Chapter 35: Cold as Hell, Part 1

Sam wasn't sure yet what his new power consisted of; he wouldn't be until he brought it to the surface. But he knew one thing for certain, by an instinct bordering on precognition. He would use it to finish what he had started, to gut all the sons of bitches who would stand in his way. Of that, he had no doubt.

"Was he right?" Violet asked, gradually backing away, her eyes widening. "Was that son of a bitch right? Sammy, what's going on here?"

She knew very well what was happening here; it was just that she didn't want to admit it. But she wouldn't blame herself for not realizing it earlier or for not being able to stop him. Sam wanted to take her with him once it was all over, still, just like Christina. He was greedy. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too.

"You... you are..." Christina murmured, her teeth chattering.

A demon? Anything but my brother?

A loud noise. At first, he thought it was a shotgun, but firearms didn't exist in this world. Why would they bother designing those primitive devices if anyone could learn magic, after all?

The sound was a heavy wooden door closing.

Mary had locked the chapel door. She hadn't trapped them inside; they could exit through the window as she had forced Detective Adams to do, but still, the adults who bravely turned and fled with their tails between their legs didn't welcome this new development with open arms. For them, it was a most unpleasant surprise.

"I didn't ask to be born this way," Sam said. Maybe he wouldn't be able to fool his sisters and get away with it again, but he had to at least try.

It wasn't even him who had done most of the work, so it would be a waste, simply a waste, to let them escape like this.

"Die, demon!"

One of the family members present stepped forward, acting as if he believed himself to be the protagonist of some story. And if it occurred to him to kill, well, a demon, with fire of all things. A lot of fire, to be fair, which shot out from the palms of his hands like twin flamethrowers.

Sam tensed, preparing to propel himself away with his own telekinesis, the only safe way to dodge so much and such fast fire.

But in the end, he didn't have to do anything.

Violet got in the middle.

Not to take the attack for him, of course; she wasn't that stupid. Although she would have done it if something had gone wrong. Anyway, instead of that, she formed a shield of water that extinguished the flames almost instantly.

Perhaps out of fear, perhaps from the effort that required, Violet's breathing accelerated.

Sam returned her gaze, trying to pretend he was grateful. Well, and he was, that they hadn't turned him into a barbecue.

"Are you going to betray your family, humanity? You see what he is; he's a demon. I won't tolerate...!"

Mary screamed.

No, it wasn't a scream at all. It's just that a cloud of black smoke came out of her mouth very loudly. Shot, of course, towards the man who had tried to kill him. A great column of black smoke and fast on top of that.

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Ah, he thought. So that's why she had so much interest in protecting me.

He wouldn't have had time to dodge, probably, but he didn't even try. Like a suicide looking at the lights of the approaching train to stop at the station, he stood staring at the column of black smoke with his mouth open. Like a fucking idiot.

So it easily dragged him and crushed him against a wall with enough force to kill him, though not to burst him like a piñata. Something that the guy, whatever his name was, would have appreciated. Because Sam never said it was an instant death.

With his broken ribs, punctured lung, and mouth full of blood, he would slowly agonize, drowning like a fish out of water.

"What the hell?" asked another family member.

"We're going to die here..."

"I wish I could wake up," said a fourth, huddled in a corner.

How naive. Only he could fix his own problems. How had he become an adult without knowing that no one would come to wake him from the nightmare? Sam took two more steps forward, extending his arms to the sides like crucified Jesus, smiling, unsteady steps, but not insecure at all, quite the opposite, he was again full of confidence and power.

Ice burned in his hands in a way that made him feel as if he were invoking electricity instead, like a damn thunder god. Because it was something alive, almost. And it was simply looking for an excuse to explode.

Another family member launched an attack, but Sam deflected it in a very simple and direct way, so it only made a hole in the ceiling. It wasn't fire or water, just pure magical energy, like a great mace. In any case, it had been useless.

In what way did he deflect it?

Well, by shooting a dozen or more icicles at the little son of a bitch, impaling him against the bench, making the wood explode.

That bastard would also take his time dying.

"Sammy, this doesn't have to..." Christina said.

What?

End like this? Of course it does! She should understand that they wouldn't stop no matter what happened, that the rest of the family wasn't like them. Not even Mary or whatever that thing was.

"I'm fighting for my life! So you're either with me or against me." He saw the girl's mouth opening again. "No buts, Christina, if they discover me they'll execute me at the stake. You know it. No buts."

The column of black smoke coiled around him like a huge snake, though without actually touching him, not even grazing him. It did so in a protective manner.

Satan hadn't wanted to inform him for whatever reason that he had a woman. Right now that didn't matter to him, of course. He needed all the help he could get.

"A demon, a true demon."

He must look imposing, with ice burning in his hands, demonic eyes burning all the time, and that great monster of black smoke lying at his feet like a great beast waiting for its master's orders.

"May God have mercy on us."

They were in a chapel, but it didn't seem to be the house of the Lord. Either He was too far away for their voices to reach Him...

Or He wasn't listening, hahaha.

"Satan? Could it be... Satan? No, it has to be..."

"The Antichrist."

The murmur spread quickly. It became a chant that resonated above the screams of pain and fear.

His head was exploding, and not just from the tension.

Being in sacred places like this didn't sit well with him. The funerals had been torture too. He had enjoyed the pain, the crying, the coffins being gradually covered with earth. The people he had crushed disappearing into darkness forever.

But it hadn't been easy to simply be there. Rather, that pleasure was like finding a piece of wood floating after a shipwreck.

Lost in the reflection of the endless blue sky. Extending to the horizon, beyond the horizon.

Seeming to cover the entire world.

He shook his head slightly.

"Violet, Christina. It's not my fault our mother slept with the wrong guy or whatever happened." He wasn't sure he wanted to know the details, for a change. "You can't let them kill me. I'm just defending myself, you know that..."

Sam fell to the ground.

No, he was thrown. The black smoke threw him to the ground, behind the coffin, so that a gust of wind passed a tenth of a second later where he had been.

He sensed that the attack would have blown his head off like a watermelon if it had connected.

He clicked his tongue and jumped back to his feet.

In any case, his path had been decided since he arrived in this world. It could never have ended any other way. It would have been extremely unlikely that he could have killed those necessary without raising suspicions, without complications.

From the beginning, everything had to end in a brutal, direct, and merciless massacre.

It had simply happened sooner and therefore there were more obstacles.

More lives on the other side of the scale. That was all, but regardless...

The Wright surname had been destined to burn in the flames of hell from the beginning.

Flames as cold as vengeance.

Cold as Hell, Part 1: FIN