STILL

Chapter Twenty-one

The sun shined its rays through the windows of the isolated cottage in deep in the woods. Bob heard the birds chipper outside, he opened his eyes and slowly left his bed. He took a look around his room making sure all the ruins and symbols are still intact.

It's been a month but he never took them down... he never felt safe enough. He held the wooden bowl on his night stand walked to his bedroom door, he looked the peephole. Nothing. He thought to himself.

Bob gently pressed his hand on the door knob and opened it , the second it was opened he heard the barks at his door.

I need to let the dog out of his cage. He thought to himself as he walked down the stairs, again, checked on the ruins and bowls and cups of water scattered around his home. His eyes scanned the marked vessels, he made sure the water in each zone was right at its mark, just enough water for him to stand on.

Bob looked through his window before he opened his door. He walked outside his house to the view of a wide green field, trees covering everything in his vision for miles. his dog sat in the cage next to the house. As soon as Bob opened the door, the dog stopped barking.

"Good boy." He opened the cage and watched his dog run free around the green fields; a smile made its way on Bob's face. He never thought he'd end up a prisoner in such a beautiful place.

He took in a deep breath; he allowed his lungs a fresh breeze of air to wash worries away.

He closed his eyes shut and listened to the world around him, Just a moment of peace, he gave himself the chance to shut his weary eyes and enjoy the environment around him, the wind tickled his grey hair, his dog nudged his fingertips as the birds song made its way to his ears.

He opened his eyes before he walked back into his dark prison. He grabbed his phone from the small table next to his sofa and opened it to see the woman he once loved as his wallpaper.

Bob gazed at his phone unable to take his eyes off her. He never forgave himself for letting her go, but if he hadn't, she might have been the reason he dies, or he might be the reason she does.

"I miss you, Ray," He muttered as he finally allowed himself to put his phone down.

"Touching." A voice rumbled across the room, Bob couldn't help but look at the source, and there he was. A man stood in the dimly lit part of the house, his hair flared in a white and black mix even though he looked young. He wore an open red flannel with a white T-shirt underneath.

His teeth were lined perfectly edge to edge. His smile grew so wide as he saw Bob's face go from sad and in love to terrified to his core.

"Miss me?" The man stepped into the light with his hands behind his back.

"How did you-" Bob managed to blurt out. fear slithered its way into his heart and laid its sharp teeth deep within his core. The moment he dreaded finally arrived.

"How did I break the ruins? Easy! I used this." He pointed at the silver ring on his middle finger.

"I figured since you can use ruins to keep me out, I can use spells and magic to make myself seem human enough for them not to work." He scoffed.

"Now, care for a quick turn?"
"No," he cried in disbelief.

"Ten." Aquilla's grin grew.
"Nine." Bob grabbed his phone. "Eight." He played the audio.
"Seven." Nomine ipforum.
"Six." His ring started to glow. Aquilla lifted his hand in the air.
"Five." nomine lucis ex qua iubeo. "Four." Bob ran outside his house
"Three." te redire praecipio house. tibi inferni.
"Two." Aquilla stepped on Bob's phone crushing it in pieces.
"One." The sound of an animal running made Bob stumble to the ground.

He lifted his head up only to see five coyotes emerging from the woods.
Bob's dog stood Infront of him, it growled as it attempted to scare the pack of wild animals before them.

"You see, in the previous month I learned a few neat tricks." Aquilla walked towards Bob, "I'm possessing the alpha of that pack, if it attacks you, they attack you too." He laughed.

"I don't have to be INSIDE the entity to possess them, all I need to do is control them." He lifted one of his fingers, the alpha of the pack growled loudly and so did the pack.

"See you keep doing this." Bob got off the floor, "you kept your rules so vague that you had a million loopholes to jump through like a trained dog," He accused Aquilla.

"I never broke any of my rules," Aquilla smiled as he lifted another finger only for the pack to edge closer onto them.
"Really? And Connor being alive for so long is what?" He asked. "Him being able to take the souls of those he kills is what?" He yelled.

"You need to stop screaming, you're making my dogs angry." He lifted his third finger for them to edge even closer.
"If you want your dog to survive let him, go back to his cage," Aquilla said. "And nowhere in the rules did it ever say he can't use magic." His mischievous smile grew.

"What do you gain when you do this?" Bob asked. "Life, power, and fun," Aquilla said so casually.

"Fun? Murdering people is fun to you?" He could feel tears build up in his eyes.

"Murdering stupid ones is, yes," He answered as the sun flared onto his eyes. "See, you could have gone upstairs to your room where you had like a gallon of water," He paused. "But instead, you ran outside the minute your little voice note didn't work. Now you face the consequences." He lifted his fourth finger.
The alpha and another coyote attacked the dog viscously as the other three stood not too far behind. "If you move, he dies and I start another turn to murder you," Aquilla threatened.

Bob watched his dog squeal and bleed under the fangs of coyotes. "And your other friends in your game, they also turned out to be pretty stupid," Aquilla said. "The cement guy, Alex or whatever, he kept counting as he stood on cement but once he saw my human form he stopped. Like wow he was about to survive," Aquilla said.

"And the other guy, he was also stupid enough to wait until I stopped counting to play your audio . By the time he realized my ring absorbed it I was squishing his bones with a sledge hammer." Aquilla laughed, he looked at Bob to see a look of disgust on his face. "Survived all these years for your life to end under the hands of the thing you swore to destroy, poetic, isn't it?" Aquilla said as he felt a peaceful air breeze tickle his face.

"When will you ever face the consequences of your actions!" Bob cried. He looked at his dog with tearful eyes as he saw its stomach rise and fall, dying a slow, agonizing death.

Aquilla got close to Bob's face and smirked widely. "Never." He lifted his thumb only for all five of the coyotes to tear Bob into pieces. He screamed as the fangs pierced his skin and ripped him apart. Bob's blood ran down the green grass and got soaked into the earth, his heaven turned into his hell. The last thing he laid his eyes on before finally withered away was a single cloud hovering over the sun's rays turning the world around him to a sad shade of grey before it all went dark.

"That was brutal." A voice scoffed behind Aquilla's shoulder, "I thought you'd let me take him." Connor looked at Bob's mutilated face.

"You get one of the new ones, but that is it." Aquilla said as he put his hands on the dog's stomach.

"I only have two souls left!" Connor argued. Aquilla lifted his hand in Connor's direction for the symbols on his fist to burn once again, only this time the one on his head didn't appear.

Connor fell to his knees in pain as the symbol slowly burned onto the dog's ear. "Now you only have one." Aquilla stood up and as soon as he did all the coyotes fled back to the woods.

Aquilla walked away with Connor behind him, silently squealing in pain. The dog nudged Bob's dead body, it squealed for its owner to get back up. The dog's skin was painted red with the blood of the now dead owner. Aquilla shot one last look at the dog before he turned around and walked away.

Aquila brushed his fingers onto the low hanging leaves, This... Is the beginning of the end his grin grew wide at the realization.

**********************
I hope you enjoyed this one! This by far is the most fun chapter I wrote, I think it's my favourite chapter in the book!
Bob is the same character that helped Markus execute his plan. The AI imagine I have of Aquilla's human form is not the best so I won't be posting it 💀✋