Emergence

Hell to Pay: Chapter 4

(Note: I’ve went back and edited some of the previous entries for reasons primarily regarding continuity.  If you are reading this as it is released, you may notice some things that don’t exactly follow.  Such is the issue with releasing a story in this way.)

A drop of blood adorned Teivel’s upper lip.  It tasted sweet.  He stood, gazing upon the mutilated guard.  The body was motionless.  He surveyed the area, looking for anybody that had taken notice.

His hands, now covered in blood, still clenched the small knife tightly.  The tip had been chipped off, embedded in the skull of the man lying before him.  Fog filled the air as he breathed heavily.  The consequences of his actions set in.

The only out-of-the-way area was the latrines, two rows of tents down.  The knife was now useless, and would be evidence if it was found on him.  He stowed it inside one of the chest pockets of the guard.  Hands shaking from the cold, he crouched down to grab the ankles so as to drag the body along.

His barely pubescent body fought against the weight of the larger man, heels digging into the dirt.  He let out an exasperated breath with each step.  The sun was just below the horizon, and others would be awake soon.

“Halt!”  The harsh voice called out from behind him.  He tensed up, the sound of a rifle bolt being pulled into place sent shivers up his spine.  “Who are you, what do you think you are doing?”  Heavy footsteps pounded into the dirt, approaching fast.

“Mein Gott.”  The footsteps fell short.  Teivel swallowed hard, and turned around to another, younger guard, stopped dead in his tracks.  He seemed only a few years older than himself.  “What the fuck…?”  His head gyrated and his cheeks swelled up,bending him over and producing a stream of vomit from his mouth.  He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his uniform, and turned to Teivel with a look of disgust in his eye.

The barrel of the gun was pointed his way, and Teivel released his hold on the man’s legs.  The gun shook slightly in the nervous hands.  “You greasy kid, you jew, you did this.  We’re going to string you up.  Get away from him.”  Out of the corner of his eye, Teivel spotted another guard a few rows down.  The young guard also took notice, and started to wave violently at him.

Teivel panicked.  The dead guard lay at his feet, and his hands were covered incriminatingly in the man’s life force.  That’s what it was.  The pale skin of the man’s chest shown through the gap between the ripped buttons on his uniform, torn open in the scuffle.  It was a perfect canvas for him.

Jumping down on the corpse, he ripped open the remaining buttons down to the man’s navel.  “The pentagram.  Inverted.”  The blood on his fingertips was starting to dry, but he was able to trace out the shape.  The young guard was still distracted.  Teivel closed his eyes, trying to remember the symbols that came to him in his dream.  He exhaled out his nose, completely. His hands seemed to move on their own, he felt the still warm skin of the man, the cold blood, making contact.  The six pointed star that was carved into his arm started to burn once again.  “The power to command demons.”

The barrel of a gun was shoved into Teivel’s shoulder.  He opened his eyes as he fell backwards onto his behind.  “You’re some kind of freak, a demon.  You’re going to hell, but not before we have our fun.”  The guard laughed a high-pitched, mischievous laugh.

“The only hell is being here on Earth.”  Teivel snarled.  The ground felt cold.  Colder than before, like the warmth had been sucked out of the area.  From the crude pentagram smeared onto the man’s chest, a dark spot started to form.  Teivel could hear himself breathing loudly, like an echo, ringing in his ears.  The darkness spread.  It shot out from the body quicker that his eyes could follow.  The young guard stumbled, dropping his rifle.

It was like a shadow without an owner, creeping along the ground.  The guard seemed frozen, unable to escape from it.  It overcame him.  His mouth opened as if to scream, but no sound was produced.  He became enveloped, then nothing.  A ray of sun shot over the horizon, illuminating the ground and the particles of dust dancing in the air.  Two guards now laid, motionless.  Teivel rested his hand on the bloody pentagram, quickly examining the marks he had made.  The body was now frigid.

The other guard he had spotted was now making his way down the last row of tents.  A few people were starting to exit their bedrolls for the morning.  Teivel quickly scrambled for the rifle sitting on the ground, picked it up, and turned tail for the gate.