Heaven on Earth: Terminus (Book 1)

Chapter 7: Alleviate (Nate)

Queens, New York

I take a few tremulous steps back until I hit the wall behind me. I think to myself that it’s useless to resist anymore, Zagan has the upper hand, but I look at Azalea and she’s far from giving up, she looks at me with steel eyes and I realise that I have to fight for her, not me. The demon keeps approaching us, savouring our fear with each step, I look behind me over the wall and notice that it’s fairly busy on the ground, how could they not have heard my broken fire exit and my screaming earlier. “You two look like caged mice.” Zagan taunts, “You know, if you cooperate, I won’t kill you now.”

“Oh, but you still plan on killing us?” Azalea says,

“Not me.” Zagan replies, “Lucifer.”

“Not happening.” Azalea growls back and immediately, Zagan throws the sword at me with brute force but fortunately, Azalea makes a barrier to reflect the sword. The demon catches it back easily and the honeycombed wall disappears.

“You have nowhere to go.” Zagan states and throws the sword again but the result is the same as Azalea pulls up another barrier.”Am I getting a bit predictable?” He asks and instead of throwing the sword again, he lifts his hand up. Nothing. All of a sudden, I hear the sound of something tearing through the air and at lightning speed, I somehow manage to turn around and catch a knife that was intended for the back of my skull. A slight rush flows through my body and I notice both Azalea and Zagan looking at me dumbfounded, a hint of a smile creeps across my face and with vicious speed, I throw the knife at the demon and it hits him square in the chest, he starts to cough up black blood but I don’t have time to think. Azalea shouts “Jump!” at me and without even thinking of any consequences, I jump off the roof. I’m crashing down to the pavement and the people below but they still don’t notice, I look next to me and find Azalea, I turn back to the pavement and just before I hit the ground, I inhale and the world goes black.

***

There are a few things you can do after you take in air, you can either (a) exhale and breathe normally or (b) scream. The world opens up around me like an opening eyelid and I scream, I scream like something’s crushing my chest, I scream like I’ve just had a nightmare and I scream like both are happening to me at the same time. I can’t believe it, I just survived a 60 foot drop. My insides are still rattling, like a pinball machine, my fear being the ball and my organs being everything the ball hits. However, my heartbeat and breathing have slowed down enough to bring me back to Earth. I look around and I see Azalea walking towards me, “Are you OK?” She asks,

“Am I OK?” I say incredulously, “I can’t begin to describe how I feel! Do you want to tell me what the Hell just happened?” I shout, “Why am I wanted by demons?”

“I know and I’m sorry.” She says, “But I have no idea what that was about, I don’t know why Zagan wanted you, Nathan.”

“We need answers.” I say blankly,

“I know but what can I do?” She says guiltily,

“Well first, we have to find somewhere to go.” I look at her, “Because I know for damn sure that we can’t go back to my apartment.” I stand up and dust myself off,

Azalea notices something on the ground so I look as well, “We need to get you some new clothes.” She says pointing to my ripped jeans,

“Yeah but as I said, we can’t go back to the apartment because-” I start,

“Haven’t you got money?” She interrupts,

I look at her with my interrupted words still hanging in my mouth, “Well luckily, I have my wallet, and I just got payed.” I take out my wallet from my jean pocket and wave it in the air,