FINN
We waited for seven months, reaching out to anyone who would help. The Holy Shield refused to aid us, as we had betrayed them. We tried rallying demons, but they were all in it for themselves. The only people we could turn to were my mother; who was somewhere out there, dealing with something that she didn't want to trouble us with, Marc; who was spending time with his family in Washington, and Thalia; who was somewhere in the depths of hell. We were royally screwed.
"Let me check," Lilith - Eva - said. I had tried calling her Lilith before, but she insisted that I call her Eva. She didn't want to think of her past. She was the first demon ever created, meaning that she was almost as old as Lucifer himself, but she turned against him, for she believed that human life needed to be preserved rather than tormented. Her vessel, however, was only twenty-seven years old. She had created it herself, using her extraordinary abilities.
She checked my vitals. I was a Nephilim - half-human-half-angel. My angel blood made me resistant to mundane weapons, but my human blood made me weak to the dark arts. My body was still recovering. Months prior, my body had been used for the dark arts twice. Eva had used me to open a gate to Heaven, which was absolute torment. And I had later used my body to sustain a demon in order to escape a tomb in Heaven. It was a miracle that my body was still functioning.
Eva had drawn a hexagram on my chest. It was one of the strongest demonic symbols in existence, and was designed to draw the demonic aura from my body. There was a giant risk that came with it, however. If I used my abilities too much, the effects of the hexagram could be reversed, and I would be filled with demonic aura. I would become a demon.
"How does this feel?" Eva asked. She pressed a hand to the hexagram and it began to glow a deep red. My vision blurred and paresthesia spread through body.
"Like pins and needles," I said. "Pins and needles all over my body."
"Then you're healing." She pulled her hand away. "It's been seven months already, so you should be fine soon." And in those seven months, I hadn't experienced much. Most of it was spent travelling the world with Eva in search of clues and help. The only highlight was my eighteenth birthday, for which I got to see my mother briefly. After that, it was back to the old grind. We were in France, and were going to visit the catacombs in search of religious artifacts.
"We need to get back into the fray soon," I said. "Who knows how much progress the other side has made?" By "other side" I meant the Council and demons. There were two servants of Hell - Azazel and Abaddon - who were supposed to be giant obstacles for us. We needed to act fast before they got a lead on us.
"Not a chance," Eva shut me down. "Azazel and Abaddon are out there somewhere, and you're still shaken up. Besides, we scheduled our catacombs trip for 4:00, and it's already 3:00. Let's get out of here." She tossed me a shirt. It was an old, withered shirt, but I could still make out the Blizzard of Ozz album cover. I put on the shirt and followed her out of our small flat.
When we traveled, we had to stay in small locations. A month earlier, we had decided to do some looking around in London. As soon as we arrived, we ran into a group of demons disguised as taxi drivers. It was messy, and we had a lot of covering up to do. We made sure not to make that mistake again.
We caught the metro to the Paris catacombs and made it before four. Eva showed the guards our papers and fake IDs. They waved us through without question. We were in.
"We need to make this simple," Eva said as we descended the long staircase into the catacombs. "If you see any artifacts, you bag them." She gestured to the large bag over her shoulder. "If you see anything that looks out of the ordinary, avoid it."
"How am I supposed to tell the difference?" I asked. Often, artifacts were unusual looking objects like totems and masks. If she wanted to avoid anything out of the ordinary, why were we here?
"You're not," she said. "Leave it all to luck, I guess."
An hour had passed, and we still didn't find anything. We searched high and low, but there were no artifacts.
"I don't understand this," Eva said, frustrated. "Suluth said that this tomb was full of artifacts. If we can't get the artifacts, we can't get back to Heaven. That is, without using you as a human tribute again." At the beginning of our journey, Eva had summoned Suluth, the great robber demon. He knew where all of the world's greatest treasures were, and had told us that we could find tons of artifacts in the catacombs of Paris.
"Someone must have gotten here before us." I said, brushing some cobwebs off of my shoulder.
"You're very good at pointing out the obvious." Someone behind us said. I whirled around and took a defensive stance. Before me stood a tall and thin man. He couldn't have been much older than me, as he appeared to be only twenty. His hair was half-dreaded and hung loosely from his head. He had a chiseled face with an angular nose, which was pierced with a silver stud.
"Who the hell are you?" Eva asked, stepping between he and I. "And why are you raiding the catacombs?"
"I could be asking you the same question." He said jokingly. "But I'll tell you, seeing as your friend here is just waiting to tear me apart. My name is Eloy, and I am the chosen one." With that, he turned and ran. Eva and I ran after him, tearing through the halls of the catacombs. I couldn't tell whose footsteps were whose, so we eventually lost him.
"What the hell was that?" I asked as we made our way out of the catacombs. "'Chosen one?' That guy's batshit crazy or something."
"Well, whatever he is, he's a threat to us." Eva hailed down a cab. "He managed to clear out the entire catacombs before we could get to them."
"Take us to Orleans," I said to the cabbie in French. My dad was from Canada, and had grown up around people who spoke mostly French, and it rubbed off on me.
"That's going to cost you a lot." The cabbie said. I pulled a wad of cash out of my pocket and waved it around. The cabbie nodded and began to drive.
"Do you think he's a demon?" I said to Eva in English.
"He can't be," she said, slumping back into her seat. "I didn't feel any aura from him. He could be a human, or some kind of monster. Either way, we need to deal with him as soon as possible. We just need to get in contact with Suluth again and find the nearest artifact. If we can get to the site of the artifact, we can definitely find this Eloy."
We arrived in Orleans much quicker than the metro could have. I paid the cabbie and followed Eva up to our flat. It wasn't anything special; two bedrooms, a dining room, kitchen, a bathroom, and an office. We only planned on staying for a week, but it seemed as if we would extend our trip.
Once we were inside, I helped Eva push the dining room table to the side. When the middle of the room was clear, I made a circle of salt and began to draw the sigil for Suluth. I then cut my finger and let the blood drip onto the circle. Fire spread across the sigil, but never crossed the salt circle. A dirty old man appeared before us. His hair wasn't gray, but more of a dull black. His face was withered and his clothes were tattered.
"Why are you two summoning me again?" He asked. His voice was raspy, as if he smoked a whole pack a day.
"The catacombs were empty," Eva said. "You told us that it would be full of artifacts, but there was nothing there. Some man got to it first."
"He paid me more than you did." Suluth said simply. When we had summoned him, we had to give him a tribute. Demons would take food, bodies, and even souls as payment. We had given him four souls that Eva had taken from Hell. It was immoral, but in war, morals go right out the window.
"What could he have possibly given you?" I asked. The souls we had given him were worth a lot, as demons used souls as a source of power.
"A vessel." Suluth smiled and stepped out of the circle, something that only human bodies could do. He wrapped his hands around my throat. "I'm no longer some tool that you all can use. Now that I have a human body, I can roam around freely." Eva tried to tear him off of me, but he was too strong. I had to act fast.
Taking the risk, I sparked a fire across my entire body, burning the demon. I instantly felt the backlash, as my chest tightened. Suluth ran out of the flat, trying to put out the flames that still danced across his arms. Eva let him go, as she was busy tending to me.
"I told you that using your abilities would only make this worse." She said sternly. "You're going to kill yourself if you keep this up." She checked the hexagram, which was oozing a thin black liquid.
"Oh god," I wheezed out. "What is that?"
"Demon blood," she said. She grabbed bandages and medical tape fro the bathroom and began to wrap them around my chest. "If this happens again, the demon blood will make its way into your veins. Having the blood of angels, humans and demons in the same body is a recipe for disaster." She helped me to my feet.
"So I can't do anything that involves angels, huh? I might as well just sit at home and wait for this war to subside." I snapped.
"No. If you do, they'll find you again and take you into custody. Then they'll just put you right back in that tomb. And I'm sure you remember how horrible it was in there." Eva gave me a sharp look. I remembered, alright. All of me deepest and darkest fears had been brought to light and were presented before me. My self-doubt had dominated my mind. Eva, however, hadn't experienced anything. She was fearless, and felt no guilt or shame.
"We just need to blend in," she continued. "Fit in with the human crowd. You shouldn't have much of a problem with that. Your job is to do what a mundane can do, and only that. Nothing more, and nothing less."
"Fine," I said, defeated. "It's back to square one for me, then."
SETH
I was too late. They had come and gone in the time it had taken me to get there. My son was just within my grasp again, and he was gone just like that.
I stood in the catacombs of Paris. As a wandering soul, I could see things that no living beings could. I saw everything that had happened in these catacombs, just by touching one of the objects in the tombs. I saw my son - Finn - standing with a red headed girl. A man with ratty hair approached them, and babbled on about being "the chosen one." More religious nutcases, I guess.
I saw them run through the catacombs after him, and soon lose him. All of it had happened an hour ago. An hour too late for me.
I followed their trail. It led me out of the catacombs and into the streets of Paris. I burst into a sprint. The trail went all the way out of Paris and into a nearby city. One of the best parts of being a soul was that I felt no fatigue, hunger, or thirst. I didn't need to eat or drink. I couldn't - as without a vessel I couldn't perform those tasks. The most I could do was touch objects.
My journey had started in North Carolina, when I first escaped from Hell. I had searched the whole state for my son. I had traveled through Hell as a shortcut, in order to stay one step ahead. I had met a man named Marc, who was also trying to find away out. He too had died prematurely, and left behind a lot of family. We had sworn to meet again, after we found our families.
Two months later, I had met up with him. He had seen my son, he told me. My son had helped him get back his life, and he had helped my son wage a war in Heaven. Marc didn't know where Finn was, only that he had ran off with a demon - supposedly the redhead that he had been in the catacombs with. Marc had led me to others who had come into contact with my son. Slowly, I had gathered enough information to track him to France, and now I was going to lose him if I didn't hurry.
I reached the city limits. Their trail led me to a small flat just a few blocks away from the border. I peered through the window. My son was sitting with on the floor. A weird six-sided star was etched into his chest, and black ooze was dripping from it. Kneeling next to him was the redheaded girl. She was wrapping gauze around his chest.
I slipped through the window and stood before them. They couldn't see me without a host, as I wasn't powerful. I was a mere human soul. I could possess one of them to alert them of my presence, but the demonic aura from the redhead weakened me.
"Where do we go next?" Finn asked her.
"We need to lay low for a while." She said. "Suluth is probably consorting with the other side, doing as much as he can to slow us down. Now that he has a vessel, he's a huge threat to us. We should meet up with Marc. His house is surrounded by protective sigils. Maybe he can modify them so that I can get through. As long as we're there, we're safe."
"Back to the states then." Finn began to pack his belongings into a suitcase. They were leaving. I had to make my presence known before they left, as the sigils around that house could keep me out.
I wandered around the flat, trying to find something of use. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and tested it. This should work.
I went back into the room Finn was in and began to etch a message into the walls: Hello, Finn. He saw it and stopped packing to observe the engraving. He could see the knife and the message, but not me.
"Eva," he called out. His voice was shaky, and he hugged himself to keep steady. "I think you want to see this." The redhead - Eva - came into the room and scowled at the message.
"Suluth must have led other demons here," she said. "They're probably imps. They do these mischievous things to get in your head and mess with you."
"But what if it's-"
"It's not your father, Finn." She said sternly. "He's been dead for eight months, now. His soul is in Hell, with all of the other souls."
"You never know." Finn said. I could hear the hope in his voice. That's my boy. "Lucifer's managed to rebuild his altar. The gateway to Hell is wider than ever. He could've-"
"Finn," Eva scolded him. "The other side is full of malevolent beings. They don't care about your feelings. They will tamper with them to throw you off. Your father is in the afterlife. He's in Hell."
"Yeah," Finn gave in. "You're right. It's just wishful thinking on my part." He went back to packing his suitcase. I tried putting my hand on his shoulder, but it fazed right through him.
"Oh, Finn," I said, though he couldn't hear me. "If only you knew."
Raven wasn't happy to see me. I had tried to get in contact with her before, but she was busy. Now, she had no choice but to talk to me.
"What's wrong with you, Seth?" She said, hurt. "I left eighteen years ago so that you would be safe. Instead, you decided to stay put. You didn't move around at all. They were searching for you, and you decided that staying put was a good idea."
"I didn't want to stress Finn out." I explained myself to her. "He already had enough to deal with. I had to make up a lot of lies to hide the truth from him. If we moved around, he could have gotten himself into even more trouble."
"And what's worse than watching helplessly as your father dies?" She shouted. "What's worse than being kidnapped and used? What's worse than watching a supernatural war unfold before your very eyes?" She slapped me. As a high angel, she could easily interact with souls as she pleased.
"What did you want me to do?" I pleaded with her. "I told him everything. I told him all about you and me. I confessed to him just before I died. And from what I've heard, he's taking care of himself."
"Taking care of himself?!" Raven was outraged. "Seth, he's in horrible shape. He was used as a human tribute to open a gate. He used his own life force to summon a demon. Now he's practically dying trying to maintain his mortality. Seth, our son is turning into a demon."