What Following Brings

by S. E. Campbell

  “Eden, the demons own the other world now,” Yuri said. “I don’t think Asag is actually trying. He’s playing with us.”

  “And what do we do?” Eden said. “If he can see us through every mirror, then we’ll be running for forever. And we have to get back to Adanna and Aaron. I’m certain they’re waiting for us back at the old prison. They waited for me before, so they’ll do it again.”

  “What else do you suggest we do but run?” Yuri asked. “We can’t beat a demon, Eden. Human souls do not have the strength to compare to them. We can maim them and get rid of them with holy water, but they are powerful and they can’t die. At least, I’ve never heard of one who was killed by a human.”

  But his words stuck a thought in Eden’s head. “We can maim them and get rid of them.” Of course they could. Back when she was alive, she had been a horror movie junkie. She remembered a time back in her family home.

  She sat in front of the television in the dark all alone. A horror movie blazed on television, and she watched it with a pillow hugged against her chest. The main character chanted some holy words over a skinny actor in the middle of what appeared to be a seizure. Her heart thundered in her chest and she was so scared, so convinced it was real, she knew she would not sleep that night. When a person appeared at the threshold of the room, she nearly leapt out of her skin.

  “Eden,” her mom said, flicking on the light and then gazing at the TV and wrinkling her nose. “Goodness. How can you watch movies like this?”

  At the moment, she questioned that herself. “I don’t know.”

  “Your father always watches this junk too. You must get it from him. And honestly, in every supernatural horror I walk in on, they always end in the same way — priest exorcises spirit, spirit is too powerful and kills everyone but the protagonist, and then the main character somehow manages to finish whatever mumbo-jumbo she needs and the activity stops. Then, in the last scene, so unexpected—” Her mom clapped her hands together and then moved them apart, palms up, creating a mock rainbow, “—the main character discovers she didn’t get rid of the horrible spirit at all and she is about to die. You watch, Eden. You watch.”

  Then her mom sat on the couch beside Eden and stared at the screen, enraptured.

  Yuri grabbing her arm drew her from the memory. She stared into his eyes with hope. Would an exorcism work in the afterlife?

  “Yuri, what if we perform an exorcism?” Eden asked. “It could work, couldn’t it? It is casting an evil being out of a certain place.”

  “Eden,” Yuri’s eyes widened, “exorcisms need God to work. Do you think Asag will fear God when the gates of heaven have been closed?”

  “I hate zombies, Yuri,” Eden said. “I really, really, am frightened of them.”

  Raising an eyebrow, Yuri gazed at her with a frown. “Okay, I think you’re trying to get at something, but I am not sure what it is. There are no zombies in purgatory. I think it’s the demon trying to attack us through mirrors we have to worry about.”

  “That’s the point, Yuri. I know zombies aren’t real.” Eden frowned. “Okay, after this experience in the afterlife, there is some possibility something might happen, but not likely. My point is even though zombies aren’t real, you show me a picture or a film with a zombie in it and I get scared. Now imagine that in reverse. I’m scared of zombies more than anything else in this world, but demons are—”

  “Demons are scared of God,” Yuri said. “Eden, you are a genius.”

  And then he pulled her in his arms, hugged her to his chest, and kissed her on the lips. Eden felt stunned and remained rigid, even as he let her go. She gazed into Yuri’s face and saw he, too, appeared surprised with his halfway gaping mouth.

  “Um, we can talk about this whole kissing thing later,” Yuri said.

  “Yeah,” Eden said, biting her bottom lip. “Let’s focus on the killer demon first.”

  “I think we’re going to need an empty room, some holy water, and a lot of reflective surfaces. But what if we don’t manage to get Asag here? What if we’re wrong?” He clenched his fists.

  “I know I saw a face in that pane, Yuri,” Eden said. “And even if Asag knows we want him to come out, he’s going to. We’ll make him.”

  “How?”

  “With some psychology,” she said. “Demons are vain, evil, and prideful. Insult his pride and make him angry, and he’ll come out of the mirror.”

  Once again, Yuri gazed at her with an intense expression on his face which made her realize he was thinking about kissing her again. She spun around before he could, not because she didn’t want him to, but because she did and knew she couldn’t afford to get distracted. Not now.

  ****

  Eden walked by a trickling stream and saw a dark face leering out at her with large, bulging eyes. Though she saw Asag and his disgusting crusted tongue, she tried hard not to focus on him. The moment they locked eyes, she knew he would come out of the water and grab her; she could not afford to have him realize she knew he was following her yet, especially when there was so many innocent people involved. She knew she could not permanently dispel Asag, but she could make it so he thought twice about toying with her and Yuri again. After that she and Yuri would be okay, and she could continue on her search for the last remaining two spirits with great love.

  Yes, she thought, her fists clenched. Do not look at Asag. Get the mirrors and the holy water, just like you promised Yuri. He’ll manage to get an empty room. How, I do not know.

  She stumbled across the dirty ground and laid eyes on a man, kneeling, with sodden linens around him and a dirty piece of some sort of mirror lying at his side. He also had a sword. She ran up to him before Asag decided to take the leap early and appear. As she leaned down beside the man, he gazed at her.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, watching her as she touched his mirror.

  “M-may I have this?” Eden asked, knowing she was in a Demon town now. Chances were good this man was greedy.

  “Yes,” the man said. “Just wondering what a pretty girl like you is doing wandering around all alone. Nobody should be alone during these times.”

  Then he moved his arm and she saw he sat next to what appeared to be a mural. Upon further inspection, she saw it was a picture of God with a halo which had been drawn with charcoal. The slab was thin and about the width of her.

  “I like that picture,” Eden said.

  “Do you?” the man asked. “I like to draw. It’s a great hobby of mine. My name’s Karael.”

  She gazed nervously at him before offering her hand. She didn’t have time to be socializing with strange old men on the street, but she wanted the picture. One thing that would frighten a demon more than the word God was a picture of him. She glanced down at the reflective surfaces tucked underneath her arm, and realized if she used them to refract the image, it may make what she was about to do even more powerful.

  But as she laid her eyes on Karael’s sword, she knew she could get herself into trouble bartering with him. Karael followed her gaze.

  “Drawing’s just a hobby when I’m not working,” Karael said, grinning. “I fight, mostly.”

  “I see,” Eden said. “Listen, what can I give you for that picture? It’s so beautiful.”

  Karael went silent for a moment and then he whistled. “Wow. Nobody has any interest in my pictures normally. Tell you what. Since you’re so pretty, I’ll give it to you for free. Good luck with it.”

  “Good luck?” Eden asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yes,” Karael said, then whistled again. “Everybody needs luck in these times.”

  Karael grinned at her and handed her the slab. Luckily, it was light, and Eden was careful as she handled it, as not to drop it on the ground and break her “lucky drawing.”

  ****

  “I’ve got it, Yuri,” Eden said, when she arrived at the meeting spot in the middle of town.

  Yuri had an odd expression on his face when she grinned at him, though. Usually he ha
d an intense, though emotion-filled, look to his eyes, but now his eyes appeared dull and almost empty. What is wrong with him? Stepping forward, Eden touched his cheek, but then he seized her wrist and pushed her hand away as if she was disgusting to him. Hurt filled her. There was no way this was the same man who had kissed her an hour ago as if he had nothing else in his mind, even as the world burned to the ground around them. Something had happened to him.

  “Yuri,” Eden said uneasily, “what’s going on?”

  “I have the room we need,” Yuri said, staring at her blankly.

  “Yuri,” Eden said, “who got to you?”

  “I have the room we need…”

  Then Yuri turned on his heels and began to walk down the street with his back unnaturally stiff. Once again, Eden stared after him. Was it possible for a soul to be hypnotized? She didn’t think they could be. She thought about Asag’s bulging eyes as well as his dry, cracked tongue. What if Yuri had not glanced away from an image with Asag in it? What if he had stared straight into those two bulging eyes and then been taken in by them? It appeared the demons could affect judgment and thoughts. Satan had managed to get inside her head when she was weakened by the Morsus.

  As she saw Yuri stop ahead of her and look over his shoulder at her, she felt horror fill her. Not him. The horror was replaced with anger. She was sick of Asag. She was sick of Satan. No one should be able to force people to do what they did not wish to do. Nobody should force others to hurt themselves. She would follow Yuri, only because she knew what awaited her. She had holy water in her pocket, her blessed cross around her neck, and she had a couple of mirrors underneath her arm. She also knew just what to say, though she was shocked she would actually use a movie script to get rid of a demon.

  Eden sped up her pace and ran toward Yuri, picture under her arm. She kept her eyes straight ahead and thought, If Asag thinks he can take Yuri away from me, then he has another think coming. He messed with the wrong girl this time. If I could handle walking into the Blood Stone chapel, then I sure can handle him.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Eden faced a large wooden door that was her height. At her side, Yuri lingered, but for the first time, he made her feel anxious and uneasy. Even with his army status, and the reputation he had, she had never truly feared him before this moment. She gazed down at her clenched fists and took a deep, trembling breath. I can do this. I don’t know what’s come over Yuri, but I can do this. The picture she had collected was the only thing which lessened her worry.

  “Aren’t you going to go inside?” Yuri asked, a threatening edge to his voice. She knew if she did not enter on her own, then he would drag her inside and force her there.

  “Yes, Yuri,” she said. “I am going inside.”

  She placed her hand on the door handle, twisted, and stepped inside. When she went in and searched around, she saw a hallway with two doorless thresholds at the end. As Yuri led her down the hallway, she glanced nervously around a corner and saw a plain room but no Asag. She glanced around yet again and once more saw no Asag. A single shard of glass lay on the floor, reflecting the room.

  Yuri put his hand on her shoulder, and she, fearing he was going to attempt to harm her, grabbed his arm and yanked him forward with all the strength she had. As a human girl, she never could have managed tossing a far taller and more muscular man across the room, but as a soul, there was no dominance of physical powers according to sex or size. Her movement caused him to stumble forward and past her into the room. When he spun around, he wore an accusing sneer on his face.

  “What was that for?” he asked.

  “Oh, come on, Yuri,” Eden said, digging in her pocket for holy water. “You and I both know you aren’t you right now. Where’s Asag? Is he in here, waiting and watching?”

  There was silence. Could Asag have known she had the picture? She gripped it tighter.

  “Come out, you coward,” she said. “I’m a puny human soul, remember? You don’t wish to face me? I didn’t realize how weak demons were.”

  Once again, there was silence. Then there was the sound of footsteps on the ground and a woman wound around the corner from the opposing room. It was the same woman from before, the one who had attacked Yuri and had the dark eyes. Black matted hair hung in her face and she wore a sneer.

  “Y-you,” Eden said.

  “Me,” the woman said.

  The woman grinned at her, and Eden put two and two together. Asag had stood with this woman when Eden had found her way out of the other world, which meant the two of them had formed an alliance. If Asag worked together with a human, then that meant she had to have been a demon.

  “I command you to be silent in the name of Jesus Christ,” Eden said, then waited.

  The woman didn’t even so much as flinch at the words Jesus Christ. Eden stole a frightened look at Yuri, who stood behind the woman with the same blank stare.

  “Okay, fine,” she said. “Take a look at this.”

  She brought up the picture and showed it to the woman before her. The woman threw back her head and let out a high, cold laugh.

  “Did you think you could beat a demon so easily?” the woman asked, walking around her. “Did you think Asag wouldn’t know what you and your boyfriend were going to do? He’s been watching you. He even—” The woman stepped back and caressed Yuri’s face “—saw the two of you kiss. How romantic. I would love to get rid of him once and for all, but alas, I’ve got something greater to do.”

  “Get your hands off of him,” Eden said.

  The woman kept running her hand over Yuri’s face, touching his skin. He did not flinch under her touch, but Eden did. The smell of the woman was terrible, like iron, and even the idea of him being touched by her…

  “Stop playing around, Yanmei,” another voice said, hissing. Asag. She did not know where it came from. “Get the girl and get rid of the mirrors.”

  At that moment, Eden glanced down at the shard of glass on the floor and saw Asag, back in his prison, on his throne. He appeared as ugly as ever with his bulging eyeballs and his long, crusty tongue, but Eden saw something else for the first time. Fear. She could tell by the way he had his many fists clenched and the way his foot tapped the ground nervously. Her plan had worked. Asag was terrified of her, of her picture and of God’s name, but he had found a way out of it. Yanmei was not a demon. Eden was not sure what she was. Maybe she was just a truly evil soul, one who deserved hell, unlike the troubled others she had met.

  “You made a deal with the Devil,” she said, “and he gave you powers, didn’t he?”

  Yanmei’s smile evaporated.

  “You were evil in life,” she said, “and Satan gave you strong abilities like his spawn to reward you for being so evil. But you are not a demon, and when Asag and Satan are done with you, they will not show you mercy. Demons are greedy. They do not share power.”

  “I do not need their power,” Yanmei said, and then her grin twisted. “I have never wanted power.”

  “Then what do you want?” she asked.

  “To see the faces of men twist as I hurt them and frighten their families.” Yanmei shut her eyes and shuddered in ecstasy, and Eden felt intense disgust. Then Yanmei fastened her eyes on Eden and she gave a lopsided grin. “Normally I only kill men, but for you, I’ll make the exception.”

  With an ear-splitting screech, Yanmei held her arms up in the air and then Eden gasped as she saw her aura extend toward her. It was red, the color of blood, which Eden had never seen before on a soul. Maybe Yanmei was so evil it had changed her. Though she felt intense fear, she lurched across the room and tackled Yanmei at the waist. The two of them rolled onto the ground, and Eden lost her grip on her picture and the pane. In the glass shard two feet to her right, she could see Asag had his face pressed against the shard now.

  “Yuri, help me capture her,” Yanmei said, as she struggled beneath her. Her red aura extended to Yuri and touched his own, mingling with it.

  Yuri did not move. His forehead
twitched and Eden saw his soul glow as he fought her off. She gazed at Yanmei. She raised her fist, punched her in the face, and watched her mouth contort in anger. I can’t believe I’m doing this, but the only way to finish this is to steal her energy. She shut her eyes and focused on Yanmei’s pulsing body. A foul, disgusting flavor filled her mouth, like rotten eggs. Her eyes shot open and she saw her hands glowed red for a moment. They burned as if they were on fire. She screamed, trying to dust the red off her hands because it made her soul sear, and Yanmei grabbed her and flipped her onto her back.

  Yanmei got in close, so close she could smell the same iron-like scent once more. Grabbing her wrists, Yanmei pinned her to the ground and she got an even stronger whiff of her smell. Disgusting. No, she thought, squirming. I am not going to lose this fight. As Yanmei continued to pin her, she glanced across the floor and gazed at Yuri.

  “Fine,” Yanmei said. “You won’t hurt your girlfriend. Get the picture and destroy it, then.”

  “No, Yuri, don’t,” Eden said.

  Once again, he appeared to be struggling. He gripped his head and groaned. Yanmei scowled at her.

  “No man has been able to fight off the abilities Satan gave to me,” Yanmei said. “What kind of powers have you been given, you little witch?”

  “It’s the most powerful thing in the universe, Yanmei. A trillion times more powerful than anything you or your ‘demons’ can give you,” Eden said. “It’s called love.”

  A cruel smile crossed Yanmei’s face as she chuckled again. Eden drew up her knee and attempted to shove Yanmei backward, but the woman dodged her blow and weaved around her knee. Leaping over to Eden, Yanmei drew back her hand and hit Eden in the face, and though she could not bleed, the smell of iron was so great the close contact was like tasting blood. She yelped as Yanmei hit her across the face again and again, and her energy left her soul in great white mists.

  “Do not go too far,” Asag said, his voice so loud even from a mirror portal it caused the shack they were in to shake. “I still need to bring the girl to our lord.”