The Devil's son - 12. Masks off!

Ok, so the universe has seen some pretty strange couples over the millennia. Take Kal-El and Lana Lang, for example. Or Romeo and Juliet. Or what to think of Caesar and his Cleopatra? All examples of couples who never would have fallen in love if not for a strange quirk of fate. Same can be said for the Volkswagen Beetle Herbie and his Lancia called Giselle or Belle and her Beast. And who knows? Maybe one day we'll witness the marriage of a Earthling and a Martian. Now that would be a sight!

Still, I'm pretty sure there never was or never will be a stranger couple as the one standing completely naked in an apartment in New York City during a blackout. Who could have predicted an angel and a demon hooking up?

"Ok, so let me get this straight" Ar'Thurian said. "Before we slept together you remembered nothing from your past and that's why you never mentioned it to me?"

"Well, at least partly" Jayden answered. "I mean, I'm not sure I would've told you at all. It's not like telling someone you have a child from a previous relationship or something".

"You have a child from a previous relationship?"

"Focus, Arthur" Jayden replied. "What I meant was: this is not something you share with someone on a first date, even if I had remembered it".

"When in Angelic form I'm called Ar'Thurian" Ar'Thurian said, not acknowledging Jayden's explanation.

"I know, but for me you'll always be Arthur, no matter what you look like" Jayden said.

"Ok, and now?" Ar'Thurian asked.

"And now what?"

"How do we go from here? You called yourself the Demon Prince. I take it you are pretty high in the hierarchy than".

"I'm Lucifer's son" Jayden answered. "That makes me the second most powerful being in Hell".

"Exactly" Ar'Thurian said. "So where does that leave us?"

"I don't understand what you mean" Jayden said, confused. "Neither my father of Him are around so why is it an issue what our origins are?"

"Because you're the Demon Prince and I'm Heaven's subcommander" Ar'Thurian stated. "We're bound to be facing each other some day in battle".

"I don't think so" Jayden said while smiling, happy he finally understood Ar'Thurian's problem. "The fact that my father is the Devil doesn't make me either evil or his pawn, just like being Angelic doesn't make you good. There's still the free will, you know".

"You killed several people" Ar'Thurian responded.

"Yes, and I stand by what I told you earlier: it should have been you who executed those men" Jayden said. "But I'm afraid there's more".

"More?"

"I'm afraid I'm responsible for the illness plaguing the New York gay scene. I think my Demonic sperm is not compatible with the human physiology".

"Ever heard of using a condom?" Ar'Thurian asked, rather accusingly.

"Condoms break on me" Jayden said. "Somehow they break as soon as I start cumming. That day, when we met at Bellevue, I had used a condom but the guy still got sick".

"Hmm, ok, let's just say for now I buy that. That still doesn't tell me why you are here".

"According to a prophecy I once read in my father's library the Demon Prince has only one purpose" Jayden said. "To bring forth the End of Days".

“Ok, this is pretty much the worst night imaginable” Samuel thought to himself. After his encounter with dr. Wall Samuel decided to pull a shift in the ER. After all he had been absent for a couple of days. That had not been his best call. Three patients died and Samuel couldn’t shake the feeling they might not have if he had been able to focus better. The conversation with dr. Wall kept playing in his head.

“Oh, I know together you and dr. Ericson together are better than apart. Hell, you might even be better than the sum of your parts, to thrown in a cliché” dr. Wall had said. “But I just don’t care. The two of you are too well liked and too smart for my good. You might even manage to convince people I’m not the one who found out what is making all those men ill. I can’t have that”.

“I’m sorry, dr. Wall” Samuel begged. “Please, don’t do this to me and Arthur!”

“Sorry, dr. Berger” dr. Wall said. “You brought this on yourself. You and that stupid queer friend of yours. And now get out of my office!”

So now Samuel knew either him or Arthur would be asked to leave at the end of their intern year and there was nothing he could do about it. After all, dr. Wall had been right. They only promised one spot as a resident and not two. The fact he and Arthur thought they would be able to convince the board they both were responsible for the discovery did not change that. After the shift ended he practically ran to the subway and within seconds after the train had left the station, the lights went out and the emergency lights came on. Yeah, tonight was a real treat. So much for going to see Arthur tonight. It was way past midnight already.

“I wish I stayed home” Samuel thought. The fact that some black kid was rocking back and forth while mumbling something he couldn’t quite make out. Yeah, this really was a night to not remember.

The blackout couldn’t have come at a worse time for Phjierl. He had been walking around The Village, knowing Jayden was somewhere but he wasn’t able to find him. And something was wrong. He noticed this body he was occupying was in trouble. He fell every two steps and the clothes this body was wearing, were getting too big. He had trouble keeping the pants to fall down and the shirt was getting so big he would fit in there at least twice. When he saw the face of this body in a reflection he saw it looked different, smaller, than it had done when he started occupying this body. Unfortunately, Phjierl was not a smart demon otherwise he would understand he was running the body down. It had been days since he last ate or slept and Phjierl just didn’t understand a human body needed rest and sustenance regularly or the body would stop functioning. Right now it was just too late. There was no way to heal this body anymore. The black boy Phjierl occupied was dying.

Because Phjierl didn’t cover much ground because of the trouble the body was in he had decided to take the subway. After it left the station it came to a sudden stop while the lights went off and a deep red light came on. Phjierl felt right at home. The soft red light reminded him of Hell. It was just as well. Phjierl felt the body shutting down even more. He had trouble breathing or thinking and Phjierl felt the body losing more and more of it’s consciousness. Phjierl didn’t know how much time had past when a sudden pain flashed through his skull, causing him to sit up with a jolt. Like a sudden hard beam of light Jayden’s presence had shot into Phjierl mind. Phjierl was able to sense Jayden without any trouble, pinpointing him exactly. He could feel Jayden was feeling content because he was together with someone. He was naked with that other person and he was satisfied. At first Phjierl thought Jayden had eaten the other person but when the other person touched Jayden’s skin Phjierl felt that too. The other person was still feeling warm. If Phjierl had been a smarter demon he would know this was because Jayden was restored to his former self, being in full contact with his demon half again. But Phjierl didn’t understand that. All Phjierl understood was that he now knew where Jayden was and that he had to go towards him. But when he got up and tried to open the doors he noticed they would not open. He started pounding the doors but with no success. It became so bad one of the humans in the train came up to him.

“The doors won’t open because there’s no power” this guy said to him. “Just sit back. They’ll get us out of here when the can”.

“I have to get to Jayden” Phjierl said. “I need to talk to him. I have to get to Jayden!”

“Right now you won’t go anywhere” the guy said. “Better sit down. You look like hell”.

Phjierl sat down and started rocking back and forth, while mumbling: “I have to get to Jayden”.

“How can you say we won’t face each other at the battle field if you’re going to bring forth the End of Days?!” Ar’Thurian asked in shock. “What else do you think I would do than stopping you?”

“Arthur, I have no intention on bringing forth the End of Days” Jayden said. “The Demon Prince is supposed to but it’s not sure I am him”.

“You have me confused now” Ar’Thurian said. “You told me yourself you’re the Demon Prince and that a prophecy says you’re going to cause the End of Days”.

“I am the Demon Prince since I’m Lucifer’s son and the Demon Prince will cause the End of Days. But I never said I would cause the End of Days” Jayden said. “The prophecy says: “When the Demon Prince walks the Earth, the End of Days is near”. So the presence of the Demon Prince can be just a sign the End of Days is upon the Universe. The prophecy doesn’t state the Demon Prince has an active role in the End of Days. And besides, although I am the Demon Prince I was not the first one and, if I’m not the Demon Prince from the prophecy I won’t be the last one either”.

“What do you mean?” Ar’Thurian asked while sitting down. His head was swirling.

“As far as I know I’m the fourth Demon Prince” Jayden said. “Satan had three sons before me and they all walked the Earth without bringing forth the End of Days. And those three were deadly set on causing the End of Days, I can tell you.”

“Can you please explain in full?” Ar’Thurian asked.

“Yes, I can.” Jayden said. “My three brothers have walked the Earth sometime in the last 1000 years, all looking for the Gates of Hell here on earth. From Hell the demons and Satan can see earth but they can’t go through. It was part of Lucifer’s punishment to always be able to watch but never walk it again, like he could when he was still one of the Archangels. Because Hell didn’t exist before Lucifer’s rebellion my father doesn’t know where the Gates are, only that they are somewhere on Earth because he fell towards Earth when he was cast out of Heaven. When he found the prophecy in his library he decided to make sure it would come true so he bred with a high female demon. She gave birth to a son, the first Demon Prince”.

“But how did he leave the Pits of Hell?” Ar’Thurian asked.

“That I don’t know, just like I have no idea how I made it through the Gates. I guess the prophecy means the Demon Prince can but how?” Jayden answered. “Anyway, my oldest brother, if you can call him that, searched for the Gates in the Old World, before the discovery of America. Although he searched pretty much everywhere in Europe he didn’t find him there. When he was discovered by the Church he was exorcised and sent back to Hell. Let’s just say my father wasn’t pleased and he banished my brother to the deepest darkest pits for eternity. Still, my father became convinced the Gates were in America but that proved a problem. The Native Americans did not have the same believes as the Europeans had and did not even have a concept for the Devil so Satan’s influence on them was severely limited. You can’t influence someone who doesn’t believe you’re real. So he had to wait until the Europeans came to America. And the Europeans, the Dutch to be precise, found the Gates of Hell really soon”.

“The Dutch?” Ar’Thurian said. “But the Dutch mainly resided here, in New York!”

“Exactly” Jayden said. “What do you know about Wall Street?”

“Hmm, financial heart of the world and the largest number of suicides in history of mankind there” Ar’Thurian said. “Why?”

“Wall Street is named after the wall the Dutch built when they built their first settlement on what is now Manhattan” Jayden said. “History says the wall was meant to protect the settlement from the Native-Americans but the tribes of Native-Americans were quite friendly here. They never took action against the palefaces and traded with them. No, the wall was built to keep something else out. One of the women was a witch and she could feel an old and deep evil just outside the settlement. Her husband, an influential man convinced their leaders to build the wall. From Hell the demons saw the wall being built so immediately Satan knew where the Gates were located, just outside the Dutch settlement”.

“So I take it that was when Satan decided to have another son?” Ar’Thurian asked.

“Yes, he did” Jayden said. “Again he decided to breed with a female demon who gave him a son. When my second brother was grown he was sent to Manhattan. He was leading a troop of militants during the American independence war, in the hope of securing Manhattan Island. This didn’t work out since the militia found out what he was and had a local priest sent him back to Hell before the final battle took place. However, he did manage to pinpoint the location of the Gates of Hell in this world.”

“So Lucifer decided to have another try?” Ar’Thurian asked, intrigued although appalled.

“Yes, but not right away” Jayden said. “It wasn’t until the Second World War before Satan tried once more to gain control over the Gates by assisting Adolf Hitler in his efforts to dominate the world. Satan hoped to have access to the Gates when Hitler defeated the United States. So his third son, a halfbreed demon of Satan with a human mistress who practiced the dark arts, made himself valuable to Hitler. Adolf Hitler was a strong believer in magic and used a vast amount of resources in order to find magical help in defeating his enemies. Luckily for the world the people he hired and trusted were nothing more than con artists. Otherwise Hitler might have won the war easily. Well, it didn’t look good for humanity for a long time anyway. Japan was severely limiting resources from the USA while the German troops seemed unstoppable in Europe”.

“Indeed, so Satan’s son was almost successful” Ar’Thurian stated. “What went wrong?”

“Hitler proved to be even crazier than people already assumed. He became paranoid and started to question his advisors. That cost Germany dearly since it led, among other things, to the opening of the Russian front. Hitler no longer trusted the USSR and decided to move against them. This led to some very heavy losses and the joining of Stalin with Roosevelt and Churchill. The setbacks at the Russian front led to “Operation Valkyrie” to assassinate Hitler. The failed attempt on his life proved to Hitler “they” were out there to get him and strengthened his paranoia. So when my third brother tried to convince him to give him a small elite team and two planes to fly to the US and perform several covert operations Hitler was convinced my brother tried to defect. Since my brother knew a lot of the military capabilities and other operations by the Nazi’s Hitler sentenced him to death. Being half human he, like me, could be killed, although not as easily as a full blown human. He took out two battalions before the managed to kill him”.

“And now there’s you, Satan’s fourth son, his next attempt” Ar’Thurian said, feeling sick because of the meaning of it.

“I think I am his next attempt but I’m not sure. The chronicles in my father’s library ended with my arrival in Hell” Jayden answered.

“Arrival in Hell?”

“Yes, I was born in 1991 in Boston, Massachusetts” Jayden said. “The Millennium was a mystical moment in which Satan could leave Hell for 24 hours. Although most people thought the Millennium was when 1999 became 2000 in fact it was when 1990 became 1991. At least the mystical Millennium was. So when all the priests and demonhunters were watching all the mystical hotspots my father was encouraging me to read as much as I could from his library. My mother died when I was born and somehow I was transported to Hell by some kind of spell. One of the last entries in de chronicles is that the pure born had arrived. According to the chronicles my mother was one the purest souls in all of creation”.

“Ok, but now what?” Ar’Thurian asked, only mildly reassured by all this information.

“Now I want us to get back to my bed, snuggle up to each other and get some sleep” Jayden said. “We only have a few more hours before dawn and I for one am exhausted”.

“I didn’t mean that. I meant …”

“I know what you meant” Jayden interrupted Ar’Thurian. “But right now I don’t have anymore answers for you but I promise you I have no intention of letting the Universe end”. And with that Jayden scooped up Ar’Thurian and carried him back to the bedroom. Ar’Thurian didn’t protest.

It’s been four days since George Russo was last seen in the hospital when the doctors told him his son and his wife were steadily improving and for the first time they thought they might make it. His wife’s immune system kicked in, fighting the infections caused by blood loss while his son’s medication to improve heart function was slowly diminished, as was the pressure needed to ventilate him. Things were finally looking brighter.

However, George didn’t see it like that. He didn’t see the fact his wife and his son were improving. He only saw the fact his other son and his daughter were victims over a millennia old battle between light and darkness. And that was unacceptable for him. His mind kept going back to the moment in that church, when he got the dagger he was stroking absentmindedly.

“The dagger is called Angel’s Light and was created to make demons powerless and even kill them” the young man told him. “Are you sure you are strong enough to go through with this?”

George answered positive without hesitation. He would kill the bastard that hurt his wife and children. For a long time he felt powerless, unable to protect his family. Well, this dagger changed that.

“The person giving me the dagger told me to tell you there might be a complication” the acolyte said. “The demon responsible is probably accompanied by an angel, a warrior angel”.

“How is that possible?” George shouted. “I thought warrior angels were supposed to fight demons! That is what you told me yesterday”.

“They think he’s corrupted by the demon, that the demon has him under some kind of spell” the acolyte answered. “They also think that spell will be broken if the demon is either dead or powerless. And you now have the tools for that”.

“When?” was all George asked.

“Uncertain, but they think soon”.

“How will I know who is the demon?”

“Angel’s Light will guide you” the acolyte said. “When the time and place are there, you’ll know”.

“How come you know so much about all of this?” George asked the acolyte.

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, detective” the young man said. “Or a man by his outfit. I may look like an acolyte to you but my position in the Holy Church is quite a different one. My order has agents in all orders, in case a situation develops like it does here in New York”. And with that the young man had turned around and walked away.

That was three days ago and George had been patrolling the city ever since, carrying Angel’s Light with him. If he’d find the demon that killed his son and daughter and hurt his other son and his wife he would be ready. That vile creature would not know what hit him.

Apparently somewhere during the night the blackout was solved because when Arthur woke up he once more heard the noises coming from the street, like traffic. The night before all traffic seemed to have stopped because of the lack of traffic lights.

He and Jayden had cuddled, as far as that was possible with his angelic wings and Jayden’s batlike ones. But they managed, although they both hadn’t been able to shift back to their human form. Arthur was glad his wings were gone when he woke up. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only thing gone. Jayden was also nowhere to be found. Just when Arthur was ready to get out of bed to leave for home he heard the door to the apartment open quietly. Arthur got out of bed quietly as well and grabbed the first thing he could find to defend himself with, a baseball bat. And just seconds before he was about to swing it, he heard Jayden.

“Are you up already, hot stuff?” Jayden asked. “I got you some coffee and a bagel”. Arthur quickly dropped the bat and walked out of the bedroom.

“Damn, who needs a bagel?” Jayden said. “I think I’ll have you for breakfast”

“Funny, but I do need coffee and a bagel. Otherwise I have no energy left at all during the day” Arthur commented, while grabbing both the beaker and the bag with bagels from Jayden. “And I don’t want to stay inside all day, having sex with you either”.

Jayden looked hurt.

“Oh, trust me, I’d love for you to fill me up with both your dick and your cum again but today promises to be a nice day so I want to go out” Arthur said. So after coffee, bagels and a thorough shower the two of them walked out of the apartment, towards Central Park.

It had been sometime around six am when the power was back and the train could go to the nearest station. Although Samuel and most of the other passengers were tired and hot (without power there’s no airco in the New York subway system) no one was more eager to leave than the shabby black kid who had been mumbling the entire time. Samuel had been tempted to shut him up more than once but every time he managed to control himself. But it was a good thing he could leave the train because he didn’t think he could have controlled himself much longer. As the black kid rushed past him Samuel could finally hear what the kid mumbled.

“Jayden. Have to get to Jayden. Have to warn him” the black kid said.

“Jayden?” Samuel thought to himself. “Oh Shit!”. Samuel ran after the black kid, hoping to stop this kid in time.

Arthur had been right. It was a beautiful morning and the fact the two of them knew now each other’s secret made it easier to talk to each other. No more secrets (well, no big ones, at least) so no more lies or half truths. They were two supernatural beings in their human form enjoying a beautiful morning. But, of course, it couldn’t last.

“Jayden! Jayden!!!!” they heard a distant voice calling. While looking around they saw an unkempt and somewhat dirty black boy running towards them.

“What the ….?” Jayden started before Arthur elbowed him not to finish that sentence. He felt it would be bad luck to say stuff like “What the hell”.

“It seems someone is chasing him” Arthur said. “It looks like Samuel” which was met with a grunt from Jayden. Samuel hadn’t been the only one not feeling comfortable around the other.

The black boy kept calling Jayden’s name so both Jayden and Arthur decided to stay there and see what the young boy wanted.

“Do you know who he is?” Arthur asked.

“No, I don’t” Jayden replied. “But I’m afraid that doesn’t mean I’m not supposed to know. I slept with a lot of guys over the past few months” which was met with a grunt from Arthur. He really didn’t need to know about that.

After a couple of minutes the black boy reached Jayden while Arthur determined the guy pursuing the black kid was indeed Samuel.

“Jayden” the black kid said. “You’re in danger. The seals on the Gates are failing”.

“Phjierl? Is that you?” Jayden asked.

“Who is he, Jayden?” Arthur asked Jayden.

“I’m Phjierl” the black kid said, as if that explained everything.

“His name is Phjierl” Jayden elaborated, while Samuel also caught up with the three guys, panting heavily. “He’s a lower class demon I saved from my father’s wrath one day. That caused a friendship between us, as far as that is possible between demons”.

“Hang on!” Samuel said. “Demons?”

“You missed a lot, my friend” Arthur said. “I’ll explain later. For now all you need to know is that Jayden is an upper class demon, the son of Satan himself”.

“The Demon Prince?” Samuel asked.

“Yeah, what do you know about the Demon Prince?” Jayden asked.

“Not much, only that Satan’s living son will be known as the Demon Prince and will be some very bad news. He will be capable of bringing forth the End of Days”.

“Capable?” Arthur asked.

“Yes, the Demon Prince will hold the key to the destruction of reality but he also has the choice to either use it or not. Free will is there for everyone” Samuel explained. “But I don’t know much more than that. The legend of the Demon Prince was told to us at Sunday school”.

“Jayden, you need to listen to me” Phjierl said. “664 pure souls were collected last night before the lights went out. For all we know the needed 666 pure souls are found now. The Gates of Hell might be open”.

“But even if they are Satan can’t leave, right?” Samuel asked. Phjierl looked at him like someone would look at a bug.

“No, he can’t. But his level of control over this world will increase. And if enough blood is spilled Satan might be able to leave the Pits of Hell” Phjierl explained. “Or if enough people forsake Him and turn to Satan”. But that was the last sound to come out of Phjierl mouth. At least, the last understandable sound. Phjierl started making a gargling sound and all of a sudden blood ran from his mouth. It was only then the three others saw a nasty looking blade sticking out of Phjierl chest. But even worse than the blade was the thing wielding it. That creature looked like it stepped directly out of Stephen Spielberg’s worst nightmare.

“Hello Jayden” the thing said with a voice sounding like fingers on a blackboard. “Long time no see, cousin”.