Bring Me to Life

It all started after his surgery, the dreams he had were not of normal dreams. Yes, he had lost the love of his life but those are what he thought they were about. He was wrong. She was part of the dreams, but they didn’t occur until after the surgery, as said before but he didn’t know why they were happening the way they were. He thought they were dreams of his own death, but he was wrong, dead wrong. He never thought they would be a foreshadowing of someone else’s death, just his.

A month later he found out what he was really dreaming about. Not his death, but hers. The dreams were a foreshadowing of her death and the suffering she would go through, not because she would die normally, no, she would die through possession. Even though they were not together, he would be out there to protect her as her best friend. Her safety was all that mattered, nothing else.

They sat there on Skype talking about her “friend” who visited her when she was alone in the house, the creature or demon that harassed her and her children, the demon who wanted to possess her for it to become real again. He had known about it before and gave her something to protect herself, but I was not working as well. She didn’t wear it all the time when she slept and that was when it would attack her. It wanted to kill her, and he wasn’t going to allow it to do that.

He begged her and begged her to let him come to help remove it. She declined each time saying she did not need help in this matter. He sent her a camera with night vision so she could record it that is when the demon became stronger. She and her oldest daughter decided to see if they could figure out what it was. He told her not to unless she knew what she was doing. She said she did, and it became stronger. It went after her even more. That is when he decided to step in. He didn’t care if she was married but he was going there to protect her. Her safety was all that mattered.

When he drove up to her house, he knew something was wrong. He felt it in the air, he felt it in his skin, and he felt it by the look of the house. The front yard was dilapidated, grass overgrown, and weeds all throughout the flower beds. This was not the way he knew his friend to be. He knew she cared about the way things look and this was not the usual settings of her house.

He knocked on the door and her husband answered. “I didn’t think you would come.”

“She’s my best friend, why wouldn’t I?”

` “You have a point. Come on in, she’s in the bedroom.”

“What is she doing in there?”

“More tests I think.” He followed him into the house. It was freezing. He could see his breath as he breathed out.

“Will, is she OK?”

“To be honest Marc, I don’t know. I really don’t know. She has been taping that thing now for weeks and she has lost weight and not in a good way.”

“I’ll take a look but remember, I’m not a ghost hunter and this isn’t a ghost.”

“I know but you’re crazy to do this.”

“Will, you don’t know how crazy I am,” he laughed as he walked through the bedroom door. The room was freezing. He placed his right hand immediately to his mezuzah around his neck. He felt the push of the demon in the room. It had not taken her yet, yet being the word. He couldn’t see it, but he felt it. It did not reveal itself to him yet.

She sat in the corner, staring at the wall. As she sat there, she rocked back and forth as if she was trying to keep warm. Her breath was steaming out of her mouth when she breathed. She did not turn around when Marc entered. “I knew you would come; I knew you would come to protect me.”

“Tina, I am here only on business. Your safety is my business. How powerful is it now?”

“He’s gotten to nine feet tall. I’ve told it to go fuck itself but it got stronger as I started taping it and giving it attention. I know, you told me not to do that, you warned me to be careful, I just couldn’t. You know that.”

“Nine feet, shit. Where is it?”

“It’s around, all over. Can’t you see it?”

“I can only feel it. It must reveal itself to me first before I can see it, you know that. Come on out you son of a bitch, I’m not scared of you.”

“I won’t do that until I’m ready,” a voice echoed inside his head. “I will take her to be mine and I will not let anyone, and I repeat anyone stop me, even if I have to kill you to do it.”

“You are right mother fucker you will have to kill me.”

“I know your secrets Marc, all of them. The love you have for her, the guilt you have for your father’s death and the guilt you have for your grandfather’s death also. I know what you are thinking, I can read your mind at all times.”

“Good, you can read my mind. Then you know how crazy I am and how I would not let you take her or kill her. And if you can read my mind, then read this!” Marc thought of the most ridiculous absent-minded thought he could think of The Mad Tea Party from the book Alice in Wonderland. He used that as a wall to conceal his thoughts from the creature. What would the Doctor do? he pondered.

“You cannot stop me with that stupid scene from a book. I will break through it.”

“And I will create a new wall each time.” The Doctor would do what? Hmmmm. The Doctor would first get her out of there, plan and then face it head on, so would a Jedi. “Tina, come with me out of the room, please.”

“I can’t, It won’t let me.” He walked over to her and gave her his hand to help her up. She was ice cold when she put her hand in his. It was hard to get her up but he did finally get her up with the help of her daughters and Will. They laid her down on the couch and she lied their resting.

“We need a plan. We must distract It before It can enter her and fully take her over. It is a dybbuk.”

“A what,” asked Will.

“A dybbuk. In Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is a malicious possessing spirit, believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person. Dybbuks are said to have escaped from Gehenna (a Hebrew term loosely analogous to the concept of hell) or to have been turned away from Gehenna for serious transgressions, such as suicide, for which the soul is denied entry. The word "dybbuk" is derived from the Hebrew דיבוק, meaning "attachment"; the dybbuk attaches itself to the body of a living person and inhabits the flesh. According to belief, a soul that has been unable to fulfill its function during its lifetime is given another opportunity to do so in dybbuk form. It supposedly leaves the host body once it has accomplished its goal, sometimes after being helped.”

“How,” asked Will. “The only way is for one of us to continue to fight It head on and get her out of the house. What if it doesn’t let us take her out of the house?”

“Then we are fucked and we will all have to go after It head on in Its own plain.”

“Who will go and fight It,” asked Bre. “It has already gone after Rissa and me, It doesn’t like Will and from what we can see, it doesn’t like you too much either.”

“I will do it,” said Will. Marc looked at him. “She’s my wife, I have to do it.”

“No, you have much more to lose than I do. I have nothing you can save her, yourself, and the girls. If anything happens to me, Tina and the girls know what to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“No time to explain right now. We have to do this now or never.”

“It will be never,” came a voice from the couch. They all looked as Tina sat up smiling, or the body of Tina sat up smiling. “She is mine now!”

“Give me your name creature!”

“Never boy! You know names are power and I will not give you power over me.”

“We will fight you then, we will all fight you and defeat you. You don’t have her fully I can see it in her eyes.”

“Save me Marc,” Tina’s natural voice came from her mouth. Her body fell back on the couch limp.

“We have to put her back on the bed and tie her up so she can’t go anywhere. We can’t trust what is inside her no matter what happens, do not untie her. It will lie to you, to me, to us. If she asks you to untie her, ignore her. That is not her speaking It will be speaking through her.”

They brought her to the bedroom and tied her body to the bed. They strapped her arms to the bed posts and the same with her legs. “Let me go Rissa, please untie me. It’s OK, I’m your mother.”

“Ignore her that is not your mother.” Marc pulled out from his pocket the mezuzah that Tina had dropped on the floor. He placed it around her neck. Tina screamed as if in pain. He kissed her forehead, whispered something in her ear and sat down. “Now, I want everyone to relax your minds. Close your eyes and feel yourself floating in front of yourself. We must attack this head on in Its own plane of existence. Remember, anything that happens to you there, will happen to you in real life. You die there, you die here. Got that?”

“Yes,” they all exclaimed.

“Also, do not allow It to know you fear It. Your fear will make It stronger, do not look directly at It unless you are going to attack It. If you look in Its eyes, it will succumb you and take over your soul if you are not strong enough. Now, let us begin. Once you are out of your bodies, stay where you are. We will be in Limbo so we will be safe for the moment. Do not go anywhere without a buddy, ever!”

They all closed their eyes and freed themselves from the normal plane. They were in a white area, the ground was white, the walls (if there were any) were white and the sky was white. The only thing that changed was their appearances.

Marc was wearing a brown pinstriped suit, white shirt, brown tie, sneakers, and a tan trench coat. His hair was longer and a little sloppy but still neat. He stood there with his hands in his pockets with a smirk on his face. His blue eyes no longer blue but a slight brown. “Welcome to Limbo.”

Bre’s clothes had changed to a pair of black pants, a red mid-drift button down t-shirt, and a long blue jacket. She wore black boots that went above her pants partially up her calf. She had a look of awe as she looked around to see what everyone else was wearing. Her hair changed from black to red.

Rissa wore a red cloak, mirrored glasses, white boots that went up to her knees. Her hair also changed from black to red and became exceptionally long and bushy.

Mikey wore a long white robe. His hair was tied back in a ponytail and worse white shoes. Will wore a jean jacket, blue shirt, and jeans with black boots.

“I chose the clothes for you. You can pick your own forms to see how you perceive yourself. If you notice, I see myself as the Tenth Doctor. But” Marc said as his clothes and form changed to that of Deadpool, “you can change how you look depending on how you feel.” His form and clothes changed again, this time to a tan trench coat, brown pants, beige shirt, and a broadsword holstered to his back. “This is more comfortable for what I want to do, for now. Remember, this is a place of magic you can change your form at will. But remember, you can show fears as well and it will come up in your form. Let’s head towards our destination and stay close.” He headed towards a dark swirling vortex and they followed.

Marc drew his sword as they entered. “Hold on tight, this is gonna be a bumpy ride.” They felt a pull in their stomachs as they entered the vortex it became stronger and stronger as they went towards the center. “Grab my hand, stick together and don’t let go.” They were pulled deeper and deeper into the vortex.

As quick as the pulling began, it stopped. They were in a dark cavern that smelled of Sulfur, death, and decay. “Luminos,” said Marc and a ball of light appeared in his hand.

“Very Harry Potter,” said Mikey.

“Thanks, I read all the books. It was a try. Now let’s keep walking.”

Screams of pain came from around them. The cavern dripped of blood as they walked further and further away from the vortex. The ground crunched as they walked. They looked down to see the ground was made of broken glass. The glass went through their shoes and their feet began to bleed. The blood was quickly absorbed by the glass.

About five minutes later, they found a bridge. It was a wooden rope bridge that was wide enough to walk a cart over but did not look strong. It hung over a river of fire. “Luminos exterminatus,” said Marc and the ball of light went out. “I guess we have to cross this. It doesn’t look too strong we should do it one at a time. I’ll go first.” Marc started towards the bridge and felt a hand on his shoulder.

“No, she is my wife, I will go first,” said Will. “Here goes nothing.” He headed towards the bridge when flames shot up from the river of fire. Out of the flames came a tall black creature. Its eyes were red, Its red hands had brown hair and the hair on Its head was long, string and brown.

“Welcome to the first level of Hell, Gehenna – The Wasteland, I am Lilith the guardian of this level. Your suffering will be great as my children and I take your souls.” It was then that they saw a small crowd of black shadows climb out of the river of fire. The creatures surrounded our heroes. Rissa screamed in fear.

Marc looked at her. The color of her clothes changed to a bright yellow. “Rissa stop! You must control your emotions or you will get us all killed. Think happy thoughts, remember what I told you? Happy thoughts only or we will have come in vain.”

Marc’s clothes changed. His shirt and pants became black, and a black robe was around him. On his belt was a metal tube.

“Ah, the Jedi reveals himself. You will not stop us this time Jedi.”

“What gave me away Lilith?”

“The birthmark on your arm, you will not save her Jedi.”

“You know how powerful I am Lilith. You know my people.”

“Yes,” she laughed loudly. “But you are weak Jedi. You allow your emotions to be revealed. This is not ancient times when your people protected the two Temples and protected the Ark. This time, we will take no prisoners.”

“My emotions are not the issue here Lilith, her rescue is. Now step aside or you and your children will die in your own realm.”

“I cannot die, you know this. My children and I are immortal.”

“Everything can die, nothing is immortal. Immortality is for those who can show love and reproduce. A person’s immortality is their progeny or their children. Now step aside and let us pass through your realm. We are not dead; we are still alive.”

“Then I will get to kill you myself and my children will feed off of your flesh.”

“Come and get us,” said Marc. He pulled the tube from his belt. It turned out to be a lightsaber. He ignited it. The glow of the lightsaber was a light green and showed the anger in his face. He twirled the lightsaber around and held it in front of himself to check the extension of his arm. He then pulled it back like a baseball bat and waited for the first of Lilith’s children to attack. “Which one of you has the balls to attack us? Come on, which one?”

The biggest of her children stepped forward and smiled. His many rows of teeth showed blood and flesh as he smiled. He pulled out a giant axe from his back. “I, Zhou, will take you myself, no one is to interfere,” he growled.

He swung the axe which was dodged immediately by Marc. “Get back and stay far behind me. Stay near the tunnel.” He dodged the axe several more times, getting cut in the process on the glass ground. “Are you done Zhou?”

“Never,” he bellowed.

“Good, now it’s my turn.” Marc swung the lightsaber once and it cut the axe handle in half. Zhou screamed as his axe handle split in half. Marc swung the lightsaber horizontally and cut Zhou in half. The top half of his body slid off the lower half. Blood oozed from the lower part of his torso; the smell was of cooked rotting flesh.

“My baby, you killed my first born. Kill them all my children,” screamed Lilith. The children of Lilith ran forward towards Marc first. Marc stood at the ready.

From behind he heard someone say something quietly. Then it became much clearer. It was Rissa’s voice. “No, no, no. NO!” A bright white light came out of her body and she rose. “Stop it, you will not harm us!” Her clothes changed to a while cloak. The top of her cloak was a cowl which came down over her face. The tip of the cowl that went over her forehead was pointed down like a Raven. She wore a leotard of pure white. Rissa put her right hand out as if to push something away and the light came out of her hand. It was a light of purity. Each one of Lilith’s children was obliterated in the flash of light. Rissa fell and was naked on the ground. Marc put his hand out and a blanket covered her body.

“My children, she destroyed them all. You will all pay for that.” Lilith raised her hands and her claws came out. Not only did she have claws for fingers but bone claws came out of her wrists and elbows. She raised her hands and swung at them. Marc sliced the lightsaber and cut her right hand off. Lilith screamed in pain. Her goat legs stomped the ground making the glass fly up around her. She charged at them and they dodged her charge. Bre pulled out a thin rope from her pocket. She whipped it in the air. It hit Lilith right across the stomach. Lilith screamed in pain and split in half. Her body upper torso fell off the lower part of the body in a crash. The ground shoot as her body fell. As it landed, her body turned to flames and burned up.

“Nice Bre,” was all Mikey could say to that.

Marc walked over to Rissa laying there on the ground. He waved a hand and she was dressed as she was before in the red cloak. His clothes changed back to the suit and trench coat. This time he wore thick black rimmed glasses with his clothes.

“What happened to her,” asked Bre.

“She brought out her true powers. She has the powers of the Raven in her. The white meant she was pure and good. I see you used the weapon provided Bre, that was a good shot. Someone pick Rissa up and carry her.” Mikey walked over to the girl and picked her up.

“One question,” said Will. “Why did that thing call you ‘Jedi’?”

“Actually, she was saying ‘Yedi’, pronounced ‘Yed-die’. In the Hebrew language there is no letter ‘J’, the closest letter is ‘Y’ like in Latin there is no ‘J’ just the letter ‘I’. In the times of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem there were guardians who only guarded the Temple. They were an elite guard if Yisraels called the Yedi. They practiced a form of mysticism and were able to perform exorcisms that were too hard for the Cohanim. The Cohanim were the high priests. After the destruction of the Second Temple the Yedi went underground passing their knowledge down each generation to the present. George Lucas took the legends and used them in his movies. During World War Two, the Yedi went further underground running to the U.S. when they could. A lot were killed during the Holocaust. Before then there were about four thousand of us, it has dwindled down to about thirty or forty of us. I am one of the youngest Yedi but I am highly trained. No, there is no Padawan, Knight or Master like in the Lucas movies. You are either born one or not. You start learning at an early age and it goes from there. You either know your shit or you don’t. Let’s go, we have a long way to go through this level.”

They crossed the bridge which was sturdier than it looked. The river of fire shot flames up as they crossed but they made it across safely. Marc then resumed the light so they could see again. They kept walking and, on the road, Rissa had woken up. She couldn’t walk at first, still weak but then slowly walked on her own without help. It felt like they walked for hours without end. As they walked, Rissa began kicking a large round oblong object. It showed two eyes in the reflection of the ball of light Marc was carrying and Rissa screamed. They all stopped and looked at her as she pointed down, the show of fear in her face and tears streaming down her cheeks.

The others walked over to look at what she was pointing at. Marc picked it up. “It’s a gas mask,” said Will. “It looks like a modern one as well.”

“Good, we may need this in the future,” said Marc. He brought it up to examine it better and placed it over his face. “Are you my Mommy,” he said jokingly. Rissa shuddered unknowingly. “Sorry, that’s a Doctor Who joke. I didn’t mean to freak you out.”

“It’s OK, just don’t do it again. Please.”

They continued their walk and a rancid smell started to flow over the land. A sign stood about fifteen feet from a shoreline:

Welcome to Sha'are Mawet - The Watery Hell.

To cross Acheron, the river of hate

Please have your fresh flesh ready for Phlegyas.

Eyelids and flesh are the only forms of payment.

There was no line at the Lethe Wharf but the stench from the waters was horrendous. The water was the remains of human beings you could see parts of flesh and bone rise in the putrid murky liquids that moved. The boat was made of recent comers who refused to pay.

Phlegyas himself was only four meters tall, was very, very thin; his face seemed to be made of decomposing flesh, over a World War II gasmask where his skull should be, and long black robes that had been spattered with grotesque liquids. They walked slowly to the Lethe Wharf. The smell was overbearing but the forged on.

“Do you have flesh for me,” asked a raspy voice.

“No, we don’t have flesh for you,” said Marc.

“Then there is no passage for you unless I have flesh. Any kind of flesh will do, the eyelids of the pretty ones will do.”

“Is there any other form of payment that we can use? I don’t want to lose my eyelids,” cried Bre.

“I have this,” said Marc as he lifted the gasmask. “It looks much nicer than the one you have now.”

“This is more than enough for payment. Please come onto my boat.”

The five of them boarded the boat slowly. The smell got worse. The stench was emulating from the boat and the deck moved as they boarded. Phlegyas picked up a microphone and spoke into it. “Welcome to Sha'are Mawet - The Watery Hell. Please keep your hands and arms inside the boat at all times. Do not leave the boat until it has come to a complete stop. I am your tour guide Phlegyas and I will be happy to answer any questions at the end of the tour.”

The boat started moving on its own. The smell that came from Acheron got worse and worse. Phlegyas began to speak again, his voice sounding less raspy and more muffled. “Thank you for the new mask by the way. I’m using it now as a new skull. Now for the tour, I will start with a little bit of background on Sha’are Mawet. The waters of Sha'are Mawet are often referred to as ‘rivers’, ‘lakes’, and ‘seas’, but these euphemisms pale in the dark light of the truth. More accurate adjectives would be ‘sewers’ and ‘cesspits.’ Acheron, the river of hate, winds nine times around Sha'are Mawet, closing in the rest of the damning waters, and the bizarre blank spaces, in which the waters hang. The waters of the Styx aren't water at all; these churning fluids are the remnants of what were once human beings. An eddy of Klansman rises in stark bitumen against a blob of what was once a Black Power activist; no memory of the crimes that motivated any of this hatred remains, only vile abhorrence.”

“The only way to cross the Acheron is to be ferried across by me your loveable boatman, Phlegyas. I wait at the Lethe Wharf, the only solid surface to be found in Sha'are Mawet, other than my ferry. I am almost four meters tall and very, very thin as you can see; my face seems to be made of decomposing flesh, over a World War II gasmask where my skull should be, and long black robes that have been spattered with grotesque liquids. For a river crossing, I demand payment in fresh flesh. I have a penchant for eyelids. My boat is made of recent comers who refused to pay; slowly they liquify underneath my passengers and me. I have been known to be talked out of demanding payment; someone who promised to bring me the fresh eyelids of an Innuit, with their epicanthic folds, might be able to swindle me, or someone who offered to bring me a better, more modern gasmask to be my skull can get away with a nice ride with me. Again, thank you for the new gas-mask it is much more comfortable than the old one.”

“The Acheron flows past three lakes: a lake of boiling gold to punish the greedy (please young lady don’t try and get off the boat to go in there), a lake of freezing lead to punish the miserly, and a lake of iron shards to punish the abstinent. Of course, now that Inferno lacks the regularity and order that Ialdabaoth (Astaroth) brought to it, someone who experienced no greed at all might call out from the boiling gold he swims in, sentenced to eternal suffering.”

“The Acheron, if not crossed, flows out to Tohu Vi' Bohu, the Primal Sea, the uterine waters of first creation. Some mapmakers have located the Primal Sea elsewhere-not in Inferno, but in Metropolis, the Unreal City. This doesn't really make sense; Metropolis is comprised of skyscrapers, potholes, all the signs of urban decay; there is no sea in Metropolis. Also, spirits of the dead never go to Metropolis, as they travel the messy path from life to death to life again.”

“Old buildings and towers stick out of the muck of the Primal Sea like atolls or reefs. Oberons, who direct the flow with their dams, swim around the Primal Sea seeking the fetuses that float under the surface by the hundreds in shoals. The Primal Sea itself seems to create them, but the Oberons ignite a light at the center of the shoal, which seems to animate the fetuses in anticipation of what awaits them: Rebirth. Some of the buildings that protrude from the sea are inhabited. Parts of the Primal Sea are floating cemeteries of ships, large, cracked tankers pouring out radioactive toxins, old steamers half sunk and spewing poisonous smoke. Grossly fat rats four feet long swim in currents of nerve toxin from rusty battleships. Bubbles rise, foul organic gases, testifying to strange chemical processes far beneath the surface, as if the sea itself was alive. If a someone is so unfortunate as to fall into the sea and fails to swim, they have no chance to be retrieved. They will be reborn as a baby with their personality and memories intact.”

“Well, that was the three-hour tour. I hope you found it to be very educational.”

“Thank you very much for bringing us down the river,” said Will.

“Phlegyas, you’re not that bad a guy. You should cut back on the eyelids and the flesh. Maybe take gold coins like Charon of the Greeks does. He’s a lot more popular than you would think,” said Marc.

“Well, young Doctor, I am not in control of my choices as you can see. This is Hell, not Hades where a person can choose to pay Charon or walk down the River Styx. Be careful on the next level, it won’t be as easy as I was. It is called Sha'are Zalmawet - The Hell of Seven Hells. Look for Rashnu, you will be able to tell him by his sad eyes. Goodbye travelers be safe and good luck on your mission. Not all of us in Hell are against you and hope you save her. Remember to stay on the path.”

“Thank you Phlegyas and you as well be safe.”

They got off the boat and walked to the rocky landing where the boat stopped. They walked a few feet and all five began retching. Bre began to vomit, as did Mikey. Marc bent over and vomited violently. That lasted for a good ten minutes. It was then they noticed the boat and Phlegyas had left. They started to walk down the pathway. Marc relit the ball of light and they stayed on the path. To the sides they heard laughter and screams coming from all sides.

They walked for about fifteen minutes until they saw that the path led to steps. They walked to the steps and looked down. It was dark, pitch black. Even the light did not show anything but more darkness.

“What do we do,” asked Bre.

“We go down,” said Will and Marc together. They looked at each other and Marc put his hand out to Will to lead the way.

“No, you’re the leader in this one Marc. You know more about this stuff than we do.”

“OK, just making sure you didn’t want to lead, she is your wife not mine.”

“Look, we don’t need you two fighting or we won’t find Mom,” said Rissa. “You two can fight this out later, right now we have to find her and save her.”

“She’s right let’s put our petty differences aside,” said Will.

“We can,” said Marc. For now, we can.

Marc led them down the stairway. The stairs started to spiral down further and further until they were circling down the stairs. Marc created another ball of light and dropped it down the center of the circle of stairs. It fell and fell and fell until the ball of light was a tiny speck in the darkness, barely visible to the naked eye. Marc stopped and they all stopped behind him.

“How long do you think we have to get to the bottom Will? An hour? Forty-five minutes?”

“I would say thirty to forty minutes, give or take. Let’s just hope the steps are solid and won’t crumble under us.”

“Then we will have to take it slowly, feel out the steps and like you said, hope. Just keep your voices low so we don’t start anything.”

They continued slowly down the steps again. They came to the bottom thirty-five minutes later. It ended in a large circular room with seven gates. In front of each gate was a stand and in each stand was a Nepharite. Each Nepharite was dressed in a red and white striped shirt with a carnival top hat. Upon each face was a smile that showed large, pointed teeth. Each had red eyes that glowed as the weary travelers came into their sights. The stands began to light up with twinkling red, blue, yellow, and green lights that made the scene more and more like a carnival and less like a section of Hell.

“Come one come all, come on over to pass through to Kurnugia. I am the only one who can get you to Kurnugia,” they all said at once. “Don’t listen to him, listen to me. Kurnugia is just behind my gate. I am the guardian to Kurnugia.”

“Which one of you is Rashnu,” asked Marc cautiously looking at their eyes.

“I am,” they all said in unison. Then one looked down not looking directly into the eyes of the travelers. They walked over to that one.

“Are you Rashnu,” asked Bre softly.

“Yes, I am,” Rashnu said quietly with tears in his eyes.

“No, he is not, I am Rashnu,” the others said in unison.

“Did Phlegyas tell you how to find me?”

“Yes, he did,” said Bre. “Your eyes give you away.” The other Nepharites caught on fire and disappeared screaming, their carnival stands went dark.

“Now you can pass into Kurnugia. But be warned: Once someone enters the gate, they must cross a bridge so narrow it's sharper than a razorblade. On the other side of the bridge there are stony caverns and a grisly tree called the Zacornu. Hideous, terrified, suffering human heads grow like fruit on the Zacornu, begging for death.”

“The heads growing on the Zacornu are tortured by an Awakened, not by a Nepharite, although it might be difficult to tell the difference. Erlik, the Awakened, claims to have been the first man; his organs and bones are on the outside, and they glisten sickeningly-but he claims that humans are the false image of him, made inside-out, that he hates humans for being such a distorted image of his beauty. He also claims the Zacornu was the tree whose fruit was forbidden. He will try to kill you; he will do everything to deceive you and make you part of Zacornu.”

“Kurnugia is ruled by the razide Nergal, dead lord of Sha'are Zalmawet, and his adulterous wife Ereshkigal. It was Ereshkigal's lover, Namtaru, the spreader of plague, who killed Nergal, and yet Nergal continues to rule from his own grave, while Namtaru and Ereshkigal copulate over him. Beware of all three of them they will try to take your souls for passing through their realm.”

They entered the gate and saw the bridge. It was just as Rashnu described it. They examined it repeatedly. Marc tried to analyze it up close, as did Will and Mikey. They found a rock and placed it on there, the rock was sliced in half. The side they were on was desolate, only a rocky wall and the gateway where they entered. The sky was pitch black like an eternal never-ending darkness. The rocks were black like obsidian, including the rock that was used on the bridge. There were planks on their side of the bridge. The chasm below had to be thousands of feet deep and was twenty feet wide.

“How are we supposed to cross if this stupid bridge cut a rock in half,” asked Rissa. “It’s impossible to do it.”

“Only if you believe it is. Remember nothing is impossible, improbable yes, impossible no.”

“Can we fly over it?”

“I don’t think so. The natural laws don’t apply here but I think that since this is a puzzle, I think natural laws do apply. Everything here is a test so I think we need to apply this to our test.”

“I know how to pass over the bridge,” said Bre. “It’s obvious.”

“What do you mean,” asked Marc.

“With your high IQ you don’t see it?” She pointed to the bridge and then to the wood. “We have to slide across the bridge on it. There is your puzzle, it’s easy.”

Will walked over and picked up a piece of the wood. “It’s petrified wood.” He slammed it to the ground, it did not break. He then placed it on the bridge it did not cut in half. He took a running start and slid the wood under himself and slid safely across the bridge quickly. On the other side he found a rope. It was old but it seemed strong enough to allow the rest to pull them across if it was tied to something. He tied the rope around the wood he used and threw it back to the other side. “Tie it to the metal bars of the gate.”

Mikey caught the wood and he tied it to the gate.

“OK, the girls go first. Rissa then Bre, Mikey, you go after them. I’ll take the last run over.” Rissa and Bre crossed without any problems. They were able to stand up and pull themselves across. Mikey had to go over on his knees due to his height. He looked down accidently and vertigo kicked in. He stopped looking down after that. He made it across finally after getting his bearing. Marc was the last to cross. Knowing full well of his vertigo, he looked straight ahead and focused on everyone’s feet. As he pulled the rope attached to the gate started to untie. No one noticed it until the rope itself untied and Marc was in the middle of the bridge. The wood under Marc started to wobble due to the unbalance and Marc stopped pulling. He tied the rope around his waist and jumped. There was a good ten feet between Marc and the edge of the bridge. While he was in midair, the others pulled on the rope and brought Marc to the edge. The fronts of his feet were over the edge and his heels were hanging over. Marc’s balance was compromised due to the lack of support under his heels. Will walked over, grabbed his hands, and pulled Marc onto solid ground. In the distance they heard wailing.

“I think it would be a good idea to rest here for a bit,” said Marc. We still have a long way to go and I think a quick rest will do us some good. I’ll take the first watch, Will you take the second and Mikey, you take the third. I’m going to douse the light because we don’t want any unwanted guests coming to us.”

They all sat down and rested. The girls fell into a deep sleep. Bre resting her head in Mikey’s lap, Rissa rested her head on Marc’s shoulder. Mikey closed his eyes and fell asleep. Will was the only one to stay up as well.

“Why don’t you rest? I can keep the first watch.”

“I’ll be fine. I need to know something and I want the truth. Did you sleep with my wife?”

“Yes, I did. She told me for months she loved me until she decided to get back with you in December. She told me she was going to marry me, spend the rest of her life with me. She told me many stories and she hurt me, she hurt me bad. She broke my heart to the point where I wanted to die. She lied to me about many things. I would have done anything for her but all she wanted from me was sex. I am so sorry Will, I am so sorry.”

“If she hurt you so badly, why did you come to save her?”

“Two reasons. One, I promised her I would protect her with my life and die for her if I had to. I can’t break a promise, no matter what.”

“And the other reason?”

“I still love her. I’ve moved on but I still love her and I always will.”

“I understand. We will have to settle this when this is over, you know that don’t you?”

“Will, there is nothing to settle. It will be between you and her. I’m just here to fulfill a promise and then I’m leaving to get married.”

“I understand but this needs to finish. I’m going to get some sleep. Wake me in forty minutes.”

Marc sat there keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. He heard wailing and screaming in the distance and remembered what Rashnu had said about the tree Zacornu and how the souls trapped in the tree were being tortured by the Awakened Erlik. This will not be a fun fight. He may kill one of us. The time passed slowly, Marc looked at his watch and became bored after the first thirty minutes. He found some stones and tossed them into the ravine. He heard the stones hit each crevice on the way dawn. Rissa turned over and wrapped her right arm around Marc. He put his arm around her and held her.

Ten minutes later he woke Will up. Will sat there pondering what he was going to do when this was all over. What he was going to do with his marriage, the lies, the stories everything. When this is over, there is going to be a big discussion about the future of our marriage. I can’t trust her anymore and I don’t think I ever will again.

Will sat there watching Marc sleep with his arm around Rissa. He did not hold her like a lover but like a father. Protecting her like a child, his eyes moving rapidly as if in REM sleep. Marc’s clothes changed as he slept until they stopped as a pair of black pants, black shirt, and a black trench coat. A sword stuck straight up out from behind him on his back. The trench coat covered Rissa like a blanket as she curled up next to him. Is that his true form? I wonder.

Will then woke Mikey up and then Will went back to sleep. Mikey and Bre sat there for their hour talking quietly about their wedding. For them, the time went by quickly. They laughed, they joked, they made talked about who they wanted for guests and the menu. When the hour was finished, they woke up Marc and Will. Marc woke Rissa up gently. She woke up with a start, remembering what had happened earlier but not remembering her release of powers.

“Let’s go find this Awakened and get an audience with Nergal. The faster we do this, the faster we can get out of here and back to our world. I know I’m going to need a drink after this.”

They followed the path and the sounds of the screams until they saw a giant tree. The tree Zacornu stood in the middle of a stone dais. As Rashnu had stated, the fruit growing on the tree were those of human heads, men, women, and children. Some had cuts some had burns, while others had long needles in them. Blood dripped from where their necks should be. At the bottom of the dais stood Erlik, holding long needles and moving them through the air telepathically. His body grotesquely standing there, his bones and internal organs showing just like an inside-out person.

“Ahhhh, the weary travelers have made it across the bridge and are deep in Kurnugia. You abominations should pay homage to me and be part of my tree.”

“We seek an audience with your Lord Nergal,” said Marc.

“Ahhhh,” he said again, “you seek something that will not be done without defeating me then. You see young travelers; I am a true human and you are the negatives of me. Such disgusting creatures and your coverings make you more disgusting.”

“If you do not let us pass, we will have to destroy you. I do not wish to do so and neither do my companions,” Marc said, his clothes changing back to The Doctor’s clothes.

“You dare use the clothes of a Time Lord to persuade me Yedi? Even the Time Lords know not to interfere with the dealings in Hell!”

“I tried to be diplomatic and I thought you would accept the laws of parley. I guess you think you are beyond those laws so now we will do it your way.”

“Young Yedi you know not what you say. I will kill you and integrate your head to my tree. I will take all your heads and integrate them to my tree. Now Moshe Tzvi Daniel Benjamin ben Yehuda Moshe, I will destroy you.”

Marc’s clothes changed to a green spandex outfit with yellow piping. His head was covered and he had a pair of green tonfas in his hands. “How dare you call me by my Hebrew name, you Erlik can call me Kick-Ass.”

“Why should I call you Kick-Ass?”

“Because I’m going to kick your ass all over this area until you give us an audience with Nergal.”

Erlik laughed hysterically. He pulled knives out from behind him. “I am going to make this fun. I won’t even use magic to kill you that is only for the fruit on my tree, the beautiful heads of all humans I can get.”

They ran at each other. Erlik swung the knives at Marc and were blocked by the tonfas. Marc turned around and did a spinning roundhouse kick to the stomach of Erlik. Erlik flew back and landed on his back. He flipped himself up and ran at Marc again. He threw the knives at Marc and was blocked by the spinning tonfas. The knives flew back to Erlik’s hands. The mucous of Erlik’s body were all over the knives handles. Marc swung the tonfas at Erlik which were blocked by the knives. Erlik dropped his knives and grabbed Marc by the throat.

“Now I will take you boy. Your soul belongs to me.” His mouth opened like a snake to swallow Marc whole.

It was then that a throwing knife flew and hit Erlik in the knee. Another one hit him in the shoulder and another went into his cheek. Erlik dropped Marc onto the ground. In the distance stood Bre in a purple pleather outfit, a purple plaid skirt and with purple hair, her purple boots went mid-calf and she had a black mask around her eyes. In her hands was a Bo staff with an Opera Spear Head protruding from each end.

“Who are you little girl?”

“You can call her Hit-Girl because now she’s gonna hit you and then kill you with her Bo staff there. Bre, finish him.”

Bre ran at Erlik and threw the Bo staff at Erlik. The spear head went right into Erlik’s heart and it exploded. Blood oozed out of his chest slowly. Marc got up and walked over to Erlik. “Tell me now where I can seek audience with Nergal and I won’t let you suffer.”

“Follow the path until you see two beasts copulating. There you will see Namtaru and Ereshkigal. They are copulating over Nergal’s grave. Ereshkigal is Nergal’s wife and her lover is Namtaru. There is a headstone behind them and an entrance to the tomb of Nergal is behind the tombstone. To get inside the entrance, touch the third stone behind the gravestone, it will open a stairway down to Lord Nergal’s tomb. Beware of Namtaru he will give you a plague if you get too close to him.”

“Why are you helping us now?”

“I am defeated. I want to die and be reborn. Please, kill me, now. Cut my head off with my knives.”

Marc picked the knives up and raised them. He brought them down hard and cut the head off Erlik. The head fell off the neck and rolled into one of the many caverns. The body caught on fire and burned to a crisp.

They found the new path that led towards the grave of Nergal. The path passed many caverns, caves, and ravines. The sky was still pitch black but there were no howls anymore coming from the tree. All they heard was the moaning of ecstasy. They got closer to the sound and saw two giant beasts copulating in front of a gravestone. The stone was twenty feet high and the smell of death, decay, and copulation mixed. The female, Ereshkigal laid on her back, her legs wide open, her four arms wrapped around her lover’s body. Her grey skin was covered in dirt as she moaned her lover’s name. Her black hair was covered in dirt as well and her teeth dripped with saliva and blood. Her forked tongue slithered over her lover’s neck and ears. The male, Namtarue was on top of her, his body pressing in and out of her. He was hairy like an ape, with grey hair. His tail stood erect as he made love to his partner. They rolled over and continued, neither noticing the travelers as they passed by quickly and quietly.

They found the stone that opened the doorway to the tomb of Nergal. The doorway was a well that opened once the stone was pressed. It spread open like the ground was sinking into itself. The stairs went down and down and down, spiraling. For the age that the stairs were, it was kept in beautiful condition. They were swept and polished. The torches were lit and well maintained. The only stench was that of rotting bodies and they soon found out why.

At the bottom of the stairs was a chamber. Nothing else was in the chamber but a giant tomb, the Tomb of Nergal. It was stone and grey. Thirty feet long by eight feet wide. The height was ten feet. Around the tomb were four gargoyles that looked like they protected the tomb. In the mouths of each gargoyle was a flame. In front of the tomb was a giant fire. In the fire were bodies of the dead, a sacrificial burning to the Lord Nergal. A hooded demon stood as a priest giving offerings of bodies to the flame.

“Are you here to see the Lord Nergal,” it asked. The only thing visible on its face was its beak-like mouth. There were sharp teeth that lined the top and bottom of its mouth. Instead of a tongue there was a snake in its place. It slithered in and out of the mouth eating the fly-like creatures that flew in the air. “Do you have a sacrifice for the Lord to worship him? He will return to us once his power is back to full strength. Did you know that Namtarue killed Lord Nergal while he was sleeping? He is the lover of Lady Ereshkigal and gave Lord Nergal the plague. The only way for Lord Nergal to return is to kill Namtarue.”

Silence Leetch! They are here not to speak to you but to speak to ME!

“I am sorry my Master I did not mean to interfere with your business.” Leetch’s hood flew off. There were no eyes as a normal bird embedded in his skull but dark pits with flames for eyes. Leetch reached up with his arms and out of the sleeves appeared claws, black and charred. The muscles of the arms were still there but the veins popped out like a map of rivers. His legs looked like bird’s legs, skinny and claw like. Yellow feet with scales and talons at the toes, Leetch was a bird-like creature. His wings were black and leathery as well, a wingspan of five feet total. A screech came from his fanged mouth as he fell back and tried to cover himself. He got up and bowed to the tomb.

“Lord Nergal we have traveled far from our realm to yours seeking someone who is dear to us. We wish to retrieve her and return to where we came. We do not wish anything but to save her from the thing that took her.”

You have blood on your souls. The blood of Lilith, her children and Erlik my Awakened are on your souls. Why should I help YOU when YOU did this to my kin and slaves?

“Lord Nergal, Erlik refused to allow us to pass unless we defeated him. If we did not defeat him, our souls and heads would belong to him. He asked for us to kill him after his defeat. As for Lilith, we had no choice in the matter. She attacked us, she recognized my family history and past, she decided her own fate. I was not going to let my companions die.”

I see you are dressed as The Time Lord would. I have great respect for you young Yedi. I see in your mind that you are not lying but I see another thought in your mind. You do this for loyalty yes but also for love. Yes, your thoughts show that of love as well as loyalty. You would be best to shield your thoughts unless you were using them for my pity. Yes, I can see it you can shield your thoughts but do not let them stray.

“What can we do Lord Nergal to get your help?”

You want my help? Ha ha ha ha. I help no one without someone doing something for me but, the last time I asked for help, I ended up in this tomb. If you want to help me, I need you to kill for me.

“Kill who?”

“More killing,” said Rissa. “Why must there always be killing when having to save someone?”

SILENCE child, you are not that innocent and you know it. I want you to kill Namtaru and bring me his head. It will be the ultimate gift to bring me back to life. As for my wife Ereshkigal, I will take care of her myself. She will not harm you if Namtaru is dead. Bring me his head and Leetch here will throw it into the fire. Then my return to power will be complete and I will arise and be more powerful than I ever was. I will rule this land as it was meant to be ruled.

“How do I kill the plague bringer Lord Nergal?”

You cannot kill him Yedi it is not your destiny to. Yours is to fight another time. Only the one named Mikey can do it. He has the power to do it but he must be able to channel his own power, not with your help, not with the girls help, his own will must channel it, he must find his true form on his own. Now, leave me and do not return without the head of Namtaru!

The room became silent and the five travelers left. The slowly ascended the stairs and left the pit. As the last one exited, the pit closed solid again as if it were never open. They stood there for a while looking at each other, no one spoke for some time.

“This is your task Mikey. You need to find your true powers, your true form. You must do this on your own, I guess. Concentrate, find it within yourself. Use your heart to search your soul.”

Bre walked over to Mikey, stood on her toes, and kissed him on the lips. “I know you can do it, have faith in yourself, I have faith in you.”

Mikey closed his eyes and concentrated. His body began to shimmer and glow as his clothes changed and his true form appeared. His clothes changed to a brown felt shirt that was worn and old, brown pants, leather boots that covered his pants in mid-calf, a brown leather belt, black leather gloves and a green cape. On his belt was a sheath and in the sheath a broadsword. He pulled the sword from the sheath and there were Elfish runes on the sword. It glowed as he held it in his hands. His hair was straggled and dirty as it partially covered his face.

“His true form is a warrior,” said Bre. “My knight has come forth at last. Now go and fulfill your destiny my liege. Get the head so we can save my mother.”

Mikey walked over to the copulating beasts, the sword drawn and glowing. The color of the glow was blue and pure. The female had just straddled the male with her back to him did not see Mikey walk towards them from behind. The male’s eyes were closed as the sword was raised and not a sound was made when the head was cut off. His body stopped moving and his head rolled on the ground towards Mikey. Mikey picked up the head by its filthy hair and walked back to the group. Ereshkigal did not even notice the death of her lover as she continued to ride her lover.

“Let’s bring this down to Nergal and get going,” said Mikey. “This thing stinks.”

They found the stone again and pushed it and re-entered the pit. Leetch did not harass them when he saw the head of Namtaru but bowed and prostrated himself to them. The head was then thrown into the fire. The room began to rumble and shake. The tomb cracked open and out arose a tall red man wearing a black pinstripe suit. Giant yellow horns came out of his head. Nergal’s wings were red and when he stretched them the wingspan was fifteen feet wide with nails on the tips of each. He had three toes on each foot, two in the front and one in the back. His giant hands were red with red hair on them. His nails were clawed and six inches long. He was twenty-eight feet tall in total and looked like he could lift a tank without any issues.

“Here’s Nergal,” he said with a smile. “Thank you for releasing me from my tomb. Now I have some unfinished business with that whore of a wife of mine. Stay down here until I am finished and I will summon you. I will give you the location of your friend young Yedi and we will be even. After that, I cannot and will not help you any further.”

Nergal jumped into the air and broke the ground that was the ceiling above them. They heard yelling and screaming from above. There were noises of things hitting the ground and then silence. Blood flowed from the hole in the ceiling and hit the ground. It flowed like a waterfall only thicker and sticky. Then they heard a howl of triumph.

“Come up now, I will give you her location and then you will leave or you will be mine forever.”

They came up the steps quickly and saw the naked headless bodies of both Namatrue and Ereshkigal laying there. A throne was erected from stone and there sat Nergal. The back of his throne had a gargoyle on the back.

“I am going to tell you the last few parts of Hell you have to go through to rescue your friend and then I will tell you where she is. Beware though she is held somewhere where your darkest fears will come true. Only those who are positive and their thoughts do not stray to as you would say ‘the Dark Side’ will be able to save her. First you must travel through Be'er Shahat - The Hell of Fire and Ice. Be'er Shahat is comprised of a frozen land and a fiery one, both underground.”

“Niflheim, the icy world of the dead, is guarded by Garm, a monstrous, three-headed dog, whose mouths and throats are caked with the dry blood of all who tried to escape from his mistress, Hel, the razide mistress of Niflheim. She is a beautiful woman above the waist, but below the waist she is all decayed and rotten. She experiences sexual pleasure from the maggots in her vagina. All in her presence experience the sensation of extreme starvation, famine. Hel is building a ship out of the dead, a tremendous boat that she intends to sail across the Atlantic Ocean at the world's end, in the endless winter that is to come.”

“The rest of Be'er Shahat is the fiery pits, where the Duat live, ancient triple goddesses seeking to avenge their exile by cooking souls alive and feeding them to the famine-stricken souls who have strayed too near to Hel. I must warn you, the Duat are quite mad. Not in the angry sense but mad as in crazy.” Marc nodded understandingly.

“Next is Ti'it Ha-yawen - The Hell of Man's Making. Tartarus is there, the hell of the Greeks, and Sekhet-Aaru, the Egyptian hell, and the substance of Ti'it Ha-yawen is constantly remade to reflect new visions of hell.”

“Tartarus is closed in by iron gates. A three-headed razide named Hecate rules here, feasting on the entrails of humans who have been executed or assassinated. She is aided by the three Hecatoncheires, Nepharites who appear as thousands of hands and arms rising from the shadows, and by the Kerea, hideous winged death-spirits that only exist in Ti'it Ha-yawen, one for each soul.”

“Ophion suffers prominently, a giant serpent with bloody, broken teeth. There are thousands of prugatides called "ixions" affixed to burning wheels that revolve forever, and Sisyphi condemned to push huge boulders up hills for all eternity, and tantali standing in pools of water that recede whenever they bend over to get a drink.”

“A razide called Anubis rules Sekhet-Aaru. Inside black pyramids, human hearts are torn out and weighed, with a feather as counterbalance. Those whose hearts are heavier than a feather is made to suffer eternal pain, blinded, given hot sand to drink, and are swarmed by stinging insects.”

“There is more, much more, in Ti'it Ha-yawen, all the hells humans have feared or imagined.”

“The final area you must go to is Abaddon - The Pit of Corruption. Once Abaddon may have held more than just the City, but no one remembers such a time. Dis, the City of Anguish, is all there is to find in Abaddon now. Dis is where cities go, when they go to hell; when human feelings and association have given a city a life of its own, and that life must be expunged. Bars, cafes, restaurants, that "just aren't what they used to be," wind up here, being tortured, as is the entire city of Tenochtitlan. The Warsaw Ghetto, 1930s Paris and London, wherever human adoration of a city caused that city to gleam with its own, inner light, threatening to open up to Metropolis, that archetype of the city in its whole, these cities wind up destroyed physically by Lictors, and their emotional resonance comes to Dis to be ruined.”

“Functions of high society, gala affairs, go on through the evening, and then a swarm of nephrites comes in to desecrate the soiree-pissing in the champagne fountains, gang-raping the debutantes, sodomizing the eligible bachelors. The glamour of the day turns to horror, until the people who loved the city most come to hate their unending torment, and the city's own pretensions slough away. Walls can be heard crying, for the life that was once within their grasp.”

“In Dis stand the dark citadels, home of the death angels and dark mirror images of the Archons' citadels in Metropolis. They are carved out of the rock deep underground, delving down where the Archons' citadels soar toward the sky. They stand mostly empty today since the death angels have turned their attention on the world of the living.”

“The dark citadels are not buildings which can be seen from without, but labyrinths down into the deep. From the abandoned upper levels, one meets more and more razides, nephrites, and doomed humans the further down one goes. Like the rest of Inferno, the dark citadels are places of torture for the souls of the damned. They are filled with a complete darkness that allows no light to penetrate or be created. To enter a dark citadel is a terrifying experience that demands a high level of willpower. There you will find the Death Angel.”

“At the lowest level lies the true body of the Death Angel, as an impenetrable darkness. When it wants to meet its servants or visitors, the death angel takes shape as an incarnate.”

“Your friend is being held by Thaumiel in his citadel. The citadel of Thaumiel is a huge palace thrust into Inferno. His subordinates, razides and other creatures of Inferno, reside in rows of great halls, and they are arrayed in strict hierarchy, from Princes to slaves. The pecking order is constantly altered through violent and bloody fights. The strongest dominate the weak ones. On the lowest steps of the ladders are the tormented human prisoners in the dungeons of the palace, who are at best servants to the razides.”

“Humans coming to the citadel of Thaumiel submit to the power of the Death Angel, obeying blindly all strong enough to subdue them.”

“Now go but before you do young Yedi, I need a word with you in private.” Marc walked over to him slowly. Can you hear my thoughts?

Yes, I can. What do you need Lord Nergal?

Beware of the one called Will. His thoughts are evil and he will turn on you if he gets possessed by Thaumiel. You may need to kill him if he succumbs to that kind of evil. I am evil but I know how to respect someone. He does not trust you but I can see you are pure and kindhearted. You love her but are willing to give up your happiness for the sake of their marriage. You have honor and even though you said you would die protecting her, you respect her decision to save her for her marriage.

Thank you, Lord Nergal, I suspected the same thing since this began.

You will be the one who will have to fight Thaumiel. Remember, only at level four will you be able to completely stop him.

Level four? You don’t mean what I think you mean.

Yes, I do mean what you think I mean. You will have to achieve it on your own and remember, you will need to use all your emotions to do it, love, anger, hate, happiness, and fear to do it. This is not a world like yours, your powers are only as strong as your imagination and yours is strong.

“Thank you, Lord Nergal, I will use your tips well.”

“You’re welcome young Master Yedi. Oh, and by the way, I like the suit, it suits you well. Pun intended. Now go and save your friend. She needs you. Head east until you see five caves. Take the left cave at the end. It will take you to Be'er Shahat and remember it will be freezing dress warm.”

They walked away heading east in the direction that Nergal told them. There why saw the five caves. All the caves looked similar but they took the farthest left cave. It went down in a forty-five-degree angle for about twenty minutes. Then the ground leveled out. It got very cold about twenty feet after that. They imagined themselves in warmer clothes. The girls wearing exceedingly long and warm coats made of wool. Will and Mikey wearing black parkas and long heavy pants that kept their body temperatures up. Marc was wearing a white pair of cotton pants a long white cotton shirt that went past his waist and around it was a brown belt. The brown boots he wore went up his calves’ midway. He had on a thick brown robe that he covered his head with.

“Nice outfit Obi-Wan,” Will said sarcastically.

“It’s warm, that’s all that matters. It’s as cold as Hoth here and from what I remember from what Nergal told us, it’s gonna get hotter later.”

“You couldn’t conjure up any Tauntauns?”

“They don’t exist so I can’t do it there is only so much an imagination can do. For this, part of the journey, we need to walk. Keep an eye out for anything weird.”

Niflheim was worse than described. There were ice stalagmites and stalactites all over the landscape. The snow was thick and hard to walk through and the wind howled as it passed through there and snow blew through with it. The deeper they walked, the higher the snowdrifts became. Then they heard the howling of dogs.

“It sniffed us out I think.”

“Where is it coming from,” Rissa asked in a worried voice.

“I’m not sure. Dig a hole in the snow. From what I am guessing, this thing will be too big to get to us if we dig a small enough hole and meet in a small snow cave further in this snowdrift.”

They all started to dig tunnels in the snow. Marc dug deeper than the rest and made a small cave inside the snowdrift. It was cold but warmer than the outside. Marc went and caused the tunnels to collapse except for one for air and so they could look out to see if the dog Garm had passed. Marc put his finger to his cold lips to tell everyone to keep quiet. They heard the thunderous running of Garm and the smell of his wet body made it worse. They heard him sniff the air and ground for their scents which were scattered due to the separate holes. Then he found the air hole with his left head. It was the head of a Bull Mastiff but it was the size of a Volks Wagon Beetle. Its teeth were covered in blood and flesh and its jaws were covered in blood. There was the smell of death and decay as it breathed into the hole and the snow melted.

Garm growled into the hole and a massive paw went into the hole. They could see blood and flesh attached to the nails of the massive beast as they got closer and closer to them. They started digging deeper away from Garm as he stuck his paw into the small cave they created. They broke free to the other side of the snowdrift. Garm’s middle head was now inside the hole, the other two heads smelled around the sides of the open hole sniffing out the collapsed holes.

When they saw the size of Garm completely they realized how big he really was. He was the size of a Brontosaurus in length, height, and width.

“How are we gonna kill that thing,” asked Mikey.

“We aren’t, it’s gonna bring us to its mistress.”

“How?”

“I’m going to let it take me to her, you guys will follow.”

“That is suicide. You know what she will do to you.”

“What did I tell you before? I have nothing to lose.”

“Look Marc, you’re not a Jedi Master, this isn’t Star Wars,” said Bre. “You don’t have to do that. You are not Luke Skywalker or Anakin Skywalker. You must think this out. This isn’t Return of the Jedi where Luke must go to Jabba the Hutt to rescue Han Solo. We can just follow the dog and let it led us to Hel’s location.”

“It doesn’t work like that and you know it. It will continue to hunt us until it catches us. If I am taken to her by Garm, it will be a lot easier for us to get information to the other half of Be'er Shahat and I can take care of Garm and Hel. It would be killing two birds with one stone.”

“That is insane. You are crazy. That thing will tear you apart.”

“I don’t care. I have a way with animals. I don’t think Fido there will hurt me. And as for the crazy part, I’m mad as a hatter.” Marc smiled and winked at them. He headed towards Garm. “Don’t forget,” he said quietly, “follow us and keep out of sight.”

He walked over to Garm and called its name. The dog’s three ugly heads lifted and saw him. They growled and then sniffed Marc. “Garm, do you understand me?” The dog’s heads looked curiously at Marc. “I am surrendering myself to you to bring to your mistress, take me to her.” The dog looked at Marc with all three heads understandingly and walked over to him. They sniffed him curiously to sense danger. They sensed none. The smell coming from the mouths of Garm were vile. The smell of rotten flesh and blood oozed from its mouths. Marc made no face as the dog breathed on him but he was repulsed by the stench. Blood dripped from its jowls as it picked Marc up by the cloak with its middle head and it ran off to its mistress Hel.

The trip didn’t last long but to Marc felt like an eternity. The giant beast left tracks in the snow large enough for the others to follow, but not as quickly. They did arrive an hour after Marc did. Their journey was long and tedious as they crossed the barren snow-covered wasteland. The winds were harsh and there were times they couldn’t walk through the snowdrifts. They stumbled and fell at times when they couldn’t grip the ground under their feet. By the time they reached the ice palace of Hel, Will was carrying Rissa and Mickey was carrying Bre. They were all cold and wet and their lips were chapped.

They saw Marc standing there in his brown cloak talking to Hel. They couldn’t see his face because they were behind him. They could see the life force being pulled out of Marc but they didn’t know how much was being taken out.

“You cannot take my soul Hel.”

Hel sat there on her throne of ice, a beautiful Venus from the waist up. Her long golden blonde hair flowed down her shoulders barely covering her breasts. Her blue eyes seductively looked at Marc and her ruby red lips. She wore no top. Her lower half of her body like Nergal had said was covered in maggots. Her pelvis gyrated as she sat on her throne in a game of wits with Marc.

“I will have your soul and cause you to starve but I must know where your friends are? Garm has told me there are four more with you.”

“I had no friends with me, it is just I. I am going to the Citadel of Thaumiel to rescue a friend. I am asking you for safe passage through your land.”

“I will not let you leave my land. Niflheim is my land and I will not let any leave. Garm will tear you apart before I allow you to leave. You will not rescue your friend. I will see to it. I assured Thaumiel that no one will rescue her.”

“Hel, you will let me pass through your land,” Marc said waving his hand. “I am no bother to you.”

“I refuse to let you pass. I am not as weak minded as the others you encountered.”

“Don’t make me harm you Hel. You have no power over me.”

“I am taking your soul as we speak. I have more power over you than you think. Don’t you feel hungry?”

“Oh, you mean the little bit of my soul that you are taking,” Marc laughed. “That is nothing. I can give you more if you like but you may not like how I do it or you can let me be free.”

Hel’s face changed from beautiful to sinister. Fangs elongated in her mouth and her hands turned to claws. “I will let you die and feed off your soul. Garm, kill him!”

The three-headed-dog walked towards Marc growling. The vile stench of the beast was even viler since the dog was sitting next to the throne of Hel eating raw meat of its last victim. Marc did not move and stood there patiently. Garm charged at Marc like a bull in a bullfight. Marc threw his cloak off and in his hands was a lightsaber. The green glow of the blade swung in the air and singed the nose of the left head of the beast. It howled in pain and then growled at Marc.

“I can do worse to you Garm. Now cease this or I will have to destroy you and your mistress. I came in peace to save someone.”

Garm ignored Marc’s request to stop the fight. He charged again. Marc pirouetted and sliced the lightsaber down cutting off the right head of the giant dog. The giant head rolled onto the ground with its mouth still in a snarl. Garm stopped briefly to see where the head rolled. Again, it howled out of its other two mouths and then snarled and growled some more. There was anger in its eyes as it attacked again. Marc stood there with the lightsaber pointed at the dog. It charged at Marc not seeing the weapon aimed at it. Garm impaled his middle head on the blade of the lightsaber. Marc swung the blade to his left. The blade cut through the bone and flesh of the beast’s head and neck. The blade then sliced through the head and neck of the remaining head. The smell of dead burnt flesh was intense.

“ENOUGH,” bellowed Hel. Her hands raised and Marc’s lightsaber disappeared as she started draining Marc of all his energy. “I will take pleasure in feeding off of your soul now.”

Marc fell to his knees in pain. He knelt there holding his stomach, crying in pain Tina’s name. His clothes began constantly changing to random things, shorts, and t-shirts to sweatpants with a dress shirt and tie. A Walther PPK silently slid over and stopped by Marc’s left foot. His clothes stopped changing as well to a black tuxedo. He picked up the gun and stood up and aimed it at Hel.

“No, no, no. No more foreplay,” he said with a smirk. “Now Hel, you are going to do exactly what I tell you.”

“How,” she asked. “How did you do that? I was draining you of your soul.”

“If you knew anything about me Hel, you would know I had already given someone my soul. I only kept what I needed to survive. Around the part of the soul I kept, I put a wall around it so high and thick you couldn’t break it. Now, you are going to let me and my friends pass through the rest of Niflheim or I will have to kill you. I want to rescue my friend and get out of Hell and nothing will stop me.”

Hel stared at Marc with fear in her eyes. The gun was still aimed at her. There was no fear in Marc’s eyes and a look of slight anger on his face as he held the gun at her. “Now, are you going to let us go or am I going to have to kill you Bitch!”

“Without Garm I am powerless. Kill me now and it will all be over. I won’t fight you anymore. Why did you lie to me about being alone?”

“You are pathetic Hel; I won’t kill you. I am going to let you sit here alone without your pet. You are to dismantle your boat or I will destroy it myself. And as for me lying to you, I did what was necessary to save my friends.”

“I will not dismantle my boat of the dead,” she said. “You will have to kill me on it.” She ran to a hallway which led to where her boat was dry-docked. Marc and the others followed quickly. The ice cavern they entered was massive. They stood at the edge of the wooden dock staring in awe. The river of ice that flowed out of the cavern flowed under the ship. The ship itself was massive. Flesh, bone, organs, cartilage, and ligaments were all sewn together to create the boat itself. The base and bow were made of bone and connected by ligaments and cartilage. The organs and flesh were stretched out to be sails. There were cannons made of bone sticking out of the port and starboard sides. Hel stood on the deck screaming for her slaves of the famine stricken dead to release the boat onto the ice river so she could escape with the boat for another time.

“Hel,” Marc yelled, “you are not getting away. Give me the directions to the Duat and destroy your boat and I will let you live.”

“Fuck you I am not letting you destroy my boat!”

“Then prepare to die,” Marc said. His clothes changed again to suit his mood. A blue jacket, a black pants, black boots, and black undershirt replaced the tuxedo. The belt he wore was yellow with a metal clasp and under the jacket but over the shirt was another belt to hold a sword sheath. The sword was sheathed and the handle was sticking out of the back of his shirt. His hair turned a violet color as he stood there.

“Hel, I am giving you one more chance, please don’t make me hurt you.”

“Destroy my ship and you will destroy me as well. I will not back down and I will not let you destroy my ship without you killing me. So, go to fuck yourself and you will all die here in this cavern with me if you try to destroy my ship.”

“Then so be it then,” Marc said solemnly. His hair changed color to bright blond and his body and hair started to glow a yellow tinge. He cupped his hands and put the bottom of his palms together. He spread his fingers open to look like they formed a cup to catch a ball. A ball of energy formed in his hands. He pulled his arms back and the ball became bigger. Marc didn’t have to say anything as the ball got bigger and bigger. He pushed his hands forwards and the ball of energy shot like a beam out of his hands. The boat disintegrated with Hel on board in a flash of light.

The aftershock of the energy attack reverberated against the walls of the cavern. The ice began to melt all around the cavern. The ice river began to melt and flow out of the cavern towards the exit. Marc turned to the others and said only one word, “Run.”

They ran out of the cavern quickly towards Hel’s palace as everything around them melted. The rush of water behind them flowed like the Colorado Rapids behind them filling up the tunnel from the cavern behind them. If they slowed down, they would be caught in the flow of the water and drown or worse, frozen in the ice-cold water. They made it to the throne room of the palace.

The walls of the throne room were dripping slowly with water. The whole palace was melting from the blast that came from Marc’s hands. “We have to get out. Was the drawbridge and gate down when you guys came in?”

“No,” said Will. “Everything was open.”

“Did it close or did you hear it close when you came in?”

“No.”

“Let’s just hope it’s still open when we get out or we are gonna have a hell of a time getting out of here.” They made it to the drawbridge and gate. They were closed shut. Luckily, they were also made of ice with no metal. Marc was about to create an energy blast from his right hand when he saw a huge chunk of ice fly by and hit the gate and the bridge. He turned around to see Rissa standing there in her white leotard and cloak. She was chanting something unclear as the ice flew by her hitting its target. The gate and drawbridge exploded after four hits. Marc’s clothes changed back to the winter clothes as they ran out of the melting ice palace.

“Keep running to that third ridge over there. I think we will be able to get away from the melting ice from there.”

“What did you do,” asked Mikey.

“I set off a chain reaction when I sent out that energy ball. I guess I used a little too much oomph when I did it. Now keep running.” They made it to the third snow ridge and stopped. They watched the whole palace melt and disintegrate into a giant ice lake. The water froze almost instantly.

“Rissa are you OK?”

“I think so, what did I do back there?”

“You used your hidden talents, you did very well. OK, now to explain in better terms why I couldn’t create a Tauntaun. Tauntauns in the Star Wars world are living creatures. Like there, this is a world you cannot create a living thing out of thin air. It’s impossible. Now I know I’ve said before ‘Noting is impossible, improbable yes but impossible no.’ but this time it is impossible. Now we have to find the Duat for directions to get to your mom.”

“What way do we go,” asked Bre.

“I think we need to find the hottest area.”

“What is that red light over there,” asked Rissa. “It looks like there is a giant bon fire going on.” She pointed to the south of their direction and they saw something that looked like the Aurora Borealis. The melted ice palace of Hel was north of them.

“I guess that’s where we gotta go. Good eyes Rissa.” She smiled at Marc. “Let’s head in that direction.”

They trudged through the ice- and snow-covered land for hours. It was tedious and dangerous crossing windy ice ravines, treacherous ice cliffs and freezing cold ice water rivers. The entrance to the land of the Duat slowly came upon them first with icy rocks that steamed hot and cold steam and then warm rocks. Finally, fire pits engulfed the area and only a small road was accessible to pass through the area. Sweat started to pour down their faces slowly at first and then it started to come down profusely. It was then that they decided to change the type of clothes they wore to shorts and t-shirts for comfort.

“We went from Hoth cold to Mustafar hot in about 5 minutes,” said Marc. “Just like Florida weather I would say.” He then laughed.

They kept walking for a good half hour until they spotted a giant lake of fire. In the center of the lake was an island. The island was connected to the mainland by a narrow pathway made of rock and dirt. The smell of fire and brimstone filled their nostrils and soot flew. In the center of the island were a long table and a house. At the table sat three people from what they could see as they crossed the narrow pathway. As they approached the table, they saw the Duat. They were three elderly women with almost no facial features. Their clothes were rags and tattered. Soot and burns were all over them as well. Their hair was grey and ashy as were their faces. Their eyes were black pits of coal, no light reflected in them. Marc’s clothes changed to the suit again.

“We are the Duat,” said the one in the middle. “I am Hestia. To my left is Lucinda and to my right is Deidre. We are here to fill the souls of those who strayed too close to Hel and her domain. You are not like those who have gone near her, you are not starving. Please sit here and have tea with us and we can give you directions to your next destination.”

“I was warned that you are quite mad,” said Marc.

“Oh, we are quite mad,” said Lucinda, “quite made indeed. You see we were thrown down here for a crime we did not commit. We were accused of destroying Pompeii. We did not and we were cast down here to boil the souls the escaped Hel. We did something better. We feed the destroyed souls to those who are famine stricken from Hel’s sick and twisted body. But after thousands of years, doing the same thing over and over, it has made us quite insane.”

The table was set up with hundreds of plates. Deidre had gotten up while Lucinda was speaking and brought over a pot of boiling hot water. She placed it on the table. Teacups were already on the table and moved by themselves towards Marc and the five others. “Would you like to tea dear,” she asked them with an ancient voice. Marc took his politely and nodded to the others to take the tea. “Would you like lemon and sugar or some honey and lemon? How about some milk for your tea?”

“Lemon and honey is fine for me. Give them lemon and sugar. Now, we need to know how to get to the next level. I am sorry ladies but we are on a schedule.”

“Oh yes, I understand but tell me this, how did you get past Hel,” asked Hestia.

“I killed her,” said Marc solemnly. “I gave her the choice of letting us go through and dismantling her boat or death. She chose death. If you venture out of your area, you will see her palace is gone.”

“I am sorry young Yedi, we are not allowed to leave our land. Now, drink your tea before it gets cold,” laughed Hestia. “I myself with have half a cup.” She took a knife and cut the cup in half and filled the half of the cup up.

“TIME TO SWITCH SEATS,” yelled Lucinda. They got up and moved around the table. Marc and the others followed slowly unsure of what was going on.

Déjà vu thought Marc. Why is this so familiar? It’s like it’s from a book a read. But where is it from, this madness? Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland yes that’s it only there is no Mad Hatter or March Hare or Dormouse, just three old goddess crones. The Duat sat down again in new seats.

“You seem to have recognized something in our patterns, don’t you? Something familiar? Something old as time itself?”

“Yes, I do. It’s something mad and yet not insane but still mad.”

“What are you talking about Marc,” asked Bre.

“NO ROOM! NO ROOM! WE HAVE NO ROOM AT THE TABLE! SWITCH SEATS EVERYBODY AND HAVE SOME TEA,” screamed Hestia this time. They all got up, ran around the table, and sat again in different chairs.

“These three ladies have created in their own madness their own Mad Tea Party. As Nergal had said, they are quite mad but they have their memories intact. We just need to remind them that not everyone is against them and they are forgiven for their crimes. That Pompeii was not their fault. Also, don’t drink the tea,” Marc whispered to the others. “Ladies, Pompeii was not your fault. You had nothing to do with the eruption of a volcano.”

“The eruption of Mount Vesuvius was caused by earthquakes there was no reason for you to be blamed.”

“We were the cause of the earthquakes,” said Lucinda. “We were under Mount Vesuvius we set off the chain reaction. We caused the magma to rise and the smoke and soot to fly. We experimented with the volcano we set off what you would now call “the bomb”, which exploded. We used a nitroglycerine compound to make the magma rise and the destruction of Pompeii was because of us. We were told to do so by Hades himself. You of all people should know that you one of the old Order should know the history of the world.”

Why doesn’t he just tell them to shut the fuck up so we can get going and we can fucking save my wife, thought Will. He shuffled his body in his chair to get more comfortable. Dark thoughts sat in his mind. He thought of how his wife cheated on him with Marc, how he hated her for what she did to him and how Marc came to help rescue his wife from Hell after she broke his heart. He knew that this was a favor from Marc, nothing more nothing less. Marc would save her and then leave, or would he? Impatiently Will asked, “Are we done yet? It’s hot and I want to get going.”

“Let her finish,” said Rissa.

“We were banished here to spend eternity. SWITCH SEATS,” screamed Deidre. They all got up and ran around the table sitting in new seats. “To get out of Be'er Shahat you must first end our curse. The only way to end the curse is sacrifice. You must sacrifice something that means more than anything to you. You must sacrifice your happiness to save her.”

“Will you do that,” asked Hestia. “Will you sacrifice your heart for her?”

“Yes, I will. What do I have to do?” answered Marc.

“You must give us a some of your blood,” the three Duat said in unison. “Not from your arm, but from your heart. We will only take it if you are willing to sacrifice everything and you will free us as well. We will then drink the blood we extract and our curse will be lifted.”

“I will do it. Just tell me what I have to do.”

They instructed Marc to lie on the table. His arms had to be stretched out at his sides. He was then tied to the table. A large tube with a suction cup was brought out of the house of the Duat. There they placed the end in a gold goblet with runes on it. Marc’s shirt was opened over his chest and the suction cup was placed on his chest above his heart.

“This will only hurt a little bit,” smiled Lucinda. Marc felt a sharp pain in his chest and he screamed as a needle entered his heart. “Shhh, it’s almost over. Just a few more seconds and the pain will stop and it will all be over. It will only last a little bit longer.” The cup filled with Marc’s blood quickly. The suction cup was removed with a plop. The needle came out of Marc’s chest with the suction cup and the tube. There was blood on the needle and it dripped onto Marc’s chest where the tiny hole quickly closed. Marc was then untied.

“You have my blood, but why did you have to take it from my heart?”

“The blood from the heart is where your love comes from, not from the brain but from your heart itself. Therefore, by giving us your love for her, you are sacrificing your happiness for her. Self-sacrifice is the most honorable way to sacrifice something. Now we must drink from the goblet to purify ourselves and release ourselves from our curse for all eternity.”

The goblet sat there on the table and the Duat walked over to it slowly. Hestia was the first to drink the blood, then Lucinda and then Deidre. They passed the goblet between the three of them until it was empty of blood and their lips were stained with blood. Then a change happened between the Duat. A bright light encircled them and their forms changed. Their skin became taught with no wrinkles. Their hair changed from grey to a natural luscious red. Their eyes turned an emerald green. Their clothes changed as well from tattered grey to pure white, as if they were bleached, and all the clothes were repaired to their natural states. The three women looked young as if they were in their late teens or early twenties. Their robes clung to their ample bodies. Everything on the table automatically cleaned itself.

“Thank you,” said Hestia in a sweet voice. “You have broken our curse and set us free from Hell. To leave this section you must cross the lake of fire in the boat on the other side of the island. Keep heading east until you reach land. There you will find the stairs to Ti'it Ha-yawen. When you enter there, you will confront your greatest fears and the darkest of all of Hell.”

“First you must pass through Tartarus, the hell of the Greeks and confront the three-headed razide Hecate,” said Lucinda. “To defeat Hecate, you must answer riddles and she will let you pass. If not, you will be eaten entirely, if you answer correctly, her Hecatoncheires and her Kerea will let you pass if you do not do anything to incite them. Do not go near them, do not form any bit of contact with them. If you do speak to them or even look at them the wrong way, you will be ripped apart and fed to Hecate.”

“Then you must pass through Sekhet-Aaru, the Egyptian hell,” said Deirdre. “There you must confront the razide Anubis. Anubis will want to weigh your heart against a feather. He will pick one of you to prove your purity. Since you are living, I am unsure of how he will weigh your heart. It may be by magic. If you fail, you will be tortured for all eternity but if you pass, you will be allowed access to Abaddon after you pass through your own personal hells.”

“Our own personal hell,” asked Rissa. “What do you mean?”

“You will have to face your greatest fears and defeat them. Some people must face their own truths about themselves. It all depends on the person,” said Hestia. “Now take the boat and go. But be careful. Danger lurks at every corner now. Ti'it Ha-yawen is not a place to be reckoned with. Now be safe young travelers and remember, face your fears head on, do not run from them, they are only in your mind. If you do not face them and defeat them your mind will be taken over by whatever demon you are facing. You don’t want to turn on your friends do you?” Hestia looked at Will as if she were staring right into his mind.

The five walked to the boat in the lake of fire. It really shouldn’t be called a boat though. It was more of a yacht, a two-hundred-foot yacht. It was made of wood and fiberglass but it did not burn in the fiery waters. The color was black and smelled of char. The heat coming from the lake of fire was horrible. Sweat poured from their faces as they took off from the island and headed away. It felt like hours before fiery waters turned to a water-like substance. Bre reached her hand towards the water and a hand shot out of it. Marc grabbed her and pulled her back onto the boat before it grabbed her. The hand went back into the water slowly and the water rippled.

“What the fuck was that” screamed Bre.

“That is something I’ve never seen before. I guess if this were the Harry Potter world it could be an Inferi, soulless creatures that would pull you into the water and then you become one of them, mindless, soulless and dead.”

“Sounds like fun,” said Rissa sarcastically.

The boat trudged on further and further. Time passed slowly as they sat on the yacht. The waters turned black by the time they saw land again about eight miles away. As they got closer, they heard the screams of the tortured dead from afar. The buildings of Ti'it Ha-yawen loomed in front of them surrounded by a large black wall.

The entrance was a black Greek-like Parthenon in its full glory. The metopes running around the outside walls were black marble depicting the Greek hell itself, stories of its corruption and defeat of all that is good. Torches sat at the entrance with blue flames sitting on top. The steps were a polished black marble and reflecting the flames of the torches. Behind it stood the giant pyramids of Anubis in the Egyptian hell of Sekhet-Aaru.

The yacht reached a black marble dock and the five travelers disembarked. Their shoes echoed as they walked on the marble pathway to the Parthenon entrance. There was no line or any souls as they walked towards the throne of Hecate and behind her the gates of Tartarus. Hecate was dressed in a green robe covering her body with a giant black question mark in the middle. She wore a green bowler hat on each of her three heads with black question marks covering each hat. In her hand was a gold cane in the shape of a question mark. Her height was sixty feet.

“To survive my three Hecatoncheires, the Kera and me, you must answer my riddle three. I will ask three riddles and if you miss just one, your souls belong to us,” Hecate’s middle head said with a smile. Its elongated teeth oozed saliva and they saw bits of flesh and meat stuck between the teeth. The heads on the right and left also smiled showing their teeth.

“Hecate, we are traveling to the city of Abaddon, we ask you for safe passage if we answer your riddles correctly. If we do not, I will sacrifice myself so my companions can live on,” said Marc.

“Such a noble request,” said the right head.

“Noble indeed,” said the left.

“NO! Noble or not, these are the rules and we will abide by them,” bellowed the middle head. “If you get any of these riddles wrong, you will all die for your mistakes. We are hungry and have not eaten for one hour and we want flesh, we crave it.”

“Then give us the riddles and we will abide by your rules.”

“Marc,” said Will, “what are you doing? You are going to let them eat all of us.”

“No, I have a plan.”

“What is it?”

“When I figure it out, I will tell you. Now don’t worry.”

“Silence,” said the middle head.

“Riddle number one,” said the left head sweetly. “What is it that travels on all fours in the morning, on two legs at noon, and three at twilight?”

“I can answer that one,” said Rissa. “The answer is ‘Man’. When he is born, he crawls so he travels on four which is the morning. When he can walk, he uses two legs which is your noon. The twilight is when he is old and needs a cane to support him so he uses three to travel.”

“The girl is right,” said the left head. “That was an easy one. They get harder as we proceed.”

“Riddle number two,” said the right head. “What is the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end and the end of every race?”

“Can we have a few minutes to think about this,” asked Mikey.

“Yes,” said all three heads at once.

“What kind of riddle is this,” asked Bre. “I don’t get it.”

“What is the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end and the end of every race? This isn’t as tough as you think. It’s a word riddle with a play on something. What do all the words have in common,” asked Marc.

“They all have to deal with time and space? All of them except for race that is.”

“Close but no, think about it. Eternity begins with the letter ‘E’. Time and space end with the letter ‘E’ and the end of race ends with the letter ‘E’ also.”

“That does make sense. Try it,” said Bre.

“Oh, great Hecate, I believe I have the answer.”

“What is your answer?”

“I believe the answer is the letter ‘E’. Eternity begins with the letter ‘E’ just as much as time, space, and race end with the same letter. Is that the answer?”

“You are correct. ‘E’ is the only answer.”

The five travelers looked at each other and smiled. They felt their confidence gain as they knew they only had one more riddle to go. They looked at Hecate and saw the fire in her six eyes. The middle head seemed the most unpleased of the three. Her grey hands wrung around the cane. The middle head smiled finally showing her teeth. Her forked tongues slithered in and out of her mouths.

“Now young travelers, we will give you the final riddle. A man was to be sentenced, and the judge told him, "You may make a statement. If it is true, I'll sentence you to four years in prison. If it is false, I'll sentence you to six years in prison." After the man made his statement, the judge decided to let him go free. What did the man say?”

The five looked at each other in awe. Marc shook his head that he didn’t know the answer, as did Bre and Rissa. Mikey had a look of confusion on his face. There was a blank look on Will’s face. Marc paced back and forth reciting the riddle repeatedly. Marc’s clothes changing from the Doctor’s suit to the Jedi robes and back again. His face was deep in thought.

Bre stood there in her spot thinking hard and Rissa sat down on the black marble floor. Mikey had his hands in his hair as if he thought that if he could massage the answer into his head. Will just stood there not doing anything.

“You have ten more seconds until your answer must be given,” said the middle head of Hecate. There was saliva drooling out of its mouth. It was then that they noticed the three one thousand handed Hecatoncheires come out from behind the throne. Hecate stood and her wings spread wide open. They were grey, forty feet wide. “Now you are down to five sec-”

“I have the answer,” said Will. They all looked at him wide eyed. The answer is simple: He said, ‘You'll sentence me to six years in prison.’ If it was true, then the judge would have to make it false by sentencing him to four years. If it was false, then he would have to give him six years, which would make it true. Rather than contradict his own word, the judge set the man free.”

Hecate sat down in awe. The middle head then spoke with shock in its voice. “You are correct. No one has ever been able to answer that riddle but alas, we cannot let you pass. You see, since no one has ever answered all our riddles correctly and we can’t let you go to Anubis without feeding us. You see, we feed off your body and then we send the rest of the soul and the heart to Anubis to be weighed.”

“Have you thought of your plan B yet,” asked Will.

“I’m working on it. I have an idea I hope it works. If not, get ready to fight.”

“What are you two talking about,” demanded the right head.

“We made a deal with you Hecate, even in Hell, there has to be some sort of honor. Even Lucifer, the light-bearer must have some sort of power to control all of the levels of Hell.” Marc’s clothes changed to the Doctor’s clothes. “Now Hecate, I am asking you nicely let us pass in the name of the Convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation. According to that, you must cease all hostile actions to parley. Now I know Lucifer would follow this convention.”

All three of Hecate’s heads laughed. The left head spoke, “You think we will follow a stupid convention of a stupid television show? You must be joking. Lucifer has no power in this realm. This is OUR Hell, we rule this. You will not escape us!” The three Hecatoncheires started to approach the five travelers and the Kerea came out from behind the columns.

“Plan B would be good right now.”

“Screw Plan B, I’m on Plan C now.” Marc’s clothes changed to a red and black Gi. Two swords appeared on his back and a red and black mask appeared on his head. “Hecate, this is your last warning. I don’t want to have to hurt you or your creatures.”

“KILL THEM,” the three heads screamed in unison.

The two swords flicked out from behind Marc and started on the closest Hecatoncheire. The hands coming out of the floor lightning fast were almost a blur to Marc but that didn’t stop him. His swords cut the first thousand hands from the first Hecatoncheire. Grey blood oozed out of the arms and Marc stabbed into the middle of them and its blood squirted out of the center. Hecate screamed in horror as her first Hecatoncheire died.

The Kerea surrounded the five travelers, snapping and biting at them but allowing the other two Hecatoncheires to attack first, hoping the five would be ripped apart for an easy feast. The second Hecatoncheire jumped out from under the floor and attacked head on. It’s thousands of arms reaching and grabbing at Marc. Each arm that attacked hit the floor before it could be pulled back. Marc sliced sideways and cut the Hecatoncheire in half. The scream from the Hecatoncheire was horrible. There was no barrier from the floor to muffle its sound.

The final Hecatoncheire slid up a column and attacked from the ceiling. This made it harder for Marc to attack and protect himself but it also made it harder for the Hecatoncheire to attack. It jumped down directly on Marc and started punching him while on top. The ground started to go down under the creature as it attacked Marc faster and faster.

A golden light glowed under the creature. The body flew up into the air and it landed on Its “back”. Marc rose out of the hole bruised but smiling. He wiped the blood off the corner of the left of his mouth. His clothes again changed back to the outfit he wore in Hel’s ice cave. He ran at the last Hecatoncheire and started pummeling it with his fists. The creature screamed and tried to block the punches. Each arm that blocked broke and fell to the side. After all the arms were broken or destroyed Marc punched down into the center of the creature’s body and pulled out Its heart. The creature exploded and blood splattered everywhere.

The Kerea that surrounded the five travelers started to close in on them. Rissa closed her eyes and her clothes changed to the white leotard and blue cloak. The white glow enveloped the five of them and spread out. The Kerea’s bodies began to become enveloped by the white glow, their bodies disintegrated as the glow hit them. Hecate stood there staring wide eyed. Her red eyes were in flames. The green robe and hats were gone the cane was on the floor. Her wings spread open again and she stood in all her glory. Her tail whipped back and forth as she stood there. Her three faces were in a grimace.

“You destroyed our Hecatoncheires and the Kerea. Now face us,” said the middle head.

Marc pulled the sword out from behind his back. Hecate picked up the cane from the floor and swung it at Marc. Marc blocked it quickly and parried. The sword swung at her and missed by a half an inch. Marc stepped back in shock. I never miss, he thought. Hecate smiled.

“You will not defeat us as quickly as you did the others. We are much stronger than you think. We will destroy you and feed off your flesh.”

Marc swung his sword at her again, Hecate dodged the attack but the cane missed Marc by an inch. Marc grinned as he planned his next attack. He stepped back and pulled the sword up behind him. He stated at Hecate and realized that the reason he couldn’t hit her was because she was moving too fast for him. He watched her feet as she moved from place to place and planned his attack. He didn’t aim for her chest or her arms he faked a chest attack and aimed for her feet. His sword tip landed right into her left foot. Hecate howled in pain as her food was cut in half. Marc pulled his sword out and smiled. Hecate attacked Marc again slower but still with an immense speed. She swung her cane sideways and hit Marc on his right side. Marc flew back and landed on his side. He felt the pain of where he was hit and placed his hand covering it to protect it. He got up and didn’t look happy. He stood hunched over but did not show how much the pain affected him.

“Nice hit,” Marc said. “You won’t be so lucky next time you bitch.” He spit on the floor and blood came out of his mouth. He held his sword in an attack stance. He faked for her left head and swung down to cut off her right hand. The hand came down with a thump. Green blood oozed from her missing arm and from her foot. This time she screamed in horror as the bloody hand lay there on the floor. While she was distracted Marc swung the sword and cut her right leg off at the knee. Hecate fell on her side unable to get back up. Her foot stood as she fell. Marc swung the sword and cut the left head off as Hecate lay there face down. He then cut the right head off. Green gore oozed out of the bloody neck holes. Hecate turned her body over and looked at him with her middle head.

“You will not survive your own personal Hell boy. If you kill me, I will haunt you there.”

“You don’t scare me. If you know what scares me, I would have been dead by now. You know nothing about my own personal Hell. I’ve lived it already and I have no intention of living it again!” He lifted his sword and cut the final head off. Hecate lay there with her blood oozing out of her body limp and quiet.

“Let’s get going, we need to get through Tartarus inconspicuously.” Marc checked his side and saw a large bruise on it. He grimaced at the pain. He picked up Hecate’s cane and slowly walked to the gates of Tartarus. He pushed the giant gates open and walked in. The others followed him bewildered.

They walked for five miles before someone spoke. It was Bre. “Marc, are you OK?”

“I’m fine, let’s keep going. I don’t want us to get caught here. There must be guards everywhere.”

As they walked, they saw men and women pushing stones up giant hills and others on spinning wheels of fire. They all screamed in pain as they turned on the wheels. Others were standing in water trying to drink it which they could not drink. The longer Marc walked, the more pain he was in.

“Marc, you need to rest,” said Rissa. “You can barely walk.”

“I’ll rest outside the pyramid. It can’t by much farther can it?”

They kept on walking. The time crept on by slowly as they went. The pain started to become unbearable until they heard a cry of excruciating pain. Behind a pillar was a giant serpent-like creature. Its mouth open with blood oozing out like a waterfall. Its teeth were broken and cracked. Giant tears flowed out of its red eyes. It saw them and sobbed more.

“Are you Ophion,” asked Marc.

“Yes,” the serpent sobbed. “Please save me from this torture.”

“We will but you must tell us where the entrance to Sekhet-Aaru is. After you do, I will end your suffering.”

“You are kind. Hecate has let me be tortured here without anything to eat for centuries,” Ophion sobbed. “My teeth cannot heal and the pain is unbearable. Anything I eat, I spit out due to the condition of my teeth.” The creature opened its gaping bloody mouth and showed them its teeth. “To get into Sekhet-Aaru you must follow this path for another fifteen minutes. You won’t be able to miss the entrance. It is a huge doorway with torches on each side. You may need an appointment but the best way to get in, is to tell them I sent you. Unlike Hecate, Anubis is a friend to the dead and if your heart is pure, he will let you pass through his realm unharmed. Now, please save me from this torture. Kill me now!”

A sword appeared in Marc’s hand. He raised it up to cut the serpent’s head off when Will stopped him. “I’ll do it. You have done enough for now and you are hurt.”

Marc looked at him shocked and handed him the sword. Will raised the sword above the creature’s head. The sobbing creature looked at them and closed his eyes. The sword came down quickly and cut the beast’s head off and the sobbing stopped. The beast’s body began to twitch slightly and then stopped. Blood flowed from its neck and the body turned grey and flattened out.

“Thank you Ophion, I hope you rest in peace now,” said Marc. They followed the path that Ophion showed them. They walked slowly and Marc used the cane as a walking stick. The pain was becoming unbearable by then but he kept going. They stopped five minutes into walking and Marc secretly checked his side. The black and blue mark looked bigger than it was before. It was very tender to the touch when his shirt came back down on it.

They sat there behind a black brick wall and closed their eyes. Marc closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. He didn’t dream but the time went by quickly. The others dozed quietly and kept an eye out for sentries or worse. Nothing came, it was too quiet but they figured it was due to the fact they were so close to Sekhet-Aaru. Mark woke up slowly an hour later.

“How long had I slept,” he asked.

“An hour,” said Mikey. “You looked like you needed the rest.”

“Thank you. Let’s get going.” Marc got up slowly, the pain was worse. He looked at his side, the black and blue spread from his armpit to his hip. He winced when he touched it. It’s getting worse, what’s next?

They slowly walked due to Marc trying to keep up with the others. Weakness from the pain was kicking in. He felt as if the more he rested or the more he went on, the weaker he would get. Another ten minutes and they were crossing a bridge over a river of blood. The smell of blood was so strong by the time they made it across the five of them vomited on the other side.

They had reached Sekhet-Aaru finally. The pyramid loomed in front of them. It was black and made of marble. Two torches stood outside the entrance. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics covered the entire pyramid in a disturbing way. As they got closer, they noticed that more hieroglyphics appeared as they got closer. The entry way was a dark hallway that led to the inner chamber. The inner chamber was nothing like they expected. There was no throne there but a stage with a scale. On the scale was a black feather. Above the scale were too words, “Pure” and “Impure”. At the moment the scale needle was in the middle.

“Have you come to have your heart be weighed young travelers,” asked a voice to the side? It was a little man wearing a white robe. His pale white skin was normal without any blemishes, cuts, burns or disfigurement. “Ah, I see you have been hurt sir. We cannot allow you to be judged while you are injured, that can be held against you, come with me.”

He led Marc to another room and told him to sit down on the table. He pulled out a white salve and put it on Marc’s bruised side. “Hecate got you good, didn’t she? Just so you know, she doesn’t like to lose.”

The heat from the pain of the bruise subsided and the pain dissipated to nothingness. Marc looked at the bruise and it was gone. The little man led Marc back to the theater room and to his companions.

“May we see Anubis now, Mr. er, what is your name?”

“I have no name but I am called the Acolyte. Now, let me get ready for Anubis to arrive.” The man walked up the steps to the stage. “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, for your entertainment we here at Sekhet-Aaru are proud to bring you all the way from Las Vegas, Anubis!”

There was a flash on the stage and a man stood there. Well, he was sort of a man. From the neck down, he was human and from the neck up, a jackal. The head was black and in his hands were a staff and an ankh. Both were made of gold. Anubis’ head turned and looked at the five with interest. He smelled the air and bared his teeth at them.

Instead of a booming voice, he had a calm kind voice that one wouldn’t expect from that kind of creature. “You have come here to be weighed to see if you can go on to save your friend, haven’t you?”

“Yes, we have,” said Will.

“I will need one of your hearts to proceed. Which one of you will I take it from?”

They all looked at each other scared. Everyone had a skeleton in their closet but wondered whose he would take and how. It was Rissa who volunteered her heart to be weighed. She walked up to the jackal headed man and said, “I will do it.”

“How can she do it? She was a junkie,” said Bre to Marc in a whisper.

“Just because you do something wrong doesn’t mean your heart is impure. Don’t you think she can atone for her sins her own way? Don’t you think she has been punished enough?” Bre looked at Marc shocked. “Anyone can atone for their sins it’s just how you do it. There are many ways to do it. It just depends on how you did it. I think her heart is lighter than a feather. Remember, she has had her heart ripped out of her chest and broken. Sometimes the purest heart is a broken one. Also, love can purify your heart if it is true love. Let’s watch and see what happens.”

Anubis looked at Rissa and a wolfish grin came on its jackal face. “Stick out your hand child,” he said in a gentle voice. Rissa followed his instructions. A golden box appeared in her hand with a heart on the outside. “Place your heart on the scale and I will weigh it against this feather. After you place it on the scale, I will allow the scale to judge you. I do not do any judgment myself because that would be unfair and wrong.” The jackal eyes looked kind as Anubis spoke. He had no hatred in his eyes.

Rissa placed the box on the opposite side of the scale against the black feather. Anubis pulled the pin out of the bottom of the scale. It moved back and forth, the feather side dropping and then the heart side. The scale could not decide on whether the heart was pure or not for a good ten minutes. The needle moved faster and faster without slowing.

“Is it supposed to take this long,” asked Bre in a whisper to the rest of them.

“Shush, we can’t rush this. This is an important trial; we must be patient and wait. I have a feeling your sister will be pure,” said Marc.

Finally, the needle slowed down. It went to the impure side, stopped briefly and then to the pure side, and stopped briefly. It did that five more times and stopped on the “Pure” side. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Anubis walked up to the scale and took the golden box holding Rissa’s heart off. As he did that the scale reset itself.

“You have passed young lady. Your heart is as pure as your face is beautiful.” Rissa blushed as Anubis continued. “Your purity is good but you will need more than that to save yourself in your own personal hell. Your own personal hell is what you fear the most and to get out, you must face your fears. That is all I can tell you on that subject. I can’t tell you anymore because it is beyond my realm. No, proceed through these doors and face your fears. After that, you will be able to go to Abaddon and your greatest challenges will come. Good luck young travelers and good luck to you especially young Yedi.”

They walked towards the doors that Anubis pointed to. The doors opened and they walked through slowly not knowing what to expect. As they did the ground under them opened and they fell into darkness. Each one was separated into their own personal hell. Each had to fight their personal demons just as Anubis had foretold.

****

Rissa found herself in a white room. On the floor were needles, a spoon, and a rubber rope. She was tied to a chair and her arms were exposed. Each of her arms had track marks on them from used needles. A man in black with no face held a needle in his hand and walked towards her. She sat there screaming for help for her fear had consumed her.

****

Bre found herself in a funeral parlor. There was no one else there but a closed coffin. She walked over to the coffin slowly. She kept shaking her head and tears flowed from her eyes. As she got closer to the coffin funeral music began to play. She made it to the coffin, it opened on its own and she began to scream.

****

Will found himself in his bedroom tied to a chair. On his bed was his wife naked and smiling. In through the door walked a naked man wearing a mask. He lay down on the bed next to the Tina phantom and Tina mounted the man. They made carnal love to each other and he released himself into the phantom Tina and then left. Another man entered and the same thing happened. Another and another and another, torturing Will as he sat there in the chair. He began to struggle against his binds.

****

Mikey found himself in a living room. There was blood on his body and blood on the walls. A trail of blood led from the room to the kitchen. From the kitchen it led to a hallway. Mikey followed the trail of blood down the long hallway. It felt like he was walking forever until he finally reached a bedroom. The room was full of more blood. The bed was soaked with blood. He ran to the bed and saw a bloody body covered in a white sheet. He knelt on the floor and pulled the sheet down. As he did, he saw a face and cried. He pulled the body to his chest and wailed the body was that of Bre.

****

Marc’s own personal Hell was vastly different from the others. He was in a black room with black walls. His clothes change back to the Doctor’s clothing. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and used it as a flashlight. Nothing, he thought. No doors, no windows, just a room. Now what? He felt around the walls to see if there was a way out.

“OK, you have me here. What is this personal hell supposed to be?”

“Ahhhh, the Time Lord has finally shown himself or are you still the knight trying to save the damsel in distress?”

“Are you trying to scare me? It will take a lot more than that!”

“Oh, I am going to do more than that. I know I can’t control you by your name because you go by so many and your REAL name is hidden, even from yourself.”

Marc looked around curiously. “Where are you being? The naming won’t work on me and you know it.”

“All in due time yes in due time I will show you where I am. But there is a name and a face that can control you isn’t there. A name after a song perhaps? Yes. Your heart grows cold, the north wind blows, and carries down the distant... Shaina?”

“Oh, big mistake, 'cause that name keeps me fighting! And I will fight for her no matter what happens to me or my body. If I must regenerate just to destroy you, I will!”

“You will have to fight your darkest fear to be without her and you know it and now I know it.” An image appeared before Marc of a man. He was tall close to Marc’s height but much heavier. He wore glasses and his black hair was cut short. The difference was his clothing. As where Marc wore a blue suit, this one was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and a black tie. “Your fear plus The Doctor’s fear combined as one: The Master!”

“That is an even bigger mistake mother fucker. I am not afraid of you or him and remember The Doctor always defeats The Master.” Marc lifted his arm up with the sonic screwdriver in it. He aimed it at The Master. A beam shot out of it. “And by the way, I made some modifications to this that the real Doctor wouldn’t do.” The beam missed The Master by a quarter of an inch.

The Master smiled and looked at Marc. “Now it is my turn Doctor. You will not succeed in this little game anymore.” He pulled out his own sonic screwdriver and aimed it at Marc. Marc dodged out of the way just in time for the beam to miss him. “You will not save your friend and you will not go back and be with Shaina. She doesn’t love you, she never loved you!”

“That means nothing to me. You are trying to use her against me to distract me. I would die for her!”

“So be it!”

The Master fired again and Marc dodged it but landed on his back. His sonic screwdriver flew out of his hand. The Master walked over to Marc and looked at him with a smile. He raised his hand holding his sonic screwdriver in his hand and aimed it at Marc’s chest. “Now Doctor,” he laughed, “you… will…. die!”

Marc looked at him but had no fear in his eyes. The Master got closer until he was standing over Marc. “You may have me on the floor and not able to get up but if you know anything about the human you are imitating, you will know his weakness.”

Marc kicked him in his right knee and the Master fell to the ground with a thud. He dropped his sonic screwdriver and it rolled away. The Master laughed as it rolled away. “I don’t need a sonic screwdriver to kill you. I can just use this.” He raised his hands towards Marc and lightning shot out of his hands. It hit Marc right in the chest and Marc flew back stunned. Marc got up and shook his head.

“You missed my heart Master or were you not trying to go after it?” Marc walked over to him. “Now here is something The Doctor wouldn’t do.” Marc’s clothes changed to a pair of black cotton pants, a military green shirt, and a black leather jacket. His shoes were black leather combat boots. Marc’s hair became shorter, almost a military haircut. He balled his hand into a fist and punched him in the throat. “Well except for probably the Ninth.” The Master flew back and Marc jumped on him and started punching him harder and harder.

The Master kicked Marc from him and Marc flew back against a wall. The wall cracked a little and Marc smiled. Marc ran at the Master and grabbed him in an Aikido hold. Marc threw him against the wall and the wall cracked even more. “If you know anything about the Doctor Who Universe then you would know this, the Master died in his last regeneration and the Doctor ALWAYS wins! And if you knew anything about me, I’m already dead. I died once and was brought back. This may be my Hell but you can’t kill me because I know my own death AND IT WON’T BE BY YOU!”

Marc grabbed the Master again and threw him against the wall. The wall cracked even more. He punched the Master in the face and the head smacked against the cracked wall. Light shone through the wall as the Master’s bloody face looked back at Marc with fear. The wall cracked open and the Master flew into the light. Marc stood there in the room with the light shining.

“My song isn’t over yet,” he whispered and a white light engulfed him.

****

Rissa sat there in her chair screaming as the faceless man came at her with the needle. She struggled hard against the ropes as they cut into her wrists and arms. She tried to kick at the faceless man in black but couldn’t as barbed ropes were wrapped around her ankles to the front legs of the chair. She knew she couldn’t stop him from injecting her with the needle at that moment. Her head swam with dizziness as the unknown drug entered her system.

Marc, she begged in her mind. Help me, please Marc help me.

The man then pulled out a knife and started caressing her cheek with the blade. Tears flowed down her cheeks. He cut the straps of her tank top. Her top fell exposing her breasts. He groped her breasts roughly as she sat there crying, unable to move because of the drugs in her system. Her body became limp but she was still aware of what was going on.

He cut her shorts from her exposing her genitals. The legs of the chair came up and spread her legs wide open. Rissa tried to will new clothes onto her body but couldn’t. Fear had taken over as sat there unsure of what was going to happen to her. Tears streaked down her face as her shaved vagina was exposed to the faceless man. Her eyes closed and she screamed again. She felt something fill her vagina slowly and then move in and out of her, slow then fast and then slow again.

She screamed louder as her fear increased and then she felt the pain in her nipples as they became pierced by needles. The pain was intense and enjoyable at the same time as she was raped and pierced at the same time. She could not move to stop the man due to the drugs and her bindings. Her bindings tightened on her wrists and ankles.

Then the movement stopped. The faceless man stopped moving inside her and then pulled out of her quickly. At the same moment she felt a cloth fall on her. She opened her eyes and there stood Marc, glowing golden again and his right hand pointed towards the faceless man. His hair blonde and his blue eyes were a darker blue. His clothes were different too. He wore a blue spandex shirt and pants with a white chest protected with yellow straps and a yellow ribbed area covering the stomach. His white boots had yellow tips to them and his hands were covered in white gloves.

“This is not your Hell,” hissed the faceless man. “This Hell belongs to her.” He pointed to Rissa. “If you interfere, I will destroy you and then continue with her. There are rules for a personal Hell and this is none of your business and you should be in your own Hell.”

“Anything that deals with my friends is my business and as for my Hell, if you haven’t already noticed, I escaped from it and now I’m here to rescue my friends. I will not let you harm her anymore.”

“You are different from her. You don’t fear me and I can’t find your fear.”

“That is because I faced my fears and I will help her face hers as well.” Marc raised his hand and an energy ball formed. “Now you are going to let the girl go or are we going to have to do this the hard way?”

“I think we will do this the fun way. I will enjoy feeding off your soul before I take hers as well.”

“So be it.” Marc ran at the faceless man but he was too slow. The faceless man moved quickly out of the way and threw a knife at Marc. Marc’s hand rose and knocked the knife out of his way. It imbedded itself into the wall cracking it slightly. Marc smiled slyly. “Is that your only trick demon?” He then ran at the creature again and punched it in the stomach. The man bent over in pain.

“Are you going to let her go now?”

“Never, this is her Hell and I will not release her.”

“I thought you would be smarter than that. You must know what I did in my own Hell, but I guess I will have to teach you a lesson.” Marc raised his hand and the energy ball shot out of it. The man flew back and hit the wall as the ball hit his chest. His black clothes charred in the chest. “That was on low. Want me to increase the power?”

“That was nothing. A little pain but that wasn’t much to hurt me. You can’t do anything to harm me.” The faceless man’s voice sounded as if he was in more pain then he led on. He ran at Marc swinging at him and punched him in the face. Marc’s head turned as the fist collided with his chin. Blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth. Marc grinned and wiped the blood from his mouth.

“Is that your best? I haven’t even broken a sweat yet.” Marc jumped up and kicked the faceless man in the head. The faceless man flew back and hit the wall. Marc ran at him and punched him multiple times in the stomach fast and hard. The faceless man cried in pain but pushed Marc back with an energy blast from his hands. The chest plate broke off from the straps.

“That is much better. Now let’s make this a little more interesting.” Marc pulled his hands back and an energy ball grew in his hands. “Ka… meh…. ha…. meh… HAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Marc screamed. A continuous stream of energy shot from his hands fast. It hit the faceless man directly in the chest and engulfed him. All that was left of him was a charred outline on the white wall.

“Rissa, this is your Hell, you need to break out of it yourself. This is all in your mind remember that. I was able to get in and save you because you called me in but you need to free us from your own mind. All I can do right now is advising you on what to do. You had me save you and fight your fear for you but you must break your own mind from this Hell. Free your mind of all thoughts and bring us back to where we must be.”

Rissa closed her eyes and relaxed her mind. She felt the bindings loosen and then disappear. Her clothes reappeared without any flaw. She felt her mind clear and was able to move again. She looked at Marc and began to blush.

“Can I have my coat back,” Marc asked. His clothes changed back to the blue suit and sneakers. He had a serious look on his face. She handed it to him slowly. He put it on and walked over to her. “Are you ready to leave?”

Rissa nodded. “How do we get out of here?”

Marc walked over to the door and tried to open it. It wouldn’t budge. He pulled out of his pocket his sonic screwdriver and tried to unlock the door. Still, nothing happened. He knocked on the door, nothing happened, not even a sound. Then he waved the sonic screwdriver around the outline of the door and shook his head. He looked at Rissa.

“You have to open the door of your mind to free us. We must rescue your sister, Mikey and Will. The door is right there.” He pointed to the door to the room they were in.

“What do I do?”

“Just push it open, it’s your mind, not mine. My Hell was harder to get out of, black room and all. I had to break open a wall with my biggest fear. Oh, and Rissa, put on some clothes.”

She looked down and blushed again. Clothes formed on her body of black jeans, a black tank top and black sneakers. Rissa walked over to the door and pulled it. Nothing happened. She looked at Marc with some fear in her eyes. She pulled again harder. Marc smiled and pointed to the handle. On the door above the handle, it said in bold letters: PUSH. She smiled and pushed. A white light enveloped them as they left Rissa’s mind and her own personal Hell.

****

Bre stood there in front of the coffin screaming. Her biggest fear came through, the death of her future husband at a young age. The funeral home was empty, not even a funeral director, her mother, her sister, or anyone. The floor was covered in dust as was the coffin. Mikey lay in the coffin, his eyes closed, in a suit. There was a thick layer of dust on his face but she could tell it was him.

Tears ran down her cheeks as she stood there crying. “No, no, no, this isn’t happening,” she cried as she looked at the coffin. She turned around and walked to the first row of chairs closest to her. She sat down and cried more. She felt the pain of loss harder than she thought she would. Her black dress became dusty from the surrounding furniture.

The room was extremely quiet. No lights were on except for the light above the coffin. She closed her eyes and cried some more.

She heard a shuffling in the back of the room. Her eyes opened wide and turned to see if anyone was there. The dark shadows showed no one in the room. Fear came over her. A small growl came from one side of the room and another one came from the other. Bre got up and turned to investigate the shadows. The growls got louder and she stepped back slowly until her body collided with the coffin. More growls came out of the shadows.

Fear took over Bre as she stood there listening and looking in the shadows. “Is… is anyone there?” The growls got louder and louder. She called out again, “Is anyone there?” The growls got closer and closer as well as louder and louder.

They came out of the shadows slowly. The five of them were small in brown robes, their faces covered. In their hands, they carried short knives in their hands. The knives were curved at the end like fishhooks. They growled and their teeth showed as they inched closer. Their teeth were long and as sharp as needles. Saliva dripped out of their mouths as black tongues snaked in and out between their teeth.

One lunged at Bre as she backed into the coffin. It stopped in midair and fell to the ground in half as a circular light disk flew through it. Black blood oozed out of its split body. The body turned to smoke in a matter of seconds. The circular disk flew back in an arch and cut into a second one before returning to the owner’s hand. Bre looked up and her eyes opened wide in happiness.

Marc stood there in a black light suit. The lights were a light blue almost white. The light disk was in his hand and ready to be thrown again. He had a smirk on his face and a gleam in his eyes. He threw the light disk again and cut two more down as another light disk flew past him as Rissa walked next to Marc dressed the same way. Her hair was in a ponytail. Her light disk cut the last creature right down the center of its body.

“What are those,” she asked in curiosity.

“Light suits,” said Marc.

“No, I mean those things, those creatures.”

“I don’t know. Looked like a cross between a Jawa and those creature things from Phantasm. How did they get into your head? I am curious if there are anymore.”

“They were crazy little things.”

“Want to know who is crazy?”

“Who,” both Rissa and Bre asked.

“Hooch is crazy,” Marc said and they all laughed. Rissa punched Marc in the arm and gave him the look of don’t play games. “Bre, we need to get out of here and get Mikey and Will. You have to open the portal for us.”

“How do I do it?”

“Clear your mind and concentrate on getting yourself out of here,” said Rissa. “We will be able to find our way into one of the other’s Hells. Since this is your Hell, you must do it. Did I say it right Marc?”

“Perfectly,” Marc smiled at Rissa.

Bre looked at the coffin with tears dripping down her cheeks. “But what about Mikey,” she asked. “I can’t just leave him here in this coffin.”

“That isn’t Mikey, remember? He is in his own Hell. This is YOUR Hell, so in YOUR Hell he is dead.”

They heard more growls coming from the back of the room. More creatures emerged from the darkness. Marc’s light disk started glowing in his hand as he activated it. “Bre, now would be a good time to open that portal out of here.” He stuck his and out to Rissa as if you ask her for her light disk. She handed it to him and rubbed his hand with hers when she did. He noted that in his mind for later. He threw the light disks at the creatures. “Bre, open it now!” The light disks flew and cut down three of the creatures. Again, they disintegrated into the ground. “Bre!”

Bre closed her eyes and a white light came into the room. “It’s open,” she yelled. Marc threw the light disks one more time and dove through the portal. He didn’t look back as he did it and the white light engulfed him again.

*****

As Mikey held his bride-to-be’s body in his arms her eyes opened and looked at him. Her mouth opened and blood came out of it. A gurgle came out of her mouth. Mikey still did not look at her as he held her and she did this. The gurgle caught his attention and he looked down.

“You did this to me. You killed me,” said the body of Bre. “My blood is now on your hands and I will take my revenge on you for killing me.”

Mikey dropped the body of the Zombie Bre and started to move away. “No, this can’t be real. I wouldn’t kill you ever.”

“Oh, but you did, you stabbed me here,” she said lifting her shirt up to show a cut in her stomach. “It is so deep that I can stick my whole hand into my stomach and pull out my intestines. Here, have a taste,” Zombie Bre said as she stuck her hand in her stomach and pulled a portion of her small intestines out. “You also courteously slit my throat so I could die slowly and painfully. You didn’t even have the compassion to cut my head fully off you bastard!” Zombie Bre lifted her head up and showed him the perfect slit across her neck.

Mikey started walking back away from it. His feet slipping on the blood covered floor. He made it to the doorway, slipped and fell his back and his head hitting the doorframe. The world became a blur at that moment. The Zombie Bre crept closer and closer to him, staggering slowly with her left foot dragging on its side. It seems the body stumbled as it got off the bed and the ankle broke as it followed him to the hallway.

The Zombie Bre was upon him, his arm in her hands, bringing it to her mouth when he saw a white light down the hallway with three black figures running down it. He felt his arm drop and he looked again. The black figures were getting closer but everything to him felt like it was in slow motion. He saw the mouth of the Zombie Bre open and the jaw fell off the head. There was a handle sticking out of its head.

Mikey looked up and saw the real Bre dressed in a red ninja outfit. Her hair was pushed back in a red bandana and her mouth was covered in a red scarf. Mikey looked at Bre and held her in his arms tightly and sobbed. “I thought I lost you forever. You were dead on the bed.”

“That wasn’t me laying there on the bed that was your greatest fear. Marc rescued Rissa and then they rescued me. We got here as soon as we could.”

Marc and Rissa walked up to Bre and Mikey. They weren’t dressed in their lightsuits anymore. Marc was in his suit and Rissa had changed into a pair of blue jeans, a red t-shirt, brown boots, and a black jacket. Marc looked at Rissa and noticed what she was wearing for the first time.

“New outfit,” he asked her quietly.

“Yeah, I was going for a new look,” she smiled back at him.

“I don’t see a sign saying, ‘Bad Wolf’ so I think we are OK for now,” grinned Marc.

“What do you mean by ‘Bad Wolf’,” asked Rissa.

“Nothing, a little Doctor Who humor, you wouldn’t understand. You are dressed like Rose Tyler, well you look almost like her, except for the hair that is. We will talk about this after we get Will. OK, Mikey, we need you to get us out of here and find Will.”

“That won’t be necessary, I got out on my own and found you guys here,” said a voice behind Marc and Rissa. They all spun around and saw Will standing there. “Yeah, I got out and when this is over, I’ll tell you guys how I did.” Maybe, if you survive.

“Well, I guess you get to lead us out Mikey,” said Marc. “This is your world, lead us out of here. Free your mind and the portal will open.”

Mikey closed his eyes and held Bre’s hand. His mind cleared and the portal opened. They were all sucked through the portal. As they went through, Marc noticed a black aura around Will. He didn’t tell the others because they were back and at the Gates of Abaddon.

The gates were iron and pitch black connected to an extremely high wall. Above the gates on a black wooden board in red letters, it said “WELCOME TO ABADDON: Capital Dis also known as The City of Anguish”. Underneath in smaller letters “All hope abandon, ye who enter in”. Below that was another sign “Keep off the grass and don’t feed the Razides”. The five travelers entered the gates and looked over the cliff to the city of Dis.

Marc had a look of anger on his face which quickly went away. His clothes rapidly changed as he stood there thinking. They ended back to the blue suit and trench coat. “Dis: you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”

“Wasn’t that Mos Eisley spaceport?”

Marc glared at Will. “Let’s go and get this over with.”

The first place they passed by was a rundown Studio 54. Rotting corpses stood outside as a demonic Steven Rubell picked out waiting corpses to enter the most popular nightclub of the dead. The velvet ropes were charcoal black as was the carpet leading into the front door. The front door was on fire and as those that walked in caught on fire, screaming as they walked in. The walls were crumbling and Marc wondered how the structure stayed up.

The next place they passed was a Tower Records store that was on South Street in Philadelphia. The giant sign was crashed into the pavement. The sign was stuck deep into the ground and there was a body pinned under the sign. Lifeless souls were walking in and out of the store carrying bags, their dead eyes not noticing the travelers as they walked by the run-down store.

They saw the sign for the citadel of Thaumiel. It led to a subway entrance that led down a stairwell that was lit by torches. Cold air rose from the depths of the citadel. It smelled like urine, feces, blood, and death. Marc entered first, followed by Rissa, Bre, Mikey and lastly Will. Marc’s clothes changed to the blue suit and added brown trench coat. The cold made them all shiver as their clothes changed. Marc pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket for more light.

“I don’t like the looks of this place,” whispered Rissa in Marc’s ear. Marc turned and looked at her, smiled and then winked.

“Don’t worry, if anything happens, I have a plan.”

“Are you going to use your stupid light,” asked Will sarcastically. Marc blew off the comment as jealousy and let it go. His clothes flickered again and changed to a brown hooded robe, black pants, and shirt. His shoes became black boots made of leather.

Two razide guards met them at the bottom of the first stairs holding three pronged spears. “What are you doing here? Live beings are not welcomed in the Citadel of Thaumiel. Go back now,” said the guard on the right.

Marc looked at them, waved his right hand and said, “You will bring us to your master.”

The two razides looked at Marc and then each other. The one on the left said, “We will bring you to our Master Thaumiel.”

They went down four levels passing by several dungeons with souls being tortured. Screams came from the cells of unknown tortures that were going on in those rooms. Blood oozed from the bottom of the doors. At the bottom of the stairs to the fifth level they were met by two larger razides, lieutenant razides.

These razides were over six feet tall with humanoid bodies. Their faces consisted of elongated beaks with teeth and small, tiny eyes. They wore black cloaks and carried long swords almost as tall as their bodies.

“What are these live ones here for? No live humans can see Master Thaumiel,” said the razide on the right.

“Nergal sent us,” said Marc. “Do you wish to start a war between different levels of Hell?”

“We were not informed about this, what proof do you have that Lord Nergal has sent you to see our Master,” asked the one on the left.

Marc smiled as his clothes changed. He now wore a long black coat made of cotton, a black undershirt and black cotton pants. His boots were leather and black as well. His hair shortened to a quarter of an inch in length and he grew a goatee beard with mustache. As he smiled his canine teeth grew in length and his hands looked like little claws.

Marc reached up to Lefty’s, as he later called him, neck and started to squeeze. Righty attempted to stop Marc as Marc’s left hand shot into his face. The fingernails on Marc’s left hand grew as Marc looked at Righty. “If you want to see your friend alive, you will stop right there or I will rip his throat out.” Righty stopped in mid step as Marc’s middle finger almost grazed Righty’s left eye. “Now let us pass or Thaumiel will need two new and smarter lieutenants.” Righty stepped aside and Marc threw Lefty to the ground.

The five travelers passed by the two razides and Marc’s clothes changed again to a red shirt, green khaki pants with two sword straps on his back. His boots stayed the same but on his back were two beautiful katana swords. “Stay behind me, I have a feeling we won’t get an easy path directly to his throne in there.”

The throne room was enormous. It stood ten stories high, made of stone. The walls were covered in skulls and blood. Torches were attached to the walls and made the room look bigger but there were still dark places, hidden places. At the back of the hall on a slab laid Thaumiel, large and slug like, a giant worm-like creature. His face was humanoid and his arms though long were muscular. Below him was Tina laying on the slab naked. She was chained to the throne by her neck, arms, and legs.

Marc was right. As they entered, arrows shot at them from the highest points and the grand throne room. Marc’s swords were in his hands faster than lightning as they flashed cutting the arrows down before they could hit their marks. When the arrows stopped, Marc looked forward and kept walking. Even larger warrior razides came towards Marc. This time there were fifteen, all carrying swords and in black armor.

“Now we are going to have some fun,” smiled Marc. He ran at them with both swords in hand. As Marc did, he jumped and turned his body sideways to get in the center of the razides. Marc cut off the arm of one of the razides as he spun his body through the group of razides. Marc landed on his back, jumped up and landed on his feet.

Marc cut off the other arm of the razide he had amputated the first arm of. The creature howled again in pain as Marc swung his other sword to decapitate it and stab another razide in its chest. Marc hacked and chopped his way through the other fourteen warriors. Blood was everywhere and bodies were lying around Marc. Marc turned to Thaumiel and as he was about to speak, everything went black.

******

Marc woke up what felt like hours later to a tremendous headache. He then realized he couldn’t move his arms or legs. His arms ached and he looked to his left and right. He was tied to a rack and Will stood over him. Mikey, Rissa and Bre were chained to the wall, struggling to get out of their chains. Marc struggled to loosen the ties around his wrists.

“Struggle all you want; you won’t get loose. And don’t try to do any of your ‘magic’ it won’t work with those ropes on your wrists and ankles.” Will laughed after he said that his eyes were yellow and his teeth were elongated.

“Why Will? We were out to rescue your wife. You turned on all of us.”

“I did this because you FUCKED my wife. The kids are chained up because they were in on it. They knew about it and lied to me, now thanks to Lord Thaumiel, I can take my revenge on all of you. I’m going to start with you. I will kill them first and make you watch. That will be your biggest torture and then I will kill you last after you watch them die. Their deaths will be your undoing and then I will kill my wife and take my place at Lord Thaumiel’s side.”

“They are innocent Will, just kill me.”

“You were always the good one Marc. Always the Boy Scout, no, not this time. I’ve seen the evil in your heart when you became Sabertooth with those razides up there. You are not innocent nor are you good. Taking their place will not redeem your soul.”

Will then walked over to Rissa first, in his hand he held a knife and stood behind her naked body. He caressed her breasts first as she struggled to get away from him. He held the knife against her throat and was about to slice it like a butcher would slice the throat of a goat.

“Will, I am giving you once last chance to stop this insanity. This is your family and you sold your soul to evil.”

Will sneered at Marc and raised the knife again to Rissa’s throat. “No,” Marc screamed at Will. A bright light came from Marc. The ropes on Marc’s wrists and legs melted off his body. Marc rose in the air and his shirt was off him. White wings came from his back and in his left hand was a sword. It was not a normal sword but a broad sword four feet long, made of silver. The hilt was made of gold and had two lion heads at the base. Marc landed barefoot on the floor. Will dropped the knife and it clanked on the floor. He jumped in the air and black feathery wings came from his back. It was the first time Marc noticed Will’s hands. They were black with talons for fingers. The nails were long like an eagle’s foot. In his hands was a broad sword, crooked and black. The bottom of the hilt there was a serpent’s head.

“You disappoint me Will. I thought you would be better than this. Tell me, how did you get out of your own personal Hell? I’m curious to know.”

“I made a deal with Lord Thaumiel that if he freed me from my Hell, I would give him five souls. In exchange for the five souls, he would let me be his agent on Earth until I died and then I would serve him here in his own citadel.”

“I cannot let you this Will.” Marc walked slowly to Will, sword in hand but not raised in the air. “There is good in you, you just have to remember the love of your wife. I do not want to kill you, nor do I want to die.”

Will swung his sword at Marc and was blocked by Marc’s speed. Marc maneuvered his arms and knocked Will’s sword away. Will hissed at Marc, baring his teeth like a cat. “You are weak Marc and I will destroy you.” He stuck his hand out and the black sword flew into his hand. He attacked Marc in a full fury, swinging his sword with malice and hate.

“Weak? Will, you are calling me weak? You chose the easy way out, instead of fighting your demons in your own personal Hell, you took the quick way out.” Marc blocked and parried each of Will’s attacks with lightning quick reflexes. “I don’t want to kill you Will. We can stop this easily if we can work out our differences by talking.”

“That is what makes you weak, you won’t kill someone for the sake of killing them.” He lunged at Marc as Marc back flipped out of the way. Will stopped moving and stared at Marc with malice in his eyes. The rage inside him boiled to the top and he threw his sword at Marc like a spear. Marc dodged the sword but wasn’t quick enough, it cut his right arm near the shoulder. The pain was excruciating but Marc ignored it. It made him angrier and his wings disappeared. He began to glow and his hair changed color to blonde again but it didn’t stop there. His muscles grew larger.

“I see you have leveled up to a Super Saiyan Two, pathetic, you are still too weak to stop me.”

“To quote John Paul Jones: ‘I have not yet begun to fight!’” Marc’s body began to have electricity come from his body and his hair grew longer, down his back to his feet. His eyes turned even bluer than they were before. The ground began to rise as he became more and more powerful.

“Level three now, stronger but you won’t stop me. I have the power of evil on my side. Lord Thaumiel gave me part of his powers and a part of himself as well.”

“I’m still warming up Will. I don’t think you know about this.” Marc’s body changed more. His back and arms grew red fur, his hair shortened, stuck up in the air but still flowed over his shoulders and he grew a red tail. His eyes went brown and there was a dark magenta trim around his eyes. His clothes turned to yellow Gi pants, a blue obi sash and blue wrist bands. His shoes turned to black boots.

“What is this,” asked Will as he dropped his sword. He also noticed Marc’s wound healed. “So, you found a level higher than Super Saiyan Three but will that be enough to stop me and Lord Thaumiel? I think not.”

“We will find out, won’t we?”

“Yes, we will, but I forgot to tell you something, I can change myself too.” Will began to smile as the ground began to rise around him. Electricity came from his body. His body began to grow larger, his hair pitch black, and his skin dark red. His final height came to eight feet tall; his hands were huge and his pants became black shorts. His eyes were fire yellow. He growled at Marc, pulled his arms to his chest, brought them down to his sides and roared like a beast.

Marc smiled as he saw this transformation; a glint of amusement came into his transformed eyes. The smile and glint of amusement was because Marc knew Will’s weakness in this form and Will did not know that. Marc was an avid reader of comic books and knew the Red Hulk’s weakness which would be Will’s weakness as well.

He let Will attack him first. The first punch hit Marc on the face; Marc’s head turned and straightened out looking towards Will. A small amount of blood came from Marc’s mouth. He wiped the blood from his mouth. Will punched him again, this time in the chest. Marc flew back and his body hit the wall behind him. Marc stepped out of the rubble of the broken wall behind him.

“Is that all you have,” taunted Marc. “Come on Will, my dead grandmother hits harder than you do.” Will roared in anger and attacked Marc in full fury continually hitting him. Marc blocked all the punches with ease as Will’s temper rose. The angrier Will became the hotter he became. Radiation was permeating from his body with extreme heat. The ground under Will began to crystalize into quartz as Will kept on attacking Marc. Will’s temperature began to rise to a point where Will could not stand it any longer and he began to overheat and tire.

Marc saw his chance and hit Will repeatedly on the top of his head. Will fell with a great thud and he returned to his normal self. He lied there with only a pair of shorts on him. Marc returned to his normal self as well but his clothes changed to the blue suit, sneakers, and trench coat. He unchained Rissa, Bre and Mikey as quickly as possible.

“Come on, let’s go save your mom and get the hell out of here. Pun not intended.” They walked quickly out of the room to a long hallway. On either side were skulls of different kinds: human, razide, and unknown other creatures. The smell was putrid and the four travelers felt as if they were going to vomit. The hallway ended to stairs that only went up. They climbed the stairs and ended outside the throne room. Marc was pissed. His clothes changed to a white wife beater, blue jeans, and black boots. His hair shortened on the sides and rose on the top to small points. His sideburns lengthened down to his chin.

As he got to the door, Marc kicked it open. “Thaumiel, let her go!”

Thaumiel, who was lying on his throne-like slab, rose and looked at Marc. His long arms on his wormlike body extended showing large muscles. His wings spread wide open like dragon’s wings and his human mouth opened and closed as he licked his lips.

“What do you want human?”

“Let her go Thaumiel.”

“Why? She is mine; her soul belongs to me just as your soul and their souls belong to me. Besides, she was just the bait to lure you here.”

“My soul doesn’t belong to you and you know it. If you haven’t noticed I don’t even have my full soul with me. I left it with someone else and she is not here. And why ‘lure’ me here?”

“You bear the birthmark on your arm of the same person who imprisoned me three thousand years ago in Hell. I was Lord Thaumiel in a land that is now Israel. The land was a barren desert when I was finished with it. You are his last descendant and I will end the bloodline with you.”

“Over my dead body,” said Marc.

“That was what I was hoping to hear.”

Marc’s hands went into fists and three knives shot out of his knuckles. Thaumiel looked at Marc and laughed. He rose from his throne; his wings beating and flew over Marc. Fire came from Thaumiel’s mouth. Marc ducked as Thaumiel flew over him. Thaumiel’s tail was skinny with spikes on the back end. He doesn’t have a full worm body. I am going to have to be careful of that tail. It is like a Stegosaurus tail.

Marc jumped in the air and tried to get onto Thaumiel’s back. He missed by an inch and even the claws missed by an eighth of an inch. Shit, Marc thought, I am going to have to try that again. Thaumiel attempted to fly over Marc again and this time Marc was able to dig his right-hand claws into the thick skin of Thaumiel. Its tail started smacking Marc on the back, the spikes hitting him in the spine. Marc dug his left-hand claws into the creature and climbed fully on Thaumiel’s back.

Thaumiel flew through the throne room trying to knock Marc off Its back. Marc dug his claws into the joints of Thaumiel’s wings and cut them off. Thaumiel fell to the ground roaring in pain.

While Marc and Thaumiel were fighting, Rissa, Bre and Mikey released Tina from the chains that bound her to the throne. As Thaumiel crash landed on the ground, Marc yelled to them, “GET HER OUT OF HERE! GO BACK AND WAKE UP, I’LL HANDLE THIS!” Thaumiel roared and the whole citadel shook. Rissa led the way out of the citadel and into the open city of Dis. They had draped Tina in a trench coat much like the one that belonged to Marc. The last sight they saw before leaving the throne room was hundreds of razides attacking Marc as he decapitated Thaumiel. They made their way out of Abaddon and worked their way back to Sha'are Mawet where they met Phlegyas again.

“I remember you kids. Get onto the boat, I was told to take you back to the other side and let you return back to your world.”

“Thank you Phlegyas,” said Rissa. “We don’t have anything to pay you with though.”

“I told you, I have my orders.” The boat ride was uneventful. Tina sat there and told them her story of how her soul was taken, slowly and how she was imprisoned in Thaumiel’s citadel. How she was told she was the bait to lure Marc there so Thaumiel could kill him. The three kids told Tina how Marc led them through Hell to rescue her, how he had to defeat Will in the dungeon of the citadel. Tina cried as she heard the story and how someone she hurt had come to rescue her.

The boat finally made it to the other side. They left the boat and started walking. Bre led the way remembering how to get to the vortex. They approached the vortex but it wouldn’t let them through. There was a barrier that would not allow them to get out. They banged on the barrier hoping it would open and let them through. Nothing happened. They sat down near the closest rock and put their hands in their heads and started to cry.

Time had passed slowly outside the vortex. Nothing came near them, they heard no noises, saw nothing, and smelled nothing. Then they heard a whirling noise. It got louder and louder until a blue police box appeared. The door opened and out stepped Marc. Rissa ran over to Marc and hugged him. He returned the hug and released her. Tina walked over to him and hugged him, he reciprocated but didn’t give her as warm a hug as he gave Rissa.

“What took you so long,” asked Rissa. “We have been here for hours trying to get through and it’s blocked.”

“I’m sorry kiddo. I forgot you needed me to get through. I opened the vortex on the other side and only I can reopen it from this side. Plus, I had to get Will.”

“But we saw those things attack you and the citadel collapse after we left it,” said Tina.

Marc smiled. “I fought my way through Hell to rescue you; do you really think that those razides would harm me? Mikey help me take Will out of there and then I can open the vortex.”

They brought Will out of the police box and placed him on the ground. Marc took out a small knife, cut his right hand, raised it up and placed it on the barrier. The barrier shimmered and opened with a flash. Mikey picked Will up and carried him to the vortex.

“OK, take him through first,” Marc said weakly. “Then Rissa, Bre, and Tina. I will go through last because I need to keep this open.” Mikey carried Will through and woke up in his own body. So did Rissa and Bre. Tina woke up on her bed in her body. They noticed Marc did not wake up.

Bre walked over and checked Marc’s pulse on his neck, there was no pulse. They looked at her and she shook her head. Tina started to cry. She then began to do CPR on Marc. She pumped on his chest and breathed into his lungs. This went on for five minutes Marc started coughing. Blood was coming out of his nose and he coughed up some blood as well.

Rissa got a clean wet rag and mopped up the blood from his face. She looked at him and asked, “Is it over?”

“Yes, it is. Get me some peroxide, gauze, and tape. I need to clean and dress some of these wounds,” said Marc. He looked at his hand and right shoulder, and then winced from the pain. He then asked for some cold water to drink. The feeling of the cold water going down his throat felt wonderful. He got up and went into the bathroom, took a shower, dressed his wounds, and got dressed. He packed his things and went to the door.

He looked at them before he left. They all sat on the couch looking at him. “I’m leaving now. This is the last time I am going to do this for you. Please don’t come to me again for help.” He limped to his car and drove away leaving them stand at the door watching him.

Marc got into his car and made a phone call. “It’s over and I will be home soon. I love you,” was all he said. His car drove off into the night.

******

Two months later a letter came in the mail to Marc from a major publishing company. His book was being published and has been made number one on the best seller’s list. He had just finished his interview with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show about his book: Bring Me To Life, A road to Hell and Back. In the limo he called his girlfriend Shaina and told her the good news. It would be two and a half hours back to Philly so he slept the ride back.

********

Three days later Marc and Shaina stood in center city Philadelphia at an empty lot. They had started breaking ground on Miller Tower, a forty-story tall building where Marc, Shina, and their family would live and where Marc would run his new business of demon and monster hunting. He looked her in the eyes and kissed her passionately on the lips.

“In less than a year we will be living in this place.”

“You got that money all because of that bitch. You aren’t going to give her a dime from that money, are you?”

“Does she deserve it?”

“No, I don’t believe so. You risked your life to save her and she never offered to pay you for your time. You deserve every dime from the book sales.”

“I love you Shaina.”

“I love you Marc.”

They walked down the street towards Fifth and South Streets to get the best Greek Food in the city holding hands. The sun was setting and all was good in their world. Marc never thought about Arkansas for a long time after.