Hell to Heaven

by Kylie Chan

The receptionist stared at Gold in shock, and Gold started, then grinned. ‘I’ve lived here all my life.’

  The receptionist turned away, frowning, and entered the details on the computer. She leaned into the vent to speak to us, still frowning. ‘Third floor, wing F.’

  Gold nodded. ‘Thank you.’

  We looked around for a sign that would show us the way. Nothing. Gold turned back to the receptionist, whose frown deepened. ‘Follow red arrows!’ she barked, and turned away.

  The floor was marked with arrows set into the worn linoleum, and we followed the red ones to the lift. A few people were waiting in the lift lobby, next to a collection of abandoned gurneys and wheelchairs set to one side. The lift arrived and those waiting rushed inside before those inside could get out. There was some grunting and tussling, and those inside managed to fight their way out of the lift as Gold and I held the doors open for them. We went in and Gold pressed the third-floor button.

  On the first floor, the doors opened and someone at the back of the lift, who’d rushed to get in first, elbowed his way to the doors to get out.

  On the third floor, the corridors spread from the lift lobby in all directions and we stopped, confused. There was a nurses’ station nearby and Gold walked to it, the rest of us following. A couple of harassed-looking nurses sat there fiddling with paperwork. Both of them ignored us for a moment then one of them came up to us.

  ‘Visiting hours seven thirty. Family only; maximum two people. Wait until then,’ she said.

  ‘We’re here to take Simone Chen home,’ Gold said.

  She sat at the computer terminal, flipping through the records. ‘Simone Chen.’ She pointed down the corridor without looking away from the screen. ‘Third room along. F3.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Gold said, and we all headed in that direction.

  ‘Two people only!’ the nurse snapped. She gestured in the other direction. ‘Waiting room there.’

  ‘Me and Gold,’ I said, Gold’s voice sounding strange in my ears.

  Monica handed me a shopping bag with a change of clothes in it for Simone.

  The ward room was grey and grimy, with stained painted walls and four chipped metal beds, two on each side of the room. The bathroom reeked of urine and damp as we passed it. The furthest bed on the left had the curtains pulled around it; the closer bed on the left held a middle-aged woman, asleep. Simone was sitting on the closer bed on the right, dressed in her hospital pyjamas, talking to a policeman who was making notes in a folder. It was Lieutenant Cheung, getting her story before we could coach her. In the far bed on the right was an elderly woman, also in the regulation pyjamas; she was sitting up and listening to every word Simone said with an expression of deep concentration.

  ‘Oh, guys, thank goodness you’re here,’ Simone said. She hopped off the bed and ran to Gold who was still in my form. They held each other for a while, Gold patting Simone on the back and Simone clutching him.

  ‘This little girl, very bad behaviour!’ the old woman said loudly in English, waking up the sleeping woman. ‘You teach her wrong! Need to punish her, she is very bad girl!’ She nodded and settled into the bed, then waved her finger at us. ‘You should spend more time correcting her, make sure she does right thing! Study more, be good girl, find nice boy!’

  Simone turned in Gold’s arms to speak to the old woman. ‘Oh, go die in a fire.’

  ‘Humph!’ The woman crossed her arms and looked away, then released a torrent of abuse in Cantonese. ‘Bad girl! Treats elders with no respect!’ She glared at Gold. ‘You teach her right way. Chinese way. Treat elders with respect, do as she is told. She very bad girl!’

  Simone released Gold and turned to speak to Lieutenant Cheung. ‘Are you done with me?’

  Cheung held out the clipboard with the paperwork. ‘I need you to sign this please, Miss.’

  Simone stomped to him, grabbed the clipboard and scribbled a signature on the bottom of the form. ‘I can go now?’

  Cheung nodded and Simone came back to us. I handed her the bag of clothes and she went into the bathroom to change. She wrinkled her nose as she came out. ‘It’s clean; they say the smell is from a faulty drainage system.’

  A nurse with a kind face came in. ‘You are going now?’

  Simone’s expression softened. ‘Thanks for looking after me, Lydia. I’m going home.’

  The nurse touched Simone’s arm. ‘Take care, Simone. Talk to a counsellor, okay? That was a terrible thing that happened.’

  Simone nodded, took Gold’s hand and led him out of the room with me trailing behind.

  ‘Why, of all the stories that you could have made up, did you have to decide on that one?’ Simone growled under her breath as we returned to the nurses’ station. ‘You really do hate me, don’t you? Having sex, smoking pot—dammit, Emma, do you want me to get up to that sort of stuff for some reason?’

  ‘The stone and I made up that story,’ Gold said. ‘Emma had nothing to do with it.’

  Simone stopped and put her hands on her hips. ‘It will take me a long time to forgive you two for this. You’ve destroyed my reputation at school—I don’t know how I’m ever going to go back there! They’ll all think I’m a slut!’

  ‘“They” being the same people who tried to drug you and date-rape you,’ Gold said.

  Simone raised her hands with exasperation and continued towards the nurses’ station. ‘It was just a couple of them.’ When we reached the station, she leaned on its ledge and covered her face with her hands. ‘And I killed someone. I killed him!’ Her shoulders shook as she lost control, weeping into her hands.

  Gold put his arm around her and concentrated. Monica, Marcus and Leo came rushing from the waiting room. Monica bundled Simone into her arms and held her as she cried, and Marcus patted her back.

  Gold went around the counter to see the nurses and I followed. One of them held out a clipboard with a stack of paperwork on it without speaking. Gold picked up the pen that was chained to the station and signed my name at the bottom.

  The nurse checked the papers. ‘No medication, you can go.’ Her expression softened. ‘I hope you’ll be all right, Chen See Mun. That was bad.’ She sat and started to key the details into the computer.

  We went down in the lift, Simone still clutching Monica. She continued to hold her tight as we walked back to the car park.

  Monica stopped when we exited the car park lift. ‘I smell gas!’ She looked around, concerned. ‘The smell is very strong, ma’am!’ She spun back to the lift and pressed the button. ‘We need to get out of here right now!’

  ‘I don’t smell anything,’ I said.

  The rest of the group smelled the air and then shook their heads.

  ‘Why only Monica then?’ Gold said.

  ‘We need to get out of here, it’s very bad!’ Monica said.

  Simone stiffened, then grimaced. ‘This is all. I. Need!’ she shouted, and stomped towards the car. ‘Monica, stay there. There’s no gas; it’s just a demon clearing the area before it shows up.’

  Simone stood in the middle of the car park lane, put her hand out and summoned Dark Heavens.

  The demon appeared. It was about ten metres long and so tall it nearly touched the roof of the car park. It looked like an insect, with barbed front legs and a bulbous head, but it was made of silvery metal, reflective in the brown haze of the afternoon.

  ‘What the hell is that?’ I said. ‘I’ve never seen one of those before.’

  ‘It’s some sort of elemental/demon hybrid,’ Gold said, then jumped back in shock as the demon raised its spike-ended feet and tried to impale him. It swept him aside, knocking him into the wall, and came straight for me.

  I moved back. I didn’t want to fight this thing; its essence would definitely turn me into a Snake Mother.

  ‘Change, Emma, there’s nobody around,’ Simone said. ‘You can fight as a snake.’

  The demon heard her and tried to impale her on one of its feet, then turned back to me.

  Th
ere was a metallic clatter as Leo discarded his wheelchair. He came to stand next to me. ‘I think the snake thing is a good idea,’ he said.

  The demon approached me with obvious menace and I concentrated, taking snake form. As soon as I changed to snake, the demon stopped, appeared to stare at me with its eyeless head, then cast around, swinging its head from side to side. It swung, its feet clicking on the concrete, to face Simone; then quickly spun and rushed Gold, who’d changed back to his normal form.

  Simone raced after it and slashed it from behind with Dark Heavens. A wound opened in the demon’s hindquarters, then closed up again, the metal element moving like mercury. It raised one foreleg and dropped it on Gold, who turned to his stone battle form, raised one arm, changed its shape to a rough shield and blocked the demon’s blow. He changed his other arm to a lance and skewered it.

  It backed quickly off the skewer and the puncture wound healed like the slash that Simone had made in it. It hesitated, rotating slightly as it worked out whether to attack Gold or Simone. Then it rushed Gold again, this time raising both front legs and attempting to pin him against the wall. Gold changed to a pebble and flew so that he was next to me, then reformed in his battle shape.

  Simone joined us to face the demon as it turned to attack again. It lowered its head to bite at us, and she ducked under its chin, raised the sword, filled it with shen and swiped its head off, leaving a blank silvery neck. The head liquefied as it hit the ground, turning into something that resembled mercury before it dissipated. The legs collapsed and the body hit the ground.

  ‘That thing was like the goddamn Terminator,’ Leo said.

  ‘In more ways than one,’ Gold said as the demon rose again and a bulge appeared in the smooth neck. It grew a new head and lifted itself back onto its legs.

  It raised its legs again, and this time grabbed Simone, holding her with one leg each side of her. She took both legs off with her sword and it dropped her. She fell hard on the concrete.

  Rage filled me.

  ‘She’s had enough to deal with today—leave her alone!’ I shouted at the demon, and rushed it. Suddenly I was three times bigger, three times meaner, and mad as hell.

  ‘Emma, what…’ Gold began, but I barely heard him. All I knew was this thing was going to die.

  ‘…if she doesn’t come around soon, I’ll take her in the back of the Mercedes, and Monica and Marcus can take a taxi,’ Gold was saying.

  ‘I’m here,’ I said. I felt something soft and warm behind me; my head was in Leo’s lap, and he was sitting on the floor of the car park next to the Mercedes. I pulled myself slightly more upright, leaning on him for support. ‘I blacked out again? I thought I’d stopped doing that!’

  ‘Can you stand, Emma? We have to be on the Celestial in two hours,’ Gold said.

  ‘They’ll cut us some slack…‘I began, then stopped. ‘Okay, they won’t.’

  Leo, still sitting behind me, put his hand on my shoulder. ‘You okay? Not dizzy?’

  I rose. ‘I’m not dizzy at all. I feel just fine. That was really strange; why did I black out?’

  Leo tried to get up as well, failed, and then gave up. ‘Lost it. Someone get my chair for me?’

  ‘You turned into something…else,’ Simone said as Gold brought Leo’s chair and helped him into it. ‘It was…big.’

  ‘I wasn’t a snake?’

  ‘Yeah, you were a snake,’ Leo said. ‘Who’s going with you, Gold?’

  ‘I’ll take Monica,’ Gold said. ‘You can take the rest.’

  Leo nodded, and opened the driver’s door of the Mercedes to get in. Gold helped him, then folded the wheelchair and put it into the boot.

  ‘You were a snake, but you were huge,’ Simone said. ‘Like a freaking big Shen or something. It was you, but like…not you. Really strange.’

  ‘Did I talk?’ I said.

  ‘Yeah, mostly just saying how much you wanted the demon to die,’ Simone said. ‘You sounded like you were having fun.’

  She got into the front of the car, and I went around to get in the back next to Marcus. ‘So who killed it?’ I said. ‘It is dead, isn’t it?’

  ‘You took it apart and ate it, and had a lot of fun doing it,’ Leo said. ‘Never seen anything quite so disturbing in my entire life.’

  ‘What I’d like to know,’ Simone said, ‘is why that demon went for Gold.’

  ‘It went for me at first,’ I said, then stopped. ‘I was still disguised as Gold.’

  ‘Exactly, and when you changed to a snake it went straight for the real Gold,’ Simone said. She turned in her seat to look into the back of the car. ‘Is your stone awake, Emma? Jade Building Block, are you awake?’

  ‘No, go away,’ the stone said, sounding like a cranky old Englishman.

  ‘Geez, everybody hates me today,’ Simone said, and turned back around. ‘Got any tissues, Emma?’

  I reached into my bag and passed her a pack of tissues. She took them with a nod.

  ‘I’m sorry, little one, you’ve had a terrible day,’ the stone said, more understanding. ‘What did you want to know?’

  ‘Whether you took a recording of that demon,’ Simone said, her voice thick with tears.

  ‘No, I didn’t,’ the stone said. ‘I should have. Gold didn’t either, he was busy defending himself.’

  ‘It’s just that…’ Simone said, and her voice trailed off. She took a few gasping breaths. ‘It’s just…it’s just…’

  ‘What, Simone?’ I said.

  ‘You looked like Daddy,’ Simone said, and collapsed into sobs.

  ‘What?’

  ‘She has a point, Emma, your serpent form there did look a lot like the Dark Lord’s Serpent,’ the stone said.

  ‘No.’

  Oh no, damn girl, don’t be his Serpent now when Simone needs you, Leo said.

  It was well past dinnertime when we arrived at the Wan Chai gateway to the Celestial. Monica had tried to coax Simone to eat something, but, like the rest of us, she hadn’t been interested. Marcus parked the car and came with us to the podium level, where he sat next to the fountain to wait for us. We approached the wall and it changed, but the dragons didn’t gather at the middle in the way they usually did. They remained in their places without speaking.

  Michael appeared next to us as the wall separated. He went to Simone and took her hand. ‘You all right, squirt?’

  ‘I swear I’m going to yin you if…’ Simone started, then shrugged. ‘Just don’t freaking call me squirt, okay?’

  He released her hand and nodded, then turned to face the wall. ‘I got your back, Princess.’

  ‘Thanks, Michael,’ she said, her voice small. ‘What do you think they’ll do to me? You spend more time around them than I do.’

  ‘Not any more.’ He walked around her to the wall.

  ‘Michael, stop and tell me,’ Simone said.

  Gold went to stand next to Simone. ‘We’ll plead manslaughter, that you had no intention of killing him. Normally the sentence for killing a human is execution, but since you’re not Immortal and it was in self-defence, they won’t do that.’

  Simone studied Gold’s face carefully. ‘Are you sure about that? And if it’s not execution—then what? Prison? This is way worse than what you did.’

  ‘I honestly don’t know, Simone,’ he said. ‘Just remember—it was in self-defence. They will have to be lenient because of that.’

  ‘It wasn’t really self-defence—my life wasn’t at risk at all, he had no chance of hurting me,’ Simone said. She began to tremble. ‘I had no reason to yin him—it was total overkill.’ She laughed, and there was a brittle edge to it. ‘Complete overkill, because I killed him, and nearly killed everybody else. One day I’m going to lose control of it and destroy the whole freaking world.’

  I changed to snake and went to her, butting her with my head. She grabbed me and held me so tight she nearly strangled me.

  ‘It’ll be all right, Simone, believe me,’ I said.

  ‘Thanks,
Emma.’ She took a deep breath and walked up to the wall, and Michael fell into step behind her. ‘Here we go.’

  I slithered up the stairs after them, and Leo concentrated and floated his wheelchair over them and up.

  The cherry blossoms still flowered at the Celestial Palace, but it was dark and the cool breeze was brisk. The stars blazed brilliantly in the clear sky. As we approached the ten-metre high palace gates, they swung open outwards.

  We entered. An official that I’d never seen before was waiting for us just inside the gates, and saluted us. ‘Princess Xuan. Your matter has been scheduled to be heard in Courtroom Four. Please follow me.’ He turned, said, ‘Courtroom Four,’ loudly, then disappeared.

  We all repeated the words and followed him.

  Courtroom Four was a building located at the back of the Celestial Palace complex, with a small garden around it and a bridge over a tiny pond. The building was about four metres to a side, dwarfed by the four-metre-high external wall of the palace, which stood a couple of metres from it. The official bowed slightly and gestured for us to enter.

  This is highly unusual, Gold said. I’ve never seen this building before, and it’s very informal for a serious hearing like this. The number four is ominous.

  I nodded my understanding and went in.

  Inside, it looked more like a Chinese living room than a courtroom. Rosewood sofas with thick silk cushions were set in a circle around a large, heavy, Ming-style coffee table. The walls were decorated with calligraphy scrolls—there must have been more than ten of them—all in the Jade Emperor’s own hand. There were a couple of delicately brushed ink paintings of Taoist mountains, which also had the Jade Emperor’s seal on the bottom. Tall plant stands under the scrolls held large vases of spectacular chrysanthemums; each blossom had to be nearly thirty centimetres across.

  The Jade Emperor himself, in a simple yellow robe, was filling a kettle with water from a large jug. He sat the kettle on a small gas burner and waved for us to enter.

  ‘Come in, come in, sit down,’ he said. ‘No formality, this is just to talk.’

  Kowtow anyway, Gold said, and the humans quickly fell to one knee and saluted. I bobbed my serpent head and Leo saluted from his chair.