Second time writing this authors note, first time my computer crashed, but I'm back. I know I've been staying more in the shadows recently; but as it turns out, some paint thinner and classic rock are excellent motivational tools (I'm kidding about the classic rock). No, but seriously, I know that I let a lot of people down by discontinuing BFAPS over my lesser known works, so I've tried to make up for that with this, and it's a doozy so prepare yourself (P.S I was joking about the paint
thinner; drugs are bad, mkay).
Update: Fixed most errors
"Drown myself in sorrow as I look at what you've done.
But nothing seemed to change, the bad times stayed the same,
And I can't run.
Sometimes I feel, sometimes I feel,
Like I been tied to the whippin' post.
Tied to the whippin' post, tied to the whippin' post.
Good Lord, I feel like I'm dyin'." (The Allman Brothers Band, Whipping Post)
It seems like every day now that the old man and Yukio have been going out on their little 'shopping trips.' I'd have to be stupid to believe that's where they're actually going.
People may say that I'm dumb for an eight year old, but even being a big dummy, I can realize that something is fishy about this situation.
After all, when you spend your whole life living with the same two people, you tend to be able to recognize when they lie to you.
Anyway, the old man typically uses the church's car to take Yukio 'shopping,' so I'll just have to sneak out of my room and hop in the trunk when they're not looking.
I can hear them messing with their stuff downstairs.
'Now's as good of a time as ever.' I think as I hop out of bed, and sneak up to the door.
I ease it open a little to scout out any of the other priests, because they'll try to stop me.
As silent as a mouse, I then tiptoe down the hall, and down the stairs. The old man is in the alter room, which is where I need to pass through to exit.
I quickly crouch behind one of the pews, as the old man scans the room with his old man eyes.
"Hey Yukio!" He screams, and for a second I think I'm caught. "Where's my wallet!"
"It's on the bed Dad!" Yukio screams.
The old man then walked right past my hiding spot without even batting an eye.
I let out a silent victory cry before making a beeline for the door.
Even if by accident, Yukio just saved me from another bad situation.
I thank the lord that I had a brother as I climbed into the trunk of the old man's car. The inside of the trunk had a handle, so that short people, like me and Yukio can close it easier.
I used it as intended, just from the inside.
I know I won't be caught because the old man never uses the trunk to put the groceries. He just has Yukio sit up front, and uses the back two seats.
I hide myself under the tarp that we use to cover the car with when it's off.
After a minute, I hear the sound of a door swinging open, followed by another. Then the car starts moving.
The rocking of the car is soothing, and it's all nice and warm here.
I feel myself slowly slipping away into sleep, before finally nothing.
Slam!
I wake up as the car doors are slammed shut together. I wait for a moment, until I can no longer hear the exited chatter of my brother outside.
I miss when he talked like that with me. He's just been so distant recently.
"Don't think about stupid stuff like that." I quietly chide myself before peeking out the back window.
I can't see much because of all of the dirt on the back window, but I can clearly see the old man and Yukio are standing on the porch of some house. As they enter the front door, I pop open the trunk, clambering out into the hot afternoon air. I turn around, shut it and then tiptoe up to the house.
Up close, it looks much worse than it did from a distance. Windows are broken, the wood panels are all black, brown and gross, and the whole place smells like old people.
Yeah, the old man and Yukio definitely weren't going shopping.
'Whelp, I made it this far, might as well go in.' I think, willing myself to enter.
Slowly, I crack open the door, and enter.
I creep up to a piece of furniture that is covered in tarp, and hide behind it as I hear approaching footsteps.
"Got your gear kiddo?" I recognize the voice of the old man.
"Yeah!" Yukio happily responds.
I cautiously peek out from behind my hiding spot to see the old man ruffling Yukio's hair, but that's not what grabbed my attention.
The slick metallic silver object in Yukio's hand however did.
I trace it with my eyes over, and over again, but I can't force myself to believe what I'm seeing.
'What the heck is Yukio doing with a gun?'
My eyes are still glued to the object, even after it is slipped under a shorter version of the coat that the old man is wearing.
Speaking of whom, my eyes dart up to the very man to watch him put a key from his ring into a door. He turned it in the lock, humming a little toon while he did so.
"Alright." He says which prompts Yukio to go through the door.
The old man then pulls the key out of the lock, and follows Yukio into the room, closing the door behind them.
'I've definitely got enough proof now!' I fume angrily. 'I'm now sure that they've been lying to me.'
Ready for a confrontation, I now stomp up to the door, and aggressively force it open to see...
Absolutely nothing
Like really, nothing
It was just an empty closet.
"The hell?" I ask myself before shutting the door again.
I open it again
Still nothing.
Close it again
Nothing
Open it
Still nothing.
Check the walls for any secret tunnels, like in those boring mystery movies that come on T.V.
Nothing
"Dad?... Yukio?..." I meekly call out.
Not a thing
I completely tear apart the whole house, looking for any signs of them. All I find is a bunch of chalk drawings on the walls, a bullet that had rolled under the couch, and a dusty old book about monsters.
I flip through it for a minute, not understanding any of it; a bunch of gibberish about these True Cross people killing the spawns of hell, or something.
"This is useless!" I scream throwing my findings across the room.
"If you don't stop hiding now I'm walking home by myself! You hear me old man?!" I shout in a futile attempt to draw them out.
After nobody comes to my aid I huff in defeat, tears slowly leaking from my eyes.
"Fine."
For the first time in my life, I am truly hurt as I walk out of the vacant building.
I walked down the street, tears clouding my vision, I thought about all of the good memories that I'd shared with Yukio and the old man.
'After all of that, how could they leave me?'
My mind then flashes to the gun, and to the old man ushering Yukio through the door.
'And how could they lie to me like that?"
As my heartbeat quickens, so does my pace, until I am full on sprinting down the street, with tears pouring down my face.
I am just about to turn the corner next to the monastery when, all of the sudden, I am yanked into an alley by my wrist. I try to escape my captor; An average looking middle aged man, but he had my wrist in a death grip.
I try to scream out, but he forces my mouth closed with his other hand.
"Hey little boy, where are your parents?" The man asks with a malicious grin on his face.
"Oh wait, don't answer that." His smile gets wider, and his grip stronger. "Wherever they are, they're not hear."
In one last effort to escape his hold, I flail my leg out.
Whatever it hit, must've hurt, because he ended up on the ground.
I see an opportunity, and take it, running as fast as I can away from the man.
"That hurt you little bastard!" Roars the man, as he lunges towards me, grabbing me by the ankle.
I crash hard into the ground, and the man pulls me by my leg deeper into the alley. I go to scream only to find that this time, it's my own fear that keeps me choked up. I can feel it forming a lump in my throat, and blocking any, but the weakest of noises from escaping.
"Since you killed my mood," the man starts talking once more, but this time in a more warbled, and unstable voice, "I might as well have my fun in another way!"
A sudden rush of cool air is all I get before a fist is thrown into my face.
I land in a sitting position with my back against a concrete wall.
As blood rushes down the side of my face, I can see this man for who he really is.
The devil himself.
Long horns akin to that of a mountain ram now stick out of his scalp, his ears have become pointed like that of an elf, his tongue has become forked like a snake's, and out of his mouth stretch grotesquely long fangs.
Something still prevents me from screaming, but a choked cry still exits my throat anyway.
"S-satan"
The monster leaned in closer, until I could feel his hot breath against the side of my face.
"Not quite kid, but you're close" he whispers into my ear. "The name's Astaroth, and I'm the sixth son of Satan (1)."
I nearly passed out at this point, but I didn't.
I did however, soil myself.
"What the hell!" The demon exclaims letting go of me. "Did you just piss yourself?!"
I take this chance to book it down the alley, after all I may not have another opportunity like this, so I'll take it while I can.
While running, the only thing I can think about is the fact that demons actually do exist, and that one is currently chasing me.
After running for a solid minute, I come to a fork in the alley.
I don't have much time to choose a path before I hear thundering footsteps behind me.
I make a spur of the moment decision choosing left, I glance over my shoulder as I run, just to make sure he's not behind me and then-
WHAM!
"Ow!"
I stumble back from whatever I hit full force with my shoulder. Now, not only does blood run down my face, but electric pains run up and down my arm.
I can't even lift it without nearly fainting from the pain.
To make matters worse, a familiar demon is now blocking the alley directly in front of me.
"Oh, what am I going to do with you?" He says slowly, stretching out each syllable.
"The hunt's just not as fun when the prey is injured." He sighed.
"Oh well, I guess our little party is over." He said with bravado, miming someone tipping their hat whilst bowing.
"I usually leave the German to Samael, but I believe it's time to say au revoir (2).
'This is the end.' I think to myself, as Astaroth waves around a scary set of claws.
I shut my eyes tight, and wait for the pain, but surprisingly, none comes.
In it's stead, there is a light tickling across my battered body.
I hear a loud gasp coming from Astaroth's direction, so I cautiously open my eyes.
There bowed before me, is Astaroth in all of his demonic glory.
"Young prince, I have found you." He says, in a calm and respectful way, if such is possible for a demon.
"What?" I mutter dumbly before looking around me for the demon's prince.
He looks up at me, still bowing.
"Have you not noticed?" He asks me confusedly
"Look upon yourself young prince." He excitedly tells me. "You're currently wreathed with the blue flames of Gehenna, the true mark of our king."
Sure enough, my vision was tinted blue, so I looked down at my hands, to see that Astaroth was in fact correct, as blue flames danced across my palms.
"Wha- What does this all mean?" I asked the man hesitantly.
"You, are the heir to the throne of Gehenna, the lost prince, born from the king himself: Satan."
"I'm the son of Satan." I say, in a daze as the alley begins to spin around me.
"Yes, you are, and we must leave now, Gehenna awaits."
"But I'm a human" I argue.
"Clearly you're not." He snorts, "No human can possibly possess the flames of our lord without being eaten alive by them."
"I look human though!" I retort.
So humans can just magically heal injuries in seconds; your demon half is probably sealed away." He explained.
"Why should I trust you, you were going to kill me!" I scream at him.
"I take it you have some relations with an exorcist, or my treacherous brother Samael." He continues like I hadn't even said anything.
That word, exorcist, stops me in my tracks because I'd heard the old man call himself that before.
"What's an exorcist?" I ask, completely forgetting the anguish that this demon had caused me only moments ago.
"An exorcist is person who exorcises demons in the name of god or whatever. Most of 'em are priests who work with the Catholic Church." Astaroth explains.
'Does the old man really kill demons? Am I a demon? Why would he hide this from me. Why did Yukio have that gun? Am I going crazy? Is that why all of this is happening?'
'Surely I must be dreaming.' But I pinch myself, and the pain tells me that I'm not dreaming.
This is just as real as the spot on my arm that I just pinched bloody.
"Stop that, young prince!" Astaroth chastises. "You aren't a masochist are you? Please say you aren't because we really don't need another one of those in the family."
"What's a masochist?" I ask feeling dumb once more.
"Eh, how old are you young prince?"
"Eight."
"I'll tell you when you're older."
"No, you won't because I'm going home to the old man and Yukio, and he'll beat your ass because he's the best... Uh- exorcist around." I say confidently.
"He's an exorcist huh?" Astaroth asks unconvinced.
"Yeah, and he'll uh- he'll exercise? You!"
"Funny, a second ago you didn't even know what an exorcist was."
"I did too, I just didn't know the word for it."
"If you know so much about exorcism then you should know what Assiah is?"
"Uh-"
"How about Gehenna?"
I shake my head no.
"How about the True Cross Order."
'I actually recognize that one, but from where?'
And then it hits me
That book on monsters that I tossed away.
"They kill the monsters right?" I ask recognizing them from the little amount of the book that I actually read.
"Not monsters young lord, demons just like you and I."
That book, the gun, the recent cold shoulder from Yukio. The secret trips to that abandoned house, the disappearing act, the arrival of Astaroth, who at this point had most certainly proved that he was a demon, and at this point is the only one who doesn't seem to be hiding something from him.
"What would happen If I went with you?" I ask, curiosity getting the best of me.
"You would be taken to Gehenna where your bloodline and inheritance would be explained to you, then we would unlock your powers, and you would be worshipped as the prince."
That sounds like a terrible idea, going to a strange place with a demon who tried to kill you only moments earlier.
"I'm sorry," I say, "but you did try to kill me earlier, and everyone knows you can't trust a demon so... I have to... Uh... Say no."
"I didn't give you a choice young prince." He growled, hoisting me up by my armpits.
He then leapt really, really high onto a building, and the feeling of fear clogging my throat had returned full force.
"We have a train to catch."
Next chapter: Locomotive Breath.
(1). On the demons Wikia for Blue Exorcist it shows him above Amaimon and Beelzebub on the ranking chart. Multiple works however put him as the seventh demon king, so I'm a bit confused. If you have a credible answer to this little debacle, please share.
(2) Yes, I know this isn't German. What do you take me for, some kinda dunce?.