Road to Hell

by J. C. Diem

  A hallway bisected the upper floor. A living area nearly the same size as the main room below was to the right with a linen closet and bathroom at the far end. Two small bedrooms were to the left. Since I was the only one who actually required sleep, the two beds were more than adequate.

  “You can use this room,” Sophia said and pointed at the second bedroom. It had a single bed, a narrow closet, a chest of drawers and was otherwise empty. The walls were cream and the floor had the same gray carpet as downstairs. There were no windows, which made the room seem even smaller. “You will find towels in the linen closet.” She pointed at the door between the living room and the bathroom.

  “I think I’ll take Leo’s suggestion and have a shower,” I told her.

  “Take your time. It could be several hours before they return.”

  My spare sets of clothing were only slightly less dirty than the ones I was wearing. I didn’t relish the idea of wearing any of them once I was clean. “I don’t suppose you have anything I could wear until I can wash my clothes?”

  Assessing my torn jeans and grimy t-shirt and hoodie, she nodded. “I am sure I can find you something.” She disappeared into her room for a few moments and returned with a light blue button up shirt and loose black trousers. They weren’t my usual casual style, but it was better than nothing.

  “Thanks. You don’t happen to have a washing machine handy, do you?”

  “Of course. Give me your clothes and I will take care of them for you.”

  “That’d be great.” My gratitude wasn’t feigned. She waited in the hall as I stripped down. I took the extra clothes out of my backpack and dropped them on the pile on the floor. Wrapping a towel around me, I scooped up the dirty clothing. Sophia turned around when I opened the door. I handed her my small bundle of clothing and she disappeared downstairs.

  Stepping beneath the spray, I took a long, hot shower and felt a lot better when I finally shut the water off. A week’s worth of grime was gone and my hair was squeaky clean again. I used my cheap comb to tame the tangles then borrowed Sophia’s hair dryer. I automatically braided the sides then plaited them together at the back. I liked the style now, even though it had just been for convenience to start with.

  Pulling on my only clean set of underwear, I donned the shirt and trousers that I’d borrowed from my host. I had to roll the hem of the trousers up a few times, but it didn’t look quite as ridiculous as I’d expected.

  Returning downstairs, the door at the end of the wide hallway was standing open. It was a tiny laundry and Sophia was transferring my clothes from the washing machine into the dryer.

  With nothing else to do, I entered the front room and started browsing through the shelves. Seeing a book about angels and demons, I grabbed it and sat down at the round table. I still wasn’t entirely convinced that I wasn’t hallucinating all this. Just in case it was real, learning more about the supernatural world couldn’t hurt.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Nine

  Sophia entered the room some time later with more tea and a plate of cookies. I glanced up, thanked her and returned to the book. She didn’t linger and left me to read. I heard her bustling about inside the kitchen, but the sound faded as I became engrossed in the book again.

  I knew very little about heaven and hell. My mother had been religious, but she’d never pushed her beliefs onto me. Given my stubborn nature, it had probably been wise of her. I believed in God, but figured he’d given up on us a long time ago. I couldn’t really blame him for washing his hands of us. Giving us free will seemed to have been a colossal mistake. Humans were the most selfish and destructive creatures that had ever been created.

  Angels on the other hand, were pretty close to perfect, or so the book said. They’d also been given free will, but since they lived in heaven, they hadn’t been exposed to the same temptations that humans had. Lucifer had been the first to rebel. An overblown sense of self-importance had been his downfall. God had cast him out and Lucifer, or Satan as he was commonly called now, had taken a third of the angels with him. Their holy grace had changed after their expulsion and they’d become unholy demons.

  Being sent to hell had twisted them from the beautiful and flawless spirits that they’d once been. Some had managed to escape from their prison and now lived among humans. Their task was to corrupt us and to try to bring about the downfall of mankind.

  In order to do their master’s work, they had to possess vessels. Permission wasn’t necessary. They simply took whoever they wanted and used them as their meat puppets. Once they were done with a vessel, or upgraded to a new one, the poor human remembered every evil deed that they’d performed. Most committed suicide when they realized what they’d been forced to do. The rest went crazy. I couldn’t really blame them. Knowing that they’d killed, maimed or had tortured their fellow man would be enough to send anyone nuts.

  Angels weren’t as invasive when they took possession of a human. Their hosts lost all memory of what happened while they were being possessed. With a pure spirit inside them, they stopped aging and became nearly immortal until they were released from their bondage. When they were freed, they resumed the normal aging process again. With their memories wiped clean, they had to start their lives over from scratch. If they’d been vessels for a long time, all of their friends and family would most likely be dead. It was probably a blessing that they didn’t remember anything.

  I’d just finished reading the book when the front door opened and the twins entered. Brie saw the book in front of me and her eyebrows rose. “I see you have been learning about us. That is wise. You will need all the knowledge you can find if you are going to halt the demon uprising.”

  “You do realize that I’m a sixteen year old high school student?” I said as I shut the book and pushed it away.

  Sophia entered just in time to overhear us. “I am afraid that you will have to put that life behind you now. It is time for you to learn how to become a warrior.”

  “How am I going to do that?” I didn’t try to hide my scowl. “I have no fighting skills. I only managed to stab the demons out of sheer dumb luck.”

  “We will teach you,” Leo said. He carried a plastic bag that was presumably full of the ingredients they required for their mysterious spell.

  I gave him an incredulous look. “No offense, but you two don’t exactly look all that dangerous.”

  “Appearances can be deceiving,” Brie said and a sword appeared in her hand. Blue flames ran the length of the blade. It was almost bright enough to make we wince.

  “Where did that come from?” I asked.

  “That is something demons and angels have in common,” Leo explained. An identical sword appeared in his hand and glowed just as brightly. “We are able to call on our weapons at will.”

  “How come you have swords and the demons only had daggers?”

  “We are God’s warriors,” Brie explained and made her sword disappear. “Our mission is to hunt down demons and send them back to hell. The creatures you have seen so far are only lower level minions. The more powerful they are, the more impressive their weapons become.”

  “Were you a warrior, too?” I asked Sophia.

  She shook her head. “I was more of a knowledge seeker.”

  “Sophia is very wise,” Leo said solemnly. “She was tasked with assisting the most intelligent humans to broaden their minds.”

  “I’m sure that didn’t backfire at all,” I said dryly. “What with the invention of nuclear weapons and other fun things like that.”

  “It was not our kind who whispered such evil possibilities to humans,” Sophia said in self-defense. “Demons can be blamed for that.”

  Brie moved to one of the shelves and took down a large wooden bowl. Leo had made his sword disappear as well. He placed the plastic bag on the table and removed the contents one by one. Various plants, minerals, stones and liquids were in small jars. Brie crumbled up some of the leaves of each plant and sprinkled them over the oth
er contents that Leo placed into the bowl. She chanted in a musical language that I’d never heard before and the mixture began to stir.

  A small whirlwind started up, mashing the ingredients together. It moved faster and faster until my eyes could no longer track it. When she stopped chanting, the whirlwind wound down. A stone bracelet sat in the center of the bowl. The color of mud, it was far from pretty. It was blank and completely devoid of markings.

  Brie picked it up and handed it to me. It was a tight squeeze, but I slid it over my right hand. Pain immediately radiated up my arm to my shoulder. It faded before I could do much more than gasp. The stone had changed to a dull shade of orange that matched the glow from my dagger exactly.

  “That is strange,” Leo said as he stared at the bracelet. “I have never seen the stone turn that color before.”

  “We have never cast the spell for a human before,” Brie pointed out and he shrugged off his misgivings.

  “Is it supposed to hurt like that?” I asked. I still felt the residual effects of the pain in my tingling fingertips.

  “Not usually,” Sophia said, “but you are not an angel. It is no surprise that the effect was different. I did not feel any pain when I first donned mine. Possibly because this vessel still contains residual traces of my grace.”

  “If you remove the bracelet, the spell will be broken until you don it again,” Leo warned me. “It is impervious to water, so you can wear it in the shower.”

  “That’s good to know,” I muttered. The bracelet fit me perfectly and I didn’t think it would take long to get used to it. “Are you sure it will work for me since I’m just a lowly human and I’ve never been possessed by an angel?”

  Brie’s response wasn’t as reassuring as I’d hoped. “It should, but we will not know for certain until you come into contact with a demon.”

  “That’s something I’d really rather avoid.” I’d already had enough brushes with them to last me a lifetime.

  “You do not have the luxury of hiding from your enemies,” she told me almost harshly. “We are counting on you to prevent a disaster that will end in catastrophe for the entire world.”

  I blew out a sigh and slumped back in the chair. I’d only known these people for a few hours and they already expected me to save humanity. “What exactly am I supposed to do? Hunt down every demon in the city and challenge them all to a duel with daggers?”

  Sophia hesitated then sat down across from me. “We are not sure how you will stop the demons from unleashing the hordes that are trapped in hell.”

  So, she basically had no idea what I’d be getting myself into. “When I first arrived, you recognized me and said you’ve been waiting for me for a long time. What did you mean by that?”

  “I was sent a vision of you when you were first born,” she explained. “I did not know who you were at the time. I only knew that you would be important.”

  “You had a vision of me when I was a baby? How could you possibly have recognized me from that?”

  She smiled a little at my confusion. “I was shown a vision of you as you appear now. I believe it was a warning that the world would soon be facing great peril.”

  “How did you get that from just seeing a vision of me?” She had a real knack for giving me explanations that just confused me even more.

  “I also saw the world engulfed in fire.”

  “Oh.” That brought to mind the dream I’d had of Fate. She’d shown me countless cities burning. Every human that I’d seen had been dead.

  “You stood before the gates of hell, holding back a tide of demons,” she continued. “I knew that if the gates opened, that fire would sweep across the planet, wiping out humanity.”

  “No pressure,” I said almost bitterly. Leo’s lips twitched in a smile that he hid from the others. For an angel, he was somehow more human than his friends.

  “So,” I summed up, “you have no idea what I’m supposed to do to stop the gates from opening. I have no fighting skills whatsoever, but I’m supposed to take on an army of demons by myself.”

  “That is not quite correct,” Brie corrected me. “You will not be alone. We three will aid you however we can.”

  They’d already cast a spell that should help hide me from my enemies and Sophia was giving me a place to stay. If I really was trapped in the city, then I had no choice but to trust them. “Maybe you’d better start training me so I won’t be completely helpless when I come face to face with another demon.”

  “First, we should test the spell,” the teen countered. “It would be wise to ensure that it is working properly. After all, we would not want you to lead the forces of evil directly to our door.”

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Ten

  Moving to stand on either side of me, the twins put their hands on my shoulders. I shut my eyes and bright light flared behind my closed lids. When I opened my eyes, the store was gone. We stood in an open space with people streaming by in both directions. Buildings towered over us. Most sported electronic billboards that advertised movies, plays and various products. They shone down on us brightly and I could only imagine how pretty it would be at night.

  I realized that we were standing in the heart of Times Square in full view of both humans and demons alike. “Why isn’t everyone running and screaming?” I asked. I didn’t feel quite as disoriented at being teleported this time. Keeping my eyes closed seemed to have helped.

  “Why would they do that?” Leo asked in puzzlement.

  “Didn’t we just appear out of thin air?”

  Brie made a sound of amusement. “Our teleportation allows us to blend in seamlessly.”

  “You mean not even demons can see you when you zap yourself around?”

  “That is correct.” Her smugness faded a little when she added more. “Of course, our enemies have the same ability to appear and disappear at will.”

  “But they do not have these,” Leo said and pointed at his golden bracelet. “Our spell does more than just make it difficult for them to see us. It also makes it easier for us to detect them.”

  “Can’t you tell if a human is possessed just by looking at them?” I asked.

  “Of course not,” Brie scoffed. She was back to being snotty again. If she was a few inches taller, she’d be able to look down her nose at me properly. “The reason why we inhabit these vessels is because they keep our true identities hidden.”

  “Not always,” I said and caught sight of a woman standing about fifty yards away. “Her vessel isn’t doing such a great job of hiding her identity.” I could only see the side of her face, but her skin was unnaturally black and her eyes were glowing red. The image flickered and disappeared only to reappear again a couple of seconds later.

  Leo squinted at the woman then his eyes widened in recognition. “How did you know she was a demon before we could see it?”

  “Because she’s hideous,” I said with a hint of sarcasm.

  Brie’s tone was almost cross when she spoke. “What are you talking about? Her vessel is completely ordinary.”

  “I’m not talking about the human she’s possessing.” The woman was in her twenties and had nondescript features. She wore a dress that was a truly horrible shade of lime green. “I’m talking about her true face that comes and goes at random.”

  Leo was studying me intently and Brie was frowning. “What do demons look like to you?” he asked.

  “They have inky black skin, glowing crimson eyes, sharp jagged teeth and a forked tongue.” They shared a long look without speaking. “What do they look like to you?”

  “They look like humans,” Brie said flatly. “Our spell enables us to see a faint red glow around them if we concentrate hard enough.”

  “What do we look like to you?” Leo queried.

  “You’re both kind of beautiful,” I said, feeling awkward. “So is Sophia, even though she’s apparently not an angel anymore. You two look about fourteen, but I can’t tell Sophia’s age at all.”

  “We
should inform Sophia of this,” Leo said to his pseudo-sister. “I have never heard of a human having the ability to see our true forms before.”

  “We have to ensure that the spell is working first,” Brie said. She wasn’t going to be deterred from her mission. “Do you see any more demons?” she asked me.

  Feeling far too exposed, I searched the throng. I spied more flickering faces standing near the girl, but none of the demons seemed to be aware of us. “I can see six demons in the immediate area,” I informed them. “None of them are paying any attention to us.”

  “There are six demons?” Leo said in alarm. “Do they all look the same, or is one of them different?” He peered at them, trying to see what I could.

  I cast my eye over the small group and did a double take when I saw what he meant. One was taller and larger than the other five. He had short, stubby horns growing from his forehead and was even uglier than his colleagues. I described him and Leo’s concern grew.

  “It sounds like a Captain rather than a Demon Lord,” he said. “Now that we have verified that the spell is working, we should return to the store.”

  Nodding in agreement, Brie put her hand on my shoulder again. Leo copied her and I shut my eyes a moment before brightness flared. This time, we appeared inside the store rather than on the sidewalk outside. They let me go before I was ready and I staggered over to the table and sat down. Even with my eyes shut, I was feeling dizzy. Maybe being teleported twice in a short space of time was too much for a puny mortal like me.

  Sitting in her usual seat, Sophia pushed a cup of tea towards me. “I take it the spell worked?” she said to the twins. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t have brought me back here if it hadn’t.

  Leo nodded and took a seat. Brie chose to remain standing. Her arms were crossed and she indicated for her brother to fill the clairvoyant in. “We were not spotted by our enemies,” he said. “But it appears that Violet has talents we have never seen before.” At Sophia’s inquiring look, he explained. “She can apparently see our true forms.”