A/N: Okay, I know its been a long time, I'm sorry I've just been very busy. As such I decided to write an extra long chapter. But unfortunately it once again proved to be to long. So I split it in two. Here is the first half, I'll upload the second one tomorrow.
Well hope you enjoy it. I would like to forewarn that despite what I said previously, this chapter isn't particularly optimistic. It was meant to be, but as it proved to long I had to cut it to the next chapter. And then this chapter proved to long so I had to cut it in half. So what I'm saying is, its not going to get more optimistic for a little while longer, in fact honestly this one's a bit sad. I'm sorry I hope this doesn't mean anyone will enjoy it any less though.
Well here it is.
Chapter Twelve: Captives
It was a warm peaceful evening; a sort of sleepy silence filled the air, making the sudden soft flapping of wings all the more noticeable. Sheldon and Amy landed gracefully on top of the roof, opposite a building that was all too familiar to the both of them. Almost as one person they crouched and practically crawling they edged over to the edge to get a better view.
The street was empty, the building looked deserted, the lights were all out and there were no guards posted outside. The hole in the roof where they had flown through a month earlier was still there. Club 69 lay there quiet and seemingly empty. Seeing the dark building once again made Amy shiver, she tried to lean in closer to Sheldon, but her boyfriend edged away.
"Is it empty?" Amy asked.
Sheldon's eyes ran over the entire building, "I think so, I can't see or hear anything, it seems the demons are gone." Slowly he turned his neck round slightly, Amy followed his example. They were both relieved to see his wings were still radiant white. It seemed the demons really were gone.
Relieved the two of them got back to their feet, Sheldon turned to give her a look, Amy nodded. Sheldon grabbed Amy and pulled her in tight, before stepping off the edge. His wings unfolded, and the two gently glided to the ground. Emerging out of the alley, the two paused while Sheldon's wings receded into his back; he put his shirt back on and buttoned it up. Then they began to look around. They both knew it was impossible for there to be even the most remote chance that there friends were still in this area. But maybe if they got lucky they would be able to find some clue that give them an idea of where they had gotten to.
For this reason they had waited until now before returning. It was now 7:30 that was around the time when Sheldon and Penny had originally broken into. And it was the same day of the week, so with any lucky the conditions would be similar enough.
Sheldon's eyes were sweeping the area, searching for any signs of a clue. But even his eyes weren't good enough to pick up clues from a month ago. One fruitless search later, the two of them began walking down the street; there hopes turning towards bumping into someone who might have saw what happened. They hadn't gone too far down when Amy's eyes caught sight of the late bus pulling into a stop.
"Sheldon look,"
"What is it?"
"The bus, there's a bus arriving."
"Yes, what about it?"
"Well for it to be it here it must arrive at this time, and if it arrived at this time last month, and on the off chance are friends came down this way. Then don't you think it's likely they would have gotten on it?"
Sheldon paused, "That never occurred to me."
The two ran up to the stop, Sheldon ran on up to the driver. "Were you working on this day, about a month ago?"
The driver stared at him confused by the question. "Yes," he finally answered "I always work Sunday evenings, what is it to you?"
"About a month ago, on this route did you happen to take four passengers from here?"
The man looked at him like he was mad. "I take a lot of people from a lot of stops, I can't remember everyone."
"Well can you try?" Sheldon asked, a bit annoyed by his reply. On board the few passengers were staring, confused by this unusual hold up.
"Look you two; I've got to get going. I don't have time to answer ridiculous questions. What is it to you anyway? Why do you want to know these things?"
Amy stepped forward past Sheldon, so she was now the one closer to the driver. "I'm sorry about the intrusion," she said kindly, "but this is important. We're trying to find are friends, we think they may have taken this bus about a month ago. We need to find them, they could be in danger."
The man looked at them, confused, "what do you mean danger? Look if you're in some sort of trouble, I want nothing to do with it."
"And you don't need to." Amy replied, "But they are, so you could you try to remember, please?"
The man paused and then letting out a sigh he turned off the engine, before stepping out of his box and walking off the bus. Sheldon and Amy stepped off with him. "Fine what did your friends look like?"
"Two men, two women. Both the men and one of the women are quite short, while the other woman is regular height. Both of the women are blonds, one of the men has dark brown hair; the other has light brown hair. One member of each gender wears glasses." Sheldon replied quickly. "I can go more detailed if you want."
The driver paused to think, "About a month ago you say?"
"Yes," Amy replied.
After a few minutes the man nodded, "yes, yes now I think about I did pick up four people matching that description. I remember because they all seemed out of breath, like they had been running. And the taller female, she seemed a bit out of it, like…like…well honestly I don't know what it was like but she was out of it. It's not the sort of thing you see every day."
"Thank you, can you tell us where they got off?"
The man paused before shaking his head, "sorry no I can't remember. Look I've got to get going; I'm off schedule as it is."
"We understand, thank you for your time."
There was a pause, both Sheldon and Amy looked at each other, both processing the same information, at the same rate. The man got back onto the bus and restarted the engine. "Wait," Amy suddenly called, the man looked to his side, annoyed by another interruption.
"We would like two tickets to the last stop this bus goes." Sheldon said.
The driver groaned, but taking their money handed the tickets to them. Sheldon and Amy quickly walked to the back. As they did, the others passengers stared them, some in confusion and others in anger. They both tried to ignore them. Both had almost simultaneously agreed that the last stop was the most likely one for their friends to pick; it was the one that would get them the furthest away from here after all.
Approaching their seats, Sheldon shuddered slightly before sitting down. His act almost made Amy chuckle. Despite it all, despite being so powerful and having faced the darkest and most evil forces in existence, he was still afraid of the chance he might pick up germs on a public bus. All in all, at the core he was still the same person.
The two of them sat in silence the entire journey. It wasn't they didn't want to talk, they did, but neither of them dared speak about their intentions for fear of who might be listening. Eventually the bus pulled into the last stop and they got off. They were now in a different town, a larger one it seemed.
Night had fallen by this point, but neither of them wanted to stop. They had to find the others; that was the priority. Till they met up with them, everything else could wait. They spent next few hours searching every hotel, apartment and boarding house they could find in the entire town. But there seemed to be no sign of them. No one had seen anyone matching there description.
Never the less they didn't give up, and eventually there effort paid off. It turned out that a man had rented a three bedroom apartment to a group of four people whose descriptions matched their friends to a tee. The man had barely handed them the address, before they took off. Hurrying through the streets they quickly made their way to the apartment.
Arriving Sheldon paused for a moment to straighten himself up and brushed down his sides, before leaning forward and knocked on the door. The sound of his ritual triple knocking, followed by his friends names rang out and it made Amy smile. The resounding familiarity was a welcome relief following the chaotic events their lives had been thrown into, but it was one which was short lived.
Only silence responded, confused Sheldon knocked at the door again, there was no reply. Getting worried, he took out his lock pick and proceeded to work on the door. Amy watched him work, herself worried by the lack of response. The door clicked open and the two found themselves staring into an empty room.
For a moment neither of them spoke. Sheldon's eyes quickly moved around the apartment. Amy meanwhile had spotted something herself.
"Sheldon what is that?" she asked pointing towards a barrier of brown grains across the floor in an oval shape, all around the door.
Sheldon gave it one look before immediately recognising it, "Rock Salt" he replied.
"Rock salt?"
Sheldon paused, it was then he realised that he hadn't told Amy about the demonic weaknesses that he had revealed to the others. Turning to her, he quickly explained it all, while silently reprimanding himself for letting slip something of such importance. Once she was up to speed, Amy instantly grasped the significance.
"So that means, this is their apartment,"
"Indeed, as I can fathom no other possible reason why anyone else would put rock salt down."
Amy paused, "but then, where are they?"
Neither of them waited a second, almost together they rushed through the door. Amy ran to search the other rooms, while Sheldon began surveying the one he was already in. Sure enough it didn't take him long to find other signs of his friends. Several vials of holy water which had been left over since there assault on Asmodeus lair, the shotgun which they had taken from that crazed store owner and one of the iron daggers he had given them.
It was then Sheldon noticed something else, on the coffee table was a letter. Picking it up Sheldon quickly began to read through it. Its contents alone were worrying, but as he went to put it down it was then Sheldon noticed the yellow powder on the back of the letter. Seeing it his eyes opened wide in horror.
Amy came walking back in, "well they've certainly been here, I found there clothes. But no clues to what happened to them. What have you got there?"
Sheldon handed her the letter, Amy quickly read through. She looked up shocked, it was then she noticed the powder. She was about to speak, when she saw the look of terror in Sheldon's eyes as he stared at the power. "Sheldon," Amy said almost timidly, "what is it? What is that powder?"
"Sulphur." Sheldon replied, he said the word as if it was a curse.
"Sulphur?" Amy asked confused.
"Yes," Sheldon replied, he did not move, he just stood there as if in a state of shock.
"Sheldon I don't understand?"
"Amy, what was the old name for Sulphur?"
"Brimstone, I still don't…" Amy trailed off as it dawned on.
Sheldon paused and shook his head, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone…" he quoted.
"You mean?" Amy asked timidly.
"In Hell's demons roast in the burning sulphur, sometimes when they come up, they bring some of it with them."
"But that means…the demons have them."
Sheldon just stood there, his eyes distant. And then suddenly he let out a great snarling noise. He heaved his fists down on the coffee table, smashing the thing to tinder. Amy jumped backwards in shock.
"They have them," he shouted, "And all because I wasn't there to protect them."
"You can't blame yourself," Amy said reassuringly.
Sheldon stopped and turned to stare at her. "Myself?" he practically screamed, "this is your fault. You're the one who convinced me not to return when I wanted to. You're the one who convinced me to stay in Canada."
Amy was taken aback with this accusation; she stood there flustered and shocked, having no idea how to reply. She wanted to refute his claims, but she couldn't, she agreed with him. It was her fault, she had convinced him to stay in Canada and now the demons had Penny, Bernadette, Leonard and Howard.
But her guilt would have to wait. Right now there were more important matters on hand. "Sheldon, never mind who is and isn't responsible, what are we going to do? We have to get them back. There depending on us to save them."
Hearing this managed to snap Sheldon back, "your right," he said, quickly his eyes shot around the room, picking up every detail, looking for things he may have missed on his initial examination. "Okay," he said, "this apartment's been lived in recently, they were last here no more than a day or two ago. I've got to get to this address."
Sheldon hurried towards the door, Amy hesitated for a moment, before running after him. But instead she ran into him. Sheldon spun around. "Where are you going?" he asked in confusion.
"With you," Amy replied.
"No you're not; you're going to wait here until I get back."
"There my friends as well," Amy said with a note of annoyance "I'm going."
"It's too dangerous, if they get you as well, then there have everyone." Sheldon paused for a moment, "Wait here."
"What if you don't come back?"
"Then at least your be alive." He paused, "Look I get you care about them, but this is too dangerous I can't let you come with me."
Amy had to admit he was right, though she wasn't happy about it. Sheldon turned and ran off. Behind him Amy closed the door, sadly she sat down. She didn't like being left here, but he was right, it was too dangerous, the demons had already taken her once, and she never wanted to relive that again. Amy shuddered at the memories which she had tried so hard to forget.
Still it didn't make her feel better. She also felt a bit shocked at how he had accused her. Admittedly he was right, but she had only been trying to help him. No she had helped him; it was thanks to her that he now had a much better idea of his strengths and limitations; it was thanks to her that he had actually gotten some training in how to fight, meaning he now had some actual skills to draw on, rather than just waving his arms around and hoping he hit them hard enough. And it was thanks to her that he had actually examined his paranormal abilities, and thus unlocked some power that might actually help him make it out of this alive. He should at least thank her for all that.
Amy sighed, but then that wasn't really in his nature now was it. With nothing else to do, she just sat there, left to her thoughts.
There was a great crashing noise, and the front door of Wild VI went flying across the room. Sheldon burst into the house; immediately he was hit with an awful smell, one which he regrettably recognised as sulphur. The foul stench of brimstone polluted the air; there was no other rational explanation for it, this must be the place. However any remaining hopes he had were quickly crushed, the place was empty.
Amy was still sitting down when she heard the door open. Looking up, she saw Sheldon entering, from the look on his face she could tell he hadn't found anything.
"It was empty," he said sadly, "there gone,"
"We don't know for certain they went there." Amy added hopefully.
Sheldon paused and took two daggers; he tossed them on the floor in front of Amy. "I found these," he said, "there the same iron daggers I gave them to protect themselves, there solid cold iron, they won't kill a demon, but it will hurt them." He paused, "there is only one way they could have ended up in that house. Evidently the demons have them, and we have no idea where they are."
"What do we do?"
Sheldon paused, "I honestly haven't got a single idea." He replied sadly. He slumped down on the sofa next to Amy.
The look on his face was the saddest Amy had seen Sheldon in over a month. He looked exhausted. Although still feeling a bit hurt, Amy knew it was up to her to help him. "It's going to be okay," Amy said reassuringly, "we'll find them, we'll get them back. You got me back from Asmodues after all, you can do it again."
"But I don't know where they are, they could be anywhere within an area of a hundred miles or more."
"Well your find them, your figure it out. You are you after all, you're a genius."
Sheldon turned and looked Amy straight in the eyes, "So are there leaders," he admitted.
"You can't honestly tell me you think there brighter than you?"
"Maybe, I don't know. They aren't human, they've been learning since before the flood. I don't know if I can compete with that"
"Your manage it, it'll all be fine. Come on, your exhausted, go get some sleep, were start looking early in the morning."
Sheldon hesitated, he knew he was tired, but his guilt and desire for his friends made him question it. "I should start now, it's too dangerous, there kill them."
"They won't kill them as long as you're out here, the only reason they took them was to lure you in. Until they get you there still be fine."
"Then there torture them, there hurt them, there break them like a stack of plates."
Amy gulped slightly, "You won't be much help to them if you're too tired to fight, I know you're superhuman, but you still need to sleep. You said it yourself they've only been taken for about a day. They didn't hurt me or Bernadette to badly while we were taken."
Sheldon started at her, "You almost got raped," he practically screamed.
Amy shuddered slightly, silence fell between them. "Sorry," Sheldon said, feeling guilty about bringing up the incident.
"It's okay, I'm fine now. Don't worry that won't happen to them. Asmodeus was only going to do it to me because I'm a virgin. None of them are. You could do with a few hours' sleep. Just take a little, and then we'll go find them. Then we can get back to your plan."
Still somewhat reluctant, Sheldon got up and walked off to one of the beds. Amy looked after him, how this must make him feel, he needed her, for the moment her own feelings weren't important, he needed her. Sighing Amy bent down and picked up the daggers. She placed one on the mantle. Feeling temptation, she grasped the other one by its handle. It was heavier than she expected, but well balanced. It had quite a long blade, and it was clearly very sharp. It both scared and exciting Amy to think she might have to wield this blade.
Placing it down, she decided to get some sleep herself; they had a lot of work ahead of them. But before she did, she paused, "We'll come for you guys." She murmured to herself, "Where are you?"
Water dripped softly in the back ground, somewhere amongst the sound of rats crawling over the concrete floor. Groaning slightly Howard slowly opened his eyes, his hopes that it had all been a dream were crushed by the sounds of his chains clanking. He really was trapped in this dungeon. The only silver lining was that the first sight he saw each time he opened his eyes was his beautiful wife, changed to the wall opposite him.
They were each chained so they had to stand on their tip toes for their feet to reach the floor. As the shortest Bernadette had it the worst, she was practically stretching to her limit, just to stop herself from hanging there.
They had been in silence since they had arrived, the last thing they had said had been futile cries as the demons chained them to wall. Now left in the darkness for about a day, all they could do with listen to the inconsistent sounds of construction in the background. Leonard had spent the first few hours crying. But by now he had ran out of tears and seemed content to linger in his guilt silently.
Bernadette had spent most of her trying to wriggle free of her chains, just as she had done when imprisoned by Asmodeus. But these restraints were much tighter, they seemed almost made for her. Plus it was difficult to wriggle when your feet could barely touch the ground.
For the first time in many hours, Leonard looked up. The room was dark, slight glimmers of light managed to trickle in through the cracks in the ceiling, and the cleaner parts of the dirty window above their heads. What this building was, or at least used to be before it became Azazel's base, wasn't clear, but it was big.
And then for the first time since they got there, he broke the silence. "This is all my fault. I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
The others turned to face him, not expecting anyone to speak.
"I was just so focused on fixing Penny, that I let myself walk into an obvious trap and now here we are trapped in this dungeon, at mercy of that psychopath, while Penny's out there somewhere completely alone. If I'd actually had the intelligence to…" Leonard trailed off, and just began to cry again.
"It's okay," Bernadette said, "You were just trying to save your love, we can't blame you for that."
Howard was about to say something, but Bernadette shot him a look, "yeah she's right, it's okay." He quickly said.
This didn't seem to make Leonard feel much better however, "I'll make it right," he said, "I promise you, somehow some way, I'll make it right."
"It's okay, we'll make it out of this, we'll survive and we'll get away." Bernadette said, trying to reassure.
Suddenly there was a loud clicking noise and there restraints opened. Not expecting this, the three of them fell to the ground. Bewildered they all looked up, and then they saw the figure standing in front of them. He leered down at them.
"The boss invites you come dine with him." The demon said with a sneer.
"I take it we don't have a choice in the matter," Bernadette replied coldly.
"Of course you do you can either except his invitation and eat with him. Or we can remove your stomachs and then make you eat them."
"What times dinner," Howard asked almost sarcastically.
"Ten minutes ago, your late. And I have to say it's not a good idea to keep the boss waiting."
The demon chuckled coldly, before suddenly grapping them and hoisting them into the air. Then suddenly they were all in another room. Unceremoniously, the demon dropped them before vanishing again.
This room was much brighter than the previous one and the sudden change in light intensity caused all of them to spend the next thirty seconds blinking, but as their eyes grew accustom to the light they began to see the details of the room they were now in. The walls were all painted blood red. The room was long but not particularly large. The floor was stone. The celling was pale white. There was a large wooden table in front of them, it was dark black. On the walls hung multiple pictures and portraits, all of battles and people fighting. Several quite graphically displayed bloodshed. There were three seats on this side of the table.
Uncertain, the three of them sat down. On the table in front of them were three bowls of soup, steam wafted out of each bowl. The soup appeared to be tomato as it was also reddish orange. Howard went to take a mouthful but Bernadette slapped his hand.
"What?" he said.
"Don't eat this stuff, demons prepared it, for all we know it could be poisoned, do you really think there just serving us dinner?" Bernadette replied.
Grumbling slightly, Howard set down his spoon. There was another chair at this table; it was at the other side of the table. It was a large; almost throne like chair, which was decorated with gold leaf. In the chair were indents of what looked almost like goats, but were hideously deformed and all had sharp fangs and broken horns on there right side.
"If dinners started, then where is our host?" Howard asked.
"Oh I'm right here." A cruel voice said.
All their heads turned, but there was no one there. "Please allow me to introduce myself…" the same voice said. The group's heads shot around the room, but there was no sign of anyone who was speaking. "…I'm a man of wealth and taste…"
Feeling somewhat scared, they tried to get up, only to find they could no longer move. It was like their bodies had become bonded to the chairs and the chairs seemed to have been nailed to the floor. "…I've been around for a long long time… and stole many a man's saving grace."
"Show yourself." Bernadette shouted.
"My dear," the voice said coldly, "I'm afraid you're in absolutely no position to give orders."
Suddenly Howards face shot forward, straight into the Tomato soup. Struggling he tried to pull himself out, but it was like his face was glued in there. Try as he might he couldn't get out. From the sound of things, he was practically screaming as the hot soup washed against his face.
"Howard! You let him go! Let him go!" Bernadette screamed, terrified by this turn of events.
The voice chuckled, "now what did I just say about giving orders, somebodies clearly not a good listener. Perhaps a little sting might help."
Howard was still struggling, when suddenly the soup began to bubble, it was getting hotter. And as it did Howard groans became, muffled but still definite, screams.
Bernadette stared in horror, "let him go," she cried, now close to tears, "please let him go."
There was a chuckle, "alright, because you asked so nicely, I'll let him go."
Howard wrenched his head out of the bowl. Frantically he grabbed his face in agony, before slamming it down into a bucket of water by his side. Gasping for breath he slowly pulled his head out, the water had washed the soup off, but his skin was bright red and clearly burned. His eyes were watering so much he couldn't see.
"Howie," Bernadette cried, staring at her injured husband. A cruel chuckling broke out through the room. "You think that was funny?" she snapped.
"As a matter of fact I do," the voice replied, "still shall we eat?" And suddenly there was a figure sitting in the chair in front of them. A tall, quite handsome, smartly dressed figure, Azazel let out another cold chuckle.
"Welcome my dear guests," Azazel began, "I'm so sorry that I've been neglecting my duties as a host but I'm afraid I've have a lot of responsibilities to deal with." He paused and then with a devilish grin added, "But now I'm free to entertain you, as any good host should."
Before they could speak, the sound of construction resumed. Azazel shook his head almost sadly, "I'm terribly sorry about the noise, but I really want to make your visit memorable and the standards of what I have to work with have fallen dramatically since the inquisition."
"Look we don't know where Sheldon is," Howard managed, his face stung badly, and he was having trouble seeing.
Azazel shook his head, "whether that's true or not, it's irrelevant, you could still prove useful to me if for nothing more than entertainment."
"Why do you even need him?" Howard snapped, "If you're so powerful why can't you do it yourself?"
Azazel's smile faded, "Why do I need the Nephilim? It's quite simple really, I'm sure even a being of your miniscule IQ can comprehend it. While it's true I am more powerful than him, one Nephilim, if properly prepared and set is more dangerous than a squadron of demons. He is like a hurricane, a force of destruction, just ripe for setting off and leaving havoc in his wake."
Azazel cocked his head slightly, as if he was looking over them. "Besides, although I am powerful, I am still a demon, I have weaknesses. But do you know what doesn't have any weaknesses? Angels. And he's half angel; just think how they will react upstairs when they learn one of their own offspring is destroying their father's most precious creations. I would burn in the hottest fire downstairs for a thousand years just to get one look at their faces."
"I'm sure you will," Bernadette said coldly.
Azazel turned to face her. "Do you have anything you want to say?" he asked coldly.
Bernadette didn't reply. The interruptions over, Azazel returned to his monologue. "Sooner or later he will mine, it could take years to track him down again and perhaps decades to break his spirit so that he kneels before me, but I can wait, after all what hurry do I have? I'll be here past the end, when all of you are just particles of dust floating around the cosmos, when this pathetic planet is engulfed by that ball of fire you call the sun and long after when only the black void of space remains. I'll still be there. I'm ageless, I'm eternal, your longest of lives do not even make up a nanosecond of my time."
"How do you know you're going to get him?" Bernadette asked coldly, "You're not the only demonic lord on earth after him."
Azazel gave her a look, and let out a long cold laugh. "You honestly think that I'm in any danger against my competition? Let's look at them shall we, Mammon? An oversized bureaucrat and con man, only concerned with making deals and gaining wealth, even on his best days he is still barely a threat to my most insignificant slave, besides all of hell knows he's a coward at heart. Asmodeus? Don't make me laugh, sure he's strong when he's in his harem, surrounded by hundreds of floozy's and gigolos, but take him away from his comforts and let's see how strong he is. Driven only by his excessive ambition, he talks a good talk and can crush skulls with the best of them. But by and large, he's better at seducing virgins than winning battles."
Azazel paused, "and as for..." he paused and shook his head.
"Who?" Bernadette quickly asked, Azazel looked at her confused,
"Who?" he replied.
"You mentioned a third candidate, who are they?"
Azazel shrugged his shoulders, "Oh, nobody, I just like the sound of my own voice a little too much and have a habit of going on past the point of having things to talk about. It's one of my favourite vices." He took a slight pause, and then spoke again. "Now I'm betting your curious, if its ambition that drives Asmodeus and Greed that drives Mammon. I suppose you want to know, what drives me? Well aren't you going to ask?"
Silence fell, it was obviously a trap. But knowing they were in no position to refuse to take part in his games, Bernadette replied. "Okay, what is it that drives you?"
Azazel gave her a devilish smile, "Oh it's very simply…" And then in the calmest, most serious and coldest voice imaginable he simply said, "I really enjoy hurting people." And with that Azazel flicked his wrist and Bernadette screamed. She clutched the left side of her face, a large deep cut having suddenly appeared.
"Bernadette!" Howard screamed in horror, he tried to move, but he was still attached to his chair.
Azazel chuckled coldly, as he watched her trying to hold her hands against the cut, and stop the blood. "Which of course means I'm always here to rub salt in your wounds." Azazel grabbed up the salt shaker and tossed a hand full at Bernadette. Bernadette screamed again, she shook with such force that she knocked the chair over and fell backwards on to the floor.
Azazel let a long cold laugh, "see what I mean," he said coldly, "well worth the effort it took imprisoning you just to watch you suffer." He snapped his fingers and Bernadette's chair rose back up so that she was once again sitting facing him. Azazel paused, "I see you haven't touched your meals. I recommend you eat up, I don't intend to feed you after this." Nobody moved Azazel shrugged his shoulders.
"Fine have it your way." He snapped his fingers, and another figure appeared behind them. "Take these two back to their room, make certain there nice and secure." The demon nodded, he placed his hands on Howard and Bernadette's shoulders and the three of them vanished. Azazel then turned to face Leonard.
"You haven't said anything. I was wondering if there is anything that is troubling you."
Leonard didn't reply, Azazel shook his head, "oh come on, don't tell me your consumed with guilt. Please I know you're pathetic but you have to at least try to make this difficult for me. Where's the excitement when you don't."
Leonard didn't reply, Azazel smiled, "or is it something else altogether. Is you've figured if you don't speak I'll get bored and let you go back to your chains?"
Leonard didn't reply, but he did twitch when Azazel said that. "Well let's assume for a moment, that I'm not giving you too much credit and that is what you're trying for. Now we've got that sentiment in mind, it does beg a few questions. Firstly why aren't suffering the first option? Is it because you're smart enough to prioritise, or do you just not feel that guilty?"
Azazel got up from his chair and began to walk around. "Now if it is the second, what does that mean? Now I'm not saying you don't feel guilty, but the question is how guilty do you feel? And of course that does beg the question how guilty should you feel?" Azazel was now standing right beside Leonard. Causally he swept the bowls onto the floor, before sitting down on the table, in a sort of causal manner.
"I suppose we should evaluate that in proportion to the scenario don't you agree? Well let's see you blindly followed a choice that led to how many out comes? Well let's start with you, it ended with you being captured, and not just you, but your friends being captured, all captured by a sadistic monster who loves making people suffer. That's pretty bad in itself, but it also lead to your girlfriend being completely mind wiped and left alone on the street defenceless. Tell me do you know what happens to pretty young women, who live on the street, with no money or memory's? Cause I've got to say it's not pleasant."
Azazel paused to let the effect of his words sink in, "and to top it all off, your capture will eventually result in the imprisonment, then torture and enslavement of your best friend. Who will be turned into a weapon of mass destruction and set upon the world, creating more chaos than this country has even seen, chaos that will strengthen the powers of darkness. Leading to even more innocent people dying needlessly, this will end up giving the forces of evil an even stronger position in the coming apocalypse, one which might even shift the balance between good and evil into evil's favour."
Azazel paused, "Leonard…" he said softly "You've basically doomed everybody, every living thing on this planet could and most likely will die screaming because of you. I would say when faced with such a monumental sin, the only logic response would be to absolutely consumed with guilt, would it not? So tell me, how is your still able to retain a sharp enough mind for you to attempt to match wits with me? Why aren't you guilty? It's no one else's fault other there your own? You made all the choices by yourself, no one forced you; you had complete and utter freedom the entire time, so why aren't you feeling that guilty? What sort of person does that make you?"
Azazel stood back up and began pacing around the room, his manner was causally and calm, almost professional. "Now I'm no stranger to Sin, I had quite a hand in teaching those primitive apes how to sin. I've got to say they were brilliant students, I barely had to say anything and next thing we know they had already mastered war, witchcraft, weapon making and vanity. It took me less than an afternoon to teach them conflict; I swear your kind was built to sin. It's the only thing you truly excel at, no no that's wrong I have to give credit where credits due, after all your kind has also mastered the art of failure to a degree I never even dreamed would be possible."
Azazel paused and then carried on "Still I'm off topic, but as I was saying, I know sin. And surely from the short term implications alone what you have done has to be in the top twenty, I've watched people burn for far less. And if we were to consider the long term implications…well I would hardly like to guess. And yet you're not feeling guilty, at least not feeling guilty enough, so what does that make you? If you want my opinion, based on someone who's observed this sort of thing for a long long time, I can say there are only four possibilities, either your deluded, your evil, your stupid or you're just selfish."
Azazel was now standing right behind Leonard, he leaned in slightly and as he spoke his voice got slightly deeper "Now I can tell you, as someone with thousands of years of first-hand experience, you're not evil. And although your psychiatric evaluation is certainly an amusing read, you come back negative for suffering from delusions. And you and I both know that, while intelligent would be stretching it, you're defiantly smart enough to understand the implications of your actions. So that leaves us with only one possible explanation. You're selfish. Just another selfish man, who only truly cares about themselves, is that why you don't feel guilty? Cause your more afraid about yourself getting hurt, than all the others who you care about or care about you, all the other innocent people? So tell me Leonard, what sort of man does that make you?"
He paused, once again to let the effect of his words sink. Casually he walked around so he was now almost right in front of Leonard. "Now I'm sure I've given you a lot to think about, but I'm also sure that there is some disagreement in your mind right now. So how about we interject a second opinion into this conversation, don't you agree that will be beneficial." Azazel reached into his jacket and pulled out a book. Seeing it Leonard's eyes opened wide, it was one of his mother's psychology books.
"Let's see what mommy has to say shall we?" Azazel opened the book, and began combing through it.
"Where did you get that," Leonard spluttered.
Azazel look up, "are so you can speak. My resources are practically endless, I can get whatever I want. And I figured this might be beneficial for are talks. He returned to combing through the book, before finally finding what he was looking for. "Ah here we go, what's that you want to we hear what it says? Please allow me, 'Subject C (my own Son, Leonard) is a particularly good example, of the consequences of a traumatic upbringing, suffering from a variety of issues which can each be linked to repeated childhood trauma…' oh you poor thing '…however it is interesting to note, that the subject often displays behaviour that cannot be explained by such a method. Quite often he displays the apparent belief that these problems make him eligible for special treatment, such SELFISH behaviour can only lead me to conclude that he has a problem placing others needs before his own…"
Azazel closed the book, "It seems mommy dearest agrees me, does it not?" turning the book around gazed at the picture of his mother on the back. "I have to say your mother is a very attractive woman, perhaps I'll pay her a visit one day," leaning in, Azazel licked the picture. "I'm sure she's a lot of fun." Azazel let out a cold laugh.
Leonard stared in horror, "don't you dare hurt my mother or I'll…"
"Do what?" Azazel asked, "your do what? You still honestly think you're in some way important? That you possess the ability to do anything? You know this seems familiar, didn't we already have this conversation?" And then suddenly he slapped Leonard. The force of the blow was so hard, it threw Leonards chair over.
Leonard tried to scream but Azazel hit him so hard it dislocated his jaw; he just lay there in agony only able to keep looking up at Azazel. Smiling coldly Azazel bent down so he was closer, "you think this is bad Leonard? This is just a bit of fun. I could break you in less than an hour if I wanted to; I personally trained by the master himself. I could break you as easily as I could break your bones. The only reason I don't, is because right now I don't feel like it."
He paused, before adding, "Word of advice, I would strongly recommend you don't make me feel like it." Straightening up, he snapped his fingers and another demon appeared, "take mister Hofstadter to his friends, make sure he is nice and comfortable. Goodbye Leonard, I hope you enjoyed are little chat, I can assure you it is merely the first of many sessions we'll have together, but right now I have work I must attend to. So good bye, hope you have a nice sleep."
The demon grabbed Leonard and they both vanished. Leonard arrived back in the original room; causally the demon hoisted him up slightly and fastened him to the wall. Then the demon vanished and lights went out, and the sound of construction resumed. Leonard just hung there motionless. His mind left afloat in the icy seas of pain and doubt.
Okay there it was. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'm sorry if it wasn't worth the wait. If it wasn't, I should upload what was meant to be the other half, but will now be the next chapter tomorrow. Still I'm sure your tell me what you thought.
Please review.