“Did it work? Do you know what happened that night?”
“I couldn’t see anything,” came his swift and fatigued reply. I hadn’t noticed this before because I was distracted with his hand, but Eclipse looked abnormally pale. He looked as though he had been through a battle and that he was still trying to gather his own bearings. Despite how his fatigued demeanor worried me, the selfish part of me couldn’t help but feel crestfallen with his answer.
All of this pandemonium, and he couldn’t see anything?
“Why not?” I breathed out quietly.
There was a lingering silence from Eclipse. Instead of answering me, he took a second to inspect his once injured hand, the expression on his face grim.
“That part of your life was blacked out,” he finally answered me, the color retuning to his face when his eyes locked with mine. “It was as if in that instant, you didn’t exist.”
I couldn’t control the terror that brewed within me.
I gazed at his hand and then turned around to survey my surroundings—the surroundings that were once covered with blood. As much as I wanted to believe that all of this was typical for this ritual, deep in my heart, I knew that none of this was normal. I reluctantly faced him again.
“Why did your hand burn?” I asked warily, dreading having to hear the answer. Even then, I knew it wasn’t going to be simple.
Eclipse stood up straight once it appeared that all his energy had fully returned. There was color to his face now, but regardless of the resurgence of energy making its way back into his body, Eclipse’s face was still grim, if not more than before. After what felt like an eternity of silence, the muscles within his structured jaw tightened before Eclipse finally deigned it was due time to enlighten me.
“Something’s wrong with your soul.”
I struggled to swallow past the foreboding lump in my throat.
“Wh—” I couldn’t get the words out while I stared up at him. The mystification numbed me with uneasiness. Rain had begun to pour more violently from up above while thunder blasted the sky apart, as if in anger and outrage for the conversation that we were having. Out of fear, I played with my gold bangles like a nervous wreck. I took a second to gather my bearings before finally uttering, “What’s wrong with my soul?”
“Your soul . . .” Eclipse stated gravely, his own eyes filled with disbelief. Even then, he knew that his task of retrieving my soul had just gotten a million times harder than he could’ve ever possibly anticipated it to be.
“A part of it is missing. A part of it has been stolen.”
"The earth will shake."
26: Ancient Evil
“Your soul, your soul! How the hell did you manage to lose a part of your soul?”
Holding my hand so that we wouldn’t get separated in the evening crowd, Eclipse ushered me through the jam-packed platform of the subway station with a deep frown on his face. With people bumping into us from all directions, we continued to swim through the congested sea of subway commuters, making our way back out to the streets.
After being told that a part of my soul had been stolen, it was an understatement to say that I felt fragmented—literally and figuratively. I tried my best to absorb this newfound information. Being the considerate Demon that he was, Eclipse bestowed me with a whopping three seconds to brood over this catastrophic and life-changing revelation before he impatiently grabbed my hand, casted an incantation to dry me of the rain, and then urgently dragged me out of the school grounds.
Next thing I knew, an embittered Eclipse was not only berating me for losing a part of my soul, but he was also herding me around the city like I was a sheep who had gotten lost from her flock. It went without saying that with the state I found myself in, I was not only feeling disjointed, but I was also feeling pretty damn aggravated.
“Does it look like I made the decision?” I couldn’t help but defend myself as we walked over the surface of the streets. Cold wind swept past us while sprinkles of rain drizzled over our faces. Angry at his behavior towards me, I glared up at his profile, trying my best not to trip at the pace at which we were walking. “Do I look like someone who is knowledgeable enough to voluntarily lose a part of her soul?”
“This is unacceptable,” he went on, paying no mind to my retort. He was too busy lamenting over how much shit had hit the fan in his life. “How the fuck am I supposed to turn you into a Demon if you don’t even have all your soul intact? We have to get it back.” He shifted his critical eyes in my direction, looking at me like it was entirely my fault that his life had become exponentially shittier. “You have to get it back, Teacup.”
“How?” I countered, bouncing on the busy street and looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings. We were surrounded by the usual touches of neon lights, but the scenery had changed vastly from regular citizens to solely college students. I swiveled my eyes back to him and glared once more before saying, “You’re the powerful Demon, Ashtray.”
Eclipse sighed at my reply. He accepted that the nature of this problem fell too heavily on his shoulders—he was the one who had to fix our quandary. While Eclipse exhaustedly closed his eyes for the dilemma we had been damned with, another earth-tilting revelation assaulted me.
I looked at him with huge eyes.
“Is that why I’m not a good person?”
Eclipse was barely paying attention to me. He was too busy being miserable. “What?” he asked perplexedly.
“Is that why I’m not a good person? Because a part of my soul had been stolen?”
Eclipse opened his eyes. Frustration strained his features while he begrudgingly confirmed my suspicions. “You are the way that you are because a piece of your soul was stolen.”
I gasped at this eye-opening statement.
It dawned on me that there was finally light at the end of the dark tunnel I had been walking through my entire life. The reason for my sadistic inclinations, the reason why I was so different from the rest of humanity, and the reason why I was such a disturbed individual . . . all of this was because of my incomplete soul. I was a sadistic human because I did not have a fully molded soul. After seeing this light, all I saw was the prospect of something I had wanted all my life.
I could finally be a good person, I thought with the utmost hope. There was a chance for me to make things right—to lead the life I was supposed to lead: an ordinary, normal, and moral one.
Determination consumed me.
I had to find it.
I had to find my soul.
I had to become fully human again.
“We have to find it,” I told him just as a crowd of college kids came through us, separating us from one another for a brief second. I hopped beside him and fell right back into step with him. “We have to get it back.”
“You don’t think I know this?” he replied, equally as flummoxed as me. Though his tone was aggravated, I could also hear the restraint in his voice. Eclipse was at his wit’s end, but he still managed some semblance of civility when it involved me.
“Just to clarify,” I forewarned him in case he misunderstood all of this as me unofficially agreeing to give him my soul. “I’m not giving you my soul.”
I needed his help, very much so, but not at the expense of my soul. What was the point of getting it back if I had to give it up again?
“We’ll find your soul first, then we’ll deal with the other proposition later,” he dismissed stiffly. It was apparent that the last thing on Eclipse’s mind was convincing me to give him my soul. At this rate, the only thing critical was finding the rest of my soul so that I would actually have it in my possession. It was only after all these factors had been met could he even begin to convince me to give it to him.
“Where are we going?” I inquired when I noted that Eclipse was turning into a building that looked suspiciously like a dormitory.
“Getting some enlightenment,” Eclipse answered briskly, waving his hand over the locked door and holding it open for me. I followed hi
m as we ran into the elevator where a big group of college students had recently exited. Once inside the confines of the metal cage and once he pressed the button for the sixth floor, he went on, strain coloring his voice. “This is far beyond me. I was never the Demon who took souls. I have no idea what to do when a part of someone’s soul is missing. I need counsel and I need it right now.”
I glanced at the number gauge as it reached the sixth floor. “Who are we getting counsel from?
“My older brother.”
My eyes blossomed as the elevator doors slid open. His older brother? I was meeting another Demon? I gaped at Eclipse, following him in shock. We stepped into a dimly lit hall where the pungent smell of marijuana, alcohol, and just plain laziness filled my nose.
Almost dazedly, I asked, “Which one?”
Eclipse smirked at the obvious paranoia present in my eyes. He knew that I was apprehensive now that I was going to be in the presence of another Demon.
Instead of answering me, he took it upon himself to wrap a comforting hand around mine. At his wordless assurance that I’d be fine, he gently pulled me down the raucous hall. During our walk, I caught sight of students lounging around with their doors wide open. They were either smoking marijuana, watching TV, or sleeping with drool dribbling from their mouth. It was not a pleasant sight, to say the least.
We reached the end of the hall and stood in front of what appeared to be a triple dorm room. As a sign of respect, Eclipse knocked on the already opened door. While he did this, I used that moment to poke my head in as we waited for a reply. Judging by what I saw in the room and my surroundings, I quickly deduced which older brother this was.
“Sloth?” I uttered tentatively.
Eclipse smiled lightly as his confirmation. At the same instant, a distant and soft voice elicited from the room.
“Come in.”
With an encouraging look aimed towards me, Eclipse carefully pulled me in. We stepped through the fog of smoke and carefully maneuvered over the various sleeping bodies sprawled out on the floor. Once we reached the center of the relatively large and bright dorm room, it didn’t take long for me to spot the Demon of Sloth.
Sitting comfortably on a brown beanbag with a PlayStation 3 controller in his hand, his lazy eyes were fixated on the 50-inch plasma TV that showed the racing game he was playing. I furrowed my brows, floored with what I was seeing. Sloth looked like any other college freshman. He wore glasses, a tight orange t-shirt that framed his thin body, khaki pants that had various condiment stains attached to them, and had unruly brown hair that seemed to have mussed from playing video games all night.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
This was the Demon of Sloth?
He looked so . . . useless.
I understood that his very sin was Sloth, but it was unnerving to see such a “powerful” Demon appear so inadequate. The very fact that his lair was a triple in a college dorm, where several bongs, drugs, and alcohol bottles were scattered disgustingly across the room, didn’t help me form a respectable opinion of him either. I couldn’t believe he was older than Eclipse. This whole scene would’ve appeared comical if Eclipse and I weren’t seeking him for counsel.
My stomach twisted in uneasy knots. We were seeking counsel, to help find the missing part of my soul and make me human again, from this lazy bum?
In that moment, I questioned Eclipse’s intelligence. How productive could it be to seek counsel from the Demon of Sloth when simply looking at him made me feel lazy?
“To what do I owe the pleasure, baby brother?” Sloth asked nonchalantly, jarring me out of my judgmental reverie. His eyes remained fastened on his game when he said this.
“How are you, Elder?” Eclipse asked courteously. Mild amusement played on his face while he gazed at his older brother. There was no judgment in his eyes. If anything, I saw a tint of respect. It was obvious that Eclipse was used to seeing his older brother in this state. None of this fazed him.
I was the only one appalled that my soul seemed to have rested under the guidance of a college kid who looked so lazy and puny that, if I really put my mind to it, I could beat him up with the snap of a finger.
“I would be better if someone were to join me in this game,” Sloth replied, grabbing a remote control from a sleeping male college student’s hands. He handed it to Eclipse, his eyes still fixated on the TV.
Eclipse smiled, nodding for me to follow him in. He took a couple of strides forward, grabbed the controller, and took a seat on an unmade and unoccupied bed.
“It would be my pleasure to kick your ass at this game, Elder,” he said in his usual arrogant tone.
At this, Sloth laughed. “We’ll see, Junior. We’ll see.”
It was only when I made a move to follow after Eclipse that Sloth’s eyes maneuvered away from his TV and finally landed on me. He finally acknowledged my existence and, at that instant, I wish he hadn’t.
The rush of terror that deluged over me after my eyes made contact with his bronze eyes nearly crippled me. I looked down upon him because of his appearance, but I realized what a grave mistake that was when I finally met his gaze. Outwardly, he may have looked harmless, but his simple acknowledgement of my existence was enough to scare all the human fibers that made up my existence. I felt like I was a gazelle in the lair of a lion that could kill me without lifting a finger. It was one of the most terrifying feelings I ever had, and I was extremely thankful that Eclipse was there with me.
Although Sloth did not address me, the malicious smirk that spread over his features told me that he found entertainment in the fear I experienced. A glint of comprehension ignited in his eyes regarding my identity, and with that, he relinquished his predatory gaze on me and returned his attention to the game. He was now switching from a one-player mode to a two-player.
When Sloth’s eyes left mine, I felt the air return to my lungs.
“So, this is Grace?” he voiced knowingly, his attention resting on the TV screen again.
Eclipse beamed favorably, motioning his head for me to walk in further. “In the flesh.”
Sloth grinned carelessly, glancing at me and then back to the screen.
“She’s cute, but isn’t she a bit short?” His critical eyes appraised my pink dress and pink shoes one more time before he turned away with dry amusement. “And why the hell is she wearing so much pink?”
“She’s vertically challenged,” Eclipse corrected for me as if it was an ailment he had already forgiven and adored me for. His own brown eyes scanned my dress and shoes in appreciation. “As far as the pink goes . . .” He laughed to himself. “Who the hell knows.”
I wanted to defend the hue of my outfit, but I was afraid to. No matter how un-threatening Sloth appeared, there was this underlying fear in the marrow of my bones. Even if I didn’t know who he was, my human instincts—the very essence of my being—knew all too well what Sloth was. He was one of the Devil’s seven sons, which meant that he was a threat to my existence.
Sloth’s focus landed on me as I timidly sat down on the green chair beside the bed.
“It’s very nice to finally meet you, Grace,” he said diplomatically. I could tell from his voice, no matter how pretentious he looked as his regal eyes appraised me, that he truly meant it. “You’ve become nothing short of a celebrity in our world. I’ve been dying to meet you since I heard about your”—he paused to find the right human words, and at that second, I could see the family resemblance between him and Eclipse. Both were very poised, always very careful with the words they chose, and very good at being diplomatic when they needed to be—“extracurricular activity when you were six.”
I hadn’t realized how disconcerting it was to be in a room where someone else knew about my sins. Though I was uncomfortable with Eclipse knowing my deepest and darkest secrets, it was a trait that I more or less got used to. With Sloth being privy to this dark subject, I realized how much it irritated me when someone else brought up the matter. I was tolerant towards E
clipse, but for anyone else, it was off-putting that they would dare bring any of this up with me in the room.
Although I didn’t like him treading on this topic, I kept up a polite appearance because I didn’t want to be rude to the Demon of Sloth. Eclipse may have been smitten with me, but that didn’t mean that other Demons would be as well. I had the feeling that despite how indifferently polite Sloth appeared, he could change in an instant and rip my limbs off if I were to say one wrong word. I knew little to nothing about Demons, but I was aware that it was in a human’s best interest to not piss a Demon off, especially a Royal one.
With that thought in mind, I tried to smile past my fear and irritation. “It’s nice to meet you too.”
“You know who I am, I presume?” he prompted offhandedly.
I nodded silently.
He made a gesture with his lips that was far too sadistic to be called a smile.
“You fear me,” he stated simply.
I nodded quietly again, finding it pointless to try and appear brave when my terror was so clear.
He nodded in approval before turning away from me as a King would from a commoner—or a lower life form that he deemed unworthy. “As you should.”
When Sloth said this, Eclipse turned his gaze over to me. Though he said nothing, his body language said it all: he was telling me to not be afraid because however intimidating Sloth may have appeared, he himself was the force to be reckoned with. If anything were to go down, Eclipse would have my back, not his brother’s.
With that as my assurance, I felt the fear slowly fade away. Even though I still feared Sloth, I felt safe with Eclipse by my side. And as the seconds passed, I started to grow comfortable around Sloth as well.
“Are they your workers?” I hesitantly asked Sloth after staring at the eight sleeping individuals, boys and girls alike, slumbering on the floor with beer bottles in their hands.