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Post by Liana on Jul 5, 2009 1:34:08 GMT -4
Having damaged her body to the point where it wouldn't survive without her, Liana had had to work some serious mojo to keep the body running long enough for her to go to hell, pull Harper out, and then reclaim her body. Serious mojo. But she had done it, and left her body in a stolen car next to where she'd buried Harper. She figured waking up in a grave, completely alone, would be slightly terrifying.
And then she'd left her body and gone to hell.
Which turned out to be the easy part.
But once through the entrance to hell, Liana had to locate Harper and Hell was a big place, with millions upon millions of racks of tortured souls. And with each one she passed, she remembered that Harper was one of them and he'd been here for the Hell equivalent of 5 years, which, although not the longest sentence ever served, was more than long enough.
She stopped looking. This was ridiculous there were just too many souls in here. But she had to find him. Both for his sake and hers. She didn't fancy retaking her place on the rack.
With one last frantic look around her, checking each tortured face twice to make sure it wasn't Harper she gathered her breath and let out a loud, demonic cry.
"HARPER!"
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Post by Harper Benedict on Jul 5, 2009 2:19:34 GMT -4
Life had not been easy for Harper though it had not been bad either but his death...his death was hell...literally. When he had made his chocie to have Liana kill him and rid the world and the angels and demons equally of him he had grasped all be it loosely on the angel's words who had tried to kill him that if he had die he would go to heaven...he knew it was a long reach but even as Liana had placed her lips against his and he had gripped onto her waste his entire body tensing the moment before his life...his death exploded in a bright light of pain and nothingness.
Then there were the screams.
The screams which seemed to rip your soul clean from your body and make the run that would have run through your veins run cold had you been alive. It took Harper several pain stacking moments to realize the scream he heard was his own. Heaven had been out of his reach...far out of his reach as the hooks which pierced into his body to hold him in place clearly showed him. After that his complete existence had been a cluster of blood, sweat, screams, and total encompassing agony.
Time in hell was a new torture all its own; there was no stopping and starting no true rest no calm what so ever only the violent torture and the agonizing waiting until the whole process would start over again.
Harper had never known true pain in his life; he had felt pain when he had lost his mother and brother and he had thought no pain could be worse then that...he was mistaken. Even the pain he had suffered through his last days on earth could not prepare him for the agony of hell. It was something all of its own.
He had been thrown on the rack and his body and soul torn into and sliced apart like he had never known was possible and then in a blink of the eye he was whole once more and the whole process was started once again. He would have thought his voice would have run out from screaming or that he would simply cease to be any longer but he hadn't day after day...week after week...month after month...and year after year...5 years to be exact. The only way he had been able to tell was he had kept count of each and every time the demon torturing him offered him the chance to pull himself down and torture souls himself...losing himself entirely...and Harper had kept count of how many times he had refused to give them the satisfaction of having him entirely.
He tried to focus on things he knew so that he wouldn't lose them and so that he would have something...anything to get him through the pain. His mother and father, his brother, his boat, the feel of the ocean and the smell of the crisp air...the feel of her soft lips against his...how it felt to be so near to her moments before his death...but the memories of Liana were used against him by her fellow demons as several times they opted to take her form as they ripped and tore into him making the torture even more painful.
Harper had just told the demon "no" once more when he heard a voice which caused him to shudder. It was her voice...her vocie calling his name and Harper shuddered as he attempted to pull himself away from the rack he was chained to in a feeble attempt to curl himself into a ball if it was even possible.
"HARPER!"
"Leave her out of this..." Harper muttered his vocie cracking slightly his eyes feverishly scanning the area around him in a panic.
"LEAVE HER OUT OF IT!"
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Post by Liana on Jul 5, 2009 2:48:31 GMT -4
Liana was so closed to giving up she could almost feel herself being pulled onto the rack. And then she heard his voice.
"LEAVE HER OUT OF IT!"
"Harper..." she whispered, the relief evident in her voice. She moved as quickly as she could in the direction she heard his voice coming from. Her eyes searching every rack, every face. Until she found him.
She smiled, although to any on looker it may not have looked like a smile, but a smile it was. He was okay... or at least as okay as anyone could be in hell. He hadn't given in at least, and that was the important thing. She couldn't see the demon assigned to torture him so she deemed it safe to go over to him, tracing the side of his face lightly, having forgotten, momentarily, that she didn't look the way he was used to.
"You," came a harsh voice from behind her. "Back away from that soul, bitch, he's not yours."
Liana turned to face the demon, of course, it had to be him didn't it? She'd never liked him.
"Milton, Milton, Milton," she said, trying to keep the resentment out of her voice. "That's where you're wrong. You see, he is mine, so if you could just let him down from the rack, it'd be much appreciated."
The other demons face twisted into something that could possibly be deemed a smirk. "Ain't gonna happen, sweetheart."
Liana sighed. "I thought you'd say something like that."
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Post by Harper Benedict on Jul 5, 2009 3:07:45 GMT -4
Harper's breath had gone ragged the heated air scorching his lungs with every panicked breath he took into his body as he silently prayed not to hear her vocie again yet his mind and body yearning to hear it again even if he knew it wasn't real. She wasn't there and would never be; but he was and would always be and that was simply the hand fate had dealt him. It was funny in a sadistic sort of way he had been such a "threat" while he was alive and when he was dead he had simply been discarded...tossed away with the trash the threat forgotten and his soul in agony surronded by so many others.
Harper hadn't realized he had clenched his eyes shut and his vocie simply whispered the same words over and over again.
"Don't use her...please don't," Harper whispered. The sessions they used Liana against him were the worst and he was terrified he couldn't handle it once more.
Harper's eyes shot open as he felt the sensation of someone tracing the side of his face lightly. The touch was soft...not harsh and not violent it was definetly a touch he had not felt in over 5 years and his body stiffened in response as he waited for the blows to come; the slicing and tearing and the pain...pain which never seemed to come.
"You...Back away from that soul, bitch, he's not yours!"
Harper's eyes widened and his entire body seemed to tremble as the familair and harsh voice filled the air around him as his torturer in hell seemingly returned out of nowhere stealing away the one calming sensation he had reacieved in hell.
Harper's eyes snapped from one demon to the other as his panic grew ten fold as well as his confusion in regards to the entire situation. The 2 demons were fighting over his soul and Harper could do nothing but wish he could sink away without a word and belong to himself once again. The voice of the other demon though drove threw him each and every time as it still held her vocie and Harper knew whatever torture either one of the dmeons held for him would not be of any good to him. He needed to remember he was in hell there was no salvation here.
The color seemingly drained completely from Harper's face as Milton spoke once more the mer voice of the demon sending terror and agony crashing through Harper.
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Post by Liana on Jul 5, 2009 3:28:17 GMT -4
Moving quickly, Liana grabbed Milton by, what she supposed was, his throat and slammed him into the rack behind him, the soul on it crying out in fright.
"Listen, jerkoff," she said fiercely. "I know you don't like me, and I despise you, but one way or another I'm going to get what I came for. And when I do, you won't see me anywhere near here again. So it's really in your best interests to let him go. Now."
The other demon merely laughed at her before gripping her shoulders tightly and throwing her off him. She landed at Harper's feet and looked up at him, chained to the rack, and any pain she felt was immediately eclipsed by her rage. There was no way this pitiful excuse for a demon was going to keep her from taking Harper away from here. She struggled to her feet and glared at Milton who looked at her with what could only be described as malicious glee.
"Let. Him. Go," she growled.
Milton tilted his head to the side. "I've waited a long time for you to be put at my mercy, darlin'," he said, looking her over. And then he was right in front of her, his hand crushing her throat. She pulled at his hand, trying to loosen his grip but all she could do was choke loudly at him as he leaned closer to her ear. "Looks like dreams do come true." he whispered.
Her vision started to go black. Lilith had known this would happen, had known who it was that worked on Harper. Liana wouldn't even get a chance to return to the rack, Milton was going to kill her. She couldn't even fight him off, and why should she try? What was the point?
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Post by Harper Benedict on Jul 6, 2009 1:23:30 GMT -4
Harper tried as best as he could to keep track of what was going on in front of him but so far he was doing a terrible job at it all because he had no idea what either demon was talking about but he was beginning to see that the new demon...the one that continued to sound like Liana may have bee the better of the 2 evils though it would have to give up on its quest of using Liana against him.
"I've waited a long time for you to be put at my mercy, darlin'."
Ity was that simple statement that for the first time since the new demon had arrived that Harper thought that whoever this newcomer was maybe she truley did want to help him...and she was now going to die for her efforts.
Harper yanked an dpulled at the chains which held him to the rack; since the deomns attention was currently not on him it made struggeling a bit easier since a good part of being held in hell was all about what high level demon they hired to make your after life a living hell...literally. But even with the demons attention off of him the chains still held him securely to the rack and Harper knew there was only 1 way to get off so he would have to try something else.
"HEY!" Harper hollered at the demon.
"Aren't you supposed to be doing your job you dickless son of a bitch?! They do hire you for this shit right?! Get your ass back to attempting your piss poor excuse of getting me off this rack," Harper yelled in an attempt to get the demons attention off of the other and abck on him.
"Fuck I should get off the rack just to replace your sorry ass..." Harper added as he continued to add insult to injury try get the upper hand in the hand of the other demon.
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Post by Liana on Jul 6, 2009 1:40:09 GMT -4
"HEY!"
At the sound of Harper's voice, Liana's eyes snapped open. He was the point. She was here to get him out. And as he continued yelling at Milton, she remembered why. Although the swearing was new. She could see the rage building in Milton's face and eventually he tossed her to the side and advanced on Harper.
Liana gasped for breath, touching her throat lightly and wincing at the pain. That had been a close call. And now Milton had his back to her. Rule number one in hell: NEVER turn your back on your enemy.
"Say that again you worthless piece of - " Milton never finished his sentence as Liana had leapt onto his back, wrapped her arms around his head and twisted hard. Snapping his neck instantly. She jumped backwards so he didn't fall on top of her as he fell backwards, and dusted her hands.
"What do you know?" she said, cheerfully. "Dreams do come true."
She looked up at Harper with a satisfied look on her face. "Hows about, you and I get outta here, huh?"
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Post by Harper Benedict on Jul 6, 2009 8:49:13 GMT -4
Harper had continued on with his verbal assult on the demon in hopes that it would grant the other one some sort of reprieve and it wouldn't be murdered for the likes of him.
"Say that again you worthless piece of - "
Harper's eyes locked defiantley with the demon who had turned his attention back on him. The worst he could do was rip Harper to shreds which he had really beein doing for awhile now so it wouldn't be much of a change in the short run.
"Which part? The dickless son of a bitch bit? Or the part where I should replace your sorry ass? I could just say it all again since apparent the heat has friend your brain and made you even more of a dumb fuck then you started off..."
Harper's words cut off as he watched the other demon rip themselves over to Milton and snap his neck without a moments hesistation. Here was hoping he had helped the right demon.
"Hows about, you and I get outta here, huh?"
"I didn't go demon for him and I hate to break it to you I'm not doing it for you either..." Harper explained his voice lackign teh extreme anger it held several moments ago.
"...and stop using her voice....that won't work either your buddies have tried that...over and over again."
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Post by Liana on Jul 6, 2009 9:01:49 GMT -4
Liana stared at Harper in confusion. What was he talking about? Then it hit her.
"...and stop using her voice....that won't work either your buddies have tried that...over and over again."
He had no idea who she was. He thought she was some random demon using her against him... wait a second. She'd been used against him? She drew a small measure of comfort from that fact. It meant he cared enough about her for them to do that... okay, focusing. Hell was not the best place to get all... girly.
"Harper," she said firmly, taking a hold of one of the hooks embedded in his shoulder. "I'm not here to make you 'go demon' as you so eloquently put it. Trust me, that is the last thing I want you to do." She slowly slid the hook out of his shoulder, a sick squelching noise accompanying the action. Funny how solid souls were in the afterlife. "I'm here to get you the fuck out of here."
She looked him in the eye. "And I'm not using any body's voice but mine." She grabbed another hook, this one deep in his leg. "Now, hold still."
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Post by Harper Benedict on Jul 7, 2009 1:18:48 GMT -4
Harper allowed his head to lull slightly to the side as he stared past the demon who was in front of him. It was only a matter of time before another one came his way and picked up where Milton left off but until then the few seconds where he wasn;t bleeding were a welcomed sensation.
"Harper..."
Harper's eyes found the demon once more as it got a string hold on to the hook which had sunk its way into his shoulder. Harper's entire body tensed in anticipation of the pain that would no doubt come. He had learned how to anticipate pain though he was rather surprised the demon who he had saved its life would be his new "partner" in hell but he shouldn't have been surprised.
Harper clenched his eyes closed for a moment as the demon slid the hook out of his shoulder sending jolts of pain ripping through his entire arm but he did a rather fair job of not crying out. He had learned a great deal over the years.
Harper heard the demon mention something about getting him out but it was somethig else which got his attention.
"And I'm not using any body's voice but mine."
Harper stared up at the demon his eyes wide as he processed the words. It couldn't be her; Liana wasn't here she was top side, she had killed him like he asked and he was here and she was up there.
Harper barely flinched as he felt her grip the hook which dug into his leg instead his eyes were wide as they focused on her.
"Liana?..." Harper asked his voice desperate as he stared back at her wanting so much to believe it was her but attempting to hold back as he knew the pain of disappointment would be far greater then anything else they could do to him.
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Post by Liana on Jul 7, 2009 4:03:49 GMT -4
"Liana?..."
Liana stopped what she was doing and turned her attention to Harper, a small smile on her face. "The one and only," she said. Then, thinking back to the human Liana in the car on the surface, she added: "Well... you know what I mean."
She yanked the hook out of his leg as quickly as she could before moving on to the final hook in his side. "So, I notice you picked up a new vocabulary while... fuck me sideways..." she interrupted herself as she stared at the hook that pierced Harper. "This thing goes straight through your goddam stomach." She reached across him and gripped his other side to steady both himself and her. "This may sting a little." She pushed down hard on the hook, forcing it out of him with another sick sound.
All chains and hooks taken care of, Liana helped Harper down from the rack, holding up right. "You okay?" she asked. "Cause the trip back's not exactly going to be easy."
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Post by Harper Benedict on Jul 9, 2009 2:27:19 GMT -4
Harper was too consumed in shock that Liana had come to hell for him that he barely noticed her pull the hook from his leg. That and he had become used to pain it almost seemed as if it was a ntural way of life after 5 years of enduring it.
"So, I notice you picked up a new vocabulary while... fuck me sideways..."
Harper's attention was refocused on Liana as she began to speak once more. He was still very hesitant to admitt that it was truley her. He had to be ver careful with what he admitted to himself and denied to himself.
"he enjoyed his work..." Haroer explained through gritted teeth as Liana forced the last hook from him causing the world to slip out of focus from the pain for a moment before sliding back into clarity as she helped him off of the rack. Harper couldn't stop the trembeling which ran through his entire body as he leaned heavily against Liana. He had been on that rack for 5 years...torn apart time after time and he had resigned himself into the notion that it would never stop but she had come for him.
"You okay? Cause the trip back's not exactly going to be easy."
"Back?" Harper asked his vocie laden with confusion.
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Post by Liana on Jul 9, 2009 3:06:33 GMT -4
"he enjoyed his work..."
"I'll bet he did..." Liana muttered. She looked down at Milton's dead form and couldn't help the satisfied smirk that spread across her face. She really did not like him.
"Back?"
Liana looked at him questioningly as she helped him walk away from the rack and back towards the entrance to hell. "Yes, back," she said. "Why do you think I'm down here in the first place, dummy? A holiday?" She shook her head at him. "I'm taking you back top side... unless you'd rather stay here."
She of course had no intention of leaving Harper in hell... whether he wanted it or not. She was totally done with not having him around and, as a demon, she was accustomed to getting her own way.
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Post by Harper Benedict on Jul 9, 2009 4:21:37 GMT -4
"I'm taking you back top side... unless you'd rather stay here."
The grip Harper had on Liana tightened as she made her way away from the rack and Harper dared to look nowhere but at his bare feet upon the ground. He wanted to be away; to get away as fast as possible but a part of him felt as if it was already too late for that and how exactly did they get out of hell.
"I don't want to stay...but how...I'm dead?" Harper asked as this whole situation slowly became more and more confusing and he didn't wonder if perhaps it was all just a new form of torture and he would have nobody to blame but himself in that instance for believing it.
He still refused to look at Liana or anything else around them; if he could have blocked out the sounds of screams and everything else hell had to offer he would have gladly done that as well but there was no such luck.
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Post by Liana on Jul 9, 2009 4:45:13 GMT -4
"I don't want to stay...but how...I'm dead?"
Liana frowned at that. She knew it wasn't really a problem, but explaining that to Harper was something else. Especially since she didn't quite understand how it worked herself.
"Yes, you're dead," she agreed, nodding. "But... hmm, okay, think of it like this. I'm a demon and every other supernatural creature, scary or otherwise, exists. So is it so difficult to believe that if they exist... if I exist, that you can come back from the dead?"
She wasn't sure if that made any sense at all but it was the best she had. "Just... don't worry about it, it's sorted."
Looking around, Liana realised they were about where they needed to be to get back, so she stepped away from Harper slightly, though still supposting most of his weight, so she could look directly at him.
"Okay, I've never been brought back from the dead before so I can't make any promises on painlessness or any of that," she explained. "But what I can tell you, is that you are going to wake up in a pine box. Stay relaxed or you'll run out of air. It should be relatively easy to break out of, pine's not that strong, and once you've done that, you'll have to dig your way out of your grave. You're not buried that deep so it shouldn't be too difficult. Just push all the dirt to the bottom of your coffin." She looked at him seriously. "You got that?"
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