Oh, God. The mark. It was shaped like the letter S, called the Mark of Skath. It glowed a scarlet red and gave the appearance of a burn mark when it was not glowing. It only showed up when either Trigon the Terrible was already here and spared you from a gruesome death by receiving the Mark of Skath, or there was a sacrifice about to be made that was directly related in the effective invoking of the demon.
And Angela certainly did not see any Trigon nearby.
The knife, the mark, her standing in the middle, the conversation she had barged in on yesterday..the puzzle pieces were clicking into place to form a picture Angela was horrified to see.
She was the sacrifice.
Before Angela could react, someone came up behind her and pinned her hands behind her back, making it so if she tried to move her arms she would most likely twist a muscle. The person with the knife, mutely, advanced toward the girl. Brother Blood lifted his head just a bit and caught Angela's eye in a vaporizing but somehow melancholy stare.
"What? What? No. No, please." Angela felt numb. Normally she would have been screaming her lungs out, but strangely she found she could not find the energy.
Her hands continued to stay pressed against her back, and her wrists felt like they were suffocating. Just the sight of the glint of the knife made a shiver pass through Angela.
"Please. You have to find a better way. I promise I'll stop messing up things. Just- you can't let me go this way, please..."
There was no response from a single person. They all seemed to pity Angela with the exception of Brother Blood, but did not move an inch in Angela's defense.
By now the knife-holder was behind Angela, lifting the weapon to the girl's throat. Low, barely audible chants started from the spectators, who were holding hands, the Mark of Skath painfully visible on each of their hands.
"The gem shall be his portal. He comes to claim, he comes to sire, the end of all things mortal." The voices sounded distorted.
Angela completely froze. She tried to stop breathing, to stop thinking. Why wasn't she running for help? Why wasn't she screaming? What was wrong with her? She was going to die. Throat slit and she would be nothing but a bleeding corpse on the floor.
The candles began to flare up significantly, and black smoke faded into visibility as the fires grew around Angela. She could feel, vaguely, the knife placing itself on her throat, the feel of the cold metal almost causing her to jump. The numb feeling was still there, although Angela sensed tears rolling down her dull white cheeks.
She was going to die. Might as well get used to the idea. She should have seen it coming.
Weak link, she thought in spite of herself, recalling the conversation she'd interrupted the other day. I don't know why you didn't see this coming. You're going to die.
The chants were much louder now, to the point where it was almost screeching, distorted, horrid, screeching; wailing. "The gem shall be his portal. He comes to claim, he comes to sire, the end of all things mortal!"
Angela released a final sob and closed her eyes. The formerly flickering golden candles were now blazing, almost to the point where it was legitimately dangerous. The wind begun to howl wildly outside, shaking the doors of the cathedral, and rain pounded on the stain glass windows so roughly the windows seemed to be in danger of breaking. Thunderclaps echoed one after another nonstop, matching the beat of Angela's racing heart. Lightning lit up the entire sky in brief flashes. The backroom began to fill with smoke and shake violently. The candle fires were now out of control, roaring as the inferno covered the ground.
The knife was dropped beside Angela's feet as the chaos ensued. The deformed, monstrous sounding noises were no longer words, although not one person's lips were moving. Animalistic screams and cries rang out from all around the room from unseen mouths. Angela's wrists were released as the person who'd been twisting her arms backed away, leaving Angela with red eyes, dried tears, and wet eyes in the middle of the inferno. But- the fire did nor burn her at all. Angela, sore-eyed and ash-coated throat, stared, terrified, with everyone else as the raging fire opened a colossal hole in the ground, which prompted the crying, frightened girl with everyone else to quickly back away from the gaping sinkhole of fire, pitch-black smoke rising from it, coating the room with soot that unnaturally did not elicit a single cough from anybody at all.
And, before an amazed Angela's eyes, the satanic Mark of Skath appeared on her hand, glowing brighter than any fire in the room.
The room shook and crumbled, causing some people to scream and begin to panic. Angela's reservation broke and she heard a warped screech that didn't even sound like her come from her mouth.
Brother Blood, however, wore a gaping grin on his face, eyes glowing red.