Authors: Lucian Bane
Chapter Two
Terror slammed Ruin and he stomped on the brakes, jolting them forward. A giant black mass emerged up from the ground some hundred feet before them. The tires screamed with Isadore as a house sized mouth of a beast opened wide and shook the air with a roar of fire. Ruin’s instincts kicked in and turned the fire all around them into dense ice that coated the cab of the truck. Even without seeing, he knew where the truck was headed.
Ruin vaguely realized armor had formed on his body and in one jab, he elbowed the back glass with the ice spur, the power in it exploding the glass out. Ruin burned her seat belt off then fought to drag her into the bed of the truck.
“We’re in its mouth!” Isadore shrieked. “We’re in its mouth!”
“Hold on to me!” She latched limbs to his body and he jumped, his eye on the daylight quickly disappearing before them. Ruin wasn’t sure what it was, maybe the idea of being eaten alive with Isadore that caused the word to rip from him, a word he’d never heard before but knew.
“OZIAS!”
Something huge and cold launched them with immense force through the beast’s abyss of a mouth, now barely a slit.
The next second they were airborne, not grounded, and whatever was under their asses was frigid. Ruin’s breath shot out in awe at the massive wings of ice flapping on either side of them, the sound sharp and scraping against the air. The beast suddenly went into a nose dive, angling its large head right, the diamond looking iris seeming to say “hold on”.
Ruin grabbed the ice shards on the giant neck and did just that with Isadore’s arms wrapped in a death grip around his waist, her scream shredding his eardrum.
You remembered me
.
The whispered words blasted through Ruin like an arctic breath. The beast gave a sharp roar as if in pain, and the ground rushed up like a hungry sea of death.
Your sins weaken me
.
Ruin realized they were going to crash. “Hold on to me!” he roared. They hit the ground and the ice beast beneath them exploded like a canon. Ruin and Isadore were suddenly flung down a slide of frigid water, rushing over the ground until they settled with ease, drenched and limbs locked together.
Gasping heavily, they looked around in awe. The only sign of the steed Ruin knew but didn’t remember, clung to the air in a vapor of steam.
Though the dense fog, Ruin made out his form. The apparition of terror and eternal darkness approached them in human-like form. But he was no man. He was all demon.
No, Ruin realized…not demon. The charred cracked muscle over lava, the bright red eyes of sorrow, agony and torment, the dominion and authority in his aura and gait… this was hardly a demon. This was the Devil.
****
Ruin came to in agony, screaming and thrashing. Nearly instantly, Isadore’s screams tore the air. Ruin gasped on the heat in his lungs. He was burning, literally on fire. He fought to get away from the heat, different than any fire he’d felt, pressing in, crushing while it burned.
“You both will burn this way,” a deep voice said nearby. “But only say the word, and I will save both of you.” Ruin’s frantic mind picked up the final words save both.
“Yes! Yes, yes!”
The fire disappeared but Isadore’s screams continued. Ruin’s vision cleared and he roared in agony at seeing her chained to the wall across from him, trembling and naked, her skin bubbling from the fire that had just consumed it.
“Stop it,” Ruin roared. “I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll do it!”
The beast walked toward him. “Good,” he whispered suddenly next to his face, his claws digging into his burning flesh. “So glad you’ve come to your roots.”
Ruin thrashed in agony as he touched various parts of his torso setting assignments.
“No, my son. Not an assignment. You destiny, your heritage, your home.” He waved his hand and Isadore fell to the floor, a heap of unconscious, twitching limbs. Whatever the being had done set off something in his body and Ruin fought to breathe through the heat slowly getting hotter from the inside. “This may hurt just a bit,” he said.
The pain struck, brief and with an eternal potency. Though Ruin only endured it for a few seconds, he was sure that the horror it brought couldn’t be worse than enduring it for even a second more.
Until he realized what the beast had done. Until he realized what the beast had made him.
“Don’t worry about looks. She won’t even see them,” he purred next to his ear. Ruin turned to the flaming words that licked along his face. “And that filthy assignment you rightly disobeyed is now hidden from their self-righteous sight.” Thick black lips broadened but didn’t thin in a smile. The messy cluster of onyx teeth in the large mouth glistened with saliva that resembled watered down lava. But it was the eyes that terrified Ruin. This close, he could see the blood of countless soul’s swirling and roiling in agony.
Ruin’s breath billowed out as black smoke, the fire inside him slowly cooling. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see what he was. “Is… she safe?” The deep rumbling in his voice confirmed his fears. He was a monster too. He turned his gaze to Isadore, peaceful on the floor despite her body being raw and burned. What had Ruin done? God…what had he done?
“You saved her, that’s what you did!” the beast growled, annoyed.
Saved her. Yes. Saved her. For now. What else was left doing? What was there that he wasn’t willing to sacrifice for her. Eternity? Life? Love? Without her, it was torment. It was the red agony in the devil’s ugly gaze. That’s what it was.
“Now go and fix what you have disrupted my son.” The Devil waved his large hand with the dagger length claws. “You have much to atone for.” He turned and sat on his burning onyx throne, the flames caressing him like a neglected lover.
A tempest of black smoke suddenly swirled up from the floor before him and grew instantly into a growling roaring vortex. Ruin’s shackles fell off and he was sucked into the cyclone and propelled up at the speed too great for even light. When he opened his eyes, he beheld a clear blue sky then jerked his head right at hearing Isadore’s whimper.
“Oh God.” He crawled quickly to her, aware that his body seemed no different. But Isadore….fuck. Her skin was covered in third degree burns wherever her clothing didn’t cover her. Why were her clothes in-tact? It made no sense like everything else in his life suddenly. She laid there staring up at the sky, like she’d been abducted by the alien ship and made to endure unspeakable trauma. What had the beast done to her? And how the fuck was he supposed to fix it?”
Even as he wondered, the raw peeling skin began to heal rapidly until it looked brand new, not regrown like skin after burning, just healthy.
Ruin wondered if she remembered. At having her knock him to the ground in a tight embrace and sobbing, he knew she had. But what?
“What do you remember, what do you remember?” he gasped, holding her tight.
“The Devil!” she screeched in his ear. “I remember the devil! I was burning!” she screamed. Her body trembled with a violence. “I was burning alive Ruin!”
Fuck, fuck, no. “I got you, you’re okay, I got you.”
“Are we dead?” she screamed, still clutching him tight.
“No, we’re not dead.”
“I don’t want to go to Hell! I don’t’ want to go to Hell, please don’t let me go to Hell, I’m sorry, I’m sorry for everything, I repent!” she gasped. “I repent, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry God, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Ruin clenched his eyes tight and held her, gritting his teeth at the traumatized tone. “I got you, Angel. You’re not going to Hell, I got you.”
Ruin rocked her for many minutes until he couldn’t bear the pain inside him from what the Devil had done to him. He may have hidden Caliber’s assignment but he’d given him a shit load more. “I have to go, Angel.”
She locked up in panic. “Don’t leave me!”
“You’re coming with me, you’re not leaving my side, okay? We’re a team you and I. Right? I’m your husband, you’re my wife, we’re one flesh now, remember?” he cooed in her ear.
“Yes,” she wailed. “Yes, I remember.” She nodded and pulled away wiping her face. “I remember,” she said in a barely audible squeak. “Y-your assignment, I forgot.” She regarded him for many seconds as he helped her stand. “W-what happened? Why were we taken down there, I don’t understand? I mean you’re doing everything right, can they do that? Are you in trouble?”
“Yes, I’m doing everything right. I’m not in trouble, everything is fine.” Dread slowly slithered through him, cold and forewarning at realizing... for the first time in his existence… he lied.
He waited for an emotion to go with the usually impossible deed but found nothing. Nothing but empty space. He was sure the empty was a worse indication than any sort of regret or shame that he might normally feel if he were a… normal man. But he wasn’t, now, was he. He was something else.
He held Isadore tighter, feeling her body against his, drinking in the warmth and realness of her. He was something else for her. All for her.
Chapter Three
Isadore had never experienced so much terror. Her worst memory had nothing on this. Her past was a fun circus compared to what she’d just went through. It touched the eternal parts of her, made her aware of them where she hadn’t been aware before. She never wanted to go through anything like it again. Ever. And Ruin was hiding something, she could feel it. Something wasn’t right. But what? And why would he hide it?
She looked around at where the hell they were. Judging by the surroundings, they were out in the middle of a field. “I think that’s a farm,” she pointed off to the right and regarded Ruin. “Which way does your assignment say?”
She watched his response closely and he turned away from her, looking around. “Uh.” He pointed north. “I think that way.”
“You think?” Now she knew for sure something was wrong.
He turned to her. “I think, yes. But in that direction for sure.”
“
Are
you sure?” She wished he’d just tell her what he was hiding.
“I’m sure, yes.”
She watched his backside as he took off walking, the niggling sensation that something was wrong, off, or different nagging at her as she slowly caught up to him. They walked through the field in awkward silence. She paused then, wondering where her truck was. “What was that thing?”
He stopped and turned. “What thing?”
“That thing that flew us out of the mouth of that…other thing? The thing that said your sins… something.”
Ruin turned and kept walking. “I think he was an old friend.”
She caught up to him trying to keep pace with his strides while watching his face. “A friend?”
He shrugged. “Something like that.”
“Something like that.”
“Stop repeating me.”
“I mean I just…” she stalked and huffed along. “Feels like you’re…”
“Like what, just say it.”
“Lying. I feel like you’re lying to me, there.”
He made this snort sound and shook his head then pointed. “There’s the road.”
Isadore looked and sighed at seeing a passing vehicle through the sparse tree line. “Thank God.”
“Let’s hurry before it gets dark. I don’t want to be on the road at night.”
“What is your plan? We have nothing, I mean where is the truck? Is it in the belly of that beast or what?”
“Not sure.”
Isadore had to run to keep up as he picked up his pace, sounding like he didn’t want to ever think about it. She could definitely oblige him.
By the time they got to the road, she was winded and her side hurt. Bending over, she held a finger up silently asking for a moment.
“You want me to carry you?”
She straightened, halfway tempted but shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“Hurry. Where do you think the nearest town is?”
Ruin straddled the ditch with his long legs and reached to transport her over. Too tired for pride, she let him then pulled him across, where they looked up and down the road. “I know this road.” She was sure she did. “It’s familiar. I think.”
“Which way is town, do you know?”
“I think…” She turned left and right several times. “This way, maybe.”
“Ugh,” he said, taking off.
“What’s your hurry?” she demanded, running to catch up.
“I told you, I don’t’ want to be on the road in the dark.”
Fear stung her spine. “Why, what’s wrong?”
“It’s more dangerous to be on the road at night as a general rule, Angel.”
“You sound annoyed.”
“I’m pissed, yes.”
“At what?”
“Nothing,” he gritted.
“Oh my God,” she gasped, coming to a stop.
He turned, looking at her, his green eyes bright and narrowed on her.
“You just lied!”
His jaw hardened and he turned and took off walking again. “It’s nothing I want to talk about, Isadore.”
“I thought you can’t lie. Is it something I did?”
“Of course not!”
The bite in his tone stung her. “Why are you talking so mean to me?”
“This isn’t me being mean, Angel, this is me worried, okay?”
“Worried?”
“Fuck, Isadore,” he turned to her. “Stop repeating me, yes, I’m worried.” He spread his arms out at his sides. “Don’t you think I have a little something to be worried about with you? You’re just a tiny little breakable human in an ancient power play. And you happen to be my wife that I need to protect, but that’s like trying to shelter a wall of crystal while the earth is blown to bits.”
She gave a snort and rolled her eyes. “I’m not that fragile, geeze.” She walked past him, ignoring his angry glare. “Oh look, maybe we can hitch a ride.” She stood on the side of the road and stuck out her thumb at the distant vehicle.
“What are you doing, don’t do that!”
“Why? Who could possibly pick us up that you can’t handle?”
“I don’t know, the Devil maybe?”
She jerked her hand back to her chest and regarded his
exactly
glare as he continued walking, pulling her with him now along the side of the road.
“We should be walking on the other side, lawfully. And slow down, I can’t keep up with you if you’re going to drag me behind you.”
He hurried across the road, still dragging her behind him.
“Ruin let go, I’ll keep up.” She eyed the vehicle rumbling toward them, the sound of the engine growing louder, like a souped up race car. Isadore fought to peer around Ruin and see the vehicle.
The car finally flew by, speeding like nobody’s damn business and Isadore was shocked to see it was an old granny looking station wagon with large back tires and double exhaust pipes sticking out the rear big enough to accommodate a rocket engine.
Ruin stalked onward at a good fifteen mph when the sound of screeching tires halted him, making Isadore plow into his back. They both turned and watched the vehicle. It sat there on the road, not moving. “They stopped,” Isadore whispered the obvious, her heart suddenly beating too hard in her chest. Numerous horror scenarios ran through her mind, all Wrong Turn movie types. “Maybe they…stopped for something in the road,” Isadore said.
The reverse lights lit up and Ruin resumed walking, pulling Isadore with a yank. “Get ready to jump that ditch on your right, do you understand? Worse case, I’ll kill whoever it is, but I don’t want you near whoever or whatever that might be.”
Shit. “Whatever?” Isadore hurried, running ahead of him as the car engine roared in reverse toward them. She glanced over her shoulder, watching it gobble up pavement. “Oh God, oh God, they’re crazy.”
“Jump the ditch,” Ruin ordered. “Now.”
Isadore did and then turned as the car came to another tire screaming halt. A tiny person with a black cap and dark shades peered at them from the rolled down window. The last bit of sun illuminated young looking skin and blond tuffs of hair sticking out of the cap.
“You need a ride?” The voice sounded young, making her feel a little better.
Isadore stayed put on the other side of the ditch, trying to discern the age of the person. Young but firm.
“We’re fine,” Ruin said. “Thank you for the offer.”
The dark shades leaned around Ruin and regarded Isadore before returning to him. Isadore suddenly felt like one of her cornered mice as the person’s mouth spread in a kind of smirk. “You look like you’re running and hiding to me. And as you can see, I’m harmless. I’m headed into town. I can give you a ride.”
“No thank you,” Ruin said, his tone firm and nearly cold.
The young man’s full mouth softened barely. “Suit yourself,” they looked forward then, putting the car in gear. “But half a mile behind me, there’s a couple of strange people looking for a man and a woman. I think his name was… Valkrin?”
Cold fear slithered up Isadore’s spine.
“Who are you?” Ruin said. “Did Caliber send you?”
“Never heard that name before.” The person revved the engine once. “Town’s thirteen miles that way. Walk it if you like, I’ve got to go.”
The idea of Valkrin being anywhere on that road with them brought Isadore across the ditch to see the prospect of escape a little better. “I think it’s fine,” Isadore whispered.
“Do you?” Ruin muttered.
Isadore walked forward. “I’m Isadore,” she said loudly, noting the hard set of the person’s jaw as she approached. She spied some kind of discoloration on the skin right at the neckline of the black t-shirt. Birth mark maybe. Or scar. “A ride would be great!” Isadore pulled her hand back when the person didn’t bother with it. “A ride would be fantastic, in fact.” She glanced back at Ruin then yanked his solid form to the back of the car, whispering when they got to the rear, “Is that a man or a woman?” She eyed the back of the old station wagon full of something covered with heavy green canvas.
“Or an it,” Ruin suggested quietly. At the back door, they both paused to find the seat taken. Boxes and boxes filled it to the brim. Moving? Ruin put his hand on the front door, paused, then opened it. What was he sensing and feeling? He finally got in and slid over, and thank God, because whatever they were, he, she, it—she preferred not being next to them.
The sound of clicking seatbelts filled the awkward silence, except for the growl of the ready beast beneath them.
“And don’t smash the newspapers.” The person yanked the gear stick on the column and hit the gas, throwing them both against the seat.
“Don’t smash the newspapers,” Isadore mumbled, using her feet to part the mountain of them. By the time she got to the floorboard she was ankle deep in the rolls. Like they went yard to yard stealing them. Or maybe they delivered them. Maybe the boxes were mail?
“I’m Isadore and this is Ruin.” She tried again for an intro, holding on for dear life to Ruin’s leg and the arm rest on the door.
“Ruin.” Disdain leeched through their tone as they drew the name out long. “Your parents really hated you.”
Isadore noticed Ruin staring at the person. “It is odd,” Isadore said. “Why I think he should be called JD.” The person hadn’t let off the accelerator yet and she snuck a peek at the odometer, finding the needle already over fifty. On a country road. Dusk. “You uh… in a hurry?”
“Yes.”
Okay.
“And what’s your name?” Ruin asked.
“None of your business.”
“Why did you stop for us?” he asked, undeterred.
The person didn’t answer as they checked the mirrors like he hadn’t spoken.
“How do you know Valkrin?” Ruin continued.
“I don’t.”
“You called him by his name.”
“I saw it.”
Ruin continued staring. “Saw it?”
“Are you dense?” He leaned forward and looked at Isadore. “Is he slow to understand simple words?”
“What do you mean you saw it?” Ruin clarified, impatience edging his tone.
“I mean I can see things about people.”
“Their names?”
“Yes, their names,” he repeated slowly then reached up and pulled something from the visor, making both of them jump a little. Shades on the road, he used his lips to pull a cigarette from a smashed up pack. The idea that anybody would ignore Ruin like that, made Isadore scared. For them. Mr. Temper and all.
The person pushed the lighter in next and held the butt of the cigarette between white straight teeth. The near hairless smooth face glowed in the low light. Couldn’t have been hardly over eighteen. Skin discoloration on the neck drew her gaze lower. Pretty sure that was a burn scar that healed as nicely as it could.
Ruin finally faced forward, looking more confused or disturbed than ever. Isadore watched the driver’s fingers on the lighter, waiting for it to pop out. Those hands never saw hard swamp labor, that’s for sure. But there wasn’t a thing effeminate about his mannerisms, and the cocky assurance in that attitude was pure pig headed male speak. Probably to make up for the bulk he lacked.
“What do you have under that hood?” Ruin’s words gritted as he braced a hand on the dash when the car took a small curve at a suicidal speed.
“8.0 Liter, W16 quad-turbocharged with 1,014 HP.” The lighter popped out and they eyed the road while sucking on the cigarette until smoke escaped the edges of their crimped mouth. Isadore spied long dark eyelashes behind the shades when they glanced in their side mirror. “I rebuilt George two years ago. He can sustain any electromagnetic pulse nature or man might throw his way.” He nodded and sucked on the cigarette while Isadore wondered over the male name of his car. “Grandmother left him to me along with a few other things when she passed. She named the slow bastard after my grandfather, God rest his soul.” A small smile danced at the perfectly full lips. “But he isn’t slow anymore.”
“You really don’t need to show us.” Ruin placed his arm across Isadore’s body, like a second seat belt.
“So are you going to tell me what’s going on?” The person continued to ignore Ruin. “You going to tell me why you two are walking? And where’s your vehicle?”