"Dean."
Seth's voice is barely audible, as Abaddon said he's very thin and hurt. He looks at me in disbelief. To be honest, I can't believe I'm seeing him again, this journey was something so implausible.
Seth is in awe, he gets close to me and touch my face. "This is real. You are here."
"I am." I coldly say.
I am surprised. The Dean that was controlled by Seth, would be crying at his feet so happy to see him again. The Dean I am now. Just see him as a mean to obtain a reward.
Seth smirks, "You also died and are here. It's logic baby. You are a murderer and would end here with me. The only thing I regret is that I didn't get my goal to drag my entire family to the hell I was sure I deserved to be."
I am speechless. Seth is not regretful, at least not about his sins. He smirks in satisfaction, thinking he ruined me just as he ruined his own self.
"I'm not dead, Seth."
"You are here, that means you are dead" Seth scoffs, "What happened after my death, anyway?"
"Seth, the police locked me in jail. No matter how that happened, I committed the crime. I would probably spend a life imprisonment or even the electric chair. Your death was horrible. But I don't remember how it happened, just remember when the shadow fell on me."
"How can you be here if you're alive?"
"I made a deal with one of the demons that appeared that night. My soul for reverse all the pandemonium. If I won back your soul by a series of tasks I've been enduring. The both of us will go back to moments before the ritual. I won't be a murderer. My soul won't be condemned, I won't end here."
"You've been sacrificing yourself for me. Amazing baby." Seth's smirk is so smug.
"Oh no no, Seth. Maybe at first I was, now I am saving your sorry ass for me. If I save you I won't be in jail. I will be free and for sure I will go away from you. Now I know you are nothing more than a manipulative bastard. I will save your ass only to gain my life back. You won't drag me to your misery anymore. I'll change my life. I am young and free of your manipulations. I have a long life to live."
Oh boy! Seth's face is a poem. He can't believe I standing on my own. But he quickly recovers his confidence. Seth is laughing like crazy. He looks at me as I was a dumb kid.
"You are young, yes." Seth smirks, "You have a long life to live... I don't think so..."
"What are you talking about?" Now I'm worried.
His smile makes me sick. I can't believe I once loved this man.
"My family turned their backs on me when they knew." Seth looks at me with intensity, "I was an addict a year before I've met you. One day I overdosed and ended alone in a hospital. There, they told me I had HIV."
I can't believe this. Now all his words make sense. The curse, he and in being bonded by blood. The deadly giveaway...
"I never said a word about it. I became bitter I wanted to see everything and everyone suffering. Destroy everyone. Then I met you, my family I don't know how found about my disease. The fuckers turned their backs on me. Can you see why I hated them?"
"You put this on me on me purpose!" I'm yelling. "Why me? I was with you! I loved you!"
"Because I wasn't leaving you alive and happy with another man. You're mine and if I was fucked up, you would be too!"
"You're a fucking monster!" I held him by the shoulders. I want to kill him. I can't even have a revenge.
"No matter your choice. You lose, baby. If you leave me here and go back to our world. You'll be a murderer, die rotten in a jail. Die rotten by the AIDS and after being miserable in our world, you'll end here anyway."
I release him. I hold my head. He's right.
"Or save me and I'll be alive to destroy my enemies and you still have AIDS. So you can do whatever you want."
I am so fucking angry. Is not just about me, wasting my time. Roman, he lost everything.
I hold his neck and choke him, although I know this is useless because he's dead. He can feel pain. Then, I'm punching him nonstop. He's crying in pain because he's weak and hurt and can't fight back.
"Tell me how I killed you!" I demand.
Seth coughs blood, "When you interposed your body, that demon took control of you and all that rage and pent-up anger poisoned your whole being. It was impossible for you to handle it, so you stabbed me. In fact you tortured me like a cat to its prey."
I smile. This fucker deserved it.
"How could you do that ritual?"
"When you asked to me, what I was going to do. I didn't want to tell you," He is trying to breath, "I was visiting these guys. They were known as The Buzzards. They were powerful wizards."
"They told me I had a lot of repressed anger in me and they knew how to help me. I listened and although I found absurd what they told me, the idea never left my mind. I visited them again and they told me about a ritual that would invoke Mephisto a spirit that would give me a lot of power. Power to destroy anything that stood in my way."
"I knew I had HIV and I need to do something effective and as soon as possible. When they offered me the chance to crush my enemies, I didn't think twice."
"They are your family you fucker, not your enemies." I am so fucking bitter.
"Whatever. You lost Dean. Whatever you do is useless."
"No Seth, you are wrong. Maybe I can't save my body, but I can save my soul. He did all this to save my soul and I'll honor that!"
Seth doesn't understand anything. I lower my gaze as some tears escape from my eyes. Can't help but think of Roman.
Oh Seth, you know nothing... Leave Roman behind ripped my heart, destroyed a part of me... that's the biggest loss here. But he wanted me to save my soul that's what would make worth this sacrifice. And Seth won't win at the end because my soul would be free of his evil ways.
"Stand up you fucker. We're leaving this maze."
"You're saving me," Seth smiles in satisfaction.
"Believe whatever you want. I aint explain shit to you!
We are running now. The ground is shaking all the time... but sometimes it shakes even more. I know the fucker the fucker is following me because he wants to return to our world to try again the same stupidity, or maybe something even worse. And I will dedicate the time I have left to stop him.
We are running in the open roads. In the final part of this path, the road divides in four more paths.
"I think we should take the latter path." Seth says.
Passing through the second path, the scar on my wrist burns, when I reach the last path the pain stops. I go back again to the second path and for a brief moment, the scar burns.
That scar is the memory that will remind you that no matter what happens I'll be always with you, supporting you.
"Roman..." I hiss.
"What did you say?" Seth doesn't understand anything.
I can't believe it! Even if they don't allow him to help me, Roman found the way to do it. And I feel like crap realizing I can't do the same for him. There should be a way to help him go out of this predicament. A way to save him. A way to give my soul to him... or at least save him.
"I know where we should go." I say as I softly touch the scar in my wrist, "We must hurry, don't have much time."
We have just a few hours to find the exit and this maze is really huge. The earthquakes make more difficult to walk in this place, but the fact that I have a compass attached to my wrist is helping me a lot.
Even the ground is unstable, some rocks rising from the surface creating slopes. Now we have to climb the rocks to move forward. I continue running as fast as my feet allow me.
"How do you know the exact way to go?" I can hear his voice behind me.
I ignore him as both climb a rock.
Crossing to the other side, the ground begins to crack under my feet. Because of the quake, which is now constant, the crack expands. We have to jump and I do it but Seth is still weak and he can't reach the other side and I have to hold him. Now I have to help him climb. I'd wish I could push him and see him suffer but he's dead anyway. I save Seth and for my dismay the lava is filling the giant crack and will soon touch us if we are not fast enough. We keep running and the lava is making its way to the surface. The maze is collapsing with us inside of it.
This is so fucking hard but I can't give up. We almost have to climb the rocks that are in constant movement.
"I won't disappoint you, Roman." I whisper again and again.
Finally, we manage to climb despite the quakes are increasing in intensity and the maze walls begin to fall. At least, that help us.
We have repeatedly stumbled amid the pandemonium and my body is full of wounds and bruises, many of them bleeding. Seth is going through the same. We have spent several hours running inside this maze. We're so tired but I can't give up and I know Seth is selfish enough to save his own ass so I know he's going to fight.
We run a little more and I look up, I can see that the castle is pretty close. Thanks to the scar, we have achieved to walk right towards the exit, but we still have a long way to go. We arrive at a road that is blocked due to a landslide. I can feel it in my wrist that this is the path we must take, however it's closed.
"What are we going to do?" I'm frustrated.
"Move the rocks that are blocking the road." Seth tells me and starts to move the heavy stones.
This fucker as always is doing this thinking just in his own self. Our hands bleed and the pain is unbearable but neither of us complain. A new quake makes to collapse several walls around us and we have to dodge them or we we'll be crushed.
The quake makes the stones forming a kind of ladder by which we quickly climbed to continue our way. Going up to the top of the heap of stones and I can see that we're close to the exit.
"I will win." Seth smirks, "I always win."
I want to wipe out that confident smile of his face. For my dismay, I have no time. I keep looking around and now, I cannot only see the castle. As I look up to the crater, I can see that Roman's brothers have chained him to the edge, I can see their lips moving. This should be part of a kind of ritual... the sacrifice that Abaddon said.
"Dean, what are you waiting for!" Seth yells, "The quakes can block the way out!"
We run desperately and reach the exit, but a new earthquake, much stronger accompanied by a lot of lava, split the rock where we stand. The ground rises that much, and now we're almost up to the edge of the crater, but there is a huge gulf between the garden of the palace and the part of the maze where we are.
"How are we going to cross?" Seth looks horrified that our whole effort seems to be useless.
Lots of lava are ejected from the crater as if they were multiple geysers. I go to the edge and see the fields where souls were punished, now swallowed by the volcano. The lava level is rising and in the center is a whirlpool. The quakes are stronger.
A sort of wave of lava emerges from where we are, pushing the rock and us with it. It's as if we were surfing over a big rock. Seth and I used all the strength we have to avoid falling from the rock. The lava pushes us against the edge of the palace.
We immediately run up to the gardens, seeing how the outgoing yields crumble by the quakes and the palace begins to be swallowed by the crater. Amid the quakes we make our way being hit by rocks that fly due to the pressure generated by the eruption. My face is bleeding but I don't care.
"That's the entrance." Seth points the huge gate, "We got it! We got to get out of here!"
I hear Seth as he were so far away. The only thing I can see is Roman.
"What are you doing? For fucks sake Dean. I know we are fucked up, but as you said we can win back our lives and you can go wherever you want and get a treatment. You can still have a chance to increase your life time and take your illness with dignity if you go to a hospital."
His words make me sick. He did this on purpose and now is speaking about hope and future...
I look at the gate, there's the chance to gain my life back. The chance to fix my life and get a treatment and have a decent death and the most important thing: save my soul. If I save my soul Seth lose. That's the only revenge I can have. Seth will return here no matter what and he will be punished. But I will save my soul and warn Seth's family. He will be punished knowing he could do nothing against us.
Then, I look to the other side and I see Roman chained at the edge of the crater like he was some kind of exotic animal and his brothers around him. The whirlpool in the middle of the crater accelerates its speed and has already swallowed everything, including the palace, the maze and punishment camps. The worst thing is that a great arm of swirl lava rises, like a tornado.
"Dean, what the fuck are you waiting for to leave?" Seth yells and grabs my arm trying to drag me outside of the kingdom.
"I can't!" I scream and I walk to where Roman is chained.
"What the hell are you doing?" Seth yells at me confused while I go in the opposite direction. "I didn't endure all this to stay here anyways. Save your fucking soul, Dean!"
Seth needs me to save his sorry ass and now it's him the interested in go outside this place. He can't do it without me. I can't think in anything else than Roman.
The tornado of lava takes a female form and the quakes are worse now. We're all walking on all fours as it's impossible for us to stand up.
"What the hell are you doing here?!" Roman looks at me very angry.
His brothers look at me surprised.
"How much difficult has been get rid of you?" Leviathan yells.
"Get out! You must go! You're gonna ruin everything. You're wasting all your efforts!" Roman yells.
"I can't leave you here!" I yell.
"You can't save me! If you stay here you won't save your soul either." He looks desperate.
"You are not any ole someone," Abbadon tells me with no emotion, "You defeated my pit of souls. This is why our younger brother threw his life away for you. I must admit if you have survived the challenges, you deserve some respect. But you cannot save your lover."
"He already saved me." Seth says.
Leviathan laughs sarcastically, "Abbadon is speaking about his other lover. My brother Asmodeus, who now wants to be called Roman. The former lord of one of the kingdoms into this valley. They had sex and that is what caused the wrath of the goddess. We are forbidden to touch living beings."
So Roman's real name is Asmodeus.
"What the fuck is he talking about?" Seth looks at me in horror.
I smirk, "That's truth. He's the demon I made the deal with. We traveled together as we walked up this volcano, fulfilling tasks that allow me to take you back."
"Did he force you?" Seth is stunned.
He can't believe I did it. He sure thought he could still manipulate me. He thought I would be unable to love other person. And for the first time Seth looks affected, he's enraged. He has to admit that he lost his puppet.
"No, actually. I asked him to take me." I smirk.
"This isn't a good time to make a scene of jealousy... Seth, you have to take him out of here!" Roman screams. "You just have a few hours to leave the valley and go down the hill. You can't lose more time. If you can't do it for him, do it for you."
Roman is pleading this motherfucker to save my soul.
I dare to see Seth and he has an unreadable expression, not just pain in his brown eyes but jealousy, anger, sadness... disappointment and betrayal. He certainly doesn't know how to react.
I'm enjoying this so much.
"You let him fuck you... in order to save me?" Seth says, looking at me, in disbelief.
This fucker still wants to think I am under his control. This is a little way of take revenge. Seth likes to manipulate me. That's his fuel and now he knows I am free and even I could have sex with other creature, he's lost. At least I can have this little victory.
I can't answer because the female form of lava screams loudly so we have to cover our ears. I see that it takes the form of a glowing woman and walks to where we are.
"Oh powerful Astartea." Abbadon makes a reverence throwing himself at her feet, "We offer you as a sacrifice, the creature that caused your anger. We beg your forgiveness."
Roman sultry smiles. Even now he shows pride and indifference, "It's a pleasure to meet the queen of the underworld. One does not always have such a privilege."
The lava woman walks among the shaking ground as if it don't affect her. Seth is frozen to the ground. Astartea approaches Roman and the quakes stop. All we stand up.
"Nobody can ever disobey my will in this valley!" Her voice reflects all the anger contained in this creature, "What I hate most is disobedience. You all have forbidden to bring living beings inside this valley. We have forbidden to touch them!" She shouts very angry.
Obedience is a recurring theme. In the Bible itself, a simple action like eating from a tree that was forbidden caused the fall of mankind. Even God itself doesn't tolerate disobedience, it seems that the queen of demons either.
"You will pay dearly for your disobedience." She sentences gravely.
She takes Roman to the throat and lifts him off the ground. I can't stand it and approach them.
"Let him go!" I desperate shout.
Roman rolls his eyes. I know he thinks I ruined his whole plan to save me.
"Who are you?" She angry claims.
"Almighty lady, this is the living creature that Asmodeus took as a lover." Abbadon says looking down to show respect.
She drops Roman and looks at me. "How did this happen?"
"My boyfriend," I say pointing at Seth, "He did a spell that ended up taking his life and made me a murderer. Rom... Asmodeus offered me the possibility of reversing everything, I wouldn't be a murderer and with that, I'd save my soul. My soul that would be for him. We came here and we had to do a certain number of tasks for his brothers to allow us to walk around here."
"This idiot seduced you..."
"No... After all the things we went through... the things he did for me... I... I fell for him. I love him." I want to scream my feelings. "I wanted to save my soul because that would allow me to be with him. I want to be with him. If I have to face another challenge, if I have to sacrifice myself I'll do it. I just want to save him."
Never in my life have I felt this despair.
"And what about your boyfriend?" She asks.
"This fucker deserves to be here. I don't care about him. But I needed to save his ass in order to save my soul." Then I point at Roman, "He is the one I love. Please tell me what I can do to save him."
"This time you can do nothing," She coldly says, "We are forbidden to touch living creatures. You cannot be offered as a sacrifice. We can persuade you to ruin your lives and kill yourselves or kill each other. But we can never touch you or kill you." She says angry and frustrated. Apparently, she hates living beings, "I can do you no harm. But you are giving me the chance to punish you without touching a strand of your hair... and that will make this sacrifice worthy to calm my anger."
She walks passing us and grabs Seth's arm, dragging him beside Roman.
"They both are part of this valley. And unlike you, human, both belong to me. I can have them." She indicates with eyes full of anger. "What you must do is chose who you will save. Your boyfriend, the evil human who represents the only way to save your soul... or your lover, the transgressive demon you love and represents your heart. Any of them will be a good sacrifice because in any way you lose."
Roman looks at me, "If your soul is condemned I'll go crazy. I did all this to save your soul, Dean. You can't do this to me."
I get close to Roman and hold his face. "You are eternal. The pain will go someday. We weren't meant to be, anyway. If all this is about my soul, maybe there is hope. I never wanted to kill Seth. I don't even remember. This is his fault not mine."
"No Dean. You don't understand." Roman looks so sad and desperate, "As she said, demons can persuade humans to sin. Mephisto just fueled your repressed anger and frustration because Seth's manipulations. It was you who killed Seth. You wanted to do it. And that crime was so horrible that no matter what, you'll end here and my brothers are going to punish you horribly and I can't do nothing. If you sacrifice your only chance there won't be deal. I won't have your soul and I also have to see my brothers destroying the soul of the one I love. And you don't even deserve that fate. Please my love, save your soul."
So there's no hope... I don't care.
"I love you Roman... I hope you can forgive me. I wasn't worthy of your love anyway."
I kiss him.
The next chapter will be the last. As always let me know your thoughts. What you think about the final challenge Dean had to endure? Do you think Dean is making the right decision? You think there is hope for Dean and Roman? What do you think will happen in the final chapter?
Remember to support the other fics and leave me a review. Byeee