by Jerel Law
“No Jeremiah,” said Eliza. “Come on, guys. Let’s keep going.”
They inspected a workout room, full of state-of-the-art gym equipment, a locker room with a sauna and showers, and then a small movie theater. All of them sat empty, and there was no sign of the missing quarterling.
Jonah felt the darkness hit him again as they walked back down the red-carpeted hallway, so hard that it almost made him stumble. He leaned against the wall for a second, trying to clear his head.
“You okay?” asked Julia.
Another voice spoke to him as well, though.
I know who you are. I know you’re here.
Come on down.
TWENTY-FOUR
THREE LEVELS BELOW
Jonah heard the voice inside his head, a whisper but loud, filling up his skull. He blinked for a few seconds, looking at the others, knowing instantly that he wasn’t the only one who’d heard it.
“Who said that?” Hai Ling asked, looking up and down the hallway. “Did you guys hear that?”
“For a second I thought it was just in my head,” answered Jonah. “You heard it too?”
They nodded, all looking at him at once. As if he should have some kind of answer.
The truth was, he’d heard that voice before, in his worst nightmares and in person. Jonah knew exactly who it was—Abaddon. But there was no reason to scare his friends any more than they already were.
“That voice . . . ,” Julia said, unable to finish her sentence. She was shaking. “I’ve never heard anything so . . .”
“Evil?” Andre suggested. “Me neither.”
“Come on,” Jonah said, moving into the stairwell and heading down to the next level. “We have to finish searching. The sooner we do that and get out of here, the better off we’re all going to be.”
The map on the wall indicated that they were on the main level, and that there were three more levels below, including the engine room at the very bottom.
“Let’s go, guys,” Eliza said as cheerily as she could muster. They were all hesitating, including her. “Let’s push through this. It won’t take long, like Jonah said.”
Her words were less than inspiring, but they trudged down the steps. Red lights lined the halls on the next level, making everything seem gloomy and more sinister than before.
“I think it’s some kind of safety lighting,” said Frederick, staring up at the red glow from the lights on the wall. “Nice. Doesn’t really help the situation, now, does it?”
Jonah felt a chill ripple through his body as they went down below the main deck. The others were shivering too, and he wondered if this level was used as some sort of cold storage. But there was still no sign of Jeremiah in any of the rooms filled with equipment and supplies. So they moved another level down.
“It’s a giant swimming pool,” Frederick said. They were, indeed, standing in front of an Olympic-sized, eight-lane pool. A bank of solid glass ran along the wall. “Must be nice to come take a swim down here when it gets too hot up top.”
The pool was illuminated by that same soft glow of red, though, which made it seem creepy instead of relaxing. “I don’t think I’d like to be swimming in a pool that looked like it was full of . . .” Eliza didn’t finish her sentence, but Jonah knew what she was going to say.
Full of blood.
At one end of the pool was a door.
“Let’s be thorough,” Eliza said, and hurried over to open the door. “Pool supplies,” she said, disappointed. “Just what I thought.”
“Come on, Eliza,” Jonah said, trying to encourage her. “There are still two levels left. Maybe he’s down there.”
“I just thought that he was here. Like, actually on this boat,” she said, tears welling into her eyes. “When I saw that man behind the ambassador, it just seemed like he was the man I saw take Jeremiah. But now . . . now I don’t know, maybe I was wrong. I wanted to believe that we could find him, so my mind tricked me or something. We should just leave, before we get in over our heads.” She rubbed her arms, shivering.
Jonah felt the heaviness of evil like a blanket on top of them all. He suddenly wondered if she was right. Maybe they should just go. The coldness, the hardness of the place, was pushing out all of the hope inside him, spiraling like water down a drain. He leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes as he leaned over, hands on his knees.
“Elohim . . . ,” he whispered the word, more a cry of desperation than of worship or anything else.
A singular picture came into his mind of the day Jeremiah learned to ride a bike. Jonah was riding along beside him on his own, shouting, laughing, urging him on. Benjamin and Eleanor were behind Jeremiah, cheering, and there to catch him if he fell. Jeremiah’s face was full of untamed joy, his mouth hanging open, his hair blowing back, his eyes wide.
“Whhhheeeeeeeeeeeeee!” he shouted. Jonah laughed and cheered.
The image came and left his mind in an instant. But it was enough.
“Let’s finish this,” Jonah said, pushing back off the wall. He grabbed Eliza’s hand and took it in his. “If Jeremiah’s here, we’ll know soon.”
He moved and beckoned the others to follow. Steeling himself, he led them down another level.
The steps let out into yet another hallway, and Jonah stuck his head out first, to see what they could expect. There were doors all the way down to the left. When he peeked to the right, he immediately drew his head back.
“Guards!” he said.
“Standing there in the hallway?” asked Frederick.
Jonah nodded. “Two of them, right in front of a door at the end of the hall.”
Eliza smiled, suddenly much more hopeful. “They’re guarding him. I know it. That’s where he is!”
“Well then, let’s go get him!” Andre said, moving through the doorway.
Jonah grabbed his friend’s meaty shoulder and pulled him back. “Hold on, Andre. We need some kind of game plan. We can’t just barge in.”
“Some kind of distraction would be nice,” offered Julia. “Something to get them away from the door for a minute, so we can see what’s inside?”
“But we need to get in the door, and I’m sure it will be locked,” Eliza said. “No doubt those guys have the keys, though.”
“You guys create a distraction, and I’ll get us those keys,” Hai Ling said. Jonah was surprised again at her boldness. She shrugged. “I’m probably the sneakiest one here anyway. Might as well put it to good use.”
Hai Ling strode out into the hallway before Jonah or anyone else could protest. She marched down until she was right in front of two guards, standing beside the door. She waved her hand in front of their faces, knowing they couldn’t see her, and grinned back down the hallway at the quarterlings.
“I have to hand it to her, she has some guts,” Jonah muttered, the others nodding approvingly.
The men were having a discussion about New York City football teams, and which one was better, the New York Jets or the New York Giants. The guard didn’t notice when Hai Ling slipped her slender hand into his pocket, pulling out a small ring of keys.
The distraction needed to happen now. Otherwise, the men were going to see a key ring floating in the air beside them.
“Andre, now you can go!”
Andre ran down to the other end of the hallway and shoved a door so hard that it hit the wall behind it, but it stayed open.
“What was that?” one of the guards called out. “Who’s there?”
“Go check it out,” the other man barked.
Andre stood, waiting, pressed against the wall, as the man hurried down the hallway, hand on his hip, right where his gun was holstered. The man stepped up to the darkened room, peeking in.
“Anyone in here?” he said, flipping on the lights and stepping inside. “Hello?”
When he was all the way in, Andre grabbed the door handle and pulled it shut.
“Okay, guys!” he called out. “I’ve got him!” Using all his angel strength, he hel
d the doorknob, leaning backward, holding it steady as the man tried to pull it back open.
Jonah could hear his cries from behind the door.
“Help! Hey, Frank, the door’s jammed! Help me out here!”
Frank muttered something under his breath and walked down the hall.
“Just turn the knob and open it!” he shouted. “Is that too complicated for a New York Jets fan?”
But when he was almost there, a door beside him flung open.
“Huh?” Frank said, peering into the dark room, and then he stepped inside.
The door suddenly slammed shut behind him.
“Hey! What the . . . ?”
Frederick held on to the knob outside. “I’ve got this one!” he called out. “You’re clear!” The door shook, being beaten on from the other side, but he held on tight. “Move fast, though, okay?”
Jonah, Eliza, and Julia were already down the hallway as Hai Ling worked with the keys to the locked door.
Finally, she found one that fit. “I think this is it!”
She turned the knob and opened the door.
The open door revealed a dark room that was hot and smelled like a gym locker. Jonah fumbled for a light switch along the wall and turned the lights on.
In the far corner of the room, a boy was bound to a metal pole that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. It was Jeremiah.
TWENTY-FIVE
SURPRISE IN THE HALLWAY
Jeremiah!” squealed Eliza, rushing over.
“Yes!” Jonah exclaimed, pumping his fist and joining her.
Jeremiah was squinting up at the lights and sweat was beading on his forehead, but he was there. And alive!
“He can’t see us,” Jonah said. “We’re still in the hidden realm, remember?”
A red glowing strand ran around his head. It was thick enough to cover his mouth.
“What is that around his face?” asked Hai Ling.
Jonah knew. He’d seen it before, years ago. It was the same type of band that the fallen angels had used to hold the nephilim captive.
“It’s something the fallen angels put on him,” Jonah answered. “Maybe he was talking too much . . .”
He quickly pulled an arrow off his back and held it close to Jeremiah’s mouth.
“Wait a minute! Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Hai Ling asked.
“Just please be careful, Jonah,” pleaded Eliza.
He rolled his eyes at them both and ran the tip of the arrow along the glowing tendrils until, with a small burst of smoke and light, they fell from Jeremiah’s mouth.
Jeremiah looked up, blinking.
“Hey,” he said slowly. “I can talk . . . I can actually talk again!”
“I think we should let him see that we’re here,” Eliza said, smiling. Jonah and Hai Ling nodded, and they bowed their heads and left the hidden realm.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
They appeared instantly in front of Jeremiah.
His mouth dropped open, and he looked at them in disbelief.
“First time I’ve ever seen you speechless, little bro,” Jonah said, grinning. Eliza began to cry, hugging his neck tightly, while Jonah and Hai Ling worked on untying him from the metal pipe.
“You came!” Jeremiah finally said, pulling his arms out of the cords and hugging Eliza, and then Jonah, tightly. Then he gave a big hug to Hai Ling too. “I can’t believe you’re actually here! I can’t believe you found me!”
“I was trying to find Mom when I went back to the warehouse,” Jeremiah told them sheepishly. “I was snooping around there, and then the next thing I know, these two big guys grabbed me out on the street and threw me into their car. I tried to fight them, but it was no use.”
Jonah smiled, thinking of his brother trying to fight two huge Russian bodyguards. He was sure he had given it his best shot.
“Did you try to use your angelic power?” Eliza asked. “The belt of truth? Or at least just disappear into the hidden realm?”
“Well, I was so scared, I didn’t really think about that until they took me to this room,” he answered. “I wouldn’t have been able to leave the car anyway, even if I was invisible to them. They threw a hood or something over my head, and I couldn’t see. When they took it off, I was here. And for some reason, I couldn’t talk.”
“The fallen angels slapped some kind of binding on your mouth,” Jonah said. He looked at Eliza. “I guess they knew about his power.”
She thought for a second, nodding slowly. “If they stopped him from talking, they would be able to keep him from speaking truth and using the belt. Brilliant.”
“Maybe we can take that mouth covering back with us to use when we need to,” said Jonah, laughing.
Eliza rolled her eyes. “Jonah, be serious. We need to get upstairs, and then get off this evil boat before someone notices us. But with you, Frederick, and Andre, and your angelic strength, we should have a pretty good chance.”
Hai Ling smirked. “As long as we aren’t stopped by any flying bad guys.”
“Well, whatever we do, we need to hurry,” Jonah said. He could hear Frederick and Andre down the hallway, calling out to them to hurry up. The guards behind the doors were banging louder and louder.
They quickly made their way into the hallway. Andre and Frederick were still holding the doors closed, but they looked relieved to see the group sneaking down the hallway.
Jonah called out instructions as they approached the stairwell. “When I say go, we’re going to make a run for it,” he said. “You guys get ready, okay?”
Jonah stopped suddenly, motioning for everyone behind him to be quiet.
Someone was walking down the steps.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
He felt a sickness in his stomach grow, and the temperature in the hallway suddenly dropped. He turned to look at Eliza. Her face was pale with fear.
“I don’t like this . . . ,” she whispered. The others seemed just as rattled.
A man entered the hallway and stood, adjusting the cuff links on his shirt and straightening his tuxedo jacket. He was right in between Jonah’s group and Frederick and Andre. Finally, the man looked up, straight into Jonah’s eyes, a wide grin on his face.
“I don’t see how they wear these things,” he said. “But I guess that’s the cost of doing business, right?”
He laughed, the only sound in the hallway, except for the two guards still trying to escape the rooms they were trapped in. But as Andre and Frederick turned to see who was in the hallway, they let their grip go, and the doors flung open. The man turned to look at the guards.
“Who’s out here?” one of them shouted angrily. “Who’s been holding the door?”
When they saw the man in the tuxedo standing there, watching them with a derisive smile on his face, they stood straight up.
“Stuck in a closet, are we, gentlemen?” the man said. “Doesn’t appear to be anyone out here except us, does it?”
Frederick and Andre walked toward them, still in the hidden realm and invisible to the guards. They were going to try to sneak around the man.
“Why don’t you two go ahead and pop back into reality, huh, little quarterlings?” he said, still fidgeting with his cuff link. He held his hands out, motioning to the hall. “This is reality, after all, no?” He chuckled again, and Jonah couldn’t tell whether he believed that himself or not.
Frederick and Andre looked shocked by his words, realizing he could see them. They glanced at each other, and then silently they both entered the physical world again. They popped into view, and the guards gasped. The man turned back to the other group.
“Nice to see you again, Jonah,” he said, moving close to him. He turned to Eliza. “And you too, dear Eliza. What’s the matter? You’re looking a little pale. Oh well . . . I guess it’s not every day you get to be in the presence of someone like me.”
The guards looked confused as the man seemed to be talking to invisible people. “Are you all right, Mr. Prince?”
>
“Why don’t you come back into reality too, friends?”
Jonah sighed and nodded to the others, and they popped back into the physical world too.
“Oh, man . . . ,” one of the guards said.
Jonah mustered every ounce of courage he had just to speak. “Mr. Prince? Seriously? You can’t hide behind that person, whoever you are pretending to be on the outside. We know who you really are.”
Mr. Prince smiled at Jonah, taking delight in his words. “Well, I should hope so, Jonah. I’ve known you practically your entire life.”
Jonah bristled. “You don’t know me at all.”
“Good one, there,” Mr. Prince said, pointing at him. “But I know what you were doing while your brother and sister were lost by themselves here in New York. You were showing off on the basketball court, trying to impress all the girls in your school, and forgetting about them. You were taking it easy back in Peacefield.”
Eliza glanced at Jonah, and he could sense an invisible wave of her doubt crash over him. He wanted to protest, but instead, he was weighed down by his own crushing feelings.
He’s right. I ran away from my family. I ran away from everyone in my life.
“At any rate,” the man said, checking his watch, “I have some important people to attend to. But I’d like to continue this conversation later. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
He snapped his fingers, and a horde of fallen angels came from the stairwell. Moving quickly, while the quarterlings were still in a daze from their encounter with the Evil One himself, the Fallen grabbed the kids, shoved them to the ground, and pulled their hands behind their backs.
Something felt hot on Jonah’s wrists. “Owww!”
He tugged at them but couldn’t budge. Even fighting with his angelic strength didn’t have any effect. His arms were secured behind his back.
Jonah’s face was pressing into the carpet. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Eliza’s shoe, squirming and thrashing around.
“Eliza!” he shouted. “Jeremiah! You guys all right?”
