"Duck!" David calls out.

He ducks under a hail of magical spells. He spins around with a pair of axes, slicing the witch in half with ease. He's aware that he's turning back into a werewolf. He can tell by the untouchable feeling. He's exerting less energy to do more things that he would normally never be able to do.

A gunshot calls his attention as Jason makes his way through a group of vampires. Night has fallen over the town square but a while ago Penny, Frederick and Porter cast a spell, producing a large ball of light over the fight.

Jason's guns empty but he doesn't waste any time withdrawing a shotgun. A werewolf creeps up behind him but he's quicker than the werewolf, blasting a hole in the werewolf's chest. A vampire, Wynn, moves across the square and knocks Charlotte and Eva to the ground. A woman walks behind him, using spells to barrage Porter and Penny, who have erected a barrier with their spells.

The woman, Dora, waves her hands at her but only dents the barrier. The woman bounces backwards as a blur hits her with the force of a mack truck. Nora appears in front of her, her fangs protruding. Wynn does the same, slamming into Nora and the two roll.

Wynn is up before Nora. Nora is on her knees in front of Wynn, whose hand is raised. An arrow bolt whizzes through the air pierces Wynn's hand. He howls in pain, turning to Charlotte. Charlotte holds her bow and arrow steady. Two vampires appear beside him and advance towards her. Eva walks in front of her with a small bomb. She rolls it, causing smoke to explode from it.

"Nora move!" Eva calls out.

Porter moves from the barrier and throws his hand in the air. The light intensifies as it crackles like lightning. The light pierces a good percentage of vampires. Penny moves in front of Eva, Charlotte and Porter as the smoke clears, revealing three scorch marks on the ground, accompanied by ashes.

Dora roars with pain. She quickly lifts to her feet and her eyes land on Penny.

"Go!" Penny says without taking her eyes off Dora.

"No, we're not—" Charlotte begins.

"You're a beautiful girl, Charlotte. But I really need you to be compliant for once."

Eva giggles as she pulls Charlotte away.

"Mom—"

"This bimbo can't hurt me. We need time. Protect yourself, baby."

Porter kisses her on the cheek before running off.

"You're dead." Dora says angrily.

"My family defies death." Penny says with a smirk.

                                                                                  -

I can feel the strain of the fight on me.

I know that if I continue to go head to head, nothing will be solved. I daresay we're evenly matched in terms of sheer power. He will wear me down and try to prey on my weakness. I can't let that happen.

I gesture my hand towards one of my living chairs, causing it to fly off the ground and smash into him. It was risky as my attention was displaced and he was fully concentrated on me. I move towards the doorway, intending on leading him out on the lawn but I am thrown back, rolling against the ground. I stop as I crash into the couch.

The Nowhere Man floats to his feet, glaring at me, "Do you know how I fell. The true reason?" He asks pacing calmly in front of me, "My name was Satanail. The favored above others. An archangel. Grigori. Lucifer. I was cast out for pointing out the inadequacies of man."

"Still bitter, I see." I pant.

He stops and stares at me, "Did you think it would be easy? To defeat me?" He asks, "I feel from the very heavens, was seduced by the dark side. We're all stuck in a war between two vain, nasty entities. One I called Father. He's a farce."

I crack my neck, fully listening to his tale. I need to find a weakness.

"He does not care about you. He created angels only to create slim. He loved the slim for all the fornication, hate and distasteful nature. Humans are nothing more than mere beasts. No, worse. Beasts know not what they do. Heretics and animals. Humans—we're not humans."

My eyes narrow at him, "I am a human."

His hands clap together, "You are delusional. Do you believe that? Do you really?" He asks, "I've been with you, you specifically, since you were born. Before that. When you were still in another life. You are not them."

"You know the difference between me and you?"

"The deluded sense of morality?"

"The deluded sense of superiority." I hiss. He raises an eyebrow at me and I chuckle, "You said it yourself. He cast you out. He doesn't care about you. That's what pisses you off, doesn't it? That he left you down here with us slime?"

"You're good at that, you know."

"It's why you want to control me, isn't it? To use me to get back there, to take his throne?" I say with disbelief, "You do know how incredibly stupid that is. He's not just some despot."

"You know exactly what to say, to tempt me. To take my mind off what you want to do."

"I'm trying to understand you."

"You're trying to buy time but what you don't realize is that your friends and family are already dead. You're going up against the devil. I'm not some low-level vampire or life lesson. I am evil, pure and inescapable. I am the Nowhere Man, the darkness that feeds..."

"I'm bored already."

"The haunter of your nightmares."

My skin crawls. I don't think I've really understood, until this moment, that he has been there forever. He's been on my shoulder, in the darkness of my room and in the darkness of my heart. He's the reason I went dark and the reason I found the light.

He made me.

"Here beginneth the lesson," He says advancing towards me.

I raise my hand and throw him back. He stands and pushes his palm towards me. The energy crackles once again, this time the excess energy strikes out, destroying various belongings. I can feel the power becoming more and more unstable.

There is an explosion.

I can see everything in slow motion but I pool all my energy. I open a small portal and suck us both in, leaving just as the house explodes.

The both of us tumble out of the portal and roll across the concrete of the square. The fighting stops as every single person, supernatural or otherwise, is staring at us as we stand. I wobble and feel the burns and bruises on my head.

In a rush, his minions appear at his side and I realize that my friends appear on my side. I can feel a hand on my shoulder and I don't have to look back to see who it is.

"You can't win this!" Lucifer shouts.

"Neither can you!" I shout back. I look at his minions, "He's the devil."

"He is not!" Dora hisses.

"He's Lucifer, Satan and the Grigori." I announce.

I lift my hand and cast a vision of our conversation into the heads. I can feel the strain on my body as the power siphons into the others. I'm thrown out, staggering me to my knees. Penny and Porter move to either side of me and lift me back to my feet.

I notice that a good chunk of his followers turn away from him, disappearing into the darkness. I see the anger in Lucifer's eyes. He growls at me. I see Dora concentrating and turn to her gaze.

We all do.

Eva is lifting a dagger to her stomach. She quickly lunges it into her stomach. Parker moves to her, trying to stop her and is able to pull the dagger from her hands but the damage is done. I turn to Dora, ready to rip her heart out.

To my surprise, it bursts out of her chest, followed by a hand. As Dora falls, Nora smiles, crushing it. Lucifer turns to her, taking her neck in his hands.

"I should have ended your line when I had the chance."

Before I can move, he rips her head from her body. An audible gasps comes from my lips. I feel my whole body go numb as I turn back to Lucifer.

"Protect her." I say without looking back at any of my friends.

Lucifer smiles as he begins running towards me. His followers are right behind him. Without question, we all do the same. As we crash into each other like waves, I grab Lucifer and we spiral into the darkness.

                                                                                    -  

The fight carried on, though the other side has dwindled to very few vampires, very little werewolves and a couple of witches. The strongest, it seems like.

Jason guards Eva and watches as David is thrown back onto the hood of a car. He isn't moving. Parker is using a shotgun and thins out the werewolves. Frederick is counteracting spells with Porter and Penny. The two seem to be weakening under the pressure of the other witches.

"We can't keep this up!" Charlotte says firing another bow and arrow, "I'm running out of bows."

"When did you learn to shoot that thing?"

"Summer camp, sixth grade." Charlotte answers, firing another arrow into the head of a vampire heading towards Parker. She bends down to Eva, "How is she?"

"Losing blood." Jason says angrily. He looks to the fight, "I can't stay. Stay with her, Char."

"Where do you think you're going?" Charlotte asks.

"I promised I'd fight." He says as Eva croaks out something inaudible. He bends down to her again, kissing her forehead, "Eva...I love you."

"N—No!" Eva croaks.

Jason stands and advances towards a group of witches. With no hesitation, he fires into them and two of three fall. Jason is caught off guard when a vampire knocks him off his feet. The vampire bends down as others surround him.

The vampire snaps his neck and the vampires move in to feed. Porter throws his hand into the air, causing another ball of light to strike out and vaporize the last of the vampires. Porter moves to Jason but he, too, is thrown off his feet.

This time by a large werewolf.

As the werewolf is about to lunge, a frightening howl cuts through the air. The fight stops, again, as David jumps off the hood of the black Pontiac he was thrown onto. He rushes toward the werewolf and lunges, snapping the wolf's neck with ease.

"Regroup." David growls.

There is a scream in the distance and a thud against the ground. The two look towards the scream, horror overcoming them.

                                                                                      -    

As we fall through a portal, we roll across a grey landscape.

Both of rise faster than we should. Lucifer pulls his palms into the air and darkness seeps out of the ground, binding my footing. I struggle against the darkness until I'm hit with what I can only describe as a full-on scale of darkness. The force staggers me back and I'm unable to shake it.

"It feels good, doesn't it?" Lucifer says. His voice seems like it's all around me. I feel so disoriented and lost in the darkness. Lucifer is in his element and he's wrong. The darkness feels foreign and frightening. Lucifer laughs, "You're outclassed."

"If I were," I snarl. I find myself dispelling the darkness more and more. I feel the darkness finally dissipating. I stop flailing and finally open my eyes, "You wouldn't be hiding."

I reach deep inside, so hard that I feel light explode out of me. The light fully dispels the darkness and I hear Lucifer cry out. I literally see him crash to the ground a few feet away. I settle in before launching myself at him, moving faster than humanly possible. As I slam into him, a portal opens behind him.

We're tumbling again, this time we fall through trees, hitting every branch before we land on the cold forest floor. My body feels as if I've been put through a blender. The blender, apparently, has been set to 'shred the shit out of him'.

As I raise myself to one knee, I'm shocked to see Alan Summers standing across from me.

"What are you doing here?" He asks.

I gingerly push myself to my feet. I look around, wondering where he came from. I stare at him, trying to hide my contempt. I may be sentimental but I'm not an idiot. I've mastered the art perfecting my facial expression. I know how large my eyes get as I'm about to cry or when I'm totally shocked.

"Dad?" I ask.

Alan pushes his hands out for a hug. He would never do that. I'd latch onto him, as I always have. It enrages me.

I push myself into his arm, nestling my face in his neck. I quickly whisper, "Get out of his face." Before I push him off and punching him. He flies back a few feet and a sense of pride overcomes me. I walk over and stand in front of him, "Coward."

Lucifer is back in his form and smiles up at me with a busted lip and eyebrow. His eye is swelling now and he looks just as I must look. I smile at how human he looks. I move to him, intent on making him more human.

Lucifer grabs me and throws me to the ground. Without any quips or warning, he climbs on top of me, his hands immediately going around my neck. I choke and choke. Lucifer rolls off of me, seemingly unconscious.

A hand reaches down and pulls me up. I see the Christiansen twins smiling at me.

"I'm betting you think you'd gotten rid of me." Lucas says with a smirk.

I move to him, latching on to him, much like I do everyone. He has no smell but plenty of warmth. Unlike when he was a vampire. I pull away from him and do the same for Finn.

"It's been too long." Finn says into my ear.

I pull back and stare at them, "I didn't notice where we are."

"It's because you're not." Lucas says causing a literally sea of confusion. He smiles, "You're on another plane but we're dead. We're not bound to one plane."

"And we're not finished here yet." Finn nods behind me.

Lucifer is standing now, his eyes black as coal.

Lucas leans into my ear, "We can help you." He says.

A shiver goes down my spine and I want with all my heart to say yes. I want a lot of things that aren't true. But if I can't save myself then why am I even here? What have I learned? I take a deep breath.

"This is something you have to do?" Finn asks.

I nod, "Really is." I nod.

"Well go gatekeeper-hunter-witch-slayer. Kick his ass." Lucas says softly.

I take off at him as he does me. As I near, I open a portal on the ground behind him. I use my powers to flip over him, pulling him backwards by his shoulders and into the portal.

We've traveled through many planes before returning to this one.

The fight has raged for what seems like hours, neither of us ready to give in. We've fought with powers and fists. We're both sporting pretty bad cuts and bruises. We are now in the Domus.

I gesture to the wall and the whole window on the wall flies out of the wall crashing into him, sending him through the wall of the living room. I move forward but stop as I feel a pain in my heart. I stagger back, trying to figure out what it is. I blink, trying to wet my eyes and regain my vision.

"She's gone." I whisper to myself.

I only look up when I hear Lucifer climb back through the hole in the wall.

"Your Mother? Yes." He says with delight, "I have dominion over my Followers. I am the Devil and the darkness in me isn't limited. I warned you."

I am silent.

"You're doing it. You're retreating into the darkest part of yourself. Release it. Let him bubble to the surface." Lucifer smiles.

I close my eyes trying to contain the inner animal in me. I literally see fire and can't shake it.

"You think you know what you are, what's to come? I've seen so many incarnations of you that it's hard to tell exactly what or who you are. But you're magnificent. An enigma."

"You chose to fight. You want to fight. Use every weapon at your disposal. Because the other side will use every single weapon, no matter how miniscule and they will eat you alive."

"You were born special."

"But you are. You have to accept that you're special, that you're loved and that no matter what, even if they don't understand, they'll love you, like me."

I can feel the overwhelming sense of control coming back over me. I can hear Parker and Prue crying. The feel of David's skin and heartbeat next to mine. The laughter of our friends. The mere presence of my parents and siblings.

Lucifer reaches out to me and I grab his hand before he touches me. He yelps in pain as crunch his hand in my own. I literally hear it crunch. As I stand, I push my palm out and he flies through the wall again, this time I'm right behind him.

I walk over and grab him into my hand and use my other hand to raise a portal.

"We're not done." I say as I pull him through the portal.

When we appear next, we're in the middle of the square. We obviously surprise the rest of my friends as they take a defensive stance. Porter is cradling Penny's body and David moves toward me but I erect a shield in front of him.

"I want to destroy you. I want to 'retreat' into the darkest part of me. But I'm not him." I say causing a confused expression on his part, "The thing you don't understand about 'human slime' is that we change. We adapt. We love. We live. We laugh. We're totally self-involved but also self-aware. We screw and fight and love and cry and a list of things that you won't understand."

"I don't need a sermon."

I can feel the light engulf me, my clothes going white. I watch as the light siphons out of me and I drop his hand, pushing my palm against his chest. He screams in agony as his eyes go white.

I feel myself pushing the light out of me, the gateway itself, and after a minute, he slumps to the ground. The darkness lingers but the light chases it away, back down into the Earth.

I feel drained beyond a shadow of a doubt.

I feel myself fall into darkness.

But it's not really darkness.

                                                                                        - 

The battle is over but the war never will be.

It's been four hours and we've retreated back to David and I's house. My friends are dressing their wounds. Usually, I'd feel responsible for this but this isn't my fault. I'm proud.

I stand in the living room, watching.

Charlotte and Porter are giggling as she dresses his eyebrow. Parker is applying pressure to Eva's stomach. Frederick has done as much healing as he could but it's deeper than magic can heal. David is talking to a distraught Max.

Luckily, everyone that died has been taken to the Crossroads Morgue.

The world falls away as I remember how incredibly horrible it is. How much my heart shrunk before it burst. The loss of Penn—My Mother made me an orphan. It made Porter and orphan. It also made Peyton one too.

Peyton.

She's just a little girl. Penny didn't even get to say goodbye. She didn't get to tell Peyton how much she loved her. I wonder if I had known she was going to die I would have—I may not have been able to do the right thing.

"Hey," Porter says catching my attention. I look up him and he's staring at me with puppy dog eyes. He lost her, too. I know him and he is just as torn up as I am. He's the big brother. He feels the need to protect me. He clears his throat, "I—I knew you'd—"

I don't latch onto him. I pull him into me, feeling the hot tears on my shoulders. It's the longest hug I've had in a long time. We're the only ones left.

"It's okay." I say patting his back, "It's okay.

I'd like to thank every single person who has followed the story. It's been absolutely wonderful and rewarding to create something that people can get lost in, can identify with. I've loved the comments and suggestions and I really hope that if this story, despite it's supernatural nature, helped someone. There aren't a lot of African American and Gay characters and there's even less that are in a position to be the central character but times change. I've gone through my darkest times and the three different parts of the story have been my way of documenting my journey. So, I do hope it helps someone see that we, all people, are important and powerful. 

This isn't the end of the book, though. There will be one more chapter, to end the book fully. Stay tuned.