Author's Note: Let me know what you think.
Chapter 39: Vengeance
Mike led Peter and Davy to the basement door. He didn't even bother trying to open it because he knew it wouldn't budge if he tried. Peter was still a little shaky, but he was trying to stand firm. Davy stood next to him and kept his hand on Peter's back trying to silently tell Peter that everything was going to be ok. Mike was still filled with such rage over what the Devil and Barbas had done to Peter and he knew that he was going to do whatever it took to make them pay. Mike took the potion that would break the spell holding the door closed out of his pocket and prepared to throw it. He froze when he heard a horrible scream emanate from the basement.
"Micky?" Peter said sounding very choked. Mike threw the potion at the door and saw the door shine with the same white light that Peter's door had when the spell broke. He rushed as fast as he could to open the door and climb down the stairs not knowing what was happening to Micky. The only thing he knew was the scream that had come from the basement had come from Micky and it was enough to stop Mike's heart. It had been the worst sound he'd ever heard in his entire life; a tortured, pained scream that had come from one of his best friends. Micky was lying on the ground at the bottom of the stairs sobbing uncontrollably. Mike had no idea what had happened, but he knew he had to figure it out as quickly as he could.
"Micky, what happened?" Mike said kneeling on the ground next to his friend.
"No," Micky said through his sobs.
"Micky?" Davy asked as he and Peter kneeled next to Micky as well.
"No, this isn't happening," Micky mumbled. "I'm so sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Peter asked.
"Micky, I need you to focus for a minute," Mike said. "Whatever happened down here isn't real."
"It was real enough to him," said a voice behind them. Mike stood up and faced the Devil. His fists clenched and he had to admit he felt a small sense of enjoyment seeing the Devil's bloody nose.
"What did you do to him?" Mike asked.
"I made him an offer," the Devil said. "Which he declined. So I showed him his greatest fear."
"Which is what?" Davy demanded.
"Your deaths," the Devil said with a smile on his face.
"What?!" Peter breathed before turning back to Micky. "Micky, we aren't dead. We're fine."
"I doubt he can really hear you," the Devil laughed. "Right now he's weeping on your dead body. Or what he thinks is your dead body."
"Why can't he hear us?" Mike demanded.
"Oh, it's nothing I did to him if that's what you're thinking?" the Devil laughed. "It's psychological trauma. He witnessed each of you die. He felt your lives leave through his own hands. I didn't think Barbas could create an illusion that powerful, but he is very good."
"Micky, we aren't dead," Davy said trying to pull him out.
"It was just an illusion," Peter said.
"What did you do to him?" Mike demanded of the Devil trying to calm himself down without much success.
"I just told you: he watched you die," the Devil said. "You first. He held you after I stabbed you in the heart. It wasn't a quick death either. I must say I was excited when Barbas told me I could interact with the illusion to make it more realistic."
"That's what happened to your face then?" Mike asked. "Micky clocked you?"
"Yes," the Devil chuckled. "I didn't expect that and it pissed me off. Davy died next because of that. It was so much fun to watch Micky try and save him. To watch him struggle to try and pull the chains away from Davy's throat only to fail was priceless. That image alone will give me so much joy for years."
"You are a sadistic little-" Mike started feeling himself begin to shake with rage.
"Watch it," the Devil laughed. "I really don't know how you were able to overcome your fear so quickly, boys. But I must say that you are much more formidable than I thought."
"We beat you," Davy said. "We will always beat you. You might as well give up."
"Don't you see it?" the Devil laughed. "I got what I wanted. To see you suffer your fears and be in such anguish gives me satisfaction like I've never felt before. Then to see Micky crumble to pieces after falling down the stairs with Peter and realizing Peter snapped his neck. I admit that I had hoped that the fun would last a lot longer, but I still enjoy what I have gotten out of it."
"Ok, so you made us suffer," Peter said tearfully. "Are you going to leave us alone now?"
"Why would I when the fun has just begun?" the Devil smirked. "You boys have made a laughing stock out of me. The offer I made to Micky was real. And I'm betting that he's close to accepting it. Whether he knows it or not."
"What are you talking about?" Mike demanded, fear growing in him again but this time for his friend. "What offer?"
"The reason I was so interested in Peter's soul in the first place is because he had so much purity and innocence about him and so little evil," the Devil answered with a smirk. "Every person has good and evil in him. Every man has a demon in him just itching to get out. Some have more good than others. Some have more evil than others. The balance Peter has is very rare. With each tragic event in someone's life, the demon that lives inside him goes stronger. Now I'm betting that Micky's demons just grew significantly stronger. The tragedy of seeing your best friends murdered before your very eyes and not being able to do anything to save them is one of the worst things that can happen. It's a life changing event. An event that strengthens the evil within someone."
"Stop playing around and tell me what offer you made him," Mike demanded growing very uncomfortable with the Devil's narrative. He couldn't imagine what going through something like that would do to Micky even if he realized it had been an illusion.
"I told him the truth," the Devil answered. "I told him that he is the only mortal to have ever hurt me and because of that, I decided that he is stronger and more powerful than I gave him credit for. And that he would be an asset to me."
"An asset to you?" Mike echoed. "You want him to join you? To team up with you?"
"What better way to make you boys suffer and gain a powerful ally than to turn Micky into a demon?" the Devil laughed.
"How dare you," Mike growled. His whole body was literally quaking with anger and rage and he couldn't hold it in anymore. He charged for the Devil with every intention of making him suffer for everything he had done to Davy, to Peter, and now to Micky. But the Devil disappeared before Mike even reached him and Mike slammed into the wall instead. He felt a sharp pain in his wrist, but he didn't care. He slammed his fist into the wall and broke it.
"Mike, don't," Davy said coming up behind him. "Calm down. Micky needs us."
"I don't understand this," Mike said. "Why is this happening? What did he do to deserve this?"
"Nothing," Davy said. "None of us did anything to deserve this, Mike."
"Bad things sometimes happen to good people," Peter added. "But right now we need to help Micky. You need to pull it together. For Micky."
"Yeah," Mike said knowing Peter was right. He just felt so angry. He really didn't understand why they were being tortured like this. He wanted so desperately to shoulder his friend's pain so they wouldn't have to feel an ounce of it, but he knew that wasn't possible. He had to help Micky recover, or the Devil would really win. The Devil would really be able to get Micky's soul, and Mike would never be able to live with himself if he let that happen. He pushed himself up and made his way back over to Micky to try and help him.
"Micky, listen to us," Davy said turning back to Micky as well. "We aren't dead. What you saw wasn't real. It was an illusion; a trick played on you by the Devil."
"I'm so sorry," Micky said through tears.
"Micky, there's nothing to be sorry for," Mike said. "You didn't do anything wrong. I promise you."
"Your biggest fear is us dying?" Peter asked.
"I couldn't save you," Micky mumbled.
"Micky, listen to me carefully," Mike said touching Micky's arm. "We aren't dead. We're fine."
"I'm sorry, Mike," Micky said. "I'll make him pay for this."
"No," Mike said firmly thinking about what the Devil had said. The more angry Micky felt, the stronger the pull the Devil would have over him and the easier it would be for him to turn Micky. And Mike was not about to let that happen. "I want you to just focus for me. We aren't dead. We're alive. He didn't kill us."
"Micky, we're fine," Peter said. "If we weren't, we wouldn't be able to touch you."
"That's right," Davy said. "We're touching you. We're here. We're not dead."
"I touched you when you died," Micky mumbled. "I held you when you died, Mike."
"I'm not dead," Mike said. "He lied to you to get you to feel pain. He lied to you to get you to suffer. Don't let him win. Show him you're better than that. He thinks you're weak and can be turned evil. Prove him wrong. Show him you're better than that. Show him you're stronger than that."
"Look, Micky," Peter said. "There's no bodies. We aren't dead because it was an illusion. We've all had them. He's really good at making us think that what we've seen is real, but it isn't. You have to trust us."
"Would we ever lie to you?" Davy asked.
"If you were an illusion," Micky answered.
"But we're not," Peter said.
"Micky, you're fear is losing us," Mike said. "That was the illusion. Not this. Please believe me. We aren't dead. We're perfectly fine. I promise you."
"Promise," Micky repeated. "You wanted me to promise you that I wouldn't join him. No matter what happened. With your last breath you asked me to promise you, and I couldn't."
"Yeah, that sounds like something I would say," Mike said. "But I didn't, because it wasn't me. I'm not dead. I promise you that now, Micky. Look at me. I'm not dead."
"None of us are," Davy said.
"It was an illusion," Mike said holding Micky's face and forcing him to look directly into his eyes. "Barbas made you think we were being murdered, but we weren't." Something seemed to connect in Micky when he finally met Mike's eyes.
"Mike?" Micky asked.
"Yeah, Micky," Mike said offering a warm smile. It was hard because he still felt so angry at Barbas and the Devil, but at the same time it was easy because he was helping his friend. Micky jumped up and wrapped his arms around Mike with such force Mike almost fell backwards.
"I thought you were dead," Micky said holding on to Mike as though he would die if he let go.
"It's ok, Micky," Mike said. "It was an illusion. We were all fooled. But we're ok now. I promise. We're all ok."
"I was so sure I lost you," Micky breathed.
"Come on, Micky, I'm harder to get rid of than that," Mike joked trying to make things a little easier. "You know how stubborn I am."
"I'm sorry," Micky said.
"Stop that," Mike answered. "You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn't do anything. Why don't we go upstairs? This is over now." Micky slowly pulled away from Mike and nodded. Peter and Davy helped him stand and they walked up the stairs to the kitchen. When they got upstairs they saw all the bricks around the house had disappeared.
"They're gone!" Davy exclaimed running over the door to open it. "The bricks are gone! We're free!"
"Are we really?" Mike asked. "He's just gonna keep coming after us. I for one say we go on the offensive. Take the fight to him now. I'm done playing his games. He messed with you guys in the worst way and he will answer to that."
"How?" Micky asked. "He's immortal. He can't be killed."
"So we make him suffer like he's made us suffer," Mike answered. "Like he made you suffer."
"I don't think vengeance is very healthy," Peter said.
"It's not so much vengeance," Mike answered. "It's taking back our lives. What he did to you guys pisses me off, yes, but we need to show him that we aren't to be messed with."
"I agree with Mike," Davy said. "I saw how miserable you guys were and it makes me angry, too. I really want to kick this jerks butt now."
"What happened to you guys?" Micky asked quietly. He still appeared to be quite shaken from his experience and Mike wasn't sure he wanted to tell Micky what they had been through for fear it would make him worse.
"We lived through our fears," Peter answered. "And we fought them."
"What were they?" Micky asked.
"Don't worry about that right now," Mike answered quickly before anyone else could tell him.
"Tell me," Micky said.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Mike asked. "The Devil was really trying to get to you. He said he was trying to turn you. I don't want to make things worse for you."
"I'm fine," Micky answered. "I couldn't promise you before that I wouldn't join him, but I can now." Mike sighed and reluctantly told Micky what had happened to him and Peter. Micky looked a little blank the whole time and it made Mike worry about his mental state. How close was Micky to turning bad and succumbing to the Devil? Should Mike be worried or was Micky just so weakened from his experience that he seemed emotionless?
"Micky, are you sure you're ok?" Mike asked.
"Fine," Micky answered with a heavy sigh. "I'm just…tired. Physically and emotionally exhausted."
"I think we all kind of are," Peter said. "Which is why we shouldn't be making any rash decisions now. We should all just get some rest."
"I don't want to be here right now," Micky said. "I want some air."
"Well, we're free to go, so why don't we go down to the beach for a while," Davy suggested. "That always relaxes me." They all agreed to sit on the beach and relax after their ordeal, but Mike didn't change his mind. He would admit only to himself that it was partly vengeance on his mind: how dare the Devil make Davy think he was just a pretty face. How dare he make Peter think he could ever cause any harm to his friends. And most of all, how dare he make Micky think they'd died in his arms. Mike cared about his friends too much to let him get away with this; he cared too much to let this continue. Whether he had to face the Devil alone or with them, he didn't care. He would do whatever it took to make sure they wouldn't face any more forms of torture. Even if he had to sacrifice himself. He would not fail to keep them safe and to avenge them.