Chapter 14: Defeat

The first thing Jarod felt was the ache in his body as if he had been battered and run over by dozens of semi-trucks traveling at a hundred miles an hour. He felt his eyelids flutter open and was faced with a dark grey concrete ceiling.

He forced himself to sit up, ignoring his body's protests and he observed the room around him. He quickly found out what he was sitting on was not a bed, but instead a steel frame with a thin blanket that someone could put over their couch cushion covering it.

The room was completely barren and void of any colors, just the grey cement that made the entirety of the room. He slowly stood up, slowly gathering his strength back as his body began to slowly heal itself now that he was up and functioning properly.

Stretching, he looked at the closed metal door that was on the other side of the small room, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly. He sat back down and ran his hands through his white locks, which were a little oily and definitely untamed.

How was Mackerel able to beat him so easily? Even with Dark Jarod controlling his body he didn't even put a scratch on the older demon. It made him anxious about what was going to happen next. It was an unknown factor that Arlyn and himself had not thought about.

Kidnapped by another demon? He shook his head the thought. It was ridiculous. Standing back up, his legs less wobbly than before and his aching body no longer in too much pain, Jarod walked over to the door and was surprised to feel the doorknob twist, indicating that it wasn't locked.

He quickly opened the door and jumped back, his eyes widening at the sight of a smiling Mackerel with his eyes closed. "Hello, Prince Jarod. I hope you find your accommodations to your liking?"

Jarod remained silent, glaring at the taller demon with a nasty look. Mackerel opened his eyes and his sickening grin only grew in length at the sight of Jarod's glare.

"Oh? I believe I've struck a little nerve of yours. I apologize if you were offended," He stepped out of the doorway and into the hallway. "Please, follow me." He said, gesturing towards further down the hallway.

Jarod swallowed the saliva in his mouth, his body suddenly all tensed up, fear overtaking his entire system at the sight of the peach-colored haired man. He had beaten him rather badly when he had been woken up that morning.

"What day is it?" Jarod finally got out. Mackerel didn't answer, he just began walking down the hall. Jarod bristled at being dismissed so casually but ignored it. It would be of no help to try and fight this man who was obviously more powerful than himself.

He followed Mackerel down the dimly lit hallway, not bothering to close his door behind him. Mackerel led him to a large open room that was filled with people dressed in similar grey prison-like clothing and large tables that had chairs connected to them.

The entire room reminded Jarod of the cafeteria at school except it lacked the kitchen as well as the window where he would pick up his lunch. There were two black double doors on the farthest end of the cafeteria which seemed to have a lack of people. He chalked the reason up to the two large guards with swords strapped to their hips standing on either side of the doorway.

"This is the common area of our facility and one of the only three rooms you are allowed in, the other one being the room you woke up in and the bathroom down the hall, though I would recommend you don't use it unless you absolutely have to." Mackerel said with a hint of pride in his voice, disgusting Jarod.

Jarod looked at the people in the common area and his frown deepened at the lack of sight of a single smile. They all looked miserable and their eyes were devoid of any hope, the light being ripped out of them.

"Why do you have these people here?" Jarod questioned. Mackerel laughed, causing a chill to go through Jarod's body.

"It's simple, everyone in this room will eventually die and give me their power." Jarod adopted a horrified look on his face as he saw children amongst the crowd. "And soon enough, when I find the secrets to unlocking the seal Satan himself placed upon your body, you will die and give me your powers. Everyone in this room shares the same fate as you, make some friends, you all have something in common after all."

"Have fun," Mackerel spoke before he walked back down the hallway they had come from. Jarod awkwardly scanned the faces of everyone in the room, estimating that there were about fifty to sixty people in total.

His eyes brightened at the sight of Arlyn, who was sitting at a table without connected chairs all alone. He quickly made his way over there, passing several different people who gave him weird looks that he ignored.

"Arlyn," He whispered as he sat down at the table, resting his forearms on the top of it as he met her eyes. "What's the plan?" Arlyn looked up at Jarod, her eyes widening at the sight of him.

"I'm not too sure," She admitted in a small mutter. "I've already scanned this place over a hundred times. There are no windows and the only way that I can think of as an escape is through those doubles doors, which you can probably guess why that won't work." Jarod glanced at what she was referring to and saw the two guards again.

He put his forehead onto the slightly cold table, his eyes closed as he tried to come up with ideas for escape. He hit his head faintly on the solid and cursed, not being able to think of anything. He picked his head off the table and met Arlyn's concerned eyes.

"Are you okay?" He immediately asked. "You got shocked pretty badly," Arlyn fought the urge to hit her companion.

"You're the one that looks like crap, not me." She paused for a moment before continuing. "And yes, I'm fine, thank you." Jarod gave her a small smile.

"Good," He looked around. "Mackerel said he was going to kill everyone in this room and steal their powers, is that even possible." Arlyn's face darkened and nodded grimly.

"I'm afraid so. It's a forbidden technique that's been outlawed in Hell for thousands of years. Basically, a demon can kill another demon and steal their abilities by shoving a hand straight into their chest. It's a cheap and fast way to gain power and slowly deteriorates the mind of whoever is stealing the power. The fact that he plans to steal everyone's abilities here is likely false. He would most likely die from the strain.

"There's not really too much known about it now since it's been outlawed. I guess he gets away with it on Earth, though any self-respecting demon is automatically repulsed by the idea." Jarod tapped his fingers against the table in a small beat.

"How long have you been up?" He asked her.

Arlyn calculated the days in her mind before answering. "About five days now. You've been asleep for six if I'm right." Jarod groaned.

"What's up with me and sleeping for so long? I seriously need to stop getting knocked out. . . " He muttered, hanging his head. Arlyn actually chuckled at his expense.

"Get stronger then," Jarod shrugged.

"I doubt he'll just let me train. I think he's only waiting to kill me because he wants to unlock my powers." He let out a dry and humorless laugh. "I guess the sealing of our powers is saving us at this point in time." Arlyn shrugged.

"It appears so, but listen," She began seriously. "You need to start working out. Do push-ups, sit-ups, whatever you need to do to get stronger. We don't know how long it'll take for Mackerel to unlock your powers so we don't waste the little time we might have left. The moment he unlocks your powers he'll kill you on the spot, you know that right?"

"Yeah," Jarod replied. "I know." Arlyn let out a sigh, the tension in her shoulders decreasing.

"At least you're aware of the situation," She was about to continue talking but stopped as Jarod felt his chair move backward with him in it several feet away from the table he was previously sitting at.

He jumped up and turned around and saw a young man in his lower twenties to late teens looking at him with an arrogant smirk on his face. He had dark brown hair with hazel-colored eyes with a little chub on his body.

"It's time for you to move," Jarod heard someone say confidently behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw someone standing behind Arlyn with a cruel smirk on their face. "We have dibs on all the hotties that Mr. Mackerel brings us!" The one behind Arlyn had short golden blonde hair that reached just above his eyes, which were a sky blue. He had a chiseled face and seemed to be fit and stood several inches of Jarod.

"That's disgusting," Jarod growled out. "Who do you think you are?" He yanked his chair out of the other guy's grasp and put it back in its original spot and sat back down in it. "Get the hell away from my friend and me, she's not interested in either of you goons."

"Goons? How dare you?" The blonde one hissed before Jarod felt his head get pushed forward and hit the table harshly, causing a large bang to echo in the entire room, the small talk and chatter ceasing immediately, their eyes focused on Jarod, Arlyn, and the other men. "You need to learn some manners!"

"Let go of me!" Jarod shouted as he shoved the dark-haired man off of him, glaring freely at them both as the man shifted over to his friend.

"Do you know who we are?" The blonde one began. "We're the ones who choose who Mr. Mackerel gets to absorb next! Don't trifle with us or you'll be next you peasant!"

"We're the strongest demons amongst the prisoners! You can't do anything to us!" Arlyn watched calmly as she looked at Jarod, who was seething silently, his knuckles white from the pressure he was giving his closed fists.

"I said we get first picks on all of the new beauties of the facility," The blonde one said as he placed his hands on Arlyn's shoulders. Jarod's eyes widened, his pupils shrinking in a rage as he threw the table to the side and grabbed the blonde by the throat in a flash.

"DON'T TOUCH HER YOU FILTHY BASTARD!" He roared at the top of his lungs as he smashed him into the concrete wall creating a large dent into it. "You asked me if I knew who you were? The answer is no. Now it's my turn to ask a question," He threw the man to the ground.

"Do you know who I am?" Jarod whispered, his tone filled with darkness and an uncontained rage as Arlyn could only watch in shock. The blonde stood up, caressing his neck as he glared at the white-haired teen.

"Kill him," He ordered his friend. The brunet rushed Jarod, intending on strangling the teen before he stopped, blood suddenly trailing down his chin.

"Allow me to introduce myself," Jarod whispered cruelly, his entire arm going straight through the demon's chest, destroying his heart. He took out his now blood-covered arm and glared at the blonde, speckles of blood dotting on his face. "I am the Prince of Hell, my name is Jarod."

He watched the blonde launched a punch and let it connect to his face, but he didn't budge nor flinch. He stood unwavering as he grabbed him by his neck again and began squeezing. "You say you were in charge of the prisoners, I'm here to say you aren't. You're nothing but a speck of dust that lays on a piece of shit."

"P-Please," The demon pleaded, clawing at Jarod's arm in hopes of being released to no avail.

"Listen well and listen good," Jarod shouted, looking at all of the prisoners of Mackerel. "If you mess with me, or my friend," He pointed to Arlyn with his free hand. "You'll end up like these two!" As if to punctuate his sentence, he squeezed as hard as he could until a loud snapping sound emitted from the blonde, who went limp, his neck broken.

Jarod glared at everyone, making sure his glare reached every single last one of them before letting go of the demon's body, watching as it collapsed to the floor unceremoniously into the pool of blood of his own friend.

He glanced at the guards who stood unmoving and smirked. Good.

He looked over to Arlyn and smiled sheepishly. "I didn't mean to make such a mess, I'll let you do it next time."