Read What Following Brings Online
Authors: S. E. Campbell
What Following Brings (24 page)
Below there was roaring and inhuman, high-pitched screaming and keening. Volcanic ash pulsed upward toward the surface in a fine red mist filled with heat. The air above the hole in the ground had an orange glow to it. Then there was more
crying
as well as the rhythmic beat.
Thwack, thwack, boom. Thwack, thwack, boom
.
The roaring grew closer and closer, louder and louder. Soon, creatures poured from the hole at such an alarming rate it was like
a
geyser
of dark, twisted creatures. At first, she had trouble
even
focusing on each individual being,
since
they flowed together and acted like a
body of water, just like those with
Moloch had.
The creatures
resembled
Chimeras
. They were twe
nty feet tall horses with black
decay
ing
wings
,
like Satan
'
s, but instead of horse heads, they had the full, bushy ma
nes
of lions as well as large, fang filled mouths and fat, pink tongues
which
lolled
out of
them
. When they whipped around, Eden saw they did not have the long, flowing tails of horses. Instead they had tan, scaly, dry lizard tails
which
matched their fur.
The herd of creatures did not bother to stop and talk to Satan,
which
Eden
had
expected. They
burst
forth
,
like
guts
from the injured earth
,
and poured across the land. . The
sound of human screaming filled the air. One of the
horsemen
let out a screech of delight and exhaled a
fiery
breath
,
which reached
twenty feet in front of
him
, and
torched a tree
;
it groaned and fell to the ground with a loud, resounding crack.
“
You will never defeat me now,
”
Satan whispered.
Somehow, deep down, she knew his words were intended for her to hear.
****
“
Eden, Eden,
”
Yuri said, shaking her.
“
Come out of it, Eden. We made it.
I moved you to a room in town, and we
'
re safe now.
And I got some holy water. Everything is okay now.
”
Eden screamed and sat up, remember
ing
what had happened to all of those people
who had
died
. With a cry of despair she buried her face in her hands and tried to claw the image from her eyes
,
though she knew she could never forget
what she had seen
. Yuri gasped and she felt his arms wrap around her
body
.
“
Yuri, I saw what he
'
s done,
”
she said.
“
The
E
arth is dying. He has unleashed a force so terrible I didn
'
t even know it existed. Because of him, people started taking their own lives and the sky bled, just like the mural
in the Blood Stone cavern
showed me it would.
”
“
It
'
s okay, Eden,
”
Yuri said.
“
It is not okay,
”
she said.
“
The sky bled, Yuri. The sky
bled
.
”
She
shuddered and brought her knees up to her chin. She saw she was in the middle of a house
which
was aglow with lamps
and that there were several bottles of holy water at her feet. There was a group of six
people
in the room too, two of
whom
wore black soldiers
'
clothes
. T
hey stared at her as if she was
crazy
. She was beginning to feel like she was
too
.
“
Are you okay now?
”
Yu
ri asked, sounding concerned.
“
No,
”
Eden said.
“
But after what I
'
ve seen, I doubt I will be again.
”
“
Me either, Eden. Me either.
”
Yuri
drew her to him
and she leaned her head against his shoulder.
She inhaled and smelled the way his skin had its own amazing and calming scent. All she could think was,
Thank heavens he
'
s here.
She shuddered.
“
Asag is on his way, Yuri. We have to figure out how to get rid of him.
”
“
I know that, too.
”
Eden walked
quickly
, hand in hand with Yuri. The two of them headed through the town
;
she
tried
to ignore the whispers and the stares. The town was small, like most of those in purgatory, and there were many build
ing
s half-caved
in
and still smelling of smoke from recent fires.
More people had survived than she would have expected
,
and Eden hat
ed how people kept bumping her
. Everywhere she
looked
, she pictured Asag
'
s face. With somebody as ordinary
looking
as he in human form, he could be watching them already, hiding in the crevices of an alleyway.
Just as
Eden
walked by a small shack, she
turned
and saw what appeared to be
a banged up sheet of metal
.
Releasing Yuri
'
s hand, she took a step toward
the pane
and
stared
into the metallic surface.
I swore I saw something.
“
Yuri,
”
Eden said, turning toward
him
.
“
There was movement in here. I mean, beyond
us
.
”
“
Come on,
”
Yuri said, seizing her hand
again
. She could tell by his hard expression he believed her.
“
Do not look into anything reflective. You saw Asag enjoys traveling by
mirrors
. It
'
s
probably because his reflection is so hideous his own
appearance causes
pain in others.
”
“
Do you think he
'
s out of the other world already?
”
Eden asked.
“
Eden, the demons own the other world
now
,
”
Yuri said.
“
I don
'
t think Asag
is actually trying
. He
'
s playing with us.
”
“
And what do we do?
”
Eden said.
“
If
he can see us through every mirror
, then we
'
ll be running for forever. And we have to get back to Adanna and Aaron. I
'
m certain they
'
re waiting for us back at the old prison. They waited for me before, so they
'
ll do it again.
”
“
What else do you suggest we do
but run
?
”
Yuri asked.
“
We can
'
t beat a demon, Eden. Human souls do not have the strength to compare to them. We can maim them and get rid of them with holy water, but they are powerful and they can
'
t die. At least, I
'
ve never
heard of one
who
was killed by a human
.
”
But
his
words stuck a th
ought in Eden
'
s head.
“
We can maim them and get rid of them.
”
Of course they could. Back when she was alive, she had been a horror movie junkie. She remembered a time
back in
her family home
.
She sat in front of the television
in the dark all alone. A horror movie blazed on television, and she watched it with a pillow
hugged
against her chest. The main character
chanted
some holy words over a
skinny
actor in
the middle of
what appeared to be a seizure. H
er heart thundered in her chest
and she was so scared, so convinced it was real
,
she knew she would not sleep that night. When a
person
appeared at the threshold of the room, she nearly leapt out of her skin.
“
Eden,
”
her mom said, flicking on the light and then gazing at the TV and wrinkling her nose.
“
Goodness. How can you watch movies like this?
”
At the moment, she questioned that herself.
“
I don
'
t know.
”
“
Your
father always watches
this junk too. You must get it from him. And honestly, in every supernatural horror I walk in on, they always end in the same way
â
priest
exorcises spirit, spirit is too powerful and kills everyone but the protagonist, and then
the main character
somehow manages to finish whatever
mumbo
-jumbo she needs and the activity stops. Then, in the last scene, so unexpectedâ
”
Her mom
clapped
her hands together and then
moved
them
apart, palm
s
up, creating a mock rainbow
,
“
âthe main character discovers she didn
'
t get rid of the horrible spirit at all and she is about to die. You watch, Eden. You watch.
”
Then her mom sat on the couch beside Eden and stared at the screen, enraptured.
Yuri grabbing her arm drew her from the memory
. She
stared into his eyes with hope. Would an exorcism work in the afterlife?
“
Yuri, what if we perform an exorcism?
”
Eden asked.
“
It could work, couldn
'
t it? It is casting an evil being out of a certain place.
”
“
Eden,
”
Yuri
'
s eyes widened,
“
exorcisms need
God
to work. Do you
think Asag will fear God when the gates of heaven have been closed?
”
“
I hate zombies, Yuri,
”
Eden said.
“
I really,
really
,
am frightened of the
m.
”
Raising an eyebrow, Yuri gazed at her with a frown.
“
Okay, I think you
'
re trying to get at something, but I am not sure what it is. There are no zombies in purgatory. I think it
'
s the demon trying to attack us through mirrors we have to worry about.
”