Part 18
"Exorcism of Personal Demons"
The walk back to my old room seemed like forever, even if it probably didn't take more than 4 minutes. My mind was mulling over and over what was about to happen to me and Loki. I had to end this to ensure both our safety. He was fighting against his own demons, and now...I would have to face my own. I drew up all the courage I could as I stepped to the Tarot Card door and placed the emperor card in its place. The man depicted on the card reminded me of my father as I properly got a look of it. It sort of looked like Loki too. I couldn't tell right now, I was walking through the door now.
The sound of screeching metal hit me faster than a particular smell. I quickly paced away from the door, finding some of the monsters embedded into the way. The radio was reacting but the monsters just stayed apart of the wall. I kept on going down the hall and its many turns, just trying to ignore the loud noises all around me. The hall ended in a clearing with a huge fan and a door at the very opposite side of it.
Along the walls were more monsters, however, they didn't look familiar to me. Some had a man's face upon a twisted and mangled body and a noose around its neck. Many others were too deformed to really describe. I walked up to the one with the man's face, to find my radio spitting out various phrases (though most of them were insults and a harsh demand to "take" something). I only inspected it for a moment before feeling something hit against me.
I looked to see it was just a piece of paper...which more started to come forth from the bloody and rusty fan. As more and more paper flew at me, I could've sworn I could see two silhouettes, one having the other pinned to something with a large instrument. The pinned one had a grip on the other's face, and for an instance, the silhouettes were filled.
It was that man in red and Loki. Loki was tearing the eye patch off the man in red's face, though the man in red was still smiling.
The paper storm ceased and just as the identity to the man was to be revealed, that too passed. I shivered, what was that? I turned to the door, finding that the monsters were gone. I shook my head; I need to end this now. However, a single piece of paper was lodged in the door caught my attention. It read:
"Ceci trop passera, si vous avez la foi dans elle.
Je vous reverrai, ai svp la foi dans la lumière que je vois toujours dans vous."
Damn, it was in a foreign language. I'm guessing French, but alas, I wouldn't really know. In school, I took Spanish (which I don't know an ounce of). I put the piece of paper into my pocket and opened the door. Unsurprisingly, Claudia and Vincent were arguing and the chapel around them deteriorated and filled with their cult's religious symbols.
"Well, the guest of honor has arrived. Let's get this party started." Vincent smiled, turning his back to a frustrated looking Claudia, "Heather, go ahead and kill this crazy bitch, this demon who claims to speak for God. The time has come, you can kill her now."
"YOU'LL GO TO HELL!" Claudia's voice rose hoarsely, Vincent taking a step, then twisting down to the ground.
Claudia held a dagger in her hands, covered with Vincent's blood.
"W-what did you do?" The only words that could escape my lips as I walked towards the crazy pair.
"Mm, nothing important..." She shrugged, as if stabbing someone (even if it was Vincent) wasn't a big deal.
An awkward silence ensued for a moment before I spoke, "You're not going to run? I guess this is going to end..."
"No, it's just the beginning! As Vincent said, the time has come. Alessa...I'm saddened that you didn't agree to this on your own. I thank you for nurturing with all the hate in your heart." Claudia spoke softly, "It's time for Mankind to be released from the shackles of sin that bind them!"
"But a god born from hatred can never create a perfect paradise!" I fired back at her; an angry god could only create a perfect hell.
"Happy people can be so cruel. Is it so hard to believe that sympathy could be born out of pain and suffering? Why do you reject God's mercy? Why do you cling to this corrupt world?" Claudia went along her sermon, using the bloody dagger to express some phrases along it, "You know that only god can save us. We've lost so many souls due to this corruption. Let God save them. Let her save the ones she's lost, even that lost lamb Loki."
"And save you too? Happy ending? I'd rather go to hell." It was hard to hold in my anger; she didn't need to include Loki in this.
"I...I don't expect to be saved...and that's fine. Alessa, my dearest, for the pain that I've caused you, I deserve no mercy." Claudia shook her head sadly, "Even if it was to save all Mankind, it was too deep a sin. It was hubris for me to try and hasten the day of her arrival...and at first, it seemed that Loki was trying to prevent a premature arrival...but I was wrong about that. Sacrifices were made, and those were my sins."
An awkward silence crept in again; this was getting just too unbelievable to listen to. I looked down to Vincent, he was struggling to speak. Finally, words escaped through his bloody lips.
"I-if...you feel s-s-so guilty about it...then why don't y-you go to hell?" Vincent stuttered, "H-heather, use the seal!"
I looked at him dumb-founded until I remember what I got after defeating Leonard. I reached into my pocket and held it out. A couple of seconds later, nothing happened. Was it supposed to do something?
"The seal of Metatron?" Claudia said, looking a bit skeptical about the seal.
Vincent pushed out a laugh before saying, "Now you're stupid dream is over."
"Ah...that's just a piece of junk. What do you think you can do with that? Do you really think it could kill God?" Claudia paced to Vincent's side slowly, playing with the bloody dagger in her hand, "I'm sorry to see that you feel for my father's foolishness."
"What?" Vincent looked up frailly at her.
"How pathetic..." Claudia mumbled, raising her dagger and embedding it into Vincent's chest.
He moved for only a couple of seconds before becoming still. I watched the scene almost detachedly, it was horrible, the loss of a human life, but I couldn't let it shake me from avenging my father. I threw the seal over by the seats; it was useless as Claudia had said.
Claudia rose up again, hands together in prayer. "God loves...even you." She bowed her head and then turned to face me with her pale eyes upon my own and hands to her side.
"Now Alessa, there is nowhere else to run...and no one left to save you." Claudia almost sneered in contempt as loud humming filled my senses and my stomach aching severely.
I got one my hands and knees, using one hand to try to make the pain go away. It hurt so much, it was unbearable. My skin began to become like the doppelgangers that I met on the carousel, and I began to panic. Please, some higher being that wasn't the one in me, just end this pain.
"Just accept it Alessa! The pain will disappear!" Claudia tried to comfort me, though it didn't work at all, "I've waited so long for this. Even as a child, I knew I would see the coming of this day. I knew I would be witness to this! Judgment Day!!"
The pain subsided as a familiar voice spoke softly to me. It sounded like dad...and he told me to look inside the necklace...and swallow the contents. I struggled to stand up, my one hand instinctively reaching for the necklace chain. As Claudia shouted "Alessa" to me, I took a couple of breathes to finally spit out:
"Shut your fucking mouth, bitch!" I muttered, pulling out the necklace and popping it open. There sat a red jewel, the key that my father said would free me.
I took a deep breath and then put the red jewel in my mouth and swallowed it. The pain came back, but the sensation of a mass coming up to my throat was new and rather disturbing. Finally, I threw the mass out and the pain was gone and Claudia had been screaming things to me I couldn't hear. I got up and looked down to see that a black fetus thing lay before me, it had no real features and it's eye a dull maroon.
"Looks like God didn't make it." I triumphantly smirked, walking towards it and ready to stomp its life out.
"STOP!" Claudia screeched, pushing me away and grabbing the unborn fetus. When I finally got my footing stable, I watched in horror as she began to force the thing down her own throat. I looked away, almost ready to throw up again.
That woman lost her mind!
"Alessa, you cannot kill god! I will..." Claudia moaned in pain, her body becoming vein-like how my own was when that god thing was inside me, "I will birth God! If you can't do it Alessa...I...will!"
She took a couple of steps back before screaming in agony. A strange power fluxed about her body, the vibe of it making me worry.
"Claudia? Claudia?!" I shouted, I was freaked out about this whole thing really.
She stumbled around and limping to towards the altar she did. I watched in horror, as she just stood in front of the gaping hole. She eventually bent over to look inside it, I presumed...and in a flash and a roar that reminded me of a big cat's, she was gone. I ran to the massive hole now, looking into it and wondering what the hell just happened. Did she die? What was that that just took her straight from the hole?
I inhaled a deep breath and jumped down the hole. This would be the final battle.
When I came to, there was a dimly lighted area. I stood up and saw that Claudia's dress was all that remained. I grew frustrated; she was supposed to die by my hands!
"You can't be dead! I was going to kill you..." I spat angerly at her remains.
I looked up a little to find deformed feet...I looked up more and the very core of my being could feel that the monster before me was what was inside of me this whole time.
"This...is 'God'!?" I drew back, pulling out my trusty handgun and firing at the main body of 'God'.
She made several grunts before lowering herself down and exposing her head. I just kept firing at her head until she moved one of her arms and fire started to home in on me. I ran from it, finding that it followed me up until a certain point until it would return back to her. She threw a second wave of fire which I ran from too, but this time, I ran and fired at her head. She withdrew her head and I had to reload.
The few seconds that I put the clip in, I realized that God's lower half of her body was highly undeveloped, and her spine was exposed. I kept firing at her lungs/ribcage since it was the biggest thing exposed to me and I could imagine that it would bring her down again. After a few shots, I fired at her face yet again until I had to reload and dodge once more.
This cycle repeated and finally, after my last bullet used on her head, she gave a deafening shriek and collapsed. I threw the gun down and walked to her as fast as I could. My arms were shaking and I kicked her face a couple of times before I felt that she was truly dead and I could go. Turning my back, I walked towards the darkness. My body ached, and even if I didn't realize it, I began to tear up.
"Is that the end?" I asked the air around me, finding myself alone once more, "I guess it's time to roll the credits."
A few more steps escaped me before I finally broke down.
"Dad...Dad..." I sobbed, my tears flowing effortlessly and my voice cracking, "Loki...Dad..."
I let my body sit on the ground and sob; it was too much to bear now. After letting my body gain enough strength to stand, I sighed and looked up. It's time to move on, even if it felt so hard to do now. I stood up and walked forward only to stop to hear something behind me...was that thing still alive? I turned around, expecting the worse.
However, out of a hole in the wall, stumbled a human shaped figure.
"Cheryl? Is that you?" A teenage boy's voice echoed in this macabre arena.
I walked towards the figure, realizing that it was Loki. I smiled and laughed out of the blue. He was alive! He limped towards me and embraced him (and probably to his surprise). He felt warm, and his voice sounded fine. No sirens...no ghost children. Though hestitant, he returned the embraced and sighed.
"It's over." He muttered, falling to one knee.
"Come on...let's get out of here..." I smiled, helping him back to his feet and walk with me to the exit, "Hey Loki...do you have a real real name?"
He didn't reply at first, the only response I got from him were heaves and pants. He didn't have a scratch on him...but he was tired. It was difficult supporting him since he was taller and weighed more than me, but my heart was beating out of my chest. The hope of being with him was born now that I knew he was real and that he was alive.
As we approached the darkness, he finally replied, "My name given to me at birth was Sorren Christian Gillespie."
He smiled at me before he stopped walking and subsequentally stopping me. I looked to him, wondering if he was okay...but as his face drew near mine, I couldn't help but feel alittle faint. Our lips touched and I closed my eyes. He whispered "I love you too" gingerly into my ear as he pulled away and we continued our trek. I walked with my heart pounding viciously and all troubles gone.
A/N:: That's it. One more chapter and this story is finished. Don't forget to check out my profile to vote for a sequel or retelling!
It's been fun writing this...and looking at the stastics of this story to find people read it the most often...or the same person keeps doing it frequently...however, the final final part will be uploaded quickly and the 20th chapter/part will be specials and a treat for those who remained loyal to this story. C:
Also, if you can tell me what language on the piece of paper Heather found before entering the chapel and what it said in English, I'll mention you as a fantastic reader!! :O