Descent

by Phil Maxey

  “You sure are an ugly moth—”

  A hand gripped my throat and the world went dark.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  I’m in a boat. Not particularly big, just enough room for two. The moon lit the night sky, and in front of me was a woman. Perhaps Alyssa and I had escaped. It’s just I couldn’t remember that happening... My mother turned around. She was wearing the same orange jumper that she wore the last time I saw her. September of the year I left for college.

  She smiled and held my hand. I wanted to talk but instead a tear began to drip from my eye. “I wasn’t there,” I said. “I should have been there.”

  She shook her head. “No, there was nothing you could have done Seb. Forces far too powerful were conspiring. We were just drifting in a lake.” She turned back to the rippling water. “Much like this.”

  “I miss you.”

  She turned back to me. “I know. But Seb, you have to fight. I know it’s hard. You are alone. Those that should have protected you, are dead or have become something worse. You were named after the first of the Hell-Locks, the knight that created the order. Each knight can draw on the power of their seal, but a Hell-Lock knight can draw on them all… You have the power within you to defeat any agent of evil, but with each broken seal that power diminishes…”

  “I…” I looked around at the lake which appeared not to have any shore. “I… don’t remember what happened. There was a monster…”

  She smiled, letting go of my hand. “There will always be monsters Seb…”

  I went to speak again, but instead I plunged into the icy depths as if the bottom of the boat gave way. In desperation I reached out, trying to locate her but failing…

  I opened my eyes to flickering shadows and the stench of urine. Pain streamed along my arms, which were held aloft, and behind my shoulders. I was in a cell, with a rich darkness only broken by the glow of a burning torch outside the bars. Ignoring the throbbing that coursed through my limbs, I planted my feet and heaved on the chains, but what strength I mustered quickly dissolved.

  “There’s—”

  My head flicked to the left, the back corner. “Who’s that? Who are you?”

  They cleared their throat. “As I was saying, there is little point in trying to break those chains, they are warded.”

  “Professor?”

  “Even you will not be able to break them.”

  “Are you okay? Have you seen Alyssa?”

  “Heard… not seen.”

  “Heard? What do you mean heard?” I strained my eyes, but could not penetrate the shadows where he was residing. “Why can I not see you, I can see well in the dark.”

  “Again… warded chains… There has been much screaming. I think it was…” He let out a breath. “Alyssa…”

  “Agh!” I pulled on the links again with the same result. “Have you been in this cell all—”

  Chains clattered, this time not my own and a wretched figure shuffled forward where the shadows could not reach. For a moment I thought I was still in a dream or more accurately a nightmare. He was only clothed in pants and a shirt, his feet being bare and covered in grime and blood, but it was his face that horrified me, for where his right eye should have been was only a crimson hole.

  “I know my appearance is somewhat unsettling…”

  “What happened to your eye?”

  “The white rider took it. He collects… them.” He stumbled back, then fell against the wall, sliding down it until he was on the floor. “Forgive me, standing takes its toll.”

  Waves of anger swept through me and I gathered my strength and pulled on the chains. The links creaked, but held firm. I let out a breath in frustration.

  “This is all my fault…” said Fortacan.

  “What? This is not your fault. We wanted to rescue you.”

  “No, I do not mean that. I mean the white rider used to be alone in this realm. And alone we could perhaps of defeated him, but…”

  “But?”

  The forlorn figure on the floor raised his head. “I am a descendent of the Exiled knights…”

  A few seconds passed before his words settled in my mind. “What? That doesn’t make any sense… you’re human!”

  “Yes… They came to me, many decades ago, when I was young, younger even than you are now. They offered me wealth in exchange for a family heirloom. An old coin. I had heard the stories of course, of how it was important. A magical item which protected us from evil! Ha! I believed none of it. So I took their money and lived like a king until of course the money was gone, and it was revealed to me what I had actually given up for earthly pleasure. It was at that point I dedicated my life to fighting what tries to destroy us from beyond the veil. I became a—”

  “Priest…”

  “Yes, and I walked the path for as long as I could, but even that wasn’t enough. I needed to do things that could not be sanctioned by the church, so I left. Shortly after I met a vampire and you know the rest…”

  “They destroyed the second seal and released another horseman…”

  He forced a brief smile. “So you can see. Everything that has happened, and will happen is because of the choices my younger self made. And now I and those I care for are paying for them.”

  “But there’s still the Hell-Lock seal, if I can get loose and—”

  “I presume you are restrained because you already tried that…”

  “Yes, but we didn’t… I didn’t know—”

  “How powerful the white rider is?”

  I nodded.

  “Anyway, soon it will not matter, for it is almost time, and they will destroy your family’s seal. At that point, the void will start to consume you, and you will not care what happens to Alyssa, or myself, or—”

  I sneered. “I will never work with them! They can... how long have I been here for?”

  “Three days…”

  “What?” I tried searching my mind for any indication of that much time passing, but there wasn’t any. “It couldn’t have been that long…”

  “I believe they have been drugging you.”

  “How long do we have?”

  A clanking noise came from somewhere outside.

  “I’m afraid we are out of time.” Heavy doors were being unlocked. “You are not like me Sebastian, you are strong. Fight the void inside you, and you can still survive this.”

  A heavy-set guard wearing the same insane looking mask and capes appeared on the other side of the bars. I sneered, but he ignored me and unlocked the cell door and moved to within a few feet of me. It was then I saw the needle in his hand. I struggled with everything I had, but soon I returned to the darkness that I came from.

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  Shadows shifted form, while scents came and went, then light and sound exploded in my mind, bringing me back to the nightmare. I was still chained, but quickly realized to a different wall. I was back inside the huge cave, with giant statues and even stranger gateways.

  Alyssa was to my side, equally restrained, but unconscious. Her appearance filled me with equal measure of guilt, rage and sadness, but I could hear her heart gently pounding in her chest.

  Alive…

  I tried to see if she had both of her eyes, but her head was slumped away from me. I struggled against my confinement and swore at the magic which was holding me. The demon horde begun to file into the great hall, taking up seats on both sides. To my left, some tens of feet away was the other door, an exit, or was it an entrance?

  It was framed by stone columns that contained a mass of carved figures, each one a picture of suffering.

  “Alyssa!” I said with urgency, but she remained motionless, not even a flicker from her heart. The eager crowed started to chant, something they appeared to be fond of, and at the other end of the hall came Octavian with his ornately woven cape, but without his mask. Behind him someone was dressed differently to everyone else, being in all black, from head to toe. They kneeled at the foot of the horseman, while others cont
inued to stream in also taking up seats. Finally the door was closed. I looked at the ceiling, the statues, the rock walls, anywhere for a sign of an escape route, but nothing presented itself. The chanting stopped and Octavian briefly held something aloft, which I couldn’t see from where I was, but I could see he was holding it with silver gloves. I hoped it wasn’t what I was sure it was. I strained against the chains again.

  “And so on this holiest of holy days—” His voice echoed off the pointed rocks and sheer walls. “—We have come together to bring forth my brother into this realm. To reclaim him from the void, so he may, with all of us, work to create a new world!” A ripple of grunts rippled amongst the onlookers. “A world where it is us, that rule, and the humans take up their rightful place beneath us, as our sustenance!” More enthused sounds came from the crowd. “The seal we break today, brings us one more step closer to our final victory. But be aware there are those that work to undermine our true fate. Four more seals will still exist, and because of that those that work against the void will unfortunately still have the weight of divine power on their side.” The grunts were replaced with groans. “But we are powerful, we are determined, and with the new member of our flock, who will soon be with us, we will succeed!” The inside of the massive ancient chamber erupted in elation, then settled.

  Alyssa started to move and I sensed her heart beat faster.

  “Alyssa!” I said again. She groaned, and her head flopped towards me. I grimaced on seeing the yellow bruises and strained to better see her right eye, which was swollen.

  I sighed in relief.

  Both eyes. Still both eyes…

  “What…” She swallowed and tried again. “What the fuck is happening?”

  “Err.. I would like to say things are okay, but they’re… not.”

  She raised her head to better see the proceedings at the other end of the hall. Octavian placed what I could now see was a small box, in the same material as his gloves, down on the ornate rug, and opened it. A pale blue, almost white light poured out, lighting the cave roof a hundred feet above. A groan immediately came from those close-by, including the horseman who took a step back, the others though started to get to their feet, and one of them a large hulking figure walked forward confidently and leaned over the laser like beam animating from the tiny metal container and was immediately vaporized.

  I felt the impact within me. “What the…”

  Another of the caped and masked individuals did the same, disintegrating, making me wince. I realized my limbs were getting warm, a sensation that was threatening to spread. A third ran forward, then another, and another until there was a torrent of them running to their deaths and my whole body felt as if it was on fire.

  “What’s happening?” screamed Alyssa at me.

  I struggled to give her an answer as the pain had now become agony. With each annihilation the light coming from the box spluttered, its color weakening, becoming darker, then tinged with a reddish hue.

  Finally the last of the crowd had sacrificed themselves and the light from the box was a dark purple. Only Octavian and the being dressed in black remained.

  I slumped forward against my chains, my mind in a fog, trying to catch my breath. I looked at my arms and legs to make sure they were still there. They were.

  “Are you okay?” said Alyssa, with desperate concern across her face.

  Octavian looked over to me and smiled, then slowly walked forward and stopped a few feet from both of us. “I require one more sacrifice, hmmm….” His eyes flicked between myself and Alyssa.

  I noticed the masked person near the glowing box was looking at us as well. “You promised Octavian!” I recognized the voice. It was Micheal Hell-Lock. “You gave me your word, you would spare him!”

  Octavian smiled at me. His eyes were glowing an intense red and I knew what he intended.

  “No, take me!” I shouted at him, while straining against my chains.

  He waved at Alyssa’s restraints which fell away. She moved in a blur, going at him with claw and fury, but he was quicker still and caught her arm, then gripped her throat, her feet dangling off the ground. He then turned and started to walk back to the beam of light, while she kicked and fought with her free hand.

  “No! Me! I’m the better sacrifice! Take me!” I couldn’t lose her. With each step closer to her death, rage flowed through me.

  “No!” I bellowed, the tenure of my voice becoming deeper, more coarse, the cave wall amplifying my intent, and suddenly a tsunami of power filled my being and the chains snapped. As I went to step forward, pulling away from the wall, I realized I was surrounded by an ethereal golden light which had form and clung to my limbs and torso. A luminous suit of armor. With a mere thought I surged across the stone slabs and slammed into the white rider, knocking Alyssa from his grasp. She almost fell into the beam coming from the box, but rolled to the side avoiding it, and regained her balance, kneeling with claws and fangs at the ready.

  Octavian swung around and for a moment I saw fear in his eyes. He sprang at me, as I did him, and we crashed together with a crack of thunder which made the statues and cave walls shudder. His body was now almost twice its usual size, and an almighty fist flew towards me. Raising both of my arms, I negated the blow but the power was still enough to send me sliding backwards until I smashed into a statue, which cracked, the top half falling and breaking on the ground in front of me.

  Octavian grinned at me and went to move again towards Alyssa, but this time she knew what was coming and in a blur moved away just escaping his grasp. I lurched forward, grabbed the few tons of carved stone, lifted and hurled it in one movement. It sailed through the air perfectly catching the horseman, and taking him with it as it kept on going, until both smashed into the far wall which collapsed on top of him.

  “No!” screamed Alyssa. Something had been happening out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see my father mouth silent words to me, then step forward into the energy streaming from the box. I didn’t see his demise because a pain I had never known flowed through me. I fought against it, but hate was coursing through my veins, consuming me. The light that flowed from my being, flickered and faded.

  The pile of masonry and rubble where Octavian had been buried, began to move. Alyssa ran to me, pulling me forward to the main door. I looked back at the small box which appeared to be a mass of shadows, oozing and coiling as if it was a pit of snakes, but instead of serpents other forms writhed in the darkness.

  We ran into the corridor and pulled the large door closed. I looked around for a suitable barricade, and grabbed one of the smaller but still substantial statues and wedged it up against the door.

  “Fortacan!” shouted Alyssa, but my senses and mind were a jumble of apposing thoughts.

  You’re free now… she hates you… leave the old man to die…

  I shook my head and spun around to the other corridors around us. “I… I can’t tell where he is.” Something slammed up against the door, but the statue and wooden frame held firm. I lent my weight to it. “Go find him!”

  In a blur, she was gone.

  She’s not returning... She’s leaving because she knows…

  Coughing and scuffling came from a nearby corridor and out of the gloom came Alyssa and a frail old professor. A part of me was relieved.

  The door and whatever was on the other side had become oddly silent, when the ground started to rumble.

  “We need to go!” shouted Alyssa.

  Fortacan resisted, trying to move back to the door. “We have to get the seal, before it’s—”

  I caught him as his legs started to give way. “It’s too late, professor, it’s already—”

  It’s your fault. The world will end, be part of it…

  “— too late, it’s destroyed!” We scrambled along the shadow rich stone walls and floor, trying to keep our balance as the earth itself appeared to be tilting on its axis. We fell forward into a smaller hallway, with a set of stairs at the end, which we climb
ed, coming up into the main hallway. We went to step forward, when I heard a creak, and the chandelier which was swaying as if it was on a ship, dropped, shattering just a few feet in front of us. We stepped around and I ran to where they had been keeping the cell phones and grabbed the bag. Alyssa kicked the front door open, and all three of us spilled out into the night…

  Continued in book two.

  Thanks for reading Sebastian Hell-Lock Book 1: Descent, I hope you enjoyed it. Book 2, Oblivion is available now at the link below.

  (This link may not work on Apple mobile devices. Please copy and paste into a browser for it to work.)

  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08H3YTH1X

  Please leave a review for this book on Amazon as it really helps.

  If you would like news on my latest releases, special offers or a free book, you can sign up to my mailing list on my website at www.pmcoleauthor.com .

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  About the Author

  P.M. Cole is a forty something author, living at the top of a Victorian house in greater London. He's looking forward to continuing the adventures of Sebastian. Hell-Lock in 2021 and beyond.

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  Acknowledgements

  Book cover design by www.starbookcovers.com