I know I posted this a little later, but here we go! One more part to go! I hope you're enjoying the story thus far! This part got a little long, but I hope you like it anyway!
The first thing I saw when my eyes opened was Joseph Piper leaning against the wall. He still had a proud smile on his face, one that I really wanted to wipe off.
“I must say, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he said, walking up to me. I struggled, but my hands and ankles were tied to the chair. He almost laughed at that, and I just glared.
“I can’t say the same,” I said. He put his hand to his heart, as if I offended him.
“Well, detective, how about we get straight to business then.” He sat down in a chair across from me. “You,” he said, motioning to me. “Are gonna take the blame for the murder, and maybe when the apocalypse comes I’ll keep you and your friends from dying. Doesn’t that sound good? You know, not many people get an option like that. I’ll admit, I was planning on having Drizella kill you and make it look like a suicide, you know, the guilt of what you did overwhelming you, how dramatic! But I think we can both agree it’d be better to get the blood off our hands than put more on, right?”
I’ll admit, I was barely following anything this guy said. “Excuse me, what,” I asked.
Joseph Piper shrugged. “Oh, the apocalypse? That’s why I’m here, dummy. I’m a demon, it’s like, our whole reason for being.”
I froze. He wasn’t a vampire. He was older. More powerful.
But most importantly, this meant he was worse.
“So demons exist,” I said, looking the man straight in the eyes. He motioned to himself. “I think I’d know if I wasn’t real. At least I think so.”
“So wait, why would a demon come to Earth just to kill some random girl? How does that help you with the whole starting the apocalypse thing,” I asked.
The demon cocked his head to the side. “Wait, you don’t know?” I shook my head.
“Your little friend Alice, she wasn’t human at all, was she? Maybe she thought she was, she was an orphan after all. An angel and demon, sounds crazy, I know. Happens every now and then, but I didn’t believe it until I found out about Alice. Love makes you do crazy things, don’t it?”
I didn’t know what to make with this. If she was part demon, why did he kill Alice anyway?
“Oh, where are my manners! I haven’t introduced myself! The name, and I mean my real name, is Belphegor. You might’ve heard of me, demon of sloth?”
I tried to rack my brain for the name, but it didn’t seem to want to work. I didn’t even know what to say.
The demon now known as Belphegor touched my head and suddenly I was no longer in the room where I had been tied up.
I didn’t know where I was. It was dark, and all I could see was destroyed buildings and fire for miles. Some creatures flew in the sky, but they weren’t any type of birds I had ever seen. Other than that there was no life, but I heard screams of pain and fear. I flinched at every sound.
I wasn’t tied up, so I began to run. Every building and dead tree looked like it was trying to grab me. I just ran faster. The screams grew louder no matter what direction I ran in.
Suddenly, Belphegor was in front of me and I fell back to the ground. He laughed. “Never gets old,” he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me up. When he did, I was back in the real world, tied up. The bonds felt even tighter somehow.
“What the hell did you do to me,” I asked through gritted teeth.
Belphegor shrugged with a devilish smile, which I guess fit. “Oh, I just showed you the apocalypse, or what it probably will look like. If you want to die there, be my guest.”
He circled me like a vulture, and I almost turned my entire head around to follow. I refused to let this demon trick me like he did with the apocalypse hallucination.
“Or,” he continued, dragging his hand across my shoulders (he almost seemed to have claws, his nails felt so sharp). “You could help me. There is a special place in the apocalypse where we will go. Where we will live like kings. And all you have to do to enjoy the goodies is go to jail for a week,” he said.
He looked at me as if this was a no-brainer. As if I should’ve just jumped at the opportunity. But as Marina said, I was stubborn, and I wasn’t agreeing to let a demon destroy the world.
“No.”
Belphegor’s smile dropped and he looked like he was disappointed. “Well, at least I tried.” He began to leave, but I yelled for him to stop and he listened.
I glared. “Okay, so Alice was part angel, part demon-“
“They’re called Nephalem,” the demon said, as if trying to be helpful.
“Right,” I said. “But why does that matter? Why did you have to kill her to start the apocalypse?”
Belphegor laughed a little. “Oh, you detectives get too much credit I swear. Only the strongest demon could open the gates of Hell. I’m powerful, but not that much. But add in a dose of Nephalem blood? Power up!” He laughed again.
“Well, I’ll send in our old friend Drizella later. I hope you like blood, because she sure does. See you around, detective!” Then he was gone. Not through a door, just gone, like he was never there in the first place.
I struggled against my constraints, but nothing was working. I couldn’t believe it. This was how I was going to die. Tied up, having just found out who Alice’s murderer was and why she was killed. And no one else would ever know.
I refused to give in, but really, what else could I do? Even if I got out of this room, I had nothing to fight with. Who knew if I could even kill these things will any weapon I could find, if they could be killed at all. And even if I got out, what would I do? I don’t know how to kill a demon, how to stop the gates of Hell from opening.
The world might end before tomorrow, and I could do nothing but wait.
I continued to struggle, hoping that just maybe something would come loose, but it almost seemed to get tighter. After what felt like an hour but was probably only 20 minutes, I heard footsteps. They were light, but I heard a click every time, which meant they were in heels. Why anyone would voluntarily walk around in those I have no idea, but maybe monsters have a higher tolerance for pain (I’ve never worn them of course, but my mom used to say they were the devil’s shoes).
The woman who opened the door was someone I knew. She was the vampire that had attacked me and Logan when we had met. “So, you’re Drizella I’m guessing,” I asked. The vampire’s smiled a devilish smile in response.
“Makes sense. Drizella was the ugly stepsister, right?”
The vampire didn’t like that. She first hit my sides with a punch each (that was when I found out that vampires do in fact have super strength), and then leaned near my face. “Fine, you want to play dirty, what’s worse than draining you of blood?” I noticed her teeth. They were so much more obvious now, and they were sharp.
She bit down on my neck. I felt her fangs puncture my skin, felt the blood leave my body. It was as painful as being stabbed, maybe worse. Drizella enjoyed it. I could tell she found the utmost pleasure in killing me. I suppose I have that effect on people.
Then the door opened again.
I don’t think Drizella expected anyone else to come in, but I was too lightheaded. My body felt cold, and it was like I could feel my heart beating out my chest. I watched Drizella turn around, her eyes the color of the blood running down the sides of her mouth, only for something to slice her head off.
My need for sleep was overwhelming me, and because of it my vision was blurry. The person who saved me from becoming a limp body on the floor knelt in front of me, but I couldn’t make out his features. Just blue eyes.
“Damn, she really got you huh,” he said. I nodded weakly. He made quick work of the ties, which normally would’ve made me embarrassed had I been fully conscious.
He helped me up but I stumbled. I needed to sleep. The guy grabbed me before I hit the ground. “You have to make this harder than it has to be, don’t you?” I looked at him, and for a second, I could make out a face. But my mind still wasn’t working.
The next thing I saw was darkness, and the next thing I felt was my entire body going limp, and the person who had saved my life catching me.
When I woke up, I could still feel my heart beating fast. I sat up, my breath quickening. My eyes hadn’t adjusted, and I had no idea where I was. Had I even got out? I couldn’t remember anything but blue eyes, and passing out from blood loss. I felt my neck, but it had been bandaged.
I stood up. My legs didn’t feel like they could support me. My entire body was hot and sweat dripped down my face. Where was I? How did I get here? Did they catch me again? Was I going to die?
Suddenly, I felt the presence of someone running into the room. I grabbed the first thing I could find, which happened to be an unplugged lamp, and held it up to the person, ready to strike.
But it wasn’t Drizella, or Belphegor, or any other enemy.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” the person said hands up. He walked slowly towards me, careful to make sure that if I did swing he wouldn’t get hit.
I lowered the lamp, and my eyes allowed me to see who the person was.
“Logan,” I said quietly, questioning my own sanity. He nodded with a small smile. “It’s okay. You’re okay,” he said, putting his hands on my shoulders. In the heat of the moment, I decided to hug him.
Now I’ve never been a hugger, but for some reason I didn’t know what else to do. I guess when you almost die that’s what happens. It felt like he was the only thing tying me to the living, which makes sense since he was the reason I was alive in the first place.
Logan had no idea what to do for a few seconds, so I was going to let go, but then he figured it out. He hugged me back, gently, as to make sure I didn’t bruise myself more. “You’re safe. I promise you’re safe,” he said to me. I was scared, scared this was one of Belphegor’s messed up illusions, but I believed Logan. This was real. This felt real. At the moment it was all I could ask for.
I let go. “Logan, why would you do that,” I asked. I was genuinely curious, but he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
“What do you mean?”
“Come for me. What I said…I shouldn’t have done that. You were helping me, I was being a jerk,” I said. “I’m sorry, for all that. You’re not a monster.”
Logan smiled a little, as if he just heard a joke. “Yeah I am. I’m just one of the good ones,” he said.“But thanks anyway.”
I felt embarrassed, to say the least. He had just saved my life, and after what I had said I didn’t deserve it. I didn’t deserve anything from him, not forgiveness, definitely not his friendship, nothing. If I had been him, I would’ve turned around and never looked back. But instead he had come right back, saved my life, and basically told me not to mention it, that it was nothing.
“Logan, I really am sorry. I’m not just saying that because you saved my life. I want you to know that. I’m not really a trusting person, and finding out that you lied to me, I know it’s not an excuse but-”
He shook his head. “David,” he interrupted. “I get it. I know you well enough to know that you feel bad, and I forgive you. I understand why you said what you did. I would’ve freaked out too if I found out someone I trusted wasn’t even human,” he said.
I smiled a little. “Good, because I’m probably going to need your help.”
He scoffed. “Of course you do,” he said, teasing. I pushed his shoulder and he laughed. “What is it? Did you find the killer before almost becoming vampire food?”
I nodded. “But it’s not what we thought. Joseph Piper, maybe he got possessed or something, I don’t know. He’s not a vampire, he’s a demon. Said his name was Belphegor.”
Logan almost lost balance. “Wait, as in demon of sloth?” I remembered what the demon had said and nodded.
“You know him,” I asked. Logan looked at me with wide eyes. “You don’t? He’s a pretty known demon.” Seeing I had no reaction, he brushed it off and continued talking.
“David, vampires are not nearly as bad as demons. They’re like, teddy bears next to them. I don’t even know how you’d go about killing one, especially one that literally symbolizes one of the 7 deadly sins,” he explained. “I don’t know how to help you.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “I know it’s dangerous, but if we don’t do anything, he’s going to bring about the apocalypse. We can’t just let that happen.” Logan let out a deep breath. “Look, I’ll try to help, but I don’t know how. Marina might have some books on them.”
He motioned for me to follow him, and I did so. My legs still felt like they might collapse under me a little, but it got better the more I walked, so I refused to let Logan help me when he asked. We made it to the dining room, where Marina was sitting at the table, looking at some tarot cards. She had 3 cups of tea, as if expecting company soon. She turned to us the second we walked in. When Marina saw me, I saw her eyes light up, but her emotions seemed foreign to me. She stood up and came over to me. She hugged me tightly, and for a second I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Then I got used to the feelings of her long arms around me, and it became comfortable. I hugged back lightly. When she let go, she hit me in the back of the head.
“Who thought a detective could be such an idiot? I told you, go with Logan, that working with him would make things easier, but why would you listen to the psychic who can tell how things will turn out? That would be too smart, wouldn’t it?”
I let her speak. Fighting with her was pointless, and she was right anyway.
Marina sighed. “I told you, I’d tell Logan what you wanted to say even if you didn’t know it. You want to know what I said? I told him why you were so angry, that it wasn’t even really him. I told him that even if you didn’t know it, you needed him, you needed him to follow you.”
“Wait,” I said. “What do you mean why I was angry?”
Marina’s face changed from fury to sadness. “David, I know what happened to you as a kid. I can see into your soul, one of my many psychic gifts. You couldn’t trust the people who were supposed to be the most trustworthy, so the minute someone else you thought maybe you could trust turned out to have secrets, you decided to run away before you got hurt again. That is correct, right?”
I think she took my silence as a yes.
Marina gave me a sad smile. “Believe me when I say I am sorry that all happened to you. Now, how about we talk about how to kill Belphegor?” Normally I would ask how she knew we were fighting a demon, but then I remembered she could read souls and see the future, so it seemed like a dumb question to ask.
“Okay, and we can do all that, right,” I asked. Marina looked around, as if she had a checklist in her head. Then she nodded. “As long as we can get there before he opens the Gates of Hell.”
I sighed. “Which we don’t know the location of,” I said. Logan banged his head against the table we were sitting at. “Well then this is pointless,” he muttered.
Marina patted his shoulder and sat him up. “We’ll find it. There has to be something we just haven’t found yet.” The tea was already cold, and the table was piled high with books, and yet we couldn’t find anything.
I racked my brain for anything I could remember hearing about. I felt there was something. Some legend I had heard years ago.
It was faint, but I remembered some older kids telling me when I was little, maybe I was 8? I couldn’t remember, I just couldn’t-
The Gates of Hell.
“I think I have an idea,” I said. Marina motioned for me to continue.
“Well, I used to live in Pennsylvania. There were these gates, seven of them, but you could only see them all at night, otherwise you’d only see one. People thought they were the gates of Hell, that if you made it to the last one and went through, you would either go to Hell or a demon would greet you,” I explained, the words pouring out before I fully understood them myself.
Logan looked up at me and smiled. “So we got a lead,” he said, as if this was the most exciting thing he’d ever heard. I nodded. “Unless it really is just a legend, yeah,” I said.
Marina nodded. “Alright then, go! We don’t have time to waste!” She said, grabbing our arms and pulling us up. She handed Logan a knife and a canteen. She then gave me my gun.
“Wait,” I said, planting my feet firmly on the ground before she pushed us out the door. “How do we do this?”
Marina shrugged. “Just pour the water on your weapon, and don’t miss. God, please don’t miss. Other than that, take my car and go, it could take 4 hours, maybe more, to get there. If you don’t get there before Belphegor does,” she said.
Logan chuckled. “Okay, okay,” he said, walking on his own accord. I followed. We were out the door when Marina said her final words to us.
“Be careful.”
Marina’s car was an Acura, which I was happy about since I did not want to drive to battle with a demon in some hippie van. Logan said he should probably drive, since I was still recovering, and I let him. It was silent for a while as he sped up. We were definitely past the speed limit, but sometimes you have to break some rules to save the world. The car smelled clean, and I wondered if Marina was a neat freak or if Logan did it, since I couldn’t imagine Marina going out in this car a lot.
We stopped at a red light. That turned out to be a mistake.
Somebody knocked on my window and I looked. It was Elliot. My old partner. My eyes widened as he pointed a gun at me. The windows were closed, but I heard him clearly. “Get out of the car, now.”
I did as he said, watching every one of his movements. His hands were shaking slightly. I didn’t think he would shoot me. “Elliot,” I tried. He shook his head and his hands tightened around his gun. “Shut up!”
I did as he said. I saw more cop cars surrounding us. Logan had been escorted out of the car, and one of the other policemen held him. “Let him go, he’s not an accomplice,” I said. Logan looked at me as if he couldn’t believe what I had just said. The policeman let go of him.
Elliot grabbed me roughly and pushed me down to the car. He put handcuffs on me. “You have the right to remain silent,” he said. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?” He pulled me up and I nodded.
The last thing I saw before being shoved in the car was blue eyes.
Slam.
Dun dun dun! What do you think will happen next? Do you think they'll stop the demon, or will David be convicted? Answer in comments!
