The Devil's Paradise

by Aiden James

  He turned to survey the gorge again, and a few angels standing in the middle of the basin pointed toward them. Rafael remarked how these creatures rarely acknowledged the Essenes’ presence during previous visits. Suddenly, four of the enormous beings appeared directly in front of them. The angels hovered just above the ground while their powerful wings fluttered effortlessly, glistening in a wondrous array of colors.

  Rafael’s men fell prostrate on the damp earth before them, while Rafael cowered slightly. Jeremy stepped back, seemingly unsure how to respond to the angels gazing down at them all. Only Jack held his ground, recognizing one angel that floated ahead of the other three.

  “Hello, Jack,” said the angel, its voice musical and as divinely inhuman as he remembered when he first encountered it, almost eight years earlier. At that time the angel stood on the sphere guarding the back gate to his grandfather’s property.

  “While it is good to see you, you and your friends cannot remain here,” the angel advised. “The area is unsafe, as the emissaries of Bochicha have been released for the first time in twelve thousand years. The demons are a mere nuisance to us, as we complete our preparations for the ‘war of wars’ that is soon to come. But they are deadly to the children of men. Your flesh and blood are sweet to them, and you all remain in great danger outside the castle’s safety.”

  A blood-curdling shriek filled the air high above them and the other angels throughout the gorge turned their attention immediately toward this noise. The men followed their gaze but saw nothing. The angel and its three companions lifted their faces toward the noise as well, and then the one who had spoken to Jack addressed him again.

  “Tell Francisco the ‘reign of unending darkness’ is upon us and that Moroni has warned you,” said the angel, a keener sense of urgency in its voice. “Ossisa, Gabriel, and Micheles will join me in aligning our armies from the four corners of the earth to try and prevent this from happening. Much depends on you and the last of the Essenes, Jack. Francisco will understand what this means. May Elohim be with you all. Now, go!”

  Rafael’s men remained prostrate on the ground until Moroni addressed them in the Spanish/Aymara dialect they spoke. Immediately they stood up, smiling shyly, as if grateful they hadn’t displeased the angel in some way. Just as the group headed back to the castle a large band of the demonic creatures Moroni warned them about suddenly appeared, descending rapidly toward the path that led to the tunnel.

  Just as enormous as the angels, with similar wingspans, Bochicha’s emissaries’ wings closely resembled bat appendages. Especially hideous, the demons’ fiery eyes glowed within deep sockets. Transparent skin stretched tightly across their bones revealed a gray gelatinous substance that pulsed beneath. The emissaries fell upon angels and men, bearing long jagged teeth and sharp talons.

  The angels swiftly organized themselves and responded to the attack, pummeling their foes to the ground and quickly shackling them with heavy chains. Even so, one particularly large fiend landed unchallenged directly in front of Pedro, where it threw a shimmering disk of white light toward him. His reflexes very quick, he ducked out of the way. The next five members of the group followed his lead to safely avoid the weapon as well.

  Fernando had been busy tightening his harness for their return trip back to the castle, largely unaware of the shimmering disk heading toward him. He finally moved to get out of the way, but not before the disk removed the right half of his face along with his right arm and most of that shoulder. A pair of angels arrived an instant later and restrained the demon, which cleared the path for the other six men to move ahead. But far too late for Fernando, as another pair of Bochicha’s emissaries pounced on him, tearing his body and devouring him while still alive.

  Rafael and his men cried out in horror, but repressed any urge for foolish bravery, despite Fernando’s shrill screams. They urged Jack and Jeremy to sprint with them to the tunnel.

  “Go quickly!” Moroni shouted from the gorge’s edge. More and more demons filled the area as the group reached the tunnel’s entrance.

  They raced into the tunnel, hurriedly pulling their parkas back on while their feet splashed water onto each other as they ran. Before they reached the tunnel’s end, the demons’ shrieks eerily echoed through the air behind them. Flying low to the ground, dragging their talons through the water, the menacing horde grew louder as they closed in.

  The six men scurried out of the tunnel and down the spiraling trail from earlier. The grade wasn’t a problem coming up, but going down was a different affair entirely. The water flowing down the sides of the shaft and onto the path made things much more treacherous.

  Bochicha’s emissaries poured into the chasm’s thick darkness and encircled the massive stalagmite in its center. Their flapping wings and shrill calls to one another grew increasingly loud, unsettling to everyone scrambling in desperation to reach the bottom. The demons dove repeatedly, slicing through the top-shoulder portion of Jeremy’s parka. Halfway down the path, where the sharp stalagmites along the path were spaced further apart, the attacks suddenly grew more furious.

  One monster landed just ahead of Jack and Montes. Dodging the creature’s talons, Jack’s feet went out from under him on the slippery path.

  “Ah-h-h shi-i-i-t-t-t!!!”

  Falling feet-first over the edge, he grabbed the base of a slender stalagmite to keep from tumbling to the bottom. The stalagmite began to crumble. Before it disintegrated in his hands, Montes saved him from joining it in the darkness below, clinging to the top of his parka.

  “Jackie, hold on!!” cried Jeremy as he and Rafael ran back to them.

  Jeremy grabbed Jack’s left arm as his parka began to slip from Montes’ grip. Rafael held Jack’s right arm and the three of them pulled him back onto the walkway.

  “Damn it anyway, Jackie! Are you all right?”

  “I think so.”

  He tried to stand up, but another of Bochicha’s emissaries swooped down, forcing them all low to the ground.

  “Okay or not, we need to go now!” Rafael urged.

  Following his lead to stay low, they hurried to where Pedro and Ricardo waited.

  Jack thanked Montes for saving his life, who smiled and gestured it was no problem at all. Just then, one of the larger demons descended quietly above Montes to where its talons hovered just above his head.

  “Watch out, man!!” shouted Jack.

  Montes crouched low to the ground. But as he looked up, the fiend’s talons locked onto his face. Pulled into the air screaming, his arms and legs flailed frantically in a useless effort to fight off the demon. In the soft glow provided by his helmet lamp, Jack watched as several other demons appeared. They pulled Montes over the chasm, and for a moment Jack thought they might simply drop the terrified Essene to his death. But the demons tore Montes limbs from his body and then ripped out his entrails, leaving an enormous gash in his abdomen. Jack was sprayed with blood and body fragments as they greedily feasted on Montes’ flesh, with the first demon devouring his head and torso.

  “Come on, Jackie!! Get the hell away from there!!!”

  Jeremy’s voice shook him from his shock. He ran down the path to join the others, praying that the meal provided by Montes’ flesh wasn’t just some gruesome appetizer. He tried not to think about the hundreds of other demons that might be just as hungry.

  “Everyone, keep moving!” ordered Rafael. “If we reach the bottom, it will be harder for them to reach us!”

  He pointed to the giant stalagmite’s base steadily getting closer to them while also narrowing the path. The demons’ fervent shrieks filled the air around them.

  Soon, the path narrowed enough to where the demons backed off. Making the most of this reprieve, the three surviving Essenes and their American guests ran to the bottom of the shaft. But once they reached the floor, the shrieks from the demons grew even louder. Terrified, the five survivors crouched low again, peering timidly up into the darkness. A mass of hideous faces crept steadily toward th
em, leering hungrily within their lamps’ glow.

  The only viable option to try to outrun them, Jack recalled how severe the incline was in the next tunnel. They would likely tumble and roll to the bottom if they tried to race through it. And if they somehow survived, worse passageways followed.

  An idea occurred to Jeremy.

  “Rafael, how do we light the trough?” he asked.

  “What??” said Rafael, glaring at Jeremy. The tremor beneath his eye thumped like a jack rabbit in heat. “We need to get away from here before Bochicha’s servants make a meal of us all!”

  “Yeah, I know that. But I’ve got an idea on how to buy some time!” Jeremy explained. “How do you do it?”

  “With a match.”

  “And, you have one, I assume?”

  “We always bring three. For good luck.”

  “Well, damn it, we only need one!!”

  Rafael withdrew one of the three long slender matches from a pocket in his parka. With Pedro’s help he lit it. Meanwhile the demons crept closer…to less than ten feet away. Trembling with the burning match in his hands, Rafael raised his eyes at the encroaching menace.

  “All right, where do we light the trough?” asked Jeremy, impatiently.

  He took a step toward Rafael, who said nothing while motioning to a stone basin located at the trough’s base. The demons’ foulness filled their nostrils as the horde drew near.

  “What the hell are you waiting for, man? Light the trough!!”

  Predatory growls grew louder, and Rafael refused to move, paralyzed by fear.

  “LIGHT THE FUCKING TROUGH, RAFAEL!!!”

  With no time to wait, Jeremy grabbed the match from his shaking hands and took a step toward the spot where the trough began. The demon that led the attack on Montes landed directly in front of him, its wings pulled tight to allow it enough room to stand on the floor. Montes’ blood glistened on the enormous creature’s face and chest from when it carelessly devoured him. The monster seemed to take pleasure from Jeremy’s look of disgust, for it gave him a gore-encrusted smile.

  The demon took a swipe at Jeremy, but missed him on account of the tight confines it had to operate within. Jeremy scrambled over to the trough, where the match flickered and threatened to die out. But as Jeremy held his breath, the match’s flame sprang back to life. With the demon preparing to attack him from behind, he lit the trough.

  A line of fire spread from the trough’s basin, racing swiftly along its length. The circling light seemed to surprise the demons, and they backed away from the chasm’s floor. The right wing of the one towering above Jeremy suddenly caught on fire, after it leaned up against the trough in its attempt to snag his head as it had done to Montes earlier.

  The demon shot up into the air as flames engulfed its wings, writhing and shrieking in pain as it soared high into the chasm. Perhaps trying to escape the shaft to find relief, it never made it out. As it reached the top of the giant stalagmite the demon exploded into a thousand fiery cinders that drifted to the chasm’s floor.

  The line of fire continued its spiraling course toward the shaft’s top. The event as amazing as Rafael said it would be, Jack doubted any Essene had ever witnessed anything quite like this before. The demons retreated in panic, crashing into each other. Not the time to grieve for Montes and Fernando, but a measure of revenge came from watching at least a dozen of the flying menaces either share the same fate as the one that exploded, or become impaled on the sharp ends of the stalagmites lining the path.

  “We need to get the hell out of here!!” shouted Jeremy.

  He pushed Jack toward the tunnel while motioning for the other three to flee the area with them. Before they reached the steep passageway some of the demons threw their disks of light as they fled. The disks ricocheted against the chasm’s walls and the sides of the giant stalagmite, barely missing Rafael, the last one to enter the tunnel.

  Bochicha’s emissaries didn’t immediately pursue them, and only a handful of stray disks bounced out of the chasm and into the tunnel. When far enough away from danger, everyone ran to the tunnel’s end.

  “I need to call Francisco and tell him to get the rest of our men up here now!” said Rafael, struggling to catch his breath.

  Standing at the edge of the very first cavern they visited, he looked anxiously into the deep darkness behind them, and everyone else followed his gaze. The area beyond their lamps’ reach seemed empty, at least for the moment. The irritated shrieks from the demons resounded dimly in the distance.

  Unlike the previous call to Francisco, the desire for privacy was easily overruled by the group’s collective need to stay together. When Rafael reached Francisco, he spoke in Spanish until he noticed Jeremy and Jack’s irritation. He smiled nervously and changed over to English for the rest of the conversation. His voice trembling, he urged Francisco to immediately send an armed backup team to aid them in their return to the castle.

  Before his conversation with Francisco ended, everyone else had clipped their harnesses onto the first guide rope that led into the cavern, knowing every peaceful moment couldn’t be wasted. Pedro descended first into the cool darkness, with Jeremy, Rafael, and Jack following close behind him. Ricardo pulled up the rear. Like the previous passageway, this path was much more slippery on the way down. It didn’t take long before they encountered much colder temperatures and the slushy surface that marked where the ice began. The glistening stalagmites and stalactites around them looked even more like sharp fangs and incisors than earlier.

  The journey through the treacherous cavern a painstaking effort, the group pressed on as quickly as possible. The steady trickle of water dripping from the ice in the surrounding darkness heightened everyone’s unease, made worse by the ice splitting and falling as it melted in the cavern’s warmer areas. Right after they connected their harnesses to the second to last guide rope that would take them out of the cavern, the familiar shrieks resumed. Faint at first, the demons’ calls to one another soon grew louder.

  “Shit!” Jeremy hissed. “Here they come again!!”

  The shrieks became more shrill and animated as they swiftly closed in on the men now scrambling down the path. Pedro reached the second to last post and aided the other four in unclipping their biners and attaching them to the cavern’s last guide rope when the fiends overtook them. Huddled as a group around the post, the mass of flapping wings hovered dangerously near.

  Pedro and Ricardo dared not look up into the darkness, while Rafael and the brothers slowly raised their gaze. As before, the air was filled with faces, most hideous in their deformity and all leered malevolent. But rather than attack, the demons remained suspended in the air.

  “Rafael,” Jeremy whispered in his ear. “Do you still have the other two matches?”

  “Yes, I do,” he replied, without removing his eyes from the glowering menace crowding the darkness above.

  “Give them to me. I’ve got another idea.”

  Rafael reached into his parka and removed the matches, his hands trembling once more. Without waiting for him to give them to him, Jeremy grabbed the matches and struck them both against the side of his boot. The matches ignited and the demons backed away. He handed one of the matches to Pedro and the other to Ricardo. Jeremy then motioned for everyone to get moving, but as they did Ricardo’s match flickered and the flame began to die. The demons crept up close behind Ricardo, who glanced nervously over his shoulder.

  “Rafael, get me Pedro’s pickaxe—do it quickly!!”

  Jeremy motioned to the tool attached to Pedro’s belt. At first, Rafael hesitated, perhaps thinking that Jeremy intended to defend them with it. Once he saw Jeremy open his parka and begin tearing his shirt, he understood what he had in mind.

  “Jack, take Ricardo’s axe!” said Rafael, pointing to Ricardo’s belt.

  Like Jeremy, Rafael opened his parka and used a small knife he carried to rip a large portion from his sweatshirt. He then handed the knife to Jeremy in order to help him finish the jo
b on his own shirt. Meanwhile, Ricardo’s match died. The demons closest to him growled hungrily in the darkness.

  Rafael hurriedly gave Pedro’s pickaxe to Jeremy, who wrapped his shirt around the axe’s wooden handle. Rafael took the dying match from Pedro and managed to ignite the makeshift torch just before the match’s flame disappeared into a small puff of smoke. As soon as the flame took hold of the shirt, Jeremy moved over to Ricardo and thrust the torch toward his face. The frightened Essene had enough sense to duck, and as he did, he barely escaped a pair of talons that had reached down from above. The torch’s flame touched several of the demons, which flew away from the path, though the fire didn’t burn any of them. Nonetheless, the rest of the horde retreated to a safer vantage point.

  Jack handed Ricardo’s pickaxe to Rafael, who wrapped the portion from his sweatshirt around the handle. Once Jeremy lit the next torch using the one he held, he traded places with Ricardo at the end of the line and Rafael moved to the front, ahead of Pedro. The group worked in haste to reach the end of the cavern under the demons’ watchful eyes, having to stop once to tear off more material from their clothes to keep the torches burning.

  When they reached the end of the guide rope, they unclipped their harnesses and moved out of the cavern and over to where the basket and pulley machine awaited.

  “The others should be here by now!” Rafael fumed, while he surveyed the room they stood in. He carefully moved over to the edge of the three hundred foot shaft next to the pulley machine and peered into the icy darkness. “Let me call Francisco again and see what is taking them so long!”

  He took out his radio and called Francisco. A puzzled look soon spread across his face.

  “What’s wrong, Rafael?” asked Jack.

  He and Jeremy stepped over to him, and Pedro and Ricardo scurried along with them to remain under the torches’ protective fire. The demons soon surrounded the entrance to the room, their eyes angrily aglow in the shadowy light.