by N. P. Martin
It was horrifying to think that I could be stuck in, not just Hell, but in the asshole of Hell…forever.
I had to crouch down as my chest constricted painfully. "Oh Jesus," I gasped grabbing my chest. "I’m fucked…stupid…stupid stupid…"
STOP!
I actually startled when I heard the thought in my head, a voice that may or may not have been my own, and which sounded like it had been shouted into my ear.
Is there someone else in here with me?
"Hello?" I said quietly, then shook my head after a moment as I told myself to get a grip: there was no one else in the cave with me; it was just my own mind trying to stop me spiraling into full-blown panic mode…
Closing my eyes for a moment, I took a few deep breaths and forced myself to look at the situation clearly, finally coming to the conclusion that my only real play was to take Mullin at his word, and to push on and find the Demon Blade.
I had to believe the thing that could kill Abigor was in that cave somewhere.
Just as long as there was nothing in the cave that could kill me first.
Once I’d decided that I was going to push on no matter what, I began to feel, not better, but at least functional. The feelings of claustrophobia eased off as the cave began to widen out. All the same, I was glad when it finally gave way to a huge antechamber, and I felt like I could breathe again.
But my feelings of wellbeing were short-lived when I became aware of a presence in the room.
Multiple presences, actually.
When I increased the intensity of the grace emitting from my hand, the room became more illuminated. As I peered at the wall to my right, I thought my eyes were deceiving me, because it looked like the wall itself was moving. It was only when I’d edged closer that I realized the wall wasn’t, in fact, moving.
Instead, things were moving over it.
Black shapes like shadows slithered over the rock. "What the fuck?" I whispered.
From what I could make out, some of the shapes seemed vaguely humanoid with heads and limbs. I had never seen anything like them before, and I began to wonder if maybe they were wraiths, or perhaps damned souls that had been inside the cave for centuries or millennia.
Creating a light in my other hand, I moved both hands around so I could take in more of the room. It soon became apparent that the moving black shapes were all over the place, covering every wall right up to the high ceiling. When I looked up, I noticed the bigger shapes that appeared to be hanging there. They had no real form, and looked like shadows peeled off the wall and hung like dirty sheets on a washing line.
Shaking my head, I decided I didn’t have time to dwell on the local wildlife. With my hand out in front of me to light the way, I walked forward to explore the rest of the room, using my other hand to throw light to the side of me. My grace appeared to be the only thing keeping the shadow creatures at bay. They would slither up so far, then slink back again when they got too close to the bright light, which was fine by me.
A few moments later, I caught sight of something on top of a large, flat rock. My heart increased with excitement as I quickly walked to the rock and saw what looked like a sword sitting there.
"Oh my god," I whispered, hardly able to believe that I had found what I came for.
Mullin wasn’t lying after all.
The sword, if it was the Demon Blade (and I had no reason to believe it wasn’t), was not what I was expecting. For some reason, I was expecting this massive sword with an intricately carved grip and engraved steel. The sword I was looking down at wasn’t at all like that, though. It was quite small for a start, maybe four feet in length, with a short handle that seemed bound by ordinary leather. As for the blade itself, it seemed to be steel, double-edged, the metal itself dull in color. The only thing which stood out was the red V-shape, starting at the hilt and ending at the tip of the blade. This shape appeared to be sunken into the steel slightly, and was made from a completely different substance, though I didn’t know what.
I’ll find out later, I thought. Let’s just get the thing and go.
When I went to reach for the sword, though, my hand stopped about six inches away as it hit something hard. "What the fuck?" I said, trying again from a different angle, only to have the same result.
I stood for a moment, shaking my head. There seemed to be some kind of invisible force field around the sword. Even after trying every angle, I still couldn’t get my hands on the sword. It was like pushing against glass.
"Why?" I said. "How in the fuck…" I didn’t even finish I was so frustrated.
Then I felt something bite my leg, and I screamed in pain and shock. As I swung around to direct the light of my grace near the ground, one of the shadow creatures scurried away from me.
"Bastard!" I hissed as I crouched down to examine my leg.
How the fuck can a shadow bite!?
I didn’t know, but it did. I had blood seeping from my leg to prove it.
As I was examining the strange bite marks, I became aware of a presence close by, and I quickly swung my hand in that direction, causing the shadow creature that was trying to sneak up on me to screech and slither back.
One thing was for sure. If I didn’t get out of that place soon, I would end up overrun by those fucking things.
But I wasn’t going anywhere without the sword. If I didn’t get the sword, what would there be to go back to? Hell on Earth in a day or two’s time? Certain death?
I quickly stood up and turned to face the sword again. If it felt like invisible glass was surrounding it, then maybe it would break like glass as well. It was worth a try.
Directing a good deal of my grace into my right hand, I drew back my arm and then punched out as hard as I could. Disappointment hit me when my hand bounced off whatever energy surround it. Sparks of grace flew everywhere due to the high impact of the punch, but my hand still didn’t go through it.
I was about to curse and try again when I noticed I could see for the first time the force field covering the sword. It was a dome of ruby colored energy, except at the place where I’d hit with my grace. There, the energy was a bright bluish-white, and it was beginning to spread all over the rest of the dome.
I watched as the grace finally covered the whole dome until there was no red energy left. Then the grace itself did something I totally wasn’t expecting. It formed into a loose sort of tendril, and then made its way back into my right hand and into my body.
"Holy shit," I breathed, but I didn’t have time to wonder what was going on.
The Demon Blade was now unprotected. Quickly, I reached forward, smiling as my fingers wrapped around the grip of the sword.
Fuck yes. Now it’s time to get out of here.
As far as I was concerned, there wasn’t even time to examine the Demon Blade, or test its weight and balance or anything else. Another minute spent in that room with all those slithering shadow creatures aching for a good munch was a minute too long.
Gripping the Demon Blade in my right hand, and using my left hand to emit a beam of light, I began to cross the room so I could get the hell out of that unholy mountain.
Speaking of unholy, I barely took two steps when an ear-splitting screeching came from above, filling the entire room with a sound so cacophonous, I thought my ear drums were going to explode. I actually covered my ears with my arms and crouched over against the noise until it had stopped. When it did, I shone my grace above me and looked up to see that the hanging shapes had now unfolded like umbrellas, revealing in the center of that darkness, a massive circular maw with rows and rows of pointed teeth that seemed to go on forever, as they spiraled deep into the creatures gullet, if it even had a gullet. Then, one by one, the creatures detached themselves from the ceiling and began to propel themselves frantically around, folding and unfolding as they did so, like hellish jellyfish.
"Motherfuckers had to fly, didn’t they?" I said to myself as I immediately began to run across the uneven floor of the room, heading for th
e tunnel at the other side.
But the things above me were fast. In seconds, I had two of them diving at me. When they hit, they hit hard, as if they were made of solid organic material, which they weren’t. The only thing solid about them was their huge mouths, and the sharp as fuck teeth that tried to bite me.
Instinctively, I swung the Demon Blade at them, but it went right through them as if they were made of nothing but smoke. It seemed impossible to hurt them, especially when you had their flightless brethren on the floor snapping at your heels like vipers. I did my best to stamp away the ones on the floor, but again, it was like stamping on smoke that dissipated and then instantly came back together again.
After feeling several sharp teeth rake across my scalp, I cursed and swung my left arm around like a weapon, loading my palm up with grace and light that I tried to make as intense as possible. So intense, the light illuminated the whole room, driving every last shadow creature back into the farthest reaches where some shadows still existed. I’d never heard so much pained screeching. Wincing against the terrible noise, I quickly walked backward until I reached the tunnel of that opening, still keeping the light on the creatures. The light was fading in intensity, though, and there was no way I could maintain it without rapidly depleting whatever grace I had left in me.
So I made the decision to kill the light as soon as I entered the tunnel, and then turn and run like fuck before the shadow creatures could catch up with me again.
The plan seemed to be working until the tunnel further began to narrow, forcing me to slow my pace. Once I did, the shadow creatures caught up with me, scurrying along the walls and ceiling, scratching and biting me wherever they could, which by the way, felt like all over. The best I could do was keep moving forward while trying to keep my right hand out behind me so I could emit enough light to keep most of the creatures away.
But after some time, that light began to fade. Not completely, but it wasn’t intense enough to deter the creatures still stalking me. The only thing I had going for me was the fact that the cave seemed to be widening out again, and if I remembered correctly, that meant the exit was no more than fifty yards or so away.
Fuck it, I thought, before turning and making a run for it, my barely emitting grace providing me with just enough light so I could see ahead of me as I ran, while I tried not to trip on the treacherously slimy floor as I went.
Eventually, I could just about make out the dull light of the exit up ahead, at which point my grace stopped working completely, leaving me in total darkness. In a panic, I ran blindly toward the light at the end of the tunnel (story of my life), hoping I would be fast enough to outrun the creatures chasing after me, having no fucking idea of what I was going to do once I exited the cave, and especially if those shadowy fuckers came screeching out after me.
The closer to the exit I got, the faster I ran, pushed along by the hellish symphony of screeches and screams that echoed off every surface. I was in such a hurry to leave the cave, that I forgot the ledge outside was so narrow, and in fact, I didn’t realize this until I was already tumbling head first into nothingness…
…at which point, I started to scream.
35
I was still screaming when I felt hands shaking me, forcing me to open my eyes and realize that I was standing safely on solid ground, and that Mullin was standing in front of me, smiling his ironic smile.
"It’s okay, love," he said, clearly amused by my still petrified demeanor. "You can stop shaking now. I teleported you before you could plunge to your death."
I stood and took several deep breathes before speaking, noticing as I did that we were back at the clearing in the forest. "I thought I went over the edge," I said. "I felt myself falling…"
Mullin rolled his eyes at me. "If you’d fallen, you’d still be falling, believe me. I caught you just in time."
Noticing the smug smile on his face, I gave him a sarcastic smile of my own. "My hero."
"Now is that any way to talk to the demon who just got you what you most needed in this world?"
I shook my head at him. "Please," I said. "You have my fucking soul, don’t forget."
Mullin smiled. "That I do, and I always collect."
"When?"
He shrugged. "Whenever it pleases me to, though I’m not known for my patience."
"You’re an asshole, you know that?"
"Yes, I’m the asshole who now owns your soul."
The Demon Blade was still in my hand, and I gripped it tight as I stared at him.
"I know what you’re thinking," he said. "You’re thinking you’ll maybe test that blade out on me. I wouldn’t advise it."
I turned the blade in my hand. "Why not?"
Before I could even blink, Mullin had rushed forward and disarmed me of the Demon Blade, holding its edge to my throat. "I hope you are quicker than this when you come to fight Abigor," he said, for the first time showing real menace, his eyes glowing a deep orange as he glared balefully at me. "Perhaps you should let someone more qualified wield the sword instead."
Anger flared in me at that moment, partly because I was pissed off that he would put a sword to my throat, and partly because I knew he had a point. So what if I now had the Demon Blade in my possession? That didn’t mean I was going to be able to kill Abigor with it, a being more powerful than I could ever imagine.
Not that I was going to admit any of that to Mullin, so instead I shot my left hand up and wrapped my fingers around the sword, not even caring that it was cutting into me. At the same time, I shot my right fist out and landed a grace punch on Mullin’s abdomen. Shocked, his grip loosened on the Demon Blade as he went flying back, leaving the weapon in my rightful hands again.
Mullin glared at me a moment after he had regained his balance. Then he smiled as if the punch meant nothing. "Feisty."
"Fuck off."
He smiled again, this time more cryptically. "Things around here are promptly about to get rather interesting, which coming from a demon who's interacted with and granted contracts for the better part of ten millennia, that's an accolade a filthy mortal such as yourself shouldn't take lightly. You my dear are someone I've been most fortunate to come into contract with, just as it was fortunate to get your mother’s contract as well."
I almost did a double take. "What? You have my mother’s contract?"
"Just remember our contract, little Nephilim, that is the only one you need to worry about." He bowed his head slightly as if about to make his exit. "Whatever happens, you’ll be seeing me again soon."
Before I could say anything else, Mullin smiled and disappeared.
I didn’t move from the spot I was standing on for at least a minute as I stared at where Mullin had been. The bastard owned my mother’s soul. It was no coincidence that he of all demons had heeded my call earlier.
He had been waiting on it, as if he knew it would eventually come to this. That, or he was in cahoots with Abigor. Either way, it didn’t matter.
All that mattered was that I now had the means to kill Abigor and save my brother.
With my hand still bleeding, I was anxious walking back to the cabin, not because I would have to explain where I just was, but more because I wanted to know how Lucas was doing. It didn’t seem to matter that the world could end for all of us soon. That only made me want to be with Lucas more. I was beginning to see that when two souls really connect, as mine and Lucas’s had, it didn’t matter what was going on around them. Not even a coming apocalypse could break that connection. It was comforting in a way, but also slightly terrifying, because what if I lose him?
"Jesus…" I breathed as I continued through the woods, Demon Blade in hand. Dawn was breaking, so I couldn’t have been gone that long, even though it felt like I’d been gone for days. Clearly time moved much slower in Hell than it did on Earth, which didn’t surprise me at all, as time was probably used as just another way to draw out the torture in that god forsaken place. Despite having just visited for a short period, I f
elt soiled, as if my soul—which belonged to Mullin now—was unclean. Lord knows how my mother was getting by in that in that asshole of the universe—if she was getting by at all, and her humanity hadn’t been crushed by years of unending—and unspeakable—horror. It didn’t bear thinking about.
As I neared the edge of the woods, I stopped suddenly when I realized I had come upon the spot where I buried Kasey, recognizable by the patch of freshly turned earth, which was slightly higher than the rest of the ground surrounding it. Walking to the grave, I crouched down and placed one hand on the damp earth. A sudden ache of grief made my stomach tense, followed by a predictable wave of guilt. For a moment, I wished desperately that things could go back to the way they were a year ago, when it was just me and Kasey and whatever drugs we managed to score. It wasn’t a great life by any means, but at least it was simple and predictable for the most part. Now nothing was simple, and everything was dangerously unpredictable.
As I stood up, it hit me: I had traded my soul away for a sword.
I hadn’t really thought about it up until then, but now the enormity of what I had done was sinking in, and a kind of numbness with it.
"It’s over for me," I whispered as I stared ahead at nothing. "No matter what happens."
I was now at the mercy of a demon who would probably delight in taking me back to Hell, but for good next time.
At least now I could begin to understand everything that my mother did in the past. There was no way I could blame her for anything now, not when the apple didn’t fall so far from the damn tree.
In fact, I’d be joining her soon enough.
Maybe everyone will, I thought, just before I leaned over and vomited.
"Where the hell have you been?" Frank asked as I walked into my bedroom. He was in the middle of putting all of Eva’s stuff back in the box he’d brought it in. His eyes quickly went to the Demon Blade in my hand. "What is that?"
I stood in the doorway for a moment, still a little disorientated from my express trip to Hell and back, not to mention from the bites and scratches all over me. "In a minute," I said distractedly as I walked toward the bed, toward Lucas. "How is he?"