The Beloved Fire

  Using shaky hands she ran them over her slick ponytail making sure her hair hadn’t lost its shit like her vagina just had. Thankfully it seemed to be in good standing, or she was sure the twins would have a fit.

  Right as she was tempted to look back at Blake, a loud creak had him looking up at the giant doors in front of her, watching them slowly swing open. As they opened, she felt an intense blast of heat followed by an almost blinding light that had her stepping back to avoid it, but she ran into the form of a body that stopped her retreat. She looked back at Blake who was pressed against her back. Just when she was about to shift away from him both his hands landed gently on her shoulders holding her in place. It wasn’t until the doors completely opened that her body and eyes adjusted to the heat and she got her first look at her future.

  She gasped at the sight, fear washing through her body as she felt Blake’s lips land on her ear. “Welcome to Hell.”

  The doors had opened into a whole new world. It looked like a barren desert, with a cloudless sky and dehydrated ground that held huge cracks. The heat she felt made sense. The atmosphere felt like the hottest summer day she’d ever experienced if not worst. Blake mentioned Hell smelled like dead bodies, and he was semi correct; but only if the corpses were rotting, and only if there were piles of them.

  Nausea crashed into her so hard she almost threw up on the spot. In the distance she saw where a huge throne sat, far enough away she could barely make out where Anock sat. Before remembering her orders to keep her eyes trained and looking down, she glanced around, wishing she never had. Separated on either side of the walkway, were hundreds if not thousands of demons. It was like stepping into a nightmare, only this was very real, and she was in Hell.

  A lot of them stood staring at her. Some of them continued to rip apart and eat from human bodies. Some of the humans were dead, some alive. Some had sex with each other ripping at their own bodies while drinking each other’s blood. She quickly moved her eyes away. A demon closest to her right had a body, dark blue in color and decorated in metal spikes. He was covered in blood that dripped from head to toe. On the ends of the spikes held different human body parts and organs. She watched as he plucked what looked like a severed hand from a spike on one of his knees, bringing it up to his mouth. Noticing her watching he smiled before biting into it. Unable to stop herself she covered her mouth with her hands attempting to hold in a cry.

  This demon was only one of the hundreds of different mind-numbing terrors that stood ahead of her. Tears formed in her eyes as she started to shake her head. She attempted to back up, but Blake held her in her spot. There was no way she could walk out there. She started to hyperventilate.

  Do not show fear my love. They will not attack you. Come now.

  Anock’s voice echoed in her head startling her for a second. She looked back at Blake who nodded.

  “Let’s go.” He said removing his hands from her shoulders.

  She looked forward feeling him step away before he lightly shoved her forward. She looked down trying to concentrate on the cracked earth trying not to fall as Blake continually nudged her forward to walk. For every demon she passed she got some type of growl, or snarl. She was told to not show fear, but it was an impossible task. Every snap, snarl, of noise from a monster at her side had her jumping.

  Only glancing up every so often to make sure she stayed on the path, she stayed focus on her goal of the throne. When she got a yard away Blake snapped out a command. “Kneel.” She stopped walking struggling not to look up. In the most etiquette way she could, she got down on her knees that screamed in protest from the scorching hot earth that burned her skin and tiny rocks that stabbed into them. The front slits in her dress now made a lot more sense, there was no way she would have been able to kneel down in a dress this tight without them.

  “Presented before the nine realms of Hell, their rulers, and subjects, I give you Mikayla Renifum. Full angel blood and unknown. To be the new bride and future queen of Hell’s Purgatory realm, ruled by Anock, Prince of Hell.” Both the twin’s voices boomed out in unison. They paused long enough that Mikayla thought that was all.

  She shifted her eyes up slightly catching a quick glimpse of what was in front of her. There was a black dais that a silver throne was on; Elijah stood on one side of the throne and Cain on the other. Anock sat tall in the middle with his wings extended out exuding his power. Unlike the twins that were dressed in suits. Anock was dressed in a black gladiator looking outfit with flat sandals. Accidently catching Anock’s eye, she quickly looked down, concentrating on a small bug crawling out of the crack in the earth. She wondered how there was bugs here.

  “Anock ruler of Purgatory, Prince of Hell. Do you take Mikayla as your new bride and Queen of Hell?”

  Before Anock could answer, what sounded like some type of snarling beast at her back roared loudly making her jump in fear and the tiny pebbles on the ground danced.

  “How do we know she is the one to make more dream walkers?”

  Growls and agreements sounded at her back and her heart raced. How would Blake or even Anock be able to stop all those demons if they decided to attack her?

  Unable to help herself, Mikayla slowly looked back over her shoulder watching as a werewolf looking beast walked up through the crowd toward the front, shoving and throwing demons out of his way that didn’t move fast enough. He towered in height over the majority of them. She glanced at Blake in fear who had his back to her as he faced the angry crowd. Flipping his wrist out to his side a blue fire appeared in his hands that he raised up showing to the demon who now slowed in its approach.

  “ENOUGH!” Anock shouted, making the growls and temporary jeering of the now unruly crowd quiet. “Mikayla is the daughter of the arch angel Gabriel.” Her head flew forward. She stared open mouthed at him before looking at both the twins who only held serious expressions.

  If this was a joke it was a good one. Why did they think an angel would be her father? Her father was not an arch angel. She would have known if she was living with one her whole life, wouldn’t she? Let alone she’d never once sprouted wings in her whole twenty-one years of life.

  The creature not wanting to back down spoke up again and she turned watching his response. How long was she going to have to stay knelt down on the burning ground?

  “We know she is Fated, but you’ve taken partials before and you’ve only birthed Nephilim. Does she dream walk?”

  She most certainly didn’t dream walk but she wasn’t about to burst all their happy little bubbles and be demon chow. At some point Blake switched out the fire and now stood holding two wickedly sharp blades at his side looking like a deadly warrior. It kind of reminded her of a video game character, one minute he held fire, now he held fighting blades, what was next? She shook her head trying to dispel her ADD, this was not the time.

  “Do you think I would initiate this ceremony if she wasn’t?” Anock stood folding in his wings. When no one dared to answer he continued. “Now time to continue.”

  Looking back one last time she made direct eye contact with the beast that flashed angry red eyes at her and snarled before backing up and disappearing into the crowd.

  A shiver of fear ran through her. She should have just left her head down.

  “Anock ruler of Purgatory, Prince of Hell. Do you take Mikayla as your new bride and queen of Hell?” The twins repeated again. She shifted impatiently trying to ease her aching knees, before looking straight ahead, no longer following the sexist rules they’d told her to follow.

  “I Anock ruler of Purgatory, Prince of Hell take Mikayla as my new bride and Queen of Hell from the time of the breaking ceremony on and forever.” He announced before settling back on his throne almost looking bored.

  “Bring forth the sacrifices!” He shouted out looking back behind her shoulder.

  What sacrifices? She would puke if she had to look at another dead body, she’d seen enough from her first quick glance of this place to last her a lifetime. He
r hands flattened on the hot dry ground and she tried to distract herself from the cries drawling closer from behind her. Could she really just sit there and let human-beings be sacrificed in front of her? If she was to be their queen didn’t she have a say?

  When the first “sacrifice” passed her peripheral vision she readied herself for the worst and looked up seeing a malnourished blonde haired female who was naked and decorated with cuts and bruises being dragged in chains across the cracked earth by a red skinned demon with horns. The next two victims that were brought up were men who looked in equally bad shape.

  All the sacrifices were being lined up between her and the dais facing the crowd. One by one more were brought up. On the seventh sacrifice she felt her heart drop and the blood drain from her face as she watched a child no more than five years old be dragged past her. The little boy was dirtied and dressed in rags crying and begging for his mommy.

  She lost it.

  Feeling heat rush through her like a thousand fires she stood fast, faintly hearing Blake scream for her to stop, but she was past hearing. Reaching out she grabbed the demon’s arm with a strength she didn’t know she had. The demons head turned hissing at her, baring teeth as its snake like tongue jutted out, but she ignored his attempt to scare her off.

  “Let the child go. Now.” She growled staring the demon straight in its blood red eyes. Now that the demon wasn’t dragging the child, the poor thing all but collapsed on the hard ground whimpering. The demon laughed jerking the chain around the child’s neck making him cry out in pain.

  She felt a hand on her upper arm trying to pull her away to which she hissed at for some reason, pushing the demon in her grasp back as she seemed to grow in height.

  “I said. Now.” Her voice sounded funny and a tingling started to cover her skin but her only concern was for the child.

  For all the humans there.

  She had to free them.

  She grabbed at the chain right when Anock appeared in her red tinted vision. “Enough love.” He said putting a hand on her shoulder that seemed to deflate the anger out of her.

  As if she’d been choked with power before, as soon as his hand came in to contact with her skin, she could finally breath again and sighed in relief feeling herself return to normal. From there it was like lifting a veil as sound and sight, she didn’t know she’d lost, rushed back to her all at once. She looked over at the child who pulled madly at his neck trying to get away from the chain that now rested in her hand. She gasped dropping it and watched as the child ran to one of the females up by the dais who held him close.

  The red skin demon stood off to the side holding blue fire towards Blake, who also held his own fire facing back at him. The air crackled with tension and the once rowdy crowd was so quiet you could probably hear a pen drop.

  What the hell happened? She remembered being mad and feeling funny, but had she lost time too. Looking over at Anock all she found was an amused face. She could see the twins at his back looking at her with shocked expressions. Just as she was about to ask Anock what happened, he spoke.

  “My future queen has decided not to accept sacrifices in our realm this day. We thank you for your offering and allow you to bring your gifts back to your own realms to enjoy. Dismissed.”

  She watched the crowd of demons start to leave, some simply disappeared in a puff of smoke while others jumped up flying off into the air. She turned to Anock. “I don’t want the humans to be killed.”

  He gave her an amused look opening his mouth to speak before something over her shoulder caught his attention. She turned watching as a crimson colored woman, dressed in what looked like a lava covered dress that steamed in spots, walk up to them. She had tiny red horns on her head that poked through her long black hair and were barely visible over her crown of blackened bones.

  “Your future queen is causing quite the drama.” The woman mused, looking Mikayla up and down.

  “Queen Mandra.” Anock acknowledged shifting to stand beside Mikayla. “Until her powers are awakened, she is more angel than other.” He paused looking over at Mikayla like one would look at a child being punished for bad behavior.

  She wanted to scoff but settled for crossing her arms instead. Not only did someone need to set them straight on the whole, her not being an angel thing, but she’d be damned if she would just stay silent while innocent humans were murdered.

  “She will learn her place soon enough.”

  “She attacked my guard.” The queen said lifting her chin. Mikayla did scoff this time, suppressing an eye roll. Yeah, little ole’ five foot two, Mikayla Renifum could take on a supernatural being.

  Ha. Freaking. Ha.

  Anock gave Mikayla a warning look, as the queen continued complaining. “And then Blake raised fire on him for just defending himself against her.”

  Running his hand down his face, Anock sighed. “His job is to also protect my queen.” When Mandra didn’t budge in her piss filled expression Anock walked over to the queen giving Mikayla his back and her his arm.

  “Come, I’ll escort you to the hall. We can discuss how to further this disagreement.” Looking pleased with Anock, Mandra shot Mikayla a devilish smile before taking Anock’s arm.

  Mikayla blinked and they were gone with a puff of smoke that left the air smelling like burning flesh. She coughed waving her hand in front of her face to clear the air looking over at Blake who at some point had shown up by her side.

  “That was extremely stupid.” He said shaking his head. “You almost started a war.”

  She gawked. “They were going to kill those humans!”

  Blake’s eyes turned red. “And they are still going to kill those humans! Either way they will be sacrificed! It’s their punishment for coming to Hell!” He shook his head again like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing from her.

  “What do you mean coming to Hell? Like they found a way in? They weren’t dead Blake they were alive!” She was shouting before she could stop herself.

  “They are dead though. They were sent to Hell to be punished. That little boy,” Blake pointed over to where he had been, no longer there. “He shot and killed his older brother with their father’s shot gun. His mother, the blonde woman he ran to, she all but put the thoughts in his head to do it. She suffered from extreme mental issues and had tried to kill her and her kids more than once. When the father found out what happened, one of the men that was in chains up there too, he came home and poisoned them all over dinner. They’ve been dead for some time now. They were all murderers in their human life and because of that, this was to be there punishment in the afterlife.”

  As awful as that was, the little boy was just a child. “But he is just a child, he couldn’t have known better, just because he was talked into it, doesn’t mean he was bad.” She reasoned. The twins appearing out of know where gave her a sad smile.

  Elijah put a hand on her shoulder. “But the little boy had known better Mikayla.” He paused fixing his suit sleeve. “It’s Anock’s job to sort through the innocent of hell from the guilty. He is the demon of minds. A fallen angel that once wielded mind control, he is one of the most powerful of hell, second to the King. That’s why he was put in charge. Purgatory is the gateway from the human realm to Hell. One side of Purgatory connects to Earth, the other to Hell. Not only is he responsible of who stays in Purgatory, an endless mansion made to confuse mortals and keep them wondering until judgement, he also has to decide how the guilty are to be punished and which realm will serve the punishment. For someone to be able to handle that much responsible they must be powerful, and he is. He also has never once messed up in judgement.”

  “So you’re saying everyone that was going to be sacrificed today deserved to die?”

  “Considering they were already dead and would have died a permanent death from their afterlife punishment and no longer have to suffer in Hell, I’d consider their sacrifice more of a gift. Hell may be terrifying, house monsters and be despicable, but it was create
d to serve justice to the guilty. Just remember that when your racing to the aid of someone who could be a murderer.” Elijah finished.

  She really had no idea what to say to that, because in a way he was right, but still the whole thing just seemed off to her.

  The four of them stood together looking at the waste land that had been left behind from the gathering of Hell’s residents. Body parts and puddles of blood were scattered as far as the eye could see.

  No matter how vindicated the rights and wrongs of Hell were, she didn’t belong here. She could see how this place could turn someone into a monster and not just because of her crazy outburst she had earlier in the day. If she really did have angel blood, she needed to figure out a way to wield it before she became a queen of monsters and find all this craziness acceptable.

  8

  Shocked

  “I agree.” Elijah said looking to Cain. “Although sweating like a whore in church is a good one; I like sweating like a virgin in Hell.” The twins broke out laughing again as they entered her room. Neither one of them looked like they just spent hours in the desert.

  She looked down at her sweat covered dress and sighed. “Yeah, yeah. I look like shit. I’m exhausted just let me take a bath. It will give me time to relax and get cleaned up. I’ll let you know when I’m ready for hair and makeup.” A thought formed and she perked up.

  “You know if you let me have a- “

  “NO.” They said in unison. So much for the phone idea. It was probably a dumb anyways to think there would be phone reception in Hell.

  She huffed in defeat, heading to the bathroom. “Fine give me an hour.”

  “30 minutes!” One of the twins yelled as she slammed the door behind her. Having found a stash of amazing products for the perfect bubble bath she pulled them out and got to work, excited for a good soak. It always helped to process her day. Turning on the faucet to just below boiling, she poured in the lavender bubble bath, bath salts, and sweat pea scented oils. The perfect combination. It filled the bathroom in a delicious smelling aroma. Letting down her hair and getting undressed quickly, excited to get Hell’s reek off her, she stepped into her bath, sitting down with a relaxing sigh.