(POV Shift: Third Person)
The news of Annabelle's open display case fell upon the Enfield house with the weight of a second sentence. The relief from Valak's expulsion evaporated, replaced by frantic, transatlantic panic. Ed Warren, who moments before had been a pillar of icy fury, was now a whirlwind of paternal anxiety. He was in the hallway, shouting into the phone at his assistant, Drew, trying to get details, give instructions, do something, anything, from across the ocean.
"Secure the perimeter! Call Father Michael, tell him to get to the house right now! Don't let Judy into the basement under any circumstances! Do you hear me, Drew?! Under NO circumstances!"
Lorraine, for her part, tried to comfort the Hodgson family, who watched their saviors crumble, their own crisis replaced by a new, distant one. But her calm was a façade. Her hands trembled, her mind projected horrific images of what that doll, a beacon for evil, might be doing in their home, with her daughter nearby. They were trapped. Trapped by geography, by time, by the consequences of a war they thought they had won.
Alex watched everything from his corner in the kitchen. Every panicked word from Ed was a stab at his conscience. Every fearful glance from Lorraine was a mirror of his own failure. His stupid, arrogant kiss seemed like a crime from another century, eclipsed by this new disaster. A disaster he had prophesied. A disaster he, deep down, felt he had caused. Valak was a strategist, he had said. And this move, this attack on the heart of the Warrens' lives, was retaliation. Retaliation for the humiliation they had suffered here. A humiliation he had instigated and carried out.
Guilt was a poison, and it spread through his veins faster than any supernatural cold. Being a spectator to this new torment was worse than any battle. It was a torture of impotence. And Alex, or "ZeroCool_x," had never been good at standing still and watching.
(POV Shift: First Person)
This was my fault.
The thought was as clear and as sharp as broken glass beneath my feet. I couldn't blame a god, or fate, or a curse. I. Did. It. I provoked a prince-level demon. I mocked him. I shot him in the face with bullets from a god's shop. And now, that demon, in its rage, had gone for the one thing the Warrens loved more than anything in the world: their family. Their daughter.
To see Ed, the man I had humiliated, crumble on the phone... to see Lorraine, the woman I had offended, struggle to maintain her composure... it was unbearable. This wasn't the punishment the god had planned. The god wanted me to watch Lorraine die. But this was worse. This was watching their souls unravel from a distance, knowing I had loaded the gun that fired the bullet.
My chat felt it. The tone had shifted from euphoria and analysis to grim understanding.
LaChicaGamer92: Oh, no... this is because of Valak, isn't it? It's revenge... Theorist_Prime: Cause and effect. Newton was right, even on an interdimensional level. Zero's action in Enfield has provoked an equal and opposite reaction in Connecticut. xX_GamerGod_Xx: Dude, this has gotten too real. What are you going to do, Zero?
What was I going to do? I couldn't stay here. I couldn't watch this. The punishment of impotence was too cruel. If I was going to be punished, let it be on my own terms. Or, at least, on terms I could direct towards a greater good.
I stood up, ignoring my ankle's protest. I walked out of the kitchen and stood in the middle of the living room, away from everyone. I looked up at the ceiling, as if I could see through it, through the clouds, to the cosmic, mocking face of my jailer. And I screamed.
"HEY, YOU! CHEAP-ASS GOD! LORD OF EDGY PUNISHMENTS!" my voice echoed through the silent house, making everyone turn to look at me. "IS THIS TODAY'S LESSON?! TEACHING ME ABOUT CONSEQUENCES?! MAKING ME WATCH THE PEOPLE I JUST SAVED CRUMBLE INTO DESPAIR BECAUSE OF ME?!"
I paced in circles, my frustration and guilt turning into righteous fury. "IT'S A BIT LOW EVEN FOR YOU, DON'T YOU THINK?! SITTING ON YOUR COSMIC THRONE LAUGHING WHILE I WATCH A FAMILY DRAMA OVER THE PHONE!"
I stopped and threw my arms wide, an invitation, a challenge. "IF YOU'RE GOING TO PUNISH ME, DO IT RIGHT! DON'T MAKE ME A SPECTATOR TO MY OWN DISASTER! SEND ME THERE! TO CONNECTICUT! TO THEIR HOUSE! THAT'S MY DISASTER, I PROVOKED IT! IT'S MY RESPONSIBILITY TO FIX IT!"
The logic was demented, but to me it made perfect sense. "CONSIDER IT PART OF THE DEAL! THE NEXT LEVEL OF MY PUNISHMENT WILL BE CLEANING UP THE MESS I CAUSED IN THE LAST ONE! SO DO IT! STOP BEING A COWARD AND SEND ME TO THE FRONT LINES!"
(POV Shift: Third Person)
In the kitchen, Ed had hung up the phone and was staring at Alex as if he had grown a second head. The idea of someone yelling at the sky, demanding to be sent into a danger zone, was madness. But what happened next transcended madness and entered the realm of the divine and the terrible.
The Enfield sky, which had begun to clear, suddenly darkened. An unnatural black cloud formed over the house in a matter of seconds. The air inside the house became charged with static electricity. The hair on everyone's arms stood on end. Metal creaked.
"Alex, stop!" Lorraine shouted, feeling a spike of power so immense it almost brought her to her knees. "You don't know who you're talking to!"
But Alex didn't stop. He kept his gaze fixed on the ceiling, defiant.
And the sky answered.
With a roar that shook the house's foundations, a blinding, blue-white lightning bolt descended from the sky. It wasn't normal lightning. It moved with deliberate intent. It didn't strike a tree, or a lightning rod. It struck the roof of the Hodgson house, directly above the living room.
CRA-CA-BOOM!!!
The explosion was cataclysmic. Tiles, rafters, and plaster flew through the air. A section of the living room ceiling collapsed, raining debris and dust into the room. The house lights flickered and died, plunging them into gloom. The police and paramedics outside screamed and hit the ground. The world became a chaos of noise, dust, and the smell of ozone and burning wood.
Alex had been thrown to the floor by the shockwave. He was covered in dust and small cuts, but otherwise unharmed. The lightning hadn't touched him. It had only given him a warning. A demonstration of power.
(POV Shift: First Person and Second Person)
The ringing in my ears was deafening. I slowly got up, coughing from the dust. There was a huge hole in the ceiling through which I could see the churning sky. The Warrens stared at me from the kitchen doorway, their faces masks of pure terror and awe. They had seen a demon's wrath. Now they had seen a god's anger.
Slowly, I brushed the dust from my hoodie. I looked at the hole in the ceiling. Then I looked up at the sky, as if I could see my interlocutor. And a tired, defiant, incredibly stupid grin spread across my face.
I raised my voice, but not to shout. It was almost a casual comment, a mumbled insult to an overly dramatic thug.
"Grumpy."
As the word left my mouth, the air around me froze. Time seemed to stop. The ringing in my ears ceased. And the Voice boomed, not from the sky, but from within my own head, cold, immense, and with a terrifying, new resolve.
...AS YOU WISH, INSECT...
You don't feel the tug this time. There's no tearing. It's worse.
The world around you doesn't dissolve. It extinguishes. The light, the sound, the dust... everything is absorbed by a perfect blackness that starts at your feet and rises up your body like a tide of ink. It's not a journey. It's an erasure. You are being wiped from this reality.
You look up and see their faces one last time. The Hodgsons, huddled in a corner. And the Warrens. Ed, his anger completely replaced by primal terror. And Lorraine, her hand outstretched towards you, not to stop you, but in a gesture of farewell and profound, tragic sorrow.
No time to say goodbye. No time for anything.
The darkness consumes me completely. I'm in the void, floating in nothingness. The punishment has been accepted. My demand has been granted. I'm heading to my next hell, not as a victim, but as a volunteer. And in the absolute stillness of non-space, I realize I've just done the bravest, stupidest thing in my short, chaotic life. And that the next time I land, there'll be no time for talk. The battle will have already begun.