BURN IN HADES (37 page)

The skeletal frames of the Loa danced around a fire to the tune of beating drums and the chiming of their bones. The colors that decorated their bodies glowed in the dark and swirled as they jigged around, plunking and rattling in a disconcerting conga. They sang behind masks of flesh, and pantomimed as though acting out a story.

The language sounded like Ịḅanị. The Raven didn’t know how she knew that information. It had just popped into her head the moment she heard it being spoken. She couldn’t speak the language herself, but she gathered from watching their play that it was the tale of the Verboten Cherub, the mythical spawn of evil who would bring two worlds together: the realm of the living and that of the dead. She surmised as much because
The Resurrection of the Dead
was the tale every member of the damned told in hopes it would one day come true.

When the song and dance ended, a dreadlocked woman swished up the Raven. Instead of eyes, a purple glow beamed out of her hollow eye sockets just like the yellow-eyed monster.

“Finally awake,” she said. “We’ve gotten nowhere with the other one. Now it’s your turn.”

“My turn for what?” asked the Raven.

“First, you dare disturb our forest and now you bring your war here.”

“You got it wrong, chief. That’s not our band. I apologize for our intrusion. We don’t want to cause any distress amongst your people. We’re just passing through. We only came here to avoid the war ourselves.”

“Your tongue is much more mannerly than your friend’s,” said the woman. “But I should to believe your words, why?”

“Let us go,” said Diamond Tooth, “and I won’t carve your hip bone into a flute.”

The Raven sighed. That wasn’t the way to bargain when you’re the one tied up. The demon’s abundance of confidence reminded her of Cross and how she kept getting stuck with obnoxious individuals.

The woman laughed. “You are going to carve me? With what? These?” The woman raised the Raven’s rope dart and Diamond Tooth’s bagh nakhs. “If you are not of the gangs, then why do you bring weapons?”

“Our own protection,” said the Raven. “And with a welcoming committee like yours in every realm, you can’t blame us, chief.”

“Stop this chief naming. Call me Dimentia. I am no chief. The Loa have no leader. Every Loa is independent of mind. And I am the only one here who knows your tongue. Think of me as your translator. And you better talk because I’m the only reason you two are still alive.”

“Well, tell them we’re not in the gangs,” said the Raven.

“Do we even look like we’re soldiers?” said Diamond Tooth.

Even though they had changed out of the Anarchist style clothing, it wouldn’t matter much to the Loa. Outsiders would still be considered intruders.

Dimentia grabbed the demon’s collar between her bony fingers and flicked it. “You do not dress like soldiers,” she said. “But you could be in disguise. Which means you are spies!” Dimentia turned her head, whipping her deadlocks and spoke to the Loa in their native language. For a minute, there was a back and forth between Dimentia and several of the Loa.

“It appears we have discovered the rest your posse,” said Dimentia.

The Loa escorted a group of eight male and female souls out of the jungle by the tips of spears made of bone. The Raven suspected those were the souls that were following her and Diamond Tooth since they had left Irkalla. They all had demonic faces; some more human than others, and she recognized a few of them from Camp Erutrot. She shot a suspicious look at Diamond Tooth. The demon shrugged her eyebrows.

Another back and forth between the Loa in their native language took place. Men of bones released Diamond Tooth from her post but didn’t unbind her wrists. Then they released the Raven, keeping both wrists tied in front of her and wings bound.

Dimentia and a few of the Loa guided the Raven, Diamond Tooth and her eight demons out of the community and into the pitch black forest. The only light emanated from the glowing paint on the Loa’s bones, which wasn’t enough to light up the forest.

They walked alongside the sounds of the river until they reached a break in the forest that opened up into a valley. It was still dark in the valley, but there was enough light that everyone was viewable again. The sky was unnaturally black, like Yomi but smoother, and it seemed to infinitely extend outward beyond a cliff.

The Loa shoved them toward a great chasm. Over the cliff lay empty space, above, below, and along the nonexistent horizon. The river poured right over the edge of the underworld, down miles of rocky cliff face and sprouted into a cloudy mist of nothingness.

The Loa wrenched up one of the demons and dangled him over the black void.

“Tell me what your gang is planning,” said Dimentia. “What do you want with our forest?”

“Nothing,” said the Raven. “We’re not a gang.”

The Loa dropped the demon over the edge. It screamed as it fell and tumbled all the way down into the void. The demon shrank smaller and smaller, until it became a dot and vanished simply because it was too far away to spot.

Diamond Tooth yanked away from the Loa in an attempt to attack Dimentia somehow, but they restrained her within inches of reaching the purple skeletal lady.

“We shall push you all one by one until you all are tossed in,” said Dimentia. “Speak up.”

“You’re gonna toss us all in anyway,” said Diamond Tooth. “Even if you get your so-called answer.”

“You are correct,” said Dimentia, “but wouldn’t you like to clear your conscience before you fall?”

“We’re telling the truth,” said the Raven. “We oppose the war. We’re running away from it.”

“Well, you can’t get any further than down there,” said Dimentia. She yelled in her native language. The Loa shoved them all toward the edge with the tip of their bone weapons.

The tip of the Raven’s boot straddled the edge. Earth chipped at her feet, gravel fell into the dark abyss. She kept her legs spread wide, crouching, and pushing backward as hard as she could.

She and the seven remaining demons combined their weight and thrust it back onto the Loa. The two forces reached a stalemate. The Raven threw her head upward, butting one of the tribesmen.

Lights flickered in her eyes. She wobbled. Luckily, Diamond Tooth followed her lead and shoved sideways hard enough to knock two Loa off of the edge of the cliff. They vanished into the black.

That only served to anger the remaining Loa. They all joined to one side until one of the female demons tumbled over the cliff. An enormous worm exploded from the face of the cliff and swallowed her before slipping back into its hole through the underworld. The event seemed to catch even the Loa by surprise. Everyone stood still and silent.

Taking advantage of the brief lull in shoving, the Raven swiveled around to face the Loa. She kicked at them and connected a few blows against stomachs and groins. They weren’t made of much flesh, if any at all. She hoped they would at least fall apart or something, but they didn’t.

One tribesman caught her foot. Others joined in and pushed her. She tipped backwards and reached to grab onto Diamond Tooth. She tumbled over the cliff.

The rope binding her wrists snagged onto Diamond Tooth’s belt buckle. She almost pulled the demon down with her. Diamond Tooth’s belt ripped. The demon grabbed the Raven’s wrists. She stretched her fingers around Diamond Tooth’s binds and gripped with all her might.

“I got you,” said Diamond Tooth. “Don’t you fall, Raven.”

“What did you say?” said Dimentia.

A bone clocked Diamond Tooth in the head. The demon slumped over the edge, dropping the Raven deeper into the bottomless pit. She snapped to a stop. Her joints felt as if they had ripped out of their sockets.

She slammed into the face of the cliff and dangled over the void in terror, still grasping onto an upside down and unconscious Diamond Tooth. A demon above them had caught Diamond Tooth’s leg, and another two demons helped to hoist them up, but with the Loa continuing their onslaught, they wouldn’t be hanging out together too much longer.

The brass object slipped from Diamond Tooth’s shirt and clunked the Raven on the nose. It dangled in her face. Plates on the object spun, and its clock-like hands turned.

She recognized the object in the same way one does when coming across a face they hadn’t seen in many years. She didn’t know exactly what the object was, but it was familiar, and she was in no desperate need to figure it out at that moment. Her sweaty hands were slipping between Diamond Tooth’s limp fingers.

“Stop!” yelled Dimentia from above. “Daséẹ! Daséẹ!”

The Loa halted at once, aimed their boney weapons at the demons, and waited for instructions from Dimentia, who leaned over the edge of the cliff and asked, “What is your name?”

“What?” said the Raven, losing her grip on Diamond Tooth with every passing second.

“Your name,” said Dimentia. “What did the demon call you?”

“Raven. She called me the Raven.”

“Raise her up,” Dimentia instructed the Loa. “Raise her up now!”

The Loa hesitated.

“Árị ápụráa.” said Dimentia.

The Loa, along with the demons began hoisting them up. The Raven clung at the very tip of Diamond Tooth’s fingers, barely hanging on.

“Hurry,” said the Raven. “I’m slipping.”

“Álála,” Dimentia said to the Loa.

Just as the Raven lost her grip, Diamond Tooth amazingly regained consciousness and grabbed her binds.

“I told you not to fall,” she said.

Diamond Tooth’s shiny object swung in the Raven’s face the entire way up. She tried to remember where she had seen it before and why she had such a strong feeling that it was special. When they reached the top, Dimentia grabbed the Raven’s chin and forcefully turned her face from side to side.

The dreadlocked woman spoke to her people, and the tribesmen untied them all. Diamond Tooth tucked her necklace back inside her shirt casually, as if not to make a big deal out of it.

“Forgive us.” Dimentia brushed off the Raven’s clothes. “We were unaware.”

“Unaware of what?” asked the Raven.

Dimentia placed both her boney hands on the Raven’s shoulders and gripped. The intensity of her purple glowing eyes softened to a pale dim. “You’re the Raven,” she said. “It has spoken to us as it did you. It has placed an onus upon you as it did to us.”

“What’s she talking about?” said Diamond Tooth.

“I don’t know,” said the Raven. She had an idea, but she wasn’t too sure.

“It told us ‘the Raven seeks flight’,” said Dimentia, “‘And when it reaches south, return home you shall.’ We mustn’t dishonor it any longer. I fear we have already done too much. You may go. All of you.”

“Just like that?” said Diamond Tooth.

“Just tell your people that you can build your great walls, but it is foolish to think that it can be stopped.”

“What can’t be stopped?” asked the Raven.

“It has no name,” said Dimentia.

“The Nothing?”

Dimentia waved her skeletal hand, dismissively. “This is what you people call it, but you are wrong to ascribe such a childish moniker. It shows your lack of understanding and imagination.” Wildly, she wagged her finger at the Raven and the demons, who stood around her in a semi-circle.

“It is the furthest thing from Nothing,” said Dimentia. “It is so much more.” She spread her arms out wide and gazed into the dark canopy of trees. “It is everything.” She balled her fists. “And these gang wars have stirred it up. The underworld was never meant to be a place for war or even torment. It is a place for learning and growing spiritually.”

She stepped in between them, breaking up their half circle, and stood with her back towards them all. “There was a time when all souls were judged and were all given equal opportunity to return to the living or move on to other phases. But now we are all kept here indefinitely, because some of us have learned nothing. Too many of us continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. The system was never perfect. It was always flawed. Now it is completely broken. It must be destroyed and before it can be rebuilt.”

She spun around, her dreadlocks swung. “‘It’, which has no name, is the cure for this sickness. It will start with the dead and proceed on to the living. Everything will be restored. This ‘Nothing’ will bring purification whether we are all prepared for it or not.”

“Amen!” Diamond Tooth clapped. “Powerful sermon. But we can’t stay for the rest of the service. We don’t want the Raven to miss her flight and be late for that onus thing.”

“Bérédóghúbó. But you are right. Disobedience toward a given task is unacceptable. You must hurry. Bípí pírí.”

“About our objects,” said Diamond Tooth.

Chapter 18 - Grum

A chain linked Cross to Ignatius at their cuffed wrists
. The red giant escorted Cross to a platform where gloomy soldiers straggled about with souls seeking refuge from the war.

Without the aid of train tracks, Charon chugged toward the platform; its horn bellowed the voice of death. The locomotive was appallingly filthy, with jets of fire for eyes, and a bush of Nothings on its face like an unkempt beard upon a chin.

Ignatius pointed to a pile of decapitated heads that decorated the front engine. “You’re a lot luckier than them,” said the giant. “I hear Hell isn’t so bad this time of year.”