To Kiss A Corpse Goodbye

27 - 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐀𝐍, 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄

AN: There's something almost beautiful and kind of funny that I'm dropping the final chapter of the first book I wrote on my 19th birthday lol. Thank you to everyone who stuck with reading until the end ^^

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The whole world was engulfed in the white. A blistering darkness which ripped through. It was hot— and sickening. A scream tore through, but everything was eviscerated. They were eviscerated. No final thoughts or goodbyes. Except, when it was over, Adelaide's eyes opened once again, and she was still standing as she had been before.

She looked around wildly, and saw Rainmaker, also intact.

The afterlife? she wondered, in disbelief. But that wasn't what this place was. She glanced around, and saw Jisako. She blinked, and that hope was dashed. The thing she was seeing: the demon. It was the same as ever. As the haze cleared, she felt sick. A violent nausea tore through her, and ran up her throat. She tried to hold it in, but she just couldn't manage, and fell to the ground, heaving up what little was in her belly.

She realized then that she wasn't anywhere near the end. Adelaide looked up in disbelief, turning her gaze away from her own filth. "How did... How did we survive?" she wondered, utterly dumbfounded. And then– as she looked again at the demon queen who had once been her bride at the altar, standing now before the rising sun, opening a portal to hell.

The demon had protected them for some reason, but there was a much worse thing at stake now. The exact thing they'd wanted to die preventing as exorcists. Hell on Earth was coming.

The gateway was constructing. Made of stone bits which flew up from the debris around them, and constructed a thing like an altar. A thing halfway complete. In it, the fuzzy image of Hell reflected. Right now, pure blur. But Adelaide had a sense that she didn't want to see it in full. That the only thing that would occur if that gateway was completed– was something horrible.

She looked at Rainmaker, who had been thrown to the ground, and scratched up, but otherwise unharmed because of the demon's protections. She looked from the unharmed boy to the portal to hell and at the thing which had once been her wife. The pride and joy of her life. The thing that had become of the one she always returned home to. And even with all the wisdoms she thought she'd gained through her life– she could not understand.

"...Why?"

"Where do you think we came from, Adelaide?" The demon finally spoke. It didn't speak with Jisako's voice. "The gateway was opened when the first of the warheads were dropped." It walked closer, bringing its ugly, gnarled hands to cup Adelaide's face, in some twisted affection. The demon leaned in once again, as though to kiss her.

Adelaide put her hand between their lips, refusing again. She wanted her bride in her arms– but not like this. The demon sighed, before finally moving back. "Fine then. I suppose it was always in your nature to be overly stubborn and faithless." The demon stepped back toward the gate. "You've given me the fuel I needed."

Adelaide twitched. "No..."

Rainmaker rushed to her side, and reached toward the cross, to ward off the thing that had become of the woman in front of them. The demon only pulled back the slightest bit. "We gave you nothing," he said, attempting to sound strong and defiant. But it wasn't in his personality to have any will of his own. He was a man who was damned to be imposed on.

The demon laughed. "You've given me everything. Your fear, and this Armageddon wrought by mankind– and now, the morningstar rises."

Adelaide's chest tightened. "Jisako..."