DeathBound_AnUrbanFantasySeries

by Justin Sloan

  The purple forms that had been hovering around the house now surged at Nora, tearing at her clothes, her skin, and her hair. She was screaming, batting them away.

  STOP THIS! Rohan tried to shout.

  Altemus laughed, and then brought the tablet in front of him, between himself and Anne. The glow hit their faces in a way that made them both look like death itself.

  “Let it be done,” he said.

  There was a moment of silence as the spirits froze, interrupted only by a sob from Nora, and then gold light shot up around them, tracing the walls and all the objects in the house. With a sound like a sonic boom, Rohan felt himself being torn from his own body, pulled down as the house around him inverted itself.

  They were descending into the afterlife.

  Chapter 4: Inversion

  The world was pulled downward and into the afterlife. Rohan knew instantly where he was. He would never forget the dry air, the morbid feeling that had overcome him—as it did once again.

  A fleet of tormented souls moved through the house like a river of flames, screaming and wailing. The walls of the house, under pressure from the descent, began to crack.

  Rohan’s first instinct was to run, to save himself, but then he saw that Nora was standing in the middle of the flames, face in her hands as if she couldn't believe what was happening. Leaving her behind was not an option, so he stumbled toward her, doing his best to fight the strange, dizzying sensation in his body. His arms were hard to move, numb and tingling, as if they had become atrophied.

  “Come with me, now!” he shouted, and ran for her.

  But when he grabbed her wrist, she pushed him back, screaming.

  “Stay back, monster!” she shouted. “What have you done?”

  “That wasn’t me, just….” He glanced around at the flames. They were turning purple, faces of the tormented appearing in them, hands reaching. “We can’t stay here.”

  Suddenly, the sorrow in her face was gone, replaced by rage. He flew backwards at her push, recovering just in time to see her storming up to him.

  “You betrayed me,” she said, and then punched him hard in the gut. “It won’t happen again.”

  She left him there and stood tall as she gracefully walked out the basement door, making her way up the stairs and into the house.

  Rohan wanted to run after her, but she disappeared behind the river of souls and he knew she was gone.

  And then he noticed the odd sensation in his arms again.

  For the first time in hours, he didn’t hear the drone of Altemus’s voice in his head.

  Altemus was no longer in his body. Rohan looked at his hands and noticed that they were glowing and transparent. The old man had exited, and Rohan’s body was his own. How?

  He tried to touch his body, but his hands passed straight through him.

  “Is this my soul?”

  Several ghastly voices distracted him from his thoughts.

  “We’re coming for you,” one of the faces from the river said. “For too long you’ve claimed domain over my subjects, but those days are over.”

  Rohan scooted away from a flame that was materializing before him. The purple and blue flare shaped itself into a tall, nude man, who strode forward as flame became flesh. All but his eyes burned like the deepest pits of Hell.

  “Wh—what are you?” Rohan asked, his voice cracking in terror.

  “Just one of many who would see you burn,” the man said. “Call me Azrael. And my brothers and sisters…” More flames formed into six men and women around him, some with horns, others with fiery swords in their hands, but all with the same hellfire eyes. “You will learn their names as each one torments you for your transgressions.”

  Not sure it would even work here, Rohan attempted to pull on the spirits around him. The flames only intensified, and the men and women approaching him seemed to grow in size and strength.

  “Your powers mean nothing here, necromancer,” the man said, grinning viciously and revealing two pointed teeth.

  “It is not his time,” a booming voice said, one that echoed with authority and sounded familiar to Rohan. He turned to see the Lich King—his robed, wraith-like figure taking up most of the doorway, his hood pulled back to reveal a skull etched with ancient, glowing runes. Behind him, a portal was closing, and through it his fortress was visible, no longer in the ruins Rohan had left it.

  “This is not your domain,” the demon named Azrael hissed, backing up.

  “And yet, I’m here.”

  “You’d forfeit the pact, a deal set down through—”

  “Enough!” the Lich King said, and with a flash he was holding a wooden scepter with a skull on top. Rohan recognized it all too well. The Scepter of O’lin. Spirits were surging on the scepter, but the Lich King braced himself and yelled, “Flee!” as he began backing toward the door. “I can't hold them for long!”

  Rohan scrambled up and threw himself through the doorway, with the Lich King close behind.

  Outside was dark, but the darkness flowed as if it were alive. Nora’s mansion was on fire, and the massive river of spirits was surging through it. It looked like a scene from an oil painting of a nightmare, and Rohan resisted the urge to scream. His eyes darted between fire and darkness, looking for any sign of Nora. If she had died down here because of him, he could never forgive himself.

  “You ask too great a price coming here!” the Lich King said, turning on Rohan with fury in his green, glowing eyes.

  “It wasn’t my choice. Altemus wanted the tablet—”

  “What?” The Lich King’s eyes blazed green. “How… it can’t be. And the Eye of Gilgamesh, he has that, too?”

  “The what…?” Rohan shook his head, confused. “There was a woman. Did you see—”

  “It makes sense now. The only way the demons of the sixth level could be held back is if the link isn’t complete.” The Lich King rose into the sky, and with a wave of his staff, suddenly Nora was there too, beside them. She looked as stunned as Rohan felt, but before he could speak, they were all floating upward, and Rohan was happy enough to leave the nightmare scene behind.

  Below, an explosion of flames sent the house into pieces and stopped the onslaught of spirits. The six demons darted into the sky after them, but the darkness was suddenly replaced by a landscape of hills and lakes, with small islands scattered on the sheets of blue water. The demon’s faces dissipated against the sky, and Rohan sensed that they would no longer be a threat.

  Rohan collapsed on solid ground and was surprised to see himself surrounded by ancient, marble columns. They stood on a small rock that overlooked the new world.

  “Where are we?” he asked in wonder. “And what were those demons?”

  “This is simply another level of the afterlife. One that resembles certain aspects of your world, I suppose as a way of helping new arrivals cope with their new surroundings. Those demons you saw were from a level of the afterlife that you didn’t see during your first visit, Rohan. It is a level deeper than even I wish to go. For the land where those demons were banished, from whence they must not return, is a land that even the dead want nothing to do with.”

  Rohan gulped. The thought of a deadlier layer of the afterlife unnerved him.

  The Lich King continued. “The workings of the afterlife are much too complicated for a mortal mind to comprehend… but mortal, that’s something you’ve transcended, isn’t it? The both of you.”

  He’d forgotten about Nora. Rohan looked around and saw her lying limp on the ground nearby. He ran over to her and checked her breathing—she was still alive.

  “She will be fine,” the Lich King said. “It’s just the shock of it all.”

  Rohan stared, unsure how he should take that. “You mentioned… a link? Something to do with the tablet?”

  “I think you’ll see soon enough, but suffice it to say that the tablet will not work without the Eye of Gilgamesh. Who possesses the tablet now?”

  “Altemus,” Rohan admitted
, hanging his head. “We have to stop them.”

  “It is not my place to come with you, as I have a duty here: to rule over the dead, and keep those demons in exile. Of course, you will have help.”

  As if on cue, Nora sat up with a jolt, suddenly awake. First she stared in awe at the Lich King, and then her eyes found Rohan and went wide.

  “You!” She was up, shoving him backwards and then moving in for the attack. “You did this!”

  “No, let me explain!” He turned to the Lich King, hoping for some help, but the Lich King’s attention was elsewhere.

  “You don’t have time,” the Lich King said, and then waved his scepter. “There!”

  Rohan saw it—the rays of the sun seemed to be materializing around them, forming a tunnel of sorts that led upwards, while a rift in the ground was opening.

  “The six demons will now be able to cross into this plane because of my actions in saving you,” the Lich King said. “Return to your world while I hold them off. Fortunately for you, when Altemus used the tablet to open the portal to this world, he didn’t have the Eye of Gilgamesh. Therefore, the transition will not hold. Once you return to the world of the living, you’ll have nothing to worry about.”

  Nora had stopped her attack to stare at them in angry confusion, but Rohan didn’t have time to explain, not right there. He stepped toward the tunnel of sunlight and held out a hand for her.

  “You’re going to have to trust me,” he said.

  “Isn’t… that what got us here?” she asked, hesitantly. It was clear that she at least wanted to believe.

  “It’s me or those demons,” he said. “Please, I’ll explain on the way.”

  She breathed deep, eyes glancing back one more time at the Lich King, and then to the rift in the ground that now appeared to be a swirling portal of green and purple lights. One massive, clawed hand emerged, pulling whatever demon it belonged to up and out moments later, but they didn’t stay to see. Nora grabbed Rohan’s hand, and they were running up the sunlight tunnel.

  A quick glance showed the Lich King raising his scepter and then bringing it down into the ground with a flash of light just as the six demons swarmed him.

  Rohan hoped the strange being would hold them off—he doubted killing them was even possible.

  “Now’d be a damn good time to start explaining,” Nora said, attempting to pull back her hand.

  “If you let go, you might fall,” Rohan said, gripping her hand tighter.

  She stopped resisting at that, but her strides were shorter than his, less sure.

  “Fine, look….” His mind spun with how to present this to her, so he figured he best start at the beginning. As they ran along the sunlight tunnel, past weird worlds of swirling colors at one minute, others that looked completely normal the next, he told her all about his journey to bring his fiancé back from the dead, his Senna, and how Altemus had betrayed him. When he told her about the journey into the afterlife, she took on a look of doubt.

  “Where do you think we’re escaping from right now?” he asked.

  Her eyes went wide with realization, and she said, “I half-hoped this was all some dream, really. Or maybe that you were simply in my head with some sort of mind control.”

  “Unfortunately, no. Altemus took over my body, somehow, and now we have to kick him out. Can I count on you?”

  “How do I know this is even the real you?”

  He squeezed her hand and said, “This isn’t us touching, it’s our souls. Unlike my body, apparently, my soul is mine alone.”

  There was something about his words that made her run in silence for a while. Then, she finally said, “Yes.”

  “What?” he asked, and then realized that the tunnel had ended. They were in a giant ball of light, as if they were in the sun itself. Only, perhaps because of their necromancer abilities or some other magic, it wasn’t blinding.

  “If this is the real you,” she said, cautiously, “I’ll do whatever I can to help you, and cast that son of a bitch out of your body. But will we return in time?”

  “Time works differently here,” he explained. “I don’t think that’s something we have to worry about.”

  “And what, exactly, does this Altemus man want?”

  “To raise an army of the dead and turn the world of the living into his kingdom.” Rohan gave a wry smile. “Though it seems his plan has evolved since we last met.”

  “Jesus.” She let out a deep sigh, and then said, “Let’s do this then.”

  He closed his eyes, focusing. The air around him vibrated, but not enough. He pulled on all his energy, but still felt only a slight vibration.

  Then it hit him—the Lich King had said Nora would have powers too, like him. She was now a necromancer.

  He took her other hand, ignoring the confused and slightly annoyed look in her eyes, and said, “I need you to focus. Everything you have should go into imagining us back home, our world righted. Imagine our energies flowing with each other, stronger than any force that could potentially push back. Can you do this?”

  She nodded, and this time they both closed their eyes.

  A sound like the earth shattering filled their ears, followed by the crackling of lightning. Then, with a mighty tremor, the world righted itself and they were pulled back up with the ball of light.

  When the light faded, they were back in Nora’s house—and chaos broke out.

  Chapter 5: Reunited

  The scene in the house was as if they’d returned just a few seconds before everything had fallen apart. The spirits of the house had just surrounded Nora. Rohan was staring at his body as it held the tablet between what was actually Altemus and Anne in the bodies of Rohan and Tess.

  “Something’s wrong,” Anne said, sensing it.

  Altemus didn’t have the chance to react, though, because Rohan was already charging. With a giant leap, he was back in his own body and had cast Altemus’s spirit out.

  Energy flew through Rohan’s limbs, and he felt his body returning to his control. With another surge of energy, he was back completely. He collapsed onto the floor, gasping and reaching for the dropped tablet.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw that Nora wasn’t cowering like she had before, but was casting spirits aside like the best of them, testing out whatever powers she’d gained by visiting the afterlife and using them masterfully.

  Altemus’s spirit turned in confusion, tried to reenter Rohan, and was thrown back by a barrier of energy. With a roar, he turned and flew at Tess’s body, entering it with a flash of black smoke. Tess’s body screamed in three voices as it bristled with the trio of spirits. Then Tess was throwing herself around the room, her eyes glowing as she overturned bookcases and cabinets, yelling maniacally.

  Rohan leaped out of the way.

  A blast struck Tess, knocking her down, and Rohan turned with a smile to Nora.

  “Thanks,” he said, but in that moment’s distraction, Tess rolled over, grabbed the tablet, and was up and running. Both Rohan and Nora threw spirits after her in purple blasts of flowing light, but a wave of energy knocked them back. Glass shattered, and Tess was out through the window and running off into the night.

  Nora was resting against a bookcase, breathing heavily with a far-gone gaze. Rohan took a step toward the shattered window with every intention of pursuing Tess, along with Anne and Altemus, but his legs shook and nearly collapsed. He stumbled back and landed in a chair.

  He’d fallen for Altemus’s tricks too many times already. When would it end?

  A thump pulled his attention back to Nora. She’d collapsed and lay breathing heavily, unconscious.

  When he bent to check on her, he noticed the red of her cheeks and her quick breaths. The spirits must’ve gotten to her, bad. Without a moment’s hesitation, he had her in his arms and was carrying her to the bedroom, which he found at the top of a very narrow staircase.

  Pushing aside the curtain of a canopied bed, he gently lowered her to the mattress, and then looked
around frantically for anything that could help. He tore the drawers out of the bureaus and emptied them looking for medicine. Where did she keep it? A realization hit him, and he ran out of the room.

  A small line of light lit the hallway, but it was enough for him to find the bathroom. Grimacing at the gaudy pink tiles, and making a note to ask Nora about the poor decorating and design of this place if she ever felt better, he rummaged around the medicine cabinet. Nothing.

  Not that it mattered anyway, he realized. If this was the work of the spirits, or the after-effects of her first trip to the afterlife, she would need medicine of a different sort.

  What she needed was something to clear the mind, to set her soul at ease.

  He dashed down to the kitchen and rifled through the drawers, trying to remember all the remedies his mother had ever given him as a child, the remedies he’d given Senna when he first found out about her disease. They hadn’t cured Senna, but they had calmed her down.

  For such a recluse, Nora stocked her pantry like a chef. Mint and cloves—perfect! He snatched them down and started a pot of boiling water. Then he wet a towel under cool water and ran back upstairs to check on Nora. She was sweating profusely, and he dabbed her face with the damp towel, then left it on her head.

  “Azrael,” she moaned, turning in her fever dream. “No, stay back….”

  So she had heard the demon mention his name, Rohan realized.

  Her hand was clammy as he took it in his own.

  “My name’s Rohan,” he said. “And I promise, I’m going to make sure everything is back to normal. What you saw down there, it was spiritual in a way. It was our souls. And the house—well, it was like the house’s soul, or shadow of it. We’re safe now.”

  She mumbled something unintelligible.

  “It’s going to be okay,” he said.

  When the tea was ready, he found a tea set and brought it up to her on a wooden tray, along with some fruit and club soda to settle her stomach further if she needed it. The tea steamed and filled the room with a pleasant aroma that reminded him of a minty Christmas as he poured it into a cup, blew on it to cool it down, and then helped her sip it in small, quiet sips.