Into the Void (The Godhunter, Book 10) (4 page)

The landscape of Hell was strange at first glance. Upon a second look it became unsettling and a third pushed it all over into horrifying.

There seemed to be all the regular requirements of a proper landscape; rocks, trees, mountains, and the like. The ground was a strange dark red but a lot of soil had minerals that turned it unusual colors, so that wasn't terribly off-putting. In fact, in Hawaii they even used the red dirt to dye T-shirts, red dirt shirts. So that wasn't what set off my scary alarms.

The mountains were a bit bumpy and the tree branches were bare but this could all be excused with a natural explanation. Rocks could be jagged and trees could be bare in winter or with a lack of rain. All plausible reasons. What couldn't be explained, what caused me to stop dead in my tracks(if you'll forgive the pun), was the realization of what it all was made of.

Bones.

Well, it wasn't entirely bones. There was blood to dye the earth and sinews to hold the bones together, even bits of flesh here and there. It was all a mish-mash of body parts that should have been buried or at the very least, rotting in the natural way. These were not rotting and were not natural in any way, shape, or form. Well, at least not the forms they'd been made into.

Long thigh bones made up the trunks of trees, bundled together with yellowing pieces of sinew. The bones got smaller as the trunks split and separated into skeletal branches, ending in delicate tiny bones at the tips. Finger bones, I'm guessing. Rocks were piles of crushed bone and mountains were larger versions of those, held together by bits of gore and patchy layers of gray moss that had the look of brain matter to it.

The plant life, which was plentiful, consisted of starbursts of little bones which clicked eerily in the warm breeze. Blood dripped from their joints onto the ground, adding to the rusty color. Overhead, the sky was burnt orange and red without a single cloud to grant some peace to the eyes.

“
Are you alright?” Azrael squeezed my hand.

“
I thought the path to Hell was paved with good intentions,” I glared at the bone fragments crunching beneath my feet.

“
This is only the beginning. We still have a ways to walk. I could carry you and you could close your eyes.”

“
I'll be fine,” I gestured to the path ahead of us. “Lead on, Angel of Death.”

He led and I followed him through the ominous landscape until we came upon two transparent structures, several stories high and wider than my eye could see. They stretched out from the sides of the path indefinitely and we were going to walk right through the middle of them.

As we approached, I saw the shapes of creatures flying above and around the buildings. I thought them to be angels at first but then I saw that the wings were more leathery, like my dragon wings, and though humanoid in shape, these beings looked nothing like humans. Their skin colors varied from deep red to poison green and pus yellow. They had horns in various places; heads, backs, shoulders, even arms, and they had tails, barbed tails.

“
Demons?” I looked over at Az for confirmation and he nodded, his eyes following their flight. “Is it strange that they kind of remind me of faeries?”

“
Not at all,” Azrael laughed. “I thought the same thing in reverse when I first met the fey.”

One of the demons landed before us, his teeth bared so I could see the remnants of his last fleshy meal. His skin was the color of a two-day-old bruise and his eyes were neon green. There were black horns coming out of his cheeks, going up the line of the cheekbones, and into his thick black hair. He put both hands on his hips as he surveyed us.

“Azrael!” He exclaimed in a very human voice. “It's good to see you.”

“
Cid,” Azrael reached out a hand and the demon shook it. “It's good to see you too. How is everyone?”

“
Well, we can't complain,” Cid gave me a grimace. “We really can't or his daddy will tear us apart.”

“
Cid,” Az sighed.

“
Joking,” Cid laughed long and hard. “I wanted to try that one out on someone non-demon and it's not like you bring a lot of your friends around.”

“
Yes, I can't imagine why no one wants to visit Hell with me,” Azrael rolled his eyes. “Cid, this is my girlfriend, Vervain. Vervain, this is Cid, Warden of Ice Block One,” Az waved his hand toward the clear building to our left.

“
Warden of what?” I asked as I held my hand out for the demon to shake.

“
Ice Block One,” Cid waved a clawed hand toward the building behind him. “It's made of ice and it's a prison, so instead of a cell block, it's an ice block. We put the bad guys on ice,” he chuckled. “Carmax is the warden of Ice Block Two,” he waved a hand to the building on the opposite side of the path. “Does a good job at it too. We're always competing for employee of the month.”

“
Ah,” I made a polite sound. “I thought it was glass.”

“
Nope, it's magic ice,” Cid winked at me. “Real ice couldn't withstand these temperatures.”

“
So that whole thing about people in Hell wanting ice water isn't so accurate then,” I made a considering sound.

“
Yeah, not so much,” Cid laughed.

“
Why ice then?” I looked over the clear walls, understanding now why they didn't need support beams or a framework.

“
The extreme temperature differences freak people out,” Cid shrugged and cast the large igloos a glance. “You take them from the heat into the chill and they always start whimpering. Hey, you want a tour?”

“
Um,” I looked at Azrael for help.

“
We're in a bit of a hurry,” Azrael saved me. “Why don't you just walk the path with us and you can tell Vervain about it from here?”

“
Oh, sure,” he looked a little disappointed but then brightened and waved us forward. “Come on then.”

“
So your name is Sid?” I asked as I followed. “As in Sid Vicious?”

“
Nope, it's Cid as in one of the greatest demons of all,” he waggled his brows at me. “It's with a C not an S but I can be vicious when it's needed.”

“
I've no doubt,” I nodded.

“
Each building is five stories tall,” Cid fell back so he could walk beside me, even though that meant he had to walk off the path. I guess it really didn't matter to him but when I saw the way his taloned feet stuck to the ground with each slurping step, I was glad Azrael had warned me not to wander off the path. “The transparent walls allow us to double our output with less effort.”

“
Excuse me?” I glanced at Cid but my main attention was focused on the buildings we were walking between.

“
Well, everyone is being tortured but they also get to see their neighbors tortured too. It ups the fear factor.” Cid waved toward one of the cells where a man was being chased through a dark forest by a werewolf. “As you can see, the space in each cell is limitless, we are merely viewing a portion of it for control purposes.”

“
Is that-” I stopped, gasping, as the werewolf caught up with the man and did something entirely unexpected.

“
He was pedophile,” Azrael's hand slid to the small of my back. “The punishment is appropriate.”

“
Where's the people who talk at the theater?” I asked dryly.

“
Firefly!” Cid shouted and pointed at me. “Totally! This is that special Hell.”

“
But that makes werewolves look bad,” I looked away, a little offended that they'd turn an image of a Froekn into a rapist, no matter what the man deserved.

“
Hey,” Cid held his hands up at his sides, “we didn't come up with all of this. It's not my fault.”

“
Of course you didn't,” I sighed. “These are human fears, aren't they?”

“
Take a look,” Cid pointed to the various cells. “We have all the heads; Pinhead, Pumpkinhead, and Pyramid Head. There's the regular guys gone bad; Jason, Freddy, Dr. Frankenstein, and Mr. Hyde. Then the ones with the word
man
in their name who really aren't men at all, like Gill Man, the Wolf Man, and Pale Man from that messed up movie
Pan's Labyrinth.
You know, the guy with eyes in his hands. Man that's just wrong. You gotta hold up your hands whenever you want to see? Stupid and wrong.
We also have monsters of all shapes and sizes from gremlins and ghoulies to Godzilla, King Kong, and the Blob. There's Count Dracula of course, along with Frankenstein's monster, the Rancor, the Terminator, and the Leprechaun. There are normal things made huge like giant spiders, giant centipedes, giant sharks, and just plain giants. Oh, and my personal favorite, Graboids. Every nightmare ever conceived by the human mind is welcome here and the greatest part is, I didn't have to think any of it up. I mean really,” he shivered dramatically. “How do you people come up with this shit?”

“
I guess we're just really creative,” I swallowed hard.

My gaze had been caught and held by Pinhead and my stomach clenched. The look in his eyes spoke of all the horrible things he'd like to be doing to me. It was the kind of look that could make people go insane and he didn't even have to touch you. This was evil brilliance. Everyone expected Hell to be a giant lake of fire where souls burned forever but this was far worse. Here they let you determine your own fate, your own punishment. They simply pulled your deepest fears out of your mind and maybe added a little appropriate twist to it, like with the pedophile.

Pinhead gave me a grim smile, devious and full of dark knowledge, and then he went back to work.

“
Holy shit,” I whispered shakily.

“
Hey, like I said,” Cid shook his head. “I didn't come up with this. You think I want to torture people in a giant ice cube all day? Hell no, and I'd rather not look like this either but I have to keep up appearances, especially when I'm on the job. I guess you could call it my uniform. A really ugly uniform.”

“
Wait,” I pulled my eyes away from the mess Pinhead was making. “You mean you get to change shape? This is just an illusion?”

“
Yeah,” Cid glanced at Azrael like he wasn't sure if I was testing him. “I'm actually an angel, you know. But it's not an illusion, both my forms are real.”

“
No, I did know that. I'm just surprised to hear you complain about it because I know faeries who have bodies that most people would find horrifying to look upon and they never get to be anything but what they are,” I looked him over. “And I've never heard them whine about it either. Count your blessings, demon.”

“
Fuck me,” Cid barked in laughter as Azrael just groaned. “I think that's the first time anyone has ever told me to count my blessings but yeah, I get it. Grass is always greener yada yada. Alright, Mistress of Death, I'll try to remember that.”

“
Good,” I nodded and then my eyes went wide as they took in the cell behind him. “Are those pencils?”

“
It's weird what some people are afraid of,” Cid nodded as he cocked his head to look up at the cell I was staring at.

A man was in a sea of pencils, screaming his head off as he floundered about. The pencils were extremely sharp and his movements only ended up harming him more. He was already impaled by several of the writing implements and yet he just kept on flailing.

“Why doesn't he just stop moving?” I looked over to Azrael.

“
Fear has no reason,” Azrael said sadly.

“
No kidding,” I knew that all too well. When I'd come into contact with the Darkness, it had left a taint of fear in my soul and I could barely think while under its influence. I'd turned into a shadow of myself.

“
Well, it's been lovely to see you,” Azrael smiled brightly at his friend, “but we really should get along to see Dad now.”

“
Oh okay,” Cid said jovially. “It was nice to meet you, Vervain. Come by again sometime, we'll have a barbeque.”

“
Sure, that sounds great,” I smiled, though it felt a little brittle, and then Az led me out of the Ice Blocks and into a mountain pass.

“
You still okay?” Azrael looked me over critically.

“
I'm fine,” I took a deep breath. “I have to admit that's one of the most terrifying things I've ever seen though, and you know I've seen some doozies.”

“
I'm so sorry,” Azrael pulled me into his side as we walked. “Unfortunately, there's only one path through Hell, Dad didn't want to have to guard several walkways and tracing in is impossible. I could have brought you through the other gate but that's general admissions, it's even less pleasant and we'd still have to go through the Ice Blocks and down this path.”

“
It's okay, I'm the one who asked you to bring me here.” I stopped walking as my voice echoed off the mountains and came back to me, only it wasn't the same words I'd just said. “Azrael?”