Chapter Fifteen: "Back to Earth"

Alex Mendoza.

(The year 1394, a year before trying to kill Karla)

My gaze is lost on the horizon. The words of my superiors giving me the opportunity to go return to my old job in heaven, filled me with happiness, although it did not last long the happiness. They gave me the place where she, Beth, would be and told me that I had a year to fulfill my mission and if I did not do it, they warned me of the consequences that I would suffer.

I don't want to go back to that place...

So dark, so dead, so cold...

A chill runs through my entire body as I remember those eternal days, those nights full of misfortunes. The hours passed at the pace of a turtle making the days hot and without any protection or shade to protect you from the sun, and the nights full of dangers stalking you without rest. You could be perfectly suffering the ravages of the sun and dehydration for a week, in human time, being the same with the nights.

A hand touches my shoulders, bringing me back to reality. A radiant smile greets me and as if it were a reflection my lips end up moving on their own, copying her expression. Her amber eyes look at me with longing and kindness.

I missed them...

"I'm glad to have you back, Alex," Beth says, still smiling.

"I'm glad too."

My gaze returns to the horizon and I notice her body tense and fill with concern next to me. Her hands slide around my waist hugging me and she puts her chin on my left shoulder. A long sigh comes out of me and her embrace grows a little tighter.

"You must have had a terrible time," she whispers.

I shrugged my shoulders without saying a word.

Her body moves again and this time she positions herself in front of me, joining her gaze with mine. She stays a few long seconds looking at the color of my iris, fascinated and terrified at the same time. Her right hand is positioned on my cheek and that simple touch seems to relax me a bit. Her hand pulls away from my face and at one point I feel a stabbing pain in the same cheek where her hand used to be. My head twists to the side from the inertia of the slap. My eyes widen in surprise and I look again into totally different eyes. Anger seems to fill those amber eyes and she approaches me, being only inches away.

"Do this kind of stupid thing again and I'll be the one to drive a dagger into your heart," she says through her teeth.

I stand there, paralyzed and still shocked by her slap and her cold words.

It is true that I have caused quite a lot of pain and suffering to her family name, but was that worth a slap? No, I deserved death. I should have died decades ago for all the evil I have done to all family names, to each of them, including mine. I have killed and extorted my own kind simply for rebelling knowing what the consequences of my actions were, knowing that the first to do so became the first fallen angel and the first to set foot on hell. And even knowing that I could end up in the same place, I did it anyway. I continued murdering whoever stood in my place and each and every one of the witnesses of my evil deeds.

Do I hate myself for that? Supposedly I should, although I have mixed feelings.

Does my family recognize me as one of its members? Clearly not.

Have I been left alone in this immersed universe without being able to return to heaven? Yes, definitely.

Another deep, long breath comes out of me, feeling my mind and body heavy. Since I came back, I feel out of place. I can't go home to heaven and I have to settle on Earth, a dirty and disgusting place. Although this is much better than where I have been and where I could have stayed forever.

I inhale forcefully and the smell of grass fills my system and it seems that this fragrance calms me down, taking the tension off my shoulders a bit. I look towards the sunset and discover the difference in feelings and sensations that I felt when I was locked up and now.

In purgatory, the solar week, I wanted it to fall at night so I could heal my burns and for it to rain so I could drink water again. But as soon as the sun went down, reality would hit me and I would tell myself that the night week was always worse. Yes, I had more water and food, but the danger that I had in every corner kept me from sleeping, just like the sun of the solar week. Just thinking about those weeks exhausts me mentally and physically.

My species does not need food or water to survive so those above, to punish us better, change our DNA and make us half-human. We preserve immortality and they give us hunger and thirst.

A wonderful experience. One hundred percent recommended.

***

At a brisk and calm pace, I head to one of my favorite taverns in the city, well the one that existed before I disappeared. Personally, I prefer the towns to the cities since they are always full of the residents' waste, and with more people, there ends up being more trash. The stench fills my nostrils and I wince slightly.

I don't think I'll ever get used to this time...

"Are you looking at me badly?" A middle-aged man approaches my position with fury in his eyes, blocking my path.

I don't think I'll get used to the clothing either...

"No, sir." I try to step aside but he prevents me with his body.

"You better change that face before I make a picture of you," he warns me.

His breath hits my face and I smell the stench of alcohol and rot coming out of his mouth. I can't help but wince again when that reaches my nostrils. That seems to infuriate the man more and he takes a hesitant step, caused by the heavy intake of alcohol, towards me.

"I warned you, little boy."

His fist hits one of my cheeks hard and I'm surprised because I haven't seen him coming. Anger grows in me but I restrain myself because I know that a cheap human like him has the upper hand to lose against me. And in case it isn't clear, I don't want to cause any more deaths. At the moment.

This mortal has narrowly escaped being scorched.

As I do not want more deaths, I opt for the least harmful option available to me; knock him unconscious. I place my index finger on his forehead, he frowns without knowing what I'm doing but his facial expression doesn't last long because he falls round to the ground. People around us look at the situation but don't seem surprised or upset.

They will already be used to fainting in the middle of the street.

The human race is impressive.

When I finally got to the tavern I almost didn't sing for joy. The smell that people give off due to the lack of personal hygiene is still present but I ignore it and I tell myself that if I drink the whole tavern, I will no longer notice it.

When I look at the people around me I realize one thing; it must be winter. They all wear thick clothes and I am surprised at how little interest I have in them because I had not yet realized that when they speak, steam comes out of their mouths. I look down at my outfit and realize I'm not covered enough to fit.

I do not feel the heat or the cold, so now that I have returned, it is difficult for me to adapt. Many fix their curious gaze on my half-naked body but I care very little and they are too drunk to think properly.

It doesn't take long for a tavern keeper to approach as soon as I sit down at the bar.

"What do you want, sir?"

My gaze drifts to her accentuated cleavage, which she notices and gives me a mischievous smile.

"Surprise me."

She gives me another smile and gets down to business. A mug of beer is her best asset, followed by another suggestive smile. I have a drink and when I set the jug on the bar, the place is completely silent. I frown and when my eyes scrutinize the place and I see those eyes that I hate so much to look at me with intensity, the anger returns to my body.

"How are you, kiddo?"

He scrutinizes me with his eyes and I see the dark flash that characterizes his species.

"It's none of your business," I say coldly, avoiding meeting his gaze with mine.

"Of course it is, son." He walks over to me and the stench of death soon reaches my nostrils. "I know what you are looking for here."

"Illustrate me."

Our eyes meet and I feel every bit of my being screaming at me, demanding, put my hands around his neck and squeeze it until it is mush. I clench my fists and clench my teeth in response to the revulsion I feel for this being and the helplessness I feel. I can't do anything to him. I don't want anyone in this bar to know what I am.

"You have no idea what the life of a demon is like," he says, surprising the woman who served me the beer.

I see how a pair of black eyes look at us from a distance and fear invades me for a second, not of what they can do to me but of what I can do to them. I am suddenly surrounded by a bunch of demons. The urge to kill each one of them grows bigger in me.

This can be dangerous.

Not for me, but for them.

If they gave me the opportunity, I would kill them all with one slap, but Henry knows where I have been and the consequences of my previous actions and he knows very well that my hands are tied. He knows that I cannot do anything to them without the approval of one of my superiors and he is taking advantage of it to enrage me and lose my temper.

He wants my head on a stake and I want his.

"You have to do very ugly things," he continues, oblivious to the situation; "kill, torture, kidnap. These are things that an angel has not known "he looks from him to me and a wide smile appears on his face, showing pride "well, you do. Believe it or not, I also try to protect my family, and with this, I suppose I will give you a wake-up call."

"A wake-up call?"

Another of his evil smiles is drawn on his face and small wrinkles appear around his eyes, looking a little older. The other black eyes just stand there waiting for something and Henry speaks again.

"Let's see if it's clear to you, kiddo." His gaze intensifies and the darkness in his eyes grows darker. "I want you away from her. I don't want to see your dirty ass around her. Do not look at her, do not look for her. As I find out that you have breathed the same air as her, this situation will be very different. I'm going to have to call some friends "nodding at all those specimens that have come with him "and smash your face. I'm not going to kill you, of course."

He takes two steps and leans a little closer to me. He has to look up a bit since even I'm sitting on the stool, my height exceeds him.

"I'm going to torture her."

"In front of him, sir?" Says one in the crowd trying that I do not hear him as if that were possible.

"Sure, Benton. Do you know the union that these two will have?" His words make me frown. He now addresses me "If she is not mine, she will be nobody's."

"Do you think I care about her or will I care about her?" I blurt out nonchalantly followed by an incredulous laugh.

Henry looks at me without believing a word so I continue speaking.

"You are very wrong if you only think about it. I just want her power, just like you. We could really use someone with all that potential on our side."

"I don't doubt it. I know that her power would be great for YOU to be able to rebel and get whatever you want, even if I don't care what you want."

He beckons to the innkeeper and she does what she does without vitality in her eyes.

"What I don't think is that your side " He makes the quotation marks with his fingers " will accept her. She will be much more powerful than them and in less time. Those on your side have a reputation for being self-centered, so I doubt that they will allow someone other than our Lord to be more powerful than Him. If they already hate her now imagine later..."

His gaze grows more intense and I notice the hatred he has in every word he spouts for my kind. At that moment I see fit to get out of there, so I get up and go to the door with Henry's laugh flooding the small cabin.

Whenever I think that demons could become pure souls again I think of Henry. He is hopeless. I had never seen a demon wanting to be so. It is true that they end up accepting who they are and end up enjoying it, but that does not remove the fact that deep down they know that what they are doing is wrong. They no longer feel what they once felt but can tell what is good and what is not. The bad thing is that their souls are so tortured and deceived that the line between good and evil is very easily blurred and it does not create any mental pain for them to do evil.

You will think I am a coward or something like that when I leave the tavern without saying a word, but you are wrong. I'm just tired of hearing his voice and I think the tavern needed more room for his ego. Let him take the tavern, I'll take the whole world.