Death's Bitter Embrace (#Wattys2015)

Act II, Chapter XI: Three Words

I get up wearily, my head still pounding like I was smashing my head against ten brick walls, my vision still blury as if my eyes were a T.V. and all the channels had no signal, turned to static. My bones weak because of the harsh blow, the Alpha hesitated, it stood there ready to strike but it didn't, as if he wanted to give me a chance to redeem myself for...for what? Alex waltzed over, destroying everything in her path-she was taking her sweet motherfucking time-here I was on the ground close to passing out, all the Hellions around me swarmed in but the Alpha and she is just casually walking over like we weren't surrounded by thousands of demons, she'd better get here soon.

I was down but not out, so I gave my last shot to pass out swinging, I got up quickly stunning the Hellions that were closing in fast, bringing Raven with me, I take a stab at the closest creature, it crumpled to the ground in a heaped stony mess and with that its soul ripped itself out if the dead carcass.

Its soul was a mixture of colours, blistering bright sunset orange and bloodlust red, the soul then found its way to the Alpha and stayed there...the Alpha grew yet another head, it was collecting its fallen's souls and making them its own. I clutch Raven harder than ever before, possibly hurting Her but she understood that this was the end. It was either the Alpha or us, and I assured myself it wasn't going to be us.

The Alpha had a hole in its chest, a hole that chambered the souls of dead Hellions, well actually it had about 100 different holes in places like its calves and where the cheekbones would be if it had cheekbones. The hole in its chest was the biggest and it was illuminated - unlike the others which were black, black as a black car driving at midnight.

The Alpha held Raven's copy with one hand, the other hand behind its back, as if to taunt me, I held Raven much the same-my other arm was along side my body-I wasn't strong but I knew how to handle a girl like Raven, with care...and passion of course. It was the ultimate showdown, the stare off between the Alpha, and me.

Raven was glowing with the blood of the demons that I had killed earlier that day, the goop was pulsating, getting faster and faster with every swing of her blade-red, violet and white were glowing more than the rest, pulsating quicker than the rest.

"Why is the blood pulsating? What does it mean? Is something going to happen to her?" My conscious asks, all these questions and more pulsating in my mind much like what the goo was doing on Raven.

Alex finally reaches me, she was stunning although she had many cuts and bruises on her face and arms her auburn hair following her. Her eyes, her golden-yellow eyes shone through her long ginger hair, burning hotter than the fires in the depths of Hell. She took her time to get to me but managed to destroy about a thousand Hellions, yet the remaining 800,000 still stood, still inching closer.

As she reached me she hugged me, well she clung to me, telling me everything would be alright as we would die in a few short moments. There was no chance in survival now, all the Hellions drew closer and closer, nearing closer to us. She managed to say a few short words that made my heart race and settle at the same time, it was a strange feeling, but it was a feeling of pure ecstasy. She was warm, not cold from fear of death, but actually warm.

    We were exhausted and couldn't go on, we needed rest, we needed each other, so we decided to succumb to Death and her cold arms.

"Dante, I-I-I I love you." Alex stammered, managing to whisper before time killed us, the Hellions only meters away from us-she was ready to embrace Death, ready to fall into the descent to Her arms. The words flowed out of my mouth, like it was natural to say it to her.

"I love you too Alex." I replied back as our time had come, we were greeted with a bright white light, slipping away from reality and into Heaven, into the clouds. As we were fading out of consciousness I heard a loud bang, a continuous loud bang. By that time I had already slipped too far and couldn't prick up my ears to focus on the noise.

Alex and I smile at each other as we embrace the bliss, embrace the light at the end of the tunnel, that loud bang was still ringing in my ears, it was hard to tell whether the bang was still going or whether it was just ringing.

Alex and I were fully content with dying in each other's company, in each other's grasp. I whisper the three words one more time as I die. "I. Love. You." It felt good to say, especially to Alex.