“Thank you for cutting me loose,” I said to Cyril, who sat on the edge of the boat, breathing hard.
“Not a problem.”
“So what are you doing in Hell with Rodriguez?” I asked.
“I was called to the palace when Ricky and Emma showed up. Rodriguez used his magic to break Ricky’s wards. I tried to interfere, but it was too late. He found out about Alexis and Arthur,” Cyril explained, and then he pulled two large, juicy apples out of his pocket. I didn’t even ask if I could take one. I grabbed it and bit into it, almost choking on its juices. “Slow down, we will get more food in another circle. Demons in here always forget about food. They don’t realise the difference in time on Earth.”
Cyril made sense, no one had bothered to feed me properly since I got lost in Purgatory.
“All the demons told me that we can’t get out of Hell. The underworld is on lockdown because of the election,” I said, knowing that our next stop was the Astaroth circle. This time I really had no idea what to expect. There were parts of Hell where humans were being tortured and punished for their sins, along with mongrels. I wanted to avoid going there if I could.
“Mammon and the rest lied. All the circles are locked down, but the word has spread. Other demons are willing to offer their assistance to you.”
“What? Why?”
“Apparently, you’re the sign that they have all been waiting for, their hope that conditions in Hell might improve,” Cyril explained. I started to laugh and the whole boat began shaking.
“Do you even realise how absurd this sounds?” I pointed out. “It’s Hell, for Christ sake, nothing can be worse than that.”
“I get your point, but still…it’s been the same for centuries. Maybe it’s time,” Cyril muttered.
“We need to get to the last circle. I have to get back to London. I can’t help them. Why would Lucifer listen to me anyway? I’m just a mongrel.”
“That’s the same question everyone has been asking themselves since you got here.”
We both sat in silence for a while and the rain continued to pour down. I started to question if I was going to see Summer or Zachary ever again. I didn’t even have a chance to fully enjoy being with any of my friends or my daughter. Maybe somewhere later in life we were going to meet again.
“It stopped raining. We must have left Beelzebub’s circle behind,” Cyril said, pulling me away from my own thoughts.
Indeed, it stopped raining and the boat was moving slower now. The landscape around us was murky and empty. The ground seemed red from the distance and dry. Hell seemed endless, but demons continued to exist in that dimension along with other creatures.
I stopped shaking and feeling cold. The temperature soared up again, and I was baffled with how the landscape in Hell shifted.
Soon the river was taking us inside the entrance to a large cave. The air became humid, and I started sensing other demons nearby.
“So, we must be in Astaroth’s circle now, right? Do you have any idea what we should expect in here?” I asked Cyril. “Surely it can’t be more miserable than in the last circle.” The cave stretched on and it felt like we were passing into a more dangerous part of Hell. The ground was dry, filled with rocks and split holes. The river narrowed down and soon it was too shallow for the boat to keep floating.
“No idea, this is my first time in Hell, and frankly everything seems much more twisted than I expected,” Cyril said, squeezing out his kimono-style outfit that was soaked from earlier. “We should walk from here.”
“What are these?” I asked, spotting random holes filled with bubbling water.
“No idea, but maybe it’s better if we stay away from it,” Cyril said, and I sensed that he was on edge. Something about the cave felt spooky and a heavy uneasiness settled in my stomach.
We continued moving through this rocky land in silence, heading toward the light that radiated in the distance ahead. After several minutes we saw more ponds. We both quickly realised that some of them weren’t filled with water, but lava. The heat dried my soaked clothes, but now I was struggling to breathe in these new conditions.
“I could open the gates of Hell, but I can’t get back on Earth. That just isn’t fair,” I said, breathing hard and feeling weak.
“The election will work to our advantage. Lucifer will open the polls soon. One of the Watchers was convinced that this might happen today,” Cyril said.
“Help, Maxine, please help me!”
I twisted my neck and thought that I was seeing things. It was Emma, and she was drowning in the water, several meters away. The oily liquid bubbled all around her, and she was struggling to keep her head above the surface.
Pain shocked my system when I saw Zachary, too. I rushed towards them, but Cyril grabbed me.
“What are you doing, Maxine? You will die if you get to that water.”
“Let me go. It’s Emma. She’s drowning with Zachary. I see them, they’re asking me to help them!” I shouted, standing very close to the mysterious dark liquid in the pond.
Emma had disappeared underneath the surface and Zachary was reaching out, screaming in pain.
“No, it’s an illusion. They aren’t there. Get yourself together, girl!” Cyril shouted at me, holding me in place.
“Let me go, just let me go. This is for real, they both need me,” I roared, trying to pull away from him. My energy blazed over my spine, but he chained himself to me with another charm.
He slapped me then, and I went down on the ground. My head was dizzy, and I watched as my lover was dying. Images of Arthur and his corpse started floating in my head. Then I saw Alexis nearby by laughing at me. She looked beautiful wearing new clothes.
“This is your end, Maxine, your final moment.” She was saying.
I pressed my hands to my ears hearing more screams, experiencing their pain. I wanted to help them, but I felt like I was slowly suffocating.
Then everything went dark and I drifted away.
Chapter 8
“Silent, alone with no one now beside us, we went our way—the one behind, the other leading on—walking as meek Franciscans do.”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
“Wake up, Maxine. I think we have a slight problem.” A voice was saying to me. I shook my head, refusing to open my eyes. I wasn’t ready to face yet another horrible surprise. I wanted to see my daughter and see her beautiful smile.
Was that too much to ask?
“I recognise her from one of the meetings. She’s Bianca’s ally, so maybe she knows what happened to her,” another voice said.
Emma and Zach were gone, and when I finally did open my eyes, I was surrounded by demons, staring down at me. They were all armed with knives, swords, and sticks, and their faces were covered with smudged black lines. Cyril was kneeling next to me with a concerned look on his face. I needed to stop getting knocked out. This kept happening way too many times.
“Ally? Who is she, Edmunda?” a demon from Mammon’s faction asked, staring at me with a suspicious expression on his face.
“She was chosen by Bianca to help her sister and she succeeded,” the girl with the blue hair said. I recognised her from the party that was hosted by Bianca. I didn’t remember her name, or maybe I’d never actually bothered to asked. Now her hair was covered with dust, and overall, she looked like she’d had a rough time. There were a few other demons who appeared familiar, but I didn’t have time to stretch my memory to figure out if I’d met them before.
“What’s going on? Who are these demons?” I asked, trying to lift myself up, but Cyril pushed me down.
“The illusion tried to swallow you in. You’re a mongrel, and you were more receptive to its tricks. Most of the time only humans react to it, and they died if they found themselves in this part of Hell,” the dark-haired demon explained.
“Right,” I muttered, thinking that things like that could only happen in here.
“What happened to Bianca, Jessica? You helped her sist
er, and I had no idea you were a mongrel,” Edmunda said, smiling at me. Morpheus had used a special charm to make me look like a full-blooded demon back then, and now my whole cover was blown. “Dale, she’s one of us. She must have hidden her real ability at the party for a reason.”
Obviously Edmunda didn’t care that I was a mongrel, and I figured that if I wanted to stay alive then, I had to put my acting hat on.
“My real name is Maxine and I was undercover at the party. We all need to get to Lucifer’s circle,” I said, making up lies as I went along. They were willing to believe that Alexis succeeded because of me. None of them knew what exactly had happened in Purgatory. I used my demonic abilities to let Cyril know that he just needed to agree with whatever I was saying. “Bianca died saving her sister. She was killed by a warlock witch.”
A few demons let go of horrifying gasps, glancing at each other with fear.
“You’re the mongrel girl who everyone is talking about. We would like you to join us in the uprising against the dark lord,” a large older demon announced. He had shaggy dark hair with various scars on his face.
“Uprising?” I asked, trying not to laugh. They were all deluded thinking that they could go against Lucifer and his Watchers. Cyril looked unconvinced too, but I didn’t want to piss on their parade. In the past several hours, I had been chained up to the wall, locked in a cage, chased around the chamber by some monster, and tortured. I really needed a break and, for now, I was willing to stay with Cyril. Those demons were heading to the last circle, so we could just tag along, pretending that we were all after the same thing.
“Demons from all the circles are joining us tonight. The dark lord has been in power for too long. The order needs to change. We all deserve a better life in Hell,” someone else shouted.
It turned out, Bianca wasn’t making this shit up. She had managed to brainwash hundreds or maybe even thousands of demons in Hell. Cyril was staring at me like he wasn’t sure if I was still lucid enough to know that this was a bad idea. Edmunda started filling us in on all the plans, literally bouncing with excitement. Apparently, Cyril and I had managed to pass over Astaroth’s circle, and we were now several miles away from the pits.
Soon other demons started to join in, approaching from various directions.
“So how did you get here?” I asked a couple from the Circle of Lust. “Apparently, Hell is on lockdown.”
“You can always find a way with gold,” they responded, and then started kissing passionately.
I walked away at that point, thinking that everyone around here was off their rockers. I sensed many more demons arriving and felt strong currents of magic circulating around me. I listened in when a tall demon who’d talked to me earlier on started discussing the strategy for tomorrow.
None of them considered that they could lose, and I admired their spirit.
After the discussion was over, we were all invited to sit around the fire. My mouth started to water when I was handed various cuts of meat to cook on a long stick. At that point, I stopped caring about my future, because tonight I was finally going to sleep with a full tummy.
Cyril agreed with me that it was wise for us to stick around for now, but he was worried that tomorrow we were going to be stuck with everyone and expected to join the rebellion. I really didn’t care if Lucifer stayed in power or not. My main priority was to get back to London, to Summer.
I was still confused about everything that went on in Purgatory. Morpheus had vanished in front of my eyes, and I was dragged into icy water by some invisible creature. It looked like someone was working really hard to mess up the dark lord’s plan.
The demons had set up a proper feast in that never-ending cave, so I stopped worrying about all the things that were out of my control. I instead shoved food into my mouth until I couldn’t move anymore. Everything tasted fresh and super delicious. In the end Edmunda started handing everyone something that smelled and tasted like wine.
I had been sober for a few weeks now, but it was safe to say that after such a horrendous time, I deserved a drink. Cyril dropped his guard and took a few sips, too. For the first time since I’d woken up in Hell, I felt that I could really keep going. These demons who were part of the uprising sang, drank and ate. No one cared that I was a mongrel and that made me feel a little better.
Later on, I fell asleep on the sleeping bag that someone had given to me, slightly tipsy, but happy for a change.
Several hours later, a demon I didn’t recognise woke me up. The cave seemed much brighter, and a few other demons were already walking around, armed from head to toe. Cyril showed up wearing his kimono-style outfit, looking less thrilled that we had to get up so early. An hour later, Edmunda handed us some bread with water and told us that we needed to start following the demons ahead.
“Unbelievable,” Cyril muttered and told me to look behind.
At least a hundred or more demons were joining us. They were all from the six circles of Hell. All of a sudden, the uprising seemed much more real. This was none of my business, but after witnessing everything that had been happening in the past few days, I understood why they wanted things to change.
Compared to Hell, life on Earth was a paradise.
“We are truly screwed. The Watchers will wipe them all out in a matter of seconds, no matter how many more will join. Lucifer isn’t stupid or careless,” Cyril said, holding his hand on his sword.
It was difficult to predict what was going to happen. I was pretty much healed, but this wasn’t my fight. We started moving slowly ahead, along with hundreds of other demons.
I kept chewing the bread, thinking about my father. My abilities were unique, and Morpheus was keeping all the answers from me. He hadn’t even attempted to find me and bring me back to the dark lord. That, for some reason, was still bothering me. Now I kind of wanted to find out who the demon was, my real father. I needed closure.
“If we see a window, then we are leaving. We both know that this isn’t our battle,” I whispered back to Cyril as we passed another pond filled with blood and lava. We saw a few skeletons on the way and some bones scattered around, but no one paid attention to any of it.
“The dark lord won’t allow it. We are now in Berith’s territory and he must know what is going on,” Cyril added.
“Let’s just stick together. I sense a lot of uncertainty amongst the group. These demons are ready, but they are scared, too.”
“It’s a good plan, but we have to execute it sooner rather than later, Maxine. I have a feeling that those demons would rip us apart if we even tried to betray them. The fact is, that they cherish you. They all think that you’re their sign that there is a new change on the way.”
I snorted, shaking my head, but deep down I knew that Cyril was right. Everyone around here seemed to believe that I was someone special.
That was worrying, because I didn’t feel like my abilities were extraordinary. The old Maxine would have screwed this up, but now I was more mature. Ready to destroy anyone who prevented me from achieving my goal.
As we walked, I started seeing more bones and skeletons. The whole structure of Hell was much more complex than I thought, and there was so much more that I still hadn’t seen.
Edmunda kept running to me from time to time, telling me how excited she was to be part of the uprising. We walked for several hours through the cave, as the landscape began changing slightly.
At some point Cyril pointed out that we’d left the cave behind. The temperature rose again, and right in front of me, I noticed a freaky-looking gate. On the top there was a Latin sign. There were also three sixes turned upside down. The air in here seemed much drier, and there was a thick mist drifting around. As we got closer to the gate, I noticed that the entire structure was made from human or demon bones and skulls. Cyril told me telepathically that we were crossing to the sixth circle of Hell now.
A shudder of unexpected fear rolled through my stomach. Berith was most likely waiting for me. As others had
told me, the word in Hell had spread fast. After all, I humiliated him once, sending him back to his beloved pits.
None of the demons on Earth knew what happened after you fell through the cracks down to Hell. I wanted to presume that Berith was alive and well.
“Prepare yourself, demons of Hell. The Watchers will attack, and we will fight back. Once we conquer Berith circle, the dark lord will be next,” a voice shouted in my head. I was waiting for the right moment to sneak away along with Cyril or stay behind, but there were too many demons around. This task suddenly seemed almost impossible.
Cyril was getting anxious when we started crossing what seemed like an empty cemetery. There were masses of tombs and graveyards that seemed overgrown with leaves, and the whole placed looked like it had been damaged by a strong storm. I walked through, trying to avoid the large pieces of concrete. There were some boards from what looked like an election billboard with large writing that put Berith on a pedestal.
The great Berith is amongst us.
Die or vote for Berith.
The silence was unnerving, and I had that annoying feeling in my gut that we were walking into a trap. A strong smell of sulphur drifted in the air all of a sudden, telling me that this was most definitely a trap. Magical and strong energy boiled inside me and my breathing became more erratic. The temperature was rising, and I sensed many other creatures around. I wanted to shout that we needed to back away, when somewhere at the back I heard a scream, then another and another. All around demon’s emotions started hitting me hard. They were all scared of Lucifer; they wanted a change, but they weren’t ready to die.
Out of the blue, giant bats started appearing in the sky, dropping light bombs everywhere. Watchers on Earth had gleaming gold or silver wings, but in Hell, they were black. We were suddenly under siege. Watchers were flying above us, and soon the entire sky was littered with their huge bat-like figures and enormous wings. I saw a few with swords landing on the ground, killing demons one by one.
Doomed Cases Box Set: The Complete Collection Books 1- 4 & Prequel Page 77