by N. P. Martin
Chapter 20
Sitting in the car outside the building, Frank called Eva and told her to meet us at the cabin.
“Good job in there, by the way,” he said to me afterwards.
“Thanks,” I said and it occurred to me then just how much things had changed in such a short space of time. I had been through some horrible—not to mention terrifying—experiences, but I also felt like my life was finally starting to make some sort of sense; however messed up my circumstances might have been. I still struggled to wrap my head around it all, but I was moving towards something. I was on a path that held meaning and that was something I never had before.
Since my parents were killed, I struggled to find an identity, which was made harder by having to move from one foster home to the next, never having anywhere I could call home; a place from which to build a real identity beyond the shallow ‘foster kid’ persona I was often tagged with. Despite the adverse circumstances, being a Watcher—a Nephilim—was the closest thing I’d ever had to a real identity.
I was in the game.
More than that, I played to win.
“You looked like you had fun.” Eva arrived at the cabin about half an hour after us. I was sitting opposite Frank in the living room, both of us drinking beer. Shockingly, I was developing a taste for the stuff. Eva stared at my face, examined the bruises there.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Frank got it worse than I did. He’s old, you see.”
Frank didn’t look amused by my prodding. He threw me a look but said nothing. He still treaded lightly after the argument I had with him at Eva’s house that night.
I got up to show Eva the bucket of demon’s blood that sat in the middle of the kitchen floor. “Did you bring what else we need, Eva?”
“Yes. The ingredients are out in the car.” She picked an apple from a bowl of fruit and bit into it. “How’d it go with Morgana? Not too easy I’m guessing?”
“Piece of cake,” Frank said from his chair.
“I think Leia is right,” Eva said winking at me. “Maybe you are getting too old, Frank.”
“You’re the same age as me, don’t forget.”
“I am, but I’m much better looking, dear.”
As cute as that little exchange was I didn’t have time for Frank and Eva to play whatever game they were playing. “Morgana told us something,” I said to her.
She finished smiling at Frank and looked at me. “I’m sure she told you plenty. Any of it useful?”
“She kept saying that Hell was coming and there was nothing we could do about it. Any idea what she could be talking about?” I didn’t wait for her to answer. “I think something bad is going to happen soon, that’s what I think, something big and we need to stop it.”
“Okay, you need to slow down,” Eva said. “We can only do one thing at a time. Let’s deal with this summoning first, then we’ll think about that.”
“But I can’t help thinking it’s all related, that maybe Abigor is connected to this somehow. Maybe that’s what he’s planning, maybe he’s planning to end the world or something.” I was annoyed at the fact that there was much we still didn’t know and that we might not know until it was too late.
“I think you should go and get cleaned up,” Eva said. “Frank and I can set things up for the summoning.”
I gave her a harsh look. “What are you, my mother?” I couldn’t help it. My frustration got the better of me.
“I’m just saying, you’ve got the post-fight jitters.” Eva’s clear blue eyes ate into me. “Take some time, get your head straight.”
I continued to stare at her as she remained calm and collected in the face of my agitation. In the end I just shook my head and went to my bedroom.
In the bedroom my anger soon subsided when I looked in the mirror and saw the extent of my injuries. I had a large purple bruise on my cheek bone and a cut on my lower lip that still seeped blood. There was also dried blood around my nostrils and further smears over the rest of my face. My hands where also sore and bloody from all the fighting.
All in all, I looked like I went twelve rounds with a bare knuckle boxer. “Jesus, what a mess,” I said to the mirror. I stripped my clothes off, which were covered in blood although I was pretty sure most of it wasn’t mine.
When I stripped down to my underwear I stood in front of the mirror. Apart from a number of dark bruises and a few scrapes, I seemed to be in decent repair. I wasn’t too worried anyway as I knew I would heal up pretty quickly.
Standing in the shower, the hot water washing the blood from my face and body, the only thing that was going around in my head was the phrase “Hell is coming,” over and over like a mantra, and I kept wondering what it meant, coming up with no answers except the obvious: that Hell really was coming.
I stood in the cellar a while later, waiting. Eva was preparing all the ingredients for the summoning spell. Frank and I watched as she mixed up some of the demon’s blood in the same large bowl she had used at Josh’s summoning, adding in further ingredients. Pretty soon a light smoke was rising from the bowl, along with a smell that reminded me of sour milk. Thinking I was going to gag, I covered my mouth and nose with one hand.
“We’re ready to proceed,” Eva said finally.
Adrenaline churned up my stomach when she said that and I tensed up and nodded.
“Remember,” Frank said. “Stay on guard. We’re not even sure if that demon trap will hold this guy. There’d be nothing to stop him from killing us all right here.”
At that Eva spoke the incantation that would send Abigor the call. “Attenrob endumeos, ad consiendrum…”
Halfway through the spell I felt a sudden shift in the temperature of the room, like someone had just turned the heat up. It grew hotter the closer Eva got toward finishing the spell. By the time she finished, beads of sweat ran down my forehead.
Once I caught the unmistakable whiff of sulphur, my right hand went to the sword in my jacket, gripping the handle tight.
He’s coming.
A second later there he was, Abigor, stood in the middle of the demon trap.
I froze because I recognized him immediately. “You!” I said.
“Yes, me,” Abigor said back, a broad smile on his face.
It had been him standing down the street the night Diane was killed and Josh was taken. I didn’t get a decent look at him at the time, but I remembered how his presence felt, just like it did now.
Abigor had wavy dirty blonde hair that was greased back from his forehead and eyes that where clear and arctic blue with a wicked look in them. He was dressed all in black with a shirt that buttoned right to the neck and a leather coat that fell just past his waist. You would almost think he was wearing some kind of paramilitary uniform, which given the fact that he was training demons to fight in his army, would make sense. In fact that’s what he reminded me of, a General. A demon General.
He stood there in silence as he looked at each of us in turn, taking us in, taking the room in. When his eyes stopped on me he smiled, causing adrenaline to shoot through me. “And there you are,” he said. “Josh’s twin sister. Leia isn’t it? I’ve been looking forward to meeting you properly since that night we saw each other. Did you enjoy the glimpse of Hell I gave you?” His voice was calm and measured with more than a hint of arrogance in it. His whole demeanor spoke of conceit, which didn’t surprise me.
I said nothing, just stared at the man—the demon—who had taken my brother from me. I wanted to draw my sword and run the blade through his chest but I knew it wouldn’t do any good. He stared back at me and smiled, as if he knew what I was thinking. “Well this is cozy, isn’t it?” he said.
“Abigor, I presume?” Eva asked him.
“You can call me that if you want,” he answered. He looked down at the demon trap he was standing in then looked up at us as he casually walked out of the circle. Everyone drew their weapons. “Relax, I’m not going to kill anyone. If I’d wanted to do that you’d all be dead by now, you can lower yo
ur weapons. You brought me here to talk, right? So let’s talk.”
Slowly I lowered my sword down as Abigor walked by each of us in turn, first Frank, then Eva and finally me. He stopped when he got to me. “Aren’t you a lovely specimen,” he said. “Very lovely indeed. You look like your brother.”
“What the hell have you done with him?” I asked, unable to keep a slight tremor out of my voice. Abigor was like no other demon I had ever met. His presence was such that just being near him instilled fear. I got the impression that if he clicked his fingers all of us would explode on the spot in a shower of blood and guts. Whether he had that kind of power I didn’t know, but it sure seemed like he did.
“You know what I’ve done with him,” he said. “I’ve made him a commanding officer in my army.”
“You demonized an innocent boy,” Frank said, as usual refusing to show any fear or respect.
“Yes.” Abigor walked back into the demon trap as he paced casually around the room like he was conducting a company meeting. “That I did. I demonized a lot of people.”
“Why?” Eva asked. “Why are you using Nephilim children?”
“I would have thought that was obvious,” he said. “Because they are strong and powerful already. Demonizing them only makes them more so. Plus I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a certain kick out of turning your own children against you.”
“That’s your plan? To unleash your demon army on the world?”
The smile on his face unsettled me. “There’s more to my plan than just that. Much more. But you’ll discover that soon enough.”
“Hell is coming,” I said quietly.
“What?” Abigor stared at me with eyes that glowed a deep orange color.
I swallowed. “I said Hell is coming.” My voice was low, respectful, even though respect was the last thing I had for the monster who stole my brother. “What does that mean?”
“Where’d you hear that?” he asked, his face darkening further.
“A demon, just before we killed it.”
Abigor shook his head angrily. “Demons,” he said. “You can’t trust them to keep their mouths shut.” He paced around for a moment, clearly fuming, then relaxed suddenly. His clearly taciturn nature made me even more uneasy. “I’ll tell you what,” he said and he held out his hand towards me. “Why don’t you come with me now and I might let you in on the plan. How’s that sound?”
“No,” Frank said. “No way.”
Abigor shot Frank a look with his lava orange eyes. Frank couldn’t help but stagger back a step, fear on his face for the first time. “I wasn’t asking you.” He looked back at me, his eyes back to blue again. “Well? This is a one-time offer, Leia. I’ll even let you speak to your brother.”
“My brother is gone,” I said.
“Not gone. Just different. Better, as you can be too. Just come with me and I’ll explain everything. Trust me, I’ll bring you right back again.”
“Leia, no,” Frank said. “You can’t trust this demon sonofabitch.”
But my mind was already made up. We weren’t going to get anything from Abigor in that cellar. I had to go with him in the hope that maybe he would tell me something useful that we could use. He was the enemy and I had to find out all I could about him. If that meant going wherever he wanted to take me, then so be it. Eva and Frank still protesting, I dropped my sword to the floor and walked forward, took his hand, which felt cold and dry. “Good girl,” he said just before he teleported us both out of the room.
Chapter 21
Only a split second before, I was stood in the cellar with Frank and Eva. But now I found myself standing on some sort of iron-gridded walkway inside a huge warehouse with Abigor standing right beside me, looking relaxed and at ease. “Quite a rush, isn’t it?” he said. I instinctively took a step away from him. “Relax, Leia.” He looked out into the warehouse. “I’m not going to hurt you. I only brought you here to talk, and to show you.”
“Show me what?” I asked. I was light-headed after the teleport, so I was slightly disoriented .The sulphurous smell that hung thick in the air didn’t help either. I placed one hand on the iron railing for balance while I got my bearings.
“Look.” He gestured out in front of him to the warehouse floor below.
I stared out into the warehouse from the high walkway down below to the ground floor where I saw people—a lot of them. There must have been over a hundred of them down there doing some kind of training, like soldiers in a paramilitary camp. “What is this?”
“This is my training camp and those are all my recruits.” He sounded proud, like a football coach displaying his winning team.
“You mean all the Nephilim kids you stole and demonized?”
“Stole?” He laughed. “Most of them came willingly.”
“Bullshit.” I shook my head. “Why would they go with you willingly?”
“Because I promised them something better. I offered them power and prestige and they took it.”
“I can’t believe that. My brother? There’s no way he would have gone with you willingly.” The very thought that Josh had joined Abigor by choice made me sick to my stomach. He was lying. He had to be lying.
“Granted, he fought in the beginning, but he gave in once I explained things to him. He wasn’t as happy as you thought he was. Once I showed him what he could achieve—what I could give him—he took it with both hands. That’s the truth.”
“No, you’re lying…”
“Believe what you want.” He came across like he didn’t care what I thought. He had his recruits and that was all that mattered to him. “The fact is they are all here and ready to fight for me.”
I looked down at Abigor’s army of demonized soldiers. They appeared to be organized into small groups, with some groups practicing hand to hand combat, others doing weapons training while still others practiced killing farm animals with their bare hands. I looked on, disgusted, as one recruit got hold of a terrified goat and picked it up by the horns, holding it aloft before ramming his hand into the animal’s stomach, ripping its insides out, a steaming mess of blood and entrails spilling on the floor around his feet. Once it was done, he tossed the animal like a bag of rubbish into a huge pile of other dead animal carcasses. I couldn’t help thinking of Bane, of how the dog killed in the same way. “This is sick,” I said shaking my head. “You’re sick.”
Ignoring me he said, “Look over there,” and he pointed to the far end of the warehouse. I looked over and recognized Josh. Like all the other recruits, he was dressed in black but he seemed to be giving orders. My face tightened as I watched with a mixture of sadness and horror as Josh telekinetically lifted up one of the recruits by the throat and threw him against the wall. Then he ordered two other recruits to go beat the guy up, which they did, inflicting a vicious beating on him. I had no idea if the kid had done something wrong or if this was Abigor’s way of toughening up his recruits. Either way I was sickened. “Josh is a hard taskmaster. That’s why he’s my best recruit and my commanding officer.”
I could only stand there shaking my head at what my brother had become and at what Abigor had done to the rest of those kids. My eyes watered but I held back the tears. I wasn’t about to show my weakness in front of Abigor.
“You can join him, Leia,” he said. “There’s a place here for you, alongside Josh and me. The things we could accomplish together, it would be magnificent. I have many other training camps like this around the world, this isn’t the only one. I could use someone like you to help me run it all.”
My jaw clenched as rage threatened to overwhelm me. “Never.”
“There’s great power in you, Leia.” He came closer to me and I instinctively stepped away from him. “You don’t even know how much power is inside you yet. You could be great, I could make you great.”
“To what end?” My body was so tense that I shook. “What are you planning on using all these…recruits for?” Abigor just smiled like he was enjoying keeping t
he secret from me. “Well, go on. What’s your grand plan?”
“How much do you know about me?” he asked finally. “Did you know I was the architect who designed Hell? That Hell was based entirely on my vision? Of course it existed a long time before I ever got there, but it was just a wasteland, nothing more. I made it great. Hell was mine for a long time. Lucifer was just a figurehead. I ran that place until it all started to fall apart thanks to the petty machinations of lower-level bureaucrats.” Lava swirled in his eyes as he gripped the railing with both hands. “They were only out for themselves and they eventually ruined the place, ruined the vision I had kept in place for so long. There’s no order down there anymore. It’s every demon for itself and chaos rules. The current King of Hell is more concerned with his own interests than he is of Hell itself.” He looked at me for a long moment, like he was about to tell me something else, then he looked away. “Anyway, things have changed.”
“I thought that would have suited you. Don’t demons thrive on chaos?”
“A common misconception. Demons need order just like humans do or else nothing works properly and no one ends up getting what they want. Take a look around your own world, Leia. Do you see much order? Or does chaos rule in most parts of the world?” He took a step closer to me and I resisted the urge to step back this time, just out of sheer defiance. “The human world is falling apart the way Hell did and pretty soon there is going to be total chaos here and no one will get what they want, not even demons. It’s all happening right under your noses and you don’t even see it.”
“All I see is a demon with delusions of grandeur,” I said, unable to help myself. “What are you saying, Abigor? That you want to rule over earth?”
“More than that, I want to bring Hell to earth.”
“Hell is coming.” I echoed the words I’d heard before.
“Indeed it is. And there’s nothing you can do to stop it. I’m bringing Hell to you. I’m going to create a new Hell with a new vision and I’m going to do it right here on earth.” He raised his arms as if in praise. “I’m bringing order to the chaos finally.”
