Outside Hell

by Milo Spires

  *****

  Also the werewolf that Raffious had sent chasing after Sorchek; turned out to be a funny tale.

  Sorchek found that everywhere he’d turned the path ahead of him had seemed to be full of bushes that hated vampires. He’d no time to stop either and had to just push on ploughing headfirst straight into them, desperately scrabbling and pulling as hard and as fast as he could to get through. There’d been moments when the beast had been inches from him and its claws had sliced deep gashes down the backs of his legs, only in his favor it had seemed that the spaces he’d made in the vicious bushes were too tight for the werewolf to fit through so he’d manage to slip away. The beast had the disadvantage, because it had to claw its own wider path through them just to keep up.

  Then at some point through the wild insane chase, he’d reached the top of a hill and had no choice but to again dive into more thicket bushes that seemed endless in their expanse. Only then and after pulling himself through the forest of pain and to his surprise, the deep growling noise that had been so close behind him that at moments he’d thought it was actually trying to climb in his ear had gone. The sound of that beast had instilled utter terror in him, and now to his pleasant surprise it wasn’t there any longer, it was strangely gone.

  Daring not to chance slowing down to take look though just in case it was trying a keep quiet tactic before pouncing, and with his heart in his mouth so to speak, the vampire just kept on running. His trousers were absolutely soaked from the wet grass and ripped from blackthorn bushes, whilst at the same time he was heavily breathing and on occasion gasping for breath. Then after about a mile or so, finally he’d come across an escarpment that lead off down the side of a ‘seven hundred feet to the bottom’ steep hill. Still refusing to look behind just in case the beast was trying his run but keep quiet tactic, he’d leapt off the top of the hill and found that as his feet had landed on the slope beneath him, his ankles had instantly buckled. The ground was severely pitted and rutted from cow’s hoofs, and there’d been nothing that he could do to stop himself from going over. At first he’d thrust his hands out in front of himself thinking that he’d be able to slow his decent, but he’d been wrong. His whole body as it had rolled violently down the slope had twisted, cavorted, and somersaulted in every direction until finally near the bottom, he’d reached an adjacent slope that had dealt him a hefty, and extremely dizzying blow.

  His head had smacked down sideways into the firm soil after coming out from the somersault moments before, and his chest had taken a heavenly deep thud that was so hard, it had even shot blood up the back of his throat from his last victim. The force of the impact as he’d hit the adjacent slope had also sent him across it and then unable to stop himself, he’d spiraled down a shorter incline that was filled with bramble bushes and an old rusty barbed wire fence.

  Then even though his mind was spinning, the terror of being caught had him up again, and the last thing he’d wanted to do was give up the ground that he’d suffered so much pain putting between them. The vampire scrambled over the fence in absolute agony, and then made his way down through a small wooded area that lead out into a field.

  He would have unleashed his wings at the start of the chase, but the distance between him and the werewolf was too close to have enough time to open them. Then through the brambles and thicket bushes, he’d dislodged one of them and wasn’t sure that it would function properly. Then and still with no wild growling sounds from behind him he’d chanced a quick look, and through the dark silhouettes of the trees that he’d just come through, he couldn’t see anything except the mist in the air with its phantom tendrils, and hear the un-rhythmical sound of his snatching the air in with deep gasps, breathing. Then somewhat unsure that he’d finally escaped the werewolf, he’d hobbled across the field in great pain, whilst dragging his left leg behind himself. All the while the grass was brightly lit and washed in the moons luminescent glow. Finally though he’d reached a brick wall and a gate that had been locked, only fearing that the sound of a swift kick might alert his furry friend to where he was, the vampire reluctantly and painfully then abandoned the gate and leapt up, pulling himself over the wall.

  Then as he’d laid there in his crumpled mess on the other side, the stars above had shone brightly down upon him, and he’d grinned. He’d grinned at how he’d finally escaped, and that the beast with its sleek and massive frame must have somehow in the chase, made a grave mistake.

  A minute passed and then with no real noise to worry himself over except the odd owl and a few sheep talking amongst themselves, he’d leapt back over the wall to keep running. Only as he’d lowered himself down and dropped the last few inches, with his feet sinking into the damp grass on the other side, he’d looked up and found to his horror that there no more than ten feet away, and hiding in the coalescing shadows under an oak tree, was the werewolf.

  Sorchek had tried to run but slipped, and then as he’d laid there sprawled out in the wet grass expecting death, instead the beast had vanished. There was a garish flash daring to light the grass for miles with its intensity, and then the beast simply disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  Then as he’d laid there in the sodden grass with his chest rising and falling erratically, and even though he’d needed a few long minutes to recover to some mental state where he could comprehend his true surroundings again, he’d realized after thinking about it, that Raffious had made the werewolf using spells.

  In response Sorchek dropped to his knees and then screamed, “Raffious You fucking bastard.”

  Raffious heard him in his other world and grinned.

  *****

  The reason that Raffious had arranged the deal with Sorchek in the first place, was because of his need for revenge against Kaine and Regina.

  Raffious had been hiding from the angels in another world, and was deeply suspicious that Kaine and Regina who’d thought they were friends with him, had actually found out that he was a lying bastard and was using them for years. She’d read out a spell on a bracelet that he’d given her some years before, and he’d had no choice when its magical powers had called to him, but to answer it. Then as he was just about to answer, suddenly he’d another idea and sent a clone of himself to their home in Devil’s Dyke instead. He’d reasoned that by doing so and not answering the call, that she wouldn’t see where he was hiding. He’d doubted that she would have recognized the place being that she was just a stupid vampire and that, but also he’d known that he couldn’t take the chance of revealing it to her either.

  Raffious’ suspicions that she’d found out about him had come from when a clone of his had overheard a priest talking one morning. The father had been rummaging through books in his office, and heard him mention under his breath about a vision that he’d experienced some weeks beforehand. John the priest had said to himself, “If Raffious existed then Kaine and Regina would exist too, wouldn’t they?”

  Raffious had almost fallen over when he’d realized that his own evil plans were being monitored. Somehow a dark entity or the angels had bestowed the vision upon the priest whilst he’d slept, and then in it, it had revealed all of his own plans to the priest too. This had made Raffious furious because up to that point he’d been really careful not to let anyone know anything about his twisted revenge plot, and feared that if it had been the angels who’d made the priest experience the vision, then they might be close to catching him too.

  Raffious was on the run from Heaven and trying to get revenge against a vampire leader called Rex, for brutally torturing and killing his love Adina at the time of Christ’s crucifixion. Ever since she’d been killed Raffious had been leaping about through time controlling world leaders, and creating wars and as much famine as he could. He’d hoped that in doing so, and when mother nature was loosing her grip on the Earth, Rex would have no choice but to come out from his hiding place underneath the Tower of London, and without the protection of Satan too, he’d be able to kill him. Only as Heaven had heard about h
is twisted plans for revenge, God responded instantly by sending his angels out from the Pearly gates, and demanded that the old boy be dragged kicking and screaming before him.

  When Raffious had realized that the angels were close on his tail, it had all been too much for him. Then after he’d vanished into his other world and had time to think about it, he’d regretted that he hadn’t just killed the priest before he’d left. He’d reasoned that because he was still alive, the priestly fucker might then go and tell Kaine and Regina about him. He’d also been aware there was no way that he could stop it at that point too. Well at least not without chancing being caught by going back to the Earth, and that wasn’t going to happen for sure, not with the angels after him that is. Anyway so when Regina had summoned Raffious using the magic bracelet and he’d sent the clone to their house in Devils Dyke, he’d been right to be suspicious that Regina had found out about him, because she had. The priest had gone looking for her after his vision and when he’d found her, he’d told her everything from his vision, revealing to her all of Raffious’ deeply twisted plans.

  In response to hearing it she was furious, and then swore that when she’d seen him again, and because of who he really was, she’d kill him for it. So when the clone was standing next to her in her lounge and thinking that it was Raffious, she’d stabbed it in the back of the leg hoping to severe his main artery. Then as her razor sharp fingers had slid inside the leg, what she’d found in there had shocked her. Inside there wasn’t thick crimson coppery blood as expected, instead there was white liquid that sprayed everywhere.

  Kaine had responded by throwing his Ghurka’s knife across the lounge directly into the clone’s head, and then Regina using it as a handle had ripped the clone’s head of its shoulders. A moment had passed and then she’d looked into its eyes, telling Raffious that wherever he was hiding that she was going to kill him. Raffious in his other world watched her through the clone’s eyes, and in response he’d gulped deeply. At the same time John the priest who was only a few feet away and severely freaking out, held the bible in front of himself whilst doing cross signs on his forehead, only he’d succumbed to his inner terror and then past out.

  Kaine had also told Raffious that the old boy, their former friend, made him sick and he couldn’t believe that he’d been killing millions of humans, just because he’d wanted revenge for the death of his bitch Adina. Raffious was furious hearing this and with anger coursing through his veins, he’d told Kaine that he had to be punished for saying it. Regina had intervened instantly and then said that if she herself ever died that Kaine wouldn’t be so pathetic as to kill millions of humans to get revenge like he had. Raffious instantly replied by saying, “Are you sure about that? Well we will just have to see then won’t we,” and then seconds afterwards the phone in the corner of Kaine and Regina’s room had rung.

  That was the moment that Raffious leapt back 375 years in time and arranged the deal with Sorchek, telling him he had to ring at that moment. So when Kaine had picked it up and there was someone with a savage sounding throat (Sorchek) saying that he knew where the vampire was hiding who’d killed his parents, Kaine as predicted was furious. Not at any time did he think through his rage that the caller was actually the same vampire who’d killed his parents, or that Raffious had leapt back in time and just set up the whole sordid affair.

  Chapter 12 - Guilty

  (Moments before Regina’s death. The Tower of London - England)

  As Dracus the bowman walked down the flights of dusty stairs that were in front of him, with the damp almost rotting smell that was growing stronger and stronger all around him, he’d wondered with a little hope in his soul, if maybe this was the last time that he would have to grace such a terrible place.

  Passing the seventieth floor and still heading down into the depths of the Earth, the ground started to make strange creaking noises all around him.

  Pausing to listen to it, he was aware that it wasn’t the weight of the soil above as many would say that it was, but in truth just the beginning of the desperate screams and tormentous sufferings of Hell.

  The creaking sound was hells fires as they’d desperately tried to dry out and consume the ground above, only as the heat threatened to take down the whole of humanity, so then the rainwater and seas seeped down from above to quell the raging fires. The continuous and everlasting battle between the elements of fire and water.

  Continuing downwards he realized that he had ten more flights to go until he would be in the room where his master, or hopefully ex-master awaited him. Dracus was fully aware that if he’d escaped this execution that they had planned for him, and everything went to plan, then he’d been extremely lucky. He was also aware that he couldn’t escape using his magic portals either, because his magic was blocked by the covens extremely dark evil spells within. This meant that if the death sentence was passed on him as he’d expected it would be, then he’d have a wild battle just trying to escape the place. He’d only hoped that his friend downstairs was ready for it too. Still if he could go back a couple days to within seconds of when he’d fired the arrows, he’d known in his heart that he’d have still shot the bastard, because Satan had deserved it.

  He’d been at the Palace de Versailles in Paris as the envoy for the coven, The White Coven located under The Tower of London. Whilst he’d been there he’d been tasked with handing over a gift to Kaine and Regina from Rex his coven leader downstairs. It was a Scareb bracelet that would protect her from evil and also summon him should she and her husband ever need his help. All she had to do was touch it with four of her fingers and he would hear the bracelet calling to him, and then he’d leap to her rescue through a magic portal.

  After he’d handed it over to her in Paris then minutes later he’d felt another spell summoning him away, and he’d had to leave. Then as he’d vanished and by sheer coincidence Satan’s portal demons had touched her skin, and infected her with death.

  Then moments after she’d succumbed to the infection and was in the process of being sucked down through a tunnel of flames into hell; Kaine without knowledge of the bracelet had placed her hands across each other, and in doing so four of her fingers had engaged its power, so summoning him. Then as he’d felt the calling and after leaping back through a magic portal to get to her, and by sheer luck he’d been able to save her by using slithers of his cursed arrows.

  Satan had been furious that her death had been reversed though and then came up from hell full of wild anger. He was adamant that Regina was his prize and that he wasn’t going to let her be stolen from him. In his fury he’d tried to personally consume Regina and her husband plus their friend Laouse, only he’d stepped in and saved them. He’d fired four of his cursed arrows into the side of Satan’s neck that had momentarily paralyzed him. Then whilst he’d been struggling to get them out, Kaine, Regina, Laouse and himself had managed to escape through his portal. Only ever since that moment his spells that he’d learnt from his parents study in the castle had warned him, that the evil bastard Satan had demanded his own head in retribution. This was fine though because he’d no plans to hand his head over, and in truth he’d wanted Satan to follow him back to Eldor. Only first if shooting Satan had pissed him off then Dracus had felt that it wasn’t enough. He’d waited hundreds of years to meet the idiot, and he’d had to be sure that Satan would stop at nothing to kill him, and then in doing so leap back to the Valstrath realm and fall into his trap of fighting Vrakug.

  *****

  When Dracus had reached the floor underneath the Tower of London that he’d wanted, and now eighty levels beneath the Earths surface, he’d finally exited the stairwell and turned left into a short corridor that was some forty feet in length. Ahead of him at the end of it stood a massive stone door that had drawings carved into it. They were images like Egyptian Hieroglyphics depicting battles that the coven had been in only deeply faded, and almost completely worn away by the passing of time.

  Then as he’d reached the door,
his bowman’s crossed strings on his right arm glistened in the flickering light that was coming off a wall candle in the far distance.

  Raising his hand he’d wrapped his knuckles hard against the doors surface three times, and with every strike like sand trickling down in a sand timer, dust had fallen to the floor. Then as he’d listened he could hear the sound of a huge stone slab as it was being slid across from the other side, and a second later the door had finally started to open.

  As it did and because of its extreme weight, the door creaked heavily like it was suffering from intense agonizing pain. Then as it was still creaking suddenly the most finite blade of surreal light had blasted out from around it edges. The color was rich gold and conjured up in his mind the simple ideology that if such beauty could exist in this place of evil, then maybe just maybe, all the souls of the tortured victims could find their way to Heaven after all.