ing to check on Jonah; he is not doing so well, since I chewed on him.”
Johnathan lunged towards her, and the binding on his ankle jerked him back.
He fell to the ground and hissed, as it burned against his skin.
“You will come around. You will,” Lizzy said, as she walked to the door and slammed it shut behind her.
Johnathan looked at his ankle and gritted his teeth.
“I hate you,” he muttered.
His eyes started to swirl in Red, and then small traces of Black started to swirl into the pupils of his eyes. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back. He screamed out at the top of his lungs, and Lizzy leaned against the outside of the door. She grinned and bit into her finger.
“Let it start to eat away at you, love… let the darkness in,” she whispered, as she walked down the hallway and laughed, clapping her hands.
Chapter 17
The Living Forever Thingy
I sat there on the chair and stared at this little creature on the couch, as she rolled over and muttered something, swiping at the air. I stood up and looked at Josh who came in with something in his hand, sparkling in a glass. I have to guess that Theodore has once again whipped up something to make yet another situation better (hopefully better, but I would never say that to Theo). I stood there and watched, as Josh leaned over and touched her face. She mumbled, and he placed the glass to her lips. She coughed as she drank it down. I had to smile. He looked like a Dad, like my Dad when I was sick, or just exhausted from lack of sleep and endless sleepwalking.
He leaned down and whispered something to her; she nodded as her eyes blinked. She rolled over, and he covered her with the blanket that I always used when I felt nasty and out of sync with the world and my body. He turned and looked at me. I grinned, and he immediately lunged at me and held me close again. We really had no words, none that would suffice. He obviously didn’t feel it necessary, and I didn’t either. Sometimes you just know, and words just have a way of ruining the moment. He released me when Theo and Sam walked back into the room and stared at us. I looked up at him and then at them.
“I, ahh… I think that I was in purgatory this time,” I said.
Theo tilted his head.
“Purgatory is a place for humans, not us,” he said.
Sam laughed and hit him on the arm.