FALLEN

Author's Note: A HUGE thank you to Chrome and Kikoken. Thank you for my comments and I hope you like this next chapter!

CHAPTER ONE

We arrived at the abode of the Emperor at sundown. The travel itself was long and harsh. We endured everything from scorching winds (for those who don't know, the wind in Demon World is capable of burning a human's flesh) to attacking demons. On our way to the castle, two winged demons had spotted us, and just the sight of us was all the motivation they needed to come flying in and attack us. For the most part, we weren't badly injured, but the demons made sure we experienced some pain. I escaped with a few bumps and bruises. My father endured most of the pain (he used himself as a human sheild to protect me). When the demons finished toying with us, my father's shirt was in shreds and his back, chest, and face was crisscrossed with shallow cuts that would probably heal without scarring. The attack had frightened me, though. I remembered crying the entire time and screaming everytime my father took a blow that was aimmed for me.

Come to think of it, I think that was probably the last time I ever cried over him. I don't recall ever feeling the need to shed tears for him after that day.

The castle scared me to no end. I'm sure the humans you're used to have had an experience in their young lives where a building of some sort had scared them as a child. A haunted house, the lair of some Disney villian, something similiar to the sort? Well, this really was no different, minus the fact that the sight of this castle probably scared the adults as much as it scared the children. In the future, I would wonder if Orson Welles had been a demon in another life, for his castle in Citizen Kane was almost completely identical to the one owned by the Emperor of the Demon World. The gates, the moat, the wings, chambers, and just about everything else in that film (except for the swimming pool) was brought to life in Demon World, only much, much larger and a thousand times more eerie. When we arrived, my father had exchanged words with a demon (who didn't seem to be in the mood for beating the tar out of human slaves at that particular moment) who gave us passage across the moat.

By passage, I mean riding on the back of the spawn of Leviathan across a large, murky river that was abundant in abnormally large (and demonized) piranhas, serpants, and other marine demons. This included sirens. Seemingly beautiful female demons that emerged from the dark waters to greet their visitors. The ones we saw were, as far as demons go, absolutely gorgeous. Their skin was tinted a dark shade of indigo, and long, silk black hair fell from their heads. Their lips were charcoal black and impossibly full, and their eyes were large (about the size of a chicken egg) and dark, making them appear to be innocent. Their necks, shoulders, and arms were scalely (like a fish) and the fingers were webbed. Also like a fish, the sirens wore no clothing, so the breasts were bare. And everything from the hips down was a long, serpant-like tail that was at least nine or ten feet in length.

They looked at us with those innocent eyes. Two had come dangerously close to the Leviathan's spawn. Their lips parted and a very soft hiss emerging from them. Well, now I know that the sirens were hissing, but back then, their hisses sounded like singing. My father looked absolutely entranced by their songs. I suppose I was too. The melody was beautiful, very gentle and relaxing, as if they were taking our pain, stress, and worries right out of us. They were bewitching us, of course. Drawing us in with their beauty and innocence so they could make us suffer afterwards. The moment one of the sirens had reached out for one of us (whether it was for my father or myself, I cannot remember), the guard that was guiding us across the moat had noticed and fired his spear into the chest of the siren. Her once beautiful song turned into an ear-splitting shreik as the blood pumped from her chest and stained the black water.

I screamed when this happened. Although I was used to seeing torment and brutality around me, I never really experienced something like that before. Having something that appeared to be so delicate and gentle being attacked like that. It wasn't the nicest feeling in the world, that was for sure. The guard hadn't killed her (the spear had vanished after a minute or so and reappeared in his hand), but I thought for sure that was what he had done. The attack had broken the spell they had on my father, and as the weak siren began to sink into the water (which was then followed by those demonized piranhas feasting on the wounded siren), the others had fled from us. Apparentally something like this had happened before... probably several times before judging by the way the guard had acted. He didn't seem surprised in the least bit when it happened, he seemed mostly like "It's all in a day's work" about it. After that little episode, the sirens left us alone as we reached the other side of the moat.

We were there, now. Just a few meters infront of that terrifying castle. The place I had feared from afar for as long as I could remember. At that time, I thought my father wanted to bring me along because he was too afraid to come to the castle all by himself. That he needed someone there to make him feel braver. And that someone would have to be me, even though this place terrified me. I suppose I was somewhat right about that theory in a manner of speaking.

The guard led us through a large, heavy door and into the main hall. The place was even more frightening on the inside. It was dark, cold, and misty. The Emperor's palace was faintly illuminated the sunset, and I remember being afraid of what this scary place would be like when the sun went down. Would it be illuminated by moonlight, or consumed in complete darkness? Personally I didn't want to find out. Even with the sunset barely lighting up the place, the place still gave me the creeps. I had the feeling that we were being watched, as if we were insects underneath a magnifying glass. Only unlike the insect, we couldn't see who was observing us. They, whoever they were, were hidden in the darkness.

After an indefinate amount of time spent walking through this scary place, we stopped infront of a large door and were ordered to wait there. The guard stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

My father and I were completely alone in this place, now.

"Daddy..." I remember saying to him. "What are we doing here?"

He looked down at me with that troubled look in his face. He managed to force a smile before he spoke. "Daddy has to make a couple deals with a man..." was his response. His voice was shaking a bit... I had a feeling something was wrong. The next moment he was holding my hand. "Just... stay close to me, alright sweetie?"

I nodded.

We stayed in complete and utter silence for at least fifteen or twenty minutes. He was holding my hand tightly, and I was shaking and trembling the entire time. The place was getting darker by the second, the very thing I had feared the moment I stepped into the place. And the feeling of being watched by someone I couldn't see was beginning to overwhelm me. It felt like at any moment, the darkness in this place was just going to swallow us both. The temperature seemed to drop, the mist grew heavier, and at one point I thought I heard voices whispering to one another. I'm not sure if I was really hearing them or if it was my mind playing tricks on me.

But before I had time to figure out which one it was, the guard had opened the door.

"The Emperor will see you now..."