"Just make sure you don't move around too much, I don't want to drop you." May said, lifting her arms to her side as if reaching out for an invisible force.
"Are you sure this'll work? You've done this before right?" Ephram and Silo said nearly in unison, glancing at each other with a small hint of fright in their voice. He was clutching his hat along with Mays in both hands, tightly gripping them both as if afraid to drop them.
"Well, not with others. I've only ever flown myself before, so I don't know exactly how much force to use... but we'll be fine, I promise!"
Ephram gave her the benefit of the doubt, knowing that May has always pulled through so far. And besides, they were demons, so hitting the ground a few thousand feet in the air wasn't too much of a big deal. It would, however, still be quite a problem if May were to suddenly lose control of her power and they went spiraling downwards.
Since coming back to Earth and returning to Ryan's office, she had smashed open a window with her wind magic for them to fly out of, theoretically. No longer possessing yellow eyes, he could no longer see any demons but Aberlain, so the glass shattering behind him sent quite the shock through his bones, and a ton of laughter from the demon trio. He had rushed from his office in a panic, screaming down the hallway like a child.
"Okay... everyone ready?" May asked, and received only slow, unsure, nodding from the other two.
Their feet slowly lifted from the ground as the air around them began to feel like moving through syrup. Ephram's coat flowed slowly in the thickness of the wind, he felt like he was watching everything around him move in slow motion. Silo had tucked himself away in one of Mays shirt pockets, securing himself tightly.
Ephram stared with shock and awe as they moved through the shattered window at astounding speed, no warning from May. They moved at speeds he didn't know was possible, causing the city below them to nearly blur. He could still see the shining lights of the cars and buildings, but each light now seemed to have a small tail trailing behind it as they moved. The clouds seemed to move faster as well, or perhaps they were just moving against the wind, he couldn't tell anymore. The wind around him seemed to cradle his entire body like a child swaddled in a warm blanket.
"Watch this!" May yelled, her voice nearly drowned out by the wind whipping past them.
As Ephram was about to ask what she meant, he suddenly felt the air around him change course. They shot directly into the clouds above like a bullet firing into the sky. He wasn't sure what a cloud felt like, but it certainly wasn't what he expected. It was cold and wet, like a solid pool of water looming far above the surface. He stayed quite with astonishment as they broke free from the inside of the clouds. Its pretty white exterior looked like snow being rolled through the shimmering blue sky, creating one large fluffy blanket to cover the entire Earth.
The higher up they went, the more horizon he could see. The Earth itself seemed to loom below them, getting farther and farther away as they reached new heights every second. The roundness of the bright blue planet amazed him, it was nothing at all like the darkness of Hell. Here, there was freedom. Here, there was more beauty than he could ever hope to take in.
"What do you think?" May asked, chuckling under her breath as she watched the reactions of both Ephram and Silo.
Her question didn't register for a moment in both their heads, the world below them took priority. The sun shone warmly on their shoulders, caressing both them and the Earth below. The warmness of this place was comforting, like a cozy night curled up in front of the fireplace.
"I've... never seen anything like it." Ephram said quietly, his voice just barely reaching the others.
"Same here, it's been quite a while since I've been to Earth... I don't remember it being like this." Silo squeaked, his voice trembling slightly as he spoke, "My human master and I would do nothing but talk in his room... he never once wanted to go outside. If only he could see this."
"Who is your master anyways, Silo? You too May, I haven't heard anything about them." Ephram asked curiously as they began moving again, the air whipping past them like a herd of gazelle running from a lion.
"His name is Joseph, I think he's about fourteen or so now. He created me due to his family situation a few years ago, but he's grown out of it, so... I guess he doesn't need me anymore. Probably thought I was some kind of imaginary friend." Silo said uncomfortably.
"I see... maybe one day he'll call for you again? Don't give up hope, okay?" May said, her warm voice consoling the mouse as she pet him with her finger to calm him, "As for me, my father and I share a 'master'." She said, making finger quotes with her hands as if to suggest the word master was incorrect.
"You've met him before, E. That dirtbag, Ryan, is currently the human in possession of my family sigil. Our family tree goes back farther than most, seeing as my father and I aren't demons born in the Garden. A few hundred years ago or so, the man who started Stellarh Incorporated wished for power, and that created my great grandfather who helped him achieve that power. He eventually had children and ever since then, we've become an integral part of the human company. That's why we use sigils to travel to Earth instead of being summoned, because both my father and I technically have no human master."
"Oh... I didn't know. How could he not see you before, though? When we smashed the window?" He asked.
"Well since he isn't my master he couldn't see me, or any of us for that matter. He can only see my father since he's bound under contract. He can only see me and other demons when I come here with my father, but he has to share his eyes."
Ephram nodded, thinking he finally understood what May was saying. Although, it was still quite complicated for his brain to keep up.
As the three of them finished talking and basked in the silence of the air around them, they looked down at the clouds below. They hadn't been flying for too long, but something about the change in atmosphere told Ephram they were nearly there. The place in the photograph was inching ever so closer to them, reaching out to embrace the demons as they sped towards their destination.
...
The sun had begun to set, its tired eyes closing over the bright blue sky. The air grew colder as the three demons finally touched ground, their feet softly hitting the sidewalk below. An unfamiliar place now surrounded them, like a group of spearmen backing them into a corner. The towering pine trees stood tall above them, casting long shadows over the three of them. The air was covered in a thin mist, like ghosts playing tag in the street. A single lamppost stood valiantly against the black night, its flickering yellow light never once staying out for long as it pushed back the darkness.
A graveyard covered in vines and overgrown bushes stood just across the street from the small yellow house, its paint had been chipped and boards torn from the home itself. The numbers on the side of the house had been weathered away, or torn off from the locals, but the faded paint beneath still read those four numbers, 1213.
The three of them quietly walked up to the house, looking for any sign Ephram had been there before. The only thing unusual, however, was how torn up and discarded this house seemed to be to the others nearby. It had obviously been abandoned, the broken windows and graffiti sprawled across the face of the home made it painstakingly clear nobody was home. A broken baby blue swing chained to the ceiling of the porch swung with the wind, the rusty chains screeching at the demons as if to warn them.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
As Ephram took the first step up the mossy brick stairs, he noticed the pale screen door had been left slightly ajar. It was missing the doorknob entirely along with sporting a few slashes in the screen, so it wasn't much of a surprise to see it open. Walking through it with May and Silo in tow, he stepped into the living room of the forgotten home.
"It smells like... mothballs." He proclaimed, saddened by the fact he could still smell without a real nose to speak of. It was quite unfair, he thought, that he had no facial features but still was subjected to the foul reek of the house.
May moved past him, beginning to wander about the living room in search of anything useful. The only things she could come up with, however, were a few empty beer bottles and a condom wrapper hidden behind a stained floral couch. Whoever had squatted in the house since its abandonment obviously had no intentions of sticking around, leaving the house looking like the underneath of a city bridge. Graffiti even stood proudly on the inside of the home, adding to the atmosphere of trash and decomposition the house now harbored.
The wooden stairs creaked softly underneath Ephram as he gently laid his hand upon the banister, sliding his fingers across it as he moved towards the second floor. The upstairs looked no better than down, discarded trash flowing through the home like a river of garbage. He stepped carefully over a few broken bottles and torn open trash bags as he made his way through the rooms, only stopping to inspect a shattered portrait frame with the photo seemingly torn out.
"Who would do this... and why?" He muttered to himself, not sure why he was feeling so upset at the amount of filth covering the floor and climbing up the walls.
Entering what looked to be the largest room in the house, he saw a small window overlooking the tiny front yard. He could see the graveyard fence from afar, the pine trees taking up the majority of the window frame and blocking his view of the tombstones. A stained white mattress laid up against the far wall, leaning on a large wooden dresser missing all its drawers. As he walked over to investigate, he noticed a few yellowed polaroid pictures strewn out atop the dresser. There were only three, but he recognized something about them immediately. The same woman in the photo he carried in his watch stared back at him from every picture, but no sign of the man in the trenchcoat. Two of the photos were of the woman but the third had an older gentleman in a dark green polo with an ugly pair of khaki pants, standing next to her with a beaming smile on his wrinkled face. The old man and the woman seemed to be close, and Ephram realized he was staring at a father and his daughter.
"Did you find something?" Mays voice called out to him from downstairs.
"Maybe... I'll be right down." He said, growing more and more frustrated at the lack of clues he could find. The picture was a start, but it just wasn't enough to go on. The only thing it told him was that the woman did live here at one point, but that information alone was completely useless to him.
"Victor..." A small voice said, the wind carrying it like a leaf riding the breeze.
Ephram whirled around, unsure of whose voice it had been, but found nothing as he scanned the room. The only thing he noticed was a small crack in the window, letting in a draft. Perhaps the wind had been playing tricks on his mind as he tried desperately to find any hint of who the people in the photograph were. He wanted nothing more than to find the man and woman, to the point it was all he could think about. It consumed his very soul, as if they were a part of it.
"What did you find?" May asked as Ephram made his way back downstairs, holding up the photograph for both her and Silo to see.
"That's... the same woman! That's great! We're one step closer-" She began, but Ephram cut her off with a shake of his head.
"It's completely useless. This was our only lead, and the only thing we've learned is that she used to live here. Look around, May, is there anyone here who might remember her?" He asked, gesturing to the piles of garbage sitting within the house.
Sighing heavily and pocketing the picture, he headed for the door defeatedly. It wasn't a total bust, but the house itself still felt like a dead end. If there was anything here before, it had been destroyed along with the home. He creaked open the screen door and walked back out into the cold misty night, surveying the quiet pavement of the dark road ahead. There was nothing here for him anymore, if there even was in the first place. Ephram thought to himself once more about the beauty of the world, how fleeting and quick it faded. The yellow house was once home to a loving couple, a beautiful moment in the history of torment the world brought down upon everyone.
Pulling out his pocket watch, he looked down at the device with a mixture of sadness and gratitude. It had given him a purpose, that much he knew. That purpose, however, was turning more and more into a wild goose chase for something he couldn't even seem to remember. If he did have anything to do with the people in the photo, he felt that connection beginning to fade.
The mist falling through the air made it hard to see anything, but he noticed a figure begin to walk in the distance. He couldn't make out the details, but it seemed all too familiar to him. As Ephram tried to get a closer look, he realized the figure had walked into the graveyard across the street and was now looking down at a tombstone.
May and Silo both exited the house, following closely behind Ephram as they made their way over to the figure in the graveyard.
"Who do you think he's mourning?" Silo asked from Mays pocket, looking over at the hunched over figure.
No one answered him as they entered through the gate, creaking softly with the wind as it was left open by the figure who was now covered in mist. It danced throughout the graveyard like spirits of the dead, wandering about in search of their loved ones. The mist had gotten heavier with every step they took, turning more into a thick soupy fog as it crept upon the ground.
"Then... then I went to the store... and, and I bought you these! They were... on... on sale, I think. They were... cheaper than usual, y'see?" The figure said, its words slurring together as it dropped a bouquet of white flowers upon the grave.
Ephram got up closer to the figure, and the mist began to fade. He took a few steps back as he realized who it was, having just seen this same old man moments before in the abandoned home. The elderly man in the photograph with the woman was now standing before him, tears falling from his drunken red face. He wore what looked like a tattered suit, it obviously hadn't been to the cleaners in years. As the old man stumbled around for a moment, clutching a half empty bottle of clear liquid in his hand, he began to sob softly.
"Well, anywho... I went to, uh, went to the park earlier, I saw a few people, but, but uh... nuffin too special." The old man began, speaking to the mist covered grave under his feet. His voice croaked every few seconds as he tried to keep his composure.
"I don't wanna, wanna... uh, bother ya too much today, I just wanna... say hi, my darling... I miss you so much." He said, sobbing through every word now as he lost all composure.
The old man took a long swig of the clear liquid, finishing the remaining half of the bottle in several seconds. As he turned away from the grave, he looked back once more with puffy red eyes.
Ephram watched as the man fell to his knees, covering his suit in mud and grass. He began to cry softly into his hands, dropping the bottle to the ground. The wind began to pick up a bit, blowing the old man's thin gray hair over his face.
The trenchcoat Ephram wore began swaying in the breeze as something flew out of his pocket, being carried through the air. The photo he had picked up earlier in the house had been snatched up in the wind, and brought to the ground in front of where the old man knelt. His hands still covered his teary eyes as the picture stuck into the mud, it was only when he wiped his tears that he saw the photo on the ground.
With a shaky hand, he picked up the small photograph and began to sorrowfully chuckle, shaking his head as if he didn't believe his very eyes.
"I hope... hope to God, you're takin good care of her up there, Victor." The man said under his breath as he shuffled to his feet, pocketing the picture and stumbling about for a moment as he tried desperately to walk away from the grave. His slow and heavy breath fought to keep up with every step. As the gate creaked in the wind, he walked through it slowly, looking down at his feet with a solemn dead stare. The old man continued down the sidewalk and into the dark unknown of the night, his cries growing softer and softer as the night swallowed him whole.
May looked towards where the old man had disappeared, her heart moved with misery as she watched him disappear into the night.
"I wonder who he was talking to... such a sad sight." She said glumly, awaiting a response from either Ephram or Silo, but neither replied.
"Are you alright?" She asked, looking down at the mouse in her pocket, his white eyes full of pain and sadness from the drunk old man's sorrow.
"Yes, I've just... never seen such sadness before. It hurts losing someone you love." He said with a sad squeaky tone.
As the two of them turned back to face the grave, they noticed Ephram had become unusually quiet. May cocked her head to the side as she observed him, but he didn't seem to move an inch from the spot he stood. It was apparent his mind was preoccupied, so she reached up to touch his shoulder, her hand landing softly upon him to comfort him.
"Are you okay, E?"
No response. He didn't even bother to look over at her, his gaze was glued to something else entirely. The only thing he could manage to show her was to lift his arm and point towards the grave.
Both Silo and her looked down to see what the problem was, reading the lettering of the grave.
Victor Ephram Agnello: 2000 - 2028
Silvia Marie Agnello: 1999 - 2028
"My name... my true name is... Ephram."
As the three of them looked down, speechless, he dropped to his knees. No words were shared, but they all knew the truth. Something impossible had occurred, something all of history had yet to witness. The three demons stared down at the single grave of a love-struck couple, so head over heels for each other that they'd been buried together.
He knew in his heart that this grave belonged to the couple in the photo, and that he was the human man standing there with a smile plastered to his face. There was no doubt in his mind that the other in the photo must've been Silvia, the silver haired woman with the white scarf.
May tried to reach out to him once more to comfort him but noticed her hands were starting to shake, so she hesitantly pulled back. She knew there was nothing either her or Silo could do now to calm him, this was an unheard-of situation. Silence surrounded the three of them as they tried to understand what this could mean, and how it could happen.
Ephram looked down at the dirt he stood upon, knowing his own body was below him. As he reached out to touch the ground, his hand moving softly through the soil, he felt a sudden pulse course through his veins. Remembering what it felt like to be alive, his heart began to beat louder and louder, until it slowed to a stop. He collapsed to the ground, his hat falling off and landing next to him with a certain finality to it.