Luci had sat there next to the fire for a few minutes allowing Thomas to continue crying over the friend who he doesn’t know anymore.

  The tears from Thomas that fell on the camera started to rise as if they were raindrops falling towards the heavens.

  “Come now Thomas.” Luci said as he got up. The winds began to blow as if trying to encourage Thomas as well.

  Thomas reluctantly stood up but couldn’t take his eyes off the blank camera screen, he was afraid if it turned on once more it will consume him next. “Ok.” Thomas said quietly.

  Luci walked over to Thomas and placed his hand behind Thomas’s back and pushed him as they began walking forward, down a path through the tall grass that seemed to be chopped just for them.

  As they walked Thomas couldn’t stop staring at the camera. His thumb twitched over the power button before retreating away. “Thomas. I want to show you something.” Luci said suddenly pulling Thomas’s attention.

  Luci grabbed one of the cameras from his necklace, the one resting on his shoulder, he twisted the necklace around until it was furthest away from him. The camera screen lit up and it chirped at the two.

  Thomas was made quickly alert from the camera sound and hid behind Luci. Thomas slowly peaked around Luci’s side and looked at the screen that showed a picture of a dragon and a crowd of what seemed to be angels standing around it but something about this photo looked wrong. It had white wings like a dove that matched the peoples wings in the photo but the dragons wings were bent badly and now stained red with its own blood while the wings of the people shined brightly, they almost seemed too perfect. The dragons mouth was laid open and blood trailed out of it. Standing over the beast was a man with long hair who wore all black, Thomas didn’t have any proof but he knew that man was the one who slayed the dragon.

  “It’s a sad picture…” The words automatically came from Thomas. A smile that was hidden from Thomas slipped across Luci’s otherwise somber face.

  “And how would you feel if I said that dragon was killed because it lived.” Luci said, the smile faded before Thomas looked up at him with a confused expression.

  “What? It didn’t do anything like hoard gold or burn a village down? They killed it just because?” Thomas said, he didn’t realize it yet but the grass field they were walking through began to grow. The grass came up to Thomas’s shoulders now.

  Luci shook his head as he flicked to the next photo which showed everyone cheering at the same man who now held the severed head of the dragon up. “Before, the dragon would help people, it would keep the bad things away and was a very talented singer as well. It would constantly sing the king to sleep and serenade the world when it needed peace. They said the dragon was the representation of evil, but didn’t say why. So the good friends of the dragon came to their side to help defend him. But the hero of the land, he killed them all.” Luci was now crying, trying his best to keep his composure. Thomas felt like he should be crying as well but the tears never came, instead they were drained in a hollow part of his heart.

  Luci let the camera drop to its natural resting spot and looked up at the sky as his tears ran down his face. “Life has never been fair, even since the beginning. No matter how much one tries to do good they will be met with the unjust justice of others.” Luci’s words were now carrying a hint of emotion.

  Luci grabbed one of his other cameras and spun the necklace around once more and turned it on. “Luci…” Thomas’s plead quietly faded as the next photo came into focus.

  This photo was of a lanky creature who stood on two legs like a man. It had white wings to match the dragons except they were perfectly straight. The beast had a smile on its face as it was helping a normal looking child pick some apples from a tree. They had an overfilling baskets of these apples which a hoard of smiling children were running to.

  “He looks like a good guy!” Thomas smile matched the creatures. Luci nodded in agreement.

  “This is Asmodeus. He is… was a very good friend.” Luci corrected himself as a crack snapped across the screen under the weight of Luci’s tightening grip.

  Luci drew a long deep breath in, allowing the tears and lump in his throat to pass. With a sharp exhale he pressed on. “He loved to help humans, especially the ones with no family. He even tried to help defend the dragon.” Luci tried his best to sound sad but only happy notes floated out of his mouth.

  Thomas didn’t realize it yet but he had stopped blinking since he heard the story about the dragon. Just like his tears, Thomas’s smile faded away and would never return. It fell down the same pit with his tears.

  Luci flipped to the next photo showing the same man in black standing over Asmodeus’s shriveled up body with a burning sword standing out of his chest.

  Luci’s hands were now trembling so much that he couldn’t hold the camera still enough so he let it drop like the last one.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The grass had subtly changed to a darker shade of red as if it were stained with the blood of the unjust murders from Luci’s stories. The path they were walking on was shrinking slowly forcing Thomas closer to Luci.

  “Why was Asmodeus killed?” Thomas said, his voice had shifted from overflowing emotion to monotone.

  Luci grinned. “Because Asmodeus wanted to help the humans. The king declared that the humans needed to be exiled out of paradise because they were growing too powerful and the king was afraid they would out grow the need for him and throw him out first.” Luci couldn’t keep it together anymore as a sudden rush of emotions rushed through him. He was caught between laughing at the stars and crying at the ground.

  Thomas had so many thoughts rushing through his mind, he wanted to scream about the injustice and how someone told him before that every life mattered but instead of the words escaping into the air they went down the wrong way, into that now familiar pit and the only word that found its way out was “oh.”

  Thomas thought that Luci was just like his grandpa who his parents said ‘went through war.’ “I have just one more to show you Thomas. Is that ok?” Luci asked but was already reaching for the camera before he heard an answer.

  Luci grabbed the camera that was resting on the back of his neck now and spun it around. Thomas thought he should interrupt Luci but his shoulders grew heavy with an invisible weight. A weight so powerful that it kept his mouth closed. A weight that was unknowingly made in Thomas and by Thomas.

  The camera chirped as it turned on. The screen showed the last photo Thomas was ever meant to see. Thomas tried once more, with all his might, to open his mouth but his lips wouldn’t move. His pleas of help trapped for only himself to hear.

  The photo was split down the middle. One half showed the grass field they were in and the other half was of a forest that was very familiar to Thomas. Standing in the middle on the screen, perfectly split down the middle was the angel who wore all black. In just a moment the figure transformed into a beast that towered over the trees, stretching out of frame and when Thomas blinked the man was normal again. Streaks of red rain fell throughout the whole photo and giant bodies of creatures were scattered almost hidden in the grass or behind the trees as if they were trying to hide before the one in black found them. Red moss was littered over the corpses and were spilling out of them soaking into the soil and plants.

  “No matter where they fled or tried to hide he found them. He made this seem like it was just all a game with the way he mocked us as he killed us off one by one. He was our family, our brother and he slew us so easily because the king gave the order. There was nothing we could do, we could never hope to fight back…” Luci said. Thomas’s heart was racing hearing about such a beast but the fluttering heart was quickly and quietly soothed, disappearing into that same pit as before.

  The grass had gotten so high it could reach up past Thomas’s head if they weren’t bent inward, towards the path pointing at his neck.

  Suddenly Luci stops causing Thomas to come to a halt. “You didn’t react to that one.” Luci said knowing all too well the reason why.

  Thomas’s brow furrowed and his fists clinched. He was trying his hardest to reach into that pit in his chest and pull out any of his now lost emotions but came back with only crushed flowers in hand. “I… I can’t…” Thomas began to say looking at his empty hands hoping that tears would follow his failure, but nothing.

  Luci leaned in close with a grin that stretched past his ears revealing a set of teeth so large that it would rival a sharks. “Go on.” Luci whispered as he whisked his hand in the air. An invisible blade cut the grass around them revealing mounds of fresh graves and lines that formed now unrecognizable shapes and symbols under their feet.

  For the first time Thomas realized the hole in his heart, it was growing and swallowing him whole. He could feel the air in his lungs getting colder and his heartbeat slowing down. Thomas wrapped his arms around him self, grabbing at his shirt with both hands but didn’t know why. He remembered his mom would hug him like this when he was upset or mad but he didn’t feel those things right now.

  The symbols and lines began to glow red and shift as Luci’s tears splashed against them. They began to form a pentagon under their feet.

  Thomas reached over and tugged on Luci’s sleeve. “I can’t fe…” But before he could finish the line the crack of thunder caused Luci’s and Thomas’s head to shoot up to look at the heavens. That’s when they noticed a dark cloud was now covering the red moon and with a whip of lightning a stream of light shot wildly out of the cloud. Another crack signaled the stream of light growing in speed and sound as it danced through the air and turned its gaze towards them.

  Like an hawk who spotted its prey the stream of light was now going straight to them. The light got really close to the ground and with another crack it set ablaze to the grass it passed over but the flames were burning bright silver.

  As Thomas watched the light grow closer his heart began fluttering and his eyes were big and glossy. On the other had Luci’s hand shot over his own chest and his breathing increased rapidly. “He’s on schedule!” Luci said behind clenched teeth.

  The light had grown in volume so much that it could swallow the damned forest whole but in a second it stopped and all that remained was a man that Thomas wished he would never get to see. The man in black stood a few feet away from them. A sadness that could erase worlds was slathered across his face, his hands were clenched around a massive flaming sword that dripped with silver flames. In just a few moments the hope had drained from Thomas, he returned to a slouched position seemingly unimpressed by the presence of an angel.

  “Metatron.” Luci said. The whole field behind the figure in black was now in a ragging fire with flames that reached past the moon. The silver flames were quickly spreading around the three leaving no room for any escape.

  “Lucifer.” Metatron said, his face twisted as if saying the name caused him pain. The world had seemed to shift, drawing everything towards Metatron like it all suddenly seemed to remember who was in charge.

  Luci grabbed Thomas by the shoulder and put him between him and Metatron. “You know…” Luci began to speak but his words froze when Metatron pointed his sword at Thomas and him.

  “I came to this graveyard to pay my respects, never would I have thought to see you standing above the ground again.” Metatron said, his words felt full of rage and regret. When Thomas looked at Metatron he expected to be terrified or happy, he couldn’t feel anything.

  Thomas saw the man flicker once more like in the last photo revealing a beast that towered over them. He had black, blade like hair that stood on end and silver and purple flames coming out of the cracks that covered his skin making him look like a beast made of shadows. He had bright purple eyes that pierced through Thomas, they seemed to be studying his soul. It was clear he could end them in an instant like he did to all the innocent people before but was holding back for something. A second later he looked like a normal man once more.

  The air itself started to catch fire as the two beings traded glances that would kill anyone weaker. What grass that was left around them began to turn to ash and float up. Thomas’s skin began to become sunburnt but he couldn’t feel the pain. “You mean the graveyard you built and filled?” Luci said and pushed Thomas, who lost his balance quickly, towards Metatron who had to throw his sword to the side to catch.

  “You can have him back, he’s of no more use.” Luci’s words echoed before they faded. Thomas felt one last tug on his heart before an invisible line connecting it to another snapped.

  Metatron looked back up to see Luci turn into red moss, strands of his body peeled away and blew away in the wind. The ground, grass and flames were next for they too turned to red ash and blew away revealing a layer of blackness. Metatron looked up and saw the red moon looking back at him. Thomas looked down into the abyss and saw a steady stream of red moss rising from far below them. The red moss stoped just below their feet and swirled together taking shape of the forest around them. The red moss had swallowed Metatron and Thomas whole, leaving them trapped in hell.

  “Are you ok?” Metatron asked Thomas after helping him stand up straight. Screams of the damned cut through the night air quickly reminding Thomas he is not safe here, while the screams alerted Metatron that he was now severed from his father’s sight and his protection.

  Thomas had only heard and seen bad things that Metatron had done, the innocent people he had slain but couldn’t help but feel nothing when he looked at him now. “I can’t feel anything.” Thomas said which made Metatron cry.