Jack's Back ((Ascension: Book 2)) (16 page)

Hell on Earth

Melanie tried to stop him but Jessie was too fast. He ducked around her outstretched arms and rushed out the front door.

When she came through the gaping hole that used to be her front entrance, what she saw could only be described as madness.

A dragon was perched in the middle of the lawn, seemingly oblivious to the chaos surrounding it. The road was in flames. The air stunk of farm animals and lighter fuel. Car alarms were going off all over the neighborhood. A winged creature was flying off into the distance, clutching a young woman, and Jack was acting demented.

He was snarling as he rushed towards the dragon. He leapt into the air with superhuman agility and mounted it. Then he looked down at her and Jessie and the air suddenly crackled with menace.

He pointed at his young son and bellowed, "You!" His anger reached a fever pitch but it was now directed at Jessie.

The angel in the distance receded from view and apparently had also receded from Jack's thoughts.

He dismounted the dragon and strode forward.

He said to Jessie, without a hint of fatherly love, "Alright motherfucker. When do we do this? I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

Melanie looked at the small boy
in his pajamas. If Jessie was frightened, he didn't show it.

She looked back at Jack and said, "Stop it Jack."

Jack gazed upon her and his expression softened. He explained evenly, "This boy is not who you think he is. This is the real enemy."

The Light

Jack ran at Jessie but when Jessie screamed, "Stop," Jack froze in time, mid-stride.

Everything froze except Jessie.

Melanie could swivel her eyes and
she was still breathing but she could do nothing more than that. Even the dragon was helpless against its invisible restraints.

Then Jessie erupted in a magnificent blast of white light. But the light did not dim this time
like it did with the departed hell spawned creatures. It remained, stinging their eyes, forcing them to look away. As it died back down, it became the rough shape of an adult human, but otherwise it was unidentifiable as anything remotely terrestrial.

A calm, but older
, steady voice came from the blinding light.

It addressed Jack. "I have put you through enough already. Fight me when you're better prepared."

Jack grunted but otherwise he was speechless.

Melanie tried to look at the light, to see if the small child was enveloped by it, but she knew he was not. Jessie was gone, and only God remained.

The light continued, "None of this has worked out the way I imagined it would. You were not supposed to take the throne Jack. I'm still puzzled as to how you did it. Lucifer was supposed to take it.

"I knew all along what his plans were. He was going to force my hand and make me enact the Rapture. Then he'd breed what was left of humanity to create an army large enough to overthrow me right before taking the throne for himself. It was a good plan
and I was willing to play along to help mold him into the adversary I deserve. That's why I created a new messiah, to guide those poor lost souls to me instead. The unborn child would be the most influential living being the world has ever known.

"But all of that is redundant now.
You're destiny was clear-cut: You were supposed to be the patsy in the grand scheme of things. But against all odds, you've changed the outcome."

Jack grunted and Melanie saw his arm move very slightly.

The light said, "I can see already that your powers are close to my own. That is unexpected but it's good. We shall make a game of this when you are strong enough."

Jack growled and his
jaw opened. He snarled, "You've caused all of this misery. I did not wish to become the Devil or to be apart from Melanie. Lucifer did not need to go through what you put him through. You are God. You could have created a counterpart instead of molding one."

"Where's the fun in that? Plus, I can't create the kind of hatred you possess. I only did this because I am beginning to wonder if my way is the only way to govern."

"You don't govern, you ignore."

"Well, I've been occupied in the vessel of the child for over a decade and things seem to be running just fine without me."

"Then why don't you kill yourself?"

"By allowing you to live, that could be exactly what I'm doing."

"You'd better believe it kiddo."

"I was never truly your son Jack. I'm sorry for the manipulation but I wanted a front row seat to this. I thought I was going to witness Lucifer claim his birthright, but the poor dear is just too cowardly. His schemes were nothing but
ill-advised delay tactics.

"
And your involvement was supposed to be of insignificant consequence. You were only meant to test Lucifer, not make him run away like a scared puppy. Lucifer proved to be unequipped for the challenge, but you, on the other hand, could be quite the formidable opponent."

Jack broke free of his invisible bonds and walked right up to the light. He jabbed a forefinger into it and said, "Now that I remember what I am, you have no chance against me. I am not what you had in mind for
as an adversary. I will recreate hell any damn way I want. And I'll destroy all that you hold dear, including heaven itself."

The light flickered. The voice said, "Bring it
, bitch," and then the light evaporated just as Jack wheeled around with his spear to stab it through. He struck only air and when he realized what had happened he snarled at the sky with impotent rage.

"You bring parlor tricks to a fist fight you fucking coward, " he yelled at no one in particular. "You'd better believe I'll be learning a few tricks of my own before we meet again."

Fallen Angel

Lucifer's wings felt weak but he couldn't stop or Jack would be upon him and they would die horribly. But he couldn't muster the strength to go on much further.

He fell closer to the earth as his wings gave in to
the overwhelming exhaustion. That had never happened to him before. He had the stamina of a million men. Something was off.

He came down on his feet at a jog, holding Shelly tight
against his body the entire time.

Shelly looked into his eyes. "Are we safe now?"

Before he could say no, he felt a change within him. His joints ached. His skin itched irritably. His nerve endings felt like they were on fire.

He gently placed Shelly on her feet before the agony buckled him over. He fell to a knee as Shelly wrapped her arms around him.

She was crying from concern and fear when out of the clear blue, a blinding light erupted two feet to her left. It was in the shape of a person. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and her flight reflex went into overdrive.

Lucifer looked up at the light and said, "Ah, shit. Finish it then you bastard."

The light spoke. "I am here to tell you that I have misjudged you for too long. I know you can never forgive me for what I've done."

"Forgive you? Are you fucking kidding me?"

The light continued, "I owe you a debt. Tell me what you want in life and I will do my best to make it happen."

"I want you to slit your own throat."

The light laughed. It wasn't a cruel laugh, just a laugh to let Lucifer know that he hadn't taken him seriously.

"Well then, I want the power to defeat you."

"You had your chance. It's too late for that now. Someone else possesses that strength already. Come on, there must be something I can give you."

"I want to never deal with you again. I want to be safe from your influence and from Jack
and his minions. I want a life of my own with this woman."

"Okey dokey then."

With that, the light disappeared. Shelly looked all around, not trusting her eyes, but the coast was clear.

Lucifer felt instantly better. But when he stood
up, his wings fell to the ground with two dull thuds.

"What the fuck?"

Shelly felt behind his back, caressing his shoulder blades.

She said, "There aren't any wounds."

Lucifer stared at the ground and sighed. "That's because I'm no longer an angel. I asked to be free of God's influence. Only a man is capable of free will. Only a man can ignore the existence of God. He made them weak and imperfect so he bestowed upon them his greatest gift to make up for it."

Shelly hugged him as he wept tears of joy.
He looked her in the eyes and said, "Can you still love me even though I'm just a man now?

She said, "
Of course you dolt. It was just your wings that fell off, right?"

Lucifer looked
down at his crotch, felt it and smiled. "Yep, I'm all good."

"That's all I need." Then she took a
deep breath and said, "Can we still keep the cat?"

"I guess so."

Next Stop: Hell

Melanie felt the restraining force disappear as soon as the light vanished. She was despondent that Jessie was not in its place when it went out but she was starting to come to the realization that Jessie never truly existed, at least not in any way that made sense to her. She missed the boy, or at least the idea she had in her head of the boy, already.

She ran forward and embraced Jack. It took some time for his stiffness to subside
but when it did, he hugged her back.

For the first time she thought, I'm sure lucky I was drunk for this, otherwise my mind would have cracked into bits.

She said, "What now? Do you still have to return to hell, you know, since it turns out you run the place now."

"No. I
think I could stay, but it wouldn't be much of a life. In case you haven't noticed, I don't exactly fit in around here."

"We could fix that.
We could shave down your horns and find a huge pair of cowboy boots or something to cover your hooves."

"I tried
everything to hide who I am. It all just comes back when I get angry, and to tell you the truth, I don't know if this anger will ever diminish now that I have a true enemy."

"So you're leaving me?"
Tears were welling in her eyes. Her adoptive son, a son she'd grown quite fond of, even loved, was gone. Her doppelganger boyfriend was gone (which was fine but a little bittersweet) and the love of her life was about to be taken from her once again.

Her old life had sucked but whatever she managed to salvage from this wreckage to form a new life would be utterly unbearable. She'd be better off dead.

He looked up at the dragon and said, "Cerberus, is there a way we can remain together?"

Cerberus said, "I control who comes and goes from hell, and you control me."

That was all Jack needed to hear.

To Melanie, Jack asked, "Would you be against coming with me?"

Melanie had never once guffawed in her entire life but she did so now.

But then she thought about it. She had
absolutely nothing left on earth that she even remotely cared about anymore. It had all been taken from her.

She nodded
, even though she was still unsure of the decision.

He said, "You're sure now?"

She called up her inner resolve and said, "Yes. I'd rather be queen in hell than alone on earth."

"That's my girl."

"Will my body change?"

"Only if you
let it. Personally, I think you'd look hot in exoskeleton armor with a couple cute little horns on your head, and a whip-like tail but I'm a pervert like that."

Cerberus chuckled and Jack said
to Melanie, "Come on then."

He took
her by the hand and helped pull her up to mount the dragon.

Once they were comfortably seated
she asked, "Can this thing fly us to hell? Don't we need a portal or a gateway or something?"

Jack was clutching the red death ball in his fist.
He knew how to truly wield its power now that his memories had returned to him.

He said, "Yep, watch this." Then he threw the death ball at the ground
with all of his strength. The death ball went straight through the ground. A hole instantly opened and widened, linking hell to earth.

Melanie could hear screams issue from the now vast opening. It smelled of death. Flames licked up and extinguished on contact with the earth realm. She was mortified
and mesmerized at once.

Jack reassured her. "
What you're seeing is what God wants hell to be. But God's not in charge anymore. We will create any kind of utopia we can dream of from this day forward."

She nodded and
said, "And then we'll go to war with the son of a bitch."

"That's my girl."

She wrapped her arms around his waist, waiting for the dragon to plummet them towards the pits of hell.

Cerberus took his cue and fell forward into the gaping
chasm. It closed up tightly behind them, a thin tendril of smoke, the only thing to escape.