by Rick Wood
He softly placed his hand on his forehead, his chest, then his shoulders, creating the cross upon his body. Eddie weakly gazed at him, feeling no change, transfixed upon what the man was doing.
“Ladies, I have a request,” Derek commanded without taking his eyes away from Eddie’s. “You do not speak or move unless on my instruction. You do not talk to it, you do not listen to it and you do not interact with it. Do you understand?”
Jenny and Lacy nodded.
“Ladies, it is imperative you understand.”
“We understand,” they both mumbled.
“Now to the demon that dwells within.” Derek snarled passionately toward Eddie, clutching a cross in one hand and his book in the other. “I speak directly to you.”
Eddie helplessly gawked back at him. He felt nothing. No change. No presence he had felt previously. Nothing more than his normal weakness. He was numb.
“I don’t know what you’re expecting, mate,” Eddie announced with a peculiarly chirpy voice. “But I don’t got a clue what you are on about.”
“What is your name?” Derek spoke definitely and sincerely.
“My name is Eddie,” he replied. Jenny frowned at the sound of his accent; it didn’t sound like Eddie’s.
“No, it is not. I command you, tell me, what is your name?”
Eddie chuckled. “Eddie, mate. Eddie.”
Eddie’s eyes flickered as he felt himself slip away.
“In the name of Jesus Christ, the God and Lord, strengthened by the Immaculate Virgin Mary, I command you, tell me your name.”
“Fuck you.”
“Mary, Mother of God,” Derek’s voice rose to the point he was now screaming his instructions. “Of blessed Michael the Archangel, of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul and all the saints – I beseech you, tell me your name!”
Eddie screamed multiple screams from multiple voices, his chest raising and his mouth opening wide.
“With the powerful authority of the ministry, with confidence undertaken in repulsing the attacks and deceits of the devil, God arises and commands you – what is your name?!”
Derek took a step forward, reaching out his cross. “In my name, in my Lord’s name and in the name of the child of God you have stolen, tell me your filthy name, demon!”
“My name…” Eddie croaked, his head slowly tilting to the side, “… is Lamashtu. Goddess of death of unborns and newborns, night demon and bringer of disease. And I intend to use my new entity to bring forth death among the endowed!”
“Well, Lamashtu, my name is Derek – and I am here to stop you.”
29
“Ladies, I need you to repeat the words ‘deliver us, oh Lord’ after each time I speak, do you understand?”
Jenny and Lacy frantically nodded, desolately clinging onto each other, digging their fingers into each other’s back, paralysed with fear.
Derek gripped his cross, targeting it toward Eddie’s occupied body.
“Deliver us, oh Lord.”
“Deliver us, oh Lord,” quivered Jenny and Lacy in faint echo, their voices shaking.
“I need you to be stronger! Deliver us, oh Lord!”
“Deliver us, oh Lord!”
“Better.”
Derek clutched his cross, grasped it, tautened it within his grasp, narrowing his eyes and striding forward with repugnance. Eddie’s eyes had fully dilated and his pupils were now fully black. His skin had turned grey, his hair black and greasy. Newly formed scars seeped through his arms, dripping blood upon the sheets below him.
“From all sin.”
“Deliver us, oh Lord!”
Eddie’s voice projected a deep chuckle through the room, consuming it with sinister intent.
“From all your wrath.”
“Deliver us oh Lord!”
Eddie lifted both his arms, snapping out of the restraints, liberating its wrists from its binds. Levi’s eyes widened and he backed up, leaving Derek the only one between the demon and the innocent bystanders constrained against the far wall.
“From sudden and unprovided death!”
“Deliver us, oh Lord!”
The restraints constraining Eddie’s ankles flung off and the demon lay free in his body. His chest rose up, leaving his head and his legs dangling beneath him.
“From the snares of the devil, from anger, hatred and all ill will, and from all lewdness!”
“Deliver us, oh Lord!”
Eddie’s chest continued to rise in the air, levitating him above the bed. His head, his arms, his legs, all dangled beneath him, until he was floating half-way between the bed and the ceiling.
Jenny and Lacy’s jaws fell like weights and they wished to be anywhere but in that room at that moment. They feared for their lives and they feared for Eddie’s. They did not take their arms away from each other for a moment, furiously trembling together.
The camera Levi used to film short-circuited and flickers of electric spat at Levi, sending him reeling backwards, clutching his eye.
“From lightning and tempest, from the scourge of earthquakes, from plague, famine, and from war!”
“Deliver us, oh Lord!”
Derek’s mouth turned into a snarl as he compelled his cross at the demon. The room rattled, photo frames fell over, chairs vibrated across the floor.
“By your birth, by your wondrous ascension, by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, on our day of judgement. Deliver us!”
“Deliver us, oh Lord!”
Derek placed his book upon the floor and nodded at Jenny and Lacy clinging to each other behind him, as if to signal well done. He stepped toward Eddie’s ascending body and placed his cross upon it. The sound of burning hissed from Eddie’s body as it plummeted back to the bed.
Eddie’s face elevated up, sneered, then roared at Derek. Derek was taken off of his feet and sent soaring backwards across the room. The objects of the room furiously spun and the armchair lifted, causing Derek to flinch out of the way.
Every piece of furniture, every object, every scrap, everything in the room, was a hurricane battering furiously between Derek and Eddie, creating a fatal barrier.
Derek turned to Jenny and Lacy, their despairing eyes full of terror looking back at him, as he bowed his head.
“It’s no good, it’s too late,” he spoke solemnly, shaking his head. “It’s taken him. Eddie is not here anymore. It’s won.”
Jenny’s eyes filled with tears as she turned her head and buried herself into Lacy’s chest, Lacy placing her arms tightly around her and squeezing securely.
Derek peered at Eddie’s body laying still through the chaos of spinning that separated him from the demon-infested form that lay taken. He could not get through it. It was done. Through a whisper only he could hear, he gave a final prayer.
With a delicacy he had not yet shown, he knelt as close to Eddie’s ear as he could without being caught in the debris encompassing the supernatural barrier forced between them and whispered softly:
“Eddie, you need to return home.”
Eddie did not react.
“Eddie, you need to return home. We will save your sister at another time. For now, return; or you will be trapped forever.”
30
Date and Time Non-Existent
Eddie’s eyes groggily opened. Every part of him hurt. He could feel his palms against harsh, bumpy stone that left imprints and cuts upon them. He lifted his head and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands.
Taking in his surroundings, he grew fixed to the spot with pure horror. He did not know where he was, though it felt familiar to a place he had been twice before. Yet, this time it was different. It was hot. It was fiery. And he felt no hope.
He sat upon a mound of stone. Chopping at his feet was fervent, spewing lava. Mounds of stone appeared around him, various helpless souls laying upon them, crying out for mercy. Above him to either side were large, rocky cliffs, soaring up into the blackened sky. All around him he heard cries, screams of pai
n and tears of loss, an ambience of agony encompassing his ears, filling his mind with overwhelmingly grand torture, both inescapable and irrefutably agonising.
Climbing to his knees, clambering back and forth, he strained to find some way off of the rock he had been bound to. It was no good. Every time he even got close to the edge, lava spat out at him, keeping him in inexorable custody.
A few rocks across from him he saw a man in rags, with an overgrown beard, reach out from his rock. The lava flung up and spat fire upon his arm. Before the man could even flinch back, the lava reached out and encapsulated his arm like a fist and pulled him down into the lava. The man’s screams did not last long as he disappeared into the volcanic fire that had torn him away from safety.
Am I going to be trapped here forever? Eddie questioned. He was not sure where he was, but he had a feeling it was somewhere ‘beyond.’ He had crossed over before, but that had felt different. In fact, it had felt indifferent. Then it struck Eddie.
Maybe where he was before was purgatory? A place he was to wait. He was put onto a stone mound with fire when he was rejected from purgatory before. Which would mean this place was…
No. Don’t be crazy. It can’t be.
Had he died? Not just stuck in a braindead coma floating somewhere between the next stages, but instead ended up fully braindead, ultimately landing in the fiery pit of damned eternity. Could it be?
Would that mean the woman who had stalked him had won? If he was here, then surely that meant she had his body. She had what she had come for.
“Hello?” Eddie shouted out. It was worth a try. Not even all the trapped souls around him reacted, no, they all remained huddled up in screams of horror.
In a sudden movement, the lava lashed out at his feet and he impulsively cringed out of its reach. It was no good, some ash from the lava landed on his ankle and – and, nothing. No pain. No reaction.
How could that be? He had just witnessed a man burnt and pulled into an eternity of agony. How could he…?
That’s when he remembered what Derek had said to him.
“You perhaps don’t realise it now, but you could potentially have the ability to take on hell itself.”
He was ‘paranormally vulnerable,’ or ‘paranormally gifted,’ as they had otherwise stated. What’s more, Derek had hypothesised that Eddie could take on hell itself. So if this was the underworld, the eternity of pain, then maybe Eddie could fight it. Maybe he had the ability to be different to the man he saw taken by the fire.
Maybe this was his dominion, and he was able to be here, what he never could be on earth.
He reached out with his hand and held it over the lava. It did not spew at him, it did not grab him, nor did it attempt to burn him. Slowly but surely, he descended his hand until it was placed over the lava. Closing his eyes, he allowed it to be consumed by the orange ash that filled the endless pit beside him.
Nothing. No burning, no lashing out, not even a tinge of discomfort.
He peered downwards at the lava. He wondered. If Jesus could walk on water…
Rising to his feet, he lifted his first foot out, away from the rock he had awoken upon. He positioned it carefully upon the lava’s surface and found that it remained upon it, securely balanced. He placed his next foot down and stood upon the orange liquid magma.
This was even better walking than water; he was walking on lava.
He took another step forward, then another, building up tempo, accelerating until he was pacing at speed. All the people trapped on the rocks reached out to him with their feeble hands as they begged. He ignored them. If they were in hell, it was not for him to decide whether they deserved their fate.
His weakness was gone. There were no signs of aching in his legs, shaking in his arms, and no hesitation whatsoever in his gut. He was sprinting over the volcanic lava and it did nothing to stop him.
He looked upwards at the large side of rock ascending in front of him. He had no idea why or how, he just strongly felt he needed to find a way to the top of it. As if by a miraculous answer, he began to float. He rose upwards and upwards, flying into the musky air and landing upon the rock that had previously surrounded him.
Before him were hundreds of figures almost identical to the woman that had stalked his consciousness and plagued him in his coma. Men, women, monsters, creatures; all dark, greasy, and giving off the essence of hate. Eddie could sense it, the evil. He could feel it surging off of them and hitting him like a bucket of boiling water. They weren’t all in human form; many of them had parts of animals, some parts Eddie didn’t even recognise.
As Eddie stepped forward, they all flinched. They backed away from him, cowering at the sight. A hell full of demons and they were struck with fear by the sight of a simple man.
“Where are you?” he screamed out, hearing his question echo against the walls and back at him numerous times.
Nothing. No demon offered themselves up, no creature stepped forward, no beast dared drop their cowardice.
“I know you are here!” Eddie commanded strongly. His fists were clenched, his mouth twisted, and he felt his body filling with power. “Come on out!”
He almost got high on the supremacy he felt rushing through his blood. His body heaved with authority, his mind fully ready to reign over these filthy beasts that shrank before him.
He held his hand out and the ground shook. The demons separated, and one of them came floating toward him. It was her. The long, greasy, black hair, the grey skin, the scars, the wounds, the overwhelming aura of evil; it all indicated he had the correct specimen.
He threw his arm downwards and the demon was flung to his feet, like a dirty beggar praying to its master. It cowered before him, shaking, shivering as if frozen cold.
“You dare to take my place on earth?”
It said nothing. It just trembled, its head rested against the floor, hands resting over it, not daring to move or go against the sovereignty and dominion Eddie had over the creatures of hell.
“Now I am going to ask you this one request, and it is your only chance at my mercy.”
He held his hand out and scrunched it up into a fist. The demon’s throat tightened and it clutched at it as it rose into the air, suffocating.
“Where is Balam? Where is my sister?”
Lamashtu shook its wicked head, an etching of fear passing over its face.
“You fear Balam? Well, fear me!” Eddie screamed with all he had, clenching his fist tighter and tighter, forcing Lamashtu’s neck to close up.
“You think Balam will hurt you for betraying him? You fool! You will cower before me before you cower again to Balam!”
Without warning, a gust of wind threw itself over him, bringing the whisper of Derek’s voice with it.
“Eddie you need to return home,” it spoke delicately.
“No!” he bellowed with all his might. “Lamashtu, you will bring forth Balam. Bring him to me now!”
Lamashtu shook its head vigorously, its body convulsing under the strain Eddie’s tightly scrunched fist was causing. Eddie could feel his nails digging into his palm, the bones in his fingers shaking under the strain from which he clenched.
“I will not leave here without her!”
Then Derek’s voice came again through the wind, floating through him like a ghost through a body.
“Eddie, you need to return home.”
“No, I will not leave Cassy here!”
“We will save your sister at another time. For now, return; or you will be trapped forever.”
Eddie’s gut wrenched itself into knots, his mind torn in this dilemma, his tearful eyes fixated on the suffocating body he held in the air before him.
I love you so much, Cassy.
He knew he needed to leave. Derek was right; he would be trapped forever.
I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.
Eddie threw his fist to the side, sending Lamashtu over the edge of the rocky cliff and straight down b
eneath him into the spewing lava.
With a disapproving look over the demented fiends that backed up away from him, he dropped his head and closed his eyes.
31
Eddie opened his eyes with a start. He lifted up, withdrawing a sudden intake of breath, sucking in every bit of oxygen he was able. He saw a mass of objects swirling around the room drop to the floor, then before him, Derek stood clutching a cross, Levi backed up into the corner, and Jenny and Lacy clung to each other on the ground.
“Guys?” he offered.
“Eddie? Is that you?” Derek held his arm out cautiously.
“Yes. It’s me. It’s gone. I did it. You were right.”
Without a moment of hesitation, Jenny and Lacy ran up to him and flung their arms around him, hugging him so tightly he could barely breathe.
“Are you okay?” Jenny asked with a face full of concern.
“I’d murder a cup of tea,” Eddie smirked.
“I’m on it,” Lacy answered, and rushed into the kitchen.
Eddie looked over at Derek and Levi. They lay against the far side of the room, willing their heavy breathing to subside. Eddie could tell by looking at them that they had been through an ordeal. They lifted their heads back and closed their eyes, enjoying the success of the moment.
Then Eddie turned to Jenny. She was still welling up, tears filling up the base of her eyes. She smiled sadly at him, then looked to the ground.
“I thought I’d lost you,” she admitted.
“Hey.” Eddie lifted her chin up. “You didn’t. We won.”
Jenny nodded, her face welling up. She clung herself to him, throwing her arms around him and holding on for dear life. Eddie put his arms around her in return and smiled triumphantly.
Jenny abruptly leant back. “Oh, sorry, am I hurting you? I forgot.”
“Jenny, I feel fine. I don’t feel weak or anything anymore. You can hug all you want.”
With a sincere smile that sent away the tears from her eyes, she flung her arms back around Eddie and continued to hold him close for dear life.
“I’m so sorry, Eddie. I’m so sorry.”
Eddie said nothing. He just embraced her, enjoying having a friend that cared so much.