Which Side Are You On? *Part 26*

He was cursed by the devil? I didn’t even know that was possible, she thinks to herself. She wasn’t going to say anything out loud to interrupt him again. But like that even mattered; he was listening to her thoughts too.

He was chuckling a little at her thoughts. “Yes, it is possible, but only for us. The devil is forbidden in your world.”

“Oh, I see…,” she trailed off into thought.

“It’s rare that the devil ever curses someone, but he does do it. For reasons I have yet to know. Syth doesn’t exactly know why he chose him either. He believes, though, that it is because he was born on November eleventh, which makes out the number 11/11; Hell’s Gate.”

Hell’s Gate…I’ve heard of that before.

“It’s a number pretty much dedicated to Satan. I’ve never known why. But on November eleventh, every year he comes to visit. He comes to make sure that everyone knows their place. He rewards and praises those who have pleased and entertained him, and punishes those who have disappointed him by killing them or sometimes, very rarely, cursing them.

“When he praises or rewards us he’ll sometimes ask us to reign the underworld with him. If that someone declines, he punishes them unless you have a good enough excuse not to. It’s best to take whatever appraisement and whatever reward he gives you, or else you will also receive punishment. When he decides to kill as a punishment, it’s best to let him have his way or we could make it worse. Then he’ll decide to have his fun with the disobedient by torturing them. He also tortures those who highly disappoint him, with no regards, no mercy.

“Anyways, I’m getting off subject. This is about Syth, not the devil.”

“But it was interesting,” Sovira says intrigued.

“Well, that is a story for another time. You want to know about Syth, right?”

“Yes, of course,” she says, still thinking about his story of the devil.

I don’t see how they handle it. I’m glad he is forbidden in our world. 11/11...Haha! They have a devil day! She jokes to herself. And we have a Christ day. I wonder if they celebrate Christmas.

“What I am about to tell you is probably the most frightening thing about Syth. But I really do need to get on with his story before I tell you that.”

He’s a vampire and a demon both. Honestly, how much more frightening can he get?

“Syth just happened to have the luck of being born on the day the devil comes to visit. Satan knew of his arrival and made our house the first on his list to visit. He kept saying how it was wonderful that Syth was born on that specific day and that it meant something. He said Syth was his son and he wanted him to be protected, so he told us he was going to give him a gift. To this day we still see his gift as a horrible curse.

He made Syth a soul keeper. Soul keepers absorb or eat others’ souls. Demons, humans, practically anything with a soul. They could probably eat the devil’s soul if they tried. Having this ability can be very useful or extremely treacherous depending on how you use it. And also, depending on whether or not you know how to control it. In our case, it’s treacherous.”

“Syth can’t control it?”

“No. He has tried very hard to understand it, but fails to every time only to have someone’s life taken each time. There is no telling how many souls he has eaten. For every soul he eats, he obtains another life, another soul. Like say he gets killed; the soul that he ate protects him and dies for him.”

“So that’s how he’s still alive?! Amazing! Sovira yells excited.

She was so happy about it that she was bouncing up and down in her seat. Syth’s alive! He’s undefeatable! He’s invincible! she yells in her head.

“He’s not quite invincible, Sovira. Remember, only for every soul he eats, he obtains another life.”

“Yeah, I know, but he’s alive!”

“You’re not the least bit afraid of what I’ve just told you?”

“No.”

“What if he couldn’t control himself when he was around you and took your soul?”

“It doesn’t matter. I trust him not to.”

“It’s not about trust. It’s not a matter of whether he wants to or not.”

“Look, I know, but I just don’t think it will happen. I’m not afraid, and I won’t be afraid of him because of him for what he is. He’s Syth, my friend. Not a monster.”

Ahx smiles. “I’m glad you are able to look at it that way. You are truly surprising for a human,” he pauses. “Do you have any questions for me? I’ll answer anything you want. You are right. It is about time someone has filled you in. So I’ve decided to be the one to answer your army of a hundred questions,” he chuckles. “Or has it grown?”

Sovira laughs with him, slightly blushing. “Reading my thoughts? Do you ever find something disturbing in my head? I mean I don’t think of myself as demented or anything, but I was just wondering if there was ever something you read in my mind that you didn’t like.”

“Not really,” he chuckles. “You have a perfectly normal brain.

She laughs. “I hope I do.”

“So, any questions?”

“there is one…,” she trails off into thought about the fight at Karamys’s.

“Shoot.”

“When you said you have something to settle with Karamys, what did you mean?”