Hell & Ice

by M A Roth

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  HELL & ICE

  (DEMON HUNTER #2)

  VI CARTER WRITING AS M.A. ROTH

  CHAPTER ONE

  We landed on hard ground. The impact pushed the air from my lungs, making it almost impossible to breathe.

  I tried to get up, but Cathy had pinned me to the ground. Pushing her away frantically in my moment of sheer panic for air, I finally managed to move her. I stood up gasping. The air filled my lungs, but I choked on the aftertaste of sulfur. I continued to take deep breaths in. Cathy started to wake up. As she struggled to take breaths, my own started to even out.

  Cathy and I looked around, trying to make sense of what we were seeing. My eyes soon found hers. She was disheveled, and her eyes shone with fear. At least she was alive; well, at least both of us were, I reminded myself.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  I rubbed my sweating hands on my black trousers. I had no idea. Right now we stood in an alleyway between two large buildings shooting high into the gray sky. Drizzling rain was coming down, casting a dark and depressing look over everything. Cathy’s bright green jeans and white top made her stand out against the bleak landscape. I didn’t as I wore my usual black attire.

  Rubbish lined both sides of the alleyway. The smell of stale food was only now making its way up my nostrils. I gagged.

  Great Cathetel, thanks for sending me here. I should have picked the other door.

  I had met Cathetel in the tree of life, which I’d discovered while trying to escape the Vatican. She had offered me a choice of two doors, and the one I had selected led me here, wherever here was. I had also discovered more in the Vatican then I wanted to remember, like the fact that I was the daughter of Lucifer, King of Hades, as Cathetel put it.

  “Hissss.” The hiss from a cat vacating the nearby garbage along with Cathy’s scream pulled me out of my thoughts. I watched as the cat stopped right in front of us, its back arched with aggression. I didn’t like the intelligent look in the cat’s eyes.

  “Find your own place; this is mine.”

  I blinked rapidly, unsure if the cat had just spoken or if I was losing my mind. I looked around, but it was just us. I looked back at the cat again. It just stared at me.

  “Did… did that thing just speak?” Cathy asked with a quiver in her voice.

  “I am not a thing; I am a...cat,” he said as he licked one of his paws. His emerald green eyes came back to me and Cathy. He didn’t even blink; he was just staring at us as if we were odd. The look in his eyes was unnerving.

  “A cat that talks. I really must have banged my head,” I said, shaking it and hoping to make the weird scene before me disappear.

  The cat hissed again. “This is my area. Go find your own,” he said, turning to saunter away. Right, so he was a talking cat.

  “You can hear him too right?” I asked Cathy while glancing at her sideways. She just nodded. I was afraid to take my eyes off the cat in case it attacked us, turned into a lion, perhaps? Really, anything was possible.

  Now the main question I had was where Cathetel had sent us. And our only tour guide was nearly around the corner and out of sight.

  “Wait, where are we?” I shouted.

  I watched his back arch again, but at least he had stopped. He laughed, actually laughed, and made a throaty sound as he turned back around to face us. “My, my, you are an odd one.”

  I rolled my eyes, a talking cat, and I was odd?

  I looked over at Cathy as she stood there with her mouth still hanging open. I clicked my fingers, getting her attention. We needed to keep it together if we wanted to get out of here. “I need you to stay focused,” I told her. But I could assume that Cathetel had sent me here for a reason. Whatever that reason was, I hoped it didn’t take too long to find out.

  “Please,” I said, staring at the cat as he stared back.

  “Why, you’re in Hades.” He disappeared into thin air.

  I jumped.

  Cathy’s eyes shone with unshed tears. “What the fuck is going on? Hades, as in...?”

  I cut her off, not able to let any of this sink in. “I don’t know, but we need to stay together and find out exactly where we are and how to get home.”

  She nodded at me in agreement. For perhaps the first time, we had agreed on something.

  “Okay let’s go.”

  We left the alleyway and slowly walked onto a deserted street. The smell of sewage and sulfur had me trying hard not to gag. The buildings were all dark, and grime had built up on the surface of every structure. With the constant drizzle of rain, it made every building seem covered in slime. The sky was still overcast, but with the lack of any vegetation, it looked like the sun never came out.

  Could this really be Hell? I didn’t think so; to me, it should be all fire and demons.

  We moved slowly down the street. It felt so eerie, there was no sound, No birds in the sky, no buzz of flies, no sound of people, no cars, no life.

  The hairs slowly rose on the back of my neck, and I looked behind me several times. Cathy’s arm brushed mine as we walked closely beside each other. “Where do you think everyone is?” Cathy asked in a whisper. I didn’t get to answer her. She had stopped walking. “Look, there’s that cat...the one who talks.” She was right.

  The talking cat stood on the steps of a building across from us. His eyes were trained on me before he disappeared.

  “Someone’s over there,” Cathy whispered. I followed her hand and could see a curtain fall back into place; I searched again for the cat, but I couldn’t see him anywhere. “We should ask for help.” Cathy’s eyes glowed brightly with a hunger to make sense of this madness.

  “I don’t know.” I didn’t think entering any building would be wise.

  “Please.” Cathy’s arm gripped mine again, and I could see and feel her panic.

  “Okay.” We moved across the deserted street. Once again, the hairs rose on the back of my neck. It felt as if a thousand eyes watched us from the dark shadows of the buildings, yet there was nothing to suggest any life.

  We paused in front of an apartment. I looked for a knocker, but couldn’t see one, so I raised my hand to knock on the solid black door. It opened before I could.

  A little old lady with white hair and a walking stick stared back at me.

  My body relaxed automatically, and I could feel Cathy do the same. “Hi. I’m so sorry to bother you, ma’am, but we seem to have lost our way, and I was wondering if I could use your phone?” I asked in my most pleasant and respectful voice.

  The old lady smiled; she had a few teeth missing. “Come on in, dears, you’ll catch your death of cold standing in that rain.” She pulled the door fully open to let us enter.

  To say my skin crawled would be an understatement. The carpet beneath our feet slushed with the thick layer of mold growing on it. I looked at Cathy and could see the repulsion in her face.

  “Something wrong, dear?”

  I turned to the little old lady. She wasn’t looking at me, and then it dawned on me that she was blind. Her eyes were not focused, and she had that faraway look blind people often had.

  “No, ma’am, just would be great to use the phone,” I said. My eyes scanned the hall. Fungus seemed to grow everywhere; some vegetation had started to grow in between the banisters on
the stairs to my right, the paint flaking away from years of abandonment. The women moved down the hall and opened the door to her left that screeched on its hinges. Light shone out from the open door. Funny; I hadn’t noticed the light from the street.

  “Something’s not right,” Cathy whispered beside me.

  “I know, but we’ll make the call and leave,” I whispered back.

  “Somehow, I don’t think she has a phone,” Cathy whispered as I walked through the door. A part of me knew she was right.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The room we stepped into had some of the same horrible features that we had seen in the hall. Everything was dilapidated, and the smell of dampness was overwhelming. I looked at the holey couch, and I saw a few furry creatures poke their heads through the small holes. Their appearance made me stumble back into Cathy. She let out a squeal.

  -“Sorry, I thought I saw a mouse,” I said with a little laugh to the old lady.

  She stared at me with curiosity now.

  “A mouse in my house? I don’t think so, dear. Would you like some tea?” she offered her toothy smile, and I felt sorry for her. Maybe she lived here on her own. Who would leave another human being in such squalor?

  “No, thank you.”

  “Oh, you must. I don’t get many visitors.”

  It was Cathy who answered this time. “Okay, tea would be lovely.”

  I looked at her in horror, and she shrugged as the woman left for the kitchen. “What the hell are you thinking?” I whispered.

  “What? It’s only tea.”

  I rolled my eyes “Look around you! If the house is this dirty, imagine what the cups look like. And you have the cheek to say my house is bad!”

  Cathy flicked her damp hair behind her shoulder, but it wasn’t as effective as it would have been if her hair was dry. Her hair was dark red now, not the vibrant color it usually was. It sat lifelessly down her back and was starting to frizz at the ends. It looked a bit like this area; devoid of life and color.

  A chair sat by the fireplace. It was wooden, with no place for the mice to nest in, so I opted to sit down there. It wasn’t until I was seated that I realized how tired and drained I really was. Cathy stayed standing at the door. I looked into the fireplace. Old bits of wood sat, half-burnt; a web and dust coated all of it. This whole thing seemed weird; nothing felt right. My mind was starting to accept that we must be in Hades. I knew I should be a bit more freaked out, but I just wanted my one phone call and to go home.

  I slumped on the chair, my eyes threating to close. My mind didn’t want to shut down. Instead, it was like the last forty-eight hours came rushing back. Father Peter’s betrayal hurt the most. He had taken me in and raised me as his own. He was the one that had thought me to be a demon hunter, but Steven, the head of the Reote, told me that wasn’t the case at all—that me and the others attracted demons and they wanted to keep an eye on us.

  They used us. Most of us were children when father Peter came and offered us a new life. My heart ached now: it had all been a lie. I had loved Father Peter, yet he had lied about so much. He had lied about my mother. He knew my father wasn’t my dad. I rubbed my eyes, trying to push the pain away, and focused instead on Cathy. Cathy was also lost in her own thoughts. We all had a past, and none of us had lived a fairy-tale life.

  The old women reappeared with a silver tray. I sat up straighter, hoping to wake myself up a bit. I studied the tray that once must have been silver, from the parts that were visible through the brown oily substance that coated it. For a blind woman, she sure knew exactly where we were. I hadn’t made a sound yet.

  She made her way to me and handed me a china cup. I held it but didn’t drink as I watched her move to where Cathy stood. She handed a cup to Cathy before placing the tray on a small table. She sat down on the mouse-infested couch without hesitation. Shivers ran through me. The old lady stared straight ahead, that faraway look back on her face. I had heard that when someone loses their sight, it sharpens all their other senses. It made sense to me; maybe that was how she knew where both me and Cathy were.

  I sniffed the tea. It smelled of nothing. I stared into the black liquid, debating whether or not to drink it

  “Drink up. It will warm your bones.”

  I looked at Cathy as she raised the cup nervously to her mouth, and I watched as she took a tiny sip and then smiled. “It’s nice,” she announced. I looked back into my own cup before looking back at the old woman, who seemed to focus on me now. Here goes nothing. I raised the cup to my mouth, but stopped as a scratching and hissing noise from the window got my attention. It was the cat from the alleyway.

  “Scram, you dirty little fleaball!”The old lady was up from the couch like lightning, tapping the walking stick against the window. Her quick movements didn’t match her age.

  My heart rate rose. We needed to get out of here. It hadn’t felt right from the moment we stepped in, and the longer we were here, the weirder I felt. “Your phone; May I use it?” I asked.

  She turned towards me and pointed with her stick to an old black dial phone that sat in the corner. I walked to it as she returned to her seat and hummed a tune. “What are you singing?” I could hear Cathy ask.

  I lifted the phone but couldn’t hear anything on the line. I pushed down on the button to see if anything would happen. It was dead. The phone line ran down the leg of the table and sat on top of the damp carpet. It wasn’t plugged in.

  “I asked you a question.”

  I swung around at Cathy’s loud words. Her face looked angry yet petrified.

  The women didn’t answer but her singing got louder.

  Cathy looked alarmed. I dropped the cable, went to Cathy, and grabbed her arm. “What the hell is wrong with you?” her eyes met mine, her own shining with tears.

  “Make her stop.”

  I turned to the women. Her eyes were on us now, and they were focused, very focused. We should never have entered this house, I should have listened to my instincts.

  “We need to leave now,” I said to Cathy, grabbing her arm. I turned to the doorway, but it wasn’t there. My heart rate sped up as I did a full 360 around the room.

  There were no doors. But we’d walked through one to get into the room. How was this possible?

  The women’s singing continued to get louder. Cathy crumbled to the ground, covering her ears. She rocked herself like a scared child would.

  “Stop it now, you old bag,” I said to the women.

  Her mouth shut tight, and a terrifying smile crossed her face. “That’s not very nice, now, is it?”

  The hair rose on the back of my neck. My chest tightened. This was wrong. Everything about this was wrong. “Look, just let us go,” I said.

  She stood and walked towards me. “And what would be the fun in that?” A cackle of a laugh left her mouth, the sound making me move back slightly.

  I was now standing over Cathy protectively. She seemed to be in a daze, staring at nothing. What the hell was wrong with her? What had the old woman done? Sweat dripped down the back of my neck, and anxiety gnawed at my stomach. “What do you want?” I asked.

  She moved to me, but I didn’t step away as her wriggly hands touched the fabric of my clothes. Her nails were black with dirt. She didn’t speak, but continued to feel my top.

  “You want my clothes?” I asked.

  She touched my hair, pawing as if it was something she had always wanted. Her eyes were a light with madness as she finally looked at me.

  “I want...I want...your fingers.” She clapped her hands in glee like a child on Christmas morning.

  I tucked my hands behind my back.

  She peeked behind me. “Don’t be shy.” Her tongue flicked out, touching the top of her nose as she concentrated on seeing my fingers.

  “Let us go. Please,” I said one more time, hoping she would.

  Her eyes told a different story. She opened her mouth and shouted, “Maud, we have visitors!”

  My heart rate escalate
d. Someone else was here. Oh god, this was bad. I turned my back on the old lady and focused on Cathy.

  Her hands now covered her ears. I pulled them away, trying to get her attention. “Get up, Cathy, I need you,” I said. My words fell on deaf ears. She wasn’t here right now. It was like she had checked out. I knelt down and slapped her as hard as I could across the face. Nothing; she didn’t even flinch.

  “Cathy, get up!” I shouted, my panic rising. I shook her with everything I had, but she didn’t respond. “Get up now!” I roared. My breath came out in heavy puffs, my chest rising and falling quickly.

  “She can’t hear you.”

  I turned to the old lady. “What did you do to her, you crazy bitch?” I stood up now, once again standing over Cathy.

  The old woman just smiled again before she began to sing.

  “I made her remember,

  What she despised,

  I gave her my tea,

  And it opened her eyes.

  Her memories will come, and with it, her fear,

  You can’t help her now,

  My sweet lovely dear.”

  A door appeared just across from us, and a large old man walked in, the door disappearing almost immediately. He was tall even for his advanced age, which I guessed to be eighty or ninety. My stomach tightened as I looked him in the eyes. His shone with cruelty.

  “Maud’s here, Maud’s here, oh scream and cry and shudder in fear,” the old women sang, clapping her hands. Her laugh rang out through the room.

  Maud moved towards me and Cathy, but I stood firm over her. My legs trembled slightly, but I held my ground. “Don’t touch us,” I said but my voice shook.

  His huge hand met my face, and I hit the floor, slush splashing my cheek. My head rang with the pain, and I couldn’t hear for a moment. I watched in horror as he lifted Cathy into his arms like she was a child. I got to my knees, my head spinning. My hands sank into the slushy carpet. I pushed myself to my feet and tried to focus on Maud before I raced at him.