by Heath, Joel
After descending the stairs they pushed through a door into a tiled hall, steam filled the air. As they pushed in Spencer nearly tripped over what looked like and ancient Greek couch, a smaller table sat next to it, a plate of exotic fruits hung over the edge of the table.
Jessie paused; the steam was relaxing, almost too relaxing.
“Jessie, are you okay?” Vince asked.
“Yeah, let’s go.” Jessie said.
Spencer led the way past the couch and into a bathhouse.
Inside the sound of water dripping into the bath seemed especially loud, there were a four torches burning in each of the four corners allowing light into the otherwise dark room. A door was faintly seen on the far side of the bath beyond a small embankment which mirrored the floor that Spencer was standing on, the low lying ceiling went up maybe six or eight feet above Spencer’s head.
Spencer walked up to the bath, and found no way around, he had to go through. It was only twenty feet or so across so Spencer decided to swim for it.
“Are you sure we should go in, Spencer?” Vince asked.
“I don’t see any other way forward.” Spencer replied.
The water was warm as Spencer stepped in and trudged on, but he quickly found the water was far deeper than it appeared, he was able to tread water but he was not able to feel the bottom of the bath. I thought this was only three of four feet deep, how deep is it? Spencer started paddling but Vince and Jessie were unsure if crossing the bath was wise, and they were right.
Spencer stopped; he seemed to struggle as he did.
“Hey, I think something has my…” Spencer slipped beneath the water.
“SPENCER!” Vince shouted. But the water was silent. Vince slipped into the water; he tried to summon his celestial sword, but was unable to do so. What was happening?
Vince dove beneath the water and mentally gasped; a bath that looked to be only a few feet deep was actually three hundred feet deep with tiered ledged that emerged from the wall like head stones in a cemetery. The ledges wrapped around the perimeter of the bath. Then Vince saw them; hundreds of dark wispy entities. More than a dozen had a firm grip on Spencer’s legs, arms, basically anyplace where they could get a solid grip on this human.
Spencer was thirty feet down when Vince caught up to him, and latched onto the collar of his shirt, then the hilt of Spencer’s sword fell into focus.
Vince ripped the sword from its sheath, the presence of the blade was a discouraging sight for many of the darkened entities, but most of them let go of Spencer and flocked toward Vince who began slashing.
Jessie appeared at Spencer’s side and helped pull Spencer up to the surface as Vince continued fighting, finally the dark fiends had fled into the depths of the bath.
Spencer’s head broke the surface and he gasped as he took in a deep breath. Jessie also managed to take a fresh breath before she helped Spencer to the door.
It was another five seconds before Vince appeared at the surface of the water, paddling hard, Spencer’s sword in one hand, terror in his eyes.
Jessie helped pull Vince out of the water.
“We have to get out of here, NOW!” Vince said running for the door, but it was jammed. Spencer, Vince and Jessie were trapped.
The entire bathhouse shook as though it were a fish tank and had been struck from the outside.
“What was that?” Jessie asked.
The room sat silent for another few seconds before there was an explosion of water as a large, black ghost-like creature emerged from the water that was thrown all over the bath house. The ceiling was no longer low lying, but now extended upward for another fifty feet into a swirling vortex of chaos. Vince glanced at the four torches in different corners of the room, the flame had turned to an unearthly green flame that danced and flickered like fire, but it was a dark as the shade.
“I have no idea.” Vince admitted.
Chapter 9 – The Circles of Hell… The shadow creature loomed over Spencer, Vince and Jessie, a wicked smile pasted across its darkened face.
Spencer took Vince’s place at the head of the group and reclaimed his sword from Vince who then went for the jammed door and tried to pry it open, Spencer held his sword up almost as though he were taunting the shade.
The shade reached down to strike Spencer.
Spencer sliced through the air, the sword cut right through the shade’s hand, but it left no scar, just a void that filled with darkness as though it were a wound that was healing.
“How’s that door coming?” Spencer asked as the shade looked down on Spencer and laughed.
“Not good.” Vince replied.
The shade pulled its hand back and struck Spencer sending him and the sword flying to the far side of the bath, rolling to a stop Spencer stopped in the corner, a torch within his grasp.
Spencer stood up, knocking the torch to the ground, the shade lurched for Spencer; moving to attack Spencer, aggression no longer appeared to be its motive, now concern governed its movements.
Spencer looked at the torch and then back to the shade.
In the instant before the shades attack landed Spencer kicked the torch for all he was worth and the torch went flying just as Spencer did. The torch landed in the water and the shade reacted in pain.
Spencer landed in the water five feet from the opposite side; he quickly began swimming for the safe side when he realized his sword was missing. Spencer looked back to the far side of the bath. The sword was not there.
“Vince, the torches … douse the torches!” Spencer shouted before taking a deep breath diving under the water. Looking down he saw his sword a hundred feet down and still sinking, Spencer started swimming down as fast as he could knowing that he had less than ninety seconds to reach the sword and start his swim for the surface otherwise he would die of
asphyxiation.
The sword landed on a ledge a hundred and seventy feet below the surface of the water.
The surface of the water was lit up briefly and the sound of something large entering the water weakly passed Spencer’s ears as he passed below a hundred and fifty feet.
On the surface Vince and Jessie climbed out of the water on the far side of the bath and went for different torches. The shade struck for Vince leaving Jessie free to remove the third torch and gloat.
“Hold it right there.” Jessie shouted drawing the attention of the shade.
His attack quickly redirected to Jessie allowing Vince to retrieve the final torch and discard it into the water.
The shade dropped to the floor, half in the water, holding itself up by its arms. Jessie dropped the final torch into the darkened watery depths. The weakened shade began to condense into a smaller version of itself.
The shade eventually climbed out of the water and lumbered toward Jessie.
“NO!” Vince shouted, “Leave her alone.” Vince charged at the shade only to be
backhanded by it. Vince was knocked back.
The shade lurched closer to Jessie; she had nowhere to go except into the water, before she leapt she looked back at Vince.
As her feet left the dais, the shade followed close behind. Jessie hit the water first and the shadowy foe entered next landing only a few feet behind, but did not move.
After a moment, the shade lost cohesion and spread across the surface of the water like crude oil. Then Spencer broke the surface gasping for air.
“Where’s Vince?” Spencer asked.
“Up there.” Jessie replied, pointing up at the dais.
“We better get out of the water then.” Spencer said lifting his sword they made for the nearest ledge.
The ground stated to shake as Spencer and Jessie pulled them selves out of the water.
Spencer rolled out of the way as the water seemed to dry up and turn into a sort of
cobblestone floor, the ceiling lowered forty feet and the door on the other side of the room faded revealing a descending stair case, slowly the shaking stopped.
Spencer approache
d Vince and helped him back to his feet.
“What the hell happened?” Vince asked.
“I would guess that we’re descending through the nine circles of hell,” Spencer replied then glanced outside the door they came in minutes earlier. “I would guess it was gluttony.”
“So if we make a mistake…” Vince started.
“We fight a demon.” Jessie observed.
“That would mean we have two doors we can go through, the right door and the wrong door.” Spencer guessed.
“How do we know which is which?” Jessie asked.
“We don’t.” Spencer said “Of course there is one other way to explain it.” Spencer let the tension build for a few seconds, “It could be certain circles of hell are guarded by something, and in order to progress we have to win.” Spencer guessed,
“If you’re right then it only stands to reason that the further down we go the tougher the fight will be.” Jessie concluded.
Spencer looked square at Jessie, “I hope you’re wrong about that, but I doubt it.” Spencer said before heading for the door, and the stairs beyond.
Spencer emerged in what looked like a Fraternity House. A door lined hallway extended in both directions, a dead end sat to the right and a sign hung warning passersby that there was no exit, hung to the left.
Spencer reached for one of the doorknobs and pushed the door open only to emerge from another door in the hallway.
“Why did you do that?” Jessie asked.
“I thought one of these was the exit.” Spencer replied.
“Are we in a frat house?” Jessie asked.
Spencer nodded. That’s pretty much dead on, girl, he thought to himself.
“What circle of hell could this be?” Jessie asked.
Spencer said nothing, Vince winked at Jessie.
Spencer walked away from the
emergency exit and towards partially hidden hallway that led to a small handful of pool tables, the smell of cigarette ash tainted the felt on the tables.
On the far wall there was a single door.
Spencer approached the door and inside stairs descended.
Spencer led Vince and Jessie down the stairs to an unpainted hallway that stretched on for hundreds of feet. There was a door every thirty to forty feet each marked with a generic label, but few, if any, wares.
“Clothing store?” Vince asked as he walked past one door.
At the end of the long hallway sat a solid door that almost felt like it was armored by a steel plate on either side of the door.
The door opened up to an elaborately tiled mall floor. The tiles were almost mirrorpolished white ivory; each tile sparkled with the faint light of the mall. Water sprayed up into the air before it trickled down the multi-tiered fountain, then Spencer stepped over to a nearby railing and peered over. They sat atop the top level of a mall that was at least fifty stories tall, escalators crossed at random intervals.
“So, do we go down?” Jessie asked.
“I hope not.” Spencer replied.
“Why’s that?” Vince asked.
Spencer stared Vince in the face.
“Because, that’s a long way down.” Spencer replied.
“I think we should find a map.” Spencer suggested, and then he noticed a mall directory across the vast open chasm that lay before him. By then Jessie had already spotted a book store, and was headed there.
“Jessie,” Spencer called, but Jessie did not hear him.
“I’ll go with her.” Vince offered.
“We’ll meet back here in one hour whether we found anything or not.” Spencer said and Vince nodded before proceeding after Jessie.
Spencer walked quickly around the perimeter of the shaft that was cut down through the numerous levels of the mall toward the directory, once there he began pouring over the information presented.
The directory appeared to be a fully interactive with a touch screen. Spencer pulled up the search function and began a search for an exit to the labyrinth of consumerism.
In the bookstore Vince and Jesse started their search for any information that might be useful in their quest down through the nine circles of hell or in their fight against Lucifer. Jessie got intrigued when she found only one book in the store, a book that was the size of a phone book, bound in hard black leather.
Jessie pulled the cover open and began flipping though the ancient pages.
“Vince, look at this.” Jessie said
excitedly.
Vince glanced at Jessie.
“You think we should take this with?”
Spencer’s search took him throughout the labyrinth of consumerism, searching for the exit. It took a while before he found it, then he retracted his steps to meet up with his friends, eventually finding Vince and Jessie returned. “Did you find the way out?” Jessie asked. “Yes, I did.” Spencer replied, “It’s down
on the lowest level.”
“That figures.” Vince retorted.
Jessie looked around for an elevator,
stairs or an escalator, but found nothing in the immediate area. “What about the service hallways?” Vince suggested, “There might be stairs or a freight elevator there.”
After a thorough search, no stairs or elevator of any kind could be found. A bench offered a brief respite. Vince and Jessie sat in the bench while Spencer sat on the clod tiled floor.
“I don’t get it, there should be a way down.” Spencer declared.
Vince looked at the book in Jessie’s arms.
“You think there’s something in there that will tell us about where we are?” Vince asked. Spencer turned and looked.
“You know I think there might, I mean it stands to reason.” Jessie said opening the cover.
Spencer turned and looked, and he was confused. “What did you find there?”
“We haven’t looked at it yet,” Jessie said, as she slowly turned the pages she saw a basic history of Lucifer, which started with his being cast out of heaven. After twenty pages Jessie came to a diagram of a circle with multiple layers, there were nine layers surrounding a large red dot in the middle. Below the diagram there was a series of numbers with corresponding names and additional page numbers.
Jessie turned to the page for the fourth circle of hell; there was a simple phrase in the middle of the page. “Fortune be with you if you choose to go forward and play games with fire.”
“Play games?” Jessie asked then turned to Vince. “Didn’t we pass an arcade center on the way to the book store?”
“Let’s go check it out.” Vince suggested as he practically leapt to his feet.
Vince led the way down the main concourse to an arcade center that was larger than it looked; most of the games were concentrated in the rear, there was a small cluster of games in the center concentrated around a bunch of pinball machines. There was one game that stood out from the crowd, as it was not a pinball machine, it was a coin-operated fortuneteller.
“Fortune be with you…” Spencer said, the hint became clear, approaching the
fortuneteller and kneeling in front of it, he inspected the face. A decal on the front told them that the machine needed a quarter.
“Does anybody have a quarter?” Spencer asked, then realized how dumb the question was and noticed something in the machine’s coin return slot, reaching in Spencer pulled out a glistening quarter; Spencer then inserted the quarter into the coin slot and stood as the fortuneteller began to move.
The animatronics gypsy woman seemed more animated than Spencer expected.
“Welcome to the gate way to hell,” The fortuneteller invited. “Why have you trespassed on Lucifer’s domain?” the soothsayer demanded.
“He has a soul, one that does not belong here.” Spencer replied.
The fortuneteller became defensive.
“Who are you to decide who belongs here and who does not? Those who die in their sin must be sent here if they will not forsake their sin.”
“She is innocent,” Spence
r corrected “and she’s not dead.”
“Then why is she here?” the fortuneteller demanded.
Spencer debated telling the soothsayer the whole story.
“We were…” Spencer began.
“There was a mix up.” Jessie interjected. The fortuneteller scoffed.
“There are no ‘mix ups’ here. She must have done something…dire to find herself so deep in Satan’s realm.”
Spencer’s ears perked up. “You called him Satan.” Spencer declared.
The fortuneteller seemed flustered.
“N-no I didn’t.” the fortune teller defended
“Yes, you did.” Spencer said with a laugh, he couldn’t believe this coin operated personality had the nerve to lie to his face in his master’s own realm.
“I most certainly did not.” The psychic lied. “He detests that name.”
“Then you should know what he’ll do to you for using it.” Spencer warned.
“I never said it.” The fortuneteller defended.
“I heard it.” Vince confirmed.
He knew he had been caught.
“What do you want?” The fortuneteller asked.
“I want though; I want to go to where Satan keeps the souls he captures.” Spencer demanded.
“You don’t want to go down there.” The fortuneteller argued, fear filled her voice.
Spencer drew his sword. “You have two choices, tell me how to get through this place, or I’ll hack you out of this box and drag your ass around with me.” Spencer threatened.
The fortuneteller huffed. “Very well,” a card emerged from another slot next to the coin slot.
“Take this to the door across the concourse and enter the sequence into the pad. But be warned, Satan has some rather terrifying servants wandering the lower floors of this illusion.” The fortuneteller warned.
Spencer put his sword away and took the card before leading Vince and Jessie across the hall to a heavy looking door with a key pad. There were no letters, mostly symbols, each was archaic looking, and each was a mark of evil.
Spencer punched in each symbol of the ten-symbol sequence into the keypad and a sound echoed through the main concourse, something had been unlocked.
