CODEX Part 3: Between Heaven and Hell

“How much do you weight?!”

Chen had a bad day. He really wished those demons would magically wake up and walk on their own. Eneizar was the heavy one and he was taller than Chen so that only added to his back aches and complaints.

The short human sighed and glanced back, at the dumpster. Iaosur was still leaning on the wall and he barely got inside the dark alley towards Zoe’s apartment building.

With a heavy heart and his arms getting numb, Chen returned for the angst demon. Iaosur was looking really innocent without that continuous scowl on his face and smartass mouth opening at every chance he had; he actually looked like a normal boy with good genes. Chen could make profit from selling pictures with Iaosur and Eneizar as long as their eyes were closed; except the black eyes, both of them looked like models. Now that he started to consider it, that business would be profitable yet for a short period of time,because they were going to wake up at some point; hopefully.

While Chen was carrying Iaosur to the building, he realized that Eneizar’s body was not where he left it. Chen frowned and dropped the angst demon on the ground. He looked around but couldn’t see a pair of long legs or his black hair popping out of anywhere. Chen tried to calm down and be an adult and act like one but it was getting hard. He pulled his phone out from his pocket and called Ezekiel.

“Hey, Zek? I have bad news.” He started the conversation on the wrong foot.

Ezekiel was on his way back from Dan’s apartment when he saw Andy’s ghost peeking from around the corner. The human rolled his eyes and walked to him. The ghost led him to a park and they both sat on the swings, ready for a chat.

“I know what’s going on. The fairies told me.” Andy started. He sounded very pessimistic and Ezekiel was curious where the ghost had run off lately.

“Where is Elijah?” That was one of Ezekiel’s first things to understand.

Andy’s owl eyes weren’t as powerful as before. He wasn’t too sure of what was happening either but he knew something; no matter how little that was, he knew.

“Iaosur marked Elijah with Leviathan’s dragon and made him part of the lower ranked demons. Unfortunately, Elijah proved to be a bit too hard to handle as a demon and Leviathan had to get him trained in a place where he couldn’t access humans.” Andy finished slowly.

Ezekiel’s expression was unreadable. He was probably somewhere between shocked and very annoyed because his right eyebrow was twitching.

“Does he know that Jasper went berserk?” Ezekiel asked coldly.

The ghost nodded.“He does because he felt it, as his guardian ghost. But Leviathan didn’t let him go because he was sure Elijah would also be attracted to Lucifer’s side.” Andy responded.

“And how do you know so much and Iaosur knows so little? Isn’t Iaosur the one under Leviathan?”

Andrew licked his lips and turned his head to the side.“Things are going crazy for us. Ghosts are panicking because demons are recruiting. It’s horrible, Ezekiel. They need ghosts and familiars to die for their so called cause.”

Andy turned to Ezekiel with fear in his eyes. It took the human by surprise since he’s never seen the ghost do anything but be a smartass.

“Some of us, if not most of us, have been taken by Asmodeus and Mammon. Their demons are going crazy because they want to fight and win. You know what’s worse? Most of them don’t even know what they’re fighting for! There’s a small number of ghosts that’s been hiding.” Andy continued.

“Hiding where? There’s not even one safe place to hide from demons.” Ezekiel was pretty sure of that.

Andy, though, knew better,“It used to be Zoe’s place. She was powerful enough to protect us. But now, now she’s dead and her body is possessed by Lucifer’s protegee. She’s gone and she’s probably not going to come back.” Andy was getting scared by his own thoughts and words.

Ezekiel has been through that already. He saw her die a few times yet she always fought for her life and for her family. He was sure nothing changed and Zoe was the same fighter that she’s always been.

“So where are you hiding now?” Ezekiel asked again.

Andrew looked to the right and left and opened his mouth to respond before he caught sight of something. His eyes widened and he faded into thin air.

Ezekiel jumped on his feet quickly and scanned the place for that something that scared the ghost. He couldn’t see anything.

The next ghost that could respond to him was someone he found out by accident. At first, Ezekiel thought his mind was playing games but Zoe proved to him that his manager friend was actually haunted.

There was that one time he met with her in that coffee shop across the street. Coincidentally, or not, it was the coffee shop where Danielle was lurking after her precious manager. He didn’t realize what was going on until he started to see ghosts –because of Zoe’s legacy sign- and he saw Danielle watching his friend from the corner. It was weird at first because he couldn’t enter that shop knowing that she was there but that feeling disappeared in time. He was perfectly fine now and wanted to talk to someone very chatty.

That got interrupted when his phone rang.

“Yes?” He answered calmly.

“Zek? I have a little, maybe not little because he’s kind of big, but a problem nonetheless.” Chris’s voice sounded worried and he wasn’t very eloquent, “Anyway, I’m kind of freaked out right now and I want to get rid of it before my uncle comes home. A dead body in front of the store is not good for our image in society.” He finished.

Ezekiel couldn’t respond. He hung up and looked into distance, too shocked to move. How could he not realize that Chris was far more involved than Dan? It was obvious yet he didn’t consider it. Chris was Zoe’s teacher for maybe a year and he taught her spells that might or might not help her but one of the lessons must have been definitely good and helpful if Chris got a dead body in front of his store.

Ezekiel got there fast since it wasn’t very far from the park. In front of the store was clean but once he entered, he found Chris mopping around. The taller man looked up when he heard the bell above the door ring.

“Oh, you came fast. Here,” Chris shoved a deodorant into Ezekiel’s arms. “Spray around. I don’t want my uncle to smell anything dead.”

“Where is the body?” The younger man asked, though he did start to spray around.

“In the basement. I didn’t know what to do since he looks pretty bad. Just in case, I placed him inside the circle. Who knows? He may open his eyes and kill us just for the heck of it.”

Ezekiel couldn’t understand how Chris sounded like nothing big happened when he sounded so scared on the phone.

“You got over the shock very fast,” Ezekiel mumbled. Chris heard perfectly fine and only raised an eyebrow at his friend.

Chris stopped mopping when he was sure there was no trace of blood anymore. Afterwards, he led Ezekiel into the basement, where he showed him the dead body of a male in the middle of a circle.

Without thinking too much, Ezekiel hurried to the body. He turned him on his back and looked at the way he got killed. Much like the others, he got stabbed and his eyes got taken out. Unlike the others, the killer placed two red balls in his sockets and drew a little black dot in the middle. From his eyes, down his cheeks to his collarbone, the killer cut a line before he started to scratch his cheeks like he wanted to draw a kitty mustache. Ezekiel looked down on his body and hands but couldn’t find the number. What Ezekiel found on his palms were scratches in the form of the endless knot. The human turned the corpse on his chest and found a big 2 cut deep into his skin, occupying his whole back.

“Jesus Christ, the poor boy got it really bad.” Ezekiel heard Chris mumble in horror.

“He’s been very careful with this one. Besides, if he is number 2, where are number 3 and 1?” Ezekiel started to talk to himself, ignoring the shock on Chris’s face.

“You mean there are other bodies like this one here?”

Ezekiel nodded. He was ready to say more but his phone rang. It was Chen.

“Hey, Zek? I have bad news.” Chen started.

“Me too. I found body number two and he’s been tortured differently than the others.” Ezekiel muttered but didn’t hear anything on the other side. Chen was only breathing into the phone.

“Zek, I found number three in a dumpster, down in the alley towards her apartment,” Chen started, making Ezekiel’s eyes harden and his whole posture tense visibly. “His legs were cut off and he looked really bad overall. He got stuffed in there, like he didn’t matter at all.”He continued. “And there’s something even worse. Eneizar disappeared.”

“What do you mean he disappeared? Did he wake up?”

Chen sighed and looked at Iaosur’s sleeping body. If the vanity demon would have wakened, chances were Iaosur would have too.

“No. Someone took his body.” Chen responded while staring at the ground.

Ezekiel hung up and stared at the dead body in front of him. There was only one corpse left and he had a good idea where they were going to find it.

Zoe got taken by Lucifer but the treatment was the same. She got locked into a really small cell and left there for a few hours before some demon came in and took her. Zoe got the chance to look around while she was being dragged to Lucifer. The mansion looked very clean, surprisingly, and the demons were different from what she imagined. They weren’t all handsome; they were actually disappointing at that part. What they all had, no matter their looks, were the superiority issues.

She was the commander and she got caught and tortured and everyone she passed was careful to tell her or show her just how big of a piece of shit she was. Some of them growled, some of them laughed in her face and there were some who threw with things at her. She didn’t want to know what hit her head and back, truthfully; she only felt something drip down her leg and side and it smelled rotten.

The demon stopped in front of a wide door and shoved her inside. She didn’t fall so she could see that she was in some kind of open ring, like the ones in the Victorian era, where people would fight illegally for money. There were demons on each side of the ring, making loud noises but when she entered, they got silent. Another demon grabbed her and pushed her towards the ring. As she was making her way there, she realized that demons outside were far nicer than the ones inside who were shouting profanities at her, hitting her or even pulling on her hair. Once she got on stage, she couldn’t help but look for their leader. Lucifer wasn’t there.

The same demon unlocked her cuffs and leash before he left. She couldn’t think with that lousiness and her hands were trembling. She regained enough consciousness to be aware where she was and what was going on but she was sure Lucifer was going to do something and make her lose control.

Since no one was there to tell them off, the vanity demons crawled closer to her and bit her legs or scratched her; some of them were aiming at ripping her clothes off completely and leaving her naked. She tried her best to stay clothed which meant she gave opportunities to hurt her in other ways. One demon particularly pulled her hair and she was sure half of it got ripped off her head. It was bad.

“Stop!”

That loud voice made the demons retreat with their heads bent. She looked up and saw Lucifer and someone she seriously didn’t want to see there.

“Jasper,” She mumbled his name. Zoe couldn’t believe how different he looked.

Jasper raised an eyebrow and took a few steps closer. He was perfectly fine which meant he didn’t get tortured which only led her to think that he came on his own will. His eyes were normal and he looked human but the way he was looking at her and smirking was definitely evil. He was looking down at her, like she didn’t mean anything and didn’t want him to be safe.

“Hello, Zoe,” Lucifer started. “I’m sure you are wondering why I got you here and why Jasper is here, as well,” He continued.

“I don’t care.” She spat with hatred.

Lucifer chuckled and made a sign to Jasper to get to her. She thought he was going to help her get up or something but he didn’t; he punched her in the face. It was powerful because her lip started to bleed.

“Continuing where I left off, I got you here because I want to see just how powerful the commander is. Beelzebub invested a lot of time and patience in you, Zoe. He helped you and showed care for you and I want to see why.” He took a step towards her before he continued. “Why he didn’t kill you?” He took another step. “Why he let you live for so long?” Another step. “Why are you protected by so many in Hell?” He took a final step before he bent in front of her and grabbed her chin. “Why is there such a fuss around you, especially?” He whispered while pulling her face closer. Lucifer’s eyes haunted her for so long but she could still feel the chill and fear they were inducing.

Her eyes moved towards Jasper, who was standing beside his master. She couldn’t help but feel like it was her fault; if Zoe wouldn’t have gotten so entangled into Hell’s business, Jasper would still be safe. She got him involved in the moment they met. Everyone said they should protect each other yet Jasper got influenced by Lucifer in no time. She was a bad commander; the worst, even. Besides, she was a bad person because she got a lot of humans involved and risked their lives everyday.

“Zoe, you don’t have to regret anything you’ve done. It’s all over your face. You led me to my inheritor and now, I will show you why he is called the inheritor.” Her eyes snapped to him instantly. “Oh yes. I’m not going to kill him, my dear. You are.”

Zoe’s eyes widened and pushed his hand away. She got up and stumbled a bit before she regained her balance.

“Did you hear what he said?! He wants to kill you! He wants me to kill you because he can’t bother to get his son’s blood on his hands!” She screamed but the boy only glanced at Lucifer who had a smirk on his face, before he moved closer to Zoe.

“You’re not going to kill me, Zoe. If anything, I’m going to kill you.” His response was cold, automatic even.

Her eyes widened when she saw her former friend roll his sleeves up and get ready to fight.

“You don’t know how to fight, Jasper. No one taught you.” She threatened.

Jasper chuckled and shook his head bemusedly. Lucifer took his seat in the front row –which was actually the only seat- and waved his hand. The fight begun in the moment Jasper’s eyes became completely black and every rational thought left his mind.