What Following Brings

by S. E. Campbell

  With a grunt, Eden got to her feet and began to sprint up the stairs, toward the open door. Just as she reached it, she heard the sound of banging down below and stared down, taking in the startling and horrible distance between her and the ground. She expected to see Adanna or Aaron coming through the doors and saw just that. But she also saw they were being led by Yuri and Jared. Yuri appeared just as worried as the rest of her friends did.

  Yuri. I am looking at Yuri. Yuri gazed up, straight into her eyes, and she felt relief. He was okay. She had found him. She would talk some sense into him, and everything would be all right.

  “Eden,” Aaron said, grasping his chest as if it hurt him, “you have to get out of here. We can’t…We can’t stay in here much longer…This places burns. How can you not feel it?”

  She looked at Adanna and then Yuri and saw the agony written on their faces.

  “Eden, you fool,” Yuri said, also gasping. His voice echoed throughout the room. “Do you know why this place has been closed down? A powerful demon lives here. A demon named—”

  Something cold wrapped its fingers around her wrist, and Eden’s eyes widened in horror before she was ripped off of her feet and thrown backward, into the room behind her. She rolled, tumbled on the ground, and then heard the sound of her friends’ shrieking in the room beyond.

  A cold, hard voice said, “A demon named Asag.”

  Chapter Ten

  Eden’s eyes opened wide in fear as she stared up and gazed at the room around her. It was the same as the prison had been. Cold. Fallen apart. Only this room was also covered in mirrors, but instead of seeing Yuri’s reflection in them, she saw the horrifying image of a demon so twisted, so disgusting, she could wash her eyes out with soap and they would still not be clean enough.

  The demon had eight sets of arms, like a centipede, each with long, dark fingers. His fingernails were broken and crusted with something the color of rust. He had a long, flat face with white pupil-less eyes. He had no front teeth, and his tongue hung out of his mouth and was so long it draped to his chest. Because he could not draw his tongue into his mouth, it was cracked and dry. He also had four horns on top of his head, two on each side.

  Asag was tall and stood on feet with claws at the end of them, like long dog paws. His skin was black and scaly, like the body of a lawn snake. Two long, slimy wings were on his back. When he moved, every bone in his body popped.

  “Oh, oh, oh,” Eden said, sitting up and moving against the set of mirrors behind her.

  “So you are the strange creature Master is having so much trouble with,” Asag said, his voice an evil growl. “So small. Like a human fly.”

  Asag approached her. She trembled upon the ground and reached for her sword. When he was close, close enough she could smell that his body stank of rotten fish and saw his scales were dry and flakey, she withdrew her sword. He caught the sword with his open palm just as she struck and held it, chuckling, within his grasp as if all of her might meant nothing to him. He gazed at her with those same strange, cold eyes, and she gasped in fear and repulsion at his hideous features.

  “You truly believe a human can destroy me,” Asag said. “You are puny. You are insignificant. Even if you had the power of an archangel, you would not be strong enough to face me. I am a god of sickness. Even from here, I make all of the humans on earth grow ill. And every day, as my Lord gains power, I get stronger.”

  “I will stop you,” Eden said, staring at him. “I, I don’t care what you say you can do. I will stop you.”

  “I am not saying what I can do,” Asag said. “I shall show you what I can do.”

  “What do you mean?” Eden asked.

  Instead of responding with words, Asag reached over and touched the mirror. The mirror rippled as if it was made from water, and soon, every mirror in the room began to ripple too. The reflections began to change. Eden no longer saw herself, a ghostly figure, cowering upon the floor. Instead she saw darkness and white mist.

  In the mirror’s reflection, the darkness and the mist cleared away, revealing a balding man leaning over his kneecaps with shaking shoulders. The man appeared as though he was fading away, receding. When he glanced up, his eyes were red and his face was blotchy. When he gazed up, Eden saw the man was her dad.

  “No,” Eden said. “Not him. Anyone but him.”

  When she searched for Asag, she saw he was gone from the room she was in. Instead Asag stood beside her dad in the vision reflected by the mirror and bent down behind him, an ugly, angry shadow. His white eyes leered at her dad, and though he had no pupils, Eden swore Asag appeared hungry.

  Eden leapt to her feet and sprinted toward the mirror; she realized when she touched the surface that it was truly just a reflective pane. She heard the sound of a door banging behind her, which she ignored, and continued to try to get her hand through the mirror. Nothing worked, but Asag gazed up and met her eyes, and Eden felt chilled to the core.

  When Asag touched her dad’s shoulder, he gasped and threw back his head and began to have a seizure. He sunk backward into Asag’s many decrepit, slimy arms. Asag held her dad as if he coddled a baby, and her dad’s skin began to grow red and become covered in rashes. The more Asag rocked him, the faster he began to convulse and the faster his skin began to fleck away and decay. As she watched the scene with wide, horrified eyes, she felt two arms wrap around her waist and heard Asag give an angry howl. A foot came crashing against the mirror. The pane slammed against the floor, revealing the back of the mirror was a dirty, unreflective brown surface made from some sort of stone Eden didn’t recognize.

  “Flip over all the mirrors,” demanded the person who had grabbed her. Yuri.

  “Yuri,” Eden said in shock. “You came up here?”

  “Flip over the mirrors,” Yuri said. “Flip over all the ones you can reach. Mirrors are portals demons use to get to Earth.”

  “But my dad,” Eden said.

  “Asag does not want your dad,” Yuri said angrily, seizing another mirror and flipping it over. “Asag wants you.”

  Eden turned and began to flip over all of the panes which lay on the floor. Unfortunately, there were more mirrors above them, mirrors even Yuri could not reach. Asag had already dropped her dad, hunched and broken but thankfully still breathing, on the floor. She saw one of his many arms reach through the surface of the mirror as he began to pull himself through, all the way out to her.

  “Run,” Yuri said.

  “What?” Eden asked.

  “For heaven’s sake, Eden,” Yuri said, grabbing her hand. “I said run. Get out of here.”

  Nodding, Eden whirled around and began to run for the door, but the moment she reached it, it slammed shut of its own accord. Eden gazed up as Asag dropped down to the floor gracefully. He stared down at her with large, angry eyes. His tongue quivered as he glared at her.

  “So you decided you will attempt to thwart me,” Asag said.

  The demon reached over and touched the surface of the nearby mirror, and the pane once again rippled beneath his hand. Instead of showing her dad, this time it was dark, and she saw Satan, the seven-headed beast, leering out at her from the mirror. All seven heads moved in her direction, and she felt Yuri go rigid at her side.

  “Satan,” Yuri gasped, as if Eden did not know who he was.

  “Yuri,” Eden said, “we have to get out of here.”

  Satan reached through the surface of the mirror, just like Asag had. He began to pull himself out of the mirror, following after the lesser demon. Did you ever imagine he couldn’t? Eden asked herself. He is Satan. He can do anything he wishes to do. She shuddered at the thought and watched. It did not appear Satan was in any hurry to get into this room, but she could tell by the malice in his expression he wanted to hurt her. Maim her. And she would not let him.

  As Satan climbed through to her, the room began to stink of rotting flesh and all around her she heard annoying buzzing. The buzzing grew louder and louder, more and more horrible, until she felt
as if she lay within an ocean of bugs crawling into her ears. A chill filled her.

  She felt Yuri crumble at her side, and she seized his arm, pulling him to his feet. Herds and swarms of angry locusts surrounded them. The only thing that allowed her to see was her necklace. Then she gazed down and her eyes widened. Her necklace. Asag stood at the base of the mirror Satan was crawling through, arms opened wide as if to assist him from the mirror. During this moment, she had an idea.

  “Asag,” Eden said, removing the necklace from her neck.

  Asag turned and gazed at her coldly.

  “Here,” Eden said. “Catch.”

  After drawing her hand back, Eden hurled the necklace through the locusts. Asag raised one of his many arms and caught the necklace within his hand. At first, Asag’s face remained the same as it always did, but then the flesh on his palm bubbled. He began to let out ear-piercing, loud shrieks. The shrieks grew so loud it caused Eden’s ears to ache, but she did not care. She rushed forward, toward Asag, with her sword unsheathed. She reached the arm which held her necklace and sliced through the flesh there. Unlike before, the weakened flesh gave way as if it was putty.

  Holy water. I have a lot of holy water from the prison. Eden searched her pockets, withdrew a vial, and uncapped the bottle. Cool liquid spilled on her hands. She did not bother to waste any more time on Asag when she had a far more formidable opponent climbing through the mirror. She had seen Satan and all he could do, and she was not about to take her chances of him coming through to reach her.

  Eden hurled the holy water at Satan, who was almost out of the mirror , and expected to see him writhe. Instead Satan glared at her, and she realized the water was not strong enough to fight him, just his spawn. Just as she was about to lose hope, the mirror disintegrated around him. Satan withdrew his body just in time.

  “You traitorous wench,” Asag said, reaching for her. His arm was just a stub at his side now.

  “No!” Eden screamed, whipping out a bottle of holy water and hurling it at him. He screeched and fell to his knees. “Go away.”

  She then spun around and pulled another bottle of holy water out and showered the mirrors with it. At the lightest sprinkle, the mirrors dissolved as if they were butter in the microwave. These mirrors are made from something evil. Thus, good disintegrates them. Just as she had thrown the last of the holy water onto one of the mirrors, two strong hands wrapped around her waist and she realized she was in Asag’s grip. Trapped by his seven remaining arms, she was not able to get away, and the smell of rotting fish filled her nostrils. He licked her face with his abnormally large tongue, making her shudder, as flying locusts landed on her and covered her soul.

  Ahead, Eden saw Yuri stand up amongst the locusts and rush at the necklace on the floor. He bent down and picked up the piece of jewelry, grasping it in his fist. The locusts stuck to him more than they did her. They weighed him down, clinging to him, and the locusts in the air lessened. The locusts caused Yuri to squat beneath their weight and hunch over. She gasped when she realized what was going on.

  “I want you to watch,” Asag said. “They are going to eat him alive.”

  “No!” Eden screamed, trying to break his grip.

  “Too bad I couldn’t do the same to you, but Satan wants you untouched,” Asag said.

  She saw Yuri bend over, the locusts feeding on him and devouring his ectoplasm, and she screamed again and flailed. His entire soul was covered in scavenging black dots. No, Yuri, no. Her mind filled with images of him and she knew she had to get away from Asag so she could save him.

  “Yuri,” Eden said. “Yuri, please.”

  Then Yuri, surprisingly, got up again. He stumbled closer to Asag and Asag hissed and dropped back against the wall. He fears the necklace still. I should have known he would fear the necklace. Yuri took one more step closer still. When he reached them, he whipped out his sword so fast Eden had barely had time to blink. Asag released Eden in surprise at Yuri’s actions. With a cry of triumph, she sprang away from Asag as Yuri desperately tried to wipe away the locusts which clung to his body.

  The moment Eden touched the locusts, they began to bite her too. She groaned but kept on shoving them aside. As she pushed them away, the necklace brightened and Asag screeched and stepped away. Yuri, his energy as dim as a bad light bulb, stood with his eyes wide. He didn’t have much time left if she didn’t help him.

  “I can’t lose you.” Eden pulled out a vial of holy water and handed it to him.

  Yuri drank it and his energy brightened. Just as he grinned at her in gratefulness, a hand seized her arm again, but this time it almost appeared human. Eden whipped around and expected to look straight into the face of a pale-eyed creature with no pupils, but instead she stared at an average looking man with brown hair. A man she recognized.

  “You,” Eden said. “How? What?”

  It was the man she had dreamed about when she had been back on Earth. She had been tied to a chair of stone and he had hit her across the face again and again. Nadia, her guardian angel who had sacrificed her life energy in order to tell Eden her task, had appeared and saved her from being beaten again.

  “Do you like my human form?” Asag asked, his voice still deep and demonic. He smirked in such a way that his dark eyes appeared to glow red as he opened his mouth. His abnormally long tongue spilled out, draping over his teeth.

  “G-get away,” Eden said.

  “How about a kiss?”

  Asag leaned forward, smirking wickedly. Eden put her hand against his forehead and tried to push him away. Yuri cried out, swinging his sword again, and rushed at Asag. Asag grinned at Yuri and, seconds before impact, grabbed Yuri by the arm too and threw him to the ground with abnormal strength. Strength no human could have possessed.

  “You two are getting on my nerves,” Asag said. “Satan could have played with you more himself, but he’s too busy. He has warriors to unleash. Until he wants you for real, I think I’ll lock you two up in a place where you won’t be able to escape. I hope you enjoy your last few hours with your boyfriend.”

  “What?” Eden asked.

  Turning, Asag focused on one of the few remaining mirrors and the surface of the mirror bubbled and grew blacker and blacker. Soon, it revealed a world that was blacker than any she had seen before. It was the same blackness Eden had seen in the painting when she had been in the Blood Stone cave. She gasped as she scrutinized it. Asag seized her and Yuri by their arms and dragged them both over to the mirror. Heforced her to look through it. Inside of the mirror, Eden saw darkness and distant, flickering lights. Bright lights which appeared also strangely familiar.

  What are those? Eden thought, feeling horrified.

  “Welcome to the ‘other world’.”

  Then Asag pushed her through the mirror and shoved her to the floor. A moment later, Yuri was pushed through too and landed at her side. She gasped, clutching her chest, shocked how much the pane had felt like a pool of water.

  When Eden looked up, she had no idea where she was.

  ****

  As Eden sat on her haunches and glanced around, Yuri sat up too, rolled his eyes, and then ran his hand through his hair. The two of them exchanged looks, and Eden could not help but feel grateful he was here. Yuri had come to save her. There was hope, after all. She knew she had to have him by her side if she wished to find the remaining two souls.

  But first, she had to figure out where they were. And she had to figure out how to get out of where they were.

  “What is this place?” Eden asked, struggling to her feet and glanced around.

  “We’re in the other world,” Yuri said. “It’s just as Asag said.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard my friend, Thema, mention this place,” Eden said. “The funny thing is, I still have no idea what she meant by it. What is the other world? And why would he send us here? Do you think he’ll come back for us right away?”

  “Probably a demon version of a joke,” Yuri said. “This is where the souls go when
there is not enough room for them on earth. It’s the waiting line between purgatory and earth. Ironic, isn’t it? Asag didn’t need to cut us apart to get us here. Instead he just sent us here through the mirror, and as long as we’re here, there is no way out.”

  “What?” Eden asked. “There has to be.”

  “Look around,” Yuri said. “Do you see any exits?”

  With a frown, Eden whipped around and took in her surroundings. Yuri was right. Everywhere she searched, there was darkness. Endless darkness. Eden looked down, took a step back, and stumbled right into Yuri. He grasped her arm and steadied her. She straightened herself. Below her, there was nothing. Literally. It was deep darkness that had somehow solidified. It appeared no different than the endless darkness ahead. The ground was no different than the floor, just black, so it was hard to see whether she could move forward or not.

  She bent down and felt the floor; it was cool beneath her hands, almost like metal. Her eyes widened and she gazed ahead again. I saw lights earlier, which means there has got to be something here besides this darkness. Sure enough, in the distance, if she concentrated hard, she could see twinkling white lights.

  “There,” Eden said. “Lights.”

  She stepped forward. Yuri grabbed her hand and dragged her back.

  “Do you honestly think it’s wise to just charge forward?” Yuri asked. “Demons are not stupid. Asag wouldn’t have put us here if he thought we’d have a good time.”

  “And what do you recommend?” Eden asked. “Staying here and waiting for him to come and find us? Because he’s going to summon Satan to come get me, and heaven help me, I do not intend for us to be here when Satan comes out.”

  Yuri frowned. “Fine. But we have to be cautious. And if I say stop, I mean it.”

  Eden paused. “You really don’t trust anybody, do you?”

  “As I’m sure you know, trusting people has gotten me nowhere in the past, Eden,” Yuri said. “Now just come on.”

  He grasped her hand and began to pull her forward. Eden was so shocked she almost tripped. Instead she continued to follow after Yuri, trying to ignore that holding hands with him pleased her. As she followed him she thought, I wish things were different. I wish I wasn’t here. I wish there were no demons and Yuri was with me on Earth and we could go out together and… What am I thinking? She bit her bottom lip as she realized the obscurity of her thoughts.