Demon Gate: Beyond the 9th Circle: The Rapture Was Just The Beginning. (21 page)

Spencer couldn’t see anything for several
hours, the slow echoing drip of water was his
only distraction from the darkness for an
imperceptible about of time that could have been
minutes, hours or days.

Spencer awoke; he found himself on the
roof of a tall skyscraper. Spencer sat up and
looked around to see Vince and Jessie who were
still unconscious. He got up and walked to the
edge and took in the view. A bright sun hung
high in the sky, and a few thin clouds clung to the
sapphire sky.

The building was on a small island in the
middle of a vast ocean. Several other identical
buildings were seen in the distance and identical
islands at random intervals.

Spencer saw someone atop each of the
buildings in his immediate view so he wave to
get someone’s attention, maybe they could tell
him what to do next, but as he stuck his arm in
the air, so too did every other person atop each of
the buildings.

Spencer turned to face in a different
direction and repeated his attempt to get
someone’s attention only to have the other people
wave to some other unseen person.

“What now?” Spencer asked, knowing
that he was on the right path, and well on his way
to seeing Gretchen again.

“Spencer,” Vince said as he came to,
“What are we doing up here?”
“You don’t remember?” Spencer asked
turning to see Vince sitting up.
“I remember a dream about crashing into
the ocean.” Vince admitted, “We were looking
for Gretchen.”
“That wasn’t a dream, Vince.” Spencer
reminded regretfully.
Spencer scanned the rooftop. There were
two parapets that ran parallel through the middle
of the roof so Spencer went to investigate and
found stairs that went down.
“Vince, see if you can wake up Jessie and
let’s get moving.” Spencer urged, staring down
the stairs that descended thirty five feet.
Spencer was soon joined by Vince and a
still groggy Jessie.
“Where are we?” Jessie finally asked.
“Hell’s doorstep,” Spencer replied.
“What, this isn’t hell? Vince asked.
Spencer briefly turned back.
“No, it’s not hell, but it’s pretty damn
close.” Spencer replied before trotting down the
stairs.
At the bottom there was a door, it looked
like an old door that would normally be seen in a
high-end office building; glass door in a fancy
metallic frame. Spencer pulled it open and
stepped inside, once there he heard a moan that
made his blood run cold.
Spencer regained his strength and pushed
past his fear. Vince and Jessie were a little less
enthusiastic, but still reluctantly followed
Spencer.
After roaming the hall they found them
selves in an office of sorts, papers haphazardly
filed in trays, fresh coffee sat in a coffee pot
along the wall, the aroma filled Spencer’s
nostrils.
Vince found another stairwell which went
down to a lower floor, as they entered the
stairwell the moaning started to build, instead of
one person moaning there were perhaps four or
five people moaning.
After descending the stairs they pushed
through a door into a tiled hall, steam filled the
air. As they pushed in Spencer nearly tripped
over what looked like and ancient Greek couch, a
smaller table sat next to it, a plate of exotic fruits
hung over the edge of the table.
Jessie paused; the steam was relaxing,
almost too relaxing.
“Jessie, are you okay?” Vince asked.
“Yeah, let’s go.” Jessie said.
Spencer led the way past the couch and
into a bathhouse.
Inside the sound of water dripping into
the bath seemed especially loud, there were a
four torches burning in each of the four corners
allowing light into the otherwise dark room. A
door was faintly seen on the far side of the bath
beyond a small embankment which mirrored the
floor that Spencer was standing on, the low lying
ceiling went up maybe six or eight feet above
Spencer’s head.
Spencer walked up to the bath, and found
no way around, he had to go through. It was only
twenty feet or so across so Spencer decided to
swim for it.
“Are you sure we should go in, Spencer?”
Vince asked.
“I don’t see any other way forward.”
Spencer replied.
The water was warm as Spencer stepped
in and trudged on, but he quickly found the water
was far deeper than it appeared, he was able to
tread water but he was not able to feel the bottom
of the bath.
I thought this was only three of four
feet deep, how deep is it?
Spencer started
paddling but Vince and Jessie were unsure if
crossing the bath was wise, and they were right.
Spencer stopped; he seemed to struggle as
he did.
“Hey, I think something has my…”
Spencer slipped beneath the water.
“SPENCER!” Vince shouted. But the
water was silent. Vince slipped into the water; he
tried to summon his celestial sword, but was
unable to do so. What was happening?
Vince dove beneath the water and
mentally gasped; a bath that looked to be only a
few feet deep was actually three hundred feet
deep with tiered ledged that emerged from the
wall like head stones in a cemetery. The ledges
wrapped around the perimeter of the bath. Then
Vince saw them; hundreds of dark wispy entities.
More than a dozen had a firm grip on Spencer’s
legs, arms, basically anyplace where they could
get a solid grip on this human.
Spencer was thirty feet down when Vince
caught up to him, and latched onto the collar of
his shirt, then the hilt of Spencer’s sword fell into
focus.
Vince ripped the sword from its sheath,
the presence of the blade was a discouraging
sight for many of the darkened entities, but most
of them let go of Spencer and flocked toward
Vince who began slashing.
Jessie appeared at Spencer’s side and
helped pull Spencer up to the surface as Vince
continued fighting, finally the dark fiends had
fled into the depths of the bath.
Spencer’s head broke the surface and he
gasped as he took in a deep breath. Jessie also
managed to take a fresh breath before she helped
Spencer to the door.
It was another five seconds before Vince
appeared at the surface of the water, paddling
hard, Spencer’s sword in one hand, terror in his
eyes.
Jessie helped pull Vince out of the water.
“We have to get out of here, NOW!”
Vince said running for the door, but it was
jammed. Spencer, Vince and Jessie were trapped.
The entire bathhouse shook as though it
were a fish tank and had been struck from the
outside.
“What was that?” Jessie asked.
The room sat silent for another few
seconds before there was an explosion of water
as a large, black ghost-like creature emerged
from the water that was thrown all over the bath
house. The ceiling was no longer low lying, but
now extended upward for another fifty feet into a
swirling vortex of chaos. Vince glanced at the
four torches in different corners of the room, the
flame had turned to an unearthly green flame that
danced and flickered like fire, but it was a dark as
the shade.
“I have no idea.” Vince admitted.

The shadow creature loomed over
Spencer, Vince and Jessie, a wicked smile pasted
across its darkened face.

Spencer took Vince’s place at the head of
the group and reclaimed his sword from Vince
who then went for the jammed door and tried to
pry it open, Spencer held his sword up almost as
though he were taunting the shade.

The shade reached down to strike
Spencer.
Spencer sliced through the air, the sword
cut right through the shade’s hand, but it left no
scar, just a void that filled with darkness as
though it were a wound that was healing.
“How’s that door coming?” Spencer
asked as the shade looked down on Spencer and
laughed.
“Not good.” Vince replied.
The shade pulled its hand back and struck
Spencer sending him and the sword flying to the
far side of the bath, rolling to a stop Spencer
stopped in the corner, a torch within his grasp.
Spencer stood up, knocking the torch to
the ground, the shade lurched for Spencer;
moving to attack Spencer, aggression no longer
appeared to be its motive, now concern governed
its movements.
Spencer looked at the torch and then back
to the shade.
In the instant before the shades attack
landed Spencer kicked the torch for all he was
worth and the torch went flying just as Spencer
did. The torch landed in the water and the shade
reacted in pain.
Spencer landed in the water five feet from
the opposite side; he quickly began swimming
for the safe side when he realized his sword was
missing. Spencer looked back to the far side of
the bath. The sword was not there.
“Vince, the torches … douse the torches!”
Spencer shouted before taking a deep breath
diving under the water. Looking down he saw his
sword a hundred feet down and still sinking,
Spencer started swimming down as fast as he
could knowing that he had less than ninety
seconds to reach the sword and start his swim for
the surface otherwise he would die of
asphyxiation.
The sword landed on a ledge a hundred
and seventy feet below the surface of the water.
The surface of the water was lit up briefly
and the sound of something large entering the
water weakly passed Spencer’s ears as he passed
below a hundred and fifty feet.
On the surface Vince and Jessie climbed
out of the water on the far side of the bath and
went for different torches. The shade struck for
Vince leaving Jessie free to remove the third
torch and gloat.
“Hold it right there.” Jessie shouted
drawing the attention of the shade.
His attack quickly redirected to Jessie allowing
Vince to retrieve the final torch and discard it
into the water.
The shade dropped to the floor, half in the
water, holding itself up by its arms. Jessie
dropped the final torch into the darkened watery
depths. The weakened shade began to condense
into a smaller version of itself.
The shade eventually climbed out of the
water and lumbered toward Jessie.
“NO!” Vince shouted, “Leave her alone.”
Vince charged at the shade only to be
backhanded by it. Vince was knocked back.
The shade lurched closer to Jessie; she
had nowhere to go except into the water, before
she leapt she looked back at Vince.
As her feet left the dais, the shade
followed close behind. Jessie hit the water first
and the shadowy foe entered next landing only a
few feet behind, but did not move.
After a moment, the shade lost cohesion
and spread across the surface of the water like
crude oil. Then Spencer broke the surface
gasping for air.
“Where’s Vince?” Spencer asked.
“Up there.” Jessie replied, pointing up at
the dais.
“We better get out of the water then.”
Spencer said lifting his sword they made for the
nearest ledge.
The ground stated to shake as Spencer
and Jessie pulled them selves out of the water.
Spencer rolled out of the way as the water
seemed to dry up and turn into a sort of
cobblestone floor, the ceiling lowered forty feet
and the door on the other side of the room faded
revealing a descending stair case, slowly the
shaking stopped.
Spencer approached Vince and helped
him back to his feet.
“What the hell happened?” Vince asked.
“I would guess that we’re descending
through the nine circles of hell,” Spencer replied
then glanced outside the door they came in
minutes earlier. “I would guess it was gluttony.”
“So if we make a mistake…” Vince
started.
“We fight a demon.” Jessie observed.
“That would mean we have two doors we
can go through, the right door and the wrong
door.” Spencer guessed.
“How do we know which is which?”
Jessie asked.
“We don’t.” Spencer said “Of course
there is one other way to explain it.” Spencer let
the tension build for a few seconds, “It could be
certain circles of hell are guarded by something,
and in order to progress we have to win.”
Spencer guessed,
“If you’re right then it only stands to
reason that the further down we go the tougher
the fight will be.” Jessie concluded.
Spencer looked square at Jessie, “I hope
you’re wrong about that, but I doubt it.” Spencer
said before heading for the door, and the stairs
beyond.
Spencer emerged in what looked like a
Fraternity House. A door lined hallway extended
in both directions, a dead end sat to the right and
a sign hung warning passersby that there was no
exit, hung to the left.
Spencer reached for one of the doorknobs
and pushed the door open only to emerge from
another door in the hallway.
“Why did you do that?” Jessie asked.
“I thought one of these was the exit.”
Spencer replied.
“Are we in a frat house?” Jessie asked.
Spencer nodded.
That’s pretty much dead
on
,
girl
, he thought to himself.
“What circle of hell could this be?” Jessie
asked.
Spencer said nothing, Vince winked at
Jessie.
Spencer walked away from the
emergency exit and towards partially hidden
hallway that led to a small handful of pool tables,
the smell of cigarette ash tainted the felt on the
tables.
On the far wall there was a single door.
Spencer approached the door and inside
stairs descended.
Spencer led Vince and Jessie down the
stairs to an unpainted hallway that stretched on
for hundreds of feet. There was a door every
thirty to forty feet each marked with a generic
label, but few, if any, wares.
“Clothing store?” Vince asked as he
walked past one door.
At the end of the long hallway sat a solid door
that almost felt like it was armored by a steel
plate on either side of the door.
The door opened up to an elaborately
tiled mall floor. The tiles were almost mirrorpolished white ivory; each tile sparkled with the
faint light of the mall. Water sprayed up into the
air before it trickled down the multi-tiered
fountain, then Spencer stepped over to a nearby
railing and peered over. They sat atop the top
level of a mall that was at least fifty stories tall,
escalators crossed at random intervals.
“So, do we go down?” Jessie asked.
“I hope not.” Spencer replied.
“Why’s that?” Vince asked.
Spencer stared Vince in the face.
“Because, that’s a long way down.”
Spencer replied.
“I think we should find a map.” Spencer
suggested, and then he noticed a mall directory
across the vast open chasm that lay before him.
By then Jessie had already spotted a book store,
and was headed there.
“Jessie,” Spencer called, but Jessie did
not hear him.
“I’ll go with her.” Vince offered.
“We’ll meet back here in one hour
whether we found anything or not.” Spencer said
and Vince nodded before proceeding after Jessie.
Spencer walked quickly around the
perimeter of the shaft that was cut down through
the numerous levels of the mall toward the
directory, once there he began pouring over the
information presented.
The directory appeared to be a fully
interactive with a touch screen. Spencer pulled up
the search function and began a search for an exit
to the labyrinth of consumerism.
In the bookstore Vince and Jesse started
their search for any information that might be
useful in their quest down through the nine
circles of hell or in their fight against Lucifer.
Jessie got intrigued when she found only one
book in the store, a book that was the size of a
phone book, bound in hard black leather.
Jessie pulled the cover open and began
flipping though the ancient pages.
“Vince, look at this.” Jessie said
excitedly.
Vince glanced at Jessie.
“You think we should take this with?”