Guardian Angel

Chapter 5

I open my eyes and find myself laying on smooth black tile. I sit up and look down the hallway of my mind. The hallway is almost exactly the way it was before. The only difference is that there are clouds of smoke seeping from beneath the doors and forming a stream toward the end of the hallway. At the end of the hallway, I see a shadow of a person in front of the room Castiel attempted to enter.

I silently stand and make my way toward the shadow. I avoid stepping directly into the smoke. As I get closer to the shadow, the smell of sulfur becomes suffocating. Its the demon, I think to myself. The thought echoes through the hallway and I freeze.

The demon spins around, and I feel my face drain of blood. I see the face of what was once a woman who may have been considered pretty. It was as if her face was made of wax, had been held too close to heat, and resculpted by an amateur sculptor. Her face is blackened and cracked. She wears a scowl for a mouth. She is barely recognizable as having been human.

She smiles at me, a hideous sight. The slight action seems to tear her face in half.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in!" Her voice is warped. Still recognizable as female, the voice sounds inhuman, a high-pitched shriek. She walks toward me and says, "You're not supposed to be out here."

"You're not supposed to be in here, so that makes two of us in places we're not supposed to be," I reply with a sneer.

"Somebody's a little cranky," the demon sing-songs in her shrieking voice. "Do you want to know what I found in this pudding brain of yours?"

I stare at the demon, fairly certain she's pulling my leg. I decide she's completely insane, but I take her bait.

"What did you find?"

"I found your boyfriend!" The demon grins at me, exposing brilliantly white teeth that starkly contrast with her pit-black face. "But there's no way you can get to him, because he's locked himself away!" The demon begins cackling madly, a grating sound that I can't bear to hear.

I grab the demon by the throat and pin her against a wall, between two doors labelled "School" and "Crossroads."

I put my face inches in front of hers before menacingly saying,"First of all, he's not my boyfriend. He's a bit old for me. Second of all, if you know where he is you better tell me. It won't be pretty otherwise." I know my threat is completely empty.

To my shock, she starts scrabbling at my hand. I look at her throat to find it turning a deep shade of gold.

"You better hurry up, then," I whisper in the demon's ear.

"Okay. To get to him you have to go through that door. I haven't been able to open it, I swear. Now let me go," the demon quickly chokes out. She may be insane, but she knows when someone's about to kill her.

I release her throat but grab onto her upper arm. I take notice of the large gold handprint covering the front of her neck. She tries to jerk away, but I tighten my grip on her arm, causing her to inhale with pain. I drag her to the door at the end of the hallway.

"If I can't open this, you will. Or you'll die trying," I say as I look into her eyes, round as marbles and black as the night. She nods, blatantly terrified.

I lay my hand on the doorknob and turn. It turns easily and the door unlatches. I close the door, aware of the smoke swirling around my ankles.

"It wasn't locked," I say, turning to the demon.

"Great, now you can let me...."

I don't allow her to finish the sentence. I grab her by the throat with both hands, fully intent on annihilating her. I watch the gold travel down her body and up onto her face and head. She scrabbles at my hands, but I don't budge. Her body finally becomes engulfed in gold. She disappears in a small puff of dust. The smoke around my feet and down the hallway dissipates. The smell of sulfur becomes weaker and is completely gone after a few seconds.