Where All Souls Meet

by S. E. Campbell

  "If you go, I will stop at nothing to get you back," Yuri said.

  "You have to let me go, Yuri," she said. "We can't defeat them now. We're surrounded. Let me go."

  "We'll get you out," Thema said. "We will."

  Eden turned and gazed at her friends. Their eyes were wide and their mouths gaped. I am so close. I only have one... She felt cold hands grab her from behind. The hands of a demon. Eden caught a fleeting glance of Jared's face over her shoulder as she struggled. Jared trusted the demons, which he should never do. Once she had attempted to trust Satan Spawn to get her out of prison, but they had turned their back on her. The memory of the Satan Spawn false promise flashed in her head.

  "If I let you out, you won't hurt me or the other prisoners?" Eden asked.

  The imp shook its head.

  "You swear?" Eden asked.

  The imp shook its head again.

  Eden dropped the vial on the ground where it shattered into a million pieces and the small imp flailed around like a fish out of water. Bending down, Eden examined the small creature and then touched its horned head. It was surprisingly hot.

  "You okay, little guy?"

  The imp wobbled to its feet and then gave her an evil grin.

  "Never trust a Satan Spawn," the imp said in a dark, demonic growl. "We know no loyalty except to our Dark Lord."

  Eden gave a frightened look at Jared who must have thought he was doing the right thing. Fear coursed through her like blood once had. She gazed at an opening in the group and realized what would happen the moment this demon took her away. The Raiders would do to her friends what the Raiders had attempted to do to her back in the prison. They would try to destroy her. If Adanna hadn't come along, she would be gone now. She refused to let that happen to the people she loved. They had given so much for her. Both Adanna and Thema had risked losing everything in order to aid her on her quest. Emotions crashed upon her soul. She quaked at the overwhelming emotion within her. A half-scream burst from her throat. At that moment, she didn't care about herself. All she wanted to do was save her friends.

  The only thing distracting her from her overwhelming thoughts was a chill that went through her stomach. Darkness crept over her waist, dragging her backward into it. The demon was going to transport her through shadow. Time. She was running out of time. It didn't matter what happened to her. She had to warn her friends.

  "Run!" she screamed. "It doesn't matter what promises the demons made. Get away from the demons!"

  Everyone except Jared made a break for the gap between demons. Cold and darkness overwhelmed her, but even then, she managed to get a glance at Jared. He stared at her, wide-eyed and stubborn. Behind him, a demon's hand crept over his shoulder and she heard the demon give a shaky breath of excitement.

  "Jared, run—"

  But then his face disappeared from her sight as she was sucked into the demon's darkness. Eden blinked, trying to comprehend where she was. It was like true nothingness. She didn't feel as if she was being transported. Instead she was in a world of darkness and she could not move. Red eyes flickered everywhere.

  Got to run. I've got to run. It was like every nightmare she had ever had. As the glowing eyes got closer and closer, she felt something push her hard from behind and she landed on the stony ground with a thud. There were two pairs of feet in front of her, alit by her soul's glow.

  The being bent down, grabbed her waist-length hair, which caused her scalp to become aflame with agony. The demon dangled her in front of him. Eden gazed straight into the shriveled, ugly face of an old man.

  "Agares," she said.

  "I've waited a long time to meet you," Agares said, and then a wicked smile crossed his face. He reached forward, seized the necklace, and threw it to the ground with a hiss, even as his flesh burned away from the mere touch.

  ****

  Eden stood by the wall, quivering. She was surrounded by demons. To her right was Agares, standing with his hand on his staff. To her left was Lamashtu, the lion-headed demon. There was Aka Manah, the demon with the cruel, twisted smile and his frightening, bloody wooden doll with a matching expression.

  On the wall there were several mirrors; inside the largest mirror, six feet tall and three feet wide, Eden began to see the remains of a dark, shriveled face. It was Asag.

  The last time she had met Asag, she had caused him to gouge out his own eyes using the power of God's name. She feared what he would do to her in return, even though he was blind. A small, twisted part of her was relieved Satan would want her for himself because that meant she had time try to get away. Asag transformed himself into a human and Eden saw even in this form, he appeared foul. This was the first time she had seen him since he had gouged out his own eyes. His face was pale and his eyes were gone in human form too, revealing only crusted, bloodied sockets. His twisted face revealed Asag for what he truly was — a disgusting, demonic monster.

  "She's waiting for you, Asag," Agares said, his voice filled with hunger.

  There was a thud as Asag stepped forward and put his foot through the mirror. The mirror's surface gave as if it was water. Once he was out, he stumbled forward, growling. A putrid stench filled the air.

  "You will pay for what you have done to me," Asag roared. "Months have passed but I still cannot see. It will take time for my eyes to regenerate, and you — you—"

  Asag sniffed, leered in her general direction, and then charged at her. She screamed and shut her eyes, knowing there was no way she could defend herself when she was trapped against a wall with so many demons surrounding her. She opened her eyes just as Asag was a foot away.

  At the last minute, Agares stepped forward and seized Asag's arm. Asag let out a demonic shriek and writhed. He sniffed in Eden's direction again.

  "I want her," Asag howled. "I deserve her."

  "Our lord wants her for himself," Agares said. "Torture but don't maim. He wants her unspoiled."

  Asag's nostrils flared. "After what she has done to me, I should be able to destroy her."

  Eden could not bring herself to say a word. Not yet. A plan formed in her head, though. It didn't matter how many demons were in the room, using God's name would surely cause them fear. I wish I had the picture of God which caused Asag to claw out his own eyes. Yuri had been carrying it in his bag when she was taken.

  "She will get hers," Agares said, driving her away from the thought. "And it will start with me."

  Just before she was about to answer his words with something the demons hated the worst — prayer — she was suddenly telepathically suspended upside down by her ankles above a bubbling pot of green, foul-smelling liquid. A rope tied her ankles together. She screamed and flailed, looking into the demonic faces around her as they grinned with excitement. She looked up at her feet, which had somehow been bound in milliseconds. The rope that suspended her from the ceiling dropped her and she was three feet away from the surface of the strange liquid. She knew if she touched it, her soul would feel intense pain and she wouldn't stand a chance of surviving.

  As Eden struggled, the demons surrounded her in a circular fashion in exactly the way they had done before, only now she was hanging upside down before a pot with fire underneath it. Or was she? Even with all the confusion, all the fear, her logical side won out. She hadn't even felt the sensation of being ripped from the floor. How could she have blinked and ended up suspended from the ceiling like meat in a butcher's shop? It didn't make any sense. Even with all that had happened to her, there was still logic throughout it all. This was not logical.

  Demons don't have power like this. They can walk through mirrors, but they cannot have me hanging from the ceiling within seconds. Agares had used this trick before when he had walked through a mirror in his castle, but she had tried to fight it using her own mind because she was far away. The pot was not real and she was not suspended from the ceiling at all. At least, it was what she was going to tell herself to keep herself calm. There was no way she was going to allow demons to best he
r.

  She shut her eyes and tried to regain her focus as she dropped lower, toward the bubbling cauldron. This time, she did not scream. Though she could swear she could feel the heat from the liquid, she knew it was only in her head. She had to regain her composure if she wanted to make it out of this prison. I am at home with my parents. I am not here. I am not hanging above an acid pot.

  As she dangled, she remembered her mom and dad during the good times. It was all she could do to gain her grip on reality.

  Eden stood with her mom and dad in France, sitting on a boat which crossed the river into the main town. The trip to France was her dad's anniversary present to her mom. Her mom had wanted to go alone with her dad, but he had insisted they bring Eden along too because it was not good for her to be away from them for three weeks. Her mom had begrudgingly agreed.

  As the boat was pulled from one side of the river to the other, using a pulley and a rope, the water surged as a massive ship docked a hundred meters up the river. The cold water sprayed the boat, hitting her mom who was wearing a just-purchased, hundred dollar, sundress. Her mom screamed and leapt to her feet, saying words Eden was not allowed to say. "I can't believe this," her mom said, sputtering as she stared down at the bright red dress. Eden fought a smile. She thought her mom looked as if her shoes were on fire. Silence fell over the boat. Suddenly, her dad starting laughing, just like she wanted to. His laughs were loud and booming. Before long, Eden started giggling as well.

  "Mom, you look so silly," Eden said.

  Rebecca gazed down at herself, dripping wet, and then grinned and started to laugh too. "I really do, don't I? Osier, I'm going to kill you for laughing. I'm going to get you wet too."

  Then her mom sat on her dad's lap for the first time in two years, pressing herself against him to get him as wet as possible and kissing him so he had lipstick marks all over his face. He kept attempting to push her away, but she kept giving him kisses. Soon his face was red from lipstick and laughter, and Eden had a stomach ache from smiling so much.

  "Why isn't she screaming?" Lamashtu asked, ripping her from her thoughts. "I can sense your powers, Agares."

  Silence fell. Eden didn't open her eyes, but after the memory, she had re-focused. If the cauldron of bubbling green liquid was real, she would have been inside it by now. By fighting the powers, she could now tell she was truly upright against a wall, not upside down from the ceiling as she had first believed.

  "Open your eyes," Agares said, his voice angry.

  She kept them firmly shut.

  "Open your eyes, girl," Agares said, and then he stomped over to her and seized her by her jaw.

  Agares shook her face until it hurt. Finally, she opened her eyes. The cauldron was gone and she was up against the wall, like she had been to begin with. Maybe it was because she had started to realize that she wasn't hanging from the ceiling at all.

  "You managed to fight my powers," Agares said, a dark scowl overcoming his face. "I thought we'd start slow and let you torture yourself, but you're a lot stronger than I gave you credit for. Let's see what Eden Schmidt fears most, shall we? Are the undead truly what you fear most?"

  Before she had time to brace herself, Agares did something to her she did not know was even possible. He stuck his hand inside of her soul like Asag had stuck his hand through the mirror. Pain seared through her, and she threw back her head and screamed. He was searching through her. He could see everything, every last thought she wished to hide. She had bad thoughts sometimes. Evil thoughts. Though everyone did, she didn't want Agares to see them.

  She tried to lift her hand to push him off her, but she couldn't. She tried to fight him by focusing on her parents again, but it was too hard.

  "You've got a strong guard," Agares said, gazing at her with a wicked grin. "Unfortunately, not strong enough. Let's see what's in your heart."

  He pushed his hand deeper into the soul matter of her stomach. She writhed in pain, arching her back, as he reached into her chest to pierce her form. Once he was there, she knew he saw those personal things. The things she found herself secretly wishing she could do with Yuri if they were alive and married, the hurt and the intense anger she felt toward her mom sometimes, and the most horrible secret of all — the fact that only half the guilt she felt about the day of her mom's death had been because of the words she had said. The other half was because she had been glad her mom had been in the accident. Glad her mom had been punished for abandoning her as if she was nothing.

  But Eden had kept herself from thinking it because it was too awful. She had never said it out loud and never would.

  Now Agares was seeing it. Now he held her heart where the hidden truths were.

  "Out!" she said. "Get out of there. It's not for you to see."

  She couldn’t cry but she screamed in horror.

  "Oh, somebody thinks naughty things," Agares said. "Here I thought you were pure good on the inside. You were happy your mom died."

  "Stop. Please. It isn't true." She writhed in his arms.

  "But it is true," Agares said, grinning at her. "Your heart tells me so. I can see it all. And while some part of you searches for your mom, another part of you hopes you will never find her."

  "Don't, don't, don't." Eden shook her head violently.

  "Let's see what else your heart says," Agares said, plunging in deeper. "Oh, my. This is a family secret. No doubt about it. You never admitted it to yourself, but your subconscious always knew. You just wouldn't allow yourself to believe it."

  "Ugh." Eden slumped, unable to handle much more.

  She felt as though she could die again from mental anguish and guilt. Distantly, she heard the hooting and laughter of demons as they ridiculed her. Her secrets… all of her secrets… How could Agares do this? "Your mom was going to abort you," Agares said. "You heard your parents talking about it but repressed it and pretended like it never happened. Your dad talked your mom into keeping you, but your mom always loathed you for being the reason she got held down. You knew it. This was why you spent every waking moment of your life trying to prove to her you were worth having. Am I correct?"

  He was right. So right. She knew it and it hurt. The secret depths of a heart weren't meant to be spilled out at one time, especially in front of a group of laughing demons. The pain which filled her heart left her inert.

  She remembered so many things, like the vacation on the pier when her mom had refused to come.

  "Oh, man," her dad said, running his hand through his dark, thinning hair. His jowls wobbled as his jaw tightened. "I guess what you could say is I was so eager to have you I just reversed the order. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, anyway."

  "What about Mom?" Eden asked. "Was she happy to have me around, too?"

  Her dad stared at her, and this time, his face drained of color instead of filling with it.

  Even then, she had known her mom wasn't happy. She remembered when her parents fought when she was ten-years-old.

  Eden sat by the kitchen swing-door, her knees drawn up to her chin. Sadness filled her heart.

  "I did not want this, Osier," her mom said. "And I most certainly did not want her."

  "She is your daughter," her dad bellowed. "You can say whatever you want about me, but not about her. How can you not love her after all these years?"

  "She is ordinary," her mom said. "Doesn't it bother you? How plain and average she is?"

  "She is not ordinary," her dad said. "She's our daughter. This makes her special. Don't plant your low self-esteem, 'my daddy never loved me' memories on her."

  There was silence for a moment, and then there was the sound of shattered glass. A plate, probably. Either way, Eden didn't care. Tears streamed down her face. She was ordinary? Her mom didn't love her enough to think she was special? The words hurt.

  "How dare you," her mom said.

  "No, how dare you," her dad said. "I have told you a million times. Go sleep with whoever you want, but Eden is not a part of your is
sues. Do you understand? Do you?"

  "Yeah, yeah," her mom said. "Tell me, why are you so dead set about keeping me around, if I bother you so much, huh? It's obvious you don't love me. You love her. You've always only loved her."

  "It isn't true," her dad said. "See a shrink, Rebecca. I don't have time to deal with your family abandonment issues."

  "Yeah, and whose fault is it they abandoned me, huh?" Rebecca yelled.

  "Don't blame me." There was the sound of movement. Possibly a briefcase being picked up by her dad. "I have to go to work."

  "I'm not blaming you," her mom said. "I am blaming her."

  There was silence and then the sound of slamming. "Not Eden, Rebecca. Do not bring Eden into this. It's your final warning. I can take away your credit cards, your spending money, your precious shopping channel. Next time you pick a fight, choose a different topic. I'm not dealing with this one."

  Footsteps could be heard crossing the kitchen linoleum. The door shut with a loud bang and then silence. Eden had never heard silence so loud.

  "Poor little girl," Agares taunted, drawing her away from her thoughts. "You must be pretty pathetic. Your mom doesn't love you. Nobody loves you."

  As she shuddered, Eden had never felt more vulnerable and sad. Even the glowing of her cross could not keep him out, even though it had managed to keep the Blood Stone ceremony at bay for several hours and warned against potential demon enemies. She began to feel helpless and despairing. Agares was right. Her own mom had not loved her. A girl so pathetic she was unworthy of her mother's love…

  No, this is what he wants. I've got to fight this. It may have been true her mom blamed her for her issues, but her mom had stayed, hadn't she? At least she had until Eden was old enough to handle it. Maybe her mom was selfish, but she had given her life. And Eden was loved by other people.

  Her dad may have used work to escape his problems, but he loved her. Of course he did. She remembered his words which sang love a thousand times over. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, anyway." He had said it and meant it. She'd seen the love glowing in his eyes. "She's our daughter. This makes her special." His words were important, too, because her mother wasn't her only parent.