DISCLAIMER! This chapter and maybe the second one are all over the place at the moment because I am in the process of editing it. Please excuse me.
-----Daniel-----
It only stood there for a second or two in my doorway. The ground was shaking and the black silhouette moved closer and closer. It sat there at the foot of my bed, staring, and nothing more. I could not move, nor could I breathe properly. It was then, I began to choke while it stretched across my bed, getting closer to my face. Screaming, I woke up in tears as I sat up in bed and grabbed my inhaler. I pressed the button on the top, sucked in the mist it emitted and lied back down. I then placed in back on the bedside desk. I dug under my pillow and pulled out my phone to check the time.
'12:00 Ante-Meridiem' flashed on my phone screen, seconds after I pressed the 'on' button. There was no way I was going back to sleep after a dream like that. This was the third time that had happened to me this week. That exact same sleep paralysis nightmare had haunted me as if it wanted to tell me something. I sat up from my bed to see my dad's book on the floor. Let me give you some backstory on the trinket. It is in theory, what killed my father. Well, at least in the minds of my and my mother's.
My dad purchased the book from the clearance aisle in a bookstore. It was titled "Laws Of Dark Entities, " and had the drawing of a goat skull on the cover of it. My father got bad vibes from it but brought it home anyway. A day after purchasing it, he and the person who rang it up, died. It couldn't be a coincidence, because they were both the only people who touched it. My mother feared that it might happen to me, despite it possibly being by chance, so she made me swear not to touch it. What I questioned was what could've knocked it over. My room door was locked, and nobody else was in my room.
I began to think that what if the key to getting rid of the cursed lung condition, asthma resided in this book. Though I swore to her, my beloved mother I would not touch it, there was only one way to prove my theory, and resolve the curiosity about that book that was eating me whole.
Slowly, I slipped my fingers under the hardcover, took a deep breath, and opened it.
Flipping through the pages of the book, I mumbled under my breath, "Sorry mother." I soon found myself on a page with the picture of the pentagram on it with text beside it. The text read:
"Shed blood and draw a pentagram with it. On each corner of the star, place a lit, black candle."
I bit my thumb and pressed it onto the hard wooden floor shaping a large, crimson, bloody pentagram on it. I headed to the dressing room, grabbed five black candles, and a lighter from the kitchen drawer. I then headed back to my room to shut and lock the door. Hurriedly, I placed the candles in the listed areas and lit them each, then read the next instruction. I tore out a piece of paper from a notebook and wrote the ritual spell on it.
As I worried if I would die the following day, I placed the book in the middle of the pentagram, open to a page that had a drawing of an odd symbol on it. So that mother would not wake up, I quietly began to read the words I wrote on the piece of paper.
".sevresed eh tahw mialc ot niaga esir llahs eh ,koob siht edisni morF .kcab mih dloh regnol on llahs ydob sih dnuora sniahC .luos ym ekat eh llahs dna ,ydob ym ekat eh llahS .thgin eht sgnirb dna ,thgil eht sedih eH .lla ti sees eh ,lla ti sraeh eH"
-----Lucifer-----
The wing beat of demon wings echoed through the cave of Hell, sounding loud as striking thunder to be heard from miles. The zealous demons gambled, playing games like pool and poker in the clubhouse. Others basked in the lava hot springs. It was a demon's paradise down here. Sometimes, if they were good, Lucifer would reward them with slaves to either be beaten, tortured, or even raped! Those humans were the dead sinners that were cast down to hell in spirit form.
"Amdusias, my boy, come over here!" Satan called out, his deep voice booming through the caverns of hell.
In less than a second, in the snap of quick fingers, through the air, Amdusias's cold, dark presence began to linger. He then appeared before his very eyes.
"Amdusias, " he named, the fiend tilting his head in response, "we've got a young boy who's trying to contact me. Go check on him, give him the signal that I'm coming, and that the ritual was a success."
He nodded, though Lucifer could never tell how Amdusias was feeling when it came to these things. He never spoke a word, and wore a goat's head over his face which masked his expressions.
-----Daniel-----
The book began to glow as a black figure rose out of it. I could hardly make out the body, but the head was like in the picture, that of a goat's skull. It moved over to me and put a hand out as it growled. I then vigilantly took hold of it and it forced me to shake it. It seemed as though it already knew what I desired because it just vanished with the book, and my larynx felt like it was no longer being squeezed. I then headed back to bed forgetting to clean up the ritual. I was too busy thinking about how my life would now be since what my asthma restricted would no longer bound me. The following day I woke up to see my mother in tears begging God that I didn't touch the book. My door was open somehow which puzzled me. All I hoped, was that I wouldn't die as did my father that one day.
I woke up the coming morning to my mother sobbing at the foot of my bed. She was practically choking because of hyperventilation. Mother was broken. She stood up and wrapped her arms around me, locking me in a tight hug. She softly kissed my forehead before begging,
"Please! Don't tell me you did what I think you did!"
She cried wet patches on my pajama shirt as I sat there silently devastated.
"W-What if I did?" I inquired in a shaky voice.
Mother sat at the foot of the bed, as I perked up.
"We need to talk about your father, What really happened to him. Daniel, you were born a cursed child, one meant not to live past the thirteen-year mark. Your father desperately searched for a solution, something to cure your asthma, which is a result of your curse. Daniel, your condition reaches further than casual asthma, but instead, it comes worse. When your father purchased that book, he had full knowledge of its power and performed a ritual that same day to lift the curse you were born with. He made a deal with Lucifer, a sinister demon whom cannot be trusted. He needed a sacrifice for the ritual to complete. Your father, Andrew, gave himself up for you. Leaving his kindred behind, he spoke to Lucifer about some things before closing his bagged eyes forever the very next day."
Mother carefully removed a tissue from her pocket, brought it up to her nose, and gently blew into it before wiping away some tears.
"Whatever you do, do NOT trust the Lucifer, Daniel, and stay safe; close with God."
I nodded as I looked into her teary, azure eyes in shock of what I learned. I could believe this, but only hardly was I able to comprehend what happened to my father. Shortly after mother left the room I looked through my phone to research the entity better known as "the devil," and sometimes "Lucifer." According to Google, Lucifer is a fallen angel from heaven, who was quite jealous of others. He was the most handsome of all, but slowly, his heart filled to the brim with nothing more than malice, spawned of jealousy. Lucifer was quite cynical and liked to trick the weak who hadn't worshiped God.
-----Lucifer-----
He vanished, and I could only assume that he went off to visit that boy as I commanded him to. Life was pretty easy for me, mainly because I owned an entire place to myself along with loyal subjects to boss around. Things were much, much better since God kicked me out of his living space. No longer had I to follow rules, but instead enforce them upon others.
I stood up from my throne and began to wander the big cave, Hell, only to stop and take time to admire my rule-board. In large text at the top read:
"Populates of Hell shall worship the highest progenitor god, Lucifer, above all, archangel, and should they happen to disobey, he shan't sit there twiddling his fingers, but shall revoke your privileges of life."
Abreast the number one rule was ones that opposed God's ten commandments. Hell, my home was basically a reversed heaven.
"Who needs a god who greatly restricts your will, when you can have a god such as me," I mumbled under my breath as a large portal opened above my head.
"It's time to go meet my new follower. It's about time another one decided to follow under my ruling."
-----Daniel-----
Mother had left for work after calling me out from school, but something out of the ordinary happened when she left. A tall male that looked quite perfect came into view. He looked much like how Lucifer was described to look. He had tan skin rather than red, minus the pitchfork and tail like shown to have in cartoons. In a deep, cold voice, he'd begin an introduction. An introduction of himself.
"Hello, Daniel! Good to see you! It seems so, that you've met my main man, er, demon, Amdusias last night after the ritual. I've heard that you wish to make a deal, huh?" He raised an arm and flicked out his hand, spreading each of his fingers a bit of distance apart as he stretched his lips into a large, ear to ear grin, his teeth visible, and not a speck of tar on them.
"N-No, sir, " I assured, "I'm all good; my larynx is doing just fine now. Amdusias, your friend already had cured my asthma."
I tried my best to keep calm in a situation such as the one that I was in, only so that he could not sense my fear.
"What? No, no, no; I see now why you would think such a thing. You used that inhaler sometime before, remember? You know, the one that you use to temporarily get rid of the tightness in your larynx? Amdusias had only come to give you the knowledge that the ritual had been a great success."
I didn't want to trust him, but I had to act as if I did. He began to keep insisting that I make the deal until it got irritable. Incessant.
"What happened to Andrew Wilsmith? You said that you would lift the curse that I was born with if he'd given you a sacrifice! He chose himself to be the one, isn't here now, and I still have the curse, which I can tell by asthma it won't cease to bring me as a result!"
The lord of Hell seemed like he wanted to back down. Like he knew that I'd been onto him. Him and his constant lies. He'd reply in an irritated voice. It was clear to me then, that I'd gotten too comfortable because I was screaming lung high at the lord of hell. I knew this because of his stern retort.
"The one you seek knowledge of and about is still living, but only in hell deciding of now, contemplating on if he was ready to go or not. Should he give himself for his only child or not. Now do you want to rid your asthma or not? I am a busy man on a timed schedule, and have no time for your high and mighty, and overly disrespectful manners."
Being a naive and pubescent boy, I'd just taken his answer as ver.
"I guess I will," I lifted out my hand and grabbed hold of his, "but will this kill me?" I asked nervously.
"No Danny, It will not. If you make this deal with me, I shall, and will allow you to visit your father in Hell."
I shook his hand in fear that he would end my life if I weren't to. What I was not sure about, was that Lucifer had wanted something of value to me for this to work, which I'd given to him unknowingly.