Escaping from hell, p.1
Escaping From Hell, page 1
Escaping from Hell
The Purgatorium Saga - Book 4
Amy Starr
Copyright © 2020 Amy Starr
All rights reserved
Contents
Escaping from Hell
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
The Next Adventure
Trialled by Reapers
✽✽✽
amystarrbooks.com
Prologue
Within a quiet stone temple, a crimson demon sat with its legs crossed in silent meditation. Its eyes were shut tightly as the infernal beast reflected on its past triumphs. It had incited several human wars and caused the fall of three separate countries. The demon had infected the hearts of angry people and provoked them to kill unfaithful spouses or murder their innocent children. A pleased smile grew on its face as it relished in its power.
A nervous cough came from the entrance of the temple. The demon snapped its eyes open and glared at the intruder, its eyes turning red. It was a lesser demon, one of the meditating devil's underlings. The small brown imp whimpered and fiddled with its clawed fingers.
“Lord Soneillion, I have some news for you.”
Not breaking eye contact, Soneillion cracked its neck, causing the underling to let out a frightened whine.
“You dare disturb me during my reflections? You are either extraordinarily brave or unbelievably foolish. Now tell me why you are here and if I do not like your answer, you will be working in the acid pits for the next ten thousand years.”
The little imp began to shiver in fear. Taking a deep breath, it spoke in a shaky voice.
“My Lord, the mortals who sent you back here have been spotted.”
Soneillion jumped up on its goat-like legs and stormed over to its underling, who shrunk back in terror. “Are you certain it was them? Are you absolutely sure?”
The impish creature nodded. “Yes, my liege. Of course, my liege. A flock of shedim told me so.”
“Where are they?”
The imp pointed a finger out of the temple.
“In the badlands, my liege. They’re heading towards Abaddon’s citadel.”
The red demon let out a low rumble before a smirk crept onto its scarred maw.
“Well, we will just have to pay them a little visit then. I want to return the pain they gave to me tenfold.”
Chapter One
Poppy had expected the bowels of Hell to be a little more terrifying. Every religious book and Bosch painting she had seen seemed to depict the land down under as a mash up of demons and horrors beyond any sort of comprehension. Instead of this hideous imagery, all she could see for miles was cracked red earth. It gave her the impression of a dry desert that had lost all of its sand long ago.
As if it could read her mind, Harkness spoke from under its black hood.
“This is only one part of the vast expanse that is the Infernal Region.” The reaper explained, raising a hand for emphasis. “I have already traversed a large area of this land and I have seen many terrible things.”
Hud let out a small grumble and walked closer to Poppy, keeping his distance from the reaper. “Yeah, well the sooner we can leave and find Emma-Lee, the better. Are you certain this is the right way?”
Harkness lifted its head to the blood-red sky. “Yes, I can sense your physical bodies in this direction.”
“I just don’t understand…” Poppy muttered. “Are our bodies here too?”
“I am not sure; I am just following the death sense within me.”
Poppy gazed at her hand. She did not feel dead in the slightest. Nothing about her body screamed that she was ethereal. Reaching her hand down, the psychic petted Seri’s head. The hellhound panted happily and licked at her fingers. Not wanting to smell like rotting flesh, the psychic wiped the hound’s saliva off on the side of her once sparkling dress. She wished she had a spare set of clothes; the dress and the high heels were getting hard to walk in.
Hud shuddered and folded his arms.
“Well, don’t let that death sense get anywhere near me.” Hudson grumbled, giving cloaked figure a suspicious glare as he approached one of the many dead trees on the plain.
The reaper shook its head. “I am not a reaper any longer, you have no reason to fear me. My mission now is to report back to my old superiors and let them know what is going on here.”
The tree had a ripe red fruit hanging from one of its branches. It reminded Poppy of an apple, but half the size. Hud walked over to the tree and plucked the fruit. He gave it a small sniff and he blinked in surprise.
“Oh, this actually smells pretty good.” He mumbled. “I was expecting it to be rotten.”
Satisfied that it was edible, he slipped it into his pocket.
Poppy tilted her head and glanced at Harkness. The reaper was staring into the sky again. Although she could not see its face, she knew that the reaper seemed wistful.
“Is something wrong?” She asked.
The cloaked figure gripped its scythe tightly and the psychic swore she could see the shadow of a face under the hood.
“The Infernal Region has changed. It used to be a place of righteous judgement to send the wicked. There was order to it, but now…it is chaos. The other reapers need to know.”
“They’ve been coming out to the mortal world too, the demons I mean.” Poppy added, thinking about her experiences with the demon princes they captured. “A group of people have been trying to summon them.”
Harkness nodded its head. “That is not a good sign. There are barriers to prevent the demons from coming out, they must have been lowered for some reason.”
The psychic was about to ask a question when she was interrupted by a low screeching. Seri let out a low growl and began barking at the sky. Several humanoid figures flew towards them, their black wings flapping erratically on their backs. Their faces were pale, and they had slits where their noses should be. They glared at the group with yellow cat-like eyes, clenching their hands into fists and their scrawny feet tightly to their chests.
“What are those?” Hudson shouted as the creatures started flying around the dead tree, their screeches growing louder in volume.
Harkness lifted its scythe up. “Shedim. They are not normally aggressive. Something must be aggravating them.”
One of the shedim began to dive down towards them, aiming its long talons at their heads. Hudson and Poppy dove down together, covering their heads. Harkness stood its ground, holding its scythe out in front of it. The diving shedim’s foot caught on the scythe and it let out a warbled cry, spraying black blood along the earth.
Another shedim, its slitted eyes glaring at the two huddled figures, swooped down towards them. Poppy felt sharp talons scrape past her scalp and she let out a gasp. There was a definite pain to that scrape, more than any other similar cut she had gotten before. It felt as though someone had sliced her with a sharp chef’s knife. The psychic waited for blood to pour down her scalp, but nothing happened.
In response, Seri began yapping loudly, trying to fend the flying demons off. Lifting her head, Poppy saw that they were now encircled by the group of shedim. She was shocked by how tall they were now they were on the ground. Once they stood on their bird-like feet, they were at least seven feet tall, even towering over the reaper.
One of them approached Hudson, its claws digging into the hard earth as if it were just walking on sand. Poppy could hear a strange gurgling noise coming from the shedim’s body. The sound was reminiscent of a pot of bubbling water.
Using a long and gnarled arm, the creature lifted Hudson by the hoodie he was wearing and stared deep into his eyes. It bared its crooked teeth at him. In response, Hudson lifted his fists up, ready to hit the creature.
Poppy thought about the noise coming from within the shedim and the creature’s aggressive behaviour towards them. All at once everything clicked together.
“Hud, wait!”
The psychic went up to Hud and put a hand on one of his arms. He side glanced her, a fearful look in his eyes.
“Poppy, get down!”
Ignoring him, she reached into Hudson’s pocket and pulled the ripe red fruit out. The shedim’s eyes widened like a cat focusing on its prey and it dropped him on the ground. Hud landed with a loud grunt and slowly lifted himself up, moaning. The shedim snatched the fruit from Poppy’s hands and hissed at her before opening its wings and flying off. The rest of the shedim followed it, their screeches echoing through the skies as they disappeared on the horizon.
Stunned, Hudson stumbled over to Poppy. “I didn’t know you were a demon whisperer too.”
“It was hungry, they all were. I could hear its stomach rumbling.”
Hud blinked before shaking his head in disbelief. “Still, that was kind of a dumb thing to do. You could have been hurt, what were you thinking?”
Poppy put her hands on her hips and squinted at Hudson. “Are you kidding me? Those things were about to tear you apart, you’re lucky I came in and saved you!”
The psychic could not help but feel a little peeved by Hud’s behaviour. Ever since she had come to, Hudson had been acting overly protective of her. As someone who
The reaper, disregarding their argument, let out a low hum. “Something is taking the food sources around here; I am certain of it.”
“What could possibly be doing that?” Poppy mused.
Hudson, pale faced, pointed towards the horizon. “Uh, maybe that?”
The vast plain was starting to crumble before them. It started off as a small hole but very quickly it turned into a deep crater that extended into an unending abyss. From within the great chasm, a large snake-like figure began to twirl out of it. Poppy could not make out the creature. It reminded her of the solar eclipse or maybe a black hole. There was no light source around it or inside it, and any light it touched was sucked away into nothingness. It was the definition of darkness.
“Harkness, what should we do?” She asked, feeling her mouth go dry.
The single word utterance she received from the reaper turned her blood cold.
“Run.”
Chapter Two
Despite his loathing of the reaper, Hudson was not going to question its advice on getting away from the huge light-absorbing worm. Grabbing Poppy’s hand, he turned tail and began sprinting as fast as he could. Seri was already way ahead of them thanks to the dog’s advantage of having four nimble limbs and Harkness, who appeared to float everywhere with ease, was not far behind.
Even as they were running, all that Hud could think about was what had happened to them not even hours ago. Poppy had come so close to being Mammon’s plaything and it had made him sick to his stomach. What would have happened if he had lost? That was not even mentioning the fact she had died during their confrontation with Beelzebub. It was only thanks to Harkness that she was alive again. Although Poppy had made a promise to help him find Emma-Lee, he felt obligated to protect her. He had put her into this mess, after all, and he was going to get her out of it.
Hud checked behind his shoulder. The twisting serpent of absolute darkness was catching up to them, weaving through the air like an eel gliding through water. He began to sprint harder, pulling Poppy along with him.
“Ah, you’re going too fast!” She protested.
“C’mon Poppy, just a bit-”
Hud could only watch as the psychic tripped over her own feet and fell face first to the ground, emitting a pained scream. Still holding her hand, Hudson stumbled and lost his own footing, tumbling along the cracked earth. Each impact felt like bones breaking and he let out a shriek every time. Eventually, he came to a stop, groaning in pain.
Scrambling to his feet, Hudson examined his body, expecting to see broken bones or giant gashes. His body was spotless. He raced over to Poppy’s side and pulled her up. She looked like she wanted to slap him, but her eyes soon drifted to the twisting behemoth that was quickly approaching them. It seemed to be pulling up everything in its path. Trees were becoming uprooted and dust was swirling up inside the darkness.
Seri and Harkness, being far quicker than either of them, were well across the plain now. Hud knew he was not going to catch up with them, but he did not want to stop running now. He went to grab for Poppy’s hand, but she pulled it away.
“That didn’t help us last time.” She muttered as she began to run on her own.
Hudson, not in the mood to argue, began to sprint after her. Despite their best efforts, Hud could tell that their pursuer was getting closer. Was there any way for them to escape this thing? He was starting to doubt it as he felt himself struggling to keep up a fast run.
When Hud was all but sure they were done for, a door appeared on the horizon. Hudson squinted to check, but there was no mistaking it. A door had just apparated into existence from nowhere. It opened, revealing an inky blackness to them.
“Poppy, there!”
The two of them started running towards the opening and without thinking twice, Hudson sprinted inside. The door shut behind him, rendering him in complete darkness.
“Poppy!” Hudson yelled, feeling blindly around.
He had not seen her enter. Had she been left outside the door? Hudson whipped around and attempted to open the door. It would not budge. Frustrated, he started to hit and kick the door.
“Master, please let me help you.”
Hudson froze as the wet, bubbly voice came out of nowhere. A light came on at his knees and he snapped his gaze down. Standing there was a small imp-looking creature holding a lantern that was almost the same size as its body. Hud stared at the little demon. In the flickering light from the candle within in lantern, he could see that it was a pale grey colour, like that of an elephant. Small nubby horns sprouted from its frog shaped head and little fangs jutted out of its overbite. Tilting its head, the demon spoke once more, a small frown on its face.
“Oh Master! Why are you so terrified? I can smell your fear, you know.”
Hud, on instinct, drove his foot into the little demon’s chest. It went straight through it, or at least it appeared to.
“Wait, are you scared of me?”
Hudson whirled around. The demon was behind him now, glancing up at him with a confused expression. Hud held his hand up to the imp. There was still dried blood on it from the last time he had cut it open.
“Come any closer, and I’ll cover you in blood!”
The imp held its claws up to its face and started to shake. “Master, please don’t hurt me!”
“Why do you keep calling me that?”
The small demon made let out a small ‘huh’. It lifted the medallion around its neck up to Hud. Hudson squinted at it, trying to get a good look at it in the little light there was in the room. The medallion depicted a red hand holding a bristled stick. His eyes widened when he finally recognised the symbol.
“That’s from the Demotome…”
The imp nodded. “My name is Surgat. I am here to serve you, Master.”
Hudson shook his head. He had spent all of this time talking when Poppy was outside the door with that darkness monster.
“Ah…Poppy is still out there!”
“I will get her!”
Surgat grabbed a key out of seemingly nowhere and shoved it into the lock of the door. Turning the key, the demon opened the door. Poppy leapt inside the room and Surgat quickly shut it behind her. The psychic, gasping for air, collapsed to the ground. Hud crouched beside her, putting his hand on her back. In response, she slapped his hand away from her and gave him an irritated glare.
“Why did you shut the door on me you asshole!”
“What? I didn’t shut the door!”
Poppy turned her head and let out a cry when she saw Surgat. The small demon, startled by the sudden noise, rolled himself into a small ball. The small jagged spikes on his back grew larger, giving him the resemblance of a strange hedgehog. Hudson raised his hands, moving between the two of them.
“It’s okay! No one here is going to harm anyone.”
Shivering slightly, the little demon uncovered itself.
“Are you certain? She did scream quite loudly.”
“You’re a goddamn demon, how else am I supposed to react!” Poppy exclaimed, waving her hand at the imp.
Sugrat gave a hesitant but understanding nod.
Indeed, I suppose most humans would be rather shocked at the sight of me, but you do not need to be. I am Surgat, keeper of the keys and in service of the pact. I mean no harm to any mortals, even those not of the Pact.”
There was that ‘Pact’ word again. Hudson still could not get his head around how the word related to him. He glanced down at his hand and thought of the blood pulsing through it. It was all connected, he was sure of it.
Poppy blinked. She was no longer afraid, instead she just appeared to be confused. “Oh, okay. I’m Poppy. Well, um, where are we?”
The demon lifted its stubby arms up, a wide smile on its face. “You are currently in my domain! My door will give you access to every nook and cranny in the Infernal Region.”
Hudson knelt in front of Surgat. “Can you take me to my sister’s body?”
The imp frowned. “I’m afraid I do not know where she is.” He held the medallion in his small clawed hands. “I am only connected to the location of the Demotome. Wherever it goes, I can take my door there. I suppose it is like the train station, and I am the train.”
