"He who curses his father or his mother, His lamp will go out in time of darkness." -Proverbs 20:20
The group surrounding them could do nothing but look at one another in loss, perplexed by the utter horror spilling onto the men's faces. The party continued to stay at its halt, everyone stuck watching the fluster of nerves spawning from the two of them. Cartman wandered his way over to the group, the only partygoer daring to make a move towards the simmering disaster, his footsteps echoing dully under the still flowing music in the background. He raised his brow at the unfamiliar expressions, leaning towards them and head dramatically swiveling between their height differences as he tried to catch their attention. "The fuck is wrong with you fags?"
Stan waved him off and took a small step forward in their frozen state as they both desperately tried to recover from their shock and get moving. He licked his lips, tentatively putting a hand on his best friend's shoulder. He knew this look better than nearly anyone, seeing it on Kyle time and again in their childhood. Well. Something close. But nothing quite as chilling as the utter fear raging through him right now. He vaguely wondered if he'd ever seen such a purely petrified expression before, if he'd ever been even close to relating to whatever range of emotion they were dealing with. His mind fleeted over panic attacks of the past, not recognizing any of his telltale signs leading up towards the inevitable downfall he'd guided him through time and again. "Kyle?" he asked softly, shaking him just enough for Kyle's head to bobble as he continued to be stuck gaping at Kenny. "Who has Kat?"
The echo shocked Kyle back up into attention, time finally falling back to its normal pace as he ignored Stan and began frantically rattling his husband. "Kenny, he has her! We gotta go! NOW!"
Kenny snapped out of his trance and nodded, grabbing Kyle's hand and the both of them tearing away from the group, leaving them dumbfounded in the dust. They burst through the hall doors, making way towards the front entrance. Kenny's teeth were clattering, looking at Kyle for a mere glance. "You're sure?"
"I know his fucking voice when I hear it!" he shouted, pivoting and slamming the front door open with his shoulder, bringing both of them into the chilled night air and making way towards the setting sun. Kyle shot his head around frantically, trying to find Damien's telltale pull against him to lead them onwards.
"Can you find them?!" Kenny begged.
He stopped in his tracks, whipping his head to face South as a sharp crack in his mind rang through clear-cut as a blade and his jaw trembled. "My parents'," he whispered. "They're at my parents'!" He gripped Kenny's hand tighter, changing their course and running them forward.
"Ken! Kyle!" a voice called behind them, both of them glancing to see Stan dragging Cartman to run after them. "Guys what's wrong?!" he begged.
Kyle gulped, glancing at Kenny. "Let's just hope they forget this, I'm not waiting around." Kenny nodded in agreement, Kyle's left eye picking up its red glow under the false jade hue, staring at the ground and the both of them stepping straight into a pool of black shadows spontaneously spawning before them. They sank down into the abyss, followed by the panicked screams of their friends, glancing up through the darkness to see the both of them staring into the hole in paled fright before it sealed. The men clutched around each other, hitting the bottom curve and launching back up to their new destination. Kenny held onto Kyle possessively, mind racing. He needed his sword. He needed empty ground to use his power, to get Damien down and finish what he'd started. Fingers trembled and wrapped tighter around Kyle's arm. He knew what this was, knew exactly where Damien was going to try to get it to lead. Fuck if he knew how the hell to prevent it, though; a fact that made his chest twist in a leaded culpability.
They traveled up through the void, Kyle silently praying he'd done it right and gotten them where they needed to be. He'd only done this spell twice before, going from room to room to get away from Kenny when he'd pissed him off and had blocked the door trying to force him to talk out their issues. The distance here was considerably greater; he could only hope the same principles applied. 'Don't let him do anything to her,' he begged. They both gritted their teeth, tensing as they rapidly approached the light above, seeing the periwinkle and rose clouds wafting aimlessly in innocent streaks, indicative of not the slightest care in the world. Kenny and Kyle growled, lurching up through the portal and landing hard on the ground in front of the Broflovski homestead, launching into an automatic sprint to get to the house. Kyle made way first, hand twisting the knob hard enough to crack the brass and shove the barrier open. He landed in the living room, the sight of glowing wings and drawn, shimmering swords catching his eye. Three familiar, horrified faces turned to greet him, paled and reeking of horrific truths.
"No! Get Kyle out!" Michael commanded.
The ripe stench of blood hit Kyle all at once, glancing towards the floor and his eyes widened, bile rising and a tremendous scream ripping out of his throat at the mutilated sight below him. Kenny peered down as he came up behind him, eying the two corpses laid out deliberately at Kyle's feet. He gasped, grabbing Kyle and turning him around, forcing his face into his shirt to stop him from seeing the bodies.
Kyle couldn't stop shrieking, trying to turn back to look, trying to do the impossible and save his parents, Kenny refusing to let him budge and fully take in the massacre. Ken whimpered, the true shock in Gerald and Sheila's opened, glazed eyes ringing loud and clear, throats mangled with veins slashed asunder and frayed nerve fibers creeping through their skin like hundreds of fingers grasping for hope. Fresh blood continued to pump out of their wounds and saturate the carpet, a pool coalescing between them as they laid not four feet apart, hands outstretched towards the other.
"WHERE'S KAT?!" Kyle choked, ripping back from Kenny's chest, still trapped in his arms and glancing towards the archangels with tears streaming down his face. "WHERE IS SHE?!"
Raphael clenched his teeth. "Ken, get him out! Now!"
"Ohhhh not a good idea," a smooth purr emanated from the front of the room, all eyes drawn towards the source of the noise. The tall, cocky demon leaned against the far wall outside the kitchen, red eyes brimming with malevolence as he locked on target. "He goes anywhere, he'll regret it."
Kenny forced Kyle behind himself, shielding him as they both stared at his cooled demeanor. Kenny kept his grip locked on Kyle's arms, infuriation ravaging through him faster than he could keep up with. "WHERE IS SHE, DAMIEN?!" he demanded.
Damien chuckled, reaching behind the kicked-out armchair and yanking out Kat's hiding form by the arm, the girl bursting into tears and hitting him with tiny fists. "Got your spunk, doesn't she, little mouse?" he asked with a fanged grin. He hiked her up into the air, staring at her a bit and humming. "Not a drop of you or McCormick's blood though. So she's a weak little nothing mortal. Just like you once were," he looked back at Kyle's petrified face locked on his daughter. "Tell me, does it hurt? Raising a daughter, knowing she'll never understand what a monster you truly are?"
"Knock it off and put her down!" Kenny snapped.
Damien tongued over his fangs, tossing her in the air a bit and catching her around the waist, holding her against his hip. "L-let… let go!" she wailed, aimlessly slapping at his stomach and chest. Kenny and Kyle looked on helplessly, glancing at the angels for a plan, the three of them looking as lost as they were.
"So," he cooed, leaning back casually against the wall and allowing Kat to continue her little assault. "How are you?"
"Let her go," Kyle demanded through gritted teeth, stepping out to stand beside Kenny, ignoring the arm his husband automatically placed in front of him. He cringed at the stench of blood hitting him all over again in a new wave, mingling with the smell of his mother's pungent perfume. The one she'd worn since he was a child; the smell of coming home from long days at school seeking her advice, of cooking lessons and getting tucked into bed, now tarnished forever with the thick aroma of iron and the feeling of blank, empty green eyes looking up at him.
"Papa, Daddy, make him s-stop!" Kat begged, wincing at Damien's arm gripping her just a tad tighter.
"Yes, make me stop," Damien mocked. Deep eyes flickered about to the angels with their swords drawn. "And I'd suggest you get the Prissy Brigade here to back away. Since their swords wouldn't treat Kat so kindly, would they?" The dads went rigid at her name, their defenses shot through all at once and ice spreading through their veins. Damien grinned, seeing the desperation quickly mounting within their expressions, the pure need to get her out of harm's way at any cost. He certainly had his price, and from Kenny's insistence at keeping Kyle as far back as possible, there was no doubt that he knew precisely what it was. "You're being very rude," he taunted. "I asked you a question. Don't want your poor, innocent daughter to end up like your parents, do you, little mouse?" he hissed with morbid glee, already claiming victory with his spiteful tone.
Kyle's lip trembled, locking into those damnable red eyes that he'd prayed that he'd never have to see again. The eyes that he was sworn would never come near his daughter. "What do you want?" he asked, strength drained from his voice all at once in the overwhelming situation. He was no fool; he already knew the answer. Once more he was finding himself trapped in the middle, circumstances far too risky for him to do anything but take the option presented to him and work it out from the ground up. But he needed to hear it, needed to lay out the substratum to get Kat away from him and figure it all out from there. Kenny tightened his grip on Kyle's arm, Kyle feeling the tremors racking through his husband's core.
Damien gave a sly, derisive pout, reading the knowledge with ease as it traveled between the two across from him. "Oh, little mouse. I think you know exactly what I want." Kyle gulped, fingers hooking into the fabric on Kenny's back, needing a semblance of stability to keep him from toppling all at once.
Kenny snarled viciously, irises shifting wildly, "Put Kat down and fucking fight me if you want him so bad!"
"Hm, I already did fight you for him," he shrugged nonchalantly, brushing off Kat's hand as she tugged at his shirt trying to escape. "And I won. Certainly don't see angel wings when his little spell wears off, do you? That's me on his pretty little face. Not you." He ignored the infuriated growl from Kenny's throat, gaze slithering back over to Kyle, loving the repulsed, compromised glaze in his eyes. "So. What's it gonna be, little mouse? Keep yourself happy and safe? Or your little girl?" he shook Kat pointedly. She cried out from the jostling, looking up at her fathers fearfully.
Kyle's heart lurched at the horror in that dark blue stare, the tears trailing down her plump cheeks and the sight of backsplash blood lingering on her short, dangling legs. He blinked off his own set of tears and nodded, holding his hands up in front of him, "Fine. Fine! Just put her down." Kenny looked back at him with a distressed whimper, Kyle glancing back, silently begging him to just let him do this. To figure it out after their daughter was out of the enemy's hands.
Damien grinned, "Not just yet. I know you're eager, but you have to be patient, little one. After all, you're too feisty to go without being leashed." He held up his hand, the group watching a familiar cuffs of iron fall into his palm. Kat's eyes bulged at the materialization, never seeing such a feat outside the cartoons she and Kenny watched together. "Remember these?" Damien purred, threading the chain through his fingers. Kyle's chest clenched, recalling them all too well. One of the last things he remembered before waking up nearly dead on the clouds atop Kenny, the way they bit into his skin and refused to budge against his struggles in the slightest, absorbing every bit of demonic prowess and trapping it in the metallic fibers. "A miracle I found them, really," Damien continued. "They'd been all by themselves in a field for years after you decided to pull your little banishment shit. Still hold all of you, still smell of you," he cocked his brow superiorly at the disgust washing over Kyle's face. "And they've missed you." He shot his stare to Kyle's seething husband, watching his eyes mirroring over and the man trying desperately to remain in control to prevent any injuries befalling their child. "Put them on him," he demanded, whipping the chains to him.
Kenny caught the heavy cuffs in one hand, looking from them to Kyle and his jaw shaking. He couldn't do this. Not again. He couldn't just hand Kyle over to be tortured again.
"Kenny, just do it," Kyle ordered, putting his hands up between them.
"Ahp. Behind your back, little mouse," Damien directed. "I know you too well, can't have you trying anything funny."
"You don't know shit about me," he hissed.
He smirked, "I know you don't want your daughter murdered in front of you. I think that's plenty of ground to work off of, don't you?"
A tremoring breath rattled through his ribcage, Kyle pivoting and putting his hands behind his back while Kenny stared at him brokenheartedly. "Kenny. Please. Just get it over with!" Kyle pleaded over his shoulder. Kenny looked from his husband's bristling form to Kat's teary face and he sniffled, nodding briskly.
"You fucking asshole," He spat at Damien, moving one of the iron holds to snap around Kyle's wrist. He quickly scanned over for a way to loosen the chains, growling under his breath at the lack of visible hinges. His thumb reassuringly stroked over Kyle's forearm, both of them cringing at the sound of the second chain clamping down around his thin carpal.
The angels watched them, faces fallen and fingers clutching in despair around their hilts. Kenny and Kyle shot them all a look that they could read loud and clear: As soon as Kat was out of the way, they were to take him down. They turned back to face the almost giddy stance of the antichrist as he watched Kyle shifting uncomfortably in his chains. "You coward," Gabriel spat.
"Oh stick it in your horn and blow it," Damien rolled his eyes. He met the stare of Kyle again, grinning excitedly. It'd already begun: Him awaiting orders, Kenny in a state of loss and confliction, unable to truly interfere with Damien's plan as he wished. Five years of memories rolled back all at once, seeing that pure fear rearing its head yet again just for him. This was well worth the wait. Or, it would be once he had what he'd came here for. "You're so insistent to get this going, little one," Damien taunted. "You must have missed being at my side."
Kyle shuddered with nausea, glancing up at a purely animalistic snarl coming from Kenny, his eyes gleaming and shifting as he tried to keep himself grounded. Kyle moved and grasped his hand awkwardly from his own's bound positioning, stroking his thumb over Kenny's tremoring fingers. He turned his attention back on the enemy. "Okay, put her down and I'll come over there."
He snorted, "Oh please. I know it's been a few years, so perhaps you forget... Well, five years to be precise. Of me laid up in recovery while you were off raising this 'offspring' of yours oh-so-carefree," his face fell into a dark glare. "But just how stupid do you think I am?"
"Ya really want an answer to that?" Kenny challenged.
"You really want to see me crush your daughter's ribs?" he retorted, venom leaking through his fangs and watching their faces drop from fury into terror once more. He paused, allowing himself to indulge in soaking up this moment. He had them on his strings, the both of them far more compliant than he'd ever seen either of them; and all it took was a mere 29 pounds of persuasion. "Now, I'm not moving until I have what I want," he dropped back to his soothing tone, reaching down into his pocket and snagging a long, thick piece of charcoal-stained cloth. "The mouse is a biter," he claimed. Red eyes glowed with an eerie hue in the dimly lit room, the fabric gliding over to Kenny's hands until he grabbed it, staring at it with a cinched heart. "Now, McCormick."
The men shared a look with one another, the connotations reading loud and clear: Kyle wasn't getting out of this here. No way would Damien allow it. He'd have to go along until Kenny could find a way to get him out. Kenny leaned down and planted his lips against Kyle's, ignoring the disgusted scoff from the other side of the room as he kept against Kyle's shaking mouth. "I'll be down there in minutes," he swore in a murmur.
Kyle nodded briskly, eyes scrunched tight and trying to preserve the moment, let it linger and reassure him before he stepped towards God knew what was waiting for him. "Keep her up there and hurry," he whispered back, getting a nod back.
"I'd suggest you move this along," Damien said dangerously. The men reluctantly pulled apart, Kenny slowly bringing up the cloth between them, lip wobbling at the strong, nostalgic smell of brimstone and blood slamming into Kyle and making him jerk back uneasily.
"Few minutes," he reiterated inaudibly as their eyes met. Kyle nodded him on, mouth opening slightly to allow the gag passage between his lips. Kenny swallowed a throat's worth of bile, stomach twinging in pain, spurned by such guilt and hatred. He stepped behind him, loosely tying the knot within his curls and tremoring.
Damien rolled his eyes, "Tighter than that, McCormick."
Kenny growled, looking down at Kyle's fingers twisting into the front of his shirt, encouraging him to just play along for now. Do what he says and focus on getting him out only after this transaction was complete. He tightened the tie, a scared breath wracking through Kyle's nose as the knot secured around the base of his skull.
A deep, husky chuckle reverberated around the room. "Good boy," Damien cooed, relishing in yet another flinch, watching as five years of recovered trauma came flooding back at once. Kyle's eyes began to dull, as blank as the day he'd left him naked and vulnerable, curled up on the floor of his prison. Kenny gripped Kyle's shoulders, trying to keep him down with him, not willing to watch him fall apart again. His lip curled viciously, daggers pointed straight at the antichrist. Only a few minutes of this standoff had passed; a few minutes and he'd already plucked the threads and began to unravel what Kyle had worked so fucking hard to build back up. "So," Damien continued. "I'm going to need all you little pristine fuckers to back the fuck up," he demanded.
The angels looked back towards the boys for indication, Kyle nodding solemnly. They took deep breaths, backing up to stand beside the two of them, eyes focusing uneasily between the two demonic presences dominating the room. Kat let out a long, miserable groan, stomach and back aching from her held positioning as she continued to try to smack her way out of Damien's grip. Damien looked down at her waning energy and smirked, shaking her a bit. "There, there," he said, a false saccharine tone mucking over thick derision. "Your daddy is going to keep you safe. Isn't he?" he grinned at Kyle's fuming stance, staring him down for talking to his child so casually. "Well, if he wants to, he better get over here," a thick brow hiked in challenge.
Kyle gulped, looking at the four surrounding him watching him in terror and sympathy, turning his attention back forward and taking a shaking breath. He took a step forward, feeling the squish of coagulating blood riding up from the carpet fibers against the sole of his shoe and cringing. He glanced down at his father's limp, outstretched hand in front of him, whimpering subtly as he stepped over him with care, rapidly blinking pure heartache off thick lashes.
"Just think," Damien commented at his pause. "If you'd let them take her to the synagogue, they would've still been there and would've been completely safe. I can't so easily get in there. You might've stopped by; might've had a chance to protect them." Kyle's breath hitched, eyes glossing over with rampant tears and an agonizing guilt all at once. His heart thudded dully, broken pieces of the morning's conversation raining over him and flooding his ears, hearing that spiteful tone he'd last used against his mother. It was the last time she'd heard him say anything, and it was so unnecessarily cruel.
"You motherfucker!" Kenny screamed. "Ky, don't listen to him, he's full of shit!"
Damien grinned, "Come now, even he knows I'm not wrong."
"Stop the mind games, Damien!" Michael spat, putting a comforting hand on Kenny's shoulder to hold him back, knowing well enough he was reaching the end of his patience and could easily turn this into an emotionally blinded attack that he'd regret.
"Don't listen to him," Raphael reemphasized, knowing the thin wire Kyle was traipsing across. "Don't listen to someone so weak as to hide behind a toddler."
"A toddler who I think would appreciate this little tradeoff moving a bit faster, hm?" Damien taunted, shaking Kat again and looking down for a moment at her heaving cries. Her lungs were aching, confused as to why her parents hadn't gotten her yet, why her dad was tied up and looked more terrified than she'd ever seen him before, wondering who was even holding her. The questions just wouldn't stop racing through her mind, unable to sort them or figure out what held more weight; why weren't her grandparents getting off the floor? Why was her papa almost crying and letting her dad walk out alone? Who was with them and why did they look like the pictures in the book Sarah had showed her at school? Her focus shifted back onto her dad, watching him take small steps forward, slim shoulders heaving and a spectral gleam over his downcast eyes.
She bit her lip, croaking out an equally scared, "Daddy?"
Kyle looked up at her voice, locking stares with her for a moment and biting down bitterly on his gag. He was going to rip Damien apart himself. The second they were in Hell and Kat was out of the possible crossfire, he'd find a way to contort and chew through his own fucking wrist just for the pleasure of tearing his throat to shreds and watching him drown in his own blood. He wasn't getting away with this. Not again. Never again. He glanced up to the air of impatience starting to crowd Damien's watchful eye, taking a deep breath and raising his head up firmly. Couldn't let him see his words were already getting to him. No, that was for when Kenny finished this monster off and got him back home, he could dwell and mourn then.
His shoulders rolled back, fists clenching behind him as he came up two steps in front of Damien's waiting posture and devious grin. He looked at Kat and back up to him, narrowing his eyes. A small huff of a laugh left Damien's nose, forked tongue gliding over his fangs as he stared down that oh-so-familiar determination for the first time in so goddamn long. Kyle flinched at a long arm darting forward and snagging his collar, dragging him up to nearly lean against him, breath picking up a nervous rhythm. Damien leaned down in his face and smirked, "Long time, no see. Or at least, you didn't see me."
Kyle snarled in disgust, trying to get out of his grasp before being wrangled in closer. He looked towards Kat as she latched onto his sleeve with shaky fingers, tugging at him to get her away from the demon. His head leaned back as the claw of Damien's thumb came up, tracing casually along his throat, riding the ridge of his adam's apple and humming. Kyle growled, tearing his gaze from his frantic daughter back to the demon, eyes wide and full of that impatient fire Damien was waiting for.
Kenny looked on helplessly, trying to figure out how to get them both away from him. "Damien, put her down!" he screamed. "Kyle did what you said, let her go!"
Damien clicked his tongue, not letting his gaze falter from Kyle's. "Hm, I'm already fulfilling my end of the bargain." Kyle's brow creased, Damien's hand cupping his chin and thumb stroking over his cheek. Kyle shuddered, feeling the scar Resurrection left across his palm, straight through the pentagram they shared. "She's not being hurt, is she?" he whispered.
"Daddy, make him… make him pu'me down," Kat begged, pulling harder on his sleeve. He broke from his hate-filled stare and gave her a soft expression, telling her to just wait, that he'd make this all go away. It was the same look he'd given her with a fall on the sidewalk when Valefor got a little too excited and bumped into her while she was playing, sending her toppling to the pavement and scraping her arm up something nasty. A few neon pink Band-Aids and a silly story of how much her papa fell onto the ground had stopped her crying. Kyle picking up the guilty-looking Valefor's front half to meet her sitting on the table and telling him to apologize with a slobbering kiss had her laughing once again. And that trademarked comforting look he gave her when he promised it'd go away in just a few days, that'd he'd make sure of it, had her running back outside to play, ready to brave the possibility of another tumble. She fell quiet at the look, feeling its love and care and letting it try to override her building confusion.
Their silent conversation was snatched away at once as Damien reached over and snared Kyle's shoulder, whirling him around from her grip and tugging him firmly against his opposite side, hand tracing upwards and claws creeping down his face. Kyle groaned at the points digging into his flesh, head leaning back at their dictation against Damien's chest.
"Damien, put her down!" Kenny screeched again, unable to keep watching his husband being so casually fondled, wanting to break forward and end this now.
A gleaming stare landed on Kenny's distraught form, a haughty quirk of the lips creeping up the monster's face. "Is something wrong, McCormick?" he questioned innocently. "Don't like seeing your little family so… disadvantaged?" he hissed, grabbing Kyle's chin and forcing his head up higher, Kyle letting out a distressed, muffled cry at Damien leaning in closer, breath rebounding off his exposed throat. The years had been kind in Damien's favor, Kyle still carrying the same spiced scent he so perfectly recalled, salivating his famished palate. He could feel the subtle raise of the hair on the back of Kyle's neck and the bumps forming just under his exhale's touch, the prickling integumentary elements dancing towards him as though impatient for his return.
Kyle's eyes strained as he glanced at the angels across the room, the four of them watching in intense trepidation. Kenny's hands clamped down over his mouth and rasping, panicked breaths seeped through his fingers. He looked down to Kat's teary face, trying to work his bound hands subtly over to grab her and throw her safely out of Damien's hold. Damien yanked him further from her, clutching him tighter and humming in amusement. It'd been so long since he'd had such a complete hold of a situation, commanding the room and making damn sure his will was followed. It was nice to return to such a glorious status.
"Damien," Gabriel breathed out slowly. "Put. The child. Down."
He chuckled, "I never agreed to put her down," he reminded them calmly. "I just promised she'd be safe. And if my little mouse here follows orders, not a hair on her head will be in danger."
The men all froze, realization settling upon them like an avalanche; just as cold and just as stifling, Kenny and Kyle subconsciously wondered if they would drown at the end of it all. Damien tightened his grip around Kyle's throat and held him back, his light choking breaking through the room's tensed, quiet air as red eyes began to glow.
"No," Kenny whispered, breath catching before he broke forward out of Michael's hands, trying to get to his family. He yelped, stopped in his tracks as he and the other angels were hit with a massive wave of power, flying back and slamming against the front wall, crumbling onto the floor in injured heaps. Kenny winced, looking up to see that telltale shadow spreading out under Damien's feet. Kyle stared at him, shouting out stifled pleas for his help as he tried to break off to get Kat out of the vortex's range, eyes flaring uselessly. Damien's grip only tightened around his neck, forcing him down against his side. Kenny leapt to his feet, taking off towards them with his teeth gritted and irises glossing over translucently.
"DAMIEN, NO!" he screeched, catching the glint of a fanged, victorious smirk. His world began to disappear before his very eyes, Kyle and Kat both desperately calling for him as they dropped down into the floor, seeping off into that inked nothingness as they remained tightly ensnared in the demon's grasp. Kenny cried out in frustration, diving to follow after them and crashing into the floor as it sealed. "No, no, NO!" he shrieked and scrambled up onto his knees, fingers ripping at the fibers, tears leaking down his cheeks as he tried to go after them. "YOU SON OF A BITCH GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT ME!" he screamed, continuing to tear at the flooring in a blind panic; a wild animal scratching uselessly against the cage he'd been so ruthlessly forced into.
"Kenny, Kenny, come on," Raphael ran up and grabbed under him, hauling him upright with his hands still frantically digging at nothing. "We have to get you up to God, now."
"Take me to Hell! I gotta get them out!" he begged through welling tears.
Gabriel swooped to Kenny's other side, helping Raphael turn him towards the door and begin dragging him towards the exit. "You need your sword and your full strength. We'll get you there," he swore. "Ken, we're going to get them out and safe, I promise. But we have to go!"
Kenny turned back to the spot where the portal had disappeared, gaze drifting down to Sheila and Gerald still lying lifeless on the floor, heart clenching at his mind's eye placing two other corpses right beside them. "Oh god," he whimpered, taking off into a sprint out the door as Michael stepped aside to rush them out, dragging Raphael and Gabriel behind him. He threw his arm around Raphael's shoulders and braced himself. "Go, go, go!" he demanded, the group hurriedly taking flight in a race to reach Heaven in time, leaving behind nothing but a bloodied, eerily still nothingness, still echoing with terror to an absent audience.