Chương 15: The Devil's Bargain: Unveiling Shadows and Broken Bonds
"You know in truth, the 14years I have lived I never once placed any value on or over my life. I mean…What's the point in living? What's the joy in existing? What's the value in prolonging suffering? The currency to truly live in this world is blood, not money. Be it your blood or someone else's, blood must be spent for one to acquire Peace, love, joy, happiness, success. We have to trample over one another to get what it is we want and with no regard for how we do it. That's why people who say they care about others are nothing but hypocrites. Blood is the real currency used nationally
"So? What's your point?"
"We disguise our lives as our own but that isn't true. From the day we were born our lives belonged to someone. Our lives had already been decided for us, humans are just too stubborn to accept that. Our lives belong to our masters and so do our choices, its just a matter of who your serving.
We think we have free will and because we do we take everything we do for granted but that isn't the case. Every single action you take that you think is of your own free will is of your masters. That's why I have no interest or joy in living, I see nothing but a job and I had hoped to do my job die and leave this world but that wont ever happen. The end of the world is here so why go on with this farce? Why prolong my inevitable end? The only thing that has kept me from ending my own life were the principles I carried and promises I made to someone I had to keep…the only one worth living for.
So, no matter the race. Human, Angel, Demon. It doesn't matter if everyone is still duty bound to someone else or reports to a higher authority. There Is no true freedom or world without rules, there is only the currency spent at the price of living and false freedom. But now judgement is here I won't have to pay that price any longer. I made a promise I intend to keep so don't try to sway me by what doesn't exist. I refuse to be baited by someone who thinks his own person and lives by his own rules. You only became a demon because you refuse to accept a power higher than your own. All you did was switch who it was you answered to. Look at you using a power you think is yours when it's borrowed power you got from someone else, a life you think is yours that you also got from someone else. Your no different from an atheist…No different from a human"
"So basically, your saying no?"
I lean off the table a bit with my nose only a few short centimeters away from his and respond
"I'm saying you broke…I'll never break. That's where you and I are not the same"
"You know you really know how to shatter someone's expectations"
I laughed and said to him
"Wouldn't be the first time"
"Guess not"
"You're not angry?"
"Angry? No. Just disappointed. But that doesn't make me like you any less. In fact, it just proves how special you are. Your strong, you won't be phased, your prepared to die with and for your beliefs and that's why your still able to say all that to me without fearing death. You're an amazing boy but sadly not all humans are like you, the rest won't think twice to take this deal if I gave it to them"
"First you underestimate me and now the whole human race. You need to stop that"
"But it's a fact. The people in this prison are cowards, small, fragile and weak. Just the smallest ray of hope even if it's a lie and they'll take it without second thoughts. Not everyone's like you Ed. Humans fell, have fallen and will fall over and over again until they fall into oblivion"
"Mankind isn't so weak"
"Then do you want to make a bet?"
"Why not, a deal with the devil is something I've always wanted to cross of my bucket list"
"I bet you that more than half the prisoners in this hell hole will take that deal, and just to make this sweeter I'm going to do something drastic. Ill give them between choosing the mark or a loved one and just wait till you see what most are going to pick. I promise you before next week half of your cell mates will be walking around here either as demons or as those who follow the beast"
"Alright then. What happens if I lose?"
"Simple you become a demon and work along side me. Forsaking whatever goals or desires it is you might have had"
"You wouldn't really do that"
He smiles fiendishly "Try me" he says
"I see. And if I win?"
"Well I can't promise you anything but I can guarantee you less torture for you and your cellmates and maybe we can figure something else along the line. What do you say? Deal?"
I ponder on it for a few good seconds. And shake on it "You have… A deal!"
"That was easy and I'm sure your confident man wont loose to demon but… let me just leave you with a little wisdom for when you lose. Mankind fell, has fallen and will continue to fall until they fall into oblivion"
"Noted" I said and replied with a fiendish grin
And so, this is how I made my first deal with a devil. The deals closed and the conversation comes to an end, the doors suddenly slammed open *Wham* followed by a gust of wind and a demon rushing someone in on a stretcher into the room. I was surprised by the sudden commotion but the clown wasn't. Instead he just shrugged it off saying
"Ah, looks like my guest has arrived"
"Who could that be?"
The demon comes in panting. And the person on the stretcher is covered in a cloth
"Sorry for the late delivery lord Aikia"
"I thought I told you! Around my patients call me Play Pal Pen" He slaps the demon across the face tearing off a bit of its skin"
"Yes, lord Pen"
"Get out. I have work to do"
"Yes, lord pen" The demon leaves
"So, your real name is Aikia? Well now I know what to call you by instead of clown"
"In this prison you know me as Play Pal Pen. Nothing else. Aikia was my human name, the name my mother gave me before I took on this form and I'd like nothing more than to have nothing to do with that name, so if you can? Please, call me pen"
Suddenly the figure under the sheets speaks
"Since he asked so nicely why not just agree with him? Not like I'm going to call you that though"
"Why does that voice sound familiar?" the person under the sheet speaks again.
"I could ask you the same thing, I can swear I know you, but that can't be possible. I haven't seen or heard from him in a long, long time"
"No… it can't be"
"I see you two already have an idea of each other's identity. So, without further ado"
He steps closer to the stretcher, grabs a hold of it and dramatically pulls it off
"Edward meet another old friend of yours. Ethan!"
It was unexpected, a friend I had thought I'd never see again. Here he is right next to me, to bad the situation couldn't be less fitting for a catchup. I wish I could tell you it was but it wasn't. what took place in that room was the physical humiliation Aikia put me through in front of Ethan. Now I know what you're expecting from me, but I felt no pain, no humiliation, No rage, no hatred. I had no such emotions in me after all, how can something your used to ever hurt you. As far as I'm concerned anger is an emotion only those with time to waste can feel, I don't have that time, I never did.
It was brief but the torture ended not to long after Ethan's arrival. Ethan, wasn't touched or tortured he simply just watched but that's besides the point. A week and a half had passed since that day and I and Ethan got to chat, we caught up on everything we had missed in both our lives, we even got to share the same cell. I have to tell you it was the most comfortable I had been with anyone since the end of the world. I truly got the chance to relax. But that was only but a brief moment of calm before the storm.
I noticed after the end of the second week that people from other cells had gone missing from some of their cells. The rise of demon's in prison though had gone up. The more people went missing the more demons appeared as guards in the prison. I noticed but I didn't want to care, I shrugged it off because I felt a little peace and I didn't want to disturb that. Not all the prisoners that went missing never came back, some did after sometime and were just…useless, husks of who they used to be. It was so bad that the guards didn't even bother to lock their cells, they left them open and left them to do whatever. At one point someone walked out of their cell and fell straight down…down into the bottom of the hanging cells. The bottom where we know absolutely nothing about
We weren't to bothered it in our cells. Because no one from our cells were called or we thought no one would be called that was until a demon came bearing news
"Maya Price and Nathan Summers. Your both wanted in the torture chamber"
"What for?" Maya asked "We were tortured just yesterday"
The demon responded "You don't ask questions. You just follow orders"
Nathan was able to convince Maya to just go along with the demon. After he talked to her and calmed her down they went off to the chamber without a hitch. That was when we realized it was their turn…To disappear. They had been gone for days without any sign of them coming back. Then i was summoned to the torture chamber by myself. On an irregular schedule. I didn't complain, I didn't resist, I was prepared for whatever was going to come because I expected it to come, I just have that much bad luck. But I can't complain because I wanted answers, I wanted to know what happened to those who disappeared.
The clown had already prepared for me as usual but rather than a table there was a chair at the center of the room, directly underneath the light. He wore an apron this time that was covered in splattered blood stains. He welcomes me in and points me to the chair. I sit in it and tell him
"It's cold. I think I prefer the table to the table"
He doesn't respond so I don't repeat the question. He then asks me what I think about my cell mates. I couldn't think up an answer so I said to him "Their fine" He tells me he'll try to make more sense and asks me how strong do I think they are to resist temptation. I tell him that a while spent with them I know how strong they all are and they'll resist with everything they can. Then he asks me about Nathan and Maya
"What about them?" I ask
"Do you think they have that same strength?"
"Well not exactly, they lack it individually but when their together they can overcome anything. I'm sure of that strength even if I haven't spent as much time with them as the others"
"You have a good eye Eddy. A very good eye indeed. Would you say the reliance is balanced or one relies on the other to much?"
"It looks balanced to me but nothing is ever really as it seems. Wait! Why are you asking me these questions and where are they?"
"You see the truth is Ed people are leeches and they suck out from one another what it is they need, some take more than others and some like parasites become dependent and can't do without. Your eyes saw it but you didn't see enough, not clearly but then again you see through your human eyes, but these are demon eyes that can peek into the oblivion"
"What the hell are you saying"
"I'm saying that those two can't stand being separated and I took that and used it to my advantage in my persuasion of Nathan and Maya. I brought them here and first of all tested their bonds by torturing them together and as you said they withstood it and pushed on but then I separated them and things changed"
"You took advantage of them? What did you make Maya do!?"
"Maya? … Oh, that sweet angel? Nothing. Why do you think I did anything to her? Oh I see you think Maya is the parasite because of everything that goes on in your cell? But that's all just so Maya can make Nathan feel in control"
"What are you saying"
"I'm saying that Maya is the strong one. She can do without Nathan but he can never do without her. I just proved that by opening him up to some suggestions, the boy is a paranoid freak whose mind can be played easily all I did was put them out of seeing and speaking distance and the boy shattered. He has no trust and those without trust can't rest, their hearts incapable of feeling peace. When that happens even the smallest bit of hope, no matter who the person is, they will take it in whatever form. In this case he took it in the form of power and became a demon. I'm sure you noticed some prisoners go missing over the last two weeks, some of them were turned others accepted the mark of the beast and some who couldn't become demons broke"
"Where's Maya!"
"I assure you she's fine, don't worry. On your way here, I sent her back. She should be telling your cell mates what happened right about now. But that shouldn't concern you. Remember our deal?"
"Oh no"
"Oh yes. With the look of despair on your face I see you have finally understood, I won. I told you men fell, have fallen and will continue to fall until they fall into oblivion. Just as I expected more than half of the prisoners were turned into demons or received the mark and Nathan helped complete the number being the final one to turn into a demon"
"Dear God… Does Maya know?"
"Only a bit. But not everything I wanted him to tell her himself, once you get there he will be there telling them everything and maybe then your cell mates will give up their humanity. But before that"
"Our deal. I know… I'm a man of my word so a deal's a deal. Make me a demon"
"I will in due time but, I want to make it a ceremony and demonize you in front of everyone from your cell. With the despair on their faces they'll surrender to us without resistance. Yes, I couldn't have asked for things to pan out any better than they did"
"Heh, heh, heh. You know I think I know what it was you told Nathan that made him go over to your side so easily. You're the kind of person who tells people the last thing they want to hear and the worst thing they can imagine. You lied to him, didn't you?"
"I only told him what it was he already thought of her, sure I used a demon to replicate her voice and say some false things when I used audio torture, but if he really loved her he wouldn't have believed it. He was weak, his "Love" was weak"
"Says someone who clearly knows nothing about it" He laughs a bit and walks to the wall on the right side of the chair. He calls me over and touches the wall. It turns to glass and becomes transparent. Then he shows me, he shows me a pit of men committing all sorts of sins to other men and with demons. Its brimming with the stench of Sins and the sight is to horrible to describe. Worse than anything you can imagine
"What…What in GODS name is this?"
"This is the fall of man, or what man used to be. Now their demons who have forsaken their humanity" He whispers into my ear "Your ceremony is in three days. Ill see you then Ed. I think you should tell your cell mates beforehand. They'll want to know"
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