Hell Is Coming (The Watcher's Series Book 1) (26 page)

“Show me what?” I asked. I was light-headed after the teleport, so I was slightly disoriented .The sulphurous smell that hung thick in the air didn’t help either. I placed one hand on the iron railing for balance while I got my bearings.

“Look.” He gestured out in front of him to the warehouse floor below.

I stared out into the warehouse from the high walkway down below to the ground floor where I saw people—a lot of them. There must have been over a hundred of them down there doing some kind of training, like soldiers in a paramilitary camp. “What is this?”

“This is my training camp and those are all my recruits.” He sounded proud, like a football coach displaying his winning team.

“You mean all the Nephilim kids you stole and demonized?”

“Stole?” He laughed. “Most of them came willingly.”

“Bullshit.” I shook my head. “Why would they go with you willingly?”

“Because I promised them something better. I offered them power and prestige and they took it.”

“I can’t believe that. My brother? There’s no way he would have gone with you willingly.” The very thought that Josh had joined Abigor by choice made me sick to my stomach. He was lying. He had to be lying.

“Granted, he fought in the beginning, but he gave in once I explained things to him. He wasn’t as happy as you thought he was. Once I showed him what he could achieve—what I could give him—he took it with both hands. That’s the truth.”

“No, you’re lying…”

“Believe what you want.” He came across like he didn’t care what I thought. He had his recruits and that was all that mattered to him. “The fact is they are all here and ready to fight for me.”

I looked down at Abigor’s army of demonized soldiers. They appeared to be organized into small groups, with some groups practicing hand to hand combat, others doing weapons training while still others practiced killing farm animals with their bare hands. I looked on, disgusted, as one recruit got hold of a terrified goat and picked it up by the horns, holding it aloft before ramming his hand into the animal’s stomach, ripping its insides out, a steaming mess of blood and entrails spilling on the floor around his feet. Once it was done, he tossed the animal like a bag of rubbish into a huge pile of other dead animal carcasses. I couldn’t help thinking of Bane, of how the dog killed in the same way. “This is sick,” I said shaking my head. “
You’re
sick.”

Ignoring me he said, “Look over there,” and he pointed to the far end of the warehouse. I looked over and recognized Josh. Like all the other recruits, he was dressed in black but he seemed to be giving orders. My face tightened as I watched with a mixture of sadness and horror as Josh telekinetically lifted up one of the recruits by the throat and threw him against the wall. Then he ordered two other recruits to go beat the guy up, which they did, inflicting a vicious beating on him. I had no idea if the kid had done something wrong or if this was Abigor’s way of toughening up his recruits. Either way I was sickened. “Josh is a hard taskmaster. That’s why he’s my best recruit and my commanding officer.”

I could only stand there shaking my head at what my brother had become and at what Abigor had done to the rest of those kids. My eyes watered but I held back the tears. I wasn’t about to show my weakness in front of Abigor.

“You can join him, Leia,” he said. “There’s a place here for you, alongside Josh and me. The things we could accomplish together, it would be magnificent. I have many other training camps like this around the world, this isn’t the only one. I could use someone like you to help me run it all.”

My jaw clenched as rage threatened to overwhelm me. “Never.”

“There’s great power in you, Leia.” He came closer to me and I instinctively stepped away from him. “You don’t even know how much power is inside you yet. You could be great, I could make you great.”

“To what end?” My body was so tense that I shook. “What are you planning on using all these…recruits for?” Abigor just smiled like he was enjoying keeping the secret from me. “Well, go on. What’s your grand plan?”

“How much do you know about me?” he asked finally. “Did you know I was the architect who designed Hell? That Hell was based entirely on my vision? Of course it existed a long time before I ever got there, but it was just a wasteland, nothing more. I made it
great
. Hell was mine for a long time. Lucifer was just a figurehead. I ran that place until it all started to fall apart thanks to the petty machinations of lower-level bureaucrats.” Lava swirled in his eyes as he gripped the railing with both hands. “They were only out for themselves and they eventually ruined the place, ruined the vision I had kept in place for so long. There’s no order down there anymore. It’s every demon for itself and chaos rules. The current King of Hell is more concerned with his own interests than he is of Hell itself.” He looked at me for a long moment, like he was about to tell me something else, then he looked away. “Anyway, things have changed.”

“I thought that would have suited you. Don’t demons thrive on chaos?”

“A common misconception. Demons need order just like humans do or else nothing works properly and no one ends up getting what they want. Take a look around your own world, Leia. Do you see much order? Or does chaos rule in most parts of the world?” He took a step closer to me and I resisted the urge to step back this time, just out of sheer defiance. “The human world is falling apart the way Hell did and pretty soon there is going to be total chaos here and no one will get what they want, not even demons. It’s all happening right under your noses and you don’t even see it.”

“All I see is a demon with delusions of grandeur,” I said, unable to help myself. “What are you saying, Abigor? That you want to rule over earth?”

“More than that, I want to bring Hell
to
earth.”

“Hell is coming.” I echoed the words I’d heard before.

“Indeed it is. And there’s nothing you can do to stop it. I’m bringing Hell to you. I’m going to create a new Hell with a new vision and I’m going to do it right here on earth.” He raised his arms as if in praise. “I’m bringing order to the chaos finally.”

“You sound just like a politician,” I told him. “Full of shit.”

His eyes flashed orange at me. “Don’t test me,” he said. “I could kill you right here. Better yet, I could have Josh kill you right here and he would do it without hesitation because I asked him to.”

Fear did its best to overcome me in that moment but I fought it back down and defiantly held his gaze, which wasn’t easy, let me tell you.

“I know what you’re thinking. I can read your thoughts. You want to kill me, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Good luck with that. There is only one thing in this universe that can kill me and I doubt you’d be willing to trade your soul to get it.” He looked away from me and leaned once more on the  railing, surveying his recruits like some sort of demonic despot. “I’m giving you a choice. Rule with me or be ruled. That’s it.” He looked at me as if I was going to give him an answer right there and then. I just shook my head.

“You know I won’t join you. Why are you even asking?”

“Because I’m a fair demon .I don’t dictate, I give people choices.”

“And bringing Hell to earth, that’s giving people a choice?”

“Humans have already made their choice. They chose chaos. They chose disorder. They chose freedom not knowing they were actually choosing the bonds of slavery. It’s too late for humans now. It’s not too late for you, though. I could show you how to use that power inside you. I can show you how to put it to good use.”

“In helping you?” I said. “No thanks. I’ll take my chances with the rest of humanity.”

“Such a waste.” He shook his head in disgust. “I tried.” He took a deep breath before speaking again. “In three days time the gates of Hell will be opened and Hell will spill onto the earth. That’s how much time you have left. Enjoy it while you can because the world as you know it will soon be no more. Goodbye, Leia.” He clicked his fingers and a split second later I found myself back at the cabin, standing in the cellar with Frank and Eva, who both looked at me with dazed expressions. I didn’t think either of them expected to see me again.

“What happened?” Frank asked me.

“We’re all screwed,” I said.

Chapter 22

“Three goddamn days!” Frank paced around the cellar in the cabin, rubbing at his stubble and shaking his head. I’d just informed him and Eva about my meeting with Abigor, about the training camp at the warehouse, the demon’s plan to bring Hell on earth and the most depressing fact of all—that we couldn’t kill or stop the architect of Hell. The two of them seemed to be in shock as the information sank in.

“He can’t really do that, can he?” I asked Eva, a glass of whiskey in my hand that Frank had poured for me from his stash down with the weapons. . “Can he really bring Hell to earth?”

Eva sipped from her own glass. “He talked about opening the gates of Hell?”

I nodded. “In three days’ time.”

“There are gates of Hell all over the world. It could be any of them.” Eva shook her head and started her own pacing, a look of deep concern on her face.

“So how do we find out which one?” Frank said. “And how do we know he isn’t planning on opening all of them?”

“I doubt that,” Eva said. “All the gates were sealed a long, long time ago by the angels. For every set of gates there are six-hundred and sixty-six seals to be broken before the gates can be opened. As there are rumored to be at least twenty different gates, that would be a lot of seals. Abigor only needs one gate open to fulfill his plan. It would take him long enough to break the seals for just one. He’s evidently been working on this plan for a long time now. How did we not hear of this before?”

Frank shook his head. “I don’t know. Strange things happen all the time. How could we know to connect them to that?”

“Wait,” I said. “What are these seals and what happens when you break them?”

“Every seal is different,” Eva said. “And they involve lots of different things, lots of events occurring, like freak weather, earthquakes, strange deaths, unusual paranormal activity…anything really. It’s a broad spectrum of things and hard to find any kind of pattern in.”

“But there has to be some kind of pattern though.” I said. “If we can find a pattern happening in a certain area then we could pinpoint the gate that Abigor is trying to open, right?”

“I suppose,” Eva said. “But what do we do when we find the gate? How do we stop him? He can’t be killed and he has a whole army on his side.”

“You have a point,” Frank said. “How the hell do we stop him?”

Eva shook her head. “I don’t know. You’ll have to let the other Watchers know, see if they can help. At the very least they can give us back up if we have to fight.”

I slammed my glass down on the bench underneath where the guns were hanging. “Is that the best you guys can come up with? Leave it to the other Watchers?  I can’t just sit around and wait for all this to happen without doing a damned thing to stop it.” I glared at them, making sure they felt the measure of my rage.

“So what do you suggest?” Frank said, the tone of his voice clearly conveying he didn’t expect any decent answer to that question.

“Everything can die,” I said, ignoring Frank’s sarcasm. “Even God can die if some people are to be believed. Abigor must be able to die. He said  there is only one thing in the world that can kill him, and he doubted I would trade my soul to get it, which means there’s something out there we can use.”

“And what if there is?” Frank asked. “Do we just trade our souls to get this thing? How do we know he isn’t lying so we waste time looking?”

“I don’t know, Frank,” I said throwing him a scornful look. “I’m trying to be helpful here. Fuck you and your fucking cynicism, alright?” I barged past Eva who sighed and called after me as I left the cellar.

I stood in the kitchen, glaring out the window, face flushed as I struggled to control my  frustration. I picked up an empty glass from the sink and threw it at the wall beside me, letting out a scream as I did so. Tears flowed as I stomped around the kitchen, grabbing plates and saucepans and whatever else I could get my hands on to throw around the room. “Fuck!” I threw a plate at the wall and it shattered into small pieces over the stove. I grabbed another plate and just as I threw it at the far wall in the living room, Frank walked in.

 “What the hell, Leia? he exclaimed, cowering as pieces of ceramic rained over him. “Shit, sorry Frank,” I said, involuntarily laughing at his reaction and crying at the same time.

He stood for a second, brushing pieces of broken plate out of his hair before he walked towards me. “It’s okay. You’re upset.”

“I just miss my brother. I don’t think I’m ever going to see him again.” I stood, at a loss as to what to do or how to feel. He put his arms around me and held me tightly. He said nothing, just held me for what seemed like a long time and I allowed him to. It was probably the first real connection I’d had with him. “I’m sorry,” I said pulling away.

“Stop saying ‘sorry.’ I know how hard you’re finding this.”

“I’m being selfish. The whole world is at stake and I can only think of one person.”

He put a rough hand to the side of my face and  held it there. “Forget it. I feel just as bad.”

“What do you mean?”

He shook his head, awkwardness creeping back into his demeanour. “I was thinking about what you said the other day…if I’d taken you and Josh after your parents died maybe none of this would be happening right now.”

I smiled at him, suddenly feeling bad for the way I’d been treating him of late. “Don’t blame yourself, Frank. You made what you thought was the right choice at the time. And anyway, Abigor would still be going ahead with his plan no matter what.”

He gave a small smile back. “I guess so.”

In that moment I almost forgave Frank for what he and my mother did to my father.

Almost.

For the next few hours Frank trawled the internet looking for patterns that would lead us to the location of the Hell Gate, while Eva and I looked through book after book trying to find out if anything existed to kill Abigor with. It was a hard slog and as time went on we became increasingly more despondent, especially since we knew that time was no longer on our side. After nearly four hours of research, we came up empty as far as finding anything to kill Abigor.  Frank did make some progress, and  thought that he had discovered a pattern that might indicate broken seals.