Elias woke with a start, and shot up to a sitting position. He had been laying in something soft, and when he looked around, he just blinked.
"I'm in my apartment." He said, realizing thy room to be his bedroom.
At first he wondered if he had imagined everything, but when he looked down, he still had the bag that Lucifer had given him in his hand. He also summoned a ball of black and red fire, which only led more credibility to his question. He could still feel it, too. The demonic energy, strong as ever, coursing through his body. He sighed as he sat up.
Checking his belongings, he was not surprised to find that his phone was dead. It lit up when he plugged it in, the charging symbol appearing on the screen, so at least he knew that it wasn't dead. While he waited for that to charge, and checked the contents of his wallet, and he was a littile surprised. Everything was still there, including his money.
"Hmm. I'm not gonna complain, but expected even this to be gone." He said, then he closed his wallet.
There was something very important he needed to do right now. His phone was charging, so he couldn't check if there was anything he might have missed, so his only next course of action seemed pretty obvious. He really, really wanted to take a shower.
No matter how long he was in there, and no matter how much he scrubbed himself, he still felt dirty. Unclean. It seems hell does that to a person. And not having a shower for literally thousands of years. In either case, it was a good hour before he hopped out of the shower, dried himself off and got dressed.
Black T-shirt, black jeans. Simple yet effective, just how he liked it. Looking at himself in the mirror, he one again marveled at how much better he looked now. Sure, he was decent looking before, but this just shored up his weaknesses. Elias nodded to himself, then walked back into his bedroom. He checked his phone. It was at about 30%. He turned it back on, and then he did something that had been pricking at the back of his mind. He took out the red crystal he had been given.
"So, just fill it with energy.." He muttered as he did just that.
He was wondering if the damned thing was defective or something, but then it activated, and the sight he was greated with as an almost dream like bubble projection appeared in front of him gave him flashbacks. It was of a man being tortured, much like he was, although he could kind of recognize the man. He didn't know how, but he felt like he knew him.
"Do you know why you are here?" A familiar voice asked, then Lucifer himself entered the projection.
"I-I" The man said, then scream as his toes were chopped off.
"Sorry, couldn't hear you due to the screaming. Kind of rude, don't you think?" Lucifer asked, and Elias actually chuckled.
Even while doing something like this, he kept this part of himself at least.
"I've killed... a number of people..." The man eventually said.
"Indeed, and one of them is here right now, because of you. Tell me, why did you kill Elias Mason? Surely an unpowered man like him is no threat to you." Lucifer said, and that made Elias stop laughing and pay much closer attention.
The man seemed eager to throw someone under the bus, probably in the hopes that it would lesson his suffering. I've seen people like this before. Assholes, but the minute they face adversity, they turn tail real quick.
"It was Gavin McHughs!" The man said quickly, and that actually made Elias tense.
"Gavin... you motherfucker." Elias hissed, his vision briefly turning red.
"He hired me to kill that guy. Told me to not do it where it was seen. I snapped a photo of his body and sent it to him for confirmation. I sabotaged his car so it wouldn't start. Gavin said the guy was too poor to pay for a cab or a ride, so he'd probably end up walking home. Luck had it that the roads were closed, and he ended up having to take a detour through a shitty neighborhood. Shit like that happens all the time. It was dark, so no one saw me. Then, I decided to take his stuff because why not? He wasn't gonna need it. Gavin was right. Dude was broke as fuck."
I was actually stunned. Itnwas actually pretty well thought out, although a part of me questioned his professionalism. After all, I wasn't dead, well not quite. Almost doesn't count. Granted, I didn't move until he left. At the time, I was actually surprised that someone had shot me. It was not what I had expected to happen.
"I see. You know he wasn't dead, right? In fact, he still isn't dead, so in both accounts, you failed. And now, you are here. I appreciate you spilling the beans, and I'll be sure to pass this along. Sounds like Elias is gonna be a busy man. Now, back to the eternal torment!" Lucifer said, clapping excitedly.
The man screamed as the recording ended.
Elias sat there for a while. He didn't speak or do anything besides rub at his temples.
"That piece of shit. He hates me that much? I haven't done anything to him. I am going to fucking destroy him." Elias said, his fists clenched.
He quickly got ahold of himself and grabbed his phone. Sure enough, he had many missed calls and texts, and they were all from his sister.
"Eli?"
"Eli?"
"ELI!!"
"PLEASE ANSWER ME. I DON'T BELIEVE IT. I WONT BELIEVE IT!"
His heart broke at reading her frantic texts, and the calls weren't much better. His voicemail had over 20 from her in it, and most of them were frantic. Many he couldn't even understand what she was saying because she was sobbing uncontrollably.
"He went to far. And now he's made Tia feel like this? Oh, you'll pay." Elias said darkly.
He called his sister. The phone rang for what felt like an eternity before it was answered.
"ELI?? ELI IS THAT YOU?? PLEASE, NO ONE BETTER BE MESSING AROUND OR I'LL-"
Elias smiled at hearing her voice, even if it was frantic.
"I'm here, Tia. It's me. Calm down, pipsqueak." Elias said in a gentle voice.
Tiana began to cry, although he could tell even through the phone that was tears of happiness and relief. She knew his voice, and no one could mimic is gentle tone thag he always had with her.
"THANK GOD!" She sobbed, and Elias was patient with her as she let out her emotions.
"Gavin told me that you were shot and killed by a mugger, and I didn't know what to do." She said, and while more calm, she still sounded weary.
Elias clenched his teeth.
"Oh, did he now?" Elias asked, his vision turning red again.
"Yes...he even showed me... there was so much blood...and it's been days..."
She sounded like she might cry again. Yeah, that settled it. It was one thing to be an asshole to him, it was another thing to actually get him fucking killed... well, almost killed, but the trauma he put Tia through? Gavin wasn't long for this world. However...
"Tia, be honest with me, please. How are you? You don't really talk about it much. I don't want to tell you too much over the phone, but if you need me to come and get you, I will. Are you unhappy? What you say will determine what I do from here." Elias said, and it was with a confidence that Tiana had never heard from him before.
Tiana bit her lip. She wanted to tell him the truth, but could she? He would probably wind up just getting again. And Gavin probably has someone or something listening in on her. Still, he wasn't asking her to fully say what her issues were. Again, all he could think about was her safety. It warmed her heart.
"Eli... I-I... I'm miserable... I'm so unhappy. And the things I've seen... the things these people do... Eil, they are monsters. Vile, evil, monsters. I-" Tiana said, but a commotion happened in the background at that very moment.
"Tiana! Who the fuck are you talking to?" A male voice said.
Eli recognized that voice. The cause of mucn of his pain and frustration. He was going to teach Gavin a lesson he'll never forget. Not that he'll be able to put that lesson to use.
He heard Tiana frantically speaking to Gavin. There was plenty of lying from Gavin, and plenty of yelling and tears from Tiana. Elias actually thought he felt one of his teeth crack since he was gritting them so hard.
The sound of someone picking up the phone and holding to their face occured, accompanied by heavy, angry sounding breathing.
"You got some nerve calling my girl, and riling her up by pretending to be her dead brother! I will kill you if I ever find you." Gavin said in a huff.
"Wow. Very hero like, prick. Sorry to disappoint you, but it's me. Your little plan you hatched up... yeah it didn't work. Make sure the person you hire to off someone actually completes the job, you dumbfuck. Now, put Tia back on. I'm already sick of hearing your voice." Elias said, his anger for the man coming out in waves.
It sounded like Gavin gasped. It probably wasn't expecting such a response like that. No one dared disrespect Gavin McHughs, aka, Bulwark. The man had super human strength, but he was not as strong as the top Hero, the Immortal King, who was as long lived as he was powerful. Where Bulwark's true strength lied was his inhuman durability. I'm pretty sure he walked a mini nuke into a terrorist bunker one time, set it off, and walked back out. He was naked, but his body took no damage at all.
Yeah, life wasn't fair when they gave cock goblins like this powers like that. Gavin began breathing heavy like someone on social media typing away at their keyboard because they disagreed with someone's opinion.
"Hmm! You are so insignificant that whether you live or die means nothing to me. To be honest, you dying would finally free my precious Tiana from even being associated with a loser like you. It'd too bad that mugger didn't finish the job." Gavin said, and Elias was starting to get heated.
"Tia is MY sister. MY family, and you have no claim on her. I'm coming to get her, and when I see you, you are going to pay for everything you've done, you piece of shit." Elias said, his voice sounding more gutteral the longer he spoke.
Gavin either didn't notice or didn't care, and his anger seeped through the phone like it had a physical weight.
"YOU UNPOWERED WASTE OF SKIN! YOU WILL LEARN TO RESPECT YOUR BETTERS. When I see you again, you are going to wish you had died." Gavin paused, then snorted, "Say goodbye to your sister. You are never allowed to see her ever again. There will be no calls either. She's mine now, and you're nothing." Gavin said, then the line went dead.
Elias clenched his fists so hard his phone cracked and then felll apart in his grip.
"FUCKING ASSHOLE! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Elias roared, and darted towards the front door.
He knew where Gavin lived, although something else was telling him where to go. It was like, thinking about his sister told him where she was. His blood seemed to resonate with her lifeforce somehow. It was weird, but he wouldn't deny something helpful. He threw on a pair of black shoes, and ran out the front door.
He thought about it for a second, trying to think of the fastest way there, when he had a thought. He thought about flying, and how he wanted to soar through the air to reach his sister as fast as possible. As he thought this, he felt his energy resonating with that desire, and his body lifted off of the ground.
"I'm coming baby sis. Just hold on." Elias said, then he vaulted over the railing from his second story window, and fell face first into the grass below.
He body had made an Elias sizes indent in the grass, and his body went about 3 to 4 feet into the dirt. He used his hands to push himself off of the ground, and spit out a mouthful of dirt and grass.
"I think I'm getting the hang of this."