What Following Brings

by S. E. Campbell

  “Lead the others into the plains,” Second Beast said. “Wait for my call and then give your life over to me. Each person in line should do the same.”

  For the first time, Danielle gasped and her eyes bulged and watered in panic. Second Beast drew close and spewed sour breath all over her as Eden trembled and repeatedly shook her head.

  “Do you have a problem with that?” Second Beast asked, and then his eyes flickered toward First Beast, who glared back at him with large, hungry eyes. He ran his pink tongue over his lips, his angry eyes glowing bright. White, deadly fangs flashed.

  “As much blood spilled as possible,” Danielle repeated.

  She began to lumber toward the field. When she reached it, she stood in the middle of the dead plains as the others followed behind her. Everyone lined up, one by one. The other demons, still in their human form, surrounded the plains and gazed upon the crowd with excited looks upon their faces. Abyzou appeared especially excited and quivered like a fish that had been taken out of the water, making her appear like she belonged in the ocean even more than ever.

  “You have done well,” Satan said, turning toward Second Beast. “Sixty-six people, just like I ordered.”

  “Thank you, Lord,” Second Beast said.

  “I sense you have something you want to tell me,” Satan said. “Speak.”

  “Thank you, Lord,” Second Beast said. “The girl. I sense you bring her here to watch this, but I also sense… her escape.”

  “Asag will stop her,” Satan said calmly. “She will not leave the other world in time. The fact she has hope amuses me. I will crush it from her.”

  Once again, Second Beast glanced at his paws.

  “Speak, Second Beast,” Satan said, his voice losing its calmness and becoming demonic and angry.

  “Do you trust Asag against her power when she...” Then Second Beast gulped.

  “When she, what?” Satan asked. “When she got away from me? Do you think you can do better than me at capturing a human girl, your master?”

  With a cry of anguish, Second Beast shook his head. Satan lost his humanity and the sound of skin ripping filled the air. The skin fell away from Satan like cloth and five demented heads appeared. His shriveled head gazed upon Second Beast with anger. The ground beneath him quaked and the smell of sulfur filled the air. Satan grabbed Second Beast by his throat and held him up in the air and squeezed. With Second Beast appearing larger than Satan, the scene appeared disturbingly unbalanced. Second Beast began to scream in pain and squirmed, but he did not try to get away.

  “How dare you mock me!” Satan boomed. “You think your power is greater than mine? You cannot even escape my grip, not like she did.”

  “Master…” Second Beast said.

  Satan opened his hand and Second Beast fell and rolled. First Beast hovered over the scene and gazed, wordlessly, at Second Beast on the ground. Second Beast panted, still breathing, but his eyes appeared blue instead of red and foam combined with pink poured from his mouth and spilled on the ground. Satan stepped forward and placed one of his cloven hooves on the dirt. His anger caused his aura to grow an ugly scarlet red and his face twisted as he gazed at the crowd.

  “Hurry up and recover, you imbecile,” Satan hissed, as Second Beast made a strangled, pained whimper. “I have waited long enough for this. And do not think this is the only price you shall pay for your insult, beast.”

  The darkness cleared and Eden came out of her Morsus; she pressed her hand to her mouth, feeling sick. I wish I could stop those people from dying. I wish I could find my two other fated souls and lead them to Gabriel before any of the humans had to die. The way Satan had attacked his own follower so heartlessly shocked her, even though she knew how evil he was.

  Of course he doesn’t have mercy. He is who he is. Sadness, anger, and despair filled her, making her tighten her fists into balls. She wished she could make it out of here before those people ended their own lives. She had a feeling seeing that scene would be worse than watching the gates of heaven close.

  “Eden, are you here?” Yuri asked.

  “Yes,” Eden said, struggling to her feet. “It’s getting worse. Every image.”

  “Mine too,” Yuri said. “And when I woke up, I saw something. And I heard Asag. I heard his voice. He’s nearby… at the river. I don’t think we have more than a few minutes to get away.”

  “We should move,” Eden said. “Keep running.”

  “I think it’s a good idea,” Yuri said. “If Asag is going to catch us, I don’t want to make it easy.”

  “He won’t catch us. I won’t let him.”

  “Eden,” Yuri said, “you think you can stop someone that powerful?”

  “Yes.” She gazed at him stubbornly.

  “Okay,” Yuri said. “Let’s just run.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Just as Eden slipped into another bout of intense melancholy, Yuri’s hand in her own, she saw a white disk appear like a ray of light five feet in front of her. She exchanged looks with Yuri, unable to find happiness in the Morsus-induced darkness, but she could feel one thing — hope.

  She and Yuri ran toward the hole and skidded to a stop when they reached it.

  “You go first,” Yuri said.

  “Yuri, um…” She gazed down the one hundred foot drop to the world below and watched the soul speeding toward them at an alarming rate. “What if we fall and end in the river of souls?”

  “We’ll end up here together at least,” Yuri said. “Just go.”

  Before Eden could say another word about it, Yuri pushed her into the white disk. She yelped, feeling as though she sank into a pot of pudding, and felt the ground give way beneath her. Her world faded around her, closing in around her eyes, ears, and everything else. She expected a sudden drop to the ground, but that did not happen. Instead she found the gel-like consistency continued, slowing her progress to the world below.

  On the way down, she saw why the souls below had never noticed the strange world above them. The soul who had “passed on” to reincarnation was practically translucent and had blank eyes. She gasped as she gazed at him, realizing he must have become invisible when he floated up to the portal in the sky. She realized then everything here had a truly logical side to it. A soul could not just disappear. It just appeared like they did.

  As she glanced at Yuri, she noticed his eyes were dead from a Morsus trance as he descended with her. And he was not alone. There, standing directly above him, was Asag, gazing at them in his original demon form. At his side stood the evil girl who had climbed out of the river and stolen Yuri’s energy. The cold, pale-faced girl and the dark, demonic Asag made a frightening pair, especially since Asag trembled with anger as she leaned over him and whispered in his ear.

  And then the disk closed, though Asag had made no attempt to follow after her. That’s not good. He knows where we are and the fact he didn’t come after us means he is planning something. Eden gulped in fear.

  Melancholy from the Morsus filled her, even as she stared down and saw they were quickly approaching a Demon city down below. She felt as if she would never be happy again, that Asag would get them no matter what they did. But the pressure of Yuri’s fingers upon her own reminded her she would not let that happen. She had to save them.

  When their feet touched the ground, the force caused her knees to bend and she toppled to the side. She gasped, struggled to her feet, and then seized Yuri’s arm. He trembled as if cold, though that was impossible.

  “Get up, Yuri,” she demanded. “Asag found us. Please. Please.”

  But Yuri didn’t move.

  She stared up in panic, expecting to see Asag appear. He could come from the shacks which surrounded them. Maybe Asag could tear open the layers of the other world and appear out of nowhere and float down to her. She wouldn’t put it past him.

  “We have to get out of here,” she said, stepping backward.

  Seconds later she felt intense anger, gripped her chest, and then every
thing grew dimmer.

  Before Eden stood the sixty-six people. Second Beast, still shaking, paced in front of the plains. He moved slowly. His muzzle touched the ground and blew out foam upon the sand. Danielle gazed at him expectantly. Second Beast looked over and gazed into Satan’s eyes. Satan nodded at him, each of his ten eyes glowing with excitement. Second Beast spun and nodded at Danielle, and she picked up the dagger and stared at it.

  “Do it,” Second Beast demanded.

  With a groan, Eden quickly looked away before she could see what happened. She wasn’t sure she could take it if she saw. She felt her heart fill with pain. No, people should not die like this. No one should die like this. Though she knew it would make Satan happy, that this was what he wanted all along, she opened her mouth and screamed, “No, stop it! Stop it!” to the air. Nobody listened. Nobody even knew she was there beside Satan and his demons, who loved the violence so much grins appeared upon their twisted faces.

  One by one, people picked up the dagger and killed themselves in the same way. Satan threw back his heads; all five of them opened their mouths and let out a twisted chorus of maniacal laughter. Clouds filled the sky — deep, dark, and grey — and lightning shot through them.

  “Yes, yes, yes!” Satan cried. “Let the life force of all the humans rain down upon me. Let me bathe in it. Let us all bathe in it.”

  The sky cackled again as Satan continued to laugh and First Beast sniffed the air, licking his chops hungrily, all seven at the same time. Rain began to fall, but it was not ordinary rain. It was blood rain with color so deep and dark it was almost black. It drenched Satan’s already festering skin, and the other demons. Lady Midday tossed her beautiful hair back and began to twirl and dance.

  Eden stared down at herself as the red rain poured through her and thought, What is this? How is this possible? Though none of the crimson liquid could land on her, she wiped at her skin as if trying to clear the memory as well as the fluid from her surroundings. As she glanced up again, through the rainy haze, she gasped at the sea of corpses before her and took a step back.

  Never would Eden forget what she saw as the crimson rain fell down. She would never forget this feeling, either — the sickness of her heart more powerful than any Morsus. With a cry of despair, she fell to her knees and shivered as she embraced herself, trying to comfort herself after all of the horrible images she saw. It was like trying to empty the beach of sand.

  The last person bent down and collected the blade and then stared at it. It was a single, bony, girl who appeared as if she couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred pounds, even soaking wet. She stared at the blade and then time appeared to slow down as she pushed the blade against her throat and took a final, shuddering breath.

  Eden could see the blood beading on her skin and the way her platinum blonde hair became copper from the evil rain. Even though she saw things as if she gazed at Satan from behind him, she could make out the fact the girl wore a golden, heart-shaped necklace around her neck. A necklace somebody she had loved had likely given her. And she could not bear to see anymore and turned her face away. She turned away so she didn’t have to see the evil anymore, didn’t have to see anything.

  It was done. Over. This was just like the Blood Stone ceremony. It made her feel weak and hopeless the way she was forced to watch such horrible things happen but be unable to do anything about it. She shuddered and pressed her hands over her eyes, wishing she could chase out the images which would plague her mind for forever.

  The girl fell to the ground with the other corpses and thunder boomed once, loudly, across the sky and the rain picked up. The earth below them began to shake, but the earthquake was so rhythmic it created a song. And Eden recognized the song. It was the song she had heard when she had first encountered the Morsus, back when she had visited the underground city of Moloch which stood just over the Blood Stone’s chapel.

  Buildings had been carved out of the stones of the cavern, structures at least five stories tall and with glowing lights attached. These buildings were at least five floors tall. In between these grand buildings there was a large mass of souls, but they did not glow like Eden or the others. Their soul’s glow was black.

  The most frightening thing about this large mass of souls was the fact they moved together in perfect unison and made the same sound across the cavern. Thwack, thwack, boom. Thwack, thwack, boom. It went on, over and over again.

  Eden heard the song then. Thwack, thwack, boom. Thwack, thwack, boom. It did not stop, and the ground below her trembled from the noise.

  The ground below the corpses began to crumble and fall apart. They tumbled downward, into the hole below. Still the same sounds continued. Thwack, thwack, boom. Thwack, thwack, boom. The cracks got deeper and the earth began to part even faster, as if the plains were a stage and two wheels had been beneath the surface the entire time, just ready to open for what was below.

  “Come to me, my two million horsemen from the depths of hell,” Satan said. “Let us torment and enslave the world that should have been ours from the beginning.”

  All the corpses tumbled below as the crevices grew wide enough. Along with the same beat — thwack, thwack, boom, thwack, thwack, boom — there was the sound of distant thuds as corpses hit walls and bounced. Eventually, the world was once again silent except for the same strange rhythm which continued to pulse beneath the surface of the earth.

  Below there was roaring and inhuman, high-pitched screaming and keening. Volcanic ash pulsed upward toward the surface in a fine red mist filled with heat. The air above the hole in the ground had an orange glow to it. Then there was more crying as well as the rhythmic beat. Thwack, thwack, boom. Thwack, thwack, boom.

  The roaring grew closer and closer, louder and louder. Soon, creatures poured from the hole at such an alarming rate it was like a geyser of dark, twisted creatures. At first, she had trouble even focusing on each individual being, since they flowed together and acted like a body of water, just like those with Moloch had.

  The creatures resembled Chimeras. They were twenty feet tall horses with black decaying wings, like Satan’s, but instead of horse heads, they had the full, bushy manes of lions as well as large, fang filled mouths and fat, pink tongues which lolled out of them. When they whipped around, Eden saw they did not have the long, flowing tails of horses. Instead they had tan, scaly, dry lizard tails which matched their fur.

  The herd of creatures did not bother to stop and talk to Satan, which Eden had expected. They burst forth, like guts from the injured earth, and poured across the land. . The sound of human screaming filled the air. One of the horsemen let out a screech of delight and exhaled a fiery breath, which reached twenty feet in front of him, and torched a tree; it groaned and fell to the ground with a loud, resounding crack.

  “You will never defeat me now,” Satan whispered.

  Somehow, deep down, she knew his words were intended for her to hear.

  ****

  “Eden, Eden,” Yuri said, shaking her. “Come out of it, Eden. We made it. I moved you to a room in town, and we’re safe now. And I got some holy water. Everything is okay now.”

  Eden screamed and sat up, remembering what had happened to all of those people who had died. With a cry of despair she buried her face in her hands and tried to claw the image from her eyes, though she knew she could never forget what she had seen. Yuri gasped and she felt his arms wrap around her body.

  “Yuri, I saw what he’s done,” she said. “The Earth is dying. He has unleashed a force so terrible I didn’t even know it existed. Because of him, people started taking their own lives and the sky bled, just like the mural in the Blood Stone cavern showed me it would.”

  “It’s okay, Eden,” Yuri said.

  “It is not okay,” she said. “The sky bled, Yuri. The sky bled.”

  She shuddered and brought her knees up to her chin. She saw she was in the middle of a house which was aglow with lamps and that there were several bottles of holy water at her fe
et. There was a group of six people in the room too, two of whom wore black soldiers’ clothes. They stared at her as if she was crazy. She was beginning to feel like she was too.

  “Are you okay now?” Yuri asked, sounding concerned.

  “No,” Eden said. “But after what I’ve seen, I doubt I will be again.”

  “Me either, Eden. Me either.”

  Yuri drew her to him and she leaned her head against his shoulder. She inhaled and smelled the way his skin had its own amazing and calming scent. All she could think was, Thank heavens he’s here.

  She shuddered. “Asag is on his way, Yuri. We have to figure out how to get rid of him.”

  “I know that, too.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Eden walked quickly, hand in hand with Yuri. The two of them headed through the town; she tried to ignore the whispers and the stares. The town was small, like most of those in purgatory, and there were many buildings half-caved in and still smelling of smoke from recent fires. More people had survived than she would have expected, and Eden hated how people kept bumping her. Everywhere she looked, she pictured Asag’s face. With somebody as ordinary looking as he in human form, he could be watching them already, hiding in the crevices of an alleyway.

  Just as Eden walked by a small shack, she turned and saw what appeared to be a banged up sheet of metal. Releasing Yuri’s hand, she took a step toward the pane and stared into the metallic surface. I swore I saw something.

  “Yuri,” Eden said, turning toward him. “There was movement in here. I mean, beyond us.”

  “Come on,” Yuri said, seizing her hand again. She could tell by his hard expression he believed her. “Do not look into anything reflective. You saw Asag enjoys traveling by mirrors. It’s probably because his reflection is so hideous his own appearance causes pain in others.”

  “Do you think he’s out of the other world already?” Eden asked.