He growls. “If you think about resisting, you’ll get to see how much fun I can have with your friend over there. I’m sure you’ll enjoy watching her scream when I torture her.”
He doesn’t wait for me to say anything but darts to Megan. He picks her up and pulls her to face me. Her hands are tied to the beam, and she quivers as his arms wrap around her. She struggles a bit but gives up when he hauls her in front of me.
“Are you ready to vow your soul to me?” Blaise lifts a fingernail that looks more like a claw and slices through the rope binding her hands. The rope clings to her wrists, held on by dry blood.
“Never!” I spit. “Leave us alone!”
“Ah, you’re a fighter.” Blaise grins. “You must be the one prophesied about.”
Prophesy? What’s he talking about?
“You have a weakness, though.” Blaise stops grinning. “You’d do anything to save the people you love. A fault we will be correcting once we’re finished here.”
“I don’t love her,” I protest. “And I’m not going to say what you want me to say!”
“You won’t? We’ll see about that.” Blaise shifts his grip on Megan. “Say it now.”
“Don’t do it!” Megan gasps.
Blaise wrenches Megan’s left arm back in a direction it’s not supposed to go. Megan yells in pain as Blaise shoves her to the ground. Her arm hangs limp at her side like her shoulder is dislocated.
I roar and leap to my feet to rush Blaise. He waits for me to reach him and then bats me back like an alley cat annoyed by a kitten. I crash to the ground with a force that jars my teeth. Megan whimpers next to me on the rock.
“That’s only the beginning,” Blaise warns. “Do you want to fight anymore?”
I look over at Megan. Tears make their way down dirty channels on her face, and her hair is matted with dirt and blood. Her face is twisted in agony, but it’s her blue eyes that draw me in. I’ve seen them flash in anger, annoyance, and impatience. I’ve seen them sad, lonely, and afraid. But this is the first time I’ve seen them defeated.
The girl who has irritated me on every level and who meets a fight with a fight has given up. She can’t take any more. The pain and the battle are too much for either of us.
She doesn’t deserve this. She got dragged into it because of me. It’s all my fault that she’s laying there broken and in pain. And it’s my job to fix it.
Blaise stands over me and kicks me. “What’s your answer, boy?”
The pain from my rib washes over me. I can’t fight. There is only one way to save her.
I look at Megan. I want to explain what I have to do. But I can’t. Before I change my mind, I turn back to the demon to give him the only word I can.
“Never.”
“The girl dies,” Blaise says.
I roll to my knees, using the black anger to push me up, but before I can get to my feet, Liam drops from the tunnel above us with a roar. He lands on Blaise. The demon whips around trying to shake Liam off of him.
“Both of them are mine!” Liam yells. “I had them first!”
Blaise roars in response and picks Liam up by the waist. He twirls in a circle, and then he flings the vampire against the far rock wall.
Liam smashes high into it with a force that would have crushed my bones, but he lands on his feet and rushes Blaise.
“Come on,” I whisper to Megan. “Get back. Into the shadows.”
The shadows won’t protect us against a demon or a vampire, but I want something at my back that I know won’t attack me. We inch back to the cave wall, not really trying to keep quiet, but our bodies are in too much agony to push any faster.
How am I going to fight the victor? How am I going to get you out of here?
As we draw nearer to the shadows, my hand scrapes on something cold. I pull back and then realize what it is.
My sword!
I manage to get Megan into the shadows while dragging my sword with me. We stop without a word and huddle together. I put my arm around her and hold her close. She snuggles into my chest, like when we were in the truck falling off the cliff, and sniffs as tears fall. Even now there is still the sweet smell of lavender in her hair.
“We’ll be okay,” I whisper, although it’s a lie.
“I keep praying and praying, but God doesn’t do anything,” she replies, her voice shaking. “Where is He?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “But I’ll get us out of here.”
Blaise and Liam are locked in a battle of strength as they try to wrestle the other to the ground. Maybe they will kill each other and leave us free to escape.
But I glance at the castle’s courtyard where the demons still battle. Black feathers fall to the floor, making it hard to see anything but moving darkness. Whoever wins the battle will be after us shortly.
I snort.
And things just got worse.
One demon gets trapped against the bars close to us. Megan starts to yell but quickly covers her mouth with her hands. His wings almost touch our faces as he struggles to get free.
His opponent screeches with glee and then strikes with his sword to cut the trapped creature’s head off. The smell of sulfur washes over me, and the dark power pushes for control of me once more...
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Gone
My ears won’t stop ringing from the gun blast. I crawl closer to Mom, and my hands mix with the red blood and white milk. The gunman speaks.
“Nic,” he says, his voice harsh and cold, “when the time is right, I will come for you.”
I stare up at him from the floor, not able to say a word. I can barely look him in the face. But I’m not afraid of him. I know somehow that he won’t hurt me. Not because he loves me. No. He has never loved me.
He backs up. “She tried to keep you from me, but it didn’t work. No one can keep me from you. And when I return, you’ll understand.”
Dad leaves without waiting to hear my reply. I crawl to Mom. My hands and knees splash in the blood and milk. I pick up her hand. She gives it a faint squeeze.
Blood pours out of her chest, right where her heart is. My eyes well up with tears, and I give in to the sobs that are choking me.
“Don’t leave, Mom,” I choke out. “Please. I don’t want you to leave.”
She keeps gripping my hand as if it’s keeping her alive, anchoring her to earth.
“I can’t, darling.” She gasps. “I’m so sorry. I’m going to miss you every single day, but you can do it. You’re so much stronger than you know.”
“Mom, no,” I plead. “I’ll call 911. You’ll be okay. Just don’t go. Please don’t go.”
She smiles and shakes her head. Her words come out with long spaces in between them. “There’s no time... It’s not your fault. Remember that. God has a plan for you. A great plan... He loves you even more than I do.”
I can barely hear her. I lean closer to whisper, “Mom, I love you. I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Nic.” She gasps.
My tears mingle with hers.
“You are the best thing ever to happen to me, the best thing I ever did. I love you so much, Nic. I love...”
Her hand lets go.
I watch in horror as I sob louder. Her brown eyes focus on something above me that isn’t part of this world. She smiles a little.
“Oh, the singing, Nic, the beautiful singing...”
She’s gone.
Everything’s quiet.
Her hand falls in the milk and blood. I cry and wait for a miracle. But it never happens. She doesn’t come back.
She’s gone.
I keep her hand in mine, praying to God that she’ll squeeze it once more.
But she doesn’t.
I can’t understand what is happening as the tears pour down my face. I lay there, frozen in time, frozen with grief, and wait for her to come back again.
I hear the door slam, but I don’t care who it is. I only care that Mom comes back. Footsteps thud down t
he hallway, and Mrs. Bowes, our neighbor, screams. She rushes to the phone on the wall, stepping in the red and white, and calls someone.
My tears don’t stop, but I force myself up from Mom’s final embrace. Her long, dark hair is laid out on the floor above her head like a halo. The grass from the park is still tangled in it.
I begin picking it out as carefully as the doctor picked the glass out of my knee last summer. I bring it to my nose to smell the fresh-cut grass. It reminds me of Mom’s laughter in the park an hour before. I lay it gently on the table above me. Tears drop in her hair.
Don’t go, Mom. I love you, Mom. Please, please, don’t go.
But she’s gone.
The smell of freshly-cut grass disappears, and the bad smell of rotten eggs fills the kitchen...
Chapter Seventy
Lowest Hell
“Nic!” A voice breaks my memory. “Nic! Don’t do this again! Please don’t leave me. Not here. Nic!”
Megan!
I jerk back to the present, streams of tears running down my face. I sniff them back, only to smell sulfur.
Sulfur! That’s what I smelled in the kitchen the night Mom died. It’s the demons! That was a demon in the kitchen with Dad that night.
I think I always knew it, but I didn’t want to believe my own memories. I wipe my tears away before glancing at Megan.
“Where did you go?” she asks. It’s like she really cares. “It must have been bad.”
I nod, not trusting my voice. My heart aches like I lost Mom just now and not years ago. I feel weak with grief and blink several times, trying to pull myself back to the present.
“Was I gone long?” I ask.
“No. A few seconds.”
It felt like a million years. I nod, still feeling numb. Liam and Blaise are battling in front of us, but I can’t work up the emotion to care about that just yet. Some of Mom’s final words were of God’s great plan and love for me. Although I cherish everything she ever said, this one makes me want to laugh.
Is this it? This is Your great plan? Your great love threw me down a pit to a demons’ liar? This is it?
Why didn’t You have Dad kill me with Mom? Then we’d be together right now. What was the point of the last ten years of grief and loneliness?
No, You don’t love me. If You did, You wouldn’t have taken Mom away and made me watch.
I shift, feeling a bit of energy return with my growing anger...
Mom runs across the grass, laughing as she dives for the ball. She misses and tumbles in the grass. As I get closer, she grabs me and pulls me down. I shriek with laughter...
Tears fill my eyes, and I blink them away angrily.
You took her from me, God. That’s not love.
Blaise grabs Liam again and pushes him into the iron bars. The demon holds him in the air while he pummels Liam’s face and stomach. The vampire yells as the blows smash into him. Blaise stops, only to fling Liam across the cavern like a rag doll. Liam crashes into the wall again and falls to the ground. This time he doesn’t move.
Blaise approaches the vampire. Confidence and victory are in his bearing. He will come back for us. I want to hide, but the darkness is where the demons rule.
I snort. “God’s supposed to be everywhere. He’s not here now.”
Megan shifts. “What do you mean? Of course, He’s here. Psalm 139 says that we can make our bed in Hell, and He is there. We’re not in Hell yet, but we’re close.”
“You don’t know what my life is like,” I snap. “My life proves God does whatever He thinks is best and doesn’t care about my feelings. He doesn’t know what it’s like to grieve. He ripped my mom away from me without any care.”
I didn’t take your mom from you. Sin did.
The whisper echoes through my mind, but I didn’t think it. Is this God speaking to me? I contemplate the words until Megan speaks again.
“But there’s Jesus.”
I watch Blaise stride closer to Liam, checking to see if he will stay out of the fight.
Megan continues. “Think about it. Jesus is God’s son. What did God feel when Jesus went through the agony of the crucifixion?”
“I wouldn’t let Mom die for anyone, not even me,” I say. “But I couldn’t stop it.”
“And yet God let Jesus die for those that hate Him,” Megan responds. “What kind of love is that?”
I shake my head, blinking back tears. I don’t dare trust my voice.
It’s a love I don’t understand.
Now the demon stands over the vampire. I realize that God’s love is bigger, deeper, and better than I have ever thought possible...
Mom is singing in the kitchen as I watch her make dinner. Her long dark hair swishes while she dances around. When she reaches the last verse, she motions for me to sing. I join half-heartedly.
“The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest Hell...”
“What did you say?” Megan pulls back. “Were you singing?”
“Was I? Megan, that song! It says that God’s love reaches to the lowest Hell. Isn’t this Hell, or at least like it? I bet those tunnels go farther down, but it doesn’t matter. God is here. There’s hope here. Maybe we’re supposed to be here to stop something bad from happening.”
Megan snorts. “What can we do against this?”
“I don’t know. But if Mom hadn’t died, I wouldn’t have ever moved to Grangeville. Maybe I’m supposed to stop Blaise.”
“Maybe,” Megan says.
To the lowest Hell, God, that’s where I’m at. I’ve been angry, and I’m sorry. I still don’t understand why Mom had to die, but I know You love me. Please save Megan and Aunt Kate, even if it means my death.
Now the scene in front of me isn’t so scary. Now I have the strength to fight. My fear is replaced with peace. It’s only in the dark that we can see the stars. Perhaps seeing God is the same.
I glance up. White light surrounds us and stretches up to the ceiling of the cavern like a beacon leading to Heaven.
“Hey, that’s like when that demon attacked, and Matthew was praying! Look!”
Megan glances in the direction of my finger and grips my hand.
I smile. “It’s got to be a sign that God is here!”
Blaise throws Liam into the rock floor. Liam doesn’t move. With a roar of triumph, Blaise spins and flies over to us. I squeeze her hand.
“It’s okay,” I say. “Pray. God is with us here, even when all is dark. He is with us. Remember how you saw scary things in the shadows? God shines His light to show us that He’s here. But He doesn’t want us to cower with fear. He wants us to stand and fight. Look up. Don’t you see that light around us?”
Megan nods. “There’s something. It’s pretty dim.”
I grin, suddenly relieved. “I’ve seen a lot of bad things happen, but that’s God’s light. He’s here with us, even down here where the demons reign. We are going to be okay.”
I know I’m right about the light of God. I get to my feet, ignoring all the agony my body feels, and pick up my sword to face Blaise.
Chapter Seventy-One
Time
“Do we have to start all over again? Come on, boy, save yourself some pain and agony.” Blaise stands a few feet from me.
“I don’t think so.” My confidence strengthens. “I have God on my side now, and I rebuke you in His name!”
Blaise laughs as he swings his sword back and forth. “You think He’s down here? We kicked Him out a long time ago.”
I glance nervously at the other demons still locked in their battle on the other side of the gates. Perhaps Blaise is right about God. Maybe He can’t reach down here at all.
Blaise strikes and hits me in the side. I don’t have time to block, and the pain erupts like a volcano in me. I bend over and gasp for relief. He smacks me on the back with the flat of the blade.
I back up a step and almost trip over Megan. She screams. I straigh
ten and prepare for the next attack. Blaise leers at me and attacks. I block this time, and our swords locked together as we try to overpower the other. His long, black blade is twice as wide as my sword.
Without any effort at all, Blaise pushes my blade down and follows with a punch to the side of my head. I stumble and then fall. Megan crawls to me and grips my hand.
“See?” Blaise mocks. “It doesn’t matter who you pray to down here. There’s no one to help. Soon the pain will be too much to get up again, and I’ll torture her until you give in and do as I command. Why don’t you give up?”
He’s right. I can’t fight him. Maybe we’re too close to Hell’s gates for God to work a miracle. Blaise can rip me apart. Perhaps the best thing is to do what he says.
Megan breaks in. “No, Nic, don’t do it. God will hear us. We’ve just got to trust.”
I do the only thing I can do. I pray.
“Oh, God, show me what to do. Please help,” I whisper. I grip my sword tighter and stand up.
He lowers his sword and stands waiting with a grin of triumph on his face. I hold the moment as long as I can.
“This is my decision.” I look Blaise straight in the eyes, although looking at the demon’s red eyes makes me want to gag. “I will never agree to obey you or serve you. You will never be in charge of me, and I will never allow you hurt Megan. You can let us go now, or I will fling you into the depths of the fires of Hell where a monster like you is meant to be! God is everywhere, including here. In Jesus’ name, He will come to our rescue because He loves us!”
Blaise stares at me for a short moment. My hand feels sweaty on the hilt, and I begin to hope that he is going to let us go. But then his stare twists into vile evil.
“I will make you pay for those words,” he sneers. “You will be begging for mercy as I tear the girl apart piece by piece, but I won’t give it. You will be chained to me for eternity like a dog.”
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