Devil Ash Days (Devil Ash Saga) (2 page)

Another bolt of lightning illuminated the kitchen and everyone could see the creature for a brief moment. The creature was covered in black fur like a dog and had rows of red, glowing eyes surrounding its head. Its mouth seemed to have far more teeth than a normal dogs mouth. That was all they could see of it before darkness obscured the kitchen once more.

The creature leapt forward, lunging at Ash with teeth bared. The boy retracted in fear. Sosime held his arm out, his open palm pointing right at the creature. They didn’t see exactly how it happened, but there was another brilliant burst of light. When they opened their eyes again, the creature was lying on the kitchen floor, no longer moving.

As Grace and Ash strained their eyes in the shadows, trying to figure out exactly what had just happened, Sosime spoke once more.

“Congratulations,” he said. “You just survived your first encounter with a demon.”

Chapter Two: Demons

Traces of smoke lingered off the dead animal’s corpse and the entire kitchen reeked of burnt hair. Sosime dropped his arm to his side and returned to his calm demeanor.

“
What did you say?!”
Grace asked.

“He said ‘demon’,” Ash said as he bent down to investigate the creature. Even through the darkness, at a closer range he could see the demon just fine. Studying its head, he saw that it really didn’t look much like a dog after all. It was far uglier. “Doesn’t look like any dog I’ve ever seen.”

“That is because it is not an Earthen dog,” Sosime said. “That is a
demon
; a creature from Hell. We call this sort ‘sniffers’ because of their superior tracking abilities.”

The gloominess outside and the occasional flash of lightning paired with a rumble of thunder reflected Grace’s mood. “I’ve just about had it with you people! I don’t know what that thing is, but my guess is it’s just a deformed dog.
Not
a demon.”

“Who
are
you guys?” Ash asked. Truth be told all the talk of ‘demons from Hell’ had him wide-awake and full of adrenaline now. What started out as a boring night was starting to get exciting.

“There is no more use in hiding our identities from you,” Sosime said. “So I will tell you everything. But first, we should leave this room. It’s no longer safe to be here with an open window. More of
them
will be coming.”

“Okay, what is going on? Who are you people?! What was that thing you did? Where did that light come from? How did you kill that, that…
thing?!
” Grace, as humans were prone to doing, let out her frustrations and confusions in the form of yelling.

They all stood in the living room just moments after the scene in the kitchen. The three strangers stood on the opposite side of the living room, staring back at the angry mother and her intrigued son.

“I am sorry for deceiving you,” Sosime said. “My name is Sosime Westfall. These are my disciples, Cyril Amaretto and Arthemise Bailey.” At the mention of their names, the other two both gave a wave. “As you have no doubt witnessed, our attempts at blending in by acting like normal humans failed. Our information on humanity’s modern mannerisms is a bit outdated.”

“No, you did just
fine
,” said Ash with a grin.

“Perhaps it is fortunate that the demon attacked when it did, otherwise we may have not gained your trust so easily.”

“You
haven’t
gained our trust,” Grace said. “Not until you tell us who you are and what you’re here for!”

“I don’t think the truth is something you are capable of accepting at this time, but I am willing to try. As you already know, the creature that we encountered in the kitchen was a demon from Hell. We three have been sent on a very important mission tonight, and that is to protect any humans that may fall prey to the demons.”

“You keep calling us
humans
, as if…”

“As if
you
aren’t,” Ash said.

“Clever boy!” said Cyril.

“We refer to you as humans, because that is what you are. But we no longer have any need to hide who
we
are. Fear not, humans. Though the demons are coming, your safety is guaranteed, for you are in the protective custody of
angels
.” 

If this were a movie, the music would have swelled and risen and it would have been a very reassuring and triumphant speech, and the humans would have rushed to their sides and gushed and cried and generally felt ‘saved’.

Instead, Grace just snorted a bit. Ash didn’t change his expression, but shot them a simple demand: “Prove it.”

The angels laughed a bit, and Sosime replied. “We were warned that the humans would be quite stubborn and probably demand proof.”

Cyril and Arthemise both turned their backs on Ash and Grace. The two of them looked like they were on a time-out, with their faces against the wall.

“Show them.”

The changes started so subtly, if not for Cyril and Arthemise turning their backs, they would not have noticed at all. Something poked out from underneath their coats. They couldn’t be sure of exactly
what
it was, but there was definitely something underneath their jackets, between their shoulder blades, sticking up. Whatever it was ripped through their coats, revealing two small flesh-colored lumps growing out of their backs. In just a few more seconds, the lumps stretched and grew until they were nearly a foot long.

They’re wings!
Ash thought, his heart racing with excitement.

The angel’s wings continued growing, stretching, and forming until they were almost as tall as the angels themselves. When they had nearly reached full size, the wings turned flakey. The flakes grew and changed shape until they formed beautiful feathers.

Sosime, Cyril, and Arthemise stood before the humans, giving them their first look at real angels. It was quite the scene now in the living room, with the three angels displaying their fully formed and spread wings.

Admittedly, Sosime had been eagerly anticipating the reactions of Ash and Grace. He remembered in the old days, when an angel revealed himself to a human, their reactions had been spectacular. He wondered how happy these humans would be now.

Grace narrowed her eyes, searching for strings or whatever sort of contraption they’d used to make these ‘wings’ appear. Ash walked over to Sosime and extended a hand towards his wing. Sosime stood still, waiting for the young man to determine that the wings were no trick. Ash brushed his hand over the feathers. Without saying a word, he gripped one tightly in his hand and yanked it out.

Sosime shrieked in surprise. “
What’d you do that for
!?”

Ash held the feather close to his eyes and examined it, while running his fingers over the soft edge. “This looks real,” he said to his mother.

“
Of course it’s real!
” Sosime said. “Typical humans! Even when solid proof is right in front of your eyes, you
still
have to question it!”

“You do realize what you’re asking us to believe is, well,
crazy
?”

Instead of replying, Sosime stretched out his arm and pointed his open palm at Grace’s face. Ash flinched, remembering how the demon had died instantly after Sosime did whatever it was that he was about to do now. Nothing like that happened this time though. Sosime pointed his palm up towards the ceiling. It began glowing like there was a flashlight under his skin. Thick beams of light shot up and out of his open palm, illuminating the room around him. Cyril and Arthemise also raised their hands and displayed a similar light show.

“And what’s that supposed to prove?” Grace asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“This is the Holy Light, bestowed upon us from God himself!” Sosime said. “Terribly deadly to demons and those whose souls are tainted with sin, but harmless to you.”

Ash and Grace both moved in and examined each of their hands, poking and prying and swiping their own hands through the light. Indeed, it didn’t hurt them at all. In fact, they felt absolutely nothing from it, just like it’d be if they moved their hands around in front of a flashlight.

“And this is how you killed the… demon… in the kitchen?” Ash asked, seemingly satisfied for the moment.

“Yes! My goodness, it was never this difficult to convince humans a thousand years ago!” With a little huff, his wings retracted as if they were connected by a zip line and shot into his back. The others followed suit, and just like that they were indistinguishable from humans once again.

“What can we say? We’re a lot smarter now,” Ash said.

“Sir!” came Cyril’s voice. He’d moved over to the living room window and was gazing out into the night sky. He called for Sosime’s attention only, but of course
everyone
approached the window to see what he was looking at. They did not like what they saw.

Outside, for as far as their eyes could see, there were pairs of tiny, glowing red orbs gathering around the house. Even if they had only one guess as to what they were, they already knew: they were eyes. The demons had them surrounded.

“What are they doing here?” Grace whispered, afraid the demons might hear her. In truth, it didn’t matter if the demons did hear her. They already knew there were humans inside.

Sosime paused, mulling over how much information he should reveal to them. Finally, he settled on an explanation that seemed adequate to him. “The demons escape from Hell to Earth through gates – portals – that form sometimes, either through natural means or because a demon of extraordinary power creates one. There’s no telling where a gate may open up. With this planet being covered mostly by water, we often get lucky and the they appear somewhere in the vast oceans. Without solid ground to stand on, most drown. However, very rarely, a gate will open on land, and these savage creatures are unleashed upon you. That’s where
we
come in.”

“Why don’t they try to get back to their home?” Ash asked.

“Imagine that you’re a demon,” Sosime said. “You’re a wild, powerful beast that’s just been plopped down into a new land with an unlimited food supply. What do you do?”

Ash gulped. He knew what
he
would do.

“
Eat.”

They continued to look on as the demons gathered outside.

“We knew there’d be more,” Sosime said. “Not to worry; we have a plan for getting you out of here safely.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small circular object that looked like a ring, only it was too large to fit on someone’s finger. He held it up for all to see.

“What’s that?” Ash asked.

“This is a gate key to Heaven. It’s our ticket out of here. Unfortunately, it requires a lot of concentration and time to prepare, and that is something we don’t have.”

“This is ridiculous,” said Grace. “I’m calling the cops.” The woman took out her cell phone. Before she could raise it to her ear, Sosime raised a finger and shot a blast of holy light across the room. Grace’s cell phone flew out of her hands, falling to the ground smoking. Grace stared at the angel in astonishment.  

“We would not want to put any more human lives in danger when we are the only ones capable of handling the demons,” he said. “Cyril and I will draw their attention. You two will go with Arthemise out the back door and as far from here as possible.”

With that, he took Arthemise’s hand in his and placed the gate key in her open palm. She responded with a nod of acknowledgement.

“Are you ready, Cyril?” Sosime asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” he said.

“Wait!” Ash said. “Can you really fight that many?”

“I’m tougher than I look,” Sosime said. “Plus, I have
this
.” He pulled from an inside pocket of his suit coat a long, narrow tube. Ash had no idea what it was and neither did Grace. But the angel seemed confident enough.

“Give us one minute and then run,” Sosime said. “Let’s go.” Cyril followed him as they headed to the front door. They each gave one last look back, nodded, and opened the front door. From behind the sofa, Ash and his mother watched as the two men ran outside into the front yard were they were surrounded by the demons.

“Will they really be okay?” Ash asked Arthemise. “There are a
lot
of demons out there.”

“Sir Sosime is an Archangel, the mightiest of our ranks,” Arthemise said. “Lesser demons of this caliber are no match for him.”

“What about Cyril?” Grace asked.

“Cyril? Well…he and I have both had one week of intensive training.”

Outside, the two men stood back to back. The pack of wolf-like demons moved in on them. The first demon to make its move pounced at Sosime.

“You should look away,” Arthemise told the humans.

“No way,” Ash whispered, moving in closer to the window.

Much like before, Sosime lifted his arms and pointed his palms at the creature, blasting it with light. This time, instead of recoiling in terror, Ash and Grace watched with open eyes the magic of the holy light. It was so bright and overpowering, the demon was lost inside the beam until Sosime stopped and the light disappeared. The sniffer dropped to the ground dead.

But where they found a moment of success, more demons stepped in to fill the void the previous one left. It was not yet time to celebrate. The night of demons was only just beginning. Arthemise and the humans watched from the temporary safety inside the house as the two angels outside let loose more blasts of holy light, clearing away more of the demons.

“I think it’s been more than a minute,” Arthemise said. “We should be going now, before they notice us.”

The humans nodded and followed Arthemise back through the kitchen where the dead demon still laid and through the rear entryway. Arthemise cracked the back door and peered outside. No sign of any demons. She opened the door and popped out, getting a more thorough look around the perimeter. Still nothing.