She's the Devil | ✔

Chapter Nineteen

Xavier

A pounding on my bedroom door drags me from a deep sleep. My mother's panicked voice floats into my ears. She yells about a bloody man at the door. I quickly open my door. Her panic stricken face is ghost white. Still groggy from sleep, I flinch when more pounding comes from the front door. I don't now what possesses me to go and check on it, but I do, ignoring my mother's protesting.

When I peer through the peep hole, I see one of the guys who used to guard Macaria leaning against the door. His clothes were ripped, in some parts they were charred. Several cuts littered his face and body. How he managed to walk all the way here in this condition is beyond me. He looked as if he were close to dying. If not from his injuries, from the cold.

I open the door, worried something has happened to Macaria, "What happened?" I question.

He shakes his head, collapsing in the doorway. He struggles to breathe, his breathes shallow. Mom comes down the steps cautiously, holding my old baseball bat. I grab the guy who's name I vaguely remember to be Hunt, by the arm and drag him in all the way. Mom yelps, asking me what is going on. I bite my lip, quickly thinking of a believable lie.

"He's a friend, he got jumped, could you get me the first aid?" I ask her. The fear in her face disappears and she nods, shuffling off to get the first aid from the bathroom.

"They took Macaria..."

"Who?"

Hunt gasps for air, coming in and out of consciousness. "I don't know. They... Took... Through... Portal."

I give his hand a squeeze, assuring him that my mom will take good care of him. My sleepy brain now wide awake, I grab my keys and shove my feet into my shoes by the door. Mom emerges from the bathroom just as I shut the door. I trust she takes care of him. I don't worry about her calling the police, she hates them anyway. I get in my car and tear out of the driveway, my mind set on her house. The only way I know of to get to hell lies in her room.

I drive as fast as I possibly can in the accumulating snow. The clock on my dash reads 2:33 am. I make it to Macaria's house within ten minutes. When normally it takes thirty. How I managed to not die on the way here I have no idea. Nor do I care. My main focus is on getting through the portal to Hell to find Macaria.

Her house is trashed. The once neat and beautiful Victorian house now missing it's whole right side. It smothers as though it was blown up. Inside everything is a mess. Bodies lay everywhere, black blood pooling beneath them. My stomach turns at the sight. I step over a body to get to the stairs. The air surrounding the house almost seems to stand still. Macaria's bedroom door is ajar when I reach it. Inside, Damian lies against the wall, motionless. I silently hope he's okay, but don't stop to check.

The second I step through the portal, I'm surrounded by a gang of demons. And the guy I beat the shit out of at that party. He smiles when he sees me, stepping forward. With a quick glance around, I realize I'm not getting out of this. Not with them all seemingly waiting for me. The looks on their twisted faces tell me they wish I would try something.

"Funny see you again," The guy taunts, twitching his fist. A sharp pain hits my nose, with a cracking sound. Blood flows almost immediately. I blink away the black edges around my eyes.

"You can play later," One of the demons reminds the guy before he can land another punch. He pauses, thinking about it. His fist twitches again and everything fades into the dark.

¥

The caverns were pitch black and the air was frigid. My hands wander along the rough, jagged rock walls. Leading me from one cavern to the other. It briefly crossed my mind that I could be walking in circles. It also became clear to me that I'm fighting a losing battle. I'm fighting things much greater than me. Who knew that myths and scary stories could be real, oh so very real.

"Foolish mortal." A voice taunts from above, "There's no saving your worthless soul."

My feet continue to carry me on, through the darkness. I feel alone and hopeless. But no one is ever truly alone in the dark, are they? A hand grabs my wrist pulling me into a crack in the wall. I come face to face with the demon who haunted me for weeks. How I can see him, is beyond me. There's nothing, but darkness around him. It almost looks as if he were photoshopped onto a black background.

He brings a boney finger to his parted lips, taking on his more human form of an elderly man with a long wrinkly face and whispy gray hair.

He motions for me to follow him further into the crack. Without any other options, I do. Macaria once told me never to trust a demon, but in this case there was no other option. Unless I wanted to die.

When I imagined dying, I thought maybe I'd die in my sleep. Or at least that's what anyone would hope for. I didn't imagine I'd be dying at the hands of demons and lost souls. Or supposed ideas in physical form. Death has always been a touchy subject, especially when my father died. It's funny to think that everyone around me is going to die one of these days. That I will die one day. And that day might be today.

But when the Devil's daughter has your heart; expect to literally go through hell and back to save her.