The Devil's Guard Dog

Chapter three: Welcome to Hell

Sometimes life can be absolutely normal. Nothing to worry about, no tragic past to dwell over, no worries over the life you live. And yet, even when you’ve done nothing wrong, and everything seems to be going on the straightened arrow, life can throw you a curve ball that’s blindsiding.

Out of all the places my mind could have taken me, all the fear filled nightmares it could have conjured up, it had taken me to the one place I never wanted to be, yet a place you wouldn’t picture when compared to the horrors I’d witnessed. It took me home.

My life was dull for the lack of a better word. I worked at a simple job and lived a very minimalistic life. However, the one thing that always gave that dullness a spark, was my girlfriend. It’s cliché, I know, but it was the truth. I always thought there could be no way that this girl likes me, that there’s no way a girl this beautiful and perfect could possibly take an interest in me, a man whose personality and life held nothing of real significant value or originality, but she did.

We’d been friends since high school, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say she carried me through it. To put it simply, I was never the sharpest tool in the shed, and she was someone who strived to be the best in everything she did, a very had working and dedicated individual who was always two steps ahead while the rest of our class sat one step back.

I was easily distracted in school, found it boring and would rather spend my time at home watching movies or playing the latest game on Xbox. My mind was always somewhere else in class, and because of that, my grades were only limping me through my senior year, and I was quickly on my way to failing.

I don’t remember the exact circumstances that led her to helping me, maybe she just saw me struggling and wanted to lend a hand, but over time we began studying together. Sometimes once a week, sometimes every day of the weak, and sometimes our “studying,” sessions would involve a very in-depth look into anatomy, if you catch my meaning.

She dragged me through till graduation, and after that, we moved in together. If I were to describe her, with her intelligence and responsibility put aside, I would say she was the female equivalent of a “bad boy.” Yes, she’d dress up and do the typical girl things, but her love for taking risks and going into the party scene would quickly become the forefront of her life as time went on. I was shocked when she said she didn’t want to pursue college when I was applying, if anything I expected her to jump on that quickly from her reputation, however she didn’t. I’d gotten accepted to a university, and meanwhile she stayed home to indulge in the party life.

I wish I would have seen what was happening before it got bad, and I couldn’t help but feel like I’d failed her when it did. She helped drag me through school when I was struggling, and I didn’t even notice when she began to struggle. It wouldn’t be until it was too late that I finally noticed what was happening.

She’d been going downhill for a long time, and looking back I should have noticed the signs a lot sooner than I had. Staying out late, coming home with migraines and bloodshot eyes, the loss of appetite, loss in weight, and the growing distance between us in the bedroom. However, it all came to a head one night.

I’d come home from my job to find that she wasn’t there. It was extremely late and normally she would be passed out watching Netflix, however the apartment was empty. I called around, worried about her and wanting to know where she was, but about an hour later she came stumbling in through the front door. I don’t think she expected me to be home, and I don’t think the man dragging her in did either as they both looked at me like a deer in headlights.

Her clothing was disheveled, and I could smell the alcohol on them from a mile away, her once beautifully glossy black hair now in a mess of crazed and twisting mats that was haphazardly pulled back into a ponytail atop her head. The man holding her didn’t look much better, a thin and unclean individual with the remnants of white powder dusting the hairs under his nose.

I didn’t say anything, my heart felt like it had just been ripped out and stepped on, and I didn’t even have the words to express the amount of betrayal I was feeling. I may not have been very bright, but I was able to put the pieces together, and after a while of letting it sink in, I packed my things, and I left.

I found out later that she’d been admitted to drug rehab, however I never spoke to her again, and never knew what happened to the man. I think I would have run back to her like a star struck idiot if she’d asked me to, however I never heard from her. No text, no call, no attempt to contact me. Three years of living together and that much more time falling for her, and it was all thrown away in one night. However, through it all, all I could feel was guilt, a deep pit of depression I’d fallen into that led to a life of meaningless melancholy. I saw her as the demon who stole my heart, and I was the one who made her that way.

My mind was replaying this in my head, seeing them standing before me in that apartment, that feeling of loss and heartbreak plaguing my mind, however that reality was quickly shattered by a rough voice. “Hey, human. You’re not dying on me yet, so wake the fuck up already.” I heard him call, my dream fading as I slowly opened my eyes.

The first thing that greeted me were Dicaius’s eyes looking back at me, the same white lights that filled me with so much fear before. This time however, being this close to him and able to get a better look, I was once again filled with that sense of awe as I noticed a detail I hadn’t seen before: there were stars in his eyes, like looking into the vast depths of a nebula.

“Finally. What is this, the third time you’ve been knocked out?”

“Your bedside manners need some work…” I grumbled as I slowly sat up with his help. As I remembered what happened I quickly felt over my side, expecting to see more blood and large gashes, however my hands only touched over smooth skin, not so much as a scratch beneath my fingertips. I was in a little disbelief, I was sure that the hooded cultists had done something to me, but then I remembered how Dicaius had managed to heal himself. I looked back to him, that same sickening feeling crept into the pit of my stomach as I thought over how he could have possibly healed me. “Please tell me you didn’t lick- “

“Not, a, fucking, word.” He growled. “I helped you, leave it at that.”  

I quickly nodded and dropped the subject. Dicaius got up and walked over to the sink, grabbing my shirt and tossing it to me. “Cover yourself, you look like an idiot.” He said bluntly as the shirt fell in my lap. I sighed and slipped it over my head, leaning against the wall as he moved to sit a little ways from me in the room. “Who’s Aurora?”

“What?”

“You were talking in your sleep. Is she a friend? Girlfriend?” He asked, a vague interest in his voice.

I thought over his question, looking over at him and narrowing my eyes. “Why should I tell you anything?”

“Well, it’s either that, or we both sit her in complete and utterly dull silence for God only knows how long. I don’t know if you’ve looked around lately, but there’s not exactly anything exciting going on around here. It’s your choice.”

“How about this.” I began as I sat forward. “You tell me about yourself and what’s really going on here, and I’ll tell you about Aurora.”

“I told you, learning about me isn’t going to do you any good.”

“And what’s learning about me going to do for you? The hell do you have to gain?” I asked in a more stern tone, watching him roll his eyes and turn away. “Look, if you want me to talk, then you need to do the same. Like you said, we’re both kinda stuck together, so might as well.”

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you…”

“After the shit I just went through, you really think I’m going to question what you say?”

“I’m telling you, kid, you’re human, it’s going to sound crazy.”

“Fucking try me.” This time he went quiet, a clear debate going on in his head as his reluctant nature seemed to be caving, and I wasn’t going to let up until it did. “Tell me about the Dusklings.”

He let out a growl under his breath that trailed into a heavy sigh, and after a while he sat forward, folding his legs and facing me. “Ok, ok, fine… What do you know about Heaven and Hell?”

His question made me sit back a little, striking me as a bit odd given the context. “Well, religion says that Hell is where bad people go to be punished after they die, and Heaven is where good people go to be rewarded after they die.”

“Bit of a crude explanation, but yes those are the basics of it.” He ran a hand through his hair, seeming to strain a little as he thought over his words. “I can tell you that both exist, but not in the way you would think, or not in the way your religions have told it. There is no light, there is no darkness, but a contrast between the two. In simpler words, there can’t be one without the other, and everyone has both. There are places between what you believe is life and death, places that are an area where there is complete balance. And then there are places where there’s nothing but contrast, an extreme darkness to an extreme light. Are you following so far?”

“I think so? I remember the cultists chanting something about that, just more cryptic.”

“Yeah, I know their bullshit chants and rituals, they spew it whenever they get the chance. If you asked me, I think they just enjoy hearing themselves flap their lips.” He ranted, shaking his head before getting back on track. “What I’m saying is everything is far more complex than you think, there’s several levels of “good” and “bad,” and many more entities and creatures that live within those worlds. Everything you see, everything you hear and feel is only how your body interprets it, how your mind is hardwired to understand it. But without those in play, the true reality of the universe you live in is so much more vast than you could possibly imagine.”

“So… you’re talking about a soul? Something that’s without a body?”

“In simple terms, yes, however you have a human soul, I don’t. I come from a place where there’s the contrast that I spoke of, those extreme darks and those brighter lights. You are a lower being, you’re food for creatures like us, and in a body of flesh and blood, that doesn’t change what we feed on. We’re the ones who make sure that good souls don’t go down into the darkness. We’re essentially sentinels that guard what you would call, “Hell.”

“But what about Satan and God? Do they exist?”

“Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that there are entities that prefer light over dark and dark over light, but not in the sense that there’s only one. There are hundreds that dwell in those plains, and millions more in-between. Bad souls hold the energy the darkness craves, and good souls hold the energy the light craves. Don’t you get it? It’s all a large cycle, all beings feeding one another in an ecosystem of energy and time.”

“Ok, ok give me a minute to wrap my head around this.” I said as I rubbed my temples, trying to put the information together in a way I could understand it. “So, you would be the contrast of light and dark then because you ward off the light and sort it out for the others?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, so basically you’re like Death, or a guard dog, you protect both?”

“In a way, I suppose you could look at it like that.”

“But that doesn’t explain why you’re here. Shouldn’t you be out there somewhere continuing to do that? You’re in a body, and if you’re energy, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“You can blame the fucking cultists out there for doing this shit. Having a body isn’t special, anything out there can have one but it’s not ideal. It’s an absolute pain in the ass, and you breaking my knee is proof of that. It fucking hurts, and flesh is uncomfortable… I’d much rather go home, but because you fucking humans are always poking your noses into shit because of a power fetish, I’m stuck here.”

“Ok but what is “here?” This is the only world I know, so in the grand scheme of things, what is this place?”

He grinned at that, showing all of his black teeth that glinted in the fire light. “Creation, the beginning of energy, the “big bang.” Welcome to Limbo my friend.” He chuckled sadistically.

I was struggling to understand all of this, my head hurting to even comprehend it. This was a lot to take in all at once, this threw all concepts of religion and spiritual belief out the window, and here I was sitting in front of a creature who could prove, along with disprove all of that. I took a couple deep breaths, needing a moment just to run through all of it before I asked another question. “But if they brought you here, then how is that even possible?”

He went to answer, but before he could we both turned our heads over to the bars on our cell. We could hear screaming, blood curdling cries of pain and anguish followed by yelling and the sounds of several people running in our direction. Dicaius and I both looked at one another before getting up and quickly moving to the bars, looking down both sides of the long hallway that stretched beyond our cell.

It didn’t take long for someone to come into view, bolting down the hallway and falling once they reached the torch. It was a young woman, completely bear with long and crude gashes in her sides as she curled up against the wall, drenched in sweat as tears rolled down her face. She held up her hands as she begged on her knees, facing down the hallway as the robed figures came into view, appearing out of the darkness like shadows taking form. “Come now dear child, there’s no reason to be afraid.” One of them spoke as they approached, now seven in number as they surrounded her, her sobs and pleading not doing anything to phase them.

“Hey! You get away from her!” I screamed, but stopped when Dicaius put his hand on my shoulder. I looked over at him and was met with a grim expression as he slowly shook his head, telling me no. I looked back at the woman, desperately wanting to help her, but knowing there was nothing I could do but watch.

The cultists didn’t even acknowledge I was there as they continued. “This is a blessing, a gift. You will become one with the light, more than you could ever imagine.” One of them spoke, and I recognized his voice as the leader.

“Please, please just let me go, please don’t hurt me… no more, please.” The woman begged through her sobs, blood dripping down her hips.

“You will understand soon enough, his will is strong, and you will be a vessel to his light.” The leader spoke again, and I balled up my fists at his words. This woman was in pain, and not one of them were doing anything to step in and help her. I was enraged as I watched on but held my tongue knowing I was helpless to help her, and would probably only make things worse if I continued to yell from within the cell.

“Please…” She cried, but after a moment, she began breathing heavily, her panicked cries turning to screaming as she held her head. Her screams began to change in pitch, her body twisting and changing as she sprung to her feet, only to wail in fear before collapsing down to the ground once more, the torch sparking to a ghostly blue from its once flickering red and orange. The cultists began chanting the same chant they used with me, over and over again as the woman thrashed as though she were on fire.

I covered my mouth and watched on in horror as her screams changed to primal growling, her eyes bulging out of her head and turning to white. As her mouth opened, a stream of light erupted from within, flickering and sputtering before her teeth sharpened, and her once soft skin grew pale and rigid before she collapsed.

She lay there, only barley breathing as all fell silent, the torch fading back to a normal flame and the cultists falling silent as well. I could feel the color drain from my face as I realized what just happened, what they’d done to her, and what they were trying to do to me. They were forcing these creatures into bodies, forcing innocent people to be hosts to them. We were both prisoners here, both trapped and both subjects in these people’s twisted ideals.

I was speechless as they dragged her away, and I couldn’t do anything but stare at the place where she once was, nothing but a pool of blood remaining from where she was lying on the cold ground.

Once they were gone, Dicaius sighed, patting me on the shoulder. “I changed my mind… Welcome to Hell.” He said, beginning to move away from me and limp back to his corner of the room. I was left there in shock, horror, and the realization that the situation I was in, the situation we were both in, was far more serious than I previously thought.