Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
“Maybe. Maybe not. You should worry more about yourself. You are the one consorting with ultimate forces of evil, building empty structures of imprisonment to please your master.”
“What are you talking about? I told you the reason for this facility. I explained my mission…”
“You don’t have a mission. You have a twisted rationale and a deal with the devil, who is only using you to get to me.”
“The devil?”
“Him,” she says, pointing to the man in black. “That’s the devil. He’s a real piece of work. I’m just going to say it, a jerk.”
The man in black laughs.
“You’re the devil? You didn’t think to mention that?” I query the man, though now I look at him, it seems obvious that he is the devil. I have no idea how I didn’t see it before.
The devil laughs. “Oh, Starlight, not so star bright. You’ve always been such a perfectly useful idiot.”
The devil is not kind when he makes his judgement. He is harsh, and he is accurate. I have been an idiot. The kind of idiot other idiots look down on, and rightly so.
“What am I going to do with you, now that your usefulness has come to an end?”
I turn to Katie, who is staring at the devil with eyes of pure loathing. She is not well pleased with any of these developments, though I am certain she saw them coming.
“Why didn’t you tell me!?” I question her, confused.
“I did tell you! You weren’t listening!”
“You never told me the devil was controlling my actions.”
“Because he wasn’t. He was incentivizing them, but you were still choosing them. Nothing that has happened here has been out of your control. Your sins are yours.”
My face must be a perfect picture of confusion and betrayal, for the devil’s laughter grows louder and louder, reaching a cacophonous sound that makes me want to cover my ears. I refuse, but that simply means I bear the brunt of the aural pain.
“So this is it? I work for the devil, and now… what? The devil built an entire prison for angels and then ripped it down? What?”
Katie
The devil laughs at me. “You thought I brought you here to be tormented until you agreed to join me. Instead, I brought you here and tormented my minion until you agreed to join forces. You love him, and now you will do anything to save him from all the terrible things that inevitably befall mortals without divine intervention. Very neat, no?”
“Oh, very clever,” I say, pleasing him greatly, I am sure. The devil loves to deceive, and of course he cannot be truly satisfied until the one who is deceived comments upon just how incredibly bamboozled they have been. One must always give the devil his due. “Of course, there’s always the possibility I don’t really care what happens to Starlight, and I’m looking forward to returning to my laboratory.”
“I heard you declare your love, angel. I felt how much you meant it. You would do anything to save this man. Anything…”
As if on cue, the sound of helicopters fills the air with a throbbing hum. The devil’s voice is drowned out by the beating of several rotors. A fleet of five helicopter gunships comes flying out of the sun. It seems to me that they are blaring Highway to the Danger Zone, and though that is a physical impossibility, I hear it in my head, nevertheless.
My people have found me.
Starlight looks at me with helpless resignation. Caught between the devil and my gunships, he knows he’s fucked. He’s not going to bother to beg for his life. He’s too proud. He has nothing left. A fortress that is in the midst of being invaded, and no human allies left to speak of. The devil has stripped him of his resources, left him weak in the face of his enemies.
“There’s just one problem,” I say. “And I know it seems like a minor detail, perhaps, to you, but I didn’t say I loved him. He said he loved me.”
“I know very well you have allowed no man to ever love you. I know one invoking the word and bond of love is enough. Send those men in the helicopters away, take a knee, and swear fealty to me,” he says. “Or you will lose everything.”
“You cannot take anything from me,” I tell the devil. “You have given me nothing.”
The devil smirks at me, then crooks a finger at his minion.
“Starlight. Come here.”
Starlight can’t help himself. Or perhaps he can. Whatever the reason, he walks toward the devil, just as the devil commanded.
“No! Starlight! Come here!” I call him back. He turns around and looks at me, a confused puppy dog expression on his all too-human and all too crushed face. He is looking at me, crushed and heartbroken, understanding finally that he has given a decade of his life in the service of pure evil.