Undisclosed location in Florida, USA
For the second time in his life Teivel was standing outside of a marble white mansion. Just like last time he detected many magical energies surrounding the entirety of the mansion; a barrier designed to keep everything out.
Certainly not everything. Teivel ran a hand through his longish dark hair as he turned one of the golden knobs of the mansion's double doors, letting himself in like he owned the place. He knew there was a boy living here who could perform the spell he needed to use. However... he didn't know his name so Teivel would call him by his ancestor he knew very well.
Entering the mansion he walked on white tile flooring, going around the large staircase and entering what may be a living room. Teivel quickly came face to face with the boy. "Merlin," he nodded at him. He had the exact same hair Teivel remembered Merlin having: it was kind of long like his own used to be, and wavy like a mop.
"How did you get in here?!" The boy asked, jumping up from the couch he had been sitting on. "Did you just call me Merlin?"
"I walked through the doors," Teivel pointed behind himself. "And you are the descendent of Merlin."
The boy nodded. "What are you doing here?"
"I need you to perform a spell for me, or I will kill you." Teivel threatened him, approaching him and grabbing him by his neck. He was definitely taller than Merlin was; Teivel found himself using more strength to lift the boy up higher. Since he'd now made physical contact with him by holding his neck, Teivel sieged all of the boy's thoughts and memories. His orange colored eyes started glowing and the boy began to tremble in confusion and fear.
Two things Teivel read from the boy that he only cared about: one, his name was Murdock Leroy, the only remaining heir to Merlin's legacy. Teivel would make sure he mated before death so he would secure the next generation of dark magic casters. Two, demons killed Murdock's parents when he was so young he practically didn't remember them. Teivel would use this to his advantage.
The boy immediately gasped like a lightbulb went off in his head. "Ignis oculi!"
Teivel instantly had to refrain himself from snapping the boy's neck. "Where did you hear that name?" He growled angrily.
"Oh my Merlin you're him aren't you?" The boy realized. "The one with fire eyes. Merlin wrote about you!" He admitted nervously.
Teivel stopped grasping the boy's neck and stepped back after putting him down. "Did he now? You know who I am?"
"I know what you are," The boy corrected, rubbing his neck. "Merlin was afraid of you."
"Just as you should be boy, if you don't perform the somnus re mala." Teivel uttered.
The boy widened his eyes upon hearing the spell name. "That's dark magic!" He gulped. "B-but I don't want to die! Can I perform the spell here?"
"No."
"I can't leave here!" Murdock gulped. "There's a force field keeping me inside."
"I destroyed it before I even stepped foot in here," Teivel admitted.
"Really?!" Murdock expressed in disbelief. "Then... you have to get me out of here! The Cult will sense the force field disrupted and they'll come right here."
"Do you have the spell?" Teivel questioned him.
Murdock nodded. "I remember the journal Merlin wrote it in."
"Acquire the book and we depart," Teivel ordered angrily, making Murdock slightly more scared. "You are going to perform this spell on a demon."
"A demon?" Murdock repeated, narrowing his eyes. He gulped when Teivel simply glared at him for not moving. "Sorry!" He turned and walked through the mansion to get to the library where Merlin's journals were kept. He couldn't help but think, why does he want to put a demon to sleep? Why not just kill the demon?
"One more thing," Teivel said when they stopped in the library. "Do not speak to the demon, no matter what she says. She will say anything to stop us. Do you understand?"
"Yes," Murdock gulped, reaching for one of Merlin's old journals.
The basement light is bright, but I can still stare at it regardless. I focus on the unprotected light bulb as a way to ignore the pain that hasn't gone away and hasn't lessened, and it was only going to continue. I found that not moving helps tremendously, so I try not to. I really want to see if I still have skin on my hands, but even turning my head to the side will make the pain worse.
How did I get in this situation? I closed my burning-feeling eyes to rest them. That's right, the love of my life murdered my mom, dad, brother, and sister too had she not survived. I grow sick through my pain at the thought of him strangling Natalie with the same hands he touches me with. The same hands that forced me onto this table made of pure iron, an ultimate weakness of mine.
Why? I think Teivel is... in love with me too much. To the point where he killed my family so, 'I no longer had to keep choosing them over him.'
Oh my god I need to get out of here. My newfound courage prompted me to open my eyes and yank my arms up for the first time in a while, but then I remembered that even the chains secured around my wrists and ankles are made of iron, so now my pain has just doubled.
I still have skin on my hands for now. Should I mention I'm also covered in blood on most of the lower half of my body? Teivel stuck me with an iron blade and left it there. How haven't I passed out yet? Maybe time is going by slower than it feels.
I resume watching the lightbulb's stillness until I heard a faint flapping noise, causing the bulb to flicker about from a minor breeze. I wonder where the breeze came from?
"Oh my Merlin!" I heard a voice exclaim in shock, confusion, and maybe a little fear. It wasn't Teivel's voice. No, no. His voice was always dark and possessive, and I'm no longer denying it. Even when I was a child he sounded the same. Ugh.
Then I hear him. "Use the folding table by the washer and dryer to prepare the spell."
...spell?
Slowly I turn my head to the left so I'm not burning as harshly as I would if I went faster, and I saw Teivel glaring over at someone who almost tripped on his way to the other table. It appeared to be a boy but I couldn't see his face right now, so he could be an adult man for all I know. His hair was dark and moppy and it went down past his ears.
Before Teivel left he said he was going to put me to sleep. HE MEANT IT?
"What do you need first?" Teivel asked the new person.
"Let me see," he replied, pulling out what I barely thought to be an old book or journal. He skimmed to a specific page and read halfway down the page. "First I need the basics. Clary sage, lavender and copaiba balsam."
"I will be right back," Teivel disappeared. The other person sighed in relief when he was gone. This was my chance to get out of here!
"Hey!" I croaked and groaned through the constant burning from the iron. Finally the other person actually let me see their face - definitely a teenage boy. A boy was going to use the spell to put me to sleep? He wore big glasses that shielded petrified grey eyes. He had acne all over his forehead which was a dead giveaway of his age to me. He was also wearing just a purple colored t-shirt and purple colored pajama pants. PAJAMAS?
Did Teivel snatch him out of his room in his pajamas like Castiel did to me? I wish I could tell him I could relate, but there are clearly more important things to be said right now. "I'm not supposed to talk to you." He said to me, turning back to face the other table, setting his book down on it but leaving it open on the page he needed.
"Please help me," I begged him, slightly hurt he turned away from me. "I don't know what he's making you do, but you don't have to do it. Please! Please let me out of here!"
Teivel returned, glaring at me. "Trying to escape already?" He scoffed at me. "Give it up, love. You are not leaving that table awake."
"Don't do this!" I shrieked at him. "Everything hurts, please... just stop."
I'm ignored. Teivel sets the plants down on the table for the boy. He asks him what's next and the boy tells him a few more things. Teivel leaves once more and I widen my eyes at the boy. "Hey!" I said to him again.
"Stop talking to me, demon," the boy said cruelly to me, but the look on his face when saying it suggested otherwise.
My body reacts to the fact I haven't had any relief from the pain since it started, so it's getting harder to move. "I'm not just-" I groaned, finding myself looking back up at the lightbulb. It seems to hurt the least looking straight up. I try to shift the focus of my pain from the burning onto the blade in my gut instead, slowly bleeding me out. Awesome.
"What?" I heard the boy ask.
"Half-demon," I corrected him but heard my voice fade pretty badly. I must be in worse shape than I feel. "Half-angel."
"Really?" The boy said lightly, then I heard him clear his throat. "No, wait. He said you would say anything to get out."
I sighed. What a stubborn boy. This must be how Teivel feels about me - wait what the actual hell? Stop caring about what that murderer feels for you!
"He killed my family," I continued, not caring if Teivel himself returned and heard me. "He's crazy and he's obsessed with me, that's why he wants to use this spell on me! Don't let him."
"He killed your family?" I heard him ask in concern. I couldn't bring myself to move my head again but I nodded as best as I could.
"My sister survived. She has these... these terrible scars on her neck from him choking her. It's all I can think about, it's seared into my brain and I can't stand it." The tears I held back for a long while now finally erupt, flowing down my face.
"I'm sorry about your family," he said quietly. "Why is he obsessed with you?"
I couldn't answer. Teivel returned with more ingredients for the spell. I could feel his evil eyes on mine. The same eyes I woke up to every single day before the Apocalypse. "Good morning, angel bug." Haunted me completely.
"That's it, right?" Teivel insisted, watching the boy inspect the new items on the table.
"Actually, there's one more thing," the boy surprised him with his answer. "I need the blood of a lost princess?" He requested.
"What the hell?" Teivel spat. "Are you serious?"
"Absolutely!" The boy promised. "I can show you right in the journal where he-"
"I'll get it," Teivel reassured. "Time-travel." He said right before he flew away yet again. I groaned, feeling weaker than before. I could hear shuffling, maybe the boy was beginning the spell pending the lost princess blood? Is that a real kind of ingredient? What even is a lost princess?
Suddenly my view of the lightbulb got blocked by the boy's face looming down over me. He was breathing nervously and sweat rolled down from his face onto mine. "I don't need that blood. I sent him after it to get him away from here again. If I get you out of this, can you stop him?" He asked me in a very low, quiet and terrified voice.
I squinted my green eyes to rest them in the shade of his face blocking the bulb. "I can stop him long enough for you to run away," I grunted. "Or... can you use the spell on him?" I had thought of this a while ago, but didn't let myself think this far ahead if I felt like I wasn't getting out of this situation.
The boy nodded. "If you can hold him for just a couple of seconds."
"I can do that," I promised, beginning to feel a flood of relief that this boy might actually free me from this torture table.
"Okay, I'm going to trust you. I hope I don't regret this." He gulped, reaching over to begin undoing my hand chains. The moment I felt his touch I felt a jolt run through me, but not a painful one. It was warm and inviting. Was it his doing? Was he aware that happened?
"Thank you, thank you so much," I said to him when my right hand was freed. I flexed all my fingers and pulled my hand close to my face so I could look at it carefully - still had my skin.
"What's your name?" I asked the boy when my left hand was freed and I did the same thing to it as my right hand.
"Murdock," he introduced, going for my iron leg restraints next. "What about you?"
"Lynn," I told him through a groan. "When you're done can you get the blade out next?"
"Blade-?" Murdock repeated. "You mean... the one in your wound right now?" He pointed at the obvious iron blade stabbed into my gut.
"Yes." I said seriously.
"YOU WANT ME TO GET IT OUT? LIKE TAKE IT OUT WITH MY HAND?" Murdock panicked, and I almost didn't know how to react.
"Please do it and hurry!" I urged. "Before he comes back and kills us."
The reminder of possible death seemed to snap Murdock back to reality. He shook his head and slapped himself. "Okay, I can do this!" He gulped. He finished undoing my iron leg restraints and then gently wrapped his hand around the blade handle. "Is there any way you want me to do this?"
"Just pull it out," I said simply. "I forgot to tell you that the first time this happened to me, I passed out when they got the blade out, so if that happens you need to run for your life before he gets back here." And I'll just accept death at that point.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Murdock yelped just as he yanked the blade out. Blood sputtered out and I put both of my hands over my wound. Next I did the quickest thing possible to get the hell off this table - I rolled off, startling Murdock when I landed on the ground. "Are you okay?" Murdock asked me, running around the table. He set the bloody blade down and knelt down to me.
I have to get up, I have to heal myself and get ready to fight Teivel again. I groan angrily and force myself to my knees. I exert my angelic power through my bloodied hands and onto my wound to heal it. "Whoa!" Murdock observed me, maybe believing me about my heritage after all. I didn't give myself any time to recover so I'm barely healing right now. I stop when I feel I have the strength to stand completely. Murdock steps back when I get up.
"Get ready," I said to him.
"Right!" He goes around me back to the other table. He starts tossing different ingredients scattered around into a wooden bowl Teivel provided. Next Murdock looks at the journal. "I think there's a warning here." He seemed to notice.
"Warning?" What's he talking about?
"Hold on. The language Merlin wrote this in is hard to translate, and his handwriting was just awful!" Murdock complained, flipping the book up and all around it's different sides, as if reading it from another angle would help him understand it better. "Got it! Wait..."
Merlin? I wiped my hands on my pants, looking around the basement in case Teivel returned. Must be harder than he thought going after that lost princess blood, huh?
"I think I understand now," Murdock said, setting the book back down. "Okay, listen Lynn! I can't be interrupted at all while I do this, or the spell won't be fully effective."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"If I get interrupted before he's even asleep, then it's game over. If I'm interrupted even after he's asleep, then he could wake up at any random time since the spell was unfinished." Murdock tried to explain.
"You still have to perform the spell even after he's asleep?" I realized.
"This spell is really complicated, plus it's dark magic so it's dangerous too. There's a whole bunch of nonsense chanting I have to say afterwards so he stays asleep."
"I think I understand now," I said, walking across the basement and standing by the door. Teivel usually shows up by the table Murdock will perform the spell on when he comes back, so hiding behind him and catching him off guard is my only chance at giving Murdock those few seconds he needs.
We wait just a few more minutes before Teivel returns and it's all or nothing. He immediately sees that I'm not on the table so he looks at Murdock. "WHERE. IS. SHE?" He uttered. This was it! I jumped forward and grabbed Teivel from behind. He turned his head to see that it was me, causing his eyes to widen. He slips out of my arms and turns his body to face me. With his right hand he reached up and grabbed the left side of my face harshly, turning back and attempting to drag me over to the torture table he fully intends to place me back on.
Then, Teivel stops in his tracks. Murdock has begun to speak in an unknown language. I sighed in mixed fear and relief wondering if the spell worked. Teivel stops holding the side of my face and he drops completely to the basement ground. He managed to turn himself onto his back before he could no longer move.
"Not again." He says in defeated horror. I widened my eyes so hard they were almost burning. Murdock continued to recite the spell successfully. Teivel grunts and groans, trying to resist but then he just sighed, looking straight up at battered old me. "Angel bug?"
I was mind blown. "Yeah?" Was all I could muster.
Teivel managed to hold his hand up a little bit. "Come here." He ordered me, and like his compliant little angel bug I immediately knelt down to him. Soon I noticed that the skin on his arms started to turn grey. Oh my god he wasn't kidding when he said sleep, was he? I was close enough to him that he could put his hand on my face gently, rubbing my cheek. "I want you to be the last face I see before it's dark again."
If he was trying to make me feel bad for him even though he destroyed my family... it was working and I felt more tears building up in my eyes. I'm angry at myself because he doesn't deserve a single tear drop from me. "Why, Tei? Why did you do it?" I finally asked him. "It wasn't so I wouldn't keep choosing them over you. If you had just told me from the start you wanted to leave and take me with you... god damn it Tei! I would have went with you! You didn't have to kill them!"
"Everything I do is for you," Teivel merely admitted. "I love you."
He never, ever makes any fucking sense. I prove to myself that sometimes neither do I. "I love you too." I said to him quietly. The greying of his skin devoured his arms entirely, so his hand dropped from my face. I whimpered in silence, reaching down to move his hand to rest it over his chest, then leaning over him to drape his other arm over his chest as well.
Then I did something really fucking stupid, but I'll be honest I've wanted to do it since I was like ten. I have a very strong feeling he already knew this though, regardless I leaned in and kissed Teivel as my final goodbye to him. I didn't know what to expect nor exactly how to do it right for my first time, but I think he was kissing me back and it felt... nice, despite everything.
And then it was over, he stopped. I pulled away to see that his eyes were closed, his entire face becoming grey. Teivel was... asleep. My love was dealt with.
Murdock is still chanting, reminding me he's still there. Tears drop from my cheeks onto Teivel's face, prompting me to pull away and stand up again. I held my healing gut with my right hand as I walked over to Murdock. "Thank you," I said to him once more. He nods at me through his chanting.
Suddenly, the basement door opens. We both dart our eyes over, but nobody was there. I heard Murdock start breathing faster and heavier, as if he was growing afraid. "Hello?" I called out casually.
There was a small clinking noise followed by a bounce. A small white ball rolled into the basement after that. "What is-?" I started.
"OH CRAP!" Murdock yelled. "It's the Cult, they found me."
"The Cult-?" I repeated, setting my left hand over Murdock's right wrist in a protective way. I noticed my touch bothered him in more ways than one, but that was the last thing I could think about. The little white ball exploded, enveloping the basement in a bright light that felt burning to me. It shared properties of an angel banishing sigil, but I didn't know how. It all hurt just the same, only this time I wasn't getting blasted away. I felt as if I'd burned myself out before I finally passed out.