Chapter 36: Cold as Hell, Part 2

There was no turning back, no possibility of fixing things.

The Antichrist enveloped the chapel in a snowstorm, and the black smoke monster set out. It had to be a demon, like him, like Satan. Could he do that too? Not now, but eventually, when his power grew? He supposed so. But maybe not. After all, he was only half demon.

"Leave Christina and Violet alone," he ordered. It should have been clear, whatever it was, but just in case. Better not to take risks. "Get out of here. Come on, let's go!"

His sisters looked between him and their relatives dying violently. They were shaking, but as much anger as they felt in their hearts, it would be mainly from the cold. It was affecting even him.

The burning of ice reaching a temperature below zero. The sudden change in temperature.

The least one could expect was some kind of immunity to his own powers. A safety net. If he had it, it wasn't complete immunity. The cold reached his bones just like everyone else. Well, not just like everyone else. The ice spears literally reached the bones, and were fired with enough force to make them crunch or break.

Violet and Christina finally decided, leaving through the hole that was all that remained of the window. After throwing Adams through there, only a few shards of glass remained hanging from the frame. Soon the girls disappeared from his sight. The only thing he didn't see was the detective's corpse.

How far had that bastard flown?

Well, it wasn't his concern anyway. This new power confirmed that the detective would no longer be a problem.

That was enough for him. Now that the only people he cared about at all, even if only for their bodies, were out of his way, there was no reason to hold back. Sam advanced through the rows of wooden benches, unleashing his powers.

The fire of hell ran through his veins, and came out of his palms as ice.

The Wrights continued to resist, but they should have thrown in the towel. They should have accepted the only thing he could give them, a quick death. If it were him, he would enjoy it a little, but he had to take out the trash quickly. He couldn't let even one escape.

Taking the mansion would be the real challenge. Not only because of the number of bastards left in the mansion, but because he was willing to bet that the most dangerous ones were there. People with better things to do. Like the damn Blake Wright.

He had no doubt that killing his father would be quite a challenge. In the physical sense, of course. Hahaha!

Sam dispatched one after another without breaking a sweat. Raising one arm, he blocked attacks with his telekinesis or by quickly forming ice. With the other arm, he returned the attack. For example, he used his telekinesis to grab one of those annoying insects and propel them against the ceiling.

The bastard in question was reduced to a large dark red stain. His organs rained from the ceiling. A grotesque crimson rain.

With each passing second, Sam felt stronger and stronger. His heart was beating so fast that it felt like it would explode, unable to contain the flame burning inside him. His temples hurt. His head throbbed like a second heart.

But he had never felt so alive, so powerful. So many games. Schemes, acting from the shadows. Deep down he had been wasting time, hadn't he?

This was how a demon should be. The center of an ice storm. A fucking horror movie made flesh.

Any gap that might have been in his offensive was covered by the black smoke monster, sometimes with too much zeal. He saw it charge against a corpse until it burst more than once, when it could have continued on its way. He supposed it helped in terms of intimidation, but there came a point where the glass was full and not a drop more could fit.

In this way, Sam tore his relatives to pieces and reached the other side of the chapel. It had become an unrecognizable place. The corpses were wrapped in ice, like grotesque statues. The ice also climbed up the pillars and had gotten into the windows. And the blood, of course. Blood and guts everywhere.

It really looked like a completely different place.

The black smoke re-entered Mary through her mouth. Into Mary's corpse. It became obvious that it wasn't possessing a living person, whatever demon it was. Since when it entered, she started breathing again.

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Mary stood up. Mary or whoever it was, without his help.

"My lord."

"Who are you?"

The woman squirmed under his gaze like some kind of love-struck schoolgirl. She had completely abandoned the air of a mother. Well, it had been nothing but an act in the first place. Although the affection hadn't been entirely feigned.

It wasn't hard to guess that he was looking into the eyes of Rose's killer.

"Belphegor, my prince. The humble servant of your... satanic majesty."

"Yes... Right."

For a moment he thought about punishing her for complicating things. If she hadn't gotten rid of Rose, things wouldn't have ended this way, since he wouldn't have felt obliged to go so far.

What would he gain from that? Nothing, so he quickly discarded the idea. He had other things to worry about. Sam opened the doors of the chapel, leaving behind that frozen hell full of corpses.

He immediately saw that Christina and Violet hadn't gone far. The sisters had stopped shortly after starting and now looked at him, with Mary following him like his own shadow, stupefied and terrified.

More importantly...

Adams' corpse was nowhere to be seen.

"Have you seen him?" Sam asked.

"Huh?" Christina stammered.

"Adams!"

Just what he needed, exactly what he needed.

That damn son of a bitch couldn't be alive, could he?

He had stabbed him with the knife.

He had thrown him out the window, giving him an extra push with his telekinesis.

The knife should have been deeply embedded, enough to take his life, and the appearance of his new power seemed to confirm it.

The rules were clear.

One murder, one new power. A clear progression that hadn't been broken until now. So how could he be alive? However, no one would have bothered to move his corpse either. There was no other explanation.

From his position, Sam should be able to see the corpse on the grass, if it had flown over the walls, on the other side of the heavy door.

Of course, there was nothing.

If there was something, even an arm, he wouldn't be so uneasy.

Even though if he had survived he couldn't do much, he didn't like having unknown factors running loose.

Adams was a clever bastard and he didn't fully know his magical capabilities. In fact, maybe he could do something. For all he knew, he knew healing magic and had healed the wound in the time it had taken him to massacre all the Wrights in the chapel.

Magic was incredible, but it also made everything more irritating.

Unpredictable.

"No, we haven't seen anyone come out. Except you," Christina added, again.

Victoria kept silent and stared at him. He wondered what she was thinking. Did he still have her or was it time to throw in the towel and treat them like those he had left behind?

Sam silently advanced towards the mansion, without a drop of blood on his clothes, somehow he had managed to come out of that carnage intact. Of course, his new admirer followed him closely obediently. He advanced, but kept looking at them out of the corner of his eye, just in case. He wouldn't enjoy it. It sounded strange coming from him, but it was true. Still, he would do what he had to do. Any enemy would be destroyed without exceptions.

He couldn't survive in this world full of people who wanted him dead (and for great, completely justified reasons) any other way. Well, he had never had much in terms of mercy, decency and morality.

That's why he had become a businessman.

"Wait, Sam!" Christina shouted, her hand on her heart. For her it must be especially painful. Well, it wasn't his concern. "You're going to go in there and what, just kill them all? I know we've never been very close to the rest, on the contrary, the family always pushed us to fight among ourselves. But they're your family after all. No, they're people. Human beings like..."

You and me.

But she couldn't say that, choking on her words. Yes, he wasn't a human being. Sam didn't mind at all.

It would have been different if he couldn't have led a normal life, fully enjoyed his riches.

But he basically looked like any other human being, so for him there was no practical difference. Christina with her bulging and innocent eyes was probably having some internal monologue about how sad the loss of his humanity was or something like that, but how could something like that be quantified?

He had never been one of those humans who believed in something like the soul, in the first place.

A spiritual person.

Mainly Sam was Sam, regardless of the container he was placed in, so to speak.

But of course, after seeing the black smoke monster, Belphegor's true form (probably), he couldn't blame her for thinking it meant more than it really did.

She kept looking at him with those teary eyes, as if...

Ah, of course. He hadn't given her an answer.

He had to seem human. Likeable. He had to seem, well, the person they had known.

"It's not easy for me either, Christina. After all, they are my family. Those I love and those I hate, they are, no one can change that. But..."

Being physically identical to him had helped him a lot to go unnoticed. Even if a person suddenly stopped acting like themselves, no one would jump to the conclusion that it wasn't really that person as a first or even third explanation. That's not how things worked.

But now?

With his demonic eyes burning, standing next to Belphegor, a terrifying monster that submitted to him?

Yes, he surely didn't look so much like the Sam of their memories right now.

Sam forced himself to swallow, as if he were struggling with his own emotions.

"You know very well that they'll hang me, that they'll burn me at the stake. For them I'm nothing but a monster. Even you... now you look at me with fear."

"No!" Christina protested immediately. "I love you."

One thing doesn't negate the other, he thought, but of course, that wasn't a convenient answer.

"Let's run away," Victoria suddenly said. "The three of us together, we can take a carriage and leave all this behind. Change our identities, go to a far-off place where no one knows us."

Where no one would know they were siblings. Tempting, in more ways than one.

Belphegor had killed Rose for some reason, and he doubted it was following Satan's orders. He would probably have to get rid of the demon so she wouldn't feel jealous and tempted to repeat her mistake.

If they remained by his side.

Because of course, he couldn't accept their proposal. He had a mission to fulfill.

"This is inevitable."

He turned his back on them and approached the main door of the mansion. The true horror-filled blood tour began now.

Cold as Hell, Part 2: END