Eyes of the Devil

Gerard awoke to a gray, stormy sky the next morning. Contradictory to his usual routine, he crawled out of bed immediately and walked over to the window, avoiding all eye contact with the mirror that he could manage. He slid one finger around the curtains and pulled them back to see the outside world through the clear glass, but all was shrouded in a light, silvery mist thanks to the rain. He sighed sadly to himself; he would have to take a look around later.

After watching the weather for a few more minutes and deciding it would not soon change, he finally left the room and traveled down the impressive staircase that curled downwards into the mansion’s main hall. The placed seemed to be unendingly dark no matter where he looked. Despite the size of the front windows and the lighting expertly placed wherever it was needed, many odd angles of the rooms remained shrouded in shadows. He instinctively shied away from the darkness and tried to stay safely in the light whenever possible.

“Look who’s finally awake,” Frank called from the ground floor. He stood there with an innocent smirk that almost made Gerard smile as well. “Have fun running around the mansion last night? And I literally mean around.” He drew a circle with one finger to illustrate his point.

“Sure,” Gerard answered with a flat tone that easily crushed his smile. Glancing at the carpeted stairs he had begun to descend, he spotted a bar of shadow cast by one of the banisters and nearly tripped over it.

“Forget how to walk in the last few hours?” Frank continued with a laugh. Gerard reached the floor, but upon realizing it was completely enclosed in the gloomy, almost foglike shadows filling the mansion, he began to shiver violently as if suddenly encased in ice. It was as if the evil shades of his other self were beginning to overtake him.

“Hey, you okay?” Frank’s voice broke through his cloud of thought, and he glanced at the younger man. A dazzling cloud of brilliant sky blue filled the air above his head, spilling down over his shoulders and fading out from there. Gerard blinked in surprise and wondered if it would disappear when he did so, but it remained in place, sparkling with an unseen light. He found a small smile working its way onto his face, deciding he wouldn’t mind if that light would grow and dissolve some of the terror and darkness in his heart.

“Yeah…fine…just cold, that’s all,” he squeaked. Frank’s smile withered and fell apart, as if he knew he was being lied to.

“We’re all done eating breakfast, but I saved you some pancakes,” he offered. Gerard smiled warmly.

“That would be great.” He followed his friend through a maze of increasingly dark hallways. To his delight, a huge chandelier graced the dining room directly attached to the kitchen. It flooded the room with light and erased his nervousness for the time being.

“Hey look, he’s not dead after all,” Ray called from a nearby doorway. Gerard glanced up at him and nearly choked on his food. A fog of deep crimson mist encircled Ray’s head and curled up into the air above him. Gerard’s eyes widened in shock, so he quickly returned his attention to the plate of pancakes before him to avoid attracting too much attention.

“Or…I could be wrong,” the guitarist joked as he shrugged and walked away. Frank studied Gerard for a moment before asking what was wrong. He thought before answering.

“I don’t like this house, Frank,” he finally said. “Something’s just not right about it.”

“It’s our own little haunted mansion,” Frank answered with a shrug, waving a sweeping arm at the room around them. “What did you expect when you said we should come here?”

“…This was my idea?” he asked incredulously. Frank nodded slowly, frowning.

“Gerard… Is there anything you want to tell me?”

Gerard thought silently. He could mention the fact that this was nothing more than a universe parallel to his own. He could say that the Frank he knew had taken down a demon version of their friend before it killed him, or that he was a legend and an idol of the son of God and the Devil. He could add that Frank had a puffy blue cloud hovering around his brain, signifying that he would have some relation to Heaven upon his death, if not sooner.

“No…nothing at all.”

A crash from a nearby room caught the attention of both of them. The sound was closely followed by a low hissing noise that sent a shiver crawling down Gerard’s spine. He stood up from the table and backed towards the wall, staring straight ahead with a look of intense fear. Frank studied his face for a moment before walking into the room in question.

“What’s going on?” Frank called from the other side of the wall. Gerard couldn’t stand the suspense and stepped closer, just barely looking around the corner to see what was happening. A marble statue of an angel had fallen to the floor, causing the crash. Ray stood close by with the strangest look on his face, completely free of remorse or any negative emotion. In fact, he appeared happy that the priceless antique had been destroyed.

“I know what you are,” Ray said in a deep voice that sounded completely unlike him. “You’re one of those hunters.”

“That’s right, demon,” Frank answered with a smirk clear in his tone. The lighting in the room was dim, but Gerard could see that Frank was holding something in each hand. They looked like weapons of some kind. “And I’m here to send you back to the pit you crawled out of.”

“Empty threats and human weapons mean nothing against me,” Ray answered. Gerard jumped as he realized that his friend was completely encased in a red miasma, just as a cloud of the sparkling blue light had overtaken Frank. Undaunted by Ray’s seemingly powerful words, Frank began to laugh.

“We’ve played all those games thousands of times,” he said lightheartedly. “Don’t you recognize the toys, Ray?” Gerard watched as Frank loaded up each weapon with ammo. They looked like guns, but like none that he’d ever seen. Rows of tall crystals on the back of one weapon began to glow, casting a vibrant purple light on their faces. Ray’s face remained stoic.

“I always did like the Covenant more than the humans…”

A shock of violet lightning appeared from the weapon clutched in Frank’s right hand. It zapped the center of Ray’s chest and sent him flying back several yards. Ray let out an evil hiss, but before he could get to his feet, two smoking teal orbs flew from Frank’s hand. They exploded just as they reached the floor and blew a gaping hole into one wall.

“Stop!” Gerard had finally seen enough. He walked out into the room radiating a confidence he knew he did not possess, holding a glare on his face in the hope that it would help get the point across. “No more fighting. I want an explanation and no one is leaving until I get one.”

To his amazement, Ray stood and brushed off pieces of broken wall as if they were nothing more than harmless dust. He bowed his head for a moment before looking up at Gerard.

“Sorry, sir,” he said quietly. Gerard was inwardly shocked at this, but chose not to let it show on his face.

“Now…” Gerard began pacing the floor between them, walking in no particular pattern and trying to ward off the oncoming headache. “One of you, I don’t care who. Start talking.”

“Those aren’t your friends, Gerard,” Bob said as he, too, entered the room. “They’re under the control of their true souls.”

“This is exactly what I’m talking about,” Gerard said somewhat bitterly. “That doesn’t tell me anything. Can you make a point without being so confusing?”

“All minions of Heaven speak in twisted language,” said Ray. “In Hell there are no delusions to keep you from seeing the truth.”

“That’s the worst lie I’ve ever heard,” Bob said flatly, “which is odd, considering the place is built on lies and deceit.”

“Enough!” Gerard yelled, silencing their bickering. “I want you to tell me what’s going on, Bob. And I want to know now.”

Before Gerard could get any answers, a swirling pit of black and red smoke opened up behind Ray, and he jumped inside. Frank leapt into the air and landed on a strange purple ship that suddenly appeared beneath him. Charging up for half a second, it rocketed through the air and into the portal just before it closed. Gerard would have considered slamming his face into a wall if he hadn’t been so stunned by the sudden disappearance of his two former friends.

“Sorry about them,” Bob said apologetically. “Just like house cats, I’m afraid. You think they’re harmless until their lion instincts take over…”

“What were you saying about their…‘true souls’?” Gerard questioned.

“You already know about Ray’s demon spirit…but Frank is another story. Completely opposite end of the spectrum. He’s a bounty hunter for Heaven.”

“Like…an angel?” Gerard offered. Bob shook his head.

“Too many rules for someone like him. This way he can do whatever he wants as long as it’s part of his job.”

“And the weapons…”

“As I said, he can do anything he wants,” Bob said with a small laugh. “The one thing he can’t do is have wings…so he improvises.”

“But why Frank?” Gerard asked, almost sounding helpless. “Why not someone else?”

“Because Ray is a powerful demon who cannot be brought down by ordinary hunters. Lyn thought it better if someone who knew him well would take on the task of putting him in his place.”

“…Lyn?” Gerard spoke softly, almost as if he was afraid that things were beginning to make sense.

“God. Her name is Lyn,” Bob answered. “She really cares about you, even if you don’t know it.”

“Kind of her job, isn’t it?” Gerard said with a smirk, absentmindedly biting his fingernails. Bob shook his head.

“Her task is to make sure that the balance is kept. She recruited your brother to help because he has a good mind for fixing the world’s problems.”

“What really happened to Mikey?” he asked fearfully as he suddenly recalled the woman’s words. Bob looked at him grimly.

“Perhaps…it’s better if you see for yourself.” Before Gerard could object, Bob had stepped forward and placed a hand across his eyes. A white light encased his vision, and he felt himself slipping into a calm, dreamless sleep.