“Silent, alone with no one now beside us, we went our way—the one behind, the other leading on—walking as meek Franciscans do.”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
“Wake up, Maxine. I think we have a slight problem,” the voice was saying to me. I shook my head, refusing to open my eyes. I wasn’t ready to face yet another horrible surprise. I wanted to see my daughter and see her beautiful smile.
Was that too much to ask?
“I recognise her from one of the meetings. She’s Bianca’s ally, so maybe she knows what happened to her,” said another voice.
Emma and Zach were gone, and when I finally did open my eyes, I was surrounded by demons that stood staring down at me. They were all armed, with knives, swords and sticks, and their faces were covered with smudged black lines. Cyril was kneeling next to me with a concerned look on his face. I needed to stop getting knocked out. This kept happening way too many times.
“Ally? Who is she, Edmunda?” asked a demon from Mammon’s faction, staring at me with a suspicious look on his face.
“She was chosen by Bianca to help her sister and she succeeded,” said the girl in the blue hair. I recognised her from that party that was hosted by Bianca. I didn’t remember her name or maybe I’d never actually bothered to asked. Now her hair was covered with dust and overall she looked like she had a rough time. There were a few other demons that appeared familiar, but I didn’t have time to stretch my memory to figure out if I met them before.
“What’s going on? Who are these demons?” I asked, trying to lift myself up, but Cyril pushed me down.
“The illusion tried to swallow you in. You’re a mongrel, and you were more receptive to its tricks. Most of the time only humans react to it, and they died if they found themselves in this part of hell,” explained the dark-haired demon.
“Right,” I muttered, thinking that things like that could only happen in here.
“What happened to Bianca, Jessica? You helped her sister and I had no idea that you were a mongrel,” Edmunda said, smiling at me. Morpheus had used the special charm to make me look like a full-blooded demon back then and now my whole cover was blown. “Dale, she’s one of us. She must have hidden her real ability at the party for a reason.”
Obviously Edmunda didn’t care that I was a mongrel, and I figured that if I wanted to stay alive then I had to put my acting hat on.
“My real name is Maxine and I was undercover at the party. We all need to get to Lucifer’s circle,” I said, making up lies as I went along. They were willing to believe that Alexis succeeded because of me. None of them knew what exactly had happened in Purgatory. I used my demonic abilities to let Cyril know that he just needed to agree with whatever I was saying. “Bianca died saving her sister. She was killed by a warlock witch.”
A few demons let go of horrifying gasps, glancing at each other with fear.
“You’re the mongrel girl that everyone is talking about. We would like you to join us in the uprising against the dark lord,” announced a large older demon with various scars on his face. He had shaggy dark hair.
“Uprising?” I asked, trying not to laugh. They were all deluded thinking that they could go against Lucifer and his Watchers. Cyril looked unconvinced too, but I didn’t want to piss on their parade. In the past several hours I had been chained up to the wall, locked in a cage, chased around the chamber by some monster and tortured. I really needed a break and for now I was willing to stay with Cyril. Those demons were heading to the last circle, so we could just tag along, pretending that we were all after the same thing.
“Demons from all the circles are joining us tonight. The dark lord has been in power for too long. The order needs to change. We all deserve a better life in hell,” shouted someone else.
It turned out Bianca wasn’t making this shit up. She had managed to brainwash hundreds or maybe even thousands of demons in hell. Cyril was staring at me like he wasn’t sure if I was still lucid enough to know that this was a bad idea. Edmunda started filling us in on all the plans, literally bouncing with excitement. Apparently Cyril and I had managed to pass over Astaroth’s circle, and we were now several miles away from the pits.
Soon other demons started to join in, approaching from various directions.
“So how did you get here? Apparently hell is on lockdown?” I asked a couple from the Lust Circle.
“You can always find the way with gold,” they responded, and then started kissing passionately.
I walked away at that point, thinking that everyone around here was off their rockers. I sensed many more demons arriving and felt strong currents of magic circulating around me. I listened in when a tall demon that talked to me earlier on started discussing the strategy for tomorrow.
None of them considered that they could lose and I admired their spirit.
After the discussion was over we were all invited to sit around the fire. My mouth started to water when I was handed various cuts of meat to cook on a long stick. At that point I stopped caring about my future, because tonight I was finally going to sleep with a full tummy.
Cyril agreed with me that it was wise for us to stick around for now, but he was worried that tomorrow we were going to be stuck with everyone and expected to join the rebellion. I really didn’t care if Lucifer stayed in power or not. My main priority was to get back to London, to Summer.
I was still confused about everything that went on in Purgatory. Morpheus had vanished in front of my eyes and I was dragged into icy water by some invisible creature. It looked like someone was working really hard to mess up the dark lord’s plan
The demons had set up a proper feast in that never-ending cave, so I stopped worrying about all the things that were out of my control. I instead shoved food into my mouth until I couldn’t move anymore. Everything tasted fresh and super delicious. In the end Edmunda started handing everyone something that smelled and tasted like wine.
I had been sober for a few weeks now, but it was safe to say that after such a horrendous time I deserved a drink. Cyril dropped his guard and took a few sips too. For the first time since I’d woken up in hell I felt that I could really keep going. These demons that were part of the uprising sang, drank and ate. No one cared that I was a mongrel and that made me feel a little better.
Later on I fell asleep on the sleeping bag that someone had given to me, slightly tipsy, but happy for a change.
Several hours later, a demon I didn’t recognise woke me up. The cave seemed much brighter and a few other demons were already walking around, armed from head to toe. Cyril showed up wearing his kimono-style outfit, looking less thrilled that we had to get up so early. An hour later, Edmunda handed us some bread with water and told us that we needed to start following the demons ahead.
“Unbelievable,” Cyril muttered and told me to look behind.
At least a hundred or more demons were joining us. They were all from the six circles of hell. All of a sudden the uprising seemed much more real. This was none of my business, but after witnessing everything that had been happening in the past few days, I understood that they wanted things to change.
Compared to hell, life on earth was a paradise.
“We are truly screwed. The Watchers will wipe them all out in a matter of seconds, no matter how many more will join. Lucifer isn’t stupid or careless,” Cyril said, holding his hand on his sword.
It was difficult to predict what was going to happen. I was pretty much healed, but this wasn’t my fight. We started moving slowly ahead, along with hundreds of other demons.
I kept chewing the bread, thinking about my father. My abilities were unique and Morpheus was keeping all the answers from me. He hadn’t even attempted to find me and bring me back to the dark lord. That for some reason was still bothering me. Now I kind of wanted to find out who the demon was that was my real father. I needed closure.
“If we see a window, then we are leaving. We both know that this isn’t our battle,” I whispered back to Cyril as we passed another pond filled with blood and lava. We saw a few skeletons on the way and some bones scattered around, but no one paid attention to any of it.
“The dark lord won’t allow it. We are now in Berith’s territory and he must know what is going on,” Cyril added.
“Let’s just stick together. I sense a lot of uncertainty amongst the group. These demons are ready, but they are scared too.”
“It’s a good plan, but we have to execute it sooner rather than later, Maxine. I have a feeling that those demons would rip us apart if we even tried to betray them. The fact is that they cherish you. They all think that you’re their sign that there is a new change on the way.”
I snorted, shaking my head, but deep down I knew that Cyril was right. Everyone around here seemed to believe that I was someone special.
That was worrying, because I didn’t feel like my abilities were extraordinary. The old Maxine would have screwed this up, but now I was more mature. Ready to destroy anyone that prevented me from achieving my goal.
As we walked I started seeing more bones and skeletons. The whole structure of hell was much more complex than I thought and there was so much more that I still hadn’t seen.
Edmunda kept running to me from time to time, telling me how excited she was to be part of the uprising. We walked for several hours through the cave, as the landscape began changing slightly.
At some point Cyril pointed out that we’d left the cave behind. The temperature rose again and right in front of me I noticed a freaky-looking gate. On the top there was a Latin sign. There were also three sixes turned upside down. The air in here seemed much drier, and there was a thick mist drifting around. As we got closer to the gate, I notice that the entire structure was made from human or demon bones and skulls. Cyril told me telepathically that we were crossing to the sixth circle of hell now.
A shudder of unexpected fear rolled over my stomach. Berith was most likely waiting for me. As others had told me, the word in hell had spread fast. After all, I humiliated him once, sending him back to his beloved pits.
None of the demons on earth knew what happened after you fell through the cracks down to hell. I wanted to presume that Berith was alive and well.
“Prepare yourself, demons of hell. The Watchers will attack and we will fight back. Once we conquer Berith circle, the dark lord will be next,” shouted the voice in my head. I was waiting for the right moment to sneak away along with Cyril or stay behind, but there were too many demons around. This task suddenly seemed almost impossible.
Cyril was getting anxious when we started crossing what seemed like an empty cemetery. There were masses of tombs and graveyards that seemed overgrown with leaves and the whole placed looked like it was damaged by a strong storm. I walked through, trying to avoid the large pieces of concrete. There were some boards from what looked like an election billboard with large writing that put Berith on a pedestal.
The great Berith is amongst us.
Die or vote for Berith.
The silence was unnerving and I had that annoying feeling in my gut that we were walking into a trap. A strong smell of sulphur drifted in the air all of a sudden and that told me that this was most definitely a trap. Magical and strong energy boiled inside me and my breathing became more erratic. The temperature was rising and I sensed many other creatures around. I wanted to shout that we needed to back away, when somewhere at the back I heard a scream, then another and another. All around demon’s emotions started hitting me hard. They were all scared of Lucifer; they wanted a change, but they weren’t ready to die.
Out of the blue, giant bats started appearing in the sky, dropping light bombs everywhere. Watchers on earth had gleaming gold or silver wings, but in hell they were black. We were suddenly under siege. Watchers were flying above us, and soon the entire sky was covered with their huge bat-like figures with enormous wings. I saw a few with swords landing on the ground, killing demons one by one.
“Maxine, let’s move!” Cyril roared and I followed him. We started running across the cemetery. A few light bombs nearly knocked me off my feet, but I scrambled back and kept going. Watchers were using their magic and swords to kill demons. They had no mercy. I created a ball of light and tossed it towards the tall blond Watcher that was just about to kill a demon from Mammon’s faction.
I wasn’t supposed to get involved, but I couldn’t avoid the temptation. Deep down in my soul I was still a fighter.
I smelled the blood and saw bodies of demons lying around; some were burning and screaming, others were still, probably hit with deadly charms. This whole battle was suddenly turning into a slaughter. The demons around me never stood a chance. The spells and charms were zooming around, charging the air. I wished that I had my potions with me, because that would have made the real difference.
Seconds later Cyril was grabbed from above and was being carried upwards in the sky. I tossed a few fire balls, finally able to use my magic to the full extent. The Watcher was laughing, holding Cyril who was trying to stab him with his sword, when I blasted him with a strong fire ball. Moments later he and Cyril crashed on the ground. He didn’t move again.
I ran as fast as I could, jumping through the broken tombs to get to Cyril, when a Watcher blocked my way.
“Not so fast, mongrel girl. There is someone that is very much looking forward to meeting you,” said a white-haired Watcher with incredible blue eyes. He had grey wings and his energy was beyond extraordinary. His beauty had taken my breath away.
I shook my head, telling myself that he was the enemy. I hadn’t forgotten what had been happening to me since I got to hell.
I picked up a wooden stick and burned it, hoping to use my fiery magic to wipe him away forever. Mongrel or not, I was pumped with adrenaline and ready to tear him apart. All around me there was havoc. Demons were using their magic and fighting with giant bats that kept reappearing in the black sky.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and started balancing a ball of green light on my palm. Sparks of electricity were moving down my arms, tingling over the nape of my neck, and then the Watcher launched himself on me unexpectedly. I tossed the ball towards him, but missed. He managed to slice my arm with his golden sword and I cried out in pain. I nearly went down as the darkness shattered my vision.
I shrieked with pain, jumping to the side as his sword landed on the concrete tomb only inches away from me.
Then someone grabbed me and I was being lifted above the ground. Blood poured down, and my pain was spreading, numbing my arm completely.
I was dizzy with blood loss, and when I looked down, the demons on the ground were getting smaller and smaller, until they disappeared completely.