A Demon in Ponyville
Ch. 17: Her name was Beatrice
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to MLP. All other characters are mine.
This is getting ridiculous, Twilight groaned to herself after colliding with the ground for what felt like the umpteenth time. Unlike the cold smooth surface of black granite, Twilight and friends were graced with the presence of cold, hard and smooth wood. Oh goody good.
After several minutes, the Mane Six untangled themselves from a jumble of limbs before they could take in the bizarre scene playing before their eyes. A long rectangular room with steep benches of worn mahogany wood stood in two lines in the center of the worn floor. Each bench faced forward towards a raised dais occupying the front of this hollow building. Unlike the previous circles of Matthew’s consciousness, a light vibration filled the air with is soft rhythmic music. But it was unlike any music the ponies could identify. The rhythm, for lack of a better term, did not match any conventional style or substance found in Equestria. A podium of dark wood stood to address the empty room in congregation, but what caught the ponies’ attention was the statue behind it.
Carved from the purest marble, standing at seven feet tall was a thin female covered in a flowing garb or dress. Her hair flowed down the side of her neck and over her right shoulder. Her hands held together in front. Rarity took peculiar interest in this statue. For its dimension were flawless, no scuffing of the surface or blemished from the material took away from the abstract beauty of the woman. Her defined brow, sharp chin and angled cheeks formed a perfect lateral pitch to her smile. It was a smile unlike any other to the artist. Carved with as much loving care, this smile did not depict joy or happiness. Instead this smile depicted inevitability; it depicted the single spark of light outlined by the surrounding gloom. It depicted a something that could only be described by abstract metaphor or concepts outside the normal logistics of happiness. It was a smile of love and loss.
Rarity was almost spellbound, looking further up the face to meet the eyes of the sightless white eyes. Their expression matched that of concern, brow knitted in absolute perfection to a memory that would never be forgotten. They held a strength behind their frail exterior.
“She’s beautiful,” Rarity whispered in a hush whisper. Her bright eyes could discern every detail and the minimalistic quality of the marble woman brought great attention to her expression, her face, her smile and those eyes. Any carver and artist would weep at the beauty of such a minimalistic yet stunning work of art. Rarity had to force some self control to keep her knees from shaking under the weight of this work.
The rest of the Mane 6 nodded in silent agreement. Even though they did not have the pedigree for this type of artistry, but their eyes continued to be transfixed by the lone fixture carved with the greatest amount of love and care any human or pony could summon.
A soft breeze caught the ponies off guard, drying their eyes and causing them to blink rapidly to remove the sudden irritation. When their eyes returned to the front of the room, the pale visage of Dark Matthew stood behind the podium, his hooves raised high into the air. But his expression was not that of egocentric narcissism or twisted joy. Dark Matthew’s expression was almost a somber one, his eyes burning with a white hot intensity.
“My church offers no absolution,” Dark Matthew’s voice fell on the empty hall, silencing the music of some unknown and unknowable creation. “This is a place far from heaven; this is a church for my lover. I tell her my sins so she can sharpen her knife, biting into my flesh and soul. Death is the standard for worship in this house so far from the light of day. She will tell me truth. I will worship her and she will offer me my life. I will worship her like a dog, waiting on her every beck and call without reservation or hesitation. What would I do without her smile? Can I continue down, further into the earth? Will I die if she is no longer there?”
Dark Matthew paused, taking a moment to himself and closing his eyes. Twilight and her friends watched, confused and startled at the seriousness in Dark Matthew. If he was joking about death and carnage like it was an everyday occurrence, than what drove him to become so serious must be something of unimaginable strain.
“Yes, yes I did,” Dark Matthew finished in a soft whispered that barely traveled through the open air. Only the sensitive ears of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could pick on the singular sentence from this entity they believed to be one of the most twisted beings they have come across.
Silence reigned after this singular statement, the ponies barely dared to breathe at the somber expression playing across Matthew’s muzzle.
“Amen.”
Before any of the Mane 6 could begin to talk, a high-pitched voice range behind them “Cut the overdramatic crap!” Standing just a stone’s throw away was the small Pegasus of dark charcoal grey and a spiked mane of white. His expression was that of absolute anger, livid at the prospect of both the Mane 6 and Dark Matthew standing before him in such an important place.
Each and every one of the Mane 6 felt a guilty knife stab into their stomachs, heat rising into their cheeks. The felt shame and embarrassment at the sight of the rope burns around the little colt’s legs.
Young Matthew marched towards his dark counterpart. The banging of his little hooves rang across the wooden floor, increasing the growing tension. Prideful youth and dark abomination stared at each other with great intensity one would believe the air between them would spark an inferno of rage or anger.
“And what,” Dark Matthew said slowly, his lips curling back to reveal his sharp teeth in a threatening display, “is your problem?”
“You have no right to be here,” Pegasus Matthew snapped, “And neither do they. This place belongs to Beatrice and you are not welcomed here.”
“I loved her too!” Dark Matthew snapped, his eyes flashing dangerously at the small child. “I lost just as much as you did and don’t you ever think anything else!”
“No you just liked the idea of having her!” Pegasus Matthew yelled, his shrill voice matching Dark Matthew’s anger with righteous fury “You are incapable of understanding her. I did!”
The pair growled at each other, two vicious animals waiting for the single opportunity to tear at the other’s throat. The Mane 6 decided enough was enough and sought to intervene before things escalated further.
Fluttershy wrapped her hooves around the Pegasus Matthew’s barrel, bringing him into her chest. The young pony struggled defiantly against her grasp, but Fluttershy would not yield. No matter what, young Matthew continued to squirm against Fluttershy’s chest. Her yellow fur felt soft against his wings as he flailed his short legs in every direction.
Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie stood in front of Dark Matthew. Their faces showing the sheer determination of their cause and the seriousness they felt towards stopping Dark Matthew from continuing his contest with Pegasus Matthew. The ponies thought they were trying to be intimidation, but it turned out to be quiet adorable in reality. So much so a chuckle escaped from his lips. The sound of his laughter drilled deep into the ponies’ eardrums.
“Oh my god, this is precious,” Dark Matthew continued to laugh, going as far to hold his sides. “You five think you can take me.”
“Actually we have six,” Twilight pointed out as a matter of fact.
“Fine, five and a half… wait… make that five and a quarter. I don’t think Fluttershy over there is up for a round,” Dark Matthew’s eyes wondered over to the yellow Pegasus.
Fluttershy was gently rubbing the back of young Matthew’s neck, taking particular care of the area behind his ears. The attention and soft gentle rubbing soothed the young colt. Pegasus Matthew was soon learning how experienced Fluttershy’s hooves were. Their soft and firm applications were on par with a professional massage therapist. With deft movements, Fluttershy had already calmed Matthew’s younger side and the colt felt himself almost melt in her soft warm arms. His vision dimming as his eyes slowly fell.
Dark Matthew almost felt a pang of jealousy and the cold cloud of loneliness. The last time anyone had attempted soothing his pain was Beatrice. And that felt like a lifetime away, so far in the past.
Twilight was saying something, immediately pulling Dark Matthew from his thoughts, “Sorry. My brain was somewhere else. What did you say?”
“I was asking, what is this place? And who is Beatrice?” Twilight rolled the name of her tongue. Here curiosity had been peaked by the amount of almost religious zealous put into this particular circle of Matthew’s mind.
“Oh right,” Dark Matthew said, remembering what he was doing here. Since the mood was ruined, Dark Matthew decided to reveal a select memory from Matthew’s past.
The scene shifted quickly, revealing a city of tall grey buildings, cracked asphalt and shattered glass. New York, once an empire of stone and steel, stood as a skeleton of its former glory. Twisted metal, shattered concrete and glass littered the cracked streets of the metropolis as the shadows of the twisted buildings. What surprised the ponies most were the number of people walking the streets.
Fluttershy saw the starved looks in their eyes, the pale skin, hallow faces and sunken eyes revealed to her the starch reality of this city. High above the human’s heads, standing atop the metal frames or flying across the grey cloud filled sky were several of the demonic overloads. Fluttershy watched as the humans continued their daily activities, all hope lost in them.
“Bleak and depressing isn’t it?”
All of the ponies turned towards Dark Matthew, his eyes only on the people as they continued their work. Much like machines, these hollow people only existed to perform the tasks set by their demonic overlords.
“Why don’t they, uh, just leave?” Applejack offered, “There must be a way to get outta this city.”
Dark Matthew just stared at Applejack. Applejack could not put her hoof on it, but she felt his expression said ‘That’s so adorable, she thinks she’s people.’ “Yeah, bout that… that decision is kinda hard when the life of you and your family is threatened with death, torture or something worse than any of those if you even dare to think about leave… sooooo no pressure.”
“Well, when you put it like that,” Applejack rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.
“Let’s also look at the bigger picture here,” Dark Matthew pointed towards the sky. The ponies looked high into the sky. And they kept looking. And looking.
“Is something supposed to happen?” Rarity asked, turning to the pale pony.
“And now,” Dark Matthew said, looking towards the dull sky.
“What are yo- Sweet Celestia!” Rarity screamed as the sky became engulfed by a raging inferno of bright light. Fire roared across the sky like an angry predator. Its roar shaking the buildings to their foundation and the hearts of every human caught under the burning atmosphere.
The ponies watched the display of godly wrath before their eyes, burning higher and higher into the atmosphere. It was primal fury of unknown magnitude, ripping through the protective layers of gasses and into the deep void of space.
“And there we go,” Dark Matthew turned back to Rarity, “Isn’t that something?”
Rarity was speechless at such display of power. Applejack was the first one to ask, “What was that?”
“That was the demon Balthazar,” Dark Matthew said with an unimpressed expression, “He runs this city through a wide network of demonic lords and human puppets.” The looks of confusion flashed towards Dark Matthew compelled him to continue his explanation, “Look at it this way. Balthazar’s operation is to maintain the level of intelligence for the entirety of hell’s army. How he did it was simple. By implanting select humans inside a large group the Resistance was interested in, they could infiltrate the organization and leak intelligence to Balthazar.”
“How would they do that?” Twilight asked, watching the people slowly making their way through the twisted, ruined body of New York.
“They have the mark,” Dark Matthew answered, “On the right hand. It doesn’t appear normally unless they either use it to activate, they enter into Balthazar’s territories or a extremely powerful entity see it in them.”
“Can you see them?” Applejack asked.
“No. While I may be one of the most powerful fighters on my side, in fact the most powerful if I do say so myself-“
“Ego much!” Rainbow Dash scoffed.
“I never was able to get the hang of it,” Dark Matthew said, glaring at Rainbow Dash, “I can do basic sensing, but I never got a hang of the more advance stuff.”
Before the Ponies could continue their round of questioning, Dark Matthew motioned towards his past self. Applejack was the first to react to Matthew’s radical change in appearance. At sixteen, Matthew was facing the awkward lanky faze of adolescence. Dark back hung under his eyes and his cheeks took on a more haunting aspect. The worn jeans and dirty hoodie did not help his overall worn self.
“Jeez, what happened to you?” Applejack asked, watching Matthew slowly make his way into the crowd, blending among the lost and fallen.
“We’ve been going through some food shortages,” Dark Matthew shrugged indifferently. His human counterpart made his between the bodies of flesh, their soulless gaze wandering over him without any care in the world.
Matthew slowly made his way into a nearby bar; every movement was subtle as not to attract attention. Which was very simple, Don’t do anything stupid, she says. Just walk in. Talk to the owner and get out. Simple and easy, so easy even I can’t screw it up. Matthew thought to himself. The lights of the bar were dim, only a few red bulbs providing an eerie atmosphere of foreboding as the smell of burnt cigarettes and sweat permeated Matthew’s lungs.
The bar itself was old, worn down and probably needed to be fumigated by how many small creatures were floating in the glass bottles. I wonder how many booze would be necessary to not care? Taking a barstool, Matthew’s eyes wondered over the splintered wood and drunken man sleeping soundly towards the center of the bar.
A worn woman in her later years watched Matthew closely, her dark eyes striking against her pale skin and light grey hair. “Wha’ you want boy?”
“Nice to meet you too,” Matthew shot back with thin smile, “But I’m here to see Nikko the Noise.”
“And what makes you think Nikko’s here?” the bartender resting her palms against the rough war, leaning forward to look Matthew in the eyes.
“Because I’ve got a set of five singles that will smack you upside the head and then burn down this bar with everyone in here,” Matthew responded. “I’ve got an appointment, just ask the man.”
The bartender silently stood, watching Matthew’s unchanging expression until she finally conceded, yelling over her shoulder as she left, “Merv, wake up you drunk bastard and watch the bar!”
Matthew looked towards the only one left in this dump of the bar, the still man gaining some concern from the sixteen year old. With a hesitant finger, Matthew probed the sleeping man. I think he’s dead.
Before Matthew could continue annoying the sleeping or dead man, a flurry of activity blurred the scene for the ponies. When everything settled, Twilight gasped in horror as Matthew was surrounded by over a dozen tall, ugly looking trolls. Or they would be trolls, if not for the glowing gnarled horns twisting from their foreheads. The light poor light reflecting of their sickly colored grey and green skin.
Several sharp weapons, ranging from short swords to a battle axe with far too many spikes super glued on it to be safe, were pointed directly at Matthew’s throat. The cracked, chipped metal was almost touching Matthew’s exposed throat.
Matthew appeared surprised, “So who’s the waitress? I think I’m going to need something strong for today.”
“You will be coming with us,” tallest demonic troll said, his voice sounding like several rocks being rubbed against each other.
“Well,” Matthew drew out the word for several seconds, “I don’t know. I mean you’ve got just that face. And I don’t like it.”
“And what is wrong with my face?” The lead troll asked.
“It’s ugly, just so ugly. It’s like if I beat a leaper with an ugly stick and then again and then one more time just to make sure I made a good impression,” Matthew responded with a innocent smile.
“That was a pathetic attempt at humor and is only drawing out you inevitable demise,” the lead troll countered, his dark eyes trying to pierce his very soul. Matthew remained unimpressed.
“No, I’m just waiting for my backup,” Matthew responded with a chipper attitude. “And they should be arriving right about… Now.”
The group of trolls tilled their eyes, scanning the room for any sign of attack. The only movement was the soft sifting of dust in the stale air.
“Now,” Matthew said in complete confidence that his arranged backup would save him.
Still nothing happened. The silent air filled with the awkward shuffling of thick troll’s feet.
“Nnnnnnnow,” Matthew said, a bead of sweat drilling along the side of his face.
“Oh come on,” Rainbow Dash sighed in exasperation. “I know he’s going to make it out of here.
“You would be surprised,” Dark Matthew responded with a chuckle.
“And now,” Matthew said, his voice starting to crack slightly. “Now, now. Now-now-now-now-now-now-now-now.”
“Oh will you shut up!” A smooth, silky voice snapped. From the front door, a tall, thin man wearing a deep black suit and tie entered. His sharp features and slicked backed hair, combed to perfection. His kin was pale, almost white. His eyes burned with an evil red glow.
“Just look at that shit-eating grin! I’d kill him. I’d kill him dead!” Dark Matthew seethed, watching the perfect white teeth and smile.
“Did you mean this back-up?” The dark specter of evil moved his hands into view. The ponies gasped in shock at the severed head of a dirty blonde. Drops of blood splashed against the tiled floor, reflecting red light.
“That sure is,” Matthew responded.
“Well I’m afraid she’s come down with a severe case of death,” the dark man shrugged, tossing the head off to the side without a care.
“Well I sure hope it’s not contagious,” Matthew said, “You might want to get yourself checked.”
Parting the trolls with a wave of his hand, the dark man pulled up a stool to sit directly in front of Matthew. “I think it’s time to end the game, Matthew. I am-“
“Oh but I love games!”
“Stalling won’t save yo-“
“How about another game?”
“Now is not the ti-“
“I spy with my little eye a man that starts with the letter A,” Matthew sang.
“I’m not going to-“
“It’s you, ya Asshole!” Matthew clapped enthusiastically.
The dark man’s fist slammed into Matthew’s nose. Matthew appeared unaffected but for the trickle of blood from his nostrils. “Now are you quite finished?”
“No, you’re still an asshole.”
The dark man sighed, “You’re not going to make this easy are you?”
“You forgot to say the magic word,” Matthew said with a equal sigh.
“Could you please act like a proper adult?” the dark man asked his smile far too perfect and begged to be punched.
“I could, but I won’t,” Matthew responded with a wide smile.
“Screw it, I tried. You all saw it!” The dark man said. Standing, the dark man motioned to the trolls. Several large, rough hands wrapped themselves around Matthew’s thin limbs.
“Where are we going? Ice cream? I want Rocky Road,” Matthew shouted.
“To Tambelon,” the dark man said over his shoulder.
“That torture prison near the Great Lakes?” Matthew asked
“Yes.”
“A place spoken only in whisper, where men go to die in complete agony, where all hope goes to die and where men are broken?” Matthew continued his line of questioning.
“The very one,” the dark man said with a smile.
“I feel like that’s a bit overkill,” Matthew reasoned.
“No, you have killed far too many of my brethren. You even killed a commander. You are far too important and ingrained in the Resistance to be allowed to live. But first we will extract everything you have to offer before you are allowed to die,” the dark man’s smile grew, the air around him dropping several degrees.
“I knew I was a badass. It’s nice that the enemy confirms it,” Matthew said, flexing his right hand repeatedly. Why can’t I blast these guys?
“Wondering why your abilities are not functioning properly?” the dark man asked.
“Maybe,” Matthew responded with a sneer.
“Well you can thank this little charm,” The dark man said, pulling from his pocket a green shrunken head. “Downside of my friend here is that he suppresses my powers as well. But we all have to make sacrifices.”
Matthew looked down at the dark man, a very confused and disgusted look on his face. “You kept a shrunken head in your pocket.”
“That’s not the point,” the dark man said.
“You had a dead man’s head, shrunken and probably decomposing head in Your pants!” Matthew continued to point out.
“You making this a bigger deal than it truly is,” the dark man rolled his eyes.
“You sicken me,” Matthew harshly whispered, unable to break the ironclad hands of the demon trolls. But to look on the bright side, Matthew used the long trip as an excuse to annoy the finely suited man who and downright refusing to learn the demon’s name.
Twilight and her friends watched a very loud and unrepeatable shouting match between Matthew and the demon. The scene shifted to a dark gloomy concrete room with no discernible features. Shadows crawled over the walls around a bound Matthew. The shirtless human was strapped tightly to a grey, rusting table. Thick metal chains were covered in shifting symbols of unknown origin crawling across the metal.
Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but snicker at the bright red ball gag shoved into Matthew’s mouth. From the thick steel door, all eyes turned to see a sickly brown cross between a human and cockroach with four arms, big shifting eyes, mandibles and a very clean white apron. The voice coming from the entity was high pitched and full of a very chilling clicking, “So this is my new subject I see.”
No one could make out the individual standing outside the heavy metal door, but a few muffled words could be heard. “alive… damaged… make him useless… only human.”
“Hello Matthew,” the wannabe doctor said, “My name is Enfermos. And I will be your attending physician.” Matthew mumbled something, the ball gag blocking his words. Enfermos chuckled, “My apologies. Let me get that for you.” With a swift movement, the bug doctor removed the rubber ball from Matthew’s mouth.
“Ok, so the safety word is Blattodea,” Matthew said, now that he was free of the rubber device.
Enfermos shook his head, his cold laughter loud in the small room. “Your sense of humor won’t save you here.” With complicated movements of hands, Enfermos altered the table Matthew was lying on leaving him being held upright with no metal backing.
“You sure about that, cause it’s gotten me out of worse spots,” Matthew said nonchalantly.
“Many have tried boy. You will not be the first or the last to think so,” Enfermos affirmed his statement. Placing each pair of palms together, Enfermos summoned bright red fire between his hands. Pulling apart, Enfermos revealed two bright, burning whips. The air cracked as the ropes of energy cut into the worn concrete.
Matthew’s eyes followed Enfermos as he circled around him till the demonic spawn was looking at the youth’s destroyed back. Fluttershy eyed the long, jagged scarring along Matthew’s back, the bubbling smooth skin from previous burns and a sickening puncture wound leading out of his left shoulder. A history of violence that was written in flesh and now Matthew would continue this history. “If that’s the way you want to play, let me say one thing before we get started.”
“And what would that be?” Enfermos asked in an amused voice.
“I’m going to kill you.”
Enfermos chuckled as he flicked one of his wrists and sending a screeching torrent of fire across his back. The ponies screamed but Matthew did not. Matthew refused to be seen as weak, “I’m sorry. Did we start?”
Another strike, a deep gouging burn appeared next to its brother. “Did you feel that? I think someone opened a window?”
Again Enfermos struck, and again Matthew continued to through verbal insults, “My god man. Put some muscle into it.” Another burning strike hit, “My grandmother could do better. God rest her soul.”
Twilight turned her attention away from the abuse, away from the insulting young Matthew and his tormentor. Fluttershy was hiding behind her hair. Rarity had closed her eyes, silently combing her mane with a trembling hoof. Rainbow Dash uncomfortably shifted from side to side on unsteady hooves. Applejack just stood silently with Pinkie Pie. Time passed too slowly, watching a master butcher continue to slice into the human’s skin with exceptional craft.
Pinkie Pie’s eyes were glassy watching as Enfermos continued his work until almost every inch of Matthew’s skin was burned, blistered, bleed or all three at one time to his shoulder. Matthew hung limply against his bonds. Sweat fell from his forehead onto the floor in rapid succession. Enfermos circled Matthew, lifting the human by the scruff of his hair. Matthew’s wearily looked into the black dead eyes of Enfermos, “Is it over? I thought we just got started.”
With an annoyed grunt, Enfermos loosened his grip before leaving the room. Matthew couldn’t make out the muffled words from the rushing of blood in his ears. What surprised him was the young human girl quickly darting into the room. She was pale, her hair a dark black, wearing a worn pair of blue scrubs. In her hands, she held a blunt silver tray. On it were an assortment of salves, white wrappings, syringes and bottles of potent medical tools.
She turned to Matthew, her thin face and eyes mesmerized him. They wore an expression of sadness and longing. Her eyes bore a weight to them. The burden of misery that none of the pony’s knew or could properly understand.
“Who…” Matthew’s words were slurred, the blurring in his vision making it difficult to see the woman.
The girl ignored Matthew, placing the tray onto the ground behind him before getting to work. Twisting open a jar of blue jelly, the pale girl began to applied liberal amounts of the salve to Matthew’s back. Matthew hissed in pain, speckles of saliva falling to the floor. Twilight was surprised as the skin slowly began to change, losing the blistered hide before returning to its previous luster. But all was not the same; white scaring remained of the previous whipping. Thick, jagged flesh mark Matthew’s body.
The pale girl silently picked up her tray, making her way out of the single cell. “Wait,” Matthew called out. The girl did not. Instead she left him alone.
Applejack turned to Dark Matthew, her voice shaking, “There’s more… Isn’t there?”
“Oh yes,” Dark Matthew said, his voice almost in a dreamlike state. As if he was in a distant memory. “There will be more.”
The ponies were in for a rude awakening as the next group entered the room. An eel like creature of smooth skin, thin face and jagged teeth to match the glossy green color. The creature took two, thin fingers with black talons to Matthew’s temple. An electric current of yellow coursed through Matthew. His screams echoed down the halls of the facility.
Twilight began to see the pattern unfold before her. First the torture, than the unnamed pale human would patch him before another round of torture. Twilight could not even to begin to fully stomach the carnage before her eyes. They did horrible things to Matthew. The monsters peeled his skin with rusted and dull instruments, exposing blue veins and muscle sinew to the air. Large jugs of acid were rigged above Matthew’s bound found, tiny drops of sizzling liquid falling onto his unprotected flesh with a nasty hiss.
Twilight thought she couldn’t vomit in a dream, but her limits where shown when a pair of red looking trolls cut Matthew’s stomach open and proceeded to pull out his entire digestive track with a surprising amount of care as to not kill their prisoner.
Twilight tore her eyes away from the scene before her looking to Dark Matthew. His burning eyes filled with venom at the two demons. “Tell me Twilight,” Dark Matthew asked, “Do you believe in karma?”
Twilight shook her head. Dark Matthew continued, “I do.”
“Why?” Twilight asked in a harsh whisper, her throat parched and burning.
“Because of this,” the pale white pony pointed towards his human counterpart. The pale woman was there, her thin fingers slowly stitching Matthew’s skin together. The area around his hands had been torn apart, leaving a bloody mess of flesh behind. The entire room shook, startling the pair. The girl looked to the door, silhouetted figures of every conservable size and shaped passing the open door.
A harsh, barking laughter drew her attention to the chained Matthew. Blood fell from the corners of his mouth and across his pale, the colors causing a stark contrast of crimson and white. The unnamed nurse looked to Matthew, “What’s going on?” To Matthew, her voice was a bell. A pure note so lovingly felt after days of pain and suffered. A gift beyond anything Matthew could ever wish for.
“You know the rumor about this place? That it’s in the great lakes region?” Matthew asked, his voice raspy and tired.
“Yes?”
“That was a lie and the resistance knows that,” Matthew laughed again, coughing at the pain talking was causing him. “So sent me to get the information, but in the off chance Nikko betrayed us, my commanding officer decided to apply a little insurance.”
“What’s that?”
“They stuck a tracking device in my left butt cheek,” Matthew answered, his face twisting into a sickening smile with blood smeared across his teeth. “It hurt like hell, but in the end it was worth it.”
More explosions rocked the facility as angry shouts and screams made their way down the hall. The ground continued to shake as the human resistance and their half-demon allies stormed the facility. Fire and energy flew past the open door in frenzy. But Matthew only looked to the pale woman next to him, the only comfort in these last five days.
“She was so beautiful,” Dark Matthew whispered, his eyes softening at the woman. As if she was the most beautiful thing in the world.
“What’s your name?” Matthew asked his angel, his hear thumping in his chest. He wanted to… he needed to know who she was. Her silence had been agonizing. Denying him only drove a stronger urge to know her. It may have been obsession, but Matthew wanted to know. For the first moment, Matthew felt what may have been love at first sight. While she had tended to him, Matthew memorized every line of her face, her thin hair, and her eyes. Those two emeralds of absolute perfection bore into Matthew like a steely knife.
“Beatrice.”
That was all she said. Nothing more than that as the battle continued to rage around them.
But that was enough for Matthew, for he had found his beloved.
He had found his Beatrice.