by N. P. Martin
The vortex itself was a fearsome looking dark hole, making it look like some giant worm had burrowed its way out of some other dimension. It had its own gravitational pull that I found myself having to actively resist. If we didn't want to get pulled into the portal along with Baal, we would have to be damn careful, that much was for sure. It was bad enough we had to go to the Underworld--to Baal's domain--in the first place. But spending an eternity with the demon in some other desolate and completely isolated dimension just wasn't something I could allow myself to think about, so I banished my worries from my mind and focused only on the task ahead.
Ray was already pointing his staff at Baal, my uncle using his magick to keep a firm hold on the demon. Putting both hands out in front of me, I directed every ounce of my magick towards Baal, setting my magickal hooks into him.
In response, Baal roared at us with furious anger. "You will never get me into that vortex! You will never beat me!" Much of the demon's movement had returned, and he struggled furiously against the magick being used to restrain him. I felt the demon's every push and pull, as I'm sure Ray could as well. The demon's own strength and power seemed to ripple back down the invisible magickal waves leading back to us, at times weakening the grip we had over him.
Jesus, I thought. We aren't going to be able to do this. He's too fucking powerful.
Despite my sudden attack of doubt (and fear), I kept up the restraining magick, as did Ray. After some tussling, we were finally able to start shifting Baal towards the screaming vortex. I say shift, I only mean a few feet. We still had about ten feet to go before the vortex's own pull took over and sucked Baal in. But right now, ten feet felt like it might as well have been a hundred feet, such was the demon's determination to resist us.
"We need Sanaka!" I shouted to Ray, whose face by that point resembled that of someone who was trying to push an eighteen-wheeler down the street by himself.
"He's not here!" Ray shouted back. "It's up to us now!"
After Ray had finished stating the obvious, and after wondering fleetingly if I was ever going to see Sanaka again, I doubled up on my efforts at forcing Baal towards the vortex. The demon roared as he resisted against my renewed efforts, but he nonetheless found himself being dragged along by another couple of feet. Then the demon laughed suddenly. "You will exhaust yourselves before I will," he goaded. "It is just a matter of time."
The son of a bitch was right, as much as it pained me to realize it. There was no way I could keep up my current level of effort without expending myself sooner rather than later. Ray could have probably lasted longer, but he wasn't strong enough by himself to control Baal.
Panic started to set in. Thoughts of Baal breaking free any moment and attacking us began to slip into my mind, finding their way through the gaps in my concentration, which were increasing as the seconds ticked by.
Sanaka was supposed to have been there helping us. With his power in the mix, we would have been able to control Baal eventually.
But Sanaka was gone, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Then to make things worse, Baal started to move forward. He wasn't just resisting anymore. He was going on the offensive, slowly making his way towards us, and moving further away from the vortex.
Ray and I pushed back at the demon with everything we had, but it was like trying to push the biggest bull in the field using only one hand.
We're fucked, I couldn't help thinking. Baal's going to beat us, and we're all going to pay dearly. Everything would have been for nothing.
Everything.
Baal laughed as if he read my mind. "What's wrong, Creed?" he growled, still inching his way towards us, gaining more ground with every step. "Are you starting to realize how this is going to end? Are you having visions of the pain that awaits you? Believe me, your visions could not hope to match the reality of what you will feel at my hands." He laughed again, his eyes wide and boring right into me, and I felt myself shrink in response.
Then, to break my focus even more, Margot suddenly appeared beside me, holding up a barely conscious Leona. "What the fuck?" I said in surprise. "How did--"
"I have some strength left," she said, laying Leona down on the ground. "Thanks to you."
"Your bitch has come to help you, Creed," Baal shouted, uncomfortably near us now, no more than eight feet away. "How fitting."
I ignored Baal as I couldn't help but stare down at Leona.
"August!" Ray shouted. "Focus!"
I turned my attention back to Baal, who seemed certain he was going to get the better of us.
Then Margot stood beside me and pushed her hands out, a look of grit and determination on her bloody face as she joined in the fight. As soon as she did, Baal stopped moving.
"No!" the demon roared. "You will pay for this bitch!"
"So will you, Baal," she said back as she pushed harder.
Bolstered now by Margot's added power, I felt my own power increase and my focus renew as I pushed hard against Baal. Between the three of us, we were finally able to start forcing the demon towards the swirling vortex, despite Baal resisting with all his might. In just a few moments, we were able to shift the demon to within several feet of the swirling portal. Another couple of feet or so and the vortex would soon start sucking Baal in. Baal himself seemed to realize this and increased his efforts to stand his ground.
"You need to go, Creed!" Margot suddenly said. "Take Leona and go. Now!"
"What?" I said back. "Are you crazy? I'm not leaving you here with that demon."
"You don't have a choice. Once Baal enters that portal, this whole dimension you are standing in will be obliterated. You have to go now."
What? Why hadn't I been made aware of this fact? No one said to me Baal's domain would get sucked into nothingness once he was banished.
"She's right," Ray said, looking exhausted by his prolonged efforts. "But I'm staying to finish him. You two go."
Margot grunted as she kept up her magick against Baal, then said, "No! I started all this. I have to finish it."
She was right of course, but that didn't make it any easier to accept. I may not have known Margot for long, but I couldn't deny the connection I had with her, which was less romantic and more deep friendship and mutual understanding. I didn't want her to die. "I'm sorry, Margot," I said. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."
Our eyes met then, and I saw the purity in hers. "You did save me." Her eyes welled up with tears, which she didn't let spill over. "Now go before he overcomes us all. I have only so much strength left."
I released my hold on Baal and went straight for Leona, who still lay out of it on the ground, looking like a dreadfully abused little girl in my eyes. I bent down and picked her up, forgetting how heavy she actually was and grunted with the effort of draping her dead weight over my shoulder. A second later, I was joined by Blaez and Barney, both of whom I was glad to see still alive. "Ray!" I said. "Let's go!"
"That's it, Creed," Baal shouted over as he continued to struggle against the magick pushing him and the energy of the vortex pulling him. "Run like the little bitch you are! It doesn't matter where you go, I will find you, Creed, even if takes me all of eternity. I will find you and make you suffer!"
I let Baal's threats go over my head. His words lacked the same power that they once did. He was beaten, and he knew it.
Ray let his arms drop as he released his magickal hold on Baal, looking like he was about to collapse at any moment. "Thank you," he gasped to Margot. "Truly."
Margot nodded, her naked form straining with the effort of keeping her magick on Baal. "I can't hold him much longer. Go now. Please." She looked at me then, sadness now in her eyes. "Look after Barney for me."
I wanted to say that Barney didn't need anyone looking after him, but I nodded anyway. "There's time, Margot. You can teleport after--"
"I won't be able to," she said cutting me off. "Please just go, Creed. Save Leona."
Leona. The whole reason I was there in the fir
st place. "Goodbye, Margot."
Margot nodded as she tried desperately not to cry, as did I when I turned away from her to go to Ray, who was now down on one knee, using his staff as support to keep from falling over. "I'm too old for this shit," he wheezed.
"Teleport back to the gateway, Ray," I told him. "Go through. I'll meet you there."
Ray barely nodded. "Don't take long."
"I'll be right behind you."
A second later, Ray vanished.
I turned and took one last look at Margot, our eyes meeting only briefly because she had to concentrate so much on holding Baal to keep him from flying back into the vortex too soon. I wasn't sure how much time I would have once Margot released her hold on Baal, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't be much.
When I looked at Baal, he roared, "This isn't over, Creed! Wherever I end up, I'll get out, and when I do--"
"Fuck you, Baal."
Baal glared back at me as Barney (normal sized now) flew down on my free shoulder. Blaez pressed himself against my leg, getting ready for the teleport.
The last thing I heard before I teleported was maniacal laughter from Baal, and then a scream as he must have gotten sucked into the vortex.
I heard nothing more from Margot.
33
Somewhat Fucked
When I landed after teleporting, I didn't seem to be anywhere near the gateway, which I couldn't see in the dark surrounding landscape. Everywhere I looked there was black, stony ground and huge boulders.
But no gateway.
"Fuck!" I said, still straining to keep Leona's dead weight balanced on my shoulder. My face was covered in sweat as I frantically looked around. It didn't take long for me to realize that my magick had gone awry, either down to me somehow (entirely possible given my adrenalized state), or down to the weird physics of the Underworld dimension I was in.
Barney was hovering above me, and I sent the bird of prey off on a scouting mission to find the gateway.
Just as the barn owl flew off, there was something like an explosion in the distance. A huge ball of reddish-black energy mushroomed and expanded out across the entire broiling sky, creating lightning forks everywhere.
And then the noise came. A deep rumbling noise like the sound of thousands of heavy feet closing in from all sides. As the noise got louder, I realized with horror that the world I was in was falling apart at a rapid rate from the outside in. Every fucked up atom in the place was falling away into a pit of black nothingness. A place I would end up in myself soon enough if I couldn't find the gateway.
Using the mushroom cloud of energy as a point of reference, I judged I had teleported in the opposite direction some fucking how. I had no other choice but to take another chance and teleport again with what little magick I had left in reserve. Moving on foot wasn't an option. The collapsing world would soon catch up with us and swallow us whole.
"Barney!" I shouted, looking around for the owl. Barney appeared a few long moments later, landing on my shoulder again, screeching once to let me know he hadn't seen the gateway anywhere.
Shaking my head, I called Blaez over. Then I closed my eyes and hoped for the best as I teleported us all again.
When I opened my eyes again, I did so almost fearfully like I was afraid to see where I had landed us this time. And after looking around, despair set in once more as I realized it was another fuck up. This time I actually caught sight of the gateway (I think anyway, as it was difficult to tell with all the lightning bolts blasting down from the tumultuous sky), but it looked to be too far away. Maybe two or three miles away with an expanse of stony desert ground in between.
"No, no, no!" I said, about half my remaining energy (which wasn't much by that point) draining out of me like air from a punctured tire, all but deflating me in every sense. If I'd had time, I could have gotten myself and Leona across that desert on foot. But I didn't have that kind of time. In the distance, I could all but see the world I was in collapsing away like crumbling cliffs into a bottomless black sea. At that rate of destruction, I'd be swallowed up before I got near the gateway. I couldn't teleport either. My magick was drained along with most of my remaining energy. I did try, figuring it was worth a shot, but nothing happened.
I fell to my knees then and let Leona slide off me to the ground. Then I took off my trench coat and placed it over the top of her naked form.
I turned to Blaez next, who was standing beside me, Barney sitting on his back. I put my hands on Blaez's head and quickly gave him a tight hug. "You have to go, buddy. You and Barney can make it to the gateway if you go now."
Blaez made a whinging noise and all but shook his massive head as if to say he wasn't going anywhere.
"Goddamn it, Blaez!" I said pushing him away as tears stung at my eyes. "Get the hell out of here! Go! I'm commanding you to go!"
I had never commanded Blaez to do anything before, but I was commanding him now. And he knew it.
Blaez slowly backed away from me, making faint mewling noises in his throat. Barney flew up off Blaez's back and hovered in the air for a moment, his black eyes staring as he screeched almost plaintively at me.
The noise surrounding us was becoming like the the loudest thunder you've ever heard, and the frenzy of destruction was rolling inwards at a rapid rate. "Get the fuck out of here! Run!"
Blaez turned then and bounded off in the direction of the gateway, with Barney flying after him.
The tears that stung my eyes were now rolling down my face as I watched Blaez fade into the distance until it was too dark for me to see him anymore. "Bye buddy," I whispered hoarsely.
Then I turned to Leona, sitting on the ground and pulling her up into my lap, so her head was cradled in the crook of my arm. As I brushed her long fringe out of her face with my fingers, she opened her eyes and looked up at me. "Hey," was all I could think to say, my voice choking up in my throat.
Leona sort of smiled at me, too weak to even move her head. She reminded me of someone who had had a nightmare and was now glad that someone was there to comfort them. Only the nightmare she was in wasn't over. It had just got worse in fact, and I didn't know how to tell her. "You...came for me," she said in a whisper. I nodded, the tears streaming now, hardly able to speak. "I knew you would..."
I put my face down towards hers and kissed her on the forehead, then leaned my cheek against her. "I'm so sorry," I said.
Leona never responded as she closed her eyes again.
When I next lifted my head to look around, my eyes widened in horror as I saw something that resembled a huge tsunami rushing towards us from all sides, swallowing up everything in its wake, leaving nothing but blackness behind. I could barely think straight, but I figured we had about two minutes before the rolling wave of destruction hit us and wiped us out of existence along with everything else in that bastard world we were in.
Two minutes to spend with the woman I loved. The last two minutes either of us would ever spend again.
A kind of peace settled over me then as I accepted the inevitable. A strange sort of calm spread out within me, and I continued to cradle Leona and rock back and forth with her in my arms.
"What's happening?" she barely whispered.
"Nothing my love," I said. "Nothing you need to worry about. Just relax. I've...I've got you."
Leona smiled weakly again. "I love you...Creed."
I all but broke when she said it. The first time she ever tells me she loves me and we were both about to die.
Fuck you, irony. Fuck you.
The noise, the tremendous destructive energy closing in on us had now become so overwhelming it was difficult to do anything but stay huddled up against it, bracing ourselves for the imminent impact.
But then I heard Leona's words again, this time in my mind. "I love you..."
And I thought, No, I'm not going to let us go out like this, no fucking way.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I dug into myself deeper than I've ever dug before until I found what I was looking f
or. A small kernel of magick buried so deep I had never even used it before. I felt it in myself like some glittering jewel that had been waiting all this time for me to discover it, and now that I had, I was going to use it.
I tapped that small kernel of magick, and I teleported once more, this time with the certainty that I would get us to the gateway.
And by fuck, I did.
I almost burst into tears when I opened my eyes and saw the rippling red gateway just a few feet away.
But the wave of destruction that was swallowing up Baal's domain was also just as close. My joy soon turned to full on panic as I scrambled to get Leona up to her feet.
We're not going to make it...oh fuck...
I got us both to our feet, managed to get one step and then tripped on a rock that caused me to fall forward and land just a foot shy of the gateway with Leona lying beside me face down.
I shot out an arm and grabbed hold of Leona as I tried desperately to drag her forward towards the gateway.
Everything was blackness and overwhelming noise.
Then the gateway seemed to disappear altogether, and I knew that was it.
It was over.
Only it wasn't, for the gateway hadn't disappeared.
There was someone standing in front of it.
I looked up.
It was Sanaka.
Sanaka reached down and pulled Leona up off the ground, all but throwing her into the gateway.
As I felt the pull of the destructive force closing in around me, I managed to get to my feet and all but pitch forward into the gateway, helped by Sanaka's guiding hand.
34
Back To Earth
I burst through the gateway back into Sanaka's Sanctum and landed on the wood floor on my hands and knees, staying in that position for a long moment while I gripped the floor and stared down in disbelief. My mind was having trouble getting to grips with the extreme juxtaposition of being a split second away from total obliteration in an alien world only moments ago to now being alive and safe in my own world again. My head was spinning as it and my body reorientated themselves.
