Better To Have Loved (M/M/M)

Prologue: Asher

**A/N: HI THERE FANS. IT'S BEEN MORE THAN TEN YEARS, I'M SO SORRY FOR THAT. HOPEFULLY YALL ENJOY THIS BEAUTIFUL, TRAGEDY, ROMANCE STORY I'M WRITING. THIS CHAPTER JUMPS EVERYWHERE ON PURPOSE BECAUSE OF WHAT'S HAPPENING BUT THE REST WILL BE A MORE STEADY FLOW. I DO NOT OWN THE HUMANS THAT INSPIRE THE CHARACTERS NOR DO I OWN THE SONGS ON THE CHAPTERS. THEY'RE ALL JUST THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS STORY BUT THE WORK ITSELF IS ALL FROM MY TWISTED LITTLE IMAGINATION. THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS AND HOPEFULLY YALL STICK AROUND FOR THE WHOLE BOOK!**

The smoke steadily rose around me, the carbon dioxide filling my throat as it jolted me back awake. I stifled down a cough as I tried to putt my thoughts back together, holding the helm of my shirt to my nostrils to filter out as much of the smoke as possible. No part of me could remember what was going on, or where I even was at the moment. I tried to look through the thick gas to notice anything familiar around me.
There was one thing that drew my attention through all the chaos around me as the screams started to fill my ears. I could faintly see the blurred outlines of the villagers around me screaming, none of them stopping nor noticing that I was on the ground. In fact, majority of them ran around me as if I was some plague, their instincts telling them to keep a two foot radius away from me. It was weird, a pit in my stomach told me that I should be worried about their reactions to me. However, my attention was being slowly turned towards the one walking towards me.
He was close to six feet tall, his skin a pale contrast to the black smoke that was surrounding him. His smile was intoxicating even though the timing didn't make sense to me. This wasn't the time to be smiling, yet I wanted to share in his delight. He seemed to be an epicenter of fear and danger as the fire soared away from him. In fact, if I was seeing it right, the flames seemed to radiate from him, purging him in this radiantly demonic glow.
As he got closer to me my breathing got easier, though it took me a moment to realize that I was breathing in the smoke as if it was normal. I turned around to see if I could find a way out, to see if I could find the exit that everyone was going to and my heart started to sink. There was a crowd of at least forty to fifty people, all pounding on the door, begging to get out, some coughing and fainting where they stood.
I turned back to see the man was right in front of me, his beauty overwhelming up close. He had this straight black hair that couldn't decide in what direction to flow. His eyes were slanted on the edges but still maintained an almond shape, his pupils and irises indistinguishable from each other the deep blackness was reflecting my confused face before him. His dark brows furrowed as he studied me, his straight regal nose scrunching up as his nostrils flared, taking in a seemingly disgusting scent.
"You rang?" His voice danced around me in echoes through his barely parted pink full lips. My mouth fell open but no words escaped and his smile just grew. He put his hands up, brushing back some of the black locks of hair that strayed to in front of his face. That was when I realized that his fingers were coated in a black tar like substance that also adorned his feet's, going up to his ankles.
"Who are you?" I asked dumbly. There was a sense of familiarity with him, though I couldn't recall who he was or how I could forget such a beautiful creature. His smile grew even larger, the fangs in his mouth more pronounced than anything I've ever seen, it was more beast like than human.
"You summoned me Asher, you should know my name." He said with a musical chuckle. He was beautiful, though every part of me knew that he was evil.
Evil. My head started to ache as I realized what occurred before I passed out. This place I was in was a church, these people around me were all the people I saw on a daily basis. There was at least ten rows of wooden benches going down a straight line on both sides of me, I was in the center of the aisles. This being came from the pulpit, the fire was lined on the opposite sides of the benches. Every wall was decorated by flames, the windows themselves impossible to escape from thanks to the flames. They were at the only door, the only wall the flames hadn't touched yet. He ushered them all to the door, to be trapped in their own impending doom.
"Like lambs to the slaughterhouse." He said with a chuckle. I looked back at the one before me. He was a demon I summarized. "Correct." He said with a click of his tongue.
"What's going on?" I asked him. Did he just read my mind? He turned his head, reaching the tarred fingers out towards my face. I tensed up, not sure what to do with the new knowledge of what he was, yet I still wasn't afraid.
"Nobody else can see you." He said a tad bit gleefully. "You're dying." He said, gesturing his chin towards the pulpit. I followed the gesture up to see, well to see me. I wasn't sure what to think about the scene. My body was thrown haphazardly along the red carpeted floor, the black footprints of the man before me led from my broken lifeless corpse. No, not completely lifeless as my chest rose and fell slowly. I started to cough again as I realized he was right, and that I wasn't alone.
Facing away from me, shoulders hunched over was another guy with blonde curls that adorned his crown. His shoulders were shaking as a tremble went through his body as his wails went through the church. I wasn't even sure about why his screams seemed to overpower everyone else around me. His distraught cries were enough to shake me out of my stupor and the one before me just kept smiling.
"Go on, see for yourself." He beckoned with a head nudge towards the pulpit. I pulled myself up to walk around him, though I didn't need to as he decided to walk towards the fighting bodies. Why weren't they burning yet, I wondered. He clicked his tongue, still in perfect sync with my thoughts which at this point was starting to not surprise me anymore.
I walked up the pulpit to the grieving boy whose bawling started to become deafeningly loud. "I'm so sorry, I should've told them that it was me." He cried out. He turned to look at me, his bright blue eyes were like an endless ocean. He looked younger than the dark haired man, his face having wide eyes, rosy cheeks and more of an innocent boyish charm look. "I didn't mean for all of this to happen." He said, gesturing to my body and then the scene around me.
"Who are you?" I asked him.
"You shouldn't be dying." He said. I looked and started to study my body there before him. My eyes were closed, my face relaxed and peaceful looking. The dark brown curls that adorned my hair was matted against my light brown skin, my clothes were all black surprisingly since I mostly wore bright colors. Why was my hair matted I wondered.
I reached out to run my fingers through the once springy curls and recoiled at the wetness of it. I turned my fingers over, my stomach twisting at the redness that shown back at me. I was struck in the head?
The blonde guy nodded solemnly. "They hit you across the head, six times as if the first one wasn't enough." He said, the sadness slowly being replaced by something more than anger. It was pure hate coming from him at this point. "They deserve everything coming their way, they deserve him." He said, spitting out the last word in disgust.
They hated each other, duly noted, though I still can't for the life of me fathom who these two beautiful guys were or what they had to do with me, or why I was even struck in the head. "Who are you, and what is going on?!" I asked, the panic and anger rising in my voice though I was feeling more and more at ease which contradicted everything about this situation.
"We're your salvation." The blonde said.
"And their damnation." The dark one's words echoed through my mind. I turned to him, just in time to see him grab the closest female to him.
He pulled her into an embrace, the black around his feet spreading into a bubbling little pool around them. She was crying hysterically but it started to become muddled as she started choking and coughing. I would've thought it would've been the smoke that was causing her to choke, but instead it was that black tar like substance that started to drip from her mouth, followed by her ears and then her eyes. He held her gently as her gaping face was glued on me in horror as the black ooze kept pouring from every orifice I could see until she was completely coated in it. The other onlookers paused from their escape as they watched her in horror, their eyes quickly switching from her backside to what I was sure was the dark one's smiling face. Then came the flames that shot out from her orifices and took over her whole body, the black ooze being the accelerant and he never let her go as her body squirmed and she screamed in agony.
"What the fuck is happening." Was all I could think as the screams of the others erupted again, the dark one laughed through it all and the blonde continued to sob.