I focused on burning it, waiting for my energy to obey me. The cobra’s eyes were deep charcoal grey and demonic energy circulated through the length of its body. It crawled closer, suddenly only inches away from my face. Small dots of sweat appeared on my forehead and my breathing sped up. I waited for the pain to come, waited for the deadly bite. Seconds dragged, then minutes rolled in and nothing was happening. My throat was so tight with fear I’d forgotten about the hunger now.
“What’s happening? Why is the snake not attacking?”
I heard Rodriguez’s furious voice and then looked around, opening my eyes. The cobra started backing away from me. My body relaxed slightly, and my heart jackhammered between my ribs. Something was wrong, and I wondered why it didn’t bite me.
“No idea. That challenge always works. It must be the girl’s blood. It looks like my cobra refuses to taste the dirty muddy blood,” Beelzebub said, scratching his square jaw.
Then suddenly I felt the pain inside my skull. It grew with every beat of a second, penetrating me slowly, like an invisible long sharp needle. My knees turned into paper and I went down, grabbing my head screaming with agony. It felt like someone was literally trying to drill through my skull.
It lasted for longer than I thought it would. And when it was over I just lay on the cold marble floor breathing like an asthmatic, unable to lift myself up. I started seeing Summer walking up to me; she was trying to reach out to touch me. I wanted it all to end. It was too much.
“Let me take over, master. My tortures are always much more effective,” Rodriguez requested humbly and I wanted to spit into his face again.
Beelzebub disagreed, sounding annoyed. “No, Rodriguez. We have to talk about other business now. Your Asian boy will escort her to my prison. She’s mine. I paid several barrels of gold to have her.”
They started arguing with each other, but I wasn’t listening anymore. Rodriguez was furious, and he was taking a huge risk disagreeing with Beelzebub. A demon that was much stronger and more important than him. I needed some time out. I no longer cared what was going to happen to me.
Someone lifted me back on my feet. My vision went slightly blurry and I felt dizzy, from lack of food as well as the torture. Rodriguez was shouting now and the great Beelzebub was telling him that he didn’t take orders from anyone apart from Lucifer.
“Come on, Maxine, you have to walk. We haven’t got much time,” the soothing voice told me. I was taken away from the room, telling myself to get it fucking together. I couldn’t break apart right now, but I felt so drained and weak.
Soon after I left the dark chamber I realised that it was Cyril who was guiding me out. He must have used his demonic magic on me, because I felt a little better. Outside I was able to walk on my own.
“Walk faster, demon. We have to get into the cell, the master wants to start his tortures straight away,” barked the Watcher that was walking behind me.
Cyril was walking next to me and I sensed that he was tense. The Watchers would catch every word, so he couldn’t really explain what he was doing in here. Several minutes later we were moving down a wide wooden staircase. I needed to forget about my hunger for a moment and gather my strength. Cyril kept pumping his own energy into me and my vitals were getting better. The strength was returning.
Once we were outside, I felt more like myself again, minus the empty stomach. We were walking in the rain, through the muddy and wet road. The rain wasn’t cooling anymore, and the temperature must have dropped significantly because I was suddenly freezing. Other demons were trying to get on with their tasks; some were talking, standing over a giant stand with old remedies and potions. Others were trying to shelter themselves with massive umbrellas shattered by strong wind. It was a miserable mess and I could barely see where I was going.
As soon as we were outside the Watchers released their giant wings and started flying above us in the pouring rain. Cyril led me towards the steep hill, and at the bottom of it there was a river. I spotted some boats and other strange-looking shapes that were floating above it.
“Get ready, Maxine, this is our chance,” Cyril told me.
I was disoriented when he reached out for his sword and rose several meters off the ground. I stood there, rooted to the spot, trying to figure out if there was something wrong with my eyes. Cyril roared and attacked, cutting the wing of one of the Watchers, swinging his legs suspended above the ground. The other one landed next to me and stumbled back on his feet. All of a sudden I was glad that the road was muddy; this gave me a little advantage. I used my left leg and kicked him as hard as I could. He went off flying, landing in a huge pile of muddy water.
Soon streams of light started busting out of the injured Watcher. He screamed, and his wings turned to ash.
“Come on, Maxine, we need to get out of here. We only have a brief window,” Cyril shouted at me.
I started sliding down towards the river following Cyril. We ran, hearing some screams behind us. My heart pounded in my chest, as we reached the bottom of the hill, literally covered with mud. Cyril managed to get to one of the boats and started untying the rope. The rain kept pouring down, and my senses were registering more Watchers nearby. We didn’t have much time and surely we couldn’t run on foot. It looked like the route through the river was our only chance of escape.
“No, you can’t leave with me, Cyril! Rodriguez will castrate you,” I shouted, when he jumped onto the boat.
“Don’t stress. I’m done working for Rodriguez, and done with injustice. Who knows who is going to be my boss after the election?” he chuckled. “Get into the boat. The others are on the way.”
I looked back and saw a few figures in the sky. The rain had slowed the Watchers down and I wasn’t planning to stay in Beelzebub’s circle one second longer. I got into the boat and Cyril pushed us off with the oars. The current was strong, so we started moving pretty fast, but the visibility was poor.
We heard some screams, saw a bouncing light above us. I blocked their magic with mine, feeding on Cyril’s energy. It looked like the Watchers must have changed their mind about flying in the rain, because a few of them were running towards the riverbank.
They were too late. We were already moving fast with the current, leaving the miserable town behind.
I wished that it could stop raining for a moment. I’d gotten rid of my jacket because I didn’t think I would need it. Now I was shaking with cold, as the ice-cold rain was pouring down. The sky was dark, and soon it was pitch black. I could only hope that we were safe on the boat.
“Thank you for cutting me loose,” I said to Cyril, who sat on the edge of the boat, breathing hard.
“Not a problem.”
“So what are you doing in hell with Rodriguez?” I asked.
“I was called to the palace when Ricky and Emma showed up. Rodriguez used his magic to break Ricky’s wards. I tried to interfere, but it was too late. He found out about Alexis and Arthur,” Cyril explained, and then he pulled two large, juicy apples out of his pocket. I didn’t even ask if I could take it. I grabbed it and bit into it, almost choking on its juices. “Slow down, we will get more food in another circle. Demons in here always forget about food. They don’t realise the difference in time on earth.”
Cyril made sense, no one bothered to feed me properly since I got lost in Purgatory.
“All the demons told me that we can’t get out of hell. The underworld is on lockdown because of the election,” I said, knowing that our next stop was the Astaroth circle. This time I really had no idea what to expect. There were parts of hell where humans were being tortured and punished for their sins, along with mongrels. I wanted to avoid going there if I could.
“Mammon and the rest lied. All the circles are locked down, but the word has spread. Other demons are willing to offer their assistance to you.”
“What? Why?”
“Apparently you’re the sign that they all had been waiting for, their hope that conditions in hell might improve,�
� Cyril explained. I started to laugh and the whole boat began shaking.
“Do you even realise how absurd this sounds?” I pointed out. “It’s hell, for Christ sake, nothing can’t be worse than that.”
“I get your point, but still…it’s been the same for centuries. Maybe it’s time,” Cyril muttered.
“We need to get to the last circle. I have to get back to London. I can’t help them. Why would Lucifer listen to me anyway? I’m just a mongrel.”
“That’s the same question everyone has been asking themselves since you got here.”
We both sat in silence for a while and the rain continued to pour down. I started to question if I was going to see Summer or Zachary ever again. I didn’t even have a chance to fully enjoy being with any of my friends or my daughter. Maybe somewhere later in life we were going to meet again.
“It stopped raining. We must have left Beelzebub’s circle behind,” Cyril stated, pulling me away from my own thoughts.
Indeed, it stopped raining and the boat was moving slower now. The landscape around us was murky and empty. The ground seemed red from the distance and dry. Hell seemed endless, but demons continued to exist in that dimension along with other creatures.
I stopped shaking and feeling cold. The temperature soared up again and I was baffled with how the landscape around shifted.
Soon the river was taking us inside the entrance to a large cave. The air became humid and I started sensing other demons nearby.
“So we must be in Astaroth’s circle now, right? Do you have any idea what we should expect in here?” I asked Cyril. “Surely it can’t be more miserable than in the last circle.” The cave stretched on and it felt like we were passing into a more dangerous part of hell. The ground was dry, filled with rocks and split holes. The river narrowed down and soon it was too shallow for the boat to keep floating.
“No idea, this is my first time in hell, and frankly everything seems much more twisted than I expected,” Cyril said, squeezing out his kimono-style outfit that was soaked from earlier. “We should walk from here.”
“What are these?” I asked, spotting random holes filled with bubbling water.
“No idea, but maybe it’s better if we stay away from it,” Cyril said, and I sensed that he was on edge. Something about the cave felt spooky and a heavy uneasiness settled in my stomach.
We continued moving through this rocky land in silence, heading towards the light that radiated in the distance ahead. After several minutes we saw more ponds. We both quickly realised that some of them weren’t filled with water, but lava. The heat dried my soaked clothes, but now I was struggling to breathe in these new conditions.
“I could open the gates of hell, but I can’t get back on earth. That just isn’t fair,” I said, breathing hard and feeling weak.
“The election will work to our advantage. Lucifer will open the polls soon. One of the Watchers was convinced that this might happen today,” Cyril said.
“Help, Maxine, please help me!”
I twisted my neck and thought that I was seeing things. It was Emma and she was drowning in the water, several meters away. The oily liquid bubbled all around her and she was struggling to keep her head above the surface.
Pain shocked my system when I saw Zachary too. I rushed towards them, but Cyril grabbed me.
“What are you doing, Maxine? You will die if you get to that water.”
“Let me go. It’s Emma. She’s drowning with Zachary. I see them, they’re asking me to help them!” I shouted, standing very close to the mysterious dark liquid in the pond.
Emma had disappeared underneath the surface and Zachary was reaching out, screaming in pain.
“No, it’s an illusion. They aren’t there. Get yourself together, girl!” Cyril shouted at me, holding me in place.
“Let me go, just let me go. This is for real, they both need me,” I roared, trying to pull away from him. My energy blazed over my spine, but he chained himself to me with another charm.
He slapped me then and I went down on the ground. My head was dizzy and I watched as my lover was dying. Images of Arthur and his corpse started floating in my head. Then I saw Alexis nearby by laughing at me. She looked beautiful wearing new clothes.
“This is your end, Maxine, your final moment,” she was saying.
I pressed my hands to my ears hearing more screams, experiencing their pain. I wanted to help them, but I felt like I was slowly suffocating.
Then everything went dark and I drifted away.
Chapter 8
“Silent, alone with no one now beside us, we went our way—the one behind, the other leading on—walking as meek Franciscans do.” ― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
“Wake up, Maxine. I think we have a slight problem,” the voice was saying to me. I shook my head, refusing to open my eyes. I wasn’t ready to face yet another horrible surprise. I wanted to see my daughter and see her beautiful smile.
Was that too much to ask?
“I recognise her from one of the meetings. She’s Bianca’s ally, so maybe she knows what happened to her,” said another voice.
Emma and Zach were gone, and when I finally did open my eyes, I was surrounded by demons that stood staring down at me. They were all armed, with knives, swords and sticks, and their faces were covered with smudged black lines. Cyril was kneeling next to me with a concerned look on his face. I needed to stop getting knocked out. This kept happening way too many times.
“Ally? Who is she, Edmunda?” asked a demon from Mammon’s faction, staring at me with a suspicious look on his face.
“She was chosen by Bianca to help her sister and she succeeded,” said the girl in the blue hair. I recognised her from that party that was hosted by Bianca. I didn’t remember her name or maybe I’d never actually bothered to asked. Now her hair was covered with dust and overall she looked like she had a rough time. There were a few other demons that appeared familiar, but I didn’t have time to stretch my memory to figure out if I met them before.
“What’s going on? Who are these demons?” I asked, trying to lift myself up, but Cyril pushed me down.
“The illusion tried to swallowed you in. You’re a mongrel, and you were more receptive to its tricks. Most of the time only humans react to it, and they died if they found themselves in this part of hell,” explained the dark-haired demon.
“Right,” I muttered, thinking that things like that could only happen in here.
“What happened to Bianca, Jessica? You helped her sister and I had no idea that you were a mongrel,” Edmunda said, smiling at me. Morpheus had used the special charm to made me look like a full-blooded demon back then and now my whole cover was blown. “Dale, she’s one of us. She must have hidden her real ability at the party for a reason.”
Obviously Edmunda didn’t care that I was a mongrel, and I figured that if I wanted to stay alive then I had to put my acting hat on.
“My real name is Maxine and I was undercover at the party. We all need to get to Lucifer’s circle,” I said, making up lies as I went along. They were willing to believe that Alexis succeeded because of me. None of them knew what exactly had happened in Purgatory. I used my demonic abilities to let Cyril know that he just needed to agree with whatever I was saying. “Bianca died saving her sister. She was killed by a warlock witch.”
A few demons let go of horrifying gasps, glancing at each other with fear.
“You’re the mongrel girl that everyone is talking about. We would like you to join us in the uprising against the dark lord,” announced a large older demon with various scars on his face. He had shaggy dark hair.
“Uprising?” I asked, trying not to laugh. They were all deluded thinking that they could go against Lucifer and his Watchers. Cyril looked unconvinced too, but I didn’t want to piss on their parade. In the past several hours I had been chained up to the wall, locked in a cage, chased around the chamber by some monster and tortured. I really needed a break and for now I was willing to sta
y with Cyril. Those demons were heading to the last circle, so we could just tag along, pretending that we were all after the same thing.
“Demons from all the circles are joining us tonight. The dark lord has been in power for too long. The order needs to change. We all deserve a better life in hell,” shouted someone else.
It turned out Bianca wasn’t making this shit up. She had managed to brainwash hundreds or maybe even thousands of demons in hell. Cyril was staring at me like he wasn’t sure if I was still lucid enough to know that this was a bad idea. Edmunda started filling us in on all the plans, literally bouncing with excitement. Apparently Cyril and I had managed to pass over Astaroth’s circle, and we were now several miles away from the pits.
Soon other demons started to join in, approaching from various directions.
“So how did you get here? Apparently hell is on lockdown?” I asked a couple from the Lust Circle.
“You can always find the way with gold,” they responded, and then started kissing passionately.
I walked away at that point, thinking that everyone around here was off their rockers. I sensed many more demons arriving and felt strong currents of magic circulating around me. I listened in when a tall demon that talked to me earlier on started discussing the strategy for tomorrow.
None of them considered that they could lose and I admired their spirit.
After the discussion was over we were all invited to sit around the fire. My mouth started to water when I was handed various cuts of meat to cook on a long stick. At that point I stopped caring about my future, because tonight I was finally going to sleep with a full tummy.
Cyril agreed with me that it was wise for us to stick around for now, but he was worried that tomorrow we were going to be stuck with everyone and expected to join the rebellion. I really didn’t care if Lucifer stayed in power or not. My main priority was to get back to London, to Summer.
I was still confused about everything that went on in Purgatory. Morpheus had vanished in front of my eyes and I was dragged into icy water by some invisible creature. It looked like someone was working really hard to mess up the dark lord’s plan
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