The Unknown // Colby Brock

~~ Chapter Four ~~

I opened the door to reveal the devil himself still waiting for me leaning against the wall in the hallway. He gave me no greeting like everyone else would, but instead, he motioned for me to follow him.

"You still have a soul, so you're going to get tired and I'm not. You have to remember that I'm the devil, I'm not going to go easy on you. You end up on the floor? Get up. We don't have all day."

"You don't have all day," I mumbled back as we walked through a door in the other hallway upstairs. It led to a gym, of sorts, with a large mat in the middle of it.

I noticed something that looked like a treadmill on the far side, but my inspection of the room came to a stop when the devil slammed shut the door and locked it. My heart raced nervously as I backed up a little.

"We'll leave weapons out today," he decided on the spot, kicking aside some real-looking swords just sitting on the ground.

I stayed put until he got to the mat, where he motioned me to come to him. Bad vibes.

"I can easily send you out there," he threatened, motioning to the window.

I almost said 'please', but stopped myself just in time and stepped onto the mat with him.

"Go on, try and punch me."

"Punch?" I questioned, wondering why the hell he'd offer even if we were training.

"Do you know what a punch is?"

"No," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. If he wanted me to punch him, then I certainly wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. But the moment my fist got even close to his face, he caught it, and held it there for a moment.

"You've got a good punch, you just have to be faster. Don't always go in with your dominant hand. If you know you're not gonna make the punch, then go in with your other hand first and you can attack with your dominant when they're distracted stopping the other. So, go again. Face and stomach."

I nodded, going to punch him with my left but he caught it so I sent my right into his stomach - or tried to, he didn't let it make contact.

"Good."

"When exactly am I going to be fighting anyone?" I asked as I dropped my hands to my sides.

"Heaven and hell have always been close to a war, so if that ever happened, you'd be a part of the fight. Other than that, probably not much."

I slowly nodded, taking up a defensive stance when I caught sight of his fist moving towards me. I blocked it with my arm only for another to try to punch me in the stomach, but he didn't complete the move. I could just feel his fist against my skin.

"You gonna do that a lot?"

"Yes. Stay on guard at all times."

"Got it..."

Unfortunately, saying that had distracted me enough that the devil had managed to knock one of my legs - catching me off guard - and sent me onto the ground. He dropped to a knee next to me, holding my far shoulder with one hand.

"On guard at all times," he repeated, practically glaring at me. I used that against him like he'd used it against me, throwing my arm around his leg as quickly as I could to trip him into falling over. He did, so I pinned him in the easiest way possible by straddling his waist.

He glanced me up and down for a moment, sending shivers down my spine. "That was good," he said slowly, then flipped us before I could even see him moving. He pinned me against the floor with my wrists held above my head. "But you should never settle just for pinning someone." His voice had gone to a whisper since his lips were so close to my ear, and everything set off inside of me.

His eyes felt like they were devouring my entire body, especially when one of his hands - seemingly unknowingly to even him - moved to my almost-exposed hip. But then he got up to his feet and surprisingly helped me up.

We trained for what felt like forever, and a couple of times we ended up pinned on the mat like before. Each time, my insides would turn to mush, and my head would get a little light. Maybe training with a guy who looked like the devil did and being pinned by him wasn't a good idea for different reasons to my original thoughts.

Eventually, though, the devil checked his watch and backed up. We had finished training for the day, which was probably much closer to night by now. He brushed his fingers through his hair as he looked me up and down for a second, then he walked to the door.

"You don't have to stay in your room anymore, but I don't want to be disobeyed again."

"Got it," I said, hiding how excited that actually made me. For the first time ever, I was seeing the benefits of doing what I was told, and that meant I was finally being let out of my godforsaken bedroom.

By the time I had finished thinking about exploring the house, the devil had already left. I went back to my room for a moment, getting changed into jeans and a t-shirt before finally going back out again. I walked to the stairs and jogged down them seeing the devil only just leaving the house. He didn't see me, and neither did Jake, who was halfway through shutting those big front doors behind his king.

When I got to the bottom of the stairs, however, a head snapped to me and eyes lit up in excitement.

"Ari!" Xepher exclaimed, which brought more attention to me. She jumped up and rushed over, giving me a big, long hug.

I took those moments to assess who was sitting in the living room just beside us. I could see Reggie, Aryia, and Griffin, with Jake just joining them.

"Aren't you still supposed to be in your room?" Aryia questioned suspiciously, eyes narrowed.

I smiled and shook my head as Xepher pulled back and took my hand. We walked into the living room together taking a seat on one of the four couches. "I've been 'allowed out'."

"Oh, and why's that?" Reggie asked with a teasing edge to his voice. The big white dog on his lap pushed against his hands, begging for attention.

"Don't know, but I'm not going to complain."

"I'm glad you're out." Xepher smiled at me, resting her head on my shoulder. "Now I have my human best friend." Her arms wrapped playfully around me, which I didn't stop, and she kissed my cheek.

I let her do it all, trying not to smile too much as I just sat there. I could do this. I could live in hell as a part of these people.

I just needed patience with the devil.