I stuck around St. Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the czar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain
I rode a tank
Held a general's rank
When the blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
Ah, what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah
Rolling Stones-Sympathy for the Devil 1
“And in hell he lifts up his eyes, being in torments...” Luke 16:23
2
In the Shadows of Heaven (an Unholy Alliance)
Chapter Five
Nikki stood holding the curtain. The tapestry that had been hanging a few short seconds ago concealed two crescent shaped, jade green, steps leading up and out a door to a balcony. She moved cautiously gliding up the stairs and out onto the terrace. 3
Laid out in front of her was Hell in all its demonic, tortuous glory. The land spread out beneath her like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Streams of smoke and gas spiraled up into the air from crevices and fissures bursting randomly from the unholy land. Rivers of molten lava crisscrossed before her, twisting and turning in an extreme frenzied rage. Fireballs streaking from somewhere above were slamming violently into the fiery rivers causing explosions that would level a city the size of New York. She could see this was going to present a problem if she chooses that way to make her escape. 4
To her right, the land was covered in darkness, so complete that light died at the mere touch of it. Sounds of horrific screams and of great bodies slithering about, along with the clashing of mighty teeth, followed again by the cries of the damned pleading for mercy, floated up to her ears. 5
Off to the same side, but further down the valley, was a golden gate set above coal black lacquered stairs that cut and scared the ground as it descended into the bowels of Hell. The gate was manned by Azza,whose name mean's he who constantly falls. Nikki knew the gate he ushered the doomed souls through was the entrance to the bottomless pit. The souls, who were thrown into it, were made to keep one eye open so they could see and suffer the never ending decent, all the while being harassed by winged creatures that swooped in to rip great chunks of flesh from their plummeting bodies, only to grow back so the assault could begin again. 6
She wanted to turn away as the tears stained her cheeks listening to the wails and cries of forgiveness that assailed her ears, but she couldn’t. She tried to tell herself they were here for a reason. That they had sinned against God and man, but it didn’t help her aching heart as she listened to their anguish and despair. Directly in front of her, beginning with the Third Level, was the Tower of Judgment. 7
There were nine layers to this tower, all forming circles, one above the other.
This was the tower Dante saw in his dreams. She knew that was the way out. She was situated on the Third Level or Third Heaven, if you prefer.The tower sliced up through the nine heavens merging, but completely separate. Hell was always off in the shadows. The Third Heaven was rather unique as it was the only level in which you could enter either Heaven or Hell. Hell being to the North and Heaven’s entrance to the South. She would ponder the tower later. 8
Her eyes swept past the looming distant monstrosity to the enormous Lake of Fire and Brimstone. Fire demons floated upon this lake in their little one man skiffs forged from these very fires. The skiffs were pointed at the bows with flat bottoms that were covered in crocodilian skin about the outer hulls and jagged chainsaw teeth dragging low along the sides and stern, all the while being propelled through the blazing lake by great reptilian tails varying in size, some eight feet, while others no more then two feet. The demons carried long shafts that were forked out at the end and tipped with dragons' teeth that spewed dark red liquid that burned and scared any lost soul they touched. 9
They scour the lake for the damned trying to escape the inferno. It is their job to poke, prod and push the helpless sinners back and under the tortuous flames for eternity. They drip their black sewage into the torn flesh where it becomes a black worm like invader with teeth an inch long, using those little daggers to burrow into the soul causing pain beyond description (and there will be gnashing of teeth).
For those they miss, the chainsaw teeth grab and bite deep, dragging their helpless victims about the lake until a new victim appears, and then they are tossed back to float endlessly among the sea of flames. Their screams not even human anymore. Nikki stood barley breathing watching this amusement park of the damned run like a well-oiled machine. 10
Further to her left she could see a large platform where she could just make out what looked like ants scurrying about with no apparent destination in mind.
Lighting struck the platform causing a great fissure to open swallowing up any ant in the vicinity, only to be replaced by new contestants, which she now recognized as people, not ants. The platform rested on a large single shaft positioned underneath right in the middle, and the platform swayed and tipped to whatever side the weight of the terrified souls was greatest. Below were hundreds of wild hell hounds waiting for any soul to tip the plate too far and fall into their clutches, where they would rush upon them, tear the flesh from their bodies and hungrily swallow it down. But that wasn’t all. 11
Back up above, for those that seemed to master the tipping platform, were crows.
Thousands of crows circling, then diving to pluck at the eyes of the sinners causing blindness and, soon after, pure madness, until they fall to the dogs or into the crevices yarning open after every lighting strike. The true madness, however, comes when the victim is deposited back on the platform to run blindly again until they are swallowed up or fall to the dogs over and
over again. The platform grew and shrunk to accommodate the multitude of sinners. That was Hell’s secret after all. It swelled in size as more and more sinners descended on the Torrid Zone. 12
However, where the true art of torture took place was along the River Styx now all aflame. The river flowed left to right, encircling the land and empting into and retreating out of the Lake of Fire. The torture took place along the river’s banks on a never ending line of racks. Screams of pain and terror assaulted her, beating on her and driving her to her knees. Her tears were flowing more freely now, but she couldn’t look away. The racks were placed exactly six feet apart from each other. In front of every one were tables fully equipped with instruments of the trade such as heretics' forks, lead sprinklers, thumbscrews, tongue tearers and breast rippers. These were only some of the torture devices laid out. Cackling and jumping about with devilish delight were the torturers, each one completely identical to the other. She couldn't tell how many there were of them, but there were hundreds, thousands, maybe millions!
There were so many of the same beast eliciting the dismemberment and debauchery with gleeful enthusiasm. It was a strange and horrible sight made even more macabre by the flames from the river leaping and licking at them as it flowed freely by. Body parts from the victims littered the ground in great mounds of torn bleeding flesh, while their blood mingled with the river of death, feeding it, giving it life. Nikki could endure it no longer. She backed up into the room pulling the curtain down, but still seeing the horror in her mind’s eye.
She was on her own. She couldn’t, nor should she expect help from the outside.
Clearing her mind, she hiked up her negligee (she still needed it intact for the moment) and began a series of moves resembling dance, until the moves began to speed up and the spins became crisper. She was a blur now and each step was perfect. 13
Punches, kicks and blocks all moving together as one. They were clean, precise and direct. She moved through her katas in quiet, like a mime.
Time flowed differently in the Atropos (realms of Heaven and Hell), so she had no idea how long she had already been here. She had no idea if it was today or yesterday or even three days ago that she received in a small palm sized envelope, trimmed in gold leaf, an invitation to dinner. When she had finished reading the invitation, she was startled to see a new door in the room. Where it had come from, she had no idea. It was just there. She didn’t question it was hell. Dropping the piece of paper, Nikki crossed the room and, without hesitating, pulled the door open to reveal a bathroom complete with a shower stall, mirror and all the accessories a woman could need or want. There were skirts, dresses and gowns hanging on beautiful golden wire hangers and shoes of every kind (flats, heels, sandals, clogs, mules, platforms). They flowed over the floor in abundance. Slowly she began to shift through the cloths looking for the appropriate wear. She chose a pair of black low rise pants. The shoes she chose were dark flats. She finished her ensemble with a form fitting brown tank top under a black bolero jacket. Her hair was pulled back tightly in a tail that hung down below her shoulders. After screening herself in the large mirror on the backside of the door to her now bathroom/dressing room, she dropped into a fighting stance checking the functioning ability of her choice.
She smiled slightly and stood back up straight. She would wait now. She was ready. 14
Dinner that night was held in a room of enormous size. Massive grey scarred pillars reached up into dark eves above. Carved into the pillars were scenes of cataclysmic events, wars and, of course, the battle for Heaven depicted on each and every pillar which themselves seeming to number in the hundreds. The scenes Nikki did not recognize she supposed showed a possible future with the Dark Lord reigning supreme. The room itself was large, and she felt small and insignificant among its walls, which were adorned with 12 of the 14 Stations of the Cross ending instead at the crucifixion to depict a dying Christ. Windows looked out on the barren landscape of death. Each window showed a different
scene of death and suffering taking place in the world; illnesses, plagues, battles and massacres. But her gaze was captured by the center window where lost souls floated by with their mouths open in silent screams of horror. Their eyes were dark pools of eternity lost in a well of tears. They no longer resembled their human forms. Each one advanced on the giant window, almost in single file, beseeching her to free them from this torment in limbo. The floor of the room was made of a hard clear substance. Smoke billowed up from below to crash against the under belly of the floor and spread out to show in intervals different scenes of tortuous going on in the fiery pit beneath her. She sat alone waiting for her host as her eyes searched for salvation, but always returning to the center window to watch the cavalcade of lost souls. Except this time there were no lost souls. They had been replaced. Now in the window were mountains set amidst a charred and smoking landscape. Red skies burned overhead dotted with winged creatures swooping slowly over the dead land scarred with the bones of doomed souls. Hundreds of wooden beams, three feet thick, set against each other forming x’s heralded the bones of their victims as an offering to the silent sweeping death above. But not all the stakes sported bones. 15
Some wore fresh meat, for that is what the poor souls draped across them looking like victims of the holocaust were called. Their eyes were sunken back in their heads and their tongues darting in and out trying to catch the ever evaporating rain drops that tantalized and teased them before disappearing. The newer victims, the fresh meat, instead of chasing the mirage of a thirst quenching salvation, pointed their faces to the sky crying out in sorrow, begging God for forgiveness, soon turning to anger, then defiance. 16
Nikki stood slowly. Her eyes were locked on the events before her, on the three figures making their way through the dead land. As her eyes spied the three figures almost simultaneously, so did the winged demons and in a flash, they began to dive on them like Japanese zeros on a kamikaze mission. One of the figures was a dog that leaped high into the air grasping between its teeth the
leg of the demon that came closest to it. Slowly the dog was being raised off its feet into the air as the creature beat furiously with its wings trying in vain to dislodge the snarling beast. Sensing its predicament, the dog began to jerk its body spasmodically back down towards the ground. The demon was losing the battle. 17
It was losing altitude with each jerk until the dog, feeling its hind legs touching down, suddenly let go. In a blink of an eye, the dog crouched and leapt, landing fully on the devil, driving it even further to the ground while tearing a chunk of flesh from its neck. The rending and tearing were terrible to behold until only the dog stood victorious. One wing was standing alone from the dying demon, if such could die, pointing toward the sky.
It would never soar again. Then it began to drop to lay flat on the ground. Nikki’s eyes darted to the left of the screen sparked by a flash. Another of the flying demons dropped headlong towards the ground. A hole was spreading neatly on its chest with a black tarry substance oozing out of it. Nikki's sharp inhale hissed over her teeth as one word slid from between her tightly sealed lips. “Victor”! Indeed it was Victor and his little group now under siege from the winged devils. She began to move forward slowly as her hand reached out to touch the screen where Victor stood. "My Love." Though she felt a sense a pride in the fact that he was coming for her, her fear for him over ran all. 18
"Go back, my love. Leave me to my fate.” she whispered, as if he
could hear. The old man seemed familiar to her, though she could not place him yet. Her eyes narrowed as she strained to recall where she had recognized him from, but could not. All her attention was chained to the battle taken place before her. 19
She watched as the demons now numbering in the thousands, maybe millions. “My name is Legion” she mumbled, “for we are many”. 20
Now, gathered some hundred feet in the red burning sky as if in conference, they merged and swirled about above the three figures. Then, as if on cue, the monsters dove straight at the puny three who dared to challenge them. Blotting out the sky behind them as they rushed down, their wings sounded like a freight train rushing down the tracks magnified a hundred fold. Nikki stood straight with her shoulders back, holding her breath. They cannot survive this final onslaught, she thought. Fear rose up in her heart, she longed to rush out of her prison to stand and die beside him. The demons were almost upon them when the screen changed suddenly. 21
Nikki leapt back, crouching into a fighting stance, cursing under her breath as the all too familiar features of Lucifer
materialized in the window. 22
“TV is so boring these days, don’t you think? The same thing day in and day out.” the Devil said, nonchalantly. 23
“What was I watching? Was it an illusion or reality?” she asked, through gritted teeth. 24
“Oh no, my dear, it is all happening as we speak.” he answered, as he stepped through the screen and into the room with her. "And I’m afraid there isn’t much hope for your Victor and his companions.” he said, almost absently, as he straightened his suit pulling on the lapels and then smoothing his hair back with both hands. 25
Straitening his tie, he smiled at her. His teeth were white as pearls and he looked every bit as formidable as a tiger gleamed at her, almost threateningly. 26
"You know? I tried to talk sense into him, but…, you know these humans. They are not very intelligent.” he said, tiredly. 27
“What’s your game, Lucifer? Why am I here?” she asked, already knowing the answer. She had heard the whispers down through the ages. That dark one would take a bride to form the seed of him who would bring about the end. She had heard he would take the first born of this earth. God’s favorite. Dark would be the days then. The father and son would unite against the Nephilim, drive them from this planet and begin the destruction of mankind. 28
The Nephilim? Did they even exist? She had never, to her knowledge, crossed one’s path, but she may need to hunt them down and find them herself now. For the first time she may need help, though she faced a bigger problem at the moment. She had to escape from this prison. All this was racing through her head as the Devil stood scrutinizing her with his arms folded. 29
“My, my, careful we don’t strain anything, my dear.” and then, laughing, “You put too much thought into your predicament. It is written in the book of judgment. It cannot be changed now. All things must come to pass.” 30
“Not so, vile one. Our destiny lies before us. On which road we choose to walk is of our own choice.” she answered. 31
“Ahh I suppose one must have hope. I shall not take that from you, my dear, but come, let us eat. My staff went to such great lengths to prepare it.” he said, sounding sympathetic. 32
Nikki moved toward the table, knowing it was useless to argue the fate of her companions at the moment. Still her heart beat with terror not knowing her love's welfare, if the winged devils had taken their toll or if, by some great divine intervention, they had prevailed. She hoped, but could not believe it.
Who could save them here? Lucifer ruled supreme in this land and the last she saw the sky was black with the devils. 33
She sat rigidly toying with her food listening to Lucifer’s plans of conquest.
The table had only the bare essentials, a simple white table cloth with two black candles set in golden holders. The table itself was barely six feet in length while reaching three feet in width. The food was laid out in moderation, enough for two. It consisted of an eye of the round roast, a plain bowl of mashed potatoes, corn in butter sauce and flaky biscuits which finished the ensemble. She sat forking her food as she watched Lucifer hungrily wolfing his down, grinning at her between bites. 34
Raising his eyebrows, he asked, “The food does not suit you, my dear?” 35
“It’s company I can do without.” she answered dryly, locking eyes with the devil who stopped chewing. He threw his head back he laughed long and hard. 36
“I do enjoy your wit, Nicolette. Very well then.” he said, and with a wave of his hand gesturing towards the window, he brought back the view of the battle. 37
As soon as the battle strewn land came into view. both Nikki and Lucifer leapt to their feet, but both with different reactions. Lucifer cursed bitterly, with his eyes a volcanic red burning with anger and shock! Nikki's eyes, on the other hand, registered relief and joy. For there, in front of them on the scarred burnt landscape, lay hundreds, no thousands of winged monsters, dead! But nowhere could they see any trace of the three who dare tread the roads of
Hell. 38
39
To be continued…
40
Comments
1 - 8 of 8
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Wild chapter!
beginning: 5, language: 5, plot: 5, ending: 5, dialog: 5, characters: 5.
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Hey thanks. Sorry it's been so long between chapters.
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Intense Chapter!
Glad to see that you're back and you haven't missed a beat! Love the intricate details of your descriptions as always! An intense chapter!
beginning: 5, language: 5, plot: 5, ending: 5, dialog: 5, characters: 5.
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Thank you. I've had some problems and it was bothering my writing. But thank you
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I'm glad you're back!
Where have you been??? I almost gave up hope of you returning, but I just KNEW you would be back and wouldn't let my favorite story end! I'm so happy Nikki is ok... now she can save everyone!!!!!
beginning: 5, language: 5, plot: 5, ending: 5, dialog: 5, characters: 5.
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Thanks. Ive been really sick. But i'm back now. And we will see where Nikki's road where take her.
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Oh maaan!
Your cliff hangers just kill me! Hahaha... great! really great worth the wait. I'll look fwd. to the next. -
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Thanks man. And hey that is great news about your book. Wow! Awsome!
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