“You poor dear,” she said, in her kindest, most solicitous voice, her nostrils delicately flaring to take in the scent of roasted meat, still faintly recognizable behind the stench of Judas’s filth. “Here, let me help you.”
Judas wept as she led him from the main square, babbling, “I gave it back, I gave it back, please forgive me.”
She let him blather until they were away from the square. There was a large home nearby that had once belonged to a very rich man. It was empty now, though its furnishings remained. Its residents had died of contagion, and no one yet dared to venture in save those assigned to bury the dead. She led him there, and brought him inside.
“Thank you,” he rambled. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have saved me.”
“No,” said Nyx. “I haven’t.” She reached into his mind and twisted it. To Judas’s eyes, she once more became his master, bloody, broken and dead, though standing before him. Judas screamed and stumbled back.“No one can save you, Judas,” she said, and Judas heard his master’s voice speak the words. “No one will ever come to save you.”
He broke free and ran out of the room, into the courtyard. Nyx slipped ahead of him, and when he arrived it was not her, but Peter that Judas saw in his mind. He tried to open his mouth to plead for his life, but Nyx took away his power of speech with a thought. She slashed out with a talon, opening a long narrow slit in his cheek that quickly filled with blood. His mouth wide in a silent scream, Judas fled, leaving bloody, oozing footprints behind. She smiled and followed.
The house was not large and had been kept in immaculate condition, but Nyx used her powers to create an illusion of a filthy, putrid labyrinth filled with biting vermin that tormented his already-burning flesh. Every time he turned a corner, one of the other apostles was there. Each delivered a stinging attack that opened his skin. Never was he allowed to sit down or hide. The apostles kept driving him from room to room, across the courtyard and back again, until night fell.
With the final light of the sun gone, Nyx at last allowed Judas to find the door and escape the house. His weeping had long since stopped, though the terror remained. For a brief moment, there was silence, and stillness, and Judas began to hope that maybe the nightmare was over.
With a flick, Nyx sent her whip lashing into his flesh again, tearing open one of the huge blisters and sending its fluids spinning out to decorate the nearest wall.
For another night, she drove him through Jerusalem, this time ripping away the girdle and loincloth, leaving him naked. In his mind, she put a desperate imperative: RUN. He could not stop, no matter how tired he became or how much pain wracked his body. No matter how desperate he was for it to end, he would always pick himself up and stumble forward once more, and every time the whip chased him, lashed him until his body was a bloody unrecognizable mess.
She drove him back and forth across the city three more times before the sun rose. And when it did, he found himself back in the courtyard of the house. He cried out in despair.
Huge hands grabbed him. A sharp-toothed, gaping mouth leered at him. Nyx had many forms. This one was male and enormous, with horns on its head and red, saw-toothed scales that covered every inch of its flesh, including that which jutted up, erect, from between its legs.
She dragged him to the bath houses and immersed him in salt water, shaking him to wash away the filth and leaving him screaming voicelessly as the salt filled the wounds. And when his body was cleansed enough that she could stand it, she took him to the middle of the courtyard, threw him on his stomach and used his body for her pleasure, driving her saw-toothed cock into him for hours at a time, using her power to keep him from going into shock so that the pain remained fresh and new with each serrated thrust.
By the time night fell and he was turned out into the streets, he was bleeding so badly he could barely stand. Still she drove him forward, watching as every step he took sent agony through his body, from the torn blisters on his feet to the ruptures in his bowels, from the open lashes that covered his body to the ripped and bleeding flesh of his mouth and throat. Blood leaked from his ears, his nose, his mouth, and his anus. He would not last much longer, she knew, and that was fine with her.
She drove him through an open gate and out of the city, towards a high hill. And when they were far enough from Jerusalem that he could not be heard, she gave him his voice back so she could enjoy his screams.
The hill had been covered in fig trees, but the storm that came with Tribunal’s passing had decimated it. Only a few trees remained standing, and one entire side of the hill had been washed away, leaving a jagged, sandy cliff.
Once more invisible and in black, she drove Judas up the hill. Her lash seemed to come from every direction, leaving him bewildered and in fresh torment with every step. Still she would not let him rest. The compulsion to run drove him to keep moving long after his body should have given up and collapsed.
And when he reached the top of the hill, he found a single fig tree still standing at the edge of the cliff, with one of its branches stretched out over the void.
Nyx let the compulsion leave him then and he collapsed to the ground, screaming and begging for his life. Hovering above him, she made her armor disappear, and let the fire that lit her black wings come back to life. The horned tiara sprung into being on her head and the jewels around her neck gleamed.
She landed in front of him, and he saw her for the first time as she truly was, and knew her for what she truly was. He tried to scrabble away, but his body had no more strength. He begged and pleaded, this time for death, but Nyx only smiled.
With a single hand she pulled him to his feet, gripping one of his arms.
“You killed Him,” she said as she dragged Judas across the ground towards the tree and the cliff. She stopped and looked at him.“Do you have any idea what He meant to me?”
Before he could answer, she twisted his arm and broke it. With a move faster than he could see, she reached out and broke the other one, too. He screamed anew as she twisted his broken bones until they pierced his skin. Then she stomped on his legs, and smiled as she heard the bones in them crack, listening with pleasure as they ground against each other. Still gripping the broken arm, she dragged him towards the tree.
“You should be dead, you know,” she said conversationally.“With all I have done to you, you should have died ten times over.” She tossed him down at the base of the tree and crouched beside him.“And do you know why you are not dead?”
He shook his head and moaned something that sounded like a plea.
“Because I am not ready to let you die yet!” screamed Nyx, her razor teeth gleaming in the moonlight. “You murdered Him! You took Him away from me and I will never, never forgive you for it! Do you know who I am? Do you?”
Broken lips and teeth came together, Judas mouthed the word as best he could.“De…v…l.”
“Yes,” hissed Nyx.“I am the ruler of Hell and you, little mortal, have angered me beyond all reason. You have taken away something that I wanted and for that you will suffer!”
She gouged her nails into his belly and slowly ripped it open. Judas, who had thought he could feel no more pain, screamed anew.
“I will give you your wish,” she said, as she reached inside him and pulled out his intestines in long, slippery loops. “You will die here tonight.” His eyes rolled briefly in his head at the sight of his own disembowelment, but she forced him back to himself. “And when you have died, when you pass beyond the veil, I will be waiting for you.” She looped the intestines around his neck, then threw them over the branch of the tree and began pulling. They should not have held his weight, but Nyx’s power made them strong enough that they would, and slowly, inch by inch, she pulled him upright, then aloft, until he was swaying, strangling over the branch on the edge of the cliff. “And when I see you again,” she said, her voice rising to a scream,“I will put you through such agony that these torments will pale in comparison!”
Judas swung, feeling his throat closi
ng in on itself, feeling the world turn black and his senses start to slip.
Nyx released her power from the loop of intestines and it ripped open, sending him plunging down the side of the cliff.
The initial drop was not much, perhaps fifteen feet, and the tumble down the rest of the cliff did not kill him either, as Nyx had known it would not. At the base of the cliff, Judas Iscariot lay, bleeding and gasping, still alive.
Then he heard the rustling, and felt the first of the rats Nyx had summoned to the spot, hours before, digging into his flesh.
Nyx sat under the tree, eating figs and listening to him scream for the rest of the night. It should have been more satisfying, like the tortures she inflicted on the damned. Instead, it left a taste like gall in her mouth. Tribunal was still gone and torturing His murderers did not give her enough satisfaction.
Still makes me feel better, thought Nyx, sending a command to the rate to eat slower.
And when the sun rose, and Judas was finally silent, Nyx realized God was gone.
Chapter 3
When night fell, Nyx walked out into the desert.
She had spent the day under the fig tree, listening. She had stretched her senses in all directions, eyes, ears, nose and mind all reaching out, searching for some presence of God. Though her body remained on the hill where she had finished torturing Judas, her mind wandered the earth, searching.
There was nothing.
Her feet slipped lightly over the ground, not feeling the harsh stones and thorns beneath them. The moon above was full, its pale light making her silver-white skin even more ghostly, and her long white hair sparkle. She liked the moon on nights like this.
He was gone. She was almost sure of it.
God’s presence infused His creations—even her, though she hated to admit it. An Angel always felt the presence of God. And though she was the darkest Angel of them all and had long since fallen from His grace, still she felt His presence, even in Hell. God’s presence was all-encompassing and existed in every part of His world, in every thing that was part of His creation.
But now that presence had vanished, leaving an empty space and a vague ache in her being.
Nyx wondered if the humans could feel it, or the animals. She wondered if any being on the world realized that God had left, and that they were alone in the universe. And if they could feel it, she wondered if it left them terrified or relieved.
For Nyx, her feelings raged back and forth from confusion to ecstasy. She was an Angel; a creature built solely to fulfill God’s will, and though she had rebelled, part of her could not imagine a world without him.
The rest of her reveled in the freedom.
For the first time, she could be sure that God was not influencing her decisions, that she was making them by herself, for herself, and that she would reap the rewards of them. A world without God was a world that she could own utterly.
If Tribunal were here, it would be perfect.
If it’s true.
She was still uncertain. This world was God’s, from its first creation until the end of days. It had been His pride and His plaything, even before He had created humans and put them on it. For Him to abandon it seemed unthinkable.
But if He has, she thought, Then this world is MINE.
She practically danced across the sand with joy, her lithe body springing from rock to rock. A few puddles remained from the rain three days before, not yet soaked up by the red, sandy earth. She squished through them, feeling the warm water and grainy mud between her toes, a gentle contrast to the harsh bite of the desert rocks.
Nyx clicked her golden nails together. She liked the sharp sound; it was like two swords gently colliding, sharp metal rubbing on sharp metal. She walked to the rhythm of the clicks, her body swaying and stretching, almost dancing as she moved.
She was miles from Jerusalem now, miles from any human sound that might interfere with her listening. The sounds of the mortals – their emotions and desires and beliefs – washed through their cities. They affected her more than she liked to admit and made it hard for her to sense the world clearly.
Now all that had faded into the far distance. The desert was still, except for the soft hiss of the sand giving way beneath her feet, and the metallic percussion of her clicking nails.
She knelt near a pool of rainwater and listened, stretching every sense and her mind as far as she could.
There was nothing.
She looked and smelled and tasted the wind.
Still nothing.
Nyx scooped up the rainwater with both hands. The water was warm to her touch, still heated from the sun. She closed her eyes and tilted her cupped hands up to her mouth. Water dribbled down her chin as she tasted, and tested, the droplets.
The water was water, the air was air, and the presence of God was gone from it all.
Nyx stood, and looked out at the vast hills around her. Tiny, skittering lizards danced across the sand, leaving little footprints in their wake. A light breeze swirled dry sand from the dunes off in the distance.
God had left this place.
But He had not left it unattended.
Their presence was a spark of divinity on the now-Godless earth. Two bright blazes of burning magnesium in a void of darkness. And they were coming toward her.
She willed her armor into being, and the shining, black second skin covered her. The spiked, diamond shoes grew onto her feet and the horned tiara rose up through her hair. If they were coming to face her, then she would remind them who, exactly, she was.
They came into sight, small stars of white, moving fast against the night sky. Nyx resisted the urge to fly up to meet them, to draw her weapons and cut them down from the sky. Instead, she set her feet firmly in the earth and waited until they were close enough for her to see who they were.
Caelum and Orion. He sent the two most pompous ones.
But my, they are beautiful.
Caelum landed first. He was tall, even for an Angel, and his eyes, skin and hair were all golden, as if the light of God Himself had given them their color. His armor was white, and though it followed every contour of his body, the lines and curves of it forming a near-perfect outline of his shape, still it did not emphasize his form the way Nyx’s emphasized hers. The armor of Heaven was for protection and for mobility, not for display. Even so, Nyx could see the power beneath his armor, and knew the strength that he possessed. He was considered by some to be the epitome of Angelic virtue, though not of intelligence.
“It took you long enough,” she said, letting the spikes on the back of her heels dig deeper into the sand.
“We were tasked with more than just hunting you down, Nyx,” said Caelum. “We had to reveal the truth of His son’s resurrection.”
Nyx sneered. “What truth? That he’s flown up to Heaven to be with His Daddy?”
“That His body is gone,” said Caelum. “He has risen and is alive, and walks the earth.”
“Bullshit,” said Nyx, enjoying the distaste on Caelum’s face as he blanched at the human expression. “He’s gone. He’s not here just as His Father’s not here. And are you going to be staring at my ass all night, Orion?” she asked, looking over her shoulder.
The Angel there could have been Caelum’s twin in size and shape, but his skin was pale, and his hair black. The golden eyes were the same, however, and they moved quickly up to meet Nyx’s.
“Or is it that you wish to stab me from behind?” Nyx tilted her hip slightly, and the movement made her suggestion obscene.
“You have spent too much time with mortals,” said Orion. “They have corrupted your language.”
“My language is the least of my corruptions,” she said. “Where’s God?”
“He has left.”
“Why?”
“Because that is the judgment that He has passed. He has heard His son’s report, and His recommendations, and has agreed that mankind should be left alone.”
Nyx tilted her head. “Is that what His so
n wanted?”
“It is God’s decision,” said Caelum. “That is all you need know.”
But Tribunal said God had betrayed Him, thought Nyx. What did He want instead?
“So the mortals who live here are mine, now?” asked Nyx. “Since God has left?”
“The mortals are to be left alone,” said Caelum. “They are to be free to make their own decisions.”
“The pact that God has made with them still stands,” said Caelum. “They will live their lives, they will be judged, and sent to the eternity they deserve. Whether that is Hell, Heaven, or Limbo is up to them.”
“And God’s son was all right with this, was He?”
“It is not His decision. It is God’s. And we must all bend to His decision. Even you.”
Nyx raised an eyebrow. “How should I bow to His decision?” she asked. “And why is Orion still behind me?”
“When God closed this world, He deemed that He would have three Angels, and only three, to stand over it, to watch over the efforts of mankind. And He picked the three most worthy of His Angels to remain here.”
“Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael?” asked Nyx, just to infuriate them. She looked around. “I don’t see them.”
“You know very well that we are two of them,” snapped Orion. “And the third awaits entry, frozen in place until the earth is opened to her.”
“And who is this third Angel?” asked Nyx, not bothering to look at Orion.
“Arcana.”
“Arcana,” repeated Nyx. She had been friends with Arcana once—very good friends—before the rebellion that sent Nyx down from Heaven. Arcana was beautiful and powerful and intelligent—and it was rare for an Angel to be all three. She would be an excellent choice to come to earth. She could help guide the mortals forward.
Especially if they wanted to get me to leave peacefully. Of course, if they wanted that, why didn’t they send Arcana in the first place?
“Just one girl and two boys?” she said out loud. “My, my, my. What will you do when you get bored? Or is this one in front, one behind thing you’re doing with me an indication?”