Hell Hath No Fury, page 4
***
Each time the Imp glanced back over his shoulder, he couldn’t believe this human was keeping up. Every time he looked, there she was.
Every. Single. Time.
Confusion fluttered through the Imp’s mind, for he knew not when mortals had become so fast, so strong, or so determined. Even as the forest closed in, and the nature threatened to strangle each step, the woman kept coming without the slightest stumble. The Imp looked down at the cage he was holding, inside of which his prize hissed and meowed as it bounced about with each turbulent step.
If I didn’t have to carry this stupid cage, the mortal wouldn’t stand a chance. The Imp’s thought was reassuring but did little to change the current circumstance. All he had to do was beat her to the portal.
***
Another small clearing was forming up ahead of her, and she felt as if she was gaining on the demon, or perhaps it was slowing down. Then she saw the rocks. It was a small stack of boulders along a rocky face that had a narrow opening in it. She watched through eyes burning with sweat as the creature bolted into the cave. In an instant, the darkness swallowed up the creature, along with Momo. Delilah only hoped she wouldn’t lose them in there.
***
Into the cave the Imp gracefully ducked, hardly skipping a step. The darkness was a welcome delight that served to sharpen the Imp’s glowing vision and bolster his confidence. The cold of this place however made his limbs feel heavier. Behind him, the Imp smiled as the woman slammed to a stop at the entrance of the cave and struggled to squeeze in through the opening. He carried on with a renewed sense of victory through the winding tunnel of stone, even as his legs slowed with the tightness of the cold air. He didn’t care because he could practically feel the warm embrace of Hell already.
***
She barely fit through the entrance of the cave and needed to turn her head to the side to finally slip through. Once inside, it opened to a corridor of stone wide enough for her to run comfortably. She felt a chill, and though it was dark, she could just make out the cat-thief in the distance. The thing that stole Momo seemed to emit some sort of light. When it turned around to check for her, Delilah could see its eyes glowing in a red-orange. It was a low light but still enough for her to see where she was going. More importantly, enough to not lose track of it.
Delilah carefully continued her pursuit, as fast as she could in a mixture of what quickly became climbing and jogging. She could hear a voice fill the cold, dark cave, or at least what she thought to be a voice. It sounded like something between a beast and a person. A guttural noise that was clearly broken into patterns and syllables. A language she’d never heard before.
***
Ahead, the wall through which the Imp had come to this realm was fast approaching, and he spoke aloud the incantation that activated the ancient runes and opened the passage to Hell. The words came in low, rhythmic tones that rolled sinisterly through the empty cave: “Password one, two, three.”
The runes burst to life, shining bright with their warm, orange glow, as small sparks bounced along the stony ground before flicking out of existence. At their center, a whirling glow of oranges and reds expanded along the stone wall until they reached the runes. Then the glow faded and a hole formed in its place. Along the edge, fire continued to burn and turn counter-clockwise within the ring of runes. The sounds of distant screams and the heat of Hell came pouring through.
With the portal fast approaching, the Imp glanced back over his shoulder again, only to see the woman gaining.
How? Is she speeding up, or have I slowed down?
***
The ever-tightening cave was now illuminated with a brighter orange glow and a noticeable heat. Ahead, she could clearly see the creature running toward the light. It was close now, close enough to give Delilah an extra boost of adrenaline. She raced toward the light, around which symbols, burning hot, formed a sort of portal.
The monster ran through, and Delilah could see the supernatural portal was already shrinking. She did all she could to close the distance.
Shit! By the time I get there, it’ll be too small to run through.
She dove with all the remaining strength her legs could muster.
***
Once through, the Imp waved his free hand behind him and the portal began to shrink. All around, the Imp heard the familiar and comforting splat of fallen mortals as they landed on Hell’s floor. Dodging the incoming sinners, the Imp expertly weaved through the overcrowded Fall, past the beasts of burden, and out into the more open area of the Erinyes’ Feast. With the welcome warmth of his home, so returned his speed and strength. He wished never to return to the mortal real, except with intent to conquer.
The bog is just ahead, the Imps calming mind thought. Soon this will all be over.
The Imp glanced back again only to see the woman land with a hard thud. She had made it through the portal.
“Shit! The Dark Lord will not be pleased.”
6
“Where the hell am I?” Delilah trembled as she stood up. It would have been impossible for her not to notice the thick heat of the air around her. It burned a little as she breathed it in. He shirt clung to her stomach, and when she looked down, she that it was soaked in blood. Bodies were falling all around her from above, landing with sickening splats. It was their blood on her shirt. She had landed in one of the many puddles of it pooling on the rocky terrain.
Delilah looked on in horror as the bodies rained down. The small bounce, the spray of blood, and the crack of bones was enough to make anyone sick, but she held it in—even when the fallen began to twist and crack as they struggled to stand on their feet. Their wounds seemed to glue themselves back together, and the men, women, and—to Delilah’s abject horror—children cried out in agony. An aura of pure pain and fear seemed to saturate the air, and the sickening smell of entrails rose from the spilled remains of the fallen. They frantically scooped them back into their healing abdomens.
Delilah closed her eyes and shook her head, “No, this can’t be real. It can’t.”
When she opened her eyes, tears had already begun to form at the edge of her eyelids. The worry that she might die here bubbled up in her stomach. She would die trying to save Momo. She would die with Gabby upset with her. The tears fell.
Momo, her mind snapped back into focus, and she sought out, through the horrifying crowd, the creature that took Momo. She saw it in the distance, still running. The sight of it made her blood boil.
“Give me back my Momo,” she shouted. The creature didn’t stop. She didn’t expect it would. She set out to chase it down, but before she could get too far a monstrous thing, roughly her size, stood in her way.
Its eyes were round and glowing white. Its mouth hung open with razor sharp teeth, and its body pulsated in a soft, fleshy mass. It had no legs, only a pair of arms, at the end of which were sharp, pointed fingers. For hardly a moment the two of them sized each other up. The beast made its move, coming right for her at a surprisingly quick pace despite its worm-like form.
She stepped back until she came up against the rock wall from which she had just entered. The heat was enough to burn the backs of her shoulders in a couple of seconds, so she jumped forward. She knew there was no going back. Even climbing was out of the question on a rock face that hot.
Before she could wrap her head around what was happening or where she was, the thing lunged at her in one swift motion.
Without thinking, she dove to her right, where she rolled and quickly recovered then assumed a defensive stance. The beast slammed face first into the wall. Its body squished into itself before bouncing back into its normal shape. Then it clumsily slithered backward and wailed in pain. Once it opened its eyes, it glared at her, its teeth snapped as it snarled, and Delilah could see several of the fangs appeared to be broken, with one even hanging loose. Swinging back and forth with each jerking movement of the vicious beast.
Behind it she could see more terrible creatures just like it. They attacked the falling people as they lay temporarily dead or recovering, digging into their chests, then hanging out from the newly formed hole. Some of the people acted as mindless host bodies, walking around with the beasts hanging out of their chests, while others, with larger beasts, merely flailed lifeless at the end of the beasts’ tails. The beasts’ tongues would wrap around other people, those without holes, and squeeze them until a fine blue-green mist came out and floated into their hungry mouths. The bodies would fall, dried and brittle, only to break and crumble into dust upon impact. Those who made it to their feet fled the area as quickly as possible, in the same direction of the demon who stole her Momo. The only direction where any light could be seen.
Delilah knew, as she squared off with this beast in front of her, it would not just let her leave. Its glowing, pupilless eyes had locked on, and Delilah could only guess it was ready to make a home inside of her. She looked around for anything she might be able to use to defend herself, but the ground was barren rock, flat like flagstone. Scattered about were bones, blood, and a few loose stones and boulders, all ranging from the size of a golf ball to the size of a person. As she continued her deadly dance with the beast, each moving in a wide circle waiting for the other to make a move, Delilah spotted a rock nearby that had a thick base and a pointed top. It looked large enough to do some real damage but not unwieldy. She waited and she watched, and all at once the beast tensed up and lunged at her again. She rolled, just as she had before, right around it and toward the rock she had her eye on.
You got this, she assured herself as she lifted the heavy rock with both hands. It didn’t lift. She pulled again. The rock shifted. She got down on her knees and worked the stone back and forth desperately as the beast turned to face her again. It howled and clawed its way toward her.
She gave the rock two swift kicks, knocking it free. The beast closed in. Delilah gripped the rock tight, stood up tall, hoisted it above her head, and brought the pointed end down right onto the beast’s backside as she side-stepped its lunge. The only part of her it managed to hit was her blood-soaked shirt.
Delilah smiled at the sound of cracking bones, their vibrations running up through the rock and into her hands. She didn’t wait. She lifted the rock over and over, bringing it down each time with a fury that rivaled any wretched being residing in this godforsaken place, all the while picturing the face of Momo’s captor. The beast's blood covered the entire front half of her now. She wiped her face clean and looked around.
The fear was gone now, pushed back down inside of her. She didn’t have time for fear, not here, not now. With the beast at her feet, struggling to grab at her with its claw-fingered hands, she hoisted the rock over her head then slammed it down again. It stopped moving, as what remaining life it had left came flowing out with its viscous blood. Delilah’s chest heaved as she looked around again to ensure no other beasts would be foolish enough to come for her. None dared.
None of the healed fallen seemed to notice the commotion, even those that ran right past her didn’t so much as glance in her direction. Delilah found the voice in her slowing breath and yelled at a woman who came running past her. “Hey, hey stop! Wait a minute!”
The woman didn’t stop, didn’t even flinch.
Can they even see me?
Unsure of what to do, she ran after the woman and reached for her arm, but the woman simply passed right through her grip.
Delilah took a moment to look around again, then asked aloud once more, “Where the hell am I?”
Her gaze turned toward the distant glow, toward the direction of the demonic cat thief, and the anger gripped her tighter than ever. She balled her fists and let it out. “Give me back my cat!”
7
What have I done? The Imp worried as it ran through the Erinyes’ Feast. Who is this woman? There’s no way she makes it past the beasts of burden.
But the Imp heard the mad woman cry out after him. Her voice carried clearly through the cavernous underworld. Even the Erinyes seemed to stop their hunting, if only for a moment. A shiver rolled its way down the Imp’s spine and through his limbs. He gripped the cage tighter and moved along with even more haste. He knew the Erinyes would leave him alone, especially with the cat in hand, but if the woman made it past the beasts of burden and somehow managed to evade the swift, sharp talons of the Erinyes, he would need to put some distance between himself and her before he reached the Blood Bog. Even knowing the safest and quickest path, the bog would force the Imp to slow down and tread carefully. The woman did not know what terror lurked beneath the bloody depths, and the thought gave the Imp even more hope.
There’s no way she survives, the Imp thought once more.
As he ran, the Erinyes cried out from above, stalking the damned that ran alongside the Imp. In front of him an Erinys swooped with the speed and grace of an executioner's axe and scooped up a human who screamed as he was lifted away. The gust of wind from the Erinyes’ wings pressed hard and hot against the Imp’s skin. For a moment, however brief, he felt safe again, comfortable even. The sound of the mortal’s screams fading off into the darkness above brought with it an extra sense of delight. It was a warm feeling. A feeling the Imp had forgotten during his cat heist gone wrong. He closed his eyes and took in the feeling of home; a serene moment interrupted when the cat hissed from the cage.
“Quiet, you,” the Imp scolded.
Momo glared at the Imp through the slits in her cage with the burning indifference of a thousand suns, then went back to grooming herself with great difficulty between the bumps and shakes of her moving prison. The Imp made short work of the long, desolate expanse of flat stone. Along the way, despite an underlying sense of urgency, he still took the time to trip a couple of mortals who were fleeing the hunters that stalked them from above.
In no time, the Imp came to a stop as he reached the gentle waves of the shallow waters that lapped up against the rocky shores of the bog. Damned mortals ran past him in a wide berth and waded into the bog. A smirk graced the Imp’s face, and he lifted the cage to meet it, peering in at the disgusting creature he was forced to collect. “If I could, I would toss you right into the bog and let the worms have their way with you.”
“Mrow,” Momo replied coolly. The Imp rolled his eyes, let the cage lower back to his side, and began his journey through the bog.
As he jumped across the bog, the cat within the cage meowed and hissed. By the time he had reached the fifth stone, jutting up and out of the blood, the Imp took a moment to watch the race that unfolded around him and give himself a break from the infernal noises coming from his most repugnant prisoner, who hissed in displeasure with each jostle and bump.
Those mortals that braved the waters struggled to move in the viscous bog, their feet getting caught in the spongy meat that sat just beneath the otherwise placid surface. Some of them even found themselves in holes deep enough to swallow them completely, leaving them to thrash about desperately, until exhausted. Others among them were smarter, the Imp noticed. They took to the rocks. Jumping when they could, but swimming where the distance was too great.
These weak mortals can hardly even jump, The Imp thought with a smile. Some intelligent design.
The low light made it hard for mortals to see, but not the Imp. He hopped, with his long, springy legs, from rock to rock. In the bloody waters around him he could feel the rumble of the blood worms that swam and slithered through the thick meat below.
Ahead, the Imp could see the many humans who were climbing to the safety of the blood-soaked shore. Some had even made the journey without falling into the bog, not even once. One such human, laughing to himself, was bouncing with ease between each stone. The Imp admired him a little. A rare mortal indeed. Then the Imp’s face turned worried and angry all at once as the image reminded him of the persistence of that damned woman.
When the waters bulged out and broke to reveal a large blood worm surfacing on the man’s right, it pulled the Imp’s mind back off his worry and onto the stone-hopping man. The man was not paying attention, the Imp could see that much, as the blood worm picked up speed. The sound of the worm was dull and easy to miss as the thick, silky waters splashed very little and the spongy meat below dampened the vibrations of their movements.
The Imp looked around to make sure he wasn’t in any danger. The coast was clear, no other worms to be seen, and so he smiled as he watched the blood worm lift its gaping maw from the bog and bring it sweeping across the stone, gobbling the human right up in one fell swoop. It wriggled its body on the rocks for a moment as its massive worm head dove back into the bog. The rest of the body followed as it slid from the stone.
“Serves you right, you prideful bastard,” the Imp shouted, “That’s a sin you know!”
He laughed to himself as he made the last few jumps across the final stones to the shores of the Necropolis. Once on land, safe from the blood worms, the Imp took a moment to look back. He saw no sign of the woman.
The Imp turned with a smile and walked onward hoping that this dreadful woman had finally met her fate. He hoped this cat was nothing more than an exotic meal for his Dark Lord and that the death of this woman would not mean trouble for himself or his Dark Lord. More than anything, he hoped this mistake wouldn’t cost him any reward he thought to be coming his way.
