I wake up in bed with a passed out Eryk sitting in a chair with bandages now wrapping his body and scarred back. I smile that he brought me up here and left his annoying mother down there for a bit. I go take a quick shower and start to get dressed, but when I reach for a shirt I see a strange half face mask. It looked to be made of Sapphire while the eye was swirling silver. "What's this…" I mutter to myself. Eryk wakes up a moment later and looks at me then looks at the mask in my hand. "Promise you will not put that mask on unless it's absolutely needed." He says and stands up holding his chest as a blood stain forms on the bandage. "Why should I not put it on? It's so pretty and it's like it is drawing me to put it on." I say and feel myself start to lift the mask to my face. Eryk teleports to me, but stumbles and falls into me. "Do not put that mask on. Do not hide from the pain. Embrace it." He says as he lifts off a beautifully made mask similar to mine, except his was made of onyx and something that looked like blood. Jack walked into the room and smiled when he saw me and Eryk. "You should not be…" He stops as he sees both of us holding the masks. "I see why you moved Eryk. Silver all of us have masks to hide behind" He touches his blue mask to make a point. "But we should not hide behind them. They can corrupt us. The mask promises power and they do give the power, but the power comes with voices of insanity. Use it only in desperate times." He says and slides his blue mask off to reveal a brown haired man with black sockets filled with what seems to be tar streaming down his face. "Look at what happened to me. I had to have my eyes gouged out and filled with tar before this mask appeared before me and promised shelter from the pain. I took it but found it harder and harder to take it off until it just felt like part of my body." He says and puts the mask back on. I look at the mask in my hand and put it in my pocket. We carry Eryk back to bed. "Why won't you heal completely?" Jack asked. "Don't have enough blood in my body. When I summoned Khorne I sacrificed nearly six liters of blood. I only got two back from the high ranking demon and since I believe neither of you want to sacrifice four liters to let me heal. I'm letting some cells regenerate to use them to heal completely." Eryk says. Jack sighs and takes a scalpel and slices his palm. Eryk raises an eyebrow. "Why only a small incision? If you wanted me to heal completely I would need the entire arm slit." Eryk says. "I will only give enough to let you heal all your outside wounds. Just let your own body regenerate the rest of the cells." Jack says and Eryk nods taking his hand and sucking some blood out. He takes off the bandage to reveal lots of scars but all of them were on his back. "Ugh, now I'm just drowsy as hell…" Eryk says, speech slurring a bit. "Need to go downstairs and cook breakfast… need to stop drinking vodka…need to top drinking scotch as well... need to stop passing out…" Eryk says as he passes out again. Lucifer walks into the room and laughs. "He is just a bit tired. Only got two hours of sleep right now." He says and gives us a plate he had behind his back. The plate was piled high with food. After ten minutes, the three of us went downstairs. "AND WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THIS TIME!" His mom screams as she turns, but when she sees it's not Eryk she says, "Oh it's only the whore never mind then." "Really your mood swings are duly noted." Adam, her husband said. He turns to me. "Know where Eryk keeps his beer?" Lucifer just facepalms. "He does not drink beer and before you ask it he does not smoke cigs either." Lucifer says quickly. Adam scowles. "What kind of man does not drink beer… I might have to have a talk with him later. He is insulting me." He says and goes to get a cooler from his car's trunk. "So what's in the garage? A tank?" Patryk asks sarcastically. "Don't know if his friends took the tank yet." Jack whispered to me as I peek into the garage to see a mk4 churchill is still there. "Umm… Yes?" I say. Patryk sighs and says, "Really done with this bullshit. There is no way…" He walks into the garage with his eyes closed. "He has a tank…" He opens his eyes. "In… the… garage…" "Told you they did not take it." Jack whispers to me. "I don't even wanna know." Patryk says as he walks out of the garage. "Has anyone seen Oscar?" Kevin asks. I look into the living room and see him reaching for a… 'particular' torture film named Saw… and by particular I mean the one that has a head in a box. "That looks like a fun game…" I hear him say. "That is not a game!" I yell and march into the room, locking the movie case. "I BET IT'S A GAME!" He screamed like the spoiled brat he is. "It is not a game. It is a horrible film that is NOT FOR CHILDREN!" I say as his family walks in the room. "What movie?" Matt asks. "Saw VI." I answer and he gasps looking at the movie shelf. "He has all 7 movies… That is quite rare actually." His mom gasped. "I BANNED HIM FROM WATCHING THOSE MOVIES LONG AGO!" She yelled and tried to get at the movies. I see a shirtless Eryk walk down the stairs and walk into the room. "Really need to sleep to heal. Mind being silent for two hours or so?" He asked. "WHY DO YOU HAVE THOSE MOVIES? I BANNED YOU FROM SEEING THEM OR EVEN READING ABOUT THEM!" His mom yelled. He shrugged "9.3 billion dollar net worth, nothing to do. Got bored so I bought some movies." He says. She blinks "9.3 what?" She asked. "9.3 billion net worth. I own a couple of high paying companies. Make them send me 5% of all the profits they make." He says. "YET YOU NEVER SEND IT TO US?" His mom screamed. He shrugged and said, "You never asked for me to send money and since I am not psychic how was I supposed to know you needed it?" He said. Oscar poked him in the gut and said, pointing to the saw movie, "I want to play that game." I sigh but Eryk shrugs and opens the shelf and reaches up to the top shelf and throws down the Saw 1-7 games. "Just let me sleep." He says and walks back upstairs. "SEE IT WAS A GAME!" Oscar says but as he reaches for them his mom snaches them up and puts them back on the shelf. "You are too young to play that game." "WHY… I already watched the mov…" He seems to realize what he was about to say. "WHAT WAS THAT!" His mom yelled and pulled him by his ear all the way to the room that was given to him. Kevin walks up to me and asks, "Why is Oscar being dragged by his ear by his mom?" "She found out that he has watched all of the Saw movies." I say and begin to walk out of the room. When I reach the stairs to go to the third floor I see Eryk's mom coming out of her room looking pretty pissed off and ready to take it out on the first person she sees. I sigh and think to myself that today is just not my lucky day. "AND WHERE ARE YOU GOING YOU LITTLE SLUT! YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW YOU PLAN TO SLEEP WITH HIM?" "WHERE DOES IT LOOK LIKE I AM GOING AND I AM NOT GOING TO ERYK'S ROOM. I AM NOT A WHO..." I begin to yell back at her but then I say in a calm exhausted voice. "You know what if you think I am a whore fine, but keep your thoughts to yourself. You don't know me and I have tried to be nice and respectful towards you because I love Eryk with my whole heart but I can't go on with arguing with you and you calling me a whore and insulting me all the time. You are not worth it anymore." I walk up the stairs and leave her frowning and cursing at me. I see Ken walking out of his room and I stop him and say, "Hey Ken can you do me a favor and tell Eryk if he asks that he knows where he can find me." Ken nods and then proceeds down the hall towards the stairs. I go through my room's door and out on the balcony where it is easy to climb to the roof. After a moment I climb up to see Azazel and the girl named… I forgot her name but they were dancing together on the roof while Poe was sitting on a chair reading a book. "Why are you guys up here?" I ask. Azazel looks over while still dancing with her says, "It's the one peaceful place with his family here. Is that not why you are up here as well?" I nod and sit down next to Poe. "So how long were you three up here?" I ask. "Hmm… A good hour or two." Poe says. The girl turned and said, "It is quite peaceful to dance with someone…" She turned and cast a seductive look over Azazel. "Especially when they look this good." Azazel laughed and said, "Tuck your claws in kitten. I am just a dance partner not a sex every day one, Jazmine." She laughs and says, "You could be…" Azazel took a step back just in case she was planning something. I see Ken and Lucifer climb up from the direction of Eryk's balcony. They walk over and sigh with relief. "Why do you…" Poe begins but then we hear the scream. "WHERE ARE YOU TWO WORTHLESS DRIFTERS!" "Might not of been a good idea to wipe their mind in the living room." "Wait you wiped their memories? When did yo…" I start to say but then I remember how Kevin forgot why Oscar was being punished. "You sir, are a sneaky devil." Poe says with a tiny palm clap. Lucifer sighs and says, "Yes but now we are 'worthless drifters' and Silver is still a 'whore' in her eyes." "Add 'slut' to that too she called me that while I was heading up here when I ran into her on the second floor." I say. "Sorry about my family." Eryk says behind all of us. Surprised to hear his voice we all jump and turn to him. "Boo…" He said sarcastically. Lucifer laughed a bit from the look on Jazmine's face. "I could take you any day big boy." She said with a blush and evil smile on her face. Eryk walks over and drapes his arm over my shoulder and says, "Taken kitten. Should of tried eight months ago." He says. Malphas and a girl that looked faintly familiar walked out of the shadow of the umbrella. "I taught her all of the basics." Malph says and sits next to Lucifer while the girl stands and says, "Chi sono tutte queste persone?" Eryk laughs a bit and replies, "Tutti sono amici di Jasmine, ma si dovrebbe parlare inglese. La sua una lingua che tutti conoscono." She tilts her head a bit and says, "Why would all of them know this language?" "Because it's the primary language of the world. Most people know it or can understand it." Eryk answers. She nods and sits down next to Poe, who for some reason runs his eyes over her body and smiled. "Don't even try it old man. I could take Lance in a duel for an hour." Jasmine says without looking at Poe. "Who is Lance? Is he your boyfriend?" Jazmine asks. Jasmine points to Eryk and says, "That's Lance." "Why does she think your name is Lance, Eryk?" Jazmine asked. He and I sigh. "My name was Lancelot before I was killed and taken to Hell. Now that I was reborn and named Eryk I respond to either name." He says while he pulls out the mask and looks at its eye. "Ok and what's the mask for? A masquerade party?" Jazmine asked. "I wish…" Eryk says as he stares at the eye. He starts to put the mask on, but I stop him before it is on. "You said that those masks were to be off limits unless absolutely needed." I say. He puts the mask on and I see that the mask grows to cover his full face. "It is…" He says. I look at the direction he was looking and saw that a giant cloud of smoke was coming from the direction of the college. He spreads his wings but instead of being his normal shadowy wings, they were bat wings on top of his back near the shoulders, and the shadowy angelic wings on his lower back. He turned back to us and the mask returned to its half face concession. "I know how to control most of the mask's power so don't worry about me." I was still sceptical, but as I stared into his eye… It was like confidence and power radiated in the air around him. "What is with that aura?" Poe asks. "The side effect of the mask. It gives off a constant field of power and your strongest emotion of the moment." Eryk said. Poe nods and goes back to reading. I take the mask out and look at it. How can a gem mask do such a thing as boost your power? I start to put on the mask but I feel Eryk's hand on my shoulder. "No Silver. I already experienced this mask. You are still new to it. Do not put it on." He says and flies off in the direction of the smoke. Five minutes pass and we see the smoke start to clear up. "He should be here in a minute." Ken says. "Ah, a bit too late to save you unfortunately." Says a voice from behind us. A voice I knew quite well by now. "What are you doing here Tartarus?" I ask. "What does it look like? Kidnapping you semi worthless brats." He says and kicks me away from him causing me to put the mask to my face. When the mask hit, something inside me awoke. It felt like experiences of past lives flowing through me. All my movements were faster and I felt that I had reached a level that no one could match me on. I felt I could even take on God. Seconds after that Eryk lands next to me, his face half concealed by the mask. Our combined power started making cracks in the cement roof. "Now we can get some fun started…" Tartarus says as he charges at me and Eryk but I see a ghostly tendril of power block his movements. "This is interesting. How your ancestors intrigue me." Tartarus says and pushes past the tendril. He punches at Eryk's chest with enough force to crack the entire ceiling. Instead of moving Eryk back Tartarus's hand was a mutilated mass of skin. "HOW HAVE YOU GROWN SO STRONG!?" He yelled and attempted to punch me but Eryk caught his hand. "This is why I hate you Tartarus. You always think that you will win." I say. Eryk bends the elbow the opposite way. Resulting with the bone being pushed to the surface. He then proceeds to kick one of Tarturases legs off. "The thing about my mask, Tart. You helped me forge my hatred of you into it." Eryk says. He steps aside and looks at me saying, "You should take that mask off now. It can become quite corruptive." I did not wanna take it off. All the power and skill it gave, but I knew that I would never reach it without it. He sighs and starts to put a hand on my shoulder. "First the mask gives power. Then it gives misery. Finally leading to extreme pain." He said. I began to think that he was lying but then I felt the mask begin to alter my mood as if it did not wanna be a separate part of accessories. It wanted to be part of me. I quickly reached for the mask to start to pull it off. When I take the mask off I feel the experience stay but all the power leave. Eryk smiles a bit then turns back to Tartarus. "Time to end this little reunion." He says as he punches him through the chest all the way out of his back until he was holding the beating heart. "Leave me and my family alone Tart. I do not like having to kill but I will." Eryk pulls his hand out of the chest and squishes the heart above his head raining blood over his face. Tartarus disappears as Eryk takes the mask off. "I know you were struggling to take the mask off. That is part of the reason why we, meaning Jack, Jane, and I did not want you to wear your mask. The mask is your place to hide. It is power of solitude." He says as he sits down with a pained expression on his face and I see that the mask left scabs on his face, where it clung to his skin with tiny spikes. We all go back inside and disperse among the house. I was with Eryk in the living room watching Saw when his mom walked in. "I wanted to talk to you about something, son." She gets an angry frown when she sees me leaning on his shoulder and watching the movie. "First up I want you to be more respectful to me. Secondly I want you to promise to never watch any of the Saw movies." Oh god damn it I thought. "And lastly I want you to break up with Ashley." He looks over at his mother and says, "None of those requests will come true, seeing that I'm happy with Ashley and the fact that I'm enjoying the original Saw as we speak." She got angry. "YOU WON'T? I AM YOUR MOTHER!" She screamed. "And Ashley's my girlfriend your point in that statement was a worthless attempt to scare me like when I was younger. Unfortunately for you I am no longer scared of you nor will I dump Ashley just because you of all people don't like her and I will watch what I want, when I want as long as I am the one paying for the electricity, power, house, and the movie." Eryk says and looks over at me. I blush a bit. "WHY WILL YOU NOT LISTEN TO MY ADVICE? I AM TRYING TO SAVE YOU FROM HER! SHE IS JUST WITH YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE RICH!" His mom screamed. He sighs and looks back at her. "Who is the one exploiting my money and house just to spite me not agreeing with your judgment?" He says as he holds up a piece of paper and lets his mom see it. "I see all the nice shows you streamed and how much you spent miss 'I'll spend two mill without him knowing' and really for bad horror movies. I HAVE A GOD DAMN BOOKSHELF FULL OF THEM." He says and kisses me on the cheek as he stands up and goes to the kitchen. His mom looks stunned for a moment but then gets even madder. "WHY THAT LITTLE INSIGNIFICANT BRAT. HE KNOWS ALL THAT I DID FOR HIM!" She yelled as she smashed his plasma with a book, breaking it. "YOU OWE ME A 1.5 MILLION DOLLAR TV NOW. HOPE YOUR HAPPY." Eryk screamed from the kitchen. His mom and I gasp on the amount that TV cost. "WHY YOU LITTLE BRAT. IF ONLY PATRYK GOT THAT MONEY! THEN WE WOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE COMPETENT SON!" She yelled. I could not hold my anger any longer and yelled, "SHUT THE FUCK UP. Seriously, you do nothing but yell. Do you even know how to talk like a normal person or do you only speak yell. I mean it's no wonder why Eryk moved away from home. Just because you are his mother doesn't mean you can control him for the rest of his life. I don't get what your problem with me is especially since I have done nothing to you." I hear Eryk talking with a man in the kitchen, but ignore it. "If you think your precious son Patryk would be such a good and nice son then you got that wrong. He does nothing but get in the way and annoy people more than Oscar does when he talks about games. Eryk works hard for everything and everyone. He may treat you with disrespect but he has a good reason too seeing that you show him no respect at all. I mean come on women, you are how old? You should know by now that if you want any respect then you got to show others respect as well. Treat people like how you want to be treated not treat people however you want and expect them to do what you want when you want and them to feel the same way about things as you do. I did not become Eryk's girlfriend because he is rich. I did because of how I treat him and everyone else. I would care less if he was rich or not because his money does not make him who he is. What makes Eryk who he is….." My eyes begin to tear up as I say, " He is the first person I met who will do anything to keep me safe and protect me from everything. Everyone he has introduced me to has become like a family to me. Eryk accepted me the way I was. I did not just get an amazing boyfriend but I also got an awesome best friend that I would do anything for. You may hate the fact that your son is happy with someone who is not you especially since it is me, but just know this I am happy with him. You do not know anything about what your son has done for me and what I have done for him. Eryk means more to me than life itself for all of his kindness he has showed me and I want to show him that same kindness and so much more." I turn and leave Eryk's mom standing in the living room with a stun look on her face as I run up the stairs to the top floor. As soon as I reach the third floor I run into my room and up on to the roof which with relief I am alone so no one could see me cry. I feel someone touch my shoulder to see Azazel standing by me. "You know even if she stopped mocking you and Eryk or if she knew about how he saved your life the result would be the same." He says as he sits down next to me. "I just want her to understand that whatever she sees is not always right." I say as I dry the tears from my eyes. "Believe me I know. Remember that we all have had those days with people who would annoy you to no end." He says as he turns to look at me. "We all have demons inside us. She has believed that she was a saint. I believed what I did was for the greater good. You and Eryk are the only ones that actually understood your darker sides and accepted them as they are part of who you are." I look at him, but burrow my head in my hands. "She is just so frustrating. She doesn't even know me yet she says those things." I say. "We are all to blame. Eryk sees how much she torments you, but can do nothing to stop her. He makes her angry at him and not you because that is the way that he believes you will not be hurt as much. May not work out so well but understand his predicament if his family gets angry at him we will be dealing with the police and the angels knocking on our doors, but if he does nothing this will keep happening." "I know but his mom is so aggravating sometimes." I say. "You know it's rude to talk about someone's family behind their back." We hear Eryk say from behind us. I look at him and the two dogs he somehow brought up here. They were both huskies and they were… smiling. "Meet Czarek and one of my favorite hellhounds. His name is Aamon." He says as he lets the dogs run to me and lick my face. I pet the husky who laid on my feet and was staring me in my eyes. "You do have an eye for loyal dogs, mate." Azazel says as he pets the husky. "This is the original one that saved your life isn't it?" Eryk nods and sits down and the other dog goes over and lays down behind him. He looks at me and says, "If I could do anything other than take the anger at myself I would, but as Azazel stated I'm stuck until they leave six months from now…" I don't blame him. He is trying to protect everyone he cares about in the long term, but it really angers me that it had to be this year. "Why did you go to Poland that day?" I ask. He sighs a bit and says, "It was my friend's funeral. He was murdered by an unknown assailant. It always happens to my friends. First Jasmine was killed when Nori possessed a fellow guard in the 1600s then four years ago when Grim did the same thing. I hoped that he would be alright, but…" He says as his eyes lose focus and he starts muttering something that sounds like names of hundreds of people. After two minutes he looks at me and says, "Those are the names of everyone I ever killed. Hundreds of men, women, and children that never got to grow up. When I spent 500 years in Tartarus I heard everyone's dreams, hopes, and family members I stole from them. Thousands of dreams that I alone stopped. Thousands more crushed by learning their husband, wife, or child was dead." He says and I see the mask he has on his hip start to bleed from the eye. He touches the mask and says, "This mask was formed by my desire to be free of the voices, but it just made them stronger whenever I took it off. I spent seven years hidden behind the mask, slowly forgetting who I was until Lucifer found me." He looks away from me for a moment then stands up and whistles and Aamon follows him as they disappear and I see them reappear on the training field. "Remember what I said about the dark side. His was much darker and tormenting than most. I killed him. I was the one he trusted the secret of where he buried Jasmine." Azazel looks at me. "Nobody knew she was dead other than me and Eryk. She was labeled a heretic and deserter. Abandoned by god they called it. He was just as tormented when Arthur had to pronounce that as when his mom now screams at you." Azazel said and walked away. I sat there for a moment, just petting Czarek before I moved and went back down to my room with Czarek following me.