Chronicles of Matthau by L. C. Perrine (best ereader for academics txt) 📕

purpose, Matthau. Why else do you think you're able to burn people with your bare hands?"
“What!? Nobody knows about that. How does this man? And did I say that out loud? That I thought this was a dream. How does he know all of these things? But, if he knows all of this, maybe he knows why it happens.”

But as all of this ran through his mind, he could not find anything to say.
"Oh yes, I know about your gift, Matthau. Do you want to know why it is that you burn people's bodies when you fight them?" he asked. The man waited for a reply, some type of answer - expecting, knowing that it would be a yes, but waiting to hear it.
“Seems more like a curse to me than a gift, but, I'll just answer him, rather than offend him. I want to know; I need to know.”

Matthau nodded, and the man continued, "It is quite a long story, beginning with Lucifer's rebellion against God, and the banishment that followed. So yes, it is a bit of a... result of a curse, I'd say"
“What the hell? How does he know I thought that? And this whole damned thing begins with Satan fucking with God? What's that supposed to mean?”

"If you would just listen, rather than swear at me in your thoughts, that would help with the explanations." Matthau couldn’t comprehend what he had just heard.
“So he can actually read my mind?”

"Yes, I can. Now, Lucifer, and all of his followers, upon being banished, were changed; they became altered into an entirely different race. And all descendants of this new race would be altered in the same way. Do you understand it all so far?"
Matthau was still too shocked to speak, but nodded.
"Good. Now, Michael and the Angelic Army (that is to say, those Angels which had fought alongside Michael against Lucifer and his horde of followers), were immensely crippled by the struggle, and their number was vastly depreciated. They were still much more powerful than Lucifer and his army, but they knew the Demon horde was going to increase in number at a much greater rate than the Angelic Army. Knowing this, God gathered the souls of pure-hearted Human warriors – such as King Richard the Lion-hearted, of the Crusades – and formed a second army to aid in the ongoing War. This second army, and the new race that was its members, are known as the Kell. Still keeping up?"
"Yes, but I don't see how-"
"Just listen. This second army was someday going to need a new leader, for Michael - although an exemplary tactician and skilled general - cannot command two increasingly large armies at once. God created a Human boy with Demon blood coursing through his veins - though he had no Demons in his lineage - to lead this army. That boy is you, Matthau. You are going to be the next general of the Army of Kell."
"What do you mean I'm going to be a general?" Matthau exclaimed, "I don't even know you, and now you're telling me that I am going to lead an army that I've never even heard of before, against the 'legions of hell'? This doesn't make any sense!"
"It makes perfect sense, poika. You are a Human boy, with Demon blood running through your veins, and no Demon in your lineage-"
"Why me?" Matthau exclaimed, "Why was I chosen?"
The man replied, "You weren't chosen. This is the reason that you exist, the very purpose of your life. It's why you are the way you are." Matthau didn't believe the man, but the man continued. "Now, because you have Demon blood, you also have acquired some... traits, that you yet have no understanding of, and no way of controlling - yet. That's why I found you, and rescued you from that burning car. I am the one who is supposed to train you to control your powers, especially the ones that used to burn your classmates."
Matthau hesitated - glaring at the man - then said, "Who are you, that you know all of this? Who are you to say that you are supposed to train me?"
"My name, poika, is Hekkala, and I am a Demon" Matthau rose up out of his chair so quickly that it tipped over backwards, with a thud. He nearly tripped over it as he tried to get as far away from this... thing as possible.
“First, I'm a demon. And now, my fucking sensei is a God-damned demon as well.”

"Do not fear me poika, I will not try to kill you. And, since I am only a descendant of the first Demons, I am not damned. Because of this, I am not a Demon in the generally accepted Human understanding," Hekkala said, calmly, as if it were no matter at all.
"Then what kind of Demon are you exactly?" asked Matthau, fear permeating his voice, causing it to tremble.
“This has to be a dream, there is no way that any of this is real...”

"I am a Demon who despises being a Demon - a victim of circumstance. I was born from two horrifyingly evil creatures. But I have my own free will, a choice to decide whether I will follow in their footsteps or carry out my own path. I choose to create my own path, which has led me to you. I will teach you everything you need to learn, so that you can lead the Army of Kell."
"But I'm only seventeen years old!" Matthau exclaimed, "How am I supposed to lead an army?" He was very frightened. He didn't even want to go to war with other Humans, much less the spawn of Satan.
"You won't be seventeen by the time that I'm done training you," Hekkala commented. He then hesitated and sighed slightly, before continuing, "You will want to be seated for this," motioning to the overturned chair. Matthau was not going to sit. He felt no desire to listen to this son of a bitch any longer. But then Matthau realized the somber, sorrowful look in those blood-red eyes, and then slowly reached down to pick up the chair, and sat.
"You asked me," Hekkala began, "what happened to your father..." Matthau could see real pain in those deep, blood-red eyes, and feared the worst. "Matthau... your father..." This man, this... Demon, clearly felt Human emotion, because he was visibly struggling with the words that Matthau would hear for the rest of his life. He would hear every inflection, every single syllable as clearly as he did now. These words would haunt his dreams forever... "He's dead Matthau... He died in the crash. A shard of metal penetrated his eye, and punctured his brain. He died instantly..."
Matthau was bewildered. His entire life, or at least what was left of it, was changed, altered, morphed into a horrific, walking, living, breathing nightmare. First, his mother died in the fire that took away everything he had except for his father. And just when things were finally beginning to come into some kind of normalcy, his father was taken from him as well. The world that he had lived in, that had made him who he was, was crushing him with the weight of this horror that he would now call his life.
Hekkala began, "I know that this is a lot to take in-"
"Can you just... leave me alone for a while..."
"Yes, of course." The man - the Demon, rose from his chair and walked into another room.
“What did I do? Why did you take them from me? How could I deserve this? How could anyone deserve to have all the substance in their life taken from them?”

Tears began to roll down Matthau's face, but then he heard a voice, from his memories, his father's voice, reciting an old quote, "'God uses suffering as a whetstone, to make men sharp with'”

“My life is going to be so different now. Without Dad here, what am I supposed to do?”

Then Matthau thought about how his father had lived. How he strove to set an example. Never in Matthau's lifetime had he seen his father smoke or drink, and only rarely did he hear him swear. His father had lived to set an example for him, and he was going to live to emulate that example.
For what seemed like forever, he sat alone with his thoughts and his memories; playing baseball with his father during the summer, watching the Thanksgiving football game and the Super Bowl, betting on who would win, and eating those delicious nachos his father would always make. He remembered when he brought home his first girlfriend, and his father kept his thoughts to himself until after she left. Even then, he let Matthau learn it on his own; suggested, but never outright said what Matthau couldn't be taught, but had to learn. Matthau did not know how long he sat. There was no clock, and his watch must have broken in the crash, but Matthau guessed that it must have been hours.
Hekkala eventually came back in - after ensuring it was permissible to do so - and said, "I'm very sorry about your father, if there was anything I could have-"
"Stop," Matthau began, somberly, "Mourning will get us nowhere. And, as my dad used to say, 'The cyclone derives its power from a calm center. So does a person.'"
"Norman Vincent Peale. Was your father well-educated?"
“Yes, he taught English at a few different private colleges, depending on the time. He picked up plenty of quotes throughout the years. But, right now, I want to know what is going to happen, not what happened. What am I going to do? Where am I going to go?
"It's good that you are being calm, Matthau," Hekkala began, "You will do great things. As for where you will go, you and I shall stay here for the time being, but eventually we shall have to go far from here."
"Won't they send out a search party?" Matthau asked, "And where is here, anyway?"
"They won’t send a search party. As of now, Matthau, you are officially dead. As soon as I turned to pull your father’s body out of the car, it exploded violently. They will find your father’s body, and, knowing that you were also in the car, will assume that you also died when you do not return home. And even if they did, we are out in the countryside, in a very discrete location where they would never find us.”
"How will we get food? We can live off the land for a while, but we surely can't spend all day hunting rabbits if you're supposed to be training me. And we will eventually need more fuel for the stove."
"You certainly are a clever boy. As for food, hunting will be a part of your training, so we will spend much time hunting, and there are other, larger animals in these woods than rabbits. And as for the stove," Hekkala lifted up his hand and fire grew from his fingertips, "I am a Demon, remember?"
Matthau stared in awe and disbelief, and then asked, "How did you do that? Can you teach me that?"
"Patience, poika," Hekkala replied, "It is late, and you shall need rest for the day ahead of you. You will be sleeping in that room over there," motioning towards a door behind Matthau, and continued, "and I will be in there if you need me," gesturing towards the room he had been in earlier. "Be sure to get plenty of rest, poika. You will need it. Tomorrow, we begin your training."
Hekkala stood and went back into the room that he would sleep in. Matthau took that as his cue to