by catt dahman
“Holy shit,” Cory yelped.
I turned to watch, biting my cheek. Virgil was strong, and the fight was equal so far, but Belial was very strong, filled with wickedness; he was like a summer rattler, swollen with poison and very dangerous. If Virgil didn’t feint, one blow of Belial’s sword would kill the man I loved and might cause the dead to walk the earth.
The fight was fair.
Danny didn’t want it to be fair but wanted to win and send Belial packing. Limmerfer ran across the battlefield, distracting Belial for a fraction of a second, and Danny, Dantanian, suddenly didn’t have the long rabbit teeth or the twitchy ear. He didn’t move with a silly hop. He stood straight and looked beautiful, too. He was in his true form.
Dana gasped.
Dantanian took up his sword and swung it heavily at Belial, catching the demon off guard so that Virgil could swing his sword at his adversary. The cut into Belials’ body sent fire and lightning in all directions, and his roar shook the ground like an earthquake. He backed away, furious, “You will beg me. Mark my words. You will beg.”
In a moment, he was gone, and Danny heaved a sigh of relief, gasping for air. Virgil slid to the ground, and I ran to him. He said he was all right but was exhausted. The fight here in hell had weakened his spirit and tired him.I made him lean on me to walk and demanded we find a place to rest the remainder of the day and night.
Danny led us along a new trail. We found a medium-sized, but lovely mansion on a hill, overlooking a frozen pond that glistened. Danny spoke with the owner, and she abruptly threw open her door and exclaimed, “Alice!” But then she ignored me except for a smile and then scooped up Limmerfer into her arms, speaking baby talk to him, scratching and kissing his face and chin.
He grinned happily.
We had been led to a piece of paradise in hell.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Rings and Promises
Her hair was white-blonde, her sky blue eyes were crystal clear, and her skin was snowy skin; she wore a dress dotted with diamonds. She was ice and snow. She was the White Queen and beautiful. I let Coral hold Virgil and curtsied. Dana and Cassie did the same, and the men gave her little bows.
Only Ellie ignored the Queen, rolling her eyes instead. I made a mental note to slap Ellie later.
Limmerfer curled and purred happily as he became the center of attention with promises made of a fresh fish dinner for him. The cat was so spoiled.
“Come in, come in. We’ll sooth your aches and put balm on your wounds. You’ll get good meals and sleep in beds filled with soft feathers, and we’ll have you feeling better fast. Let me get my servants to prepare your baths and then bring your silk robes.” She called her army of servants and gave them orders.
“So, as I understand this, Alice has my ring, but I need to wear it, and then after this last circle of hell, we go out a doorway, and we are back to normal, right?” Ellie asked.
“That’s what we understand,” Cory said.
“Because I can’t leave without the ring?”
“Right.”
Ellie nodded to Cory, “I’m glad you brought the ring, then.”
“Alice brought it,” Danny mentioned as he walked by.
“That one?” Ellie pointed to the one I wore on my right hand, the one meant for her.
“This is the one I was given to bring,” I said.
“Can I have it now? Do I have to wait?” she asked Virgil.
“Any time she wants to hand it over is fine. Or not at all. It’s free choice.”
Ellie held her hand out, “I’m ready.”
Want to think I am mean hearted? That’s fine, but I’m not. I am tender hearted and caring. At least, I had learned to be more so. I could show empathy and compassion, but I hesitated to hand her that ring. Granted, the mission was clearly stated that I was to retrieve a mortal who was wrongly in hell and deserved a chance to set everything right. Ellie was said to be that mortal. Only a mortal could be released, not a soul doomed to hell, a fallen angel, or a demon.
Those were the rules. I understood them.
“Imagine the earth populated by the walking dead because I stayed here and hell was too full. Can you grasp how horrible that would be? The zombies would eat people alive, ripping and tearing, and Alice, I bet you have parents there.”
I looked at her.
“What would your poor parents do? What kind of world would it if the dead walked the earth? ” Ellie said.It was a veiled threat.
“Horrible,” I muttered.
She waved her hand a little at me, “So, I need my ring.”
I might have handed it to her, but the word ‘my’ bothered me. Was it her ring? Or was it mine to give? I had free choice. It was still my ring so far, and I had to do everything right here in hell. It was my duty to the world.
“Alice? My ring, please?”
“To be honest, I am not sure that this is the time to hand it over. In fact, if you don’t stop pissing me off, you won’t get it at all.” That wasn’t the best response, but it was exactly how I felt.
Ellie recoiled as if I had hit her. Again.
“She can’t do this, can she?”
Virgil raised his eyebrows at Ellie and then at me, “Yes, she can. I can’t say we expected it per se, but it was always possible. She didn’t say she wouldn’t for sure.”
“But this is about me. Getting me out. Me being the mortal to get free,” Ellie said angrily.
“I would have to review the contract and circumstances again to know that for sure. Granted, I came here for that, but things are not quite as we expected. I want to be sure I do everything correctly,” I said a little spitefully.
“We don’t want the dead walking the earth,” Dana said softly.
“And do you know another mortal down here? Beside you?” Ellie asked.
“No. Are there more?” I asked Virgil.
“Stop asking to see if you have choices. It’s about me,” Ellie said.
Virgil shook his head, “Only Ellie.”
“What a shame,” I said.
She held her hand out again, “Alice, just do what you were sent to do. Let me have the ring so I can leave with all of you and the world will be saved.”
“Not now,” I set my jaw firmly. I had more questions and needed time to think this over. If Ellie didn’t belong here now, I had a suspicion she would later in her life anyway. She hadn’t learned much. I left her sitting in the parlor, and in a few minutes, she was alone, as everyone deserted her.
“She’s not a very nice person, Virgil.” I tucked him into the bed after a hot bath. He was still tired, and we planned to stay here two nights so he would be strong again. In the open, if Belial appeared again, we might find ourselves taken as prisoners if we weren’t all recovered and able to fight. Even if we faced dogs or crazed prostitutes again, we needed every able person to fight.
“No, she isn’t. She is the only mortal though. Use your common sense and heart to decide what to do,” Virgil told me.
“She is just a vile person, and I need to think about her more. The ring is too precious to be handed over without thought.”
“Why do you think you were chosen? To know those things.”
I frowned, “I was very uninterested and complacent when we met. I was shallow.”
“And look at yourself now. You have come a long way. You have changed a lot. Did you ever consider that is the real mission here?”
“What?”
Virgil pretended to fall asleep and said, “Think about it. Think what the real mission here was. Sacrifice, learning, interest, justice, love, friendship…they all matter.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Dead Walking
There are many unsavory ways to be awakened in the wee hours of the morning. We were awakened by the sounds of gunshots and a moaning that chilled me to the bone. Had I not heard that moaning in movies? Had that very sound not frightened me when watching zombie flicks?
I told Virgil I would check it out and that he had should rest. I y
anked on a robe and ran for the door where my other friends were getting prepared to open the front door. I asked Cassie to watch over Virgil since he was still weak.
As soon as we hit the ground outside, we were running.
Dozens of creatures came from the path, and they were moaning, drooling, dripping fluids, and powder or not, I could smell their waste and rot all around. Some of the humans, because they were people but dead ones, had fingers, hands, and arms missing. Weeping sores were left behind when parts were bitten or torn away and never healed.
I kicked one in the head as I swung my sword at a second one, removing his head. Before I could finish it off with a stab into its eye socket, I had to put the other zombie down. Sweeech was the noise my sword made as I drove into an eye and to the back of the skull. I was then able to stab the head on the ground until it stopped blinking and batting its eyes.
Coral, Dana, Cory, and Danny were just as busy as I was.
There were two men shooting their old-fashioned guns and dropping zombies with us. I made a guess that they were the two guides we were waiting for to lead us through the final circle of hell.
One was tall, wore a black cowboy, felt hat, a long black duster, black pants, string tie, and a crisp white shirt. He fired fast, reloaded, twirled his gun, and fired again. I saw, in a brief second, his gun had his initials set into the butt: WE.
Unlike WE and his rugged, handsome face, the other man, while also attractive, was a little shorter, had dark hair as well as blackberry eyes, and a wickedly happy grin on his face. He wore a similar outfit but used a rifle and a big knife to kill the undead.
Dana, on her back, kicked a huge man off her and to the ground; she pounced, stabbing him in his eyes. Coral was almost to her side to help, but seeing she had the fight under control, he spun to take down two zombies at once, smashing their heads in. The reek of their dead brains was appalling.
The tall gunfighter shot a zombie that ran at me.
“They aren’t supposed to run,” I grumbled.
“Why?” he asked, “you might wanna…you’re showing.”
My face burned red as I pulled my robe closed, embarrassed. I said, “I mean I didn’t think they could run.”
“So it seems they can,” the other man said, “good luck we were headed this way. Hello, Dantanian.”
Danny shook hands with the two men and said, “Wyatt, Doc, meet Cory, Coral, Alice, and Dana.”
“Wyatt…Earp?” Danna asked her eyes wide.
He tipped his hat.
“Doctor John Henry Holliday, at your service,” the second man spoke.
“Why are they in hell?” I asked, shocked again by something down here.
Holliday chuckled, “Those stages didn’t rob themselves, and at the O K Corral…ummm…we kind of helped set that up and fired first. We regretted it. Wyatt did in particular, but we didn’t regret it enough to make it right.”
“They live far away in the better area, like where we arrived, but we just now needed them. They have it far less bad than most,” Danny said.
Cassie looked out, saw we were all right, waved a few legs, and went back to tell Virgil we were fine.
“Are you here to be our guides?” Coral asked.
“Yup,” Doc said, “sorry we’re late. The roads are a mess. Seems you made Belial furious. These things are courtesy of him.”
“I’m glad you were late. They could have broken in without our hearing. I didn’t hear anything before your gunshots,” Danny admitted.
Inside the big house, the White Queen was out of bed, wearing a thin robe over her sexy sleepwear, and said,“Hello, Doc.”
“Hello, Thelma. Looking good.”
“So are you. I saved you a warm spot in bed.”
Doc followed her to her bed happily.
On the sofa, Ellie looked up at Wyatt Earp and yawned with boredom, “All done?”
“Yes. Thanks for the help,” I snapped.
“I’m not much at fighting.Alice, what if you had been bitten, died, and turned? How would I get my ring?”
“I am selfish that way, huh?” I turned and left her, washed up, and climbed back in bed to sleep. Virgil turned over in his sleep, and I snuggled against his back. Each time I didn’t throttle Ellie, I thought I should get a prize.
Virgil only awoke to use the facilities, to eat meals I brought him on trays, and to make sure I was unharmed. Limmerfer and I played; I tossed the ball, and he ran for it and brought it to me. More than anything, I avoided Ellie and spent time sitting alone with Limmerfer, thinking. There was a great spot on the third floor in a small alcove where I sat in a window seat wrapped in a soft blanket.
Limmy purred happily as I thought about everything I had been through and all I had seen and done. I tried to see Ellie from other points of view and attempted to be neutral. As I scratched Limmy’s ears, I saw that his iolite stone set into his necklace or collar looked shiny and bright. Virgil’s and Danny’s were too small for them to travel back to my world; the stones were so tiny they were about to wink out.
My iolite was exactly as it had always been.
Only a mortal could pass from hell, and Ellie was the only mortal and the one we had been sent to rescue. I was sent here for a reason. It occurred to me that I did know what was right; whether I liked my choices or not, I had to follow the rules, and I had to be just.
“Fine, Limmy, what has to be…has to be. Demons lie, and angels are honest, and that’s a fact that we’ll have to live with,” I said, scooping up my furry friend.
At dinner, Coral asked if I had good luck with all my thoughts during the day. I said I had excellent luck and that when we reached the final circle of hell, the ninth, I would do as I was supposed to do and give the ring to whomever it belonged.
Ellie sighed and smiled. I glared at her.
Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Ninth Circle of Hell
I didn’t know what to expect as we left, bidding the White Queen goodbye. In some ways, this trip had taken forever, but now it seemed everything had gone by way too fast for me to grasp all the details. The zombie corpses littered the lawn, and the Queen said she would have her servants remove them.
We had fared well with the zombies, but if we hadn’t been trained or prepared, we would have been torn apart and eaten alive right in the house. Here, in hell, that was normal. I had no idea how anyone became used to this.
Dana kept the gunfighters talking. She wanted to know all kinds of historical secrets, and I could almost imagine her taking mental notes for a book she wanted to write one day. She was fascinated with their stories and getting to meet two men from the past that she had only read about or seen portrayed in movies.
Although I had never noticed the slight lines of worry Dana wore on her face since she had been ill from the botched medical treatment and the guilt in her eyes before we came here, I now easily saw that those were no longer there. I could see they were absent. She smiled brighter and was at peace; confession and forgiving her own mistakes had been all she needed.
Coral was still Coral, but he looked lighter.
Cory looked more pale and frowned a lot, as if he had a lot on his mind.
I wondered if I looked more at peace. I would be once this mission was finished. Maybe. I wasn’t sure because I would lose Virgil.
Before I could think more, a dozen creatures came at us from the rocks, dropping to their feet. They had human bodies, as far as shape, but thick scales covered their flesh, and their feet and hands were claw-like, sharp, and dangerous. Their heads were without real foreheads or chins, and their faces stuck out like a muzzle or a snout; their eyes were yellow and reptilian; small, sharp teeth filled their mouths.
Virgil and Danny both swung their swords, slashing away arms and heads. Wyatt and Doc both proved to be excellent sharpshooters as they took down all the lizard men who stood on the rocks around us, ready to attack. They bled greenish ichor.
I slammed my sword into the body of a lizard, but my sword bounced off. I had
to step forward and put weight into my blow before I could cut him down. Cory and Dana had the same problem, but big Coral was lopping off heads with ease. Cassie had a knife that she used to finish off the ones we chopped and smashed to the ground.
This was just another test and attempt to stop us from finishing our mission, and it felt very petty to have lizard men fight a battle. They made a horrendous mewling noise when injured. Limmerfer had one in his claws, ripping and slashing after Coral had taken off the creature’s arms. Limmy dug in, went for the eyes, and made a mess of the thing’s face; Cassie finished it off and hugged the cat.
“Cassie and I always pull through,” Cory said as he put his arm about her shoulders.It was a little strange to see the wild surfer-boy with an arm around a caterpillar, but Cassie was special.
“I detest these things,” Coral kicked at a body, “lizards of all things. They think they’re special ‘cause they have scales? Well. I guess a cat whipped your scaly ass.” He kicked again.
I knew Coral was feeling the stress of the mission coming to a close and having no idea what we were going to do or what was going to happen. I felt the same way. Dana gave my hand a squeeze to let me know she was nervous, too, but had faith we would be okay. We waited a few seconds while Lim cleaned his face and paws.
“Good shooting,” I told Wyatt and Doc.
“Thank ya, Ma’am. We try,” Doc told me and coughed a little. He and Earp were likable characters, well mannered and engaging to talk with. I hoped they would have a better time here than some did.
“Through here,” Danny showed us. We followed him along the trail, under rock formations and into cold caverns that looked ancient. We had to climb up a few bluffs and then climb down, crawl under strangely canted boulders and around slippery slopes.
“I always thought hell was a burning fire pit,” Coral noted, “I mean that’s what I imagined and what the preacher man said; this is strange.”
