The Holy Dark

by Kyoko M

  She stood to full height, one hand on her hip. “And what reason is that?”

  “I am here to challenge Moloch for the right to rule. While he has only brought one measly archangel, I have brought the Commander of Heaven’s Army. I want my honor restored and I will prove to the Master that I am more worthy than he to conquer humanity.”

  Mulciber rubbed her chin. “Interesting. Moloch and the Master have gone to privately consult in his chamber. Shall I inform them of your arrival?”

  Belial nodded. “If you would.”

  “Very well.” She paused to send another satisfactory smile at Michael and me. “Don’t go anywhere.”

  She slithered her way out of sight, disappearing around the corner into one of the great halls of Pandemonium. As soon as she left, I leapt to my feet and ran to Gabriel.

  “Gabriel!” I threw my arms around his neck, ignoring the spikes that dug into my skin. He flinched as soon as I touched him, his eyelids fluttering. They slid back and his beautiful cornflower blue eyes met mine.

  “J…Jordan?” he whispered in disbelief.

  “Yes, it’s me,” I said through hiccupping sobs, gently stroking his cheek. “I’m here. I’m here, Gabriel. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I left you.”

  I kissed his forehead, his cheeks, his lips, any part of him I could touch, smoothing his matted hair away from his face over and over. He didn’t say anything at first, staring at me in a stupor. I offered him a watery smile, waiting for it to sink in.

  “You…you can’t be here,” he said. “This…is another illusion. More torment.”

  “No, it’s really me. I swear. We came to rescue you.”

  Gabriel’s eyes tracked over to Michael, who had come up behind me at some point. He began to shake his head. “No. It’s a lie. It’s not real. I won’t fall for this. Not again.”

  The tiny seed of hope I held started to wither. He’d been here too long under their control, under their influence, under their torture.

  “Gabriel, this is real. Look, I even have my wedding ring. Remember? The one you told Michael to make when we got married.”

  I slipped it off and held it in my palm so he could see. His breathing suddenly picked up and turned ragged. “No. No, please. Please be an illusion. It can’t really be you.”

  “Gabriel—”

  “No, my brother could not be stupid enough to damn himself and the woman he loves because of me. It can’t be real. It can’t be.”

  I lowered my hand, glancing at Michael with a helpless look. He squared his shoulders and cleared his throat to speak. “You died because of us, Gabriel. We couldn’t live with that on our conscience. We’re going to get you out of here no matter what it takes.”

  Tears slipped down the dried blood on Gabriel’s cheekbones. “You fool. You mawkish, weak-minded fool. I am not worth Hell. Why would you do this, brother? You will never see the light of day again. You will be trapped here forever and I will never see your faces again. Why couldn’t you just leave me alone? My pain is my burden, not yours.”

  I brushed my thumb across his face, wiping the tears away. “Gabriel, you are family. You are blood. If we’re going to spend eternity in torment, then so be it. But you won’t. You’re going to return home. You’re going to live and thrive and keep saving the world like you always do. That is your destiny. That is what you deserve.”

  He cried harder, his spindly frame quaking with the force of it. “And do I deserve to live with the guilt of knowing you took my place? How can you decide that for me?”

  Michael answered for me. “Because we love you more than words can say. Because we’re selfish. Because if we get you out and have to stay behind, at least we’ll be together.”

  He leaned his forehead against Gabriel’s, his voice soft. “You saved us. Let us save you, my brother, my flesh.”

  “Fools,” he whispered back. “You damn fools.”

  Movement behind me. It was Belial. “Mulciber is returning.”

  I kissed Gabriel’s forehead one last time and returned to my former spot, kneeling. Mulciber flounced around the corner, damn near skipping because she was so pleased. “They have asked for your council, Belial. I’ll keep an eye on your charges while you’re gone.”

  “So be it.”

  He raised his hand and the hellscape converged in between the two of us, solidifying into a large spike with a hole through it. He squatted and connected the end of the chains to it, and as he did, I heard his voice in the barest whisper.

  “Make your deal with her now. I will return as quickly as I can.”

  He stood and strode towards the exit, leaving us alone with the archdemon. She slunk towards us, tapping her fingertips together. “What shall we do first, darlings? Shall I torture Gabriel some more, or would you like to have your own turn? It’s so sweet that you came to Hell together. I think I’ll spend an hour taking Jordan in every possible fashion I can think of and then do the same to you, Michael darling.”

  “Touch him and you’re dead, you spineless, shit-slurping whoremonger,” I spat without thinking.

  Mulciber let out a honeyed laugh. “Creative. I think I will start with you first.”

  She reached towards me. Michael spoke before she could touch my face. “We’re here to make a deal, Mulciber.”

  She froze. Stood up straight. Narrowed her creepy eyes at him. “A deal?”

  “Equivalent exchange. If we pass your Test, you let Gabriel go.”

  “I knew this was too good to be true,” she sighed. “Let me guess. You’re going to bargain for his soul, Jordan is going to bargain for yours, and Gabriel will bargain for hers so that all three of you can merrily skip your way out of Hell if everything goes right.”

  Michael’s jaw twitched, but he replied anyhow. “Yes.”

  “You are so predictable. Gabriel’s sweet soul is worth millions of human souls. Your soul is the proper exchange.”

  She jabbed a thumb at me. “Hers, however, is not. A Seer’s soul is only worth a hundred. She is not sufficient enough to trade for yours.”

  “Maybe not technically,” I jumped in, drawing her attention away. “But think about it. He’s the other half of my soul. How tormented would I be if only Gabriel and I make it back? My husband will be down here being torn apart by every demon in existence for all eternity. He’ll never see Heaven again. He’ll never see me again. I’ll spend the rest of my existence miserable and alone, knowing that it’s because I wasn’t strong enough to save him. What could possibly be worth more than that?”

  Mulciber gave a little shiver. Her eyelids dropped closed. “Now that you mention it…that would be the most exquisite torture. Knowing that I’d be down here having him all to myself whenever I want.”

  She opened them again and tossed me a predatory smirk. “I’ve always had a thing for him, you know. I try not to show favoritism among my prey, but…”

  She flicked her wrist and the chain dragged Michael forward until he was within her reach. He tried to shove her back, but the chain wrapped around his wrists, pinning them together. She fell to her knees and licked the side of his face from his chin to his eyebrows. I balled my hands into fists, resisting the urge to rip off one of her hair tendrils and choke her out with it.

  “So sweet,” she sighed, running her fingers down the center of his chest. “So valiant and strong and flawless. You are every demon’s dream. I could waste the rest of my life torturing you if she fails. I could make you fall for me.”

  “Never,” Michael growled. “Never in a million years.”

  Mulciber chuckled and dipped her fingers just below his belt. “Perhaps in a billion, then?”

  “Enough,” I said, seeing red at this point. “Are you going to take the deal or not?”

  Thankfully, her hand vacated my husband’s lower region as she rose upward. “Very well. If you each survive the Test, I will let you go. But if you fail, you stay in Hell forever. You have my word as an archdemon. Deal?”

  Michael and I exch
anged heavy looks and then nodded. “Deal.”

  Mulciber waltzed over to Gabriel, stroking his cheek with her slender fingers. He tried to shy away from her touch, but she caught his chin. “And you, kind Gabriel? Do we have a deal?”

  He raised his head enough to look between the two of us. A long sigh escaped him. “Deal.”

  Mulciber’s lips split in a beaming grin. “Then let us begin.”

  She held her arms straight out, fingers spread, palms facing each other. The hellscape responded to her movements and materialized in a swirling blackish-umber mass. It separated into three circular blobs and floated towards our faces. I leaned away from it instinctively as the sulfuric stench wafted towards my nose.

  “The rules are simple. You will relive the three worst moments of your life. If at any time it becomes too much, you will say, ‘I yield.’ Then the deal is over. If all three of you overcome it, you’re free from my grasp. Whoever gives in will be responsible for their counterpart remaining in Hell. Understand?”

  We nodded.

  “Open wide, my dears.”

  Words could not express how much I didn’t want to open my mouth to this terrifying globe of evil, but I had no choice. It was for the ones that I loved, and there was no limit to what I would do for them. I swallowed hard and parted my lips.

  The hellscape forced itself down my throat, and there was no way to describe the sensation other than revolting. It tasted like ash and dirt and filth as it wormed its way into my body. I gagged and fell on all fours, choking, my upper body convulsing violently as it tried to expel the invading substance. The last bit of the hellscape slipped between my teeth and then, like magic, it dissipated. I took several gulping breaths and opened my eyes.

  Mulciber, Michael, and Gabriel had vanished. The arena was still the same, but they were nowhere to be found. I thought I was alone until I heard a voice speak from behind me.

  “Hello, Jordan.”

  A cold slimy thing trailed the length of my spine as I recognized the soft growl and hint of a Southern accent buried in that voice. I turned to find Andrew Bethsaida standing there in the arena, staring at me. He wore the same thing he did the night he died—grey duster, black slacks, white dress shirt, and a black tie.

  “A-Andrew? What…what are you doing here?”

  He didn’t smile. His midnight blue eyes lacked their usual warmth. “You brought me here.”

  “What are you talking about? You’re supposed to be in Heaven with my mother.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. I’m dead.”

  Andrew pulled aside one corner of his duster, revealing a crimson patch of blood. It started out as a small blotch and then spread outward as if I’d just shot him.

  “Perfect accuracy for someone who never handled a pistol,” he said, lowering his hand. “I never stood a chance, not even if you’d taken me to a hospital. Forty-five years on earth fighting monsters and it’s a little one that kills me.”

  “Andrew, I…I never meant to hurt you. I was young. Stupid. Reckless.”

  “I don’t want to hear your excuses,” he snarled, and I jumped. I’d never heard him talk like that. His words hit my skin like boiling grits—clinging and scorching everywhere.

  “I’m dead because you were a trigger-happy coward. Do you have any idea how many lives I could have saved if I had lived? Do you know how many people died because I was no longer there to protect them? Do you know how many souls never found their final resting place without my help?”

  “Andrew, I’m so sorry.” I reached for him, trying to touch his shoulder in comfort, but he jerked it away.

  “It’s too late for sorry, Jordan. You took my life. You can never give it back. There is only one way to make amends.”

  “I’ll do anything to make amends, I swear.”

  He brushed back the left side of his duster, drawing a Smith & Wesson .38 from its holster at his side. He flipped it with his fingers, holding the handle out to me.

  “Kill yourself.”

  I went still. “What?”

  “A life for a life,” he said, his fiery gaze scalding me alive. “That is the price for the soul you stole from me.”

  I shook my head. “I…I can’t. I still have to save Gabriel. I have to save Michael.”

  “Are you saying they’re more important than me? Than the man who risked his life to save both you and your mother? The man who wrote you letters for years? The man who gave advice to your husband multiple times to help save your marriage? What am I to you, Jordan? How can you be so ungrateful?”

  I wrapped my hands around my stomach, staring at the ground. “It’s not that I’m ungrateful. I helped a hundred souls cross over to the afterlife. That was my payment. That was my punishment for killing you. I’m sorry, but I’ve already repaid my debt to you, Andrew.”

  He said nothing. Then he twirled the gun around again and shot me in the right kneecap.

  My entire leg exploded with pain. I screamed and fell to the ground, rocking back and forth, my cries nearly drowning out his voice.

  “You selfish little ingrate!” he shouted, marching towards me. “How could you ever think that your measly soul is worth mine? I saved hundreds, maybe even thousands in my lifetime. You can’t compare to that. You can’t even hold your marriage together. You destroy everything you touch, Jordan. You’d be better off dead. You and I both know it.”

  I clutched my shattered knee with one hand, holding the other hand out to him. “A-Andrew, please. I can’t. I’m so sorry, but I can’t give you my life.”

  He shot me again, this time in the other kneecap. I screamed louder, curling up into the fetal position as the pain ravaged me from head to toe. My blood soaked through my jeans, pouring out into the dirt like a gurgling red river. I couldn’t breathe. Maybe death was the answer. I couldn’t take this pain, this guilt, this man that I loved wanting to hurt me.

  “You can give me your life, you just won’t.” He knelt and grabbed a fistful of my hair, jerking my head up to look at him. He pressed the barrel to my forehead, clicking the hammer back for emphasis. “You owe me. I sacrificed myself for you. Don’t be a coward. Repay your debt.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut. “I love you, Andrew. I love you so much. I never wanted to hurt you. I wanted to grow up with you. I wanted you to be my father. I used to have dreams about it all the time. You deserved to live a long and happy life, and I’m so sorry that I took that away from you. If this is what you feel you have to do, then do it. I can’t take my own life. I promised myself I wouldn’t the night after you died.”

  He jabbed the hot muzzle into my skin. “This isn’t about promises. This is about justice. Repay your debt or I’ll kill you.”

  “Then kill me. I won’t hurt you again. Never again.”

  Tears overflowed and burned their way down my cheeks as I waited for him to pull the trigger. All I could hear were his harsh breaths and the howl of the wind rushing through the open walls of the arena.

  His fingers slid out of my hair and the barrel of the gun lifted away. I opened my eyes to see Andrew stand up and then his image flickered as if it were a hologram. He faded out of sight after a few seconds, and someone else appeared in his place.

  She was a couple of inches shorter than me, her tan skin thick with wrinkles. Age spots showed on her hands and wrists like cancerous ink blots. Her grey hair was pulled into a tight bun. She wore a loose navy scoop neck t-shirt and black skirt that showed her bony legs beneath it. Her thin lips were already twisted in a scowl.

  “Hola, niña,” Aunt Carmen said.

  “Y-You…” I stammered. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you still alive?”

  She chuckled, and it was like having broken glass shoved into my eardrums. “Alive, niña? How would you know that I died? You left me to rot, and after I took the trouble to raise you.”

  Something finally replaced the fear inside me. Anger. I pushed past the pain still ricocheting through my veins from my ruined knees and
glared at her. “No one forced you to take me in. That was you. That was all you.”

  “Mentirosa!” she spat, coming closer. “I was trying to teach you the truth about life. You are not special, puta. You are just as worthless as your dead mother. You do not deserve happiness.”

  “My mother was not worthless,” I said in a low voice. “She was beautiful and smart and giving and kind and brave. You don’t know what she went through raising me alone. You don’t know how she died saving the man she loved. You don’t know anything because you’re nothing but a complete psychopath with Mommy issues so bad that you make Oedipus sound normal.”

  She lifted up her shirt and that was when I saw it. A black whip coiled at her waist. She gripped the handle and let it unfurl. Three cat-o-nine barbs sparkled on the ends of it. “What did you say to me, morena del diablo?”

  I gritted my teeth. “Go ahead. I know you get off on beating me anyway, you sick bitch.”

  She laughed that glassy laugh again. “I’ll teach you to hold your tongue, niña. I’ll teach you but good.”

  She lashed the whip at me. I raised my forearm in defense, crying out as the barbs at the end ripped my skin open. The pain was unimaginable. I collapsed on my stomach, whimpering in the back of my throat because I didn’t want her to hear it out loud.

  “Say it. Tell me how pathetic you are. Tell me how many times you’ve failed. Tell me how many loved ones you’ve pushed away and let suffer. You know the truth as much as I do, puta. You’re nothing. You will never become anything more than a piece of trash. You don’t deserve to be happy. You deserve to die.”

  She hit me again, and it ripped the back of my shirt, exposing the scars she’d already left. Blood dripped down my sides, hot and thick, drenching my clothes. I tried to crawl away, but the pain was so intense I couldn’t lift my right arm far enough to move.

  “Do you remember your childhood? How our people shunned you because you were different? They were right. How could anyone ever love someone so broken? Not even your husband knows the depths of your iniquities. You hide them from him because you know deep down, you are without merit. Admit it, niña. Admit it!”