That Night

I awoke that night screaming in agony. Looking down at my chest I saw bright blue flames emblazoning a pentagram into my chest. Even through the pain, I convinced myself I was dreaming. I started to float up out of my bed, some otherworldly force stretching my arms out to their sides. I was spun around by the invisible force so that my feet pointed at the ceiling, my head towards the ground. That's when it spoke to me.

'Yes. You'll do nicely.'

I didn't know what to think. I was completely at the mercy of whatever this thing was. Still under the delusion I was dreaming I tried to wake myself up. It may have been that fact that saved my life.

Two points on my back suddenly flared up and started to burn. My room was filled with blue light, which I could only assume was from the flames on my back. The pain was so severe. Still locked in this cross-like pose hovering a few feet above my bed, there was nothing I could do about it. I honestly still do not know how I survived that night.

It spoke again.

'Well well... you are a troublesome one aren't you. Why won't you submit?'

I fought to wake up. I wanted so bad for this nightmare to be over. This pain to stop.

It then spoke the final thing it said to me that night.

'How... HOW! You're... resisting? I've made a terrible mistake. I will not be bested by some child. I WILL NOT!'

The heat was intense. Too intense. I could hear the crackling and popping as my flesh was seared. But somehow I could withstand it. The longer I held out, the more the heat felt comforting and warm. As the flames enveloped my body they brought with them a calm ecstasy. I felt like all thoughts and feelings and pain and emotions converged at my body in that instant. As quickly as it came to me it left, and with its depart I slammed back into my bed.

After a few minutes of stunned paralysis, I crawled under my covers and ended what I had thought to be the most bizarre dream I had ever had.

***

I woke up. Dragged myself into the shower. Lethargically brushed my teeth. My usual morning routine. As I went to my mirror to do my hair for the day, I noticed something strange. My chest had a pentagram branded upon it. It was made with a thin line of scarred tissue right in the centre of my upper chest. In my delirious, sleep ridden eyes I hadn't noticed it until now. I remember thinking to myself,

'What...the...hell. Does that mean that last night wasn't a dream? That isn't possible. It can't be possible.'

I didn't have time to ponder the consequences of this. I was already late. Rushing downstairs and rushing breakfast, with my shirt buttons mismatched and tie scrappily tied I started my journey to school.

After running for about ten minutes I started to wonder why I wasn't getting tired. I must have run for at least a mile now, and not even a sweat. My muscles should be screaming in defiance at my continued use of them. But my body was silent. Working like a well oiled machine.

My heart sank when I heard its voice.

'Fucking heaven, there's one nearby.'

It was the same voice from my dream... in my head... a part of me? But how could that be possible? Was I going insane? Did I carve a pentagram into my own chest?

Before my mind had any more time to ponder these questions I was thrown to my feet. A large object had come crashing down from the sky, so hard it left a dent in the pavement. As I roused and stood back up I could see that the cracks spread for metres away from the crater.

'A fucking meteor! What is my luck.' I thought to myself.

'It's not a meteor.'

I had not thought that. But it came from inside me. I had decided in that instant that I must have been crazy. But on further inspection, the voice was right. Smoke had shrouded the object that had hit the ground in front of me, in that instant two impossibly white wings lifted out of the smoke veil. In one big flap, they had completely cleared the smoke. A man stood with those sparkling white wings outstretched and glowing, heavenly light coming from above his head. He was handsome with a perfectly formed, muscular body.

'You. What is your name?' He spoke in a commanding but defusing tone. His voice was deep but sounded sweet in my ears.

'Ezekiel.' I responded sheepishly.

'In the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit. I will cleanse your soul. I will rid you of the King of Plagues, Abaddon.'

I couldn't even respond. I distinctly remember a thousand questions racing through my mind. The voice shone through them all and answered them very succinctly.

'If you want to live, yield to me.'

As if on cue, the winged man drew a flaming sword from his belt. I thought this was odd as I hadn't seen a scabbard on him.

I decided my only option was to trust the voice in my head, which made me absolutely certain I had lost my mind. At the same time as I felt my consciousness slip into the back of my mind, I felt the voice come to the forefront.

As it took over, my body seemed to change and grow. My muscles seemingly inflated and became especially defined. It felt like my stamina and energy increased, even further than it already had. My fists burst into blue flames. I felt no pain, in fact, it was a pleasurable, tingly feeling. Finally, two small horns grew from the top of my head, and two leathery, black wings sprouted from my back. The being spoke through my body, using my voice.

'You think a weakling grunt angel like you could defeat Abaddon, King of Plagues? Even in this fleshy prison, I could best you with my eyes closed!'

When it spoke, the voice sounded like mine, but it also did not. It was like two voices layered on top of each other. One, deep and raspy. The other soft and barely broken. He then moved my body as if it was his own. I felt like I was in the passenger seat of my body, unable to control it, at the mercy of this apparent demon.

My body charged at the angel, it got right up close to him. With almost surgical precision, the being controlling my body dodged the slashes of the angel's flaming sword. He kept my arms behind my back, only moving my torso, similarly to a martial arts master.

After the being had had his fill, he started chuckling. After he had dodged the angel's attacks for the final time, he plunged my flaming fist into his chest. A silver metallic liquid spilt from the angel's lips. With a cough and a splutter the angel fell to his knees. My arm pulled the angel's heart out of his chest and squeezed it until it burst. I felt the being sink back into the backseat, as I took over my body once again. I let out an almost reflexive,

'WHAT... THE... FUCK!'

'We are weak,' the voice responded,'try to grab his halo.'

I knelt down next to the lifeless body of the angel, his halo was still glowing brightly. I placed two hands on the glowing hoop. The second I did, my veins started to bulge and glow with the same blue light as my fists did just moments ago.

'Hmmm, I've missed this.' sighed the voice.

'I wish he would start explaining this.' I thought to myself privately.

'I am the demon king Abaddon. Last night I was murdered. I desperately looked for a host as my soul rose up from hell. Sadly all I could find was you. Even though you were sleeping you resisted me. I couldn't fully take you over. So now my soul is a part of yours, we are connected until the end of time.'

'You... but... how... I don't understand.'

'Fucking humans.' he spat the words into my mind like venom.

'How did you die?' I clumsily responded.

'The embodiments of the seven deadly sins betrayed Lucifer and all of his demon kings. With their combined power it was just enough to overpower Satan. Now I'm dead, trapped in the body of some weak kid while the throne of hell is up for grabs.'

'Well, I've got nothing keeping me here. Let's go to hell and claim the throne.'

'You idiot, we'd need the power of Satan to even control it. When you touched that angel's halo, you absorbed his godly power, albeit there wasn't very much. You'd need to kill every single one of the sins and absorb their power, plus steal the black wings of the Morningstar. Pride, took those after the battle. Even then, every other demon who wants a shot will try the same thing. A rookie like you stands no chance.'

'Listen to me you prick. You have sullied my soul for all eternity. Now that I know that hell and heaven are real, I'm kind of pissed that my soul probably isn't going to heaven. I saw what you did back there, I think if there's even a small chance we could get that throne, I want to try. I'd rather die knowing I tried my best to be the king of hell.'

'You are fucking insane... I love it. Ezekiel, Demon King of Hell has a nice ring to it doesn't it?'