Where All Souls Meet (13 page)

Her mom slowly and shakily wobbled to her feet too. The back of her dress was wet from the melted ice.

"He was a different person back then." Her mom smiled at her. For just a moment, Eden could swear warming affection was in her eyes. "We both were."

"I guess everybody changes." With a smile, Eden glanced around the bustling rink. "Want to try again?"

Her mom glanced around the ring and shrugged. "Why not? I've already fallen once."

When Eden grabbed her mom's hand again, her mom let go of the wall and glided.

Satan's voice jarred her from her memory. "Not good enough now, huh?"

With a cry, she screamed and felt him plunge in past the shell which guarded her innermost memories. She was glad he went there because the more he focused on her, the less he thought about her friends.

Satan went still above her. "Friends? Have you been hiding something from me?"

Eden shut her eyes and he delved in more.
Oh, no. What have I done?
She scrambled to put her guard back up.

"You hide nothing from me," Satan said. "This, I will not allow."

Satan dived straight into the deepest, most vulnerable parts of her heart. He had been playing with her before, she realized. He had batted away her defenses as if they were nothing the moment he sensed a problem. And he would find his answer. Hopefully, her friends had had enough time.

Satan pushed his way into the worst memory he could find. It was when she had spoken with Natalia, her guardian angel, who had told her what she must do in order to save the world.

"Find the five people with great love," Natalia said. "You already have found two of them. Bring them back to where the worlds connect, the place where your journey began. Hatred shut the gates of heaven, but love can open them up again. This is your task to get to heaven, Eden."

When Satan moved his hand to the left, he found Adanna's memory in her heart, the one where she had been trapped in the fire and needed to aid her sister.

The world was dark and filled with smoke and fire. Adanna's hand was covered in blood from where she had fallen. The smell of fire filled the air and the hall was dark.

"Adanna. Adanna, help me."

Growling, Satan journeyed deeper. He found Aaron in her heart.

Aaron was in the jungle on his knees. He was lined up with several other soldiers. Corpses were beside him. A man paced in front of him, holding a gun.

"Do you denounce it?" the U.S. Army soldier said, looking him in his eye.

"No," Aaron said.

"No," Satan said. Eden screamed in pain and flailed wildly.

Yuri left his apartment building and rushed over to his car. It was night and the streetlights were dim. A blonde-haired woman named Daisy lingered by a wall, smoking.

"Off to chase that mom of yours again, huh?" Daisy asked, as he rushed to his car. "Third time this month she's done this. When are you going to face the music and learn once a crazy person, always a crazy person? She's just using the fact you love her as an excuse to take you for everything you have."

A deep, low growl left Satan's throat and he pushed until Eden swore her soul would break. She felt her own thoughts become dim.

Now she was with Edward, in the middle of the Hooverville. It was dark and dirty by the fire. The sound of crickets filled the night.

"How much will you give my family?" Edward asked.

"Enough," Douglas said.

Eden then knew what memory he would find next.
I hope I was in time. I hope they'll open the gates before Satan finds them.
Her eyes shut as her energy left her. It was impossible a soul could feel so tired, but she did. More pain seared her heart as Satan found the part of her which hurt the most.

Rebecca sat by Lizzy's hospital bed in a white on white room. The room was quiet and lonely.

"Oh, please, please, wake up," Rebecca said. "Please."

There was once again nothing but silence. Rebecca stared at her friend, pleading with her to wake up. Her bottom lip quivered.

"I gave up my fashion show for you, Lizzy," Rebecca said. "The one thing I've always wanted more than anything else in the whole world. You understand why you have to wake up now, don't you? Don't you?"

In his rage about what he had just seen, Satan stood and Eden screamed as she rolled onto the ground at the foot of his throne. Even the shadow demons backed away from him now, frightened of his wrath. Satan stepped down from his throne and seized her by her neck. Pain seared through her soul at his burning touch and the sound of his voice.

All five of his heads spoke. "You blocked your thoughts from me. Where are they? What have you done?"

"You… lose…" Eden said.

Satan, understanding, dropped her on her back and turned to gaze at the chapel to his right. With another growl of anger, he stormed toward it, only now a bright white light ripped through the heavens and the ground shook below them. The dark red beam of light shooting from the Blood Stone temple was replaced by a bright white light. It cut through the darkness in the sky and parted the darkness as if it was a curtain of blackness.

I did it. I actually did it.
Eden lay back on the ground with her eyes wide.
I can't believe it.

The ground rumbled and, with a roar, sunlight appeared again in the sky of red. The shadows let out screams of horror as they guarded their faces and fell backward. Just like the black veil in the sky, the light tore through them; they dissipated into a mist and were gone. As the darkness disappeared completely, there was the sound of many Satan Spawn screeching came from behind her. The mist, which was at her feet, began to withdraw at a rapid pace. As the golden light touched the retreating vapor, the clouds disappeared in steam, floated upward, and then disappeared.

Satan stood, all five heads gaping and wide-eyed, and let out a loud, ringing wail. He screamed again and again, louder and louder. His voice cut through her ears, causing them to burn.

The sound of sweet, heavenly music filled the air as dots poured from the sky and flew downward. It took Eden a moment to realize what those dots were. Angels. Angels poured from the open gates of heaven. She sat up and spun around and watched as the dead plains in front of her went from yellow to green, the smell of flowers filling the air. Eden shut her eyes and listened to the call of the heavens, so moved she felt as if her heart was full. She had not realized how dark the world was until this moment, until she felt the presence of God again. It was like being overwhelmed with love that filled every inch of her soul. It was warm and hopeful. Beautiful. When she opened her eyes, she beamed — in relief, in hope, in so many things. It was over. No more fighting demons in dark pits, no more anything. She had accomplished a greater task than she had ever imagined possible, and with her success, she felt something she had never felt before. Pride in herself and the belief she was actually worth something.

She was a person worthy of being here. Self-love filled her, the one thing she had needed to learn. A smile crossed her face as she realized there had been a reason behind her task after all.

Are my friends okay?
She ran from the street, ignoring the sound of thuds behind her by an unknown source, and sprinted toward The Blood Stone chapel. When she arrived, her five friends left the chapel along with Henry and Thema. Bathed in light, the chapel didn't appear formidable anymore. It looked sad and small. It was hard to imagine so much evil had poured from the building.

"Eden," Yuri said when he saw her. He crunched over broken glass upon the ground as a big grin lit up his face.

"Eden," Thema said.

"You're okay," her mom said.

"Thank Heavens," Edward said. "We all thought you… you…"

A strange expression crossed Adanna's face. She appeared to be staring over Eden's left shoulder.

A bright light flashing above her distracted her from Adanna. The light was not like she had seen before. She saw flowers and sunlight and smelled Earth. She realized she was about to be sent to heaven.

"Eden, behind you," Adanna said for the first time. Her voice was deep for a girl's, just like she remembered it.

The world stilled. Seconds before she was pulled upward to enter the disk of light, two cold hands wrapped around her waist; she smelled death and tasted sulfur upon her tongue. Her friends gasped and she stared straight into Adanna's eyes.

"I may not have the world, but I will get you," Satan said from behind her. "Did you think I would ever let you go after what you have done?"

Then she was ripped backward at such a rapid pace her eyes blurred. A pair of hands locked her to a cold chest. Satan's five heads glared at a shattered piece of glass on the ground. Before her friends could react, Satan stared down into the reflective glass and growled. In the image, Eden saw a world of darkness and endless plains.

She realized she was not going to heaven. She was going somewhere worse than Zemithstai and the other world. She was going to hell.

When Eden was pulled through the mirror, she arrived in a world full of endless darkness. Hell was different than what she had imagined. There was no endless fire which filled the soul and seared the heart. There weren't even pits of lava or caves in sight. No, the first thing Eden could say about hell was
loneliness.
There was barren land all around her and sizzling heat. Terrible, terrible heat from an unknown source.

Eden spun around and stared at Satan.

"Welcome to hell," he said. "The place I call my home. The place God has condemned me to."

"He didn't send you here," Eden said. "
You
sent
you
here. You shouldn't have betrayed Him."

"Still a mouthy little monster, even here where God has no voice," Satan said, grabbing her neck and holding her. "He sent me here, and all the people in the world who could not complete their precious tasks will end up as my personal guests when the world ends for good. You didn't know that about your God, did you? The humans don't need me to destroy them. They'll destroy themselves, and at the end, this is where most of them will end up. Some kindness he shows you. Some mercy. But I'm not complaining. So many will belong to me and
so will you
."

With a growl, Satan threw her to the ground. The soil was so hot it was like being placed on a skillet, but this time, her energy didn't go anywhere. All she felt was searing agony.

"Ugh,"
she said, jumping to her feet. She danced around, fighting down the urge to scream, even as her feet seared through her shoes. Her fists clenched as she tried to endure the agony.

"No reincarnation once you get here, either," Satan said. "Just pain.
Endless.
Wonderful."

Get me out of here.
Eden continued to hop from foot to foot, wincing each time her skin made contact with the ground. Her breath left her chest in shaky gasps. She found herself sympathizing with meat on a barbeque – the heat and pain were endless. Her feet should have been shriveling and bubbling with blisters.

"You are going to regret everything you have done, Eden," Satan said. "You are going to be trapped here. But first, I'm going to leave you alone."

"What?" Eden felt shocked.

"Don't you know?" Satan asked. "You are such a pathetic race. You claim constantly, 'I do this on my own, I do that on my own. I don't need anyone.' Meanwhile, God stays behind you wiping your butts and pushing you the right way when you get lost. Here, there is no God. You are going to feel it now. Somebody like you, who has been helped the most, is going to miss Him and I am going to enjoy watching."

"Wait." Eden raised her hand.

But Satan was gone. She didn't know how he managed to disappear so quickly or where he had gone to, but Eden found herself standing alone in the middle of heat-filled hell. Suddenly she felt deep, intense loneliness. It crept through her soul and straight into her heart. A groan of despair burst from her throat before she could stop it.
You have to walk… Have to walk… Have to get out of here.

She tried to fight down the horrifying thought there was no escape. Not this time.