THE DEVIL'S AFFECTION

45. AMEN

I reach out my hand and then hear Hanes yelling. That's when I draw my hand back.

"Don't!" He yells, running after me in his robe and bare feet as well. "Don't touch that!"

Now, he's really making me question if my dream was right.

"Why not? It's a gate."

"Why are you touching that... why do you want to, I mean?" He stumbles on his words, seemingly struggling to find the right ones as he runs over closer.

"I just... I need to see something." I reach my hand out again.

"No!! Stop!" He yells, but it's too late; my hand is on the gate.

A horrible sharp, stinging pain burns my hands and I pull away. My skin bubbles as if it's been burnt. That's not frostbite. That's a burn.

"What the fuck..." I whine under my breath.

I'll admit I'm stupid. What did I expect? Well, truthfully, I expected to come out here to find that I was being stupid all along but I'm beginning to question my reality. What's real and what's not? But I didn't actually think it would burn me.

I hear several loud crashes and thuds and suddenly, my heart sinks. If the gate is real... then Cerberus is real too.

I snap back to look at the Hanes who looks mortified by me having done what I have. He still runs after me, getting closer now.

He collides into me, holding my burnt hand.

"What are you doing?!" He snaps, hissing his words in fear. "Look what you've done! You've—" he says only to look back at the house as the doors both swing all the way open and slap the stone walls of the house.

The three-headed massive doberman looks directly at us and my stomach falls to my feet. My feet still sting although they're falling numb — reminding me that I'm awake. This is real.

"Get away from the gate." He tells me as he rushes me away from it.

"What the fuck is happening?!" I panic.

"He's meant to keep you here. If you try to leave — by grabbing the gate — he'll know and think you're trying to leave. That's when he'll charge."

"Why are you acting like this... this is normal?!"

"Just shhh!!" He covers my mouth as the dog walks over to the gate, making quick strides to get there in a short time.

After sniffing and peering around, he then turns to us. I can hear Hanes' heavy breathing as his fear takes over.

The dog walks over towards us, one of its heads with its teeth-bared, the other with its nose sniffing off to the side and the middle one growling with drool dripping from its jaws. This feels terribly similar to my dream with slightly different details to remind me that this is all actually happening.

"Don't look at him in the eyes," Hanes whispers to me.

"Why is he coming after me? I'm away from the gate."

"Just shhh..."

As the beast slowly approaches, I tense up and brace myself. It looks from Hanes to me and back and forth over and over, each head repeating this.

"It's okay, buddy... she's with me. Everything is fine." Hanes calls out to it.

But his words don't seem to calm the beast but instead infuriate it. As it bares its teeth, I close my eyes and wait for the end that I know is near.

Peeking my eyes open, I watch it lunge and  I snap my eyes closed again and feel the excruciating pain take over.

"No! Cerberus! Stop!" Hanes commands but the dog's teeth sink into my body. How I'm not dead yet? I don't know.

With my arms stretched and bitten into by the two outer heads and the middle one digging its teeth into my back, the pain has never been so strong. I can feel my skin ripping from my back and my organs being punctured. This is worse than any burn or any cut.

"ENOUGH!" Hanes yells causing the dog to drop me before running off back to the house.

I lay tired from the pain and Hanes rushes over to see me.

"Hanes... I don't want to die..." I cry. "I don't want to die..."

The pain is slowly fading and I begin to wonder if this is what death feels like. Is this the numbness before I go cold?

He holds me, tears in his eyes, my body weak.

"I don't want to die..." I repeat quietly once more.

When I look down at my body, I see no bite marks. There's no blood, no open cuts, no bite wounds. As if it all never happened, my body is intact as it was. But I'm awake; I know I'm awake.

"What's going on...?" Tears fall down my cheeks. "Why aren't I hurt? Why am I not bleeding? How am I not dead?!"

His eyes look so painfully into mine, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Oh, dandelion... you already were."