by catt dahman
“It isn’t for her. It’s for your parents and the world, and it is the right thing to do.
She wasn’t supposed to be here,” Coral reminded me.
“Right. I get it. But I don’t like her,” I said.
“I don’t like you, either,” she told me.
Danny said we had to stop soon because he didn’t want to stop in the next area.
It was way too dangerous for us. As we walked, Ellie flirted with Virgil, and I was getting close to punching her again, but he yanked her to the side, making her whine with the pain of his grip on her arm. He whispered something that sounded gruff and made her look sad; when we walked on, she no longer flirted and kept her mouth shut.
We passed several stalls. Rob’s Real Roasted Ribs (BYOR) sat on one side and Gloria’s Ghoulish Ghoulash on the other side, along with Delightful Asian, Fifty Blades of Flay, and Hatter’s Baby Batter (sperm bank).
“Those kids born from women who use that place…horrible…big floppy ears and funny shaped heads…dumb as doornails,” Danny said, “but those shops are gaining in popularity as everyone wants to help build the infernal population. It’s big business.”
“Is nothing out of bounds?” I asked.
Danny thought for a second, “Ummm. Not that I can think of.”
Chapter Thirty-Four: Dee and Dum
Another house we visited was back in the woods a little and resembled a big, shambling haunted house with cornices and a creaky front door and loaded with what looked to be priceless antiques. I saw crystal vases, Persian rugs, inlaid mother of pearl-topped tables, velvet drapes, and more opulence than I could have dreamed of. The creepiness outside might have fit into my version of hell, but the inside was beautiful and wasn’t unpleasant in any way.
“You must be rich,” Ellie said rudely as we entered the home.
The hosts were twin men, tall and rather chubby, with round heads and silly looking, prissy clothing. One was Dee, and the other was Dum.
Dum giggled, “This? This is what no one else wants. Old stuff like this is very unchic. We furnished with thrown away junk no one else wanted.”
They said we were nearly late and ushered us to a table once we had washed our hands. The huge dining table was set with china, gold flatware, and crystal goblets for water and wine. Once we were seated with linen napkins on our laps, the twins brought out so many dishes that I lost count, but the dinner was themed like Thanksgiving so we had turkey and ham, dishes of every vegetable possible, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and casseroles.
I told the brothers they were excellent cooks and the meal was perfect. I had to pause to say it, and the others were eating so fast and heavily that they couldn’t get a word in between bites. We ate way too much but made room somehow for at least a few bites of the cakes and pies served for dessert, along with tea.
No wonder Dee and Dum were obscenely obese.
“So Alice,” Dum asked me, “have you considered that maybe you are at home in bed, asleep, and are only dreaming all of this?”
“It would be a long dream,” I said.
“Dreams occur in a split second anyway. Maybe we are a part of your dream and you’ll awaken and find this never happened,” Dum went on.
“I doubt that.”
Dee took up the argument, “Then, maybe you are just a figment of someone’s dream yourself and this is all a dream. When that person awakens, you’ll cease to exist.”
“So maybe this is all a nightmare, and I’ll awaken at home in bed without being here? I think I’d be sorry I missed this delicious dinner,” I said.
That logic didn’t seem right, but wondering about it ruined my appetite, and after we cleaned up and chatted with our hosts, I went to bed with Virgil. He assured me this wasn’t a dream and was real.
It was a long time before I fell asleep.
In the morning, before I could even finish eating, I was furious again; this time it was because I saw Cory and Ellie come out of a bedroom together.
“What have you done? She’s supposed to be a virgin, Cory. How can we get her out?”
“I am?”
“She is?”
“Isn’t she?” I asked Danny and Virgil.
Danny shook his head and backed away from me, “Ummm. That isn’t a deal breaker. She wasn’t when she got here, so….”
“You said you were, but it was okay if I were your first. You lied, huh?” Cory asked Ellie.
She shrugged.
“Whatever. Not like it was love anyway,” he sulked.
“The Red Queen will be here soon, and she will guide you across to the next section,” Dee said.
“Isn’t she the bad chick from the mirror world?” Coral asked, worried.
“Oh. Yes and no. This one is the good one from here. I mean the better one…you know….”
I stared at Dee in confusion, “So it’s not the mirrored, worst one.”
“Right. This one is just a bit of a slut. Let me tell you what she did….”
I held a hand up, “Dee, what are you and Dum in hell for?”
He narrowed his eyes, and Dum giggled, “Gossiping. All the people in this area are here because our gossip and lies caused great discord and division: in war times or in marriages, in kingdoms, friendships; we all ruined lives because of our deeds.”
Dee forgave my question to ask, “So do you want to hear what the Red Queen did?”
“No, thank you.”
We cleaned up, got dressed for battle, gathered our weapons, and waited for the Red Queen. Vigil whispered that he was concerned over how on-edge I had become.
I wiped a tear and told him our quest was almost over and I would lose him.All this was for a girl who was less than likeable. I rubbed at the ring he had given me, repeating in my head that it was all love all eternity.
“Ζω για σένα. Θα είναι η αγάπη. Είστε αναπνοή μου και την καρδιά μου. Είστε άπειρο,” He told me this: I was his life, his love, his breath, and his heartbeat. Άπειρο was the Greek word for infinity. Until he translated, I didn’t know what he said, but the words sounded like poetry and were beautiful when he said them.
He said, “Για πάντα η γυναίκα μου.” He smiled and told me that I was forever his wife, now.
The romance calmed me. His words were soothing balm to my spirit.
Chapter Thirty-Five: The Red Queen
When the Red Queen arrived, Dum and Dee introduced us, and then they left for the Sowers of Discord meeting where each stood and said, “Hello, I am Dee (or whatever the name is), and I have sown discord and divided people….”
They were then hacked and sliced with a sword that a demon welded. Neither twin looked forward to his turn but had been through this time and time again and knew that they could handle the punishment to be dealt to them, would heal again, and go back through the punishment when it was their turn.
I thought it sounded dreadful.
“Come along,” The Red Queen ordered. She was tall, red-haired, pale-skinned, and wore a long, fancy, royal-looking dress of scarlet and trimmed with some soft, white fur. About her throat and wrists and on her fingers were jewels set with enormous rubies.
She handed us handkerchiefs and said we had to wear them around our mouths and noses at all times as we traveled. She cautioned us not to touch anything and to avoid contact with others at all costs.
She shared a story with us. Ulysses was in the area we left before this last one because he used the Trojan horse for deception and he was a fraud. He used trickery to gain an advantage. In the next area she said Trojans punished Sinon as he had been the one to convince the Trojans to roll the horse into the walls of Troy and thus he was a liar. While it was wrong to deceive, it was worse to have actively pushed trickery.
“Who else is there?” Coral asked.
“Counterfeiters, perjurers, liars, and tricksters.”
As we walked into this township, we saw thousands of pallets on the ground as
far as we could see in both directions. On each was a feeble body.
Danny explained, “They were a disease on society, and they suffer diseases here that are never soothed. As you can see, there are millions. Lying spreads like a cancer.”
The Red Queen and he pointed to various pallets and people. One was suffering bubonic plague with a bubo the size of a grapefruit under his arm that looked ready to burst open; the man groaned and cried with unimaginable pain and fever.Another man on a pallet scratched at a terrible rash, a woman rocked back and forth, holding her head and wailing, a teen boy screeched as tiny worms crawled from his pores, and several bled, vomited, or suffered diarrhea with hemorrhagic flu and dysentery. Every disease and ailment was here.
The Red Queen set us onto a path right down the center instead of the other side. When I asked why we were going the wrong, longer way, she shook her head, “Oh, you don’t want to go forwards on that other path since it leads right into the area they keep the wolf-sick ones.”
“The what?” Dana asked.
“They howl and can’t take water. Their throats and necks pain them.”
“Rabies,” Coral said.
“They are prone to attacking any who comes near them, and they spread the sickness through their bites. Those to the right have diseases of the urine, the heart, the chest, face, and head,” The Queen waved a hand, and we saw thousands lined up on pallets.
“Oh,” I said.
“And to the left, we have diseases of the brain and the mentally disturbed. You see many are tied down? They can be violent, imagine images, or try to escape.” She shuddered, “And there, straight ahead, we will find diseases of the skin such as boils, blisters, rashes, lesions, and peeling, so we’ll take this path.”
In a little while, we walked under an arch, and the Red Queen said we were in the Valley of the Lepers. “I will fear no evil, thy rod and staff will beat them back. But if there be a truth in what they say, That angel-forms we cannot see, Go with us on our way; Then surely she is with me here, I dimly feel her spirit near--The morning-mists grow thin and clear, And Death brings in the Day.”
“Or he for the angels.” I reached to hold Virgil’s hand, and he grinned at me.
The Queen quoted again, “Hark, said the dying man and sighed, To that complaining tone--Like sprite condemned, each eventide, To walk the world alone, At sunset, when the air is still, hear it creep from yonder hill. It breathes upon me dead and chill. A moment, and is gone. My son, it reminds me of a day left half a life behind that I have prayed to put away, forever from my mind.But bitter memory will not die: It haunts my soul when none is nigh: I hear its whisper in the sigh of that complaining wind.”
I swallowed hard. All around were men and women wrapped in dirty grey bandages, gauze, and sheets. Many were covered head to toe with only their eyes showing, and others were less covered so we could see their silvery, rotting skin flaking and crumbling away. Some faces were missing noses; that were appalling. Many were absent fingers so they reached for us with some wrapped things that looked like paws.
We had to keep our distance, but I felt sympathy for the poor people.
There were stalls in one small area run by those who suffered alopecia, asthma, sleep disorders, erectile dysfunctions, and restless leg syndrome. They sold food and bandages, sheets and ointments, potions, and a variety of gemstones.
“Those with bowel and stomach diseases supply so much to the State of Decay and Sewage Benefit that this area stays fairly well supplied with food and medication and bandages although they never get relief and never heal.”
“But they lie in the open on hard pallets,” Dana said.
Ellie giggled, and I gave her a dirty look.
“Yes, they do, but this wheel branches off into the flat lands and close to one of the rivers that leads to the Styx, so their infections and waste run into the waters and keep the water filthy. But…never mind that. My point is there are millions. There is no where they could be housed, and there is no one to tend all of them,” the Queen said.
She stopped at a bridge, saying she could go no farther and had done her service. She said good-bye and clutched my hand as she leaned close to whisper a warning to me. I nodded.
It was as I had suspected; Ellie was not trustworthy. The Red Queen said she felt it in her bones.
Chapter Thirty-Six: Belial Versus Vine and Dantanian
We climbed upwards to reach the icy cold tops of the mountains. In the ice, we saw many frozen within a cold, hard wall, their eyes staring outwards with fear and misery. Danny said they were conscious, but encased so they couldn’t move but had to stay in place with the ice frigid against their flesh. I saw Mordred, the hateful son who tried to kill his own father King Arthur but not his mother Morgana. Cain was there as well since he had killed his own brother, Able, and this was the place for those who did harm to their own family members.
Others I didn’t know since they were those who harmed their own kingdoms and political parties or benefactors, and then there were those who betrayed their ultimate rulers. One person here I did recognize: Judas Iscariot. His feet stuck out from the ice while poison-filled wasps stung him.
“Get behind the trees,” Danny yelled. We heard thundering footsteps approaching.
We had to scoot to the edge of the road for safety and to hide as demonic soldiers came marching through the mountain pass. Despite the powder, we could smell them: body odors, rancid sweat, and stinky feet. We were told there were 4,207 of them in all, and it took a long time for them to pass. All were hideous demons of various colors, sizes, and shapes, but all had wicked eyes and brutal glares.
“They will pass through all the areas where we’ve been and torture anyone they find, maim and kill at random, rape, burn, and cause them more misery. It’s what they do sometimes to add a little unhappiness,” Danny said.
“As if the place can stand more misery,” I muttered.
“They add untold grief. Just be thankful we are hidden,” Danny whispered.
It was cold as we hid behind trees and watched the demon soldiers.
“There is Haigha,” Virgil said. He pronounced it to rhyme with ‘mayor’. “He strolls along behind and enjoys the carnage, calling the soldiers back if he doesn’t see enough desolation to please the Big Boss Down Under.”
“I wish we could destroy them all,” Dana said.
“We all do. I wish they had less than misery, less than pain, and more at the same time,” Virgil said.
“How eloquent, Vine,” a thunderous voice scared us. Cassie cringed and scooted behind Coral.
“What do you want, Belial?”
The man smiled. His hair was darker than Virgil’s and was bluish black, his skin was tanned and tight, his body was lean, but powerfully built, and his face was more than handsome; it was beautiful. He moved with grace and confidence. He smiled again, blinding us with all the white teeth, and his green eyes sparkled and glittered, “I waited a while as I have known for some time you were about. Hello, lovely Alice.”
“Go away,” Virgil warned Belial.
“Oh, Vine, how silly. You see, I have come for her, the beautiful Alice, and she is now my prisoner. Let’s see how your precious mission goes.”
I couldn’t help but notice his muscles rippling beneath the reddish leather, the tight shirt and tight leather pants he wore over black boots. He looked like a red knight or the red Greek god, come to face us.
The air around me seemed to ripple in waves. I saw it and felt it. My ears popped painfully, and I noticed Virgil; his black leathers looked tighter and stronger, more muscle-bound; he was so beautiful in body. His blue eyes lit up with a blaze against his pale skin. Even I could not look stare into those eyes of fire for more than a second.
Virgil, or rather Vine, as this was more his true form, or as much as we humans could discern, had pale skin, black ripples, blue fire. In those seconds, he wasn’t the man I knew and loved, but a being so far removed from my understanding that my mind struggl
ed to keep him in my sights. My view slipped and slid. Only as a fallen angel was he available for my love, normally he would be impossible to fathom.
Oh my, but he was a handsome man. A beautiful angel.
“You will not touch her, Belial,” Virgil said, his voice low and like thunder so that a human ear could almost not comprehend.
“Alice,” Belial said softly, purring, “take my hand; be my prisoner…a turn of a phrase really…my princess is more correct, my queen…my goddess…and let me love you.”
“Like hell. Literally,” I said. He didn’t interest me in the least.
Ellie whispered, “Ohhh, ask me; ask me.”
I wanted to hit her again.
“Okay, then let me do this. With my status and connections, I am in good with Lucifer, (all hail his glory). I can work out something so maybe Ole Vine can keep you here forever, and you and he could have a good life.”
“Ha, good? Do I look stupid?”
“You don’t; she does; he does,” Belial said, pointing to Ellie and Cory. Coral snickered, despite the dire circumstances.
“You’re an ass,” Ellie told him.
Belial laughed lightly, “It could be good. You and Vine might live in a castle and have every desire met. You could have children…oh, not the ones with the souls, silly souls at that, but you could have a family and stay with him always.”
Virgil roared his answer, “No, she’ll not stay in this pit of ruin.”
“I would make a deal if the dealer spoke honestly. You are a liar. I say no to every offer you have,” I said.
“You should have taken the offer with me as my love,” Belial made kissing sounds.
“Come on,” Virgil roared.
Cory grabbed me to put my face against his chest so I couldn’t see the fights as the Red Knight lunged at Virgil, my White Knight, sword slashing. My tears soaked Cory’s shirt, but I saw none of the fight. Each time Cory grunted or groaned, a fresh stream of tears fell from my eyes, but if Virgil faltered or ducked a blow, I would scream and throw him off his game. If I watched and reacted, I could cause him to lose the battle.
