Neither Heaven Nor Hell: Reflections of Darkness-published through Lulu.com

Chapter 14: The Incubus's Prize

I was able to contact to demon, through the mind link I had accidentally created earlier. I told him to come alone, and that I would give her to him. I gently picked up her sleeping body. Tears came streaming from my eyes, and landed on her lovely face. This was the hardest thing I ever had to do.

He was waiting for me, alone as we agreed. He already was occupying the body of the poor unfortunate who sold his soul to another demon. He was handsome, of course.

"Well, I'm glad you finally came to your senses.", he said, "It take a brave soul to admit when he's wrong. Oh sorry, poor choice of words I guess. Speaking of which, I have your soul right here. Give me the girl, and you will have it  back. You know, the one thing you've been longing for.We might want to hurry this up. The police are searching for her. You know after finding my dead body, in her home, and her missing."

"I don't want  my soul.", I told him.

"Really?", he asked, "Why?"

"Well for one thing.", I began, "I take no pleasure in this, and I want nothing in return. Second do you really think I'm stupid enough to make a deal with you? You always have loophole in your agreement. You see when you let me feel my souls torment, I knew it was too damaged. Not just form the PTSD that it received for the past thousand years. But also from the hate, and anger directed towards heaven when I fell into Hell. We both know that if you put that soul back into my body, I would become a worse monster on Earth that's any vampire ever could."

"Very good.", he replied, "Oh the chaos you would have brought upon this wretched Earth. I guess you are not as dumb as you look. I hope this doesn't mean that you are going to renege on your promise."

"No.", I told him, "As much as this pains me, I promised her that I would do what she wants."

"I always knew she was a smart girl." He said, "Now hand her over to me.."  He had an eagerness in his eyes. He could not wait to get his hands of her. The one he believed rightfully belong to him. As I held her close to me, I looked down upon her face one last time. I kissed her soft lips, and wondered how I was going to be able to grant her true wish."

"I'm sorry my love.", I whispered, "But this is what you asked of me. And with that, I bore my fangs into her neck.  I drank every last drop of her blood, until there was nothing left.  I had killed her, right in front of him.  It happened so quickly the demon was unable to stop me, and I saw venous hatred and anger in his eyes.

"You want her!", I yelled as I let her dead body drop to the ground, "Come get her!"

"You hypocritical bastard!", he screamed, "You , and that angel dared to lecture me about love! When you just killed her right in front of me, just out of  spite!"

"Your only half right.", I told him, "Killing her was the hardest thing I ever had to do, but I did it for love. It is what she wanted. Yes, I was finally able to break through her pain barrier. And now I know everything about her. She wanted to be with the man she loved. She asked me to send her to him. You know, the one you slowly poisoned two years ago. Everyone, including the the two of them, just thought he got some strange unknown bacterial infection. And as he laid dying in the hospital, you were such a good friend to both of them. He even told you on his deathbed how fortunate they both were, that she would have you for support when he died."

"How do you know all of this?", he asked.

"Well.", I began, "Remember when you forced yourself into our transit dream state. You were wrong, her mind wasn't dormant. She knew it was you who was sexually assaulting her. She read your mind, the same way you could read her's and mine. She found out how her true love really died. You usually were able to put a stop to any potential romance in her life. But he got under your radar, you didn't count on her finding love so quickly. She also knew what you were planning. Living the out the life span of this new body you're in, just as the rest of the world would see you.  Except for her, she was going to see her true love's face whenever she looked at  you. You were planning on altering her perception."

"When did she tell you this?", he asked.

"The last dream sequence that we shared.", I informed him, "She shared with me the happiest day of her life. The day they spent at the beach, where he purposed. She was hoping that we could live that day forever, but she knew it wasn't real. It just wasn't going to be the same. Now I believe when she asked you to walk her down the aisle, she couldn't wait to see the expression on your face. True you pretended to be happy for her, but deep down you were seething with rage. You decided he just has to go, and so he did. Of course you were there to pick up the pieces of her broken heart. However, you knew she was never going to love you that way. So, that's when you started working on Plan B. So you see, you were somewhat right about my killing her in front of you out of spite. However it wasn't my spite, it was hers. For killing the man she loved, lying to her all those years about loving her as your own daughter, stalking her, manipulating her, and almost kidnapping and raping her. She wanted me to kill her in front of you, so you would feel the betrayal that she felt from you. I am now willing to admit that she was not better off with me. One thing is also perfectly clear, she and I both know that she sure as hell isn't better of with you!"

"You really think you've won.", he said in pure anger, "Well now she's in Heaven. True, I would have liked to have spent some time with her here on Earth. All you have done is further fuel my rage. You have given me even more of a reason for fight for what's rightfully mine. When my brothers and I finally reclaim Heaven, she will be waiting for me. Then she will be mine forever, whether you or her, like it or not! Oh how I'm going to enjoy killing you, and wiping you away from existence. I promise, it will be slow and painful. Wipe that smug look off your face. You seem awfully content for a being that is about to suffer as no one has suffered before."

"I guess it's because I've accepted my fate.", I responded, "You just haven't accepted yours. The angel was right. Heaven is a place of pure unconditional love. No evil force or being will ever be able to touch foot on it, let alone conquer it. I mean we know that my dark  damaged soul, the one that's only been down there for a thousand years, can't enter into Heaven. So, how can a fallen angel who's been trapped in Hell since Hell's  conception ever expect to return to Heaven?"

"Well.", he replied, "I would say we'll have to wait and find, But you won't be around. I wonder. How long do you think it would take a vampire to die, if it shared the eternal torment of it's damned soul?A day, a year, a millennia, an eternity, let's find out? Wait, what are you doing here?  Don't you have real people to save?"