Summer of the Lake House

Summer of the Lake House


Chapter Eleven: Changes Abound, Everything's Upside Down

A/N: I had fun with this chapter so I hope you all like. A new character is introduced (sort of), we get Lucifer's POV and the return of Melek Taus. And thanx to all the happy reviewers, you keep these fingers typing. ^____^

archie187: Lol, yeah, I thought it was funny to, payback is a bitch, eh? And yes, Tyler will meet up with the others again but not for a while.
Anon: Well, your questions are gonna be answered in this chapter so I wont ruin it for you ^_^ Thanx for the compliment.
Anon/Lady Layla?: I'm not sure which one your name was but glad to know you liked my writing so much, it's very encouraging, and yes, I'm flattered. Hope you have luck with your stories ^__^ Oh, and I'm not a young man, that made me smile, but I guess since all I write about are guys it's hard to tell. But, for the record, I'm female. 20 years old, so still young. Heh heh.
Madlodger: Yeah, Lucie's stressed, he's got a tough job. But I sort of imagined he found Tyler attractive all along but wouldn't admit it because he's a slave. He's a bit of a prick. I never really thought of that as payback for what he did to Amenci until I read your review and then I was like 'heeey, s/he's right, it IS like a punishment'. And Happy New Year to you too.
Magalina: I feel sorry for Tyler, he's such a nice guy and Lucifer's such and ass. But he wont be getting out of there for awhile. *sigh* Well, here's your update. Enjoy.
GinnyYvette: Yeah, Tyler, Raven and Jamie are my favorites, I think. It's hard to choose. And yeah, I think Tyler may be doing a bit of taming in the future. We'll see.

Tyler's POV:


I couldn't help laughing, I didn't want to laugh because I knew I would pay dearly for later it but it was impossible not to. He was just sitting out there and muttering to himself like a crazy person.

Time was hard to measure without the sun but I think it had been about three days since the incident. I absolutely refused to leave the safety of the bedroom but I knew it wouldn't be long before I had no choice in the matter, my body was weakening hour by hour. Three day's without food or water and I was nearly ready to call it quits. My skin felt tight, my lips were dry and chapped and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, it hurt. And on top of that my stomach felt like it was caving in on me, I could hardly move without it cramping up painfully.

My only source of entertainment was Lucifer. He was a blast and I was only able to stay in that room half as long as I did because of him, ironically enough. He hardly left the door for the whole three days I was in there and tried every method possible to get me out, from threats to promises.

It was funny in a sick sort of way to listen to him as he promised not to hurt me one minute and then threatened to kill me the next. He was so flustered but I guess he had never had a slave, or anyone for that matter, disregard or disobey him like I had and I took way to much pleasure out of that fact. It was my small way of paying him back for what he had tried to do to me.

I heard Lucifer lean against the door and his voice filled the silent room. “Are you laughing at me, slave?”

On the other side of the door I sat, leaning exhausted against the cool wood. “Yeah, I'm laughing at you.” A moment later the solid wood shuddered as Lucifer's fist smashed against it. I chuckled weakly and neither of us spoke up for a long time until I broke the silence. “Lucifer,” I said, rebelling slightly as I called him by his name instead of 'master' as he wanted. “I wanna come out.”

I could practically hear him cheering. When he spoke it was smug and patronizing, “Do you now?”

“Oh, shut up,” I muttered, banging my head against the door, “I just want to come out without getting the shit beaten out of me, is that to much to ask?”

A loud, mocking laugh was my answer. Lucifer knew he had me, all he had to do was wait. “Trying to bargain in your position, I've never known anybody so bold. You disobey me, physically assault me and then bar me from my own room and still you try to act like you are in charge.”

“And what did you do to me,” I shouted. “You have no right to act all high and mighty when you were the one that started this shit! I followed your stupid rules, I did what you told me every second of every day and I didn't ask a fucking thing in return, all I ever did was try to make the best out of a crap situation! You were the one who tried to make me your bitch, what the hell was I supposed to do, just sit there and take it?”

There was no answer.

I was so frustrated, I wanted to reach through the door and beat the stubborn bastards head against it until he passed out. Instead I settled for punching the door, it didn't really solve anything and it didn't quite have the impact that Lucifer's had...but it made me feel a bit better, even if my hand throbbed painfully afterwards. “ANSWER ME!” I screamed. “Why the hell are you doing this? I had the right to defend myself!”

“Slaves don't have any rights,” Lucifer replied quietly but firmly.

My eyes burned. It wasn't fair that he was allowed to do this, he was allowed to do anything he wanted and I had to bear the consequences. “Why are you doing this,” I asked desperately, “what have I done to make you hate me so much?”

“I don't hate you.” I almost felt a twinge of hope when he said that. Almost. “Your not worth hating,” he said, and the worst part was he didn't even say it spitefully. It was just a fact...I wasn't worth it.

The tears I had tried to keep in slowly spilled down my cheeks. That was it for me, I was so tired of it all. I was thirsty and hungry and I just wanted it to be done, even if he beat me and cut off my legs or whatever, I just wanted to get it over with.

I carefully stood up, trying to keep my legs steady, and undid the heavy lock barring the door. It made a loud noise as it clicked into place and I made my way across the room to sit on the edge of the bed and wait for the inevitable.

It didn't take long. It seemed to happen in slow motion, the door was pushed open and Lucifer's powerful figure entered the room. He certainly didn't look as if he had been standing outside of any room for three days and had gotten smashed in the face with a bottle. He was as perfectly groomed and poised as ever. His clothes were fresh, his hair was glossy and done up, he had on new jewelery, meanwhile, I looked like death warmed over. Lucifer was striking, as usual, but the sight of his cold face sent a chill through my body. He was angry.

I didn't want that anger directed at me and slowly backed away, pulling my legs up onto the bed.

Pitch black eye's glared into my own, staring me down the way a snake stares down a mouse, and I couldn't look away. He got closer and closer to me, moving with long, definite strides. I backed away until I felt the headboard against my back and I couldn't help but feel as if I was about to die.

“I didn't do anything wrong,” I protested weakly, shrinking away as he walked around the bed.

He scowled. “Boy, you struck me. You made me bleed. Do you know what happens to slaves who attack their Masters?” I shook my head, feeling my composure slowly breaking down. “Than let me show you,” he responded, reaching behind him and pulling out a wicked looking knife from his belt. It wasn't a cheap, showy knife by any means, this knife was a killer. I took one look at the six inches of gleaming, serrated metal and freaked out.

As weak as I was I found the strength to roll off the opposite side of the bed and make a dash for the door. Lucifer lunged, reaching out to grab me as I passed him. His nails scrapped across my arm, leaving painful scratches but I didn't slow down, nearly flying at the open door. I made it out and into the living room. I didn't even have time to celebrate the fact that I got as far as I did because a moment later I was yanked backwards by a strong arm around my middle.

The opposing forces of my running forward and the arm pulling me back knocked the wind out of me. A loud sob escaped me as I was pressed against Lucifer's hard chest and he brought the other hand around to press the cold blade of the knife against my throat.

Hot breath drifted across my exposed neck and Lucifer's deep voice snarled into my ear, “You will regret ever defying me, slave!” My breath came in short, desperate gasps as he let the tip of the knife drift over my skin, traveling agonizingly slowly across my collarbone and across my shoulder until it rested ominously against my left bicep. With a sickening certainty I knew what he meant to do with that knife.

“No,” I cried out, “don't do that! Please, I didn't mean to, please, Master. Please! I'm sorry.”

“I made you a promise the first day you came to me. I'm taking this arm and maybe you will think twice next time you choose to oppose me,” he said finally and wrenched the knife across my arm.

I shrieked, kicking out wildly as the sharp teeth bit deep into my arm, bucking and flailing as much as I could manage in Lucifer iron grip. The limb twitched wildly and fire seemed to bleed into my arm, traveling through my entire body. It was agony. Lucifer paid no mind to my begging and cut deeper with that terrible blade.

When the pain became to much I stopped screaming, my breath caught in my throat and my face was frozen in a panicked mask of pain. I couldn't breath, my body was twitching with the pain, it was like I was frozen in the moment, unable to make it stop.

I was certain I was dead and witnessing the last moments of my life when I felt a horrible tug in my navel, like a powerful hunger spasm. My eyes rounded in pure shock and I twitched sharply backwards. It must have been a strong spasm because I felt Lucifer stumble behind me and the blade stop in mid-saw. The tug happened again and a strange pulse went through me, like an electric shock without the pain and it seemed like every hair on my body was standing on end.

My insides were shrinking and shriveling inside me. I was dying, slowly decaying from the inside out but at the same time I was being filled with a strength and power unlike anything I had ever known before. How could I feel so great but so terrible at the same time?

I noticed vaguely that the pain in my arm didn't seem so bad anymore and when the next tug happened I was able to breath, drawing in a trembling gasp of air and sagging weakly against Lucifer who seemed to have abandoned his plans to saw off my arm. The knife was laying uselessly on the ground by that time.

I looked down in a daze at my arm and noted with an absent sort of surprise that the flesh was slowly knitting itself together. I would have been more surprised if only it wasn't for the relentless, gnawing hunger eating away at my insides. I needed to eat, to consume. I was so hungry. It was a deep, unrelenting hunger and I somehow knew that it would never stop, I could eat entire crops and still want more.

That was the only thing on my mind.

Without a thought I pulled away from Lucifer's weak hold on me and turned to face him. He was wearing a strange expression on his face, shock, horror, surprise and a strange mix of joy. I didn't care.

“I'm hungry,” I declared weakly, “I have to eat.”

The last thing I saw before my vision tunneled in on me was Lucifer's shocked face.


Lucifer's POV:


I couldn't believe my eye's. The changes in the human, how he had looked like an emaciated skeleton for that brief moment, the caved in stomach and hollow, hungry eyes. His words. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be. But I had felt the power radiating from him and I would know it anywhere, though it had been to long since I had felt it.

It was with a mix of fear and elation that I fell to my knees before the fallen human and placed my shaking hand on his thin chest. I let it rest for a moment, feeling the gentle rise and fall of his breathing before probing in, using my senses to find what I knew already was there.

There it was. A small presence but a bright one that was, even as I watched on, entwining itself with the humans own essence, melding them together. It was happening fast, brought on by the need to keep it's hosts body alive and well while it grew. It was there, small but alive, the spirit of Aethon, God of Famine and Hunger. [1]

I'll admit I had never been this utterly floored before. My hand was shaking and I quite suddenly felt like the biggest fool in the world. This was Aethon, a legend among the Black Order, and I had tried to mutilate his host's body. How could I have been so blind or so stupid. He was my friend and I had almost ruined him.

I silently called out to Melek Taus. He was the only one I could trust with this information and the only one I had faith in. I knew Death's locket had gone missing but nobody knew who, if anybody, had taken it, and those people who cared didn't honestly think the barriers on it could be broken. But against all odds he had done it, escaping and resurrecting one of his most powerful Horsemen in the body of this human. [2] I honestly didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It had been a long time, so long Death's true name had been forgotten and my memories of him were nearly wiped away by time, but I remembered his legend well.

I knelt a long time over the humans body waiting for Melek Taus. I couldn't stop staring at him, mapping every feature of his face and body. How could this human hold such a powerful force in him? This slave?

Suddenly everything had changed.

A knock sounded at the door, breaking me out of my thoughts and a moment later Taus appeared, striding flamboyantly into my home. I winced at the sight of him. I loved Taus but sometimes he was to much, even for me.

He smiled uneasily at me and I could see him taking in the situation. Suddenly I didn't only feel stupid, I felt like a cruel bastard as well. It looked bad, I knew that. The human was in a bad way, bruised, starved, dehydrated, and exhausted. I had never cared what anyone thought of me but when I saw the disappointment in Taus' eye's I had the strongest urge to explain myself. I knew he could see the guilt in my face.

“What happened here,” Taus murmured, kneeling next to the human and shoving me aside, “what have you done to him?”

“I- ...I don't know. Everything got out of hand. It was my fault. But that's not why I called you. I found something your not going to believe.” He gave me a questioning look. Rather than tell him I put his hands on the humans thin chest. “Search. Tell me what you find.”

Taus gave me a strange look and turned his attention to the human. I watched him search for a moment, his brow furrowed in concentration and I knew the moment he found it. His face opened up in a perfect mask of shock, he stayed longer than I had, lip quivering when it became to much. When he managed to tear himself away his eye's slowly opened and locked with mine, he looked close to tears. “I don't believe it. After all this time...I thought they were lost forever.”

“We have to find out who took the locket in the first place. Someone powerful enough to release Him couldn't have vanished unnoticed.” My mind was already going into overdrive, trying to make sense of all I had discovered. “It was one of the Light Gods, we would have heard something about it if it wasn't.”

“Lucie,” said Taus, “there can't be only one. He had three other Horsemen, they're out there somewhere.” He smiled brightly, looking positively ecstatic. “I never thought I would see this day.”

It was impossible not to smile back. “Yes. And you are the only one I could trust with this, you mustn't tell anybody, if the Light knew they would hunt him down.” Taus nodded in agreement.

“Of course the human can't go back to being a mere slave. I'll find him some proper clothes and get him something to eat. You have to find Raven, he probably set this whole damn thing in motion, if I know him. When the human is a bit better I'll begin hunting around, see if I can find who took the locket in the first place. Now get, we don't have much time before He begins to act. We have to be ready.”

I couldn't help but blink in surprise. Obviously Taus had decided to take control of the situation. I chuckled, “What are you planning, Taus.” I had a sneaking suspicion I already knew.

Taus' golden face twisted into a darkly sinister grin. “Were going to help Death. From the inside. He means to take back his power and ours and I mean to help him.”

I laughed. Things were about to change.






[1] Q: How hard was it to find the name of a Famine God? A:Very hard. Holy crap, I searched for a loooong time before I found one (and even then there were no details about it) so if the character I'm making Famine out to be has nothing to do with the actual god, I apologize.


[2] I'm messing around a bit with the idea of the Four Horsemen, it's not going to be exactly the same as in revelations and all that but it's basically the same concept.


A/N: Wheeee. I actually liked this chapter but it was hard as heck to write , especially Lucifer's POV, but I think I got his personality alright. Next chapter we're gonna be checking up on Dion and the rest of them. And remember, Review Review Review, feedback is good.