Alek could hear his Mum crying.

  Broken Fang had left Alek behind that morning to watch the camp and the horses. They walked into the shadowed cathedral after firmly instructing Alek not to leave the camp, not touch their things and absolutely not to follow them. There was something fierce in Eddie’s eyes, there always was, but today he seemed anxious, and anxious people are prone to snapping. This wouldn’t have been a problem, Alek wanted to follow these instructions, but none of it mattered when he heard those sobs echoing out of the cathedral, soft, sad, and hurt, catching her breath between. Alek’s heart ached, the world seemed to fade, his head spinning as he walked towards the looming shadow, warnings forgotten.

  He had seen his mother cry before, on rare occasions. She had tried to hide it and would quickly wipe her tears away when she was found, but that did not make it any easier to see, hear, or remember. Now Alek remembered it all. He remembered that night and he could smell the smoke, the burnt bodies, he saw them again, all three at that man’s mercy, of which he had none, and he could hear her sobs.

  Alek’s heartache turned into a burn in his chest, his fists clenched as he marched, grief swept away by rage.

  Stepping over the rusted cathedral door that had fallen off its hinges, Alek crossed into the shadows; the heat of the sun and the scent of summer grass being swept away by stale coolness and smells of stagnant water. The room was wide and empty, and her sobs reverberated off the walls. Alek knew it wasn’t real, like the man’s voice that taunted him in his mind, but at the same time how could he ignore it? His feet marched towards its source. In the center of the cathedral, the floor changed from those ageless black bricks to marble, chiseled with archaic glyphs. The symbols led towards a plate of bronze. The bronze disk on the floor glowed purple in the dim room, it smelt like him, that man in the suit, and it radiated a pure sense of death.

  I will die if I take one more step, Alek thought, more certain of this than anything else in his entire life.

  But none of it mattered when he heard her sobs.

  He stepped onto the plate.

  * * * *

  Alek rose slowly off the floor, his head hurt and he couldn’t remember how he got there. His fingers pushed into the carpet that was so soft it felt made of silk. A dull rhythmic drumming echoed off the tall walls from someplace out of sight, a giant’s heartbeat. Rising up, he struggled to understand what he saw.

  A hundred chiseled pillars of stone held the ceiling high between Alek and the thrones. The walls were decorated with red banners and from the ceiling hung candle chandeliers. There were thirteen grand thrones in total, each fit for a king, but one stood above the others. Large, front and center, formed of gold, encrusted with jewels. Six lesser, built of silver flanked both sides.

  Sitting on the silver throne left of the gold sat the man in the suit. Alek remembered now, the bastard's name was Saleos.

  Alek walked down that impossibly long hall. He could no longer hear his mother’s cries and he could not see her either. Saleos lounged on his throne, one leg kicked over an armrest as he sipped a glass of wine and smoked a cigar. His suit and hair were a midnight black so dark they seemed to not exist, like space itself had disappeared. The vest had been unbuttoned and the shirt unbloused. He wore no tie, but there was a purple splash of color on his undershirt; clearly, he had been drinking and smoking for a while in wait. His hair was slicked back, but had been ruffled and sprouting from his temples were two goat horns. His face was narrow and paper white with a thin nose, thinner eyebrows and obsidian, purple eyes.

  Alek took a good mental picture, ensuring he would not forget the face of the man that - no matter how difficult, or what would come between - he would kill.

  I will wrap my hands around your throat and squeeze. I will watch the life drain out of your eyes if it is the last thing I ever do.

  Reaching the base of the stairs that led up to the thrones, Saleos looked down at Alek. The last time they met, Saleos was in a manic rage. This time he seemed more composed, if slightly drunk.

  ‘My friend,’ Saleos said in a cheerful tone, ‘last week you welcomed me to your home, now I welcome you to mine.’

  Alek looked at him, slouched over on his throne, and looked at the golden throne next to him. It may be his home, but he is no master here.

  ‘Where is she?’

  Saleos smiled. ‘Who is “she” - the cat's mother?’

  ‘You know who. Dalia Howell, my mother.’

  Saleos broke out laughing, he slapped his knee and spilled more wine over his shirt. ‘Your mother! What a cruel joke for you boy. “She” is no Howell and neither is she your mother.’

  Don’t believe him! She had cried that night of smoke and blood.

  ‘Stop playing games. What have you done with her?’

  Saleos’s eye twitched, but his smile held. ‘She’s safe, with me. Your father and sister are too.’

  ‘Show me,’ Alek said, his heart beating out of his chest.

  Saleos kicked his legs off his throne and stood up. ‘I don’t think you understand your position. You have no ability to make demands.’

  Yet Alek felt a strange certainty that he did. Saleos could kill him, he had before. Alek was powerless before him, but the way Saleos looked at him, there was a hunger in his eyes. It looked like Saleos wanted something, and he wanted it desperately. Alek remembered something else from that night; Saleos was surprised.

  Alek had come home late that night, fearing the repercussions of his actions. Not only had he stolen his father's revolver to go shoot cans, not only had he left Charlotte behind, he had ignored his mother’s and father’s warnings. He had gone off alone to where he should never go and he had spent the full afternoon there until he had run out of ammunition and he had to rely on moonlight to find his way back home. When he crested the nearby hill, his home was on fire. Running inside, he found Saloes and his mother in a screaming match, but Charlotte and Father were already gone from that world. Turning to see him enter, his mother cried out, telling him to run away and not turn back. Saleos said one word before turning back to his mother “Sit.”

  Alek, of course, did not sit, but ran in and tried to attack the man in the suit. It was no good, Alek was weak and his punches did little more than annoy the man responsible for his family's death, but at that moment Saleos’s eyes widened in surprise. More than that, he was stunned.

  Mother was terrified.

  Saleos gave Alek several more commands that were all ignored until he gave into his frustration and ended Alek’s life with one quick blow.

  ‘Do you want your family back?’ Saleos asked, his voice bouncing off the throne room walls.

  And that beating heart felt like it was going to bounce out of his chest. Obviously, he wanted that, he just wanted an opportunity to apologise, to hug them again. Saleos must have seen this because he smiled a grin that curved up to his ears showing perfect white teeth.

  ‘I have an offer,’ he said, ‘your side of the exchange is a bit complicated, but I can promise you your family back.’

  ‘How could I ever trust you?’

  ‘Don’t take my word for it, take hers.’ Saleos swept his hand and darkness shot out from his palm. The darkness swirled and it formed into the shape of a woman. Dalia Howell emerged kneeling and coughing.

  ‘Mum!’ Alek cried out.

  ‘Hey Dalia,’ Saleos said, smiling his sick smile.

  Alek’s mother’s face was bruised and her lip was bleeding, but the most injured part was the look in her eyes, she looked defeated in a way that Alek thought he would never see. Mum who was always the strongest, who even through her own tears cared more for cheering me up. Her black hair hung uncombed down her back and her clothes were torn to rags.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  ‘You monster,’ she spat.

  Saleos slapped her.

  Alek ran up the steps, but with a sweep of Saleos’s hand, an unseen force knocked Alek down. Chains rose out of the ground and the cold shackles slapped onto his wrists. An iron collar lashed his neck, pulling his face down so Alek could only look up towards the throne through the corner of his eye.

  ‘I need you to be still,’ Saleos said, ‘turn your listening ears on, Boy.’

  ‘Alek!’ his mother screamed, ‘You can leave here! You are not in Hell, just think of-’

  Saleos slapped her again, and Alek pulled against his chains, they clinked and rattled, but would not move an inch.

  ‘It’s true Alek, you are still in Proto- Purgatory, physically. Nothing we do to each other here is permanent, but isn’t it best being able to talk face to face like this?’

  Alek said nothing, he pulled again to no avail, the cold shackles digging into his skin.

  ‘I am willing to offer you a deal. You don’t trust me and I don’t blame you, but Dalia here will be able to vouch for my trustworthiness.’

  She looked terrified. ‘Please Alek, don’t trust him.’

  ‘Dalia,’ Saleos said, ‘I ask your council: Can a demon break a contract?’

  ‘No,’ she said with hate in her eyes.

  ‘So Dalia, if I entered a contract with Alek here, would I be able to break my end of the bargain?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘What have you done to her?’

  ‘Alek do not enter any bargains with-’ but she was cut off, a black band covering her mouth. Her arms and ankles shackled in place.

  ‘Dalia, that will be all, thank you.’

  ‘Mum!’

  But she could not speak.

  Saleos walked down the steps. His face had lost that smirking grin, and he looked reverent. He knelt right above where Alek was chained to the ground and Alek could smell the tobacco on his breath. His eyes were pulsing with violet and black.

  ‘I’ll kill you,’ Alek said.

  Saleos nodded. ‘You will try, but first, we have business to attend to do we not?’ Dark smoke swirled around his hand and formed a piece of paper.’ Saleos snapped the paper straight and began reading. ‘The details of this contract are to be taken with good faith intentions and the most obvious interpretations.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Archdemon Saleos is to grant Alek, son of Pat, his sister, Charlotte Howell, and grant their safe passage back to Proto after Alek’s side of the deal is completed.’ he looked up. ‘How does that sound to you?’

  Alek decided to say a word that father had beaten him black and blue for saying once before, this time he thought if father did hear him say it, he wouldn’t be upset. ‘Fuck you.’

  Saleos’s grin finally dropped, but Alek’s smile replaced it. Saleos kept studying him. ‘You really are amazing, Boy, you just don’t know why yet.’

  Saleos grabbed a fistful of Alek’s hair and raised his face. ‘Just the fact alone that you can look me in the eyes…’ He trailed off, eyes lost in thought. ‘I will provide you an ultimatum; listen to my offer in full or I will whip the whore you call mother in front of you.’

  Alek felt an insult on his tongue, but one look at Dalia and her wide eyes was enough to quell it instantly.

  ‘Good. For me to give Charlotte to you, I need you to complete one task: Bring a specific fruit from Proto to me in Hell. This will take four steps. First, when you wake up back in that castle, kill yourself. Second, come to me in Hell and I will give you a tool and a map to the fruit. I will then send you back to Proto with this tool in hand. Third, pick this fruit using the tool. Fourth, kill yourself again, delivering it to me. I will then send you back with Charlotte.’

  ‘Get someone else to go fruit picking for you.’

  ‘It can only be you Alek.’ The excitement in his face peaked, like a child’s waiting for Christmas morning. ‘For the same reason you can ignore my orders and look me in the eye, it can only be you.’

  Go fuck yourself, was what he wanted to say, but there was Mum. An impossible opportunity after death to take back all his actions, to right all his wrongs, even if it meant making a deal with the devil.

  ‘Give me mother and father as well.’

  Saleos laughed. ‘Aren’t you the little negotiator. No deal. If this first arrangement goes well, I might also make another one for them.’

  Charlotte. I could have Charlotte back.

  ‘This tool, why can’t you give it to me now?’

  Dalia made muffle screams, surely trying to warn him, telling him not to make the deal.

  Saleos ignored her and held out his hand, a pair of golden scissors appeared, radiating pure white light that seemed to clash with Saleos’s black-purple aura. They floated just above his palm. ‘I could give it to you, but when you wake up you won’t have it. You aren’t here remember, this is more like a dream. I need you to cross the barrier between our worlds to bring anything with you. That means I need you to die.’ The scissors disappeared.

  Alek couldn’t speak, his mind was swirling. He promised Mother he would never listen to him, but if he could really take Charlotte back…

  ‘Charlotte,’ Alek said, ‘I haven’t seen her here. This is Hell.’ Alek’s voice was becoming more sure of himself. ‘She would never go to Hell. You are a liar.’

  ‘She is here, I have her.’

  ‘Show me.’

  Saleos smiled. ‘Call my cooperation a token of good faith.’ Black smoke shot out from his palms and formed the shape of a body, but then the smoke dissipated and nothing was there. Saleos tried again, strain on his face, but again nothing came out from the smoke.

  ‘You bitch,’ he said looking at Mother, ‘This is all your fault, when will you stop resisting me?’

  Dalia was still at the top of the stairs chained and gagged, but out of her hair two goat horns rose.

  ‘Mum?’

  ‘We would never be in this mess if it weren't for you,’ Saleos said, his face storming. ‘I would have never have had to hit you, the boy would have died as soon as he was reborn in my church, but instead you had to send him into the wilderness and now you won’t let me summon the little bitch you whelped behind my back?’

  Dalia’s face contorted with effort, but then the black band over her mouth disappeared. ‘He’s right Alek, I am not your mother. I am a sinner and a demon.’

  ‘Good, you're finally owning up, you whore.’

  ‘But I have raised you since you were born and I have loved you like my own child for every day of your life and death. Leave this place and never return.’

  Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she was smiling. Then without a warning she disappeared.

  ‘Mum!’

  ‘Good now that she’s gone we can get back to business.’

  He is a liar.

  ‘I don’t accept.’

  ‘Huh? Boy, let's think about this.’

  ‘I DON’T ACCEPT.’

  Alek’s body began to fade, becoming transparent.

  ‘You little shit, I will hurt her.’

  I will be back, Alek thought with certainty, and I will kill you.

  * * * *

  Alek woke up to a headache. He was still in the damp and stale cathedral, but he had been dragged off the bronze plate by his ankle. Jarrah crouched above him. He was dressed in his cloak, but the fabric over his shoulder had been torn off down the skin. His skin had a pink hue and looked freshly healed. He reeked of sweat and body odor.

  ‘What the hell were you doing Alek?’ Jarrah asked. ‘You were told to stay put. If it had been Eddie who came up first.’ He shook his head.

  ‘I heard…’ How could I ever possibly explain?

  ‘It doesn’t matter now, just get out of here before they come back up.’

  ‘Yeah… Thanks for understanding.’

  ‘I don’t understand shit Alek, but I don’t think you're a bad kid. Now go.’

  ‘Jarrah. Can I ask you a favor?’

  ‘This better be good.’

  ‘Can you teach me to fight like you?’