Nasty The Second

"So you're awake? I figured it'd be any day now", he was leaning on me as I opened my eyes.

What was this place? What was happening? What was I doing? My eyes felt so heavy.

"Do you remember anything? Your name is Seraph, do you know who I am?"

"Prophet", I answered almost instinctively.

"Good, seems you aren't completely lost", he replied before getting up.

It took me a while to come back to my senses but Prophet helped me remember everything so I was fine.

"It would have been impossible to recover you if he hadn't spotted you", Prophet pointed to the little demon hopping about.

It was a short, red, bouncy fur ball with big round eyes and small horns on its head. It had a big mouth and a thin tail.

"Nasty...the second", I said.

I remembered that we'd met this little guy at some point in our journey. Unlike all the rest of the demons we'd known, this one was incredibly friendly. For that reason, he didn't make it with the rest of them. For us, he was a blessing. His saliva had regenerative powers. He could heal any wound with just a lick. But he couldn't use that power all the time. We noticed it took him a couple of years to recover his ability if he used it on anyone other than himself. I named him Nasty II. Prophet asked me why I called it the second, I said I couldn't remember but when it came to naming him, I could only think of Nasty. For some reason, I added "the second" in his name. It just felt right to me, I suppose.

When the demon bird chucked my head off, Nasty II saw it carrying my head away. He went ahead and retrieved it for Prophet. He then put me together and waited till I was back to life. Thanks to Nasty II, I was able to recover so quickly, in mere days.

"To think we'd run into him at such a time", I said.

"Incredible, isn't it?", Prophet answered, "I suppose our journey comes to an end. I wonder what it was all about."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough", I answered.

We had sent Nasty II away to find...something. The fact that he'd returned to us must mean he'd found a reason. The thing is, regardless of how much we knew about that world after our time there, the things a demon could sense and knew of, we couldn't. Nasty was our guide. He intended to take us to our destination.

And thus we followed Nasty. It was a long, tiring journey but eventually we were there.

"Is that...", the two of us stood baffled in front of a huge castle, which upon closer inspection turned out to be vacant. It was in shambles, despite its enormous structure. The place was the most magnificent show of flames of all shades. I had indeed never seen a building so overbearing, so stupendous and at the same time unnerving, menacing, and abhorrent. We stood in the awe of that place for a good long while.

"I...", Prophet muttered, I turned my gaze to him, "I remember..."

I was completely lost.

"Seraph", he spoke, before squeezing me tightly in a hug, "Seraph...!"

I was perplexed, "Prophet...?"

"Thank God!", I thought he was crying, "I'm glad! I'm so very glad you made it. I'm glad that you're here. I'm grateful that you stayed. Seraph!"

"Prophet...what...?"

"Thank you!"

I remained silent, confused as to what had gotten into him.

"Seraph", he pulled back, teary eyed, but smiling, "Please kill me."

I stood looking at him, hopelessly. I felt that all this journey had been an effort to save him. Yet, we were back where we started. I had done nothing, I had failed him. I felt every bone in my bone breaking, every muscle aching, every scar burning, as if all the centuries gone by had been catching up to me in that moment.

I knew it was time to stop racing against him. There I stood, a failure, helpless in front of the only person I knew then. It was time to change answers. I finally asked the million year old question.

"Why?"