The Unknown // Colby Brock

~~ Chapter Twenty ~~

"Just..." he sighed, "I'm not sure."

"I doubt that."

"It doesn't matter." He picked up the last of the papers and took the ones I had gathered, moving over to sit in his chair while organising them into a neat pile on his desk. I stood back up again, glancing at the closed door then the chair that I had sat in more than the couch downstairs. Was I ready for that? Was I ready to take that step closer to him?

My thoughts came to an abrupt end when I realised Colby was just staring at me. I frowned at him, to which he shrugged and picked up his pen. "Just wondering why you look like you're not actually here," he mumbled as he continued to write in volume who-knows of all the people who had been admitted to hell.

"Why, have you hallucinated me before?" I teased, taking a seat on my chair without thinking.

He paused a second to look at me in surprise before clearing his throat. "No. The devil makes other people hallucinate because he's just so evil."

"Mhm, I agree with that." We sort of smiled at each other for a moment. "So, which book are you on now? Volume a-million?"

"Close enough." He lifted the volume to reveal the binding, which read a number so large I didn't feel like attempting it. The devil did more work than anyone even knew. Maybe Jake knew, but he lived within the walls of the house. I couldn't help but wonder if God knew all his 'evil' step-kid did to keep hell alive.

No other king or queen of hell would ever do all he did or keep mostly control over their army like he did. His army only went against him when they believed it was absolutely right, such as Jake bringing me into the army.

Once again, curiosity peaked. "Why do you write all of those books?"

"Because it's something to do." He shrugged, making me frown like he was insane, which he kinda was. He wrote thousands of books about all the people who had gone to hell... because he was bored? Wasn't he supposed to torture other people and not himself?

"But you're on volume who-knows-what and you're still going. Is it really that boring down here? You have friends, you could build something for us all to do. Why subject yourself to doing so much work?"

"I like having a record of everything that's happened; everyone who comes to hell," he told me without taking his eyes from the pages. "Besides, if Jake's made a mistake, it's not always too late to send them to heaven."

"You'd do that? If you found someone who wasn't meant to be here? Not very evil-torturous-being of you."

He gave me a slightly amused look, dropping the pen. "I'm not as bad as I should be."

I leaned forward on my elbows with a grin. "And you hate to admit it. Go on, say it one more time. You aren't the root of all evil."

He glared at me that time, reaching across to playfully push me before turning back to his book. Just as I was about to tease him some more, his head snapped up as if he'd been called. He stared straight ahead for a moment.

"Shit."

"What?"

He had already stood up and rushed around the desk only to open the door for me. Something bad was happening.

"Elton just called me: God's here and he's pissed."

My heart dropped as we headed out of his room together. We both jogged down the stairs into the throne room to find most of the rest of the group already there. This was beginning to feel like a daily occurrence.

"Did Elton tell you what's happening?" Xepher asked me specifically. I just nodded and stood with her halfway down the stairs keeping me 'out of harm's way' while Colby continued on to go to his throne. He sat down nearly on the edge of it, ready to pounce at whoever walked through that door if they so much as stepped out of line.

It didn't take long for God to come storming in looking murderous. His eyes were glowing blue while his wings stood almost permanently spread out to show his power. His stomps as he stormed toward the throne shook the entire house.

"You motherfucker," he almost yelled at Colby, with each step getting closer and closer to doing whatever he had planned. "Do you know what you've fucking done?!"

"Nothing?"

"So you call sending rogue angels to attack us nothing?!" God roared.

My heart sank. Everything made sense. From the blood on God's face and knuckles to the scuffed look of his hair. He had been in a fight - and a big one, with some of his own kind.

"Your own mother got hurt in the crossfire." That finally got Colby's true attention as he tensed in his chair.

"That wasn't us," he said sternly, though he had some fright mixed in with his voice.

"Are you fucking sure? Because they made it pretty clear that they'd been sent you you." God threw forward a small bundle of daggers and weapons like the ones Xepher had made a number of times. Something had been off when they'd come. Was that because they'd been trying to steal the weapons? The rogue angels were framing hell for their attack...

"We didn't send them. They came to us asking us to help but we turned them away," Jake growled, kicking the weapons halfway across the room.

God's nostrils flared as he slowly turned his head towards Colby, who was just frozen in his seat. "Your mother has been knocked out for three hours. If she never wakes up, I'm going to blame you for eternity."

"That's hardly fucking fair." I spoke before I thought. Talking back to an angry God definitely wasn't the best idea, especially when I had recently betrayed him. I found that out when he turned his eyes up to me with the biggest 'shut the fuck up' look I had ever received.

"Remember this, Colby." God turned and stormed out. Just like that. He left his stepson just sitting there staring vacantly into space as if he'd been told he was going to die. He didn't look like he really existed.

"We should have done something about those angels," Aryia mumbled to break the silence.

"Or joined them so they won."

"Mike!" Jake snapped. "No, how could you say that? They could have killed Fate - they might have, actually. Just because we joined them and won doesn't mean they wouldn't kill her then, too. They were lying."

Mike went very quickly silent.

I couldn't help but stare at Colby the whole time. He looked so distant and in need of comfort. Everybody in the room was close to him, but none of them were that close. None of them had been called his queen.

While most of them talked among themselves about what they would do if Fate didn't survive, I left Xepher's side to go down the stairs. She didn't really notice me because she was with Griffin, so I had free reign to slip through the room up to the throne.

Colby didn't even respond when I walked up the step to be on the same level as him. I took a second to look at him before moving closer. I took his hand, intertwining our fingers as I lifted it to my chest. I sat down on the arm of his throne, putting me much too close to him to start with... then I pulled him in even closer. He willingly leaned toward me, resting his head somewhere around my chest while I lowered mine to rest on his. I rubbed my thumb over his knuckles comfortingly and placed my other hand on the side of his face even though I couldn't see it.

"I'm sure she will be okay, Colby," I whispered so only he could hear. "She had to go through raising you, so I'm sure she can survive some rogues attacking her."

He took a deep breath that moved his entire torso then stilled. We stayed like that for a while.