THE SAINTS HAVE FALLEN: CHAPTER 18

The Saints Have Fallen is a YA Dark Romance Fantasy Novel written by Celine Mahadeo.

Novel. Fiction. Genre (Dark Romance Fantasy).

By Celine Mahadeo.

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BLURB

After being stripped of his title as a God and turned into a demon in the presence of his brother, Yuri was banished to earth to live amongst the humans whom he hates. 200 years later, a young girl shows up at his doorstep holding both his life and death in her hands whilst not having any idea of the power in which she possesses.

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Yuri.

She had fallen asleep curled into my coat at my side. I, however, could not for a minute find a single moment of rest. The souls would whisper beneath me truths and lies. Confusion ached within the waters of who they are, where they were, and who they were going to be.

She shifted, slowly opening her eyes. “There,” I spoke and looked towards a dark cave which the river led into.

“Is that where we’re headed?” She asked softly in a tired voice. I could sense her heartbeat slowly quickening. Was she afraid?

“Yes.” I stood and walked toward the tip of the boat. With my scythe in hand, I slashed it into the open air at the entrance of the cave as the boat entered its thick darkness. A sudden white light flashed over us and dispersed. I hope this worked.

“What was that?” she questioned.

“I put a cloak over us to prevent any unwanted demons from attacking.” I may have protected us from physical harm but I couldn’t stop the emotional illness that one falls under when entering this cave. This was the reason I hated this route. It reminded me of things I wanted most to forget.

“Demons?” she asked worriedly.

“They’re not the worst thing that could happen.”

“Oh,” she forcefully smiled as I turned to look in her direction and back ahead. Soft icy voices began creeping into my head.

 A filthy demon like him does not belong in the highlands. He taints the floor he walks upon.

Your brother is a traitor, Yuri. You must kill him.          

We might not be blood brothers, by I consider you.

He isn’t to be trusted.

How dare you want to abandon us!

Murderer.

Killer-God.

Kill the Gods.

Mathias will die.

No.

No.                                                         

“No,” I gasped myself back to reality and turned to see the human curled together with her head buried on her knees. Hell knows what the cave was torturing her into thinking. “Ana.” I breathed, gently touching her head. “Whatever you are seeing, it isn’t real. Come back to me.”

She let out a soft sob and whispered achingly, “Don’t leave.”

I’ve dealt with many things in my lifetime but this situation, this crying human girl before me, unnerved me the most. “Look at me, please.” I tried to be a little gentler, “Hold my hand, let me take you out of this nightmare.”

“Yuri?” she slowly raised her head, her face wet with tears and confusion.

“It isn’t real.” I sighed and stretched my hand out towards her. “Come, it’s time for us to leave this place.”

She did as I asked and followed closely behind as we walked through the cave. Its thick stench of water reached the height of my ankle as we continued onward. The sound of insects echoed within the walls of the cave. There was a sudden eerie drop in the air. Was the cloak broken? That wasn’t possible. We had to keep moving.   

“Uhh,” she shivered.

“It won’t be long again.”

I heard her footsteps follow closely behind when suddenly it stopped. I stopped. Turning around, her back was towards me and her breathing edged and low. “There- there’s something there.” She breathed, frozen in fear while looking into the deep darkness of the cave behind us. I walked and stopped near her. “It was there, it was right behind me.” she whispered, “It touched me.”

I wanted to dismiss her words, but I felt it too. This creature hidden in the shadows not only felt insidious but was staring right at us. This creature, whatever it was, broke the cloak. It had to have great power to do so. Somehow it felt like it didn’t belong here. It concerned me that the human was here as well. She was powerless. Could she run fast enough? I had to stay back and fight whatever it was off. At least to give her a little time.

“Listen to me carefully,” I whispered smoothly into her ear while firming my hand around my scythe, “When I walk forward, you run straight ahead where we were heading.”

“Leaving so soon?” a raspy voice slithered like wet poison into the air between us. Its entirely white eyes sliced open from within the darkness and chuckled, speaking in the Sworn language Lilimith. No demon was intelligent enough to speak that language. No demon I’d ever faced in the Otherworld possessed such strength. He must have come from one of the deepest hells. I frown as it slowly began to make itself visible. Its fleshy ripped apart arms crawled out from the darkness, dragging the rest of its body out. An unpleasant creature with four solid and moldy arms with horns from its head towards the end of his spine. All teeth which were fang-like and layered complimented its heavy toad-textured thick tail.

“Run.” I pushed her back and stepped in front of him, wielding my scythe. 

“Demon-God, you let my lunch run away.” It snickered.

“If anyone is to eat that human, it’s me.” I swung my scythe before him who dodged.

One of its arms grabbed me by the stomach and flung me against the walls of the cave. Small rocks from above us fell. This wasn’t just any demon. “What are you?” I pushed myself up, keeping a hold of my weapon. It circled me as I carefully mirrored his movements. 

“Erocotx is my given name. I come from a dark hell. None that you’ve ever been to.”

“And where is that?”

The creature grinned. “I want to see this powerful Demon God and what his flesh is made of.” Suddenly, it plunged towards me and knocked the scythe out of my hand. Its bodyweight began crushing into me as he pressed me down with his hand. I grunted. My hands blazed with hellfire to prevent him from pressing into me any further. His release slackened. I was able to push him off but not for long. My breaths were wavering. If I die in a bloody place like this, it would be the greatest insult to my entire existence.

“You are no God of mine.” The creature growled.

I scorched a flame towards him but it did little damage. “Why are you here?”

It hissed. “I followed your scent to only be disappointed.” It lunged at me again. Its head threw me to the side of the cave. I felt a sharp pain in my ribcage. I needed my scythe. I needed to end this. “You,” it growled over me and chuckled sinisterly, “You do not even know.”

I groaned in a slicing pain. Blood leaked from my forehead to my lips. Is this what my blood tasted like? I had sustained another wound to my arm. Is this what my blood looked like? Never in all my life had an enemy made me bleed. This… this wasn’t possible. Had I become so weak? The creature suddenly shrieked. A white light flashed over everything. It fell to the ground on its knees. The water splashed onto me where the creature fell.

There she stood, fuzzy, in my view. The human held my scythe in her hand. Did she swing it into the creature like that? Impossible. She couldn’t wield my scythe. Only I had the power to do that. And what did the creature mean? My head ached. Nothing made sense at this moment. Why did she even come back?

“Yuri.” I heard her soft voice bleed into the air between us. My vision was slowly becoming much clearer. She touched the side of my face, worried. “Please be okay.”

I groaned, pushing myself up with my eyes on the creature, “We have to move. It isn’t dead.”

She nodded and we continued along in haste. We were almost to the end. My injuries slowed me down but my strength still felt sufficient to make it out of here. “I had told you to run.” I frowned.

“I couldn’t leave you back there.”

“It does not matter.”

“It does.”

She stopped before the cliff before us which led down to the dark waters. “It’s a dead end.” She breathed.

“No. It’s exactly where we have to go. You need to jump.”

“What?” she exclaimed.

“The only way out of the Otherworld is in.”

Without a second to spare, I pushed her into the water and jumped in myself. The impact was cold and sharp. She struggled within the water. I pulled her with me to the surface, where she gasped for air as we reached above. We were once more, back on earth, in the garden pond. She coughed and crawled out of the water like a starved dog. I clawed myself out as well and stood, taking a deep breath.

“You-you pushed me!” She iced.

“Well, you weren’t going to jump.”

She was about to say something and stopped to look at the sky. “Yuri, why is the sky so red?”

I noticed. I felt my blood boil. Anything but this. I walked towards the well as she followed. There it was, a single bead placed at the center of the well, floating. I scowled. I would rather face that creature back in the cave than this.

I looked above to notice Tomai, in his crow form, circling the house. I felt his presence grow stronger as I made my way to the entrance of the house. From a distance, I already knew. There he was, sitting casually, on the porch of the house. He played with his string of obsidian which was wrapped around his wrist. My blood was burning in a fit of rage. I should have known he was the one to have sealed the entrance.  He let out a wicked chuckle and grinned as we came into his view. The human stood next to me and that’s where his attention fell first.

“Little dove,” he smiled roguishly at her, “You finally made it.”

“Claude,” I growled.

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