I recognized the room immediately. It was the one in which I’d been captured. On the left wall, in a line, DJ, Brady, Richard, and Nicholas were held captive, their bodies pressed against the wall, their arms held up and out to the side and their legs pointed down. They were all bloodied, with mysterious, unseen bonds holding them in place.
“Welcome,” Nuforsa said from somewhere I did not see.
Then, out of nowhere, two projectiles of red energy that looked like spears pierced my body, dropping me to my knees. I shouted, in so much pain, and became even more frustrated when I could not move my body. I could move my head, though, as I saw Nuforsa gliding from the ceiling to the floor.
“For someone who fancies herself a CIA agent, you sure do let yourself get distracted easily,” she said. “And unfortunately, that will cost you.”
I watched in horror as she went over to Brady, put her hand on his chest, then pierced his skin with her awful fingernails, ripping his heart out and shattering it, my brother’s blood squirting on both of us.
Chapter 16
“NO!”
I’d seen men tortured before my eyes, heard children screaming as they were mutilated, and witnessed humans just vanish after sniper rounds and grenades eradicated their existence.
But nothing horrified me as much as seeing Nuforsa savagely murder my brother. I tapped into an undiscovered source of fury and broke free of the magical spears. I stood as the spears vanished, whipped out Ebony and Ivory without a moment’s delay, and unleashed as much firepower as my fingers could produce. Nuforsa, gloating over her display of terror, was not quick enough to escape, and her skin burned as I hit her left shoulder.
“You fucking whore!” the demon yelled, but I was well past trading trash talk.
I instead held Ebony toward her current position, firing without rest, and Ivory aimed at her anticipated position, trying to decapitate her when she teleported before she had the chance to defend herself. This didn’t kill her, but it worked better than last time. I had her bleeding from her right cheek, her left arm, her left shoulder and her right hip in no time.
“Bloody bitch,” she grunted. “I see that you are not completely worthless. That works just as well since the Dark Lord would not take such a useless brat.”
But I still did not talk back, continuing to fire multiple rounds at her as she slowed down. She did manage to graze my left arm with a magical blast at one point, but I was so consumed with destroying her soul that I didn’t even notice until she had teleported to the ceiling to try and surprise me. My confusion only lasted a second, though, and I rolled to the side to easily dodge her magical attack.
She tried to surprise me by teleporting directly to my side, grabbing my arm and burning my skin, but I kicked my right leg into her ribs. Even I could hear the shattering of bones within her, and when she staggered back, I pistol-whipped her with Ebony, bringing her to the ground.
“Looks who’s on their fucking knees now,” I said, so angry I wanted to curb stomp this bitch into a bloody sea. “No more torture. No more games. You die.”
I kicked her once in the face for good measure and raised Ivory for the kill. But then she lifted her hand, and both guns flew out of my hands and fell to the floor a dozen feet behind me.
“There’s just one problem with your plan,” Nuforsa said, her voice mutating into something that sounded very dark and cruel. “You are just a human. I am a demon. And now you will see my true form, one which you will die at the hand of!”
Horns sprouted from her head, four of them in total, large enough to pierce my chest. Her mouth turned into something like a shark’s, full of incisors ready to cut me into bite-sized pieces. Her eyes went red—completely red, not just her iris—and snakes slithered in and out of them. A pair of dark, bat-like wings sprouted from her back, flapping out to a wingspan of about fifteen feet. She ripped through her red robes, revealing skin that was transparent and full of slithering snakes. I could see inside of her magical energy coursing through her. Her hands had become elongated, with nails that looked more like claws that could penetrate an underground bunker.
She rose into the sky and gave a warped, twisted laugh.
“You are defenseless, Sonya. You have been defenseless from the start. You are weak and cannot win. Now, you will fall to your knees!”
No. I will die standing. Or fighting.
I darted backward, trying to reach my guns, but then it felt like something had placed an unbreakable grip on my body—it truly felt claustrophobic. I let out a cry as I tried to move, but I could not. Nuforsa’s demon form landed in front of me, the hissing of the snakes omnipresent as she used her magic to drop me to my right knee. I could feel the slime falling into my hair, a thick coat of mucus that made me want to vomit.
“Drown in your sea of loathing. Look into your past. Recognize all of the sins you have committed and how you are responsible for so much tragedy. Do you remember how your mother’s death began as you were born?”
No. No, you’re lying. My mother died when I was seven.
“I didn’t say she died when you were born, you fucking idiot! Listen! Know the truth to my words. I know you remember it. How your mother seemed to get worse with every passing day. How your mother went from looking youthful and her age to aging a decade every year. And how your brother would say it was all your fault, how he wished you’d never been born.”
Stop! Stop! I could feel the tears welling in my eyes.
I would not cry. I would not falter as I had in my dream.
“Then, when your mother died, your brother wouldn’t talk to you for nearly six months. How did it feel, Sonya? Tell me how it felt. Seven years old, with no parents, a brother who hates you, and no friends?”
A single tear fell. I tried to rise, to fight her, but Nuforsa had broken my psyche. I was losing the will to fight as she shattered me.
“And isn’t it funny how, all these years later, the same is true now. Twenty years old, with no parents, a brother who hated you for leaving him, a brother who hated you up until I ripped his heart from his chest, and no friends.”
I still had watery eyes. I still had tears bubbling up. But now, as she talked about my present state, I was beginning to feel a new emotion.
It wasn’t anger. It wasn’t just fury. It was unbridled, unfiltered, unadulterated hatred for this awful, wretched, evil monster in front of me. I didn’t want to just kill her. I wanted to destroy her, to take every single snake, slice it in half, and shove it down her throat until she choked on her own creation before I tore her limbs apart and clubbed her head open with them. I wanted Mundus to witness this display of hatred and shudder at what I was capable of.
“Yes, you are broken, my slave. You kneel before me. Will you give your soul to me?”
My breathing increased as the hatred for Nuforsa consumed me. I hated her more than anything in any realm, including Tyrus and Mundus. I hated her more than the enemies I fought on the battlefield, the terrorists who had vowed to bring the apocalypse and death to freedom and America. I hated her more than the past mistakes that haunted me. I hated her more than I hated myself in my early teenage years, even as I had intentionally overdosed to try and end it all.
I could feel heat rising in me that would burn the Earth down. I began to feel a primal urge form, one that existed for the sole purpose of killing, destroying, and annihilating this fucking evil monstrosity. Nothing else mattered. I would fast, I would parch, I would go celibate if it meant I got the chance to rip the fucking horns off this bitch and shove them through all her fucking orifices.
“Join me, Sonya. You know your past is full of failures. Your future will be the same. Broken, without family, without friends. Give me what remains of you, and Mundus will slowly change you into a warrior capable of winning the war for us.”
I screamed a blood-curdling, hateful cry that was unlike anything I’d ever produced as I lurched my head back and closed my eyes. I opened my eyes and looked down at the ground, seei
ng my reflection somehow in the tear that had dropped. I was sure Nuforsa had created it to taunt me. But now, it fed me power with what it showed me.
My body was changing. Violently changing.
I was no longer the human, Sonya. I was transforming into a demon. My eyes went red, my hair became slick. A single horn emerged, and my skin became dark black. Wings sprouted from my back as my muscles thickened and my hands tensed with power I’d never felt in my life before. I called my guns to me, and they flew through the air to my hands, acquiring demonic properties and icons as they grew larger. I shattered the hold that Nuforsa had on me and roared with a deep, twisted voice.
I only had one thought. Kill Nuforsa. Kill Nuforsa. Kill Nuforsa.
“You were wrong,” I said, my voice unmistakably demented. “You didn’t know what I had inside me. You only saw my human side, never believing I could have a demonic side. Maybe if you had shown some mercy, this would not end for you. But now there’s no turning back now. You’ve woken up the demon in me!”
I charged the ugly bitch, plowing my shoulder into her. I grabbed at her horns and ripped one in half. I chucked it at her, but she dodged. I fed off of the fear that I now felt from Nuforsa—no longer was the prying sociopath in front of me, lording over my human side. Here was a fucking coward, fleeing, begging for mercy as I sought to give the whore a thousand scars.
Oh, but we were past mercy. We were past all forms of compassion. I was going to make sure I did everything in my power to break her body, her soul, and her will into a million little pieces. Mundus would quiver when he saw what I’d done to his trusted side bitch.
I raised Ebony and Ivory and fired them, which now consisted of red hues that burst forth like massive grenades. One such blast hit Nuforsa in her wing, which dissolved it immediately, sending her down to the ground. Before she could stand up, I landed square on her leg, shattering the bones inside. She screamed in terror and begged for me to stop, but I wasn’t going to stop until the rest of her body was like that.
She tried swiping her claws at me, but Ebony and Ivory’s demonic form ended that threat, leaving her with mere stubs for hands. I ran my knees into her and wailed on her face, pistol whipping her with both guns at first and then tossing them to the side. I wanted to feel the satisfaction of my own fists driving into her clear skin, seeing the teeth break apart inside her, witness the snakes fly to the wall, laughing as I drank the blood that gushed from her face. Nuforsa’s groans became weaker and softer, and just before I thought I would have killed her, I stopped. I pressed into her chest as I stood. I wanted her to feel some of the pain I’d felt. It wasn’t enough for her to die. She had to suffer.
“I can see inside you… the hatred is rising,” she said, coughing up blood and groaning. “Mundus will love… this. You are… you are in touch with your side… so suppressed… I didn’t see it. Oh, don’t deny what… you feel.”
I heard the words, and I’m sure when I finished killing her, they would register, but for right now, I just took unblemished glee at watching the nightmare of the past two days suffer in her dying moments.
“All that is good… is dying in you… when you are this,” Nuforsa spat, the last moments of spite that she could muster. “You become this… and your human side… decays in you.”
For the first time while in demon form, I felt something besides pure venom for Nuforsa. I felt… concern.
“It seems… you’re having some trouble,” Nuforsa said, followed by a laugh. “In dealing with these changes. Hah… the world will be a scary place… for you… now that you’ve woken up… your demon.”
No. Kill her! Kill her!
“Why don’t you just fuck off and die!” I screamed as I leaped back onto Nuforsa, driving my knee into her throat. My fists went back to work, obliterating what remained of her face. Within just seconds, all that remained was a caved in shell of a skull.
“You stupid. Sadistic. Abusive. Fucking. Whore,” I said, each word accentuated by a fist that produced a new crater in her. I had her on the edge of death. I stood up, lifted her, and pinned her against the wall. “Get ready to fucking die!”
I thrust my fist into her chest, ripping out her twisted, black heart. I held it to her face as her eyes went wide, and I smashed it into a million pieces, the blood trickling out of my hand like juices from a smashed grape. Her body dissolved in front of me. I roared in victory, blood soaking my demon body.
Suddenly, my friends hanging on the wall also vanished. Everyone dropped from the ceiling—including Brady, who was bruised, cut, and injured, but in one piece and with his heart still in place. But was he alive?
“In the name of Yevon, Sonya,” Carsis groaned. I growled at him, but I had no intentions of killing him. “You… you found out. We gotta get out of here, but you gotta change back.”
“And how should I do that?!” I snarled, unable to control my anger at how Carsis had commanded such a thing.
“Sonya,” Brady said, his voice weak and barely audible.
I turned, and the anger immediately dissipated. The hatred that had fueled me to annihilate Nuforsa had vanished, and the catalyst for the fuel had disappeared. My brother wasn’t dead. It was all a trick. He was here, alive.
“It’s OK, come back,” he said. “You came back. Whatever Nuforsa said, you can know it’s not true. I love you, and I have always loved you. We may have gone through our own hells as kids, and I may have done some terrible things, I know. But I never stopped loving you. You are all the family I’ve got, and I will love you until the day I really do die.”
Now the demon side in me was fading away. I was becoming emotional once more, and I hugged my brother, who accepted my hug even as my body had bits of its demon form. But I was turning into a human more rapidly, and soon, I was left with just my human side, in tears at a brother that I thought I had lost.
“Sonya, never, ever, ever doubt that I love you,” Brady said. “I may not do a good job of showing it all the time, and I may be overbearing, but it comes from a place of care and love. Everything I do is to make sure you have a safe, healthy life.”
“And I love you too,” I said through sniffles. “Even if you get confused about being my brother instead of my father.”
We shared a hearty, much-needed laugh. Everyone rose slowly, grabbing their head and muttering about where they were.
“I’ll explain everything later,” Carsis said. “But we have to get out of here right now before other demons come. Sonya, will you give me a hand?”
I turned and nodded. I was too exhausted to even stand on my feet, but Brady held me up—just like he always did, even when I didn’t need it. Together, Carsis and I created a portal that led back to Durty Nelly’s. I motioned for the Brits to go first, and they hurried through, seeing no reason to stay in hell. DJ was next, but he paused and looked at me.
“Thanks, Sonya,” he said. “Suffice to say, I owe you.”
I smiled as much as I could in my brother’s arms.
“I’ll take you up on that,” I said, knowing we would figure something out.
DJ gave a smile of gratitude and went through the portal.
“You’re next, big brother,” I said.
“You gonna be able to stand on your own two feet?”
“I think I can manage.”
“You always do.”
With that, leaving me still sniffling, he went through the portal. Carsis turned to me.
“You go ahead, I’ll be right behind you.”
I nodded and staggered two steps forward when the symbol for the gate to the spiritual world, the one tattooed on my shoulder, appeared above Carsis’ portal. My shoulder flared in pain. The tattoo brightened.
“Sonya Ferguson,” the voice said, sounding like a demon’s but also with an air of royalty. I did not “hear” the voice so much as have it echo in my brain. “I am most impressed that you have unlocked your dark side and managed to defeat one of my finest soldiers. Well done. But I warn you now, Nuforsa is no
t gone forever. And the longer you resist joining me, the more perilous your journey becomes. I, Mundus, the Dark Lord of the spiritual realm, command you to swear allegiance to me. Do so, and I will grant you all that you desire. I will spare your friends in the coming war.”
I looked at Carsis. He was frozen in time. His eyes were still trained on the portal, but his hand, nor the portal, nor the magical current of energy moved. I swallowed and considered ignoring him before I realized I had no choice, at least as long as the spiritual realm remained at a standstill.
“While I am sure that those are generous terms, Mundus, I have seen what your side does. It kills, it tortures, and it does not spare mercy. Those are things that I will never get behind. Thanks, but no thanks.”
“Hahahahaha,” Mundus laughed, quite unperturbed. “I am not surprised you have chosen this path, and in a sense, I appreciate it. It will make for a much more pleasurable, hedonistic journey converting you to my side. Very well. You have won this battle, Sonya. But the war has not even begun. You would be wise to prepare for the day I decide to fight.”
The blood portal vanished, and time resumed. Carsis gave no indication of having witnessed what I had just heard, and given that, I didn’t feel the need to tell him about it. Just as the CIA operated on a need-to-know basis, so did I.
I went through the portal and wound up back in Room 115 of Durty Nelly’s. I could hear the storm still rumbling outside, but it sounded much weaker than before. Waiting for me were DJ and Brady. I smiled and raised my hand, but suddenly felt lightheaded.
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