Knights of Hell

Chapter 7

Azure's POV

I didn't know how long it had been and the school still wasn't off of its lockdown and Church still hadn't come back. And, I could tell Mint was pretty stressed out about it, he hadn't stopped pacing. Up and down. Round and round. It was driving me insane.

But, there was also the fact that Mint liked Yua. Yua, out of all the other 5 Knights. He really chose Yua? The one that was most likely the most f****d up from all six of us? The one that was by no means, sane. Satan.

"Nether?" Mint asked, looking over at him.

I'm pretty sure he was trying to locate Church using his powers, which was pointless because none of our powers were working. And he claimed to have not become attached to Church, but he had been frantically searching for Church, some would even say more than Mint.

"Still nothing. It's like this f*****g room is blocking my powers!" he hissed, he turned to glare at the teacher. He grabbed the teacher's collars. "Why is this room blocking my powers?!" Yes, he'd asked this question about four times now and the teacher always replied with the same thing.

"I don't know. A new system was designed by the headteacher. He said it would stop any demons from inside the class to be able to use their powers. He seemed pretty confident of it all!"

"Who wants to bet it's an Angel?" Feather said and Nether glared at him, he flared his nostrils, let go of the teacher and went back to trying to find Church.

"I can't even float!" Nether screamed.

"Shut up, Feather," I deadpanned.

"I'm confused," one of the students said to another. I think she was trying to whisper, but she was so loud. Whatever she was doing, it wasn't whispering. "Is Church dating the well, not-floating one? Because I spoke to Church, like yesterday and he said he liked someone. A lot. He never said anything about dating anyone. Especially not a Knight. You'd think he'd mention that."

"Shut the f**k up!" Nether hissed at the girl, who simply rolled her eyes at Nether.

"Why? Are you jealous? Yes, well, you should be. Asshole."

"Mariana," her friend whispered to her, shaking her arm.

"No. Because if he is. He should choke."

"Mariana," Mint began. "You really shouldn't piss him off more than he already is."

"I don't care. What's he going to do? Kill me. That'll just piss Church of more. He's Nether. Church has told me all about you. Asshole."

"Mint. Tell your friend to shut the f**k up or I will kill her."

"Good luck trying to use your powers here."

"I don't need my powers to kill you, human." Mint and the twins both shivered and took a step back away from Nether when he spat humans out. I sighed. He was scaring the kids.

"Nether. Calm down. You are scaring Mint and the twins," I said and he shrugged my hands off of him.

"Guys!" Mint hissed. "Church still isn't here and my best friend cannot die on me!"

"Calm down, Mint. I'm sure, Church is-"

"The school is now out of lockdown. Thank you for your cooperation. I repeat: The school is now out of lockdown. Thank you for your cooperation. However, please stay in your class. Your teacher will know what to do next."

Wait. What? Why was the school suddenly off of lockdown?

"Church!" Nether screamed. He ran to the door, kicked it open and went out into the hallway. Oh, and he had the balls to claim he felt nothing for him.

"Nether!" Mercy yelled as she too ran out. "Stop flying!"

"Oh, so we're going to go find Church. I see," Xavier said as he too left.

They all let the classroom, I didn't. I mean, Kai was there. He was there. He was helping the teacher calm the students down, but he was there and how could he not remember me? Ah, this was stupid. I should have just not erased his memories, I should have listened to Church and just been selfish.

"Azure," Mint said walking back in. "Come on, we need to leave."

"But, Kai. He's there and he doesn't even know me and-"

"I know. Come on, as the others said, you'll learn to live without him," Mint said. Could I? Could I learn to live without him?

"But I've been with him for over 20 years. I mean, how can I just-"

Yua also walked over and he looked at Mint, who shrugged. Yua simply nodded and he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. He walked out and I could see Mint looked a little confused before he just nodded and followed us out.

Where Nether was standing and behind him everyone else. Uh oh.

Yua put me on the ground and I saw Mint push past everyone to reach the front too. Church was stood in the middle all the students had run out of their classes to see what the commotion was about.

As I said, Church was stood there. With Pride. In handcuffs. And he looked so smug. I could see Nether, he was contemplating something. Church still hadn't even looked at Nether. Pride had a glamour on to look like a high school student.

“Are you telling me Pride was Peyton Ruth Iglesias Deltor Emory?” Mint said. “Really though. The popular kid though?”

“Oh, the first letters of his names spell out Pride,” Xavier said.

“It makes sense though,” Mercy said. “It’s high school. This place is full of jealous kids. And he’s the popular kid, rich, hot, smart. Loads of people are probably jealous of him.”

“It was easy to get him into handcuffs, he was distracted,” Church said. 

“By what?” Mint asked. I wanted to know that too, what had caused Pride to be so distracted that he didn’t see Church. We may not have been able to sense him but we could see him. Church looked into the crowd and sighed. “I can’t say. But, we have a new friend.” 

“We do?” Mercy asked and Church nodded. 

“I’ll introduce you all later.”

“Lose the glamour, Pride. You’re starting to piss me off,” Nether said. Pride smirked as his glamour melted away. Of course, he wouldn’t look human he’d taken on his Sin form. He had pale skin and green hair with green eyes, all of the Seven had pointy ears for some reason.

"Those are the knights of hell!" Someone screamed and some people screamed. Most just wanted to watch what was happening.

Cedar sighed as he froze the screaming kids in place, they were still confused, so they were still screaming. He also took their voices away. He also mumbled an apology.

“Just stop. We won’t hurt you, we just came to get Pride. And frankly, all your screaming is giving me a headache.”

"Pride," Lust said as he walked over, he even went as far as to run his forefinger down his chest. "Not so prideful now, huh?"

"Oh, no, I might not be. But, I am pretty proud of this one thing."

"And that is?" Lust asked.

"At least, I know where Wrath is."

Lust froze. Really?! The one thing that could f**k with Lust, his one weakness, and everyone seemed to know about it.

He didn't know where Wrath was because if there was anyone Wrath hated more than Lust, it was Pride.

"Yeah, and I know where Jeon Jungkook is," Lust deadpanned.

"Wait, you do?" Pride asked, c*****g his head as he looked at Lust.

"No!"

"So, we're really not going to talk about the fact that Church has managed to locate two of the sins. Well, not locate, but he has managed to handcuff two of the sins without either of them noticing," I said looking around at us.

"So, what are we thinking?" Sloth said as she popped a bubble from her gum.

"What do you mean?" Feather asked. And he claimed to not be a twink yet, I had only ever seen twinks wear a choker like that.

"Species wise?" Sloth said.

"Oh, yeah, he's definitely not human. I'll ask Lucifer to do some tests on him," Feather said.

"You're not asking the literal devil to do tests on my best friend!" Mint yelled.

"He's also your grandfather," Church said and Mint glared at him. "Sorry."

"Ooh, is this going to be a reunion? You know, all of us, the knights, six of the sins. You know, minus Wrath, because for all we know, he could be dead."

Lust scowled at Pride. Oh, was he going to do something stupid? He stormed into a class and came back with duct tape. He walked over and taped Pride's mouth s**t. Honestly, that was soo much better than what I thought he would do with that tape.

"Say something now, you f*****g cunt," Lust said.

The priest! Yes, because that's all he was now, a priest.

I turned around to see Kai there and he was holding something and reading.

"I've got it."

"Feather, no!" I hissed. He could, might hurt him. And this was Feather, so he would. "He's not gonna exorcist us." That was a bluff.

"It's exorcise," Kai said and again, he looked a little confused.

I walked over and Kai began trying to read faster. I rolled my eyes at his obvious hostility.

"Hey, you." I pointed at a student. "Take that away from him. Now. Or I'll f*****g murder you."

The student squeaked a little and ran over, he grabbed the book, apologised and then ran back to his friends.

I eyed Kai and sighed deeply. Oh, why did he always have to do this? Why did he have to be so stubborn? I grabbed him, throwing him over my shoulder.

"Azure, that's not smart. His clothes-" I cut Cedar off.

"I don't care. Open the portal. Grab the kids. All 4 of them. We're going to hell."

“Don’t forget-” Church didn’t finish his sentence as he pushed Pride to Nether and walked past the crowd and grabbed a boy. A human boy, with huge glasses and messy dark hair, and he had blue eyes.

“He’s our new friend?” Mint asked, frowning. I looked back at the human. I didn’t see anything wrong with him. So, why didn’t Mint like him?

Church was grinning as he held the boy by the arm. “He is. Say hi, Emory,”

“Hi,” he mumbled.

“Well, grab all five of them.”

Xavier frowned a little. "You're counting wro-I don't want to go to hell," Xavier whined when Mint just stared at him.

"Kid, that's where you're going. You might as well get used to it," Feather said as he laughed.

"Oh, come on!" Xavier grumbled as he too walked into the portal.

Cedar unfroze everyone, but didn't give them their voices back, they would get them back soon enough.

Church dragged Emory to the portal. I could see the boy trembling from here. “It’ll be fun.” Church and he walked through, Pride walked over to the portal dragging Nether with him and they both went in.

"Ooh, hell!" Mercy cheered a little as she went into the portal. Slowly the other went in. Cedar eyed me, Kai, Yua and Mint.

How blind was I? It was so clear that Mint liked Yua. I'd have a meltdown over the fact that Mint liked Yua another day. Right, yes. Mint liked Yua. I was just familiarizing myself with that term. Mint liked Yua.

I sighed and dragged Kai with me, I think Mint wanted to speak to Yua, alone.

The portal hadn't taken us to Hell, no, it had taken us back to my apartment.

Feather took Kai from me, it was a weird sight, a twink like Feather, just casually throwing a guy over his shoulder. Then throwing him on a chair as he gagged him and tied him down, he had a seat right next to Pride.

The human, Emory had been standing in a corner watching us all. But he hadn’t taken his eyes off of Pride.

"Why is he still here?" Mint said, as he took a step out of the portal, he motioned to Kia. Yua was behind him. He looked over at Kai.

Now that I thought about it, how did Yua and Mint have conversations? Yua didn't speak, he just didn't. At first, we had thought he was quiet but no, he just didn't speak. But he could speak. That much I knew.

Cedar had dragged me over to the corner and was currently cleaning all the burns from Kai's holy clothes.

"We need to do something about him," Feather hissed. "This is ridiculous. Azure gets all sad and mopy when he sees Kai.”

"Can't we just erase Azure's memories of him?" Church asked, he looked over at me. I was wincing and Cedar was apologising.

"No. Azure's the only one who can erase memories and he can't do it on himself."

"So, we're just not going to talk about the fact that we have to go to hell?" Xavier said, looking around. I think, he was generally afraid of having to go to Hell.

"Hold this here," Cedar said. He walked over to Xavier and looked up at him. "You'll be okay, Xavier. You aren't alone. Well all be there and you'll most likely have a Knight or Sin right beside you. No, I'm serious. If you don't hold onto us, you will lose your sanity." He smiled a little and put his hand on Xavier's arm trying to comfort him.

"Then I want you," Xavier said and I raised my eyebrows. "To be my partner for hell. It has to be you."

"Okay, that's fine by me."

‘Azure.’ A familiar voice echoed through my head. I moved Cedar's hand away and frowned.

I groaned a little, was he speaking to the others too, or just me? Looking around, they didn't seem annoyed, so I was assuming he was just speaking to me. Asshole.

‘If you plan to come down to Hell, bring my grandkid, will you?’ he said, as he sighed. ‘Can't believe it, you were the first one to give me a grandchild.’

"Lucifer wants me to bring Mint to Hell," I said and the others all looked mortified.

Yua made a massive X with his hands, while everyone else also rejected the idea.

"Oh, hell no. You're not taking my best friend to Hell. Take me. But not him," Church deadpanned.

‘Yeah, that's not going to work. No one wants him in Hell.’

‘Bring his friends too. The twink that's always clinging to Nether,’ he said. I laughed at his name for Church.   

"He wants us to also bring Church," I told the others.

"I will come to Hell to personally kill him," Nether hissed.

‘You know about that? Well, how he clings to Nether? Also Nether says no. Says he'll come to Hell, to personally kill you’"

‘Yes, I know all about the human boy who clings to Nether, a Knight of Hell. And, if I'm aware of it down in hell. Think about the demons who know about it on the surface.’

‘Rumours.’ I sighed. Of course, that was always a threat. But Nether the scariest Knight, so no one really f****d with him. It would take someone with humungous balls of steel to try and take Church.

‘Yes. Exactly, my boy. Rumours.’

‘Demons are terrible gossipers.’

I wasn't surprised. Demons were indeed terrible gossipers. They were the worst.

‘Also, the twins. Especially, the male. Definitely bring the male one. And the boy who had Pride distracted.’ Emory? Emory was the reason Pride was distracted?

I sighed and ran my tongue on the inside of my mouth in frustration. 

‘Lucifer?’

‘What?’

‘No.’

‘Yes. I'm the literal king of hell. You have to do as I say. I'm also your father.’

‘I want to kill you.’

‘Oh, also bring Lust, Sloth and was it Pride who just got caught? Well done, you really are playing Pokemon with your siblings. Gotta catch them all!’

‘I hate you,’ I hissed. ‘I really, really hate you.’

‘Yes, love you too. Bring everyone. See you later, ciao. Oh, and before I forget, try and find them quicker. Michael's giving me a headache about how the sins are swapping sides and it's driving the Earth insane.’

‘Luci- Lucifer?!’ He has disappeared and all eyes were on me and I laughed a little awkwardly.

"So, Lucifer wants Mint, Church, Emory and the twins," I said. "Also, the Sins. Well, the ones we have anyway. They need to go back into the house."

"Wait, no!" Lust said, he was glaring at all of us. "I'm not going back into that house. Not without Wrath."

“You’re not taking Emory to hell. Are you f*****g kidding me?” Pride deadpanned.

I ignored Pride. "Lust-"

"No. I don't care. I find Wrath and then when I know he's safe and he's here. I will go back to the house."

"The twins aren't going to hell!" Ocean said. He hadn't spoken in a while, in all honesty, I had completely forgotten about him.

"Yeah, what Ocean said. We're not going to hell!" Mercy said. "Wait, actually. Can Sloth be my demon buddy?"

"Sure," Sloth said.

"I don't mind. We can go to hell."

"Okay, then," I said looking at them all. "Looks like we're going to hell?"

"Yes, we are. All of you humans, pair up with a Knight or Sin. And pick someone you don't mind holding onto. I mean physically. You will not be able to let go of them once we're in hell. I'm going to go drop Kai off at home," Cedar said, as he eyed Kai.

"I'll do it," I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. "I'll do it. I'll erase his memories of us today, too. He's the only one left on whose memory I haven't erased of today, anyway."

"Are you sure? I can do it, I know it's hard for you."

Kai struggled and he was making a lot of noise, Mint took pity on him and took out the gag.

He made some faces and hydrated his mouth. "Why? Why would it be so hard on you? Why do I keep saying exorcise? Why do I keep having de ja vu. And do I know you?" The last question was aimed at me.

"No," I said. "We've never met besides today."

"Azure, just take his memory now. You won't be able to do it at his apartment. He can't know what happened today. He's a risk," Ocean said and I sighed and nodded. Ocean was right, hell, Cedar was right. I most likely would chicken out of it. I couldn't keep erasing his memory.

It wasn't fair on him.

"Okay, but I'm serious. This is the last time I'm taking his memory. It's going to mess with him soon."

I squatted down in front of Kai, I put my hands on his thighs for balance and he flinched. I instantly took them back, ah yes, we weren't familiar anymore. I couldn't casually touch him anymore. And, his f*****g holy clothes burned my palms.

I ignored the searing pain in my hands and nodded. I inhaled and exhaled deeply. I had done this twice, what was doing it once more.

"Kai?" I said and he looked up at me and I smiled at him a little.

"I love you," I mouthed. He frowned a little and before he could speak I erased his memory. He collapsed forward and I grabbed him, ignoring the burning.  

"I'll take him," Cedar said. I gently moved Kai, so he was leaning on the back of the chair. Cedar took him and they left.

Cedar's mute spell disappeared when he left the room, so all we could hear was Pride's muffled yelling, then he quietened down and he seemed so smug.

"Why has he shut up all of a sudden?" Ocean said, he looked over at Nether who was watching Church.

Oh, this was a mess. All of it. All of this was just one big hot mess. And no one could convince me otherwise.

Cedar reappeared, all soft and smiles.

"Don't worry, Azure. He's in bed, he's asleep. He's safe. I checked his mind, nothing major. Just a lot of white of the memories you've taken. And, the trauma." Cedar's eyes watered. "Oh, the trauma. That boy. There's so much going on his mind. His mind is a mess."

Cedar was crying. Ocean felt bad, he made that face he made when he felt bad, so he opened his arms and Xavier glared at Ocean.

"Cedar, come here," Xavier said. "You're my partner for hell, anyway." Cedar nodded, he didn't do much, just stood in between Xavier's legs, his arms dangling beside him and Xavier had his arms wrapped around Cedar. Now and then, you would hear quiet sobs.

‘Huh’" Lucifer said and I jumped a little at the sudden intrusion.

‘What now? We're coming. Give us five minutes.’

‘No, it's not that.’

‘Then what is it?’ I asked. I felt like I would definitely regret asking this question.

‘It's just that, I never thought I'd be jealous of my own kid.’

‘Wait, what? Lucifer?!’ And, the bastard had disappeared again.

Wait. If Cedar was this upset about whatever was going on in Kai's mind. How was Kai dealing with all of it? Yes, Cedar was more on the empathic side, and yes he felt emotions so much stronger than an average person did, but you don't understand.

Cedar was crying, he was sobbing. When he factored in all of us, his tears hadn't stopped.

So, what was Kai going through? All alone.

Should I try to befriend him again? Just so that he would know he wasn't alone. Or maybe the kids? I could ask them to all just live in Mint's apartment, he was next door to Kai.

So they could be together, get them to talk to Kai.

But, while that may have helped Kai, it wasn't fair for me to shove Mint in a situation like that. Not when he knew what he knew. I could, I mean, I guess I could take his memories of Kai practically rejecting him.

But, no. I couldn't. That was such a d**k move, and I couldn't even believe I thought of such a thing.

Nether floated over to Church, and just sort of hovered over him. Church didn't tell him to go away, so Nether grinned a little.

Mint just walked over and stood beside Yua, who didn't even blink. Feather scowled, as he looked between Yua and Mint. The realisation hit him and his head snapped over in my direction.

‘Really?!’ he screamed down the line. ‘Yua?! Your child is stealing my best friend! I can feel the emotions radiating from Mint!’

It quietened down until I heard Feather gasp down the line. ‘Your child is in love with my best friend?!’

‘Oh, shut it, Feather. Mint knows nothing's going to happen. He says it's a high school boy crush thing and he'll get over Yua and then you can get Yua back.’

Sloth and Mercy were just beside one another, quietly talking to one another.

And well, Cedar and Xavier were a duo.

So, I guess we were prepared to go to hell.

"Everyone, hold onto your partner, now." I watched as everyone all just seemed to hold hands. Even Nether, lowered himself so Church could hold his hand.

Cedar untied Pride and I thought he would say something snarky but instead, he rushed over to Emory. Grabbing his hand. Mint watched the duo, frowning.

"When I open this portal. It will actually be a portal to Hell. So, once you step inside. Do not. I repeat. Do not. Let go of your person's hand or body until you are back on the surface. You need to be holding a level 5 or higher's body to go to Hell, while you're still alive and 1. Leave alive and 2. Not lose your s**t. Okay, now that I've made that clear. Okay, guys. Just one rule. Do not let go of each other."

Cedar opened the portal, he walked over to Pride. “He’s not holding onto you. He can hold onto Feather. We’re cuffing you.”

“He’s not going anywhere near the twink the bloodlust,” Pride snapped. “I’m holding onto him. No one else. I won’t disappear. Not when he’s with you, rat bastards.”

“Great to see you too, brother,” Cedar said, giving his signature closed eye smile.

“They’re your brothers?” Emory asked, looking up at Pride. Pride looked down and he placed his hand on Emory’s face and rubbed it, slowly as he nodded. 

“I’m here too, f**k face,” Sloth said.

“And she’s my b***h of a sister,” he said.

“Mr Cedar let him,” Church said.

“What?” Cedar asked.

“He’s not lying. I don’t know how I can tell, but he’s not lying. He won’t leave if Emory is with you rat bastards,” he snickered, as he said the final part. 

Nether pinched him and Church hissed as he slapped Nether’s hand away.

I eyed Cedar.

‘That’s an angel’s ability,’ I said down the line to him. 

‘I know,’ Cedar replied.

‘Is he an angel?’ I asked and Cedar shrugged.

‘I don’t think so. We would be able to sense angel blood. Right but it’s Church and we can’t sense him, let alone his blood.’

Cedar sighed. ‘Don’t tell me you’re about to do what I think you’re about to do.’

I shrugged. I went to my kitchen and grabbed a knife. I went back and stood in front of him. “Church, show me your palm.” He stuck his hand out and I sliced it.

“What the hell was that for?” he snapped. Nether roughly pushed me back as he glared at me.

“What the f**k, Azure?” he snapped. 

I looked down at Church’s hand and he was bleeding, but his blood was a dull gold. Angel blood was more vibrant, shinier. But this, this wasn’t Angel blood but it wasn’t human blood either.

“What the f**k?” Church said. “I bled yesterday, and yesterday my blood was red.”

“What the f**k,” Lust said.

“Why the f**k is your blood gold, Church?” Mint yelled.

"Right, kids, Knights and Sins. We’re all going to Hell. Lucifer needs to figure out what the f**k you are,” I said.

~*~