Bommie's Story: Part 2

Chapter 7: The Forest

The body had a spear right through her forehead. Parts of the brain were outside of her head. Her eye looked like it was ripped off. Abenation must have killed her. Devin covered Bommie's eyes.

"Pandora!" Bommie cried. "How did this happen?"

"Abenation must've killed her," Devin said. He knew what this meant. Abenation hadn't just gone rogue, but he has weapons. If he has one spear, who knows what other kinds of weapons he has? The thought made Devin nervous.

"We need to go..." he said. Bommie didn't feel the same way, though. He was staring at the dead body of Synthia's best friend, after all.

"Come on!" Devin interrupted. Bommie, still silent, decided to follow Devin.

"No more getting off track. Who was that anyway?" Devin asked.

"No time for long boring explanations." Bommie shed a quick tear for Pandora. But they didn't have time to fully mourn her. They needed to find Abenation and return him to prison.

Devin and Bommie walked deeper into the forest. Bommie's feet had swollen to two times their size. They were bright red and blistery. Devin was quietly panting. Even devil dogs get dehydrated. They persisted.

"Devin, it's getting hot. Can you tell me a story?" Bommie pleaded.

"Hmm... I'm not much of a talker, but I'll try. How about I tell you how I ended up working for Satan?"

"Anything sounds good," Bommie replied.

"I was born from my mother Cerberus, who guarded Satan's underground palace. I played happily in hell. My dad loved me, my mother, not so much. She was always too busy working to see me. I was a very happy devil. That is until I turned 20. Turns out, us devils are supposed to be assassins. I really didn't want to, though. All of my friends thought it was no big deal. It was for me."

"My first assignment was your friend, Dommie. I wasn't excited about it, but I knew my mom wanted me to succeed. I was determined to do a good job..." Devin hesitated.

Bommie was walking a couple of feet behind Devin, carefully clambering over the roots in his way. He had never heard Devin talk so much. He was fascinated by the story, even if he was a little creeped out. To think- he had brought a devil into his house!

"You matched the description of Dommie so well that at first, I thought Satan had made a mistake." Devin continued. "So I opened the portal and went to earth. When I saw you for the first time, I didn't care much. But over time, I felt a connection to you. I don't know what it was. I just couldn't kill you. And here I am now." Devin rushed through the last two sentences. Even though Devin was bright red naturally, he appeared to be blushing.

"Aww, that's so sweet!" Bommie bubbled. He gave Devin a pat on the head.

"Knock it off!" Devin said jokingly. The two laughed, but then remembered what they were really here for.

Devin and Bommie walked for another half a mile before they came to a tall, dark tree with thick, peeling bark. Bommie had a bad feeling about this tree... he looked up and saw a rickety wooden structure that someone has precariously hammered into the crux of the tree branches. Bommie leaned into the tree and put his ear to the bark. He couldn't hear anything, but he had the distinct sensation of being watched.

Bommie decided to climb up the tree to see what was going on. Nothing was inside. Not even a spec. In fact, it was very clean for a treehouse. The floor was polished, there were sphere windows. There was obviously someone living there, but they weren't home.

"Is anyone there?" Bommie yelled. He didn't get any answer, though. Just the loud wind of the forest. And a small... yelp?

Bommie stuck his head outside, only to see Devin backing up from a grinning, evil figure. Bommie had finally found his father, but it seemed like he was about to lose his friend.