Pestillence, Part 8

Table for two, please!" The woman booms as she steps into a rickety old inn stationed in a small, dusty town at the base of Hell's Jaw Mountain Range. The demon leans on the woman for support, who is hardly able to stand up due to having to awkwardly support the six and a half foot tall, inhumanly muscular demon when he walks.

"This is where I can get the best beer and steak?" The demon complains. "I haven't been to Earth in thousands of years, and my inns looked better than this!"

"Oh…shaddup!" The woman snaps.

"What year is it, anyway?" The demon then asks.

"1996," the woman answers, causing the demon's eyes to widen.

"Ninteen-nine-" the demon chokes out, his voice slowly fading.

"Woah, Abigail, you sure brought back an interesting friend this time!" Laughs the inn-keeper.

"Oh yeah, this is-" the woman -now known as "Abigail"- begins to laugh, then pauses. "I never asked you for your name?" Abigail asks as she turns to face the demon."

"I don't…have a name…" the demon weakly croaks out. "I used to…but not anymore…"

"-Luis!" The woman answers as she turns to face the innkeeper.

"Luis…" the demon mutters to himself.

***

"Wow…you sure have an appetite…" Abigail awkwardly laughs as she watches "Luis" scarf down dozens of hearty steaks with his bare hands, only taking the occasional break for a swig of beer,

"I haven't…eaten in a couple hundred years-" "Luis" answers in between heaping, greedy bites. "Thanks for this, by the way."

"Oh, no problem!" Abigail replies as she holds her hands up. "I'm not doing this for you, I'll be getting something out of you draining me of every penny I own, too."

"So who are you, anyway?" Luis asks as he crunches on another steak-less bone.

"I thought you'd never ask…" the woman smirks.

"Here we go again," the innkeeper sighs as they roll their eyes.

"My name is Abigail Tramontana, an explorer!" Abigail proudly booms.

"An…explorer…?" Luis asks as he raises an eyebrow at Abigail.

"Yup!" Abigail answers with a proud nod. "I go to dangerous and unexplored locations such as the Hell's Jaw Mountain Range, and chart down maps! I hate being tied up…my goal is to find the perfect "paradise" on Earth, where I can live freely."

"Cool dream," Luis replies as he uses a sharpened steak bone to pick bits of meat out of his sharp teeth.

"What about you?" Abigail asks as she places her elbows on the table and rests her chin on her hands. "What's your story?"

"Me?" Luis asks. "Well, I guess I owe ya' for feeding me My story started when-"

And so…the two talked, the woman and the demon. Abigail and the demon show dubbed "Luis," formally known as "Pestilence," talk for hours, eating steak, drinking peers, and sharing their tales of adventure, romance, action and loss. Abigail tells Luis about the places she explores while Luis teaches Abigail the true history of the world, and tells her about Aether and Clarabella.

***

"YAWNNN…"

Abigail wakes up with a yawn and stretches, before turning over in bed to where Luis previously lied. "Good morning…" Abigail groggily mumbles, but when she opens her eyes, she see's that Luis is gone.

"FUCK, NOT AGAIN!" Abigail roars.

Quickly, Abigail throws on her clothes then storms out of the inn, where she spots Luis slowly limping out of town. Due to his wounds, the demon wasn't able to get very far.

"I FEED YOU, I TAKE CARE OF YOU, AND THIS iS HOW YOU REPAY ME?!" Abigail snaps as she groups the injured Luis' shoulder and spins the demon around, so that he's facing her.

"Well I'd say I repaid you more than enough when I made you-" Luis begins to say, but is interrupted when Abigail slaps him across the face. "OW!" Luis cries as he rubs his stinging cheek. "I'm still wounded!"

"Only because you don't let me give you first aid!" Abigail snaps. Abigail turns away from Luis, sighs, then turns back to face the demon. "So what do you plan to do now?" She asks him.

"I don't know," Luis answers with his own sigh. "I have nothing left for me on Earth…"

Abigail blushes. "You have…me…"

Luis blushes as well. "So I do…"

"Do you…want to come exploring with me?" Abigail nervously asks.

"I'd love to," Luis nervously answers.

Abigail smiles as she stares at Luis' straggly, greasy hair.

"What is it?" Luis asks with his own smile.

"You need a haircut."

***

And thus, Luis and Abigail traveled the world together, as explorers. Until a few years into their relationship, where Luis proposes, and the two get married in the Hell's Jaw Mountain Range, where they first met. Luis and Abigail then settle down in New York City, where they have a son, and two years later, a daughter, both of whom are named after their parents. After settling down, Luis joined the International Professional Slayer Organization, and became "Slayer Dokusei," which -explained to him by abigail- was formed while he was in Hell, to protect humanity from the demons who seep through the cracks between Hell and Earth.

But each night, everytime when Luis closed his eyes, he was plagued by night terrors. 

***

"Hey there…it's me again."

Luis opens his eyes, seeing that he's no longer in his bedroom next to his loving wife. Instead, Luis finds himself in a wide, endless gray plain, a void of nothingness. Purgatory. Just the endless wrath of Luis' mind. Across from Luis, stands a man who looks exactly like Luis, in his demon form, but with light gray scales instead of green, and dark blue scales instead of purple, same with Luis' eyes. The skin of the demon itself is an eerie white, instead of Pestilence's usual flesh colored skin.

"Why don't you just leave me?" Luis groans. "Conquest…please!"

"Because I'm you, duh!" Conquest cackles. "The real you! The real "Pestilence the Plague," a demon of death and destruction, with the urge to kill and eat humans. Bloodlust, the love of hunting, the desire to consume human flesh…the urge to kill.

 Not this wuss, Luis, who instead loves humans and lives with them! You've become too human yourself, bud! That's why I'm here. I'm you. The personification of your demonic instincts that you threw away, for this boring life! Your bloodlust, that you try this desperately to hide, from trying too hard to become human and ignoring your demon insects is what formed this "split-personality" of yours!"

"This life may not have as much action as my old one, but I prefer it!" Luis replies as he slaps Conquest, sending the demon stumbling backwards and clutching his bleeding nose, as his eyes widen. "I'm tired of fighting…of killing, I just want to live with my wife and children!"

"You need me, Pestilence!" Conquest roars. "Without me, you'd be weak, you'd be human! That's why I'm here! Every time you smell blood…every time you screw your wife and see her delicious body…I'll be here to consume you, and then…I'LL CONSUME ABIGAIL, TOO! Everytime you close your eyes…I'll be waiting… watching…"

"STAY AWAY FROM MY FAMILY!" Luis roars.

"You're just jealous that your boy is my child, not yours!" Conquest cackles. "I bet his half-demon form will be more blue than green, and he'll have my Extend-o- Sword instead of your Poison Pores!"

Luis looks down at his hand, and sees a lime-green katana manifest in it, the katana of his late first-born son; Aether.

"Are you going to strike me down with that?" Conquest smirks as he glances from Luis to his katana, then back to Luis.

"HERE AND NOW!" Luis answers as he charges Conquest. Once he's before Conquest, he swings his katana towards the demon's throat, he laughs madly in response.

But then..he wakes up…

***

When Luis wakes up, his eyes widen.

For he finds his katana which was pressed against Conquest's neck mere seconds ago …is now pressed against the neck of his second-born son. Meanwhile, Conquest's daughter cries and wails in the crib beside his bed, as Abigail sits below Luis, her arms wrapped around his legs and begging him to stop.

"LUIS, PLEASE!" Abigail wails. "WAKE UP!"

Slowly, Luis drops his katana to the ground, revealing a line of blood that had formed in the flesh of the crying Luis Jr's neck. Luis then peers down to Abigail, to see that her nose is bleeding. Just like Conquest's, after Luis slapped him…

"What…did I do…?" Luis weakly asks, his voice shaking.

"Your night terrors, you had them again…" Abigail softly answers, her voice shaking as well. "From your screams, it was the one you told me about. But then…you started moving, which is something I've never seen before. Typically, I can wake you up to snap you out of your night terrors, but this time…you…hit me, then grabbed your sword and brought it to Luis' throat…"

Abigail unburies her face from Luis' legs and stares up at her husband, teary eyed. "LUIS, WHAT DID YOU DREAM ABOUT?!" She wails.

"I-" Luis begins to say, but then he pauses. Nothing that he can say now, can make things any better. "I need to go…" Luis then sadly answers, as hops off the bed and walks away.

"G-go where…?" Abigail stammers as she follows after her husband.

"Don't follow me…" Luis softly replies, but Abigail doesn't listen.

"Don't follow me!" Luis snaps again, louder this time, as Abigail follows him out of the bedroom. But Luis spins around, aiming the tip of his katana at Abigail, and causing her to flinch with a small yelp.

"DON'T FOLLOW ME!" Luis roars. "I hurt you, and I hurt our son!" He wails, as tears begin streaming down his face. "I …I'm a monster! So stay away from me, please, stay away from me before I do anything worse!"

But Abigail doesn't reply.

Instead, she grabs the blade of Luis' katana, causing a line of blood to trickle out of her hand as she lowers it away from her face. Abigail then takes a step forwards, and embraces Luis in her arms.

"Please…I'm a monster…" he whimpers.

"You're not…" Abigail answers as she buries her face in her husband's chest, tears streaming out of her eyes. "You're my husband, who's just going through a lot…"

"Luis…our son…he's a half-demon…" Luis replies. "Gabby is safe, but Luis, I sensed it the second he was born; he's strong…too strong, and I'm afraid that if I stay around him…his half-demon powers will awaken and he'll become a monster, too…just like his father…"

"Please…don't leave…" Abigail whimpers. "I need you…I'm nothing without you …I love you and our children need their father!"

"They don't…" Luis answers. "And it pains me to say this; but they don't need a father that'll hurt them…or turn them into monsters…"

"We can work this out…" Abigail whimpers.

"You should have never married a demon…" Luis replies. "I'm sorry for breaking your heart…"

That was the final straw.

Luis knew that his wife and children weren't safe living in the same house as him, so Luis packed up his stuff and left, desperate to search for a way to control his demon inctics. To subdue Conquest. And eventually, Luis found himself back at Hell's Jaw Mountain Range, where Luis worked as a Pro Slayer, keeping the town below the mountains safe from the extra-powerful demons, and stopping anyone from entering the mountain range. There, Luis let his hair grow out, as he liked it, and how Luis wore his hair when he used to be known as "Pestilence," without Abigail to tell him that she prefers his hair shorter.

The place which connects him back to Abigail.

Abigail begged Luis not to leave, saying that it wasn't his fault he hurt their child, it was Conquest's fault, and that they could work something out. But Luis brought up the excellent point that Conquest was only created because Conquest was part of him, part of Pestilence, part of Luis Tramontana. And so, shortly after the birth of his daughter, Luis and Abigail said their final goodbyes.

And the two parted for good. But not once did either of them take off their wedding rings.