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Abaddon.

It lay before them like an incomplete
painting.  A line drawing, Cherry had said, etched on a rough untreated canvas
with no paint applied.

Even as they crossed the boundary the
colour seemed to drain from the two mortals until they were as ghostly as the
world around.  It was unsettling.

Totally.

They held hands, tightly, as if they were
afraid of losing each other and strode into the utter desolation.  Even Gehinnom,
for all its lack of anything living, seemed preferable to this.  This place was
as near to nothingness as was possible without being a complete limbo.

For one brief moment Jake wondered what
Sheol would be like.  That was still to come and was certain to be even worse. 
He did not relish the prospect but he did not tell Cherry his fears.

This was the place of the lost souls.  He
had tried to explain it to Cherry.

‘But why are they lost?’

‘Life is an exercise in learning.  A
preparation for the World to Come.  For those that have learnt their lesson
there is a place for them in Heaven.  For the wicked Sheol beckons; but there
are others; souls that have not matured, souls that are not truly wicked.  They
are sent here, to learn their way.  If their lesson is hard they may be
returned to Earth to live again.’

‘Like reincarnation?’

‘Yes.  The
gilgal
as it is called
in Kabbalah.’

Cherry’s eyes blazed, ‘Kabbalah, gilgal. 
You talk as if I should understand you.  You’ve got to slow down.  This is all
too fast.  I had a life, a normal life.  Then, you and Tiferet arrive and
nothing is the same.

‘Look, Jake.  This is all so hard to
grasp.  First, I’ve been plunged into the supernatural and now I’ve discovered
I’m Jewish.’

‘And you’ve coped very well with that.’

‘Thanks, but please, I need time.’

‘I’m sorry.  I’ve had a lifetime to
adjust.  It’s come so suddenly for you but you really have not reacted badly to
the fact that you’re also Jewish.’

Cherry laughed.

‘Well, in a way I think I’ve always known
I was.  I’ve always been interested in Jewish things.  That’s how I met Sam.’

‘Sam?’

‘Shmueli.’

But Jake shook his head.

‘You still don’t remember?’

‘No.  It’s still so blank.  You can’t
help.’

‘I hardly knew you before we came here. 
We only met a few times.’

‘But...We’re in love.’

‘Yes?  So?’

‘But, how?’

She laughed, ‘Oh, Jake.  Who knows?  I
don’t want to analyse it.’

‘But, in Heled, Earth, you mean we weren’t
in love?’ he was incredulous.

‘We were attracted to each other from the
start but we didn’t have time to begin a relationship.  Almost as soon as we
met we were catapulted into this.  Anyway, I doubt if anything would’ve
happened if we’d met in the normal way.’

‘Why?’

‘Because of Sam.’

‘Tell me.’

‘No, I can’t, not yet.  Give me time.’

‘But...’

‘Please, Jake.  It still hurts too much. 
I’ll tell you what you already ought to know.  Sam and I were engaged but he
became ultra-religious and ended the relationship.’

There were vague shadows but there was
another name Cherry had mentioned earlier on in the conversation.  Unbidden he
focussed upon it.

‘Tiferet?  Who’s he?’

‘You don’t even remember him?

‘No, but I feel he’s important.’

Cherry nodded.  There was a hint of
amusement in her eyes.

‘Very important?’  Jake queried.

‘Very.  Benjamin Tiferet’s a professor at
the Hebrew University in Jerusalem who specialises in Kabbalah.  It was he who
recruited your help in finding the twelve stones.’

‘Ah.’

‘Exactly.’

‘So he’s the one with the other six
crystals?’

‘No.  Alex Lapski has them.  Lapski was
the one who started this thing by wanting to recreate the Breastplate of
Judgement to gain power.  He needed your help and recruited that bastard Mitch
to get you.  Tiferet’s trying to stop him.’

It did not take a genius to work out the
remainder of the scenario.  This Tiferet and this Lapski were back in the Heled
awaiting the return of their respective champions.  So, he was to battle Mitch
was he?  It sounded right.

‘Where is he then?  Mitch?’

‘God knows.  He brought me here and ran
off when Lilith attacked.  But there’s something wrong with him.’

‘The En Sof, I know.  He’s possessed. 
That’s the important thing.  We’ve got to destroy the En Sof.  It wants to live
and if it succeeds everything else will be destroyed.  Come on.  We’ve got to
press ahead.’

Cherry nodded and Jake led them through
the grey shadows.  The place was chill, dank, but the atmosphere was not evil. 
In Gehinnom he could not help imagining horrors chasing him.  Here, his
imagination was silent, passionless.  Even his emotions had discarded their
colour.

This was what was meant by talk of the
domain of lost souls.

And then, ahead he saw them.  Shadowy
figures, insubstantial wraiths, creatures that moaned in despair, and, before
they knew it they were amongst the spirits.

‘Help me,’ one cried in a hoarse whisper;
hands outstretched in supplication.

‘Help us, help us,’ came the echoing response
from all the souls.

It was as if they knew that the
interlopers were from the world of the living and could offer them hope.

‘Can’t we do anything for them?  They seem
so pitiful.’

‘Nothing Cherry.  Remember what Lilith
said.  These souls are here to learn a lesson.  It is not for us to interfere
with the divine plan.  I have studied this place during my life with the Haham
and I know that God Almighty Himself will punish anyone who interferes with His
will.

‘We must pass through here and ignore
everything we see.  Our hearts must be hard.  We must show no mercy.’

‘But...if we can do something to ease
their plight?’

‘No.  Please believe me.  We can do
nothing.  If we interfere then we will incur the Divine wrath and we will be
cast in life into the Pit.  There is no appeal.

‘Come, the longer we tarry the harder it
will be.’

Jake led the way through the increasing
throng of tormented souls.  It was as if news of their arrival had spread
throughout Abaddon and every single inhabitant had come to gape at the
strangers.

They were everywhere.  Every face grimaced
in an expression of silent supplication, pleading for the salvation they so
fervently and futilely desired.  They barred the way; groping, grovelling,
tugging; thousands upon thousands of them, beneath their feet, over their
heads, a sea of the damned, but Jake was resolute and he forced his way through
their ranks until at last they were through.

‘Thank God that’s over.’

But Jake knew better than that.  They had
entered this place through, as it were, the back door.  Those they had seen
were the ancient souls, the ones who had been here for an eternity.  Soon they
would reach the recent dead and that would be when their real problems would
begin.

‘Look, Jake, ahead of us, colour.’

Jake nodded.  He had seen it for himself. 
It was colour in a general way but it was not colour in any specific sense. 
This was colour used by an artist without any comprehension of its true
purpose, unformed colours, colours without pigmentation.

‘But, it makes no sense.’

‘Of course not.  You must brace yourself. 
We are about to enter a part of Abaddon that is directly linked to the Heled. 
It is where those who die in violence without hope first arrive.  Here they
will be purged of all their earthly sins to join the army of the lost we have
already seen.’

Cherry shook her head, ‘I don’t
understand.  What’s going to happen?’

Jake held her hand ever more tightly.

‘Listen to me.  Many who die at the hand
of another are not yet ready to proceed to Heaven.  They cannot adjust to their
deaths.  They will be here as they died; mutilated, mauled, bloody; do you
follow.’

And Cherry nodded but she did not cringe. 
Unbidden an image came to her mind.  Thousands upon thousands of emaciated
corpses lying in pits.  Others, skeletal, gaunt and sallow, wearing grubby
striped and baggy linen; picking at things from the strewn bodies.  Removing
gold teeth, taking treasured possessions that the victims tried to secrete on
their person and handing these paltry acquisitions to their jackbooted masters.

‘Cherry!’

‘I’m sorry.  I...’

‘You were having a vision.  What?’

‘Nothing, it’s not important.’

‘But it is.  In this place we cannot
dream.  If you had a vision it must be real.’

‘No, it’s nothing...’

It was clear that Cherry would say nothing
further and Jake could not help wondering.  She was hiding something; a secret,
a trauma of some kind.  It had something to do with her breaking up with the
Sam person she had mentioned.  Had the man done something to her and if he had
how was it able to manifest itself here?

Even more importantly, could this be a
problem during their soon to come descent into Sheol?

‘Cherry, listen to me.  We will soon be
coming to a world where we must face our fears or be defeated by them.  Any
fear that is so great that you cannot speak of it could be your undoing. 
Please.  Now is not the time for secrets.  Whatever it is, you must tell me.’

Her eyes misted over, tears glistened but
Cherry just shook her head.

‘No, Jake, I can’t.  I truly can’t. 
If...if I’m going to face my fear then that is when I will do so.  Now I
cannot.  If you love me don’t keep asking me.  Please!’

Jake said nothing.  He could think of no
answer.  So he squeezed Cherry’s hand in reassurance...but what of his own
fears.  He knew that his heart also contained a secret and that he had no
knowledge of what it could be.  Like Cherry he too would face his fear during
the descent into Sheol.  Maybe, if they survived, they would both emerge better
people.

Assuming that they would survive.

…………………………………

The colours were becoming stronger and
Jake was pleased to see that a vitality had returned to Cherry’s cheeks.  He
too felt healthier.  Obviously they were in regions of Abaddon that abutted
Heled.  With the power of the combined crystals at their disposal it might even
be possible to return to Earth from here but now was not the time to try.  They
had to continue and there was only one way to go.

‘Come on.’

But a mournful wail stopped them in their
tracks.  It was pitiful to the extreme.

‘What is it?’

‘Nothing, try to ignore it.’

Jake led the way, plunging through a
quagmire of putrescence that stretched to the infinity before them and then
they saw them.  Shadowy beings at first but as they approached their features
became visible.  These then were the newly dead.

All had been disfigured in some way, the
result of the injury that had brought them here.  There was one with a broken
neck, another whose guts had been spewed from his body in a vicious knife
attack.  There were victims of every atrocity possible.  Dismemberment,
disembowelling, lacerations, gunshot wounds.  One had been crushed, his body
limp, his muscles dead.  Another had been tortured, electrodes still dangling
from his genitalia.  A girl, her head twisted, blood pouring from her vagina,
staggered along; raped, abused, mauled.  These were the victims of man’s
inhumanity to man.

Like their brethren before them they all
cried as with one voice, ‘Help me, help me.’

‘Remember my warning.  They must find
their own way.  We can do nothing here.’

‘But look at them.  Look at the state of
them.  They need help.’

‘I know and they will find help, but not
from us.’

At that moment a figure pushed his way
through the throng.  His face was just one great open wound; red, raw, covered
in puss.  His mouth was just a gaping maw that displayed yellowing teeth and
gingival gums.  His nose was little more than a scrap of skin and cartilage
covering the air holes in his skull.  What kind of maniac would do that to a
person?

‘Stop...,’ he called, his voice rasping
with the effort, ‘Cherry...’

And Jake looked at his companion, who
stood there quivering, ‘He knows you.’

She shook her head and turned to nestle it
in Jake’s great shoulder.

‘Cherry,’ repeated the dead man, ‘Look at
me.’

‘No!’

‘Please, I beg of you.  Look what Sam did
to me.’

Jake held out his hand bearing his crystal
and pointed his finger at the man.

‘You have no business with us.  We are the
living, you are the dead.  Be gone or I will banish you to Sheol.’

‘Wait, I beg of you.  Listen to me.  An
evil has been unleashed.  It possesses my son.  It used him to do this to me. 
You must stop it.  You must.  Return to Earth and find Sam.  Release him from
the curse.’

And Cherry stared, ‘You’re David
Isaacson?’

‘Yes...’

‘And Sam did this to you?’

‘Yes.’

It was clear that something inside the
girl was snapping.  She began to laugh but it was not the laughter of
happiness.

‘Cherry.’

But she would not stop.  She seemed to be
in the grips of hysteria.

‘You bitch!’ screamed the man and rushed
towards the girl.

Jake closed his eyes and mouthed a word of
command.  Instantly the man stopped in his tracks.

‘No! No!’

‘I Jacob Tranton High Priest of Israel
command you to be gone.  Leave us.’

And the man slowly vanished whilst Cherry
still giggled hysterically.

Jake did the only thing possible.

‘What the hell’s wrong with you?  Don’t
you know what this means?  The En Sof has Mitch doing its work here whilst in
Heled your friend Sam’s...’