by H Waters
“Whoa, won’t happen again — that blade is, well, was Nikolai’s. Please ease up,” he calmly pleaded.
“Who is Nikolai?” I asked, reducing the pressure on his neck.
“He was one of the Saints, one of the oldest,” said Dante, his face becoming cold and sallow.
“What happened to him?” I asked, and lowered the blade.
“That’s a tale for later,” he replied, softly patting me on the shoulder as he walked towards the front doors. “First we have to deal with the creature before it wakes.”
Confused, I said, “So, you’re going to help now?”
“Well, considering how lousy you are with that blade, you need all the help you can get,” he laughed.
Dante ran to an old cabinet that looked like something from a hospital, tucked out of sight under the staircase, and grabbed a rag and a bottle of clear liquid. “It’s so she doesn’t bite,” he said with a smile. He handed the bottle and rag to me. Then he hustled to the large switch, slamming it into its upright resting position. The light began to dim as the large curtains slowly began to shut, hiding all of the wonders of this place and leaving us in the small, musky wood and stone room. “Rag please,” Dante asked.
I handed him back his bottle and rag. As Dante scurried to the front doors and slipped out to the steps, I followed behind him, putting my sword back on my hip. I’m not that lousy, he’s just a grumpy old man, I reassured myself.
Dante opened one of the front doors and warm sunlight poured into the dark room. Once I got outside I could see Scarlet asleep where she was before, but Lucy was gone and the old man was nowhere to be seen. I frantically scanned the surrounding forest for any sign of her but saw nothing. “Lucy!” I called out over and over again in a panic.
Before long the old man came hobbling out from beside the cathedral. Not far behind him was Lucy, biting at his ankles and barking as loud as she could.
“Call off your mutt!” Dante hollered.
I whistled and Lucy stopped her chase, coming to sit near me, not letting her eyes off of the old man. Every once in a while she would let out a low growl just to make sure he was still scared. Dante walked over to Scarlet, removing a wet rag from the lower half of her face. He must have put it there before I came out, which must be why Lucy got so aggressive.
“Okay, she is out. Now come help me drag her in,” Dante said, still trying to catch his breath from his recent jog.
“Where should I grab?” I asked, never having dragged a body before.
“Should be easiest if we each grab an arm,” Dante said decisively.
We each grabbed one arm and began to drag her toward the open door. There wasn’t much muscle between myself and the old man, so it probably took longer to drag her in then it should have.
“Okay, now bring her this way. Hurry, we have to get her secure before she wakes,” Dante said, sounding very distraught.
“You cannot be serious,” I barked, breathing heavily. “I am not dragging her up those stairs!”
Dante looked at me like I was stupid. “You really think I would try and drag somebody up that shitty old steel staircase? How mad do you think I am?” he barked back. Dante then muttered something under his breath and snapped his fingers.
The staircase began to creak and bend, and all of the steps and rails began to split and meld together. In a surprisingly short period of time the staircase completely disappeared, and in its place stood an elevator. It was old and somewhat sketchy-looking, but it was decorated with carved wooden trim featuring birds and trees and the inside walls were covered with a soft red fabric. Trying to drag her as gently as possible, we finally got Scarlet into the elevator and leaned her against the back wall.
“Okay perfect, now hold on,” he said, shuffling to a large rickety-looking brass control panel.
He slowly turned a black dial, and with each click of the dial my heart skipped a beat. What the hell am I doing here? I thought to myself.
“Helping your friend,” Dante laughed.
The elevator creaked and groaned, begging to be oiled and repaired or maybe just put out of its misery. BANG! The doors violently slammed shut and I grabbed the metal bar on the side of the elevator. Lucy was in the corner, tail between her legs, completely mistrustful of this old man and his poorly constructed elevator.
“Don’t be scared, little mutt, it’s only crashed once,” Dante said with a large grin.
Well, that’s reassuring, I thought to myself. “Wait, how exactly does an elevator crash?” I asked.
The elevator started to move slowly downwards. “Well, I am not much of a mechanic, and I had to improvise for most of the track,” Dante shrugged. “Sometimes I make mistakes, not often, but sometimes,” he added.
“Oh great!” I shot back, grabbing the metal bar even tighter. Unexpectedly the elevator shot up. I felt like I was being pushed into the floor and my body was suddenly four hundred pounds heavier. The red fabric folded away into the ceiling, revealing large glass windows on both sides. The elevator began spinning up and circling one of the large towers on the side of the cathedral. It was going so fast I could barely keep my eyes open. Lucy was pressed against the floor, with her tongue out, using all of her strength to try and fight the intense pressure holding her down.
The elevator came to an alarming stop and jerked me to the ground as the doors slammed open. I crawled out to solid ground, found the nearest container and vomited. Using the wall to stumble to my feet I said, “Why the hell would you make an elevator do that?”
“All in the name of fun, dear Echo — just look how much your mutt liked it,” Dante laughed. Lucy was running and jumping around, tongue still hanging out, as if she wanted to ride it again.
“You’re insane, old man,” I mumbled under my breath.
“I’m old, not deaf,” he laughed. “Now help me move this creature.”
Ignoring him while I got my bearings, I walked further into the room until I found a window to look out. Instead of seeing the trunks of trees, I was now looking down onto the tops of them. “Where are we?” I quickly asked.
“My medical floor, it’s the highest floor in the building,” Dante replied. “Now for the second time, will you help me with this body.”
I walked back to the elevator, taking in more of my surroundings now that my head was slightly less scrambled. The room was small, resembling the old musty entrance from down below, the only difference being the material that made up the room. The walls and floors were made up of a much finer white stone, likely marble. There was no wood to be seen except for the trim of the elevator. Much like in the lower level, a large red curtain hung at the end of the room. We grabbed Scarlet and pulled her out of the elevator.
Dante pulled the curtain away to reveal a much larger, brightly lit room made of the same white stone. Shelves and desks littered the room, full of medical tools, and jars full of what looked like body parts and strange animals.
“Enough staring,” Dante barked. “I can’t lift this on my own.”
“Sorry, I just was not expecting something like this,” I replied, grabbing both of Scarlet’s wrists.
We lifted Scarlet onto a metal hospital bed, with multiple worn leather bounds on it. The old man began strapping down her wrists, elbows, shoulders, ankles, knees, neck and head.
“Um, don’t you think that’s a little much?” I asked.
“Can’t be too careful with this old of an evil,” he said in a frantic tone, pulling out a large chain inscribed in some sort of old language that I doubted anyone knew anymore.
“What could you possibly need that chain for?” I said, dumbfounded by the number of restraints he’d put on Scarlet. He ignored me and began wrapping Scarlet and the table in the chain.
“When I lock the end of this chain, this creature will wake up. Your friend is not going to be as pretty.” Dante laughed in a slightly psychotic way.
He finished wrapping the chain around her waist and under the metal bed. “Alright, well, l
et’s see if this old thing still works,” Dante said, taking each end of the large chain and clipping them together.
The words on the chain began to glow bright blue — much like the blue from earlier in the woods — and sounds of whispering people began to come from everywhere. The air grew so cold I could see my breath. The loose chain began to shrink, as if some of its links were disappearing, until it was so tight around Scarlet it dug into her skin, compressing her body so tightly against the bed that you couldn’t have fit a hair between her and the thin mattress. Dante stepped back. The bright room grew uncomfortably dim and gloomy. A few of the lights began to slowly flicker on and off.
“What is happening?” I screamed.
“Just watch your friend,” Dante said softly.
I observed Scarlet closely, trying to focus as best I could. Her fair skin was slowly growing paler, with light gray splotches gradually appearing everywhere. Her fingernails were no longer round and chewed, but instead long, sharp and wicked looking. Her vibrant blonde hair faded, leaving behind scarce, stringy gray hair. I moved closer to her and looked down at her face. I couldn’t help it, I started to cry. “I slept in the same room with this creature, I walked with it for days, shared meals with it, it saved me countless times!” I screamed through sobs. “Was I ever truly safe?” I asked Dante.
“Well, it was in fact your blonde friend you experienced all that with,” Dante replied, softly placing his hand on my shoulder. “She seemed in control of it, but keeping evil like this suppressed for as long as she did, it was probably killing her from the inside out.”
“I … I feel awful. All of this time I thought she was a little bit mad, going off about finding you here in the woods. All I could think about was finding Jake,” I vented to Dante. “I did not have a care in the world about what she was feeling or that maybe she actually needed help, maybe even more than I needed hers.”
“There is no way you could have known what was festering inside of her,” Dante said, removing his hand from my back.
“Now what, is she dead? Can we help her?” I asked, wiping the tears from my cheeks.
The creature’s eyes suddenly shot open, almost on cue; they were solid black just like the Ghouls in Kata. Frightened, I took a few steps back. Her mouth was open, but her teeth had rotted out, leaving black-scabbed gums in their wake. Letting out a blood-curdling screech it began stretching its mouth open wider and wider, until the skin on its cheeks began to stretch and rip apart, revealing rows of thin, sharp, bloodied teeth. Its new mouth extended almost to where Scarlet’s ears used to be; now her ears were just disgusting holes in the creature’s head. “Dante! You fool!” it howled. “I should have finished the job when I had the chance.”
“Who or what is that?” I asked Dante, tears rolling down my face.
Sternly he replied, “That old hag is Grekal, sister of the infamous Gorelock, the ninth member of the Devil’s Legion.” The room felt colder. Dante’s face was not that of a crazy and quirky old man anymore; it was cold and covered with a veil of pure hate.
“What’s the Devil’s Legion?” I asked, barely able to force the words out, still stunned by what I had just seen Scarlet turn into.
Dante shot me a look of annoyance. “This is really not the time for storytelling,” he barked. “If you are still alive later I am sure we will have time for chitchat.” He then lunged toward the corner of the room, ripped open a small fridge and began rummaging through it.
“Hey, redhead,” Grekal whispered, her voice hissing like a snake’s.
Angrily I replied, “What do you want!”
“Do not entertain her,” Dante shouted from the corner of the room, still digging through the fridge. He was knee-deep in old bottles and jars.
“Shut it old man!” Grekal howled, in Dante’s direction. As Grekal’s head slowly twisted back towards me, every slight movement of her neck produced the sounds of cracking bones. “You’re looking for your boy, right? But in all this time you never thought to wonder about what happened to your beloved Dallas? Your husband, that poor boy’s father?” Grekal laughed.
“Do not act like you know anything about me. I care for Dallas just as much as I care for Jake,” I shouted back at the creature. “I have not stopped thinking about him since I left.”
Grekal grinned a sinister grin, acknowledging that she had found a soft spot to dig into. “You just left with no hesitation, and you think I’m the monster,” she sneered.
“Dallas is going to be fine,” I said through tears, trying to sound confident. “Once I find our son we will return to Kata. I’m not a monster, I just had to make a choice.”
Grekal smiled. “What do you think? Your brave Dallas is valiantly fighting off Ghouls in Kata, saving the city? The invasion was finished by the time you got to this forsaken cathedral. Dallas is either dead or prisoner.” Laughing hysterically, she added “Maybe he’s a Ghoul now?”
“You’re lying, you’re just trying to get in my head!” I screamed. “Dante, can we hurry this along? This old hag really needs to go!”
“One moment,” he muttered, now rooting through a cupboard near the fridge.
Grekal stopped laughing and looked me dead in the eyes. “Don’t believe me? Well, we are pretty high up — I’m sure you can see Kata through one of these stupidly large windows.”
“My windows aren’t stupid,” Dante yelled from the corner.
I ran around to all the windows, scanning the surrounding landscapes as I tried to get my bearings and trace the winding path Scarlet and I took to get here, until I saw smoke rising from far off in the distance. I was barely able to make it out. I knew Scarlet and I had covered a lot of ground, but seeing it from this high really brought the distance into prospective. “Dante, is there any way to see closer? You are a crazy old wizard, you have to have a magic orb or something!” I begged.
Dante slowly stood up from the fridge, his old bones creaking. In his left hand was a dusty old bottle that contained what looked like blood. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he replied. “I have no such items, but if you really must see this city I believe one of my friends is in the area. Are you sure you want to see closer?”
“Yes, I must see if this beast is telling the truth!” I begged again.
“I told you not to entertain it,” he angrily muttered under his breath.
Using his finger Dante began to draw a circle on part of a window. Wherever Dante’s finger touched it turned a bright glowing blue, just like the words on the chain.
“How are you doing that?” I asked, both confused and amazed.
“Unlike that foul beast behind you, I can use magic for good.”
“Depends on your definition of good,” Grekal laughed.
Ignoring her, Dante continued, “I’d rather help preserve life than tear it apart. There we are,” Dante said, slowly connecting the two ends of the circle with intense focus. The circle was complete and started to flicker. The city gates I’d walked through to leave Kata appeared within the circle and were growing closer.
“Are we looking through a bird’s eyes?” I asked Dante, in shock.
“Yes, now watch,” he replied, sternly.
The bird calmly hovered over the grassy plains where Lucy had caught the rabbit; the nicely kept path was now reduced to nothing more than a muddy, rutted trail. I guess that means more people escaped and wore the path down, I thought to myself.
The grassy plains gave way to scorched sand and bare rock, the bodies of the Ghouls still rotting and decomposing outside of the shattered walls. In the mountains of flesh I could pick out a few bodies, but instead of Ghouls they were human. Survivors who tried to leave at night, I thought.
The bird glided into the city through part of the wall. There was no need to use the front gates; the wall had so many holes in it, it looked like a piece of burnt Swiss cheese. The bird glided in calm circles, apparently looking for somewhere to perch, but there were no spots. Most of the buildings were reduced to rubble, and all that s
tood were the bases of a few of the larger buildings. The marketplace was a deflated mess of lumber, bodies, and canvas from what appeared to be makeshift shelters. The two statues of the Saints had large ropes tied around them, the ends of the ropes were looped around the chest of what looked like some sort of large Ghoul, but it was hard to tell because it was wearing some sort of red plate armor. In front of them, chanting complete nonsense, were legions of Ghouls. All of these Ghouls were also wearing a similar form of the red plated armor.
“What is all the red stuff they are wearing? How are they out in the daylight?” I asked Dante, confused.
“I … I do not know, in all my years I have never seen such a thing. It is quite troubling,” he stuttered. Grekal just cackled at our confusion.
Dante pointed to a high point above the sea of red. “See that bigger Ghoul over there?” Dante asked. Standing on a large hill was a huge ugly creature with massive horns. Most of its body and face were covered in a sleek black armor. Unlike the Ghouls’ armor, this creature’s had breaks in it revealing thick, scarred skin, coated in dizzying swirls of tattoos. On either side of him stood scrawny, short and bent creatures. They were dancing around in blood-red armor that was much darker than the Ghouls’, the big one in the middle seemed annoyed by their hyperactive dancing. “That big guy with the horns and tattoos, that’s Gorelock. The two skinny ones on each side of him, wearing the blood-red armor, are Gout and Snarl.”
“So these ones with names, they are all like Grekal? Are all three of them in the Devil’s Legion too?” I asked.
“Yes!” screamed Grekal. “That’s three, plus me is four, the other five are probably marching to Redwood as we speak!” she laughed.
“Shut up!” I screamed back at Grekal.
“Yes, they are like Grekal,” Dante sadly replied.
“Is what she said about Redwood the truth?” I asked.
“Nothing this beast says is to be taken to heart,” he replied, pulling the bird away from the view of Gorelock. “It would say anything to stir chaos and fear.”
My eyes began to swell with tears as thoughts of Jake having to face these creatures alone in Redwood tortured my mind. “Go to the church,” I sobbed. “Show me the church.”