Post by Bene Elohim on Feb 8, 2024 14:57:32 GMT -8
The bar in the lively part of LA was lulled into quiet late morning contentment with only a handful of customers and a single bartender behind the bar. Beside the bar, the hallway opened up leading toward the bathrooms and finally to the office of Lena Theras, the owner and proprietor of Broken Promises.
Between the locked office door and the bathrooms sat a section of the wall that served as an elevator leading to the second floor where Shay and Lena called home. If you didn’t know where it was, you wouldn’t have even known it was there.
With a barely audible ding, two sections of the wall slid back into themselves revealing the interior of the elevator beyond where Lena and Shay stood. Each of them was dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a loose top, each with a one-year-old girl on their hip and their purses over the other.
Shay tickled the girl in Lena’s arm’s stomach and the girl let out a little giggle. The pair cross the threshold of the elevator and around the corner leading into the bar proper where one of the men closest to the edge of the bar spotted them and came over giving the girl in Shay’s arms a big raspberry kiss on the cheek.
Antonio, one of Lena’s regulars and a good man. Putting his daughters through college. Shay flashed him a warm, friendly, even caring smile and patted him on the cheek as Lena glanced over at the man behind the bar.
Lena Theras: “We don’t be gone for more than a few hours. I’ll be back in time to help with the delivery.”
Bartender: “Understood Boss.”
While the two talked the doors pushed open and people began to enter. Telling if they were men or women was impossible as all of them wore black masks beneath the half white and half black hood of a one-piece sweatshirt and pants that matched.
Lena was still talking to the bartender never saw the figures, but Shay did. She watched as they fanned out and made it impossible to get to the door without going through one of them and as another figure entered. The glare of the sun was behind him but he seemed to be taller than the rest and sleekly muscled.
Shay Kenyon: “Nibs….”
Shay had been around enough with Dean to know there was something different about this. It was like the Children of Nephilim and yet different. The hairs on the back of her neck began to stand up and the tiny blonde felt a shiver run down her spine.
Shay Kenyon: “Nibs….”
She said again, weaker this time.
Antonio saw the look in Shay’s eyes and spun around in his chair. Beside him, two other men, also regulars after hard graveyard shifts did the same.
Antonio: “Who the fuck are you?!”
He called out.
Voice: “None of your concern.”
The voice belonged to the man now walking through the door. When the door closed they all saw he was perhaps six foot three with broad shoulders and short brown hair. It was growing out at the sides, but still showed the hints of the former crew cut. He had a mustache and goatee.
Anthony Crawford.
Antonio looked back and saw the concern, even fear on Shay’s face and the way Lena was sliding along the edge of the bed closer and closer to her wife, terror in every line of her face. He knew this was bad.
Could this man be the girl's father?
Antonio: “Obviously the girls don’t want you here so why don’t you just beat it before….”
Anthony didn’t even let him finish. As soon as the word “before” left his mouth his head snapped to the side and he stepped forward, beyond the Demons with a smirk on his lips.
Anthony Crawford: “Before….what?”
Lena Theras: “Ant, don’t…”
Antonio: “Lena. Shay. Stay here…”
The middle-aged man slid from his chair and looked over at the two burly men.
Antonio: “Fellas? You gonna stand here and let him scare Lena and Shay?”
Men: “Hell no.”
The two men rose from their stools, but Antonio was the first to come forward. He drained the rest of the beer in his hand and flipped the bottle around until he was holding it by the neck. Anthony only smirked and motioned with his fingers for the man to take his best shot.
He swung an overhand strike with the bottle but Anthony just turned, grabbing his wrist with one hand and bringing it down while he brought the other up into the underside of his elbow. The elbow snapped as Antonion let out a bellowing scream of agony. Anthony brought the man’s broken arm around back toward him until the bottle smashed across his face while kicking his leg out and striking the man on the knee forcing him down to a knee. With the hand still on the man’s wrist, he threw the arm aside as he lifted a leg when the arm cleared exposing Antonio’s face Anthony’s foot connected with his jaw with a brutal front kick.
The middle-aged man who wanted nothing more than to protect Shay and Lena hit the ground, blood spraying from his mouth across Shay’s shoes. The other two men closed in on Anthony and blocked the blow from one while spinning into a roundhouse kick that took the other in the side of the face snapping his head around. The man spun landing on a table that fell dumping him unconscious to the floor.
A right and a left to the jaw left the final man stunned before Anthony kicked out into the side of his knee. The man’s knee broke with a loud snap and he fell landing on the other knee with a scream but Anthony just reared back and threw all his weight into a punch. The man’s jaw broke with an audible snap as he collapsed unconscious to the floor.
A couple of the Demons chuckled as Lena and Shay pushed closer together, each of them turning the girls to as far away from the man as possible.
Shay Kenyon: “What do you want?!”
Anthony: “Take him.”
Anthony commanded motioning to the man behind the bar. Lena looked up in shock at the command, her eyes pleading for her employee and friend.
Lena Theras: “NO! Please! Don’t do this! He has a family! PLEASE!”
The Demons were unmoved by her words as they descended on the man in mass. He fought and he struggled but four of them were enough to bind him in ties and stuff a gag into his mouth before being dragged outside and into the waiting van.
Five Demons remained standing behind Anthony as he turned his eyes on the now weeping pair of women.
Anthony Crawford: “We can do this the easy way...or the hard way.”
Lena Theras: “Don’t you fucking touch her!”
Anthony Crawford: “I only want the children.”
Shay Kenyon: “WHAT?! NO! WHY?!”
Lena Theras: “You know why!”
Lena snapped thinking this madman worked for Lucifer.
Lena Theras: “You can’t have MY daughters!”
Anthony Crawford: “They are leaving with me regardless. You can give them to me or I can TAKE them from you.”
Shay Kenyon: “...please...please don't ...PLEASE!”
The door behind the group opened again bathing the bar in the light as Anthony stepped forward a step. None of them turned to look behind them as they expected the Demons had simply returned after loading the bartender into the van.
Anthony Crawford: “Last chance. Hand them over or I will take them by force.”
Voice: “You aren’t gonna fucking touch those girls.”
The Demons spun around in shock as Anthony froze at the new voice. Slowly he turned and looked behind him as on the other side Shay and Lena both let out a shocked gasp. The man stood six foot seven with long wavy black hair and a thick coarse black beard.
One of Lucifer’s original disciples.
Joshua Mcbride.
He wore a pair of loose-fitting workout pants and a sleeveless shirt as if he had just come from a workout or photo shoot and he looked every bit the powerhouse he had always been. Anthony, however, didn’t look impressed.
Anthony Crawford: “One of you shut whoever that is up.”
Of the six Demons standing there only one of them moved. One of the newer ones. The other five were former members of Lucifer’s original Demon legion who remembered who this was. What this man was capable of and froze.
The Demon got within arms reach of Joshua and the big man lashed out an arm, yanking the already moving man toward him and finally, past him. The Demon slammed face and chest first into one of the pillars, spinning end over end before slamming unconscious to the ground.
Anthony Crawford: “GET HIM!”
Joshua Mcbride: “Shay. Lena. RUN!”
Anthony was focused on Joshua when Lena and Shay both bolted back the way they had come. The five other Demons hit Joshua from all sides as Anthony’s head spun around to find Lena and Shay rounding the corner and gave chase.
He rounded the corner behind them and reached the elevator just as the doors closed. Driving a fist into the wall and turned to bolt through a door beside the bathroom leading to a set of stairs. Back in the main room of the bar, the Demons were lying all over the bar.
Some of them over tables, others half over the bar and others just lying in awkward angles on the floor. Joshua stood where Anthony had left him, blood leaking from his lip and down his face from his eyebrow but his eyes were narrowed with rage.
The big man walked around the corner toward the elevator he knew about from being here before. When he reached it the elevator rang out and the doors slid open to reveal Lena and Shay, who heard the door to the stairs slam open and came back down hoping to outsmart Anthony.
Shay Kenyon: “I don’t understand! Are you…trying to help us?!”
Joshua Mcbride: “Go north. Ashley will meet you.”
Lena Theras: “The fuck we are going anywhere near…”
Joshua Mcbride: “Do you love your children!?”
Lena Theras: “...Of course…”
Joshua Mcbride: “THEN GO! NOW!”
The two women hurried around him and through the bar. Outside they found the van with the bartender tied up and unconscious in the back. After closing all the doors, with the man still inside, they climbed into the front two seats with Shay holding both the babies while Lena drove and hurried away.
At that moment standing in the hallway, it all hit Joshua. All the things he had seen. What had been done to Iko. The house in Malibu and the farmhouse. All the devastation and destruction. All of it at the hands of the man upstairs.
Joshua’s eyes narrowed and slowly shifted up to the ceiling and beyond. To the loft apartment that Shay and Lena shared and the shadow of the beast seemed to cross over his face. His features melting and shifting, without actually changing.
For at least this moment, the Demon Prince of Gluttony was standing in the hallway. One of the most feared of the Children of Nephilim. One of the founding four.
Abaddon.
An arm drove to the side driving the elbow into a glass case and ripped a fire ax from within the safety case. Once inside the elevator he hit the bottom for the loft and waited, his breathing now coming in ragged, snarling pants as the hate and malice began to build in him.
When the doors slid open again the beautiful home of Shay and Lena was revealed. A large living room filled with beautiful paintings and furniture in homy beiges and soft golds. A man stood on the other side of an elegant oak coffee table who slowly turned when the doors opened.
Sathanas and Abaddon locked eyes and the former vaulted the table and closed the distance as the latter cleared the doors and swung the fire ax for all he was worth. Anthony ducked under the swing and lashed out a kick that caught Joshua in the stomach.
The blow didn’t even so much as phase him as he leaned forward with the force of the blow and let out a screaming roar in Anthony’s face. A scream of hate and violence. Joshua throws his head forward, his forehead connecting with Anthony’s mouth and nose.
Blood explodes from Anthony’s nose and mouth covering Joshua’s throat as he swung again. Anthony moves, each swing missing by inches as Sathanas shifted, spun and dodged. A blow hit a lamp, shattering the porcelain. Another ripped into the fabric of a beige chair overturning it completely from the force of the blow.
When Joshua swung the next blow Anthony grabbed the ax just below the head and in the middle of the grip but before he could do anything with it Joshua’s shoulders flexed. With another roar, Mcbride turned and ripped the smaller man off his feet.
Anthony hit the couch causing it to overturn and him to roll toward the kitchen area of the loft. With another outcry, Joshua took the overturned couch in one hand and shoved it aside causing it to slide a couple of feet to his left. Bringing the ax up he brought it down full force toward Anthony’s neck and head.
Sathanas rolled to the side and the ax hit the wood of the floor becoming embedded in it. Rolling back to his back while Joshua was still doubled over Anthony lashed a foot out catching him in the face staggering him back away from the ax. Sathanas leaned back on his shoulders and kipped back to his feet, but had only landed on them by a fraction of a second when he threw himself into the air, a roundhouse kick taking Joshua in the mouth.
Joshua staggered back into the counter of the kitchen, a small wall to his left separating it from the girl's sleeping area. Anthony came in hot throwing a sidekick to the stomach but Joshua caught his leg as it hit. His arm came out grasping Anthony by the throat and yanking him forward, connecting his forearm to Sathanas’s mouth with a bone-crunching crunch.
Joshua turned suddenly, bringing all his weight and power to bare throwing Anthony with all his strength into the wall. The man hit the drywall and exploded clean through it landing in the darkroom beyond motionless on the floor.
Joshua Mcbride: “YOU WON’T TOUCH THOSE CHILDREN!”
The big man roared as he threw an arm out, his forearm and first connecting with parts of the drywall knocking it free and clearing a path for himself. Anthony slowly rolls to his stomach and plants a fist into the floor pushing himself up with a cough.
Anthony Crawford: “What does it even matter to you?! They aren’t yours!”
Joshua Mcbride: “They are someones. And that’s all that matters to me.”
Joshua came in and grabbed Anthony by the back of his shirt but ate a hard mule kick to the stomach sending him staggering back into the hole in the wall. Like he had with Cronos all those months ago Anthony plants his hand to flat to the ground and uses it to begin his turn. As he rotates he jumps, spinning two full rotations before snapping out a kick that takes Mcbride in the mouth full force.
Josh goes through the hole in the wall leaning against the counter. Mcbride turns just as Anthony is coming through the hole and jumps landing on his shoulders but Joshua’s strength keeps him up as he turns and drives Anthony's spine first into the counter.
The two fight and jockey for position but each time Anthony slides to the side Joshua goes with him, keeping himself between Anthony’s legs and driving brutal punches and elbows into his stomach.
The two end up circling halfway around the counter until Joshua’s back was to the living room again. Mcbride reaches out, snatching one of the knives from the knife block and brings it down on Anthony’s throat and face but Sathanas crosses his wrists beneath his hand.
The knife inches lower and lower as Joshua’s arms began to shake. His eyes feral and narrowed down on the bleeding face of Anthony.
It happened so fast, Anthony shifted hard to the side and darts his hands up behind Joshua’s head. The knife drives into the counter, slicing open Anthony’s shoulder but he rips Joshua’s head down driving his face into the countertop and pulls both legs up planting his feet into the man’s chest.
With a hard shove, Anthony extends his legs and the big man was lifted off his feet and flung five feet into the living room between the couch and a chair where he landed with a wet sickening crunch.
Joshua began to make surprised gurgling sounds as Anthony slipped off the counter bleeding from his mouth, eyebrow, and nose. He looked down and found Joshua on his back, blood flowing from his mouth.
As Anthony stood over him staring down at the man and at that moment realized that the ax he had used to attack the Prince of Hell was nowhere to be seen.
Joshua had landed on it.
Sathanas stood staring down at the man as he choked and coughed on his blood, his eyes cold and emotionless. Slowly his head canted to the side as he slides down into a crouch staring down into the surprised and pained face staring up at him.
Anthony Crawford: “You just couldn’t leave well enough alone.”
Joshua reaches up and grabs the man by the jaw, his grip slack but still trying to get his hand around his throat but Anthony just plants his hand into Joshua’s chest and pushes down slowly, relishing in the pain-filled grunts and wide panicked eyes as the blade of the ax slid in deeper.
Anthony Crawford: “You just had to be a fucking tough guy didn’t you?!”
As Anthony taunted him from inside his pants pocket Joshua’s phone began to ring. Anthony fished it out of Joshua’s pocket and answered it. When he did he found himself staring into the face of Lucifer himself in a video call.
Lucifer: “...Joshua! What’s happening?! Where’s Sha….Sathanas”
Lucifer’s voice dropped into a hiss when he saw the face looking back at him.
Lucifer: “….Where is Joshua?!”
Anthony let a slow, sadistic smirk spread across his face and turned the phone around so the camera could see the bearded man. Blood was flowing like a river from his mouth as he reached a shaking hand toward the camera.
It wasn’t Lucifer however who responded. An agony filled shriek echoed from behind him as the blue-haired woman standing beside Ashley dropped to her knees with her hand over her mouth.
Maiko Adachi: “JOSH! NO!!! PLEASE NO!!!”
Lucifer: “.....Anthony what did you do?!”
The phone slowly turned until his face came into view again and Anthony growled.
Anthony Crawford: “I didn’t do it Lucifer. You did.”
Lucifer: “HE HAD A FAMILY ANTHONY!”
Anthony Crawford: “You should have thought about that before you sent him.”
Then the video cut out abruptly as Anthony spiked the phone into the ground. The last little bit of light showed a smiling Joshua holding a little red-haired girl in his lap and smiling.
Anthony rose and looked down at the face of the man lying on the floor of the apartment. His arms were at his sides and his eyes wide and vacant.
Joshua Mcbride was dead.
Ashley Kenyon: “MOTHER FUCKER!”:
Ashley drove her fist down onto the table and rounded on the man standing at its head.
Ashley Kenyon: “THIS IS ON YOU!”
Sariel, tears running down her face stepped forward and laid a hand on the black-haired woman’s arm.
Sariel: “Stop it….”
Ashley, however, threw the hand off and shoved the tiny Asian woman away from her. Maiko watched her Pool with wide eyes from the floor where she had collapsed after seeing her first love die.
Ashley Kenyon: “AERYNN! SHONN! MARKUS RAEL! JOSHUA! ALL OF THIS IS ON YOU! ALL OF IT!”
Xaria Linette: “Stop it! This isn’t his fault!”
Ashley didn’t even so much as look at Xaria, staring at the man who refused to even look up at her. Lucifer stood with his head down, hair hanging over his face and his arms were trembling. Ashley didn’t care, she rested a hand on the desk snarling.
Ashley Kenyon: “What the fuck is it gonna take?! When are you going to get your goddamn head out of your ass!?”
Maiko Adachi: “...Pool….”
Ashley Kenyon: “The man I went to war with? The man we all sacrificed so much to stop? There is no way in hell he would have let this get this far! He would have CRUSHED these two piss ants like fucking cockroaches under his boot months ago. MONTHS AGO LUCIFER!
And now they are all dead and Maricela is lying in a goddamn bed somewhere so I hear with severe facial injuries and what for?! So you can pretend you are above it the man you used to be?! Because two women who didn't give two fucks about you said so?! WAS IT WORTH IT?!”
Xaria Linette: “That’s enough!”
Martin West: “Ashley...I know you are hurting….”
Ashley Kenyon: “FUCK THAT SHIT!”
Ashley took a steadying breath and leveled a finger down at the blue-haired woman weeping on the floor.
Ashley Kenyon: “SHE WILL NOT DIE BECAUSE OF YOU!”
She drew in another steadying breath and said calmly.
Ashley Kenyon: “I’ll end the fucker myself.”
Ashley turned and stormed from the room driving the doors open with a loud concussion and Maiko looked up from the floor to the group and then pushed herself up following her out. The group stood in stunned silence which was only broken when Lucifer whispered.
Lucifer: “Leave me….”
One by one they all filled out, each of them too stunned to speak about the things that Ashley had said ...wrong or right. It was Xaria who exited the room last and slowly closed the doors behind her. Once he was alone Lucifer put his hands over his face and sank into a crouch.
Alone in that room, Lucifer felt it.
Markus.
Cronos.
Aerynn.
Shonn.
And Joshua.
Even if he promised Xaria he’d never become that again.
Lucifer knew what he needed to do.
What he needed to be.
Between the locked office door and the bathrooms sat a section of the wall that served as an elevator leading to the second floor where Shay and Lena called home. If you didn’t know where it was, you wouldn’t have even known it was there.
With a barely audible ding, two sections of the wall slid back into themselves revealing the interior of the elevator beyond where Lena and Shay stood. Each of them was dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a loose top, each with a one-year-old girl on their hip and their purses over the other.
Shay tickled the girl in Lena’s arm’s stomach and the girl let out a little giggle. The pair cross the threshold of the elevator and around the corner leading into the bar proper where one of the men closest to the edge of the bar spotted them and came over giving the girl in Shay’s arms a big raspberry kiss on the cheek.
Antonio, one of Lena’s regulars and a good man. Putting his daughters through college. Shay flashed him a warm, friendly, even caring smile and patted him on the cheek as Lena glanced over at the man behind the bar.
Lena Theras: “We don’t be gone for more than a few hours. I’ll be back in time to help with the delivery.”
Bartender: “Understood Boss.”
While the two talked the doors pushed open and people began to enter. Telling if they were men or women was impossible as all of them wore black masks beneath the half white and half black hood of a one-piece sweatshirt and pants that matched.
Lena was still talking to the bartender never saw the figures, but Shay did. She watched as they fanned out and made it impossible to get to the door without going through one of them and as another figure entered. The glare of the sun was behind him but he seemed to be taller than the rest and sleekly muscled.
Shay Kenyon: “Nibs….”
Shay had been around enough with Dean to know there was something different about this. It was like the Children of Nephilim and yet different. The hairs on the back of her neck began to stand up and the tiny blonde felt a shiver run down her spine.
Shay Kenyon: “Nibs….”
She said again, weaker this time.
Antonio saw the look in Shay’s eyes and spun around in his chair. Beside him, two other men, also regulars after hard graveyard shifts did the same.
Antonio: “Who the fuck are you?!”
He called out.
Voice: “None of your concern.”
The voice belonged to the man now walking through the door. When the door closed they all saw he was perhaps six foot three with broad shoulders and short brown hair. It was growing out at the sides, but still showed the hints of the former crew cut. He had a mustache and goatee.
Anthony Crawford.
Antonio looked back and saw the concern, even fear on Shay’s face and the way Lena was sliding along the edge of the bed closer and closer to her wife, terror in every line of her face. He knew this was bad.
Could this man be the girl's father?
Antonio: “Obviously the girls don’t want you here so why don’t you just beat it before….”
Anthony didn’t even let him finish. As soon as the word “before” left his mouth his head snapped to the side and he stepped forward, beyond the Demons with a smirk on his lips.
Anthony Crawford: “Before….what?”
Lena Theras: “Ant, don’t…”
Antonio: “Lena. Shay. Stay here…”
The middle-aged man slid from his chair and looked over at the two burly men.
Antonio: “Fellas? You gonna stand here and let him scare Lena and Shay?”
Men: “Hell no.”
The two men rose from their stools, but Antonio was the first to come forward. He drained the rest of the beer in his hand and flipped the bottle around until he was holding it by the neck. Anthony only smirked and motioned with his fingers for the man to take his best shot.
He swung an overhand strike with the bottle but Anthony just turned, grabbing his wrist with one hand and bringing it down while he brought the other up into the underside of his elbow. The elbow snapped as Antonion let out a bellowing scream of agony. Anthony brought the man’s broken arm around back toward him until the bottle smashed across his face while kicking his leg out and striking the man on the knee forcing him down to a knee. With the hand still on the man’s wrist, he threw the arm aside as he lifted a leg when the arm cleared exposing Antonio’s face Anthony’s foot connected with his jaw with a brutal front kick.
The middle-aged man who wanted nothing more than to protect Shay and Lena hit the ground, blood spraying from his mouth across Shay’s shoes. The other two men closed in on Anthony and blocked the blow from one while spinning into a roundhouse kick that took the other in the side of the face snapping his head around. The man spun landing on a table that fell dumping him unconscious to the floor.
A right and a left to the jaw left the final man stunned before Anthony kicked out into the side of his knee. The man’s knee broke with a loud snap and he fell landing on the other knee with a scream but Anthony just reared back and threw all his weight into a punch. The man’s jaw broke with an audible snap as he collapsed unconscious to the floor.
A couple of the Demons chuckled as Lena and Shay pushed closer together, each of them turning the girls to as far away from the man as possible.
Shay Kenyon: “What do you want?!”
Anthony: “Take him.”
Anthony commanded motioning to the man behind the bar. Lena looked up in shock at the command, her eyes pleading for her employee and friend.
Lena Theras: “NO! Please! Don’t do this! He has a family! PLEASE!”
The Demons were unmoved by her words as they descended on the man in mass. He fought and he struggled but four of them were enough to bind him in ties and stuff a gag into his mouth before being dragged outside and into the waiting van.
Five Demons remained standing behind Anthony as he turned his eyes on the now weeping pair of women.
Anthony Crawford: “We can do this the easy way...or the hard way.”
Lena Theras: “Don’t you fucking touch her!”
Anthony Crawford: “I only want the children.”
Shay Kenyon: “WHAT?! NO! WHY?!”
Lena Theras: “You know why!”
Lena snapped thinking this madman worked for Lucifer.
Lena Theras: “You can’t have MY daughters!”
Anthony Crawford: “They are leaving with me regardless. You can give them to me or I can TAKE them from you.”
Shay Kenyon: “...please...please don't ...PLEASE!”
The door behind the group opened again bathing the bar in the light as Anthony stepped forward a step. None of them turned to look behind them as they expected the Demons had simply returned after loading the bartender into the van.
Anthony Crawford: “Last chance. Hand them over or I will take them by force.”
Voice: “You aren’t gonna fucking touch those girls.”
The Demons spun around in shock as Anthony froze at the new voice. Slowly he turned and looked behind him as on the other side Shay and Lena both let out a shocked gasp. The man stood six foot seven with long wavy black hair and a thick coarse black beard.
One of Lucifer’s original disciples.
Joshua Mcbride.
He wore a pair of loose-fitting workout pants and a sleeveless shirt as if he had just come from a workout or photo shoot and he looked every bit the powerhouse he had always been. Anthony, however, didn’t look impressed.
Anthony Crawford: “One of you shut whoever that is up.”
Of the six Demons standing there only one of them moved. One of the newer ones. The other five were former members of Lucifer’s original Demon legion who remembered who this was. What this man was capable of and froze.
The Demon got within arms reach of Joshua and the big man lashed out an arm, yanking the already moving man toward him and finally, past him. The Demon slammed face and chest first into one of the pillars, spinning end over end before slamming unconscious to the ground.
Anthony Crawford: “GET HIM!”
Joshua Mcbride: “Shay. Lena. RUN!”
Anthony was focused on Joshua when Lena and Shay both bolted back the way they had come. The five other Demons hit Joshua from all sides as Anthony’s head spun around to find Lena and Shay rounding the corner and gave chase.
He rounded the corner behind them and reached the elevator just as the doors closed. Driving a fist into the wall and turned to bolt through a door beside the bathroom leading to a set of stairs. Back in the main room of the bar, the Demons were lying all over the bar.
Some of them over tables, others half over the bar and others just lying in awkward angles on the floor. Joshua stood where Anthony had left him, blood leaking from his lip and down his face from his eyebrow but his eyes were narrowed with rage.
The big man walked around the corner toward the elevator he knew about from being here before. When he reached it the elevator rang out and the doors slid open to reveal Lena and Shay, who heard the door to the stairs slam open and came back down hoping to outsmart Anthony.
Shay Kenyon: “I don’t understand! Are you…trying to help us?!”
Joshua Mcbride: “Go north. Ashley will meet you.”
Lena Theras: “The fuck we are going anywhere near…”
Joshua Mcbride: “Do you love your children!?”
Lena Theras: “...Of course…”
Joshua Mcbride: “THEN GO! NOW!”
The two women hurried around him and through the bar. Outside they found the van with the bartender tied up and unconscious in the back. After closing all the doors, with the man still inside, they climbed into the front two seats with Shay holding both the babies while Lena drove and hurried away.
At that moment standing in the hallway, it all hit Joshua. All the things he had seen. What had been done to Iko. The house in Malibu and the farmhouse. All the devastation and destruction. All of it at the hands of the man upstairs.
Joshua’s eyes narrowed and slowly shifted up to the ceiling and beyond. To the loft apartment that Shay and Lena shared and the shadow of the beast seemed to cross over his face. His features melting and shifting, without actually changing.
For at least this moment, the Demon Prince of Gluttony was standing in the hallway. One of the most feared of the Children of Nephilim. One of the founding four.
Abaddon.
An arm drove to the side driving the elbow into a glass case and ripped a fire ax from within the safety case. Once inside the elevator he hit the bottom for the loft and waited, his breathing now coming in ragged, snarling pants as the hate and malice began to build in him.
When the doors slid open again the beautiful home of Shay and Lena was revealed. A large living room filled with beautiful paintings and furniture in homy beiges and soft golds. A man stood on the other side of an elegant oak coffee table who slowly turned when the doors opened.
Sathanas and Abaddon locked eyes and the former vaulted the table and closed the distance as the latter cleared the doors and swung the fire ax for all he was worth. Anthony ducked under the swing and lashed out a kick that caught Joshua in the stomach.
The blow didn’t even so much as phase him as he leaned forward with the force of the blow and let out a screaming roar in Anthony’s face. A scream of hate and violence. Joshua throws his head forward, his forehead connecting with Anthony’s mouth and nose.
Blood explodes from Anthony’s nose and mouth covering Joshua’s throat as he swung again. Anthony moves, each swing missing by inches as Sathanas shifted, spun and dodged. A blow hit a lamp, shattering the porcelain. Another ripped into the fabric of a beige chair overturning it completely from the force of the blow.
When Joshua swung the next blow Anthony grabbed the ax just below the head and in the middle of the grip but before he could do anything with it Joshua’s shoulders flexed. With another roar, Mcbride turned and ripped the smaller man off his feet.
Anthony hit the couch causing it to overturn and him to roll toward the kitchen area of the loft. With another outcry, Joshua took the overturned couch in one hand and shoved it aside causing it to slide a couple of feet to his left. Bringing the ax up he brought it down full force toward Anthony’s neck and head.
Sathanas rolled to the side and the ax hit the wood of the floor becoming embedded in it. Rolling back to his back while Joshua was still doubled over Anthony lashed a foot out catching him in the face staggering him back away from the ax. Sathanas leaned back on his shoulders and kipped back to his feet, but had only landed on them by a fraction of a second when he threw himself into the air, a roundhouse kick taking Joshua in the mouth.
Joshua staggered back into the counter of the kitchen, a small wall to his left separating it from the girl's sleeping area. Anthony came in hot throwing a sidekick to the stomach but Joshua caught his leg as it hit. His arm came out grasping Anthony by the throat and yanking him forward, connecting his forearm to Sathanas’s mouth with a bone-crunching crunch.
Joshua turned suddenly, bringing all his weight and power to bare throwing Anthony with all his strength into the wall. The man hit the drywall and exploded clean through it landing in the darkroom beyond motionless on the floor.
Joshua Mcbride: “YOU WON’T TOUCH THOSE CHILDREN!”
The big man roared as he threw an arm out, his forearm and first connecting with parts of the drywall knocking it free and clearing a path for himself. Anthony slowly rolls to his stomach and plants a fist into the floor pushing himself up with a cough.
Anthony Crawford: “What does it even matter to you?! They aren’t yours!”
Joshua Mcbride: “They are someones. And that’s all that matters to me.”
Joshua came in and grabbed Anthony by the back of his shirt but ate a hard mule kick to the stomach sending him staggering back into the hole in the wall. Like he had with Cronos all those months ago Anthony plants his hand to flat to the ground and uses it to begin his turn. As he rotates he jumps, spinning two full rotations before snapping out a kick that takes Mcbride in the mouth full force.
Josh goes through the hole in the wall leaning against the counter. Mcbride turns just as Anthony is coming through the hole and jumps landing on his shoulders but Joshua’s strength keeps him up as he turns and drives Anthony's spine first into the counter.
The two fight and jockey for position but each time Anthony slides to the side Joshua goes with him, keeping himself between Anthony’s legs and driving brutal punches and elbows into his stomach.
The two end up circling halfway around the counter until Joshua’s back was to the living room again. Mcbride reaches out, snatching one of the knives from the knife block and brings it down on Anthony’s throat and face but Sathanas crosses his wrists beneath his hand.
The knife inches lower and lower as Joshua’s arms began to shake. His eyes feral and narrowed down on the bleeding face of Anthony.
It happened so fast, Anthony shifted hard to the side and darts his hands up behind Joshua’s head. The knife drives into the counter, slicing open Anthony’s shoulder but he rips Joshua’s head down driving his face into the countertop and pulls both legs up planting his feet into the man’s chest.
With a hard shove, Anthony extends his legs and the big man was lifted off his feet and flung five feet into the living room between the couch and a chair where he landed with a wet sickening crunch.
Joshua began to make surprised gurgling sounds as Anthony slipped off the counter bleeding from his mouth, eyebrow, and nose. He looked down and found Joshua on his back, blood flowing from his mouth.
As Anthony stood over him staring down at the man and at that moment realized that the ax he had used to attack the Prince of Hell was nowhere to be seen.
Joshua had landed on it.
Sathanas stood staring down at the man as he choked and coughed on his blood, his eyes cold and emotionless. Slowly his head canted to the side as he slides down into a crouch staring down into the surprised and pained face staring up at him.
Anthony Crawford: “You just couldn’t leave well enough alone.”
Joshua reaches up and grabs the man by the jaw, his grip slack but still trying to get his hand around his throat but Anthony just plants his hand into Joshua’s chest and pushes down slowly, relishing in the pain-filled grunts and wide panicked eyes as the blade of the ax slid in deeper.
Anthony Crawford: “You just had to be a fucking tough guy didn’t you?!”
As Anthony taunted him from inside his pants pocket Joshua’s phone began to ring. Anthony fished it out of Joshua’s pocket and answered it. When he did he found himself staring into the face of Lucifer himself in a video call.
Lucifer: “...Joshua! What’s happening?! Where’s Sha….Sathanas”
Lucifer’s voice dropped into a hiss when he saw the face looking back at him.
Lucifer: “….Where is Joshua?!”
Anthony let a slow, sadistic smirk spread across his face and turned the phone around so the camera could see the bearded man. Blood was flowing like a river from his mouth as he reached a shaking hand toward the camera.
It wasn’t Lucifer however who responded. An agony filled shriek echoed from behind him as the blue-haired woman standing beside Ashley dropped to her knees with her hand over her mouth.
Maiko Adachi: “JOSH! NO!!! PLEASE NO!!!”
Lucifer: “.....Anthony what did you do?!”
The phone slowly turned until his face came into view again and Anthony growled.
Anthony Crawford: “I didn’t do it Lucifer. You did.”
Lucifer: “HE HAD A FAMILY ANTHONY!”
Anthony Crawford: “You should have thought about that before you sent him.”
Then the video cut out abruptly as Anthony spiked the phone into the ground. The last little bit of light showed a smiling Joshua holding a little red-haired girl in his lap and smiling.
Anthony rose and looked down at the face of the man lying on the floor of the apartment. His arms were at his sides and his eyes wide and vacant.
Joshua Mcbride was dead.
~{
Hell
Unknown Location
}
~
Hell
Unknown Location
}
~
Ashley Kenyon: “MOTHER FUCKER!”:
Ashley drove her fist down onto the table and rounded on the man standing at its head.
Ashley Kenyon: “THIS IS ON YOU!”
Sariel, tears running down her face stepped forward and laid a hand on the black-haired woman’s arm.
Sariel: “Stop it….”
Ashley, however, threw the hand off and shoved the tiny Asian woman away from her. Maiko watched her Pool with wide eyes from the floor where she had collapsed after seeing her first love die.
Ashley Kenyon: “AERYNN! SHONN! MARKUS RAEL! JOSHUA! ALL OF THIS IS ON YOU! ALL OF IT!”
Xaria Linette: “Stop it! This isn’t his fault!”
Ashley didn’t even so much as look at Xaria, staring at the man who refused to even look up at her. Lucifer stood with his head down, hair hanging over his face and his arms were trembling. Ashley didn’t care, she rested a hand on the desk snarling.
Ashley Kenyon: “What the fuck is it gonna take?! When are you going to get your goddamn head out of your ass!?”
Maiko Adachi: “...Pool….”
Ashley Kenyon: “The man I went to war with? The man we all sacrificed so much to stop? There is no way in hell he would have let this get this far! He would have CRUSHED these two piss ants like fucking cockroaches under his boot months ago. MONTHS AGO LUCIFER!
And now they are all dead and Maricela is lying in a goddamn bed somewhere so I hear with severe facial injuries and what for?! So you can pretend you are above it the man you used to be?! Because two women who didn't give two fucks about you said so?! WAS IT WORTH IT?!”
Xaria Linette: “That’s enough!”
Martin West: “Ashley...I know you are hurting….”
Ashley Kenyon: “FUCK THAT SHIT!”
Ashley took a steadying breath and leveled a finger down at the blue-haired woman weeping on the floor.
Ashley Kenyon: “SHE WILL NOT DIE BECAUSE OF YOU!”
She drew in another steadying breath and said calmly.
Ashley Kenyon: “I’ll end the fucker myself.”
Ashley turned and stormed from the room driving the doors open with a loud concussion and Maiko looked up from the floor to the group and then pushed herself up following her out. The group stood in stunned silence which was only broken when Lucifer whispered.
Lucifer: “Leave me….”
One by one they all filled out, each of them too stunned to speak about the things that Ashley had said ...wrong or right. It was Xaria who exited the room last and slowly closed the doors behind her. Once he was alone Lucifer put his hands over his face and sank into a crouch.
Alone in that room, Lucifer felt it.
Markus.
Cronos.
Aerynn.
Shonn.
And Joshua.
Even if he promised Xaria he’d never become that again.
Lucifer knew what he needed to do.
What he needed to be.
