Young Writers Society

"Of sorts," Apophis says. "Demonic, if nothing else." She glanced at Lucifer before answering the second question, hesitant to reveal the truth. He thought about it for a moment, and then nodded to give her the go-ahead.

"So, we have this thing called the Void," she explains. "It's kind of the anti-God. He's creation, it's destruction. Now, Luci here fell because he let it go by accident thinking he could control it, but when he did that it marked him. So, he fell, thing got bound, blah blah blah, hop forward a few thousand years and he starts playing around with it again. When he did that he made a few mistakes and instead of just pulling me out of it he also got my sister and managed to get some of the Void bound to a human soul - Auryon's. He didn't realize the other two existed, at first, but I'm linked to others that have the Void in them, since the Void itself is a singular entity and we're just aspects of it."



"Well, looks like we're in an eternal draw, then," she muses. "That's fine. I love immortals - so much more fun to break something that can't die. Then they have to live. And that's worse. Isn't that right, Engel?"



He glanced down at his watch as she spoke, wheels turning in his head. Where were Apophis and Lucifer? Jabril's hounds still hadn't tracked then down and he was beginning to get worried. He needed to deal with this himself.

"But-But the Void's not a bad thing, right?" Lucifer hesitantly asked, taking a nervous sip of his milk. Something being the opposite of something else didn't necessarily make it a bad thing; Ra and Apophis were meant to be polar opposites, but Apophis was a perfectly good person.


He raised an eyebrow at her comment. How long did she think they were going to be here? He wasn't going to stay here for that long - he'd just be here long enough to get Mikael free, and then head back to Luci. He didn't want to worry his brother by being gone too long.

Which meant he'd have to hurry things up.

Easy enough.

Rather than continue to taunt both the woman and Engel, he started to make a running sprint towards the chained man. He didn't hold back; they knew his identity, so it wasn't like he had to pretend to be human. He knew they would going to attack him, but he was one of the gods. They all frequently sparred each other. It was one of the few things that remained interesting when they were bored after being around for so long, which meant he was very used to the feeling of excruciating pain and having limbs chopped off.


"What's wrong?" Runi asked, noticing how her friend was glancing down at his watch. "You waiting for someone?"

"The Void's this world's equivalent of Pandora's Box. It's everything terrible shoved into one," Apo says.



Boomslang struck and Kratzer moved out of the way, stepping out from between Mikael and God instead of defending Mikael.



"Something like that," he answered, a little bit distractedly.

"Oh," Lucifer quietly said.

All Apophis could do was give a nod to show that he agreed with Lucifer's response.


He was surprised by Engel's decision to suddenly let him through, but he didn't question. Traps didn't phase him as much as he could due to his immortality, and he had an angel to free once he dealt with the snake trying to poison him. So he did the best thing he could think of; he kept walking despite the snake lady trying to murder him, and began to utter the words to a simple spell that Lucifer had taught him.

He didn't know many spells, but he knew this one because it tended to be useful when he was out on a job - there were far too many people that ended up being chained or bound to something, usually so the person in question could be sacrificed.

As he concluded the spells, the chains holding Mikael broke and unlock, and the angel went falling to the floor. God sprinted free from the woman's grasp and caught Mikael before he could slam face first into the ground.

He used one hand to support the angel, and the other to dig through his bag in search of one of the most useful things that he had ever been given: a teleportation charm. Pulling it out, he smiled and informed the woman and Engel, "Well, it was nice fighting and chatting with you two, but I really have to be going now. I've got an angel to nurse back to full health, a brother to find and I've got to possibly plan how to overthrow Cornyx - I'm a very, very busy god at the moment."

And then he and Mikael were gone.


Runi looked at Cornyx with concern on her face. "Want me to try finding them?"

She nods. "Nasty-ass thing. Boomslang's more powerful than I am, and Auryon's the weakest of the three of us, but being human gives her some...unique abilities."



"What the Hell was that?!" Boomslang demanded, grabbing Engel around the throat and slamming him against the wall. "You let him past you!"

He coughed and grabbed her wrist in a reflexive action, despite the futility of trying to get her to let go. "Ja, and what the fick are you going to do about it?!" he retorted in German.

She growled and threw him to the ground with vehemence. "Get the Hell upstairs and report to Blackthorne, I'll deal with you after I deal with the damn creature who calls himself God!"



"I think it'd be best if you didn't get yourself involved, Miss Runi. I wouldn't want to put you in danger," he said.

"But...but doesn't Pandora's box have some good in it, too?" Lucifer quietly asked, keeping his gaze down on his barely touched meal. He knew that he should just give up trying to find the good in something they said didn't have any good, but he hated how everything was so black-and-white. It was the reason why everyone was so scared of him and loved God, and the reason why Apophis lived in an apartment on Earth with his snakes instead of in the godly realm like most of the gods.


They appeared in a unfamiliar alleyway of an unfamiliar street, God still trying to support Mikael while simultaneously holding onto his bat. He eventually gave up on trying to hold the two at the same time, dropping the bat beside him before propping Mikael up against the closest wall. While he waited for the angel to awaken, he shoved his bat back into his bag. Hopefully, he wouldn't need to use it with this guy.

(But, then again, he had thought he could talk some sense into Cornyx, and look where that had gotten him.)

But the angel was taking far longer to wake up than expected, so he turned to some alternative measures. He started shaking the guy as hard as he possibly could without harming him, and starting saying that he needed to get up into his ear.


She couldn't help it - she let out a laugh when what Cornyx said really sunk in. She tried to reign it in, but it was too hard. The irony was just too hilarious for her not to. Cornyx, worrying about her safety? It had been the other way around the last time they had met! "Cornyx, I'm the one who gave you the crash course on demons, remember?" she said, grinning once the last giggle left her. "I might not be the king of Hell or have your fancy ice, but I've got plenty of tricks up these sleeves of mine-"

She looked down.

"Wait, never mind. I forgot that this shirt didn't have sleeves." Her grin momentarily turned sheepish. "But my point still stands! Cornyx, you helped me out back when I was stuck in Grimmore. The least I can do is help you out now, right? And we both now that I can be pretty darn powerful and resourceful when I want to be."

The moment that he had brought up the line about her safety, she had started to suspect that it had something to do with this new side of him that she couldn't quite get herself to like - he was preparing for a fight, or something like that. She was sure of it. Maybe her assumption about the person being an enemy was wrong, but she couldn't deny the fact that a part of her just wanted to meet the person to find out what the heck had happened to her friend.

She shrugs. "Doesn't matter if it's good or evil. It's just...destructive. That's all."



Mikael stirred a little and coughed, slowly coming around. His golden eyes fluttered open and he started as he saw Dean's face instead of Boomslang's or Cornyx's. "Wha...?"



He hesitates. It might be a way to put her in Boomslang's favor, and to give Boomslang a reason to let him keep her around.

"Alright, but you have to promise me something. If you're approached by a woman with green eyes and dark hair, about as tall as my shoulder, tell me and let me do the talking. The same goes if you run into a blond-haired German man with a scar across his face or a figure in a silver fox mask. Alright?"

"...Okay," Lucifer said. His meal didn't look as appealing as it did earlier, though he hadn't exactly been watering at the mouth the last few minutes of their discussion. He could see Apophis looking over at him with a worried expression on his face when he fell into silence, but he didn't know what he was supposed to say.

He just had to remember that this world wasn't his world. Things worked differently hear, and a destructive, evil void associated with darkness had no implications with his own world. In his own world, good could wield darkness and bad could wield light, and gods like him existed and did good deeds for humanity without them ever knowing their true identities. If he just remembered that, then it wouldn't feel as bad.


God took a couple of steps back, seeing that the angel was now finally starting to wake up. Still, he remembered noticeably close to Mikael as the man tried to likely understand why he was no longer stuck in Hell. "I rescued you," he explained. He plopped himself down on the ground right where he was standing. "You're Mikael, right? Cornyx mentioned you, but it was in the middle of his cliche evil monologue, so I'm not sure how much about you I tuned out and how much I actually retained."


She hesitated.

Promises were supposed to be signs of trust. She had made a promise back in Grimmore; she had trusted her, had trusted everything she did and everything she would do in the future. Years later, here she was, on the verge of making the same decision. Did she really trust the person that Cornyx had become since they last met, or did she only trust the person he had been?

"I promise," she finally said. Promises could be broken if needed, and she felt almost certain that she might have to break this one - Cornyx hadn't mentioned a single thing about who those two were. How was she supposed to blindly follow what he said when she had so little to go on, and an iffy reason to trust him? "So what exactly do I need to be doing right now?"

Apo and Luci fell silent, letting their doubles digest this information.



He blinked. This took a few moments to sink in through his semi-conscious, still very obscured by pain mind, and he slowly nodded. "Yes, I am Mikael, Archangel of Protection. Thank you, Mr...?"



He seemed relieved when she agreed, and nodded. "Thank you. If you could help Jabril, I think that is where you would be most productive."

As an awkward silence settled upon the table, Apophis tried to think of what they could talk about to get his friend's mind off of the topic at hand. It was hard coming up with something; he still didn't know much about this world, and their counterparts didn't exactly have the same moral standards. "I'm not sure if you know the answer to this," he said, leaning across the table, "but why am I a man while you're a woman?"

Lucifer raised his head up and looked at the two with curiosity in his eyes. Apophis smiled - his mission was a success.


"Oh, I'm God," he said. "I went to go talk to Cornyx about him dropping the whole evil thing, but he's completely different than how I last remembered him - I ended up fighting against that snake lady and Engel."


"Sure thing!" she said, grinning at him. Then she thought for a moment, and the grin faded. "Uh, who's Jabril, and how can I find them?"

"Well, I've taken many forms," she explained. "This just happened to be the nearest body when I had to vacate my last one. Not a vessel, mind you - vessels have souls. She's just a form. In my natural state it's difficult to form a corporeal being. My being itself is an entity that has no gender."



"God? But...Father died....?" he looks baffled.




"I'll take you to him," he said, moving towards the door before the silver-masked assassin stepped inside in front of him.

He started to inform Cornyx of what had happened when he caught sight of Runi. His eyes beneath his mask flashed metallic and his gun was out instantly.

What happened next happened with such speed it was difficult to follow. Engel's gun came out and Cornyx pivoted and his arm turned draconic as he grabbed the mercenary by the wrist. Ice spread across the gun and Engel dropped it, but before he could turn his attention to defending himself, Cornyx swept his legs out from under him and knocked him to the ground, planting a foot on his chest and a draconic paw around his throat. The King of Hell leaned in close and frost raced across the tiled floor. His silvery, draconian gaze pierced the masked man under him.

"She is not to be touched," he snarled. "That is final. If you do so much as lay a hand on her, I guarantee you will not be pleased. Are we understood, vampire?"

"That makes sense, then," Apophis said, nodding wisely as he mulled over what his counterpart had explained. After all, he was a giant snake in mythology; its gender hadn't exactly been a major point of the myth. He just happened to be a man when he came into existence.

Lucifer looked over at his own counterpart and this reality's Apophis. "Have you ever taken a vessel before?" he hesitantly asked, fiddling with the object closest to him - this time, it happened to be the paper wrapper that belonged to the straw Apophis was using to drink his cup of coke.


He stiffened when he heard the comment about being the angel's father. He was starting to realize that he'd have to get used to hearing stuff like that as long as he was stuck here, but it was still hard to initially get over. No one ever called him that back home. The angels all knew he had nothing to do with their creation, the demons frankly didn't care and the deceased had trouble matching him up with the description of the guy they had read about in the Bible.

"I'm not your dad," he hurriedly said. "Just to get that out there. I'm God from another reality. Lucifer accidentally sent me, him and Apophis here when we were supposed to have our movie night."


Runi had two thoughts run through her head when the masked man showed up. The first was her fear - it was absolutely terrifying seeing Cornyx like that. It wasn't right. She started to wonder what would happen if she did something that went against what he wanted her to do. Would he be merciful, or would he turn on her like he did with someone who just seemed to be doing their job? The masked man couldn't have known who she was. She seemed like a threat, so he had tried fighting.

Cornyx shouldn't have threatened him for that.

And then there was the second thought.

She peered around Cornyx's shoulder at the figure sprawled across the ground. "Oh my God, you're a vampire?" she said, eyes wide with curiosity and awe. Then the look was quickly replaced by a frown, and she took a nervous step back away from both Cornyx and the masked man. "That's, uh, probably not the best phrase to use here, right? Since, you know, God isn't exactly on the best of terms with demons and stuff..." She sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck, and then came to her third reaction, one that made her heart stop in horror.

The man had a silver fox mask.

Just like the guy Cornyx had literally just made her promise to avoid talking to. And here she was, nervously rambling away like she always did when she wanted to get her mind off of how she felt.

She anxiously watched the back of Cornyx's head, hoping that he wouldn't turn on her and would instead understand that she just couldn't help it.

She shakes her head. "No, Auryon's my first and only vessel. I didn't take her because I needed a vessel. She had a lot of potential to become a very powerful enemy very quickly so we nipped it in the bud."



The confusion on the angel's face was so obvious it was almost comical. "From another...with a different Luce and Apo...?! How...?"



Cornyx let Engel up when Runi spoke, the fight over. His eyes flickered and his body returned to a fully human one. Both looked towards Runi. Engel was naturally hard to read due to the mask, and Cornyx didn't seem angry, just a little resigned.

"Ja, I am," the masked figure affirmed, then glanced back at Cornyx. "Lady Boomslang will not be pleased."

"'Lady Boomslang' isn't King here," he answered dryly. "And we both know damn good and well that if she were to take the throne she'd have a rebellion on her hands because she isn't of the blood, so that's irrelevant."

He shook his head. "You're a damned fool, Blackthorne. Who is this?"

"No one Boomslang needs to know about and certainly no one that's relevant to you," Cornyx informed him coolly.

Engel's eyes narrowed under his mask but he chose not to argue it as he retrieved his gun. "The Archangel escaped. Lady Boomslang would like you to go see her."

Cornyx glanced between Runi and the vampire, uncomfortable about leaving them alone but not sure what else to do.

Lucifer looked at his counterpart, trying to disguise the anxiousness in his eyes but ultimately failing. "Do you need a vessel, too?" he asked. He continued to fidget with his pencil.


"Magic," God said. He tried his best not to laugh at how confused the angel looked in response to what he said, but the look was simply too hard not to at least snicker about. He let out one particularly loud snicker, then regained his composure. "My brother got distracted on the words to a spell by Apophis's baby snakes. Instead of moving the popcorn from the kitchen to his lap, he ended up moving us to another reality."


Runi looked wildly between the two, eyes widening more and more as the words registered. She didn't know who Lady Boomslang was, or even who this vampire was, but she did have a good idea of what an archangel was. She was just about to ask about them when she remembered the part where the vampire had mentioned the archangel had escaped - didn't that imply that Cornyx had captured them?

She looked between the vampire and Cornyx. What had happened to her friend? She wanted to put her trust in him, and view him as the good man she remembered him being. But Cornyx wasn't acting right. He really hadn't been acting right ever since they met here, and she was terrified of the implications. This wasn't the Cornyx she knew. This was someone pretending to be that Cornyx, hiding behind Miss Runi's and polite conversation when it was just the two of them in the room.

"I'll be okay," Runi said, giving Cornyx a grin that didn't reach her eyes. "You probably don't want to make that Boomslang lady mad, right?"

"Nope!" Lucifer said. "This isn't my true form, but myself and all of my brothers and sisters - so, the Archangels and the Princes of Hell - can take on human form."



Mikael took a few moments to process this, then nodded slowly, beginning to orient himself. "Lucifer and Apophis...this world's doubles, came here by mistake, and you were brought with them. You said you encountered Cornyx..."



He hesitated, then dipped his head, glancing toward Engel one, final time before departing and leaving the vampire and the demon.

The masked assassin leaned back against the wall as King Blackthorne departed. Stupid kid, biting off more than he could chew. He shook his head almost imperceptibly as he pulled out one of his curved knives and started to sharpen it.