Beautiful Flash Cartoonery - also - As I Lay Dying (6) The Demon's Servant (741 hits)
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Submitted by Axolotl (View user info) at 2006-09-18 11:18:57 EDT
AS I LAY DYING
(1) Unto Dust, and story information: http://www.ubersite.com/m/92393
(2) Pillar http://www.ubersite.com/m/92560
(3) The Balances of Justice http://www.ubersite.com/m/92621
(4) Lilies of Sharon http://ubersite.com/m/92934
(5) Messengers http://www.ubersite.com/m/92996
The knife glinted brilliant in the pale moonlight streaming from the crack in the boarded-up windows, immediately catching Virgil's eye. It was a short paring knife, lying alone among some of the potatoes that Virgil had eaten for dinner on the kitchen table.
Sophopyron's gentle breathing could be heard in the next room.
Virgil ascended from his uneasy repose on the torn and stained armchair and walked silently toward the kitchen table. His eyes were much more used to the dark now, and he could make out the contours of the entire room. It was a condemned house somewhere in central Europe, and Virgil and Pyron were hiding out in it for the night.
Slowly Virgil reached out fro the knife and clasped his fingers around the hilt. He quietly lifted it from the wooden table and held it out before him.
It all seemed so unreal, so dream-like. He was only a few short months removed from his regular life, just being a regular 15-year-old schoolboy going to classes, worrying about trivialities, never getting into too much trouble. Then came the fateful day...and now the devil owned his soul.
If he killed himself, Pyron had said, he would go to hell. Virgil almost put down the knife, but something clicked in his head.
Turning toward the bedroom where Pyron was taking a few short hours of sleep, Virgil stepped silently over the debris-strewn floor, taking care to mind his steps as he plunged into the darkness.
"Can I ever go back on the deal?" a teary-eyed Virgil had asked a few weeks before, just as the crushing reality of his situation crashed down on him.
"If I die, the deal is off," Sophopyron had replied. "I only partially own your soul. To completely own your soul would require us to merge our spirits partially, a very painful procedure. Once that happens, I have utter control over your body and spirit, and can influence your mind."
"And don't even think about trying to kill me," Pyron had added, shaking a finger condescendingly. "Only a handful of humans have ever killed a demon, and certainly none of them were teenage brats. Only an angel or another demon could kill me."
But now Pyron was asleep.
And Virgil had the knife.
Holding the knife in his hands as he entered Pyron's chamber, Virgil wondered what happens when an angel or a devil dies. Would they go to the afterlife? Would they just disappear, just fade from existence like a candle goes out?
The lapse in concentration caught up with Virgil, and he bumped into a table in the darkness. His heart freezing, Virgil drew back, but his foot caught the cord of an electric lamp, which went skidding off the end of the wooden block.
The sturdy lamp thudded into the floor as loud as all the trumpets on Judgment Day to Virgil, like a volcanic eruption or a gunshot. He braced himself, emotions scrambling inside him, for his master Pyron to awaken, and see Virgil holding the knife less than ten feet from him.
But Pyron did not awake. Virgil pressed forward hesitantly, switching the knife's position in his hands. He was next to Pyron's sleeping form.
Virgil raised the knife over his master, the one who had stolen his soul. Pyron's bare, soft chest rose and fell with his breaths, his icy excuse for a heart pulsing visibly in his left breast.
Virgil raised the knife higher, working up the courage to plunge the blade through Pyron's ribs, to tear out his twisted heart.
But he couldn't. He couldn't bring himself to kill a sleeping man, not even a devil. Pyron looked so peaceful there, his gentle breaths escaping from his handsome lips into the dark night air.
Virgil backed away, stepping across the wires, and dejectedly returning to his slumber. He placed the knife back on the kitchen table, and curled up in his soiled armchair, and went to sleep.
* * *
Virgil felt a callused hand yank his head up by the roots of the hair. He screamed, his eyes bulging wide. Getting his bearings, he looked about; Pyron was standing above him, holding the paring knife to Virgil's throat. It was the next morning, and Pyron was mad as hell.
"You try that shit again and I'll cut you so bad they'll be burying you in separate pieces."
Virgil nodded, trying not to let his horror show.
And that was life as Virgil knew it, living with the moody demon. Days passed, and the months blurred into one another.
It was a dark summer night, and the trees of the Black Forest obscured all but the northwest corner of the brand-new crescent moon. The leaves rustled ominously as two figures walked down the narrow path side by side.
"We can rest here," the taller, grimmer Pyron said. "You are a human, but I could go on for days without rest."
Virgil sat down on an upturned log, eyeing it with some trepidation. Insects he loathed, and the forest floor was a prime place for things that crawl to dwell. He was pale, much paler than he had used to be. His hair was longer and matted, and his gaunt face had a twinge of minor evil dashed across it.
"Virgil," Sophopyron said, joining his charge on the log. "Have you ever had a girlfriend?"
"No...not really," replied the boy. It had been three months. He was used to these questions by now.
"Have you ever served in a unit? Like a military?"
"Never," Virgil answered casually, stretching his legs out on the ground.
"Ever killed a man?"
Virgil paused, and then said, "No."
"You don't know what you're missing," Pyron said greedily. Virgil said nothing; in the months since he had escaped from the Inquisitorial Court, the time had passed slowly and emptily. They wandered around the world, meeting strange people occasionally and talking to them. Pyron never told Virgil of his life as a demon, not that Virgil especially wanted to know.
Virgil was now regretting his decision. Indeed he was alive, but at what cost? Who knew where his family was. He missed his mother and father terribly, although he would never tell Pyron, the cold, dark man who now had control over him.
"What do we do, being a demon?" Virgil asked with some irritation. Though he knew it would be a rough trip when he sold his soul, he had expected adventure, fighting, great battles and quests to be done. Instead, they were wandering on foot over Europe, dodging local authorities occasionally. "And why are we walking everywhere? Can't you fly?"
"I can fly," Pyron retorted with a hint of immaturity. "I'd rather not though. I'd have to transform, and when I transform, you can't see me well in the daylight."
"Do it," Virgil challenged. "Prove you're a demon."
"I got you out of prison, didn't I?" Pyron responded. "How about I turn into a spider? Or a snake? Or maybe a cloud of mist so I can suffocate—come on, Virgil, don't be frightened. You're no fun."
But the shocked and terrified look on Virgil's face was not from Pyron's threats. Pyron immediately sensed something was wrong. Whipping his head around with inhuman speed he snapped a knife from his cloak. Two beings of dark light were standing before the pair, having appeared out of nothing moments before. Dark light? thought Virgil. It's like ultraviolet, or infrared, or...
"Thamuz, Xaphan," Sophopyron said, resheathing his blade. The airy, gel-like winged creatures smiled at him; Xaphan was evidently a woman, Virgil saw, due to her bosom. They did not glow brightly, and they were naked, but unashamed.
In the blink of an eye they took on a human shape; now a clothed man and woman, similar in height and gait to Pyron, stood there.
"Your reactions are slow as ever, Pyron," the woman, Xaphan, said.
"What is it you need me for?" Pyron replied. "Are we in trouble?"
"We're going to be," the man, Thamuz replied dryly. "Your old friend Vlad is causing a hell of a riot up in Amsterdam. Killing people, drinking their blood, and impaling them on stakes."
"That—that—not Vlad Tepes?" Pyron said furiously. His anger emanated out of him, so that Virgil literally saw red before his eyes. "He promised he wouldn't go after any more humans, or just the homeless if he had to!"
"And he has a new assistant," Thamuz continued. "Xaphan and I are busy around Tara, we need you to talk to Vlad—talk him out of it, kill him if you must. The-Up-Above says you have three days."
"Damn!" Pyron said. "Do I have any backup?"
"Vlad isn't a powerful demon," Xaphan said loftily. "And surely, this boy..."
"He's a human, a servant," spat Pyron. "He sold me his soul, in exchange for a piddling matter."
Thamuz and Xaphan laughed. Virgil, disgruntled said, "It was my life! They would have killed me!"
"Boy," the long-faced Thamuz said, showing his sharp teeth. "One day you will realize there is much more important things than mortal life. Adieu, Pyron. We must fly. Do not forget your mission."
"I will not," Pyron said through gritted teeth. "Vlad...I'll tear him to pieces..."
Thamuz and Xaphan saluted, and disappeared in a burst of eerie light. The grass beneath them was dead, and the leaves on the trees were falling off from the effects of the dark presence already. Pyron paced the glade in palpable anger.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Virgil once the silent tension between him and his master grew too long. Pyron paused a moment.
"Well," he said, coming to a resigned conclusion. "We're going to Amsterdam."
* * *
"Now be warned," Pyron said the next day as they stood in a narrow Dutch lane in the broad city of Amsterdam. "Vlad is not a nice person, not like me."
Pyron bared his sharp, cold smile and ironically cackled.
"We're going in. Don't say a word, don't let him know you're a human."
Pyron opened the door to the apartment; it was unlocked. Nothing was within but darkness. Virgil wondered for a moment if Pyron would be turned away, but his master strode confidently in, and beckoned Virgil to follow. When they were both in, Pyron closed the door.
"It's almost sunset," Pyron called out to the pitch-black darkness. "It's safe to come out now."
"Is that so?" a sneering voice answered. "Who is that? Pyron, my old friend?"
"I've heard what you are doing," Pyron replied grimly. "You must stop this, Vlad. The humans are getting suspicious."
"Who have you brought with you?" Vlad asked, interrupting Pyron's concerned warning. "I smell blood...real human blood...a child! What is this, an appeasement?"
"Virgil is a servant," Pyron said harshly.
The lights flickered on. The room was a mess, rubbish and overturned furniture lying everywhere. It was intended for a low-income lifestyle, but Vlad had turned it into an absolute disgrace. Blood was splashed across the ripped couch and humanoid bones littered the floor. Only a small, spindly table in the center of the room was left pristine. It had a human skull fashioned into a goblet lying on it, as well as several evil-looking metallic tools.
But the most frightening thing of all was Vlad himself.
He was stocky and muscular, with a broad brown mustache and startlingly dark eyes; it seemed as though his eye sockets were so deep and dark that he had no eyes at all. His curled dark hair fell around his thick neck, and his face was red, due to the amount of blood he consumed. He was a fearful and terribly-looking man, and as he stared at Virgil down his pointed, straight nose, Virgil's blood ran cold.
"I am Vladislav Dracul, the Lord of Romania," Vlad said. "But I am called the Tepes by my men, as that is the word for Impaler in our language. That is what I do. I impale. I put stakes through people and feast on their flesh and blood. But if I really detest them, I leave them up on the stakes to rot."
"Are—are you a demon?" Virgil gasped.
"It is a story I have told many times before...At the age of forty-five I was captured in battle," Vlad Dracula replied. "My eyes were burned out by the evil Hungarians and I was buried alive. They left me under the ground, and it was there that I made a deal with Satan. He had seen and watched me on earth...he enjoyed watching me impale the wicked and send them down to him. I fought bravely against the enemies of my homeland, but there were some who would call me a bad person..."
"And you received eternal life," Pyron said sardonically. "With the caution that if you ever went more than a few days without human blood, you would die and your soul would go to the world of the dead."
Vlad laughed and nodded.
"And now I have more friends!" Vlad exclaimed. "Alistair, Michael, would you come out and join us?"
"I don't care about your friends," Pyron snapped. "Stop killing these people, these humans. Or at least kill homeless people instead...no one will miss them."
A tall, sneering man with a widow's peak and pale skin emerged from the room. Virgil thought he looked a lot more like a stereotype vampire than Vlad, but Vlad did seem a lot scarier. Following him was a stocky, muscular man with a creased, lined face.
"Alistair Stokely, Michael Burrows, meet Sophopyron and Virgil," Vlad said cheerily. Alistair twisted his lips into a fearsome smile that was uglier than his frown. Burrows, the muscled man, seemed to twitch softly.
"And have you been killing humans too?" asked Pyron. "The Authority demands you cease immediately. Our secrecy takes precedence over your lust for blood."
"Piss off," Alistair snarled.
"Aye," Michael said, his eyes and lips twitching madly. "That's right. Mind your business, and bugger off, you...nosy...bloody..."
"Now, now, Alistair," Vlad said soothingly. "Yes, Pyron. Alistair has indulged his appetite on several humans. Why, just last week a young lady attempted to court Alistair...Alistair, tempting her with the sins of the flesh, lured her into our humble abode, where he slit her throat and shared her with me, his master, and his friend Michael...what a feast we had. Alice, her name was? We have her remains in the room back there, all hanging on stakes. Would you like to see them?"
"No!" Virgil and Pyron said at the same time.
"Then tell Thamuz that you have failed!" spat Vlad Tepes, his face rushing scarlet. "Get out of this place! You and your human! It will take a lot more than just a single demon and his pissant of a slave to stop me from killing whom I will! Go!"
"I'll put your own head on pike one of these days," Pyron hissed. "I think we've overstayed our welcome, Virgil. Let us depart."
Pyron turned on his heel and quickly exited the room, Virgil nervously following on his tail.
Pyron was palpably furious; white-hot heat seemed to emanate from every pore as they made their way down the Dutch streets.
"There's some partially-built houses I saw on the way into Amsterdam," Virgil said, trying to break the silence. "We could stay in those tonight."
Pyron swore.
"We'll come back with backup," Pyron said wildly. "We'll get more demons, I'll call up Xiphocles and Shakhor, and Thamuz. We'll get those two, Vlad and that Alistair man. They can't fight against all of us."
Virgil and Pyron continued toward the outskirts of town, headed for the under-construction condos, all the while being watched.
Michael Burrows, holding a nine-millimeter pistol in one hand and a cigarette in the other, slinked along the alleyways, feeling his chain vest and short, sharp knife clatter beneath his cloak.
There wouldn't be any escape from Amsterdam for Pyron and his servant, Michael thought, his eyes twitching. He drew back the hammer, the muzzle glinting in the sun setting over the North Sea.
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User Reviews
Submitted by St_Jimmy (user info) at 2006-12-18 13:40:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by JoeyG (user info) at 2006-10-25 13:58:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2006-10-16 22:23:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
you're good.
Submitted by moneyshotforyou (user info) at 2006-09-18 23:38:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I fixed my laptop.
Submitted by Maltese (user info) at 2006-09-18 18:08:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2006-09-18 17:28:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2006-09-18 16:14:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-09-18 16:13:39 (#)
Ranking: 2
yet another gripping 38-part special from our resident boy genius
----
Twenty parts
One of my shorter ones actually.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-09-18 16:13:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
yet another gripping 38-part special from our resident boy genius
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2006-09-18 15:41:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
This was the original unrevised post, not part of the AILD series.
http://www.ubersite.com/m/74528
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2006-09-18 15:40:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
haha
Submitted by ripple (user info) at 2006-09-18 15:28:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
PLUSFUCKING2!!111!!!ONE!
Submitted by ripple (user info) at 2006-09-18 15:27:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
111 HITS AND ONLY ONE REVIEW FROM A PERSON WHO READ IT?? DISGRACEFUL!!1
Submitted by ripple (user info) at 2006-09-18 15:27:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
THIS IS THE BEST ONE OF THE SERIES
Submitted by awesome_face (user info) at 2006-09-18 14:19:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Ill read later...too long and too tired
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2006-09-18 11:19:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
urgh.