The Purgatory Saga #1: People of the Fire

by Michelle Dalson

  One day, I snuck out of my room when I saw Enoch heading away from the palace by himself. He didn’t seem like he was sneaking out, but I was still curious. Dewey helped me hover down as I escaped from my window, for I was too lazy to take the entire stairway.

  I got to the ground outside, and we hurried up to Enoch.

  “Hey! Enoch, where are you going?” I caught up to his side.

  Enoch gave me a studying look. “Zach, Jenna and I were going to discuss our plan to help you escape this city.”

  “Help me escape this city?” I was slightly taken aback. “Hah! Why would you guys care about me?” I understood Enoch must be determined to help me escape this place, but why would Jenna give a crap?

  “Yes, Zach,” said Enoch. “I haven’t had the chance to communicate with your five guardians yet, but Dewey has managed to chat with Hannah and Michael’s angels. They plan to invade the land of Bhad and try to fight off the henchmen that Lucien has settled there, and on that night, we can escape this place and jump into the Gehenna Volcano to find our way back to Bhad and meet up them,” he gave me a wink.

  Enoch and I arrived at a building where Lucien had relocated St. Gretchen’s Academy. Apparently, Gretchen was one of the first spirits in Bhad to lead her academy to Hell. They were here temporarily, until Lucien gathered enough academies to form an alliance on Earth with the rest of the hell spirits.

  Jenna was sitting by the gates. She had her eyes closed and Grace was sitting on her lap. The SoulBird’s halo was glowing brightly.

  I winced. “Are they meditating, or what?”

  Enoch stepped forward to them. “Ahem….”

  Grace immediately opened her eyes, but instead of meeting Enoch’s gaze, she was looking over at Dewey, who stood in front of my feet. She gave a hearty flap of her tiny wings and Dewey hurried up to her. Apparently, Grace was already healed now, for she was not wearing the bandages over her butt.

  Jenna slowly opened her eyes to glare at the two noisy. Grace hopped off her lap to chase Dewey around.

  “Sorry to have disturbed you,” said Enoch calmly. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything important?”

  “No, Grace and I were just trying to contact those angels,” Jenna replied rather tartly. She stood up and pressed her sharp, hot-pink glasses to her face.

  “Oh, well did hear anything?”

  “I guess so,” Jenna’s tone was edgy. “They don’t seem to answer me, so I won’t be any use. It’s hard to communicate to anyone in the afterlife if you’re down here, anyway. You should go talk to them yourself.”

  Enoch nodded. “Very well, then. I’ll be around the border of Jerusalem if either of you need me.” He paced toward the shadows to the right of the academy, and disappeared behind one of the buildings. Jenna and I were left alone with our two SoulBirds.

  Jenna said nothing. She kept a fierce glare on her face.

  I turned to cross my arms and return her expression with a mischievous smile. “I come from this academy, you know.”

  “Hmph,” Jenna just held her head high and turned to look to her left. “Figures,” she muttered.

  I gave her a hard stare and then rolled my eyes, snickering.

  “What? What are you laughing at?”

  I shook my head and walked up to the front gate. I peered over the gates to get a good look at the area. I saw Cain coming toward my way from the right. Pete was fluttering by his head.

  “Cain! Hey, Cain!” I tried to call, but he didn’t hear me. I wanted to know how things were going without Damien.

  Suddenly, a darkly dressed spirit stepped in front of me with heavy black boots. “What are you callin’ Cain for?” The guy was wearing black eyeliner and had his hair in crazy, tall spikes. This was one of the same gangsters we had met at the dark alley.

  I stared up simply with a bored gaze. “Nothin.’ I was just gonna ask him to whoop your butt for me.”

  “Eh?” He raised his thick eyebrows. “Hey, guys!” He called toward the spirits at his right and a large group of a dozen gangster spirits appeared. This time, there were even girls.

  One of Damien’s friends recognized me. “Hey, that’s Zach!”

  The guy at the front gasped. “Really? No way! Zachariah Ezekreth?”

  “Yeah!” Dewey scoffed at the spirits. “You got a problem with that? We’ll whoop your butt!”

  Dewey let out a loud angry tweet, and looked ready to fight. But I faced the bullies with a yawn and turned away. “Can we fight later? I’m a little lazy right now.”

  But Josh, one of Damien’s best friends, had reached over the gate and grabbed my shoulder. “Hey! You’re not goin’ anywhere.” And before I knew it, the guy had punched me in the nose. Blood spilled immediately, and I stumbled backwards.

  “Zach!” Cried Dewey, jumping off my shoulder and giving me a look of horror.

  My nose was bleeding, and I looked forwards through a dizzied gaze as I saw that the bullies were laughing at me behind the gates.

  “Loser!” Someone called.

  I immediately leapt over the gates and crashed into Josh’s chest. I started punching rapidly at the guy’s face.

  The fighting was intense and brutal as the spirits ganged up on me. I even gave the girls some pretty nasty wounds, but there were still too many for me.

  But suddenly, a pair of long green legs in tights stepped in front of me and faced the gangsters.

  “Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” It was Jenna.

  I stared up at the girl as she had her back turned to me to face the bullies. She was looking at Josh, straight in the eye.

  “Hey! What do we have here? It‘s Jenna!” Josh grimaced. Apparently they had been acquainted before. “What brings you here?”

  “Hey!” One of the spirits snickered. “Zach! You gonna let your girlfriend do the fighting for you?”

  “Hell no!” I yelled. “I have no idea who she is!” I was lying, for I was furious to the point when I could feel the terrible burn on my head again. I lunged at him, but Grace tweeted and hovered in front of me, pecking at me to back away. “Ow! What the—”

  “Zach, we have no time to fight right now,” Grace hissed.

  “We have plenty of time for this,” I snapped, glaring at the bird with gritted teeth.

  Jenna huffed and spoke defiantly. “For your information, Zach’s living with the Higher One at this point! If you want, he can prove it to you when he asks Lucien throw your asses down into the Gehenna Volcano!”

  “Oh yeah?” Josh was still grimacing at her. “How about we have Zach try to throw us into the volcano, himself?” He grabbed Jenna’s right arm to pull her aside. But as soon he gripped her, she yanked her arm out of Josh’s hand and punched him in the right eye.

  I raised my eyebrows as soon as Josh yowled and covered his eye, stumbling backwards. The bullies were surprised. They started to crowd around her, but Jenna fought back viciously. She looked like a ninja as she rapidly kicked at the spirits and flipped over all the guys until many were lying unconscious on the ground.

  It was more entertaining to see her fight with the girls. As they tried to approach her from behind to strangle her with chains, she punched at them in the cheeks and ripped the clothes off the ones who were dressed like extra-ugly prostitutes.

  Finally, Jenna broke from the crowd. She didn’t even have her glasses out of place. She instantly zoomed passed me.

  Grace followed her and Dewey ran after them on the ground. “Zach! Come on!” He called.

  I hurried after them and caught up with Jenna at another alley.

  Finally, we stopped and looked around. Jenna’s eyes were darting wildly around herself. “Of course. They wouldn’t follow us!” She stomped down the narrow pathway.

  I followed after her, frowning. “You know, as awesome as that was, it’s terribly embarrassing when a girl stands up for a guy and finishes off a fight for him.”

  “Oh, come off it!” She whirled around to glare at me fiercely. “I only di
d it because I knew you weren’t gonna win! I’ve seen the way Josh fights, you know. I’ve been sneaking around here for Enoch before you came! That man could have whooped your ass and broken you apart, since you’re nothing but a weak, helpless toothpick!” She jabbed her two sharp fingers at my ribs, making me stumble back.

  I nearly laughed. “Yeah! And what about you? You think you’re stronger than I am? I’ve been into a bunch of fights with spirits like him. I’ve fought gangsters from random academies across the land! You think I’m not used to this?”

  Her eyes pierced into mine. “I really wouldn’t have saved you if I knew you could take care of yourself. But I barely know you and from the way you were handling them, they seemed to have already gotten the best of you. If I knew you would have defeated them, I really would’ve just stood there and watched.”

  She whirled around and turned her back. Her red ponytail whipped my face and I winced, taking a step back. I watched her walk away with Grace following after her. I couldn’t help staring and admiring her long skinny legs in those green tights. Those skinny legs could sure give some strong, nasty kicks.

  I snickered. I can’t believe I actually let someone like her do the fighting for me.

  I followed after her, for there was nothing else I could do. Dewey was already gleefully running after Grace.

  Something was moving behind us. From the corner of my eye, I saw a flicker of red fire.

  There, in the trash cans behind us, a band of six imps were approaching. Each of them holding small red tridents that blazed with fire.

  “Oh great,” Jenna muttered through clenched teeth. Grace and Dewey faced the imps with challenging glares.

  I turned around and hurried away. “Quick! I know a place we can be safe!”

  I ran out of the alley with Jenna and the SoulBirds at my right. The imps chased us from behind. I could feel their hot breaths on my heels. They barely missed as they swatted their tridents at us.

  “Agh! Just where are you going?!” Yelled Jenna.

  “Just come on!” I was nearing the Harg Temple in the distance ahead.

  “What?!” Screamed Jenna. “Harg?! Harg is not a church! We’re not gonna be safe from any devil in there!”

  “Just come on,” I muttered through clenched teeth.

  “This is where devils come from! We won’t be safe at all!”

  “Yeah, this is where they come from, and this is where they’re going back,” I hurried forward and as soon as we got to the front of the building, I didn’t hesitate to kick open the doors, which were covered with sticky gooey blood

  Jenna and the SoulBirds followed me inside. They imps growled like mangy little dogs as they jumped in after us. As soon as we were all inside, the doors immediately shut themselves.

  Cold, chilly air wafted through the building, and I looked around with horror as the imps started to float in the air. Then they disappeared.

  Dewey and Grace were already pecking at the door. Jenna walked up to the door and tried to pull open the two large knobs. She turned to me with a look of distress.

  “It’s locked,” she muttered.

  We were trapped inside the building of devils.

  I looked around with an uneasy expression. The temple of Harg was dark and shadowy. But thanks to the light that glowed around the SoulBirds, we were able to see at least each other—which wasn’t very thankful for. Jenna was glaring at me again. Her eyes were piercing behind her sharp-ended, hot-pink glasses. I returned her gaze with a narrowed and bored look.

  “What? At least we’re not being raped by vampires or beaten up by foot-tall imps.” I spoke dryly.

  She huffed. “Well, nice job getting us stuck in here! Now we’re going to suffer inside this building! Great! It’s much better to deal with devils inside the building they come from, rather than outside.”

  Dewey gasped. “Ooh! Maybe we can use your rosary to clean up this place! Zach, take it out and we can use it as a defense shield or a weapon!”

  I narrowed my eyes at Jenna, returning her angry gaze as I slipped my hand in my pocket.

  Suddenly, the doors rumbled. Jenna gasped and pushed me to the right behind a short table. “Someone’s coming in!” We crouched behind the table to the left side of the door.

  I only knew one spirit that was ever allowed in a place like this. The doors flung open and light filtered through, I saw the tall shadow of Lucien the Higher step inside. His shadow stretched all the way across the floor in the building. The entire room was suddenly lit up from the fires appeared on the torches on the walls.

  Jenna gave me a sharp nudge. She nodded at the door with an urgent look on her face.

  I followed her as she crawled to escape out the open door. Grace followed her with Dewey right behind. But before I was about to leave, I turned around to see Lucien standing there. He was facing forward and standing still, as if he were waiting for something. I was curious with what he was going to do here.

  Turning away from the exit, I quietly crawled back inside and turned left to hide behind the table. Dewey turned around, looking confused. He hurried back inside to join me, and the doors shut behind us. We were locked back inside, this time without Jenna and Grace.

  Lucien stood ten feet in front of me with his back turned. He walked through a long hallway that stretched forwards ahead of us.

  I winced as I watched him go. Dewey and I looked at each other.

  “On the outside, it doesn’t seem as if the building were this long,” muttered Dewey.

  “Exactly,” I muttered. I got up and crept after Lucien, following him down the hallway.

  The walls to either side were covered with mirrors. The mirrors were divided, so there were multiple reflections of myself when I looked to either side.

  Dewey was admiring himself in front of a mirror, smiling and brushing the tip of his head

  Suddenly, we came to a dead end. Below us was the bottom floor that led up to a fireplace at the end of the building. Lucien was walking toward the fireplace and he kneeled down just two feet away.

  “What?” I hissed. “How’d he get down there?” There was a banister in front of the dead end, and I didn’t see how Lucien could have jumped that far down. But he must have, for he was on his knees with his eyes close. He raised his arms and uttered a strange hymn under his breath.

  I couldn’t quite hear what he was saying, but I did catch some strange words that I couldn’t clearly hear. But I did hear the name “Satan” repeated from time to time.

  Suddenly, the fireplace burst into flames. In the center of the flames, I saw the eyes of a devil SoulBird—the eyes of Lucien’s devil SoulBird, Aracto. Its face was hovering in the center of the fireplace, surrounded by the flames.

  Dewey and I crept around to the right of the upper floor to get a better look at Lucien.

  “Aracto….” Lucien raised his head and stared into the fire. His red eyes looked wider and brighter in the flames. The red cracks around his eyeballs were distinctively bloody. For once, I did not feel an obsession over him. I feared the Higher One at this point. “Let me speak to Uncle E.” Lucien spoke in a low, quiet tone.

  And the flames flickered as a new face formed in place of the SoulBird. I could see the horrid look on Uncle E’s face. The flames made his hair look wild and messy. The helpless man was crying out for mercy.

  “Lucifer!” Uncle E was sputtering and crying, shaking his head in the flames. The fire danced and swayed around him.

  Lucien just gazed at him with a devious glare as he watched Uncle E’s head struggle in the fire.

  “Lucifer!” Uncle E cried out, trying to keep his shaking gaze on the Higher One. “Have mercy! Please! I cannot do it! I—wahh!” The flames burst and smoke thundered up the chimney. “Lucifer….!”

  His face immediately vanished.

  I stared with confusion. What was that all about? What was happening to my uncle? And why did he call the Higher One by the name, Lucifer?

  Lucien’s eyes narrowed and th
e red cracks started to bleed. “Ebenezer Ezekreth, you are a fool.” The Higher One muttered with menace and he closed his eyes. He raised his hands up in the air. The room became hot.

  I looked around and started to feel my pocket burn. “Ow!” I hissed. It was as if a match lit up in my pants.

  Dewey flinched. “Your rosary!”

  I immediately pulled out the necklace and dropped it in front of me. I watched as the cross sizzled and flickered with light.

  The whole room started to become hotter and hotter until I felt like I was melting.

  “Ugh, Lucien, what are you doing?” I muttered, eying the Higher One. I widened my eyes with disgust as I noticed that blood was leaking out from the corner of Lucien’s eyes.

  Then, a roar shook the flames and a monstrous, beastly face was formed, and I nearly fainted with such disgust and heat. It was the same face as that seven-headed dragon that had attacked me back in Jerusalem.

  Except this time, it looked even worse than before. It didn’t look entirely like a dragon. It had a huge mouth full of long fangs. Its heads looked like a cross between a dragon and a bloody wildcat. Its ten horns were bloodied and scarred, and the creature was breathing heavily toward Lucien.

  Lucien gasped and opened his eyes, facing forward, panting. The Higher One’s eyes were still shedding blood and thick red tears streamed down his pale thin face. He looked like he had taken a lot of energy to summon this devilish beast. The monster was heating up the room to a thousand degrees.

  “Nero…..” Lucien’s voice remained calm and astonished as he stared at the beast. “You’ve returned…..”

  But the beast roared and thrust its head around the flames. It looked deeply in pain.

  “Zach—the rosary must be doing that,” whispered Dewey, who was standing right by the necklace.

  I gazed at it and saw that it was intensely sizzling in the hotness. A white bright light started to shine.

  The beast gave out a deafening moan.

  Lucien’s eyebrows rose. “Nero?”

  Suddenly, a beam of light blasted from behind Lucien with such a strong force that Lucien was pushed forwards. He fell on his chin in front of the fire.