Jarod opened his eyes and found himself in a plane of black with nothing visible in sight. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and turned around and froze.
There stood Ryan, a grin plastered across his face, his blue cheerful eyes looking into Jarod's light grey. "This is a dream," Jarod choked out at the sight of his dead best friend. "But I'm still glad I can see you again."
Ryan laughed, his happy laugher filled the empty plane. "Yeah, same here." A small bench materialized and Ryan sat down and patted the space down next to him. "Come on, we gotta talk."
Jarod swallowed the saliva in his mouth and quickly sat down next to his friend, his hands shaking slightly. Why was he seeing his friend all of a sudden? Why was his dream so in-depth?
"So," Ryan began, his warm smile still on his face. "You're the son of Satan, huh?" Jarod laughed sheepishly, scratching the bag of his head.
"Yeah, weird huh? That someone like me would be the son of someone so famous."
"Pfft, yeah right. I always knew you were special, I just never imagined that you would be THAT special, ya know?" Ryan said with a small chuckle.
"Yeah," Jarod trailed off, looking down at the ground. "Why'd you take that bullet for me?" Ryan tilted his head to the side, his red hair hanging to the side slightly.
"Why wouldn't I? You're my best friend." Jarod stood up, his hands turning into fists as his fingernails dug into his palms.
"Why do you say that like it's so simple? Like you didn't throw away your entire life, your entire future?" He turned to Ryan, tears crawling down his face. "Why did you have to die instead of me?"
Ryan let out a long sigh. Standing up, he grabbed Jarod by the shoulders and looked him directly in the eye. "Because it was that simple for me. You are and always have been my best friend. You were the only person at school who truly understood and accepted me. I thank you, Jarod, for letting me die with a purpose instead of some bed in a hospital when I'm all old and wrinkly.
"I died for the son of Satan! Who can say that? I mean, sure, I don't worship Satan or anything, I'm not even sure where I am right now. All I know is that you're real. So you need to persevere and trudge forward!" Jarod was about to say something, to try and reply to Ryan's speech before he felt a sharp pain in his stomach.
He knelt down, grabbing his abdomen with a wince before he felt the pain again. He looked up at Ryan was no longer there. ". . .p! Wake up!" He heard a man shouting before another pang of pain washed over his body.
Jarod's eyes flew open to the unwelcome sight of an overly large man with no hair and green demon eyes glaring at him, a long beard going down his face, it colored an ashen grey.
"Get up you lazy brat!" He barked before grabbing Jarod by his arms and yanking him up. Jarod's eyes widened as he looked around and saw several men raiding their camp with Arlyn already tied to a tree.
"Arlyn!" He shouted as he jerked out of the demon's grasp and jumped into the air, landing a quick blow to a random man's hand and rushed towards Arlyn, who was shaking her head violently for him to stop, her raven-colored hair messy and unkempt.
"Jarod no!" She screamed out in a panicked tone.
He stopped for a moment, confused before his instincts screamed at him to duck. He followed what his brain told him and quickly got on all fours, a gigantic metal ball with silver spikes littered across the ball swept over his head, missing his head by just a few centimeters.
Jarod's eyes darted to the left and saw the wielder of the ball and the chain it was connected to. The man was built lankily with bright blonde hair cut short with piercing yellow demon eyes.
"Don't resist and come with us," The man spoke, his voice deeper than what his appearance would leave to believe.
"Do you know who I am?" Jarod asked, hoping to maybe scare them. "I'm the son of Satan! Your king!"
The man who had kicked Jarod awake scoffed as the three other men who were in their camp began laughing.
"Oh we know," A dark voice whispered, filling Jarod's ears as he twirled around, punching the air. "We just don't care." Behind him! Turning around again, Jarod only saw the blonde man on one knee and noticed that all of the other men had followed suit.
"Lucifer is but the King of Hell, not King of the Earth." That same voice spoke. Jarod suddenly felt his body being tugged by an invisible force. He tried fighting the force that was pulling him but found that it was too strong as he was sent back into a tree.
"What is this?" He growled out, his jaw clenched as he strained against the transparent thing that was holding him back, his whole body paralyzed and unable to move.
"My ability," The dreadful voice spoke as a man emerged from the trees. He had long peach-colored hair that reached down to his neck. He was skinny yet not particularly tall, being about a few inches or so taller than Jarod.
His face was skinny and his cheekbones were more defined than others. His eyes were a pale bright blue with the signature vertical slits that demon wore. He had on a pair of grey dress pants and an oversized grey cloak that reached down to his ankles with a visible black shirt underneath it.
"Hello, my name is Mackerel. You may refer to me as Mr. Mackerel and nothing else." Jarod freely glared at the demon in front of him. "I've taken great interest in learning about you Prince Jarod ever since I felt that shockwave of power over a couple of months ago. You froze an entire town over, killing everyone in it."
"What do you want?" Jarod got out, fighting his hardest to break free of whatever Mackerel had him in. Mackerel's lips twisted upward into a sinister smirk, his eyes glowing slightly.
"What everyone wants: Power. Yours specifically." Jarod let out a humorless chuckle.
"My father sealed my powers away! You can't steal them even if you wanted to!" He watched in dismay as the smirk on Mackerel's face never decreased in size.
Mackerel walked up to Jarod until he was standing right in front of the teen and patted him on the cheek twice. "I know that already you foolish prince. I know everything about your little situation."
"Impossible!" Arlyn shouted. "Only two other people besides us know what we're doing!" Mackerel's smirk slipped into a small frown, sending shivers down Jarod's spine at how terrifying the demon looked when he was unhappy.
"Silence!" The chain and ball wielding man hissed. "Do not speak in such a way against our master!"
"It's quite alright, Fiin. She will learn soon enough," He raised his hand into the air as lightning suddenly sprouted from his fingertips and engulfed Arlyn, causing the girl to thrash against her ropes, screaming out in pain as lightning spread across her body.
"Stop it!" Jarod shouted, his white hair turning black from the roots, his eyes turning into a crimson red as he suddenly broke away from Mackerel's telekinetic hold and launched a fist at the demon, connecting his fist with his cheek. "How about you face a real demon?!"
Dark Jarod's eyes widened as he realized that Mackerel's face had only turned slightly while the demon didn't look the least bit affected. "That's it? That's the strength you currently possess?" He turned his face, the hybrid's fist still on his cheek, glancing sideways to meet Dark Jarod's gaze.
"Wha-" He began to say before he was blasted abruptly away from Mackerel and into a tree, a resounding crack echoing in the forest as he went straight through the tree like a rock would a piece of paper.
"It seems that nobody has truly taught you your place," He heard Mackerel's voice whispered in his ear. "Allow me to rectify your father's mistakes!" Jarod felt a foot launch into his side and propel him forward.
Dark Jarod skid across the dirt, leaves, and small branches and opened his eyes to see Arlyn looking at him with pain-filled eyes. "Stop fighting, please." She pleaded. Jarod's hair began turning back into its original white, his red eyes fading from view and being replaced by his grey eye color.
"I will be taking you to my facility, Prince Jarod. Don't worry, your little friend will be coming along with us. We will use my preferred," Mackerel paused as a sadistic grin spread across his face. "methods, to unlock your powers so I can steal them!"
Jarod looked up at Mackerel, his vision quickly blurring out. He had to fight. He had to save Arlyn and himself!
He tried standing up but found that he had no strength in his limbs, unable to move once again. He glared at the blurry Mackerel before darkness overtook him.