What Following Brings
by Stephanie Campbell
Published by Astraea Press
www.astraeapress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.
WHAT FOLLOWING BRINGS
Copyright © 2013 S.E. CAMPBELL
ISBN 978-1-62135-173-3
Cover Art Designed by Book Beautiful
For Jethro, who decided the name of the trilogy.
Prologue
Rebecca Schmidt pressed her hand against the window and her palm passed right through. She let out a low moan of remorse as it happened because it was a sign of what would occur if she actually stepped through the doors of the jewelry story to grab one of the sparkling golden necklaces on display. She was a ghost now. Dead.
“You should go back to Zemiothstai, you know,” a man said from behind her. His name was Henry, and he was a fellow ghost. She had talked to him at a local club and he had followed her ever since. She didn’t know the reason why. As a ghost, she couldn’t give him anything.
With a sigh, Rebecca stepped away from the window and looked down the street. The air had an eerie feeling today. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew she didn’t like it.
“Rebecca?” Henry tried again. “Didn’t you hear me? We should go back to Zemiothstai.”
“Go to purgatory?” Rebecca finally snapped. “I think not. The place is filled with the sour stench of rotten eggs, and everybody there is so rude. Why are you following me, anyway? Shouldn’t you be looking up skirts at the club?”
Henry reached toward her and grabbed her hand. She paused.
“I never wanted to go to purgatory before I met you,” Henry said. “I always thought it was easier staying on earth. How are we supposed to complete our tasks and go to heaven if we’re over here messing around? It’ll never happen that way.”
Rebecca wrinkled her nose at the thought of Saint Peter, the man who gave tasks for souls to go to heaven. The man had had the indecency to say she was selfish when she had come to purgatory. Her? Selfish? Never.
“What was your task, anyway?” Henry asked, when Rebecca did not respond. “Maybe I can help you fix your mistakes. I bet if we go to heaven together, it’ll be real nice.”
“My task…” Rebecca frowned and stared straight ahead.
A flash of her daughter Eden’s face filled her vision. She thought of their final moments together.
Rebecca stood in her old bedroom in California, packing her things. Her heart raced in fear she would get caught by her husband—soon to be ex—Osier. She had met a man, a great one this time. He was the type of person who would give her everything she ever wanted. He even had a yacht, a mansion, and a swimming pool. She would be rich and wouldn’t have to worry again.
That was when she heard the sound of footsteps and gazed up, horrified. Was it Osier? If it was, then she was in trouble. Instead she saw her daughter, Eden, hovering at the doorway. That made her feel sick. I deliberately bribed her with a concert ticket, Rebecca thought. What is she doing here? She whipped around so fast she knocked one of her suitcases off the bed, but she was too horrified to bother to check which one.
“Eden,” Rebecca said, stuttering. “What are you doing? You are supposed to be at the concert.”
“I didn’t go to the concert. I was outside the whole time.” Eden’s eyes were massive with hurt as she gazed at her.
“You were?” Rebecca said, shuddering. “Why would you do that? Everything is fine.”
She couldn’t stand the pained, panicked look on Eden’s face, even though she knew Eden would be better off here with her dad. The two of them had always shared an annoying bond. Her new boyfriend was a partier, not the type of man who wanted a child hanging around.
“Why are you packing, Mom, if everything is fine?” Eden asked.
“I was… I…” She opened and shut her mouth several times, trying to figure out an excuse. Eden had always been too smart for her own good.
Rebecca saw Eden’s eyes narrow and her face contort in rage. Normally, she was calm and rational. Quiet. A little too quiet for Rebecca’s taste, as she could never tell what she was thinking.
“You were going to abandon me,” Eden yelled. “You were going to leave me here.”
So lying won’t work after all, Rebecca thought, stunned Eden had yelled at her. Maybe if she used reason, Eden would understand. “You would be much better off with your father. He can take care of you.”
“You are so full of it.” Eden grabbed bed sheets in her hand and balled them in her fist. “Admit it. You are just too selfish—”
“Eden, come on.”
“—and too immature to bring me along.” Eden’s eyes narrowed. “You were always like that. You’ve always made it perfectly clear you’ve never wanted me. Well, guess what? Maybe I don’t want you either.”
The air in the room grew cold. Sharp pain filled her heart because of the truth behind Eden’s heated words. Rebecca seized the suitcase on the bed and forced the top down with a loud thud. Whipping around, she headed for the stairs. Eden followed her, fists balled at her sides, while shaking with anger.
Rebecca was determined to not let Eden change her mind. Not this time. She had given up so many good years, probably the best of her life, after Osier had convinced her to keep Eden and marry him after she got pregnant at eighteen. As much as she loved her daughter, a big part of her felt anger whenever she gazed at her face. She could have been a big name model, and what did she give her career up for? A quiet, average looking daughter who got straight Cs.
As Rebecca began her journey down the flight of stairs, she felt Eden’s eyes drilling into her back. Rebecca seized the front door and opened it, desperate to get out before Eden said anything more.
“I hate you!” Eden yelled. “I hope you die.”
Rebecca shuddered at the words, stepped outside, and shut the door with a click. As she lingered at the threshold for a moment longer, she gripped her chest which felt abnormally hot. I thought I didn’t care, Rebecca realized, but that was so hard. She shook her head, seized her suitcase, and headed for the car before she let the pain truly sink in.
But when she was in the car and the empty space in the passenger seat next to her made her eyes fill with tears, her daughter’s absence was all she could think about.
“Rebecca, Rebecca,” Henry said, drawing her back from the memories. For the first time, she was grateful for Henry. She didn’t want to remember any more of that awful, awful day.
“What?” Rebecca asked, raising an eyebrow.
“What was your task?” Henry asked, not to be deterred.
“It’s none of your business,” Rebecca said. My task was to find my daughter and apologize.
But the pain which filled her at the thought of Eden’s face was more than she could handle. She didn’t think she had the courage to stare Eden in the eye, to see the anger and betrayal which was rightfully deserved. How could she talk to Eden anyway? She was still alive, unlike her. Souls could not talk to the living. She had tried.
Rebecca shook her head and stepped forward. No, I can’t go look for her. I can’t.
Henry moved to follow her. “Why don’t we—”
The earth began to grumble below them and the screams of the living filled the night. R
ebecca grabbed onto Henry’s arm, her eyes wide with fear. The air began to smell of sulfur, and she could swear she heard howls. She lost her footing and fell to her knees with Henry beside her.
“Rebecca, look up,” Henry said, open mouthed. “What is happening? It’s like the earth is screaming.”
Rebecca threw back her head and gazed into the sky. As the ground continued to rumble, the sky above them grew black. Blacker than the blackest of nights. There were no clouds, no stars, no nothing. It was just darkness so thick it could choke whoever was enveloped by it. The darkness filled the streets around her, and every street lamp, every shop light, went out.
The earth groaned, and Rebecca yelped and gripped the ground. She looked up just in time to see a young, blond haired, woman sitting on the street corner, weeping. Behind the blonde woman, a massive shadow approached. When she focused upon the shadow, it revealed itself as a handsome brunette with cruel eyes. But there was something about him. Something Rebecca didn’t like.
The man wrapped his arms around the woman; she screamed and thrashed and struck out at nothing. She can’t see him, Rebecca thought, but she made no move to help her. Then the impossible happened. Somehow, though she couldn’t see how, the ghost killed the woman. One minute she was squirming and writhing, the next she was laying unmoving upon the ground. Souls couldn’t do that. They could hardly touch the living, let alone kill someone.
“No,” Rebecca whispered.
“Rebecca,” Henry said, moving in front of her protectively.
“What’s going on?” Rebecca asked. “What is this?”
She watched the man drag the woman into an alleyway by her hair. To her left, Rebecca heard horrible laughter. Laughter she recognized. A strange white mist covered the streets. Mist she did not understand because it moved purposefully and mindfully, like it was more than just vapor.
“Raiders,” Henry said.
“What?” Rebecca asked.
“Raiders. Satan Spawn,” Henry said. He seized Rebecca’s shoulders. “Something has happened. These monsters were only in Zemiothstai, but now they’re on Earth and they’re…”
Rebecca heard the sound of whispering from the white mist figure. Familiar whispering. There was then the sound of laughter. The laughter belonged to her daughter, Eden.
“Mom, why did you leave me?” Eden asked.
“Eden?” Rebecca cried eyes wide. “You’re here? How?”
Henry seized her arm. “She’s not here. Satan Spawn mimic your loved ones. Run as fast as you can to the nearest portal to Zemiothstai. I’ll meet you there. Try to survive.”
“Survive?” Rebecca’s eyes widened in fear and her stomach dropped. “What will the Raiders do to me if they catch me?”
“Run. Don’t find out.”
Turning, Rebecca began to sprint down the sidewalk. She knew she should have bothered to ask what Henry was doing or where he was going, but she was too scared. Instead she headed toward the next portal to Zemiothstai, the one she had seen inside a clothing store fifteen minutes earlier. As she ran, the white mist grew thicker and thicker.
“Mom,” Eden said. “Mom, please come home. I miss you so much.”
“Be quiet.” Rebecca moved her hands over her ears as she ran.
“Mom, why am I never good enough for you?” Eden asked. “I tried so hard to be a good daughter.”
She let out a desperate cry. It was like these monsters, these “Raiders,” were digging into her mind and bringing up what she least wanted to hear. She tried so hard not to think of her daughter. She didn’t want to remember her, didn’t want to think about what she said. But now…
“Mom, I love you,” Eden said.
There was silence as Rebecca kept running. White faces began to appear around her. The faces had no eyes and no nostrils. They were just pure white masks of horror among a sea of mist.
With a scream, Rebecca moved left and headed into the store where she had seen the passage to purgatory. The passage was a glowing white disk above the counter. As she sprinted toward it, running through clothes and knocking over hangers, she heard a woman screaming from outside the window. Rebecca looked over her shoulder and stopped in horror.
One of the Raiders stood in full form above a human victim. The Raider was six feet tall, possibly even seven, and had the body of a thin woman with pupil-less eyes. The Raider held onto a plump, middle-aged brunette woman with a grocery bag on her arm. The Raider’s mouth opened wide, showing strings of white energy where teeth should have been. The woman screamed and writhed but her wailing did not stop the Raider. Instead Rebecca watched as long white strands of energy poured from the woman lips and were sucked into the Raider’s mouth. The woman became surrounded by an aura of pure black.
The Raider released the woman and looked through the store window, straight at Rebecca. The woman crumbled to her knees, silently rocking back and forth. Rebecca gasped and sprinted toward the portal. When she reached it, she thought, I don’t know what’s going on, but I got the message. Heaven help me, I’ve got to find my way back to Eden. I don’t think I can survive in this world.
Chapter One
Eden Schmidt sat in a jail cell with her best friend, Adanna. She had her hand on her grandma’s wooden cross which hung around her neck, the one that had protected her from harm during her journey. When Eden had died last year after falling down the stairs, she had come to Zemiothstai, to purgatory, in a confused mess. Her confusion only got worse when Saint Peter, the man in charge of telling souls what they needed to do to get to heaven, gave her no tasks and mere warnings.
While in Zemiothstai, Eden had fallen into a cave in Moloch, an evil, demonic city. She ended up being trapped in the Church of Satan, a place where the ceilings bled and the faces of people being tortured covered every wall. It was there where she had discovered a paper which told her the plan of the Demon army, those who pledged to serve evil and all of its purposes. The plan was to use the Blood Stone, a legendary evil made from the blood of its victims, in order to close the gates of heaven.
Eden had been certain it was her job to stop this ceremony but, when she tried, she had failed. She was told by her dying guardian angel that her job was to reverse the Blood Stone ceremony and the only way to do that was to find the five special people who had such strong love in their hearts that they could fight evil. Eden had already found two of those people: Adanna and one of the Demon soldiers, Aaron.
Unfortunately, on her quest to find those five special people, she had ended up here.
Here in a prison cell on a boat, heading toward the Demon soldier prison called Cantica. Eden grimaced at the thought and ran her hand through her golden hair. Adanna stared at her with large, sad eyes. Adanna didn’t speak. Period.
“I don’t think we marked the tally today, Adanna,” Eden said, grabbing a stick of charred wood from the ground. She stood up and gazed at the large wooden wall that was coated with hatch marks. She added a hatch mark and frowned as she counted. “I can’t believe we’ve been on this ship for thirty-three days. Over a month. And I don’t know if it feels longer or shorter than it actually was.”
She would rather be here than where she was going.
As Eden continued to look at the wall, she heard somebody move outside her cell door. She didn’t bother to turn around in case it was a soldier dead-set on taunting her. Her guards had been enjoying doing just so over the past month.
“Psst,” a male voice said. Aaron.
With a grin, Eden whipped around and headed over to the door. Surprisingly, Aaron was the only one who stood there today.
“Where are my two lovely guards?” Eden asked, looking around. “I didn’t see them leave. Taking a break? They’ve never left me alone for more than two seconds before.”
Aaron frowned. “Well, there’s good news and bad news.”
Eden grimaced.
“Okay, good news first.”
“You get to leave the boat,” Aaron said.
She grimaced, even t
hough she felt a small sense of relief. She had been stuck on this ship and in this prison cell for far too long. The green moss on the wall could only be so fascinating. Yet leaving the boat meant she was near Cantica, the Demon prison.
“What’s the bad news?” Eden asked, though she guessed she already knew what it was.
“We’re here,” Aaron said, frowning. “The guards are already preparing to have you unloaded.”
Worry filled her. She grasped the bars of her cell and groaned.
“What’s it like in there, Aaron?” she asked. “Is it as bad as everyone says?”
“Do you want the sugar-coated answer or the hard truth?” Aaron asked.
“The real answer,” Eden said, already fearing what his response would be.
Behind her, Adanna stood up and migrated over to the cell door. She grasped the bars between her fingers, also looking out at Aaron with massive eyes.
“There is a reason why Cantica is well-known for not having any escapees,” Aaron said. “The souls are kept there and tortured. That is what this prison is known for. The torture chambers.”
Eden gazed down at herself. Sure, as a soul she could feel pain, but she wondered what happened during soul torture.
“How do you torture a soul?” Eden asked.
“Well, there are the normal ways like beatings, and then there are other terrible ways.” Aaron shivered. “They use Morsus — of course you’d remember the manic disease which causes depression and bad visions — to do it by keeping the Satan Spawn like Raiders and imps captive. They set them loose on you. They steal your energy, allow you to suffer through the horrible images the soul disease gives you, and then give you a vial of holy water to recover. It’s not pretty. There is a reason why I always opted out of working in Cantica prison. I’m only going there now because of you. I’ve got to find a way to get you out of there, hopefully before General Yuri arrives.”
Hope filled her.
“General Yuri, the man who is being sent to the prison specifically to guard me, isn’t there yet?” Eden asked hopefully. Maybe his late arrival meant she had time to get out of the prison before he arrived and used her soul as a punching bag.
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