"Will you be by my side?" Damien x Pip

Chapter 19: A mysterious figure

It was... well, I would say dark, but you see, in hell at night, it doesn't get dark; it gets red, a dark red, but still, a red. So here, let me start over.

It was night, a beautiful red night, and everyone was sleeping, well... everyone except for the royal guards; they were still on the hunt for Damien, searching high and low for him. Yes, they were the only ones awake, well, okay, them and Damien.

Yes, Damien was awake. He wasn't going to wait until morning to continue. No, of course not. He needed to find and save Pip, now! So whether Willow liked it or not, or whether she knew it or not, Damien was going, right now. But how? The tree wasn't working. What could have happened to it? Damien didn't know. He had read tons of books about these things, but none of them ever talked about one of these trees not working.

As Damien grabbed his bag, he also took out his book. He flipped through the pages of it, hoping that maybe he had just missed a page about the tree, but there was nothing, absolutely nothing. 'Dang it! Fuck,' Damien thought. He then looked around. The tree was still where it was, the girls were still sleeping, and Damien was just standing there.

Damien's anger grew as he stared at the tree. His heart raced in his chest as he realized that time was slipping away, and Pip's life was hanging by a thread. He clenched his fists, determination burning in his eyes. There had to be another way.

'How to open this tree up and enter the torturer grounds? How? How?' Damien thought. That's when he heard a voice behind him.

"Hello, Damien." it said.

Damien snapped around, "Who the fuck are you!?"

A figure walked out from the shadows, revealing a short and cloaked figure with a necklace that had a heart charm on it, or maybe a sort of heart locket? It seemed to glow in the dim light, "I am someone who can help you," the stranger said calmly.

Damien eyed the stranger, his hand preparing to shoot fire at them, "How do I know I can trust you?" he asked.

The stranger let out a low chuckle, the sound echoing eerily in the night. "You don't have much of a choice, do you? Your will to save Philip has led you here, and I have the knowledge you need."

Damien hesitated, torn between his need to save Pip and his desire to be suspicious, "Fine, what do you know about this tree and the torturer grounds?"

The stranger smiled, "I can open the tree for you, but... at the cost of something. You see, I am the only one who knows a long-forgotten spell that you need."

Damien is silent as he thinks, "Ok... but why did the tree break? The guard came up and then... why did it break for me!?"

"Oh Damien... you broke it. You can't just shoot your fire at the guard who was in front of it and expect it not to shut down on itself."

"Oh...shit!"

"Shhhh!" the stranger puts a finger over their mouth, "You don't want to wake the girls up now, do you? Then you won't be able to go."

Damien sighs, "Right, okay... anyways, what is this 'cost' that you say I have to give? I'm confident that I can give it to you. I am the antichrist, after all."

The figure laughed, "Ah, the antichrist, a name that carries such power. I wonder how out of all people you could make fall for you is such a pure soul, one so opposite of yours... but that is not important now. Right now you need to give me something... I, Damien, request something connected to your name, antichrist, and that is your immortality."

Damien's eyes widened at the stranger's request, his heart pounding in his chest. "My... immortality?" he repeated, his voice laced with astonishment and disbelief. "You want me to give up my immortality?"

"Yes, Damien. The only thing that will keep you alive once your birthday is here and you aren't married."

"Right... with it, I am practically a vegetable and without it, I am dead...." Damien says.

"Yes, and how long until your birthday? When were you born?" the figure asks.

"June 6?" Damien answers.

"And what is it now?" the figure asks again.

"June 3? Oh wait...." Damien pauses.

"It's soon, Damien... very soon. So I would suggest you hurry up. Save Philip, get married quickly, and don't die. But that's if you take the deal. So, what do you pick? Save Philip or leave Philip to rot?" the figure asks.

"I.. I choose to give up my immortality!" Damien yells.

The figure smiles, "Good. I shall give you the long-forgotten spell."

The figure's smile remained as they began to chant the long-forgotten spell. The air around the tree seemed to shimmer and twist. As the spell reached its climax, the tree's bark split open with a faint light pouring out from within. Damien's heart raced as he realized that this was his chance to save Pip.

With a confident nod, he turned to the figure. "Thank you," he said. The figure nodded their head and stepped back, disappearing into the shadows as if they were never there. Damien took a deep breath and stepped towards the tree. He picked up his bag and got inside, and the next thing he knew, he was falling. Damien tried to stay calm; he was going to be fine. After all, immortality or not, a fall this high would at least hurt someone horribly, and it would be stupid to have workers get hurt just by getting to work, right?

Luckily, Damien was right, but not in the way he thought.

Because all he knew was one moment he was falling, and the next he was going back up. Gravity seemed to have switched.

That's when something grabbed him. Damien was pulled off, to where there was solid ground, flipped, and put back down. Damien tried to catch his breath; it all happened so fast. "What the hell just happened!?" he looked around, trying to think about what had just happened. "I'm....upside down? I'm upside down. What!? How...you know what, I'm not going to question it. I'm the antichrist, I live in hell, gravity switching is really not that odd here."

Damien sighed, "Well, I'm here... time to find Philip." Damien smiled, "I'm coming, Philip. I'm coming."

-What do you all think?

-Word Count: 1107