Chapter 12. Well, I plan on this being it folks. That's right. This is the end. The final show-stopper. Now, I just want to take a moment to go sappy and thank everyone who has read this story and seen it through. It has been quite the ride I must say, it is an amazing feeling to know that other people have been with me for the said ride. I think that some of the support from those who reviewed this really helped me as an author. I started this fic with not much of an actual interest in writing, or rather not much of a feeling of confidence in my ability to write something people would enjoy. but this has helped me peruse my passion and renewed my creative drive. So thanks. And enjoy the final chapter.
Charlie never did forget what hell was like. It was a sort of horrific spectacle that, as it turned out, made physical and mental wounds so deep that not even heaven could heal them. He remembered the omnipotent smell of charred corpses overpowering him, the constant stream of damned souls erupting in hellish choirs of pain. The fiery dead landscape going on endlessly, like the skies, tinted the dirty gray and black of cigarette ash. He stood, in the depths of hell. But that was not what horrified him the most right now. That place in his mind was taken instead by the knowledge that an innocent girl had been sent here. A beacon of innocence and purity, in truth angelic in core nature. He had sold his soul to gain a sort of redemption in the eyes of those he had left behind. But this was so far beyond him now. He was tasked with the redemption of both Anne and himself.
Charlie was taken from his thoughts however, as a slither of blue light cut through the sky, illuminating a small space in front of the bewildered dog. A blue ball of holy aura fell from the sky to the middle of the vibrant circle, which suddenly dissolved, only to reform as a pink haired whippet Charlie knew all to well, garbed in the angelic robes that were once his own. "... Anna-Belle?" Charlie murmured in shock.
"Yes Charlie." She spoke with a wonderfully soft and warm voice, but held an expression that Charlie recognized as solemn. "I must say... I am truly surprised at you-" Charlie cut her off half angrily, biting back a snarl.
"I don't need a lecture on how much I messed this up. You can go and talk down to me from your little cloud, you don't need to be in front of me to scold me." Charlie was taken aback by the venom he found in this voice, Anna-Belle seemingly un-phased at the half demon before her.
"I have come to do no such thing Charles. I have come to grant you a final blessing for your past and present actions."
"... What?"
"You chose love over damnation Charlie. You have fallen from grace, yes, but you did so in the name of protecting an innocent soul. And for that, you have earned a final blessing to aid you in this final act." Charlie nodded in understanding, trying to hide his surprise at heavenly figures rewarding him after selling his soul. "This is the final blessing Charlie" Charlie quickly felt his body surge with a holy power he had long forgotten. His robes and halo returned to him. He couldn't help but mentally grown, as he had never fully gotten used to the yellow ring constantly floating above his head.
"So what? I'm an angel again?"
"No. you have been given the holy powers and protection against evil that angels do, but they are temporary." A brief moment of silence passed between the canines, as charlie looked on into the vast expanses.
"How will I find her?"
"i do not know. But I trust that you will Charlie. You always had a knack for finding trouble." Charlie let out an empty huff of a laugh.
"Humor from you? Didn't know ya had it in ya..." Charlie found himself getting lost in the seemingly endless expanse, the haze of smoke forming a dense fog around him. "... what? No scolding? Guess your not such a stuck up b-" Charlie looked up to find his former friend gone. Leaving as suddenly as she had appeared, and at the most unlikely of times. Charlie took in a deep breathe, preparing himself for what he had to do. What he knew had to be done... At any cost...
Charlie had started walking in no particular direction, and after a few hours decided he was just as well off waiting. As hell changed very little in all its vast emptiness. He stood there, breathing in the stale air. And found his mind wandering to his time among the world of the living. Or rather, the second one. Anne, Itchy, and him sleeping in the crappy cab in the junkyard, or reading Anne a story from a book charlie had found discarded amongst a torn garbage bag, the contents of which he remembered to be rather tasty. Day old pizza and some meat charlie found he could not accurately identify. And the day they went to the horse track, betting all of the money they had on that deadbeat horse, and somehow emerging victorious with a fat stack of cash. Still, they lived moment to moment. Always cutting it close, risking everything for the sake of opening up a lousy casino. The casino! He had forgotten all about that. The big heap of cars and scrap metal Itchy put together with that crane that somehow still had the keys left in it. The big neon sign flashing 'Charlies place!' vibrantly and with pride. That was fun... until Carface burned it down of coarse. In retrospect, Charlie was happy it had burnt down. Even if he had made some big fortune off of it, what then? Would he sit around and drown in luxury until he became like Carface? He could never be satisfied with that. Charlie found himself realizing that he was smiling. Feeling a genuine sense of happiness as a he reminisced like an old bulldog rambling about his prime years to his grand-puppies. A rather odd setting for that sort of thing, come to think of it.
Charlies train of thought was brought to a grinding halt as he found himself becoming uneasy. He sniffed the air again, and listened so carefully... there were now things with him. Circling like a band of sharks drawn to a floundering bloody fish. Clawed feet scraping against the stone like ground as the things scampered about in the shroud of smoke.
"Chaaaaaarrrrlie..." He immediately recognized the rusty demonic snarl that ripped into him with memories of his original stay in this place. The alpha dog of the hell hounds... the reaper...
"You have returned to us Charlie... Tainted with this holy energy..."
"I am not your servant! I have only returned here to reclaim the girl... Come on out here and face me!" Charlie spoke with coldness and yet such great conviction. He was only answered with a maniacal laugh draped in such sadistic pleasure that only demons of the lowest nature were capable of. The ground shook, a giant figure forming in the fog, draped in a black shroud, the scampering things halting at the arrival of the thing. The light clacking of bones grinding against bones filled the air.
"She is now beyond saving Charlie... Not unlike you..." Its voice assaulted charlies brain as it finally emerged from the haze. Casting a shadow over charlie as it looked down. Its skeletal body mostly hidden by its cloak that still haunted his dreams. The bat-like wings outstretched like giant hands with a seemingly infinite reach. Charlie looked into its eternally black eyes, abandoning all fear he might have had were this not for her.
"I will free her. And you cant stop me... I will defeat every demon and damned soul in this place if that's what it takes!" He growled at the somewhat amused behemoth looming over him.
"... It will not take that many..." His wings rose up slowly and fluently, almost touching the smog filled mass above them, before quickly descending in one powerful beat of its wings that sent hurricane like winds sweeping in all directions, dispelling the omnipotent fog that engulfed the land. Charlie did not even flinch.
He looked around himself to discover, not every canine demon that lurked within the bowels of hell, but probably a fraction of them. All were, in a loose sense, dogs, but each monstrosity was rather distinct in its strength and repulsiveness. Specters, glowing with a white luminosity that acted as mirrors into tortured forgotten souls, zombies, covered in rotting flesh, mere tufts of hair clinging to their husk like bodies. skeletons, rich with decay and powered by hate left by a now long gone life. Even a few of the little red demons Charlie encountered when he entered hell for the first time. There was a brief moment of silence. An army of hellish monsters surrounding the lone German Shepard. Silent in a way normally reserved for those in limbo. All at once the air became rich with choked howls and growls, the clattering of bones and chortling of evil beings.
"We will enjoy feasting on your holy soul, Charlie... it will be a level of suffering for you that no mortal could ever dare imagine..." The grin on the reapers face showcased bloody decayed fangs that seemed thirsty for a fresh soul. Charlie looked into quite literally the face of death, and muttered with complete composure, almost under his breath.
"Well, I guess you will just have to take it from me... and I am not some old dog...i have already defeated the forces of hell once. And that's just what I'm gonna do now." Just as charlie finished his speech, the beast let out a ferocious roar which rivaled that of any beast, signaling the surrounding demons to attack the lone angel. They instantly began rushing towards charlie, like wolves descending onto a lamb. But, this happened to be a supernatural lamb. Charlie lunged into the swarms, protected from the majority of the attacks by his holy garbs. This did not stop a few cuts and bruises from finding Charlie, however. He fought against the horde as the reaper observed with a twisted sort of joy forming on his features as each second went by.
A couple hundred thousand. Charlie thought that was a reasonable number. A couple hundred thousand demons had been slain, their carcasses decorating the barren landscape. Charlie had at least a few broken ribs. And the loss of blood wasn't doing much good either. As the horde of demons paused and allowed charlie a moment to recover, or rather gasp and try not to collapse, he noticed that he likely had not made anything close to a dent in the endless mob. For the first time in his life, impossible odds were starting to weigh down his spirit. "Such a shame you chose to not join the army of hell Charlie... You could have been a god... But now, you are nothing more than a hunk of meat for lowly demons to pick at and eventually devour... Goodbye, Charlie..." He struggled to stand as the demons again surrounded him like a swarm of insects onto a dying animal. Blackness began to tug at the corners of his eyes, struggling to keep awake. "Hah... I thought you cared about the little girl charlie?" He finally gave out, falling in a heap on the cold ground as he was surrounded. "Why aren't you helping her, Charlie?" The monsters began grabbing at charlies limbs, trying to find a piece that they could pull on and rip off. "She CRIES, Charlie... Her soul will burn, FOREVOR!" Charlies eyes flashed open, glazed over in a blue light.
"NO!" Charlie roared as he was first enveloped in holy light, as pure as the soul he sought to save. His entire body a mass of light that burned the demons surrounding charlie, making them release shrill cries of pain. Charlies angelic form levitated into the air as he began radiating energy, which soon became so massive that charlie himself was no longer visible, at the center of a perfect sphere of holy power. The reaper shielded himself in terror as lesser demons were reduces to smoldering piles of ash.
The perfect orb instantly became an explosive wave that sent a blast of blue light for countless miles in all directions. Blinding all of the beings that witnessed it.
"no... no!... NOOO!" The reapers yell was silenced as he was obliterated in the shock wave. Eventually the explosion subsided, revealing the landscape now empty, save for the occasional strand of ash or bone. Charlie still floated perfectly still in the sky, barely awake, and drained beyond belief. His robes and halo seeming less illustrious than only moments before. Somehow not as bright. He fell limply to the ground. Breathing softly and weakly. He felt that he was fading. Perhaps to the point where he would not recover...
"Charlie." He froze. His breathing became hitched in his throat.
"A-anne... Anne-marie?" Charlie fought to turn his head, finding it very difficult to see. He felt an oh so familiar hand fall on his cheek, and his vision cleared enough so that he could see the figure beside him. In all of her wonderful orphan glory. She stroked his head softly, her skin a ghostly white. He nearly cried at the state she was in. she was a shell. She looked like she was dying.
"Yes Charlie... its me..." Her voice was so weak too...
He realized that her soul was still bound here. She was still trapped in an unholy curse.
"hey squeaker... miss me?" He offered a sad smile. This was a lot like the last time they had to say goodbye. Only he knew that this goodbye, really would be forever...
"Of coarse Charlie... I'm just glad that I can see you again... at least we will have each other here." He realized sadly that she really could spend an eternity in hell if he was with her. But that could never be. He wouldn't allow it.
"no squeaker... only I can stay here..." He let the last of the holy energy inside him seep into her. Her soul would be cleansed enough for her to enter heaven. "You... you have to go on, and be without me." He said weakly, his eyelids getting more and more heavy.
"B-but Charlie!" She began to protest, but was interrupted as another blue beam pierced the sky and surrounded her in a flash. Her wounds healed, and she looked alive again. Healthy, and full of life. Charlie weakly smiled in true happiness. Anne was like a little girl again. Only this time she knew what goodbye meant. "i don't want to leave you! I just got you back!" She embraced hum in a hug that she had yearned to give since the first time he left.
"Squeaker... I did this so that you could... move on... rest in peace... please, do... for me..." Charlie murmured, as a second beam appeared on the ground on the other side of charlie. Another orb of light fell to the ground, but took the shape of a dog neither charlie or Anne would have expected.
Itchy stood next to the fallen angel. His own yellow Halo hovering above his small head.
"... hey Charlie..." Itchy offered with a bittersweet smile. If charlie wasn't so weak, he would have likely picked up his friend and hugged him in joy.
"Itch... how did you?"
"Chicken bone."
"... ah... well, look at this... the whole gang back together... well guys, I... I think I need to take a nap so... you might wanna go head up to the pearly gates... they get busy this time of year, and... you might get... held up by..." Charlies eyes slowly closed, for the final time. Anne and Itchy shared a moment of silence for their friend. They slowly ascended to the heavens, determined to carry on the memory of Charlie B. Barkin'. Until I write this stories sequel.
Well friends. I hope this ending doesn't suck. Other than that, I can only say thanks for sticking with me. So until next time, this is bobby Blaby... signing off.