What Lies In Me

Chapter 25

"Hello, Irkingu."

Irkingu starts. "What's going on? Where are you?" he asks. He is surrounded by a void, neither dark nor light, but gray.

"I am clinging to your back in the human world. Where are you? This is nothingness. This is the place of sealing. It is what my blood will make of you. You want me to send you back into darkness, don't you?"

The demon grins, and then descends into laughter. "Yes! Yes, you can send me, and then Nebiru will bring me back again! Seal me away, o' blood-born beast, and I will reign upon my return!"

"Nah."

"What?"

"I don't feel like it. You can stay on earth."

"You... I'll kill you! I'll kill your master! Your allies! They will all die unless you seal me away!"

"I don't think so. I think we are going to get along just fine. I could seal you away into darkness. You would come back anyways. Or... I could seal your previous forms away, leaving you with only what you currently have."

"You- You can't!" Irkingu sounds fearful, possibly for the first time since returning from the void.

"Maybe I can. I haven't tried it. First time."

"It won't work!"

This time I laugh, and it echoes around Irkingu. "You thought you had found a loophole? In a system the master created? He is not so careless."

"But-"

"For every action, there is a counter. The master balanced this world, even for our return. He knows everything. He knew what you would do. Maybe I am the counter that he planned."

"Don't- please... don't destroy everything I've worked for!" Irkingu cries in despair. "You could work with me! I would share my power! I could do anything!"

"Could you bring back others from the void? Could you make this world anew? Could you solve the problems that demons and other intruders into this world face?"

"I... I could-"

"The answer you are looking for is no."

The void of nothingness spirals around Irkingu, splitting him into three beings, and pulling two down into darkness while he rises to light.

"It is done. I have sealed it with my blood." The gray void disappears. All that remains is the sound of Irkingu's despair.

###

I fall backwards to the ground. I feel so exhausted, so spent. I'm trying my best to stay conscious; it's not over yet! The frail old man in front of me turns to face me.

"You... You ruined everything! I let you in and you destroyed it all! Thousands of years of work! You-"

A hook punch swings from behind Irkingu, cutting him off and solidly cracking his skull. He teeters, and then falls over, unconscious. Jackson brushes off his hands and reaches down to help me up. I grasp his hand and unsteadily rise to my feet. Sadie walks up to me and hugs me, causing me to nearly fall over. I can't help but smile. It's over.

"What did you do?" asks Jackson. "Will he come back?"

"No, he won't." I reply firmly. "He has lost everything. He won't recover."

"Ah, good."

Sadie steps back and smiles. "We've won."

"Yeah... yeah we have."

I look over towards Malah. Tony is helping her to her feet.

"Jackson, why did you come?" I ask, dreading the question. "You know I'm not your friend that you knew."

"Yeah, well, I know that. But you're still the friend I've known for the past few days. Brian's gone." Jackson slumps his shoulders, as if giving up. "What can I do?"

I put my hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. This wasn't my doing, but I'll do anything I can to help you guys get Brian back."

Jackson lights up. "He's alive!? How? Where!?"

"He's in stasis in the abyss. Right now, he's just taking a very long nap. And mark my words, I will return him to this world." Brian is a good person. He doesn't deserve the fate he's been given. I know that much. After all, I have all of his memories.

"But how?" Sadie asks. "And why?"

"The same way that I got here." I answer.

"Then what will happen to you?"

"We'll figure that out later."

"Alright," she replies. "We'd better not lose you."

Jackson grabbed my shoulder. "If you manage to do this for us, even Tony will forgive you."

"Even Tony?"

"He took Brian's nonexistence a lot harder than I did. He blames you, and he's angry."

"Why weren't you angry? Even if you thought I'd killed him?" I ask, confused.

"Well, it's not like you'd want to be in a human body, or like it was anything personal." Jackson shrugs. "I guess I had my doubts about that whole thing. I mean, we didn't hear it from a very reliable source."

"True that."

Tony and Malah walk over. Malah is quick to speak. "I'm so, so sorry! We didn't know! None of us knew that Irkingu had been absorbing his past lives. You weren't supposed to be in this much danger! He wasn't supposed to be this dangerous!"

"And he isn't anymore. We can go now. Call your agents, Malah. These two need containment." I point at both the frail body of Irkingu and the small rod that comprises Zahrim's remains. "The professionals can deal with them."

"Alright," Malah replies, pulling out her phone.

I turn to Tony. The look on his face indicates a mixture of anger, sadness, and determination.

"I won't forgive you as easily as Jackson has. If it wasn't for you, our best friend wouldn't be gone. He wouldn't be dead."

"I know, and I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't matter," he replies. "I don't care about sorry. What else have you got?"

"Brian isn't dead. I will do everything I can to return him to this world." Tony's face goes from anger to shock.

"What? Where is he?"

"Sleeping in the abyss. We can make plans to retrieve him once we leave this cave." I turn to Malah. "Malah, do we have a car?"

"We do," she replies, pocketing her phone. "A jeep is on its way for us."

"Awesome. Let's go."