I felt true fear when the dark winged man faced me with blood red eyes. I was staring true evil right in the eye. It was the first time I truly feared what was in store for my eternity.

“There you are,” he said as he moved closer. I had to fight the urge to keep my distance so despite the growing panic I held myself firm as he neared.

The heat emanating from him felt overwhelming and it was difficult to draw a breath.

“So you are the one we have been waiting for?” he whispered, his voice seemed to wrap around me and stifle off the air around me. “You can’t fight death.”

I didn’t bother to say anything, for fear it would antagonize him and I was in a very precarious position already.

“It was my actions that led to this,” my father said.

“She made her choice,” the dark winged man argued with a glare to my father, who shrank away.

I had hated my father for so many years for what he done so I was more than surprised to feel for my father. It made no sense, he had done this to himself. I had been collateral damage.

The demon looking man took another step closer as he studied me, with a cruel smile. Whatever this guy had in store for me, would not be good. In fact I was convinced it would involve a lot more pain than I had ever experienced. I had always been strong, facing every obstacle with some hope but I had none now.

How could I be held responsible for a choice I had made at such a young age? There wasn’t any fairness in that. But then life wasn’t fair. If it was would I have been forced to live the last seven years without a family. As much as I loved my grandmother, she wasn’t my mother, or my father, or my sister.

There were only a few times I had allowed myself to think back to moments before the accident, to try and figure out if there had been any signs in my father that could have foretold the tragic events that had followed.

“I will give you anything, Azael,” my father whispered. A desperation in his voice that made me look over at him.

“You dare speak my name,” Azael said angrily, twisting around to set his blood colored eyes on my father who seemed to shrink further away.

“Please,” my father begged, dropped slowly to bended knees.

Azael studied my father for a few tense moments before he moved to stand in front of my father who was still on his knees.

I watched as the my father begged for me and it brought back all the memories of love and laughter I had suppressed for so long. It had been for my own survival I had only embraced the negative memories to be able to hate him. It had been easier to deal with than the complication of loving a man who had tried to kill me.

“You don’t have anything to give.”

“All I am is what is before you.” Fear shook my father’s voice and I stepped forward.

Azael swung back to me and I halted. I wasn’t brave enough to interfere or to try and stop him.

I swallowed, but my throat felt so dry and scratching, like the air was burning the skin inside with each breath.

I felt like the biggest coward. I had never back down before, no matter what Damien had thrown at me but this was different. There was a true evilness in this being, that I hadn’t seen in Damien, despite some of his cruel actions.

Maybe it was because Damien had been my guardian angel that there had been some good had remained in him.

But he had betrayed me. Had anything that had transpired between us been true? He hadn’t been able to kill me. Had that been a ploy to play me in a game I had been out maneuvered in? I would never know the truth. And did it matter?

I had bigger problems than what Damien had done to me.

“I’m..w-willing..” My father stuttered nervously. “To become a demon.”

I frowned as a smile spread across Azael’s face. “Really?” He almost seemed excited by the prospect.

I had hated my father for so long, it almost felt second nature so I was surprised to feel like there was something very wrong in this. I had no idea what the difference was between what my father was here in hell and the role a demon would play, or what that would entail.

The only interaction I had ever had with a demon, had been with Damien but I had a sinking feeling that it would be far worse here.

“You would be willing to torment others for eternity?” Azael studied him with greedy anticipation.

My horror grew as my father nodded his head slowly. Maybe the old me, the younger one with wounds still fresh would have remained silent as my father bartered his eternity for me but I couldn’t do it now.

Something had changed. Maybe it had been the complexity of dealing with Damien. At first he had only been an evil to resist but there had been good in him. I still couldn’t accept that he had pretended to be good, maybe that was naive of me even it was simpler to write him off as pure evil. It was in the same way I couldn’t now only view my father as someone who had done something evil.

Even if I didn’t want to admit it there had been signs before the accident. In hindsight, I saw them. He had been struggling. Maybe if someone had noticed things might have turned out different.

He wasn’t a bad man, he had just done a bad thing. One bad thing, didn’t erase everything. It didn't erase the affection or protectiveness he had shown me. He had taught me to ride my bicycle, beaming at me with pride when I had succeeded. It was that man I remembered now.

“You would be willing to feel exhilaration in the suffering of others?” Azael continued to question my father, knowing he would agree to anything the dark winged being propositioned.

The more he described what it would entail for my father, the more I resisted the need to remain silent. I couldn’t allow my father to do this. Even if it saved me.

I couldn’t not allow him to sacrifice himself for me. I could not live with the guilt of what that would mean for him. For every moment I was free, my father wouldn’t be.

“No,” I whispered, not feeling as confident as speaking up while Azael seemed to be focussed in a dark gleefulness at my father’s sacrifice.

“You would be willing to do that for her?” Azael continued to question like I hadn’t said anything.

If I was going to stop this I had to be brave. I would have to speak up more loudly despite the fear that kept me frozen in place. If I didn’t do it now my father would sacrifice himself for me. Even with the notion that his action had led to such suffering I could not allow this to happen.

It was wrong. I had made my own choice, I would be responsible for it.

It made looking back on the last seven years with a different view point. Instead of feeling anger and betrayal at what I had endured I felt a peaceful acceptance that I had gotten what I had deserved. I’d been given a choice, a choice to live without my family or die with them. I had not been strong enough. It was the weakness in me that couldn’t imagine living a day without them. That had led me to the choice of giving up and sealing my fate.

It lessened the anger toward the demon who had made things hard for the last seven years. It also lessened the hate that Damien had tricked me. I deserved this.

I cleared my dry throat as Azael continued to smile with evil intent at my submissive father.

“No.” This time I spoke more clearly even with the fear of repercussion from the Azael.

I stood bravely, not giving into the urge to try and hide, driven by the instinct for survival.

Azael turned slowly to face me. His face taunt with anger. This was not going to be good but I faced him with all the courage I had.