Chapter 2:
His nose and eyes stung as he breathed in the smell of burnt flesh. Tears slowly made their way down the genius' cheek. 'How could this have happened?' Tony thought to himself.
"It was just a stupid dare! The fucking Devil doesn't even exist!" Tony yelled out at the top of his lungs, hoping anyone could hear him.
He looked at the body that was already unrecognizable. It had been mutilated; the right leg was missing and the left arm was dangling by its last tendon. The person was still alive after the attack, but a couple minutes later it spontaneously combusted. The roaring flames were finishing whatever misery the poor person had been through. The cries were unbearable for Tony as he knew who this human being was...
Happy.
The genius felt useless seeing that he could not do anything to help his friend out. He just stood there screaming as if he were the one that was on fire. Minutes passed as Happy finally decided to give up fighting and let death welcome him.
Now Happy was unidentifiable and that made Tony sick to his stomach, as he threw up on the ground. He felt tired and just wanted to lay there with his friend, pretend like nothing ever happened. As he was about to do this, he heard terrified screams coming from deep within the woods.
That's when Tony remembered that he still had to find Pepper and Rhodey. He cursed himself for ever forgetting about them in the first place. He got up, took off his jacket and gently laid it over his dead friend, then took off running towards the painful screams.
Keep running and don't stop.
That's what his mind kept telling him, even though his body told him otherwise. He had no idea where he was, all he knew was that he was lost deep in the woods. He had to find Pepper and Rhodey, he had already lost Happy and couldn't afford to lose them too. Maybe if he kept running he would find them. It was late at night and all Tony had was a small flashlight guiding him through the woods. He knew he was getting closer as he heard the screams get louder and louder. He noticed there was a clearing between the trees filled with light. When he ran into the space he tripped over something, and fell on his stomach. Slowly rolling himself onto his back, he noticed that the painful screams had stopped. Tony sat himself up to see what he had tripped on. It felt like he was being stabbed in the stomach as he saw Rhodey laying on the ground right where he had tripped.
Half of Rhodey's facial skin had been sliced off and the rest of his body was covered in blood along with leaves and dirt.
"Rhodey!" Tony yelled, he could already feel the tears stinging his eyes. The scared genius tried pushing himself to stand up but kept falling, until Rhodey's hand caught Tony's ankle.
"T-Tony...h-he-help...me." Rhodey rasped in agony.
Tony quickly collected himself and knelt down next to his best friend's side.
"Don't worry man, everything is going to be fine, just hang in there buddy."
Tony was trying to stay calm as his friend was quickly panicking. He put one of his hands on Rhodey's forearm and his other underneath Rhodey's back.
"OK, on three I'm going to sit you up very slowly so it won't hurt that much."
Little did Tony know that it was going to be very agonizing for his best friend...
"1...2...3.." Tony pulled up as gently as he could but felt as if his grip was loosening while he tried sitting up his friend.
Rhodey was half way to sitting up when he fell back, screaming in pain. Tony looked down in sheer horror as he saw what had happened. Half of Rhodey's skin was in Tony's hand, it had slipped right off him so fast and easily that Tony didn't have time to react. Once again the genius felt useless, knowing that if he tried moving him the skin would easily slip off again.
"K-kill... .Tony" Rhodey slowly spoke as he was still in pain.
"What?! No way, I can't do that, Rhodey you're my friend." Tony said, trying to hold in his tears.
"Th-that's why as a friend...I'm asking you to do it. Please Tony..I'm in so much pain...put me out of it" Tony saw tears rolling down Rhodey's cheek as he spoke.
He couldn't. But this was his friend who was in excruciating pain, pleading him to end it all. He had to think this through. Slowly getting up, Tony found a stick that looked sharp enough. Holding it in his hand he said, "I'm so sorry Rhodey. This is all my fault."
"It's OK Tony...I want you to do this, j-just do it fast." Rhodey was crying as he already knew what was about to come.
Tony took in a deep breath, raised the stick up in the air and as quickly as possible, shoved it right into Rhodey's heart.
He heard as the other man let out a grunt, then closed his eyes. Tony dropped to his knees sobbing as he just killed his life long friend. He tilted his head back as he still sobbed with his eyes closed.
Tony...
He heard his name being called out, it sounded like Pepper's voice. Deciding to open his eyes to see who was calling him, he saw his other friend, his girlfriend.
The love of his life was high up in the air, arms and feet tied to branches, making her body face the ground. He let out a choked sob as he saw Pepper's stomach was sliced open and all her entrails were dangling freely.
Again he felt sick to his stomach and threw up once more. He was at least somewhat glad that he didn't see her as she suffered an excruciatingly painful death.
She was already dead, but that didn't explain why he heard her calling him.
Feeling anger boil inside him, he stood up and started yelling at the air. "Come out you bastard! Show your face, I'm not afraid of you! What are you waiting for? Come on!"
The sound of a twig snapping behind him caught his attention. Tony turned around to see what it was, and stared wide-eyed at this creature.
Tony didn't run, just stood there in shock and in defeat. All his friends were gone, the love of his life was gone, and he didn't want to continue living without her.
He tried to think as to how he got here. All he could remember at this point was that he was telling Rhodey and Happy that he didn't believe in god, much less in the devil. He kept on rambling about how he was Tony fucking Stark and he wasn't scared of anything. That the day he would actually see the Devil himself he would believe in it, until then he wasn't going to believe in something stupid. He also remembered saying very drunk "Man I dare the Devil, if he even exists, to come up to my face and show me that he does actually exist. I mean am I really supposed to be scared of an ugly person holding a pitch fork?"
As Tony remembered all of this, he cursed himself for having such a big mouth.
The creature was slowly moving towards him, and Tony wasn't withdrawing, but holding his ground.
He assumed that this was the so-called 'Devil' people talked about. The 'Devil' wrapped a claw around Tony's neck, raised him high in the air, causing his feet to hang loosely off the ground. The creature began to squeeze Tony's airways and whispered in his ear,
"They say the Devil is not meant to be provoked, for his fiery grasp is not so easily escaped..."
That sent shivers down Tony's back, but he wasn't struggling against the grasp that the creature had on him.
Tony.
He heard Pepper's sweet voice calling for him again. He figured it was just his mind playing tricks on him, because he knew for a fact that Pepper was dead.
Tony.
Again he heard Pepper's voice, but he was already losing consciousness from the lack of oxygen and the claw around his neck had started drawing blood.
Tony drew his last breath of air while thinking to himself, 'It was just a dare, none of this was supposed to even happen.'
With that, Tony closed his eyes still hearing Pepper's loving voice call to him one more time, until he finally let go.
Well I hope you guys like this chapter, please review I would really like to know what you guys think about my story :)