by JP Epperson
“Do not look into its eyes or you’ll be lost forever,” I warned the others, primarily talking to Olivia and Liam. I knew Colton knew better.
There are no actual eyes on the creatures from below. Only a hole that can swallow your soul entirely; the eyes of the beasts are the windows into the infinity of evil. This one’s skin seemed to be made of muscle or something similar, raw and oozing in some areas more than others. Blood dripped from various spots with every step the monster took. The beast looked as if it was one giant open wound.
He almost looked unfinished without flesh, and not that I would ever admit it aloud, but my first thought when I really saw him was ew! Falling past where its knees should have been were long arms that led to clawed hands. Instead of nails, there were small convenient daggers coming from each fingertip, which appeared to be made of human bones. From each of its enormous feet sprouted three vicious-looking talons, each probably about six inches long. A long tail moved freely as the creature made its way toward us.
“So . . . Let’s do this!” Colton smirked, ready for some action.
“Me first.” I snickered, putting on a brave face. Battle was where I thrived; fighting was my sanctuary. I was always one with my weapons. The only place I could ever really release all control was in combat. I did not need control to fight. I simply was a dangerous weapon. I didn’t need to think about my weapons. I didn’t even need to contemplate my moves. Combating was a dance, and I was merely a natural talent.
I swung my sword around angrily and leapt at the creature. It dodged me gracefully in way that I would not have imagined a beast so hideous to be able to move. Its clawed feet landed against the stone and dirt floor so softly, there was not the slightest sound. Its tail moved wildly of its own volition and wrapped the spear tip of itself around the creature’s waist.
“Belleeeezaaaa . . .”
I nearly dropped my sword. Olivia gasped, and both Liam and Colton said something sounding like “What the fuck?” at the same time. I had never heard one of the creatures of Hell speak in all the years of my existence. They just did not speak. They were beasts— not even beasts, really; they were things, and they only destroyed. It spoke in a prominent but soft voice that was close to human, and at the same time completely animalistic. I knew that the beast was not actually speaking to me, but rather it was the master of Hell speaking to me through the beast. Definitely a first for me. And hopefully a last.
“You are getting closer, Belleeza,” the monster said. “We are ready and waiting for you. You cannot stop this.”
I stared at the hideous creature. Waiting for me? What was it talking about? I could see Colton looking at me, a curious expression on his face. I shrugged at him, and he held my gaze for a moment.
“We are already closer than you think. Submit and join us. Your world will soon come crashing down around you. Submit and be damned, or watch all those nearest you die one by one. You are as dark as you can be before your soul turns—let yourself turn to us now. You were meant to join us. You know and I know there has always been a part of you that thought you were more darkness than light. I know because I am a part of you.
“I am the darkness in you.”
An unpleasant coldness prickled up my spine at these last words. I’d always felt I’d had a darkness in me . . . but it wasn’t this kind of darkness. I often wondered if I was turning without realizing, just like Colton. It never made sense to me that Colton was the one that fell. I always thought if one of us turned, it would be me. Even now, his falling did not make sense. Colton killed easily. Like me, he was a warrior, and he seemed to have the hunger for battle the way I did. But he never carried my darkness, my rage, my wrath.
“There is no need to wait. You belong by my side. With us, you never have to be in control again. You can be free. Free to release the rage boiling inside you.”
I never saw anything like it before. The beast stood straight, with its arms down while it spoke, as though trying to seem less menacing, even though the mere sight of him would likely leave a mortal barking mad.
“Well, what can I say?” I twirled my sword in my hands playfully. “This has been nice little chat and all that, and it just tickles me to know that you feel threatened enough by me to go to all this trouble. But . . . I’m going to have to go with option C where I live and you . . . don’t.”
And just like that, the beast’s hands and tail were moving at tornado-like speeds, beginning our battle dance.
My enemy was fast and so skilled. Blow after blow and neither the beast nor I was slowing down. The others circled around us, trying to find an opening to help, but it was no use. We were moving so fast through the halls they would have risked hitting me instead. Not to mention his tail was keeping its own fight with them. It had a poisoned spear at the end, so they had to be very careful. He spun in and I spun out and then I spun in and he spun out. My sword had little effect against his bone-claw daggers. It was only enough to defend each of his quick blows; I couldn’t even get an offensive hit in. He was so very fast.
Somehow, Colton caught my eye, and I knew he was about to do something. He could not stand by and do nothing while I fought for my life. His eyes gestured to me and I understood. When I had the beast’s full attention, I ran away from him so fast that I ran up the wall and landed behind him. Colton seized his chance and ran toward the beast, sliding in on his knees and driving his sword up through the torso of the beast. I leapt on the shoulders of the beast and plunged my sword through its back. At the perfect moment, Liam and Olivia severed the tail.
They looked triumphant—but it wasn’t over yet.
The beast’s tail grew back almost instantly. The looks on the younger warriors’ faces were priceless. I remembered my first encounter of a Hell creature and how I felt crushed when I realized they could not be killed.
The grotesque beast regenerated impossibly fast. Colton and I still fought ferociously. Beside us, Liam and Olivia stood, having just severed the creature’s tail. I tried to warn them as I fought. I tried to tell them to not let their guards down. That it wasn’t over. It seemed strange that they as warriors did not seem to know anything about the evil beasts that rise from Hell, but there was no time to worry about it, so I shoved it in the back of my mind along with everything else for later. Colton had the beast’s attention for the moment, so I vanished and emerged beside the two young warriors.
I was just in time to see Liam nearly lose his head as the putrid-smelling tail whipped around his face and slashed his sweaty cheek. As the tail kicked back, it whirled around with snake-like movements until it plunged its spearhead tip directly into the center of Olivia’s chest.
And it didn’t stop there.
The tail moved as if it was a completely different entity from the beast to which it was attached. It dragged itself slowly and jaggedly through Olivia’s body, not stopping until I reached for an expanding spear that promptly appeared at my side. I pinned the beast’s tail to the timeworn brick wall with such speed, that I was able to get back in time to catch Olivia in my arms before she hit the floor.
I looked down at her nearly lifeless body and fought to keep my emotions turned off. The number of times I had looked upon the empty faces of my fallen brothers and sisters was countless. As harsh as it seemed, there were many times that I looked down and felt nothing. Certainly it was always a loss to the warriors, but it was usually not a personal thing. One day, I would be that body lying in the midst of chaos, eyes open and seeing nothing while someone comes to clean up the mess. I was okay with that. Although I wasn’t about to lie down and make it easy.
Olivia lay still, taking shallow breaths in my arms. The skin around the angry wound in her chest was turning a decaying shade of green. The tail’s poison was causing the skin to bubble like a battery corroding into a seeping mess. I had enough experience with death to recognize it on her face. She was not quite there yet, but she would be soon. For a warrior, death was simply a risk we took every day. When on a mi
ssion, we could not allow a demon or any other evil creature to escape back into the world of the humans to save our own. Finish the mission, then tend to your wounded.
But it’s not that simple . . . Not when the wounded is someone you care about. I try so hard not to feel, but deep down I feel every loss . . .
I was not connected to Olivia the way I was to Colton or Evangelina, but she and Liam did help rescue me. That was something I would never forget. That gained them my respect. Not an easy feat. The moment those two risked themselves to come to my aid, I added them to my very small list of angels I would keep under my protection. They didn’t know it, and they didn’t need to. Up until they came to my rescue, there were three people I would protect at any cost: Colton, Evangelina, and my dearest friend Nicholai. Now there were five. I thought my list had dropped to two after Colton fell but I’m not sure it ever really did.
Love is a bitch like that.
I raced Olivia to a dark corner, holding her with my left arm and using my right to hastily rip off my tank top to bundle under her head as a makeshift pillow. Liam, at Colton’s side fighting the beast, looked as though he was also fighting a mental battle within himself. I could see anxiousness to join his partner, and a rage to make the beast pay. I shook my head at him, indicating that he was to stay with Colton, who was still in a ferocious battle with the demon. Liam nodded in understanding but first ripped off his shirt, tossing it to me before he returned to the fight.
I used his shirt to cover Olivia. Her eyes were struggling to stay open. I had to get Colton to her—and fast. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but I put a finger to it to silence her. She needed to save her energy, and I knew from the desperate look in her eyes that she was about to give up.
Unacceptable.
I knelt on the ground next to her, wishing I had the ability of influence. I took her left hand in mine, placed my right hand at the top of her head, and whispered, “You are a fighter. I order you to fight.” I willed her to fight with every fiber of my being. “Are you going to let me down, Olivia?”
She looked at me, eyes wide at first, but then, filling with determination, she shook her head. She whispered, barely audible, “Fight.”
I smiled at her and nodded my approval. She was a fighter. I knew she could survive. I had to get back to Colton’s side. The sooner the beast was dealt with; the sooner Colton could get her back to my place to be healed.
The thing about the beasts of Hell is that they are purely evil and evil cannot be killed.
So what do we do?
We resist them, thereby diminishing their hold on us and forcing them to return to the darkness from which they were born.
Though Colton and Liam looked fatigued from their fight, I could see the glow around them that expressed their growing strength. We could vanquish this beast now. It was slightly weakened because of their strength and unconditional faith.
“It is time for you to go back to where you belong, beast,” Colton shouted. “Evil has no hold here. We resist you, creature. Be gone!”
I felt a sudden sting of love for Colton as I witnessed firsthand his undeniable faith before I joined his side.
The beast began to transform into a more menacing creature. It grew in both length and width. They always seem to rally when they know they are close to being overpowered. This one seemed to relish in the humans’ fear of blood, as it now leaked blood from every orifice. It grew extra arms and legs and even another head. Its chest seemed to tear open as a newer wider one materialized. I never understood how evil could be foolish enough to think warriors would cower at the sight of blood.
Our lives revolve around blood. It is the purest thing in the world.
We three fought the unrelenting perversion, dancing the deadly dance between good and evil.
“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith . . .” Colton quoted scripture from 1 Peter. The beast never slowed but instead seemed to fade just slightly. Colton continued to repeat the Bible verse, and the beast continued to slowly fade until he appeared more ghostly than anything. He was still there, and his blows could still be deadly, but the physical embodiment of him was slowly fading.
“Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble. James 2:19,” quoted Liam, catching on quickly as he dove this way and that, avoiding the beast’s blows. This time, the beast faded significantly as now both Liam and Colton repeated the Bible verses.
It was my turn now. Among my long list of favorites, I picked James 4:7. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
The demon started to flash as though it were a projection. I repeated the verse and called out, “We finish it now.”
Colton, Liam, and I shouted together, still fighting off the creature that refused to give up. It fought fiercely, sliding its claw down Liam’s cheek, neck and chest. The violent tail broke free, tearing itself away from my spear, and split into two deadly tails.
All at once we spoke, yelling, “Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils.” We repeated it over and over, our voices growing hoarse and the sweat pouring from our brows, and the beast expanded more and more.
I shouted, “In the name of our father we call upon the power of the twelve disciples and ask for the strength to cast out this evil.” I felt myself fill with the power of the Holy Spirit. I glanced at Colton and Liam and knew they were feeling it too.
We repeated the verse from Luke 9 once more and suddenly the beast exploded in a mist of blood and smoke as he fled back to the deepest pits of Hell.
“Olivia,” cried Liam, in a tortured voice, and he rushed to her side.
Chapter Thirteen
“Colton, take Olivia and Liam back to my place and get her healed,” I said. “I’m going to keep going. I want see what is important enough to keep it hidden down here and guarded by one of Hell’s beasts.”
“Yeah, that’s definitely not happening.” Colton folded his arms and scowled at me.
“He’s right.” We turned at the sound of Olivia’s very feeble voice. Liam walked toward us with her in his arms. He held her with an air of entitlement. He was almost sheltering her from us, as though daring us to suggest they split up. I could see he was reluctant to bring her over to speak to us, but his loyalty to Olivia was impenetrable.
My heart stung a little as I thought of me and Colton. We were like them once.
“Belleeza, we cannot stop and you cannot go alone,” Liam said. “But I go where Olivia goes. So, you and Colton will go on. I will find the closest healer and they will make certain she is healed immediately.” The tone of his voice told me he would do exactly as he said. “As soon as Olivia is healed and resting, I will rejoin you. We will find Theodore today!”
“As soon as I am healed, we will rejoin you, he means,” said Olivia, before she finally fell limp and silent in his arms.
I had no intention of arguing with him. Colton and I already knew they would not separate, and we would never ask anyway. The bond between partners is something indescribable. There is a commitment to one another that surpasses many of the human bonds I’ve seen. It is an extraordinary thing when there is an actual link between two people.
Even if one those people stabs the other in the back and breaks their heart.
“Try my place first,” I said. “Evangelina may have already summoned a healer.” As a matter of fact, I was almost certain of it. I may have asked Evangelina to stay away while things were so unpredictable, and I knew she would because she had given her word, but I also knew she would be listening intently to our connection for signs of trouble.
Colton leaned in and gave Olivia a slight squeeze on her shoulder. “Fight,” he commanded softly. Worry flashed in his eyes and my stomach flipped when I heard the sincerity of his voice.
“You are a f
ighter,” I whispered adamantly as I leaned down and placed a swift kiss upon Olivia’s brow. “Now go,” I said to Liam, somewhat more harshly than I intended. They vanished, and I could not erase from my head the image of Olivia lying nearly motionless in Liam’s arms. It was so unlike her usually bold and daring demeanor.
Is that what I’d looked like in Colton’s arms?
I couldn’t imagine myself looking so innocent—so fragile. She was a fighter, and I believed she would survive. I just prayed that they weren’t too late.
“They’ll make it,” Colton said reassuringly as he caressed my cheek.
“You saw it in her eyes too?” I asked.
“No,” he answered. “I saw it in his.” His eyes were intense as he said, “Failing is not an option. He will not allow death to take her from him.”
He was right. There was a fierce fire that had blazed in Liam’s eyes as he held his badly wounded partner. I had seen the very same look in Colton’s eyes many times. I knew he had also seen that look in my eyes on several occasions.
“All this just to find some kid,” I almost shouted. I tried so hard not to feel anything, but try as I might, I was not cold-hearted.
We checked the hall and gathered some of our loose weapons that had been scattered during the battle. I collected my spear from the wall, replacing it on my side. We armed ourselves as we prepared to move forward. Most of our regularly used weapons stayed with us this time. I had no idea if it was our fear, or somehow the threat of danger, but whatever it was, my weapons were right where I wanted them.
Colton took his place by my side. We were alone in a demon lair having just faced one of Hell’s beasts, and one of our friends was fatally wounded—yet my body trembled with need at his touch. I looked up at his face and saw his eyes were filled with a heat that probably matched mine. I turned away, and his fingertips grazed my cheek as he pushed some hair behind my ear. I bit my lip and walked ahead.