by Bea Paige
“Then we rest for a bit. You’re going to need your strength for the next portion of Hell,” Maro interjects. He’s looking at me strangely, his usual bright golden eyes are more of a rusty shade of gold now. His lack of sparkle, for want of a better word, is making me anxious. That and the fact he appears to be reading my goddamn mind.
“I don’t need to rest,” I snarl through gritted teeth before storming off to catch up with Plutus, who’s a good few hundred metres ahead of us. He doesn’t say a word as I fall into step beside him. I’m grateful for the silence.
Shoving my hands into my jean pockets, I stare at the looming city in front of us. The walls are as high as a twenty story tower block at home, each individual stone is as large as a car. Set in a stone archway are two huge wooden doors, as tall as a house. The immense size of the place make me feel inextricably small. Along the top of the wall people move. No, not people, angels.
“Who are they?” I ask, pointing at the topmost part of the wall.
“Those, Cookie, are fallen angels,” Maro says, drawing up beside me.
I look up at him. A muscle ticks in his jaw.
“Fallen angels?”
“Yes, you know, the ones who took Lucifer’s side,” Ceb says, shrugging his shoulders.
“At least they chose a side,” Plutus mumbles under his breath.
Maro glares at him.
“You’ve not chosen a side?” I ask Maro, aghast. “But, I thought…”
“You thought I was a servant of the big guy?”
I’m not sure what I thought really. Frankly, until now, I hadn’t really thought about much else than getting my sister back.
“I don’t know. Well, yes. I thought you were on the good side...” My voice trails off as he looks at me. Maybe that’s why his kiss was so sinful… he’s not as pure as I first thought.
“Maro here sits on the fence. I’m telling you, his arse must be pretty damn sore.” Plutus smirks.
“Shut the fuck up, Plutus. You don’t know anything,” Maro snarls. He takes a step towards Plutus, his fist curled.
“Whoa, whoa. Let’s save the rage for when we need it to funnel it most, okay? We’ve still got to get past them,” Ceb points towards the fallen angels who have now gathered along the top of the wall. They stand watching us from their lofty position, which is kind of ironic given we’re in Hell.
“Oh, get out of my way. I’ll deal with this lot,” Maro says, elbowing both Plutus and Ceb out of the way. I notice his feathers are looking a little dishevelled, sparse in some places.
“Hell affects us all a little differently,” Ceb says, stepping up to me. “Because Maro is still on the fence, as Plutus put it, he will lose his strength the lower down we descend. Be prepared for the change in him. It won’t be pretty.”
“Why doesn’t he turn back?”
“You don’t need him anymore, is that it?” Ceb asks, his eyebrows pulling together in disappointment.
“No, that’s not it at all. I just…” I realise then that I don’t want him to get sick. Not for me.
“Just what? You care…” Ceb lets that word hang in the air between us.
I turn to watch Maro as he addresses the fallen angels. Do I care? My eyes graze over his wings and I realise that I do, very much so.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, not you too. What is it about Maro? Anyone would think he’s an angel,” Plutus says rolling his eyes.
“Well, he is,” I retort, feeling defensive.
“Yup, whatever you say.”
Plutus strides over to Maro and starts shouting rather loudly at them to open the gate. He’s waving his fist swearing obscenities.
“What’s he doing? Does he want the bloody Furies to turn up?” Ceb says, slapping his beefy hand against his equally large forehead.
“Furies? What are Furies?”
“You’re about to find out.” Ceb points to the wall and I follow his finger. Behind the fallen angels are three giant-sized woman, as tall as the wall itself. They push the angels out of the way and climb over the wall. Maro and Plutus step back as the ground beneath us shakes.
“Shit, how do we get past them?” I say, my mouth dropping open. Not only are the Furies giants, they are also bloody stunning. Like drop dead, knock-em-out gorgeous. Beside me, Ceb gives a low whistle.
“Must admit, it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen these three. Forgot how hot they are. We call the red-head Phoney, the busty one in the middle is Meg and the blonde Alecto. Nice to look at, eh?”
I glare at him. “Not particularly.”
He just chuckles even louder.
“Who are you?” Meg, the dark-haired Fury, booms pointing her finger at me.
“Me?” I squeak.
“Come here at once,” she demands. Alecto is leaning against the city wall filing her nails with a long sword. The other, Phoney (seriously, what kind of name is that) looks bored to tears.
Ceb nudges me with his elbow. “Looks like you’re needed. If you want to get into the city, you’d better do as she asks.”
I suck in a breath, picture Tris in my mind, and approach the Furies. I feel like a bloody pixie compared to them. One stamp of their foot and I’d be a nothing but mush.
“Maro tells us you wish to enter the City of Dis?” Meg asks. Her voice is so loud I have to cover my ears.
“I do. I am here to find my sister, Tris. Will you let me pass?” I say, sounding much braver than I feel. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see both Maro and Plutus looking at me agog.
Phoney leans over and whispers something in Meg’s ear. Weirdly this time I can’t hear what she’s saying.
“Oh, fine,” Meg snaps. In a flash of blinding light, Meg reappears in front of me. This time not much taller than I.
What the actual fuck?
She stalks towards me, completely ignoring the men surrounding us. “If you want to enter the City of Dis you’ll need to pass a test.”
“What kind of test?” Maro asks.
Meg suddenly reaches behind her head and pulls out a bow and arrow. Keeping her eyes firmly fixed on me, she points the arrow at Maro’s head.
“I am not talking to you. Next time you open your mouth, I won’t hesitate to end your life permanently, Angel.”
Maro has the good sense to remain quiet.
“What must I do?” I ask. Inside I am trembling, but outwardly I’m the picture of calm.
Meg smiles slowly, her obsidian eyes glinting with darkness.
“Beyond the gates are the darkest parts of Hell. No one with as much light as you can pass through. You, my child, must lose some of that light.”
“NO!” Plutus and Ceb shout at the same time. I turn to look at Maro, he catches my eye and I swear I can see a tear fall down his cheek. His eyes plead with me, but I turn away from his gaze.
“Are you willing to make that sacrifice?” Meg asks, placing her hand on my shoulder.
I block out the sounds of Ceb and Plutus’ protests and nod my head.
“For Tris, I’m willing to do anything.”
Chapter 16
Suddenly, everything around me goes black, like a curtain falling on a play that hadn’t finished yet.
“What’s going on?” I shout, extending my arms to feel for my men. They were there, Maro on my side, the other two behind me, but all my hands meet is cool air. “Maro!”
“Stop shouting, silly girl. They didn’t follow us here.”
Slowly, the darkness lessens until I see the slender figure of Meg standing not far from me. I stumble towards her, not knowing whether the ground is smooth or whether I’m about to trip over some rocks. Or skulls, in the worst case scenario. This is Hell, after all.
“Where are we?” I ask her, but she simply turns around and walks away into the darkness. I wait for a moment, hoping she’ll say something, explain what this is all about, but nothing happens.
I sigh and run after her, towards a glimmer of light at the horizon. Is the sun about to rise? Is there a sun in Hel
l? Are we still in Hell?
So many questions, and Meg doesn’t seem in the mood to divulge her secrets.
Finally, she stops and turns. “Hurry up, we don’t have all night.”
“Night?”
Her eyes glitter in amusement. “Do you see daylight anywhere?”
She waits until I’ve caught up, then hands me something. My eyes are still adjusting to the darkness, but I recognise what it is because I’ve seen it before. The bow and arrows she took from her back earlier.
“What am I supposed to do with that?” I ask, gingerly taking the bow and slinging the small quiver over my shoulder. Not sure I’m rocking the Legolas look, but this is the first time I’ve ever handled a bow. Usually, knives are my weapon of choice. If I have to choose one, that is. In my heart, I’m a pacifist, but sadly, my heart hasn’t had much influence on what life’s thrown at me. I’ve had to use those knives to survive, and to keep my sister alive.
The Fury chuckles as if I’ve made a joke. “Shoot, of course.” She snaps her fingers and three glowing circles appear in the distance. “Show me what you’ve got.”
Maybe this is the point where I should tell her that I have no idea how to shoot, but I don’t want to show any weakness in front of her. If she decides that we’re not allowed into the city, it’s all been for nothing.
I lift the bow and notch an arrow, trying to remember how I’ve seen people do it in films. They always made it look easy, but my arrow doesn’t stay where it’s supposed to and uselessly falls down to the ground. I pick it up and try again. This time, I manage to keep it on the small indentation that should steady it, but as soon as I pull the string, it falls again and I only just manage to catch it.
Meg laughs. “You’ve never done this before, have you.”
I don’t answer and lift the bow again, ready to prove that I’m not going to give up.
“Stop it before you hurt yourself,” the Fury cackles and puts a hand on my shoulder. A strange kind of warmth flows into me, not quite comfortable but not painful either. The pressure of her touch slowly increases, and I try not to flinch away. What the… heavens is she doing?
Suddenly, my mind goes blank. There’s nothing, no thought, no images.
Silence.
I sink into the nothingness.
And know.
“There you go, now you can try again.”
Meg’s voice rips me out of the blankness and back into my body. Something’s changed. The bow feels familiar, like I’ve used it hundreds of times. I run my fingers over the feathers lining the end of the arrow. It’s like touching a friend.
As though I’m in a trance, I lift the bow, notch the arrow, pull the string back as far as I can and release it. The arrow flies in a perfect arch, hitting the left target straight in the centre.
The Fury claps in delight. “Well done! Now, that’s enough of me helping you. It’s time you prove that you’re worthy of ascending further into Hell.”
I stare at the arrow that’s vibrating softly in the target. I got it there. I managed to shoot and hit at my very first try. And inside, I know that I could do it again. I could use up all the arrows in the quiver and succeed with every one of them.
“What did you do?”
She shakes her head. “Don’t ask. I shouldn’t have done it, but I’m not a patient Fury. I would have probably killed you out of boredom, so don’t complain.”
“Not complaining,” I mutter. Will this newfound skill disappear when we leave this place, or will I stay a master archer? It could be a solution to my problems. I could take part in competitions, maybe even the Olympics, and earn some money for Tris. I’d no longer have to work for Luke. We’d be able to have a normal life.
I push those foolish thoughts from my mind. I need to focus on what’s right in front of me. Namely, the three glowing figures that have just appeared where the targets were standing before.
“Shoot them,” Meg commands.
She wants me to shoot people? Well, they don’t seem real. They’re too glowy and ethereal looking. They’re probably the same as the targets, just a different shape.
I lift my bow and aim for the person on the right. It’s the biggest one, and even though I know that I could probably hit a small coin from this distance, my mind hasn’t caught up with my body’s new skills.
The outline looks familiar, but I don’t dwell on that. It’s just a target. Just a Hell version of a cardboard cutout. I’m not actually killing anybody.
“Don’t.” His voice makes me drop the bow in shock. Plutus. “Please, don’t do it.”
He sounds vulnerable, almost scared. Not like I’ve ever heard him before. Granted, I’ve only known him for a few hours, but he doesn’t strike me as a person to ever sound this frightened. And that convinces me that he’s real.
He’s not two dimensional, a picture of strength and confidence. He’s showing real emotion.
“Shoot them,” Meg repeats.
“Is he real?” I ask, my voice quivering despite me trying to hide my trepidation.
“Shoot them.”
“What happens if I don’t?”
“Then you’ll be expelled from Hell, never to return. Until you die, of course.”
I’m not surprised by that. After all I’ve done, of course I’m going to Hell. I’m just hoping that I can save Tris from ending up here as well. She’s so pure, so innocent. I need to get her out of here.
I pick up my bow, my body as tense as the string.
I’m doing this for my sister.
For her, I’ll sacrifice everything. Everyone.
Plutus is already in Hell. Hopefully, that means that he can’t die.
“Shoot them.”
Meg is growing impatient. It’s time to lose some of my light. It’s time to make my first kill.
Except… do I need to kill? She said shoot. Not shoot dead.
I pull back the string, the arrow pointing at Plutus’s heart. He’s quiet, not moving, not trying to stop me. He’s too far away to see his expression. I hope he’ll understand. My muscles are shaking under the strain, but I keep the bow in this position, my head spinning.
“Forgive me,” I whisper and let the arrow fly.
His scream pierces my heart. The light around him disappears and all I can see is his dark figure fall to the ground. He’s quiet then. Hopefully he’s not dead. Please let him not be dead.
Tears are running down my face as I point the second arrow at the middle target. Yes, it’s a target, not a person. And it certainly doesn’t look like Noella, the woman from the shelter. I shoot before she can even say something, and she crumples to the floor, soundless.
“Would you really shoot me?” a very familiar voice asks. It’s the person on the left. The light around her increases until I can see her properly.
I’m staring at myself.
Bloody me, Ciera.
“I’m supposed to shoot myself?” I ask incredulously.
“Look closer,” the Fury says surprisingly patiently. At her words, the light around target-me increases. I look younger than I am now, maybe a few years. My hair is shorter and my smile wider. Yes, I’m smiling. Target-me seems happy, innocent, carefree. Have I ever been that way? I can’t remember a time when I was ever this innocent. Maybe in my early childhood, but things went downhill pretty fast. I’ve had to fight for myself for longer than I can remember.
“She’s the you that could have been,” Meg explains softly. “You will have to get rid of her. She’s the hopes you had, the aspirations. In your heart, you still cling to her. You still have hope that one day, you’ll turn into her. That you can reclaim the life you never had. You need to shoot her.”
“What will happen to me when I do?”
The softness in Meg’s expression disappears. “Shoot her.”
Well, I doubt it’ll kill me. That’s not the point of this whole thing. She said she wanted me to lose my light. The thing that set me apart from the other beings in Hell.
She wan
ts me to become more of a sinner. Less good.
I’ve been on that path for a long time, not just since I started working for Lucifer. I’ve played with fire, I’ve breathed in ash. The spark of innocence inside of me has gradually been chipped away, until only a tiny bit was left. Now, I’m about to kill it off once and for all.
I take a deep breath and shoot.
I shoot myself in the chest. Not in the shoulder like I did with the other two.
Pain flares through me and I collapse before I can even scream. The bow clatters to the ground, the arrows spilling from the quiver like the liquid that is oozing from my heart. I clutch my chest and shudder when my fingers come in contact with blood.
I’m actually bleeding. Real me, not just target-me.
Pain is racing through me and I wait for unconsciousness to take me away, to let me die, but I stay awake, fully aware of the agony ripping my chest apart.
“Let her go,” Meg whispers from above. “Let her flow out of you. Remove your hands.”
My arms move before I can think about what I’m doing. I take my hands off the wound, lying back until I’m looking at the blackness that is the sky. Now that I’m no longer trying to stem the blood flow, the pain decreases a little.
“That’s it,” the Fury says quietly. “Leave her behind. She’s no longer part of you. You don’t need her. Embrace the darkness.”
One last flash of pain squeezes my heart and I whimper, but then it’s gone as if it was all just a dream. I clutch my chest, expecting my shirt to be soaked, but it’s just as dry as it was before I shot target-me. There’s no rip in the fabric either.
I scramble to my feet and look at where the three targets were. The left one is gone, but the other two are still there, two dark figures lying on the ground.
I ignore Meg and run to them, checking on Noella first. The arrow is embedded in her shoulder, but it’s not bleeding much.
“Don’t worry, child,” she whispers. “You had no choice. Save your sister.”
I reach out to touch her, but she disappears into nothingness, not leaving even a drop of blood behind that could prove whether she was real or not.
I run to Plutus and kneel by his side. His chest is heaving irregularly and he’s wheezing with every breath. Did I hit his lungs? I thought shooting them in the shoulder would be safe. Ish. I aimed high enough to avoid hitting lungs and major arteries… but he’s not looking good. His skin is pale, almost deathly white. He’s not wearing a shirt and my eyes flick over his torso, his chiselled muscles, the hair forming a triangle on his chest. There’s another line of hair further down, disappearing under the rim of his black leather trousers.