Through the In Between, Hell Awaits

by Robert Essig

  “Are you with me?”

  Nothing moved for several agonizing minutes. Insects fluttered by, some of them stopping to dip their faces into one of the many hashmore flowers adorning the tree, others to be swatted away by Yrictus as they stabbed his flesh with piercing needle-like proboscises. Then there was a sound like leather being stretched to capacity. The leaves began to shake all around the tree, and them Demonicus’ eyes closed. Yrictus took several steps backward, not sure what to expect. The tree shook violently, a painful sound erupting from the leaves, branches, and trunk. It was Demonicus screaming. It was one of the worst, most agonizing things Yrictus had ever heard.

  From behind him, the Cyclops duo revealed themselves from the fogbank where they were hidden. Yrictus saw them, but he was far too entranced at what was happening that he couldn’t have cared less for their presence.

  One of the large branches of the hashmore tree either flung itself or was flung—it was hard to tell. Yrictus stood by and watched as the tree erupted in a dust-cloud that turned into a wild blood shower, spurting Yrictus and even the Cyclops duo with a wet mist of red. It was hard to tell what was happening, but both Cyclopes took this action as offensive.

  Yrictus was caught by surprise, and if there was a way to catch him, that was it. He was a strong and dedicated sentinel, and wouldn’t flinch or back down to anyone, but they caught him in that moment of awe as he witnessed something amazing, which was a true delicacy in the In Between, the act of his fellow sentinel struggling to free himself from his self-made cocoon.

  Hitting the ground hard, Yrictus was knocked into taking a defensive stand. He growled (a growl that could induce a heart attack in a small child and make a grown man faint!) and jerked his body in a way that threw his offenders off of him. Their eyes focused on his as they regained their footing, but Yrictus was prepared for them. He had grabbed a rock from the ground, something that looked like a piece of moon rock, and smashed one of the brute Cyclopes in the face, shattering the lens that was embedded in its forehead. Clutching its face, the Cyclops fell to the ground, blood seeping through its tight fists.

  The second Cyclops rushed Yrictus, clearly infuriated at its predecessor’s downfall, and lunged, arms flailing, anger in its soul, but Yrictus was superior to such menial security. He grabbed the one-eyed fuck by the throat and squeezed, his fingernails having no trouble entering the flesh. In a spill of blood, he ruptured the windpipe, leaving the Cyclops on the ground clutching its ruined neck.

  Yrictus returned his gaze to the hashmore tree, which was in a state of destruction akin to the aftermath of a tornado. Branches were strewn hither and thither, tiny creatures nibbling dazedly on the intoxicating leaves that blanketed the ground. At the center was a weakling of a sentinel, bloody and bruised, peeling himself from the tree’s core. It was painful, but Demonicus was determined, which was evident in the tight grimace on his face and his clenched teeth that were drawing tiny droplets of blood from deep purple gums.

  Yrictus didn’t know what to think of the poor sod standing before him. It had all been a show. He was deteriorating within the core of that dope tree, yet there was something within that wanted what Yrictus wanted.

  Sighing, Yrictus said, “You can’t come with me. Not in this condition. You’re weak. You won’t last a minute against Dagana.

  “I have to come with you.” Demonicus’ voice had changed after his transformation. He’d long since lost the baritone Yrictus remembered, but this thing that stood before him, hardly managing to stand in the wind, was shameful to say the least.

  “You can’t.”

  Demonicus craned his head forward and gave a feeble but determined attempt at a grimace. “I have to! Don’t you see? You need me. You need all the help you can get. We were afraid of this battle. We thought things would remain as they were, but one broken link in the chain caused us to fail. I thought I wanted this. I thought I was defying the inevitable, but you’re right. Hell awaits, and I want to save myself from its fires as long as I can.”

  “That’s all fine and well, but you are nothing anymore, Demonicus. You will be served to Satan if you come with me. I need strength. I need—”

  “It’s strength you want?”

  Demonicus closed his eyes, the lids cracking and brittle like dried mud. Spittle sprayed from his slightly opened lips as he grunted and groaned. His body began to convulse, and then the fog bank thickened all around them. Shapes seemed to shift and grow and fade and grow again, and then something cut through the hefty rolling fogbank. It was a creature of no known origin, which wasn’t all that surprising in the In Between. What caused Yrictus to have a second take was that this massive beast seemed to be drawn from the very blueprints of the sentinels themselves.

  “What is this?” asked Yrictus.

  “My contribution to our cause.” Even Demonicus seemed to be in awe of his creation. “What would you like to name him?”

  “You mean you have never seen this creature before?”

  “Never invented this creature, more like it.”

  “You mean to tell me that this thing is of your creation?”

  Demonicus nodded. He seemed to have regained a portion of his vitality, and even racked a grin.

  Yrictus could see in that grin that Demonicus knew he was in the game, and he was right to grin. This thing standing before them, this monstrous perfection of demonic glory, would make a fine warrior in the battle for bringing back the In Between.

  Yrictus said one word: “Decimator.”

  Demonicus nodded.

  “We have to go to the black pit,” said Yrictus. “Not only are we going to return the In Between to what we were summoned here for, but there are two astonishing individuals who need our help. On top of that, you will be pleasantly surprised when you see what has become of Baz.”

  “Really?” Demonicus beamed. Though the sentinels were a tribe of brothers and sisters spawned from Satan’s nightmares, they were not without minor bouts of dispute. Demonicus and Baz never got along very well. Their relationship was as close to hate as one could be, fueled by one-ups-manship, taunts, cut-downs, and nasty pranks. It was beyond love-hate-love. Something more along the lines of hate-despise-hate.

  37

  “I don’t understand,” said Audrey, shaking her head from side to side. “It makes no sense.”

  “You’re telling me,” Austin replied.

  They sat on a small tuft of dirt shaded by what appeared to be palm fronds mixed with bat wings, out of sight of the black pool. They could see the black pool, but if something were to come to the pool, they would have a hard time discovering the duo. Unless they could smell humans, of course, but that was a risk they were going to have to take. It wasn’t like they had a way out. They were depending on Yrictus, neither of them knowing if his intentions were just.

  “I’ve been all over the world, Audrey,” said Austin, “and seen all kinds of things—some things I’m not proud of baring witness to—but this is like nothing I could have ever imagined. Nothing had ever led me to believe that there was something else out there, something otherworldly. I’ve never been much of believer.”

  “Didn’t you say Yrictus spoke of Hell?”

  Austin nodded. “Yes.” He looked her in the eyes. They were cold, but filled with life. He was so glad that she had begun to come around. Surviving such a horrendous ordeal together would undoubtedly be the cement that would hold them together for the rest of their lives, for Austin wasn’t sure anymore about life and death. He was sure of one thing. Audrey would be there with him, until the end, and if there was any justice through the realms of time, they would perish together.

  “Does that mean there’s a heaven?” she asked. It was an open question, because there was no way for either of them to know the answer.

  “Perhaps.”

  “Do you believe in God?”

  Austin had returned his gaze to the black pool. He had been on constant guard for anything that may have been passing by, though he was
fairly certain that no one tread the crushed-bone sands unless they were disposing of something, and even then he had a feeling that most demons and rovers were too scared that they would somehow become sucked in and delivered to Satan himself.

  He looked to Audrey again. “Before all this?”

  She nodded. The brutality displayed upon her had left her in shambles, but in that moment she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

  Austin shook his head. “No.”

  “Me neither.” After a pregnant pause, she said, “How about now?”

  An insect buzzed through the air looking like a disfigured moth with dragon wings. Somehow it summed everything up for Austin. “I don’t know what to believe in anymore. I just want to get back home.”

  “Where is home?”

  “Earth.”

  “Where, though?”

  They stared into one another’s eyes, but they were looking within. Austin was as lost as he’d ever been. On a normal occasion, he would have fun with such a line of questioning, but now his life was in a state he’d never seen it in before. All this time searching for something, and perhaps he finally found it, only it wasn’t what he supposed it would be. Had he been dissatisfied with Earth? Not just America, but the whole of Earth, never able to find a place suitable for planting his roots? Did it take this place—this stinking land of rotten nightmares and demonic forces—to finally allow Austin to see how wonderful his life was, how great the world was? Certainly there was famine, starvation, dictatorial rule, rape, murder, and every other abomination one could fathom, but there was also goodness, love, peace, and beauty. Here, none of that was represented. The In Between was a horror show. It was everything wretched about the Earth summed up into one festering land of abomination.

  After a pause that further revealed the strange noises of insects and queer animals, Austin said, “I was a nowhere man, as I told you back in LA. I have lived everywhere. Now I just want to be back. Anywhere on Earth is better than here.”

  Audrey nodded. In that nod, Austin could see that she felt the same about wanting to be anywhere but here. Even the horrors of any facet on Earth led way to something of beauty or hope. There were borders between the good and the bad, be it the walls of a serial killer’s house, or the territorial lines between North and South Korea. And though it may be close to impossible to get from one side to the other, there was always a chance. There was always hope.

  It was Austin’s turn to ask a question. “Do you think we’ll get out of here?”

  Audrey bit her lower lip and closed her eyes. She drew in a deep breath before answering, “Yes. I do.”

  Austin nodded. “That’s good enough for me.”

  Austin scratched his bites. He would have boon foolish not to think that those very bites were detrimental to his well-being. A few times he’d caught a glimpse of Audrey moving uncomfortably and trying to subtly scratch her groin. He hurt inside watching her like that. Had she not met up with him none of this would have happened.

  Austin ran his fingers over a bite mark on his arm.

  “They itch, don’t they?” said Audrey.

  Austin nodded. “You have them too, don’t you?”

  Nodding, Audrey looked down as if in shame.

  Grabbing her shoulders gently, Austin gave her a hug from behind. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. She turned and reciprocated his hug with one of her own. They remained embraced, crying on one another’s shoulders until a sound disturbed the silence. There were footfalls and voices. Austin shushed Audrey with a finger to his lips. He peered through the fleshy palm fronds as two beings walked toward the black pool, crunching bones into fine powder beneath their feet. One of them, a tall freaky looking thing that resembled red coral reef turned living being, dragged a being wrapped in what appeared to be barbed wire and hemp. Then Austin recognized the foul female being and her madcap grin.

  “It’s Dagana,” whispered Austin.

  From nowhere, Chops flew ahead of Dagana and the bone marrow creature whom she had named Reefer (due to both his resemblance to coral reef and his passion, before his becoming, for marijuana), hovering over the black pit and circling like a buzzard waiting for a weak animal to die.

  Watching, Audrey’s mouth dropped slowly in awe. She’d seen a lot, been through a lot, but she couldn’t remembered the worst of it.

  In the softest possible voice, Austin said, “Don’t even move. They don’t fuck around.”

  Audrey nodded.

  Then she didn’t move a muscle.

  38

  “Unravel the son-of-a-bitch,” said Dagana. Her grin exposed sharp, glinting teeth quite nicely. She adored power, and loved to bark orders. Especially when her minions, however few of them she had, were obedient.

  Reefer grabbed the ropes and yanked them from the body without any sense of care. He did the same with the barbed wire, ripping the beast’s flesh, but the being remained lifeless on the crushed-bone shore of the black pit.

  “You don’t know the symbolism of this, Reefer,” said Dagana. “I could try to explain it, but it would do you no good. These foolish sentinels are a thing of the past. I now rule the In Between.”

  Reefer merely shifted his gaze from the corpse to Dagana and back to the corpse as if confused or completely uninterested in what she had to say.

  Chops dashed through the air and leapt upon the sentinel corpse, its talons digging deep within the flesh. The savage beast then craned its neck facing Dagana and screeched as if asking permission to have a taste before they sent the sentinel to its maker.

  “Just a snack,” said Dagana. “We don’t have all day. The quicker we drop her carcass into the pit, the better. We still have Yrictus, Demonicus, Sleazus, and the others to account for. After they are perished in this pit of eternal damnation, we will be free.”

  Meanwhile, Chops had begun chewing bits of the unnamed sentinel’s face before sucking its mercury eyes and savoring the metallic liquid they were filled with after they popped in his mouth.

  “That’s enough,” said Dagana. “Reefer, drop her into the pit.”

  Reefer grabbed the sentinel, hefted its body and just as he pushed its girth into the dark waters, a voice called out from the distance.

  “Don’t drop her into the pit, you hag!”

  39

  At the sound of Yrictus’ voice, Reefer let go of the sentinel, dropping her to her fate.

  Dagana’s head jerked up toward her rivals. The wild grin she sported as she reveled in the destruction of another of her former tribesmen was replaced with a sneer and squinted eyes.

  Yrictus was in the lead, followed by both Demonicus and Decimator just behind to the left and right. In the immeasurable time it took them to pass through the crossroads and onto the path even the most degraded demons feared, Demonicus had gained strength. He’d even stolen the life-force of every demon, ghoul, and miscellaneous creature he saw at the crossroads, rebuilding his strength as he left them lying on the road helpless to the torturous hands of future nomads.

  Demonicus leapt forward, but Yrictus barred him from advancing with an outstretched arm saying, “She’s gone. There’s nothing we can do for her. You’d be foolish to go in after her.”

  Demonicus snorted a fierce growl, yet didn’t rush ahead, which was a display of his respect for Yrictus. Decimator awaited command.

  The odds were even, not that Yrictus had expected a showdown just yet. He’d hoped to get to the black pit before Dagana to attempt a revitalization of Baz. Now there was no telling whether they had discovered his gelatinous form and kicked him into the pool right along with Xanxan, the sentinel they had dropped in the pit just as Yrictus had arrived.

  And what of Austin and Audrey?

  It was better not to mention them, in case they had already made their getaway. There was no reason to arouse Dagana’s suspicions and curiosities. Normally, Yrictus couldn’t care less about a misplaced human. He would have feasted upon Austin and Audrey himself, but after the b
reakdown of the In Between, he’d lost his appetite. There was something special about Austin and Audrey, and he would do what he could to get them back to Earth.

  But they wouldn’t have a chance if Dagana came out of this impending battle alive.

  Five feet from Dagana, Reefer and Chops (still hovering around the pit), Yrictus and his fierce duo stood tall and determined. The tension was heavy between them. One false move would lead to a bout of bloodshed, and they were far too close to the black pit for comfort. But Yrictus had an advantage in that Dagana and Reefer had their backs to the black pool. Their position made them vulnerable, but it would take the right action to drive them into the pit.

  Dagana was the first to speak. “The pit is waiting for you, Rictus.” Her eyes shifted toward Demonicus. “Looks like you’ve cleaned up a bit, haven’t you? Or is the hashmore still coursing through your veins, slowing you down?”

  “Do you want to find out?” said Demonicus. His voice boomed like it hadn’t in years.

  “Oh, I’d love to find out.” Her gaze now traveled toward Decimator. “And what is this poor excuse? Is this your doing, Yrictus?”

  “You know damn well I can’t create beings like you and Demonicus can.”

  Dagana nodded. Yrictus could see in her eyes that she was on the verge of attack. It was all she knew. Divide and conquer.

  “You have no chance,” said Dagana. “You would only be doing yourself a favor by jumping into the pool. This land is mine now. You saw Xanxan go. She was nothing to me. Far too easy to subdue. I didn’t even have to lift a finger. Reefer and Chops did her in real nice. Baz has been tossed into the pit as well. Does that give you any solace? He was perhaps the strongest of our tribe. Without Baz to go to, you’re fucked. But you don’t care about Baz, do you Demonicus? Never liked him anyway, did you?”