Dreamscape

by Philip R Benge

  ***********

  Within the haunted house Moira laughed mockingly at Rob. “Women power rules, eh Rob. Never mind, you now have the popist along to hold your hand, should things turn ugly.”

  Moira then picked up the Key of Tartarus that she had kept veiled until the right moment came to reveal it, on seeing it Rob was taken by surprise, for he thought it safely secured within the vaults of the SIS headquarters.

  “What, did you really believe that you had my satanic devices, well think again Rob, how do you think I acquired the necessary power to bend your mortal world to suit my desires, I used the golden Ark of Baʿal Berith. But this time I have it safely hidden away from your larcenous hands Rob, someplace where you will never find it.” Moira said mockingly.

  Rob and Father Pritchard looked at one another, never in a thousand years could either of them have predicted this future, when the evil dead rose even stronger, and the truth was even worse than even Hollywood could imagine.

  “Why do you need the Key of Tartarus, Moira, there is an entrance to Tartarus in the cellars of your fortress, or hasn`t Lord Asbaritch seen fit to mention it?” Rob asked mockingly hoping to score one back for the good guys.

  “Because, Rob, and as I am sure that you know, that way is for the use of those sentenced to dwell in Tartarus for eternity, if we were to use it then we would be treated accordingly by the Cyclops who are at the other end of the tunnel, our quest then would come to a shuddering stop and with no way of escape.” Moira replied contemptuously. “One other things prevents us from using the tunnel, the fact that entry from the other end is impossible, and so we could not make our escape once we had rescued my father.” Moira now moved towards them, her body forming as she moved until she was standing before Rob in the flesh rather than as a phantom.

  “I see that you have all of your anti demon paraphernalia with you, but take it out of your overnight bag and put it into one of the backpacks that the students brought with them for their scary weekend, the two bags behind you will do nicely, it will free your hands, for you will almost certainly need them to defend yourselves. Those large water pistols though you will have to sling them over your shoulder, at least then they will be easy to get at, if you should need to get at them in a hurry.” Moira instructed the two friends.

  “You two had better stand inside of that lovely pentagram you so kindly provided, you never know you just might need it when I operate the Key of Tartarus, it never does to take a chance on such things.” Moira advised Rob and Father Pritchard while she carried out the final preparations.

  Moira now repainted their protective circle of the pentagram with fresh blood, blood that she had taken from the caretaker while he had still been alive, she then carefully emptied the chalices of the holy water that Father Pritchard had poured in and refilled them with red wine. Rob noted the care that she took to ensure that none of the holy water touched her skin, this knowledge he reckoned could come in useful at a later date. The last change that she made was to exchange the white candles for black ones. Only then did she pick up the Key of Tartarus and step inside of the protective circle, all there was left to do was to light the black candles, and the satanic pentagram would then be then fully charged, and this she now did before raising the Key high above her head.

  “Hear me oh great God Tartarus.” Moira Bourbon cried out. “This is Moira Bourbon who calls to you, I the most powerful Satanist in existence and now consort to the great Lord Asbaritch. I have your Key oh great God, and I beseech you to open a portal to allow my two acolytes and me to travel to your domain; there I seek my father, Ulysses Bourbon, a Satanist of the 1st class and follower of you oh great god Tartarus.”

  Only seconds after her request the room was filled with a loud rumble of what sounded like thunder, then a ring of light appeared in the wall of the haunted house, almost blinding them with its brilliance, and within it a portal formed, through it they could see the dull red light that pervaded throughout all of the hell dimension of Tartarus. They had thought it hot the last time that they had entered Tartarus, but the heat that came through the portal was at least fifteen degrees hotter, and Rob and Father Pritchard immediately felt it, for outside the haunted house it was a cold December day, so they were hardly looking forward to entering this portal to the hell dimension beyond. However when Moira walked forward they could do nothing else but follow her into Hell, for not only were they were bound by their oaths, but were also afraid of what Moira would do to Christina and Cassie after she had killed the two men.

  They found themselves in an entirely different part of Tartarus to the one of their last visit; this one was of the fire and brimstone variety. Pools of flaming liquid abounded everywhere, all of them giving off a yellow toxic smoke that was filled with the ash that was blowing towards them from the line of distant volcanoes. Rob and Father Pritchard began coughing quite loudly as this toxic air filled their lungs, they were forced to their knees and they firmly believed that their end had come.

  “You would have found face masks in your backpacks, had you bothered to look, I put them there before inviting along on this little jaunt.” Moira said scathingly as she took out her own face mask and put it on. “Whilst the air does not affect the demon guards who dwell here, for they have become used to the foul air over the millennia, we all need to breathe much cleaner air. I knew that if you were to be of any use to me that you would also need them, isn`t it lucky that I also need you both.” Moira said and then laughed.

  Rob and Father Pritchard quickly shrugged off their backpacks and soon found the masks, and as soon as they had donned them they found that they were able to breathe more easily, although it was two minutes before they were able to breath without coughing.

  “Thank you Moira, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness.” Rob said as soon as he could finally speak without coughing, his voice sounding a little strange coming from the voice box built into the mask.

  For a moment Moira winked out of existence, and then she reappeared minus the Key of Tartarus, something that Rob noticed and it worried him.

  “Please do not fret Rob.” Moira said on noticing his anxious searching glances. “I hid the Key to ensure that you would protect me from anything this dimension can throw at me, for without me there is no way home for you, do you understand Rob?”

  Rob nodded wearily and set off behind her when she turned away and walked further into Tartarus. All around them they saw the inmates of this terrible hell dimension, all were toiling away at whatever labour had been set for them as punishment for their earthly sins, large demonic overseers ensuring that none of them rested even for an instant. One of the overseers, a large green demon, noticed the three of them walking past him and cracking his whip approached them with a malicious smile upon his face, he was anticipating a whole lot of fun.

  “Who are you three damned souls, and why are you walking around free instead of toiling at your labour?” He demanded to know.

  “I am your worst nightmare demon.” Moira replied and then thrust out her arm, and although she did not touch the demon, he found himself flung backwards by an unseen but powerful force, he landed in a heap ten feet from where he had stood feeling sore and in pain.

  Moira rushed across to the demon, and while he struggled to stand up she leapt astride him, her legs wrapped around his stomach, and she grabbed his large green head with both of her hands. A terrible scream came from the demon, a scream that Rob and Father Pritchard hoped to never hear again, for it was loud and most pitiable. Moira had just sucked all the life-force from the demon leaving him dead, his body a dry shell.

  “Hmm, a tasty morsel but not much more than that.” Moira said as she let go of the demon who fell to the ground, now he was no more than a dry leaf waiting to be blown about by the smallest breath of wind.

  Rob and Father Pritchard looked on with a mixture of fear and disgust. “Moira!” Rob finally managed to cry out in disgust.

  The dark souls who had been toiling away looked
at Moira in hope, but she turned on them and raised her arm threateningly. Moira then turned back to Rob and smiled as the extra energy coursed through her body, and it was then that she saw his look of disdain.

  “What the hell is bothering you two boy scouts, you have never felt anything for the farm animals that you eat, these are just my beef steaks.” She replied acidly and turning back to the inmates of Tartarus she then screamed at them. “Get on with your work or I just might have a dessert.”

  The inmates immediately returned to their toils, fearful of angering this new demon, as for Rob, he did not take the matter any further, for there was no way of telling how Moira might respond to him if he compared her to a wild beast.

  Two demon overseers were looking at her; they were wondering who the powerful woman was, one who had walked into the most evil high security prison in existence without a care for her safety and sucked one of their own dry. Moira now called out a warning to them and any other demon near enough to hear her.

  “Demons of Tartarus be advised, if you leave us alone then we will leave you alone.” Moira said. “However, I will gladly partake of your life-force if you attempt to get in my way, so please stay out of it.” She warned.

  Her message was received with relief by the nearby demons who immediately turned away and urged their charges to work or suffer the consequences, the inmates who had seen their glimpse of rescue taken away from them were shattered, to have glimpsed such a thing, only to be denied it was almost as bad as the physical and mental tortures that they endured. However to be sent to this place meant that you were the worst of the worst, and so they deserved all that they got within the confines of their prison hell.

  Not all of the guards of Tartarus were so easily dealt with as the demons who had heard Moira and seen how easily she had disposed of the guard. Two Cyclops, giants over twenty feet tall, noticed that something was happening and they began to stride towards Rob and the others, their footfalls booming out, and four more Cyclops were following behind them.

  “Moira, I think that it is now time to go, we will soon be having some company, and of the gigantic type.” Rob said.

  Moira glanced across to the Cyclops and thought that maybe she had brought too much attention on them; she reckoned that she could deal with one or two Cyclops, but six might be beyond even her powers, without help, and she did not want to lose face before Rob.

  “No problem Rob, in any case we need to get off the surface of this hell hole and enter into its subterranean depths, that is where we shall find my father and we should be able to dodge them down there.” Moira replied and moved towards a massive black cave within a large up-thrust of lava, somehow the two men had not it noticed until then, other things seeming to be of a greater importance, namely their lives.

  The mouth of the cave was the only way down in this section of Hell, it led down to the many different levels of torture that Hell had to offer the major sinner, and depending on the amount of evil the tortured soul had committed when alive, the deeper down they were. Within the cave they saw that steps had been carved into the black lava, and it was down these that Moira led them, down into the subterranean depths of hell, one that opened up before them the deeper they travelled. Unfortunately for them, the way was so massive that the Cyclops would be able to follow after them.

  The dull red light that lit the way throughout Tartarus grew even dimmer the further down they went, finally they reached the first of the sub levels of Tartarus. Thankfully, Moira did not take them further down into Hell; instead she led them through a labyrinth of lava tunnels on this level, the red flickering light of burning sulphur and tar guiding her way forward.

  “Moira, please tell me that you know where we are going, that we are not lost within this dark labyrinth?” Rob demanded to know as the heat of this hell hole began to wear away his strength. “The last time that you dragged into this hell hole you were able to get us very close to our destination, why not this time?”

  Moira looked at Rob with contempt as she spat out her reply.

  “Of course I know where we are going, I am not a fool, long before I dragged you screaming into this quest I was busy asking questions of the demon kind, finally I found one who could give me the information I required. He did so willing, he believed that I had stopped a particular nasty demon from taking him apart, piece by piece, of course he never knew that it was me who had paid the demon to attack him in the first place.”

  Moira dismissed the later part of Rob`s question, something that Rob and Father Pritchard both noticed, the truth was she was a little alarmed that the Key had not taken them closer to their destination this time, she just hoped that she was not due to be disappointed. As they hurried along the tunnel they heard screams coming from up ahead and almost immediately they entered a small cavern, within it they saw a number of black souls, they were all standing within large cooking pots which were boiling away. However each time they attempted to climb out they were forced down beneath the boiling water by what looked to Rob like a two legged lizard, its front legs being arms. Knowing better than to intervene they moved through the cavern and back into the tunnel. They were to see many other such sights, but all with a different form of torture, or simply a subtle twist as they hurried along this sub level of Tartarus.

  Stopping for a moment to rest, for the heat was sapping the strength of Rob and Father Pritchard, Moira asked a question of Father Pritchard.

  “Tell me popist, whose idea was it to punish evil doers for eternity, was it your god?” Moira wondered. “Does he get his kicks watching the souls of the dead being tortured in every conceivable way for eternity?

  “No, I imagine that it is your dark lord Lucifer and his minions that decided on this form of punishment, probably because your sort enjoy making others suffer, especially those who cannot complain or resist.” Father Pritchard replied scornfully.

  “Then why does your god not stop it, surely there must be a more human way to punish those who go against the teachings of your god?” Moira asked, enjoying her attempted demolition of God.

  Father Pritchard was about to say that God moves in mysterious ways, but thought better of it as Moira would have laughed herself sick at such a cop out.

  “God might be wanting to see if the torturers begin to feel guilty, and reduce the intensity of the torture, in this way they themselves might be thought as suitable candidates for some place better.” Father Pritchard replied.

  Moira`s answer was burst into laughter and it was now that Moira called an end to the rest stop and they moved off and finally entered a much larger cavern, it was here that Rob stumbled and fell against the stone wall of the tunnel. Rob yelled in pain, for the sides of the tunnel were extremely hot, looking at his hand Rob could see in the dim red light that he had burnt it, thankfully not too bad as he had immediately pulled his hand away. Father Pritchard immediately came across, and after inspecting Rob`s hand he opened up his first aid kit that he always brought along on trips that could end up being dangerous and applied a soothing balm to it and then he bandaged it up while Moira looked on slightly bored.

  “Careful Rob, the heat that fills Tartarus sometimes surfaces where you least expect it.” Moira sneered.

  The way ahead of them opened up into a massive cavern, and they found themselves standing at the edge of Hell`s dark abyss, its very heart, if Hell can ever be said to possess such a thing. It was a massive lake that was filled only with blackness; light did not exist within it. It was here that the evil souls who had risen up against Lord Lucifer, while serving their sentences in hell, were punished, they are thrown into this bottomless hole and endured endless pain, even more terrible than anything that they had suffered before.

  As the three of them walked slowly around its circumference they could literally feel the evil rising out of the abyss, and it began to make Rob and Father Pritchard feel rather ill, and weaker than ever, for the abyss seemed to be actually consuming their energy.

  “Say the Lord`s p
rayer Rob, it is our only hope to live through this ordeal.” Father Pritchard advised his friend while he moved them further away from the abyss.

  When they did so their health definitely improved, however Moira seemed just a little distressed as they boomed out each word of the prayer.

  It was at this point in their search for Ulysses Bourbon that six Cyclops appeared from out of a side tunnel, and as Moira turned to retrace her steps, she saw coming towards them a giant figure of a man, red in colour including his eyes which shone brilliantly at them. He was striding quickly towards them; however there was no way to escape from him, hemmed in on one side by the walls of the massive cavern and on the other by the equally massive abyss. Rob gasped, for the giant had a tale, two horns upon his head and he was quite naked, it was Lord Lucifer the supreme ruler of Hell. Father Pritchard sank down to the hard ground, fear almost paralysing his muscles, however he retained his brave heart and prayed to god to save their souls.

  Rob had grabbed for his silver cross before he turned to Moira. “Moira can we fight against that demon?” Rob asked but knowing the answer to his question.

  “That demon my handsome Rob is the great Lord Lucifer himself.” Moira spat out venomously. “I brought you along for one reason, to get us in and out safely, no matter what dangers we encountered, so do your job.” Moira demanded angrily.

  What Moira left unsaid was that she had a plan B that encompassed being caught by Lord Lucifer, and the circumstances she found herself in now put this new plan into operation, for she fully realised that she was in danger of being thrown into the abyss. Therefore, Moira approached Lord Lucifer, the supreme ruler of Hell.

  “My Lord, please tell me where my father is being held within your domain so that I might free him You must be aware that my father, the Satanist Ulysses Bourbon, is still your greatest follower, except for me that is, why do you treat him and his daughter so wickedly?”

  “Moira, your father failed me, even with all of the power that I gave him he still failed to defeat the mortal who you have brought into my kingdom, and failure demands that he pay the ultimate price.” Lucifer replied coldly, evil fairly dripping off his tongue.

  It was now that Rob and Father Pritchard found themselves paralysed by a force that they both recognised, for Moira had held them in this fashion when they had attempted to steal up on her in the grounds of her family chateau in France, when they had made their first attempt at killing her.

  “I have not entered your domain empty handed my Lord, as you say I have brought with me the champion of God, and the popist who aids him, these I give to you as a gift.” Moira said in her sweetest of voices. “All I want in exchange is my father, then I will leave your kingdom and return to the fortress of Lord Asbaritch where you have enjoyed fabulous dinners and powerful drinks that I have always prepared especially for you.”

  Rob and Father Pritchard were not surprised by Moira`s betrayal of them, however it now meant that they were both free to act against her, their solemn oath to help her no longer held, something she could have done with, for Lucifer was not impressed by her argument.

  “You too have failed me Moira, even with all of the power that you stole, even after you killed a goddess and acquiring her powers, still you failed me by allowing this mortal to kill you.” Lucifer said angrily. “Now you have delivered yourself into my realm you must also pay the price of failure.” He said with a gleam in his red eyes telling how he was looking forward to seeing her scream out for mercy.

  “Aid me my Lord, give me my father and some of your most terrible demons and I will take on the Christian god and defeat him, then you will be supreme ruler of all creation.” Moira declared boldly.

  “I believe that if anyone could do such a thing then it would be you Moira, but to openly go against God would be foolhardy, the consequences of which could even see me hurled into the abyss, his forces are far too strong to bet against, I am sorry Moira but you are too dangerous to my wellbeing, and this is another reason why you must be put down.”

  Moira looked at Lucifer with utter contempt, for she saw that he too was house trained by the Christian god. She let out a loud scream of anger and launched herself at Lucifer, landing on his upper body and staring right into his blazing red eyes; she then grabbed his head and actually began to drain him of his powers.

  While Lucifer screamed out in pain and attempted to dislodge the angry Satanist, Rob found that he could move his hand to his squirt gun and aim it at the back of Moira who was gaining massive amounts of energy with each passing second. Rob pressed the trigger and sent a jet of holy water Moira who screamed out in pain and dropped from the body of Lucifer. She turned to face her attacker, but this only brought her face and body under the attack of two jets of holy water, for both Rob and Father Pritchard were no longer under her control.

  Lord Lucifer, who was no longer being subjected to such a painful attack, picked up Moira`s light body and held it for a second above his head before he hurled her into the black abyss. Then he sank exhaustedly to his knees and waited until he regained control of his senses, having forgotten about Rob and Father Pritchard because of the pain he was in and his utter feeling of exhaustion. He was only interested now in recovering his strength that Moira had stolen and he knew just where he could do that, in the world of the mortals, a town was currently being held by a particularly evil group of men, who as always were fighting, so they said, in the name of their god. They did this by torturing, raping and killing any whose beliefs were only slightly different to their own and even their own could be killed if they wavered for even an instant from their holy war. Lucifer would join them and the evil committed there would rejuvenate his weakened state.

  Even as Moira was hurling towards the black abyss the Key of Tartarus had appeared on the ground of Rob`s feet, he was completely stunned, but knowing that speed was of the essence he did not stand and look at it, no he picked it up and held it aloft, his head was spinning though.

  “Tartarus, I hold your eternal Key and with it in my possession I beseech you to create a portal in the eternal walls of this your kingdom and let us walk through it back to the world of mortals, to England.” Rob cried out trying to sound as confident as Moira always did when she used the Key.

  In the wall of the cavern a pair of wooden doors appeared, ones that seemed very familiar to Rob and Father Pritchard, opening them they hurried through them, they were followed by the screams that came from Moira`s dark soul as Moira`s body hit the black surface of the abyss.

  “This is the old ruined church near to Parkston manor house, it was from here that Moira took us through to Tartarus the first time, the Key must have remembered it and brought us here.” Father Pritchard cried out in surprise.

  Rob was only half listening to his friend, for he had more pressing work to attend to, he held the Key aloft and called out in loud words. “Oh powerful Tartarus close this portal now to prevent your prisoners from escaping and terrorising the people of Earth.” Rob said trying once again to sound as Moira Bourbon would have, had she been there.

  Father Pritchard looked at Rob and asked a question that had been puzzling him. “Rob, how did the Key appear at your feet, it certainly was not because Moira was dead, she was still hurtling through the air towards the abyss?”

  “Maybe time is altered the nearer to the abyss you get, frankly David I do not know, I can only accept what happened as a gift from god.” Rob replied.

  They found that as before, the doors that will let them out into the English countryside were locked, but Rob soon picked the lock and they left the cold church and walked over to the nearby road just as a bus appeared, it appeared that things were finally going their way. The driver and his passengers took a good look at them, for they looked just how they felt, totally exhausted by their terrible ordeal. Sinking into two empty seats they both fell asleep, only awakening when the bus reached Nottingham. Only now did Rob contact Christina to tell her that he and their friend were both safe and that he
would return to her as soon as possible. Then he contacted Sir Willoughby Brown and told him the same thing.

  “My god, Rob, you have been missing for almost a week, please do not tell me that Moira Bourbon took you to more hell dimensions.

  “Just the one Sir Richard, and as far as we are concerned we were only away from the office for two days. This time we were near to something called the black abyss of Hell, and because of something that happened back there we think that time moves at a faster rate the closer an object is to it.” Rob replied.

  “It sounds very strange Rob, but then so have many other things that have happened to you. I will have a car waiting for you at King`s Cross station, you can tell me of your adventures over a stiff drink.” Sir Willoughby Brown ordered.

  They caught the London train at Nottingham and a car was indeed waiting for them at King`s Cross station, it whisked them back to the SIS headquarters and Sir Willoughby Brown. When he heard that his safe was full of satanic copies he complained to Father Pritchard for not warning him to have dimensional locks installed. They all laughed at this and it was only then that Rob handed the real Key of Tartarus back to Sir Willoughby Brown. Just a little while later a car whisked Rob and Father Pritchard back to Rob`s apartment in Reigate, where Father Pritchard was invited to stay for the holidays for it was Christmas Eve. Rob then told Christina and Cassie everything that had happened since the last time that he had seen them.

  “You actually stood just feet away from Lucifer!” Cassie gasped out in shock looking from Rob to Father Pritchard.

  “Yes Cassie and it was the most frightening thing that has ever happened to me.” Father Pritchard replied and Rob nodded his head in agreement.

  “I really thought our end had come, however when Moira betrayed David and me and then leapt at Lucifer and began to steal his very essence away, I saw a chance to finally defeat her, mind you I was amazed when the Key of Tartarus appeared at my feet, I thought that we were fated to spend eternity there.” Rob said.

  Christina though had something else on her mind. “Just tell me that Moira Bourbon is really dead this time Rob, please.” Christina begged after listening to their terrible tale.

  When Rob hesitated, Father Pritchard interposed. “She must be dead Rob; we heard her dark soul cry out when Lucifer threw her into the black abyss.”