Where All Souls Meet

by S. E. Campbell

  Satan snapped his fingers. There was the sound of loud grinding and out of nowhere, a piece of the ground gave way and crumbled. Fiery orange magma bubbled in a square pool beneath the surface and a horned throne made from human bones rose up from beneath the ground. When the twenty-foot throne was all the way up and locked into place, the orange magma slithered away from the throne as if it was made from ice. Not a single part of the throne was charred. As Eden stared at the throne, she swore it had a red and unholy aura. An evil aura. She stared up from the throne and gasped, looking into Satan's many faces. Satan stood behind her, many eyes narrowed.

  Satan stepped backward and then raised his hand. With a gasp, Eden turned and saw Satan build a chair suited to her frame out of the ground. The ground transformed into boiling dark ooze, which pulled together and got bigger and bigger, firmer and firmer, until a rounded stone chair remained.

  "Sit," Satan said, glaring at her.

  Eden defiantly shook her head.

  "I said sit," Satan said, raising his hand again.

  A force the strength of ten thousand men hit Eden straight in her stomach, forcing her to land with a whomp on the chair. She was immersed in extraordinary agony since the stone was so hot. The pain she felt from impact was swiftly replaced by the agonies from the heat. Satan grinned at her pain and continued to hold up his hand, binding her to the spot. She ground her teeth and wailed, but she could not move. Satan lowered his hand to his side and made a part of the ground turn into black ooze, which traveled up the side of the chair and headed toward her wrist. Eden screamed and shuddered, but she could not get off of the chair to escape the strange liquid.

  The ebony gel fastened itself around her wrist, a shackle, and began to grow hard. Another tendril of black appeared and snaked up to her other wrist. She yelled at the heat of the wrist shackle, but Satan could have done whatever he wanted — she was helpless.

  While Eden was fastened to her chair, Satan raised his hand. She twisted in her chair and squeezed her eyes shut. Moments passed but the pain did not come. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Satan was smirking at her. The smirk was more alarming than any blow because it hinted at what was to come.

  "Come to me, my minions," Satan said, extending his hands. "Come to me from where you hide on Earth and exact your revenge on the one who chained us yet again."

  Eden, panicked, shook her head and cleared the hair from her face. All around her, strange dark shapes began to appear. Some of the dark shapes appeared human, and others appeared demonic. And just like she feared, directly in front of her stood Asag in his human form with his brown hair and brown eyes. His eyes must have regenerated. At his side stood Lady Midday.

  As Eden looked around, she came to recognize those who surrounded her. A groan left her throat. There was Agares and Pazuzu and another demon that held Donovan by his hair. Every one of the demons she had faced and thwarted. The ground groaned, but she was too fearful to notice it.

  "Did you think you could get away?" the demon asked. "Your boyfriend won't be able to save you now."

  The taunt was frightening. Was it really true nobody could save her? She swallowed but was startled by how little fear she felt. Then she realized why. She had found the answer to an unknown question, the question of why she felt so strong when she was in a world of hate.

  "You and your friends can bite me," she said.

  "As you wish," said Asag. "You are going to think what you saw in the other world was playtime."

  His eyes glowed and he opened his mouth wide. Seconds before he sunk his teeth into her shoulder, the rumbling up above grew louder. He stopped, stepped away from her shoulder, and stared up into the sky. Asag stepped away from her shoulder and stared up into the sky. His mouth dropped open as the sound of the earth shaking continued.

  "What is this?" Asag hissed.

  "It's God," Eden said, a smile on her face.

  The demons surrounding her cringed as if she had sworn. Growling, Satan seized the shackles which bound her to the stone throne and tore them off of her. Eden glanced at him in confusion as he seized her arm and began to pull her toward himself. She started to fight him, but Satan was so powerful she could not escape his grip.

  "Let go of me!" Eden yelled. "Let me go!"

  "No," Satan said. "This is my domain. He can't come down here. You belong to me now."

  "He will always be stronger than you," Eden said. "Love always conquers hatred. It's stronger than anything in this world. He loves me, and His love is stronger than any walls you put between us."

  Satan scoffed and his five heads grew uglier. All ten of his eyes went from black to a glowing carnal red. The smell of death increased tenfold and his aura went from nonexistent to an angry, pulsing crimson. He seized Eden by her arm.

  "You…" Satan said. "You make me sick with your God."

  A great boom rattled the air; to Eden's left, a glorious light poured in and shone on the cracked, dead land. It highlighted every last part of hell, from the deep crevices to the plains all around. Satan released her, screamed, and turned his five heads away as if the glorious, beautiful light was something to be feared.

  As the light shone in, the sound of distant, inhumanly beautiful, singing reached her. Eden paused and froze, shutting her eyes just to listen. Satan screamed and hid his face from the light. When he had no hope of chasing the singing from his ears, he straightened up and let out a roar which echoed throughout hell.

  "Get out," Satan said. "The lake of fire is mine. My domain. Mine."

  From the light, more figures than Eden could count appeared. Satan turned his head away and squinted.

  "Come to me, all which is mine," Satan said. "If God has come to do battle, then we shall do battle."

  Eden took a step back as dark shapes appeared, too many to count. White mists covered her feet and towering ten feet tall imps appeared. Blood worms rained from the sky and fell at her feet, crawling toward her. It was like swimming in a sea of maggots. More demons came, dark and angry, causing the air to smell thick with sulfur. Eden whipped around and attempted to run, but Satan grabbed her arm and held her to him.

  "No," Satan said. "You stay with me."

  Eden was forced to watch the dark shadows become animal-headed demons. Satan Spawn began to appear too. Two shadows, larger than mountains, appeared on the horizon. The ground shook and split around Eden. She shrieked and almost fell, but Satan's painful grip kept her from collapsing.

  The rock underfoot fell away and the demons jumped as molten magma bubbled up through the cracks in the ground. Eden and Satan stood on the only island of safety amidst the sea of lava. As Donovan was covered in magma, he let out a scream of agony. Even though he had caused her great agony, she didn't want to see anybody hurt like that. His screams pierced her ears like knives.

  "He's your servant," Eden said. "Save him. He's in pain."

  Satan said nothing and pretended he did not hear his servant screaming, "Master, help me. Master, I'm burning."

  Nobody came to Donovan’s rescue, and as the soil shook again, Eden almost fell into the fiery orange sea around her. The ground collapsed further into itself and formed a massive, gaping hole. The hole caused such a massive drop it created a waterfall of magma. The glowing orange tide carried Donovan onwards and over a waterfall sized drop. The molten rock covered him but his wails, distant now, could still be heard. Eden realized Donovan would be trapped in the lava forever in agony because as a soul in hell he would not reincarnate, go to heaven, or even the other world. The layers of hell had swallowed him up. He had been trapped by his own choices and the belief his master would show mercy.

  Eden tried hard to purge Donovan's screams from her mind. As she stole a horrified look at Satan, one of the massive, dark, shadow mountains let out an inhuman, high-pitched shriek and fully appeared for the first time. It was a seething one thousand foot creature with a legless, leech-like form and a head with uncountable circular rows of shining teeth. It had black, scaly flesh.
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br />   "Leviathan," Satan said, his five heads grinning.

  Leviathan screeched again. Fire and magma poured from its mouth as if it was a fire hose for molten rock. The spout of fire would have been enough to fill a swimming pool. Leviathan dove into the lake of magma and disappeared as the ground below Eden rumbled. Moments later, Leviathan tore through the dark dirt and caused demons to leap out of the way as more of hell crumbled, fell in, and became a lake of unending fire. Once again, Eden heard Donovan's screams.

  The other massive mountain growled and Eden tore her attention away from Leviathan to focus on the monster. Eden had never expected to see a dragon. A real dragon. But this dragon did not have sleek scales and beautiful wings. It was ugly, as ugly as Satan and Leviathan. The monster had seven heads so tall they had to have reached a mile in the sky, each of them decayed and ugly, like misshapen blobs with teeth the size of cars.

  The dragon had three sets of massive wings. The dragon growled, which caused the ground to shake. It charged toward the heavenly white light the angels created, like Leviathan had. The light grew stronger and brighter, as the angelic figures grew closer.

  Eden trembled. Will God be able to beat these monsters? Fear filled her. She couldn't believe He was doing this for her, for one measly soul who had gotten trapped down here. Then she shut her eyes and realized she believed she would be saved and was grateful she was saved. Donovan was trapped down below because his master would not even lift his hand to save him. God was willing to call an army of angels in order to save a single lost soul. She opened her eyes and tightened her fists, turning toward Satan, who gazed at his monsters with a grin.

  "He'll beat you," Eden said. "He doesn't need monsters to do it."

  The grins slid off of Satan's many faces.

  The angels grew closer as Satan hit Eden across the face. She yelped, slid to the ground, and almost toppled into the sea of fire. As she lay on her side, she gazed up and saw the angels up close for the first time.

  As much as Satan's army was ugly, misshapen, and smelling of death, God's army was the opposite. The smell of flowers filled the air and warm, gentle light overflowed the night. The angels sang God's song as they flew, and as Eden took in such beauty it brought tears to her eyes. God's angels were male angels and female angels with wings which spanned twenty feet long. The angels were all different races. Even their bodies were different, though they had one thing in common — they glowed with beauty. And Eden knew what the beauty was. It was love. Every bit of deceit and hatred the demons had, the angels matched it with love, loyalty, strength, and courage. Satan's monsters may have spanned the sky and breathed fire, but God's followers were powerful because of the strength of their love and hope.

  Hundreds of angels came at Leviathan all at once. The monster spit fire into the air, but the angels, with such speed that Eden gasped, darted away and avoided the fiery lava spill. One of the angels flew down at Leviathan's head with a golden sword and drove it straight into its skull. The dragon let out a screech of rage as blood spilled from its scales. Leviathan screamed again, this time sending a wave of lava and fire upward. The pumice splashed on the wings of the male angel who had struck him, catching his left wing to catch on fire. He cried out and began to plummet, but two of his angel friends dove down and captured him by his arms and lifted him to safety. The rest of the angel horde rose again and drove Leviathan back with swinging swords. As each angel struck Leviathan, he continued to let out earsplitting screeches which caused Eden to cringe in pain.

  Nearby, angels did battle with demons. Eden watched as a plump, female angel with short, chestnut, curly hair drove Asag into the steaming lava pit. Though the fire covered his human skin and melted it away to reveal his ugly self, he did not wail in pain. He flailed and attempted to fight the flow of the magma river, but it was too powerful for even him to escape. He reached for Agares, who ignored him and matched his strength against a pair of redheaded angel twins wielding lances of holy gold.

  Asag hissed as he was pulled downward and then a moment later he leapt out of the magma pit with an angry growl. He rolled onto the ground and seized the angel by her round waist, but she used her golden sword and threw him back again.

  Meanwhile, the dragon screamed in pain. Eden saw the majority of the angels were attempting to defeat the massive, seven-headed beast. The dragon's many heads attacked all at once as the angels zigzagged around him, firing golden arrows of light. The arrows plunged into the dragon's scaly hide.

  The most muscular of the angels flew above the leftmost head of the dragon. The dragon spotted him and the head shot forward like a javelin. Still the angel did not cower before the dragon. Instead he drew back his hand and threw the golden sword straight into the dragon's left eye. Dark steam poured from the monster’s eye and it screamed and flailed. The head plummeted downward and plunged into the magma river. The weight it hitting the sea of fire caused a tidal wave of fiery heat which headed straight toward Eden.

  She yelped, turning to face Satan, but he was watching Leviathan flail. I am going to be washed into the sea of fire. I am going to be lost in hell right before I have the chance to escape. As the scalding tidal wave came closer and closer to her, Eden screamed and covered her head with her hands. Seconds before the deadly wave hit, Eden was wrenched upward and into the sky. In shock, she gazed up and saw someone she did not expect to see. It was Natalia. The guardian angel from her dream. But Natalia was supposed to be dead.

  Eden's nostrils were filled with the scent of flowers and the same white golden light suffused her vision. For the first time since she had been tossed down into the pit, she felt relief from the heat in Natalia's warm arms. She didn’t understand why Natalia was still here. Eden's heart was filled with such joy that this was not the case she gave a cry of happiness and wished she could hug her, but she felt uncomfortable touching Natalia because she appeared so glorious. She was frightened of marring her perfection.

  "Natalia," Eden said. "You… you… You said I wouldn't see you anymore. Did you get back up to heaven in time?"

  Natalia gazed at her with kind eyes. "I meant it was the last time I would see you before the world changes. The true end of mankind is near, but God wanted to save as many people as possible from falling to what is now truly hell, the fiery sea. This was a warning of what it will be like when the end actually comes."

  "You mean the end truly is coming?" Eden asked.

  "It will come, but it will be different than this," Natalia said. "God will let the end come when He decides it's right. There are changes still needing to be made for humans."

  "But how did this happen?" Eden asked. "How are you still here?"

  "I never left your side, Eden," Natalia said. "When I said I would have to make sacrifices, it was the fact I would have to watch you suffer so much. God never left the world. God made the choice to let the gates of heaven close, but He always had the power to open them again. The guardian angels never died and the angels never left Earth or Purgatory. We silently watched you, and you, Eden, have made me so proud. You have made God proud too. You have done well and have carried His burden in His name."

  "So this whole time…" Eden frowned at her hands. "I didn't save anybody."

  "Don't say such things," Natalia said. "Many souls will change their ways before the end of Earth comes. This is not nothing. You watched an evil soul fall into the sea of fire where he will burn for all eternity. After all he has done, you still wanted to save him. Because of you, millions of evil souls will escape a horrible fate. They will escape Satan, and — uh!"

  Suddenly, Eden and Natalia were jerked downward rapidly. Eden screamed as Natalia tightened her grip on her.

  "What about me?" Satan's five heads asked in unison.

  Down below, Satan had somehow increased in size and had reached them, though they were heading quickly into the air. He held Natalia by a slender, tan ankle and ripped her downward and out of the air, Eden along with her. The two of them hit the ground with a thud, a
nd Eden let out a shriek of pain.

  Satan glared down at Natalia, who lay on the ground with her white dress twisted around her legs.

  "You are not taking the girl anywhere," Satan growled. "You have not seen my full strength yet. The power of God? I will show you true power."

  With an inhuman, ear piercing scream that made Eden shriek right along with him, Satan raised his hands up to the sky. He grew bigger until there was not enough room for him to stand upon the patch of ground. Instead he stepped back into the fiery magma. He became a hundred and then two hundred feet tall. The swelling magma made waves which lapped onto the side of the patch of ground where Eden and Natalia lay because of his added weight.

  "Oh, no," Eden said.

  Natalia gazed at her. "Do not despair, Eden. God is watching out for us. Always. No angel or good human soul will ever be lost to Satan and hell. God is just and He will ensure it."

  Satan reached down and seized Natalia by her leg and held her up in the air where she writhed and screamed.

  "Puny angel," Satan said. "Who has the power now?"

  Then Satan grabbed Natalia’s soft, downy, wing and ripped it from her back. Natalia screamed in agony as Satan dropped the wing into the lake where it was consumed by the magma. As Satan reached toward Natalia's other wing there was the sound of whistling throughout the air. Eden was momentarily dazzled by a great white light far brighter than she had ever seen before. Something massive landed to her right; it took her a moment to see clearly.

  It was a male angel with curly golden hair and bright eyes. His clothing was of red wine silk with threads of gold spun into it. He had an immense sword which brushed the ground, though the angel was probably twenty feet tall. He had a wingspan of ten feet by ten feet, and his feathers were so white Eden swore they created their own light. When he offered Eden his hand she took it and was shocked as comforting warmth filled her. He smelled so wonderful Eden could have shut her eyes and basked in the perfume all day. She could not name the scent, but it was similar to incense, sweet but pure.