An excerpt from my upcoming novel Wrath of the Devil. |
Chapter 6 Captured His vision was blurry. He felt an immense heat around him. The surface underneath him was hard and rough, like stone. He couldn’t make out where he was but it was not with his friends and their captor Zane. Leon rubbed his eyes and could then see clear. There wasn’t much light, the only form of light was a red glow appearing seemingly from nowhere. The crude metal bars locked him inside the dark, confined room. Leon began to panic shaking the bars with all his strength. “Hey! HEY!” he yelled hoping someone would hear him. The light in the room began to grow brighter. “Hello?” Leon meekly asked. Startling him was a vortex of fire that exploded out of the air. The heat was intense. Leon threw his hands up, shielding his face. Once the fire died a seven-foot silhouette emerged. What had spawned was a demon. It was a spine chilling sight. A large seven foot monster with bloody curdled skin and black glowing tattoos on its body approached the cell. His ragged cloak moved with the eerie breeze. His face was hidden in shadow by a hood attached to his veil. Rusted and bloody were the spikes on his shoulder pads and boots. It’s nails were long and protruding far out, like tiny daggers attached to the skin. Gripped in the claw like hands was a crude scimitar, stained with dried blood. The hilt was black, and the blade looked like it was once a fine silver but now a brownish red from the carnage it has seen. “Human.” the demon said. It’s voice was unlike anything Leon had heard before. It sounded like two people, two menacing voices trapped in one evil. One full of anger, the other full of sorrow. Leon was frozen with fear; he did not respond or make a move. He waited to see what the demon would do. The demon slowly walked up the prison like room Leon was in and stared at the trembling boy. “Do I frighten you?” he asked. Leon did not respond. “You do not have any powers. Why is that? It was my belief all humans were to be given them.” Leon still said nothing. The demon vanished and in swirl of fire. He was nowhere to be found. Leon calmed down slightly and backed away from the cell bars. He did not hit the wall like expected. Turning around showed the demon, who was now towering above him? “Why do you not speak human?” Leon was pressed against the bars, closing his eyes. He had never felt this much fear before. “My name is Dimitriez. What should I call you?” Leon’s mouth trembled as he told Dimitriez his name. “Do not be afraid. You shall live as long as you do what I say.” Dimitriez said. “Wha...what do you want with me?” “I have captured a number of the humans the angels have been foolishly trying to recruit. You will become a demon and join my ranks or if it is your desire I will kill you now.” Dimitriez said. Leon said nothing because although he was afraid he didn’t want to die. “Very well…Leon.” Dimitriez said placing his large bulky claw on Leon’s shoulder. Another swirl of fire engulfed them both and they were gone. When Leon opened his eyes again he was outside. “What is that sound?” he asked. “It is the sound of the damned, enduring their deserved everlasting torture. Leon, we will begin the ritual of ridding you of your humanity. There are two things we must do. First you must sacrifice a pure soul and then I will do the rest.” As Dimitriez finished Leon saw a cloaked figure brining a bound prisoner. The person was in casual clothes, human clothes. A cloth was wrapped around the eyes. Dried blood stained it. Leon thought his eyes must have been gouged out. Bloody cuts riddled his body and the man had tears streaming down his face. Leon almost cried himself. “I can’t, I can’t do It.” he said. “Then you will suffer just as he did.” Dimitriez said. The demon unsheathed a crude scimitar and handed it to the boy. Leon took it, heavy in his hand. Leon sheepishly made his way to the man, almost groveling on the ground. “Kill him Leon!” Dimitriez commanded. Leon raised the scimitar above his head, quivering with terror. The man was just sitting there, waiting to die. He hadn’t done anything wrong; in fact it was the opposite. Dimitriez said he was a pure soul. If the deed proved to much then Dimitriez would kill him. “Humans and their compassion.” Dimitriez commented in a low voice. Leon then closed his eyes and let his hands fall. He heard a liquid sounding noise and felt blood splatter across his face. A small thud then seemed to echo in his ears. Leon dropped the scimitar and opened his eyes and was horrified at what he did. The once innocent man was nothing more than a wrangled mess of blood and flesh. The scimitar had incredible strength and it tore the man into two halves. “Very good Leon,” Dimitriez congratulated. The demon got a sick sense of pleasure in watching the young boy struggle to commit the murder. “Relax and I will do the rest.” Leon stood frozen, once again shutting his eyes. He felt a tear stream down his cheek. Dimitriez’s hot skin grabbed onto Leon’s arm and he tore off a piece off of the boy’s leather jacket. Dimitriez placed one of his black jagged fingernails on Leon’s exposed skin and pressed down. Leon immediately grabbed the demon’s arm but his strength was nothing compared to a demon’s. He could feel the nail inside his arm, poking around at his veins. Leon wasn’t sure but he thought Dimitriez might have burst one of them as a more intense pain filled his body. “It will be over soon,” Dimitriez said. He then took his other hand and pricked the bloody curdled sheet he had for skin. An orange blood oozed into Leon’s wound infecting his blood stream. Dimitriez then let go and watched as Leon collapsed onto the ground screaming. Leon yelled as loud as his lungs would let him. The pain burned, every ounce of his body felt like it was on fire. Nothing could stop it; the demon blood ate away at all the humanity in him. Eventually Leon’s lungs stopped working and began to gasp for air. So much pain he didn’t know what to do. Soon after his eyes began to bleed and the iris became stained a permanent red. The worst was the burning. It felt like he was being incinerated but didn’t have the luxury of dying. A few seconds seemed like an eternity of pain and agony. Dimitriez watched as his captive writhed on the ground screaming for the pain to stop. He hated how weak humans were. No demon or even angel would ever shriek in pain with such ferocity. If anything, he thought, he was doing the kid a favor, ending his pathetic mortal life. Then in a split second the pain stopped. Leon lied on the ground still. His skin stopped feeling like it was melting away. His eyes stopped bleeding but his vision now had a reddish tint. The pain inside had subsided. A new feeling came over him. Leon felt strong. Although still present he was not as afraid as he was before. Even the wound on his arm from Dimitriez’s nail had healed. “What did you do to me?” Leon asked in a growling voice. “Your humanity is gone. Your ties with the human world are now gone and you are now part of the demonic legion of Hell. |