Outside Hell

by Milo Spires

  “Fucking bastards.” He’d screamed.

  Then turning around and completely unaware there was blood frozen across his face making him look like he was going into battle; the vampire saw something twenty feet away from him and it made him grin. Down the slope he could just make out the cockpit of the chopper with its dome shaped screen that had a massive crack across it, and behind the snow covered glass, the inside of it was covered in blood.

  The back of it that had been connected to the rest of the monolithic bird but of steel and not of stone, was gone and it lay there with thick snow and ice covering it, and just a dark silhouette of something inside, resting against the glass.

  Curiosity took hold of him and whilst digging his fingers down into the ice beneath him and with extreme caution, slowly, very slowly, the vampire edged on all fours ever closer. He was desperate not to slip because he’d had enough of smacking his head into rock hard objects to last him an eternity.

  Then as he’d reached it he’d pulled himself up alongside the cockpit and peered inside, only because of the misted up glass he couldn’t see anything. Then as he’d blown on his fingers that were really hurting, and slowly clenched a fist that he’d hit the glass with to dislodge the snow from inside, suddenly a face had appeared and he’d shit himself.

  One of the pilots was still in there only he was clearly dead because half his face was missing. The skin on the left side of his head was melted away, leaving his teeth showing through in some kind of demonic grin. Then as Sorchek had slid back alongside the cockpit and resisted the urge to throw up, he’d pushed his face up against the glass and peered inside. The pilot had no legs and his arms were missing beneath the elbows too. Then as Sorchek scanned around the cockpit he’d suddenly noticed a bag underneath the chair that the pilot was sitting in. It was clearly strapped to the chair and something about it made him deeply curious about its contents. The vampire holding onto the chopper to prevent himself from falling further down the slope; then pulled himself around the side of it and climbed in. The back of the chopper was completely missing and also the left side of the cockpit too.

  Then once inside Sorchek leant across the pilot’s empty lap, and reached down for the bag. A second past and then after struggling to get himself and the bag back out of the cockpit, and also fighting the extremities of the vicious wind that threatened with every second to send him spinning down the slope, the vampire ripped open the leather bag and looked inside. All the while the dead pilots head was jammed tight against the cockpit with his only eye staring back at Sorchek, as if he was watching what he was doing. Then as the vampire looked down into the bag there was just paper, and most of the paper as he’d pulled it out was instantly ripped out of his hands by the harsh winds and disappeared down the mountainside.

  Then as a colored piece of paper caught his eye, Sorchek grabbed it and held onto it tight. His fingers were almost useless now and he’d great difficulty opening out the folded map that at first glance it appeared to be. Only as he’d pulled it in tight to his chest and used his body to block out most of the wind, he’d noticed it was a map and he’d recognized the area too. The map had a black line running from Hungary in the west across to Romania in the East, and then stopped right where his shack had been.

  Then as Sorchek realized that the line crossing the map clearly showed the route to the shack, and that it must have been the flight path that the pilot had taken to get there, the whole thing made perfect sense. Then in response and as he’d screwed his face up into a grueling mask of snarling hate and his fangs had come down, and he’d also realized the soldiers came there on a preplanned mission to raid the place, he’d screamed. A second past and then after spitting out a mouthful of snow and pocketing the map inside his jacket that was housing his freezing cold torso, he’d stood up wearily and prepared to fly.

  Sorchek unfolded his massive wings from behind him with their dark black ribs that could have been mistaken for veins, and after one test flap he’d leapt up into the air. The wind before he was clear of the hillside; had him struggling violently to keep airborne and almost sent him spiraling back down hard on his head. The vampire struggled hard and flapped his wings a thousand times until he was clear of the direct face of the piste, and then flying like an injured bat, he’d allowed the blast of the blizzard to suck him fast down the mountain to warmer air.

  Sorchek now knowing where the soldiers came from in Hungary, he’d one thing in his mind.

  ‘Revenge’.

  Chapter 25 – Running for her life

  After Satan had seen the strange blue light hovering above him in Romania, he’d been so transfixed upon it that he’d momentarily completely forgotten about the chase. Then when it had vanished and he’d found himself un-mesmerized by the damn thing, and suddenly realizing that it had given the bowman enough time to escape, he’d been consumed with extreme rage. Even more so than when he’d found out that Regina had somehow escaped the hells entrance procedure, and then fled from being incarcerated in her fiery chains too. The thought that the bowman was possibly going to escape him again had summoned up even fiercer rage within, and he’d used all its power to ensure that it didn’t happen.

  Then as he’d charged down the mountainside melting the deep snow drifts in his path, he’d had strange reports coming back to him from his ghostlike creatures that the bowman had strong powers of perception too. They’d told him that they’d possessed a cat trying to slow him down, but that he hadn’t cared for the cute furry creature, instead he’d killed it with a fucking cursed arrow.

  Then seconds later and as Satan was about to enter the village, he’d screamed at them to chase the bowman and under no circumstances let him escape. Then as seconds past and his fury was rising even further the next report that he’d had from his demons had literally made his mind boil. They’d said to him that the bowman was now riding a white stallion and galloping away on the thing, across moonlit fields.

  This news had almost burst the heinously distended blood vessels on his face, that through the chase had grown so much that they’d looked like red snakes strapped to his cheeks. The fury that was coursing through him had spread exponentially within, and the fires that were spiraling up his arms like huge serpents, were now charged with even fiercer temperatures. The heat coming off them was so hot in fact that everything for hundreds of meters around them, simply burst into flame.

  Then as he’d arrived in the village he’d only raised his arms up above himself to gesticulate, and found without his direct permission that flames of mammoth size were pouring out of them, and incinerating the entire village. Every building in front of him in a millionth of a second had turned from damp icy weathered timber into nothing more than smoldering embers.

  In Satan’s mind he’d had to have the bowman and this was his moment to prevail, if he’d failed again and somehow he’d lost the little bastard, or he’d simply escaped him, the prince of darkness would return to hell and then vaporize a million souls because of it. There’d be no increase in the searing temperature like he usually does; it would just be simple eradication of their existence and nothing more.

  Then when news had come back suggesting that he might be escaping, Satan had felt his insides almost consuming themselves and his control over the evil that surged within, becoming uncontrollable. A moment had passed and then whilst his legs had strangely grown pathetically weak, in turn they’d also not been able to hold his massive frame, and resulted in him collapsing to his knees.

  The bowman couldn’t escape him, he had to win and the fucking demons were useless if they’d let him escape. He’d thought to himself as tunnels of flames then roared out of his eyes, and savagely melted the earth beneath.

  His demons who were unaware of his rapidly building deeply negative views towards them, flew back across the village to give him the bad news. They’d said that they were gathering in their intensity over the bowman, and were just about to engulf him and the stallion that he was riding too, when a st
range blue light had appeared and freaked them out. Its energy had been pure as if it was linked to the angels, and then in response to it simply hovering there in front of them, they’d stopped the chase.

  The roar that Satan had made when they’d told him this had been so loud, that other counties far and wide had also heard it too. He was beyond all realms of furious and his tail that had been lashing from side to side, was so angry and suddenly started to attack him too.

  Then as the prince of darkness knelt there in the boiling hot ground of the village, suddenly he’d been consumed with the strangest of thoughts, ones that he’d never had to think about before either. He’d started to question how he the prince of the underworld, and the centre of the extremest levels of evil, could possibly after existing for a millennia, have actually been outsmarted twice by the little bastard.

  For him to be consumed by thought and to have to deliberate over how he’d failed, wasn’t something that he’d ever had to experience before. Even when he was kicked out of Heaven, he’d never tried to think about what he’d done wrong. The fact that God hadn’t cared for him and then thrown him out of the Pearly gates, hadn’t bothered him. Then afterwards he’d always got his evil way too. The people that he’d consumed in his fireballs and taken their souls to burn in hell had all tried to run, only none of them had ever escaped his wrath like this bowman. He’d always been able to incinerate them, and then afterwards watch his demons dragging their souls into hell screaming.

  Through all the wars of the ages he’d turned up to the battlefields, and whilst both sides of thousands of men had tried to flee, throwing down their mighty broadswords and spears at the sight of him, he’d always consumed them. Castles full of gallant knights were simply wiped from existence by his infernos, and always the souls came down to hell too.

  Then as a moment past, he’d held his chin and posed over the idea that somehow he was might be loosing his touch?

  Another second past and then suddenly in true demonic style he’d recanted on his previous thought and launched to his feet, deciding that the whole world would pay for this. Fury then poured from him in rivers of flames that roared hundreds of feet into the sky too. He wasn’t loosing his touch, this was just a set back, he’d have the bowman and soon too. He’d thought.

  Then after turning around and exploding the oppressively huge black cloud of demons that had failed him, and of course not letting them know that he too had been mesmerised by the same blue light up the mountainside, he’d reminded himself about Regina and grinned.

  In response to that thought he’d then vanished and reappeared back in hell, intent on finding her.

  The little bitch that he’d plans to make her into his own dark queen would pay for escaping him, and when she was found, she would have to suffer even more pain. She’d get the pain that he’d reserved for the bowman’s term in hell too.

  Meanwhile Regina was beginning to loose hope.

  So far she’d followed the air vent through hell without any way of escape appearing either. Then moments later she’d witnessed her arms simply vanishing in front of her, replaced by flames that reached out from underneath her, and then the shape of her fingers was lost within the depths of it too.

  She’d also tried to wipe the flames away from her face that were blocking her vision, but the flames from her hands had actually made it worse. Then and completely unaware that her head was now also a ball of fire, when she’d turned around to look at her legs, she’d been completely horrified to see that her bum was glowing red and beneath her knees, the lower half of her legs had turned into flames too.

  Hell was consuming her.

  Then as she’d pushed on with more flaming tears rolling down where her cheeks had been, suddenly the passageway ahead of her took various twists and turns with more savage flames to pass through. Only inside Regina had started to loose hope, and felt that she’d be in hell for an eternity now and maybe she should give herself up to try lessening the punishment that she’d receive. Then as she’d almost laughed but didn’t because she knew the pain that she’d receive for doing so as fires roared up her throat, she’d seen Kaine’s face again and with it sense told her there’d be no lessening of the pain, this was HELL. Regina responded and then furious with herself for thinking stupid thoughts and with Kaine’s image smiling back at her, she’d crawled ahead and picked up her pace.

  She’d also looked through more holes in the side of the passageway every now and then, and found that they were just the same as the first one she’d looked through. The cells beneath were absolutely rammed tight with thousands upon thousands of souls looking like slaves in the galleys of old pirate ships, with demons floating above them lashing down flames too.

  Then after some more twists of the passageway and a few sudden descents that she’d had no choice but to fall headfirst down into, finally the glowing passage finished.

  When she’d approached its end, and was also racked with the extremest levels of terror thinking that she’d be greeted by hordes of demons, she’d actually found that there was no one. The long normal sized passageway that she’d dropped down into was empty. It led off in both directions but the right seemed to climb back upon its self as if it were going up to the cells. No way was she heading that way for sure.

  So taking the left, she’d floated along it and suddenly realized that because she’d no firm legs to walk on, and just wild flames instead, she’d couldn’t feel the ground beneath her. Then after sometime and when she was presented with another fork, this time she’d taken the right.

  The passageway after a short time had started to climb though, and she didn’t like the idea of it at all. Only because she’d felt that she was going in the opposite direction to the cells, she progressed along it.

  Regina was actually lost though, but of course she was, it wasn’t like she’d paid daily visits to hell before, she’d never been there, and had truly hoped like all vampires do, that the eternity they were given to roam the earth would be just that, eternity. Only now that she’d come to terms with dying and her eternal life was clearly revoked, the sight of the place and the thought that it was for eternity sent shivers through her flames.

  Kaine’s image had also grown weaker as the flames had consumed her, plus her own thoughts were effected by it too. She’d felt her movements were much slower, and with it new levels of terror raced into her mind.

  Then after hearing screaming that was clearly coming from behind her but some ways aways, and also a massive roar that had literally had the same effect as if she’d been injected with pure adrenaline, her mind came back clear and with it she’d increased her pace.

  The demons had been ordered by Satan to search the entire place, starting from the greeting room and then to cover every inch of hell. They’d gone in to the air vent that she’d used to escape, and were flying along it, completely unaware that it had been the way she’d taken. Only soon they’d be at its end and close on her tail.

  Regina though was nearly at the end of the establishment, and hadn’t far to go before she’d find a hole in the wall that led out into the baron wastelands. Only the millions of demons that Satan had ordered to join in the hunt were fast approaching, and there was every chance that they’d catch her before she’d reached it.

  Chapter 26 – In the Woods

  Laouse arrived following the bowman’s directions to Hungary, and as Dracus felt the surge of energy coming from his cursed arrow saying that they were close, he’d told the Austrian vampire to land.

  Dracus had said that the chopper had landed in some kind of military base and that it was surrounded by both hundreds of soldiers and tanks, but also shielded on three sides by huge cliffs. Laouse had looked across at him with slight concern, but then snarled with his fangs fully down as he’d thought of his friends trapped inside the place needing his help.

  Claudius had briefly met Dracus in Paris but most of the journey between the swirling mist in the bowman’s mind, the Bavarian monster who was
so heavy that the chopper was flying to one side, had asked the bowman to tell him why Satan was following him.

  Laouse had told him in his lab about the four cursed arrows that Dracus had fired into Satan’s neck just before he’d saved their lives a couple days previously, but Claudius had wanted to hear it from Dracus himself.

  Dracus had also said that he’d no real proof that the chopper that they’d followed there to Hungary had captured Kaine and Regina either, except that whilst he’d been standing outside the shack, he’d remembered seeing hundreds of shiny spent bullet cartridges laying in the snow beneath him.