Page 35 of Dark Rapture
“Are you God?”
His laughter returns, but this time it is maniacal and inhuman. I flinch at the sound of it. “I may as well be. God has been dead for eons. We are our own gods now.”
Tension spreads across my forehead as I contemplate what he said, and thankfully he doesn’t seem to mind the stretch of silence between us. What he tells me of God is a lot to digest. “There must be angels?”
“Some have fallen. Many are quiet, drifting up among the stars.”
Another stretch of silence as I think carefully about what to ask next. The weight of what he is saying is really, really heavy.
“Who is in control now?” I ask, hoping he understands what I am trying to ask him.
“You are. We are. Whoever gains power, holds it, until they don’t.” He shrugs, as though this information is well known despite humanity’s ignorance to everything supernatural.
“What happens to people when they die?” I ask, getting to the root of my original inquiry.
He watches me for a minute, as though trying to determine the best way to say what he needs to say. “Those that do not bind themselves to a non-human entity fade away into oblivion.”
“They become nothing? Gone forever?”
He nods.
I don’t know how to respond. I don’t want to disappear into nothingness. I don’t want to cease to exist.
“And those that bond to a demon?”
Daemon reaches out to brush a long strand of hair away from my face, tucking it behind my ear. It’s such a human gesture, it surprises me. “Whatever you desire.”
I narrow my eyes, frustrated with his evasive answer. My mouth opens as I prepare to ask for specifics, but he continues speaking before I can get out a single word.
“You can stay on earth for however long you desire, little witch. When your magic is fully awakened, and connects to my own, it will keep you alive and well. You will never age, you will never fall sick, and you will not die until you are ready.”
Immortality. The direct consequence of giving myself to him.
“When you are ready to depart the earth, I will guide you where you want to go. You can rule by my side as my witch Queen, or you can reign in Hell as a demon born under my sigil. When you grow tired, when you need peace, you can rest in my realm for the rest of eternity, or... until you get bored.” He smiles with that, hoping the touch of humor at the end of his explanation brings me a little comfort.
Binding myself to him is the only way to avoid fading away into nothingness, the only way my spirit lives on. Without God’s tether, we all drift away.
Insight fills me with warmth, and I know the gift of it is from my demon prince.
“Your realm?”
He nods. “Like a heaven, but unreachable to anyone other than you and I.”
“I can go there?”
“Whenever you desire, for however long you desire.”
I don’t want to be alone, I don’t want to fade away.
“You’ll never be alone. You haven’t been, because I’ve known you long before you found me.”
We stand there in silence as I consider all of the things he has told me. I am hesitating, because one thing isn’t clear. True to his nature, he answers before I can even ask the question.
“I will protect you, teach you, and take care of you from now until oblivion claims every realm and existence within it. I will love you, and give you all that you desire, all you must do is let me in.”
We stand there, facing one another, for several long moments before I finally speak.
“How do we complete the bond?” I ask him, my voice quiet within the dark, dimly lit space of the church.
