Devil in Shepherd's Robes

Ch 23: Perfected Fury

"This is... impossible!" May shouts, still distraught from the actions of her father.

"I know, May... I'm sorry..." Silo said comfortingly as he looked up at her, perching himself on the shoulder of the couch next to the unconscious body of Restavel.

Ephram and Silvia looked to each other for answers, but neither one could think of anything. It was a bleak and horrible situation they now found themselves in, something neither of them knew they could handle. Making an enemy as powerful as Aberlain was like a fish making an enemy of water. It simply could not be done.

As he looked down at Restavel lying upon the couch, he thought to himself what was to come next. It was only a matter of time until the demons reached them, their home in Oregon was only a few hours away by flight from Los Angeles. It had already been several hours since they had watched the events unfold on the TV, there was no telling what could happen next for them all. The sun had already begun to set, and Ephram watched as it slowly fell beneath the horizon. He knew that he wasn't strong enough to protect them from hordes of demons and cursed himself for still being so weak and useless.

"What do we do now? If what that monster said is true, those demons will be on top of us in just a few more hours! We don't have time!" Silvia yelled frustratedly, trying to control her fear as her entire body shook.

"I... I don't know..." Ephram said quietly, his voice barely reaching her as he sat upon the other shoulder of the couch opposite from Silo.

The four of them stayed in silence for quite some time, looking down at the maid upon the couch with uncertainty. If Restavel were still awake, perhaps she could give some insight as to what was going on in Hell. Her collapsing spelled the worst outcome, that the demons of Hell had found themselves under Aberlain's control, storming through Palace Estella and into Earth through the sigil in his study.

As they all thought to themselves of how bleak the situation had become, a robotic voice echoed down the street loudly while growing in volume as it reached their home. Investigating the voice, Ephram got up from his seated position upon the shoulder of the couch and looked through the window between a few boards. An all-white van with large speakers strapped to the top was rolling slowly through the street, the automated booming voice echoing from the same speakers.

"All residents, please go inside and lock the doors. If you have any weapons, arm yourselves." It shouted, repeating the phrase over and over again as the van rolled down the street and out of view.

A thick fog had begun to roll in after the van, as if it were chasing the driver. Ephram watched from the window as the fog began covering the ground, seeping into the graveyard across the street. He felt fear rise up within himself as he scanned the surroundings of the house, peering into the darkness now that the sun had finally gone down. The only light he could now see was that of the clouded moon trying desperately to shine through the dark clouds above, and the flickering lamp post near the house as it whispered uncertain rays of warm light through the fog.

As he was about to turn away from the window, something sent a chill up Ephram's spine as he peered out towards the graveyard. A tall and lanky figure stood unmoving near one of the headstones, but its unnatural body shape screamed at him to be afraid of the figure. At first, he had thought it to be Silvia's father back once again to mourn the loss of his daughter, but the shape of the creature was simply too grotesque to be that of an elderly human man.

Its dark skin hung loosely to its bones as it looked around confusingly for something, seemingly sniffing the air like a bloodhound in search of prey. It seemed to have caught the scent of something, and as Ephram watched the creature stumble around in the darkness of the night, his blood went cold as the creature's head snapped towards the direction of the house. It possessed four large eyes, all a faint orange color. A large swinging jaw hung loosely from the creature's head, filled with rows of bloodied sharp canine-like teeth. The demon must've already found others before them, and it hadn't ended too well for them.