15

   I   feel a familiar presence with the smell of bread. A hand is placed on my shoulder. “Son?” 

    I turn around. “Kev?” 

    “What happened to you boy?” He puts his hands on my shoulders and looks me up and down all worried. His face panicked. 

      I swat his hands away when he tries to grab my face. He moves my fluffy black hair  out of my eyes. “Kev….I’m sorry.” 

        He shakes his head and pats my shoulder. “It’s ok son.” He reaches to his back pocket and pulls out something wrapped in tin foil. He hands it to me. “I’d prefer you died and went to heaven. However, you're still my son. No matter what. Here I wanted to give this to you. It’s still fresh." He hands me it and I unwrap it carefully. It’s a fresh baked piece of garlic bread. “When you were younger I would give this to you when I thought you had a taste for blood. Now I think you need it.”

     I laugh. “I’m not a vampire.”

     He sighs. “I know but it would be better if you were. No offense son….I have to tell you something… that you might not like.” 

     I lean against the wall knowing that this will probably be the last time I ever talk to him even if it's not really him. “I know Kev.” 

     “What?” 

      “When you saw my eyes change and you covered them. I heard you on the phone that day when you tried to send me to an orphanage. You never wanted me. That’s why you kept me locked away. You were ashamed of me. You… you were scared of me.” 

        He looks down. “I’m sorry.” 

        I give him a hug and I feel my human tears come in. “I….I wish this was real. Kev…. I-” 

           He disappeared from my arms. He turned into a little white orb and floated up along with the bread he gave me of which dissolved in my hands. 

             Then a person I really didn’t want to see appeared in front of me across the room with a knife. Cas. 

                I sigh. He’s crying. “Ash..” I choose not to say anything. I already got my revenge from him. “You..” He takes a hesitant step towards me. “Killed my parents!” 

                   He starts running at me. It feels like it's all in slow-mo. I sigh and raise my arms to the side. He runs up to me and stabs me in the stomach. Tears remain to fall down his face. His head falls on my chest. I just wrap my arms around him kinda like a hug. “It’s ok Cas….I know you're mad but…I didn’t kill your parents.” He shrinks. He’s a little kid now, young, and innocent. Hair short but yet fluffy and a mess. Clothes baggy and now unbelievably childish.  Maybe, I'd guess he's around five now. He's crying, still tugging on my pants. 

                  “Why’d they have to leave?! I don’t wanna be an orphan!”

                     I just kneel down infront of him and ruffle his hair. We make eye contact. “You’ll be ok Cas.” He takes a step back and wipes his sad little eyes. I stand back up and he nods at me with a stern, not gonna cry face. He turns like a soldier and walks. He fades into a bunch of small dots slowly before my eyes that sink into the ground. I take a deep breath and turn into my human form once again. 

                     The door unlocks and lifts back up to where it once came.  Finally, I thought I was gonna have to kill someone. Anpu walks in with a bodybag. He looks up at me and smiles. “One last test.” He puts the bag on the ground and unties it. “I wanna see what you're like when you're really mad.” The bag starts moving and the younger me crawls out of the bag. Fifteen years old me.. He stands up and walks up to me. I hate how I was when I was fifteen. I was ignorant and selfish.

                   He walks up to me and punches me in the stomach. It didn’t hurt at all. I punched him back in the face. He stumbles a couple times backwards and falls down. He spits out blood. He looks back up at me with his bloody nose and blood smeared on his mouth. Blood. I look down at my knuckle. Blood. Damn it. 

                    Oh what the hell. I turn, I allow it, It all feels natural to me now. I look down at my hands, true form. I walked up to him. His face that was once the face of a warrior turned into the face of a coward. He stood up quickly and turned to run out the door but Anpu handed him a bottle and pushed him back. 

                      He hesitated to walk up to me. What is he doing? He opens the bottle in his hand and splashes me with a clear liquid. It feels as if I just got a pot of boiling water splashed on my face. My eyes become blurry and I feel myself go in and out of human and demon form. When I catch sight of him he looks shocked. I teleport in front of him and grab him by the neck. I lift him up off the ground. I look at his face. He grasps for air and squirms. I rip the skin of face off and drop him on the ground. He screams and tries to crawl away. I lift him up and pin him against the wall.  I look over at my hand. I jab it into his chest and rip his heart out. I throw him on the floor and hold up the heart like a trophy feeling it slowly reaching its final beats. 

                     Realizing what I just did, my pride fades away. I just killed my past self. I look down at the corpse and back at the no longer beating heart in my hand. They both slowly disappear.

                       I look up to see Anpu clapping and smiling. “Well then. I guess that really pissed you off.” He laughs. “Well Asheem I'm impressed with you. You're the first one I've met here that's passed my test. Well, what do you say, wanna be friends?” He holds out his hand to me. 

                      I walk up to him and look down at his hand. I have the opportunity to be friends with an Egyptian god. I feel myself grin and I shake his hand. “Sure.”

                       “Come,” he grabs my wrist and takes me on yet another chatty walk. “I’ve realized something about you.” 

                        “What would that be?” 

                         “You don’t just turn when someone pisses you off. You get triggered by blood.”

                          “Yea-”

                          “Yet you're still in your demon form even though you are calm and there is no blood around you anymore. Which means that you have gained the choice, mainly, rather you are in your true form or not.” 

                             That made sense to me. As we walk on this long bridge that Anpu’s taken me on I start to hear weird noises coming from ahead. Loud groans and sounds of sobs and far off cries. Suffering I hear the sounds of suffering souls. “Anpu, where exactly are you taking me?”  

                            “Don’t you hear those sounds? I  want to show you what happens to the souls of those who become lost and drown in the puddles of their own mistakes and misery. They come here to this specific part of hell that is neither a paradise or somewhere of torture it is what we call the lost soul dungeon. There is a keeper there. His name is Ubel. You’ll see him standing in front of the gate with his pistol.”

                          “What would he need a gun for?” 

                          “Well lost souls must stay in the dungeon, he doesn’t allow many inside. You have to prove yourself  immortal before you go inside, like everyone else.” 

                             “How come?” 

                             “Some of the lost souls can get violent and if anyone dies in there, they will have to remain there.” 

                             “Is Ubel a demon?” 

                              “Kind of. He is and he is not. He is only there at what the earth realm would call day time.  At night his position switches to grim reaper duties.” 

                              “So he’s like Mara?” 

                              “Mara?” 

                               “She’s a grim reaper but she’s also a demon too. Is Ubel like that as well?” 

                               “Oh, well then yea.”

                                “If Ubel is there at ‘day time’ , who's there at night?” 

                                 “A demon named Amon. He’s too nice for his own good. The little rascal is always in a good mood. I find it rather annoying most of the time. Anyway we’re here.”