“… a bitter place! Death could scarce be bitterer.
But if I would show the good that came of it
I must talk about things other than the good.”
― Dante Alighieri
It didn’t take long to realise that I had to fight for my life.
The water was getting into my mouth and lungs, and I tried to use my upper body strength to get back up. Suddenly my feet weren’t reaching the bottom and something or someone was pulling me down. In a last moment of desperation I pushed my arms, searching for my energy, but there was none. It was like my magic had been wiped out, taken away from me. My mother was out there, and she needed me. This odd, tangling force kept pulling me down, invisible fingers wrapping around my ankles and legs. I jerked my head, trying to gain a bit of oxygen above the surface, but the coldness began spreading over my entire body, moving through my bloodstream. I couldn’t feel my legs any longer; the current was winning, the darkness swallowing me. My mother was calling for me. I heard her voice in the background, slowly fading away. For a moment I saw her smiling face, also lost underneath the dark waters.
I closed my eyes and let these unknown forces pull me right down. I was numb from head to toe, unable to fight with something that I couldn’t see. There were other corpses around me, submerging me in death and despair. My end was inevitable. I started having flashes of my life—Ricky, Arthur, the nuns. Everyone was there, even people that I had left behind, the secret that I was taking with me to the grave. After some time I stopped feeling the coldness, stopped experiencing the pain. It was like I accepted what was happening.
Then, I felt a strong grip, and someone was pulling me out, dragging me upwards. Several moments later, after hearing another person’s laboured breathing, I was slammed on the ground. Wet fingers were touching my face, my throat. I started coughing, spitting up the water, feeling drowsy and disoriented. Mum was still in the water and I had to rescue her, but there was no time. It was so cold, and my limbs felt like they were frozen solid. Strong hands held me and I recognised that familiar aftershave. My lungs felt tight, but I kept breathing in and out, trembling with cold.
“There you go, let it all out,” Zach said, holding me steady. I was surprised that I recognised his deep voice, felt his warm skin on my face. This was a dream; he couldn’t be here, standing by my side, wet and staring at me with those scary dark eyes. We were in Gjöll.
I pushed my wet hair away from my face and glanced back at the stream. The water seemed calm again and there were no corpses anywhere. I must have hallucinated, but something had pulled me down, I felt it. An unknown being that probably lived under the surface. A moment ago I thought this was the end, and now I was lying on the cold ground, trying to calm my erratic breathing. Zach stared at me in disbelief, the colour slowly returning to his features.
“How … how did you get in here?” I managed to choke out, wrapping my arms around his body. I had no idea why, but I just needed to know that he was real, that this wasn’t a dream. The elixir must have stopped working when I decided to get into the stream. The water must have been filled with a magical trap. Maybe the corpses weren’t really there, and it was the effect of magic.
“I followed you all the way here. I saw what you were doing down the river. There is no one around here, Maxine, and it’s time explain to me what’s going on. I want to hear the whole truth,” he said, bringing me closer to him, and wrapping his hand around the back of my neck. He didn’t seem angry, but shocked. He must have followed me down to the river, but I used a protection spell, so this was impossible. Zach couldn’t have seen what I was doing.
I tried to pull myself together, bring back my energy, but the stream was blocking my demonic power. Zach’s thoughts were chaotic, and he couldn’t understand how he didn’t see the real me before, how he didn’t notice that I wasn’t just an ordinary human. It was too late to try tampering with his mind; he had seen too much. Besides, he saved my life. I couldn’t live with myself, knowing that I damaged him. The water probably didn’t affect him the way it affected me. I couldn’t get my head around the fact that he was able to see my spell down the river, that the magic let him enter Gjöll too.
“Zach, I can’t explain this… You shouldn’t be here. It’s too dangerous!”
“Whatever, Maxine, this is bullshit,” he shouted, suddenly shaking me. I felt weak. My muscles didn’t want to obey me for some reason. The water had drained me and I kept thinking about Mum. Was it possible that she wasn’t dead, but stuck here, between life and death? “You’re a witch. It’s pure evil magic. You have been leading me on for so long and now I finally know that you’re not human.”
Then I felt them. It seemed to me they came out of nowhere, the strong source of magic connected with my demonic stream of energy, locking it in place. Zach was staring at me, talking to me, but I couldn’t hear him anymore. I saw a light, a fire, then two dark figures emerged from the darkness. The Watchers were here and I realised that Frederick had tricked me. This wasn’t the real entrance to Gjöll, but the corpses…
Both of the Watchers were in their true forms, both of them had enormous white wings. They were holding fiery torches. I instantly knew that this was going to end badly for me. I was a mongrel that led a human straight to the underworld. I might as well get ready to never see the light again, because those two Watchers were going to drag me down to hell.
“A human man and a mongrel, caught using an illegal spell. I think we are in for a treat this evening, Azezel,” said one of them in a deep striking voice that sent chills down my spine. He had beautiful wings, white, shiny covered with snowy feathers. One of them had blond hair, the other brown. Both of them seemed young, probably in their mid-twenties. I was shaking, hoping that Zach would get it together, but he was completely paralysed, staring at the two creatures, stunned.
“You’re right, Daniel, the mongrel will be punished severely,” said the blond Watcher with mesmerising blue eyes.
“Hold on, please. I was misled. I was trying to get to Gjöll, not to the underworld. My name is Max—”
“Stop talking, mongrel. You’ll have a chance to explain yourself soon. You’re in violation of protocol, and this human has been exposed to our world,” Azezel stated, looking at Zach with wide curiosity. They both went for me before I could decide if it was worth running or not. I had silver chains on my hands. Their energy disabled mine and I knew that from then on all my explanations were useless. My destiny had already been decided.
Zach reached for his gun, springing back to his feet, like he realised what was going on. His attempt was heroic, but stupid. His gun melted in his hand and he roared with pain, dropping it on the ground.
“You won’t be punished, human. You’re not at fault here, but you will follow us down to the chamber. We will decide there what to do with you,” the blond Watcher said, staring at Zach with a mixture of wariness and curiosity. Zach was holding his wrist, looking from me to the Watcher with a crazy expression on his face. He wanted to throw himself at the blond Watcher, and I wanted to erase this whole thing from his memory. “Start walking along with the mongrel. You can still survive this.”
Zach didn’t move. He wanted to argue, but then he noticed his deformed gun and thought better of it. Millions of questions rushed through his mind. I trembled with cold. My clothes were soaked and water was still dripping from me. We started moving, the silver chains digging into my wrists.
Zach was walking behind me, and the two Watchers joined us on each side. There wasn’t any good way out of it, this was my end. I was going down to the pits. There was no point wasting any tears, at least I spent the last few hours with Zach, who now believed that I was a charlatan, some kind of doomed witch that took his sister. He wasn’t too wrong in that respect. A half demon had taken away his sister and turned her into some other being.
Somehow we found ourselves in another tunnel. I could barely walk, still thinking about my options and anyone that could help me. The magic had tricked me, made me believe that my mother was alive. Now I was paying the price.
After at least half an hour, the tunnel dropped and the Watchers asked us to stop in front of the entrance to the cave. I was pushed inside. I felt pressure in my skull, the kind of dread that someone feels when they see death standing in the middle of the room, ready to take them down to hell. I didn’t believe in old stories, but I was thinking about the worst, about the pain that I was going to cause to someone far away, someone that meant the world to me.
Zachary looked around, knowing that he couldn’t fight with the real evil. Azezel used the heavy magical chains to make sure I wouldn’t escape. I knew that there was no point trying to explain what was happening, that I didn’t mean to break any laws. I was caught in what I thought was the entrance to Gjöll, instead I must have opened up an illegal entrance to the underworld, fully controlled by Lucifer. At the same time I had seen the corpses. They weren’t my imagination. I had touched them, spoken to them, but this was psychically impossible. Maybe I believed so hard that I was in Gjöll that I started hallucinating.
I couldn’t move now, being chained up to the cave wall. Zach was asked to stay inside with me and the two Watchers had left the cave. Their magic was powerful, interfering and tangling with my own. It was just a matter of time before they would start torturing me, demanding answers, connecting me with other mongrels. Zach started pacing around, then stopped to look at me. He was very pissed off.
“Who are these creatures? What are they going to do with us?” he asked, shaking his head. “I trusted you and all this time you were leading me on, using me in your magical rituals.”
He still wasn’t getting what was going on and he stared at me with that disturbing look on his face. Watchers didn’t need Zach, he was just a human after all, and I had to convince them to let him go. I was done. The Watchers had me and there was nothing anyone could do to change my fate.
“There is another world beyond the one you know and see everyday. I’m a half demon; my mother was a human. Nameless Thief is a half demon too. That’s why he kept getting away, that’s why you couldn’t catch him, Zach. Demons follow certain rules and tonight I broke them and I’m going to be punished for it,” I said, fed up with lies and deceit. Zach narrowed his eyes at me, then dragged his hand through his hair. He was attempting to wrap his mind around this whole thing, but with miserable results. The Watchers were outside, probably debating what to do with me.
There was a lot more that I needed to explain to him, but I had no idea where to start.
“I knew that there was something wrong. There are demons walking on the streets? What about these men with wings? Who are they?” he asked, somehow relieved and somehow furious. We both knew that I lied to him, but only because I wanted to protect him.
“They are Watchers, demons that are supposed to protect humans from knowing about the demonic world. There is an underworld, ruled by Lucifer. All the demons are divided by factions, and because I trespassed it here, using illegal magic, I’m going to be punished. Don’t worry, they will let you go,” I said, wondering if it was even worth it to pass the message to Ricky through Zach. Tomorrow the detective wouldn’t remember a thing. There was no doubt that Watchers would erase the night from his memory.
Zach took a few deep breaths, staring at me and shaking his head. He was still thinking about his sister.
“This isn’t right. We have been lied to; you’re lying to me now. There is no hell,” he shouted, tangling his hair. I sighed, knowing that maybe I had made a mistake. Zach could never handle the truth about the demonic world. He was beside me before I could blink, grabbing my neck. “Tell me what happened to my sister. The demons have taken her, and you had something to do with it, didn’t you?”
He wanted to kill me. There was no more lust, no attraction. He was ready to end it all.
“She’s alive. I have no idea what happened to her, but I know that she is alive. Nameless was involved with her disappearance years ago. I came here tonight to find him, to solve it all, Zach … I’m sorry,” I said, but his eyes were mad and he didn’t believe anything that I said.
“Step away from the mongrel, human. This isn’t the way. She’s going to be sent down for exposure of our world and violation of protocol,” said Daniel, entering the cave along with his companion. Both Watchers ditched their enormous wings, so they looked like humans.
“Wait, I was only doing what I had to. I’m involved with royal affairs with Rodriguez, the head of Lucifer’s faction,” I said, hoping that maybe that name meant something amongst them, that maybe at least they would reach out to him.
“Mongrels are supposed to obey all the rules, and there are no exceptions,” Azezel said. He walked up to me, releasing the magical chains. He smelled of freshly cut wood and herbs. His touch burned my skin, and when he pushed me forward towards the other side of the cave I felt the magic rushing through my veins.
Then the ground underneath my feet began to shake, the air got thicker. The warmth began filling up the cave. Goose pimples broke over my skin and sweat ran down my face. Zach was standing behind the Watchers. He didn’t know what was happening, but he didn’t feel sorry for me at all.
It was like in the wasteland, like in the alley when I saved Emma, but this time this was happening to me. The earth extended, and a giant hole opened up in front of me. I looked down seeing the fire and only fire. The pits were in front of me, and the Watchers were planning to throw me down, without a hearing or an order. This was it, this was the end.