14

    I   roll in front of Jax’s house and kick up my skateboard. I walk up to the door and take a deep breath. I move up my hand slowly to open the door but as soon as my knuckle hits the door it opens slightly with an eerily slow and high pitch creak. 

     I push it the rest of the way open slowly. “Jax?” 

I step inside cautiously. “Jax are you there?” I look back outside. He has to be here. His car is here and the door wasn’t locked. I walk into the living room.  It’s almost like he just got up and left in a hurry. Something cold.  Metal against my head. 

    “What are you doing here Asheem? You're supposed to be dead. I watched Cas kill you. He’s gone missing. Are you here to kill the rest of us off?!” 

    Welp this isn’t going how I expected it would. I sigh deeply. I move quickly and snatch the gun out of his hand. I throw the gun onto the couch and go to put him in an arm lock but am met with a swing to the face. Suddenly blood lust. His hand had blood on it. 

   I step back. Trying to calm my demon-like behavior is painful. Sharp pain forms in my head. 

    “You're a demon Asheem.” He walks over to me. “Why are you here?” 

       He slaps me across the face when I don’t answer. The blood lust keeps getting stronger. I don’t want to kill him. He goes to slap me again but I grab his hand the second before it would’ve touched me. 

     “No….” I look up at him. I feel a sharp pain in my eyes. “This isn’t supposed to go down like this. We were friends, remember!”

        “Y-Your eyes are bleeding!”  He staggers back and points at my face. 

           My head starts to hurt even more. “I-I can’t…. I want to find Layla…That’s why I came here. I want to make things right with you too.” The pain and pressure of feeling increases. I can’t take much more. I sigh but it comes out as a deep low growl. 

     I can’t help but to let go. The next thing I knew I’m yelling at Jax to run and get away from me. I start to flinch and a foam comes from my mouth. I feel like a beast. But a free beast. I let the feeling once again take over once I know that Jax is far away. 

      Blood. I need to feel it. To see death before me. To feel the blood run through my fingers. I imagine a place where people are. Where I can fulfill every last desire. Hell. Hell is a place like that. Everyone  there has a reason to be one of my victims. 

     I teleport myself there. I hear screams all around. The walls are made of dark red rock. A strange circle lies underneath me with strange symbols in it that I feel that I should understand. The symbols and circle are all drawn with blood of which you can tell is dried and has been there for a while. It must have taken almost five drainings of people to draw this.  I walk around. I feel a warm feeling. Like I have found my home. 

   I find myself in an odd tunnel filled with thousands of mirrors all around. I stop in the middle and look at all the mirrors. I look up and finally get a good look at my face. My face has a black mark on it over half of my face that fades into a pale gray. My eyes. A dark crimson with balck liquid that flows around the eyelid and out onto my cheek. The left eye that out of this dimension would be a light blue cat eye is now pure black with blood spewing out of it. My black hair is now straight and is brushed to the side. I have a silver horn on the right side of my head that is long and pointy that goes to the side and then forward.  I open my mouth and look around at the angles. My mouth when closed looks like a normal sized mouth however when opened a whole head could fit inside. My tongue is long and has the appearance of a snake’s. My teeth are sharp and pointy. 

       My skin fades from the pale gray to a black at my hands. I look at my hands closely. My nails look like small knives. My fingers are long and thin. My clothes have changed too. I wear dark clothes that make me look important. I wear an old type of dark red dress shirt and a white collared undershirt  with a short white jabot, a long leather black coat and black pants that are almost like dress pants. My shoes are black boots that almost come to my knees but instead of strings they buckle three different times at the sides. As fashionable as they seem they are puff, flowy and are fit for action. I walk the rest of the way down through the tunnel. I look over my shoulder and see a wooden sign. “Long Mirrored Tunnel ; leads to teleportation key.” Teleportation key? Oh that must be what that weird circle thing was. 

    I look back and notice a bridge that leads on and on to other bridges. Under the bridges in a deep abyss. This is definitely hell. I have managed to reach the underworld. This distant land of shadows where the dead are gathered. Well I am here. I might as well enjoy my time. Maybe I’ll run into some of the main demons. Some that I know of are:  Lucifer which is pride. Beelzebub is envy. Sathanas is wrath. Abadon , Mammon, Asmodeus, Belphegor, Satan, Lilith and Leviathan. 

    Someone is approaching me. I can sense them coming from behind. A growly low voice comes to me, “Ah, you’ve finally come, the unknown demon of the earth. I am Anpu. You may not know me.” I turn around to meet him face to face now. “I am the god of the dead. Once admired by many but now I am overshadowed.” He looks me up and down. His skin is a dark tan . His head is the head of a jackal and he's dressed like an old Egyptian pharaoh. 

    He points to a bridge  and walks past me. He signs for me to follow. We kinda chat during our walk.  “Tell me. What is your name, boy?” 

     “My name is Asheem.”

      “Oh boy. You were raised by humans weren’t you?” 

       “Yes?” 

       “You're pronouncing your own name wrong. It’s As-heem. Not Ash-eem. Tiss Tiss. Well, whatever. Why are you here?” 

        “I came here because of my uncontrollable blood lust. However, once I came here I settled.” 

          “Ah I see. Something must have triggered it. You killed before?” 

            “Yes. Why?”

             “I’m not sure how to explain it but whatever triggered your well, blood thing,  must have gone against some type of moral code thing of yours. You must have not wanted to hurt the person but at the same time they were really pissing you off. So initially you were turning into your true form in the earth realm which can be painful for the first or when you don’t want it to happen. If you weren’t a demon walking around these halls I would have to send you to a chamber or kill you until my heart's content.” He stops walking and points to a chamber. “I want to know what you are  like. We could be friends, you and I, but you must meet my expectations. Go in there and show me how you would react in my testing rooms.” 

       “Testing rooms?” 

       “It’s just a place where I’ll make you face various situations and see your reaction through a window which will be invisible to you. This room was designed by someone I know.  Don’t be surprised if you see a memory or someone you know or knew or perhaps future happenings.  You see, the room can read minds.”

         “Wha-” 

           He pushes me, “In you go.” 

           After that a metal door comes down and locks behind me. I walk forward. 

            “Brother!” 

             I turn and see child form Mara. She’s angry but yet she’s crying  silver tears.  She storms up to me and starts screaming and yelling at me. “You became what you hated most! Think what Kevin would say!” 

                  I slap her across the face and look her dead in the eyes. “Don’t bring Kev into this Mara!” 

                  She transforms back into her true form and walks up to me. She slaps me back. “You are and you know it!” She pushes me. I don’t have the motivation to fight Mara no matter how mad I am. She pins me to the ground and sits on my chest. She starts yelling at me and giving me this long lecture. 

     “Fine! … Maybe I am ok…” She nods with a satisfied grin and disappears. Great, now I’m agitated. I take a deep breath to try and calm down for the next test. I walk to the wall and rest my head against it. I have a headache. I look down at my hands. I’m in my human form now. 

    I feel the sides of the wall. “Ash?”