#obeymemon

Mammon handed Lilith over to Beelzebub and Belphegor, the strange set of triplets born on the same day and had them flee first while he tried to smooth things over with their Father. No matter how loudly he cried, no matter how much he pleaded, Mammon was both unheard and unseen in a room full of chaos that quickly turned into destruction. Halos were snatched off heads, feathers were torn from wings, wings were broken, and for the first time since his creation Mammon feared his Father as he flew away from his brothers and sisters that fought on their Father’s behalf. Mammon was forced to wield his sword against his brothers and sisters, and it nearly tore his heart asunder to have to fight against them even to save his own life.

What should have been a calm conversation with a simple let down and rejection had turned the entire court of angels against one another in the Celestial Realm and blood-stained halos and broken wings littered the once pure realm. Mammon had shoved a brother away when the unthinkable had happened. He turned his eyes on his Father to plead once more, to beg for forgiveness on his sister’s behalf when his Father grabbed all who had turned against him and flung them out of the Celestial Realm. He showed mercy no mercy as he ripped the wings off some and threw those who did not have wings out of the Celestial Realm to plunge to their deaths in the realms below. Mammon’s heart broke at the sight of so much bloodshed. How? How could their Father who was so kind and loving and understanding allow such a thing to happen?

With tears streaming down his face, Mammon watched in horror as his Father snatched up his younger brothers, Leviathan the general of the Celestial Navy and Asmodeus the Guide of True love, both wingless and scrambling to get away. Their blood curdling cries dried up his tears and hardened whatever hope Mammon held for his Father as he watched Him toss them away without a second thought.

“Mammon!”

“NO!”

He bolted faster than light across the war stained and shattering court, sheathing his sword, and flew faster than his Father’s massive hand could catch him. Flinging his halo behind him, Mammon dove over the edge, narrowly missing flaming arrows. Nose diving after his flailing brothers, he forced himself to go faster, fall harder, pushed himself past the point of pain to get to them. It didn’t matter how far down the Human Realm was from the Celestial Realm, if he didn’t get a hold of his brothers, he would lose them forever. Their halos were gone and despite their fall drying up their eyes, tears still fell from their fear filled eyes as they cried out in desperation.

“Mammon, help!” His brother’s amber eyes, which were always filled with confidence, were wide in terror and pierced an arrow through Mammon’s heart to move faster.

“Levi, grab Asmo!” He screamed so loud his vocal cords nearly snapped, but somehow Leviathan managed to move and grabbed hold of Asmodeus who in turn clung to him like a lifeline, burying his face in his shoulder and crying out still.

“Mammon, help us, please!”

Stretching out his hand, he just barely touched the tips of Leviathan’s fingers before he managed to slap a firm grip to his hand and used his wings, with all the strength he could to slow their fall. His wings cried out in agony at the sudden pull and new weight they weren’t used to.

“I got you.” Mammon gritted out and reached his other hand out for Asmodeus to grab. “I got you.”

“Mammon!” Asmo cried out in pain and dug pointed claws, sharp enough to pierce into his skin. Mammon bit back a cry of pain as he tried to look for someplace safe to land when he saw horns sprouting up jaggedly and painfully from his brothers’ heads. Inky indigo scales crawled up Leviathan’s next as his legs fused together into the tail of a snake that wrapped tightly and securely around Asmodeus’s new form. Jagged teeth grew out of Asmodeus’s mouth and his legs which were once long and elegant had grown and morphed into the threatening body of the dreaded scorpion.

“Mammon, don’t let go!” Leviathan sniffled and his amber eyes turned into slits and his tongue became long and pointed. “Please don’t let go!”

“I won’t let go.” Mammon strained to reassure, but their new monstrous weight was so much for his wings that he wasn’t certain he could. He would go down with them, unwilling to let his younger brothers fall alone, and would do everything he needed to protect them from all the wilds of the Human Realm.

“Mammon!” Asmodeus wailed inhumanly as a strange sweet scent misted around him. “Mammon, it hurts!”

“I’m sorry!” Mammon cried on his behalf as he could hardly fathom the pain or the cursed transformation they underwent. “Don’t worry, I gotcha, Asmo, I gotcha Levi. I’m gonna protect ya.”

Despite his words and the truth therein, he had no idea how he was going to do that. So many others cried out for help, others wailed in pain, and others’ screams were silenced by a sickening crunch as their bodies met their untimely demise. Despite his brother's fear of tightened grips he could feel them slipping from the sweat building up on his own palms. A fear rose up within him that he and his brothers would meet the same inevitable fate, but he would die trying to keep them alive.

 “Mammon, look out!”

Asmodeus’s warning was loud and clear, but his heart pounded so loud in his ears in his desperation to hold onto his brothers, that he didn’t sense the spear coming until it went through his left wing. His teeth gnashed together as pain unlike anything he ever felt before burned his left wing and he felt heat burned within him like a scourge meant to mar his soul. He tightened his hold on his brothers as claws of his own lengthened and sharpened to keep his precious little brothers close. There was no telling how many brothers and sisters he lost today in his Father’s anger, but no matter what happened, he refused to lose his two wingless brothers.

They were his, and not even his own Father would take them from him now. He tossed them out, He couldn’t have them anymore. They were his brothers. He wouldn’t let anyone take his brothers from him or he would die trying. With how much his arms itched and burned as feathers sprouted up along his arms and back, he almost did die. Another spear was thrown, and it pierced his other wing right where it met the shoulder. All feeling in his right arm died and no matter how hard he tried, Mammon lost his grip of his right hand; the hand that held Leviathan. Mammon roared in pain as Leviathan still tried to cling to his now disjoined hand and shoulder and felt him slip beyond his control.

“Brother!”

Despite his ghastly appearance it was good that Leviathan now had a tail to cling onto Asmodeus, however, with one wing barely flapping and straining terribly to keep them in the sky it wasn’t going to do them any good. Mammon could not fly. He could not save them. He wanted to. They hadn’t deserved this, but he couldn’t even stop their fall any longer. Mammon still tried despite his wings screaming out in rebuke. He pulled up on Armodeus’s hand, pulled hard and with all his might to keep them in the sky to slow their descent, but gravity was determined to work against them.

“I won’t letcha go, I won’t letcha go!” Mammon uttered through gritted teeth as pain shot through his skull and up through her hair. “I won’t – I won’t letcha go!”

“Brother, I’m slipping!” Asmodeus cried and desperately reached up with his other hand, except the moment he tried to reach for Mammon’s elbow, he threw off the balance and before Mammon could right himself, another spear cut through his left shoulder, narrowly missing his wing.

“Brother!” Asmodeus shrieked as claws dragged all the way down his arm and slipped right through his fingers. The loss of weight sent him spiraling in a different direction and another weapon was tossed in his direction before he could catch and redirect himself.

“Mammon!” Leviathan cried and Mammon could see the utter fear in both their eyes as they fell fast away from him with their hands outstretched towards him.

“Levi! Asmo!” Mammon’s voice pitched octaves so high it nearly burst his eardrums as he tried to throw himself in their direction and catch his brothers once more. Throwing himself into another dive, Mammon hurled himself downward once more when something ran through his chest and pivoting his sense of gravity. It felt as though shards of glass ran through his bloodstream, prickling with pain as it moved through his body as darkness overtook him with the terrified screams of his brother drowning his mind in sorrow.

The faint sound of an infant’s scream somewhere in the distance pulled him up from his nightmares and back into the world of pain as it hit him tenfold. Pushing himself up onto his hands and knees, the spear that had taken him to the ground remained lodged into the bloodstained earth while he pulled himself free through the broken end. Faster than his brain could cope, his body moved to conceal and heal the wounds and caused him to wretch in pain as he pulled his body free from the holy weapon. He landed unceremoniously onto the ground beside the weapon and his whole body heaved as it tried to breathe again.

His wings were impossibly heavy, his head felt as though it were split open, and when he opened his eyes there was blood and feathers all around him. It took him a moment to realize that the feathers before him weren’t just from those who had fallen, the white feathers that glinted silver were his feathers from his wings. Ignoring all the pain that was an increasing weight on his chest, he sat up and looked at his wings. A new sense of horror washed over him at the sight.

His feathers were gone.

His wings were skeletal and leathery as if someone had skinned him for his feathers. He turned his gaze away from his wings, his once beautiful wings that were his pride and joy that made him the fastest angel in all the Celestial Realm and looked to the puddle of feathers all around him. As if to replace what he lost, black feathers tipped with white trailed up his arms, his torso and other parts of his body where it was once tanned skin. Mammon shook his head in disbelief, chest rising and falling faster than his mind could spin, and he reached for the feathers only for them to turn to dust between his fingers.

“No . . . no!” He kept reaching for the feathers in an ill attempt to hold what he lost, but they disintegrated into dust before his eyes. He shook his head as a surge of panic rose up within him and he let out an inhuman wail. How did it come to this?

More feathers turned to dust around him and more feathers crawled up his neck, prickling and itching as they grew agonizingly fast. He wailed in pain once more and started scratching at his arms.

How could his Father have done this to them?

With each scratch he unintentionally plucked feathers only to have more grow back and renew the itch and the burn tenfold.

They hadn’t rebelled against him, merely asked for a change for Lilith, and he lashed out against them all.

He roared angrily and threw away the offending feathers and kept clawing at his chest, trying to make the feathers stop growing. Tears formed in his eyes as he screamed in a panic.

He took away Lilith.

Was this how his brothers felt when they transformed before his eyes?

He took away his brothers. Lucifer, Leviathan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphegor - all of them.

Were they okay? Were they all undergoing such a painful transformation?

He cursed his angelic appearance for something more akin to a halfling demon and took away his wings. Black feathers consumed Mammon’s body, his sight was enlightened and things that should have been far away felt way too close every time he blinked, his feet were no longer smooth with flat nails but curled and cruel tipped claws meant for shredding, and his wings, oh skies above, his wings were misshapen and imperfect just like the rest of him.

He cried like a wounded animal as new feathers, black feathers tipped in a mocking white, littered the ground around him and rested on the dust of his once silvery white ones. Turning his face to the blood red sky, he let out a broken roar for his Father to hear.

“What is to be learned from this?” He heaved and roared again and felt his throat hurt. “Why would you do this to us, Father?”

The silence to his question stung more than the wounds painting his body black and red. His Father had never ignored him before, never turned his back on him before, yet as he stared at the sky where more of his brothers and sisters fell, he knew that he would never speak with his Father again. He fell on his knees as the cold numbness set within him and wrapped around his heart, hardening it, and allowed hopelessness to settle in as he stared blankly up at the sky.

His wings were broken and unfamiliar to him and he had no idea if he would ever fly again. He didn’t dare try with how heavy they were, and they needed to heal. His brothers and sister were lost to him and there was no telling where they were, or where he even was. There was no telling if they were even alive. Despite the numbness sinking deep into his bones, the thought was enough to make tears well up in his eyes and fall down his cheeks. His Father did not want him and took away his gifts and left him completely and utterly alone. A strange knot twisted in his throat and his lungs refused to cooperate as he tried to stop the onslaught of tears that threatened to peak.

Mammon had nothing left and he was alone.

Allowing his head to fall and wrapping his arms tightly around himself, wails of grief and anguish more akin to a wounded animal escaped him. His claws clutched his shoulders, his body curling in on itself as he tried to comfort himself and not make his presence known. A strange soft but scaly thing wrapped around his body to further comfort him, and when he opened his eyes, he saw he now had a long scaly feather tipped scale. His eyes filled with tears, his throat tight and closing as he tried to keep the warring emotions to himself when the flapping of wings drew his attention.

A crow with glossy blue-black feathers landed in front of him, its head twisting side to side in assessment before it cawed at him. “Hey.”

His brow furrowed and he could have sworn he heard the bird talk. A wet sniffle escaped him as he wiped angrily at his eyes and looked down at the little thing as it hopped closer to him. Worried the little thing would start attacking him, he drew his tail tighter around him. He didn’t have the heart nor the will to make the thing leave him alone and he would rather it grow bored of him than take an interest in him. Burying his face into his knees to shield himself from the world, he felt the small swoosh of air from the crows wings as if landed on him.

“Hey, you.”

Looking up at the strange crow he saw that it had three feet and twisted its head in interest at him. In addition to losing his brothers and sister he apparently lost his mind and heard the animal talking to him. The bird looked him over inquisitively and poked his horn. “Are you okay?”

“You should go.” His voice was scratchy, dry, and unfamiliar to his ears and he winced. “I’m cursed, if you hang out with me for much longer you might be cursed too.”

“Not cursed, just hurt.” Not heeding his words, the crow climbed on top of his knees and began pecking and pulling at his hair. “You need to come get it.”

“Ow! Get what?” He snapped and glared at the offending bird. It pecked at him again, this time between the eyes, and tugged hard on his hair and began to flap his wings. “Knock it off, will ya!”

Mammon flicked his head to the side to free his hair from the bird’s beak, but not hard enough to hurt the small creature. However, the bird was unrelenting and even squawked in his ear as it took flight.

“Come get it!”

“What’cha messing around with me for?” Mammon hissed and waved his hands in the air to shoo the three-legged crow away, but it was unrelenting in pecking his head and pulling on his hair.

“Come on. The thing is crying like you.”

“I – I’m not crying.” Mammon sniffled angrily and swatted at the bird. “Go away.”

About the third time the bird yanked on his hair Mammon finally hopped up to his feet with a growl as he failed to catch the bird between his claws. “Whatcha talkin’ about? What do you want?”

The crow flitted to a low hanging branch, bowed up at him, and incoherently cawed indignantly before it quickly flitted off squawking. “Help. It needs help.”

Leaving him alone again, Mammon shook his head and was going to fall back to the ground to wallow in his grief and loneliness, when the bird came back and squawked irritably at him. “Come get it!”

“What! What do you want?” Mammon snapped through gritted teeth and in a deeper voice he didn’t recognize. Completely unintimidated, the bird squawked at him and threw its small head in a direction as a terrified infantile scream erupted in the forest.

“It needs help. Like you.”

Now that his attention was on the child a new sense of fear and worry gripped his heart. Why was there an infant in the forest? Who would leave an infant in the forest? His heart nearly stopped as he looked to the skies and all the feathers around him. Surely his Father wouldn’t have tossed an infant, free of any sin or cognitive thought, out of the Celestial Realm. After his Father’s actions today, he wasn’t sure what to make of any of his Father’s decisions and decided not to invest too much thought into it. Mammon looked at the crow once more only for it to squawk in a bossy tone before flitting off in the direction of the scream. “This way!”

Completely beside himself, Mammon struggled to his unsteady feet and clumsily followed the three-legged crow.

With each twist and turn the crow squawked as if to tell him where he was going or for him to hurry up. His new body was strange and uncomfortable to move around in, but he did as the crow commanded and followed the unsteady path until he came to a clearing. The screaming was the loudest. An infant with horns and wrapped in a blanket of feathers and black slime lay screaming mightily with its tiny lungs for anyone to hear. Mammon stood and looked around for a parent to come and claim the abandoned child and felt his heart break when no one came. The crow flitted over to the bird, stamped its middle foot impatiently at him, and pointed its beak to the child.

“Come pick this thing up!”

With brows furrowed and a scowl on his face, Mammon slowly walked out towards the screaming babe, then gasped when he recognized the feathers swaddling the child. The scent was faint, but he’d know that sandalwood scent anywhere. Those were Lucifer’s feathers.

“L – Lucifer?” Mammon gulped as he approached the screaming red-faced child. It smelled like his brother, but it didn’t look like his older brother. Blonde hair crowned its round head and was weighed down by the budding horns on either side of its head. Drawing nearer to it, the babe only had a face and a torso. The black feathers were a ruff around its tiny neck and its tiny hands balled into fists, and from the waist down it was a black shapeless slime that clung to the body.

“Is it being eaten?” Mammon asked as he crouched before it and poked the strange goop attached to the child. The screaming stopped and it blinked its angry green eyes open, its tiny mouth puckering up in a pout, ready to scream again.

“Help it!” The crow squawked at him as it landed on his horns. “Crying for hours!”

“Hours?” Mammon rubbed at his face as he carefully slid one clawed hand under its head and scooped up the rest in the other. Finally, being shown some attention, the blonde baby blinked curiously at him, its tiny chest rising and falling so fast from how scared it was before it whimpered pitifully as if ready to cry again.

“No, no, don’t cry.” Mammon immediately shushed as he cradled the child close to him and gingerly bounced it against him. A strong whiff of sandalwood stung his nose and he had to shake his head as the child’s tiny hands clung to the feathers on his chest and buried its snotty face there. A chill ran down his spine at the slimy snot touching his feathers, but he tried not to pay it any mind as he crooned comfortingly deep in his throat. The noise caught him off guard, but the infant seemed to like it and repeated the noise as it slowly went to sleep against his chest.

The crow cawed softly and nodded in approval as it too landed on Mammon’s shoulder and nuzzled up against the sleeping demon babe. Despite his horrendous day, Mammon somehow managed a smile as he pressed his cheek against the babe’s head.

“Alone like me, eh?” Mammon hummed softly as he felt its tiny heartbeat slowing down as sleep overtook him. “Don’t worry lil’ guy, Mammon’ll take care of ya. We’ll just be alone together.”

The crow pecked at his cheek affectionately, even though it still hurt, and drew his attention down. “Need to leave. Not safe.”

Mammon’s brow furrowed. He hadn’t heard anything, couldn’t sense anything, but then again, this new body was so bizarre and strange to him he had much to learn about his new life ahead of him. The crow hopped from his shoulder back to a low hanging branch and pointed in a direction where the trees grew thicker.

“Nest is safe, nest is safe.”

“If you’re who I’m going to talk with, we gotta teach you more sentences.” Mammon chuffed as he patted the babe’s back and followed in the crow’s direction. “And I got to come up with a name for ya.”

“Safety first, safety first!” It chided and Mammon somehow managed a second smile as he stepped over a log.

“All right, all right. Safety first, names later, got it.” Mammon rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Now lead the way and stop squawking. You’ll wake the kid up again. He’s probably been through more than me. . .”

The grow led it deeper into the forest until the trees were so thick, he had to hop into the branches, which was not an easy foot with his newfound body and sleeping child on his shoulder. The sky changed from bloodred to a silent black where the stars flickered like tears in mourning by the time the crow took him to a strange abandoned cottage.

Mammon inhaled deeply and wrinkled his nose at the stuffy air that surrounded the place. The place was only recently abandoned, but the broken door barely hanging on by its hinges and the boarded-up windows told him the owners weren’t coming back any time soon. Knowing better than to look a gift horse in the mouth, Mammon took careful steps towards it, eyes shifting side to side as he half expected an attacker, and was momentarily relieved to see over fifty crows, all two legged, watching him enter the small house. A few crows that sat over nests with blue and green speckled eggs and ruffled their feathers as they bowed up to protect their eggs.

“New members.” The three-legged one declared calmly as he rested on Mammon’s shoulder. “New friend. Need rest.”

Most of the birds calmed down and reclaimed their perches, but others remained puffed up and ready to come at him the first chance he showed himself as a threat. Wrapping his wings tightly around him, Mammon ducked inside and stayed low to the ground to avoid their wrath. Collecting blankets and sweeping up an old wooden crate, he arranged the blanket as well as he could to act as a bed for the infant. Carefully removing the sleeping beast from his shoulder, he nestled it down in the crate and covered it with care before hugging the crate close and wrapping his body and tail around it.

 “Thank ya. . .” Mammon managed through a yawn and his eyes weighed heavily as he rested his head in the crook of his arm, and as exhaustion threatened to take him, the three-legged crow chose to perch and sleep on Mammon’s shoulder.

 Next Chapter.