by Heath, Joel
against stone seemed to accelerate, he looked up,
and sure enough the ceiling was coming down
noticeable faster. He watched the speed and
guessed he had maybe five minutes left; he must
have made a mistake that cost him half of his
time. He examined the tiles to try and figure out
where he went wrong and realized what he
thought was the ‘eight’ tile was really the ‘seven’
tile.
“I told you, you let me die, and now
you’re going to join Lucifer’s arm and serve him
for all eternity.” Stewart gloated.
“Crap.” Vince said as he pried out the
‘seven’ tile and found the ‘eight’; he took an
extra couple seconds to make certain it was the
correct tile, Vince doubted he could afford to
make another mistake.
Vince slapped the ‘eight’ tile into place,
and then started placing the remaining three tiles. “Seven…six…two.” Vince said placing
the last of the tiles, to his great concern the
ceiling accelerated again leaving Vince with maybe thirty seconds to correctly fix the order of
the tiles.
“You’ll never escape from hell; you’re an
evil, selfish person.” Stewart warned, but Vince
tried to ignore the image of his friend.
“Crap, eight, one and six, Make fifteen.”
Vince said as he pried out the six and the seven
and switched them.
Vince’s head was now an inch below the
ceiling as his chin rested on the podium. Vince
pulled his head out and went for the door hoping
that it was enough, and then the ceiling stopped
and the door behind Vince opened.
Vince scrambled out of the death trap that
was almost his tomb and looked back to see the
image of his friend was gone.
“I’m sorry, Stewart.” Vince said then took
a minute to calm down before climbing to his
feet and ran along the passage.
“Hold on, Jessie, I’m coming.”
Soon Vince came to an overlook that
gave him a view of Jessie, she was swinging
across a chasm before landing on a platform, and
then she slowly made her way over to a solitary
door. She was trying to call to someone beyond
the door, her hand wrapped around one of the
doorknobs and as she did she briefly caught sight
of Vince before she pulled the door open. Jessie slowly walked down the tunnel as
she passed into another secondary hall she was
joined by the sound of footsteps, not heavy, but
light footsteps, as though they were made by a
child.
“Hello?” Jessie asked. There was no
response, Jessie pressed through the labyrinth for
another few minutes before she heard a child. It
was definitely a little girl, maybe eight or nine,
and she was crying, but Jessie couldn’t see the
little girl.
“WHERE ARE YOU?” Jessie called. “I’m scared.” The girl replied, the sound
was muffled as though the girl were locked away
but Jessie was able to follow the sound to a sort
of obstacle course comprised of four legs, a fifty
foot tumbling cylinder that Jessie would have to
traverse, three platforms that had no discernable
support, a series of six swinging scythes over a
platform, and a rope that Jessie would have to use
to cross a thirty-five foot expanse finally ending
at two separate doors.
Jessie got a running start. As her foot set
onto the cylinder she managed to keep her
balance until she neared the end, she knew that
she would have to leap. The distance was no
more than three feet, which Jessie easily made. As she landed on the first platform, it
became obvious that something was amiss, the
platform was sinking, she acted quickly and leapt
for the next platform and it, too, began to sink so she leapt for the third before continuing on to the suspended platform that boasted six swinging
scythes.
Jessie charged through the first, and
latched onto the second, riding it briefly before
dismounting it and rolling through the third
before jumping over the fourth, Jessie dodged the
fifth and sixth before grabbing the rope and
shoving off the platform and swinging to the
opposite side.
The platform was just another hall with
two doors next to each other, the hall went on for
two hundred feet in each direction, an overlook
hung over the labyrinth at Jessie’s right, she
glanced over and saw stairs that lead from the
upper level to the lower level.
Jessie turned her attention to the pleading
voice of a child, she knew that she had to be
moving on, but she couldn’t turn a blind eye to
this girl. Her humanity clouded the fact that she
was in hell, and she couldn’t trust anybody or
anything.
“Help me, please!” The voice pled, the
voice was vaguely familiar, but for some reason
he just couldn’t place the voice.
“I’m in here.” The girl said.
“I hear you.” Jessie said as her hand
closed around the door knob, she turned the
knob, and briefly looked back to see Vince on the
overlook, and then she pulled the door open. A cloud of dark of demonic spores poured
from inside the door, Jessie couldn’t escape fast enough, she didn’t inhale a lot, just enough. She could feel the spores infesting her body, her heart seemed to slow down, her skin felt hot, sweat poured off her body, and she lost most of the strength in her legs causing her to collapse. In the chaos of her infection came the most disturbing revelation of all: the girl emerged from the doorway, and Jessie instantly recognized her, she saw her younger self, the younger Jessie was
perhaps five or six.
“You killed your mom, you deserve to
burn in hell.”
A second figure emerged from the door, it
was her mother, wounded and bleeding, as
though she had just been in the car wreck,
Jessie’s tears began to flow, not out of fear, but
from the sorrow of the last time she saw her
mother.
“I loved you Jessie, why did you do this
to me?”
“I’m sorry, Mom.” Jessie begged, tears
streaming down her face.
“You killed me, and I will never forgive
you, I hate you!” Jessie’s mother spat.
“MOM, NO!” Jessie wailed as the two
images faded to leave Jessie to her fate.
Vince ran for the stairs that would allow him, as
he did he nearly ran over Spencer who had
emerged from a tertiary corridor.
“Vince?” Spencer asked.
“Spencer, it’s Jessie.” Vince said, “She
got hit with Lucifer’s gas.” Vince declared. “What?” Spencer demanded, sinking into
a stated of shock.
Vince pushed past Spencer and ran to Jessie. Reaching Jessie Vince held Jessie in his
arms as Jessie lay on the labyrinth floor.
Spencer arrived seconds later and lifted Jessie’s
shirt a couple inches to determine the extent of
the transf
ormation, also checking her lower legs
and arms.
The curse was obvious and spreading. “How long does she have?” Vince asked. “I would say two hours, maybe three.”
Spencer admitted.
Vince saw a look on Spencer’s face, and instantly
objected.
“No!” Vince defiantly declared, “I can’t
kill her.”
Jessie spoke up.
“Spencer, don’t kill me yet. You have to
go face Lucifer alone, Vince and I will handle his
invasion force.” Jessie offered.
“How?” Spencer asked.
“He infected me, but that gives me access
to the knowledge of what he is planning. He’s
going to launch his attack from the room with the
glyph within the hour. I can get Vince and I back
there, and we can at least slow them down while
you do what we came here to do.” Jessie offered
clearly withholding something.
“What are you telling me?” Vince
demanded.
Vince and Spencer helped Jessie back to
her feet.
“Here Vince, take this.” Spencer said
handing his sword to Vince. “You’re going to
need it.”
Jessie handed the book to Spencer. “This
will do more good for you than it will for me.”
Jessie said.
Spencer opened the book to find the
quickest path the Lucifer.
“I’m sorry Jessie, I failed you, but I will
avenge you.” Spencer offered before charging
away while Vince and Jessie headed to the head
of the labyrinth to stop the invasion force. After twenty minutes of running though
the halls of the maze he finally found the exit to
the labyrinth, it was a straight shot to the tower.
Reaching the tower Spencer looked up to see a
man on a ledge near the top, he was saying
something.
“Now is the time, we march on Heaven
for glory and for revenge!” a demon shouted to
the rousing cheers of the demons below. Time
was almost up, Spencer pushed the unlocked
door open to find stairs leading to the highest
point, and he began to climb.
Vince and Jessie arrived back at the
beginning of the labyrinth. Jessie’s demonic
powers were developing and she was able to use
them to reactivate the glyph because she still had
control over herself, for now. Vince and Jessie
stepped onto the glyph and disappeared. Spencer entered reached the room at the top of the steps and stepped into the darkness, as Spencer’s eyes adjusted to the lack of lighting he noticed that the floor was made of mirror polished obsidian which reflected the image of thousand of disembodied souls floating around the room, giving the illusion of walking through space. In the darkness the voice of Lucifer called
to him.
“Welcome, Spencer.” Lucifer greeted, “I
knew you would make it here, so I’ve prepared
some suitable entertainment for you!”
Lucifer offered as he came into view, he
was surrounded by a pyramid of energy that
glowed with a pale, unearthly green light which
was also reflected in the mirror polished obsidian
floor, the green pyramid looked to be a light
screen which levitated off the ground and rotated
around Lucifer.
A sort of crystal ball faded into view from
the darkness and on it an image appeared, an
image of Jessie and Vince.
Lucifer grimaced as he saw Jessie
walking around.
“You know, she really shouldn’t be
moving after being exposed to my curse. It only
makes it worse.”
“How long are you going to let this sick
game continue?” Spencer asked.
“Until I have conquered every corner of
Heaven and I have destroyed God, himself.”
Lucifer vowed.
“Just because God cast you out, from all
accounts he kicked you out of Heaven because
you opposed him.” Spencer countered.
“I had an independent thought, and he
blew me off.” Lucifer shouted.
“Your ‘independent though’ stole from
every man woman and child the one thing that
was crucial to the point of mortality.
“Mortality.” Lucifer smiled as he scoffed
at the idea. “Just think how meaningless
mortality is. You live in such a fragile state,
honoring a being that claims to be perfect but he
is so close minded, and allows such horrible
things to happen, like war and cancer.”
“God has no more control over that than I do.
Good or bad things happen to good or bad
people. Do you have any evidence that he control
who gets cancer, what nations wage war against
each other, who lives and who dies?” Spencer
retorted.
“He never said it would be easy. He only
said it would be worth it.” Spencer concluded.
The comment only seemed to enrage Lucifer. “How dare you defend him in my
kingdom!” Lucifer spat.
“You have no right to impose your will
when you were opposed to it to begin with. You
forget that it’s not the net result of ones life that
matters, it’s the day-to-day concerns, the personal
victories, and the celebration of life and love!
That’s more than enough if people are able to experience the joy that each day can bring!”
Spencer defended.
“And have you found your ‘joy’, in your
nearly dead world?” Lucifer asked.
“Yes!” Spencer replied. “I know what
love is. It’s less about love than it is worrying
about them more than yourself.” Spencer
explained.
“But what about your love, has she come
to forgive you for abandoning her?” Lucifer
wondered aloud, at those words a gossamer
image of Gretchen faded out of the darkness. “Gretchen.” Spencer said moving
forward, but dozens of the disembodied souls
moved to bar Spencer’s path.
Lucifer turned to the image of Gretchen. “Have you forgiven him for what he has
done to you?”
Spencer looked upon Gretchen, fully expecting to
hear the her voice declare forgiveness.
“He abandoned me, I’ll never forgive him
for that!” Gretchen spat, but it not quite her
voice, it was lower, maybe by less than half an
octave, but it was not her voice.
“YOU’RE LYING!” Spencer challenged,
“That isn’t her.”
Lucifer huffed, “Do you really believe
she could forgive you?”
“She already has.” Spencer defiantly
declared, much to Lucifer’s shock. “And I have
you to thank for that, letting her know how I felt about her and the strength she is to me.” Spencer
affirmed.
“This is sickening … you sound like a
cheesy romance novel. As much as I hate to
admit it, you’re right. But her soul is still in my
possession, so prepare yourself for my next trick;
I will now extinguish her soul.” Lucifer said
raising his hands in a grand gesture like a
magicia
n preparing for his finale.
“Stop, don’t do it.” Spencer begged. Lucifer paused and lowered his hands. “What fun is it if no precious souls are
lost?” Lucifer sadistically inquired. “I command
the darkness, the greatest power in the universe.”
Lucifer boasted.
“Please, let her go.” Spencer urged. “What could you possibly offer me to spare her soul from eternal damnation?”
Lucifer hinted.
“Me.” Spencer offered, “I challenge you
for her soul, if I win, then I will bind you and I
will leave with her soul and mine.” Spencer said,
he had thrown down the gauntlet, and wasn’t
going to back out. “I will not allow you to harm
her any more.”
Lucifer smirked. “Many have challenged
me; none have succeeded, and if you wish to
continue know that your soul is on the line.” “I’m well aware that three souls are on
the line.” Spencer admitted referring to the soul
of the unborn child.
“Very well, as you are the challenger, I
will let you decide what the game will be.”
Lucifer offered.
“Poker.” Spencer smugly said. Lucifer was stunned at the boldness that
Spencer portrayed. The slightest hint of worry
crossed Lucifer’s face but he quickly wiped it
away.
“I accept the challenge.” Lucifer hissed
and then snapped his fingers. Spencer quickly
realized he was not in the tower anymore. He was
in a casino. He was seated at a poker table, green
felt covered the table and Lucifer sat across the
table, to his right was a dealer. Dozens of people
comprised a crowd, each person was wearing an
extravagant outfit and gaudy jewelry, and some
sported tattoos, Spencer noticed a moderate pile
of poker chips next to his left hand as the dealer
dealt the first hand, declaring that fours and jacks
were wild cards.
“We will each start with twenty thousand
dollars in chips. Once your poker chips run out,
you belong to me.” Lucifer declared.
Spencer noticed an hourglass next to a
large flat screen television that displayed Jessie
and Vince appearing on the glyph, a second
showed his armies marching toward Vince and
Jessie.
“You shouldn’t focus on your friend,
she’s squandering what little time she has left
before her conversion is complete, and when she’s been converted then I will order her to kill
Vince.” Lucifer foretold.
“I won’t allow that to happen. Let’s play