***
Keegan’s watch beeped on twelve noon as they arrived at the scene where his ordeal had begun. His knees buckled on landing, but other than that, he suffered no ill effects.
Smith, on the other hand, seemed unaffected by speed travel.
“Whooiee,” Smith said, grinning widely and giving Echo a thumbs-up. “What a rush. I could get used to that.” He bumped her hip.
As if accustomed to hearing such whoopla, she paid him no attention and walked the perimeter of the passageway, stopping when something caught her attention, listening intently, and then moving on, the picture of vigilance.
After several minutes of judicious scrutiny, she stopped and pointed to a corner of a brick building. “There’s the entry to their toran.”
Keegan followed the direction of her outstretched finger, but didn’t see anything. Beside him, Smith squinted and voiced Keegan’s thoughts.
“Yes, you do,” she said. “You just don’t know what you’re looking for. There.” She pointed again. “The ripple in the air, like the shimmering you see when heat radiates off pavement.”
Smith removed his sunglasses and walked to the area she'd indicated. He ran his hand over the shimmering air. “Doesn’t feel any different.” He jabbed his hand in the waves and grinned when it disappeared. “Hey, neat.” Like a kid, he repeated the act, saying with excitement, “Now you see it, now you don’t.”
Keegan asked, “Should he be doing that?”
“I wouldn’t advise it. He probably set off a silent alarm and alerted the demons to his presence. In fact, there’s probably one standing guard now with a machete just waiting for him to do that one more time.”
“Is that true?” Keegan asked.
She looked at him and whispered, “Why would they need guards? Who wants to go to Hell? I’m just having a little fun with our friend.”
Keegan nodded, relieved he wouldn't have to deal with demons.
Like a chastised kid, Smith shoved his hands in his pockets and, moving closer, peered into the waves.
She grabbed his shirttail. “Not too near. Wouldn’t want to have to haul you out of the colliery of Hell. That could get messy.”
“Hell?” Smith cocked an eyebrow.
“Yes, of course. Where do you think demons come from?”
He sucked in his cheeks and pursed his lips. “When we think of Heaven, we look to the sky. When we think of Hell, we look at the ground.”
Echo shook her head. “You mortals have the weirdest ideas. Heaven, like Hell, is a big place. If it were subterranean, don’t you think the earth would collapse?”
"That never occurred to me," Keegan said.
"Me, neither," Smith said, rubbing his jaw and looking pensive. "What's next?"
“I want you two to stand guard while I go in.”
“Whoa.” Keegan cleared his throat. “You didn’t say anything about entering their world,” he said, remembering her exact words: I have to find their portal and close it. He understood that to mean from the outside and that it was a simple matter.
“I know what I said, but there’s something not kosher with what’s going on, and I need to find out what that is. The demons have no idea I found their entry, so they won’t be expecting me. I’ll be able to slip in undetected and, hopefully, learn their plan. If I’m really lucky, I’ll find out, too, why they want you so badly. Slip in and slip out.”
Keegan didn't think it was as easy as Echo made it seem. He was about to protest when she said, as though she needed his permission, “I’ll be in and out, and they won’t know I was even there.”
Unconvinced, Keegan nodded nevertheless. “Okay.”
She turned and walked into the rift.
“Let’s go,” Keegan said.
Smith let out a loud breath. "You had me worried. I thought you were going to let her do this without back-up. Lead the way. I’m right behind you, bro. ”
With Smith at his side, Keegan walked through the air where Echo had disappeared.
The inside of the toran was nothing like Keegan expected. It, in fact, resembled a mine — dark, dingy and damp. He touched the rock wall and immediately withdrew his hand, rubbing the tips of his fingers against each other. They felt as if the skin had been ripped off.
The rock formation shone like obsidian in the beam of his penlight. He pointed that out to Smith, who appeared as mesmerized by the tunnel as he.
His breath formed puffs of white cloud about his face. If this was Hell, it was damn cold. Another belief quashed.
He instructed Smith to follow behind him. For once, he didn’t argue.
Keegan proceeded cautiously, using the light only when absolutely needed. Echo, with a head start, was already out of sight.
“Do you see Echo?” Smith asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Keegan shook his head, his mind overrun with thoughts of the demons doing barbaric things to her. A moment away from hyperventilation, he was able to talk himself into believing that was irrational thinking in the face of adversity. Echo could look after herself. He knew that. Still, he worried. He increased his pace, his steps becoming bolder and broader. At his back, he could feel Smith’s anxiety and opened his mouth to reassure Smith when he smelled the sickening odor of burning flesh. He stopped, bringing Smith to a halt behind him.
“Smell that?” he asked.
Smith exaggerated a gag. “Gross.”
“Do you want to turn back?” Keegan wouldn’t argue if he did.
“What about Echo? Maybe those bastards captured her.”
Keegan didn’t see her so careless to let that happen. On the off chance that Smith’s theory was right, though, he doubted they could help her.
Without warning, Echo materialized between them. “You boys listen well, I see.”
“Did you honestly think any machismo would just stand by and let a woman fight off demons by herself?” Smith asked.
Keegan came to her defense. “If you’d seen Echo in action, you wouldn’t think she needed help from us. Or from anyone for that matter.” Just then, he heard a multitude of noises in the distance and cocked his head. “That sounds like…”
"I'm hearing rap music," Smith said and groaned. "Pure torture, man."
Keegan listened more closely and deciphered the din. “People crying, and ... and that sharp sound is a whip whizzing through the air, isn’t it?” He came to the only conclusion possible. “Someone’s being lashed.”
Before either Keegan or Echo could stop him, Smith sprinted ahead several yards, stopping to peek around a bend. Within seconds, he was back in their faces, breathing heavily and yelling, “Let’s get the fuck out of here.” Smith blew past them like demons were on his tail.
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