Morningstars, the conclusion

When Louis was satisfied that Tindili was gone, he joined Obscure in the shadows of the church. He found the demon leaning against the building, a sad gleam in his eyes. Louis was surprised that his brother was so human. The idea boggled his mind.

He called to his shadow, all the more intent on destroying his father.

“This is my shadow. It’s part of me, like an extra limb,” Louis explained to Obscure, with a gesture to the dark image of himself that stood in front of them. “It can take us to Hell and back. Or at least, it’ll take me back if you want to stay there.”

Obscure’s eyes widened in surprise when the shadow appeared. He eyed the darkness ominously, his expression suddenly turning to anger. A breath audibly escaped him, and he turned away for a moment.

“What’s wrong?” Louis asked.

“Nothing,” Obscure replied, turning back around. “I just want to be whole. I want to know what it’s like to be able to embrace what I truly am.”

“You’ll have your chance soon enough,” Louis said, absently smoothing out Bruce’s feathers. The raven had perched on his shoulder in anticipation of the trip. “We’ve got to go to my brownstone. Traveling to Hell from there will be safer. Besides, I promised Tindili I’d leave a door open for him. The shadow will take us to my home, just let it wash over us.”

Louis saw Obscure tense up slightly as the numbing cold of the void between engulfed them and they vanished from the street to appear in Louis’ basement. He dreaded going into there again because he’d never cleaned up the mess his attempted suicide had left. He fully expected to see blood and bits of brain and bone scattered all over, but when they appeared there, all that remained as a sign of the incident were tiny piles of ashes and dried blood.

“Oh that’s reassuring, my brain turned to dust,” Louis said. He bent down to blow away a pile of ashes and smiled. “Bruce, can you go unlock the front door upstairs?”

Bruce cackled and nodded, then flew off.

“Why is he still in that body?” Obscure looked confused. “It must be so limited for him.”

“What do you mean?” Louis said as he began to light the candles in the room. “He’s been stuck that way since B’lial brought him to me.”

“Yes, but you freed him. He can move on if he so desires,” Obscure said.

“What?” Louis was aghast.

“Hasn’t he informed you of that somehow? He is a free soul.” Obscure informed him. “I can feel it, I can see how you severed the ties our father created for him in that body.”

“No, the little son of a bitch hasn’t said a word to me about it,” Louis stared off wistfully. “I really freed him. Then why-”

Bruce flew into the room and settled on the perch.

“What didn’t you tell me?” Louis asked, stomping over to Bruce.

Bruce shook his head and cackled loudly.

“He said he didn’t want you to be stuck alone fighting against B’lial,” Obscure said in translation. “He said you were his friend.”

“Why is it everyone can understand him but me?” Louis said in mock anger. “I’m always the last one to know anything around here!”

“His soul speaks, and that is a language even you have not learned,” Obscure said gravely.

“I can hear bugs, but not my partner, now that’s a kick in the ass,” Louis said. He felt the warmth of what Obscure had translated from Bruce and found himself at a loss for words. He put his hand on Bruce’s tiny back and grinned. “I’ve never met such a loyal friend before. I really wish we’d known each other in life. Maybe we wouldn’t be where we are right now if we had. Thanks for sticking around.”

Bruce cackled and leaped to his shoulder.

“He wants to go with us to fight. He said when he’s certain B’lial will be defeated he’ll move on,” Obscure said.

“Okay, but if we lose, find a way to get back here,” Louis said to Bruce. “Don’t let him get his hands on you again. If you can come back here I’m sure Tindili will take you in. Of course, with how Cindy acted in the hospital, you might have to work a little harder to win her over.”

When all the candles were lit and Louis had redrawn the pentacle on the floor, he approached Obscure and Bruce.

“I’m going to get my shadow to bring us to B’lial. We’ve got to hit him hard and fast, and not give him a chance to recover or call in a bunch of his ghouls,” Louis said. “There can’t be anything left of him to regenerate.”

“I know. We have to rend him to pieces,” Obscure grumbled. “Destroy his body and take his head. It’s the only way.”

“I’ll transform partly into my demon form, but there’s only so much I can do without losing control, if I do that, than I’ll be on his side. If I run into trouble, I’ll let both of you know. Now let’s get out of here,” Louis said as calmly as he could. His heart pounded, and he felt his knees admit fear.

“Shadow, take us all to B’lial, directly to him. Allow nothing to pass through you along the way,” Louis commanded.

The three-dimensional shadow flowed out of him, glossy as pitch, silently widened and swooped over the three of them.

For uncountable instants of eternity Louis felt the icy blackness of the void chill him to the bone, fear clutching at his throat, and then he suddenly stood on the dry cracked ground of Hell. He searched around and saw that he was back in Dantalian’s realm, the wide, deep pit stretching out in front of him. It still brimmed over with damaged and lost property. He didn’t understand why they were there, since he had destroyed Dantalian quite a while ago.

“I see you’ve met your brother,” it was B’lial, standing along the edge of the pit directly across from them. “Come to visit?” he asked sarcastically.

Louis’ mind kicked into overdrive, and he willed his body to change, painfully twisting and tearing through his clothes, growing into a state between demon and man. His wings, not as large as they were when he was fully a demon, tensed and flexed.

“Let’s go!” Louis shouted, leaping into the air, soaring toward B’lial.

Obscure was quick to follow, with Bruce flying in his wake.

Louis met B’lial first, tackling him roughly and landing hard on the ground. He pounded on him relentlessly until B’lial slashed him deeply across his chest and was able to kick him off. But the demon did not have a moment for breath before Obscure landed on him and began to rend his thick hide with his talons.

Wraiths of fog entered the cavern and formed into foul looking demons, B’lial minions. Their shouts pounded a deathly urgency into Louis’ mind as they approached from the far off entrance to the cavern. Time was running out. He rose quickly from the ground to circle behind B’lial and leap on his back. He twisted his arm around the demon’s forehead and with his other hand grasped B’lial around the throat. He pulled with all his strength and felt B’lial gasp for air. The demon clutched at the arm Louis had around his throat while still able to fend Obscure off with the other.

“Destroy me if you will, useless half breeds!” the demon shouted in agony. “Perhaps this was my plan all along, and eternal existence has been my bane.”

Obscure ignored B’lial’s taunting, and continued to pummel B’lial, but he had sustained several deep slashes himself, and was covered in the ghastly fluid that passed for his blood. He was weakening, unable to heal as Louis could, his blows slowing, losing their force.

Louis could barely hold onto B’lial, who became frenzied in trying to break free. The demon hadn’t weakened at all. With the hatreds of a lifetime, both Louis and Obscure fought tooth and nail, but they could not overpower their father. B’lial was struggling beginning to break the hold they had on him.

Bruce saw that the tide of battle was on it’s way to swinging in B’lial’s favor. He knew that if the demon were able to break free, all would be lost. Intent on distracting him, Bruce flew over B’lial’s face and raked at his eyes, tearing them to gnarled pieces in dead sockets while the demon howled in fury. Louis was able to get a better hold on B’lial’s head and throat while the wounds to his eyes disoriented the demon. He flexed his arms and pulled as hard as he could just as B’lial swung at Bruce, slicing the raven clean in half.

“I curse you little beast,” B’lial’s words gurgled. “You’ll heal from this and be trapped in that form forever!”

Anger clouded Louis when he saw the raven’s torn body hit the ground at his feet. His father’s curse echoed in his mind and he found strength where there was none, and snapped B’lial’s neck just as the badly wounded Obscure ripped through flesh and disemboweled him.

Louis let go of B’lial, letting him fall to the ground. As he watched Bruce’s body begin to heal, both he and Obscure shredded B’lial’s throat with their claws, and then tore the head from his body. Panting, Louis nearly collapsed from the effort, falling to one knee beside the bloody heap of a demon.

“Before he turns to dust there is one thing I want from him.” Obscure said with determination. “Call it a parting gift from father to son.” He nodded at Louis, and ripped the darkness from his father. Louis watched in awe as the shadow of the older demon was torn away, flowing into Obscure like a dark cloud.

B’lial’s minions had nearly reached them, but halted, indecisive, when they saw that the demon had been destroyed.

“We’ve found victory,” Obscure said weakly. Blood visibly gushed from his wounds with the throbbing of his heart. “You must go now, while I dispose of his remains.”

“I can’t leave you here like that!” Louis said. “You won’t survive if they attack now.”

“They won’t attack me, I’m their new master,” Obscure approached Louis slowly, holding a deep wound in his belly closed with one hand. “Besides, I’ll be healed in but a moment now that I have the darkness inside me, where it should have been all along. Before, I was too human and weak to take what I needed from him, but in defeat, it was he who was too weak to hold onto his own darkness. I was finally powerful enough to have it for myself.

Obscure began to heal spontaneously and grew in size. The rough wrinkles around his eyes vanished. “It truly ends now,” Obscure said. The demon crouched down to Louis and helped him stand. “Things are as they were meant to be.”

“You are no longer welcome here.” Obscure’s words boomed in the hazy red cavern. “Gather your friend and leave before I destroy you myself. You may think of this as the ultimate treachery, but it is far from that,” Obscure continued with narrowed eyes. “We all wished for the suffering to end, and it has. B’lial is no more.”

Louis struggled over to Bruce and lifted the bird carefully. “Obscure, it doesn’t have to be like this-”

“It is as it should be. I am a demon, pure and simple. You are a mockery. Return to your own hell.” The demon lifted Louis as if he were a rag-doll and tossed him into the air, where he vanished.

***

In the basement room, a dark hole swirled into being. Like a miniature twister, it sprung from nothingness in the center of the floor, twisting and turning like a living inky black cloud. The darkness sputtered and coughed, spewing out a haggard, torn looking Louis Simon Darque. The man, covered in filth and blood, his clothes tattered, crumpled to the floor facedown. He didn’t even have the strength to groan as the darkness spun about until dispersing scant moments later.

Bruce, nearly healed, freed himself from Louis’ grip and staggered a few feet away before falling, exhausted and too crusted with blood to even attempt flight.

Louis agonizingly flipped over, his breath a wet gurgle on his lips. His wounds still dripped crimson, but he knew that it wouldn’t be long before the bleeding stopped.

“I’m so sorry Bruce,” his words were nearly inaudible.

EPILOGUE

Elizabeth stood in front of the headstone and smiled in spite of the sadness that dripped warmly down her face. “He’s a good man. I can understand why you loved him so much.” She loved Louis too, and that was why she had deceived him about her own death. In her heart she had to let him go so that he would not suffer more because of her own demons. She dropped a bundle of flowers on the grave and grinned. “I’ll keep an eye on him now and then to make sure he’s okay.” She could find no other words, and quietly left the cemetery.