There was a slight throbbing behind my eyes that I could feel before I even opened them. As I woke up, my eyelids began to creep open, taking in a blurry, bright world. It took me a second to register what I was even looking at. I was curled up in an unfamiliar bed underneath billowing white blankets. Beside the bed was a simple night stand, and beyond that were large floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out into a densely forested area. There were long strips of blinds that were drawn over the windows, but they were angled to let shafts of light through into the room. I pushed myself into a sitting position on the bed. The room was modestly sized, big enough to comfortably fit the queen sized bed with ample room on all sides, even with the addition of a large wooden dresser in front of the bed. Besides the bed, night stand, and dresser though, nothing else furnished the room. There were two doors to the room, each on different walls in one corner of the room.
I listened for any noise, but the only thing I heard was the faint sound of birds outside, so I got out of the bed and stretched. I pulled back the blinds on the window to get a better view of outside. Wherever I was, it definitely wasn't Kansas where my apartment was. The trees outside were pine trees, and the ground was littered with dead pine cones and needles. Movement up in the branches caught my eye, and I watched as two squirrels chased each other around in circles. The sun was coming in at an angle. I checked my phone, and it was only around 10AM, so it was still morning light that was shining in.
I turned my back on the window and went to one of the doors, the one directly opposite of the window. It opened to a nice looking bathroom tiled with expensive looking stone. On the other side of the bathroom was another door, which was slightly open. I couldn't help but look into the other room. It appeared to be another bedroom, but the curtains were drawn and shut and the entire room was shrouded in a darkness my eyes weren't adjusted to see into. I had a feeling I shouldn't go in, so I went back to try the other door in my room.
This door lead to the main room of the house. The floors were a warm cherry wood, along with most of the furniture, which consisted of a few rustic looking couches and a coffee table situated around a flat screen TV on the wall. The ceiling was very tall, and as I looked behind me, I noticed a balcony area with bookcases and a reclining chair all in front of an ornate glass window. I walked further into the living room area, looking around for any sign of another living soul. Underneath the flat screen a fake fire was on in a fireplace, and to my left was the front door of the small house. In front of me, past the living room, was the kitchen.
The wood flooring turned to smooth gray stone as I stepped inside the spacious kitchen. Shiny pots and pans hung from a rack above the counter and various spoons and ladles were put in a container next to the stove. I was surprised at how untouched the house looked while simultaneously being very livable. It seemed fully stocked with anything you would need. Did a demon need all these things? Or maybe I wasn't in a demon's house at all.
I opened the fridge, feeling hungry. What I found was... confusing, and slightly revolting. There were a few packs of foreign beer, but besides that, it was filled with containers and jars of every manner of inedible thing. There were organs and different animal parts in most of the jars, and others held mixtures of plants and spices I'd never seen before. I definitely wasn't in the house of any ordinary person.
"See anything you like?" A deep and increasingly familiar voice spoke from behind me, and I spun around to face Crowley, who had materialized out of nothing.
"What's all this?" I motioned towards the grotesque sight in the fridge. In two strides he had his hand on the refrigerator door and was closing it while handing me a bag.
"Witch stuff." he replied briskly, to which I raised an eyebrow, "What? I dabble."
"So demons do witchcraft as well?"
"Yes, well, no... I mean not technically, but I do." He went to the living room where there was a liquor cabinet and grabbed a bottle and sat down, pouring himself a glass. I followed him, sitting in the chair across from him and looked into the bag I had been handed to find a cheeseburger and fries.
"So that, in your fridge, that's what you eat?"
"No, god no, I said I dabble in witchcraft, not that I eat pig intestines!"
"Then what do you eat?"
"What do I–? Demons don't need to eat." He scoffed, again like I should know this.
"Okay, then take a few minutes to catch me up on all things demon and supernatural so I'm not stumbling around in the dark here!" I lost my temper at him. What, did he expect me to have spent my spare time memorizing all of the superstitious stuff I used to think was bullshit? I was literally just thrown into this, with no warning, and he was expecting me not to ask dumb questions?
"And tell me where we are." I added, remembering my unfamiliar surroundings.
"Alright then. We're in a summer home of mine in a big forest in Colorado that you wont possibly be getting out of without me, so don't try. I'll amuse you and answer your questions, but I'm not giving you a history lesson on all the things that go bump in the night, we'd be here for years." He took a long drink and crossed his legs. He seemed in a good mood, so I decided to try to get as many questions in as possible.
"Okay, explain the witch stuff."
"My mother is a witch, I, therefore, have a knack for witchcraft."
"You have a mother?"
"Of course I do, and a father too, how do you think babies are made?"
"Seriously..." I gave him a flat stare, which seemed to increase his amusement.
"I used to be a human once, some three hundred odd years ago. I died, took a hike through hell and was spat out as a twisted remnant of the soul I previously was. And that, little mouse, is how demons are made."
"So how did you get out of hell?"
"I knew the right demons, who knew the right demon, who set me up with a job as a salesman. Not everyone can cut it as a crossroads demon y'know. Hell isn't just handing out jobs all willy-nilly. Then, of course, I had to get a human vessel so that I could interact with this plane of existence."
"So, how you look right now, that's just the body of someone you possessed?"
"That would be correct. And then, throughout the years I played my cards right, and eventually worked my way up to being the king of hell." He flourished his hands out, a cocky smile on his face as if to say tada!
"The... The King of hell? Like, Lucifer king of hell?"
"No not Lucifer, he's long gone, no one really liked him anyway." He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "I'm the new king now." his cocky smile deflated a bit. I sat back in my seat trying to take everything in and wrap my mind around it.
"So, I'm in the presence of the king of hell... and he's addicted to shooting up with human blood." I watched Crowley's reaction closely, but he didn't make a single move except to squint his eyes at me in what I could only assume was frustration.
"And what of you? What's Ely short for?" He quickly changed topics, and it was my turn to shift uncomfortably in my seat.
"My mother named me Eloa, she said it was the name of some angel or something. She was big into that sort of stuff, angels and demons, God and Satan, you know. Mostly the angel part though. I guess she thought if she prayed long enough or hard enough that an angel would come out of nowhere and heal her. Heh, if only she knew all she needed was a demon!" I laughed sarcastically, but couldn't help grimacing at the thought, looking down at my hands which were knotted in my lap, "So when she died, I didn't really want anything to do with any of that, and the name is weird anyway, so I just go by Ely now." I attempted to smooth nonexistent wrinkles out of my jeans and looked back up at Crowley. He was unnaturally still, his expression blank, almost like he was staring right through me.
"What?" I felt my ears getting warm.
"Oh, well, it's just an interesting bit of angel legend that your mother chose to name you after."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I'm no scholar of angel lore, I'm sure if you could snag one of them they'd give you a much more accurate tale." He shrugged.
"I don't exactly have have an angel on speed dial, so you'll have to do." I pushed.
"Alright, it's said that the angel Eloa was born from the single tear that Jesus shed for the death of his pal Lazarus, y'know, before remembering he was almighty and raising him from the dead. Because she was born of pure sorrow, she knew of suffering in a way no other angel did. When she heard of Lucifer and him being cast out of heaven, she felt his pain instead of feeling repulsion like all of the other angels. She felt an insatiable desire to seek out Lucifer and ease his pain and suffering, which lead her to stray far away from heaven. Now, rumor has it that Lucifer saw her when she was created and was captivated by her beauty. Y'know, the kind of haunting beauty only an angel born of sorrow can have. And when she found him, they say Lucifer himself wavered in his hatred for heaven. To hear the angels say it, she was his one chance for redemption. But one thing lead to another, and he ended up dragging Eloa down to hell with him, which, consequently – and you wont hear this in the angels' version – lead to the creation of succubi." he finished and took a drink.
I slowly ate my food while thinking about what he had just told me. It was an oddly charming yet dark story, but not really something I would name a baby girl after.
"I've never heard that story before in my life." I said, thinking out loud.
"I doubt many people have. I myself only happened to stumble on to it by accident once while scouring Hell's libraries for something. If I were to guess, I'd say angels like to forget about those who fall from heaven, and I doubt Lucifer was going to spread around a story of the time he almost repented of his sins for a pretty girl." he smirked, staring over the rim of his glass contemptuously as he took a sip.
"Wait, hell has a library?" I asked, surprised.
"'Course it does. Not like your typical library, but it has a sort of... conglomeration of accounts, if you will. It's not very well organized, granted, but what can I say, not a whole lot of demons care about organization down there." He stared off in thought, mumbling, "I'll have to remember to put someone on that when I get back..."
"Speaking of hell, why aren't you there now, running it?" the question made him visibly tense.
"I've sort of... got my hands tied at the moment..." He didn't make eye contact, and I waited for him to expand on that statement, "You see, there's a demon, knight of hell in fact – nasty piece of work, that one – and she's trying to take hell from me, and I'm laying low till I have the right pieces in the right place to take her out." He stood up suddenly, "Which, incidentally, brings me to my first order of business for you." he pulled out of his pocket a hunting knife, holding it out to me leather-bound handle first. I took hold of it and looked at it more closely. Strange runes were etched into the blade.
"There's only a few things that can kill a demon, and that's one of them."
"I... don't understand."
"Like I said, you're now one of my biggest liabilities, and if I'd been in my right mind I would've simply killed you off yesterday, but now you need to know how to protect yourself from things like me. I can't be around to babysit you all the time, and there will inevitably be a point when Abaddon's men come looking for me and find you instead, and you'll need to be able to kill them."
"Woah, hold up! I didn't sign up for demon slaying duty, I'm not Buffy, I couldn't even tell you the last time I was in a fight!" even the hunting knife felt awkward and clumsy in my hand, and while I had taken a self defense class years ago, non of that gave me any preparation for fending off a demon.
"Well then I suggest you start practicing." his evil smirk flashed across his face again, "Oh, and my boys have already put your essentials in your room, so get comfortable here, you aren't returning home. Feel free to make use of the resources in the loft. And..." he fixed me with a stare that sent a cold shiver down my back, "I'll see you again tonight."
He snapped his fingers and he was gone.
A/N: Hey! Finally I get to the chapter that explains the title a little! My inspiration for this comes from a poem called Eloa, or The Sister of the Angels by Alfred de Vigny (Google it, it's a quick read) It's about the angel Eloa, which I directly reference in this chapter, that I randomly found out about and I fell in love with. I'm really happy about the positive response I've been getting from the chapters so far, I can't tell you how motivated it makes me to get new chapters out quickly and steadily!
If you ever want to ask anything or find any flaws worth pointing out, you can always PM me!