Demonologist

by Laimo, Michael

  Suddenly, the lava began to quickly rise, first to his knees, then to his waist. They sloshed about him, a result of his physical body moving resolutely under the guide of Satan. He waited, listening, hearing nothing but his heartbeat as it pounded furiously in his chest from the heavens above.

  Then, a figure appeared before him, rising from the lava.

  Julianne.

  She stood naked, peering at Bev, her features unaffected by the extreme environs. She spoke in her very own voice, and it brought tears to Bev’s eyes hearing her speaking to him for the very first time in over twenty years: “Bev…a duty will be required of you very shortly. As you perform this duty, keep in mind that I am here to protect you. This…” she said, looking around, “is all my fault, and I’ve made a vow to protect you from the one that aims to hurt you.”

  Bev tried to move toward her, but the flow of the lava against him was too strong, holding him in place. “What is my duty?”

  “Find the boy, and wake him from his slumber. This is the only way to defeat the demonologist. He is gathering immense power from the demons in his possession, and will soon secure his invincibility. Should Satan be drawn before the boy is awakened, then all will perish. Including Kristin.”

  “Kristin…is she here?”

  Julianne nodded, then began to sink back down into the lava.

  Bev reached out to her. “Wait! What boy?

  As the lava reached her neck, she replied, “Allieb. The one whose body the demonologist possesses.”

  ~ * ~

  The beast carried Kristin to the center of the cathedral to the spot where the altar once stood, positioning itself amidst the carnage. Kristin cried inconsolably, keeping as still as a threatened soldier, only her eyes moving about the room, searching for a hint of salvation amidst the ensuing hell. The beast stood motionless, transfixed on the twin doors, waiting, cradling its prize.

  In the distance, Danto could hear a series of muffled poundings: slamming footsteps drawing near, shaking the room, vibrating the walls and floor like a colossal heartbeat. Bev Mathers, he hoped. He grabbed Rebecca’s hand and crouched down in a spot against the wall, in full view of the beast and the door. He wrapped his other arm around her waist, forming a tight ball of dismay between them. From the corner of his eye, he noticed her face…it had changed even further, not only physically, but in persona as well: the eyes, staring, unblinking, seemingly motivated by something otherworldly, unaffected by the imminent evil.

  You will be protected by the One who has looked over you your entire life…

  The poundings grew in volume, approached threateningly closer. The beast waited, staring at the door, menacingly fervent, clutching Kristin tightly. Grinning anxiously.

  Danto trembled, felt his bowels threatening their release. “Jesus Christ,” he uttered, palms against his ears, trying to drown out the approaching footfalls. “What in God’s name is going to happen?”

  Rebecca replied, “Something amazing.”

  ~ * ~

  Satan’s footsteps shook the organic walls of Hell. The lava swelled about Bev as he waited anxiously for his call of duty.

  From beyond his confines, he heard the Devil’s pounding gait cease. Then, after a moment of restless silence, a deafening crash as something was crushed to pieces beneath His destructive hand.

  ~ * ~

  Danto panicked as the door exploded inward, shards of wood showering the room, raining down everywhere. He squeezed Rebecca tightly, more for his own comfort than to provide for hers, watching with terrifying awe as smoldering dust settled in the doorway.

  The Devil made its entrance.

  “My God,” Danto choked out amidst the cries and shouts of many others. “It’s Bev.” He wanted to cry out in fear, but to do so would inexorably add himself to the massacre.

  The monster that was Bev Mathers took a giant step into the room, stopped, and looked directly at the beast clutching the girl. Danto’s breaths were involuntarily cut off—with everything that had occurred tonight, he still couldn’t accept the evil image before him: the Devil, Satan, here and now riding the body of Bev Mathers, who, despite his hideous appearance, still maintained much of his own human features. His face was still recognizable, the deep brown eyes, tiny nose, shoulder-length hair, and full-lipped mouth very much apparent despite being surrounded by the Devil’s own wicked characteristics: deep red skin darkened with blotches of ebony, a muscle-bound build nearly eight feet tall from the tip of His rattling tail to the uppermost points of His serrated horns. Although naked and glistening, a few strips of the clothing Bev had worn dangled from the shoulders and waist of the gruesome being, like strewn service station rags. The two monsters stared each other down in threatening silence, the room filled with palpable tension, impenetrable in its malevolence.

  The beast Allieb squeezed Kristin mockingly, and Danto winced, feeling her anguish. She howled in pain, her efforts to squirm away utterly futile. She looked so frail and tiny in the arms of the beast, like a baby bird in the jaws of a crocodile.

  Satan gazed at the girl, and Danto urged his weakened mind to question whether Bev was in there somewhere, peering out behind the eyes of the Devil upon his daughter, poised to clash with the one creating the utter chaos that had become of his existence. He wondered, and prayed…

  ~ * ~

  From the churning lava, Julianne rose up again; this time she had been wounded by the heat, black smoldering patches charring her skin, her hair falling away in searing clumps, her eyes reduces to running globs of yellow jelly. Bev tried to move, but skeletal hands rose up from the fiery depths and held him firmly in place. In the distance, beyond the confines of his body, he once again heard Kristin screaming for help. He looked at Julianne, pleading for an answer. She spoke to him, every other word in her own feminine voice, the others in Satan’s grating tone. “The demonologist is growing stronger. Hurry…find the boy and wake him. Do not allow the demons to influence you. Their abilities to charm are powerful. I will be watching over you.“

  He reached out to her, but she instantly vanished, as did the entire organic environment of Hell. The universe went black as he rose up into the echoing heavens, through the inner workings of his upper body, and toward his head…

  ~ * ~

  Danto watched with amazement as the Devil dropped down to his knees and bowed before the beast. The beast appeared to grin through the monstrously misshapen visage of inflammations, lesions, and teeth. With a quick jerk of his extremities, it forcefully cast Kristin aside like a piece of trash. She plummeted through the air, slammed back-first against the floor, and rolled toward the wall where two daring members of the congregation quickly scooted over and dragged her away from the scene.

  The beast took an assertive stride toward the Devil. A series of prayers erupted from its dripping maw: deep, animalistic, a chorus of thirteen voices chanting in an unknown language. Suddenly, from the pores of Satan seeped a thick black cloud like those that had emerged from the other vehicles. It gathered around the head of the Devil like a swarm of flies, then shot like a bullet from His throat into the awaiting mouth of the beast. The beast fell to its knees, heaving, choking, allowing what it believed to be the soul of Satan full access of its body…

  ~ * ~

  For the first time in what seemed an eternity of pain and torment, Bev Mathers sensed a taste of freedom. He felt himself free falling into complete and utter darkness, the painlessness of the act bringing about a sensation of ecstasy, and of power. Eventually he slowly drifted down into a different world, a new Hell. He at once became aware of himself teetering on the edge a stone walkway: a path built of deep blue granite that disappeared into a churning crimson panorama of immense magnitude. He took a watchful step backwards to the center of the path, then gazed at the infinite landscape surrounding him as a cool gusty wind that stunk of sulfur dried his skin and tossed his hair. Carefully, he began to follow the labyrinthine path, perhaps three feet wide with crumbling edges that shed its fragmen
ts into an abyss of black and red eddies.

  Keeping himself steady, trying to avoid looking down for fear of giddiness, he paced the path determinedly, making a series of turns at the scores of intersections he encountered. During his travels, the entire environment at times lurched with a threat to toss him off the path and into the bottomless abyss. When this occurred, he would kneel down and grasp the crumbling edge of the path and wait until the movements ceased.

  Eventually he sighted a massive edifice constructed of towering columns and arches. He raced toward the distant structure, peering at its intricate architecture, the gothic pillars and etched parapets, knowing somehow that it was here he would find the boy…

  ~ * ~

  The beast Allieb peered up at the Devil. Danto watched with great fear as both Devil and beast climbed up on two legs, glaring furiously at each other. Something was wrong...the Devil had thrown its adversary a curveball, it appeared. Danto realized this fact, because all of a sudden the features of Bev Mathers no longer existed upon the Devil’s face; the visage of something else was now there. Something otherworldly.

  The face of Satan Himself: glowing yellow eyes, straight-razors for teeth, bursting from bloodied gums, long pointed nose, braids of hair vining about the two great horns emerging from His head.

  The beast Allieb trembled, then coughed and choked agitatedly.

  As though he’d consumed something rotten.

  Satan glowered, then spoke in a deep booming voice. “Use my minions to gather the alien, or use them to defy me. What is your choice?”

  The beast howled its deafening fury, thirteen voices flung forth like lightning bolts. Its body contorted, jerked, trembled with rage. It’s been tricked, Danto thought, watching with panic as the bellows of the beast blasted off what remained of his corroded sanity, tempting him into nothingness. The beast slammed its clawed appendages against the floor. The poundings jolted the entire room; the walls splintered, dust from the ceiling raining down everywhere, multiple cries of frustration lancing about the room like specters.

  The beast howled piercingly in its multitude of voices, then leapt wrathfully at the Devil.

  ~ * ~

  From somewhere high above in the heavens, Bev heard a monstrous howl. The world shook violently around him. He shuddered, kneeled down and latched his fists on to the disintegrated lip of the path. Once the violent shaking ceased, he carefully stood back up, regained his balance, then wandered unsteadily until he reached the access to the colossal edifice. He immediately entered between the towering columns, running quickly along a series of granite corridors, tracing the cold walls with the tips of his fingers and seeking out something unique amidst the dark banality.

  Eventually, after a large number of twists and turns, he came into a wider corridor, dimly lit from the shifting blue and red heavens that cast watery light down through the structure’s ceilingless heights. This corridor was different than the rest: here were a multitude of closed stone doors denoted with odd hieroglyphic carvings. Somehow he knew, just knew that this place was where he needed to begin looking for the boy. He paced inside the passageway, glimpsed up toward the sky, then stopped and stood readily before the first door...

  ~ * ~

  The two beasts collided, creating a thunderous sound like that of two crashing automobiles. They locked their arms in battle and fell sideways, skidding across the cathedral into the far wall, opposite Danto and Rebecca. Three members of the congregation, fortunate enough to have made it this far, fell victim under the battling weight of the monsters, their bodies instantly crushed and torn apart in the mêlée. Danto grasped Rebecca tightly, eyeing the splintered door only feet from the waging beasts, then at the few people who were able to bravely make their escape. Others, Danto and Rebecca included, kept a safe distance from the waging beasts. He quickly peered over at Kristin. She was lying on the floor alongside the two men who’d dragged her unconscious body to a spot beneath the shadows of the balcony.

  Roars erupted, shaking the walls, the floor. The fighting monsters twisted furiously, mouths tearing flesh, the growls of many animals permeating the room.

  Rebecca yelled, “Not that door! No!”

  Danto peered curiously at her.

  She stared blankly at the battling fiends, body shaking hysterically, sweat beading on her skin like drops of rain.

  “What is it, Rebecca. What?”

  “It’s the wrong door!”

  ~ * ~

  Bev placed his hand on the door. Pushed it.

  The heavy door opened on its own accord, scraping loudly against the stone floor. He peered inside.

  Beyond the threshold, in the distance of a large columned room, squatted a beast like one he’d never imagined before, on earth or in his organic Hell. The thing was part human, part canine, part machinery. Upon sighting Bev, it immediately raced toward him, utilizing the eight male human legs that jutted at right angles from the sides of its abdomen. It possessed transparent rubber hoses that jutted in and out of its upper torso and glimmered and flashed with sparks of electricity, creating a semi-translucent glow beneath its biological parts: a dog’s head crudely stitched upon on a man’s swollen neck, jaws snapping at the air with feral anger as its two foremost limbs groped in Bev’s direction. Bev remained paralyzed beyond the threshold of the door, watching with terror and awe as thick black liquid began rushing through the tubes; as blue spittle sprayed from its biting chops; as it howled in horrible fury.

  “Not that door! Close the door!”

  The voice in his head was unmistakable: Julianne.

  He immediately reached in, grabbed the stone edge of the door, and pulled it shut a moment before the demon arrived at it. He heard a loud collision, then furious scratches on the other side of the stone barrier as the demon tried to claw its way out. Bev backed away from the door, pressing himself against the cold granite wall, listening to the howling demon.

  From the other side, the roars ceased and the voice of the demon pleaded, “Let me out, rock star. Let me show you the way to the boy.”

  Find the boy and wake him…

  Bev pulled away from the wall. Rubbed his face. Then, stared at the door. He felt a sudden want to obey the demon, to open the door back up.

  He took a step forward. Reached out. Touched the door.

  In his head, Julianne’s voice. “No, Bev! Not that door! Don’t open it!”

  “Open the fucking door, you slime!” the demon howled.

  Bev drew his hand back, as though shocked with electricity. “No,” he uttered, trying to shake the confusion from his head. He wondered suddenly: Why can’t it open the door by itself?

  His curiosity was answered by Julianne. This time her voice wasn’t in his head. It came from beside him. But when he turned, she wasn’t there. “It’s Allieb’s place for Gadon,” she said. Bev waved his hand through the air, trying to touch her words. “The demon doesn’t want to flee the room; it will lose its freedom from Satan should it emerge from the sanctuary Allieb has bestowed upon it. But…it will pull you in if you let it. Allieb knows you have invaded him and would be very grateful for your capture. Move away…I will guide you to the right door.”

  Tears filled his eyes. He backed away from the door. Then, turned and staggered crookedly down the hallway, the room feeling as though it were pitching sideways. He went past a succession of huge stone doors, all of them alive with curious charm, tempting voices and anxious scratches seeping out from behind every one.”How do I know I can trust you?” he cried. “You might be another of Satan’s lies.”

  Her voice filled his ears as though she were standing right beside him. “Bev…the accident. When I was killed…remember you looked into the car coming at us, a moment before it hit our car? The girl behind the wheel…she had no face. Remember?”

  “I do remember,” he answered, the vision still horrifically jarring after all these years. “How do you know? I never told anyone.”

  “It was Allieb. He killed me. He was the one
behind the wheel of that car. The police never found the driver. It was reported as a hit and run, even though they knew the driver couldn’t have survived the crash.”

  “My god…”

  “Would Satan ever reveal such a truth to you? Now, come. Allieb knows we are here.”

  From behind the numerous doors, the eerie whispers grew in volume: “Bevant…come here, come to us…open the door…”

  “Ignore them,” Julianne’s voice demanded, appearing to stop before a door from which no voices emerged.

  Bev stopped, stood before the door, overcome with emotions of sadness. “Julianne…”

  Her voice was back in his head. “Wake the boy, Bev. Wake the boy. Wake the boy…” until it faded away to nothing.

  Crying, he grasped the air for her voice, but found nothing. He consequently turned and faced the door.

  He pressed a hand against the cold stone.

  The door opened.

  And stepped into the small room.

  ~ * ~

  “Rebecca…” Danto shook her more forcibly, but she seemed enraptured, trembling furiously now that her consciousness was returning. The nonsensical words had stopped spilling from her mouth—her speech had been mostly indiscernible, given the chaos unfolding in the room. But he was still able to make out a few snippets. What did it all mean? Wake the boy…the girl…had no face…the accident...the police…hit and run…

  ~ * ~

  Bev paced quietly toward a single wrought-iron bed, perfectly centered in the barren space. Lying atop a bare mattress was a boy. Perhaps six years of age, he was curled in a fetal position, sleeping peacefully. Bev stood over the bed, peered down at the boy. Dark hair and complexion. Simple features: thin lips, smallish nose, thick eyelashes. His entire body was slender, ribs pressing through the veil of skin on his torso. His stomach rose slightly with every breath he took.

  Bev took a deep breath of putrid air, then placed a gentle hand upon the boy’s shoulder…

  ~ * ~

  A loud crash jarred the room, lancing through Danto’s slamming heart. The beast Allieb backpedaled from Satan and collapsed to the floor, against the wall, spider-like appendages flailing madly, strings of gauzy web-like matter swathing his claws. Both monsters had gained some obvious injuries, black blood seeping from various wounds. Satan stood his ground, heaving laboriously, yellow eyes glaring at the beast that detained his minions.