Chapter V: A pool of blood

It wasn’t difficult anymore. It was as if he knew how to do it in his entire life; and this wouldn’t be far from the truth. For Jack’s life could only be measured in days. Fourteen days since he was really born to this world as he wished to be. Memories new, morals that were developing on their own, no parental advices, no external outputs, no classmates or colleagues to guide him in the ways that the world turned around, in the way that humanity worked nowadays…

Everything he saw, everything he touched, every single smell, was brand new, and as such it was categorized in his mind. As easy as any child could distinguish the smell of meat and fries, so easy he could sniff out the vile taint of the demons; a stink that left a palpable trail of death behind her.

Fourteenth day, and on the hunt for his twenty seventh demon, Jack had left not a single minute go to waste. Trails of fragrances and vile were constantly being distinguished, the first one left alone, it belonged to a dying race, to humanity…

Two giant antlers were clearly visible in the alley. The demon was bending over a faceless being, talons searching through a hand bag. The black eyes of the demon rose for an instant and saw him; his talons grabbing a hideous knife as he lunged forward. Jack smiled, after all the poor demon was only seeing a homeless person, and turned his head towards his companion. The unsettling feeling that he should recognize this man returned again, but Jack had chosen not to dwell too much on that. The wild grin of the man lit up, and his eyes spew fire as he got ready to sent hell to the demon.

But Jack hesitated. Something new was invading his senses, a smell so pure, so clean, so… distinct, that nearly drove him mad with joy. His eyes fell next to the dead faceless woman, where another human form was standing. He hasn’t seen it before, as days had passed, he had noticed that he was starting to just ignore the faceless mob, like his eyes didn’t registered them as something to be noted…

But this one was changing, rapidly he was developing features, in the blink of an eye, a boy stood there, bleeding, with eyes watching the demon… like they wanted to remember that moment.

Jack stopped. He felt a knife going through his fresh flesh. The fiery being besides him looked puzzled.

“What the fuck are you doing? Let me incinerate him.” Jack could hear there was some kind of emotion behind the last word. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed the passion of his companion for fire before; almost as if he wasn’t burning them to relieve the world from them, but just so as to fulfill some personal agenda.

“No.” His voice kept steady as he felt the knife moving in and out of him in a wild pattern.

“This one lives. After all he has helped to create a human.”

“You are mad” The flaming man screamed. “You talk about balance? There is no balance any more. The demons have won already. We are fighting a losing battle and you allow them to live simply as that? Balance is broken beyond repair, and we can only hope that we can kill enough demons to just lift the scale a bit. KILL him.”

The murderer had left; obviously thinking that Jack was dead. He didn’t even cast a second glance at the child. He just grabbed the bag and left.

Jack felt revitalized, his body hadn’t felt any pain since he was born, but now, even though alive, he was feeling his whole body ready to burst. It was a new emotion, a new sense, a new memory; but somehow, familiar, like he was supposed to know it. A lingering though stayed at his head “How do the people I kill feel?”

“He kicked me didn’t he?” Jack mused to his enraged partner.

“THAT WAS ENOUGH. THIS ONE DIES” Was the only answer, a fiery path behind him as he raced towards the murderer.

Jack stood up, pain was everywhere, clouding his senses, or, as he wanted to believe, allowing him, for the first time since he was born, to see clear.

“You will do no such thing my friend. Come back here.”

Jack was surprised when he tried to look at the flaming eyes that were now just an inch from his face. He was surprised because he had to tilt his head al the way upwards in order to see him. He realized that he should have noticed earlier, after each kill; after each soul that he devoured; after each inch he grew taller. But it all seemed too sudden to him now, too hasty, too… wrong.

“Science needs patience” he said to himself. Followed by an awkward feeling and an almost instantaneous “Where did this came from” exclamation.

“You command me no more, pathetic man. Once maybe, but now I’m far too strong. This one will die. And we will continue our mission. We shall not rest until the demons are banished, incinerated, dead.”

Jack’s eyes felt downwards, to his hands. They were flooding with blood. He could now see that it wasn’t only his blood, but the blood of each on that had perished from them.

The blood was pooling at his feet; a small red lake. And then he saw, for the first time, his reflection; a constant haze of chaos, a swirling recollection of images that swiveled around in wild shapes, never resting in one, always changing, always moving…

This wasn’t his face, he knew it, none of those were. He looked at the flaming man besides him and knew… who had stolen it.

“No. Not stolen. I’m still a tiny god. I created him. I gave him my face out of my own free will…” He though. And then he started laughing…

“You are right my friend. You are too strong to order you not to kill.” Jack said. ”So… I’ll just order you to kill another one, me. This, you cannot refuse.”

“You insignificant little worm think that you can blackmail me?” The fire’s maniacal laughter echoed in the entire world as his flames engulfed Jack.

He would have liked to say that he didn’t scream, to say that he endured it. But each and every cell of his body was thrown into a pit of lava. Hell was nothing compared to that.

Pain.

Torture.

Agony.

Jack was going mad from the chaotic inferno that was devouring his very being. His screams tore his mouth open, adding to the blood that he was shedding from all the pores in his body.

Pain.

Torture.

Agony.

…Madness.

Jack had to end it. He felt his bones being reduced to ash from the incredible heat, his lungs screaming for a last gulp of air, his mind exploding from the suffering.

But he knew. He had no chance to fight him. And he endured… Till he felt the heat subside, till Jack was just a trembling mass of flesh that lay to the cold cement, in a pool made from his own blood. And he felt him, he felt the demon doing the only thing he could do to stop himself from following the suicidal order that Jack has given him.

Jack knew his own demon, he was too afraid to die… and as such he felt him entering the prison Jack had made him so many years ago, when he was still a kid, when the demon was still a newborn, when he could contain him. Jack sealed the sturdy metal door in his mind again. He looked at the pool of blood and saw him wearing his own face again, and fainted smiling.

Jack was standing in a dark alley, a place fitting for a homeless. His eyes were glued to the mailman. He would deliver a prized scholarship today, as he had the day before and the day prior to yesterday. Jack knew it. After all, it was him that has willed those in existence.

“You see my friend. We can still fight our war. We need no killings, we need not to become like them in order to win. Humanity shall arise not because her enemies will die, humanity shall stand up on her own two feet. We can simply be a helping hand.” He told to the voice in his head.

In a place were even darkness would have been considered light, two flames, like eyes, opened. “You will break again someday Jack. And I will be waiting… I’m always waiting for when you will need me again, when you will call me.”

Jack’s voice was tired, maybe it was intended for a joke, but it didn’t sound like that. “Yes my friend, I know. And believe me the day that I will call you shall come. For even I need to die, and you’re the only one that can kill me… one day, I shall call you again, and I’ll expect you to perform your duty to me…”