Hannah had to move quickly.
She focused everything she had left on making it to the lake's edge. She smelled the musty odour of the water and grinned. Might she actually manage to do this? It had been an insane plan, but her body was holding on.
The swans and ducks took flight from the churning waters, and the grey sky swallowed them up. Night was on its way, but Hannah would not live to see it. She was okay with that. Her death should have been beside her squad mates two months ago in Derby.
She was right at the water’s edge now, passing by the boat shed Ted once slept in.
“Where are you slithering, little worm?”
Hannah halted, which didn’t take much for she was barely moving. Before her stood the skeletal giant against which Philip had made his last stand. If there had been any doubt in her mind that Philip was dead, this was proof.
“Just leave me alone,” she said, feeling like a petulant child, but having no other offence to offer.
The creature cackled. “Do you even know what stands before you, worm? I am the god, Caligula.”
Hannah frowned, worried that her vision was darkening rapidly. “Don’t have a clue what you’re on about, pet.”
“I am Gaius Julius Ceaser Augustus Germanicus, son of the great Germanicus, heir of the emperor Tiberius, and greatest of all rulers of Rome. I ascended to godhood upon my death, and now I am here to offer civilisation back to the world. Behold, my faithful guard.”
A dozen large, muscular demons appeared from behind the boathouse, all clad in dirty sheets. She looked for an escape, but the only retreat was back to Kamiyo, who was as doomed as she was.
Hannah wobbled, her body begging to collapse. She couldn't take another step. “I-I don’t care who you are, pet. You had your time, alright? You should have stayed dead.”
“Kneel before me or find thine limbs torn asunder.”
“This is England mate. Only person we kneel to is the Queen.”
Caligula snarled, and with a flick of his bony wrist he summoned forth his bodyguards. As if he needed any.
The dozen muscular demons stalked towards her but were then distracted by something. A tiny demon appeared from the other side of the boathouse and launched a rock. The clump of stone sailed through the air and struck Caligula right in the face. The massive monster was absolutely stunned. So were his guard who froze in place, staring at the tiny demon who had assaulted their leader.
Caligula eventually spotted the demon too. “R-Rux? You earn yourself an eternity of torture, you fool! Guards, seize him!”
The tiny demon made an obscene gesture and shrieked. “Fuck you, Imperator!”
Caligula's jaw dropped in astonishment.
The tiny demon bolted with impressive speed, and Caligula's entire guard gave chase. That left just Hannah and the giant demon.
“I'm not quite sure what just happened, pet. You okay?”
Caligula was touching his cheek where the rock had hit, and for a moment, it seemed like he might actually walk away in complete despair. Then he seemed to shake himself back to task. He glared at Hannah. “You wish to break the seal beneath this lake, worm. Your plan is desperate and foolish, but you may see it out. Go on! Attempt to earn your glory. See if you can defeat a god.”
Hannah couldn't make it to the water. She was finished. The horror was too much to bear. Unable to keep looking at the abomination in front of her, she looked away.
Kamiyo was holding on, but was bloody and battered. He had dropped his poker and was merely buying time now. Soon he would become too exhausted to dodge anymore, and the demons would tear him apart.
Hannah didn't know whether to watch her own death or the death of her friend, so she decided to close her eyes. But before she did, she saw one of the demons around Kamiyo fall.
But Kamiyo had been facing the other way.
Then another demon fell down, not dead, but badly hurt.
A thud-thud-thud sounded as rocks fell from the sky. Was it hailing? No, these rocks were too large. There were pieces of brick, too, and other chunks of masonry.
The demons were confused. Kamiyo gained some breathing room as they looked around, confused. He slumped to the ground, exhausted.
More rocks fell. Some struck the demons in the head and knocked them unconscious, others hit limbs and broke them.
What was going on?
A line of strangers broke from the tree-line—thirty or forty people at least.
Incredible.
The strangers each bore arms, some hurling rocks from large sacks, others chopping and hacking at demons with large knives and axes. They were methodical and uncowed, people who had faced demons before and learned how to shed their fear.
The demon army was taken completely by surprise. Their attackers delivered mortal wound after mortal wound, wasting no time in doing battle. It was chop-hack-move-on. Demons fell by the hundreds.
And then something magnificent happened.
The demons started to run away.
In an increasing wave, the demons melted into the forest. Many screamed out garbled words that sounded like pleas. The demons were afraid. Their will had been broken.
Hannah turned to Caligula who was visibly concerned. But not by the sight of the demon army routing. He was, instead, staring off across the lake. The frothing waters had begun to violently churn.
A huge hand broke the surface of the water and clawed towards the darkening sky.
One of the Fallen had arrived.
It was all over.
Hannah collapsed onto her side, knowing her life was ticking down in minutes. She would have just long enough to see the slaughter of her friends. The giant demon would emerge and step over the castle walls. It didn't matter that the demon army was retreating, for one giant unkillable beast would be enough to eradicate every soul inside the castle. It had all been for nothing.
The huge creature continued rising from the lake.
Caligula was enraged, bellowing curses at the lake while petulantly stomping his feet. “No! No, this is my victory. Why are you here? Who summoned you? Who? Leave here at once!”
Caligula wanted no part of whatever was coming through the gate, and it had consumed his attention entirely. It bought Hannah a modicum of pleasure in her final moments to know that the demons fought amongst themselves. Maybe they would be no different to humanity and would soon start killing each other.
Hannah’s eyelids grew heavy, and she felt herself drifting away. She felt the same calm, determined focus she always felt in battle, but this time, it was peaceful and warm. Wherever she was going would be okay. It would be better than the horrors of this world.
At first, she thought she was seeing things, hallucinating as her brain shut down. Her darkening vision detected movement at the edge of the lake, moving among the reeds. It was Nathan. The boy was pushing a boat out onto the water. A rope encircled his neck, fastened at the other end to a large paint can.
What is the boy doing?
But she knew.
Hannah smiled and closed her eyes.
53
NATHAN
Nathan hadn’t shot Jackie on purpose. Everyone thought he did it, but it wasn’t true. It didn’t mean he hadn’t killed her though. Of that he was guilty, whether he had meant it or not.
When he’d fled the castle that night, it was with the intention to run away. He was afraid. The demons would come, and he wanted to survive when they did. Kamiyo, Ted, and Hannah were the only ones at the camp with any clue about how to stay alive. They had all made it out there on the road, and he needed to learn to do the same. That had been all he’d wanted that night.
But when he’d stumbled across Hannah’s rifle, his plans changed. Suddenly, he asked himself the question of why he even wanted to survive so badly. Everyone hated him, not just now, but always. He’d never had any friends because he was so strange and morbid. He knew he was different. The bizarre and disturbing interested him more than it should have, but it wasn’t inten
tional. Something about death and suffering just drew him in, made him yearn for answers that might be lurking there beneath the surface. Death fascinated him—but that didn’t mean he wanted to be the cause of it. No way.
The only death he ever intended to cause that night was his own. Finding the rifle had seemed like a gift, a chance to make it all normal again. No more monsters or living in the woods with a bunch of people who hated him.
But it hadn’t been as easy as he’d thought. When he tried to put the barrel against his forehead and pull the trigger, he found it difficult to do. The weapon was heavy and kept tipping away from him.
Then Jackie had leapt out of the shadows, barking his name. He had flinched. The rifle fell away, and his finger clenched around the trigger. To this day, he didn’t understand how the freak-shot had occurred. The bullet could have gone in an infinite number of directions, but instead, it had struck Jackie right in the chest and killed her instantly.
Every night, he cried about what he had done.
Eventually, those tears had become too much.
Then came his latest miseries. Locked up by his camp mates, he had been left with nothing but silence and regret to keep him company. Then, today, Ted had moved him into the dungeon with that monster, Vamps. He was pretty sure the monster had killed Hannah. She’d been moaning on the ground when he’d awoke in the darkness. Vamps had almost killed him too, although he didn’t remember how.
All he had wanted then was to get Hannah’s help, but he was confused, feeling like his head was being held underwater. So he had groped his way to the steps to find an adult. An adult to please just make it all okay. He was tired of being afraid.
Ted had blamed Nathan of course, and almost flattened him with that hammer, but the doctor stepped in and saved him. After they pulled Hannah out into the courtyard, they completely lost interest in Nathan, which meant he was suddenly free to do as he pleased.
He had felt a burning desire to get away, to get away from these people who hated him, and who he had wronged so badly. If he was so different, then better he not be around ‘normal’ people anymore.
Part of him also wanted to leave before he was forced to watch them all die.
He had hung around for a while, thinking about what to do and where to go. Hannah—barely alive—and Dr Kamiyo started speaking about what was going on. He slunk around the side of the castle, deciding to listen to the adults talk while he summoned the courage to escape.
They said a gate was opening beneath the lake, and that a living person could close it by passing through, and that it would then explode like a bomb—a bomb that would only kill demons. The demons who had taken his sister, Sophie, and his mum. And almost everyone else. Suddenly, things had become very clear to him once more. Killing himself was the only answer that ever ended up making sense, but this way he could also do something good. He might never be normal, but it felt important to do the right thing before he died. Maybe his final act would make up for killing Jackie.
So he had slid out of the sally port right after Hannah, Philip, and Kamiyo did. As if through fate, he did so just as the demons around the walls became distracted by some massive creature marching up the hill. They were so enraptured by its presence that he’d been able to clamber down the slope and into the forest without any of them noticing.
He had chosen the forest side of the slope instead of the lake because he didn’t want to be seen by Hannah or the others. They wouldn’t trust him, and Hannah might even try to shoot him. If that happened, his chance of doing something good would get snatched away from him. Then he wouldn’t ever see Sophie again. She would be in the good place, and the only way he could join her was by saving everyone else.
When Nathan re-emerged from the forest behind the cabin, he had been set on immediately by monsters, and as he’d feared, he was completely unprepared. He had forgotten to bring his bow, or any other weapon, and all he could do as they approached him was scream. He wished his mum was there, holding him.
Then adults had appeared, spirits of the forest summoned by his terrified pleas. They leapt out of the trees and started throwing rocks and slashing at the demons with knives and axes. Within seconds, all the demons near Nathan were dead. A large bearded man with a bald head shook him by the shoulders.
“Where’s Dr Kamiyo? He told us to come here. Shite, this is a fucking shitshow.”
“I... I don’t know.”
“Damn it! This place is supposed to be safe.”
Nathan didn’t know what to say.
“Pritchard!” someone shouted. “I think I see the doctor. He’s in trouble.”
The big man cursed the air, then raced away with his small army. Once again, Nathan had found himself alone and ignored—just a weird kid that no one wanted to be around.
Next, Nahan went into the boat shed, avoiding detection of a dozen large demons that took off after a smaller demon. Inside the boat shed, he found rope and several industrial-sized paint cans. He picked the heaviest and attached it to his ankle via the rope. Then he wandered outside towards one of the row boats that sat along the water’s edge. A warm, floaty feeling came over him, and the swishing he always felt in his tummy was gone. He felt calm. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t doubting himself or wondering if what he was doing was wrong. It felt good to be sure about something.
Hannah and Kamiyo were both in danger, but he couldn’t help them. If anything, their peril was helping him do what he needed. The demons were all distracted. The huge demon by the water’s edge was the most distracted of all, staring at the frothing waters of the lake.
A giant hand broke from the water, followed by an arm and an elbow. Translucent skin shimmered over bulging muscles, and as the hand rose into the sky, a massive creature emerged beneath. It was the most beautiful thing Nathan had ever seen—a giant figure with golden wings and fair hair. An angel if ever there was one. Nathan wondered what would happen to it if it died. He hoped to find out.
While he was awed by what he was seeing, Nathan pushed the boat out onto the lake and got in. He bobbed about on the unsettled water, in danger of capsizing, so he picked up the boat’s oars and rowed with all his strength.
The angel lifted a leg and waded through the lake. It sent up giant waves that tossed Nathan’s boat into the air. His tummy flipped, and he remembered the time he and Sophie had gone on the pirate ship at the safari park. The echoes of her happy squeals put a smile on his face and made him even more eager to join her.
Tears fell down Nathan’s cheeks as he thought about hugging her again, being her big brother. It was the only thing he had ever been good at. He might have been weird with no friends, but he had always been Sophie’s big brother, and she had loved him. Proof that he was human and not a monster.
The angel spotted Nathan flailing about in his tiny boat, and a grin crossed its massive lips. All of a sudden, its beauty turned terrifying.
“No,” Nathan cried, knowing he was so close. “No, you can’t stop me. I’m going to do this!”
The massive creature raised its mighty fist into the air, ready to pound Nathan into oblivion.
“No! No, this is my victory. I am Lord of these lands. Why are you here? Who summoned you? Who? Leave here at once!”
The deep, sonorous voice came from the shore, and Nathan looked back to see the large, skeletal creature that had enraptured all the demons at the top of the castle’s rear slope. It bellowed all sorts of obscenities—including ones not in English—and its words seemed to cause offence, because the colossal creature in the lake removed its focus from Nathan and glared at the smaller creature on the embankment.
Nathan rowed furiously, aiming for the centre of the lake, at the exact point that giant hand had first emerged. It must be where the gate was located. Beneath the frothing waters, a light shone, but it was fading. Closing.
He was going to be too late.
He rowed and rowed, as hard as he could, his arms burning. His stomach purged itself into his
mouth, but he swallowed the burning vomit back down.
He would not give up. This was his only chance to be with Sophie, to make his soul worthy of whatever place now kept her.
Nathan reached the centre of the lake and stood up. The boat crashed up and down on the unsettled waters, but it wouldn’t matter now if he tumbled over the side. He was right where he needed to be.
Nathan stooped and picked up the paint can and hoped it was heavy enough to speed his descent. If he drowned before passing through the gate, he wasn’t sure what would happen. How deep was the lake?
He perched the paint can on the edge of the boat and took one last look towards the bank. Night had almost arrived, but there was enough remaining light, along with the glow from the burning cabin, to see the army of newcomers driving the demons into the forest. He saw the teenagers up on the castle walls, cheering in victory.
He saw Hannah lying on the ground and Kamiyo climbing to his feet a little beyond that. And he saw the skeletal monster and the massive angel continuing to argue, unaware that they were about to be blown to smithereens.
Nathan threw the paint can overboard and followed quickly after it. On the way down to the bottom, he pictured Sophie’s smiling face, and at some point, before he blacked out, he was surrounded by a blinding yellow light. He wondered if it was Heaven.
54
TED
Demons spilled through the gate, and Vamps’ burning glare of victory turned Ted’s fury to ashes in his mouth. His temper had doomed them all. By lashing out and releasing Vamps’ arm, he’d allowed the demon to break free, and then open the gate. Ted’s actions had killed everyone.
The demons spread out everywhere, some heading up the steps to get at the screaming teenagers. Ted couldn’t bear to see them ripped apart, and yet he deserved to suffer the consequences of his actions. He forced himself to keep his unruined eye open.
Frank and Aymun gathered beside Ted, ready to fight the impossible fight that would see them all dead. Ted would go down fighting, even if he had already failed. It was the only thing he could do.
Hell On Earth Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 110