Fallen

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

When I woke up (it had probably only been a minute or two, but it felt like hours), the demon was staring at me again- or maybe he hadn't stopped, I didn't really know. Either way, I shrieked and smacked him in the face. The demon hissed and grabbed my hand the instant it left his cheek. The claws pierced my skin, and I gasped.

"Don't be stupid, girl." He spat. "If you test me, I will kill you, no matter how valuable your kind are to him. I don't allow my prisoners to injure me." He laughed hoarsely. "It's my job to injure them."

After my beating heart calmed down enough for me to breath properly, despite the not-veiled-at-all threat he had just issued, I examined the demon in front of me. If I had thought that other demons' faces were melted and twisted, this one didn't look remotely close to humanoid. It looked like someone had let wax melt unevenly, then let it dry, then mashed it with their fists. It noticed my look of disgust, and its eyes darkened.

"Yes... it's horrific, isn't it? I used to look like a dark angel with black bat's wings, but I grew less human with every person I killed. These-" He gestured to his face. "-are from the last time my brothers and sisters escaped this prison."

I felt the blood run from my face. Demons got their twisted faces from murder? So that meant that- that meant that that demon, Treyzel, had killed already, when he had probably fallen only days ago.That meant that Mother... Mother probably killed in the war. I reassured myself. I'm sure she hasn't murdered outside of that. But I'd only known her for a day or so- how could I be so sure?

The demon slowly smiled, but it looked painful. "You didn't know? Your betraying scum of a mother didn't tell you why demons look the way they do? I'm almost starting to not want to kill her!" He laughed. "Nothing better than a mother who lies to her child, even though she's only seen her once before, when she was born!"

I stood up, and realized that I was no longer at the bottom of the hole, but in a strange decorated cave. There was no furniture other than a single hard chair that appeared to be chiseled out of rock. The walls were covered in strange markings and terrifying words like 'blood' and 'death' and 'kill'. My wings felt mostly healthy and un-broken again, luckily. I never knew when I'd have to fly.

"Why-"

"Why have I taken you here?" Sighed the demon, rolling his eyes. "To kill you, obviously. I thought you'd have figured that out by now. I'd hoped you'd take after your scum mother, but you're obviously just like those idiotic angels that always meddle in demon business. Heaven wants you alive and back up there. Hell wants you stuck down here. My brothers here-" he gestured around him, indicating his fellow demon friends at the Madhouse. "-want you dead. I figured that they'd want to join in on the fun, sooo..."

My blood chilled as demons began to enter the room, looking like monsters from the nightmares I'd had ever since I was thrown. Their faces were like every creature of evil humans had ever imagined, their teeth like knives, their claws like razors. I shrank against the wall, trying to look at every single one of them simultaneously. I was going to die. And so, I did the only thing that I knew I should do if I was in a bad situation.

"Lord, I know you can hear me- if it so pleases you, save me from this. If I really am important, help me." I whispered. The demons hissed at the sound of a prayer and took a small step back momentarily, before advancing once more. I closed my eyes, preparing myself for my inevitable death, when the demons suddenly stopped.

Maybe I was just imagining it. Why would these insane demons stop at murdering me? I peeked through my closed eyelids and saw that they were stopped in front of a tall woman with short black hair, black trench coat, and dirty bare feet. Her hands, which rested calmly at her sides, had long black claw-like nails on the end of each finger.