In hell, the demon with the horns of a ram and the legs of a goat, is worried. His ruler, his Father, is angry. The souls that the Alia had brought to hell are no longer drawn there by her pull because she is no longer there, and the demon with the horns has been tasked by the Father of the realm to find out why and correct the situation.
The demon, whose name is Azazel, has managed before to venture out of the hellish realm that was not known for letting go of those who dwell therein, but his methods of achieving this goal are extremely painful for him. Azazel is not like many of the beings who inhabit hell. He was born in the realm of light, the child of many mothers who had abandoned the powerful Aje soul cluster in that realm. The women who joined the Aje were recruited across every realm of existence, and most were extremely ecstatic to contribute to the mission of protecting and empowering femininity everywhere. But most of the women who make it up are unaware of the eternal pledge, and there have been disgruntled participants who forced their consciousness out of the collective when they decided that the Aje was no longer for them.
These women created something for themselves in the realm of light, a place of power, a place of creation. Azazel was among the creations, an attempt at beings born of the realm of light.
He did not last long before the Aje shoved him out of the bright existence and he floated to hell, a being of light cast into the darkness. Since his arrival to hell, Azazel has been a servant of the very same Father who had recruited the Alia. He did the Father’s evil bidding because he was the only thing that had shown Azazel kindness since his casting out. And over the long millennia, Azazel chose to forget his mothers and he embraced his new dark father. He became a demon, and he hopped around existence experiencing the various worlds that exist using possession.
Azazel worries very much about his mission.
How could he expect to be powerful enough to find the Alia across the infinite realms, and if he is lucky enough to find her, how would he bring her back?
Desperate to act, Azazel decides to start in the last place that he had performed possession; in the parallel of reality where Silas lives. And it would be good to see Silas, he would be sure to track him down because Silas has been absent from hell since the disappearance of the Alia. It isn’t just a social thing either, Silas is intimately tied to the Alia and maybe the man is a good first start.
The day of Halloween, Silas and his family dress as the Juglandaceae Family; Silas is a pecan, his wife is a walnut, his oldest daughter is a butternut and his youngest is a hickory nut. No one at the party knows what his daughters are dressed as and everyone just assumes that they are some type of peanut.
Silas is happy to be on door duty. The party starts as soon as the sun goes down, and neighbors show up happy to see him and be welcomed back to his home. He also gives out candy to trick-or-treaters.
The party rages into the night and even though there is a mass exodus around ten for those with young children, the party is still well attended. Silas gives up door duty by midnight and he joins his wife for dancing. His daughters lead a teenage party at the pool in the backyard. Silas eventually sits with his wife and his neighbor Tyler and his wife in the dining room.
“This was a lot of fun, buddy,” Tyler says. “It was definitely worth the delay. Do you mind if I ask what exactly has been going on? I really don’t want to pry, but I hope you know you can reach out if you need anything in the future.”
Silas looks to his wife and she answers for him, “He was working himself like a dog and forgot how to sleep.”
“Oh no,” Tyler’s wife says. “I warn Ty about the same thing all the time. When he isn’t snoring loud enough to shake the house down, he’s watching TV or playing video games.”
“I’m better about it,” Tyler says.
“Me too,” Silas says. “Sleep is so important.”
Suddenly, Tyler experiences a fit of coughing and he excuses himself.
“Take him to the bathroom,” Silas’s wife says, “I’m sure things are very different from the last time he was here, we’ve done some remodeling.”
Silas walks Tyler to the bathroom. The halls are dark with faint light filtering from the sections of the house that are still active. The sounds from the other rooms are faint, and honestly they can be anything by the time he reaches the bathroom; the distant revelry could just as easily be screams or the anger of a mob.
He turns on the light inside of the bathroom, and then he turns to Tyler.
“You are not different in the physical world, I see,” Tyler says. His voice is different and Silas recognizes it, but it can’t be real. “This body is very different than my usual. What do you call this body?”
Silas can hear the almost English accent, the deviousness, and he knows it.
“Who cares about that really. Whoever he was, is no longer who he is. It is me Silas. Azazel. And I need your help to find the Alia.”
The world becomes unsteady and Silas’s knees go weak. She has done it, the woman had brought hell to him. Silas loses consciousness.
Outside at Silas’s pool, everyone is having a great time. No one notices the clouds of red pollen descending on the house. The world outside of Silas’s neighborhood has descended into chaos. The red pollen spreads over everything and it drives the world mad.
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