by Hunter Blain
Turning to me, the woman shifted to Mandarin, “Long have I been here, and many have I seen go.” I realized she had conversational knowledge of Vietnamese.
“How...do you see them?”
“The demons and angels give off light, enough to see what they are doing. It doesn’t take much to understand when a demon feeds off one of us. We can also hear the screams whenever the lost are touched.”
“But...you can’t hear each other outside of that?”
“Not until you showed up,” she said nodding toward my gladius, confirming my suspicions. As she lifted her face in the brief moment, I saw through her neck to her vertebrae. I quickly returned my gaze to hers so as not to be rude.
She must have seen me notice or the expression on my face because a hand went up to where the meat of her neck should have been. Her eyes drifted down, and I could feel her longing to be whole again.
To my surprise, she cleared her emotions from her face and stared back up at me with a stoic expression.
“Why are you here, oh angelic one?”
“Heh, angelic?” I fumbled with my words as I shifted uncomfortably on my feet and looked at the souls around us.
“Are you a demon, then?” she asked, squinting at me.
“No!” I barked. “No,” I quickly repeated in a softer tone. “I’m here looking for some friends of mine.”
“You have traveled to the Abaddon...in search of friends?” she asked doubtfully, as if I were a madman.
“Abaddon, huh? I think I know a guy with that name. Max, I think.” I was struggling to make sense given the direct line of questioning that sounded insane even to me.
“Who are they?” she asked, but now her tone was one of admiration. “They must be important to you.”
Something the size of Texas caught in my throat, choking me with a swelling of emotion. All I wanted was to find Da and Dawson, and take them home.
I simply nodded my head up and down, unable to speak.
“I don’t know how we can help you find them, Flame Bringer.”
At the mention of such a simple name, I felt the yearning of countless souls that needed my help. With a steady jaw, I looked into the silver eyes of those around me and saw faces staring back instead of corpses. People who had suffered unimaginable terror were looking at me for guidance.
“It’s just John,” I offered, both giving my name and my unspoken promise to help those that couldn’t help themselves.
“Tina.”
“Tina?”
“Well, that’s what white people called me,” she said, switching to a British accent with strong Asian overtones.
“Ye are surprisin’,” I said with a smile, switching to my mother tongue for a moment.
Tina giggled before she stopped and stared off into the darkness behind me.
“What is it?” I asked in Mandarin.
“I just realized I hadn’t laughed in so very long.” Tina crossed her thin arms over her body, and I had to fight the urge to gasp, as one of them was almost entirely bone.
“Well, stick with me, kid, ’cause I’m funny as fuck,” I announced while propping one foot up on my heel, leaning to the side and theatrically pointing my free thumb at my chest.
Tina smiled warmly and then surprised me by stepping forward and quickly wrapping her arms around my waist. She rested her head on my chest, and I could smell the dust in her hair.
I thought I was going to gag at the smell, but my body did me a solid and held it together as I returned the embrace with my free arm and rested a cheek on her head. She sobbed, then, and it was one of relief instead of sorrow.
13
I walked through Sheol for what felt like days with a growing mob of lost souls behind me. Tina stayed by my side as I searched for Da and Dawson. As the time went on, I noticed she was becoming more whole. Her arm was no longer comprised of just bone and now had a little bit of tissue covering it. Looking around the group, I could see more and more of the decomposition reversing as the souls were given a purpose again.
At the end of every day, when I decided it was best to let the souls rest, I would send a spout of heavenflame into the sky for as long as I could before my own energy began to wane. This allowed more lost souls stumbling in the dark to find us. Hope spread like a wildfire, and with it, so too did the responsibility that rested atop my shoulders like Atlas, threatening to crush me with the weight that only hope in a hopeless situation could bring.
After everyone was settled, I would walk through the crowd and talk to as many people as I could, letting them know they weren’t alone.
An odd feeling began in the center of my skull, taking a few days to formulate, and I realized that nearly everyone I had spoken to was...pleasant. Sure, there were some crabby apples in the bunch, but for souls that had supposedly been in Hell before ending up here, it surprised me to see such cordial, polite people.
I’d witnessed them helping one another, providing such simple sensory input as lightly dragging their fingertips over a distraught soul’s exposed skin, or even talking about anything that came to mind, just so someone in need could hear a voice. Hearing the voice of a friend, feeling the touch of someone we cherished, tasting the food we loved, smelling the cool air after a light rain during spring...such simple things that were taken for granted all our lives. Even pain could be sought after when your body no longer felt anything. That’s why Sheol was feared even more than Hell, where all the senses still remained, even if manipulated and molested.
I continued listening to the lost souls, hearing their stories, shaking their hands, or even embracing them when it felt right to do so...which was a lot. These people were in all stages of the worst situation any sentient creature could experience; the loss of hope.
Hope gave power to the powerless. Even when Silver had been mutilated and left dangling over his dead son, he’d still had hope. Hope that one day he would take revenge on Ymir, and that had kept him going.
Not everyone would get to live out their deepest desires like Silver had, but the hope kept them going.
Seeing the immeasurable relief on these people’s faces put pressure on my heart, especially as I watched those who were mentally robust caring for others that had floated in despondency for so long. These were good people who cared for the lost ones, asking nothing in return.
Story after story built on one another. Tears threatened to spill down my cheeks as my body prepared the order to break down into sobs. But I held it together, for them. Only once, when I was confident I was alone, did I let the flame go out for a few seconds as I violently wept, releasing the pent-up pressure that promised an explosion if I didn’t take preventative measures.
Then I realized everything was dark and that I had a significant job to do. I lifted my gladius again, and billowed a geyser into the night that could be seen for tens of miles, if not further.
“Thank you, John the Flame Bringer,” Tina had said one night as I laid down for a rest. It was exhausting to keep the flames going nonstop for days on end, but after letting it go dark just once, I knew…I knew… I had to keep it going, for them.
Every time I would begin to want to give up and drop my arm, I would turn and look into the countless eyes of those following me and refill my fuel tanks comprised of determination.
We went on like that, walking for what felt like an entire day, followed by several hours of rest. It felt good to give these people something so simple yet universally profound as hope.
As I spoke to countless lost souls, I discovered that most were overall good people who admitted to moments of weakness when they were alive, such as forging their parents’ will, having a marital affair while in a moment of weakness, or not returning the purse full of money they’d found on the bus seat. Nearly every one of the souls that admitted to their wrongdoings wished they had made different choices while alive.
Gabriel came to mind, speaking to me in the OR while we tried to figure out how to save the world, and what he said back
then took on new meaning. “You are free to make any decision, in the entire universe, that you wish. It is the consequences that are unavoidable.” I had thought the part about the universe was about the black hole. Now I saw what he meant. It had been a message applicable to different aspects of my existence, one of which was this very moment of understanding. These people far from the plane of the mortal world were suffering the consequences of their choices. The universe, though vast, was all connected. For most of these people, it appeared to be guilt that held them back.
Father Thomes came to mind, and I understood these people had damned themselves by holding on to their guilt for a lifetime. Their sins were a seed that had been planted in their hearts and given time and nourishment to blossom as the person thought about their mistakes but never sought forgiveness and atonement, or worse, did those things and then never forgave themselves.
“Dawson,” I mouthed without putting any air to the words. I watched in the theater of my mind as he repeated those two words—those two fucking words—before his body dissolved into a mist that dissipated before my eyes.
“John? Are you okay?” Tina asked.
“Huh?” I shot out in a quick breath as I shook my head to clear the pervasive thoughts of Dawson. I looked up and saw my gladius was spouting flames intermittently, reacting to my emotions.
“I’m fine,” I comforted Tina as the flames became steady once more. She stared a moment longer before closing her eyes again and drifting off to sleep. I know she probably didn’t need to sleep, but it was a normal thing to do, and we all needed even a masquerade of normalcy right then.
My mind drifted back to Father Thomes, and I looked up to the starless sky, feeling a million miles away from my friend and mentor. I hoped he was safe without me there to protect him.
Several more days passed, and our group expanded into more souls than I could count. There must have been several thousands, if not tens of thousands that flocked to the light, though it was impossible to even guess. I did my best to keep my gladius burning bright, though it wore on me mentally.
As the group that followed me swelled, something incredible happened. Souls began to glow and provide a dull light at their core, and I had to do a double take when I first noticed, thinking it was a trick of the light from my sword.
One night, Tina approached where I sat lost in thought, and I noticed her body had completely reformed. There was no longer bone showing, as healthy flesh covered her completely. Her skin glowed faintly, as if illuminated by a bright moon overhead.
Without an exchange of words, she beamed a toothy smile at me, almost bouncing on her toes with joy. Looking around, I saw other souls gradually becoming whole again, producing their own glows as hope spread. Though Tina did seem to glow the brightest, I didn’t know if it was a biased opinion or not. She had been the first soul to help me when I had arrived the week prior.
Tina and I regarded one another before letting our gazes drift over the group that glowed like the continents at night as seen from the International Space Station.
My heart, which had been heavy from the stories of the countless lost souls, began to swell in pride. I knew I had made a change that would be felt until the end of time itself.
Then Newton’s third law reared its ugly head. The action of growing the group to such vast numbers while birthing hope that physically glowed caused an opposite reaction that I should have seen coming.
On the ninth or tenth day, as we marched along, I heard a scream of surprise followed by a shriek of pain from somewhere to my left.
I shot my gaze in that direction and saw souls moving in a wide circle away from a fiercely glowing creature.
“It’s a demon!” Tina whispered loudly, trying to get her message across without being heard by the beast.
Instinct took over and I sprinted to where a four-legged monster was tearing into a small child whose arm had already been torn free.
The thing had the body of a lion and the face of a shark with a longer snout.
“Jesus!” I cried out in surprise as I skidded to a halt, sending up a plume of dust.
The glowing shark-lion turned to lock onto me with angry red eyes and a drool-laced grin.
“Shit?” I squeaked as the demon began pounding the dust to get to me.
Terror froze me in place as I understood that if this fucker killed me, I would vanish into oblivion, never again to see my friends or my parents.
Each gallop brought an entirely new definition of fear with it, erasing the previous incarnations that had been believed to be the peak.
“John!” Tina cried out as the shark-lion lunged, snapping me from my paralysis.
The massive mouth could have enveloped my entire torso, and I wondered how only the boy’s tiny arm was taken.
On reflex, I rolled into the direction of the attack while dropping toward the ground, slashing my sword at its belly as it passed over me. One of the rear legs dragged a gash across my stomach while the other one smashed into my jaw, knocking me silly.
I didn’t remember hitting the ground, but I was vaguely aware of being in a plume of dust. I tried to lift myself up on my right arm, but my head seemed to weigh several hundred pounds.
Unfocused eyes snapped onto the glowing monster, and something screamed for my attention.
I glanced around for some hint of what it was when I realized I could barely see, with the only light coming from the nearby, faintly glowing souls and the fiercely illuminated demon. My gladius was out.
My bobbing head looked down at my right hand to see it was empty.
The monster roared as it turned to face me before glancing sidelong at its stomach. A few strands of intestines poked through, but were in no immediate danger of spilling out.
I shot to my hands and knees and began swiping my hands through the thick dust in wide arcs, desperately searching for the nail while a panicked flow of, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” shot from my mouth like the clanking of a roller coaster.
The demon began galloping toward me again with rage and hunger in its glowing red eyes.
A soul ran to stand between me and the glowing demon, making the creature skid to a halt in confusion. Predators didn’t know how to react when prey confronted them.
The head of the soul turned toward me, and I could tell from the faint glow of skin that it was my friend.
Another soul stepped forward from the crowd that had begun to close in to stand next to her, followed by another. Soon, several souls were standing their ground in front of the demon, buying me precious seconds.
My hands resumed searching as I crawled forward, and my fingers touched something cold and metallic. I gasped in excitement as I brought my gladius to life right as the monster regained its composure and charged. The gathered souls flung themselves out of the way of the freight train...all except for one.
With a fluid motion that reminded me of watching a sea creature snatch its prey with lightning-fast reflexes, the brightest of the souls—who stood fast in the face of the demon—was bitten in half with a sickening crunch.
“Tina!” I screamed in rage and dismay as my gladius billowed rampant flames that dripped to the ground, leaving pools of heavenfire in my wake.
The remaining souls scattered as the demon chewed its meal and swallowed.
“That was my friend, YOU FUCKER!” I roared before bellowing a long Viking cry and charging forward, “RAAAAAAHHHHH!”
I made it to the beast, which had been stunned by the voracious flames that angrily lashed up to the sky, and sliced the bastard down its entire length. Without my vampirism, I knew I hadn’t run at preternatural speeds, but my wrath had given me a speed I was confident no human could replicate and that the demon wasn’t expecting.
A whine escaped the monster in its final breath, then the beast gushed open. From the cauterized, split flesh that ran the entire length of the shark-lion, steaming, vital organs spilled to the dust as the monster collapsed, glowing red eyes flickering before goi
ng out forever.
“Enjoy oblivion, you bastard,” I hissed before spitting on the oozing entrails.
There was a commotion behind me and I turned to look over my shoulder as the crowd thinned around an approaching figure. He glowed brighter than even Tina had. It was almost as if he were comprised entirely of light that was barely contained within a suit of skin.
I fully turned around and held up my gladius to better see as Da’s face came into view. The first thing I noticed was his knowing smile.
“Da!” I cried out as I lunged for my mentor, wrapping my free arm around him and lifting him up. I took note that he was in his full human size.
“Hello, John,” Da said with his cultured British voice as I squeezed him. I hadn’t realized until then just how much I had missed hearing him, even just saying something as simple as my name.
From behind him stepped the huge figure of a man that was easily twelve feet tall. He was glowing brightly, just like Da.
Setting my friend down, my eyes went wide as I stared at the Goliath.
“Who’s Bubba?” I asked, thumbing over to the large, glowing man.
“This is my brother, Uriel. I believe you two have already met,” Da said with a sly grin.
“Huh?” I asked, eyeing the giant up and down.
“Abomination,” Uriel grumbled in a half-assed greeting as he crossed his massive arms over his chest. His voice was familiar.
Then it hit me.
“Oh shit! From the, ah...”
“From the alley,” Uriel finished while flashing his teeth at me like an angry dog.
Da spoke up then.
“He was the angel you killed in the alley.”
I made an embarrassed, “Oh,” face and then stepped toward the giant. Switching the sword to my left hand, I extended my right and said in a shy, hopeful voice, “No hard feelings?”
Uriel continued to stare down at me with a gaze that could turn coal into diamonds...and then lava.
I was somewhat annoyed that the archangel didn’t immediately forgive me for killing him.