Velvet Redemption

I was out in the woods a good distance north of Denver. I remember watching Death take Benjamin into the afterlife, and the more I replayed the scene in my head, the more my anger grew.

What surprised me was Velvet’s lack of negative reaction to my anger. I knew there was nothing positive happening with my soul at the moment, but Velvet, an angelic blade, seemed to care less. It wasn’t like I could feel the blade sympathizing with me, but it wasn’t trying to stop my anger toward Death, either.

In my head I asked Velvet, Is it okay for me to be this wrathful?

Out in the woods, I was all alone, but I did not dare draw Velvet. I didn’t need to attract any demon attention, and using Velvet would likely do just that. Although, as angry as I was feeling, maybe I did need to kill some demons while I waited for my chance to slay Death.

Benjamin’s words echoed through my head saying, “Do me a favor, would ya? Look after Sarah and Elijah for me. . . you know. . . when you’re not busy saving the world.”

My eyes snapped open, and I saw a large thick and healthy tree in front of me that was about to become obliterated. It was dark brown, had several long branches, and was easily a couple hundred feet tall.

I roared, “I shouldn’t have to watch them. That’s your job! Goddammit, you should still be here to take care of your family!”

Running forward, I appeared in front of the giant tree and drew back my right fist. The tree before me wasn’t Death, but it might as well have been as angry as I was.

Veins appeared on my arm as I summoned raw strength fueled by my aura. Lilandra had trained me well. If I was ever disarmed in combat, I could use my aura, not to fight my opponents directly, but to enhance my physical abilities.

Screaming, my fist crashed right through the tree. I didn’t punch a clean hole in the tree, I shattered the damn thing where my first made contact.

It hurt to just use blunt strength, but I didn’t care. I had to get this anger out of my system, and these trees were my victims.

The tree fell forward and made a huge thud that shook the ground when it toppled. I was already upon another tree, repeating the process. Punching through a few more trees, my knuckles were bleeding on both hands, and I was just angrier.

The pain I felt in my hands just fueled me to keep going. Fighting Death wouldn’t be easy, but I honestly didn’t care what the cost was.

“Do you hear me, Death? I’m going to kill you!”

Roaring, I appeared in front of another tree and drew back. Throwing my arm forward, I snapped through that tree even easier than the first tree. A loud crack echoed through the forest. My knuckles were bleeding on my right hand. The whole hand was sore, but I didn’t care. I was pissed, and the more trees I killed, the less confidence I had in my abilities to control my rage. Still, I did not care.

I spent the next half hour knocking down trees with my bare hands, and at the end of that time, I was leaning over, inhaling deep heavy breaths.

A bead of sweat ran down my face. My hair hung down over my eyes as I inhaled breath after breath. There were still more trees around me, all taunting me. They didn’t take Benjamin, but they would fall just as Death would.

Straightening up, I stepped toward another tree, but a hand touched my bloody knuckles.

I turned, ready to strike the demon holding me back from doing what I had to do. That was when I noticed it was the one demon I wouldn’t kill.

“Okay big guy. If you’re going to take down Death in a few hours, we need to get you some rest. You’ve been out here burning energy like crazy. It’s time to rest up for your battle,” Lilandra said.

“Go ahead and tell me to calm down why don’t you,” I said, bitterly.

“I didn’t say anything of the sort. I just know that you need some rest if you’re going to fight to the best of your ability,” Lilandra said.

Scowling, I jerked my hand from her grasp and yelled, “Why aren’t you and Velvet telling me that this rage is unhealthy? That getting angry won’t bring Benjamin back? Your silence is even more maddening than-”

Lilandra backhanded me before I could finish that sentence.

“You already know that your pissy attitude won’t bring Benjamin back. We don’t need to tell you what you’ve just admitted to us. I’m not going to say that fighting angry is smart, but you’re building up tremendous energy over the loss of your dear friend. That’s something that you can use in the fight against Death. That’s why I haven’t told you to calm down. I know you’re mad and foaming at the mouth. That’s why I just said you needed rest, so you don’t burn out too soon,” Lilandra said.

My breathing slowed down, and I came to realize what she was saying.

“It’s. . . useful?”

“Yes. I know you’re upset and in the second stage of grief, but you need that to kill Death. Whether it’s right or wrong to be this angry, the four horsemen still have to die. It looks like you’re starting with Death,” she said.

Thinking on this for a few moments, I slid down to my feet and just sat there panting. I didn’t want to rest. I wanted to kill Death now.

“I don’t want to rest,” I said, looking down at the ground.

Lilandra walked over and kneeled in front of me saying, “I think I can change your mind,” she said.

She began to unbutton my shirt, and I didn’t stop her. I felt my arms reaching up to take her clothes off, once I realized what her endgame was.

When her lips touched mine, I could feel a certain heat. They were actually really warm to the touch. Not enough to hurt me, but enough to make me realize that kissing a demon was different than kissing another human.

Our kissing grew more passionate, and though I didn’t feel my anger subsiding, this was a much more enjoyable outlet for it.

For a brief moment, my mind began to wonder about fucking a demon. It was certainly going to be a different experience, but how different? I soon found out.

Lilandra was fierce. If we were in a bed, she’d be rattling the headboard like a sailor on leave. It caught me off guard, but not for long. It didn’t take me long to get used to her.

It wasn’t until half an hour later that I realized we had just had sex in the middle of a forest. We were laying there, her body on top of mine and our wings laying flat on each other. I knew it was supposed to be cold out, but I didn’t feel that with her body on top of mine. Demons really do have some fire in them.

“See? Now you’re probably ready to rest for at least a few hours until your big fight,” Lilandra whispered.

I just sighed, closed my eyes, and tried to relax. I knew that if I started thinking about Death or Benjamin again, I’d just probably just get worked up. And truly, after having sex with a demon, I didn’t think I had the strength to get worked up without a little rest.

When I awoke, I realized that it was an hour before the tornado. Lilandra was still asleep. She was lying against my chest, and her wings still lying softly on mine.

Velvet pulsed as the grogginess of my sleep began to fade, reminding me of what I had to do.

“Lilandra?”

“Yeah, I know. We need to get going.”

She got up, and we put our clothes back on. After stretching, I started to think about this upcoming fight. I had to summon all of that anger back, but part of me just didn’t want to. Part of me felt as if Benajmin’s and Lisa’s deaths caused anger and guilt, and those were burdens that I’d grown tired of carrying. And for the first time since either of them had died, I began to wonder if there was something else I should be fighting for.

Shaking my head and shrugging those thoughts and feelings off, I began to focus on my one objective, slaughter the horseman that would soon be before me.

Lilandra and I took off, flying east toward the great plains. As we got closer, we saw the storm system moving ahead of us. We flew over it and then came down on the other side, exactly 60 miles west of Oklahoma City. I saw her as I touched the ground. The rain hadn’t started yet, but it was dark and windy. We were a few miles south of Interstate 40 in the middle of nowhere. Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas made the phrase “middle of nowhere” famous.

Those states were nothing but flat land as far as the eye could see. I always hated driving through them to go east. They were hideous compared to my home state of Colorado. That wasn’t what I should be focussed on at the moment, though. Death was before me. The long sleeves of her purple robe-like outfit blew in the wind.

Lilandra was about fifty feet behind me. We’d talked on the way over, and she wasn’t supposed to step in, unless it looked bad for me. She knew that I wanted this bitch dead, and she was completely fine with letting me do that.

On the flight over, Lilandra and I had discussed what happened between the two of us, and she said, “It was what you needed, nothing more, nothing less. I know that sometimes you humans tend to get emotionally attached to your sex partners, but I’m not like that. I merely did what I had to in order for you to have the highest chances at defeating Death and progressing our efforts of stopping this war. I’m sorry if that sounds cold, but that’s the truth.”

I don’t know if this disappointed me or not. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking when I slept with her. I just. . . did it. It felt right, and that was really all there was to it.

I’d certainly developed some kind of closeness to Lilandra after training with her for so long, what that closeness was, had yet to be defined, I guess.

“You’re still angry enough to do this, even after you’ve had a day to cool down?”

“I meant what I said, Death. Even if you hadn’t taken Benjamin from his family and friends, you and I would have fought because you’re a horseman, and I have to kill you,” I said.

Seeing her had stirred feelings of anger again, which is what I would need to defeat her. I looked at Death, and what I saw was somebody who didn’t want to do this. She didn’t show fear; she just showed a lack of willingness to engage.

“How did you even get involved in any of this?”

“I didn’t. You got involved by taking Benjamin,” I growled.

“Before that. How did you become the wielder of Michael’s old sword? What did your demon friend offer you?”

I didn’t say anything, but my mind wandered back to the moment I first saw Lilandra, five years ago. I was tired of life and so ready to throw it all away. That was when she offered me something to keep me going. She offered me another shot to get Lisa back.

And I swore that I’d do anything to get her back. Death didn’t just take Benjamin, she took Lisa prior to that. The rage that was filling my veins was so powerful, it blinded me to the fact that I already knew to be true, Lisa died by my hand. I was stupid enough to make lapses in judgments about who to blame for Lisa’s death. As far as I was concerned, loved ones were dead, and the person who took their souls to the afterlife was this bitch in front of me.

“Lisa. . .,” I muttered.

Drawing Velvet, I appeared in front of Death so fast, I shattered all previous records while fighting Lilandra.

“Shit,” Death muttered dodging my downward swipe by stepping left.

“Listen to me-” Death didn’t have time to finish that sentence.

I was through talking; she was going to die. She was going to die, and my sword was going to be the cause of her demise.

I was getting closer and closer to making contact with every swing I took. I may have been mentally blocked by this anger, but my physical capacity to destroy was only empowered.

Driving my sword forward, I was sure I had her this time. I was only getting faster. Then, I saw her hands come together, and she summoned a weapon. It was a long reaper’s scythe that grew between her palms as she pulled her hands apart. The weapon was at least as tall as I was, but she held it upside down with the blade at the end of the staff flat against her palm.

She used that to block my thrust. Our weapons hissed as they made contact.

The brief stop in my thrust allowed her a few more words, “Listen to me, Justin. This fight isn’t necessary. It’s only hindering your progress. I’m not your enemy!”

Lilandra started to move closer to us shouting, “Don’t let her lie to you, Justin. She’s a horseman of the apocalypse. Lucifer has her under a spell to kill you and bring Velvet to him.”

“That isn’t helping,” Death said, moving slightly and letting my momentum bring me forward. She used that to spin and knock me in the side of the head with the staff end of her scythe.

The scythe appeared to me made of some charred black wood, but it was very smooth and straight. The actual metal blade of the scythe was also much more simple than I figured it would be. It was just a crescent shape that extended three feet that was two colors. The top half was black, and the bottom half was silver.

I grunted as I flew sideways, finally landing on my feet.

Before I was upon Death again, she was pointing her left palm toward the sky above Lilandra. Suddenly, Lilandra froze and looked up. I looked up into the sky as well. Death was actually summoning the tornado that she had told me would be here! No, she wasn’t summoning

it . . . she was just directing it.

It came down on Lilandra before she could escape. The base was probably two hundred feet in width, a small tornado by most accounts. Lilandra wasn’t centered by any means, but she was still caught off guard by the tornado coming down on her.

Taking a step toward the tornado, Death’s voice stopped me, “You can’t get her out. She should be fine. A tornado will only be enough to preoccupy her for a little while. I just wanted her out of the way so you’d finally be clear enough to make your own decisions. You need to listen to me, Justin. If you really want to stop the war between Heaven and Hell, then you’re going to need more than sword training,”

Her mouth was moving, but the words weren’t registering with my brain. Now she was trying to take Lilandra. She wouldn’t be satisfied until she ripped every last thing I cared about from my life!

“Justin? Can you hear me?”

My grip on Velvet tightened, and it pulsed to register what I was about to do. I would have to be faster.

“Dammit, he can’t hear me. . . that blade is also pushing him further into madness,” I heard Death say.

Then, I was flying toward Death, but I wasn’t going to strike her directly to give her a chance to block. The idiot had chose to fight me in massive thunderstorm. She signed her own death warrant.

“Stop this now, Justin!”

“Too late,” I muttered.

I pulled down a bolt of lightning from the sky, and it met Velvet where I was above Death. Then, I brought it down to the earth inches in front of Death. The result was a giant blast of electricity that I launched at Death.

The light was bright, but I didn’t blink. I wanted to watch as I wore down Death, piece by piece.

When the light finally faded, I saw that she had blocked the majority of the attack with her scythe. I’d pushed her back about fifteen feet, and her knuckles and arms appeared to be burned.

“Justin, I don’t want to kill you, but if you insist on continuing this fight, you will leave me no choice,” Death said, in between breaths.

“You reaped your last with Benjamin,” I muttered and ran at her again.

This time, I tried something new. I threw Velvet into the air above her. She kept an eye on it, but she was also watching my movements closely. I made a sword of lightning and proceeded to engage her in close combat.

Above us, Velvet was being struck by lightning multiple times, building up energy while I distracted Death.

It was a strain to focus on the fight in front of me and the floating sword above, but this attack would pay off.

Finally getting in a lucky strike, I tripped Death and drove her backwards and down until she was on her back defending herself with her scythe.

“Now. . .” I muttered.

I reached up with my other hand and Velvet let all it had rain down upon Death and I. The electricity hurt the two of us, but I had to stay here to keep her pinned. She began to scream from all the lightning hitting the two of us. Velvet had been struck at least twenty times while in the air.

I let out a roar, “I want them back! Give Benjamin and Lisa back to me, Death!”

Apparently, this wasn’t the finishing move I intended it to be. Death managed to stopped screaming and kicked me off of her. Then, while lightning was still raining down on the two of us, she rose up and came at me. Velvet was still in the air, and my lightning blade was all I was holding. She took a broad swing with her scythe and shattered my lightning blade with it.

Then, she came in for another attack, and while I was caught off guard from my blade shattering, she plunged her scythe deep into my gut. I spit up a little blood as Velvet stopped. The world around me started to spin, and I fell to my knees. I felt my life draining from me, like the scythe was both spiritually and physically killing me.

Velvet fell out of the sky and landed flat on the ground about seven feet away from me.

I could even hear Lilandra hollering for me from inside the tornado.

Death stood over me. She tore off one of sleeves that was already mostly ripped from my last attack. She wiped the blood from my mouth, and for the first time since I played cards with Benjamin and Josh, I completely stopped.

I looked up at her and realized that I’d lost. She had won the fight.

“My scythe was made by the same angel smith who forged your blade, Justin. That’s how it held up against Velvet and shattered your lightning blade upon contact,” she said.

I was starting to shake now. It was cold. . . very cold. I’d heard death described to me before as a warm blanket that slowly comes over you. I guess you needed special drugs for that effect.

“My scythe kills anything it pierces, Justin. That’s the nature of what it does. I’m sorry it had to come down to this, but you had to be stopped,” Death said.

Her voice was softer this time. I could even sense a bit of pity. The scythe was literally sucking everything out of me. . . life. . . energy. . . even my emotions. It was all fading pretty fast.

“Justin, you said that you got started down this path because that demon promised to revive Lisa. I’m sorry to tell you this, but that’s not possible. I can tell you as Death, that nothing that leaves this world can be brought back without intervention from God or myself. She lied to you. As a mere demon, she doesn’t have the power to pull off a resurrection. Michael and Lucifer do not even possess the power to bring a soul back to this realm. Why do you think she was so adamant about binding your soul to her before you died? If she wanted you that badly, couldn’t she have just resurrected you if she was truly capable of that ability?”

“I suppose I never thought of it that way,” I muttered.

“Look, I sympathize with you, I really do, but someone who saves the world needs to do it for the right reasons. You never would have won using just Lisa as your motivation. If you really intended to stop the war and be the hero, you needed to do it right. Do you think you’re the only person to lose loved ones? I’ve reaped entire families in Africa only to leave one child alive. People die. It’s the natural order of things. Instead of fighting to get revenge for your loved ones, you should have been fighting to make sure more people didn’t die as a result of Lucifer and his other horsemen,” Death said.

Here on her doorstep, I slowly accepted that she was right.

“Your demon friend may honestly want to stop the war, but that’s really all she cares about. So much so, that she was willing to lie to you and push you to fight for the wrong reasons. And that blade you wielded may have been made by angels, but it definitely isn’t a just blade. It will push its user, just like Lilandra did, for its own twisted desires. In this case; it wanted me dead because it saw me as evil,” Death said.

She looked at her arm, and the dragon tattoo wasn’t going away. She didn’t seem surprised that Lucifer wouldn’t keep his word, even if I was killed. He probably intended to keep some sort of permanent leash on Death.

“Damn it all,” I muttered.

She looked down at me and said, “I’m sorry. . . if it’s any consolation, I wanted you to win. I really wanted to see you go far. Who knows, if I’d succeeded in stopping you sooner or if the blade and your demon friend hadn’t pushed you so far into your anger, we might have been allies,” Death said.

Death seemed puzzled as she looked at me. Then, she looked at my wound and the scythe sticking out of me.

“It sure is taking a while for that scythe to do its work. Between you and I, Justin, I honestly wish you could go on. You need your redemption. The world is going to need some hero to stop this war. So many are going to die that don’t have to,” Death said, looking at the ground.

My vision had quit at this point, and I’d been listening to her talk for the last few moments in blindness. When she said that so many would die, I heard Benjamin one more time.

“When you have a second. . . you know. . . when you’re not busy saving the world. Will you check in on Sarah and Elijah?”

This wasn’t over. I’d made my share of mistakes, even up until now, but this wasn’t over.

Like Hell this is over, I thought.

My eyes snapped open, and I reached out with my left hand toward Velvet.

“Velvet, come to me!”

I reached out and felt the sword respond. Apparently, we were still bonded. The blade flew into my hand, and without my telling it to, it called down bolts of raw lightning to strike my body over and over. One by one, each bolt hit me, making my heart beat a little stronger and faster until at last I felt my strength return.

Elijah and Sarah needed to carry on. I had to carry on and make a world safe for them to keep them live in. Joshua needed me. The world needed me.

Screaming, I reached down and grabbed the scythe. My flesh burned as I touched it, but I did not let go.

“This. . . isn’t. . . over!”

Finally ripping the scythe from my abdomen, I hurled it away from Death and I. She gasped, seeing me still standing.

“How-”

Raising Velvet and holding it with both hands, I looked at Death, blood still dripping from my stomach.

“Justin. . . I know everything around you is telling you to finish me. You’ve disarmed me, withstood my strongest blow, and now you’re ready for the kill. Your demon friend is asking for it. . . that sword is asking for it. . ., but I’m begging you to listen. I am not your enemy,” Death said.

“You told me that when you were human, you were scared of dying. So, you agreed to become Death. How ironic that even now, after a decade of being the grim reaper, you’re still scared of dying,” I said.

She said nothing but looked right into my eyes.

“My mind is made up, Death. There isn’t any turning back,” I said.

After a brief silence, it began to rain harder, and the tornado engulfing Lilandra faded. She looked pretty tired but otherwise fine as she fell to the ground watching us.

“Then do what you have to do, Justin. I just hope that you can eventually find some sort of happiness when all of this is over,” Death said.

She raised her arms and closed her eyes. She’d truly given up on this fight, thinking I’d bested her. I guess in some way I had. Well. . . Velvet did. If that blade had been any weaker, or if I hadn’t made contact with it until a few seconds later, Michael or Lucifer would have me now. That blade was the one thing that stopped the scythe’s effect.

I brought the blade down on Death, and she let out a painful scream as I did. She was going to be okay, though. I had decided that she was right. . . and she’d saved me. The world needed a hero. Velvet may not have my best intentions at heart, but it was what I had to work with at the moment.

Death fell to the ground clutching her shoulder that the dragon tattooed arm used to be attached to.

“Curse broken,” I muttered.

Lilandra finally made it back over to where we were and looked at the two of us.

“That isn’t going to kill her, Justin. You’re going to have to finish her,” Lilandra said.

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“She’s not my enemy; not after being freed from Lucifer’s leash she’s not. Who knows, she may actually return the favor someday,” I said.

I walked over to where I landed when I first got here. I had dropped my coat on the ground there. I’d been holding it on the flight over, thinking I might need it when the fight was over. Clearly, the fight didn’t go as I planned, so my needs were different now.

Walking back over to Death, who had stopped screaming, I put the long green coat around her shoulders and picked her up.

“What are you doing, Justin? That’s a horseman of the apocalypse you’re holding. She took Benjamin and Lisa from you. What happened to you killing her?”

“Lilandra, she saved me from myself. She made me realize that you and Velvet have your own agendas, and you both wanted those agendas furthered at any cost, even my life. She’s not my enemy. I killed Lisa. Benjamin died in a freak accident. Death was just the one who had to clean up afterward.

Lilandra looked like I’d just slapped her across the face. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Justin, this war has to stop.”

“I agree. I’m going to stop it,” I said.

“Good, then put her down and finish the job,” Lilandra said.

“No.”

“Justin! I’m not lying here. She has to die! She’s an enemy that will only come back to harm us as we continue our fight,” Lilandra said.

“Really? You’re not lying here? Well that’s a relief seeing as you lied to me about being able to bring Lisa back to life,” I growled.

Another verbal left hook that Lilandra wasn’t expecting from me left her speechless. After a brief and awkward silence, she finally started to mutter, “Justin, I don’t-”

“I’m done Lilandra. Or rather, we’re done. You’re done lying to me, and I’m done listening to you. This world needs a hero, Lilandra, and you do not drive me to be that hero. You only drive me to anger and destruction in a vain attempt to stop this quickly-approaching war. So from now on, you go your way, and I’m going mine. I’ll kill the other three horsemen without you,” I said.

After that, I turned while carrying Death and flew off into the sky. The storm was starting to lighten up as I flew east, and I could see some stars in the sky.

As we flew, I asked Death, “How is your arm. . . or lack thereof?”

“I’ll manage. I’ll find another one or something. It actually feels better not to have that burning tattoo on me. Thanks,” she said.

“Thank you for stopping me from continuing down that path,” I said.

The path had taken a different turn, but I still had Velvet, and I at least had one less horseman to fight. I guess this was a victory of some sort or by some obscure account.