An Eternity of Eclipse (46 page)

“No . . . no . . .”

I was so afraid that I tried my best to move, to escape from all of this. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t control any part of my paralyzed body.

Pop.

Pop.

Pop.

Utterly helpless, I could do nothing but lay there as I felt the heat of my own blood begin to slowly rake itself over me. The snake-like crimson liquid slithered beneath me, bubbling powerfully underneath the first stab wound on my back.

I shook harder, wincing as I felt the sensation of the boiling blood enter my body. Yet, what took me by surprise was that instead of feeling pain, I began to realize that the agony was beginning to dissipate.

Slowly but surely, as I felt my own blood filter back into my body like elixirs of life, the pain started to numb itself to the point where it became nonexistent. While this transpired, the boiling around me began to die down in concurrence to the “healing” that was taking place within me—hell, even the flickering lights started to become more stable. It reached the point where as soon as all semblance of pain left me, the lights stopped flickering and the boiling stopped completely. The only thing left behind as evidence of its cataclysmic presence was the condensation from the steam.

The light slowly returned to my once dimmed eyes.

Rain was still pouring heavily, but after the massive lava-like boiling disappeared, the skies stopped screaming as well. And just like the sky, the earth beneath me had stopped rumbling.

Pretty soon, nothing but silence hung over the world around me.

There were no more sounds of thunder, of water boiling, or of the earth shaking. All I could hear was the howling wind and the falling rain. The desolate street sat quietly in the darkness, behaving as though nothing out of the ordinary had taken place.

I instinctively raised my left hand up. I looked at my left wrist and felt my eyes expand when I observed that the flesh on my wrist was no longer cut open. The gold bangles glinted under the rain and the moon, proudly displaying itself on my wrist as if nothing had injured it.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

What the hell just happened?

"With a crown of the beginning on his head . . ."
30:
Source of Evil

Bewildered, I began to frantically touch myself. I touched all the areas where I had been stabbed and with each touch, I felt my heart palpitate in awe because my body felt as good as new. There were no stab wounds, there was no blood, and there was no more pain. I was no longer in agony.

I was fine.

I was absolutely fine.   

“Arf! Arf!”

Before I could think of anything else in that stupefied state, I heard familiar whimpering and barking. I caught movements out of the corner of my eye and there OinkOink was, looking just like an innocent white ball of fluff as he bounced over to me.

He whimpered in concern once he reached me and buried his small face close to my neck. When he wheeled around, I could hear a small growl emit from the little puppy.

“Arf! Arf! Grrrr . . .”

He barked ferociously, and I knew he was barking at Mr. Lee, whose face was marred beyond recognition. Mr. Lee lay unconscious beside me. He was still breathing, but barely alive.

Splash.

Splash.

Splash.

No later after OinkOink appeared, I heard soft footsteps approach me.

Then, I saw him.

Standing before me looking like the Angel of Death in his impeccable Italian black suit, Eclipse stood tall, dwarfing the gargantuan block with his mere presence. Though his powerful stature appeared larger than life, his expression was anything but. The look on his face was pure exhaustion. I suspected that he looked exhausted because he had been looking for me, that he had been trying to get to me.

His fatigued and troubled eyes locked with mine for a fleeting second before he focused his attention on the haze of condensation that was dying out around me.

Amazement swelled in his eyes when he took in the sight of everything around us. Though the volcanic-like lavas were gone, the steam was still indicative of its once powerful presence. Eclipse’s observant eyes followed that fog of warm steam as it slowly evaporated into thin air. His gaze then rested carefully on the soils beneath us before his eyes returned to the Heavens above where lightning and thunder continued to clap over the world in anger. The wrath wasn’t as potent as before, but the thunder was still loud and seemingly furious nonetheless.

After a long, pondering silence, he returned his gaze to me. In a simple and quiet voice, he said, “It seems that converting you into a Demon may be a much more difficult task than I could’ve ever dreamed it to be.”

“You . . . you did this, didn’t you?” I mindlessly accused in my weakened state. I was still feeling discombobulated and still trying to gather my bearings. “You sent him to hurt me so I’d give you my soul . . .”

Offended, his eyes rapidly shifted to anger at my accusation. “Do you really think I could do something like this to you?”

I mulled over what he said and shook my head after analytically assessing the situation. Though I wouldn’t trust Eclipse as far as I could throw him, one of the things I understood in the short amount of time I had known him was that he was extremely possessive and very protective.

So far, his attempts at forcing me to give up my soul had been under the realm of pranks and nothing life-threatening. Though it disturbed me that I would use this as a defense for him, I doubted he would take part in anything that would lead to the mutilation of my body. I still remembered how fond he was at the prospect of getting me into bed. I highly doubted he would allow another man to touch me, much less stab me countless times with a butcher knife.

“Where were you then?” I went on for the sole purpose of weeding him out as a suspect. I had already reached the conclusion that it wasn’t him who caused this, but one couldn’t be too careful with their questions, especially when in the face of the supernatural occurrence I just experienced. “You came right in time when everything ended.”

At my prompt, he simply sighed before bending down beside me.

Mindful of my fragile state, he slid his arms underneath my back and scooped me up into his arms. I tried to fight him to get out of the precarious position because it felt like the proper thing to do, but he wouldn’t have any of it. And to be honest, in my current state, I didn’t mind resting against his strong body as rain continued to fall around us. I felt so tired and it felt so nice to be in his arms . . .

“I am a Dimmed Demon, Gracie, not an all-powerful one,” he reminded me softly, tucking me closer to his body. He began to step onto the rain-strewn road and made his way over to one of the buildings to place me under for shelter. “I do not have the power to materialize at will wherever you are at. When I am back in Hell, I cannot hear you. I came back and tried to find you at work, and you weren’t there. I went to your apartment—you also weren’t there. I tried all the places you frequented, but I couldn’t find you.”

He gingerly placed me down on the steps of an out-of-business building. Once I settled underneath the newfound shelter, Eclipse’s eyes further took in my weakened appearance. His gaze reflected a mixture of concern and anger.

“Did I not tell you to only stay in places where I can find you, Teacup?”

I bit my lower lip, shivering as I rested my head against the cold brick wall. I thoughtlessly nodded. Sloth’s previous words of admonishment began to make their way through my mind. Words that once sounded like bullshit now sounded like pearls of wisdom that I wish I took more seriously.

“This is what your older brother meant, isn’t it?” I prompted wearily, still reeling from my terrifying near-death experience. I recalled the anger that resonated from the skies and the rumbles of cheers that emanated from the ground when I bled out on the street. I knew that all of this wasn’t normal, and in the deepest core of me, I knew it had everything to do with whatever Sloth was trying to warn me about. “This is what you needed to protect me from?”

A small smirk touched Eclipse’s lips. His gentle fingers stroked over my shivering cheek. “No. This specific event isn’t what he meant. If I knew that this was going to happen tonight, then I would’ve burned this city alive before that bastard got a hold of you.”

There was a bitter smile on his face.

If I thought that Eclipse was the mastermind behind this before, then this assumption would’ve gone straight to Hell the moment I saw the fury hit his face. He looked over his shoulder and rested his wrathful eyes on my attacker. 

Bam!

Before I could register what had just happened, Sony’s dad’s unconscious body was flung into the air. With the velocity of a speeding bullet, it flew across the length of the vast road, only stopping once it roughly collided with an abandoned car on the other side of the street. The faint sound of cracking bones and soft moans came from his unconscious state. The man’s body fell back to the unforgiving ground with a loud thud.

He lay there facedown, still unconscious and barely alive. He was simply at the mercy of a Demon who looked so angry that if looks could kill, the world would burn under his wrath.

“Wait! Wait! What are you planning to do?!” I breathed out in a panic, still trying to adjust to being fully conscious again. I instinctively grabbed Eclipse by the arm once he began to move towards Sony’s dad.

“Rip him to pieces and then feed him to my hellhounds.”

I had no idea whether or not he was serious about the hellhounds, but I was pretty sure he was serious about ripping Sony’s father to pieces. It was enough for me to use all my newfound energy to try and stop him. Tightening my grip on his arm, I was surprised when I felt myself being lifted off my seat and suddenly dragged like a lifeless doll in his pursuit for Sony’s dad.
So much for stopping him . . .

“No, don’t!” I screamed, coughing once my body hit the ground on impact. “He’s Sony’s dad!”

“I don’t give a fuck who he is!”

Before I knew it, we were at the end of the street, right beside Sony’s dad.

“Eclipse, stop!”

As if my voice was the only thing that extracted him from his angry state, Eclipse turned to me. Concern assailed his face when he saw that I was on the floor, still trying to “stop” him. Instead of continuing with his bloodlust pursuit, he abruptly stopped his vengeful efforts and bent down to help me up.

Helping me stand beside him, he gently wrapped his arms around me. He was prepping to move me back to the stairs when I announced to him that I was beginning to feel nauseous with all the movements. Eclipse paused, looking conflicted with allowing me to stay in an area where I couldn’t be sheltered from the rain. He peered up. When he noted that the rain had stopped falling for the time being, he relented and helped me sit on the ground in the middle of the damp road. Once I was seated under the glow of the traffic lights, Eclipse took off his jacket, covered it over me, and sat across from me.

I stared at him, taking a long moment to replay everything that occurred. I couldn’t help but tremble because I had never experienced anything more strange or terrifying. No matter how frayed my thoughts were, I was still lucid enough to remember everything that had taken place.

“Did you see everything that happened?” I asked, wondering if he was there to witness me getting stabbed multiple times as I bled out on the streets.

Eclipse shook his head. His face was grim, regretful as he assessed the holes in my hoodie that were indicative of where I was stabbed. He eyed Sony’s dad. His body laid several feet away from us. Rage blazed in Eclipse’s eyes before he controlled it and rested his soft gaze on me.

“His soul will burn in the pits of Hell for what he did to you. I’ll personally make sure of that,” he responded instead.

Though I did not want Eclipse to kill him because it would be too much on my conscience if I were to get my entire soul back, inwardly, I felt satisfied. The bastard deserved to burn in the fiery pits of Hell for what he did to me.

“Let him die naturally,” I told him quietly.

“Why?” Eclipse questioned brusquely. “He’s going to die anyway. Why can’t I kill him now?”

“He has to live,” I argued, wishing that Eclipse would just let it be and stop purging me for reasons as to why I wanted Sony’s dad to live.

My wish for Eclipse’s understanding was not granted.

“Why?” Eclipse demanded, clearly wanting to know what was coursing through my mind. He didn’t understand why I was hell-bent on making sure that my attacker continued to live instead of dying under his hands.

“Because he’s Sony’s dad, and we do not need his blood on our hands.”

Eclipse tilted his head at me. His observant eyes studied me for a long moment. Then, as if knowing my sadism far too well, he bluntly asked, “What’s your true reason, Gracie?”

I stared at him quietly, not wanting to tell him.

After several long seconds passed, I finally concluded he wouldn’t let it go until I disclosed the true reason to him. My face turned cold and I finally answered him.

“If he dies now, then he will be free of pain—even momentarily—before he goes to Hell. I want him alive. I want him to continue to breathe so that he can feel pain, so that he can be punished for what he did to me. I want him alive, I want him wishing for death, and I want to enjoy his misery while he’s on earth with me.”

Eclipse smirked, satisfied with my unfiltered answer and the true display of my sadism. “As you wish, Gracie.”

“Now back to the question,” I incited, feeling completely awake now. I was no longer interested in talking about the pitiful bastard’s life. I had more important matters to focus on. “Did you see everything that happened?”

“No,” he answered, getting back on topic as well. Sincerity radiated from his voice. “I got here near the end, when everything was finishing up.”

I studied him while the cold wind billowed around us. “Why didn’t you come in sooner then?”

“The blood boiling around you,” he explained, his expression hinting of annoyance, “it prohibited anything from being near you. I tried to walk in to get to you, but the barrier around you was inflexible. No matter how much I tried to fight it, it wouldn’t let me through. I was stuck outside the barrier until the boiling ceased.”

I attempted to ignore the fear that washed over me when he told me that the boiling around me wouldn’t let him through, like it had a mind of its own. I purged on to quell the emerging fear by asking, “How did you find me in the first place?”

Eclipse cast his attention down to OinkOink, who had been so obedient and quiet that I had forgotten he was there. He was seated beside us, his expressive black eyes staring dotingly at me.

“If you were to scream out for me, then I won’t be able to hear you or find you.” He smiled, petting OinkOink with affection. “But he can sense me and he can find me. When I returned from my Kingdom to try and find you, I couldn’t. Fortunately, while I was searching, he came to find me and almost immediately led me back to you.”

Shock molded my eyes.

“Was this the reason why you gave me OinkOink as a gift?” I asked a breath later. Everything started to fall into place for me. “So that you can find me if I were to be somewhere else?”