Demon Gate: Beyond the 9th Circle: The Rapture Was Just The Beginning. (28 page)

An indignant look spread across
Spencer’s face.
“Yes, you will. Just as you’ve betrayed
everybody that agreed to serve you.” Spencer
said.
“LEAVE!” Spencer said.
“What?” Lucifer demanded.
“You’re wasting your time; get your ass
out of here!” Spencer shouted pointing away
from himself.
“I can see that you have made up your
mind, but your unborn son won’t be able to
survive forever, you’ve already been in my
labyrinth for nearly two whole days.”
“What’s your point?” Spencer spat, not
wanting to think about the woman he loves or
their child.
“My point is you have a until tomorrow to
save your son, so when you wake up
there will be a guard outside your cell in case you
change your mind. That guard is your only way
out of the cell before your time runs out.” ”
Lucifer said before turning and walking away,
returning to the darkness.
Spencer finally woke up; he was trapped
in a dungeon cell. Several other cells lined the
walls, two of which were occupied by Vince and
Jessie. A demonic guard the resembled a pig-like
creature, Spencer noticed a barred window and
peered out to see a graveyard of trees
encompassed by fog,
Beyond the fog was a building that
looked like a skyscraper. The physical
manifestation of the nine circles of hell. They
were free of Lucifer’s sick games, free of his lies,
but they were not out of trouble, not yet.
Spencer considered what Lucifer had said
just moments earlier, was it a dream, or was it an
image from the darkest recesses of Spencer’s
mind, or could it be a worry of what might be?
He had to know, and if he had to join the dark
side to save his son, then so be it.
“Hey,” Spencer shouted to the guard.
The guard turned.
“I want to see your Master.” Spencer
requested, defeated.

Vince finally woke up after hearing a cell
door close with great force, Vince looked and
saw Spencer being escorted out of the room by a
demon. Vince quickly got up and rushed to the
bars on his cell.

“Spencer.” Vince called, but Spencer did
not acknowledge Vince so Vince turned to the
demonic guard.

“Where are you taking him?”
The guard laughed.
“To see Lucifer.” The guard said with a

slight chuckle.
Vince started searching for Jessie as panic over
took him, Vince found Jessie in a cell across the
small hallway that ran between the cells.

Jessie groggily opened her eyes and
looked at Vince, she looked confused, Vince’s
concerned looked made her focus.

“Where’s Spencer.” Jessie asked.
“I think he’s giving up.” Vince admitted
causing Jessie to quickly get up off her cot and
go to her cell door.
“That doesn’t make any sense, why
would he…”
Vince interrupted.
“I don’t know, maybe Satan got to him or
something.” Vince said, “Either way, we have to
get out of here, if Spencer is giving up and
joining Satan’s army we could be a peace
offering.”
Vince and Jessie started looking around
trying to find some way out of the prison block.
Jessie’s eyes soon fell upon an old-looking key
sitting in an inconspicuous spot almost under
Vince’s cell door.
“There’s a key.” Jessie said.
“What? Where?” Vince asked.
“Sticking out from under your door.”
Jessie replied.
Vince looked down to see the rounded
end of a key sticking out from under his door.
Vince bent down and grabbed the key.
“Who could have left this?” Vince asked.
Is this a trick? This is way too convenient.
“Spencer left it, I’m sure of it.” Jessie said
assured.
Vince looked at Jessie to emphasize his
point.
“But why?” Vince asked, “So we could
help him, or to lead us into a trap?”
Vince placed the key in the lock and turned. The
door opened with a grinding squeal. Vince
crossed the narrow walkway between his cell and
Jessie’s.
“Jessie, we may have to face the fact that
we have lost him.” Vince said inserting the key
into the lock on Jessie’s cell, and unlocked it.
The door swung open with a quicker,
quieter squeal.
Jessie’s face was twisted into a look of
worry.
“Jessie, are you alright?” Vince asked.
“I don’t know, I just had…I don’t know
what it was.”
“It was like a nightmare?” Vince asked.
Jessie’s concern grew, how could they
had similar dreams, unless it was all orchestrated
by someone with the ability to affect dreams and
make them as dark and disturbing as he was. It
was clear who was responsible, they had seen
him in their nightmares, and now it was time to
find their friend, and hope he was still their
friend.
Vince and Jessie headed out of the
dungeon into an open courtyard. Dead grass
poked through individual bricks that covered the
ground, a large wall ran along the edge of the
courtyard creating a perimeter.
A gate was place which broke up the
wall. A type of stable was built just inside the
gate or as part of the gate. Several horses waited
inside and there were no other buildings in the
courtyard. There was a clock tower above the
gate and in the middle of the courtyard sat a
fountain.
The horses were covered in the blackest
of hair which was groomed with great care, the
horses’ manes and eyes were blood red, and each
one wore a saddle of the blackest leather. It was
obvious they had been prepared for a ride. If for
them, then who was doing this?
Jessie looked at the horses, then to Vince.
“Are you sure this a good idea?” Jessie
asked.
“No.” Vince replied before marching
toward the first mare and climbing into the black
leather saddle.
Jessie cautiously inched toward the next
horse.
“Jessie.” Vince said impatiently, “Just get
on.”
Jessie glared at Vince before climbing up
into the saddle and took the reins and steered the
horse toward the gate behind Vince.
The two horses reached a full gallop as
the gate passed over them.
“Do you know where you’re going?”
Jessie asked.
“There’s only one road.” Vince replied,
“There’s nobody back at the dungeon, Spencer
must have come this way.” Vince concluded.
Vince and Jessie continued riding for
another few hours until an old two-story house
appeared just off the road. As Vince and Jessie
slowed to a stop in front of the house they took a
long look. The house was in despicable shape,
Vince questioned if the house had seen any
maintenance in the last three decades.
Crows fluttered around the house; Vince
and Jessie felt they were being watched as they
dismounted their horses. They tied the horses to
one of the decaying trees before heading toward
the porch.
The porch was covered with floor boards
that had faded and cracked from exposure to the
elements, the shutters had many broken or
missing slats, and the house hid behind several
trees that had no evidence of life as there were no
leaves, and most of the branches looked infested
by dry rot.
“I think, maybe we should keep going.”
Vince stopped as he noticed something out of
place, a dark shape moved away from a window
in the upper floor. Vince headed for the door.
“Vince, you must be out of your damn
mind.” Jessie scolded, “We don’t even know
what’s in there.”
Vince marched up to the front porch, the
boards on the first step creaked as he shifted his
weight on to the first step. The planks were
wobbly and Vince nearly fell over. Vince reached
for the railing on the side of the three steps that
led up to the porch, the railing gave out under the
strain and Vince tumbled to the ground.
Jessie reached out her hand and helped
him back to his feet.
“Why are you going up there?” Jessie
demanded.
“I don’t know.” Vince admitted, “I just
think we should.”
Jessie closed her eyes as she started to
raise a closed fist, she wanted to hit Vince but
managed to resist.
Vince climbed onto the porch and walked
to a window beside the door, Jessie climbed onto
the porch as Vince peered into the window.
“What are you looking for?” Jessie asked.
Vince withheld a response as he started to
visually scan the interior of the house.
“I just want to…” Vince paused as he
noticed the face of an old man with long thin hair
with a grey to platinum white color appeared in
the window. Vince quickly backed away form the
window and just about tumbled over the porch
railing, all the while screaming in a manner that
could make a girly-girl proud.
“What?” Jessie asked with a mildly
panicked voice. “What did you see?”
Vince’s hand was shaking as he pointed
at the window and he was practically stuttering in
shock, he managed to control the stutter and
glanced at the window, the face was gone.
“I saw someone inside.” Vince replied.
Vince walked back to the door and looked
around to see if anybody was there, then he
checked the door knob to see that the door was
not locked. Jessie had seen enough.
“Vince, no, let’s just get out of here.”
Jessie urged, but Vince ignored her and pushed
the door open, the door creaked open revealing
the interior was in better shape than the front
porch, but not by much. Vince pressed inside.
Directly ahead was a staircase to the left
was a drawing room with a fireplace and a chair
meant to allow a brooding person to sit alone and
stare at the fire. To the right there was a room
that was devoid of any furniture, with the
exception of a pipe organ along the wall to
the left, several tarnished pipes extended from the
main body of the musical instrument up toward
the ceiling.
Several heavy footsteps echoed down
from the second floor, Vince and Jessie shared a
worried look which grew to terror as the front
door slammed shut. With the outside light cut off,
the entire interior turned grey and gloomy.
Jessie ran to the door and tried to open it,
but the door wouldn’t budge.
“Damn it, the door is stuck.” Jessie
mourned. She continued trying to pry the door
open, but it wasn’t going anywhere.
Vince heard the sound of a chair scraping
against an old wood floor, and several pots
banging together.
“I’ll check it out.” Vince said and started
to walk away.
“WAIT.” Jessie pled, “Don’t leave me
alone.”
Jessie followed after Vince as they headed for a
doorway just past the stairs where the kitchen sat.
Entering the kitchen a black shape raced
into the sitting room through another doorway.
“Jessie, go after it, I’ll circle back and
trap it.” Vince said, then turned and backtracked
to the sitting room to find Jessie emerge from the
kitchen, but nothing else, and nobody else.
“Where did it go?” Vince asked.
“I don’t know.” Jessie said, flustered, “I
followed it out the door and only found you
running in.”
The sound of footsteps resumed, but they
were heading up the stairs. Vince and Jessie
charged out of the sitting room to the stairs just in
time to see something vanish around the corner at
the top of the stairs.
Vince charged up the stairs, and took a
sharp left around the corner.
“Vince, where are you going?” Jessie
called.
When Vince didn’t reply Jessie went up the stairs
after Vince and found him standing in a long
hallway covered with aged white walls and green
carpet, the hall had six doors along its length.
Vince was closing the first door.
“What are you doing?” Jessie demanded,
wanting nothing more than to focus on getting
out of the house and getting away from it.
“What ever that thing is, I don’t think it
wants to hurt us.” Vince guessed.
“What makes you say that?” Jessie asked.
“It would have done it already.” Vince
replied.
“And you came to this conclusion, how?”
Jessie asked.
“Every demon or creature Lucifer has
sent our way has tried to kill us, and this thing
keeps moving
away
from us.” Vince explained.
“Maybe it’s trying to tell us something.”
Vince proceeded to the next door and
opened it inside was the same as the previous, a
bedroom. The bed had a dirty white mattress with
blue pinstripes on a metal frame, a dresser with a
mirror and the same green carpet covering the
floor, however, there were no windows.
Vince and Jessie checked each of the
remaining doors, each one was the same, except
for the last room, the layout was different, and
Vince knew it. Vince closed the door and noticed
the hallway turned to the right, there was no
window, the hall just ended.
“There’s nothing here, Vince.” Jessie
said.
Several boards overhead creaked causing
Vince to raise his chin forty-five degrees to see a
pull down attic ladder, there was no cord to pull
the ladder down, but there was a handle that was
secured by a large padlock. The lock looked to
be more than a hundred and fifty years old,
“Great,” Vince said. “How are we going
to get up there?”
“Maybe there was a key.” Jessie
suggested.
“Do you want to search the entire house?
Be my guest.” Vince offered.
Jessie thought for a moment.
“Maybe we don’t have to search the
entire house.” Jessie said.
“You know where the key is?” Vince
asked.
“Maybe.” Jessie said before turning to go
back to the last room.
She started with the bed and then checked
the dresser before checking for anyplace the
carpet was loose, which was nowhere.
“Maybe we will have to check
everywhere.” Vince said heading for the door.
“No way.” Jessie said, somehow she had
missed a painting of several demons playing
poker.
“Just another knock off artist.” Vince said
when he noticed the painting.
Jessie pulled the painting down to reveal
a wall safe with a key pad.
“Three numbers.” Vince said after
examining the safe. He knew the combination
and entered a six into the keypad three times. The
safe beeped and unlocked.
Inside the safe was a single key. It was an
old tarnished key covered in rust. Vince and
Jessie left the room and went to the ladder to the
attic to try and unlock the lock.
Vince inserted the key and turned it, the
lock snapped open. Vince removed the key and
pulled the ladder down allowing them to climb
into the attic.
The floor of the attic was covered in
random items stacked from floor to ceiling. Jessie
reached over to the pile and pulled out a doll that
resembled one that she wanted when she was
younger.
“I don’t believe it.” Jessie said.
“What?” Vince asked.
“It’s a Cabbage Patch doll.” Jessie
replied, Vince looked over at the doll in Jessie’s
trembling hands.
“Isn’t that the doll that everyone was
fighting over thirty years ago?” Vince asked.
“Yeah,” Jessie tenderly chuckled as she
tried to conceal the sting of regret, but finally a
tear escaped her eye and trickled down her face.
“I was five when they came out, I asked my mom
for one for Christmas that year, when I didn’t get
it I told her…” Jessie paused, trying to hold back
a fit of tears, and a painful memory that she had
tried to forget.
“I told her I hated her.” Jessie said, tears
flowed freely; she had given up, and had to
release the guilt she had held onto for the last
thirty years. “And she died later that day in a car
wreck.”
Vince took Jessie in his arms and tried to
comfort her. The scope of Jessie’s pain came into
focus. Vince was at a loss, what could he say?”
After a couple of minutes Jessie managed to calm
down.
Vince took the doll and put it down
before taking Jessie deeper into the piles of junk
that littered the floor.
The deeper they went the more Vince
noticed the age of the items seemed to increase
until there were no familiar toys, there was only a
bare floor that surrounded a man with long, thin
hair that hung down from his nearly bald scalp,
the man faced a large round window that was
segmented into quadrants.
The man noticed Vince and Jessie.
“What are you doing here?” the man
demanded.
Vince about choked, he had seen the man. It had
been a brief and a vague glimpse but it was him.
Vince wondered why it had nearly startled him
into a panic.
“How did you?” Vince started and then
took a breath, “I saw you in the window from the
porch.”
The man face indicated he was pondering
the question, then finally dignified Vince with an
answer to his question.
“Here in hell I have learned to project
myself.” The man admitted.
“Why didn’t you use your parlor trick to
set yourself free?” Jessie asked.
“While projecting myself I have no
physical form, and so I could not engineer my
own escape.” The man admitted.
“Now what are you doing here?” the man
asked. “You obviously don’t belong here. You
lack the mark.”
“We came for a soul, but one of our
companions was lost.” Vince admitted.
The man laughed as he climbed to his feet.
“You came to get a soul back…from
Satan?” the man said and laughed again.
The man brought his laughter under control and
stared directly into Vince’s eyes.