CODEX Part 3: Between Heaven and Hell
Locked Out of Heaven

“Excuse me, I’d like to talk to a doctor please!”

Chen and Ezekiel entered the hospital quickly and hurried to the front desk. While Chen succeeded in getting the attention of one young nurse, Ezekiel felt light headed and the surroundings started to sway from side to side, just like in a dream. He wasn’t sure why that was happening to him since it never happened before under any circumstances but he could feel the residual energy of something dark. It wasn’t a ghost because he could see them and none were interested in him.

“Chen?” Ezekiel mumbled, a little zoned out.

The pressure in his head became higher and higher and he could feel himself drown into that energy. He could see his hand moving forward in order to grasp something or someone that would get him back to normal. That wasn’t happening, though, because everyone around him was busy doing something else. That image continued until, suddenly, Ezekiel found hinself in the hall by himself. He turned his head slowly to the elevator, watching the doors open and someone coming out. He wasn’t sure he recognized that person so the human squinted his eyes, hoping that whoever was there was human. The tapping started again but louder than before, forcing Ezekiel to close his eyes.

“Zek!” Chen shouted and shook his friend.

Ezekiel’s eyes opened wide and realized that everything was normal.

“I asked around and it seems that Zoe was brought in a very bad shape and they had to resuscitate her a few times. She died but came back to life a few hours later. The Doctor who was in charge is in coma right now. It seems something happened,” Chen continued. Ezekiel nodded along without speaking, “And Zoe was with a man when she checked out. Do you have any idea who was with her?”

Ezekiel tilted his head to the side and looked for answers in his memories. They were in Essex and her family was living here but she wouldn’t call them; there was someone else.

“Terrance?” He mumbled to himself. That was indeed an option since he was the only friend she had and knew about her powers.

The demons were not searching for Zoe. As soon as they appeared in Essex, they started to talk and eventually bicker.

“Why didn’t you tell her the truth? Why didn’t you tell her that Beelzebub already took care of the cult members?” Iaosur started, a bit too angry for Eneizar's taste.

They kept it a secret ever since she went to Japan.

Actually, the cult didn’t replace her in the first place. Eneizar lured them in and they followed him to her apartment. They didn’t replace anything because there was nothing to replace. She had no idea what she was or what she was getting herself into back then. It was an easy way to get suspicion off her. Iaosur wasn't sure how much that worked so he was worried.

“She doesn’t have to know. If there’s no danger lurking in the shadows, she won’t take it seriously. She has to know that humans will hunt her too. Besides, she learned a lot and it all came from that little lie,” Eneizar explained his point of view calmly.

Iaosur raised an eyebrow and folded his arms in front of his chest, “But humans are the only things that keep her balanced. I admit that playing with her was fun but it’s getting dangerous when Lucifer is involved. If she loses control then we’re all doomed,” He grabbed Eneizar's hand and raised it to eye level; both wrists had the endless knot contoured up into their palms, “’We’ means you too,” Iaosur finished.

Eneizar sighed and looked at the sign on his hand. It wasn’t visible enough and it didn’t have a specific color but it was there and that was enough for him to remember that he’s done the worst; he lied to Lucifer and he had the courage to get another sign on him. He wasn’t vanity propriety anymore; he was Zoe’s.

Eneizar couldn’t believe how soft he became.

“By the way,” Iaosur started again, “What did Possessed Jasper mean when he said you love Zoe?”

Eneizar gulped and licked his lips in anxiety. He wasn’t prepared for that kind of stupid question.

“Don’t know,” He answered quickly and fastened his pace. They were moving around aimlessly while talking about their issues.

“You know the serpent it’s a hard sign to remove and the owner has to accept removing it or else it doesn’t work. You gave in quite fast and didn’t complain afterwards. You wanted to change it, didn’t you? You wanted to become closer to her, like Mehr-"

The vanity demon stopped and grabbed Iaosur by the neck. His eyes were shining with malice and anger while Iaosur’s were watching him bemusedly.

“Do you care for Zoe? Do you love her, Eneizar?” Iaosur whispered into his face. The angst demon was pushing his luck and he knew it.

Eneizar was ready to snap Iaosur’s head in two and send him back to Hell when Gakhas appeared.

“Sorry to disturb this peaceful atmosphere but I found something,” He commented in his monotone voice.

The blonde demon glared at Iaosur’s smiling face before he let him go and turned to Gakhas.

“I was looking around, unlike other demons, and found out from locals that there was an incident yesterday night. A man entered a local supermarket and killed five people before he ran away,” Gakhas informed the others.

“So it wasn’t a demon?” Iaosur asked.

Gakhas shook his head and led them to an apartment. He stopped right in front of it and took a sudden turn, into the children park.

“As a matter of fact, it was human. He killed by stabbing but that is not the strangest part. The police couldn't catch him and there are other victims," The short demon continued.

“Then how do you know how there are other victims?” Eneizar asked in a bored tone.

Gakhas raised an eyebrow at his fellow demons and pointed at the swings. Right there, wrapped tightly with rope to the bar was the body of a woman, stabbed two times and with pool of blood under her feet. Iaosur seemed quite offended while Eneizar’s face was hard to read. They walked closer and inspected the corpse; it smelled of perfume and she was dressed in fancy clothes so she got killed when she was going out. It was weird how he wrapped the rope around her head in order to cover her eyes and her hands were hidden behind her.

Gakhas was admiring the sight while Iaosur and Eneizar begun scanning the place.

“Isn’t it weird how he wanted to cover her eyes?” Gakhas asked suddenly. Since he was curious and had an intense need to satisfy his curiosity, he pulled the rope down.

Iaosur’s eyes widened and Gakhas felt taken aback by the sight; the murderer took her eyes out.

“I definitely didn’t expect that,” The short demon commented.

Eneizar was looking at her hands. They were tied together behind her but there was something weird about one of them. He leaned in and found something else.

“Uh-Oh,” He mumbled as he saw the number 5 crested on her palm.

“Are you sure this is his place?” Ezekiel asked his friend while staring at a big apartment building.

Chen nodded yet checked again on his phone. It was the right address; it was the best option they had.

The two boys walked inside and took the elevator to the 6th floor. When the doors opened, they saw people crowding in front of an apartment door. They looked at each other and walked slowly towards that place.

The door was wide open and there was a dead body right at the entrance. Ezekiel's eyes widened and took a moment to regain his senses before he made his way closer.

“What happened here?” Chen asked a random lady.

“I smelled something weird from here and came over to check it out. However, a lady opened the door and walked out. She left the door open and we found this young woman dead, “ She explained to the young stranger. Chen was glancing from her to the body and back to her.

“Who could have done such a thing?” Chen heard the woman ask.

Ezekiel could hear everything but he chose not to. Once he walked closer, he saw how messy was the corpse; blood was on the walls and on the ground yet the rest of the apartment seemed clean. Whoever killed her was good enough not to leave trails behind him.

He knew it was police business and the ladies probably called them before he and Chen arrived, but he couldn’t brush off the fear he started to feel. Ezekiel licked his lips and encouraged himself before walking inside.

Chen wasn’t aware and didn’t notice his friend sneaking inside. Instead, Chen bent beside the corpse and inspected it closely. The body had a few wounds in her abdominal part but the first and fatal one was the stab in her forehead; right in the middle, actually. She bled a lot and got stabbed even after she died which only meant that whoever did it was a cold bastard with no consciousness.

Next, Chen’s attention moved on the apartment itself. He walked past the corpse, slowly and carefully, and found Ezekiel in the bedroom, staring at the bed blankly. Chen moved his eyes above, on the wall, and saw a number written with what seemed to be blood.

“6?” Chen asked in confusion.

Ezekiel was ready to say something when he noticed something red dripping from the ceiling. He gulped and prepared himself mentally before he raised his head towards it. Chen followed Ezekiel’s actions and found something very disturbing.

A corpse was hanging from the ceiling. It was a man who had two stabs in the abdomen and heart, his eyes were taken out and he was positioned weirdly, like he was trying to run away yet something got him, froze him and glued him on the ceiling. It was very weird and the image overall was going to haunt the two guys forever.

They walked out of there before the police could come and arrest them for messing their crime scene. On the street, Ezekiel got perplexed by the angst demon who appeared in front of them and dragged them into an alley. It was getting dark and they had to exchange information.

Eneizar and Gakhas were waiting there already, both having the same expression on their faces: worry.

“We found two bodies in Terry’s house but none was his. Besides, we know that Zoe checked out of hospital and she was with him," Chen started as soon as they met.

“What was she doing in a hospital? She only came here for a stupid high school reunion,” Iaosur mumbled angrily.

Everyone turned to Gakhas, who was supposed to look after her. The short sloth demon only shrugged.

“She was perfectly fine when I left,” He said in his defense.

“It seems she got in with a lot of problems. Her body was shutting down and the doctors weren’t optimistic. She died for a few hours before she came back," Chen continued.

The demons looked at each other before they finally reacted. Iaosur screamed at Eneizar while the vanity demon looked to the side.

Gakhas sighed and leaned against the wall, “We found a body, as well.” Gakhas made it sound like they were playing scavenger hunt, “It was a woman. Her eyes were missing and I’m pretty sure I saw her before, with Zoe.”

Ezekiel and Chen turned towards the sloth demon seeing as there was more, “I think her name was Carley or something. She was the one who started the whole Ouija board experience.”

“She had a number on her palm,” Eneizar added.

Chen raised an eyebrow and glanced at Ezekiel.

“Same here. There was a number right above the bed; 6.” Chen explained.

Ezekiel took a few steps back and covered his face with his hands. It was getting out of hand and it was moving so fast that he couldn’t even think properly.

“Then we found 5,” Eneizar responded calmly. He glanced at Ezekiel, who looked ready to have a panic attack, and made a sign to Iaosur.

The angst demon understood and tried to calm down the puppy, “It’s alright, Zek. It’s probably a demon and-“

“It’s not.” The human mumbled in his hands, “It’s her. It’s Zoe. I heard the lady telling Chen that she saw a woman walking out, leaving the door open for the bodies to be discovered. It’s Zoe.” He continued even though he didn’t want to believe it.

“Zoe would never kill, moreover in such ways. Besides, why would she take out the eyes? It doesn’t make sense.” Chen exclaimed, finally showing anger.

“But you said she died. If she died, then her soul might have come back slightly different,” Iaosur added.

Gakhas glanced at Eneizar, who wasn’t saying anything, only looking down at his hands.

“Then we have a problem,” He finally said, grabbing their attention, “She might have not returned at all. She probably got caught by Lucifer or Asmodeus,” His words were making the humans shiver in fear.

“She’s possessed? Is that what you mean?!” Ezekiel was rapidly losing his calm. The human launched at Eneizar and punched him straight in the face out of nowhere. It wasn’t very strong but he got his point through.

Ezekiel was very mad; he was ready to kill someone, preferably the vanity demon.

“But if she’s is still in Hell, how come Beelzebub doesn’t know? He should feel her energy no matter where she is,” Gakhas stated while watching the show unfold. He might have looked laid back and ignorant but he was on alert too.

With Zoe gone, demons were going to get crazy and make unfavorable decisions.

“Zoe Lestrade! What a pleasure!”

The poor commander was in a terrible shape and could barely open her eyes. Thankfully, she did restore some power but not enough for her to play around.

The person standing before her was unknown; a demon with the same traits as the usual vanity demon yet something about him seemed beastly.

“Who the heck are you?” She asked in a soft voice.

Suddenly, the door to her cell opened and the demon entered. He was actually a she, from what Zoe could see. It didn’t have any feminine parts but the face was pretty feminine.

The demon was dressed in fancy clothes and was staring at her as if she was the shit on the back of the shoe. Zoe was used to that kind of look and behavior but she didn’t expect to be left breathless; like, literally without air. Her hands wrapped around her neck and she fell on her side. Zoe suddenly felt like something was crawling up her throat, trying o get out of her body. It really did, something that looked like a tapeworm. She vomited it out and watched just how long it was.

“You know, I’m surprised he didn’t start eating your intestines,” The demon commented like it was nothing.

“Fuck you.” Zoe mumbled wiping her mouth with her hand.

The demon watched Zoe getting up and trying to fool herself into believing she was still powerful. That was really hard to believe since she looked worse than the dead body of a beggar.

“Get up. It’s time to fight.”

Zoe’s head snapped to the demon with a frown.

“Does it look like I can fight?” She spat out with disgust.

The demon raised an eyebrow and chuckled before he used his powers and pulled her body right in his hands. He grasped her neck and pushed hard on the wound in her heart. Zoe closed her eyes in pain and bit her lip until blood came out.

“Does it look like I care?” He whispered while glaring at her with those black evil eyes.

The demon took Zoe into another dungeon. The way was long because he took her into Asmodeus’ territory, which practically meant she wasn’t in Neverland anymore. He pushed her inside a cage and left.

She thought he might have locked her closer but that wasn’t the case. Lights turned on, bar lights of different colors, and she noticed Asmodeus in the back, smiling but his eyes seemed bloodthirsty. He wasn’t what really scared her, no; that was the person standing next to him.

Lucifer was having the same crazy enthusiastic look on his face that sent chills down her spine. She gulped when their eyes met, her legs giving up, forcing her to lean against the bars.

A few minutes later, the door to the cell opened and more demons came in. Actually, not all of them were demons from what she remarked; some were souls left in Hell to rot while some were low leveled demons from outside the domain. One person, especially, made Zoe realize just what that was exactly.

She saw Hans enter with the few hunters she killed back in the Refuge.

“I hope you’re ready because they’re going to make us fight each other,” He mumbled once he got in front of her.

Hans raised his hand and showed her what looked to be a ring, “If this ring gets filled up with blood, you lose and die.”

Her eyes widened and immediately searched for a ring on her fingers; she didn’t have one.

Hans chuckled when he realized she was probably meant to kill everyone.

“How did you get here? You were safe,” She mumbled, trying no to grab more attention than she was receiving.

“I was never safe. I told you, the inheritor is our only mission. Once Lucifer found him, we were just puppets in the way. Besides, I didn’t kill you and failed my mission. I’m surprised I got to live for so long afterwards.”

Zoe was surprised to hear him talk about death so easily, like it didn’t even matter.

“I’m not going to kill you in here,” She stated from the start.

Hans laughed, “We’ll see about that,” He said before he spat down and got ready to fight.

Once the cell doors closed and locked, a short demon hit the gong and the massacre begun. It was insane because they started to fight like crazy; not even wrestling shows could compare to what was happening there.