Chapter Twenty Eight

Last chapter den it's da epilogue! Woop Woop!!! Writing Don't Be Afraid has been so fun but at the same time annoying. But I'm going to cry because I feel like it's my baby and my baby has just grown up and is leaving the warmth of my motherly wing and into the cruelness of college.

Okay, maybe I've gotten into this story a little too much.

Chapter Twenty Eight

“So you’ve finally realized it.” A deep voice booms, waking me up. I open my eyes and get up from the nice tile floor. I take a look at my surroundings. This room, this room is the same room I came into in my first day in Hell. I look down at my attire and see that I’m wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt, just like what I was wearing at the convent. I feel different, my other times in Hell I felt barely anything, if nothing at all. It felt nice.

But now I feel like crap. My head’s still pounding and my throat’s still sore. I look ahead of me and see the man I hate most.

Lucifer. He carries an angry expression but tries to cover it with a smirk. He looks like royalty sitting in his big throne with a staff like object in his hand. He looks at me like I’m a bug on the bottom of his shoe. I inhale the stale air out of fear of the thing before me.

“You finally realized everything that I’d built up you have destroyed!” He yells. I hold back a flinch. He gets from the throne and takes a step down from the platform steps.

“You destroyed everything! You’ve turned one of my own kind against me!” He grips the staff tighter and takes another angry step.

“Jemrikaja was executed because of your recklessness! Do you know the price I have paid just to have your soul, you ungrateful bitch?” He steps closer and closer until he’s only about ten feet away from me.

“The dreams, the drawings, the multiplication of objects! All for you! But you had to screw it up with that boy who dares to call himself a chosen one! I’ve killed that feline for you! I’m the one who tried to communicate through your radio! The one who called you to warn you! The one who altered your sense of reality! The one who put you in the Mental Institute! Why do you think that you’ve felt depression when you saw the dead? That was all ME!

“I’m the one made sure you got sick enough so that you could get out of the awful convent! So that I could have you with me for real instead of dragging you here in your dreams! I can’t touch you on holy grounds, but now you’re mine. Why can’t you just be damn grateful that I did all this for YOU?!” His yells get louder and he gets closer to me.

“I can’t believe that you tricked Jemrikaja into giving you information about full powers! You’re soul better be damn worth my while!” He’s now inches away from me, towering me. He grabs my face and squeezes it hard. He’s suddenly thrown back and he falls to the floor with a hard thud. He swears and gets back up.

“And now you have those Objects of Gabriel! All of this ruined because of you and that stupid boy!” He grips his staff and hits the ground hard with it. The ground rumbles and I fall to the floor. I close my eyes and hope that this is just a dream.

Two girls—or more like a woman and a girl—burst into the room and bow down before their father. Those girls…they look so familiar. One with orange hair and one with graying brown hair. Then it hit me—Cindy and Ms. Lane! This is starting to get ridiculous; who isn’t a demon?

“Chain her up; we’re going to begin the ritual soon.” He says with new found calmness. The girls pick me up and walk me out of the room. I’m too stunned to move so I don’t fight back.

What ritual!? I scream in my head. Cindy and Ms. Lane carry me to a small room filled with hundreds of candles.

“I’d say I’m sorry but then I’ll be lying.” Ms. Lane says briskly.

“Yeah, you trust way too easy. You deserve it.” Cindy says. I stay quiet and try to control my undying fear as they bring me closer to the pentagram that’s chalked on the floor. They chain my arms to the wall that’s right above the pentagram. Why am I not screaming? Yelling for help like I should be? Why am I just staying unmoving like a potato? I seem to be using that analogy a lot lately.

They secure the chains and leave the room in a scurry. Minutes pass before I hear footsteps. Lucifer steps into the room in a swift motion. A little boy follows behind him like a lost puppy. The little boy looks at me with fear and regret.

“You know what to do Johnathan.” He commands to the little boy. The little boy steps on the stepping stool he brought with him so he’s almost eyelevel with me. He looks at me with an ‘I’m sorry’ expression. He removes my bracelet and my ring. I feel the loss of power and then feel really tired. I could really use a nap right now. Or maybe a long slumber that I’ll never wake up from.

The boy steps down from the stool and puts the objects in a red velvet bag.

“I’m I dead?” I manage to choke out. Lucifer grins widely just like he did in my picture that I drew of him what seems like years ago.

“Almost; right now you’re struggling for your few last breaths up there. But don’t worry. Once the ritual is complete you’ll be put out of your misery.” He says with a smirk. I shudder and beg myself not to cry. I’m too strong to cry. I’m too strong to cry. I’m too strong to cry. I repeat in my head.

I’m never going to say goodbye to Kyle or Miles. I’ll never see my dad again. I’ll never get to tell the nuns how grateful I am for taking care of my friends and me. I’ll never get to tell Jesse how much I love him. I didn’t even know I loved him until I knew I was on the brink of death.

“Any more questions or last words before we begin?” Lucifer changes into something disgusting. Instead of being the very attractive man that I’ve grown used to when I visited Hell; he turned into the demon that was stalking Jesse and I. But I learnt that he’s not a demon. He’s the demon.

“Is Emery really dead?” I ask looking down at the pentagram. No matter how bad Emery was he still helped me and was there for me. He didn’t deserve to die.

“If you mean Jemrikaja then in this generation, yes. But don’t worry, he’ll reincarnate in some other generation to my distaste.” He wrinkles his nose. “Well if that’s it, let’s begin!” He says with joy. I would pray now but I don’t think God can hear my prayers from Hell.

Lucifer grabs the shaking boy the corner and slits his throat with a knife.

“What are you doing!?” I scream. The little boy goes limp and falls to the floor. Lucifer runs his fingers through the scarlet liquid and wipes it on the pentagram. He does this twice more and kicks the boy aside.

“Human sacrifice.” He says simply. I try to pull my arms from the chains but all I did is accomplish bloody wrist and ankles.

“Don’t even try.” He says smugly. He stands in front of me, almost in the pentagram. He closes his eyes and starts to chant in tongues. I close my eyes and pull harder on the tight chains. No use. All I could do now is just relax and watch my life be ripped from me.

I promised myself I wouldn’t cry, and I’m going to keep that promise. I can’t cry. That’ll show weakness. I think about everything that has happened in the past week—or is two weeks? Maybe five weeks? I couldn’t keep track of time throughout this chaos.

Why me? Why couldn’t I have lived a normal life? If I did I would be doing homework or maybe hanging out with actual people who didn’t think I was crazy right now. Instead of being chained to a wall above a pentagram while Satan himself is reciting a ritual that’ll take my soul. Oh how nice life would be.

Maybe I would have my mom and my dad back. And Miles wouldn’t have hated me all those years. Maybe I wouldn’t have to go to eleven therapists and take two pills a day to keep me from seeing things that aren’t there. I would cry tears of joy.

But life isn’t that nice to me. Instead I have a demon who wanted my soul and is about to achieve that. Instead I’ve caused multiple peoples distress and deaths. Instead I’m hanging from a wall while I recall my life before I die in the hands of Satan.

I open my eyes and stare at the demon before me. He chants a last few words and opens his red, fiery eyes. He grins and grabs the knife that he killed the little boy with.

He steps into the pentagram. The pentagram glows a vibrant hue of blue. I have a feeling that this is my last few minutes of life.

He steps closer so that his ugly face is inches away from mine. Even when I’m chained to a wall a foot off the ground, he’s still a little above eyelevel of me.

He strokes my cheek gently and then trails down my throat with his knife. I want to cry out for help but it’s obvious that no one’s going to help me.

“Why do you have that look for Athena? Don’t be afraid.” He says softly and then pierce the hollow of my throat. I bite back my scream as tears prick my eyes. Well goodbye life.

Then suddenly he falls to the ground with a cry. “NO!” He shouts in pain. The pentagram stops glowing as all the candles in the room blow out.

The room fades away until there’s nothing but darkness.

***

“Athena! You’re finally awake!” I hear someone yell. I open my eyes fully; I’m blinded by the glaring florescent light. I blink a few times in disbelief until I finally grasp it.

“I’m not blind!” I yell in joy. I turn my head to see Jesse’s face filled with happiness and worry. He smiles widely at me and pulls me in an awkward-positioned hug because of the hospital bed that separates us.

“I know! God, I’m so glad that you’re alive! I thought I was going to lose you!” He yells, hugging me tighter.

“What did you do?” I pull back from the hug and ask. Jesse looks regretful for a second and then sighs.

“Please don’t hate me; we used the Goblet of Gabriel. Turns out Sister Dianna is a full power. But what I regret most hurting you for blood.” He says sadly. I just smile gratefully and pull him into another hug.

“So I’m a full power now?” I ask and Jesse nods.

“So am I.” He says. Now that I think about it I feel stronger. My head’s clear. I don’t feel depression when I see the ghost in my room. There are two in here, looking super sad and gloomy. I guess I couldn’t expect more from a hospital where death happens every few minutes. I smile at the gloomy ghost and turn my attention to the boy who saved my life.

I pull back from the hug again and look into his violet eyes. I kiss him and then pull back.

“I love you.” I breathe. He smiles widely and kisses me. We kiss for a few seconds until he breaks it to say, “I love you too.” He laughs after I pull him into another kiss.

“Are you ever going to tell me what I don’t know?” He asks.

“Maybe someday soon.” I answer with a stupid grin on my face. He pouts, the expression looks weird on his face; I laugh.

“This’ll make a hell of a story to tell our grandkids.”

A/N: Next is the epilogue!!!! I'm pretty sure this epilogue will cause a huge shit-storm that will probably end up as me being kicked off the interwebs.