"Hello, Clare," He said to me.
I bit my bottom lip and looked away from Pestilence. I gulped slightly and didn't dare make a sound. This was my meek self coming out again.
"I've been hearing many stories about you," Pestilence said.
When I didn't respond, he continued.
"I believe you want this?" He said.
I looked up and saw him holding the key. The bronze key.
"This is the last one you need, right?" He asked.
I nodded and glanced at Dawson. He was watching me as if trying to tell me to act with caution.
"Well, it's yours," Pestilence said.
"What?" I asked.
"The key is yours. I have no use for it anyway," Pestilence said. "Besides, if Lucifer ever found out I was here I'd have hell to pay. I don't know if you've heard, but I'm sort of banished from this place."
"So, I can just take it?" I wondered.
"Sure. Go right ahead... but, just one tiny thing," Pestilence said.
Here it comes. Here comes the catch.
"In order for you to get this little key from me, I want something from you," He said.
"What? Anything!" I said.
I needed that key! I would do anything to get that damn key from his greasy fingers. I needed to get Jake and I, most of all, needed to beat Lucifer at his own game.
"I want your soul."
I didn't think I'd heard him correctly.
"Um...what?"
"You heard me. I want your soul. Then you can have the key," He said matter-of-factly.
"Clare, don't even listen to him. It isn't worth it," Dawson told me.
"What do you mean it isn't worth it?" I turned to him. "Saving Jake isn't worth it to you?"
"Not worth this, Clare. Not worth this!"
"If I were to give you my soul," I said to Pestilence, "what would that make me exactly?"
Pestilence smiled and pointed to Dawson, "It would make you him."
I thought for a moment about what he meant by that, and then I understood. Pestilence wanted me to become a demon, like Dawson.
"You want me to be a demon?" I asked.
Pestilence nodded.
"Clare, this is crazy! You are not going to become one of us!" Dawson said.
"I will do whatever it takes to bring Jake back!" I said.
"What are you gonna do when you find him?" Dawson yelled at me.
"What?"
"What exactly do you think is going to happen when you get your little 'boyfriend' back?" Dawson fumed. "Do you think you're magically going to find a way out of here? Become human again on Earth? Start a fucking family and grow old together? What the fuck are you gonna do once you get him back?"
I paused for a second and stared at Dawson. I couldn't believe he was saying these things to me. After all that we've been through together in the pit. After all of the things we've seen and done just to get Jake back, and now he wants to call it quits?
"And that being said, Clare," He continued, "how do you even know if your going to get out of the Hell room once you've been let in. I told you that it's nearly impossible for anyone to get out once they've been in."
I continued to stare at Dawson for what seemed like hours.
"What exactly do you think you're going to do, Clare?" Dawson asked.
I swallowed hard.
"Survive."
"Don't do this, Clare. Please!"
I turned to Pestilence.
"Is this what you want?" I asked him. " My soul. Is that what we're bargaining for?"
Pestilence nodded, "I believe so."
I looked at Dawson and then back at Pestilence.
"I'm sorry," I said not looking at Dawson's face. "But I have to get him back."
"Clare....."
"It's a deal."
Pestilence smiled and threw the bronze key in Dawson's direction, where it landed on the floor at his feet.
"Clare don't do this!" Dawson begged.
"I already have," I said.
Pestilence advanced towards me and it took all of my willpower to not run away. I had agreed to this deal, but only for Jake's sake. We needed that key, and if this was the only way to get it, then so be it.
"Sweet girl," Pestilence said as he reached a hand out to stroke my hair and I shivered slightly.
He grabbed my shoulders with his hands firmly and looked me dead in the eyes. Instantly I was trapped in his gaze. My mind went blank and all I could see were his cold, dead eyes piercing into mine like a knife through butter. I could feel a rush of cool air being pulled out of every pore in my body, but I couldn't move. I could even scream.
Then I was being pushed to the side and the feelings of blankness and calmness instantly rushed away and I was left petrified on the ground.
"You little shit!" I head Pestilence yell. "We had a deal!"
"You had a deal," Dawson answered. "I had nothing to do with it!"
"What are you going to do now?" Pestilence asked. "You can't kill me. Nothing can, but my brother."
"We aren't going to kill you."
I felt myself being scooped up in Dawson's arms and the jolting of my head against his chest as he ran.
I saw the wasps begin to form around us in a cloud and they stug every inch of open skin, but Dawson pressed on.
We got to a wall and Dawson put me down to stand on my feet as I was coming out of my haze.
"Dawson what are we going to do?" I asked
The waps continued to sting and my vision was becoming blurry and I felt lightheaded.
"Stay with me, Clare. Stay with me."
He fumbled around in his pocket and pulled out all four keys together. They instantly clicked together, as if old friends now reunited, and formed the pattern of a circle.
"I can summon the door from anywhere, as long as we have the keys."
"I'm-I can't stay awake," I said as everything began to spin and I could feel my legs buckling from beneath me.
"Come on, Clare. We can do this," Dawson said as he pulled my arm around his shoulder to support me.
"The wasps."
"I know. I know."
Dawson set the keys down on the ground and, with the hand not supporting my waist, held out his arm and said a few words in a strange language. A hole formed in the middle of the ground that created a wind that began sucking everything into it, including the wasps. Soon, Dawson and I were standing by the edge together.
"I'm going to pass out," I said as I was still feeling the effects of the now absent wasps.
"You can do this, Clare."
"Wait, Dawson! Just wait for me please!" I said.
"We can't wait anymore, Clare!" Dawson said. "This is it! This is the moment we've all been hoping for."
"I can't. Not now. I'm not ready!" I begged with him as my hearing started to fade and everything was turning black.
"We cannot wait any longer! You must go now!" Dawson said.
At that moment, he pushed me into the hole and I went falling into the abyss . Just as I was consumed into the darkness of my mind, I saw Dawson's face.
Smiling at me as I fell and waving goodbye.