Road to Hell

by J. C. Diem

  Signs had been plastered all over the windows stating that they were having a clearance sale. It was a bit early in the season for it, but I wasn’t about to complain. With my young companion at my side, I browsed through the aisles. I ended up with enough clothes and underwear to last me for a couple of weeks before I ran out of cash.

  “You need to find a new demon vessel to pilfer,” Leo said cheekily.

  “Sure, we’ll go hunting for one right after I pay for these,” I agreed with a snigger.

  This time, the attendant was friendly and professional. My wallet was almost empty when we left. I managed to take two steps before Leo tugged my hood back up to hide my face. He nodded at a jittery young man standing across the street.

  Concentrating on his dark skin, I saw it turn as black as pitch. A faint glow emanated from his eyes. Fortunately, he hadn’t seen me. Or if he had, the bracelet was working its magic to make me appear almost invisible. The only time it had failed was when I’d stupidly run straight into their ward and had drawn their attention directly to me.

  “Let’s go this way,” I said and turned the corner. The way was clear, so we relaxed slightly. Leo could have zapped us back to the store, but I wasn’t quite ready to return yet. We’d wandered just out of Midtown where Brie’s wards didn’t reach.

  Passing one of the dozens of coffee shops that seemed to be everywhere, I glanced at a tattered poster on a wall and stumbled to a stop. A pedestrian cursed when he almost crashed into me. He glowered as he stepped around me and muttered darkly beneath his breath.

  “What is wrong?” Leo asked. He looked at the wall then back at me.

  “Don’t you see that?” I asked.

  “See what? It is just an old poster.” It was so faded that the words were impossible to decipher.

  “The wall isn’t there. It’s just an illusion.” It looked solid at a casual glance, but the telltale shimmer told me that it wasn’t real. It was just a façade, but apparently I was the only one who could see it. Drawn to the wall, I looked past it and saw a narrow alleyway. It was so dark that I could only see a short distance inside.

  Leo glanced around nervously. “We should go. This feels dangerous.”

  “I just want to see where it goes,” I said. My feet were moving before he could protest. I stepped through the illusion of the wall and poster and heard Leo gasp in shock when I presumably disappeared.

  He stepped through after me and looked around warily. “I see that you were not imagining things, but I wish you would exercise more caution,” he scolded me.

  I spared him a glance then turned my attention back to the alley. Cobbled stones covered the ground. Worn and slick, they looked like they were hundreds of years old. Maybe even older than the city itself. The walls were brick and were covered in sickly looking yellow lichen.

  A strange symbol about the size of my head had been painted on the wall just inside the alley. It glowed faintly and I was pretty sure that blood had been the medium that had been used to create it. The air was hard to breathe I caught a whiff of something that smelled like rotten eggs. “Is that sulfur?” I asked.

  Leo nodded and his sword appeared. The blue flames were almost painfully bright in the otherwise gloomy alley. He looked over his shoulder to make sure the entryway was still there. “We should not be here,” he said in a whisper. “I do not like this place.” He looked pale and slightly ill.

  I didn’t like it either, but I felt compelled to see deeper inside the alley anyway. The light petered out after a few yards and it became so dark that I could barely see where I was putting my feet. The walls stretched up so high that I couldn’t tell if there was a ceiling above us or if it was the sky. “We’ll leave in a second. I just want to take a look around.”

  “At what?” he said crankily. “There is nothing to see.”

  Walking forward a few paces, I saw another faint red glow. “I think I can see another symbol,” I told him and headed towards it.

  “What symbol?” he asked blankly. He looked even worse now, like he was going to pass out at any moment.

  “Like the one we passed on the way in.”

  He glanced back and froze. I looked past him to see someone standing in the mouth of the alley. He held a crimson dagger in his hand. It gave off enough light to see that it was the jittery young man that we’d spied earlier. I had a feeling that walking past the strange symbol had alerted him to our presence. It had to be similar to the wards that surrounded the city.

  I spun around to see another demon standing near the second symbol. It was a woman, but I didn’t recognize her. She lifted her hand and pressed it against the image. Bright crimson light flared, momentarily blinding me.

  Leo grabbed my arm then looked stunned. “I cannot teleport us to safety. We are trapped!”

  I turned to see that the mark near the entry was now also glowing brightly. The two demons advanced on us, but they didn’t seem to have any backup. “There are only two of them. We can take them,” I said quietly and as confidently as I could. Putting my bags down, I pushed them against the wall so I wouldn’t trip over them.

  He sent me a sardonic look. “You mean I can take them,” he corrected me. “You should stand back and try not to get killed.”

  “Nathan will come to my rescue if my life becomes endangered,” I reminded him.

  “I do not think that will be the case this time,” he said without taking his eyes off the advancing demon. “If we are trapped in this alley, then it is probable that your guardian will be unable to come to your assistance.”

  “That is so not what I needed to hear right now.”

  Brie had told me that she and Leo were warriors and that their task was to send demons back to hell. I’d seen him in training, but I was now about to see him in a real fight. Part of me was scared to death, but another part of me was looking forward to seeing my friend in a real battle.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Eighteen

  Trying to look like I knew what I was doing, I pulled my dagger. It immediately began to glow, but the color had deepened. It was a slightly brighter orange now.

  The female demon sneered at my weapon as if she sensed how completely inept I was with it. “Expel the angel then destroy his vessel,” she instructed her companion.

  “You have no authority over me,” he said with a scowl. “You do not have the right to tell me what to do.” They might be working together, but they weren’t particularly happy about it.

  Leo didn’t wait for the male demon to come to him. He darted forward and slashed at the creature’s chest. The hell spawn managed to parry the blow with his dagger, but his cockiness disappeared and concentration took over. Trapped in the vessel of a teenager, Leo was indeed underestimated by his foes.

  “Give me the dagger,” the female said, drawing my attention back to her. She held her hand out imperiously.

  “Sure thing,” I said and sliced her hand off. We both looked down at the severed appendage then I looked at her. “You know, that just never gets old.”

  Hissing in a breath, she launched herself at me. Blood spurted from her wound and I managed to dodge around her before it could splatter on my new jacket. Holding her stump against her chest protectively, she stalked towards me. Her foot came down on her severed hand and she barely spared it a glance. I backed away until I collided with an invisible wall just like the one I’d run into on the Brooklyn Bridge. The rune that she’d placed her hand on was right next to the barrier. The twin marks must have activated the spell. At least it didn’t send me flying and knock me out this time.

  “There is nowhere for you to go,” the demon said in profound satisfaction. She lost all semblance of humanity as her evil nature transformed her into a monster right before my eyes. “Our master wants us to bring you to him unharmed, but I am sure he will not begrudge me some payback.”

  An agonized cry came from her companion as Leo stabbed him in the chest. He turned away even before the male demon’s vessel fell. Panic f
illed his face when he realized he wouldn’t be able to reach me before my adversary attacked.

  Holding her dagger ready, she lunged forward. I braced myself for pain then saw a shadowy arm snake from out of nowhere and grab her by the ankle. She made a surprised sound as she tripped. Acting on instinct, I held my dagger out as she fell towards me. My luck at avoiding death held. Once again, it sliced through her ribs and pierced her heart. She stared at me incredulously then her vessel lost consciousness.

  Easing her to the ground, I pulled my dagger out just as Leo reached me. “Are you alright?” he asked as I wiped the blade clean on her shirt. He looked far worse than I felt. The deeper he traversed through the strange passage, the stronger it seemed to affect him.

  “Yeah. I think so.” My eyes were drawn to the wound in her chest as her face became human again. Dread filled me when her essence began to ooze out of the cut. Standing, I moved away and came up against the invisible barrier again.

  “How did you know that stabbing a vessel in the heart was the only way to expel a demon?” Leo asked.

  That was news to me. “I didn’t. I stabbed her by accident.”

  He didn’t look as if he believed me, but he let it go. We watched as the oily looking spirit gathered above the body. I knew what was about to happen even before it floated towards me.

  “That is strange,” Leo said with a frown. “I have never seen a demon’s essence behave like this before.”

  I would have replied, but my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth in fear. This time, the demon’s essence didn’t pause before it struck. Without hesitation, it settled over me and sank into my body. I didn’t have time to recover from her invasion before the second demon’s essence was also pouring into me.

  I saw their combined memories and knew they were low on the hell spawn hierarchy. Their job was to watch this portal. It wasn’t affected by the wards and offered the only way in and out of hell for demonkind in this city right now. Capturing me would have been their greatest achievement. Even so, it wouldn’t have elevated them to a higher standing. The only way for them to rise was through brute strength and sheer force of will.

  When the barrage of images and memories halted, I sagged to my knees. Leo stared at me with wide, shocked eyes. “Did I just see you absorb their essence?”

  I would have given anything to be able to deny it, but he deserved to know the truth. “Yeah. Don’t ask me how or why.”

  “How? Why?” His distress told me he wasn’t joking.

  “I don’t know,” I said with a weary shrug. “They’re drawn to me and there’s nothing I can do to stop them from invading me.”

  He struggled to understand and shook his head in bafflement. “How many times has this happened to you?”

  “Only three.”

  “When was the first time this occurred?”

  “Last night. A stronger demon showed up when Nathan was fighting the lesser demons. I tricked him and managed to stab him in the heart. His vessel died and his spirit seeped into me.”

  “How did you trick him into letting you stab him in the heart?”

  “He was really, really dumb,” I said.

  Leo was silent for a few seconds then sniggered. I joined him and hoped my laughter wasn’t going to turn into tears. I had three monsters inside me now and I had no way of knowing what the consequences of this would be. The only positive aspect of this craziness was that they apparently couldn’t possess me.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Nineteen

  Leo helped me to my feet when I regained control of myself. He prodded the invisible wall with his sword, but couldn’t break through it. “I’d hoped that dispatching the demons would break their spell,” he said. “But that does not seem to be the case.”

  “Does that mean we’re stuck in this alley?” I said uneasily.

  “I fear so.”

  “What are we going to do?” I didn’t have a cell phone to call for help and Leo couldn’t use his power to free us.

  “You must break the runes,” a voice said in a thin whisper.

  Leo spun towards the voice with his sword raised. It cast enough light to show a figure crouched only a few feet away. His skin was inky black and he blended in with the shadows so well that he was almost invisible. Shying away from the light, he held up a thin arm to shield his face. Incredibly ugly, he didn’t have the sharp, jagged teeth, forked tongue or glowing eyes of a demon. He seemed to be something else.

  “Wait,” I said and grabbed Leo’s arm before he could stab the creature. I’d forgotten the hand that had tripped the demon before she could chop my hand off in retaliation for wounding her. “Who are you?” I said to the crouched form. He was so thin that I could see his ribs and spine. He wore a black loincloth and his feet were bare.

  “I am nobody,” he said miserably. “I am not worthy of a name.”

  I felt a stab of pity for him even though Leo was staring at him like he was a cockroach. “He is just an imp,” my companion said. “I will run him through. I doubt that it will kill him, but it will prevent him from following us until he heals.”

  The imp whimpered at the threat and covered his head with his arms.

  “You can’t run him through,” I said. “He saved my life. Or at least my hand.”

  Lowering his sword, Leo frowned at me. “What do you mean?”

  “He tripped the demon when she was about to attack me.” He looked unconvinced by my explanation. “I saw him grab her ankle,” I insisted.

  He looked down at the sniveling imp. “Is this true?” Nodding pitiably, the creature watched us cautiously, but he didn’t lower his arms. “Why would you do such a thing? She would surely have punished you for your impertinence.”

  “She would have punished me anyway,” he said miserably. “Such is the fate of my kind.”

  “You said we should break the runes,” I said. “Will that stop the spell?”

  He nodded and pointed a long thin finger at the glowing red mark on the wall behind me. “You can use your dagger to disable it.” Leo lifted his sword and the imp shook his head. “Your holy weapon will have no effect on the rune. Only a demon blade will work.”

  Rolling his eyes in a very human gesture, Leo stepped aside and waved me forward. Red light washed over my face as I lifted my dagger. I gingerly scraped it across the symbol and was relieved when the glow flickered then died.

  I took a step forward to check that the barrier was gone. A hand immediately clamped around my ankle. The grip was firm, but not so tight that it was painful. “Do not go any further into the darkness,” the imp warned me. He cringed when Leo levelled his sword at him threateningly and he released me. “Not unless you wish to visit the shadowlands.”

  “We need to leave before more demons arrive,” Leo urged me. Whatever was wrong with him was getting worse. He was almost reeling on his feet now.

  My curiosity had well and truly been satisfied, so I nodded. I took a few steps then looked back to see the imp staring after us forlornly. “What’s going to happen to you?”

  “Once my master learns that I aided your escape, I will be tortured in a most hideous fashion,” he said morosely. “I imagine the pain will last for several centuries.”

  Leo saw my pity and shook his head. “I know what you are thinking and I urge you to think again.”

  “We can’t leave him here. Not after he helped us twice,” I implored him.

  “Look at him,” he said almost harshly and swept a hand at the cowering creature. “Imps are not like demons. He is not made of pure spirit and he cannot possess a vessel. Do you think he will be able to blend in with the human populace if we allow him to follow us?”

  “Stand up and let me see your face,” I said to the imp. He hesitantly dropped his hands and pushed himself to his feet. When he straightened up, he was a couple of inches taller than me. He wrapped his thin arms around himself and shivered as if he was cold. His brow was too prominent and too low, which made his eyes look like they
were deep-set caverns. His nose was squished and his lips were far too full for his sunken cheeks. His skin was far darker than was natural. He was as ugly as sin, but he didn’t look like a monster. His face hadn’t shimmered once since he’d come to my notice.

  Apparently, I saw supernatural creatures in terms of beauty for good and ugly for bad. His ugliness meant that his soul was badly stained. Only the fact that he’d helped me was keeping me from just walking away. “He’s not that bad,” I said. “With proper clothes and a hat or hoodie, he could probably pass for human.”

  Wild hope filled the imp’s face and he clutched his hands together. “You would truly take me with you?”

  “Only if you promise not to do anything evil, or betray us to the demons.”

  Putting a hand on his sunken chest over his heart, he nodded solemnly. “I promise that I will be good and that I will never betray you.”

  Leo snorted incredulously, but he didn’t bother to argue. He started towards the entrance and I hurried after him. I glanced back and thought the imp had disappeared. Then I saw faint movement and realized he’d blended in with the bricks. “How are you doing that?” I asked. He was like a chameleon, apparently able to make himself appear like his surroundings.

  “It is a skill that I learned after a century or so of torment,” he explained. “Becoming invisible is the only way I can hope to escape the notice of my master.”

  Scooping up my bags on the way to the entrance, I scraped the rune with my dagger and the light faded. Leo stuck his hand through the illusion of the wall and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t meet any resistance. He drew me out onto the sidewalk then hesitated and offered his hand to the imp. The moment their hands touched, he teleported us back to the store.

  Blinded by the flash of light, I dropped my bags and stumbled into a rock hard body. Nathan caught me by the shoulders as a pained screech started.