Detarru Island_The Gates of Hell

by Mickey Deymon

  “Hurry, Ethasus!” he screamed. “Hurry!”

  I was trying my best to climb up, but the more I tried, the more I was sinking back down. We heard a sudden boom, like an explosion. It came from the bottom of the crater. I looked behind my shoulder and watched the ground spread apart, revealing a horrendous, dark chasm.

  I never felt so terrified in my life.

  I watched in horror as the ground disappeared under us.

  “Ethasus?” Matheus called, trying to get me to focus. “Grab on to me. Don’t you let go, you hear me?”

  I grabbed on to his furry tail as he struggled to pull me up. I pushed down with my feet as hard as I could, since the ground was still moving. Together, we made it to the very top of the crater, but we couldn’t stop there to catch our breaths. The sand was still sinking all around us.

  “Come on.”

  We got away from the crater and the quick sands. When we got about 30 yards away, the ground stopped moving. We paused for a few seconds, and it felt like my lungs were going to blow up. I looked back at what used to be a crater shaped like a pyramid, now a vacuous void.

  “Matheus? What’s happening?” I cried. Matheus was scanning the area for a way out.

  “Something’s wrong. We really need to get you to Paradise, there’s—” he didn’t finish.

  There was a loud roar. It came from the dark hole in the ground. Matheus’ glowing red eyes locked on mine in terror.

  “This is impossible,” he said in a very low voice.

  “What is it?” I asked persistently. I needed answers.

  There was another roar and it was louder. We started running again. Whatever was coming out of that thing sounded big.

  “This way, Ethasus. Don’t stop, and don’t look back,” were his instructions. I didn’t like it. The ground was shaking again and this time, it wasn’t another quake. Something was coming out.

  I was told not to look back, but curiosity was killing me. As we ran, I took a quick glimpse over my shoulder. My mouth dropped as a black cloud was forming.

  That was not the scary part.

  There were trillions and trillions of one-eyed demons flying side by side, forming a giant sand storm. They moved together in one motion. They must have forced their way out from one dimension to the other. By the way they were moving, it seemed they went through all that trouble just for one thing. They were heading this direction and fast. They were coming for us.

  “There’s no place to hide, we won’t be able to get away!” I shouted as we ran.

  The giant cloud was almost on us.

  “Quick, get on my back!”

  “Do what?”

  In just a quick second, the dog transformed into another creature. He grew wings from his furry back, which stretched about 14 feet in length, and 36 inches wide. He had gold feathers, and two long ones on the crest of his head. His jaws turned into a peacock’s beak, and his neck grew majestically long. I’d heard of this legendary creature before in ancient Greek mythology, but never thought I’d see one in real life.

  He was a Phoenix.

  “The King of Birds,” I whispered. Then a thought came to my mind. Why didn’t he turn into a bird when we were struggling to get out of the crater in the first place?

  Stupid dog—err… bird.

  “Ethasus?” he called. I quickly hopped onto his back. As soon as I held on to his long neck, he took off full throttle. I almost lost my grip when he swirled up in the sky vertically. He seemed to be going 300 miles an hour, and he was surely flying too fast for me to hold on to. For crying out loud, I never rode on a giant bird before, and big birds didn’t have seat belts either. If I fell off, for sure I was going to be a nasty Humpy Dumpty. I was not prepared for this, and definitely not for what was coming up next. The swarm of cyclops was almost on us. One of them was right on top of me, and with his long claws, he started lurching at me. He almost got me on my back, but he missed. As he tried to strike at me again, Matheus swerved to the right, and sped up. Now the demon was right on Matheus’ tail. He grabbed on to his feathery tail, and plucked a few feathers off his skin.

  He cried in pain.

  As retaliation, Matheus curved and spread his left wing wide. I turned to see what he was going to do. We slowed down a bit, causing the one-eyed demon to smash into his wing. That didn’t knock him out though, but he sure was off our tail by a few seconds. We sped up again, descending to lower grounds. The further away from these beasts we were, the better. The demon recovered and was gaining on us again, while the black cloud made its way down too.

  “How can we get rid of them?” I asked, looking back.

  “We are going to have to fly through the portal,” he replied. I didn’t ask how, because whatever he had in mind was surely better than getting caught by those things. Three cyclops were on us then. I wished I had a weapon to fend them off.

  SWELL.

  I’d have to use my fist then.

  The same demon from before tried to attack Matheus. He used his long fangs to bite on his neck, while the others were trying to charge at me.

  “Hold on!” he shouted.

  He got lower to the ground and did a 360. The demon still held on to his neck, but seconds later, slammed into an elevated cliff on the ground.

  We only heard the PUFF Sound.

  I was so concentrated on the fallen demon that didn’t realize one of them had me. He grabbed on to me from behind, and was trying to pull me off Matheus. This one wasn’t very big in size, so he wasn’t as strong. I tried to get him off by elbowing him in the chest, but that didn’t work.

  “Matheus!” I screamed. It was too late. By the time he realized, the beast had yanked me off his back and I was captured. The demon flew upwards, while still grasping on to me.

  Matheus was coming back for me, full speed.

  He banged into his head, and then we all splashed into the red sand. The demon was still holding on to my arms, and wouldn’t let go. As a last resort, Matheus violently smashed his head with his beak, killing him instantly. His blood was purple, and it was such a sickening scene. I freed myself from the thing, but the swarm already surrounded us.

  We were too late.

  They formed a huge circle around us, but kept their distance. Matheus and I were back to back ready for an attack.

  “Stay close to me, Ethasus.”

  I did just that.

  One of the demons came forward, and spoke to us.

  “Hand over the kid, and we’ll let you go back to Paradise alive,” he ordered.

  That was the same green-eyed demon that almost killed me back in Inferno.

  “On the contrary, Rukus, lay a finger on him, and you’ll be going back to Inferno dead,” he countered.

  That was epic.

  There was a lot of fuss coming from the crowd of hell after what he said.

  “You fool, look around you, you’re outnumbered. You can’t take us all,” Rukus affirmed.

  He was right. There was no way we’d be able to take these guys on our own. I hoped Matheus had a Plan B.

  “What is it you want with him?” he asked curiously

  “Our orders were to bring him back to Inferno.”

  “By whom?”

  “That is none of your business,” he snarled.

  “Well it is now, especially when you brought an army just to find one boy. Was that really necessary? Something tells me your superiors have something big in mind.”

  Rukus seemed to feel like Matheus knew too much, so he got really serious.

  “Like I said, we were told to bring The Chosen One back to Inferno. This is none of your concern, so do not meddle with these territories.”

  “Well just like you, I have my own orders, which is to take him back to Paradise.”

  I felt like an object waiting to be sold to the highest bid
der.

  “So if you don’t mind,” Matheus continued, “I have an important delivery to make, as per his Excellency, Elios.”

  Rukus’ eye went wide open. Everyone started talking amongst each other again.

  “Unless of course, you want me to call him down here for confirmation,” Matheus kept on.

  Rukus stared awkwardly at both of us. He wasn’t very happy with the intel, or the threat for that matter. He had no choice though, so he turned to his demons, and motioned them to retreat. He glanced at Matheus one last time.

  “Satu won’t be happy about this, and rest assured, there will be a war between dimensions. Once it does, I will be coming back for you, and I will have your head on a stick,” Rukus exclaimed with a cynical growl.

  YIKES!

  Whatever dispute these two had against each other, I sure didn’t want any part of it. Matheus kept his posture, and he didn’t look intimidated, or at least, he was trying not to. The swarm blasted off, and flew back to wherever they came from, including Rukus, who was still glancing back at Matheus with a demoniacal glare.

  That was creepy.

  “What was that all about?” I faltered.

  Matheus didn’t answer me.

  “Just a minute ago they tried to kill us, now they just flew off because of an Elios? Who the heck is Elios?” I asked perplexed.

  “There are barriers between dimensions, Ethasus. On Earth, you have a system in America, which is called the check and balance of power, and without it, there is no government. We have a similar system here too. This one is called The Order, and it stabilizes good and evil. A war in the underworld would not only be decided amongst God and Satan, but by billions of other gods and devils just like them.”

  “Wait, hold on a second, this is way too cosmically for me. Can you rephrase that? In human language?” I said, going out of my mind.

  “What I’m saying is, there are other devils and many other gods. Many of those are a lot more powerful and destructive than the ones we know. If a war is started between these powers, it will be the end of everything as you know it. An Endless Ending.”

  GULP.

  That sounded ominous, especially the part where both worlds will cease to exist. I mean, we believe that when we die on Earth, we go to heaven or something, but if we die in heaven, where do we go then? My head was hurting. I was giving all this too much thought. For Christ sake, it’s not like I’d ever thought of these things to be an actual possibility.

  “So what’s Satu’s role in all of this?” I asked with desperation.

  “Think of him as a threat. Even though his intentions might not be to unbalance the equilibrium of The Order, he’s still using unnecessary force to eradicate the mortal world as we speak.”

  “So in other words, he is more like an underworld terrorist?”

  “Exactly right. If Earth is destroyed, that will also be catastrophic for this world too.”

  “You mean Purgatory?” I asked, bewildered.

  “Yes! This world is a mirror of the other. Purgatory separates Inferno from Paradise, or Good from Evil. If Purgatory is destroyed, Paradise and Inferno will collide. The Order will be broken, and the battle between dimensions will begin. Something tells me that someone else, other than Satu, is behind all of this. We really need to get to Paradise.”

  Paradise

  Since I was a child, my father has taken me on many different ventures. I’ve been to places, explored things, and seen so much beautiful artwork from all around the world. That was nothing compared to this. I never imagined such a world existed. It was astounding, and I couldn’t believe that I was there in the flesh. We flew through a sphere of white light that was hidden in a cloud in Purgatory. As soon as we flew inside, the ring of light closed behind us. That must have been another underworld portal. We were flying over a tropical cabana blue ocean.

  Yes! An ocean.

  No more, red uncharted wastelands. Even the skies were ocean blue, and very bright. The world was colorful, and there were many more suns, I counted about 20. There was a fresh spring breeze, the air was pure and clean, and it was just perfect. As we descended, I saw land in the distance, and it was green, just like on Earth. The mountains were beautiful and humongous. I even saw chunks of land floating still in the air. Each of these individual floating lands had different cities. These cities had skyscrapers so high, they almost touched the sky. Paradise was an enormous and ultra-majestic city. Instead of houses, there were castles or manors. They were also big, and they were all made out of blue crystals. Even the bridges were made out of glass. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life. The whole world was like an orchestral song.

  It was sweet, it was good, it was right.

  Matheus landed right in front of a fortress, which was the main entry to the city or the cities. I was anxious, and I wanted to see what type of spirits lived here and what they looked like. As soon as we got closer to the giant wooden doors, we heard a roaring sound. They started opening by themselves, as if we were expected.

  We walked inside, and there they were.

  The Paradise spirits.

  They all stared back at me quietly. There was a huge crowd at the center of the city, where they waited for us to arrive. All eyes were on me and Matheus, which made me a little uncomfortable. They looked like regular people too, just like on Earth. There were all kinds of spirits, all races, but their physique was so perfect, so filled with joy, happiness and love. They were beautiful people. All of them wore white shirts and pants with sandals. I was surprised to see children, and they looked happy to see me too.

  It was an incredible feeling.

  They all stared in reverence as Matheus and I walked through the crowd. They each parted, making way for us, as we headed from one city to the next. A female spirit came running towards me, and she hugged me tightly. Tears came down when she let go.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said with a sly smile and in this sweet vocal sound. She kept walking and disappeared through the crowd.

  “Why was she crying?” I asked Matheus.

  “Because you give them hope. They believe in you,” was his answer.

  I was thoughtful for a second there.

  Matheus and I came across this house at the very top of a hill, away from the city. It was different than the rest, and was built in an earthly fashion.

  I stared at the city again.

  Every corner I looked at was filled with wonders.

  “Welcome to Paradise!” Matheus said with a warm smile. He was still a Phoenix, and it was awkward to see a smiling bird, but I wasn’t surprised.

  “This place is incredible,” I said.

  “It is! This is just one part of Paradise, from many more.”

  “You mean, there’s more Heavens?” I asked, dazed.

  “Oh no, my dear boy, this is not Heaven.”

  “It’s not?”

  “Heaven is a holy and sacred world. No one is allowed there.”

  “Then what’s in Heaven?”

  "The gods,” was his simple reply. “And the creator of ‘The Six Realms.”

  “The Six Realms?”

  “Yes, they are Earth, Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise, Hell and Heaven,” he explained.

  “So, if Paradise isn’t Heaven, then Inferno isn’t Hell,” I concluded.

  “That’s right.”

  “What about devils?”

  “They’ve been exiled to Hell by The Creator. They’ve been trapped in there for 1,000 eons. However, that hasn’t stopped them from doing evil on Earth. They have their demons to do the dirty work for them and they are all around us. Anyone could be easily manipulated to turn into a devil’s ally.”

  “Just like Satu?”

  “Exactly! He wasn’t always evil you know. One day he was tempted into trading souls to the devil for i
mmortality. The more he killed, the more powerful and heartless he became.”

  Matheus started walking again, towards the house. He walked right in, or squeezed in. I was right behind him.

  “Why don’t you just turn back into a dog again?” I asked.

  “Believe me, I wish I could, but I can only transform once per dimension. I haven’t quite mastered that ability.”

  “You haven’t transformed in Paradise though.”

  “I know,” he said with a smile. “But you will be needing me to fly you back to Earth again later.”

  OH.

  The inside of the house wasn’t that welcoming.

  There wasn’t any furniture or picture frames and it was just a big round hall with white marble floors. At the end of the round hall, there were double stairways, which led up to the second floor. We went up the stairs, and came across an old man with gray hair, whose back was facing us. He was on his balcony, looking out at the city. He was wearing a white long sleeve shirt, white pants, and sandals.

  “Ethasus is here, just as you requested,” Matheus announced.

  Who was this guy anyway?

  My question was answered as soon as he turned to face me, and my heart stopped. This was definitely unexpected.

  “Hello, Erick,” he said with a warm welcoming smile.

  His voice brought back memories.

  Oh how I missed that voice.

  I didn’t respond, because I was still dazed. It took me a few minutes to compute what was happening.

  “Oh my! You got bigger.”

  It was him in the flesh, right before me. I thought I was never going to see him again, yet, there he was. I walked up to him slowly, wanting to confirm he was real.

  “What’s the matter, Dumbo? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said, joking. When I was a little boy, I used to have big ears, so he called me Dumbo. That only confirmed that he was 100% real.

  I hugged him, and he hugged back. I wished that moment could have lasted an eternity. Seeing my grandfather again was magical. What was happening was simply impossible, but there he was, in the flesh, and this moment was real. I’d been lost in the underworld for who knows how long, but when I hugged my grandfather, I felt home again.