I Was Free Once

Chapter 10

The sky was gray and ominously cloudy. The air smelled of blood and fire fell from the air. The ground was barren, dry, and cracked. It looked as if the entire world had perished.

“That’s the last of them,” one demon said. “The world is ours now!” He laughed maniacally.

As far as I could see, dead bodies lay upon the ground. But, at closer examination, it was easy to see the bodies were those of winged creatures. Angels, to be precise.

“Everything went just as it was foretold,” stated the demon standing next to me.

“Now what do we do?” I heard myself say.

“Now, we can do whatever the hell we want without having to worry about them interfering.”

“Remind me again,” I replied. “How is it that this is possible?”

“It’s all in the prophecy, remember? It was foretold by the ancient ones that angels and demons would fight against each other forever, until the one of both bloods was born. He would forever shape the world to his desires, but he could not choose both sides. In the end, the race he chose would be the only one left standing for the rest of time.”

As I walked amongst the bodies, I stopped at one that looked oddly familiar. The body was one of a young woman with long black hair and piercing, blue eyes. She had a look of terror on her face. I knew who I thought it was, but she had already died.

“Do you by any chance know her name?” I asked the demon standing next to me.

“Why should I care about that? She’s one of thousands. But, I have to say she seemed to know you. Don’t you even remember how she came up to you and kissed you? She acted like she knew you as more than a friend…” He snickered.

“Who killed the rest?” I asked, almost knowing what the answer was.

“Ha! That’s a good one!” He laughed at my statement like I was joking.

He walked away from me to go tell other demons the funny remark I had just made. I bent down to look at this girl.

It can’t be her. She’s dead.

I picked up her hand. She felt so cold. Just then I realized another demon was behind me. I turned around to see my father.

“It’s okay to be in denial,” he said, seeming to understand what was going through my head. “You do have a conscience and a soul, unlike the rest of us. And, yes, that is who you think it is.”

“But, she’s already dead.”

He continued, ignoring what I had just said. “I just wanted to thank you again for choosing the right path. As a token of my gratitude, I want you to have this dagger.” He placed it in my hand. It was the dagger that I had found on Sal’s floor, but without its carved ruins.

I looked at it only to see two red eyes staring back me. At first, I thought they were his, but then I realized that he had stepped away, so they had to be mine.

“No,” I started yelling, looking at my father, “this couldn’t have happened! This is a dream! It has to be!” I looked at my reflection again. “Right?”

“Okay, Darien,” my father replied, “you can stop with the naivety now.” I looked around at all the bodies again. “C’mon, relax. You did excellent. I know I could have never pulled off killing an entire race myself. Then, I learned of that prophecy and realized that you were to be the one ‘of both bloods’. Now, look at what’s been accomplished! And, it’s all thanks to you…son.” He clapped my shoulder and I fell to me knees screaming.

This can’t be happening.

Gasping for air and drenched in a cold sweat, I awoke suddenly on a cot in a room I had never seen. It took my eyes a couple minutes to adjust. The lights were very dim, and even after I could see again, I couldn’t distinguish anything in the room. My head began throbbing worse than I had ever experienced during a migraine.

“Fuck, this hurts,” I said quietly, grabbing my head.

“Well, how do you expect to feel after dealing with something that magically powerful?” came Sal’s voice from a dark corner of the room. He chuckled and continued to say, “I bet you were wondering what the hell that was.”

“What the hell what was?”

“The dagger you found.” He stood up and walked into the light, twirling it between his fingers like a baton. “This one, to be precise.”

“Hey, how come you’re not fainting and convulsing?” I attempted to stand up, but he stopped me.

“Sit. You need to rest. You may be awake, but it doesn’t mean you’re fully healed. And, drink the tea next to you; it will help speed up the recovery process.” I picked up the cup, but refused to take a sip.

“Recovery process? What do you mean ‘recovery process’? What did that thing do to me? And, what is it?”

“This, Darien, is my trusty dagger. I haven’t used it in ages, but about twenty years or so ago, I used it to slay demons almost daily. Earlier on in my demon slaying days, I placed a spell on it that wouldn’t allow anyone with black magic abilities to handle it for very long. Instead, they would be overcome with physical pain, their worst memories, and a time consuming recovery process.”

“But, I don’t use that magic; I never have.”

“It doesn’t matter. Even if you have the slightest bit of dark magic residing in the depths of your soul, it attacks you just as hard. I used it to stall demons long enough for me to kill them.” He paused for a moment and put the dagger down on the table next to me. “Darien, I have to ask you to not go around looking at things that aren’t yours, especially in that room upstairs. There are many things up there that I have similar spells on and have merely forgotten about.”

“I just saw it lying on the ground, and wanted to see what it was.”

“Now, I know that wasn’t the only reason you were picking it up. I know you wanted to leave after I didn’t give you an answer. I knew you would, but there are just some things I cannot tell you quite yet. You need to learn to respect my decisions.” He put the dagger down and gave me a look of complete seriousness. “I’m just warning you for next time you find something interesting up there: don’t pick it up.” I nodded and took a drink of the tea. Almost immediately, I felt as though I had more strength.

“How long was I passed out?”

“I didn’t realize something was wrong until the next day. When I went upstairs, you were just lying on the floor, twitching and grasping the dagger. I pulled it out of your hand, and the convulsions stopped. I brought you down here and let you ride out the slight coma you were in. That was over a week ago.”

“A week?!”

He nodded. “And, it’s not over. You have about another week before you’ll actually feel one hundred percent better.”

“Shit. So, I’m just supposed to stay in bed this whole next week?”

“That would be best. But, if you really want to, you can get up and move around. Just be warned, it will hurt.” I nodded. “Well, now that you’re not in a coma anymore, I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything.”

“Wait, Sal. I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“When someone with black magic has this dagger, is he supposed to have any dreams?”

“Well…memories, but not dreams. Why?” He looked very confused.

“What does it mean when someone does dream?”

“I’m not sure, Darien. What did you dream about?”

“I dreamt of things that never happened, but seemed as if they could happen.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re of both white and black magic. Maybe you dreamt it while you were in the recovery process. Maybe the dagger’s old and doesn’t work right. I don’t know, but I do know that dreams of the future usually signify your own fears and subconscious wishes.”

“But, it seemed so real. It was like I was actually there…”

“Dreams can be like that, but they’re just that…dreams.” He paused a moment. “Are you okay, now?”

“Yeah,” I replied, “I’ll be fine…”

He turned to leave, but stopped at the door. He looked back at me and said, “Oh, and by the way, nice feathers.”

“Feathers?” I turned my head both ways to see, not bones, but my charcoal gray, feathered wings. “How the hell did this happen?” I shouted, in a rather upbeat tone.

“That’s what I tried to figure out, but when I found you with the dagger, I found you with wings, too. So, your guess is as good as mine.” He cracked a smile and walked out of the room.

Hot damn, my wings are back.