Maybe it's just whenever I get cranky, I go kitty-cat out, but it still irritates the crap out of me as I pounce on probably one of my cousins. What did Bob the bobcat ever do to Uncle Asmo? Nothing, except lust after the little bunny hiding in the burrow. Now here we all are akin to relatives fighting after a holiday meal like we all sampled too much of grandma's special mulled cider. I may be the black sheep of my family, but there are other types of instigators within the family dynamic and the princes of Hell wear the mantle well.
Dick and Doug are the last to join us at the entrance of the ride. I hear the screeching of claws and beaks as they rake against the metal siding of the ride. If we don't hurry, they are going to tear the thing down around us. I can just imagine how thrilled Fae will be if it happens and ruins her well-thought-out plans.
Dante exits the back of the ticket booth and calmly climbs into one of the cars. It must be nice to know the only place he is going if he ends up shredded for carnivorous mammal treats is straight back to Heaven. I gaze back into the mass of bodies on the top of the mountain, in hopes of seeing Marty, or even just an arm or leg of him. Something to help Tabby bury and ease the pain when this is all said and done, but there is nothing but piled up chaos.
Damien pulls the doors shut forcefully, but a few birds and some smaller animals have snuck through and are scurrying along the backs of the cars. We continue to snatch them up in our jowls and toss them from the ride or through the air when a tawny owl dive bombs Leo's head. I am beginning to wonder if we are going to get this show on the mountainside when the whole makeshift building shudders as something charges and slams into the side of it. I grip the sides of my car and swat at another zombified rodent leaps for my throat. It crunches against the ground as bone and sinew are the only padding for its landing. It happens again and again as the animals come like gnats in the heat of a summer day and I look back in my car to see Damien wrestling with a raccoon that snuck in. He flings it from the car and then I have to squint my eyes shut as he begins to pull energy from the destruction of the dead animals and recreate it into energy to power the ride.
He was right; he does have enough juice to power this bad boy up. The problem is the pests seem to have figured this out, although I doubt they are cognizant enough to know it is him who is the real threat. It must be whoever is controlling them and using them to specifically attack Damien.
I scramble over the back of the seat on my car and into his and begin swatting at the critters. My side aches and although I know it is healing, it isn't completely sealed up, and the movements I have been making on a purely adrenaline boosted effort are only delaying it from properly closing.
My efforts seem to help though because, in the next minute, I feel the jolt of the ride as it begins to move forward. I stagger in the seat and bump into Damien, who loses concentration momentarily and glares at me from his cloud of smoke as the car slows. I work my way through the pain of having hit the back of the car on my injured side by picturing him as being a poster child against anti-smoking campaigns.
The car slowly gains momentum again and the screech of the tires combined with the howls of the animals and the growls of the rest of the gang, drown out the carnival music, which is a small blessing in my opinion. Fake demons and pseudo-scary monsters pop out from the dark crevices of the ride as it rounds the bend on a track. I know once the ride comes full circle, the idea is to punch our way through the portal where normally, the ride would come to a stop, signaling the end of the attraction, but as slow as we are going, I don't know if we have enough momentum to make it through.
The movement of the ride has deterred some of the animals that can't fly, which is good for us, and as more stunts pop out from the shadows, the remaining attackers becomes easier to manage amongst all of us. The ride picks up speed as we round the last bend and I can feel the momentum carry us in a downward trajectory as it is aimed at the lake and the side of the mountain.
I'm just starting to think we all need to bail and jump out the side of the cars, but Damien gives his last ditch effort to punch through the rusty portal, which has us punching through the wall of the ride, and the cars tumbling out over the edge of the mountain and we start to plummet into the lake like some bad cartoon strip. Glass shatters and metal screeches as there is a hole in the side of the attraction and I figure we're all falling to our doom when reality rips and tears, simultaneously trying to suck us back out and pull us in at the same time. I duck into the bottom of the ride and in my terror, I close my eyes as my body shrinks in on itself and I'm left lying naked on the car's floor.
I wait for the crash and the pain, but apart from some heavy jolts, where I feel Damien's boots connect with my ribs from being jostled because he is so big, no tragic crash comes. The ride skids to a halt along a stone floor, and I figure with the entire racket it makes, it won't be long before someone comes to investigate. However, when I slowly raise my head to look out over the edge of the car, I see we're in a large cavernous space, with massive stalactites hanging from the ceiling. I figure we must have made it back, but where we are back home is the question. It isn't like we had a pair of red shoes to tap together, and there's going to be people singing to us as we head on our merry way, but as I sit up and feel the clothes start to materialize in Damien's last dose of energy, I see everyone else has made it through the portal relatively unscathed.
"That was one trippy ride.” I sit up and quickly assess the gash on Lowell's forehead. Apart from the bleeding, he is upright, and James is pressing a piece of cloth he either ripped from his own shirt, or Damien conjured up for him, to the cut.
Damien's voice is hoarse when he responds, "As far as first dates go, a demonic portal jumping Hell-ride is on my list of top ten.”
I glance over at him and his diminished human form. He looks drained and I am beginning to wonder if he can even walk. He'd given us all back our clothes with the exception of Dick and Doug. Charles didn't need to shed his skin when he began flying. My main concern apart from Tabby's vacant expression again and Tora's terrified sobs, Dick and Doug have been thrown from the cars. They're alright, but that's the problem. Their silver collars start to glow as their master calls to them now they are home. I hadn't considered the collars of obedience would be a hindrance, and now we are here, they remain loyal to Satan himself.
The realization comes too late when both sets of scarlet eyes turn on all of us and with teeth bared, they burst into the flames I expected them to do on the mountaintop as they begin advancing on the nearest car with Zeke and Phil in it. I scramble to get out as Dick and Doug start to charge and take a flying leap onto Zeke. I can’t help but entertain the panicked thoughts, was this Satan’s plan all along? Is it that easy for him to take the intended target out using Dick and Doug? It’s so simple it’s brilliant. Which will mean I have no way of switching them even if I do find his library. I curse as I realize Dick and Doug's attack has been part of his arsenal all along.
15
Dante is the one who faces off against Dick and Doug. He drops a pair of shiny wings like an awkward accessory at Fashion Week. They flutter, sounding like sheets rustling in the wind, hung out on a clothesline to dry in the sun. They look strange on his frail body, but the effect works. I kick out a metal sheet, which is trapping me in the wreckage of Dante’s ride. I smell oil, metal, and rock and I stumble out of the car that crumbled like a tin can against the impact. I begin shifting refuse from the wreckage, looking for my girls. I find Tabby with a busted lip in the next car, and Leo and Tora in the car after her. It takes all four of us to each grab a side of the car Fae is trapped in because it is collapsed in on itself. As we each begin pulling in opposite directions, the car starts screeching an awful protest against the warped metal, and the sound is similar to the banshee reapers hired out to collect souls in Ireland. The wail of metal is as loud as the sound it made when the car first impacted against the wall and it is now protesting its injuries for the second time.
Dante forces
them back by the purity of the light being emitted from his wings. It's interesting to watch the forces of good pitched against the forces of evil. Although Dick and Doug the level of evil in the two is subjective to what one defines as evil, I guess it would be more appropriate to say the smackdown is a classic, light versus dark forces.
Fae is a little worse for wear and we have to stand guard over her body as the fracture in her skull begins to knit itself together. Seeing her brain exposed is stomach rolling because she’s my brains of the operation and I prefer hers intact. As Dante continues to brandishhis ethereal energy, Dick and Doug continue to snarl and growl, but have no way of getting through to attack any of us. In another ten minutes, Fae blinks her eyes and growls before sitting up. I move quickly once Tabby starts pulling her to her feet, and help Lowell, Phil, and James from the wreckage. They’re scratched and bruised, but I’m grateful to see they have remained intact from the crash.
Damien moves fast, or as quickly as he can, given his depleted state and Charles helps him. Together they grab some of the warped and twisted metal from the park ride and with their combined supernatural strength, they fashion a makeshift cage. Now its bait time, I guess.
I squat in front of the cage and wait. They can't stand Dante's light and they have the pressure from Damien, Charles, and Phil on the opposite side, a cave wall to their backs, and the only other way out is through me.
They aren't stupid though. They go for Damien and Charles first and the kid holds his own as he uses his own fading light to pressure them. Cue the fight or flight response and they are left with no other option than through me. I feel like I should be doing this for a snack like in the cartoons.
"That’s right. Come on, puppies! I'm sitting right here like a good kitty-kitty.” I whisper it more to myself, but the sound echoes and bounces off the massive stone walls. It's cold and damp, which suggests we might be somewhere near one of the rivers of Hell. Doug and Dick growl at me and I tense, snapping back to the task at hand.
They charge at once and just before they sink their teeth in, I lunge to the side. They twist and turn, trying to scramble away from the very cage Damien and Charles hastened to build while I wonder if it's going to hold.
Dante moves calmly forward, pressuring them with his light as Damien and Charles work together to bend the bars they left in the front so it creates a slatted, prison-like metal door.
Just as Damien is about to pull his hand away, Dick, the darker hue of crimson fur, lunges forward and bites the back of his hand.
"Ah!" He snatches his hand away, but the damage is done. I watch as blood drops to the floor and he clutches his palm to his chest. I tackle Charles who is standing too close and we go down in a heap on the cold stone floor as he snarls and snaps his jaws at me. I deck him in the jaw for good measure and his head snaps back and smacks the floor, jarring him from his bloodlust.
Dick and Doug are already rattling the bars of their temporary cage and I wonder if we should toss him in as a doggy treat for good measure. It would settle them down momentarily and it would at least keep him occupied for a bit if it doesn't kill him.
"Get off of me,” he snarls on my face. Spit shoots up and hits my cheek and I grimace.
"Are you under his thrall?" This feels so bad-vampire movie moment.
"Whose thrall?"
Charles tries to buck me off, so I give him a quick right-hook to the nose and sigh. With the amount of decking unruly men in my life lately, I'm never getting into Heaven unless it's to be drafted into the boxing league. Does Heaven have a boxing league?
"Satan.”
"Don't say his name. It could call him to us.”
"You didn't answer my question.”
"Seriously? I'm sitting here telling you how to avoid him.”
"It could be a ruse. Look how fast he turned Dick and Doug on us.” I sit back and glance quickly around. Damien is still clutching his palm and leaning against one of the cars. Zeke is sulking near Lowell. Maybe he's accepted his fate now we have him down the elevator, so to speak. Lowell and James are watching in stony silence, as are my girls. Tabby looks wrecked, but we don't have time to grieve properly. Thinking of Marty makes me wince. I turn my attention back to Charles.
"Dick and Doug wear the collars of loyalty. As soon as we set foot here, I suspected they would turn on us.”
"Then why didn't you say so?"
"Because I'm not required to answer to you and Damien didn't ask. Although I expect he held the same suspicions as I.”
I look at Damien and Charles manages to take me by surprise and kick me off. I land hard on my hip and curse when I hear the crack. Pain shoots through my side and I grit my teeth to keep from crying out. I lie there, looking at the ceiling a moment and wonder what would happen if I just wait for them to come find me. I close my eyes against the pain and the sight of Marty charging a bear, when he was all kinds of tall, dark, and grizzly himself, brings a fresh wave of emotional pain.
I sit up and carefully ease myself onto my feet, testing the hip. I doubt it was broken, cracked maybe, but it’s already healing. I eye Charles suspiciously. If he holds no loyalty to anyone except himself, he could betray us at any time. Dick and Doug, I get. The evidence is worn around their necks. But Charles is walking a fine line.
If Damien suspects him of any kind of treachery, he doesn't let on though. “Enough,” he says to both of us. He is still clutching his hand and I can see his form flicker in between the man and the massive version. When it lands on the bigger version of himself, the silver and black tendrils of his aura are off somehow. It takes me a minute to recognize it and when I do, I gasp. Tendrils of crimson red begin to place their way through his aura. It isn't a lot and he seems to be melding it with the light and dark well enough because his breathing has regulated a little more, but does this mean he's part Hellhound now? I always knew he led the Hounds and I assumed he could shift into one if he wanted. Now he can.
"Damien?" I take a step closer to him and the silver flooding his eyes is now rimmed with two pools of scarlet. It's like looking at a lunar eclipse of a blood moon.
"It will be fine, Catriona. I just need a minute to fuse it within somehow.”
I nod and turn to my girls. Leo and Fae are consoling Tora and Tabby. I have to trust Tabby will pull through. She bounces from attachment to attachment, and as much as she was fond of Marty in her own strange little way, she'll work it out. It's Tora I'm worried about because she looks on the verge of a breakdown. It isn't being the new kid on the block, but if she goes catatonic, or worse, then it could be potentially problematic.
I eye Charles and wonder again if he can be trusted. My gut reaction is to say no and leave him behind, but it isn't my call. It sucks having to play nice with my peers and not be the sole person in charge. I only hope whatever juice Damien got from the Hounds is enough to give him power over Charles if it comes down to it. Dante and Phil are talking quietly, and I wonder what advice the old man is imparting on the fallen angel teen. Hopefully, something to motivate him to get up out of this place. Whatever the kid did to warrant a trip downtown that's so bad, well if the big man upstairs is listening, I hope he'll reconsider the kid's case. This is no place for a teenager; I don't care how wrong he's gone.
I hear the metal on the cage start to creak and Damien doesn't look keen to get anywhere near it so I begin looking for a way out. The walls are vast and remind me of the portal wall in the garage, except there aren't any cars parked within sight and the floor is rock instead of flat concrete. Combined with the musty smell and the moisture in the air, I'd say my initial assessment we are somewhere around one of the rivers is pretty accurate, the question is, what level? The rivers don't run strictly on Limbo's floor. They run deep and wide.
Dante answers my question before I have time to ask it. “I'd say we are around the Acheron, the river of sorrow.”
"What makes you think that?"
"Because the cavern is a desolate place. It reminds me of those afflic
ted with the woes of their sins and cast into the fourth circle of Hell, greed.”
"Then where is everyone?" I look around, still not seeing or hearing anyone.”
"They are here and yet they aren't. Some have been crushed under the weight of their sin, while others remain lonely, forever damned to walk alone with the burden of their sin, instead of the benefit of life's more precious treasures.”
"You mean family and friends?" I look around, still expecting to see a figure wandering, lost and alone, but there is no one.
"Precisely. Those who know only this torment would have run and hidden at the first sound from us, as they are unaccustomed to coping with the presence of anyone or anything apart from their collective vices.”
And I thought the abyss was bad. Imagine spending eternity with your only company being the gold or fortune you'd amassed for yourself and no one else. I shudder at the thought. As much as I love Sugar, I can't picture spending much time riding around with her. Humans aren't designed to be singular people. At least, it's my theory. We're supposed to have someone to care about us, even if it is just a friend or sole family member. I don't want to dwell on the wails of anguish I feel like are suddenly sounding in my head. They may not be bouncing off the walls in this place, but it doesn't make them any less real.
"Which way to the library?" I glance between Dante and Damien.
Dante points past where Dick and Doug are caged. “The Acheron is that way. We can follow the river, as it leads to the seventh circle, violence.”
"How is anyone who is violent to another person woeful about it?" Leo's nose crinkles like she thinks Dante has gone crazy since stepping foot back in his old stomping ground.
Highway to Hell Page 19