The Devil's Apprentice by Patrick Stewart (polar express read aloud TXT) 📕

“Calligraphy?”

Alex shrugged. “Not any language I recognise.” Which wasn’t saying much. He wasn’t exactly a connoisseur of languages. Although it did look somewhat like Arabic. The lines were longer, curvier and the dots, when he squinted, he could see additional carvings within every dot.

“The weapons of the first…” Alex muttered.

Karen raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“What?”

“You said something. The first weapon?”

“I did?”

Karen nodded.

Alex shrugged his shoulders. He did recall his lips moving, but the words he’d spoken, he couldn’t remember what they were. He tugged gently at the golden rings. The wardrobe doors parted. Inside was a collection of weapons.

There were daggers, chainmail, a helmet, armguards. There was a longsword too. The metal was a dull grey, but the edges seemed sharp. The cross guard was brown as was the grip. It looked old and worn out. So why did he find it appealing?

Alex grabbed the grip of the longsword and lifted it up. It was heavy, but almost instantly, the weight seemed to dissipate. The edges gleamed as he slashed it across thin air.

“I think I’ve found my weapon,” Alex said softly.

* * *

The sun had set when Karen parked her Lamborghini by the side of the road. To the left were terraced houses that had seen better days. The walls were chipped and the front lawns overgrown. Some had boarded up windows. Light shone out from a few. Not a great street to live on.

On the right side was the garage. It was surrounded by a steel fence. The gate was open though. So was the blue door of the whitewashed brick building. There were banging sounds coming from inside. Voices too.

The enormous sword rested on Alex’s lap sheathed in a black leather scabbard. The anger he’d felt when he’d first heard of what had happened to Jessica, what her boyfriend had done, it was still there. But now so was doubt. Was this the right thing to do, to march in there were a fucking sword?

Alex remembered his first ever fight. He was eight years old. The other kid was seven. Alex still got his ass handed to him. By a younger kid. An admittedly ugly and oversized younger kid.

Karen placed a hand on his leg. Her fingertips brushed against his cock below. “You’ll be fine.”

Alex wasn’t sure about that. Kevin, Josh, Trevor and Gary - what if all four of them were in there? He was armed with a sword. Sure, it looked impressive, but no more so than something hanging in a museum.

“I’ve never used a sword before,” he mumbled.

“It’s simple. Just swing it, aim for the head, or any other body part would do too.”

Alex stared at her. “Aim for the head? I’m not going to kill them.”

Karen smiled sweetly before leaning over to open the door. “Try to enjoy it,” she said, as she ushered him out of the car.

Try to enjoy it? Crazy bitch, Alex thought. He walked past the gate. His hand trembled as it clung onto the sword. Fuck, he was nervous. Inside the garage, he spotted a guy underneath a jacked-up red car. Alex approached him, the longsword still in the scabbard, he held it by the grip. The point trailed along the rough floor. Alex felt like a murderer from a horror movie.

Karen, Mark and the other Demon Hunters carried their weapons with them at all times. They pulled them out from what could only be described as a magical space near their waists. Maybe that was what it was? Magic?

Alex noticed the straps attached to the scabbard. He fastened it around his waist just as the man under the car slid out.

“The fuck is that?” he asked, staring at the sheathed sword.

“It’s a- you can see it?”

“That massive sword you’ve got tied round your waist in the leather scabbard?” the guy asked incredulously. “Yes, I can fucking see it.”

“Oh… the other Demon Hunter’s weapons are hidden… I thought this would be too,” he mumbled.

“The fuck are you talking about?” the guy asked, and before Alex could think of an elaborate lie to tell, he shook his head, annoyed. “What do you want, man?”

“Kevin? Is he about?”

The guy pointed with his spanner towards the right corner before sliding back under the red car. It was a small office. One of those modular ones made of long cream panels and large windows. Alex spotted him instantly. He was sitting on the leather sofa, a massive flat screen before him, he was playing a shoot-em-up game.

On his way there, Alex passed two guys standing over a motorbike. That made four. Kevin, Josh, Gary and Trevor? He’d lost his first ever fight with a kid younger than him. His second fight, Mark almost killed him. Sure, he’d kicked an angel’s ass, but that angel didn’t seem tough. It was more concerned about making threats then doing the damage himself.

There were four of them here.

Scarlett.

He hadn’t exactly defeated her in battle, but with the voice in his head, he’d done well against her. Alex smiled. He’d never thought he’d miss the voice. As annoying a fucker as it was, he could have done with some of the power surging through his body that the voice brought with it.

Alex knocked on the office door. Immediately, he felt stupid for doing it. He was here to teach the guy a lesson for raping Jessica. Why the fuck was he knocking on the door? He pushed it open and stepped inside.

The controller in hand, Kevin looked up. Alex had only briefly met the guy a couple of times, but he knew it was him. He still had the long black hair tied back in a ponytail. But like an idiot, he asked anyway.

“Kevin?”

“Yeah. What do you want?” Kevin asked,