Page 7 of Fallen: Darkness Ascending, Vol.1

I am his patient, and we are a bit more…intimate…than that, but, I get the feeling he likes spending money on me. Spoiling me. Buying me things he knows I like or will need. Anyt ime I mention making use of anything he’s got me, he gets a bit swell of pride and joy.

It’s actually really cute.

“I’m proud of you for being brave tonight.

Waking up confused, doing your breaths, walking yourself through all the steps—you are getting better at this, Hope.

It’s hard to remember when things are so fresh, and had just happened, but you are doing amazing.

I’m delighted I’ve been able to help you through this; let me know if there’s anything else you need, yes? Promise?”

Stray hops into the backseat, and I unplug the charger before I clamber into the front. “Promise. Th-Thank you, Cornelius. A-And…I…”

I swallow. Pause. Regret.

He gives me a few patient seconds before his voice growls warmly, “Tell me, little lamb. No secrets.”

Eyes closed, nodding and nodding, “Right, no, I just…I just want to know. To be sure that I do, actually, know and understand what happened, but…you…” Another pause, so I can breathe and get the car turned on. “Y-You actually killed me…didn’t you? This time.”

His silence is not a comfort. Nor is the neutrality of his voice when he does finally respond. “I did, little lamb. I killed you this time. It had to be done; I’m glad you’re uninjured, now.”

God, he actually did. It wasn’t just some misunderstanding of the situation, me not knowing what was going on or why, he actually, intentionally , killed me in hell tonight. He’s never, never ever?—

“Hope? You alright?”

I huff out a breath, finishing selecting Ajax’s address, and begin routing. “I’m okay. I’ll text you when I get there.”

“Good. I’ll see it on the drive log as well, but I always like to hear from you. Sleep well tonight, little lamb. You are safe , now. I promise.”

I breathe out, nodding, and whisper a goodbye as I hang up.

I try to think through it as I drive down the dark streets, as I call Delphi and get no answer, as I pull into a gas station and start to bring up Ajax’s information instead.

Car turned off, I get out and select my fuel type, beginning to pump.

I’ve suspected for a while now, that the special little trick Cornelius does for me to calm me down and bring me back to the real world was in some way similar to what the demons do.

It has the same draw to it, the magnetism, the drain.

But it always felt nice when Cornelius did it, relaxing, like he was siphoning all the bad energy out instead of the good.

And it never killed me. Never . I figured it was maybe the same type of ability, but with a different flavor for him since he’s an angel. That would make sense, right?

But if he can push the envelope like that, it can be uncomfortable, it can kill me…

So maybe it was a mercy-killing of sorts, but still…

Footsteps.

My head flicks to stare straight at the sound, some guy in his mid-late twenties. Unkempt hair, unclean clothes, a bit of muscle, close to six feet tall.

Danger.

He’s heading straight for me. He’s raising an arm, hand circling around vaguely, saying something. I can’t hear him. I can’t look away. My hand grips at the pump handle to stop the gas, and I pull it out to start quickly finishing up.

“I said I’m gonna need that car.”

Oh shit.

I ignore the screen asking if I want a free deluxe wash, his pace having quickened, and he’s only a couple steps from the hood of my very, very nice, white car now. His fingers beckon at me.

“Give me the keys right now. Right now, hand ‘em over or I’ll come over there and take ‘em from you. C’mon pretty girl?—”

I grab the back door handle and open it quick, Stray having been growling at the man but now he begins to bark as he jumps out and snaps right to my side, that ridge of hair down his back standing up taller now.

The man halts, assessing the dog, but his hand beckons again.

“Yeah and you can keep your dog when I take the car, too. Keys, now, toss them. Toss ‘em! You think I’m fucking scared?!” A hand dips under his coat, Stray sneaking a half-step forward to snarl now, and a glint of light makes me start to see red.

This is silver though, not gold, a thick pocket knife which he levels at Stray’s face.

“You wanna get your dog killed, or you wanna give me those keys? Stop thinking about it and do what I’m fucking telling you to , bitch! I said give me the fucking keys! ”

I’m panting, trying not to, focused on keeping the red at bay. “S-Stray, greet .”

Through the snarling, one large paw lifts up into the air and swipes toward the man as though giving him a threatening wave. The successful greet command has my heart lurching—I already have the worst luck in the world to be subjected to demonic hauntings, but now this ? A real-life danger, too?

Because if I go red right now and fall into hell, my real body stays right here . And there’s no telling what this guy will do when I can’t see him, and can’t really fight back.

“Just, just get back or I’ll release my dog?—”

“—you fucking hear me? I need that fucking car!”

The guy has dared another step forward, standing beside the hood of the car now at an angle like he’s ready to put his weight behind a punch—except this punch has a blade at the front of it.

Cornelius said Stray has bite training, and he’s told me the release word that would sic him on someone if I ever needed, but… this guy has a knife …

What if he gets hurt?

“Alright, that’s fucking enough?—”

He starts to step forward, a shuffle to his steps and lowering of his body and focus in his eyes that tells me he knows what to do in a fight.

The creaky old bulb of the gas station light above is crackles and runs dim, making his movements a little more difficult to see; that, or it’s just a second visit to hell within 6 hours. Lucky me.

“M-Mord?—”

I’m partway through stuttering out Stray’s bite command, and I see his body start to tense up in anticipation for the release, when the light blinks out above us and the man begins to choke. I see one shoe thrust outward as he struggles against something, body being pulled and twisted in place.

My fingers find the leather of Stray’s collar to hold him back, and to know he’s close to me, as a golden face appears from behind the man’s shoulder.

An arm, I realize, is tucked in across the front of his neck in a chokehold—and the man’s knife-hand is swinging back behind himself, attempting to stab at the thigh or hip of whoever is holding him, but the thrusts make no purchase.

It’s like there is no physical body behind him.

Just the darkness.

I find myself shaking my head, staring at the metal eyes of that mask. “ Y-You’re not real … ”

Phantasmus’s second hand reaches to the man’s face, grabbing at it carelessly.

His fingers stretch out long, like he enjoys the feel of the man’s struggling beneath his grip, and with a slow…

slow …twist that matches the speed of the demon’s growing smile, the man’s head is forced to turn as far to the side as it possibly can before snapping.

And even after the man desperately begins to stab in at the forearms holding him, the assailant fully unphased at the injuries, his head is forced even further.

He’s given such a sudden and quick half-inch jerk at the end that the speed of the maneuver startles me, the body starting to hang limp and the fingers coming away from that knife embedded in Phantasmus’s arm.

His dark fingers drag off the dead man’s face, curling in, then setting the pointer finger vertically against his slack mouth .

A dark, bubbling sound comes from the darkness. “ Shhhh… ”

I don’t know if it was directed at me or not, but my spare hand clasps over my mouth anyway as I hold my breath and stare, shaking. Stray whimpers, turning from the man who’s no longer a threat, and starts to put his muzzle on my crouching legs, my arm, to comfort me.

“G-Greet, Stray greet , greet him, Stray?—”

He looks to the dead man held in a demon’s arms, visibly confused. The paw lifts, but hesitates, and doesn’t offer a full wave before he shakes himself out in stressed confusion.

The sound of the man’s sneakers dragging across the pavement make me start to see blood, Stray quickly jumping up onto me and licking aggressively at my face and knocking the hell out of my eyes in time to see the man’s body carried around the corner of the other gas pump, and when he disappears behind the thick pillar there, he doesn’t come out on the other side.

Gone, for good, and the light bulb overhead begins to brighten back to it’s normal, old-amber tone.

I brush my hands across Stray’s face, thanking him, hugging at his shoulders for a few seconds. “Load up…c’mon.”

He has to be gently pushed from my lap before he obeys the command to jump back into the car.

I throw myself into the driver’s seat, turn on the engine and navigation, and accept the disclaimer to switch from gas to electric for auto-routing.

The car doesn’t begin to drive itself until I’ve buckled in, and when it does the calm speed at which it navigates out of the gas station parking lot feels way way way too slow for my liking—but I cover my face with both hands and breathe.

Stray puts a paw on the center console and whimpers into my ear and licks over my hands, unsatisfied with my current energy.

I start to even out again after we’re back on the main roads, enough to at least call Ajax—and thankfully, he answers.

I give him heads-up that I’m on my way, which he tiredly acknowledges as he goes to unlock his door, and after the call disconnects I sit in the silent car with overlapping, echoed, frantic thoughts.

This car drives itself, because Cornelius wanted me to have a safe way to get to a friend’s house if I ever needed to while being unable to drive.

Just twice ever have I been stuck in hell while in the car—on the other side, its one of those docile demons that walks around.

Last time I had to do this, it stopped at Delphi’s house and I was able to just trust myself enough to walk into the broken house, stepping over a few fallen bodies, and whisper into the empty room that I couldn’t see her.

She took me gently by the hands and sat me down on the couch made of corpses, and softly tapped my collarbones and blew across my face until I calmed and calmed and was back again.

Cornelius got me the car, and wrote letters to both my friends to insist on the importance of spontaneous sleepovers, without giving them too much detail they didn’t need—because so far, Phantasmus has never showed up in hell or real life when I’m with other people.

Earlier at the restaurant, he was far off in the distance and didn’t interact.

He even fled when he realized I saw him.

Not once has he ever appeared outside my friends’ windows, or opened their doors and perched on their end tables to watch us.

Meaning if that belligerent guy at the gas station was real , then this was the first time Phantasmus has ever appeared in front of other people. Not to mention physically interacting with those people.

And I’d almost maybe think the guy at the pumps wasn’t real either, but Stray greeted him! And was already barking at him, ready to fight. So he must have been real.

Which, I guess means either my hallucinations are super-powered somehow, or Phantasmus is also a real person who can also pass into hell, and is now breaking his own rules to fuck with me in-person in the real world.

…But, no, he can’t be real—Stray has never once greeted him or barked or snarled at him.

And when I try to show Phantasmus to Dr. Karagiannis in real life, through video, he doesn’t see the demon there.

Only ever in hell, and they’ve only ever faced off three times now, including tonight. Phantasmus has to just be in my head…

Stray paws at me forcefully now, almost slipping in his unbalance in the back seat as the car turns down a side-road. “Okay, okay, yes, I’ll take the meds…” I assure him. He still watches me like a hawk as I dig through the backpack to take out my prescription and the emergency mini water bottle.

I kick the two pills back, swallow, and turn spa music onto the car speakers to try and drown out my own thoughts.