Beast and the Harlot (Neophyte Series 3)

5. The Uninvited

               'HEY WAIT UP!' MICHAEL kept his back turned to his friend as he huffed through the wooded area. As he approached the stone bridge, nostrils flaring and jaw tightened, the leader of the Hakodesh caught up to him, approaching with the utmost prudence. Though he had not seen the Hell portal with his own eyes, he knew that fear all too well, as Shay himself had once seen his own many years prior.

'Just . . . leave me be.'

'Hey, calm down.' he lightly grasped Michael's shoulder, though his friend seemed incapable of looking him in the eyes. 'What happened out there?'

Standing at the peak of the arched bridge irate and aware, he gestured his bearded friend to keep moving along the path, and he explained as they did.

'Wait, there was a portal waiting for you? That doesn't make any sense, Mikey—'

'I know how it sounds.'

'But you're a Supernal being for fuck sakes—guardian of the throne.'

'I'm just as confused as you are. What happened on that field anyways? What did that son-of-a-bitch do to me?' Michael referred to Barbarous and the unusual way he managed to take him down.

'Our abilities allow us to channel your inner most anguish, doubts and fears. When a Hakodesh locks onto your memories, they can consume your rage and use it against you—fuel essentially. Your pain becomes our power.'

'But then why didn't you use it to take me down when I first arrived?' he queried, recalling the first physical encounter with Shay.

'I didn't want to hurt you, Mikey.' he replied with all sincerity. 'Try to understand that channeling certain memories can inflict some serious psychological issues. Memories long since forgotten come screaming back to you in a blink of an eye, forcing our victims to relive their most horrific and traumatic moments. When Barbarous locked onto your rage, he took from you not the memories themselves, but every negative emotion in response to said trauma.'

'That explains the sense of serenity.' he concluded, recalling the tranquil state of indifference during the attack.

'Where may the mind go without rage or fear but inner peace? The Hakodesh are free to attack once the mind is subdued, leaving our victims indifferent to their own demise. You can see how useful this ability would be against a demonic being.' he tried not to boast.

'I'm just glad you guys are on our side.' Michael admitted, finally catching his temper. He thought back to the day he had left home, when he was only a teenager. There was an inescapable fear that lingered within the darkest crevice of his soul; trauma he had shoved down so many times that he had almost forgotten it completely. Perhaps he was still in a state of shock from what had happened in Hell; a rather understandable fear, he thought, but the day he said goodbye to his father was a memory he had thought was long gone, left behind along with the man himself. Perhaps there was an echoing rage inside him that he still hadn't quite faced.

'Was Barbarous able to see what I was seeing?' he asked as the rear of the castle came into view in the distance.

'See as you see, yes.' Shay confirmed. 'Also, he could feel what you felt during each relapse of every memory. Whatever you have stashed in that mind of yours must be powerful. I've never seen Barbarous so out of control. I think that's why he singled you out in the first place.'

'You think he could sense my anger?' asked Michael, somewhat embarrassed that he had let a complete stranger witness his deepest fears and regrets.

'Most definitely; as I said, he's top of his class. Barbarous would have sensed your rage long before you even stepped within our vicinity.'