Surviving the Worst

A look into the struggles going on away from the war for a group of Nephilim led by Joel.

Joel woke with a horrible ringing in his ears that seemed to be bouncing around in his head. His eyelids were scorched to the point where he felt like any movement on their part would result in them falling off. His whole body felt like it'd been tossed on the grill and burned to charcoal pieces. Part of him was wondering what had happened to kill him like this? But, as he wondered it, he remembered.

He'd been leading his team in to fight a demon that had been causing disturbances in the area around an abandoned farm far from Aerie, all the way down in Pennsylvania. He'd flown in with the team and just when he'd opened the barn door, the whole thing exploded in a huge mushroom cloud of fire and smoke. He'd been blown backward into something and after that, everything was black.

Joel drew in a breath and immediately regretted it. Everything felt like it was either singed beyond belief or still on fire. He forced himself to move regardless of the pain because, he knew that the demon was still out there and might just come after them if they don't go after it. He forced his hand to come up and rub his ringing ears in hopes of clearing the sound out.

When the ringing had faded, he could hear Marrah calling his name and the others groaning as they too woke with their own pains from the explosion. His voice refused to work as he tried to call out to Marrah and let her know where he was. All that came out was a raspy sort of groan.

He heard Marrah's feet thumping on the ground as she jogged over to him. Apparently she received the lesser beating from the explosion. He envied her but, as leader it was sort of a part of his job to take the hard blows for the team.

"Joel?" Marrah said, her voice close to his ear. He felt her cool, sweaty hands on his burned face. "Are you okay? Open your eyes. Let me know you're okay."

He wanted to tell her he couldn't open his eyes, that it would hurt too damn much. But, as a leader he couldn't say such things. It was his job to take the blows like he had no true breaking point and keep going, keep them going. If he kept going, they could too. He was their hope for things to go right. Once he didn't know what to do, their hope was lost and he'd have let them down.

He told his eyes to open, to look at Marrah and give her the hope she needed and slowly they pulled themselves open. Immediately, he was bombarded by the too bright sun and he groaned, closing his eyes again.

"Oh, thank God, you're alive." She pulled him onto her lap, hugging him close.

He felt the soft tips of her boy-short hair brushing against his cheek. Dust and ash fell into his face and he blew it off before he'd sneeze or cough. He brought his hand up, wincing at the burning pain that shot up his arm as he moved it, and gently stroked down her back. Swallowing, hoping his voice would work, he said, "Of course, I am."

She laughed and that made him smile, his dry lips cracking.

"Oh my Lord if you were dead . . . I would never have lived the rest of the mission." she laughed.

"Oh come on, I wouldn't leave you in the middle of something like this." he rasped.

"But, here you are barely able to speak with half of you burned down to raw flesh." she looked at him as if to say, Stop with the BS.

He laughed hoarsely, his voice slowly softening down to normal.

The rest of the Nephilim on his team trudged their way back to him. Most of them looked half as bad as he did. Only Isaiah looked about as bad as Joel did. His short silvery hair was singed at the tips and his arms had splotches of red all over them. He walked stiffly as he approached Joel and the rest of them, his eyes narrowed but, Joel could see the redness in them. He felt bad for Isaiah though, he was proud that the guy could actually manage to stand and walk when every part of him had to be screaming at him to stop moving. That meant something though, if Isaiah can manage to stand and walk from whatever spot he'd been blown to, Joel had to be able to. Especially, since he's the leader. A leader lying on his back giving orders isn't a real leader.

But, how to get up without screaming in pain? How to get up and move and fight this demon, should they need to?

Then, he saw her and he found all the strength he needed. He needed to be able to touch her and hold her and kiss her once again. He couldn't let her see him as weak. Sure, she was the strong one sometimes but, the only times she can see him weak is when he feels like he's losing her and knows it's likely because he always seems like a perfectionist in front of people.

She looked down at him on the ground and almost immediately, tears sprung into her eyes. He looked away and tried to force his way to his feet, commanding his legs to work. He pulled his legs under him, his legs wobbling as he put his weight on them again. He staggered upright almost like he was on a balance beam.

Just when he was about to start walking, he noticed Mandrake standing a few feet behind her. For a brief moment, Joel was relieved to see that his best friend was ok. Then, he caught a scent on the air, a demonic scent. But, he could also catch the fiery scent of Nephilim laying over the stench of sulphur and garbage. Joel frowned in the direction of his friend. No, he thought. This isn't happening. Not him. No.

But, he could see the soulless black eyes replacing Mandrake's gold ones. The telltale sign of possession.

Joel's heart dropped to his stomach. His friend was lost somewhere in his own body, taken over by a demon who may just destroy the last pieces of him so that when the demon is killed, there will be no return of the Nephilim boy Joel knew and loved.

Seeing Joel's face, Marrah turned to look at Mandrake. The rest of the team followed their lead, eyes widening as they took in the sight of their friend and teammate turned demon.

Joel knew that the sight would be hardest for Marrah to take in since Mandrake was one of the people that was very close to her. He was surprised that Marrah hadn't shed a tear yet.

The demon squinted at them through Mandrake's eyes. Joel suddenly wished he could heal a lot faster than he already could. At this point in healing, he still wouldn't be able to handle the demon possessing Mandrake. He needed that demon out of Mandrake safely.

Joel cast his mind back, remembering his lessons in demon possession. There were rare demons that could possess a Nephilim and nearly every kind could possess humans. He closed his eyes and tried to remember if they'd learned how to get the demons out of Nephilim without harming them severely.

Coming up empty in his search, he looked to Marrah.

"Do you remember anything about how to safely cast a demon out of a person?" he asked.

"Crystal sword." Marrah mumbled in reply. "Stab them with a crystal blade."

"Anywhere or in the heart?" he asked, focusing on Mandrake as he caught their scent on the air.

"Stab them anywhere that would mean major injury. In the heart, stomach, or side." She said, her gaze refusing to waver from Mandrake.

    He summoned his sword from his mind. His palm warmed as the divine fire curled out from it and began to form a sword slowly, following his command.  If it formed as quickly as it normally could summon it, the demon might be startled and would attack.  As it was, the demon's black eyes were focused on his hand, the orange glow of the sword reflecting in its eyes. 

    His sword finished forming, now the fire was dissipating, melting into divine crystal that shone like the purest silver imaginable, even glass.  He stepped forward carefully, still raw from being cooked in the demon's explosion.  He could admit, he was feeling a little better.  He still had patches of skin that stung like Hell from his movements.  He spread his arms wide, a few lines from Limitless by: Crown the Empire featuring Denis Stoff came to mind.  One line that Denis Stoff had screamed seemed to fit this situation.  "You shot me once but I'm still here!"   He almost wanted to say it out loud in the demon's face.  It definitely made sense,  the demon had hit him with his explosion but, he was still there to fight him. 

    A snarl curled Mandrake's lips.  A growl rumbled up from his chest.  Joel smiled slightly.  The part of him that was controlled by the badass warrior angel blood, loved the idea of blood and gore and death.  That side loved challenges and loved to anger people. 

    Mandrake's hands blackened and thinned, his skin blistering and becoming leathery like an old man's hands.  Sores opened across the skin and his fingers became black talons as sharp as needles, glistening in the  afternoon sun.  Joel's heart sank.  A demon taking that much control of the victim's body had to be a strong one.  Especially, since it's warring with the angel blood inside Mandrake.  The more control the demon had of Mandrake, the less likely he can be saved.

    Mandrake crouched, claws nearly gouging holes in the ground.  It growled something in its demon language.   

    "It's challenging you." Uriah pointed out.

    "Thank you, Captain Obvious." Joel called back.

       Marrah whispered something to Uriah.  Joel caught the words "Negotiate" and "get Mandrake back".

    Joel's eyes sprung wide open.  Instantly the memory of his brother's death came back to him.  His brother begged him to let him fight against the demons that had raided their house in the middle of the night.  His brother's face held no note of fear, only determination and it had warmed Joel's heart to the point where he passed his brother the biggest kitchen knife he could find and led him into battle against the goblin-like creatures that were crawling over their parents' corpses.His brother charged the goblins giving a battle cry as he came toward them.  Joel joined the charge into battle, brandishing his own set of kitchen knives, hacking down goblins in a whirlwind of fury.  Yes, part of him had been traumatized by the loss of his parents especially in such a gory way but, he had to defend the last things he had left.  If he lost his brother, that would mean the loss of his home.  This house wouldn't be the same without my family, he'd thought. 

    In the middle of killing a goblin, Joel heard his brother cry out in pain.  Joel turned in the direction of the scream and saw that a goblin had latched itself onto his brother's back, it's fang teeth lodged tightly in his shoulder blade, right under the pressure point.  His head was hanging back, he was biting his lip to stop screaming, his eyes closed.  Seeing that the boy was now too weakened and scared to fight, the goblins turned to him and started latching onto him like ugly leeches.  But, the one Joel had been fighting took advantage of his shock and stabbed him in the neck with its claws.  Joel's eyes had widened with even more shock as it dragged him down.  He reached back, knife in hand, and hoped to get the claws out of the sides of his neck.  His breaths seemed to retreat, coming in shorter gasps.  The pain was like the worst fire, spreading down his neck, into his shoulders.  

    He'd felt the goblin's rough, scabbed hands and flipped the knife around quick enough to jab it into the hand harshly.  The goblin shrieked and yanked its hands out of Joel's neck. The sudden relief of pressure in his neck caused him to draw in a quick breath.  But, it only hurt him more.  The breath was too quick and a sharp flare of pain shot up in his neck.  He rolled onto his feet and turned to the shrieking goblin, stabbing it in the chest.  It dissipated into a burst of smoke. 

    He turned to the rest of them.  He estimated that there had to be at least twenty left.  Joel picked up the knives his brother had left on the floor and attacked the rest of the monsters with all his remaining strength.  The goblins attacked in groups from all directions, their teeth flashing yellow in the faint moonlight, claws ripping into his flesh.  All around him the air was filled with the stench of sulphur and garbage and the shrieks of dying goblins. 

    Joel finished them off relatively quickly, his anger turned to fierce power as he fought but, it didn't change the fact that he had nothing left now.  This house was filled with the stink of goblins and sulphur.  This room would continue to hold the memory of blood on the floor even if someone managed to clean it out of the carpet.  He knew he'd never be able to do it.  Cleaning out the blood would be like destroying the last memory of his family.  They'd died fighting for their lives because of the thing he was.  It was technically his fault they'd died.  They didn't deserve to die that way. 

    With another ragged, painful breath, Joel limped out of the room where his family had died and back to his room.  He'd packed all of his clothes and anything that had meant something to him and hiked out of the house, following his gut to any place that would feel remotely safe.  He'd basically zoned out most of the way until he'd found himself at Aerie with the sun rising.  At that point, breathing was such a struggle he didn't think he could manage it anymore.  He dropped his bag of belongings and forced himself to gaze up at Aerie despite the hot, numbing pain in his neck.  The place seemed so tall that it was piercing the Heavens and looking up that high killed everything left in him.  He'd lost a lot of blood fighting the last of the goblins and making the long walk there.  His head felt like lead as it dropped back to his chest.  Suddenly, he felt himself dropping to the ground.  The fall jarred his already bloody and bruised knees and crushed his aching chest, scraping his face.   

    Joel whipped around to face his team now.  The memory hit him right in the heart each time it came to him.  It always insisted on playing out up to the part where he went unconscious on Aerie's doorstep.  It always tore at him that he'd been so close to death once and at such a young age.  He'd been fortunate that Lazerous had been coming out to fly only a few minutes after he'd dropped on the steps.  If Lazerous had waited any longer, Joel wouldn't have been in this situation today.  Joel's anger boiled dangerously, the warrior blood inside him bathed in the anger like it was the best thing it had ever met. 

     "WE ARE NOT NEGOTIATING WITH THIS BEAST!!!!" Joel bellowed, veins popping out on his neck and arms. "DO NOT EVER SUGGEST THAT AGAIN, MARRAH!!!!"

    Marrah's silver eyes met his lavender ones, wide with fear.

    Joel took a breath and calmed himself a little.  "You of all people know better.  You know there is no negotiation with demons.  They kill and feed off of anything they can get their hands on.  That's enough proof of no negotiation.  You all have lost your families, your homes to these beasts.  Why-why talk about negotiating?  They kill mercilessly, why don't we kill them the same way?"

    "I'm only suggesting it so that we can save Mandrake!" Marrah yelled back at him. 

    Her anger was evident on her face.  This was the life of her brother they were talking about.  When it comes to people that serve as a family member to her, Marrah doesn't take s**t especially from guys.  If he wasn't careful what he said right now, she'd leap on him, tackle him and probably break something before he could anticipate her next move. 

    "I know that but, as I said, you of all people know that demons have no mercy.  In fact, we all know that to some extent." Joel said.

    She raked her hands through her spiky, white, boy-short hair and looked away.

    "I mean - it's probably too late to save him as it is.  Look at him!" He gestured back at the beast that was squinting at them through Mandrakes eyes.  Clearly, it was deciding if it would be a good idea to attack.  Joel wondered what kind of demon it was.  Obviously, it wasn't entirely stupid or Mandrake was in there somewhere fighting the demon's power for control over it.  That was evident in the occasional seizing movements it made; eyes rolling to show whites under the black, twitches in the muscles of Mandrake's arms, the loll of his head.

    In the brief second that he had turned away to look at Mandrake, Marrah took her turn to attack.  She came at him and punched him in the jaw.  Joel groaned as the flash of white crossed his vision. 

    The beast, startled by this sudden turn of events, attacked, fangs replacing Mandrake's teeth.  Joel cursed at the demon's speed in attacking.  He barely had enough time to deal with the shock of Marrah's punch, never mind, raise his weapon.  The demon screamed as it drove its claws into Joel's shoulders.  Joel bit his lip to stop from screaming at the fiery pain. 

    The demon growled something in its harsh-sounding language, its breath like fire against his ear.  Joel didn't study the demon language like Uriah had in his spare time but, he translated as much as he could.  All he got was: Too late. He didn't need to understand the whole message in order to know what the demon had said.  The demon was telling him it was too late to save Mandrake.  It was clear.  Why else would the demon bother to say the words "Too late"?

    Joel stabbed it with his sword. He didn't care where the sword bit into Mandrake's skin.  All he cared was that  the demon had something that would take its attention away from him briefly and possibly get it to release him. 

    The demon shrieked in his ear, causing it to ring in response.  He pried the demon's claws out of his flesh and pushed it off him.  He'd stabbed the demon in the side and the wound was smoking and black.  The demon was right.  It was too late to save Mandrake.  He could barely hear Marrah's sobs behind him.  He'd never seen or heard Marrah cry ever in his five years of knowing her.

     The demon found some more of its fight and kicked Joel down.  Joel tumbled and nearly stabbed himself, rolling away from the blade, he was suddenly straddled by Mandrake.  The soulless black eyes stared into his own lavender ones.  There was no trace of Mandrake's fight for control left.  Joel's heart dropped.  It didn't matter what he did anymore.  Mandrake's body was no longer his, no percentage of the Nephilim boy was left.

    The demon's fangs came dangerously close to Joel's face, snapping closed, nearly snatching away skin.  Joel's hands clamped around the demon's neck before it caught at his face.  He squeezed the windpipe that had once been  Mandrake's.  He pressed his thumbs into it.  The demon's arms flailed, trying to reach for Joel's throat.  But, Joel was too strong for it.  He pushed the demon up off of him slowly.  He sat up with his hands still crushing the demon's throat.  The demon's reptilian tongue lolled out of its mouth as it tried desperately to suck in air. 

     "JOEL!!" Marrah shouted over the gagging sounds the demon was making.

    He ignored her and focused on pressing the air out of the demon's throat, all the while watching its all black eyes, waiting for the faint glow of life to fade out of them. 

    "JOEL!!!" Marrah screamed. "Stop!!! You'll kill him!!!"

    Joel continued to press his hands into the demon's throat.  How much longer will this demon be able to suffer before dying?, Joel wondered. 

    Then, Marrah slammed into him from the side.  They all tumbled over, including the demon with Joel's hands clamped onto its throat.  Marrah wrenched his fingers away from the demon's throat one by one.  Each one he fought to keep in its place, Marrah bit into Joel's fingers until he let go.  When the demon was finally free, Marrah pushed him aside and turned to Joel, punching him in the face.  She cursed at him the whole time using every word she knew in every language. 

    When Marrah's fist came back after the fifth punch, her knuckles stained with his blood, he grabbed her wrists in one hand, and rolled over so he was on top of her.  She tried to bite at his hand again and he used his free one to grab her hair and hold her head down.

    "Stop it, Marrah.  You're being ridiculous.  We both know he can't be saved." he said.

    Marrah brought her knees up and pushed him off.  Joel landed on his back but got to his feet quickly, knowing she wanted to fight him.

    "You really want to fight me when it's evident that Mandrake has lost his fight with the demon?" Joel asked, raising his fists.

    The demon leaped onto his back then, its fangs catching at his hair.  Joel grabbed the demon's hands and flung it off his back, at Marrah.

    "Take a good look at what was your brother, Marrah!" he yelled at her.  "Do you see anything of him there?"

    Joel's face ached from her punches and he could taste blood in his mouth.  The pressure in his head from his broken nose irritated him to no end.  Still, he yelled at her.  This was one of the first times she'd actually fought with him in front of people and went against his decisions. 

      Marrah studied him for a moment and looked away, pressing her lips together.   She turned and walked away, submitting.

    "Do it quickly, Joel.  He deserved a better ending." Marrah said quietly.

    Joel pitied her.  He knew the feelings she was having.  With Nephilim, they like to hold onto whatever family they can gather as long as they can.  Now, she was again forced to give up her brother to a demon.

    He nodded and summoned his sword quickly.   He stepped in front of the demon, noticing that its muscles were coiled to spring on her.  The second it sprung, Joel grabbed it by the throat and drove his sword into the demon's chest down to the hilt.  He could see the fiery tip of his sword sticking out of the demon's back.  Joel pushed the limp body off his sword, letting it fall in a heap on the dusty ground.  The black smoke of the demon was exhaled through Mandrake's mouth as if it were his last breath.  Joel watched it warily but, it just disappeared like it did when all demons were killed.

    Joel turned back to his team and focused on Marrah who was crumpled in Nirvana's arms on the ground crying.  Everyone was watching her.  No one expected her to be capable of tears.  But, now everyone knew she was.  When Nirvana looked up at him with her warm brown eyes and a small smile, everyone but Marrah looked up at him. 

    "Who wants to do the honors?" he asked. 

    Uriah stepped forward and summoned a ball of fire to his hands before bending down beside Mandrake's crumpled body.

   Nirvana whispered to Marrah and gently turned her head so that she could see what was being done to honor Mandrake's terrible death.  The fire glistened in Marrah's tears and turned her silver eyes the gold of divine flame as Mandrake's body was engulfed by it.

Reviews

[Inject Positivity]

What I'm witnessing is that with every new chapter your way of attracting the reader I'd getting better... Worth the read... The intensity and the way you presented it, feels Aerie is here outside my window... Lovely job frnd...

Sincerely
Dhiman

[Tessa Melendez]

Thanks so much. I loved the intensity I managed to put into this one too.
Was missing you friend.