Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 430

Noel Heinrich

A battle raged around Chasity and myself, the other ghosts attacking my golems with silver swords. The golems would punch, but their blows were ineffectual against the ghosts, unable to hurt those who were already dead. But their damned, silver blades could hurt my golems, hacking and biting into the clay, and sending chucks flying off to be dissolved by the mist. One golem collapsed, enough clay missing from its legs for it to be able to stand.

None of that mattered as Chasity stood before me, a silver blade in her hand. “Out of the way, Chasity,” I growled. “I don't want to hurt you.”

“You can't hurt me,” Chasity answered.

I raised the black blade, the tear in reality, and Chasity's eyes fell nervously on it. “Don't be too sure, Chasity.”

“Watch out,” Karen called out. “That's Mishbath, the Blade of Annihilation.”

Chasity's eyes narrowed, but her resolve never wavered. “Turn back, Noel.”

“I can't,” I hissed. “He deserves to die, to have never even existed. I will set mankind free from his tyranny!”

“Please, Noel,” Chasity begged, “Don't make me kill you. Remember that night we shared, the passion?”

“I remember that you threw your life away protecting them the next morning!” I screamed. “They made you their slave and forced you to sacrifice your life. Just like all the other ghosts here! They are monsters, Chasity! Now step aside, or I will deliver oblivion to you!”

“Mark's the monster?” Chasity asked, eyeing the blade with disgust.

Purple face. Bulging eyes. Hands scrabbling at the garrote.

I pushed the guilt down. “He's enslaving the world, he needs to be stopped, Chasity.”

“He's making it a better place,” Chasity retorted.

“Of course you think that. You're still his slave!”

“I am,” Chasity asserted, voice full of pride, “and that's why I can't stand down. He's my Master.”

“And you threw your life away for him!”

“No!” There was anger in Chasity's voice. “My death was not in vain! He learned compassion! He stopped seeing us as merely things, but as humans with hearts. That's why he set you free! He felt guilty for what happened to me. He learned compassion from my death. He's just human, he's made mistakes!”

“He's a beast, a monster. He unleashed Lilith, and look at all the harm she's caused!”

“Lilith tricked him!” Disgust curled Chasity's lip, her eyes flickering to the abomination cluched in my hand. “You summoned Ashtoreth, and you call him a monster? He's never murdered anyone! I know what you had to pay for that blade! Whom did you strangle?”

Bulging eyes and a purple face starring up at me.

“I did what I had to!” I spat.

“The excuse of a tyrant.”

“I am a Patriot!” I shouted, rage screaming from my lips, and I swung the blade at her face. The mists parted before the blade, snapping back like a taut string severed; the fog screamed in my mind as oblivion claimed a small portion of it. Chasity raised her silver sword, and negative black struck shining silver, locking together with a sickening screech that vibrated my bones. I drew back and hammered another blow at her; she parried. Again and again I slammed Annihilation at her; again and again she blocked my fury.

“Are you so eager for oblivion?” I snarled. “One slip-up and you're gone, Chasity! Just let me pass!”

“I will face oblivion for him,” Chasity resolved, her face fierce and beautiful, her voice full of passion. “He is my Master.”

I had tasted that passion before. Memories of that night—her last night alive—we had shared flashed through my mind. We had loved each other passionately; I had been consumed in ecstasy for this woman. The emotions I had beaten down into the depths of my soul after Chasity's death came rushing out, screaming in protest as I strove to drive my blade into her body.

“Please,” I begged, trying to bottle them up again, but they were like a gas hissing into the atmosphere, impossible to rebottle. “Please don't make me do this.” I could feel the tears rolling down my cheek.

“Then stop! Walk away.” Her sapphire eyes softened. “I think I loved you that night. Maybe, if I hadn't died, we could have been something more.”

Her words slapped me, and I stumbled back. No! Be strong! Liberty has its price! Blood must be shed, even if it's the blood of your friend, your lover. With an animalistic scream, I leapt at her. Annihilation swung through the mist, the fog crying out in pain as the blackest blade cleaved through the vapors towards Chasity's body. For just the merest moment, profound grief and regret flashed across Chasity's face, then iron-hard resolve glinted in her sapphire eyes; her sword stabbed forward.

It didn't hurt as her blade slipped between my ribs.

Annihilation fell from my suddenly useless hands before the abominable sword could connect with Chasity. For a moment I stood there, impaled upon the silver blade, staring into Chasity's ice-blue eyes. Her face broke, twisting into sadness. She reached out with a trembling hand to me, but my legs buckled and became useless; I slid backwards off her blade, landing on the ground with a grunt. I stared up at the never-ending mist as my lifeblood spilled out, staining the gray ground red. I shivered, a numbing cold spreading through my limbs. Chasity stood over me, tears running like silver rivulets down her cheeks, and bent down and picked up the terrible blade.

“Do it,” I whispered, the guilt consuming my soul. I had murdered that girl for the blade. She had been so full of life, and I was only full of death. “Send me to oblivion.”

She swung the sword at my head.

Only it missed, burying in the gray ground just above the crown of my head. Something inside me snapped, the chain wrapped around my soul—my slave chain—was severed, setting me free from bondage to Lucifer. Free from his torment, but not free from my punishment.

“I don't deserve this,” I sobbed as Chasity knelt down next to me, grasping my hand. A rough, wet cough rattled out of my throat; copper filled my mouth. “She was an innocent.”

Chasity stroked my face, bent down, and kissed me on the lips. When she pulled away, they were stained red. “We all make mistakes, Noel. Some are just worse than others.”

“I'm scared,” I whimpered. The cold was spreading through my torso; my vision shrank, leaving only Chasity's beautiful face. “Don't let me go.”

“I won't,” she whispered.

“I'm so sorry, Roxy,” I cried out. That was her name. Roxy. She had run away from home; from one horrible adult to an even worse one. She had wanted to be an actress, going to Hollywood would be her big break. I stole that from her for something as meaningless as vengeance.

My eyes closed; regret filled me. That was living, regretting all the hurts you heaped on your friends, your family, on strangers; regretting all the missed opportunities—chances to have fun, to take risks, to experience love and companionship. What was the point in living if you never actually lived. I had let the anger and rage at Mark consume me, burning out all the good parts of my soul and leaving behind only ashes. Regret.

My heart slowed. All feeling faded away from me, the clammy mist upon my face, the rough ground beneath my back, the shuddering pain in my torso. Every sensation was bleeding from my body except one single hand gripping mine, full of love and forgiveness. I clutched at that hand as I hung over the precipice of death. I didn't want to be alone and full of regrets. I wanted love. I wanted Chasity.

My heart stopped beating.

My soul fell into the darkness; I held on to Chasity's hand with a death grip, unwilling to let go. I was like a woman hanging from a cliff mere moments from plummeting to her death. Her only hope is a strand of flimsy grass. So she clutches it, knowing the blades are too weak to support her weight, but not caring because she so desperately wants to live that she'll do anything, no matter how impotent, to survive. I didn't want to plummet off my cliff, so I clutched Chasity's hand with all my strength—my blade of grass—and hoped for a miracle.

Sometimes miracles can happen.

I opened my eyes; Chasity's face shone above me. I sat up, leaving my physical body behind; the mist assaulted my corpse, dissolving it like styrofoam in nail polish remover. Joy surged through me—I wasn't going to be alone! I hugged her, and kissed her on the lips, warm and wonderful. Her arms wrapped around me, holding me tight, and her lips kissed down my cheek to my ear.

“I didn't let go,” she whispered. “You're one of us now. Somehow your soul is tied to mine.”

“I chose love,” I answered, caressing her cheek. “I didn't want any more regrets.”



To be continued...