What Following Brings (23 page)

Just as Eden slipped into another
bout
of intense melancholy, Yuri
'
s hand in her own, she saw a white
disk
appear like a
ray
of light five feet in front of
her.
She exchanged look
s
with Yuri, unable to find happiness in the Morsus
-
induced darkness, but she could feel one thing
—
hope.

She and Yuri ran toward the hole and
skidded to a stop when they reached it
.

“
You go first,
”
Yuri said.

“
Yuri, um…
”
She
gazed
down the one hundred foot drop to the world below and
watched
the soul speeding toward them at an alarming rate.
“
What if we fal
l and end in the river of souls?
”

“
We
'
ll end up here together at least
,
”
Yuri said.
“
Just go
.
”

Before
Eden
could say another word about it, Yuri pushed her into the white
disk
. She yelped, feeling as though she sank into
a pot of
pudding
, and
felt the ground give way beneath her. Her world faded around her, closing in around her eyes
,
ears
,
and everything else. She expe
cted a sudden drop to the
ground
, but that did not happen
. Instead she found th
e
gel-like consistency continued, slowing her progress
to the world below
.

On
the way down, she saw why the souls below had never noticed the strange world above them. The soul
who
had
“
passed on
”
to reincarnation was practically translucent
and had blank eyes
. She gasped as she
gazed
at him, realizing he must have become invisible when he floated up to the portal in the sky. She realized then everything here had a truly logical side to it. A soul could not just disappear.
It just
appeared
like they did.

As
she
glanced
at Yuri, she
noticed
his eyes were dead
from a Morsus trance
as
he descended with her.
And he was not alone. There, sta
nding
directly above
him
, was Asag, gazing at them in his original demon form. At his side stood the
evil
girl
who
had
climbed out of the river and stolen Yuri
'
s energy
. The col
d, pale-faced girl and the dark,
demonic Asag made a frightening pair, especially since Asag trembled with anger as she leaned over him and whispered in his ear.

And then the
disk
closed, though Asag had made no attempt to follow after her.
That
'
s
not good. He knows where we are
and the fact he didn
'
t come after us mean
s he is planning something.
Eden
gulped in fear.

Melancholy from the Morsus filled her, even as she
stared
down and saw they were quickly approaching a
D
emon city down below. She felt as if she would n
ever
be happy
again
, that Asag would get them no matter what they did. But the pressure of Yuri
'
s fingers upon her own reminded her she would not let that happen. She had to save them.

When their feet touched the ground, the force caused her knees to bend and
she toppled to the side
. She gasped, struggled to her feet, and then seized Yuri
'
s arm
.
He
trembled as if cold, though that was impossible.

“
Get up, Yuri,
”
she demanded.
“
Asag found us. Please. Please.
”

But Yuri didn
'
t move.

She
stared
up in panic, expecting to see Asag appear. He could come from the shacks
which
surrounded them. Maybe
Asag
could tear open the layers of the other world and appear out of nowhere and float down to her. She wouldn
'
t put it past him.

“
We have to get out of here,
”
she said, stepping backward.

Seconds later she felt intense anger, gripped her chest, and then everything grew dimmer.

Before
Eden
stood the sixty-six people.
Second Beast, still shaking,
paced
in front of the plains. He
moved slowly
. His
muzzle touched the ground and blew out foam upon the
sand
. Danielle gazed at him expectantly. Second Beast
looked
over and gazed into Satan
'
s eyes
.
Satan nodded at him, each of his ten eyes glowing with excitement. Second Beast
spun
and nodded at Danielle, and she picked up the
dagger
and stared at it.

“
Do it
,
”
Second Beast demanded.

With a groan, Eden quickly looked away before she could see what happened. She wasn
'
t sure she could take it if she saw. She
felt her heart fill with pain. No, people should not die like this. No one should die like this. Though she knew it would make Satan happy, that this was what he wanted all along, she opened her mouth and screamed,
“
No, stop it! Stop it!
”
to the air. Nobody listened. Nobody even knew she was there beside Satan and h
is demons, who loved the violence
so much grins appeared upon their twisted faces.

One by one, people picked up the dagger and killed themselves in the same way. Satan threw back his heads
;
all
five
of them opened their mouths and let out a twisted chorus of maniacal laughter. Clouds filled the sky
—
deep
,
dark
,
and grey
—
and
lightning
shot through them.

“
Yes, yes, yes!
”
Satan cried.
“
Let
the
life force
of all the humans
rain
down upon me. Let me bathe in it. Let us all bathe in it.
”

The sky cackled again as Satan continued to laugh and First Beast sniffed the air, licking his chops hungrily, all seven at the same time. Rain began to fall, but it was not ordinary rain. It was
blood rain with color
so deep
and dark it was almost black. It drenched Satan
'
s already festering skin, and the other demons
.
Lady Midday tossed her beautiful hair back and began to twirl and dance.

Eden stared down at herself as the red rain poured through her and thought,
What is this? How is this possible?
Though none of the crimson l
iquid could land on her, she wiped at her skin as if trying to clear the memory as well as the fluid from her surroundings. As she glanced up again, through the rainy haze, she gasped at the sea of corpses before her and took a step back.

Never would Eden forget what she saw as the
crimson
rain fell down. She would never forget this feeling, either
—
the sickness of her heart more powerful than any Morsus. With a cry of despair, she fell to her knees and shivered as she embraced herself, trying to comfort herself after all of the horrible images she saw. It was like trying to empty the beach of sand.

The last person bent down and collected the blade and then stared at it. It was a single, bony
,
girl who
appeared
as if she couldn
'
t have weighed more than a hundred pounds, even
soaking wet
. She stared at the blade
and then time
appeared
to slow down as she pushed the blade against her throat and took a
final,
shuddering breath.

Eden could see the blood beading on her skin and the way her
platinum
blonde hair
became
copper from the evil rain. Even though she saw things as if she gazed at Satan from behind him, she could make out the fact the girl
wore
a golden, heart-shaped necklace around her neck. A necklace somebody she had loved had
likely
given her.
And she could not bear to see anymore and turned her face away. She turned away so she didn
'
t have to see the evil anymore, didn
'
t have to see anything.

It
was done. Over. This was just like the Blood Stone ceremony. It made her feel we
a
k and hopeless the way she was forced to watch such horrible things happen but be unable to do anything about it. She shuddered and pressed her hands over her eyes, wishing she could chase out the images which would plague her mind for forever.

The
girl fell to the ground with the other corpses and thunder boomed once, loud
ly
, across the sky and the rain picked up. The earth below them began to shake, but the earthquake was so rhythmic it created a song. And Eden recognized the song. It was the song
she had heard
when she had first encountered
the
Morsus, back when she had visited the underground city of Moloch which stood just over the Blood Stone
'
s chapel.

Buildings had been carved out of the stones of the cavern, structures at least five stories tall and with glowing lights
attached. These
buildings were at least
five floors tall
. In between these grand buildings there was a large mass of souls, but they did not glow like Eden or the others. Their soul
'
s glow was black.

The most frightening thing about this large mass of souls was the fact they moved together in perfect unison and made the same sound across the cavern. Thwack, thwack, boom. Thwack, thwack, boom. It went on, over and over again.

Eden heard
the
song
then
.
Thwack, thwack, boom. Thwack, thwack, boom.
It did not stop
, and the ground below her trembled from
the noise
.

The ground below the corpses began to
crumble and fall
apart
. They
tumbled downward, into the hole below. Still the same sounds continued. Thwack, thwack, boom. Thwack, thwack, boom. The cracks got deeper and the earth began to part even faster, as if the plains were a stage and two wheels had been beneath the surface the entire time, just ready to open for what was below.

“
Come to me, my two million horsemen from the depths of hell,
”
Satan said.
“
Let us torment and enslave the world that should have been
ours
from
the beginning
.
”

All the corpses tumbled below as the crevices
grew
wide enough.
Along with
the same beat
—
thwack, thwack, boom
,
t
hwack, thwack, boom
—
there was the sound of distant thuds as co
rpses hit walls and bounced. Eventually, the world was once again silent except for th
e
same strange rhythm
which
continued to pulse beneath the surface of the earth.