by Amy Starr
“Emma-Lee?!” Hudson yelled his sister’s name as he limped around the room.
Without paying attention, he wandered over the chalk circle. A sudden golden light flashed over his body and his eyes went wide. Hudson slumped to the floor, going completely limp as if he had been knocked out.
“Hud!” Poppy cried, crawling over to his body.
She felt his forehead with her hand, but she could not pick up his soul. Poppy gazed at the chalk circle and, with a slight hesitation, crept over it. She was immediately surrounded by a golden light and in an instant, she was gone. All that was left was their lifeless bodies lying on the bottom of the mine shaft.
Chapter Three
Hudson awoke to two golden spears pointing at his throat. Glancing up through slitted eyes, he saw two strange humanoid beings standing in front of him. He recognized them immediately as the angelic Powers from the white vans. At least, they had the same appearance as them. They were tall and thin and had an odd aura to them that made Hudson feel unusually calm. He held his hands over his head.
“Another human has entered the Heavenly Region.” One of them murmured in a monotone voice.
“Perhaps it is another of those demon worshippers?” The other added in the exact same tone. “Are you here to collect that demon?”
“Hey, hey, I’m not gonna do anything.” He muttered.
Hud pulled off his glove and showed them his hand. “I’m a demon hunter. One of the Pact? I have demon hunter blood!”
The two Powers gazed at each other before lowering their spears. “What are you doing here?”
“I…I didn’t mean to come here. I was trying to find my sister.”
He stood up and darted his eyes around. The sky above his head was a pure white that was almost blinding to look at. It hurt his eyes so much that he took his goggles out and put them on to help avoid the glare. Tall spire of gleaming gold shot to the heavens. The ground below him was covered in pale mist. It was so thick that he could not see what was underneath it. The ground he was lying on had an odd softness to it, as if he were walking on loamy soil.
Without warning, a figure manifested beside him in a halo of light. It took Hudson a few seconds to realise that it was Poppy. The Powers turned to glare at her, and her eyes widened as they pointed their golden spears towards her. Their eyes shone brightly as the duo examined her and the psychic tilted her head in confusion.
“It’s okay, she’s with me!” Hudson exclaimed.
Poppy blinked and stared at the world around her. “Oh shit, this is the angel land, isn’t it? Did we die?”
Both strange humanoid figures shook their heads.
“You are not dead; your souls have merely entered the Heavenly Kingdom at an inappropriate time.” One of the Powers said.
“Although, you may be of some use to us. We are in dire situation, human of the Pact.” Said the other Power. It raised its arm and gestured to the gold spires that surrounded them. “Human demon worshippers have started infesting our land.”
“Did you see a scared girl with them?” Hudson asked, glancing from one angel to the other.
“Yes, we did.”
Hudson jumped up and glared at the two angels.
“Why didn’t you stop them?! She was terrified!”
The two Powers stared at him, unblinking like statues. “We are not allowed to interfere with mortals, less we meet the wrath of our Creator.” Said one of them before the other began to speak.
“Indeed, a group of reckless Powers went to retrieve the imprisoned Asmodeus from a group of humans in the mortal world, and they were made fallen for their transgressions.”
“Fallen?” Hudson asked.
“Followers of the Creator get sent to the Infernal Region for disrupting the natural balance.”
Hudson could not believe what he was hearing. It was just as they had explained in church. Demons were just disobedient angels.
“Why did they get punished for that?” Poppy asked.
“It is the way things are. We are not allowed to interfere with the matters of humans unless our Creator tells us to.”
Hudson rubbed his head and let out a frustrated sigh. “Alright, alright. We’ll find them, but will you let us keep the imprisoned demon in return?”
The Powers nodded. There were a few moments of silence as the two groups stared at each other.
“Do you know where the humans are?” Hud asked, a hint of irritation in his voice.
The two angelic figures pointed to the largest spire in the center of the misty fields. “They entered the Tower of Forbidden Knowledge. That is where the imprisoned demon is being kept.”
Hudson gave them confused looks. “…and you’re just going to let them go inside?”
The Powers stood unmoving. “We cannot interfere with the matters of humans.”
Hud went over and helped Poppy to stand. “Uh, okay, sure.”
With that, the two of them began to walk towards the tower.
“Geez, talk about pushovers.” Poppy muttered. “I thought angels were supposed to be brave and fearless?”
“I guess they’re more like puppets for this ‘Creator.’” Hudson replied, carefully stepping through the low fog. Thankfully, in his ethereal form, his ankle was back to normal so he had no problems moving.
“Man, I’d hate to see what this ‘Creator’ looks like.”
The journey seemed like it would take forever, but it was surprisingly short. The perspective within this realm seemed skewed so that everything seemed further away than it was. In a matter of no time, they made it to the tower. The golden spire seemed to soar into the sky infinitely and Hudson could not help but wonder how it could have been possibly made.
The two of them approached the entrance, which was guarded by a figure that had to be at least triple their heights. Its form was hidden by a pair of feathered wings. Even with the wings hiding its face, Hudson swore that he caught a glimpse of its complexion from between two long feathers. It was somehow both the most human and inhuman face he had ever seen. If it were not for the strange sense of euphoria radiating off this creature, Hudson would have most likely fainted from shock.
“Do you wish to enter the Tower of Forbidden Knowledge?” The being asked. Its cadence reminded Hudson simultaneously of the tinkling of piano keys, gentle rain on a windowsill and his mother’s voice. It was the single most beautiful and comforting sound he had ever heard.
He stood in front of the figure, tears forming in his eyes. He stammered, but no words would come out. It was as if he was giving a speech to a roaring crowd of people and he had not prepared for it. He had never felt so nervous before in his life. This wonderful creature was asking if he wanted to enter this foreboding place. What was he supposed to say in response? He was in awe.
“Hudson!”
He heard someone calling his name, but it was like a distant foghorn in an endless empty sea. Hud felt something slam around his ears and suddenly everything was normal again. Touching the side of his head, he felt a pair of heavy-duty earmuffs covering them. Suddenly, he was being dragged through a pair of golden doors and onto the ground floor of the tower.
Wrenching his earmuffs off, he gave Poppy a disturbed look and pointed at the giant golden doors. “What the hell was up with that?”
Poppy placed her hands on her hips. “Didn’t you hear what Emma-Lee found during her research? Some angels can mesmerise humans. You should have seen your eyes, it looked like you were high as shit!”
Hudson shook his head. He felt a little dizzy from that experience. “That’s insane.”
“That’s fucking angels for you.”
Hud gazed upwards at the center of the spire and nearly fell over. The inside of the tower had a spiralling staircase that ascended skywards almost endlessly. It was dizzying to look at.
“Well, we better get going.” He muttered. He didn’t want to think about what those demon worshippers were doing to his sister.
With that, the two of them
began walking up the shimmering golden stairs. There were no handles, so Hud made sure he kept to the inner wall of the tower. He knew that if he peeked down, he would end up giving himself vertigo.
They both started at a decently quick pace. However, they ended up slowing down as it became clear that it was going to take a long time to get to the top. They continued to take step after step until Hudson’s legs began to ache and his muscles started to feel like jelly.
“How much longer is it going to take?” Hudson growled.
“It feels like this doesn’t end.” Poppy sighed from behind him.
He gazed up and saw that to his dismay it looked as though they had barely travelled anywhere. He glanced down over his shoulder and confirmed his suspicions. The stairs seemed to spiral endlessly below them as well.
“I wonder if there’s a trick to this.” Poppy murmured, running her hand along the wall. After a few moments, he heard Poppy mumbling under her breath. “Hey Hud, there’s something written on these walls.”
Hudson turned his head and saw what Poppy was talking about. Scrawled along the walls were what look like runes. It did not look like anything Hud had seen before, even within the pages of the Demotome. It had a lightly floating appearance that he was not quite sure how to describe.
“This is crazy, Hud. It all makes so much sense.” Poppy whispered, running her eyes from one rune to the other. She seemed just as mesmerised by it as he had been with the angel.
Before Hudson could say anything in response, he heard a shout. Snapping his neck up, he saw a man running down towards him down the stairs. Jumping to the side, he watched as the muscly man barrelled into Poppy, causing the two of them to start tumbling down step after step. Moving out of instinct, Hud began to run down the flight of stairs, screaming after the psychic.
He watched in horror as the man picked up Poppy and began walking over to the edge. Just as Hud lunged towards the man, he threw Poppy down the center of the staircase.
Chapter Four
Poppy was falling. In any other situation, she would be terrified out of her wits and screaming until her throat was torn up. Her mind immediately went to the time she had fallen off the beam.
Something was different this time though. She felt as though the runes from the wall were wiggling into her brain like small insects. Her mouth opened and she let out a small and shocked “oh” as if she had remembered an answer to a hard question. It all just suddenly made sense. The puzzle pieces clicked together.
Her whole body paused mid-air, inches away from the ground. The psychic heard a bird fluttering above her. Reaching a shaky hand up, she felt long feathers behind her back. Turning her neck around, she saw huge flapping bird’s wings and realised they were erupting out of her back.
“What the fuck.” Poppy hissed.
She gazed up and recalled that Hudson was alone of the steps with the man who had thrown her down.
“I need to get back up there.”
Suddenly, she heard a powerful flap and felt herself getting thrown up into the air as if she had been flung by an unseen catapult. Wind gushed past her face and she winced, feeling her stomach twist. Opening her eyes, she saw Hudson wrestling with the man. They were both dangerously close to the edge of the spiralling staircase. Pushing herself forward, Poppy grabbed the cloaked man off Hudson and pulled him off the stairs.
The man let out a horrified scream as he fell down the seemingly endless abyss. He landed with a sickening crunch. Hudson gazed up in horror at Poppy, his face going pale as he lifted a shaking arm at her.
“Poppy, you have wings.” He murmured in a small voice.
“Yeah, I uh…yeah.” Poppy replied, spinning in an awkward circle.
“How did you get wings?”
“Uh, the writing on the wall, I think? It told me how to open them. They’ve always been here Hud.”
Hudson glanced from Poppy to the writing and then back again, rubbing his neck with the back of his hand.
“Poppy, I can’t read it. How were you able to read it?”
Poppy shook her head in frustration. “We don’t have time for this. C’mon, hold onto me and we can go to the top.”
Hud wrapped his arms around Poppy’s waist and she began moving up the hole in the center of the stairs, her wings flapping up and down. Hudson had his eyes clenched shut, as if he were too scared to open them. It only took them a couple of minutes to reach the final part of the staircase.
They both landed onto the stairs and stepped up onto the top of the tower with quick but cautious steps. The first thing that Poppy’s eyes landed on was a circle of cloaked people. A sudden shriek came from the center of the circle that caused Hudson to jolt upright.
“Emma-Lee!” Hudson shouted, running towards them.
The circle broke and Poppy saw that Emma-Lee was hog-tied on the ground, a bandanna bound between her lips. Her eyes were wide and there were tears running down her cheeks. Three cloaked figures leapt onto Hud. He groaned and struggled as they tied him down with rope. A couple more figures began to race towards Poppy. Instinctively, the psychic opened her wings and the demon worshippers stopped in their tracks.
“Leave!” Poppy growled in a voice she could not recognize. She had never felt so powerful before in her entire life.
Not speaking, the three worshippers she had stunned began to make their way down the stairs. She was so shocked by what had just occurred that she failed to notice Hud’s captors coming from behind her. She felt something wrap around her wings and she let out a groan of pain.
Poppy fell to her knees, thrashing around in agony. It was like someone was binding her wings with red hot wire. She glanced to her side and saw that Hudson had been bound up with rope. Moving her eyes, she saw that her wings had been bound tightly in barbed wire.
“Goodness me, it has been a while since we have dealt with the likes of you.”
One of the hooded figures approached her and lowered its hood. She was met with the face of an old woman, her irises a pale blue and her hair frizzy and grey. A small and wicked smile grew on her face and she clapped her hands twice.
“Not too often we are blessed with a touch from both sides. Derik, Austin…harvest her blood. We will make good use of it for rituals.”
There was nothing Poppy could do. Her wings were bound up and she felt powerless. She could only watch as the three of them were poked with hypodermic needles and hooked up to metal IVs.
Her mind was rushing with thoughts and the runes were still burning in her brain like a branding iron. It was so painful that she ended up shutting her eyes. She suddenly thought back to the blue room and a sense of coolness and calmness overcame her. Slowly, Poppy opened her eyes and gazed coolly at the old woman, who was flipping through the Demotome.
“Where is our Prince in here…” the woman muttered. “His passages must be in here somewhere.”
“I can help you.” Poppy said, her voice deeper than usual.
The old woman tilted her head to the side, a snarl forming on her face. “You can help me?”
“Yes.” Poppy said, staring deep into the woman’s eyes. “I can help you. Bring the Demotome over to me.”
The old demon worshipper’s face went slack jawed and she began to slowly shuffle over to her. Poppy had no idea what was happening, so she continued to feign a sense of confidence. Eventually, the demon worshipper gave Poppy the book and the psychic began to flip through the tome.
“See?”
“What?” The old woman grumbled, shuffling closer to Poppy.
“Here, look right here…”
The woman bent over and squinted at the writing in the tome with her small pale eyes. Once the psychic was sure that the lady was close enough, she pulled the opened saltshaker from her bag and poured the salt onto her face. The elderly demon worshipper let out a pained screech, causing her three present cronies to come running to her.
Quickly, Poppy stood up and used the dagger from her bag to free Hudson. They pulled their IVs
out just in time to get jumped by two of the worshippers. The psychic and Hud both took their saltshakers and began flinging lashes of salt at the two of them. The two men were brought to their knees, covering their faces protectively. Poppy and Hudson created a circle of salt around them men, preventing them from escaping.
Hudson and Poppy gazed at each other, panting before she felt something hard crack her over the skull. She fell to her knees, Hud collapsing beside her with a loud ‘oof’. The psychic gazed up in time to see the old demon worshipper towering over them, a furious scowl on her face.
“You idiots.” The old woman growled, glaring at Poppy and Hud with her raw red face as their wrists were bound by the freed demon worshippers. “Do you really think you can stop us?”
Taking a jewel encrusted dagger in her hand, she went over to where Emma-Lee was helplessly tied up. Hudson tried to run forward, but he was held back by one of the old demon worshippers’ cronies. She bent down beside the frightened teenager and put the dagger to her throat.
“A waste of blood, but at least we have one of you.”
In one swift movement, she ran the blade over Emma-Lee’s throat.
Chapter Five
Everything seemed to slow to a stop for Hudson once he watched the blood pour from his gasping sister’s neck. He heard a cry from beside himself and felt Poppy grab his bound hand with her own bloody one. He heard screaming but he did not know where it was coming from. It took him a few seconds to realise the noise was coming from his own throat. Blood was dripping into his eyes from the injury he had sustained, and it dribbled down his chin.
Something happened in that moment as he watched Emma-Lee slump to the ground. He felt his body explode with a strange energy that he could not quite comprehend. The entire room was suddenly surrounded by an aura of crimson and cerulean that danced on the walls like waves in the ocean.
