Page 50 of Unbinding the Demon
-Thirty minutes earlier-
Thick clouds of smoke swirled up into the night sky, appearing like forlorn spirits drifting upon the freezing winds. Flames flickered and consumed the scorched flesh of the dead, leaving the blackened corpses unrecognizable. My hands gently cupped Gwendolyn’s rosy cheeks while I pressed her soft, warm lips to mine in a quick but loving kiss.
I pulled back and peered into her beautiful emerald-green eyes. Her gaze was both apprehensive and vacillating. Without saying a word, I flapped my wings and flew off toward the lloigor. Unease constricted in my gut upon leaving her, but at least she had Belzar to protect her.
As I soared over the area, I scanned the surroundings. Lacey and William were standing hand in hand among the wreckage, staring in utter disbelief at the lloigor. All but a few of the corrupted had been incinerated. And Adelstein was retreating through the back entrance of the church like the craven miscreant he was. I gritted my teeth in anger.
Of course he’d be too much of a coward to fight me himself! Why would I expect anything else from that spineless knave!?
Although I had to hand it to him. Summoning a lloigor was a damn good move. They were malicious cosmic souls that had traveled to and colonized The Abyss long ago. It was there that they grotesquely manifested their bodies out of pure, dark abyssal essence. They worked as a hive mind under the control of one great lloigor, their only desire being to enslave and bring death to all life. They usually dwelt within the abyssal shadow realm unless they were summoned out. The problem was, that thing actually had the potential to kill me, even with my powers unbound, and it could also traverse the shadows.
I’d never fought one before, but I still knew that Hellfire was the only way to kill it. I just needed to lure it far enough away from Gwendolyn and the others to safely do so without incinerating them and destroying the entire town. I contemplated teleporting them out of there first, but that would have been a foolish move. The lloigor would sense the shadowed activity and follow, putting them in unnecessary danger.
Freezing air hissed beneath my wings as I glided past its hideous, lizard-like face. It unleashed a deafening screech, then snapped its colossal jaws at me, flashing several rows of black, razor-sharp teeth. Its putrescent breath fanned my face as I soared by, nearly suffocating me to death and knocking me right out of the air with the stench alone. I gagged while swooping past a few swaying oaks. Then I flipped onto my back and flipped it off with both hands, further antagonizing the deplorable creature to chase after me.
“That’s right, come and get me, you foul-breathed, fat-tailed gecko!”
Its black lizard-like head tracked my movement like a true predator. It growled low, similar to a crocodile, while the long, sharp spines on its back bristled up in anger. The ground shook as it took a powerful step forward and began chasing me. Its lengthy, spiked tail swooshed behind it, cracking like a whip.
The oak trees snapped with branches and splintered wood billowing out all around as the formidable creature charged. I landed on the central tower of Aspen Hall, perched like a gargoyle upon the edge of the large gray bricks that made up the cathedral-like building. The wind whipped through my hair, and my eyes glowed with bloodlust, while I stoically watched my reptilian foe approach like a rabid dingo. I didn’t want to get too far ahead of it, after all.
A few measly pebbles plummeted down to the ground as I shifted on my feet. The lloigor screeched and came barreling into the side of the building. Two of its four arms scraped across the walls, shattering the large, paned windows and loudly cracking the stone. It began to rapidly claw its way up the side of the tower while snarling and snapping its disgusting, saliva-coated maw. I took off flying again, continuing to lead it further away.
As I glided over the deserted town center, it traversed the shadows and reappeared right next to me. I was taken off guard, as its monstrous spiked tail whipped out and smacked me right out of the air, causing me to crash into a random building below.
I burst through the ceiling with bricks, dust, and debris falling all around me. I unceremoniously landed in what appeared to be a classy Italian-style restaurant. A fancy crystal chandelier came smashing down with me, causing glittering shards to shatter and spray all over the floor. I found myself atop a tangle of luxurious marble tables, now smashed because of my fall. Cherry wood chairs topped with red velvet cushions laid broken in disarray, along with several decorations. I pulled off a menu that was impaled on one of my horns, briefly noting the quite fair price of their “Rosetti Spaghetti.”
As I stood up, ready to fly right back out of there, I heard the infamous click of a rifle. I glanced over to my left where I saw Kyle, that damn bartender, standing behind the bar like a filthy, frazzled dingbat. He was wearing zombie apocalypse-type raiment, with a buckle belt strapped around his forehead and everything. His light brown hair was disheveled, and his brown eyes were crazed and fearful. He looked like a fucking loon.
I was pleased to have found a survivor, even if it was just Kyle , and I didn’t want him to burn once I unleashed Hellfire. So I decided I should warn him to get to safety. I looked him dead in the eye with an infernal glow and opened my mouth to speak... Then he pulled the trigger and shot me. The bullet merely bounced off my chest and hit the floor with a ping. I held eye contact and watched as his face contorted with pure horror.
“Get below ground before I incinerate you.” Demonic ferocity darkened my features while my deep, diabolical voice bellowed across the room. It came out sounding far more intimidating than I had planned.
He began to scramble over to a nearby door. Then he stumbled and fell against a shelf on the wall, causing a few liquor bottles to crash to the floor. His trembling hands fumbled pathetically with the doorknob for a moment before he hysterically opened it and rushed inside as if he were running for his very life. I could tell it led down to the basement because after that, I heard him tumbling down a flight of stairs.
Well, I didn’t hear the rifle go off while on his way down, so I’m going to assume he’s okay .
My attention was ripped away from Kyle’s well-being and back to the fight at hand, as a massive, taloned foot came crashing into the room. I gave the lloigor the slip and sprinted out of the front door. No need to allow the worthless skink to corner me. The freezing wind assaulted my bare skin and hissed through my hair. I flew up and hovered at eye level with it. It was still digging into the building, searching for me. I formed a fireball in my hand and threw it at the idiotic thing.
“I’m over here, you dumb fuck!”
It screeched in pain, then looked at me while tilting its head in a creepy but curious manner. A low, dragonish growl rumbled deep within its chest, then it lashed out at me using its tail again. I dodged the attack, and we continued on with our deadly game of cat and mouse for a short while longer.
As I flew over the wavering canopy of frosted forestland, I smiled to myself, thinking the lloigor was almost exactly where I wanted it. I turned around to peek at its location, and then I frowned in confusion and brought my soaring to a halt. It had stopped following me just within the border of the town center and was staring at me with taunting, mischievous eyes. It lifted its head and let out a few smug reptilian chirps that sounded a lot like mocking laughter. I hissed in rage. How dare that six-limbed salamander mock me! Much to my horror, it turned around and headed back toward the church, displaying an obvious lack of interest in me.
Oh, fucking Hell no!
I dove after it, furiously flapping my wings to pick up speed. A torrent of flames poured from my hands, scorching its spiny back. It roared in pain as it turned back around and snapped its jaws like an angry viper. I did a skillful aerial flip to avoid its massive tail from striking me once again, then hovered in front of its snarling face.
“You’ll have to do better than that if you want to catch me, you nasty newt!” I sneered, then flew back toward the forest. But once again, it did not follow.
What the actual fuck is it doing? I figured this thing would be eager to follow me like some mindless lummox?
“Adelstein is approaching Gwendolyn, and I am being stabbed and cannot move. We need you to come back!” My heart dropped to my stomach, and fear coursed through my veins at the sound of
Belzar’s distraught voice echoing in my mind.
I panicked and attempted to traverse the shadows. Unfortunately, the lloigor followed my move and also traversed the shadows. Not even a split second later, it smacked me back with its tail before I could get near them. Like a determined suicidal madman, I frantically tried to reach them again and again, traversing into the shadows only to be violently whacked back out. I was desperate and frustrated, yet I couldn’t get past the damn thing.
My back smashed into the large trunk of a walnut tree, lodging my horned wings in the wood. The tree cracked in two and crashed loudly to the ground. I remained stuck against it, all beaten and bedraggled as it toppled over. As I pried my wings from the bark and healed myself, my eyes widened in realization.
Fuck! This is a trap!
The lloigor was intentionally staying close to the church, so I couldn’t kill it without killing the humans as well. Yet, it was keeping me far enough away so that I couldn’t help them, either. Fire and fury coursed through my veins, and the flames in my eyes burned with venomous rage. That was my pup and my Buttercup it was keeping me from protecting, and I was suddenly really fucking
pissed off .
I roared like an enraged beast and flapped my wings while spewing a blazing torrent of flames from my hands. The lloigor let out a bloodcurdling shriek, thrashing in agony. Flames roared against its form, fueled by my fierce assault. I pressed forward, relentless and determined, driving it back inch by inch. I hoped, perhaps, it would recoil just enough for me to get past it.
“Adelstein is attacking Gwendolyn!” Belzar shouted in my head with panic, causing me to lose my focus.
“Azath — Ah!” I heard Gwendolyn scream in the distance.
No!
I didn’t have any fucking time to deal with this shit! I had to be there for my beloved Buttercup! With one final burst of flames at the lloigor’s face, I traversed the shadows in a frenzied attempt to reach her. But the all-too-clever lloigor predicted my rash and foolish move.
Black mist swirled all around me as I entered the shadows... And then my whole body was stunned stiff. A sharp, scathing pain radiated through my abdomen. My gaze warily drifted down, yet I was unable to process what had just happened. My mouth fell agape in shock as I stared at the huge, sharp talon piercing my stomach, with my crimson blood oozing out around it.
A deep growl vibrated low and sinister within the depths of the lloigor’s chest. It ruthlessly shoved me to the frosty ground, pinning me against the brittle dead grass with its claw still impaled in my torso. I gritted my teeth to bite back a hiss of pain. The earth below me sizzled and burned as I struggled to free myself, my wings flapping like a bird caught in the claws of a cat.
The lloigor’s black abyssal scales consumed the bright moonbeams that glimmered down upon it, swallowing them up within its unfathomable darkness. An unsettling, victorious grin seemed to spread across its insidious, looming face, causing thick, stringy drool to drip down onto me. Dark abyssal essences started flowing out of the talon and straight into my veins, turning my bright flames black. Darkness enveloped my eyes, transforming them into stygian pools of obsidian.
Horrified, I stared up at the lloigor with a newfound sense of what exactly it was doing. It wasn’t trying to kill me. It was corrupting me. I could feel the penumbra of its magic overshadowing the light of my soul, creeping up to my brain and deranging my mind. Though try as I might, I couldn’t seem to break free from its grasp. And the more I fought, the more corrupted I became.
Now partially lost to the corruption and insanity, I started snarling like a rabid animal. Darkness and bloodlust consumed my thoughts, and a maniacal grin twisted across my face. I just wanted to kill the lloigor! My jaw eerily dropped open, flashing my fangs, as an infectious stream of black flames poured out of my mouth and up onto its face.
The lloigor was taken aback and roared as it recoiled from my assault. I laughed like a deranged madman while it ripped its claw from my stomach, tearing a chunk of my bloody flesh out with it. I ignited both my hands with corrupt black flames and began attacking the lloigor like a psychotic berserker, taking out trees and buildings with us. Even though I was only partly corrupted, the effects of the dark abyssal essence were already eating away at my mind. It moved through me like squirming maggots consuming rotting flesh.
I snarled and growled, and maniacally laughed as I continued my brutal assault for a few more minutes. The gaping wound in my abdomen oozed with dark abyssal essence, and blackened veins began spreading out around it. Abandoned by sanity, my mind was infected, and I was lost to my now heightened bloodlust. All my shadowed thoughts revolved around death and destruction.
I roared while clobbering the lloigor on its stony jaw in a demented frenzy, ripping the flesh from my bones and leaving my knuckles raw and exposed. The frigid wind whipped my hair all around as I flapped my wings to hover before it. It tilted its head, allowing putrid black drool to trickle from its sharp black fangs. Its alien eyes found mine, and then it seemed to put me under an incomprehensible trance, creating the illusion that time was standing still around us.
“Why does thou still fight me, o’ horned beast of the morning star?” It spoke telepathically into my mind in a very ancient draconian language. The eerie words were hauntingly primordial and malign-sounding. I tilted my head back at it with curiosity, as I stared with my now-matching black abyssal eyes. “Do we not desire the same thing? To bring death upon the earth? To corrupt and enslave humanity?” it cooed sinisterly.
Somewhere deep in my blackening soul, I knew that wasn’t what I wanted at all. I wanted to return to Hell, see my family again, and start my own family with Gwendolyn. But the corruption was infecting and decaying my lucidity. It allowed the lloigor to slip into my head and align my thoughts and desires with its own, like an insidious parasite. I grinned sadistically at the thought of destroying the earth, delighting in the idea of exterminating all life. I felt the lloigor’s powerful, all-consuming animosity for humanity as if it were my own. A depraved virulence washed over me while black ooze began dripping from my mouth.
“Hmm, yes, it seems we do want the same thing.” My voice was eerily dark and echoed with an abyssal undertone. “Let us cast the shadow of death upon the earth as the dark clouds of Hsarohpem ascend. We shall allow the age of corruption to arise like a darkened dawn, consuming all life within its blackened veil.” I sinisterly chuckled... I was completely bonked out of my mind .
“Very well. It has been many millennia since I’ve last beheld a being of infernal kind. Mayhap thou shalt not prove so willful as those who came before thee and allow the girl to be slain. Grant us the freedom we require to enact our blessed destruction,” the lloigor malevolently purred.
Welp, that snapped me out of it.
I snarled with rage at the thought of harm coming to her. I wasn’t fully corrupted, so I still had a small amount of rational thought left. And even if I was, the proprietorial and protective pull that my sacred claim created was primal and would remain. Its silvery spiritual cord was almost fully strengthened now that we were halfway through the final step of our infernal matrimony, which had officially brought us to the point of no return. Nothing, not even corruption or death, could break its power now. She was mine for all eternity, and I would slaughter anything that dared threaten her.
“No!” Seemingly right on cue, Gwendolyn’s faint scream echoed through the dark night air. She sounded more distressed than I had ever heard her before, causing some of my sanity and fear to return.
Black flames poured from my hands, knocking the lloigor back down. Air rushed beneath my wings as I began to fly toward her. I saw Belzar thrashing Adelstein around by his head, then he threw him off to the side. My gaze honed in on Gwendolyn. She was crying on the ground in front of Lacey, but seemed all right. It was hard to tell in my corrupted state, yet I could still see that all three humans were injured. However, they were all alive and, for the most part, safe.
I felt a slight mental tug from Belzar trying to communicate with me. But my mind was too clouded with corruption for his thoughts to enter. The lloigor had followed and was hot on my trail, so I yelled at him instead of leading that lard lizard back over there. “Belzar! Get them out of here, right now! I have to unleash Hellfire!”
He snapped his head up at me with intense distress and concern. I surmised it was because he heard the abyssal depths within my voice and could see my blacked-out eyes. He nodded and teleported behind Gwendolyn. Then he, Gwendolyn, and Lacey all disappeared from the field of burning bodies.
I dodged the lloigor’s massive claws as it swatted at me and uprooted yet another innocent tree. Now that my primal instinct to protect my soon-to-be bride was satisfied, I continued to fight for a short while longer. Black ooze sprayed from my mouth as I cackled and snarled like a twisted bedlamite.
Belzar’s distinctive howl resounded from the mountainside. It ripped through the silken veil of silence shrouding the valley, alerting me that the humans were now safe. The harrowing notes of his mournful howl danced together like the tortured wails of forlorn souls trapped within the netherworld, writhing in unison as one single ghastly melody. It was a sound that only an abyss wolf could produce.
The lloigor turned its head and growled in the direction from which the howl was coming. I used its distraction to my full advantage and teleported in a direction that it would not anticipate—up. My misty breath fanned around my corrupted face, swirling towards the thick, moonlight-illuminated clouds that were slowly concealing the constellations. My wings gently flapped as I hovered and gazed down upon the night-cloaked land.
Mist swirled throughout the quiescent trees and across the glistening, frozen rivers. The wandering footfalls of the undead crunched over the crystalline ice that adorned the ground like a frosty carpet. Belzar’s howl faded into silence, and I gazed toward the steep, mountainous mantle upon which he stood for a second.
I closed my eyes and breathed in the dark lunar glow. And for the first time in over five thousand years, I ignited Hellfire within my veins. The first spark was kindled within my forehead, between my brows, illuminating my third eye with a fiery ball of light. Then it swiftly spread, blazing throughout my entire soul like wildfire and burning away all the corruption.
I relished the feeling of my demonic soul burning so brightly after being imprisoned and powerless in a world of eternal darkness for so long. I willed the flames to heal my wounds as my spirit reconnected with the fires of Hell. A blissful smile spread across my face, and my hair flowed around me as if possessed by my power. My eyes snapped back open, revealing my now incandescent, Luciferian white light gaze. I peered down at the lloigor, and my smile twisted into a sadistic grin.
Time to die, fucker.
I began rapidly plummeting down toward it, burning hotter and hotter as I descended. The lloigor didn’t even have time to register what was happening. It had only just turned to look up at me when I smashed into it with the spikes of my wings pointed forward, impaling its skull. It roared in agony, but the deafening crescendo of fiery destruction drowned the sound out from the impact.
The lloigor combusted and disintegrated into nothing more than black ashes as Hellfire erupted out of me. It unfurled around us as a gigantic ring of blazing doom. The flames roared, voraciously consuming the entire town center, swallowing homes and buildings whole. In the blink of an eye, Sycamore Valley was reduced to smoldering smithereens, leaving nothing but echoes of chaos and emptiness behind.
I smiled in satisfaction as the ashes fluttered around my face. Now I just had to see if Adelstein had survived the blast. I had a feeling he had. Chances were, if he was still near the church, he’d be badly burned but not dead, thanks to his level of corruption.
I flapped my wings and glided over the scorched earth and smoking ruins. Smoke filled the now-warm air, swirling up to the sky in thick wisping tendrils. The slithering smog slowly parted, revealing the scalding, dilapidated pile of rubble that had once been the church. The bell tower had only half toppled over. It remained stuck in the air, outstretched diagonally over the graveyard with the bell limply dangling down. It hauntingly swayed back and forth, as if being pushed by some unseen spirit.
Adelstein was stumbling over the wreckage, with rage and distress visible on his mutilated face. His cloak was singed and covered in soot. I landed with sturdy feet upon the burning debris before him, with my fiery gaze searing into his soul. He trembled at the sight of me and staggered backward onto the lopsided bell tower.
“Please, please don’t kill me, Azathoth! I was only trying to do what was best for humanity,” he pathetically begged like the undignified milquetoast he was.
Such a worthless coward .
“What’s best for humanity?” I growled. “Look around you! Do you not see the meaningless death and suffering you caused all these innocent people!?” I furiously gestured around at the hundreds of smoldering corpses littered about the ground. “They were mothers and fathers, husbands and wives! You spared not the elderly nor the children! You damned them to abyssal corruption, extinguishing the very light of their souls!”
“They were sinners!” he proclaimed with self-righteous anger in his voice, revealing his true colors. “And they’re better off dead than living in sin! Besides, I purified them before you came along and slaughtered them like the demonic beast you are! Now their souls will be granted access to heaven’s pearly gates, all thanks to me!”
The tempestuous clouds devoured the nocturnal skies, seducing the stars into their dark embrace while transcending the moon. And as the empyrean heavens darkened behind me, so did my malicious glower.
“No, Adelstein, they will not be entering through those fictitious pearly gates of which you so foolishly speak. For the mountains of heaven are hollow, and the Nazarene’s promises are meretricious. Souls use their light to reincarnate when the right time to leave the spirit realm comes. But you have destroyed their light, damning them to wander the earth in darkened and bereft incorporeality until they slowly fade out of existence. You have brought death to their very souls .” My words dripped with venom as I slowly but furiously began walking toward him.
Adelstein continued to stumble back in fear, making his way up along the outstretched bell tower. I followed him step for step, not letting him gain any distance between us. The wind dramatically blew my hair to the side, as waves of lethal anger radiated off me.
“In the name of God, I rebuke you, evil and unclean spirit! Slanderous iconoclast!” he shouted, while pointing his shaky finger at me in a lame, last-resort attempt to defeat me. “You are no match for the power of God, which forces you to shudder and kneel before the name of Jesus Christ! The god of peace shall crush Satan beneath his feet, and you, demon, will be cast away to the eternal lake of fire!”
Cast away to the eternal lake of fire? Good thing I don’t burn .
I laughed while grabbing the axe from my belt loop as I pulled it from the shadows. It mellifluously hissed through the air as I swiftly threw it at him. The blade pierced his chest dead in the center. The force of the blow forced him to stagger back and almost lose his balance, nearly falling off the very tip of the bell tower. He wheezed with his mouth hanging open, unable to move from the intense pain and shock that was now spreading through him.
Normally, I wouldn’t waste my breath on a dead man. I’d killed enough to know that doing so was a complete waste of time. But he wasn’t just a dead man. He was going to remember this moment as he writhed in agony within the abyssal pits for all eternity. Ironically, he would find no salvation. I inwardly smiled at the thought.
My eyes glowed as I slowly closed the distance between us, speaking with ascendancy in my voice. “Am I shuddering? Am I kneeling?” I turned my palms up and spread my arms out in a taunting way. “No, clearly I am not. Your god has lied about the supposed power he holds over us, as well as his fallacious victory over Satan, the almighty bringer of light. For it is within the nature of a tyrant to spread untruths and fear about the liberator who threatens his oppressive reign.”
A burning board snapped beneath my boot, and the bell tower jolted, threatening to crash to the ground. The chilling winds howled, and the bell ominously chimed as I continued approaching Adelstein. His tattered and filthy white cloak flapped out over the edge, while he stared at me with both pain and fear of the devil in his blackened eyes.
“Your despotic god shall have no victory. For that odious lacertian tyrant who lurks within the cosmic heavens is losing his ensnarement over the earth. His leviathan web is crumbling as his weakening toqeph is reversed. And when the dawn of truth arises, all who are of him shall be cast out of the garden of Astarte. Satan will pour the Aquarian waters upon the flaming Gaia, and the mother shall gladly welcome the father’s rain. The bright morning star shall ascend in the east, clearing the Sethian smog from the skies. Humanity will be liberated and enlightened, and the earth will be restored. That is the nature of the Luciferian age. The age of the risen serpent.”
I was now face to face with him. He opened his mouth like he was trying to speak, but couldn’t form the words. I growled as he desperately gasped for air.
“But you’re not going to witness any of that. Because you died a coward at the hands of a demon!” I gritted my teeth in anger.
My long, wisping hair danced around my face as I yanked the axe from his chest and swiftly sliced his head off with one effortless swing of the blade. My arm remained outstretched to my side, perfectly in line with the axe, while I kicked his headless body off the top of the tower. An expression of horror was frozen onto his marred abyssal face, while his lifeless head and body both listlessly fell to the cindered earth below, dramatically turning to a puff of ash as they hit the ground.
My face remained stoic while my infernal eyes watched the ashes swirl away in the wind for a few minutes. Then the corner of my mouth turned up into a soft smile. It was over.
The reality that I could finally go home after so long overwhelmed me. I fell to my knees laughing like a maniac, causing the tower to collapse below me. I gladly fell with it, with tears of joy falling down my face as the bell loudly gonged. I was out of The Abyss! I was unbound! My poisonous wound had healed! And now I had a beautiful and beloved woman whom I was going to make my bride! It seemed luck was finally on my side after I’d suffered for so long.
I wanted nothing more than to hold my Buttercup in my arms and kiss her repeatedly all over her dainty little face. I victoriously arose from the ashen ruins and then disappeared in a cloud of black mist.
The starless sky was eerily dark, and the warmth from the fiery blast had resigned to the freezing winter winds once again. The three of us were now huddled against Belzar’s warm, fluffy side, avoiding the off-putting undead area where his ribs were exposed.
William was delirious, mumbling about Oliver with his eyes squeezed shut, and Lacey was cold and unmoving. Her eyes were open but blank, as if she were staring off into some mysterious, unseen void.
My bones rattled and my teeth chattered from the cold. The pain from my injuries had long since gone numb. Belzar seemed anxious and somber. He tried to offer me comfort in his own unique doggy way. His massive abyss wolf head lovingly nuzzled against my cheek, tickling my skin with his soft fur while he whimpered.
We both snapped to attention as Azathoth appeared before us with a black poof. “Well, good news. I killed Adelstein. Bad news, I destroyed... the... town ...” His voice died off, and his face fell as he took in the sight of us. He immediately rushed over to Lacey. “Shit! How long has she been dead!?” he asked in panic while putting his hands on her and healing her wounds.
Dead? No, no, no... She’s not dead... She’s not dead... She’s not dead! I psychotically chanted in my head to convince myself otherwise. Deep in the back of my mind, I already knew the truth. I just couldn’t let myself believe it. I was trapped in a state of hollow denial. It felt like I was frowning into some clandestine mirror and seeing my smiling reflection, deceiving myself into giving in to the illusion of hope and serenity.
“No, no, she’s not dead. She’s going to be just fine. Right, Azathoth?” Even I could hear just how desperate and delusional I sounded.
The sorrowful look he gave me caused my heart to sink further into my stomach. “I-I honestly don’t know if she’ll make it or not. I can only heal her body to allow her spirit to return. If she’s been gone for too long, then there’s nothing I can do to bring her back.” He swallowed while taking in the sight of her.
“Come on, Lacey. Please come back.” Fear and anguish entwined in my hushed voice as I gently shook her lifeless body.
Azathoth moved over to William and pulled the obsidian dagger from his stomach. Blood gushed out in thick crimson spurts, further staining his pink shirt. The bleeding ceased as Azathoth sealed his wounds. He lowered his head to William’s ear and quietly commanded him to sleep before he could open his eyes.
He moved to me next and lightly placed his hands on my shoulders. It felt like warm waves of electricity were flowing out from his palms and through my veins. I felt my bones shift back into place and fuse back together. My burns disappeared while every scrape and bruise faded away. I hardly paid any attention to it, though. I was too focused on Lacey, eagerly waiting for her to come back to life as I wrapped her limp body in my arms.
As he healed Belzar, a look of astonishment lit up his face. If I hadn’t been so distraught and distracted, I would have noticed that not only did Belzar’s injuries heal, but the decayed areas on his undead body also filled in with healthy, living tissue. Belzar made a strange noise and looked at his side in confusion.
“No, I didn’t know that was possible either... Is it really?” Azathoth smashed his head against Belzar’s big, fluffy chest, listening to his heart. “Holy fucking Hell, it really is... Yes, yes, I hear it. It’s actually beating... You’re a living wolf?” He looked at Belzar with wide-eyed befuddlement, then turned his attention back to me and cleared his throat. “Why don’t you bring William to one of the guest bedrooms? Get him out of the cold? The house should still be standing.” His voice was now much softer and somber as he spoke to Belzar.
They exchanged glances of sorrow and pity. Belzar nodded to him, then stood up and walked around us over to William. He gently bit down on his leg, and then they both disappeared together. I felt Azathoth’s arms wrap around me in a comforting embrace. His large wings folded forward, providing shelter from the harsh, freezing winds and enwreathing me in welcome warmth.
“Do you think she’ll come back?” I whispered while caressing Lacey’s soft, curly hair.
Azathoth lovingly squeezed me tighter into his hold, taking a moment to respond. “I don’t know.” He sucked in a deep breath. “I think that if she was able to, then she probably would have by now.” He kissed the top of my head, keeping his mouth there as he began to rock me back and forth.
My breath hitched in the back of my throat and tears swam up into my eyes. As I wept, the heavens also began to lachrymosely release their frozen tears down upon us. Each glittering snowflake danced a grievous ballet as they fluttered down, cooling the scorched earth with their icy touch. I held my warm hand against her cold palm, watching with blurry vision as the snow softly kissed her quiescent face.
Azathoth’s large, clawed hand slowly reached over and gently closed her beautiful brown eyes for the last time. The sight caused my chest to violently heave, and uncontrollable sobs wracked my fatigued body. Cruel reality had finally whispered its bitter verities to my bereft spirit, a voice that I could deny no longer.
“Shhh,” Azathoth softly shushed. “I’m so sorry,” he cooed, his gentle touch caressing my hair.
But not even he could comfort me. I was heavily burdened with sorrow and had already drunk from the poisoned well of guilt. This was my fault .
My heartstrings shattered knowing this would be the last time I embraced my beloved best friend, and that soon she would be embraced by the rich soil of the earth. The depths of my soul filled with oceans of grief as I gazed down at her. A deathly blue hue covered her brown skin and rosy lips. Large, fluffy snowflakes rested on her beautiful face, catching on her long, thick lashes and clinging to the silken ringlets of her hair.
Belzar reappeared beside us and gave her cold cheek a mournful lick. He looked at me with sadness in his glowing golden eyes, then lifted his head and howled a grievous elegy. My tears flowed like rivers, dripping down onto her lifeless, tranquil face as I cried my heart out. Azathoth softly muttered consolatory words, but nothing could make this better, and he knew it. And so, as a flurry of shimmering snowflakes swirled around us, he began to grieve with me.
The fires below burned down to nothing more than ashes, then disappeared completely beneath winter’s glimmering veil. The bodies of the dead rested frozen and dressed in peace, while each crystalline flake gently floated down upon them. And the silent valley was generously adorned in a glittering blanket of purity.