HOURGLASS

CHAPTER SIX - We Made Some Grave Mistakes 18:00

We arrived at the address.

"You have to be kidding me." I sighed. We were at the graveyard. Now graveyards are bad enough, but this is the one where my mom was buried. I tried to avoid the area because first off, it gave me the creeps, and secondly, it just always made me sad.

We wandered through the suspiciously open gate and were surprised by a dapper shadow that jumped down off a stone angel that seemed to judge us with its eyes. "Huh, you actually showed up. Not that I doubted you....that much." Charlie was holding an unlit cigarette in his hand. "Either of ye' got a lighter? I dropped mine while I was spooking some tourists earlier."

Nessa pulled her little lighter that she always carried around with her and placed it in Charlie's palm. He nodded at her and lit the small cylinder on fire. He placed it in between his lips and inhaled. After a few seconds he took it out of his mouth and said, "You know, I actually tried to quit a few decades ago. Even though it won't kill me, I know that everybody else hates it, and it's absolute rubbish. I didn't succeed though. Nicotine's about as important to me as air nowadays. Well, as important as food. By food I mean blood. I'm a real vampire." He made eye contact with the slightly shocked Nessa then glanced over at my impassive expression. "Well, Robin knew. Sorry to pull a fast one on you lovely." He gave Nessa her lighter back and kissed her hand.

She yanked it away and stuttered, "Sorry Charlie, uh, I, I swing the other way." She knit her eyebrows together and smiled a smile that looked as awkward as possible.

"Oh." Charlie looked down at the ground, obviously slightly disappointed. He shook his head and looked back up. "Anyway, we're here to discuss her. Zephyras, the queen of darkness, lover of evil, the chiller of hell, a person who strikes fear into demons, the very women who slayed the angel Zephyras and took his place as the world was being formed by the celestial being. Pretty much a bloody disaster of a sheila. Before you say, 'Wait, who's Zephyras, think and you'll know why you've never heard of him. Exactly." Sighing he continued. "She's a demon who crawled out of the underworld of the Netherlands. The worst of the worst. She literally made the Devil himself run from her corruptive gaze. She is evil incarnate, she is chaos. All that she wants is a world so bloody perfect that she can feel even more powerful while she destroys it.

I grimaced at Nessa's equally disturbed face. How the hell were we going to destroy a demon? Death by fire doesn't work if you are fire. "Uh, how can we kill her? Or at least banish her?" I asked.

"There is only one way to beat her. We must trap her in her creation; Erkir. We will have to lure her into her own personal hell. At the moment, she can do nothing to break the world, because she made it too perfect. That is why she needs you. She wanted two humans with just the right combination of chaos and peace in their hearts to make the most balanced world ever imagined. When she destroys it, it will recreate itself. That's what she's never been able to do."

"A being of chaos can't create!" Nessa exclaimed. Charlie nodded and smiled.

We had our plan.