Through the In Between, Hell Awaits

by Robert Essig

  Caught in the middle of a strange land and not knowing how to get back to Earth was beyond distressing, but Austin had to make tracks and get out of these desperate and miserable flatlands, away from the cries of the perpetually tormented. He decided to take one of the paths, hoping that somehow he would discover a way back to Earth, although he didn’t have a whole lot of hope.

  In times of desperation, struggle, and determination, the human body can do amazing things. Or was it something else? Those goddamn bites itched like bloody hell! But Austin prevailed, carrying Audrey over his shoulder onto a path.

  As Austin carried his love (sometimes she yelped with pain as he miss-stepped) he looked curiously at his surroundings noting the strange connections to the Earth he was familiar with, as if this place was some kind of retread of what he was used to, or perhaps a nightmare of Earth that resulted in the odd.

  Austin had hoped that he was walking the path he and Baz had taken, but realized that he knew nothing of where he tread when he began to pass structures like houses, only they were dilapidated and dysfunctional ruins surrounded by black picketed fences that had seen better days. Black picketed fences! He’d never seen such a thing.

  And then there was a dark figure, tall and foreboding, standing at a rusted waste of a gate that appeared to be the only opening in a wall constructed of curious skulls and bones sloppily fused together with a mortar that looked as if it had been constructed of crushed and powdered bone rather than cement. The wall in itself was ghastly and littered with blood and stretched with what looked like drying flesh in some areas. Jutting from the top of the eerie wall were rebar rods and spikes and lengths of splintered wood, many pieces of which were strewn with blackened remains.

  Austin was reluctant to not only walk up to the ominous figure at the gate, but to address the strange being as well. He had assumed that much of the remains glued to the spikes on the wall were unfortunates such as himself who asked the wrong questions. And just what was he going to ask?

  It was too late to turn and flee, and he wasn’t one to show cowardice, nor feel the urge to run from a risk or a challenge. But the In Between was a place where failed risks and challenges could result in suffering that was neither known or dreamed up on Earth.

  The figure at the gate stood somewhere around ten feet tall. He wore a beard from one ear to the other (ears that appeared as if they had been pierced at least ten times then having had the piercings yanked out to leave them frail and shredded) dangling from his large, mottled face with a series of unkempt, nasty looking dreadlocks.

  Austin thought of a troll guarding a bridge, however this beast was easily the size of four trolls wrapped up into one. It breathed in deeply and wheezed on exhale. Austin began trembling as his approach grew near.

  He stopped about five yards away from the creature. The weight of Audrey was beginning to put quite a strain on his back, but fear pumped adrenalin through his veins enough to suspend his courage and dull the onset of ache.

  The eyes were familiar, the only thing the strange being bore that Austin recognized, and with that recognition he came to the realization that he was standing before one of the sentinels Baz had told him about. His stomach sank. The sentinels were guards, and they were vicious.

  “Why have you come here?” asked the sentinel. His voice was deep and sludgy.

  Austin replied, “I’m trying to get back to Earth. I need to get her to safety.”

  “There is no such thing as safety here, and getting to Earth is no easy feat. I cannot and will not make that trek myself, and I am one of the elder sentinels.” The large lids of the strange being’s eyes deepened, then he asked, “How did you get here in the first place? You look far too human to have traveled the realms on your own.”

  “Baz brought me here the first time. He left Audrey here, at the crossroads.”

  The sentinel nodded, clanking the elongated, sharp fingernails of his right hand in a manner that could have been due to nervousness or as an intimidation tactic.

  “So you got back to Earth the first time? How?”

  “Baz.”

  The sentinel nodded once again, grumbling a bit.

  “And this time? How did you get here this time?”

  “It was another sentinel. Her name was . . . something like Dogna?”

  “Dagana!” The sentinel’s eyes became thin, slanted slits of anger, the mere name of Dagana eliciting an overt negative reaction that left Austin wondering whether the sentinel was upset with him or the information.

  “Dagana expects to find me at the crossroads much the way I found Audrey. She thinks I’m weak.”

  A raise of the eyebrow and then the sentinel said, “You’re not weak?”

  “I’m not stuck at the crossroads, am I?”

  “But you did have some sort of confrontation, right? You’re covered in bites, and they look something awful.”

  Austin knelt down to lay Audrey on the ground. Standing in one spot for idle conversation was beginning to wear on his back, and he was anything but certain of which direction this confrontation was going.

  “Yes,” said Austin, “and they itch like a motherfucker.”

  “Those are bad bites, I can tell you that. Not so much here, but on Earth. Here bites are second nature. Bites are nothing, and they certainly can’t kill you. There’s not a whole lot that can kill you here. You would have to be physically eaten or cast into the black pit or walk through the crossroads. Those are the only ways out of here.”

  “Or go back to Earth.”

  The sentinel nodded. “I sometimes wonder if travel through the realms to Earth is a myth. I’ve never been able to do it.”

  Audrey shifted her weight and moaned, repositioning her head into a more comfortable cradle of her arm. Austin raised his gaze from her and back to the sentinel. He said, “It’s no myth. Both Baz and Dagana can do it.”

  After much consideration, the sentinel said, “Then I cannot help you. You can either pass through here to the portion of the In Between that I watch over, or you can go the way you came. I’ll tell you one thing. Carrying around that dead weight is going to render you defenseless when you need your wits and strength to defend yourself.”

  Once again Austin’s focus was on Audrey. He wondered, not for the first time, just why he got himself into this situation. He hadn’t really known her very well, yet he risked his life for the sake of hers. He was now in a twisted realm standing before a nightmare, and there was no way out. He couldn’t have just left her there at the crossroads. He was responsible for her, and he would assist and carry her with him until the end.

  “What do you know about Dagana?” asked Austin.

  “Me?” replied the sentinel, astounded at the path of Austin’s questioning. “Just what do you know?”

  “I know what Baz told me. He’s been looking for her, you know.”

  “Yes, I do. They shared something very rare in this realm. Very rare indeed.”

  “Shared something? Dagana and some bizarre worm creature killed him.”

  “Killed Baz?” The sentinel laughed heartily. “You cannot kill Baz.”

  “Maybe not here, but that happened on Earth.”

  Again with the slanted, wondering eyes. “Why should I believe you?”

  “When’s the last time you saw Dagana?”

  “I’ll ask the questions here, you see?” The sentinel took a step forward baring a set of frightening teeth that lined his black gums like that of a shark.

  In that instant of momentous fear, Austin remained in his fixed position, Audrey at his feet. His stare neither flinched nor wavered from that of the sentinel, for he knew a show of weakness would be detrimental.

  “When was the last time you saw her?” asked Austin again, defying the sentinel’s burst of anger.

  Chest heaving in and out, wheezing breaths whistling through rows of jagged teeth, the sentinel sighed and slouched slightly. “It’s been a long time. She fled our tribe and sent the In Between into a state
that is beyond repair. If we can get her back we can make things right. But . . . ”

  “She has her eyes on this place. This whole place. She wants the In Between. She’s killed Baz, and she’s coming after you and the rest of your tribe.”

  After much consideration, twitching, grunting, and grinding of his numerous teeth, the sentinel said to Austin, “I can cause her to regain strength and walk on her own if you like.”

  Austin’s gaze had wandered subconsciously to the woman he loved, and at the words that came from a thing that couldn’t possibly be as evil as Baz and Dagana, his head jutted upward, and for the first time since stepping foot in the In Between, he had hope.

  ***

  The sentinel went by the name Yrictus (ee-rick-tus). He was an elder of the tribe, and remained true to their purpose of standing guard at the gates to the lands where demons incubated and grew through puberty to adulthood before returning to Hell to be proper foot soldiers for the big man himself: Satan.

  Though he was willing to help Austin (primarily to find Dagana and restore a semblance of normalcy to the In Between) he wasn’t necessarily a “nice guy.” In fact, he was downright mean and vicious, which Austin bore first hand witness to when Yrictus disemboweled a roving, filthy bastard who didn’t think twice before attacking Audrey who was still trying to regain her legs after a minor ritual performed by Yrictus. The bastard demon lurched after her, and then Yrictus lurched for him, and before Austin knew what was happening, Yrictus jammed his claws fist deep into the bastard’s soft belly, disemboweled and flung his guts across the bone-mortared wall like some abstract textural painting.

  Austin felt something for Yrictus in that moment for protecting Audrey, but he did not know how to properly thank a sentinel. They were mean by their very nature, and so he decided to let it go. Sentiment may be frowned upon.

  Audrey was finally coming out of her daze. It was shock more than anything, protecting her from the horrors that had befallen her at the crossroads. Yrictus had vitalized and recharged her wasted body. She was a map of cuts and bruises and swollen lumps, but she now had the strength to walk on her own, and as time went by, she became more cognizant. She asked Austin, “Where am I? What are we doing?” Her eyes found Yrictus. Her expression froze in a terror-rictus.

  “Never mind that,” said Austin. “I’ll tell you everything when we get out of this place.”

  “You mean if,” said Yrictus.

  The trio took the path back to the crossroads. Audrey had little recollection of being there, which was a small blessing considering what had happened to her. Her body and mind had become shocked so severely that she may never have come back from her catatonia had it not been for Yrictus’ revitalization.

  At the cross roads there were sporadic bouts of demons and other abominations violating the eternal sufferers. Austin hoped Audrey didn’t remember anything, and hoped witnessing the foul beasts at play didn’t jog her memory. It didn’t seem to. She grimaced and did what she could not to witness the blood and thrusting, but the sounds, the grunting and the frail screams of pain, drove into her ears without remorse.

  In the presence of a sentinel, there was no trouble from the things that frequented the crossroads, though they looked at the trio. They looked at Audrey. For all Austin knew any one of them could have been part of the reason for her sad state. That thought alone made him want to kill them, but they were ferocious and he was no fool. Getting out of the In Between was more important than anything, even revenge. It was their only chance at safety.

  From the crossroads, they took another path, this one made of dirt and sand and lined with strange trees and plants that grew to the sepia skies like seaweed beneath the surface of the ocean.

  “A visit to the black pit is quite unusual,” said Yrictus. “As I understand it, on Earth you can die at any moment. Is that right?”

  “Yes,” said Austin.

  “Seems so foreign to me. I’ve heard people die from complications, whatever that means. That their bodies just fail.” Yrictus shook his head. “You must have a lot of black pits on Earth. Here bodies never fail. They get bruised and torn, but they never fail. The black pit is a place where death may be had. No one knows where it goes, but anyone of the sad souls bound to the crossroads would happily toss themselves in to alleviate the constant suffering they are subjected to. If there was anywhere Dagana was going to take the body of Baz that you claimed was dead, that’s where she would go.

  “It isn’t far. Nothing is far here.”

  They ventured off the path as Yrictus directed them to do so. In the distance, a strange pool of black sat with its own ebbing and flowing tide.

  Austin’s eyes grew. He’d never seen anything like this strange little pool. It appeared to be alive, the way it churned as if something had recently been thrown in. The ripples never ceased. Austin watched and the bites on his body itched. As they neared the odd pool, the waters began to tremble in unison with the pins and needles feeling of the bites.

  “There’s been activity here,” said Yrictus. “The pool is restless.”

  “Is there a way to tell if Dagana dumped Baz here?” asked Austin.

  Yrictus shook his head slightly as he looked into the dark waters. “She couldn’t have. She’s not that strong.”

  “I know what I saw. She’s powerful. And she has helpers.”

  Yrictus looked to Austin with questioning eyes. “Helpers?”

  Austin nodded. “Baz was so messed up when they were finished with him that . . . No one could survive that.”

  “You don’t seem to get it, do you? This pit,” Yrictus nodded toward the black waters, “is death. No matter what you saw them do to Baz, he was still alive. If Dagana wanted him dead, she would have dumped him here, and even then it would have been a long shot.”

  Austin nodded. He was still trying to understand the rules of the In Between, particularly concerning life and death. Things in this realm of existence seemed to flow into perpetuity, which could be a good or bad thing, he supposed.

  “I just want to get out of here, you know. Now that I have Audrey, I would just like to get back to Earth.”

  “And you think Dagana will leave you alone? You don’t think she will find and kill you?”

  “I don’t know,” Austin sighed. He didn’t know anything anymore. Even if he and Audrey were to get out of this alive, their entire lives have been irreversibly altered. The remainder of his life would be shrouded in the knowledge of beings existing in parallel realms and the fear that he would somehow become mixed up with them again.

  “I can get you back to Earth,” said Yrictus, “but I will only do so under one circumstance.”

  “Name it.”

  Before Yrictus had a chance to make his offer, they were interrupted by a movement at the edge of the roiling water. Audrey was oblivious. She had sat down with her head in her hands, still numb and wooly from her terrible experience at the crossroads. Yrictus and Austin, however, both caught a glimpse from the corner of their eyes at the movement on the ground. It was very unlike the animals and insects of the In Between. For an instant, Austin thought it was the pool itself, extending toward them as if in attempt to grab and pull them under.

  “What in the hell . . . ?” said Austin.

  He and Yrictus took a step backward, eyeballing the thing cautiously. It flowed like a rubbery pile of slime the color of tar, blood, and a deep, rotten green. The mass began to shift shape as if it was attempting to mold into a desired position, which resulted in the release of a noxious odor.

  Yrictus groaned. It sounded to Austin as if the sentinel suddenly realized what they were looking at. Then a two-inch line formed on the gangrenous mass, splitting into an oval where something molten silver gleamed like some exotic pearl. It was vaguely familiar to Austin. Yrictus, on the other hand, chuckled.

  “I told you they didn’t kill him,” said Yrictus.

  Austin’s brow wrinkled. The molten eye in the pile of stinking muck shifted, and then an
other slit appeared before opening to another molten eye.

  “You mean . . . ” said Austin.

  “Baz?” said Yrictus. “It’s been quite a while. Since before the In Between turned to shit. How have you been?”

  The oil stain on the ground roiled much like the troubled waters of the pool. Was that anger it was trying to transmit, or the urge to speak? This time Yrictus’ chuckle turned to full blown laughter. He looked to Austin from his driving stare at the sad form that was once his equal.

  “You see, Baz and I go way back. We all go back. We were once a tribe who served Satan well on this realm. But as with any governance, things began to fall apart. But really, there were two sentinels to blame for the decline of the In Between. Baz and Dagana.”

  Yrictus scanned the ground before choosing an odd spiral branch that had fallen from one of the numerous trees. Using the branch, he jabbed the pile of Baz like fresh road-kill, and then, fishing the stick beneath the malformation, he lifted it for better inspection. Baz’s eyes drooped on either side of the stick reminding Austin of a twisted version of a Salvator Dali painting.

  “Look at you now, Baz,” said Yrictus to the jellied sentinel. The form squirmed. It appeared to be in an excruciatingly slow transformation. “You and Dagana thought the In Between would be yours. How foolish.”

  Yrictus tilted the stick allowing the mutation to slide back onto the powdery ground.

  “I told you that nothing dies here,” said Yrictus. He nodded toward Baz. “There’s living proof.”

  “Will he ever be the same?” asked Austin. “As before, I mean.”

  “Oh yes. In fact, I could assist his resurrection if I wanted to.”

  “Can you?” Austin realized that his request came out quite desperately. “I mean, he knows how to get us back to Earth.”

  “Yes, but I still need your assistance.”

  Austin stared Yrictus in the eyes. They were just as impossible to read as Baz’s had been, yet there was something so completely reserved in Yrictus, something almost trustworthy about the sentinel’s demeanor that caused Austin to feel for him and his world, as strange and frightening as it was. It wasn’t always this way, and Austin could tell by his actions that Yrictus would like the In Between to be returned to the way it was before when his people were still a tribe.