Holy Sheoly

by Hunter Blain

  As the last of it was swallowed, he slammed his mouth shut and looked up at me with eyes that said, “What the hell just happened?” before his entire body exploded in a shower of viscera, meat, bones, and flames.

  I had to will a shield into place and curl into a ball behind it as chunks of flesh smashed into me.

  “Ew, ew, ew, ew, EEEEEWWWWWW!” I squealed as the last of the pieces wetly thumped off my shield and tumbled the hundred plus miles to the ground.

  And I really think we need to take a moment and appreciate how far up a hundred miles is. I mean, on Earth, to get to space is only sixty-two miles. That sombitch filled that distance almost two times over. Just imagine every picture you’ve seen from the International Space Station and how small entire countries look from up there. Now imagine that asshat being twice that distance! It boggles the mind! But I digress.

  “I think I totally get how the legends say the Earth was created from his corpse,” I said to no one in particular.

  That’s not important right now, Baleius countered with a degree of concern in his voice. I realized he was using my senses to try and locate whatever had used the dragon’s attack against itself.

  What could use that much hellfire? I mused.

  Baleius and I looked at one another before returning to my body and glancing toward the hole we had first broken through.

  Using Mjolnir, I summoned a slipstream and hurtled through the air toward where I thought we had first come from. Utilizing my eidetic memory while Baleius steered my body, I quickly replayed the events and traced them back to...

  “There!” I cried out, pointing with my free hand to a section of thin ice that had a shattered hole in it like a bullet shot through a mirror.

  We slowed and then stopped, using our wings to hover as we peered through the open rift to see Silver staring at us with a heaving chest. In his hand was a bloody wand made from—

  “Bone,” I exhaled.

  Silver collapsed to the ground and I flew through the hole to land in the cavern that now seemed tiny enough to trigger a person with claustrophobia. I mean, it wasn’t small at all, but it felt like that after being on the infinite expanse of outside. I shuddered at the thought.

  Turning toward Silver, I saw he had somehow reattached his lower half, but held his side with his free hand. His other still clutched the makeshift wand that I could now see was a rib.

  How poetic, Baleius mused.

  Huh? I don’t get it. It’s a rib.

  If you can’t see the ironic correlation between the story of Adam creating life with his rib and Silver ending life in the same manner, then I don’t know what to tell you.

  Ah. Got ya.

  “You, um, alright there?” I asked tentatively as I took a step toward the warlock.

  “I’ve been better,” he said in his German accent while sticking a blood-covered hand up for me to pull him to his feet.

  I made a yeesh face as I hesitantly gripped his hand.

  “I thought you liked blood,” Silver chuckled as he braced himself against a section of the wall that wasn’t destroyed.

  “Not if I don’t get to eat it. Plus, it’s all leftovers,” I said gesturing down at his leaking side. He didn’t seem to catch on. “Let me put it to you this way; humans like food, right? Of course they do. If you take a meat loaf out of the oven, it’s delicious, I imagine. Now take that same loaf of meat and throw it on the kitchen floor, maybe roll it around a little bit before picking it back up and setting it on a plate. It’s the same meat loaf, right?”

  “I see your point.”

  I bent over and wiped my blood-covered hand over the snow, trying to remove as much of it as I could.

  Straightening again, I arched an eyebrow as an unusual feeling came over me.

  “Hey, ah, why did you save me?”

  “What do you mean?” Silver asked, pushing off the wall to look at me. It was crazy to see his soul mending and melding into itself again, though it seemed to be a slow, painful process.

  “You just saved me. My bacon was cooked for sure. You somehow reversed his attack and killed him before he could kill me.”

  “I couldn’t see you from way down here. I only saw my chance for revenge against the bastard that had been torturing me for months.”

  “Months? Oh, right. Ti-time dilation,” I remembered as I put the backs of my hands on my hips. “Soooo, you weren’t trying to save me?”

  “If I realized the advantage of you thinking so and said yes, would you believe me?”

  “Probably not. Especially when you weirdly word it like that.”

  Silver did something, then, I wasn’t expecting. He smiled.

  I grinned in return and my armor shimmered away.

  “Neat trick,” Silver admitted. Then his face went flat and he asked, “Why are you here, Vampir?”

  “I need to get to Sheol, and it was theorized that you might know a way down there, seeing as how you were,” I squinted my eyes and shifted them from side to side, leaned forward, and whispered, “that guy’s right-hand man for a century.” I didn’t want to risk saying his name while in his bailiwick.

  “That I do,” Silver confirmed as his unfocused eyes drifted to the ground and he bobbed his head a few times. They snapped back to lock onto mine, and he asked, “What will you do for me in return?”

  “I, ah, don’t know? Wha-wha-what would you like?” I asked, shifting on my feet. I didn’t like where this was going. “I just assumed you’d be willing to betray that guy outright.”

  “I currently find myself in a most undesirable predicament, and would like to take every advantage afforded to me. You understand, yes?”

  “I guess so,” I sighed as I rubbed my head through my beanie. “You did kinda just save all of creation, even if on accident.”

  “You mean on purpose,” Silver said with a wry smile.

  “Alright. What do ya want?”

  “Take me with you. Free me from Hell.”

  The nail of Christ, which I had stuck in my pocket after my encounter with Ulric, seemed to weigh heavier at that moment, drawing my attention. I couldn’t explain why, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to save his soul like I had done with Dawson.

  “And what will you do once freed? Where will you go?”

  “I wish to go to Heaven and see my boy.”

  “I don’t want to be ‘that guy,’” I said with air quotes, “but you maybe should have thought about that sooner? Like around 1944 or so?”

  “I’ve had time to think and understand the choices I have made. If I could go back, I honestly couldn’t tell you if I would have chosen any differently. I-I think my mind just retreated into itself, allowing hate to fill my body and control me like a puppet.” Silver took a shuddering breath as he closed his eyes, deep in thought. “But I know I want to see my Benji again. I had convinced myself that revenge at any cost would be worth the price.”

  I understood all too well what Silver was saying about letting the beast inside take over. In the control room of my mind, my eyes flicked to Baleius for just a second before I returned my consciousness to my body.

  “I know what you are saying, and I even understand. All I can say is I’ll try to set your soul free, if just for the fact that you just saved the universe.”

  “That’s all I ask, John,” he said, calling me by my name instead of the German version of vampire.

  Silver began walking toward the tunnel that led out of Ymir’s personal torture chamber. I turned one last time to look at the first giant who had come nerve-rackingly close to ending my unlife.

  I dramatically cleared my throat and hawked a loogie into the room before turning to follow Silver into the tunnel.

  12

  As we walked, a question came to my mind and I asked, “Hey, how did you use magic? I thought Ulric stole your powers.”

  “Firstly, that monster didn’t steal anything. His master transferred them upon my death. Second, a great deal of a warlock’s base power comes from knowled
ge and practice. It is only once a gifted person appears on Hell’s radar that he grants magic directly from his domain. Much of magic is derived from sheer focus of will and determination. Ask any wizard, mage, or sorcerer. Nothing is given freely. Nothing.”

  “So you had enough power to kill a giant that, if I recall correctly, took three Norse gods to take down the first time?”

  “My will knows no bounds, John. Why do you think he wanted me to lead the warlock army on Earth? Not only that, but that ice bastard tortured me with images of my dead son. I collected my building rage until the time was right. When I saw how much energy he’d poured into his blast and how far it stretched beyond his control, it was easy to reverse it on him, considering gravity was on my side, not his.”

  “Yeesh,” I said as I tugged at my collar. It occurred to me that Silver was a vastly superior tactician than I was.

  We walked the rest of the way in silence, each mulling over the recent events and what lay before us.

  Within a much shorter time than it had taken for me to descend, we arrived at the River Styx. Charon was not there this time.

  All of a sudden, the ferryman’s words echoed through my mind.

  “To the soul which you seek.”

  He hadn’t been referencing Joey, which meant I still didn’t know where my friend was.

  “Shit!” I barked out like a forceful sneeze that caught you by surprise.

  “What is it?” Silver asked, arching an eyebrow.

  “Nothing,” I answered before grumbling, “Stupid ferryman.”

  Silver decided to let my comment go as we stepped to the edge of the boat slip. He stopped and turned to face me.

  “What?”

  “What you seek is there,” Silver said as he twisted his bloody torso to point into the river of lava.

  My gaze flicked back and forth between the man and the river like a game of Ping-Pong.

  Stepping to the ledge, I pointed at the lava and dubiously asked, “There?”

  “What you seek lies below.”

  “And, ah, how exactly do you suggest I get there? John no likey lava.”

  “That isn’t for me to say. You simply asked how to get to Sheol, and I am showing you the only way I know how.”

  “Well, isn’t this a bowl of Honey Nut Neatios,” I lamented as I dragged a hand down my face.

  I could manifest a shield around you, Baleius suggested quietly, as if he wasn’t entirely sure it would work.

  What was that? I asked Baleius, cocking my head and darting an eyebrow toward my hairline. I noticed his hair had some waves in it.

  Drink the vial and separate your soul from your body. I will stay behind, in your body, and create a ball around you using the armor that will allow you to sink.

  My other eyebrow shot up in surprise, and I felt an uncomfortable fog of uncertainty collect in my mind like a growing bank of darkening clouds before the storm.

  How do you, um, stay behind? Weren’t you with me the last time I left my body back in Gehenna?

  If I remember correctly, I was locked in a box. Whether it was subconscious or not, you brought me with you. This time, you’ll have to focus on just your soul leaving.

  Can we do that? Separate, I mean.

  Think about the countless times you’ve gone into a mortal’s mind without me. You willed yourself to detach from your body.

  Ah, I get ya, I said, nodding lightly as I thought about my next question, trying to calm the storm before it drenched me in paralyzing fear. I knew I had to go save Da and Dawson.

  Taking in a deep breath while still within my mind, I exhaled and said, Fine. Turning to Baleius, I continued, I’m trusting you, okay, man? Don’t, you know, fuck me over.

  I have no desire to do so, Baleius confessed softly, and I felt a degree of truth to his words that tipped the scales toward action. Might I suggest taking the nail with you?

  Oh shit! Good call, man! I exclaimed, feeling confidence flood my mind. I knew, then, that Baleius meant what he said about being on my side.

  With one hand, I removed the nail of Christ from my breast pocket. With the other, I grabbed the vial Taylor had given me.

  I brought the vial up to inspect the purple liquid that seemed to swirl in the light of the lava.

  “I, ah, feel like I should say something profound,” I said just above a whisper as my mouth became dry enough that I had to almost question if I had been sucking on one of those silica packs.

  With a tight chest and grinding teeth, I inhaled sharply, removed the cap, and called out the Irish variation of cheers, “Sláinte!”

  The purple liquid slid down my throat, leaving a sharp, bitter taste in my mouth. I smacked my lips while grimacing, and tossed the empty vial into the river of flame.

  Clutching the nail tighter than the handrail of a roller coaster, I closed my eyes and focused on separating my soul from my body. A part of me tried to clutch at Baleius like he was a safety blanket, and I had to force that connection to break.

  After about a minute of waiting, I could feel the dizziness begin at the center of my skull, and I had to remind myself to ride with the wave instead of fighting it. While inside the control room of my mind, I mentally relaxed every muscle in my body and let the magic pull me under.

  It didn’t hurt or even feel uncomfortable. Instead, it was akin to being on an inflatable tube on a lake and being lightly touched by the diminished wake of some far-off boat. I just let it carry me in its current.

  Once the sensation passed, I opened my eyes to see I was staring at myself. Matte red eyes looked past me from underneath a gray beanie.

  “Heya, handsome,” I said to my sexy body. There was a now familiar echo to my words.

  Baleius didn’t respond—or move, for that matter. Turning to Silver, I saw he was frozen in time.

  “Ah shit! I’m in the Lilith-damned in-between!”

  Baleius flickered for a moment, like a single frame misplaced within a movie reel.

  I frantically moved my hand around in front of him, throwing my body off-kilter.

  “Stupid in-between gravity!” I barked out as I attempted to prevent myself from cartwheeling in the air. “It wasn’t like this when Hayley brought me here! What gives, man?!”

  Baleius shimmered and began to move, with parts of him lagging behind like at the end of a Solitaire game on an old computer. For a moment, he had hundreds of arms and legs.

  After a few seconds, Baleius snapped to as he took a literal step forward, his matte red eyes locking with mine.

  “I can see that it worked,” Baleius said with my mouth. “Hmph, feels weird without you inside me.”

  “Dude, I’m gonna let that one go. But seriously, phrasing,” I commented while nearly going horizontal in midair.

  Baleius smiled, reached out to latch onto my arm, and pulled me upright.

  “Hey! How are you here? I mean, why did I need the vial if you could freaking shift planes this whole time?”

  “Taylor gave you the vial while I was still imprisoned, yes?”

  “Ye-yeah,” I stammered, not liking the accurate retelling of past events wherein I had trapped my friend in a box.

  “And because you don’t know how to shift to the in-between on your own, armor or not, he gave you the vial to do two things. The first being the shifting of your soul to the in-between. And the second, separation of body from soul.”

  I lightly scowled in mild concentration as something tugged at my mind while trying to process what he had said.

  “Ah...but you said I have always been able to separate my soul from my body? I mean, whenever I go to enter a mortal’s mind? My literal soul enters them, right?”

  “How can I explain this to you,” Baleius said in thought as he stroked the beard on his face that actually belonged to me. So weird seeing my body animated without me. “Ah,” he exclaimed as his eyebrows went up for a moment at landing on a successful method of explanation. “Your body is like a boat. When you go into a mortal’s mind, it is
like two ships tying off to one another and you stepping from one deck to the other. Without a ship to transfer to, you would literally just be stepping off your dock and into the open ocean.”

  “Whiiiiiich is a bad idea, right?”

  “As if I actually need to answer that.”

  “Heh, yeah,” I chuckled at my own question before the next thought came to the front of the line. “Um, silly question I know, but what would have happened if we had shifted to the in-between before I drank the vial?”

  Baleius’ expression went flat as he stared at me with matte red eyes.

  “No one has ever done so and lived to tell the tale. It would be like going into a black hole: only you would know what was on the other side with no way of getting back.”

  “Sooooo...shifting to the in-between while already in the in-between is a bad thing...got it.”

  “I assume it would be akin to dividing by zero. You might even wind up in some sort of parallel dimension, or worse, a higher one.”

  “How would that be worse?” I hesitantly asked, fearing the answer.

  “Imagine second dimension creatures trying to live in the third. They wouldn’t be able to perceive our world, nor would they be able to traverse it.”

  “Like a dot on a piece of paper compared to an orange on top of the same paper.”

  “Correct. If what was on the other side of a double in-between shift was a higher dimension, you might end up as the dot in a world of oranges.”

  I gulped at the understanding that I could have shifted to an alternate, unknown dimension with who knows what on the other side.

  I shook my head to abolish the thought, simply satisfied in knowing that Baleius had prevented me from a fate potentially worse than death.

  “What now?” I asked, my voice echoing back at me.

  “Now I’ll create the construct and lower you to Sheol through the doorway. The good news is I believe my manifestation will survive the River Styx now that we are in the in-between. And if this is the doorway, as Silver suggests, then you should come out the other side already in the Sheol plane.”