The Unknown // Colby Brock

~~ Chapter Seventeen ~~

Jake's POV
          I quickly passed the crown off to Tara, pushing her down the steps as I took a step back towards the castle. "Tara, take the crown back to hell. I'm going to get Ari out of here."

"What?! You can't, Jake! She's in there with God and Sam," Tara panicked as she threw her arms in the air at me. I took a hold of both of her wrists to calm her down but she snatched them back from me. "I get it, okay? I get it. We're all friends with her and she's clearly still loyal to us, but you can't just-"

"Tara, go back to hell," Colby snapped out of nowhere.

We both turned to him in surprise, watching as he peeked in through the front doors.

"Go. Now. I won't say again."

Tara hesitated but after a huff and something resembling a growl, she disappeared from the step.

"So, how are we going to get her out?" I asked nervously. It seemed almost impossible to even consider the idea of fighting both God and Sam just to get Ari back, even if it was Ari. I cared for her like a little sister in such a short amount of time and I'd missed her around the house when Colby was being all grumpy - which was because she was missing. Everybody saw it but nobody spoke about it.

"We might have to convince God that she's no good to him... but that could get her killed so we have to be careful."

"What's the worst case scenario?" Mike asked as he slipped passed us to get to the doorway. I looked at him for a moment in wonder. He had shown the least interest in Ari besides Colby - at first, anyways - since she had arrived in hell yet he was putting himself at risk just to stand so close to the door where anybody like Sam or Katrina could get to him.

Colby, on the other hand, seemed to be in no hurry. He stood there assessing his options and weighing the possibilities of what could happen if something went wrong. My answer to Mike's question would be if kitten or anybody else got killed, but I doubted that Colby would share the same- "Ari getting killed," he finally said.

I couldn't help but look at him in surprise. He really did care for her more than he let on...

"Okay, then. How do we-"

Before I could finish my sentence, a body flew out at us. Not just any body: kitten. She basically crashed into Colby and would have sent him down to the ground if he hadn't caught her as quick as he had. It took me a moment to realise that there was blood coming from her nose and her eyes were shut. She was knocked out cold.

"Take her," God's booming voice yelled to us. "She holds no loyalty here and therefore is no use to me. In fact, she's more likely to be a threat. So go on. Take her down to your little hole in the supernatural world and do whatever you please." He didn't dare come through the door, but he stood right on the boundary beside Mike, who was stood up to him. "As long as she's out of my sight."

"There has to be a catch," Reggie whispered in my ear as he pulled Colby and I back a few steps. As much as I wanted to agree with my brother, I couldn't actually see a reason for God to be lying. All he had said was true: Arianna would never lay her loyalties down to him so she became more of a burden if she stayed in heaven. God didn't like burdens, which was why he thought hell needed to be either removed altogether or ruled under his standards.

"Let's just go while we still can," I whispered.

Colby didn't waste a second, the red flash blinding me. Everyone followed suit as fast as we could until we were in the throne room of hell. It was much darker, and it felt ten times more like home.

Arianna's POV
I woke with a start. The last thing I expected was to look around and find a room darker than anything I'd been in in the past two weeks or so... I also didn't expect to see all of hell's army sitting in the same room with me. My fast movement had caught some of their attention, including the devil, who stared at me for much too long.

I flinched as I sat up. That angel guard really had a punch on him to knock me out so easily. I naturally reached up only to find that I was bleeding from my nose. How attractive. I wiped it away as I went to sit up, but hands landed on my shoulders and pushed me back down. I looked up to see a grinning Jake.

"Not so fast, Kitten," he said teasingly as he shook his head. "You need to rest."

"No, I don't," I snapped. "And unless you want me to add you to the list of people I want to punch, I suggest you let me go."

"Woah there tiger, you just woke up," Xepher assured me, taking one of my hands. I reluctantly let her hold it when she gave me that look I hated so much. Sympathy. Not only that, but a lot of it mixed with pain of her own. She had missed me, I guess.

"Don't calm her down! I want to know who's on the list," Kevin exclaimed.

I glared at him before pushing Jake away and standing up. It felt like everyone was watching me when I walked only a couple of steps to the devil's unnecessarily comfortable chair. He was definitely watching.

"Don't worry, you're all in the clear. There's only one person on that list. Oh, and he owes me, what? Two weeks of my afterlife?" I didn't leave it up for discussion as I turned around and walked toward the stairs.

"Where are you going, Ari?" the devil himself called after me.

"To get this God awful colour off and go to damn sleep in my room." I paused halfway up the stairs with an idea. Nobody expected it when I easily lifted my dress over my head and threw it with pinpoint accuracy right at the devil. He caught it, of course, but not before it hit him slightly in the face. The boys tried turning their heads for my privacy while the girls stared at me in amused shock. "And it's Arianna to you, asshole."

His eyebrows raised as I turned and walked shamelessly up the stairs.

My room was much appreciated the moment I walked into it. The darkness in every corner, the atmosphere, the very, very faint screams. It all felt right; like home. I couldn't believe I'd been taken away from it for so long because of a guy I had genuinely liked for a while. Any chance he thought he had with me was completely gone now, and I was inclined to promise myself that never in my whole afterlife would I ever kiss him, sleep with him, or fall for him again. Because the devil wasn't good or bad in the right way.

He never had been.