The Devil's Pact - S01 E339

Story 6 hours ago

The Devil's Pact - S01 E339

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 339

"Hello, Mark," she greeted tenderly.

I am ready to leam."

She nodded. "The Gift manifests differently between men and women. For you, It gives peak physical strength, endurance, and reflexes for a man of your size. You can take more injuries and still function. A man without the Gift surely would have died from the beating you sustained. Your powers are geared to fighting the supernatural. Your primary ability is the Chereb prayer."

"Chereb," I whispered and jumped in surprise, dropping the gold blade that appeared in my hand. The moment I released it, the blade vanished into a thousand tiny, golden motes.

"Chereb, as you have noticed, conjures a blade of Celestial Gold, the weapon of an Angel. Sharp as a razor, but only capable of harming spiritual bodies, Azrael explained. "Angels, demons, spirits, monsters, homunculi."

"And how will that help free me?" I demanded, angrily. "Hell, the son of a bitch ripped my tongue out. I can't even summon the sword if I wanted to."

"It won't," Azrael answered, a hint of steel chiming in her voice. "But, once you are free, you may need this. The second basic prayer is Choshen. This will gird you in Angelic Armor, which is proof against most spiritual attacks. But it is not invulnerable. It also serves well against mundane attacks."

I was growing more and more impatient. "Teach me something. useful, dammit!"

Her scarlet eyes narrowed in annoyance. "The third basic prayer is all internal. Just imagine your body as healthy and whole as it should be and you shall be healed. No words need to be spoken. But it takes time, a few minutes, and it will leave you vulnerable."

"And restrained" I muttered.

"So, bide your time, wait for the opportunity, and seize it," Azrael hissed in anger, her face a thunderstorm of fury.

I flinched, taking a step back. "But, how can I create that opportunity?"

"There is one prayer, gifted only to Shamans," Azrael answered, calming down. "Because I am the Angel of Death, you may pull back the veil and summon help. It is very dangerous, the dead will draw on your life-force. I do not know how long you could maintain the summons. A few minutes, a few seconds, but it may give you the opportunity."

"How?" I asked, frowning.

"Tsalmaveth."

Violet Matheson Tacoma, WA

"Violet," Loreena said, shaking me awake. "Something is happening." She spoke with a slurred, stiff speech.

Yesterday, Loreena had saved me. She took me into her house and we spent the night huddled on her bed watching TV. Watching Brandon Fitzsimmons declare himself God. It was totally surreal Master was getting beaten so viciously, and then the President of the United States himself arrived and surrendered the country to that horrible Brandon.

"This can't be happening." Loreena had sald as she read the subtitles. She was deaf and Brandon's powers did not seem to affect her. "How can the President just surrender?"

"Brandon's evil," I answered, facing her so she could read my lips. "He sold his soul for dark powers."

We fell asleep on her bed - her bedroom TV muted - drawing comfort from each other as the world descended into madness. The night was full of unnatural sounds. Helicopters were constantly flying overhead and gunshots would ring violently out through the night. Every time I woke up, I would clutch Loreena and she would hug me just as tight.

Now it was Sunday morning and Loreena motioned me to come to the window, the rising sun filling her room with a soft light. I walked over and glanced outside and saw soldiers marching a woman to a truck. She was naked and I could see other women in the back of the truck. At the next house, soldiers were kicking in the front door. I could hear faint shouts and then I jumped from the crack of gunshots. A minute later, the soldiers dragged a sobbing teenage-girl out, then ripped her clothes off. God, it looked like they were laughing at the poor girl.

Depositing the naked girl in the truck, the soldiers headed for the next houses on the street. My heart froze in terror. They were searching house to house, dragging out the women they found. And they were working their way to this house.

"We have to hide!" I shouted. Loreena ignored me as she stared out of the window in shock. I forgot she was deaf, so I grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face me. "We need a place to hide."

Loreena gaped at me, her eyes full of disbelieving horror. Yesterday, US Soldiers didn't break down your door and drag you off. But that was before the world changed. Loreena glanced out the window, then took a deep breath and nodded. She grabbed my hand and led me out of the bedroom and down the stairs. She pushed on some paneling on the wall below the stairs and it moved, revealing a crawlspace beneath the stairs

I nodded to her and mouthed, "This would work."

We both squeezed in, pulling the panel closed. It smelled musty, and cobwebs clung to my hair. I was too scared to care about that, too scared to wonder where the spiders were that made all these webs. We sat down, and leaned against unfinished wood and waited. My heart was thundering in my chest as I strained to hear what was going on. I wished I had a watch or something, to tell how long we had been in here. It felt like an eternity as we walted in the dark, straining to hear anything.

What was taking the soldiers so long? I was starting to feel sick in my stomach as I waited. The stress was too much. Please, just let them search the house and move on. I wasn't sure how much more of this interminable waiting I could take. I tried to count my breaths, my heartbeats, anything to try and give me an idea of how much time was passing by.

Maybe the soldiers weren't coming? How long could I wait in here? Had it been minutes or hours? I swallowed, wondering if maybe we should slip out and check. We could be real quick-pop out, peer out the window, and pop back into our hiding spot. The soldiers would never know. I was reaching for the panel, preparing to push It open.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I jumped in surprise, someone was pounding hard on the front door. The soldier hammered again, paused, then hammered a third time. "Open up!" a man shouted. "Open up in the name of your God! All Citizens are required to submit to searches!" He banged again. "Last chance, then we're breaking the door down and executing whomever we find!"