1. Apollyon

Something felt different today. Mark thought the air felt strange, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Charlotte didn't seem to notice anything, so he left it alone. He didn't want anything to ruin the hike.

Mark stuck his hand into his pocket and had a moment of panic. He pushed his hand deeper, and his panic turned to a smile. Losing the little box he now gripped would be a disaster. It took him over a year to save up for the ring it contained. Charlotte wasn't a materialistic girl, it was one of the things he loved most about her, but he knew she would go nuts over the ring.

"Everything okay, babe?"

"Yea, yea, all good." Mark realized she must have seen his mini heart attack moment.

As much as he liked to think he was acting cool, there was a good chance that Charlotte knew something was up with him. He'd been planning this for weeks. By the time they reached the lookout point that overlooked the valley Blue Ridge was nestled in, they would have about an hour before the sunset. They would enjoy a picnic supper and a bottle of wine, and as soon as the sun started dipping behind the hills, he would ask the question. He knew she would say yes because they had already begun discussing marriage plans; it just wasn't official.

"Does it feel like it's getting colder to you?" Charlotte asked as she rubbed her arms.

"Sure does. Kinda strange." Then it hit him; that was how the air felt strange. He realized the temperature had dropped several degrees since they left their Rav4, which was unusual considering the sun was blazing hot without a cloud in the sky. "We'll be out of the trees soon, and it should warm back up."

He wasn't so sure, though. Not only was the temperature colder than when they left without any good reason, but the air felt charged and pressurized like it felt before a storm. That didn't make sense because there was no bad weather in the forecast, and the clear, blue sky supported the weather report. Mark scanned the trees as they continued up the trail to the lookout. A pit grew in his stomach like something bad was about to happen.

A few more minutes of walking brought them to the trail's end and a large opening. The grass was trimmed in a large circular area. Several beat up picnic benches with the odd piece of wood falling off were scattered around the clearing. Opposite the trees and the trail that they'd come up, there was a fence made from railroad timber. Past that was the reason that people made the hike.

Mark grabbed Charlotte's hand, and they walked towards the edge. No matter how often they came to this lookout point, the view never got old. Blue Ridge wasn't a particularly large town with around 28,000 people, but it was spread out. Leaves on the trees scattered throughout the town were beginning to change to red and orange to welcome fall.

They hadn't been standing there for long when a low hum filled the air. The couple looked at each other. "Do you hear that?" Mark asked.

"Yea, what is it?"

Mark looked around. He couldn't pinpoint where the hum was coming from. "I'm not sure. Why don't you hang out here and relax. I'll go take a look around." He swung his pack off his shoulder and set it on one of the benches.

As he wandered into the clearing with all the tables, it was hard to distinguish which direction the sound was coming from. Just when he thought he had pinpointed the source, it wasn't there. As he was about to give up and head back to Charlotte, the sound changed.

The hum grew to a loud whirring noise, and the direction was obvious. Mark remembered an old cabin a few hundred feet back into the woods from his previous exploration. He was sure that was the direction the strange noise was coming from. He looked back at Charlotte, sitting on her phone. She was probably scrolling Facebook. Instead of calling out, he simply smiled. He had no idea how he'd gotten so lucky.

With that last glance, Mark stepped into the forest.

After trudging through the dense underbrush, which resulted in soaking wet pants and feet, he arrived at the cabin. The small structure had stood abandoned for so long that the forest grew in on what he imagined was a nicely cleared space at one point. Minus the encroaching forest, this cabin was exactly as he remembered it. Broken shards of glass where windows used to be, a broken door, and intense moss growth all over the log walls. He noticed the north side of the roof had collapsed inside the cabin.

The whirring noise's volume increased again. In addition to the noise, Mark started to feel a vibration in the air. At that moment, the pit in his stomach came back. Something inside him screamed to get out of there. To go back, get Charlotte, and leave the ridge. He only gave this voice a second. After spending the last fifteen years exploring these woods, he wouldn't miss the chance for another adventure—even to ask the girl of his dreams to be his wife.

Before he decided to keep investigating, the small clearing next to the cabin began to distort. At first, the cabin behind the distortion became blurry, like Mark was looking at it through melted glass. Then it changed, and he could no longer see the cabin. Instead, he saw what appeared to be the same space but empty. Was this what a portal looked like? He almost laughed out loud at the thought. Again, the voice in his head told him to leave. Again, he ignored it.

Mark took a wary step towards the portal. As he approached it, he could make out blurry movements beyond. Everything on the other side seemed to be moving slowly, leaving light trails behind it. About ten feet away, Mark stopped and stared in wonder. Without any warning, a face became clear through the portal. It turned and stared at him. Its cold, lifeless eyes penetrated him to his core, filling him with terror and turning him to ice. Frozen and unable to react, Mark stared as the face charged toward him.

A massive shockwave shook the area and knocked Mark to the ground. The force of it caused his ears to ring. He shocked his head, trying to clear it as he pushed himself up. When he looked back where the portal had been, it was gone. He was dazed enough that he questioned whether or not he saw what he thought he did for a second. But those eyes, and how they searched him, there was no way that wasn't real.

He cautiously approached the spot where the portal was moments earlier. As he made his way through the knee-high grass, he stumbled into a circle of dead grass. Every blade of grass was shriveled up to almost nothing and brown in a perfect circle. In the center, he spotted something the sun glinted off. It appeared to be some sort of glassy, black rock like onyx.

He reached down, and as curious fingers wrapped around the stone, a fiery pain coursed through Mark's body. He fell to his knees. The stone began to liquefy in his hands and soak into his skin. With watery eyes, he watched the black liquid snake up his arm through his veins. He closed his eyes and muttered a few words in a strange language his own ears didn't recognize. The words were guttural and harsh. His shoulder twitched, and pain pulsed through his body like electric shocks. Unable to control his body, he dropped to his knees and writhed with his back arched.

He gasped and opened his eyes, but they weren't Mark's eyes anymore.

Apollyon stared down at his human hands. He could have done far worse than Mark for the first meatsuit in almost 2,000 years. As he cycled through Mark's memories, he sneered. Quite the adventurer, hey Marky Mark? Hold on for the ride of a lifetime. Apollyon stood up. All he could think about was eating, so he headed back to the lookout—to Charlotte.

***

As he broke through the treeline, a change in smell from the forest hit Apollyon. He stopped and looked around, trying to figure out this new, intoxicating scent. Then his eyes landed on Charlotte, and memories from long gone millennia flooded his mind. He smiled as he remembered the screams, the begging, and the exhilarating feeling of fresh blood.

Charlotte stood up and looked in his direction with concern. As Apollyon walked toward her, the fear faded, and something else replaced it. He had no idea what that look was. Happiness? Love? Apollyon had no idea and didn't really care.

"What took you so long, babe?" Charlotte asked, "I heard some kind of explosion. Is everything okay?"

"Couldn't be better." Apollyon reached into his pocket, pulled out a small box, and handed it to Charlotte. "Just so you know, Mark was going to give you this today."

Caught off-guard, Charlotte stared at Apollyon for a moment, then laughed. "You're such a weirdo. Is that really how you're going to…"

She never finished the sentence. Her eyes moved to the ring box in Apollyon's left hand and the pulsating muscle clenched in his other. First, he watched confusion wash over her face. A few seconds passed, and there was nothing. Charlotte collapsed.

Apollyon held the still beating heart to his nose and inhaled. Before taking a bite, he savored the sweet, metallic scent for a moment. There was a slight thump as the ring box landed on Charlotte's crumpled body. Apollyon stepped over her corpse and walked to the cliff's edge as he took another bite of the heart.

The sun was just starting to set over the hills casting a soft, orange glow over Blue Ridge. To anyone else, it would have been a perfect sight. Apollyon finished the heart and wiped his hands on the front of his shirt. Now that he was back on Earth, it was time to get to work. There was much to be done before he could let his father out.