Conviction – Part 3

'Ah!' Alphaeus jolted from his deep tranquillity, memories rushing into his shaken head as he freaked out.

Did I fall asleep? No, that couldn't be right, not at a time like this.

He slapped himself, hoping it would help to hold him together. To be honest, the mysterious pain in his heart hurt a lot more than the smack. What was it? The root of this anxious heart of his...

Bizrazeth!

Upon remembering, he blindly ran out searching for him. Frantically, he looked around to see any trace or lead that Bizrazeth might have accidentally left behind.

"Shit, where did he go? This way... Oh! A trail of blood!" Seeing blood again, he got traumatized. He strengthened his resolve in believing that the trail was made by Bizrazeth's open wounds.

But losing this much blood, would he have made it by the end?

He ran as fast as he could, following the trail. Left, straight, right, he even slipped at the turns. The agitated beats from his heart grew louder and quicker at the same pace the trail of blood grew bigger and wetter.

"Another turn? Please be the last." He knew that praying to the One who ordered his death was hopeless, yet he still did it because there was no one else he could rely on.

Adventurous and cutting the vines that covered his sight, he stumbled upon Bizrazeth, who was tied up. This Bizrazeth looked different. How different? Well, he was headless. Like Karred. Lifeless.

Alphaeus dropped to his knee, and there it was, Bizrazeth's decapitated piece, in between his legs, smiling, as if he had accepted his fate.

"No..." Alphaeus clutched Bizrazeth's head into his chest as he dropped to the ground. Having both of his precious companions taken away from him, not a single word could express this horrible feeling.

An endless stream flooded and soaked his chest whenever he tried to accept the harsh reality. His consciousness, his oneself, shattered. He felt betrayed. The only thing he could muster was this painful scream of seething.

"AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!..." In the middle of writing, Alphaeus's body was suddenly tossed into a mysterious place. It was red, crimson red everywhere. His whole body felt like it was burning and melting no matter what he tried to stop it. "Where am I!? Bizrazeth! Where are you!?"

"AH! IT HURT!!!!!"

"SOMEONE!!!! ANYONE HELP ME!!!!"

"LET ME DIE ALREADY!!!!"

Countless other Demons were hurting in agony over this new terrain alongside Alphaeus. Some had their limbs disfigured, eyesight robbed, and even movement disrupted. Tortured by the alienated terrain, even the existing wound seemed like a dream.

Why is everyone here?

"Welcome to Hell, dear treacherous and unfaithful Demons I created." It was God's voice that silenced everyone present inside this place called Hell. The writhing and shrieks died out as there was nothing direr than hearing God bespeak to you. "This estate was made for one reason. To chastise my creation that has sinned."

"Fuck you! When did we ever disobey your orders?!" objected a Demon.

"The Angels attacked and murdered us first," supported another Demon.

"Why did they do it? Wasn't it You who ordered them to do it?"

"Are we nothing more than a plaything to You? A form of entertainment? Answer us, God!"

Instead of a response, we could hear the blare of scorching flames. It seemed like God had abandoned us here for a reason we did not even know. If self-defence was unjustified, what was even considered fair? If the innocent were oppressed, could liberation ever come true?

Left in solitary, ditched by our Creator, not a single one of us had the will to live. Our completely disintegrated minds ceased to function, shutting us from moving and accepting this fate to be removed from this world.

To where? Perhaps our souls were not even able to leave this imprisoning Hell either. Alphaeus saw his friends, comrades, and acquaintances fall with these insensate eyes. They were burnt to a crisp, darker than charcoal.

As they hardened, cracks began to form, and the dead statue shattered. Ashes spread around, forcing whoever was nearby to cough insatiably. The number of surviving Demons dropped from - who knows how many were left - to one.

Alphaeus was the only one who persevered from the subjugated kin. He lay down on the searing pain of Hell's rock and waited for his time which never arrived. From hours to days. Days to months and years. He finally realized that he was not meant to be killed that day.

"How cruel can one God be to let me live and suffer through the retribution on and on?" he wondered to himself.

With no sign of release or freedom, was the hope of imagining it ever happening not enough torture for him? Mustering the resolve to move on, his body started to move again at last.

His dried and flaky skin exfoliated as if it was showing how he also turned on a new ambition. The aching feeling was now more of a tingling blow as he got used to it. What was his ambition? Quite a lot if you asked him to list it.

Where was he heading to? He did not know. This unfamiliar sight did nothing but spin his head around, trying his hardest to map the area. Everywhere looked the same. If it was not burning soil, then it was flowing lava.

That was what he thought until he met this anomalous being. He was shocked and ran into hiding the moment he saw them moving. In a world where the only living thing that he believed existed was him, how could he not get surprised?

The longer he observed them, the more familiar they seemed. Horns growing on their heads, skeletonized wings materializing behind their backs. They had a lot in common with him, a Demon, or even an Angel themselves, but just not as pure as them.

"What are you doing here?" a voice whispered behind Alphaeus' ear, almost causing him to jump out of his skin.

"Whoa!" Alphaeus rolled to the side, eyeing the two creatures who had approached him. "Are you going to kill me?"

"Are you an idiot or what?" the first creature responded? "Why would we kill one of our kind?"

"Our kind? But there is nothing similar between us," Alphaeus protested.

Surely he's mistaken or something, right? My skin is fair, but he's pitch black. My wings have feathers on them, but he doesn't.

"But I'm not one of you," Alphaeus insisted.

"The fuck with the bullshit?" the second creature remarked. "Go find a reflection or something and see for yourself. Weird ass Demon."

The moment he said 'Demon,' Alphaeus ran away uncontrollably. How did they know what he was? He had never known about their existence, yet they knew about him? One of them? Was he supposed to believe that they were classified the same as him?

"Oi, where do you think you're going? What are you playing on?" the first creature flew in his path and grabbed him. Through the reflection of his concerned eyes, Alphaeus saw the answer to his question.

"No way?" Alphaeus' fair and white skin was now the same as theirs, black. Just to make sure, he unfolded his wings to find a naked, skin with no quill covering it. What had happened here? Was he one of them?

The two Demons stayed with him even though he did not reply to their questioning.

"We're Demons, correct?" Alphaeus finally decided to be responsive and asked the first question.

"Does it look like a no to you?" the Demon joked.

"Please be serious. I'm trying to understand things here."

"Alright, yes."

"Then, what is your name?" Alphaeus asked since he knew and remembered all of the names of the Demons that were in the same batch as him.

"I'm Arnokan," the first Demon answered. Alphaeus had never heard of it.

"Sorkan's here," the second one followed. So was he.

As Alphaeus thought, both of their names were unfamiliar to him. This brought up more questions about when and where they realized who they were.

"Ever heard of the name Alphaeus?" he tried his luck.

"We don't even know other Demons' names apart from the two of us," Arnokan explained. "We knew ours because we talked with each other and reached the part where we exchange names."

Not knowing the names of everyone else? That was the most common thing they had to grasp back in heaven.

"We also know the names of the Demons of sins, if that helps," Sorkan chimed in, and Alphaeus aggressively grasped his shoulder.

"The Demons of sins, where are they? Take me to them, right now!"