“Be gone.”
The only evidence of the screams, shrieks, howls and roars once filling the cave are faint echoes drowned by the sound of trickling water somewhere in the darkness. My ears still ring with their noise as my heart double thumps at their memory. With considerable effort, and not a little apprehension, I raise my head and glance about. Silence covers the cave.
Mr. Benny stands over me, his right hand held up like a policeman stopping oncoming traffic. He grins. “Not bad, if I do say so myself.”
I sit up. The chamber is empty except for me and my tormentor.
With a chuckle, Mr. Benny says, “Now hear me good—you ain’t shit ‘round here, Brooksy. I could’ve let that pack of wild things rip you apart, but like I say, I took a shine to you. You show a certain kind a grit—reminds me of me. Now, the sooner you accept the fact I won and you lost, the better.” He lowers his hand to me. “C’mon, up you go.”
I ignore his help and struggle to stand under my own power. It takes a few moments, but I get it done. “What do you mean, you won?” I’m in agony, and the words come out hard.
“Now Brooksy, just let it go. What does it matter anymore? Come to think of it, what does anything matter anymore?”
I’m panting, taking short, burning gasps instead of breaths. “It matters to me. What do you mean, you won?”
His expression turns dark. In a sing-song voice, he mocks me. “What do you mean, you won? What do you mean, you won?” He glares and leans in to me. “It means I won, got it? You found the bomb I buried in that arena, well bully for you. But guess what, I got another surprise in store for that crowd tonight. What do you call it in your line of work? Oh yeah, a back-up plan—my Plan B. You always gotta have a Plan B, ain’t that right?”
I want to rip his head off, instead I whisper, “In theory.”
“Well, that ain’t gonna happen, young fella—rip my head off, that is. You know why?” He shouts, “’Cause I won, that’s why. Listen to me real good… I’m bigger than you, stronger than you, and smarter than you. You got no chance against me, so shut up and just follow me outta this cave if you want to stay in one piece.”
I force a breath. “But all those people in the arena—”
“Boo-hoo. Too bad, so sad. Listen Brooksy, forget about them, you got bigger problems. You down here with me, and your girlfriend—oops, sorry, your guide—done floated back to After World. Soon, all them folks in that arena are gonna join her. You’re alive because of me, and you’ll stay alive because of me. As soon as I get tired of you…” He cups a hand around his ear and a faint screech echoes through the humid chamber. “Heh-heh, now that’s what I call perfect timing. That pack of creatures back there, they’re always hungry, and guess who’s the catch of the day?”
While he rambles on, I work on the puzzle of how to take him down. Everybody has a weakness. Mine appears to be impatience. After all, without thinking about the consequences, I had latched on to him and been dragged down here—mistake number one. Then I tried to choke him out—second mistake. If I had succeeded in killing him, the creatures would have surely ended me. It’s time to take a breath, take my time, and solve the problem.
“How astute, little man. You like that word? Astute. It means, uh…wise, clever. Yes, I can see where you’d think of me as a problem instead of your only hope. But listen to me and listen real good. You ain’t got no hope, not no more, not down here.”
Shit. I forgot to block my thoughts. I start reciting the multiplication tables in my head. If it kept Sebastian and Samantha at bay, it’s worth a shot against Mr. Benny. Two times two is four, two times three is six, two times four is eight…
Mr. Benny wraps an arm around my waist and leads me toward a distant light. “Up ahead is our way out of this shitty little cave,” he says. “Wait till you see The Abyss, I mean the real Abyss, not this piss hole we’re in. Just outside this cave are the Gates of Hell. Now that’s a sight you ain’t never gonna forget. I’ll show you the Lake of Fire, the River Styx, and the workhouses. God, how I love the Workhouses. They’re my favorite—”
“Why are you telling me this?” I stumble over a rock and fall to my knees. On either side of us, gaseous clouds rise from fissures in the ground. Bubbling ooze splats against the ground, filling the air with the odor of a million rotten eggs.
“Whoops-a-daisy. Here you go,” he says holding a hand out to help me up. “Sorry about the rough stuff back there, but you were trying to kill me. Now, normally I’d put you down like a sick dog for that, but like I said, I took a shine to ya. Now Brooksy, you’ve seen a ton of shit in your life, but you ain’t never seen nothing like—”
“I don’t buy that “shine” bullshit. Why don’t you just kill me?”
He laughs. “Boy, if I had a nickel every time I heard that…”
I strain to make it back to my feet, experiencing the agony from every broken bone and damaged nerve in my body. “Tell me the truth.”
Mr. Benny stops smiling. His stare is cold, his voice flat, “After tonight, you’ll be the last human standing. That makes you valuable in this here Universe. And guess what? You belong to me, and that makes me a big deal.”
My skin shivers. “But…I’m not…I’m not standing here. This is just my soul. My body’s dead back on earth.”
He shakes his head in a slow, deliberate motion. “You really don’t understand how things work, do you? You didn’t die, you just latched on to me and I dragged you down here. You got no soul, son. You got no guide either, but you’re still human. The last one. And that makes you a thing worth owning.” He turns away and marches toward the light. I swear I hear him singing a faint and sickening tune,
“The last one, the last one,
I got the last one.
You can’t have him,
you can’t touch him.
The last one, the last one,
He’s all mine now.”
“You don’t own me.” My legs are weak—hell, my whole body’s weak, but I’m not about to let this thing know it. I draw in a deep breath and trudge alongside him, doing my best to match his gate, stride for stride. I continue reciting the multiplication tables and give him a sideways glance to see if he reacts to my lack of thoughts. He doesn’t.
“You see,” he continues, “I’ll find a way to profit off your sorry ass. Somebody’s gonna want you, just ‘cause you’re the last one. Hell, maybe even After World will take you back—for a price. Heads up, we almost there, son.”
“Where?”
“You sure you want to know?” He stops, turns, and takes a step back. “Hey, what’s going on in that head of yours? Are you having a stroke, or something? I can’t read you no more.”
I stop multiplying and let him in for a moment, thinking about the smell of sulfur.
“Those are sulfur pods. They shoot up out of the ground every few seconds. They sure do put up a stank, don’t they?” He turns around and continues his sick song.
“The last one, the last one,
I got the last one.
You can’t have—”
“Mr. Benny,” I shout raising my multiplication defense again, “I don’t know where we’re going. You’re obviously a lot stronger than I am, and, as you said, you won. So why don’t you just tell me about your Plan B.”
“What? Why?”
“I’d just like to know how you got the better of me, you know, what I missed. Call it professional curiosity.”
Like a sand crab racing to the sea, a huge grin crawls across his face. “Well now that’s the spirit, little man. You’re done, and you know it.” The grin expands. “I appreciate a man who calls a spade, a spade.”
I stumble forward, nearly tumbling down again. He leans over and reaches out to keep me from falling. Perfect. I push hard into him. With a shove to the right, I use what’s left of my strength to throw him off balance, landing him on his belly square on top of a sulfur pod. His scream is louder than any creature I’ve heard in The Abyss. He rolls off the shooting spray of hot steam. The stench of burning flesh fills my nose. He groans and stares at the smoldering wound across his midsection.
Caressing his stomach, he cries out, “I am done with you, boy—last human or not. You are dead. Dead.”
I can’t stand up, so I slither against him, grabbing hold of his leg. Lying on his side, he kicks at me, but misses the mark. I claw and grab my way next to him, finally landing a punch to his face. He yelps, his thrashing more erratic. His arms and legs flail about, trying to shake off his human attacker. I hit him repeatedly in the back of the head, feeling him weaken with each blow. He groans, launching a desperate attempt to free himself from my grasp.
He’s much stronger than I am, but I’ve got to keep him on the ground. We’re so close to a sulfur pod, the intense heat lights up the cave as it erupts. Hot sulfur splats on the rocks and splashes down on us like burning rain.
“You’re dead.” He thrusts his arm up over his head. Instead of bringing it down on my head, he opens his palm and screams, “Votha.” The thunder of a stampede shakes the ground. Shrieks fill the cave. “You’re dead,” Mr. Benny cries, “here they come.” He widens his pie hole and cackles.
That’s when I shove the bottle of Cyanilide into his mouth and break his jaw. I roll him onto his stomach, his face covering the sulfur pod. With both hands grabbing his hair, I drive his head down over the jagged hole. Still shouting and screaming, his words are muffled by a rising discharge of hot sulfur. My hands are on fire, his head vaporizing in a spray of steam. Mr. Benny is no more.
I shove my hands under my armpits, snuffing out the flames. I’m sure I’ve felt more pain in my life but can’t remember when.
Ignoring the agony, probably because I’m in shock, I drag Mr. Benny’s corpse off the sulfur pod and think about feeling for a pulse at his jugular. I reject that idea as he no longer has a neck. Smoke rises from where his face used to be. The stench of sizzling skin makes me heave.
A thundering roar of inhuman creatures grows louder. Struggling to rise, I find my balance. The daylight at the end of the cavern is about a hundred yards away. I turn and shuffle toward it with a broken body as well as spirit. In my mind’s eye, sharp claws reach out, scratching at my back while furred beasts sink their teeth into my flesh. Fear helps me scamper toward the light. Shrieks grow louder.
An electrical flash explodes in the cave a few feet in front of me. I’m momentarily blinded by the light. Sebastian appears, brushing at his coat, and smiling.
“There you are, son. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He peers over my shoulder. “Oh my, this is awkward. You’d better stand back.”
He darts around me and reaches back, making sure I’m behind him. The creatures are now only a few yards away. Yellow, red, white and dead eyes zero in on the both of us. Sebastian turns toward me and grabs my broken hand. I wince but don’t complain—there’s something far worse than just pain coming our way.
“Here,” he says, shoving a ruby red orb into my hand. “Hold tight and squeeze it with both hands, squeeze it with all your might—do it now.”
A pack of feral creatures’ pounce at us, emitting a communal scream. The raw smell of animal rage and rotten sulfur fills my nose. I squeeze the orb. It creates a red spark igniting the cave in a brilliant glow. The giant winged insect lunging at me vanishes without warning. All the beasts disappear.
My last glimpse of Sebastian is a macabre scene of claws, teeth, flesh and blood.