Page 92 of Unbinding the Demon
“You’re safe. I’ve got you.” He tried to reassure me, but I was not feeling reassured at all, since we were about to collide withcarnivorous fucking winds!
“Azathoth!”My knuckles turned white from how hard I was gripping him.
“Trust me.”
The winds were now right in front of us, and the gargoyles were quickly closing the distance behind us, snapping their grotesque jaws at our feet. This was it; we were about to be sandwiched between two fatal assailants. I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut and not watch our horrible fate, but I couldn’t look away. I was certain this would be the moment of our deaths.
I can’t die yet! I still haven’t eaten that leftover tortellini in the fridge!
Azathoth flipped us sideways, making his wings vertical again. He made an abrupt, lickety-split ninety-degree turn right toward the cliffside. I screamed like a maniac and flinched in terror, bracing for impact. However, instead of splattering against the rocky wall and then limply falling to the ashen valley below in a bloody crumpled-up heap, we hastily maneuvered through a narrow passage. It led into a small, ovoid-shaped cave, just barely light enough to make out the rough shapes of the walls. The blackened winds rushed past the entryway almost immediately after we entered, trapping us inside with a wall of wisping mist. Our two carnivorous adversaries crashed into one another as we narrowly escaped the icy hands of death.
Howls from the wind and the pained screeches from the gargoyle swarm being devoured echoed off the cave walls. Azathoth’s large wings flapped to bring us to a quick stop, then he fluttered down to the cave floor, like a bird gently landing on a branch. The moment his feet touched the ground, I flopped out of his arms. I fell to my hands and knees, desperately touching the rocky cave floor like a hysterical fruit loop.
I looked like a complete mental case with my wild, wind-blown hair and crazed facial expression as I laughed neurotically. “Oh my god! We’re alive! I can’t fucking believe it! I could kiss the ground right now!”
“Don’t you dare,” he stated firmly, causing me to freeze in place and glance up at him, with my puckered lips pointing toward the floor.
I scrambled back up to my feet, flailing my limbs like a house cat who’d just been thrown down a slip-‘N-slide. I was suddenly unsure if it was safe to have touched the ground in here or not. “Why not? It’s not poisonous, is it?” I asked in panic while quickly brushing my hands off on my dress.
“No, but I’m sure it’s disgusting.” His brow arched with an amused expression. He turned to look at the howling black cloud that veiled our exit, his eyes glowing brighter. “It’s going to take the winds a little while to digest all those gargoyles. We’ll have to wait them out,” he stated, showing no signs of concern about being trapped here.
I glared at him, narrowing my eyes. “Speaking of those winds, what the hell kind of audacious daredevil stunt was that!?” I gestured toward the wispy mass blocking us in. “You could have easily avoided them by flying upward, but you did that risky trick and almost got us fucking killed instead!?”
“I’ve done that hundreds of times before. I really hate those gargoyles, and that usually gets at least half of their swarm killed.” He took a few leisurely steps to close the short distance between us, then pulled me into a big, unsolicited hug. “Don’t worry, you weren’t in any real danger. As I said, I know this place like the back of my hand. I knew exactly where this cave was.”
While the foolhardy stuntman swayed with me imprisoned in his diabolical embrace, I took in our surroundings as my eyes adjusted. The cave was austere, and even though it had a high ceiling, it didn’t go too deep. Dark gray stone lined the walls and floor. Imposing stalagmites and stalactites jutted up from the ground and dangled from the ceiling like the menacing teeth of some horrifying monster. Tapestries of black slime oozed down from random parts of the walls, and small stones were scattered all about the ground. There were a few much larger stones piled up against the back wall, stacked among some of the more impressive stalagmites.
To my absolute horror, while squinting my eyes to see a little better in the darkness, I noticed something moving within the larger stones. “Azathoth,” I breathed, my finger tracing the jagged silhouette of the stones. “There’s something over there.”
I felt kind of bad for whatever it was, because I knew Azathoth would surely obliterate it. The poor thing was just minding its own business in its home, whatever it was. Then the revolting, godawful creature popped its head out and hissed at us. Its entire face consisted of a round, gaping mouth filled with multiple rows of sharp, needle-like teeth. Its decaying body was similar to that of a millipede, but with longer, more spidery legs.
“What the!? Kill it! Kill it with fire!”
A look of repugnance contorted my features as he released me from his grip and sauntered toward the sickening vermin. The thing hissed and tried to strike at him like a venomous snake. He simply scooped it up with his large clawed hand, grabbing it by the back of its neck. Then he walked over to the cave mouth with a delighted expression on his winsome face.
“As fun as it would be to use fire, it doesn’t exist in this dimension, so we can’t. However, I know a better way to kill this thing.” He grinned and used his thumb to point toward the black wall of sentient winds. “Check this out.” The critter writhed and hissed, kicking its long spindly legs all willy-nilly, as he threw it overhand into the wisping winds. At first, it seemed like it hit a solid wall and got stuck to it like a glue trap. But then, black wisping tendrils wrapped around the poor, but horrifying, hissing creature and slowly absorbed it into the black mass with sickening crunching sounds.
Yikes...
Azathoth laughed sadistically while walking back over to me as I stared at the carnivorous winds, my face contorted in horror. Little stones crunched beneath his boots as his large body circled around behind me. He placed his warm hands on my shoulders and massaged. “That’s what we just narrowly escaped!?” I gestured over to the winds. “Why is everything so fucking insane all of a sudden?” I placed my face in my hands, feeling a sense of defeat.
“Shh, it’s all right.” He tried to comfort me as he continued to massage.
I shook my head in despair. “No, it’s not! Two days ago, my life was almost completely normal. Now I’m on the run from an evil priest who wants to sacrifice me so he can release his zombie horde upon the earth. My boyfriend is suddenly a literal ferocious demon. And to top it all off...I’m stuck in The fucking godforsaken Abyss!” I flailed my arms up as my voice echoed throughout the cave.
His grip on my shoulders tightened, and he leaned forward to look at me with an evil, cocky smirk. “You think I’m ferocious, do you?” He licentiously chuckled, then kissed my cheek as he began massaging again.
I sighed, ignoring his egotistical question. “Well, since we’re stuck in this cave, what should we do now?” I leaned into his heavenly-feeling touch, feeling overwhelmed while keeping my wary eyes on the cave’s mouth.
“Now we wait.”
39. Rough Reconciliation
The winds howled outside the gloomy cave, imprisoning us with their foreboding, shadowy presence. My knees pressed into the cave floor as I bent back and grabbed my bare heels, stretching into camel pose. It was tricky and slightly painful to do yoga on such an unforgiving surface. But after being held in the same position in Azathoth’s arms for so long, I felt like I’d die if I didn’t stretch.
Azathoth was leisurely lying on one of the larger stones. He rested on his side, propped up using his elbow, with his head in his hand, like a chillaxed lounge lizard. He folded his wings and tucked them close to his back. A long, flowing lock of hair cascaded over his shoulder and coiled on the rock in front of him. To pass the time, he had untangled most of his braids, but he missed a few, and I wasn’t going to tell him. An endearing twinkle glimmered in his eyes as he watched me with a dorky half-smile stretched across his handsome face.
I exhaled a long breath and came out of my pose. My eyes met his fiery gaze as I sat crisscross applesauce on the floor, facing him. I grabbed the satchel bag that rested next to my boots and pulled my favorite red reusable water bottle out of it. “So, how much longer do you think we’ll be stuck in here?” I asked, then flipped the cap open and guzzled down a large refreshing swig.
