LEON'S POV
I hated coming to hell. It was hot and loud and just a pain in my ass. I had better shit to do than come down here and deal with my annoying brother. Fuck, I hate him. My whole life, I have been second best to him, and then I discovered that I'm only alive because of his darkness. The same darkness that he couldn't handle.
Pussy.
He gets to live this amazing life with a family and an amazing girl who loves him, Ebony. My beautiful Ebony. I had such hatred towards you because you made him happy. You made him want to be better, and he didn't deserve to be happy, and he doesn't deserve you.
I approached the gates of Hell as the familiar feeling of nerves set in. Although I had been here many times before, the feeling of being stuck here for eternity did scare me. I didn't fear much, but my punishment in hell was enough for me to always be one step ahead of death.
"Name." The demon at the gate said abruptly, not even looking up from his long list of names.
"I have a meeting with Lucifer."
"I said, what is your name, not your business." The demon spat at me. My blood boiled as he looked me up and down, pathetic creature. If I had my way right now, I would tear its teeth out one by one and make it eat them as I cut off its legs slowly.
"Te futueo et caballum tuum" [Screw you and the horse you rode in on.] I growled at him in Latin.
"What?" It roared at me.
"inutilia." [Useless.] I rolled my eyes and sighed loudly. "My name is Leon Morgan," I growled at it.
"This way." It said, ignoring me and walking down a long dark corridor. I reluctantly followed it as I fought every urge in my body to snap its filthy neck. "Keep your hands at your side at all times. The walls like to bite." It instructed.
I looked at the walls and saw it was made up of human heads, all watching me and showing their rotting teeth. This is why I live in the human world. You would never see such a thing in their world, and if you do, it's quickly covered up by the authorities.
The demon led me into a small room filled with hundreds of humans, all Cramer in and lined up in a straight line, one behind the other, all looking at a small piece of paper in their hands. They were literally standing there waiting in line for nothing as numbers flashed up on a screen that didn't match their tickets. They all sighed impatiently and went back to staring at their ticket. This is their eternal punishment waiting in line to go nowhere. Clever.
"This way." The demon called as he walked to the front of the line. The humans didn't seem to notice us as I followed him through a door and into another room where other humans and creatures were being cut in half by rusty chainsaws. Blood covered the walls and floors like red paint. Wait, is this what they are lining up for? Stupid creatures.
"Lucifer is down this corridor and to your right. Don't go left, or you will end up in the pit, and trust me, you don't want to spend eternity in there." It gave me a wicked smile, and laughed with pure joy.
"Great." I groaned, walking down the hallway, not even looking back. I fucken hate this place. It's creepy as fuck down here. I approached the door to Lucifer at the end of the dark corridor, and I heard an all too familiar voice fill my head.
"Brother, don't do this. The darkness will find you."
Carter's last words ran through my head as his screams of pain and sorrow filled me like air. I could feel his terror and panic inside me like I was the one being pulled into the portal by the hell hounds. I could hear the hell hounds let out an all-mighty howl of pleasure as I reached the door and looked around frantically for them in complete panic. I jumped as I heard manic laughing coming from behind the door.
"Leon, my old friend." Lucifer was standing in front of me, still laughing. "I do love a good practical joke, don't you." He slapped me hard on the back, causing me to stumble forward slightly.
"Not particularly." I fucking hate this place.
"I thought you might enjoy hearing your big brother again. It's been a long time Leon. Far too long if you ask me. I mean, I do you a favor, and you don't even visit?" I stared into his yellow snake-like eyes and nodded softly in agreement.
"It has been a long time," I said, looking at his new form. Lucifer could take any form he wanted, and every time I saw him, he looked different. This time he had taken the form of a tall well built blonde haired human man. I think his name is Hemsworth or something. He looked ridiculous.
"You like it?" Lucifer laughed, flexing his muscles. "The ladies love it, and I gotta tell you. I get so much human ass." He once again slapped my back extremely hard. "You know how good a human feels, don't you, you old dog." He winked in my face like we were pals.
"Yeah, it's great." I rolled my eyes. "I need to talk to you about a problem with our deal."
"Of course. Please come to my office." Lucifer smiled and held the door open as I walked into his office. Much like the devil's appearance, his office was continuously changing its appearance to suit his mood. Today it looked like my childhood bedroom, complete with candles burning by my bed and my favorite old teddy bear I called Gusto sitting on my pillow. I felt physically ill seeing it again, and I could see the joy spread across his face as he saw my reaction.
"Home sweet home." He smiled, walking over to my bed and sitting down. "Come and sit down, old boy." He patted the bed gently and smirked at me, picking up Gusto in his arms and cradling it like a baby.
"Why are you doing this?" I said, not moving.
"Doing what?" He looked shocked at my question.
"Taunting me with my past? I'm not the one condemned to hell, and I refuse to be made fun of like I'm some sort of idiot."
"Make fun of you? No, I was just trying to make you feel welcome. I had no intention of making you feel that way. If you like, I can change it?"
"Yes." I stormed over to him and ripped Gusto out of his arms, placing him back safely in my pillow. "Anything but this."
Without another word and a click of his fingers, he changed the image of my childhood bedroom to that of a busy strip club. Girls on poles and men getting lap dancers now surrounded us. The pungent smell of sex and cigarettes all around me made me feel sick to my stomach.
"Better?" He smiled, sitting at a booth off to the side.
"Not really, but it will do." I sat opposite him and brushed cigarette ash and nut shells off the table and onto the floor.
"Really? I thought you would like it?" Lucifer smiled and looked around proudly. "Remember the good old days when we were young."
"Look, I have a problem. The world I created for Ebony, I mean the human, is not working anymore."
"In what way exactly?" He leaned forward and rested his arms across the table.
"It seems that my brother has somehow been able to affect it. He can control weather and earthquakes, and god knows what else. This was not part of our deal. He was not supposed to be able to have any effect on Ebony or me."
"I can assure you, Leon, that Carter can not contact you or that human girl, and he most certainly can not control anything in your world. The man can hardly lift his head, let alone conjure the kind of magic it would take to affect your world. He is barely alive." Lucifer looked pleased with his words. "That vampire is a vegetable."
"Then, can you explain to me why he is trying to reach out to the human girl? How can he change things in a world I created if he is barely alive?" I banged my fist on the table in complete frustration. "How is that even possible?"
Lucifer sat back in his chair and rubbed his chin. "Are you questioning how I run things around here, Leon?"
"What? No. I just want an answer. I made a deal with you, and it's not.."
"Because it seems to me that you are suggesting that I don't know what I'm doing." He cut me off before I could finish. "Is that what you are suggesting to me, wolf boy?" He raised an eyebrow at me as his yellow eyes felt like they were burning into my skin.
"Look, I know I shouldn't question you, but lately, things have happened that I can't explain. I need to know that Carter is not the reason for it."
He stared at me for a minute as his yellow eyes narrowed on me. His face screamed rage, but his body was as relaxed as ever.
"I just need to make sure it's not my brother."
He slowly leaned onto the table, ensuring his eyes never left mine. I felt pain in my chest, like a fire burning inside me. His yellow eyes flashed red as the pain worsened with each ticking second.
"Lucifer, please. I meant you no disrespect. I just wanted to check in on my brother. That is all." I grabbed my chest and fell to the floor as the pain became unbearable. I looked into his now black eyes and gasped out the only words I could. "Vetus amicus placere." [Please, old friend.]
The pain stopped, and I closed my eyes in relief as my body returned to normal.
"Sorry about that," Lucifer said, reaching for my hand and pulling me up off the floor. "Old habits die hard." He laughed, pulling me in for a hug. "Of course, you want to see your brother. Come, I will show you that you have nothing to worry about." He put his arm around my shoulder and dragged me through the busy strip club. We walked through a flashing door marked private, and he pulled me into a dark, quiet room as he put his finger to his lips. "Shhhh, you don't want him to get distracted." He opened a door and pointed inside with an evil smile on his face.
I walked into the room and looked around nervously. It was small and white and had nothing in it but a single chair that reminded me of a dentist's chair. It wasn't facing me, but I could see the top of Carter's head.
"Go, have a look for yourself." Lucifer nodded and pointed his finger. "Be careful, though. He bites." He laughed at his own joke.
I walked towards the chair slowly, and my stomach felt like it was in my ass. My body tensed with the anticipation of seeing my brother after all this time. I slowly stepped around the chair with my fists clenched, ready for anything.
Carter was sitting in the chair, staring straight ahead at nothing. His head was chained to the seat, as were his hands and feet. His eyes were the color of blood as he stared forward, and his once youthful appearance now seemed aged and tired. He was lost in his head and looked terrified and sad, something I had never seen on his face before. He wasn't blinking or moving a muscle. He stared straight ahead as visions played through his mind like a horror movie. My handmade bad horror movie.
"Is he seeing my world?" I turned back to Lucifer.
"Like a sitcom on repeat. He can feel it every single time you kill her. He can feel every blade, every snapped bone, and every breath leaving her perfect little body. Every time you kill her, he feels it, and he remembers it." Lucifer smiled, pleased with his answer.
"Every single time?"
"Every. Single. Time." Lucifer repeated as he leaned against the white wall. "He is nothing but a shell of regret and misery, well in between the pain, that is. As you can see, the man can barely keep his head up, so I can assure you that whatever is happening in that little world of yours has nothing to do with this deadbeat." Lucifer walked over to me and bent down to Carter. "Isn't that right, mate? There is not a thought in that pretty little head of yours, is there?" He flicked Carter in the ear and laughed as he got no reaction at all. "See. There is nothing left anymore."
I felt a twinge of guilt flow through my body as I watched my brother sit there, lost in his head. I wanted him to suffer more than anything, but had I gone too far? Was this worse than death? This vampire was once the most powerful and feared creature to ever exist, and now he was nothing more than a body chained to a dentist's chair. The guilt started to curse through my veins, and I had to grab onto the chair to stop myself from falling over. "You did this for a reason," I told myself as I started to remember all the things I had done to Ebony and all the ways I had killed her over the last ten years. She had the benefit of not remembering any of it, but could Carter remember everything? Every single time she had died, he remembered it. Who could survive that torture, and why would you want to?
"So, are we good here?" Lucifer said, smiling at me again.
"Yes." I turned away from Carter and shook his image out of my head. He deserved this. This was his doing, and he knows it. "Thank you for your time." I walked out of the room and never looked back.
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A/N
CATER!!! 😭😱🤧
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