Death By Scythe by Dee Carter (best ebook reader for surface pro TXT) 📕

Chapter 1

Hell and Its Occupants

Aaron Baker trudged slowly up the stairs to his room, sleep calling his name loudly. "Goodnight." His mother called to him from the study at the end of the hall, as he reached the top of the stairs he murmured a semi-awake reply then pushed the door to his room open, bright moonlight streamed into his room through the large window to his right, he closed the door behind himself and walked to his bed collapsing onto it, clothes, shoes and all and falling instantly to sleep.

A gentle hand slowly brushed against his forehead cooling the night heat from his face. "Come on Rianna, he'll be fine, she assured us both." His father whispered quietly to his mother.

"I know, I know, I just wish we could be together a little longer, just for a little while." His mother replied sadly.

Aaron's mind tried to shed the veil of exhaustion plaguing him so that he could tell his mum they would all be together for a lot longer but the tiredness didn't leave and he remained only semi-conscious.

"Come on Rianna let's go." Weight lifted from the edge of his bed and he heard soft footsteps walk to the door.

"Be safe Aaron." His father whispered softly and the door closed quietly and his mind returned to its deep sleep.


"THAT, IS HIM?" A strange feminine voice, soft as feathers but at the same time greater than a thunder clap echoed incredulously around a small starlit bedroom.

"That, is him." A malignant voice confirmed in disgust. "The cursed one." The second voice was much quieter than the first and sounded allot like a group of people heard from far away.

"HE'S NO MORE THAN A CHILD." The first voice retained the penned up fury of a storm but seemed amazed, as if a child had been the last thing it had expected to find.

"You have your task abomination, be quick about it less we decide to withdraw our generous 'offer'." The hateful voice had grown even weaker than it had been at first as though it drew further and further away.

"YOUR WEAKNESS DIGUSTS ME JAI-ZHEN" The first voice answered without a trace of the softness it had contained earlier and as if in contrast with the second its voice grew stronger as each syllable left its mouth. "YOUR SILKEN WORDS AND THINLY VEILED THREATS WILL NOT PROTECT YOU FROM YOUR FATE, ONCE THE PACT IS COMPLETE YOU WILL REGRET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE-." The first voice hid nothing and dripped with pure malice, slowly becoming more evident until?

"-LIVES."

The word startled Aaron out of the dream world, off his bed and onto the floor where he quickly jumped up to scan his room for the source of the terrible voice that had woken him.

"Wh-who's there." He squeaked in a small thin voice he immediately regretted.

"YOU MUST SLEEP NOW SMALL ONE, IT IS NOT YET TIME." The first voice no longer held any threat and answered Aaron immediately but he was still unable to place where the voice had come from.

""JERU."" The scent of roses filled the air and dulled the alarm bells ringing in his head, the voice itself soothed the fear in his mind and wrestled his struggling conscience to the ground.

""JERU."" The sweet smell of roses and the soothing voice blew over him again, gently lowering him back to his bed.

""JERU."" The word drew Aaron to the farthest reaches of his mind where he soared over mountain tops on clouds softer than air.

"WAKIE WAKIE."
"I'll be up in a moment mum." Aaron mumbled into his pillow before he reached blindly for the covers which had fallen off of him somehow during the night.

"I'M NOT YOUR MOTHER FOOL." The thunderous voice from the night before had returned full of indignation.

His two storm-cloud-grey eyes flew wide open in fear then he screamed louder than he ever had before, at the foot of his bed was the creature, undoubtedly the source of the storm-like voice.

Its hairless blue-grey body was roughly humanoid, hunchbacked just to fit in between floor and ceiling. The only shreds of clothing it wore were two small, triangular black pouches that wrapped around its rippling shoulders on equally black belts. Its shoulders were also where the normality of the creature's body stopped.

Two muscle bulging arms branched at the elbow to sport not only a hand each, but two thick scorpion tail arms that ended in knife-like points which were definitely not mere adornment. Powerful legs turned the wrong way to end in clawed feet. Its head brandished two golden horns that stuck jaggedly out from either side of its forehead to end in points finer than any needle's.

The most disturbing image of all however was not its backward legs or its odd limbed arms, but its face, scarcely yet surely; human.

If it hadn't been for the branching arms and twisted legs he would probably have thought it was a stereotype demon.

"Aah-." Another terrified scream began to leave his lips, but the demon seeing this slapped him across the face, hard with the flat of its left arm's scorpion tail's knife-like appendage and numbed him from top to bottom with a feeling not unlike the one he'd gotten from having a tooth pulled at the dentist, his arms and legs held up protectively infront of his face fell limply to his sides of there own accord.

"ENOUGH FOOLISHNESS BOY, I'M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU, I HAVEN'T THE TIME OR WANT AND WE MUST LEAVE NOW BEFORE THIS CURSED DIMENSION DRAINS FROM ME MY REMAINING POWER.

AND YOU ARE COMING WITH ME, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT."

With that the creature slung his limp, paralysed body over its shoulder, drew back its hand and punched mightily into thin air.

The image of his bedroom shattered as if it was made of glass, to be replaced by a steaming inferno of rippling magma lakes, boiling mountains of semi cooled lava and dark red sky, here and there crossed over by walkways of transparent red crystal.

A blistering wave of heat rolled over his paralysed body as the monster, carrying him stepped into the furnace, it was the final shock his fifteen year old mind could take in a night full of shocks and surprises, he'd expected to go to sleep and wake up the next morning in his own bed, instead in the middle of the night he'd been confronted by a demon and taken somewhere that resembled what he thought hell should look like.

Aaron fainted.


The sound of unearthly howling interrupted hellish nightmares and brought Aaron shaking into a world of grey stone and architectural magnificence left for centuries to become ruins of their former glory.

Slowly he opened his eyes, blinked twice and stopped the scream before it could leave his mouth, the demonic creature stopped shaking him by the shoulders and stepped back a foot. "Follow me bo-." Aaron ducked as the hellish creature broke off into a hacking cough that sprayed his back in what he assumed were globules of blue demon blood.

As he uncurled from his huddled position he noticed a patchwork of deep wounds crisscrossing the demon's stomach and a wave of mixed emotions suddenly took hold of him, despite his extreme fear of the creature his gentle nature got the better of him and in a quavering voice he asked. "Are you hurt?."

"I'm fine." The creature replied impatiently then it turned and jogged away into the immense stone-grey corridor leaving Aaron behind to wonder if the creature was really the source of the voice from the night before which had contained so much malice and fury, it did sound slightly different, as though it had become weaker which wasn't surprising considering the score of wounds all over its body.
As the creature drew further away it yelled back. "Are you coming or not."

Another deafening howl soared through the air seeking its prey and he wondered if it would be wise to follow a demon or try to escape on his own, the chilling howl abruptly ended and Aaron made up his mind, quickly he hurried after his would-be-kidnapper yelling. "Wait up."

Hurdling fallen chunks of wall and pieces of once elegant furniture Aaron caught up with the demon. "I thought you wanted to." He thought about his question for a moment and decided that if the creature had wanted to kill him he'd probably be dead right now so changed his question to. "Why'd you kidnap me?"

The odd beast continued to run in silence until Aaron thought it hadn't heard him and he was about to ask again when it spoke. "It was not my choice." Aaron wasn't sure that he believed the words, but when he glanced at the creature's face he saw pain enough to believe that the demon was as much a victim as he was.

"What's your name?" He asked the question in all innocence not knowing exactly why but the creature turned on him viciously, shoving him against the cold grey wall of the corridor, it held one razor sharp blade to his throat. "WHY WOULD YOU ASK SUCH A THING." Its voice was momentarily returned to its former fury leaving no doubt in his mind that it was the source of the voice from the night before.

Aaron withered under the gaze he was receiving. "I-I, well." He didn't know what to say, he hadn't meant to insult the creature so he replied. "Mine's Aaron."

"You trust me to know your true name?" The creature sounded astonished as though nobody had ever told it their name before.

Aaron thought for a moment but couldn't come up with a reason why he shouldn't so he replied "Sure, unless you want me to pretend it isn't."

The demon looked at him for a moment more then withdrew the knife-like appendage from his throat. "Mine is Azenlond."

Another howl filled the musty air, louder and more terrible than all the others but unlike the previous howls it was no longer a howl of the hunting it was a howl of triumph.

"The Hell beast has found us, you must leave now." The creature actually appeared fearful, almost terrified even.

"Ha, I wouldn't leave you to fight whatever a ?Hell Beast' is, I can see your scared of it and that probably means it could ki-." He didn't seem to be able to keep his mouth shut, words just kept spilling out of there own volition, luckily he was interrupted by another ferocious howl.

"FOOLISH HUMAN, you must run now, what do you think you could possibly accomplish against the Hell beast."

Aaron didn't really have an answer for that, he knew that whatever it was that kept howling, it wasn't a small whatever, but he knew that if he left he wouldn't ever be able to forgive himself, no matter how badly the creature had treated him.

Growling in frustration Azenlond turned back to him. "Take this." The creature unstrapped the belt on its right arm and handed it to Aaron who began to tie it around his waist.

"Listen carefully, there are some items in that pouch that if you tell someone about, you'll be dead within