23. The Final Judgement
Chapter twenty-three
The Final Judgement
Atlas
The first sound to envelop me was a steady drip from an I.V.
connected to my forearm. The bandaging was itchy and felt heavy and thick.
The second sound was the hushed whispering of a man and woman, whose voices I couldn’t quite make out, but I knew somehow were familiar to me.
I felt a pit in my stomach, like I instinctively knew something was wrong, but was unable to put the pieces together in this state.
My fingers flexed before the rest of my body began to catch up with me.
My head turned from right to left in search of a comforting face, and landed on Galaxy and Halcyon, who perked up when they saw me start to move.
“Atlas!” Galaxy sighed in relief, coming to the edge of the bed to kneel beside it and brush a strand of hair from my eyes. “I’m so glad you’re awake.”
“What… happened…?” I breathed painfully.
He bit his lip as he thought of an answer. “A lot.”
“What does a lot mean?”
Halcyon crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed gently, patting my hand as if to warn me of what she would say next. “It was… very unpleasant. Most of us came out of it alright, but there was some… injuries.”
“To who?” I gulped.
“Nick… isn’t fairing too well,” Galaxy mumbled.
My eyes widened in disbelief. “Fairing too well? What the fuck do you mean?”
The two looked to one another, looking for the right answer. “He’s… we had to do a lot, to keep him alive. You, um, I mean, Death… he really hurt him this time.”
In an instant I was upright. Both Gods yelped and tried to push me back into bed, but I yanked the I.V. out of my arm and squirmed free to race out of the room. “Atlas, wait a moment!” Galaxy begged, but I slipped through his fingers.
My socks stuck to the floor as I ran, weaving in and out of bodies in search of someone in a hospital uniform. I grabbed the first nurse I crossed and shook her. “Where is Nicodemus Crawford’s room?”
“Um…” She flipped through her charts rapidly. “317. He’s just out of surgery…”
“Surgery!” I roared in disbelief.
“It went well…?” I didn’t give her time to finish, and instead, bolted through the stairwell door and down to the third floor.
Galaxy and Halcyon raced after me; Halcyon barked into her phone that I was awake and coming, but I could care less about what the other said or did right now.
I got to the room and wrenched the door open, panting from the run and the state my body was still in.
To my astonishment, the situation was much worse than anything I ever expected.
Most of the Gods were sitting in various spots in the room, curled up with their partners and friends as they recovered from whatever the Gehenna happened.
Many had deep bruises and icepacks nursing foreheads.
Some were in casts, others wrapped in thick bandages that were dyed pink from old blood.
Lysander was currently stitching Esen’s cheek, with pieces of shrapnel sitting in a clear bowl beside them from where Lysander had picked them from Esen’s face.
Esen winced from the tugging, but Calypso steadily running his thumb over Esen’s seemed to keep him steady.
Odysseus was lying on the hospital bed alongside Nick, who was hooked to more machines than I’d ever seen my entire life.
A mask was fixed to his face to keep him breathing, and he had multiple braces and bandages cascading his body.
What skin did show was covered in welts and black splotches.
His eyes were ringed pure black, and his complexion was so grey that he looked like a corpse.
He resembled a plague victim, as it was obvious he had run-ins with all four Horsemen, who had equally devastated his frail body.
Odysseus had his lips pressed to Nick’s temple to feed him healing energy, but he, too, was covered in as many bruises and bandages as his comrades.
My outburst of throwing the door open made everyone in the room jump, and when they saw me standing in the doorway, many betrayed looks fell over their faces.
Some, like Sebastian, hid in Soren’s shirt so he didn’t have to face me, while many just gave me empty stares full of contempt.
Ashlynn, who held Nick’s frail hand to aid in the healing process, refused to turn and look at me, even when I fell to my knees beside she and the bed.
“Oh Gods… what have I done?” I choked out.
“He’s stable, for now. He took a real good beating,” Odysseus murmured.
I looked to each face, trying to find solace in one, but failing. “I… I did this to him?”
“You kept calling him a ‘false God’ and were dead set on killing him. We’re surprised he made it out alive,” Ashlynn spat venomously.
I clutched the blanket that covered his broken body and buried my face into it, letting a weak sob break from my chest. “What the fuck is wrong with me? Why, how-… I can’t believe I hurt him like this!” I wailed, tears pouring down my cheeks by the dozens.
Ashlynn placed a hand on my back and rubbed it in small circles. She was careful in her movements, but trying to reassure me, nonetheless. “It is a hard situation. We understand you did not choose to become that monster, but… a lot of damage has been done.”
I continued to cry into Nick’s leg. “I swear Ashlynn, I swear, I don’t remember a damn thing that happened. I had no clue what was happening to me! Everything went black and I, I just… I don’t know what happened!”
“I know, love, I know,” was all she could offer me.
I carefully stood so I could place my hand on his cheek and gently smooth locks of his hair from his face. “My boy… oh Nick, my sweet child… I am so sorry!” I sniveled.
“You… don’t remember anything? Nothing at all?” Praxis asked sheepishly.
I whipped around and shook my head rapidly. “Gods, no, not at all! Guys, I would have never hurt any of you, not for a single second! I…? Gods, what a fucking idiot I am!” I punched myself in the head multiple times until Deveraux took my hands to stop me.
“Atlas, stop. We’ll fix this, somehow…” he tacked on at the end in a low groan. I settled on sobbing into my hands, falling to my knees. I pushed Deveraux away in shame and let out all of my anguish, utterly beside myself.
In the middle of my cries, an odd sound enveloped the room. Everyone heard it, and it made them sit up wearily and listen better. “What was that?” Constantine asked.
The tile beneath my knees shuddered, making Ashlynn place a hand to the floor.
She winced when the hot tile burned her, and went to say something, but she was cut off by a metallic screeching.
In the next moment, the ground beneath me crumbled, and I was free-falling into Gehenna.
Ashlynn let out a horrific gasp and screamed my name, but before she had the chance to dive in after me, the portal closed in her face.
The fall into the depths of Gehenna was longer than I thought.
I plummeted in circles towards what looked to be Decimus’s Layer, where all of the rulers of Gehenna were seated in a circle in the thrones from their own Layers.
They were in their demon forms, something abnormal for an impromptu meeting, which meant this must be serious.
Isadora looked to the hole I tumbled from and added another layer to it, as she could sense Ashlynn trying to force it back open. “We do not need the Gods interference right now.”
I was too weak to stop myself from falling, so when I hit the ground, the impact rattled my bones and made my head throb.
The concrete floor was blistering hot, as was the room, and made sweat erupt from my clammy skin.
I stiffly pulled myself upright and rubbed my sore temple, which beat like a drum from a headache I was now sporting.
“What the actual fuck was that for?” I spat.
Elias raised his head stiffly. “Your presence is required for this sentencing the same as your familiars.”
“Sentencing?” I breathed in horror. Two guards dragged Amara, Asher, and Bodhi into the room, all who were chained by their necks and in their dog forms. They snarled and snapped at the guards, who threw them at my side carelessly.
I protectively scooped them up and held them to my chest; they whined and licked my cheeks rapidly, grateful to see me with them.
“What do you mean by sentencing? Who are you to treat my familiars this way!” I demanded.
Peregrine stood and walked to the center of the room, his hands behind his back as he approached.
He did not meet me entirely, keeping substantial distance between us.
“Atlas Crawford; you are being charged for your actions as one of the Four Horsemen responsible for the destruction to Earth, Caelum, and Gehenna.”
My jaw popped open in disbelief. “I am the God of this Realm! You cannot charge me with any crime…!”
“Oh, but we can. Gehenna has rules and stipulations to abide by, and even Gods are responsible for atrocities they commit against the Realm, especially using demons to cause such destruction. We are beings older than you by the millions, and you will respect us and our sacred Realm regardless of the position you hold.”
Arabella spoke now, clear and commanding, “We lost thousands of demons and Elementals because of your summons. Many high-ranked demons perished due to your actions. Humans, millions of them, were slaughtered by you and your familiars. You disrespected your command of Gehenna and used our demons for your own pleasure, and that is a crime we cannot let go unpunished.”
“I had no control over myself! Ambermourn forced our transition! How does that have anything to do with me?” I bawled, fearful tears welling in my eyes.