Walking back out to the table I was a little zoned out, and it took Dakkone saying something three times before I realized it. Shaking my head a bit I looked over at him, and seen something like worry on his face. I don’t know why that seemed so strange to me, wasn’t like this was the first time he had been a bit worried. “You alright?” he asked, and I nodded.
“Yea, just got a lot on my mind,” I replied, picking up a fry.
The next few minutes were silent, and I found myself zoned out once more. I couldn’t stop thinking about my mother staring back at me in the mirror, and the words she had said to me. If anyone had walked in they would have thought I was crazy, talking to myself in the mirror. And maybe I was. It was a bit hard to tell anymore with everything that was going on.
I’m not sure how long it was before we finally decided to leave. The one thing I do know was that it apparently wasn’t soon enough, because as soon as I stepped foot out the door I got a very, very bad feeling. Apparently Dakkone was getting the same feeling because I could see him tense a bit and glance around. His gaze lingered in one direction for a while and I tried to see what he saw. When I did, I wished I hadn’t been so stubborn and come out. Sure, Dakkone was with me but he could only do so much against four other guys.
With the sun setting the only source of light we had was parking lot lights. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, there wasn’t many people around as the familiar figure of Jake and his friends headed towards us, a grin on his face. This was far from what I wanted to deal with right now. I had no idea if he would actually do anything or not, seeing as there were a few people here and there. He might not care if anyone saw, or maybe he did.
Dakkone stepped slightly in front of me, putting himself between me and Jake. “Oh, have you become attached to her already? That’s too bad, I guess you’ll be losing another one,” said Jake, obviously amused by Dakkone’s actions.
“Go on, Jake. I don’t wanna have to kill you right now,” Dakkone said sternly, though Jake didn’t so much as blink an eye.
“Kill me? I highly doubt you’d do such a thing right here. If you did you’d have a lot more to worry about than me.”
It was silent again, and I really hated the silence right now. It meant people were thinking, and thinking probably wasn’t good for us. “If it meant keeping the world from ending, I think it’d be worth it.”
This time Jake chuckled a bit, taking a few more steps towards us. “Who said anything about the world ending? I’m simply going to change it a bit. Angels will be gone and the demons will reign, just the way it should be. Can you really tell me you wouldn’t like a world like that, where you don’t have to hide? If you do I can’t say I believe you. I know you too well, Dakkone. Before you disappeared you wanted to be the one to change it to that.”
“That was a long time ago, Jake. A lot’s changed. Besides, there’s a big difference between what I wanted then and what you want now. Your world would end in nothing but destruction in everything, including the Earth itself. That’s something none of us want.”
“Well, if you’re going to stand in my way I’ll just have to kill you,” Jake said, the grin growing as his friends started towards us. “You know I never was much of one for a fair fight.”
I watched as they closed in on us, knowing there was no way we could win against them. After a few seconds of thinking something popped into my head. Sure, no one was going to like being rushed into it but now was just as good as any. Plus, if I didn’t do it willingly, then we could very well be down a guy. And losing anyone wasn’t going to end good for any of us.
“Wait,” I said, all eyes turning to me. “I’ll go with you, so long as you don’t hurt him.”
It was silent again, and I could feel Dakkone’s eyes on me, wondering what the hell I was doing. “Well, at least one of us has some sense,” Jake said, motioning me towards him.
I did as he wanted and walked over, finding myself standing beside him with his arm around me. Dakkone was focused on me and I gave him a small smile, hoping he knew what I meant. There was a flash in his eyes and I knew he got the message. Things were starting much earlier than planned, and now I had to get myself in gear. From here on out it would just be me, no one else to pull me out when I screwed up.
“We’ll be seeing each other sometime again, Dakkone. Maybe I’ll send you and invite to the wedding so you can be there when the new world starts forming,” Jake said, then his attention moved to me. “C’mon, now, dear. Let’s get back home and spread the news. By nightfall tomorrow this world will be ours.”
All I could do was nod, doubts starting to leak into my thoughts. I shoved them away, knowing that doubting myself was the last thing I could afford to do. As we turned and began walking away I cast one more glance back at Dakkone, who was watching us go. I felt what I thought was a large gust of wind blow by me for a moment, and when I looked around I found myself standing somewhere I had never been.
The walls were made of dark rock and the only light was from small torches set here and there. It reminded me of an old castle of something, but I knew that wasn’t what it was. It was far too warm for that. We continued down the hall and the sight of flames surrounding something in the middle of a large room came into view. Well, it was more like someone, who turned to look at us as we entered, just a few feet from the flames. A moment later they died away and I was left staring at the very person responsible for all this.
The Devil.
Which meant one thing. I was officially in Hell. How fun.
