All Hell (15 page)

So I decide to act now.

There’s only one spot on his body I can think of where he might be vulnerable. I stand at the edge, my toes curling over the rim. I tighten my grip around the handles of my long daggers, holding them firmly one in each hand. My knees are bent, my legs tense like coiled springs. Half of the top of his head is still bald. Only one horn has started to grow back and that one’s not much more than a stump.

I wait for the right moment, when he’s totally immersed in his ritual.
Balzuzu kneels again. He spreads his arms wide summoning the next tainted soul to become part of him, one of the unlucky 666. The one closest to me responds to his command, swiftly changing direction, darting down towards him.

I do the same.

It’s a quick jump. The ‘soul drop’ lands on his head. My feet land on his broad shoulders. Then before he can react to what’s happening, I spring forward, dive over the top of his skull and simultaneously thrust a dagger into each of his eyes. The sharp blades slice deep into his squishy orbs. Eye fluid gushes out, squirting onto my hands. It reminds me of the time I sloppily gutted my first trout, only I don’t feel bad about this. My momentum carries me forward. I tuck my chin into my chest, turn my dive into a full somersault, and hit the slimy floor of the cocoon feet first. After a proud glance back at my achievement, I’m off and running. I just poked the bear. I better be clear before the bear pokes back.

Balzuzu’s scream shakes the entire chamber. I scan for the tunnel my brother and I loaded up with
C-4. There’s no way to know for sure, but directionally I guess it’s the exit furthest from where I am. I don’t second guess myself. I don’t have the time. Still, before I enter it I can’t help but stop to admire my handiwork. Life’s just too damn short not to relish this moment and this very well could be the last thing I see. It’s worth every penny. Balzuzu’s blinded, swiping wildly at the air, rampaging in his black bath like a mindless gorilla. It’s a Kodak moment if ever there was one. I smile, taking it all in, locking it forever in my memory, hoping my brother is somewhere close enough to see it as well.

Then Balzuzu settles down and pulls both knives from his sockets. My jaw drops as one dagger comes out with his eyeball still attached. I haven’t enjoyed watching something this much since the Barbarella twins put on a
private sex show for me in Bangkok. I’m mesmerized. He’s like a train wreck I can’t take my eyes off of. I backpedal the rest of the way to the tunnel, knowing I’m not exiting stage right until he sees it was me. I want to look him in his one remaining eye and get the satisfaction that comes with him knowing I got in one good shot. I’m mental that way. It takes him a few seconds, but finally he spots me. I’m grinning ear to ear like Bugs Bunny.

“That’s for my family, asshole,” I yell.

He’s seething with rage, looking uglier and nastier than ever. I’ve seen that look many times before. I tend to have that effect on people.

“Silas Hill,” he snarls. “Your family is about to end. I will destroy them. I will ground their feeble bodies into
primordial paste.
But not you.
Your fate is going to be special. Your soul may be too pure to belong to me, but your body is another matter. I will keep you here and pin you to my wall. You will be my personal plaything. I will skin you alive. I will burn your extremities. I will take pleasure as I remove your teeth one by one. I’m going to torture you in ways you cannot even imagine, relishing in your screams of agony for years to come. Then I’ll dismember your body while you still live and feed your meaty little limbs to my dog and pin your eyes open so you have to watch while he gnaws on your bones.”

I grin even wider. “Yeah, well good luck with that considering I fed your little poochie a mouthful of hand grenades and turned
him into pepperoni road pizza.” His anger kicks up a notch as his one good eye registers what I said as the truth. “Don’t worry,” I add. “I’m sure you could adopt another one at the three-headed monster shelter down on Fuck You Street.” I throw in a double middle finger just in case my message wasn’t clear.

He snorts irately and there’s no more need for words. I flee
into the tunnel like a lightning bolt and he bolts after me. He careens off the floor, out of balance. I can’t tell if it’s his damaged wings that are disorienting him or if losing an eye has thrown him off-balance. Either way, I don’t give a shit. I’ll take any advantage I can get. I’m run at breakneck speed, an all-out sprint for survival. This would be as good a way to die as any, but I’d rather make it out of here alive.

He’s a few seconds behind me, flying so sloppily
he keeps smashing into the rock walls, occasionally smacking his head on the roof. He looks like a retarded pterodactyl. I grip my remote detonator. I race past the first set of explosives and press the trigger that activates the blasting caps. Within a few seconds a loud boom thunders behind me. Black rock collapses from above, blocking his way. Balzuzu takes less than two seconds to power his way through it. I don’t stop running. Despite his awkward flight pattern, he’s closing fast.  But my brother spaced the charges well. I’m already racing by the next pairing of C-4.

I press the trigger again.

The boom is louder this time, the blast more effective. Something shifts, as whatever passes for a fault line in this cave takes a hit and the whole cocoon starts shaking like a 6.0 on the Richter scale. I stumble. My hands catch the ground supporting me. I stand erect and keep running as rocks collapse close behind me in a boulder-sized hail storm. One smashes the ground at my heels and spatters me with debris, but I’m not complaining. I’m still hauling ass while Balzuzu’s the one in need of an umbrella. I watch him take the brunt of it. He whacks the first few boulders away as easily as if they were flies, like a giant slapping a baseball. Unfortunately for him, the sky is falling. A stone the size of a Volkswagen crushes the side of his head. Balzuzu falls, yet there’s no let up. The hits keep on coming, burying him under a ton of rocks and massive black stones. This day just keeps getting better and better. I smile like it’s Christmas morning. But I keep running.

An earthshaking roar echoes through what’s left of the tunnel followed by the sound of his powerful fists pounding on stone. The one-eyed fuck is nothing if not resilient. I swear I could drop his whole house on his head and he’d still be kicking. I pass the last two charges, the ones we set closest to the entrance and decide to put my theory to the test. I slip behind the nearest stalagmite, hoping
it’s thick enough to shield me. Then I press the detonator that adds to the mess.

The explosion is massive. A shockwave blasts forth sheering off the top half of the stalagmite I’m hiding behind. My left eardrum pops. I duck lower as mini debris showers over me. An opaque cloud of thick dust pillows outward blocking out
what little light there is the way volcanic ash blocks out the sun. I cover my nose and mouth, get low, and hold my breath as dark ash colors my exposed skin.

After about a minute
, it subsides. I peek up and see the bang I got for my buck. The front side of his cocoon fully imploded, leaving Balzuzu under a mountain of rubble, fully burying him in the remains of his own home. I hope it’s his final resting place. He wanted to put the human race six feet under. Now he’s fifty feet under and Hell can be his silent tomb.

I linger, doubting he’s truly dead, even under all that weight, but perhaps being buried alive is a fate worse than death. It’s a fate I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It’s a fate the evil prick deserves. Satisfied, I stroll to the bike and stand it upright. I rev the engine and take one last look around. Hell is indeed a horrible place; a barren wasteland where’s there’s no hope, no escape, and you’re eternally subject to the whims of these psychotic Nephilim who
se sadism knows no bounds. All I can hope for is perhaps I at least gave my brother a temporary reprieve.

I spin the bike, a skid of rubber marks my turn. It’s time to leave
this awful place. Then the mountain of rubble that was Balzuzu’s cage rumbles. Stones vibrate, shutter, and slip aside as what’s buried beneath them shifts, moves up, rises. I stare, disbelieving. A thick red hand pushes through the debris, similar to the way the zombies rose from their graves. Then Balzuzu bursts free of the stone pile like a dragon emerging from the water.

I am so going to die!

Chapter 28

Balzuzu roars so loud I can’t even hear the roar of my bike as I gun the engine. People say evil never dies, it can only be contained. After witnessing what I just saw, I think they’re wrong. Balzuzu is the personification of all things evil and he’s irrepressible, unstoppable… a juggernaut of bad news that never stops coming. We hit him with missiles and mountains, yet we barely slowed him down. I’ve killed a lot of monsters in my travels; vampires, mummies, golems. Balzuzu’s completely different. He’s a universal force, the darkest of the dark side of nature. I don’t think there’s anything on this planet short of a nuke that could stop him and even that would probably only slow him down for a week.

There’s nothing left for me to d
o but get the hell out of here—pun fully intended—and hope I can somehow avoid an excruciatingly painful death. I realize now that Miguel was right; voluntarily going to hell was a monumentally stupid idea. Sure I got some great licks in on the embodiment of evil. And it was great to chat with my brother again. Those things were immensely satisfying, but I didn’t just poke the bear, I poked the devil and he’s not someone that just pokes back. He rips, tears, mutilates and utterly destroys. I should have just let Miguel close the gate and fought whatever evil there is topside where I can deal with it.

I got the bike doing eighty heading straight for the portal. Balzuzu’s on my six doing a wobbly eighty-five, screaming like a banshee, never letting me forget
how hopeless my situation is. Because even if I make it, even if I outrun him, then what? I won’t survive the trip back without my thermal suit, which I too casually discarded. I guess it’s better to die in a burst of flame, let my soul sail off to heaven, than to be Balzuzu’s eternal plaything. But I know he’ll still kill my family and make my brother suffer a thousand years of torture.

“You will not escape, Silas Hill,” he screeches.

I wince. Not only because he’s using my full name like a scolding mother but also because I can tell by the volume of his voice that’s he’s close behind me. My brother thought this may happen. He figured the cocoon charges we planted might not do the job. So first he helped me prepare an exit strategy. The latter half of the C-4 went into the cocoon tunnel. The first half we laced along my pathway home, the same way terrorists lace the roads with IED’s. I swerve left between two large stalagmites, the first of the landmarks we marked. Balzuzu follows my path. I hit the detonator, exploding the pillars of stone. The flame and pelting debris don’t do much to him, but they do afford me a little extra distance.

“Was that a joke, Silas?” he taunts. “Your last feeble attempt to prevent the inevitable?”

I ignore him. I swerve right. There are two more stalagmites stacked in front of me, one to my left, and one to my right. These are C-4 laced as well, but Balzuzu’s not stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice. He simply flies above and around them. I set them off anyway just for the slightest possibility it might slow him down. I think I’m close to the gate. He’s trailing far enough behind me where I should be able to make it.

  Then I hit a jut in the stone. My motorcycle bounces. The wheels spit black pebbles and something sparks as a part of the cycle’s metal frame scrapes against stone. Luckily, I’m able to keep my balance, straighten it out and keep going, except that mini adventure slowed me down. Balzuzu
’s just spitting distance away. I lean forward and reaccelerate the bike to its top speed, not caring if I completely wipe out on the bumpy terrain.

Balzuzu taunts me again. “You do realize that even if you make it through the gate, I’m coming with you. Only this time I’m not going to conquer. This time
, I’m just going to hunt down your mother and rip out her heart. Then I will slaughter your father. Then I will bring you back here so your fate will be exactly as promised.”

I don’t answer him but he’s right. Even if I make it, so will he. And even if I don’t burst into flames like a marshmallow i
n a campfire, he’ll capture me and make me watch as he brutalizes everyone I care about. Balzuzu’s in the soul game. Before it was just business for him, but I hurt him bad. Not only did we ruin his plans for judgment day, but then I came here, destroyed his home, and took his eye. It was always personal to me. Now I made it personal to him. He’ll never stop until he gets revenge.

His voice echoes again through
out the canyons of hell. “But if you stop. If you willingly give yourself to me right now, I promise you, I will spare your family,” he says.

A deal with the devil… now I see firsthand how it works.

“Your choice, Silas Hill. You can sacrifice yourself to me to save your family or you can all die horribly?”

It’s a temp
ting offer too, my soul for my ma and pa’s. I see the gateway before me, approximately ten seconds away. Balzuzu’s just a few meters behind. If I hesitate even for a second, he’ll have me.

“Time to choose, Silas. Die in a burst of flame, knowing I’ll be back in your world, knowing I’ll kill your parents. Or save them and stay here with me.”