Knights of Hell

Chapter 19

Instead of going home after the debacle, where questions would have most likely been asked about why they were home so soon, the five decided to help Michael instead. They were currently standing outside of his demon neighbour's home. Nothing about it screamed that within those four walls, a demon resided within them. It was your average blue-siding suburban home, though some of nature had taken back what had once belonged to it. The house sides were covered with ivy, and the front garden was pretty. The flowers decorating the garden were in full bloom, adding colour to an otherwise simple home.

Mint stared at Michael, who exhaled sharply before unlatching the gate and walking up the stone pavement with the quartet behind him. He roughly knocked on the door, and the five of them waited.

“Do you know why he won’t leave?” Mint asked Michael if something must have happened for the demon to refuse to leave his home.

“No. I saw him last week with the scar, and since then, he hasn’t left his house.”

“Why are you worried now?” Mercy asked. Mint’s eyebrows shot up. He didn’t think any of them would care enough to pay attention, let alone ask any questions.

“Sometimes, I don’t see him for days at a time, so I wasn’t worried for the first few days. But then, I don’t know, something didn’t feel right, so I went to check up on him, and he wouldn’t even open the door and what if something has happened to him?”

“What if he simply moved away?”

“No, Damian wouldn’t leave without telling me.”

It was silent before a muffled ‘Go away, Michael’ was heard. Mint frowned. How had Damian known Michael was at the door and not someone else?

Church leaned over, frowning, as he ignored the Vause twins, though both stared at him, and he knew they were paying full attention to the conversation. “On a scale from one to ten, how sure are you they’re f*****g?”

“Ten for sure,” Mercy said, popping her gum. “No way they’re not.”

Micahel sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, turning to look at the group behind him. “You guys do know I can hear you, right?”

“Okay, good,” Church said as he turned to look at Micahel, crossing his arms over his chest and tilting his head. “Are you f*****g?”

Micahel turned bright red, spluttering a little. “No! And you do know Damian can hear you, too.”

“Wait, you’re gay?” Xavier asked, frowning. He scanned Michael from head to toe and then let out a small ‘hm’.

Micahel groaned, running his hands through his hair. “Are you not hearing the words coming out of my mouth?”

“Even better,” Mint said. He took a few steps in front of the door and banged this first on it. “Damian, open the door!” Once again, They heard a muffled no. Mint rolled his eyes but sighed, turning back and shrugging at the group.

“Bi?” Church asked. “I can see you being bi.”

“Church,” Micahel deadpanned.

“Okay, my bad.”

After almost a minute of no response, and with Mint’s hand getting tired of banging on the door, Xavier pulled out a credit card and sighed. He went over to the door and gently shoved Mint out of the way before he began fiddling around with the lock. “Oh,” Church said as he took a step forward. “You use a card? I use pins, could never get my head around the card.”

“I find pins too tedious,” Xavier replied curtly.

Church shrugged, sliding his hands into his pocket as he watched Xavier. “Once you get the hang of them, they’re much quicker. I can teach you?”

“Why are you two bonding over this?” Mercy asked as she fiddled with a strand of her hair.

“What you’re doing is illegal,” Michael hissed. He panicked around the area, ensuring no one was walking past, but it was almost one-thirty on a random Thursday. Everyone was either at work or at school.

“Do you want to see Damian or not?” Mercy asked, staring at the shorter human from the corner of her eye. Micahel didn’t say anything after that, instead opting to keep a lookout.

When the door finally opened, Church gave Xavier a look of approval. The two men tip-toed in, with Mint, Micahel and Mercy behind them. The door had opened into a small hallway with an archway into what appeared to be the living space, some stairs in front of them and two locked doors.

Michael led the way up the stairs, and Mint eyed his friends. This would so bite them in the ass. Michael gently knocked on the one-closed door in the hallway upstairs.

“Damian, it’s me, Micahel. Please open the door.”

“How did you get inside?”

“My friends broke in.”

“Yes, hii, Damian,” Church shouted, banging on the bedroom door. “Open the door; we have other things to be doing.”

There was silence, though they did hear some slight shuffling.

“Oh, they’re banging,” Mercy whispered, leaning down to look at Church and Mint. “For sure.”

Mint frowned. “Michael said they’re not. They are probably just very good friends.”

“Micahel, please,” Damian replied. “You need to leave.”

Micahel turned around as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I don’t want to be rude, but can everyone but Mint wait outside, please.”

“No, I-” Mercy began.

Xavier grabbed his sister’s arm, interrupting her. “Yes.” He shoved her forward. Mercy scowled as she adjusted her jacket and fixed her hair, but she glared. When Xavier realised Church wouldn’t leave, he grabbed him by his elbow and led them out.

Mint had watched everyone leave in confusion before turning to look at Micael. “Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know.”

Mint frowned but nodded. He waited for Micahel to speak and did after a few minutes in silence. “Damian, please. I need you to open the door. I’m worried about you.”

“I don’t need your worries.”

“Damian, come on. You’re being unreasonable.”

“I’m not.”

Mint scowled. “You are. Open the door, asshat,” he snapped as he slammed his fist on the door.

He slammed his fist on the door until Damian finally opened it almost two minutes later. His room was dark, and he wasn’t fully visible, hiding behind the door, but Mint knew the demon towered over him and Micahel.

When Damian turned to look at Micahel, his gaze softened. Michael arched his neck to look up at the half-hidden demon. Hi,” he whispered, taking a step forward.

“Michael,” Damian rasped. The raspiness in his voice reminded him of Yua, though that eventually led to Mint thinking about what he had said to him, about the Knight’s eventually having to rebirth. “Michael, please. You need to leave.”

Micahel frowned. “But why?”

Damian ignored his question and turned to look at Mint, who stared up at him with an eyebrow raised. “Who is this?”

“This is Mint. He’s in some of my classes.”

“Is he the one who picked my lock?” Damian muttered.

Michael smiled sheepishly. “Oh, no. That was Xavier. He’s downstairs.”

“I can hear the humans downstairs rummaging through my fridge.”

Mint winced; that was most likely Church’s doing. He had to talk to his best friend about human etiquette. Sometimes, he wondered between two who was the human and the demon.

As Damian was about to close the bedroom door again, Micael slammed his hand onto it, sticking his foot in the gap and glaring at the man. “You don’t get to run away.”

Damian tensed. “I’m not running away.”

“You haven’t been to work all week.”

“I have.”

“Sam, Eno, and Jaskier all stopped by my house. They said you hadn’t. They also mentioned how you disappeared that morning after I saw you. Now, can you stop lying and tell me what is happening? Why are you hiding out in your room, Damian?”

Damian’s red eyes landed on Mint, who swallowed nervously. “I can wait downstairs,” he said before turning on his heel and running down the stairs, bumping into Mercy and Church, who had been listening to the conversation from the bottom of the stairs. He sighed as he stared at Xavier, who shrugged. He scowled as he pulled his phone out and quickly typed on his notes app.

What are you doing?

Church grinned as he took the phone and typed out his reply. Eavesdropping. I'm telling you, they're f*****g.

Mint scowled. Micahel had said so many times that he and Damian were simply friends. Why did Church and Mercy not believe him? But he, too, let curiosity get the best of him, so he sat between them and moved his ear closer.

“-you are!”

Damian sighed. “Micahel, I am not having this conversation with you. I am fine. I want you to leave.”

“No. Not until you tell me what is wrong. You say you are fine. But you have been holed up in here for almost two weeks. And even now, I can’t even see you properly.”

“Have you not thought that perhaps I don't want you to see me.”

Michael let out a noise of frustration. He was borderline yelling now. “Why would I not want to see you? You are my best friend.”

The response was so quiet all three had to strain their ears to hear it. “You seem to forget I am also a demon.”

“I haven’t forgotten. I just don’t care.”

“Well, I do.”

“You are not telling me, Damian.”

There was a loud thud, and the rest eyed one another. Mercy was about to run up the stairs to help, but Xavier shook his head and grabbed his sister.

They heard Mixcahel faintly scoff. “You do not scare me, Damian. What is it that you aren’t telling me.”

“You want to know the truth so desperately?” Damian snapped. “Fine. I looked human. I was fine with that. I had dark skin, but so did so many humans. And my eyes were red, which was simple. I could use some magic and make them appear brown. I could look human, which is why you didn’t care. But the gold scar. I can’t do anything with that. I tried to cover it, but divine magic is purer than demonic magic. I couldn’t do it. Only demons have gold scars. It was proof I wasn’t human. I didn’t want to see you because you would realise I was a demon.”

There was a quiet pause. “But,” Micahel whispered. “I already knew you were a demon. I don’t care.”

Damian scoffed. “That’s what I thought. But you didn’t see your face when you saw the gold scar.”

“I was just scared. You had been hurt, Damian. An angel had blinded you. Who could have killed you? You could have died. I was scared you would die.”

“You weren’t scared for me; you were scared of me.”

~*~