And The Heavens Fell Silent by Maria Louise (beach read TXT) 📖

lifted the knife above my head and finished, “Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris! Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo! Amen!!!”

     “No! Do not kill him! Please, do not murder! This world has seen enough bloodshed!” came a angelic voice behind me. The voice was as smooth and sweet as honey but as masculine and deep as thunder.

        As the demon convulsed underneath me, I turned my head to gaze upon the naked man who had spoken to me. His body was as majestic as his voice. His skin was shimmering with perspiration and ash clung to his muscular, lean build, like sludge. His golden hair was tousled and played with by the wind and his deep blue eyes were so piercing it was terrifying. The rest of his body, I leave to your imagination. I blushed at his immodesty and diverted my eyes back to the demon under me.

        Then, in a moment of overwhelming realization, I knew that I could not kill the demon. If I did, I would be just as sadistic and wretched as he was. I was not a monster. Even though the world may try to mold me into one, I would never succumb to its selfish demands. 

        If the strange man would not have said anything, the deed would have been done. The demons entity would have been sent back to hell and I would have fully been possessed with the very thing I feared the most. The demon I could be.

        I looked to the man and tried to smiled a thank you. His brow furrowed at my expression as if he was wondering what it meant. Then he pulled his lips away from his gums, like a dog, and he bared his teeth at me humorously. I could not help but stare at his childlike expression. He just stared back at me and beamed.

        Sadly, I was brought back to reality by the demon who had began to gasp underneath me. I looked down at him to see a mutation take place. His eyes strangely started to look human. Instead of the full black eyes I was accustomed to seeing, brown eyes formed. A desperate human look was wide in his eyes instead of the hungry, demonic gaze.

        “Kill it!” gasped the demon possessed man, looking as though he was being burned alive. “Kill me! Please! Before they gain control again!” Abruptly his eyes rolled back into his head and he started thrashing around. A  inner war was taking place.The eyes turned black once again and he stared savagely into me. Without warning his mouth opened and started to absorb my life into him. I felt my consciousness fading and my muscles weakening. It felt like

everything I was, was being pulled from me.

        I gasped in relief as the demon's mouth snapped shut and his eyes changed again, human this time.

        “Set us free! I cannot control my body much longer! Save us! NOW!” demanded the human voice. The man started sobbing, tears of helplessness pouring from his eyes.

        I looked helplessly back at the naked man wanting to know what to do, needing help. The man looked as distressed as I felt. His hands were in his hair pulling at it in distress. He stared at the demonman with a look of so much pain, you would have thought he was the one fighting the demon. Unashamed tears were rolling down his face.

        In my distracted state, gently, the knife was removed from my hand. I looked down in horror to see the man, not demon, plunge the blade into his heart. One last demonic scream tore from his throat before his body stilled.

       I watched in horrified awe as the man's body began to age. All the years he missed flowed through him, until he was left a withered old man. I had never seen someone of that age before. In this world most die in their fifties. I placed my hand softly on his withered face. The old man lifted his shaking hand to mine and grasps it firmly. Ragged wet breaths pulled from his lips and then all was silent. A peaceful smile creased his face as his hand fell from mine and mother death, indulged. She was hungry after all.

    I was horrified as the dead man under me began to rot. A thick sweet scent leaked off of him as his skin swelled and became the color of a bruise. His eyes shriveled until there was nothing but goo filled eye sockets. Then his skin and muscle receded and hugged his bones and his lips curled back revealing his pointed teeth. Fear clenched my heart when the skeleton form opened its mouth and smiled. The shriveled bits of skin ripped on its mouth as it did so. In a weising nasty voice the demons whispered, “Partus sequitur ventrem.” (The offspring follows the mother.) Their voice slithered slippery under my skin and wrapped my body in agony.

    I could not help the whimper that escaped my lips as their voices buzzed and stabbed inside my mind like bees.

    All of the sudden the naked man ran at the demon and placed his palm upon the rotting demons brow. Smoke swirled from the demons head as the mans hand stayed firmly upon him.

    The man had a distant, fierce look on his face and he leaned into the demons rotted body, whispering incoherently. The demon under me burst into white flames. The flames, to my surprise, did nothing but tingle my skin. They did not, however, have the same effect to the demon who crumbled to the ground in ash. One last sentence was spoken in shock by the demons spirits as they left the earth. “Angelus Mortis!” I did not pay heed to what they said then. I was still wondering about what they meant when they told me, “The offspring follows the mother.” I would be proud if I could ever be half the woman that mother was! So why did they mean it as a threat?

        I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, sending a feeling like crackling lightning through my body.

    The man's breath on my neck made me shudder as he whispered, “You saved them.”

     I bowed my head and cried. It felt as though the life was drained out of me. A warm hand

trailed up my neck, cupped my chin and lifted my face up. The whole while lighting and a tingling sensation followed in the wake of his hand. I gasped and pulled away from the man, the feeling was increasingly painful. The man on the other hand seemed to like the feeling, he looked down at his palm in awe. Shaking his head, as if vanquishing a thought, he told me, “Look. Listen.” His voice was full of wonder.

        I withdrew from the ashen man and looked through blurry eyes around me.

        “Oh!” I gasped, putting a shaking hand over my mouth.

        There were hundreds of children all around me. Their eyes were haunted, their skin gray. Red fingerprints wrapped around their neck where the demon had grasped them befor he sucked their being out and discarded their shell. They were spirits I realized. They were all the children the demons had taken but now set free.

        The children's hands were all outstretched towards me. Some hands resting on top of me, though I could not feel them. I noticed their lips moving, a rhythmic mummer.

        I listened.

                                         “Made of demon and of flesh.

                                                 Something so pure,

                                                 to be put to the test.

                                                     Corrupted by evil

                                                and the mark of hell

                                            bear the womb of darkness

                                                        she shall.

                                              Through corruption and hatred,

                                              dark salvation will come,

                                              By the blood and the power

                                                of the chosen one.”

      The children repeated the verse over and over again, as if trying to make me understand. I however, did not.Their voices repeatedly buzzed like  hundreds of flies in my mind as there chant continued on compulsively.

        “I don’t know what you are trying to tell me! I don’t understand! The prophecy makes no sense!” I shouted while placing my head between my legs and covering my ears with my hands. Their childish voices did not relent. They were speaking inside of me.

        The pure insanity of life and the horror the children must have went through, made me weep. Again.

        I gasped, my eyes going wide.With a unreal burst of flashing energy, the children came at me all at once. I was coated in their warm, bright blue light. I could feel them inside me, outside of me, everywhere! Their pure feelings and thoughts enveloped me in happiness. I could feel their love and thankfulness in every pore of my body.

        I faintly felt them lifting me off my feet but I was not focused on that for long. I was soon brought back to their chaotic and beautiful thoughts.

        The children had gained all the knowledge of The Man of a Thousand Voices. They knew more than most could ever dream of. They taught me that the l prophecy, and how there was no hope to change it, but maybe I could alter it. Them telling me this gave me faith that I had a

purpose other than following the desires of the devil. Despite what fate had me believe, I could choose my path! I could deny Lucifer his wishes. I believed in a God much more powerful than Lucifer could ever be and that made me a liable enemy as much as I was a powerful weapon.

        “Thank you.” I told them. I could feel their childish excitement at my thankfulness. I had not felt this complete and happy in a very long time. Maybe I never had.

        Suddenly, all the children left, one lasting whisper echoing deep in my mind. But they did not completely leave, they left a piece of their happiness deep inside me. Warming my heart.

        I fell back down to reality and into the arms of the strange, naked man. A goofy smile, this time, on my face. I was at peace.

        I looked up at the angelic man and him down at me. Us both smiling like fools. Then realization came into place along with the tingling fire where his body caressed mine. I was in the arms of a strange naked man whom I did not know. Even through all the “Out of this world” weird experiences that had been happening to me, this was by far the strangest.That says a lot coming from a red eyed, demon child, destined to bring hell upon the face of the earth. I could not help the hysteric laugh that escaped my lips.

       The fire heating my flesh had just started to take on an almost pleasant feeling when, relentlessly, the feeling came back. It seeped from the man like poison. Like a never ending rhythm that did not stop its beat until the day I die. The feeling of doom. All I knew was, I needed to get as far away from this person as possible.

        I leaped from the man's arms rapidly. My quick movements seemed to startle him. He was quite like a child I noted not for the first time.

        “Thank you for, uh, killing the demons, but I need to go.” I told him without further explanation and walked out of the demons house.

    Did I want to know who the man was? Of course! Did I want to find out why he decided to help me? Obviously! Was I really freaking curious about why he was naked? Dreadfully so! But there was something in me that was much stronger then my curiosity that demanded I run from the man.

    Outside the night air nipped and bit at my skin. I