‹ Prequel: Eyes of the Devil

The Angel of Death

Chapter Thirteen

I had never really liked the library.

I couldn’t remember when he had created it, but it had to be some time after Fear and Regret appeared. It was a wide room with endless ceilings and pillars reaching up into clouds of darkness, and it was filled with every book imaginable. Some were written in human languages, but most were covered in strange symbols and pictures I couldn’t understand. Most of them wouldn’t even open for me, and several possessed only blank pages unless my dad was reading them; as soon as he would pick up one of those, words bloomed through the paper in a flurry of black swirls. I could only go inside if he was there or if he told me to get a book for him. The rest of the time, an invisible barrier kept me from flying into it, and the large iron double doors were tightly locked and closely guarded.

I was in my room, lying on my bed and staring up at the ceiling, nearly falling asleep. I suddenly felt extremely cold and tired. It was as if part of my energy had been taken away from me.

Something was wrong.

I held out a hand and tried to make Holly’s soul appear. Usually, just seeing it made me feel better and reassured me that everything would be fine, but this time it didn’t work. The red puff of smoke and light was gone. I had known he would figure it out eventually, but it wasn’t fair. He stole it from me.

I stood and left my room, flying up near the ceiling to get a better view. He wasn’t in the throne room, and I didn’t see him anywhere, so I knew he had to be in the library.

“Dad, I need to talk to you,” I said as I stepped into the shadows of the chamber. Truthfully, I had no idea where he was, but I knew he could hear me. It was just a matter of finding him…or him finding me.

“What is it?” he asked, suddenly standing behind me. I turned to face him, trying not to let him know how terrified I felt. It was almost impossible to see him; there were no lights in the library, only varying shades of darkness. He could hide anywhere he wanted, and though I knew it wasn’t the best place to speak to him, I couldn’t wait any longer.

“Where’s my friend’s soul? I know you have it,” I said, glaring at him. “You took it from me.”

“It’s right here, Death.” He held out one gloved hand, and a small red puff of smoke and light appeared just above it. He barely smirked, eyes glinting in the darkness. “But you are mistaken. I took nothing from you; it’s rightfully mine.”

“No!” I shouted. “It’s not yours! None of them are! You just take them because they’re defenseless!”

He raised one eyebrow. “Is that so?”

“They don’t know anything about you,” I continued. “They can’t possibly comprehend what happens after they end up here, and that’s why some of them choose it. If they knew, they would all want to go to Heaven.”

“Ah, but they don’t know, do they?” he countered with a sinister smile. “They wander through their ignorant lives, blissfully unaware of what awaits them should they make the wrong decision.” He laughed darkly and shook his head. “If only you were not so naïve, Death. Just as naïve as those humans.”

I darted forward and tried to get the soul away from him, but he clenched his hand, squeezing the smoke between his fingers and letting it drip away like water. I stood dangerously close to him, stunned.

“Why did you do that?” I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed him by the shoulders with all my strength, shouting in his face. “Why would you take her away from me?! She was my only friend! I did everything you said and you still took her away! Why?!”

He stared down at me coldly. I blinked once, breaking eye contact with him. He easily tore an arm loose from my grasp and hit me, sending me flying across the room. I could barely stay conscious as I lifted my head from the indent it had left in the stone floor. He was standing near me in a second, looking as if he hadn’t taken a step. His cruelly dark eyes filled me with a terror I had never felt before, even when I had stared straight into Fear’s unblinking eyes.

“You know better than to speak to me with such disrespect,” he said curtly, carefully enunciating every word. His scowl deepened as he spoke. “I thought you learned your lesson last time, but it seems I was mistaken.”

“I don’t care,” I said, gritting my teeth together as pain flowed through me. “You had no right to do that, and I’m not helping you anymore.” I pulled myself to my feet, placing a hand against the wall to steady myself. “I don’t know how you collected souls before, and I don’t care. Whatever it is, you’d better hope it still works, because I’m finished.”

He stretched a hand towards me. At first I thought he was going to hurt me again, but then everything disappeared. The darkness flowed and changed around me, forming into a room much smaller than the library, and I saw someone standing there. I felt frozen once I saw who it was.

“…Holly?”

“Get away from me!” she cried, backing into a corner. I stepped over to her slowly and deliberately, but I wasn’t controlling my movements. My arm lifted of its own accord, a knife cradled loosely in my hand. I gripped her shoulder with one hand and slammed her into the wall, cracking the plaster with ease. She looked at me with terrified eyes.

“Ande, please-”

“Silence.” She froze. The knife flashed in one corner of my vision as I jammed it into her left arm. It easily could have severed everything in its path and pinned her arm to the wall, but I directed the force of the blade downward, carving a crooked line through her pale skin. She screeched in agony as warm blood gushed from the wound, lightening her color even further. Just another few moments and she wouldn’t have a chance to survive.

Stop it! I screamed at myself. Why was I thinking about ways to hurt her even more? She was my friend! Stop hurting her!

Why? She’s going to die sometime anyway. You shouldn’t care about a useless human. The voice sounded a lot like mine, but it was darker and void of any emotion but hatred. It couldn’t be me. Finish her.

I fought to regain control of myself as the knife darted to her other arm. It barely nicked the skin before I managed to resist whatever was telling me to hurt her.

“No!”

The scene faded into darkness, and she disappeared. I suddenly felt like I had control of my body again, and I looked around wildly, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. A glimmer of light appeared several feet away, and I ran towards it. It looked like the outline of a door with a thin rectangle of a window in the middle. I couldn’t see anything on the other side, so I reached for the handle and opened it.

Holly was lying on a bed, slightly propped up against several flat pillows, with a heart monitor beeping and bag of blood connected to her bandage-covered arm. A cold feeling made me shudder, and I found myself stepping towards her with complete silence. She stirred a little, and when her eyes fluttered open, she nearly screamed.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered hoarsely. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I walked closer to her, wishing more than anything that I could stop myself.

“Such a terrible waste,” the darker voice said through me as I ran one finger down the thin plastic hose feeding life back into her body. “This could help so many other people…perhaps someone who may actually deserve it…”

“What’s wrong with you, Ande?” she asked. Tears lined her eyes, and she struggled to move, but it was clear she had no energy. There was no way she could escape.

“Or someone like me, who would drink it.”

I raised a hand and watched, internally horrified, as my fingers lengthened and grew into bony claws with pointed nails. I took the smooth, hollow cord and punctured it with the tip of one nail, hearing a high-pitched hiss as it sucked in air, then released the material and covered the hole with my finger. The air bubble snaked up the hose and disappeared into her arm. She whimpered in pain for a minute or so before her head limply fell to one side and the heart monitor let out a single tone.

All at once, the world disappeared, and my father’s emotionless face was in front of me again.

I was crying before I could stop myself. I hated being reduced to a sniveling weakling before him, but I couldn’t help it. He had made everything look so real, so unnervingly authentic, that I was beginning to wonder if it was a memory rather than a hallucination. I looked down at the stone floor as harsh tears blurred my vision and made the darkness swim in front of me.

“Why…”

“You know far better than to become attached to humans,” he said coldly. “There is no other way you will learn than by erasing them from existence yourself.”

“But I don’t want to,” I murmured. “I don’t want to be like you.” I looked up and met his gaze, suddenly feeling calmer than I had ever felt before. I knew one thing that would make him come to his senses. “It’s a wonder she still cares about you at all.”

He said nothing.

“She thinks about you all the time, you know. Always trying to find a way to fix things, always wishing you were there…but you’re not. Instead you’re here, spending your time thinking of new ways to torture me.” I let out a short laugh. “You’re lucky I haven’t told her about anything, or she would’ve destroyed you by now.”

“Stop.”

“No. I think I will tell her now. And you know what will happen? She’ll stop waiting for you to come back. She’ll realize what a monster you’ve become and finally give you exactly what you deserve.” I glared at him, letting my mildly maniacal smile disappear. “You don’t deserve her, dad. And she definitely doesn’t deserve you.”

He stood there silently for a moment. His eyebrows had tilted downward in a show of disdain, and his eyes were shining in the darkness. I couldn’t tell if he was really thinking about what I said or if he was simply contemplating how to react. I didn’t have to wait long to find out.

“Get out.”

“Oh, I see. Don’t like the sound of what I’m telling you?”

“Go find Gerard, collect souls, something,” he answered. I expected his voice to break any second, but it never happened. Truthfully, I wanted to leave – I could still feel myself shaking from the incident, along with the natural side effect of being in his presence – but if there was any chance that I could get through to him, I had to take it. He caught my eye and stared at me without blinking. “If you ever expect to see your mother again, you’ll do as I say. Now go.”

His words left me with an unnerving chill as I unfurled my wings and left the dark chamber in favor of the lighter colors of the world above. I soared over the tops of buildings, looking for any sign of Gerard. I sighed. I couldn’t see him anywhere.

A screeching mass of black flew past me. I recognized it as the cry of a demon that had been attacked, and from the amount of pain it was in, I could only assume it had been an angel or some other such thing that had done the damage. I followed it to the ground and watched as it shrank from the form of a large bird down to the size of a human. I instantly sunk low to the ground and attempted to disappear once I realized which demon it was.

“I know you’re there,” Ray said with a laugh ringing in his voice. “Your father is extremely angry with you.”

“As always,” I muttered under my breath as I stood, straightening my tie a little. I noticed he was wearing the same ridiculous marching band uniform as my dad. “I don’t see why you’re so concerned about that.”

“I’m not.” He laughed again, and I grit my teeth together. He was already starting to annoy me. “Reislei and I had a bet on which one of you would bring up the issue of the girl’s soul first. Looks like I win again.”

“Would my father really approve of that, Ray?” I asked, managing a smirk of my own. “You know he hates it when his assistants mock him.”

His grin arced downwards in a snarl. “I have work to do, you insolent brat.” He started walking up the pathway to a nearby house and knocked on the door, quietly at first, then pounding on it when it wasn’t answered. I couldn’t see who opened it, but he disappeared inside, and I waited to see if anything would happen. When I walked closer and glanced inside, I couldn’t believe what I saw. Gerard was standing there, looking terrified. He suddenly turned and ran away, disappearing further within the house. Ray ran after him, but someone tackled him to the ground, and he disappeared in a flash of light. I couldn’t see who the person was, but he got up and went to follow Gerard. I ran forward through the walls until I found them.

“There you are!” I saw Gerard curled up in a ball and sitting on the floor. It looked like he was hiding. “I was afraid that demon might’ve gotten you.”

“Who the hell are you?” the other person asked as he stood up.

“It’s okay, Frank,” Gerard answered. “Don’t worry about him.”

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” I told him. I started walking towards them, but Frank held out a hand to stop me.

“Alright,” he said, pointing at Gerard with his other hand. “The last person who said that to us tried to kidnap or kill him, so I don’t see why I should trust you any more.”

“It’s fine.” Gerard stood up and looked at both of us. He looked like my dad when he was running out of patience. “He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“He’s right, you know,” I answered, laughing a little. “Anyway, you need to come with me. I need to get you somewhere safe…” I didn’t want to chance Ray finding him again. It wouldn’t be long before he was regenerated and ready to hunt Gerard down again. “You’re probably fine with my mom-”

“No,” he said, cutting me off. “I’m done with all of this. No more Heaven, no more Hell. I’m finished.”

“I give up,” Frank said with a sigh, hiding his face behind his hands as he fell back onto the bed. “I don’t even want to try to understand this anymore. Everyone please get out of my house.”

“Frank… You’re part of this whether you like it or not. That’s what that man told you. That blond guy.”

I gasped. “Bob! You know where he is? I haven’t seen him in ages!” I wondered if he was alright.

“He said you have a destiny, too,” Gerard said, still talking to his friend. “And he’s the only one who’s making any sense around here.”

“Speak for yourself,” Frank said, his voice muffled through his hands. “So far I haven’t been able to understand a word he’s said to me.”

It finally hit me. He looked a little different – younger, maybe, and his clothes definitely weren’t the same – but I recognized him.

“Wait a sec. You’re Frank Iero, aren’t you?”

Frank moved his hands away from his face. “Yeah, why?”

“I can’t believe this!” I was trying to stay calm, but I really couldn’t help it. I had never dreamed of meeting Frank’s human self. “I never thought I’d get a chance to meet you!”

“What- no, wait, I don’t want to know,” he said, staring back up at the ceiling and pretending I wasn’t there.

“What are you talking about, Ande?” Gerard asked with a frown.

“I’ve heard so many stories about you,” I said. I lowered my voice in case my dad or Ray was listening. “I heard you even faced Reislei himself and turned him over to the Devil. And the way you almost became one of the Messengers, but you turned down the offer! I’ve always wanted to ask you about that!” It was true. I had heard stories of Frank’s wild adventures, but they were always about the human one, always taking place before he had realized who he really was and begun officially working for my mom.

“That’s enough, Ande,” said someone else. I saw Bob appear out of the corner of my eye, but he was keeping himself invisible to their eyes. “Don’t want to ruin the story, do you?”

“But-”

“Alright, I have had enough.” Gerard shook his head. “Like I said. I’m done.”

“You have to choose!” I nearly yelled. “You can’t just…quit!”

“Forget it! I’ve lost every ounce of control over my own life! I can’t go for two seconds without hearing voices or turning into some kind of ghost or being attacked by one monster or another! I want this all to be over!”

And before Frank or I could stop him, he vanished.