The Deal (7 page)

I moved to step past him but before I could
even put my foot down he shot out an arm, a black gloved palm
stopping me in my tracks.

‘
I understand that your deal
encompasses demands only made by our master. However I would like
to request your help with a matter that would keep me and my
brothers in his good graces.’ I couldn't be sure, but for a
moment,
I was certain I could detect a note of fear in the monks’
voice. Which of course was odd in its own way considering he was
born into the darkness instead of dragged into it like us
earthbound
souls.

‘
Sorry but the less I have to deal
with all the shit Hell has to throw at me the better I feel.’ His
palm was still extended outwards and I made no move to try and get
past him despite the fact that by refusing him I could very well
end up in some seriously deep shit.

‘
I can't make the kind of deals
our master can, but if you are willing to help us we can give you
something that will help you break the bond between you and or
master.’

Suddenly I felt very interested in what this
rather frightening being had to say.

‘
The only way to break the deal is
to
accept
an eternity in Hell. I'm not willing to go that
far until I can get my wife out of there.’ I kept my words guarded.
There was no reason not to think the monks offer could be one of
Satan’s little tricks.

‘
Oh,
there is a way to break the deal Samuel and still
keep the gifts bestowed upon you by our dark saviour. However, you
must help me and my brothers before I am willing to tell you more.’
I'm pretty certain at that point there was a grotesque,
twisted
smile, growing on his face. ‘I assure you, there is no
trickery involved.’

I could feel the craving for a
cigarette suddenly take hold and after a moment of
searching,
I finally found my pack and lighter and lit one
up. The intoxicating smoke was like a brief burst of heaven for my
body.

‘
Okay.’ I said. Exhaling a cloud
of smoke with a gust of air. ‘What do you want from me?’

‘
I and my brothers are guardians
of a very special scroll which dictates the bond between demon and
Hell. It has magical properties which prevent some of our
lord's
more important demon lords from travelling through
onto
the earthly plane…’

I could already tell where this was going and
decided to complete the story for him.

‘
Let me guess. One such Demon Lord
has stolen this sacred scroll and used it to drag his slimy
ass
into
this world and you want me to get rid of him and
get your scroll back.’

The monk seemed to shift a little
uncomfortably at the mention of the scroll. This was obviously a
sore spot for him.

‘
You are right about the scroll
being stolen,
however,
to break its spell you have to
burn it in Argol’s Fire. Once the holder of the scroll does that a
permanent portal will open allowing passage between both
worlds.
Hermetia
is a very powerful demon
capable of great death and carnage. He has no care for the human
race and would simply come here to destroy it.’

This was starting to sound more complicated as
the conversation went on and I could actually feel the monk
squirming under his robe.

I got the sense that time was of the essence
and I figured he could fill in the rest of the details as we
went.

‘
Well,
we best get to business. I get the feeling you
need the scroll back in your possession as quickly as
possible?’

‘
Yes. We should get moving now. It
won't take long before Hermetia figures out what he must do to
create the portal.’

I wasn't quite sure what to expect next. My
previous journey to Hell had been via a car crash and I wasn't
looking to re-create the experience.

This
time,
I was pleased to discover all it
would take is a swipe of the monks’ gloved hand.

I watched, admittedly a
little
awestruck
like a child watching an
illusionist, as my new friend the monk waved his hand and the air
around us began to twist and rotate violently until a swirling mass
of clouds appeared before us.

I opened my mouth, intending to
ask him how he did such a magic
trick
and got the surprise of
my life when he firmly gripped my hand and dragged me towards the
violent swirling mass.

If I had the time to scream I probably would
have, but as it turns out a trip to Hell is actually extremely
quick. Before I could utter a word I found myself standing in a
long narrow corridor lined with burning torches.

The monk turned to face me and I stared
directly back at the void where his face should have been. The air
felt one hundred times more oppressive than it had been just
moments ago in the thief’s apartment, and although I may never know
exactly what it was he stole, it paled in comparison to this sacred
scroll business.

‘
There are some things you must
keep in mind while you are here, Samuel.’ He said, his voice full
of doom.

‘
Oh really? I’m guessing this
isn’t going to be a walk in the park. Not like it ever is when it
comes to working for the horny one and his
Hellspawn
.’ My not so
gentle sense of humour was lost on the holy man of
Purgatory.

‘
The place you are about to enter
is the lower region of Hell. This is the place where all souls are
first entered into and processed on to their final destinations.
There is a very good chance you may recognise people you have known
on the earthly plane.’

If I was not mistaken it sounded like the
hooded demon was trying to protect me. Although in the back of my
mind I was chronically aware that I was just as expendable as all
the other poor souls who entered into this nightmarish
place.

I plodded along behind him, silently wondering
if I was being led to my own private Hell, as he continued to
speak.

‘
Hermetia
takes great pleasure in
watching the continued torturing of souls. As a servant of our
master, me and my brothers cannot be harmed by anything other than
the lord himself, so as long as you stay near me nothing bad can
happen to you while you’re here…’

‘
But?’ I
said
expecting that
there would be a pretty big catch in his statement somewhere, and I
wasn’t wrong.

‘
Argo’s fire is located in the
great hall where no one except
Hermetia
is allowed to go. Any
attempt by anyone to enter that building while he is there will
result in immediate banishment to the outer regions.’ I could tell
the big monk was trying to explain to me in the best way possible
that basically once I was on the mission I was on my
own.

‘
Will you lead me to this great
hall?’ I was curious to see just how far this holy man of Hell was
willing to go to help me.

‘
Yes, but I can’t follow you
inside and I will not be able to stop them from seeing you once you
are in.’

‘
Okay, that’s fair enough. I
wasn’t expecting it to be all that easy. But if I somehow manage to
get my hands on this scroll what do I do with it? Who do I take it
to?’

There was no hesitation this time.

‘
You bring it back to the
monastery where I will meet you….’

I was surprised as he stopped suddenly and
turned to look at me. He pointed a long, languid finger in my
direction. His voice seemed deeper and much more menacing than it
had done up until this point.

‘
I promise
you,
Samuel. If
you bring the scroll back to my monastery I will help you break the
deal you made with my master.’

‘
I certainly hope so big guy.’ I
said and followed after him through a non-descript wooden doorway
into a place that I just wasn’t prepared for.

Initially,
it was the smell that hit me
before any of my other senses would tune into the world presented
before me. It was the scent of meat that had been left to rot in
the heat for days at a time. Although in this case it was probably
safe to assume that in this case the meat had been rotting for
decades.

The room we stepped into was, at
first glance once my eyes focused, a massive barn. The only problem
was that there
were
no horses here. No friendly
looking farm hands working out their day caring for the
animals.
Instead,
the wall directly facing us
was lined from the floor to the ceiling with small cages. They were
just big enough to house a different kind of animal.

Humans.

I could feel my jaw slowly drop as I stared at
the massive collection of naked flesh laid out before me. Men and
woman of all ages and sizes, bruised, bleeding and whimpering with
fear, stared back out at us, their eye’s begging for mercy, which
sadly wasn’t going to come. At least not while I was
there.

My gaze landed on a bearded man
squatting within his cage which was just a few feet up
off
the floor. As he squirmed around I noticed a thick red
trickle of blood continually pour from a gaping wound where his
groin should be.

I turned my attention to the cage next to him
where a young red haired woman stared out. Despite being dirty and
matted with bruises it was obvious that when she was alive she had
been a good looking woman and I wasn’t ashamed to feel a slight
rush of excitement as I watched her ample breasts move with her
body.

Turning my attention away from her just in
case I created a sword that I couldn’t get rid of in time, I tried
to ignore the sea of desperation and take in the rest of the room,
which is something that I began to regret almost
instantly.

In the centre of the room was what
I thought to be a solid wooden table until I noticed that it had
wooden limbs making it look like a large wooden sculpture rather
than just a normal table. Apart from the leather restraints on the
end of each
limb,
I noticed that the wood was
soaked with blood and some of it was still so fresh it was dripping
to the floor.

‘
Try and keep your
focus,
Samuel,’ Said the monk, who must have been sensing my fear
was beginning to rise.

I couldn’t help but recognise the irony in it
all. Here I was a professional killer, with a free pass to come and
go from Hell, the one place known to man that actually put the fear
of god into me. And yet I could not bring myself to look any longer
at the tortured souls staring out at us with terrified
eyes.

‘
We should get moving, time is not
on our side.’ Said the Monk, his voice a little above a
whisper.

I was about to follow after him when he
stopped suddenly. The sound of two, deep, scratching voices, came
from outside the buildings wooden doors and without warning one of
them bust open. Two Demons, their skin a slimy mottled grey and
their wings the same colour, staggered into the room. Their wings
flapping lazily behind them like they had been attached as more of
an afterthought than for any actual purpose.

The monk was frozen. His gaze remained firmly
on the two grotesque creatures who were examining the contents of
the lower cages as if they were picking their next meal. Which, as
it just occurred to me, could possibly be the case.

I decided to follow the monks lead and keep my
breathing as shallow as possible. I wasn’t sure what it would take
to get those creatures attention, and despite possessing something
that was capable of literally knocking their heads clean off their
bony bodies, I decided I wasn’t quite up for that kind of fight
just yet.

So we watched.

One of the demons, slightly smaller than the
other with hints of red near the tips of his wings, pointed to the
good looking woman who tried to push herself as far back into the
cage as she possibly could. Unfortunately, for both me and her, she
was still easy enough for the other gargoyle-like creature to reach
in and grab her by her arm.

The terror and realization of what was to come
suddenly hit the woman like a bullet to the head and she started
screaming. She tried with all her might to dig her heels into the
concrete floor.

It still wasn’t
enough,
though. The demons let out a loud, gurgling sound that could
easily have passed as laughter, as they dragged the distraught soul
to the large wooden table in the centre of the room. It was then
that I noticed it had been positioned perfectly so that every set
of eye’s in the room could get a good view of what was about to
happen.

What was going to happen to her? I
wanted to ask the monk, but he wasn’t moving and certainly wasn’t
talking. I
knew,
either way,
they weren’t about to sit down
and have a naked drinking session with her.