by Lila Huff
“It’s not exactly necessary, per se.” Jack said with a deep laugh, he seemed to be the only one here that understood my humor. “But it’s a lot of fun.”
I just rolled my eyes. I couldn’t always tell if Jack was genuinely amused when he laughed. There was definitely something to his mannerisms that seemed bought and paid for. But perhaps that’s just how one acts after they hit a few century marks.
“Believe me, fun is necessary for the length of our existence.” Jack shrugged his shoulders slightly, as though he wasn’t sure that I’d actually need that bit of information. “Here’s what you can use it for right now…” he moved in front of me. “I want you to think very carefully about what you would want in a room… bed, shelves, chairs…. Whatever you want, it’s going to be your room. Then think about all of those things being made from the rock of these walls.” His claw-like hands swept through the air in front of me, like he was mapping out his own thoughts.
I thought about all of those things and then I mentally placed them in a room where they were made out of the same substance of the walls and floors that surrounded them.
“Alright, now all you need to do is think of the heat and that room at the same time.”
I looked at the end of the tunnel, and focused on the heat as well as the room that had formed in my head. A flame grew in the distance until it filled the space available to it in the hall and then expanded, leaving only the cut-out version of the room I had envisioned: the cut-out platform for a bed, the chairs and table that grew out of the floor, the shelves that were carved into the wall.
“Good work kid, most people don’t think of vaulting the ceiling, and the chandelier is a nice touch!”
I hadn’t realized that I had envisioned the glimmering chandelier that hung from the ceiling by its rock chain… it was only missing candles to be a functioning fixture. I looked away from it toward Jack, he was walking to the table and chairs.
“Impressive,” he said as he picked up the chair. It was as though he had thought it would be attached to the ground. “Most of the guys forget to do that, and their chairs are stuck in place until they right their mistake, or break them off of the floor.”
I just smiled, a bit smug I’ll admit, and lit the chandelier with six flames that burnt without a wick.
Jack and I had spent quite a bit of time together since my inception. It was kind of like having an older brother. He constantly made jokes at my expense, but would kick the crap out of any of the others that tried to do the same. It was interesting, like a school yard, and I was friends with the biggest, baddest kid.
Sparring was the only time that he let any of the others come anywhere near me, and then it was all business. I only knew what I knew about the others from Jack’s descriptions of them, and from the way that they interacted during our training sessions. They boasted about their past – the only other way I learned about them – but many of their grandiose claims were quickly negated by one of the others and I chose to ignore a vast amount of the tales they tried to spin.
I had learned a lot about the demonic under and outer worlds, but I had yet to go back to the world of the living and find some of the answers I sought. I wondered how my parents were taking my disappearance, and what Ellie was doing now, if she’d been saddened by my loss. I hoped that she didn’t blame herself, she had said some things to me that night that she probably now regretted, as I had, and I hoped she wasn’t dwelling on them.
She was too kind of a person; she always found ways to blame herself for the wrongdoings of others, or for misunderstandings… I doubt that I had ever deserved her in life. I couldn’t possibly deserve her in death, and perhaps it was for the best. She had never seriously considered me as a beau, as much as I had wanted her to. My mind suddenly switched back to my present situation.
I felt Sasha shift his weight ever-so slightly and remembered where I was. He slipped out of my grip and to the side, trying to strike my flank or back, but I caught onto his ploy and quickly found a new position for my footing, tripping him as he tried to get past me.
Placing my foot on the back of his neck I laughed. “Check mate,” I chuckled and heard a grumble as it bounced off the floor and I added, “patience is a virtue.”
“Demons, as a rule, don’t have virtues.” Carlo said, mockingly, as he moved to better see Sasha’s expression.
I had to laugh at that. “Demons, as a rule, break the rules…”
Carlo just nodded his head. “I think we’re done today.” And he disappeared in a burst of flames, Mike followed shortly after him.
Sasha grumbled something and I felt my foot fall to the ground as he vanished also. Only Jack and I were left in the room.
“Go rest. Sasha will come back twice as eager to beat the crap out of you next time….” He walked away, and I was left alone in the room. I stood there only a brief minute before I walked toward my room. They still hadn’t told me how to do this “Flame On” impression and disappear.
My short journey through the tunnels would reassure me of my misgivings about my new brothers. As I walked through the main hall I heard the quiet echo of Jack’s voice coming from an antechamber. I would not have stopped had his voice not been raised at just that moment.
“Listen to me, I tried to do my duty, I had tried to kill the girl, it may have been Gallu’s second choice, but it was my first, and I failed us both.”
“You failed us all,” I heard Carlo say derisively. “She was supposed to bring about a new age for the Asakku, and now she’s in the hands of the wind demons.” He hissed at Jack.
Jack growled back, “is it my fault the mate showed up just before I was able to finish her? One bite to change, a second to kill; I wasn’t even enjoying myself and that rat had to show up and make me look like a fool.”
“I’m just amazed that she didn’t take your flame for this failure.” Carlo sounded annoyed now.
“Frankly, I don’t know why Gallu wished for that feeble girl to join the ranks of the Asakku, but I would rather rot in hell’s fires for an eternity than to see a woman in the guard. You and I have been around long enough to know that there is little that keeps an Asakku’s temper in line. Are you ready to find out how a woman would fare in our society? I would have killed her if Adam hadn’t arrived in time to save her.”
“You’re lucky you found Paul. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the only reason you’re not rotting in hellfire.”
He was lucky that he had found me? Suddenly my being a member of the Asakku didn’t seem as predetermined as they would like me to believe.
“Yes well, we’ve all come to the ranks of the Asakku for one reason or another, lies have been interlaced in all of our existences.” Jack sounded a bit sorry, perhaps it was bitterness that I detected.
“At least we know what we are. I think we should just tell him.” Carlo’s words held a derisive laughter that did not fit with his words.
Jack’s solemn voice cut through Carlo’s derision. “You and I both know that Gallu would never allow that. She has greater plans for him than either of us could ever imagine.”
“Yeah. You’re right. He’ll find out eventually though, and with the rate he’s progressing I don’t think I want to be around for that.” Carlo seemed almost happy, though I knew he should not have.
I could hear the pensiveness in Jack’s thoughts as he spoke again, “none of us do.”
I let Jack’s words trail off as I continued down the hall… what exactly was it they were lying to me about? What was I, if I was not what they had told me I was? I knew that these questions would never be answered, but still, I had to wonder, what was it that Gallu had in store for me?
I lay down on the rock shelf that was my bed and closed my eyes. As they say, there’s no rest for the wicked, and my mind did not cease to run through possibilities of what their conversation meant for me. I knew that it was really of no use for me to try to figure it out on my own, I doubted that I could ever come up with the correct hypoth
esis for what was going on.
I let my mind wander to Ellie, the girl I would never have, the girl I had never deserved and slipped into a dream-like stupor. Perhaps if I closed my eyes long enough, this nightmare would dissolve into the dream that it was and I would wake up at home in my own bed. It was futile to hope that I’d be able to “wake” from this nightmare in a different place, but I knew I was confined to my new existence, and to these waking dreams. I sunk further into my mind.
Ellie was there with me, but her eyes were sad. I did not know if they were sad for me, but I wished to make her smile again. Something I knew I would never be able to do. She started to move away from me as though she was on one of those moving sidewalks you see in airports. We were drifting apart, more readily than I had expected. I reached out to her but she did not reach back, she just opened her mouth.
“Rise and shine.” she said in Jack’s voice, and I opened my eyes to two glowing eyes in the darkness of the room.
I sat up and looked to the ceiling, where the six flames had burst to life on the chandelier, filling the room with light that bounced off of the glassy surfaces of the walls and ceiling.
“Come on sleepy head,” Jack said, throwing an oversized sweatshirt at me. “It’s time to return to the world of the living.”
“Oh, yeah?” I asked, feeling a bit cheated from my half-dream. But I got up and went to the sink like basin that was always filled with water; from where I had not been told. It had little effect on me, it felt like it was the same temperature as my skin, but it evaporated as quickly as I splashed it on my face, it had an odd, astringent smell, but I ignored it.
I looked at the glassy surface in front of me, to the black eyes that still sat deeply in the sockets of my pale face. They hadn’t yet changed to the glowing red that I had been assured would come. These eyes were just another part of my cursed existence. Without knowing why, I suddenly punched the wall, sending spindly cracks across the reflection of my face. It almost looked better than the monster I now saw in myself.
It was only then that I remembered that Jack was there. I quickly ran my hand over the splintered wall and watched as the rock melted, filling in the cracks until they returned to the glass smooth texture they had been. The hand that passed in front of my face had a light grey mark across it. The charcoal-like marks had begun to appear the day that I learned to use my fire, they were only light grey now, and it just looked like I needed a shower, but I knew from the others that they would darken and that there would be more of them.
“So you’ve been sent to collect me again?” I asked trying to sound as blasé as possible. “It seems like that’s all we ever do. I wait and you come to get me.”
“Yep.” He said with a smirk. “You get to tag along on a collection today.”
This didn’t sound like quite as much fun as Jack was making it out to be. He actually seemed giddy.
I put the shoes on that he had thrust at me. “What are these for?” I asked, nodding toward the shoe I was lacing and holding up the sweatshirt.
“So that you’ll blend in… most people don’t walk about barefoot and shirtless in the dead of winter.”
I just nodded as I stood, still holding the sweatshirt in my hands.
“Sasha and Carlo are going to be collecting and we’ll be hanging back as observers. I’ll be giving you the commentary and you can ask any questions you want.”
“Joy. It’s just what I always wanted for Christmas!” I said sarcastically
“Demons don’t generally celebrate Christian holidays.” Jack laughed loudly. “Besides, even if we did we’ve still got another week or so.”
I had to snicker at that. I wouldn’t believe it was winter until I saw snow, and there was no snow in this underground fortress that was my tomb.
“Ok. To get out of the basement, all you have to do is focus on being somewhere else.” Jack said, his smirk growing. “Think about being in the street in front of your house again. Focus on actually being there, but make sure you focus on keeping your clothes… if you forget to keep them on your mind, they’ll burn up.”
I looked at him sideways, “It would be inconvenient to arrive somewhere without your trousers.” Then I laughed, “Mike?”
“On a few occasions.” He said with a smile. “But you need to focus.”
I did as he said and the room burst into flames as the street formed in front of me.
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Jack said from beside me.
The street was dark, but the lamps that illuminated the snow-covered ground weren’t necessary. They were almost a hindrance to me now. I pulled the sweatshirt over my head, it wasn’t necessary either, I was not any colder or warmer with it.
“What now?” I asked as I looked to the house I had grown up in.
I wondered how much of a heart attack my mother would have if she looked out of her lace-curtained windows and saw me standing here. The house hadn’t changed; it was still its red brick, with the faded green paint that was beginning to peel off of the two narrow steps that led up to the black front door, which now held a simple, green wreath. It was covered in snow, just as it had been almost every December, back as far as I could remember.
“Now we meet up with Giancarlo and Aleksandr.” Jack and Gallu were the only ones I had ever heard refer to Carlo, Sasha and Mike by their full names.
We walked several blocks before we saw them. They were visible, leaning against an alley wall, in the yellow light of a lamp that barely hung by a wire from the building above them. Sasha was reading a newspaper and Carlo had his eyes closed, his head tilted toward the ground. As we approached, Carlo’s eyes opened slightly, they did not illuminate the surrounding area as Gallu’s had. But perhaps that was just an effect of her gilded throne room. It was the only place I had ever seen her.
“Hail, Hail.” Carlo said apathetically as he stood up from the wall.
“The gang’s all here.” Sasha finished his statement with a bit more fervor as he closed his paper and threw it to the ground behind him.
Jack just jerked his head slightly to the side and the two took off down the road ahead of us. They seemed to be intent on their destination, wherever it was, as Jack and I trailed along behind them.
“How do they know who they’re looking for?” I asked quietly. There was no noise around us anymore and I was sure that my whispers rang out as clear as a bell. At this point I wasn’t sure they weren’t just looking for two schmucks that were in the wrong place at the wrong time, as I was beginning to think that my own demise was less than fated.
“Gallu showed them.” And then with a knowing smile that seemed a bit evil in the lamplight, he added, “it will be easier to wait until she shows you.”
We followed the hunters into the night as the streetlamps behind us flickered and died, sending the lane they lit into darkness.
5. Mother
-Joellen-
The room was much smaller than the hall, but it was lavishly furnished, like a sitting room in a Victorian hotel. Standing on a raised platform at the center of the room was a gilded throne and seated on that throne was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
I was amazed when I saw her. She was the picture of perfection. I doubt that even Leonardo Da Vinci could have painted a more beautiful creature. She reminded me of a summer’s breeze; gentle and warm.
Her long white hair fell down her back in a cascade of soft curls. Each strand shone brightly, like threads of silver, and they moved as if they were being gently blown by the wind. Her face was as angelic as Father’s, but her beauty was so enrapturing that had she had the same eyes as Father they would not have dissuaded me from the trust I suddenly felt for her.
Her eyes though, were nothing like Fathers, and nothing like my own. They appeared to be glass orbs filled with a never ceasing wind, and I could not look away from her.
She rose from her throne-like seat and I was able to fully grasp her height. Father had seemed oddly small to me, but
this woman was no doubt where the legends of the Amazon’s stature and beauty came from.
The dress she wore coiled around her like a silver serpent. As she walked toward me, the shimmering fabric seemed to slither along the length of her slender form, like liquid mercury flowing about her.
“Joellen, I am so pleased that you are well again.” Her voice was like a soft melody that wafted through the air about me. There was no severity in her tone, only soft musical notes.
“Thank you.” I could barely say the words. I was not sure who – or what – I was looking at, but thoughts of angels returned to the forefront of my mind.
“Most here will call me Mother.” She said, leaning down to me and taking my hands. “But you may call me Lilith, as Demetrius does.” She gave Demetrius a smile that reminded me of my mother’s smiles for my brother. This woman truly was mother as the man next to her was father.
“Thank you, Lilith.” I repeated.
“Adam, will you and Demetrius leave us for a few moments?” Almost before she had said this, Father was moving toward the door, and Demetrius was now following. I could tell from her tone and their unquestioning obedience that a request from Lilith was met as a command. I did not turn from where I stood and Lilith did not release my hands until the small click behind me signaled that we were alone.
“I am not sure what you have been told about us Joellen.” Lilith seemed sadden by whatever she was about to tell me. “Please come, sit with me so that I can help you better understand what has happened.”
“Please, just call me Jo.” I made the request as I followed her to the front of the room.
“I won’t bother you with the lore that surrounds us. The truth is all you need to know right now.”
I sat in the chair opposite her and waited. I knew nothing about what I was going to be told.