To Hell & Back

I awoke abruptly and in immense pain. I immediately wanted to go back to unconsciousness, but the floor was moving under me, keeping me awake. Upon closer inspection, I was being dragged; my arms were being used to lift me up and drag me. I turned my head to look around, then paused when I felt something wet trail down the side of my face. Somehow I knew it was blood.

One of them days, I thought with a sigh. I licked a metallic-tasting liquid off my lip and thought, Yeah, that’s blood. Definitely one of them days, Stas…

The jeans I had on helped shield my legs from the abrasive ground, but my shoes were long gone, leaving my feet dragging on the ground. One foot was almost completely numb, all I could feel was a small ache in it, while the skin on the other foot was obviously tearing, and it was shooting spikes of pain through me as I became more aware of my body. I figured I’d pay for it later, but I picked the painful foot up and rested it on the one that was numb, thankful when the pain stopped coming so sharply. It still hurt, but it wasn’t quite as bad.

Minimize and endure, right, Ted? I thought, remembering my teacher’s lessons on pain. He told me the same thing any time I complained about physical pain, never varying his message. Do what you can to minimize the pain, then endure the rest, pushing your focus away from it as you do. The body will complain, as you are doing now, but you must continue to look!

I was thankful, after the initial shock and pain from landing on my face, when the people dragging me dropped me flat onto the floor. My shoulders, and damn near everything else, were killing me, so I figured I’d just lie there on the nice marble floors and take a nap. Whoever had me obviously wanted me alive, and I wasn’t in any shape to fight anyone, anyway. I had been lying there for almost a minute, just about to drift off to sleep, when I heard a voice in front of me say, “What is that and why is it here?”

“This is the one you wanteds!” came from one of the guys that had been holding me.

I felt a distinctly powerful presence come closer, pause, then say, “Oh, yes… It is, isn’t it? Though I dare say I specifically said for you to go get it and bring it back unharmed. Humans are often dirty, this much is true, of course, but this is exceptional, and I must declare: quite disgraceful; for if this is unharmed, then I would loathe to see what it looks like harmed.”

His angry tone made my heart rate speed up. I sighed, knowing I wasn’t going to get any sleep like I had planned, so I pulled my arms under my head and waited, letting my new captors sort everything out.

“There was complications!” came from a voice to my side.

“I gathered that, but what I am trying to find out—You know what, never mind. Leave it here, and just… go,” the powerful one in front of me said with a heavy sigh.

After a moment he added, “You just cannot find good help these days. Is following instructions so dearly complicated? Bring it back unharmed, I ask for; it is brought back harmed! This is, without any shadow of a sliver of a doubt, a clear violation of the instructions given, but do they care? No, obviously not, because they are useless fools.”

Man has got a point, I admitted to myself. I’d like to have been brought back unharmed, but nobody asked me… I think.

After a moment of just lying there, I felt something poke me in the shoulder. I thought about ignoring it, but curiosity eventually made me look up. In front of me was a tall man with a long, thin staff. He had the staff pointing at me, presumably what he had just used to poke me.

Staff is vibrating silver… Oh, witch’s sight is on, I thought, pushing my vision back to normal. Silver means… Fuck, what was it? Oh! It is a charm detecting staff! So he can’t see magic by himself?

“Hey,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

“You are still alive. Good! Very good, indeed,” he said. “I was beginning to be worried, I think.”

“You think you were beginning to be worried?” I asked, making sure I heard him right.

“Yes,” he replied, nodding sagely. “Are you?”

“Am I what?” I said, frowning deeply.

“Alive, of course!” he said loudly.

“More or less, at this point,” I replied flippantly, closing my eyes.

He’s nuts, I decided.

“You interest me. Why are you here?” he asked. “I was not expecting you, not this early, at any rate.”

“I came for the scenery and the head injuries,” I told him while I probed the back of my head with a finger. “Mission accomplished.”

Looks like the bleeding has stopped, so… not all bad, I noted.

“How very puzzling this all is, and certainly you are. You are not what I expected, nor are you when I expected. That must mean you are either not the one I am after, or I calculated incorrectly, or perhaps… No, that couldn’t be it… but…” he said before he trailed off.

“Was there a question in there somewhere?” I asked, confused.

“A question? Ah— Yes, brilliant idea, but— A question… What to ask?” he replied, looking thoughtful.

“Mister, I don’t know who you are or what you want, but my head, my shoulders, my foot… Fuck it, my whole damn body hurts, so make it quick,” I said, exasperated.

“Hmm, yes, that is— But, no… Ah, now that is a good question, isn’t it? Why are you here?” he asked.

“Your dudes brought me. Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” I replied, frowning up at him.

“No, no… I mean why are you in this realm? You shouldn’t be here, not yet at least, as we’ve not prepared properly,” he clarified. “Your presence begs the question— Unless… Oh my, perhaps you are supposed to be here and it is I that… hmm… It could also… or instead, perhaps indeed, be that you are but a butterfly caught in a web not designed or designated for you… Well? What of it?”

“What?” I asked, utterly confused.

“Yes, no doubt about that, but that also makes very little sense,” he informed me.

I must have fallen asleep, because I woke up again to being prodded. When I looked up, I frowned at the man who had once again poked me with his stick, then told him, “You’re still here.”

“You were snoring,” he informed me. Then he asked, “So, back to the question of the ages, why are you here?”

“I dunno, your dudes brought me here,” I said with a big yawn. “Thought we went over that?”

“Why are you here at all?” he asked. “In this realm?”

“Was a good idea at the time?” I said. “I think. It is kind of debatable at this point.”

“Do you even know where you are?” he asked.

“I know where I am. Where are you?” I said, not sure if I was making sense or not.

He stared at me for a moment before asking, “How did you get here?”

“Long story,” I replied.

“We have time,” he told me, sitting down in front of me. “Pray tell.”

He is serious, I realized after staring at him for a while. I thought hard for a moment, not sure where to start.

“Um… heard of a ripcord?” I asked, propping my chin up on my palm.

“No,” he replied.

Course not, that’d be too easy, I thought.

“Zipline?” I asked with a sigh.

“I am versed in all forms of sorcery, whether of human origination or otherwise, but I am unfamiliar with most human nomenclature,” he replied.

“All right, well… a zipline is a ready-made teleport. Tie the image of a place to an object, shove power into it, and zip, off you go,” I said. “It is called a zipline because… I… You know what, I don’t actually know why.”

“I am familiar with this process,” he replied.

“Great. So… a Ripcord is like, loosely based off of that… Well, it feels like it— never mind, you know what I— OK, skipping ahead: You’re facing a creature from another realm, right? Well, you use them as your anchor instead of some object, sort of… Basically you tie yourself to them, empower the original spell to open up the portal they came through, and they get sucked down back where they came from, taking you with them, and then you empower the summoning spell specifically, sending them back, and finish it up by killing the portal spell,” I said. “That is, more or less, the gist of it. It is actually a lot simpler to do than it seems.”

“They are stuck on Earth, for a time, and you are stuck here,” he murmured. “Your idea is quite interesting. This works?”

“Evidence does seem to suggest it, yes,” I replied smartly.

“But one wonders… Could you not simply teleport away from the situation? Did the summoning not take place upon a ley-line?” he asked. “Why not simply ride the line away— Did you summon something that can ride lines? That idea claims a surprisingly large amount of skilled individuals.”

I shook my head and answered, “We were inside a teleportation bubble, and too far to get anything from the closest line anyway. I didn’t do the summoning. The warlock that did it powered it with blood, lots and lots of blood, instead of using a line.”

“How did you power your own work?” he asked.

“Harvested my own virgin’s blood when nobody was looking,” I replied.

“That may just be…” he trailed off, thinking. “Yes, that is the very first time I have heard of that being done. That is quite well done— and a human, to boot.”

“Thanks,” I murmured. “I thought it was a pretty clever idea.”

He was quiet for a time. Seeing him still watching me, I decided I wasn’t going to be getting any sleep, so I sat up and closed my eyes. I had to be careful of how I put my feet, and I felt some scabs stretch a little, but I was pretty sure I didn’t reopen any wounds by sitting up.

Breaking his silence, the man sitting nearby took a deep breath and said, “What do you know of the child that pursues you?”

“The what?” I asked, sounding as confused as I felt.

Child? I wondered.

“The child with whom you escaped Spider’s Lair with. What do you know of it?” he pressed.

“What is Spider’s Lair?” I responded.

“Were you not taken captive, and did you not then escape said captivity with the help of a young child?” he questioned, looking curious.

“I don’t really remember much of any of that,” I replied truthfully.

“The child, it protected you from many of Spider’s demons,” he said. “Do you remember this? It was, admittedly, some time ago.”

“Uh… Sort of? There was this big demon-thing in a dungeon-thing and we… fought? Sort of? Then there was this kid— No wait— Yeah! Wait… I don’t know, man,” I said with a sigh. “People need to stop hitting me on the head.”

Before the man in front of me could respond, a door burst open, and another man rushed in, saluted to the one I had been talking to, and said, “He has arrived and has bid me to tell you that he wants to speak with you. He said, and I quote—”

“Yes, I am sure he does, and I am sure he did,” the one I had been speaking to replied, cutting the other man off. “Don, continue this conversation for me, would you? I won’t be gone too long, but do try and get as many answers as you can from our dear guest.”

The man, or demon, that I suspected was Don seemed to materialize out of nowhere, and the guy I had been speaking to left. I watched him go with a sinking feeling.

Something may be wrong, I thought as I looked at Don. He was large, imposing, bald, red-eyed, and his smile showed a mouth full of very sharp teeth.

Don was quiet for a long while before saying, “Well, that was easy. Now then… you know your life is in my hands for a while, don’t you?”

That is downright disconcerting. Something is very wrong, I decided, certain now.

“Uh… yeah? Something like that. Do I know you?” I said quietly, not liking where this was going.

I want the old guy back, I decided firmly.

“That ripcord of yours is not going to get to you for quite some time. I can open the way for it,” he told me. “Barriers can be bent, as it were.”

So that is some good news. If he isn’t lying to me, it is confirmation that something is actually trying to rip me out of here, I mused. Now the question is how long will it take to get past the barriers, and how rough of a rip will it be?

“What do you want?” I asked after a moment.

“Agree to a claim, and off you go,” he replied.

“No fucking way! I’m not giving you my soul,” I replied. “Anyway, didn’t your boss say he just wanted answers? Pretty sure if he wanted—”

“He can want whatever he likes, since he ain’t my boss, and… and I don’t think you realize that your will doesn’t necessarily matter here,” he said with a grin. He cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck without taking his eyes off of me.

“One, that move is cliché as fuck, and two, I have to agree on any claim to make it true,” I replied, putting as much resolve into my voice as I could. “I didn’t go through all the shit I’ve gone through in the last, um, however long it has been, just to become a demon’s toy.”

“I don’t need your agreement about me choking you to death in order to make that particular thing happen,” he pointed out, causing my gut to clench with unwanted fear. “Oh yes… I can feel your fear, and your fatigue…”

I frowned and thought, He just wants to scare you… He won’t kill you… He wants a human servant. Why me, dammit…

“Maybe that is true. Either way, you don’t get a new slave,” I pointed out. Don’t get scared— Think it through! If the other guy isn’t his boss… but he sure made it sound like he was. What the fuck—

“A life serving—” Don began before I cut him off.

“Is no life at all,” I said loudly. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

He stalked forward and grabbed me, lifting me up. He held me in the air and growled out, “I don’t think I need to remind you just how much I own you right now.”

“I know the rules; you own me as much as I agree to be owned, and I don’t agree to be owned one, fucking, bit,” I told him. I clung to the knowledge, or hope, that help was coming in some form or another, and glared at him defiantly. “So, fuck you and the horse you rode in on with a great big stick.”

“You’re strong… Good. Very good,” he said with a nod. “So the only question is, which will break first: your spirit… or your body?”

With that said, he threw me down onto my back. I hit the ground and saw stars. Before I could get up, he was on top of me. He leaned down, wrenched me around onto my stomach, put his knee on my back, and leaned in hard. I squirmed, trying to get out from under him, but I was pinned to the ground and going nowhere.

Well, this conversation escalated quickly, I thought as he grabbed one of my hands and twisted it behind my back, singled out a finger and bent it backwards slowly. Oi vey, not that; I need that!

“Last chance before it gets real nasty for a while,” he informed me.

I took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly before saying, “Eat a dick, faggot.”

Here comes the painful part. Press your face to the ground so you don’t smash it. Keep your tongue away from your teeth, and keep your mouth closed, and—

The shock of pain stopped the voice in my head. All I heard was my own screaming. The demon didn’t say anything, or I didn’t hear anything, before he broke the next finger. The pain flared, and I was vaguely aware of a foreign presence pushing the boundaries of my mind, trying to enter.

Fuck if you think you’re getting in here, I thought as I slammed the mental door to my head shut. Pain turned to anger, which brought determination, fueling me. I pressed my face to the ground and clenched my teeth, riding the pain, but not giving up.

When I could, I said, “I don’t… know how to invade… someone’s head… but I can stop you from getting in mine— FUCK!” I screamed as the third finger broke. “Fuck goddammit fuck!”

Relax your body as much as you can, you’ll only make the pain worse. Smile and ride it, Ted’s voice whispered through my head. It is only pain, after all. You’ve endured pain before, so what is a bit more? It is but a game to be won, a challenge to be met… Unless, of course, you would rather lose all that you’ve earned, hmm? What shall it be, you foolish little girl?

No, I thought. I won’t lose, Ted, not ever.

“Seven more to go,” the demon informed me. He paused before he asked, “Any change in attitude?”

“NNNnng… lemme… lemme think on it,” I panted, clenching my teeth, knowing it was only going to get worse. “I… I belong… I belong to no one… so go fuck yourself!”

If I gave in to a claim, I would be a slave. I might gain power in the deal, but I would be a slave for as long as I lived. Even if I killed the demon somehow later on, a part of me would always belong to him. I had seen the remnants of people that had been “saved” from a demonic claim; there hadn’t been much left of the original person. If I endured, and if the ripcord was really there trying to pull me back to Earth, then it should build up pressure, more and more, until it ripped me home. It was all I had at this point.

The longer the buildup, the more violent the rip will be, won’t it? I thought with a grim smile. Maybe it’ll tear this place apart… Maybe it’ll tear this asshole a new one, eh?

The demon grabbed another finger while I was busy in thought. This time he chose my index finger. A flick of his hand was all it took to snap the bone. I managed to keep myself from screaming until he snapped another. After he had my entire left hand a broken and bleeding wreck, he sat back and just let me lie there hurting.

I sucked in breath after breath to try to ride the pain, but it was overwhelming. I turned onto my side and clenched my right hand around my left wrist, staring at it. I had never seen a sight more horrific than my own badly broken fingers. After a few moments, I closed my eyes and held my hand close to my chest, unable to do anything else. I began to cry soon after.

This is what he needs; he needs you to break down. Disappoint him, a voice whispered. I thought it might be Ted’s voice, but I wasn’t sure. It was so hard to think at this point. You’ve come so far… Come now, you aren’t going to give up, are you?

I just lay there panting and crying, doing my best to hold the sobs in. The pain had abated a great deal, but I couldn’t stop the tears. The only thing that was keeping me together at all was the knowledge that he was rushing me. He had to have a reason for trying to break me so quickly.

“Now then, where were we? Ah yes, I have a job for you,” my demonic torturer told me after what seemed like forever.

“Fuck you...” I whispered, panting.

“I’m sorry, what was that? I didn’t quite hear you,” he replied, leaning in with his knee to my back.

“I said,” I told him, taking a second to steady my voice, and switch to my best French accent. “Le fuck, le you, in le face.”

Keeping it classy to the end, I thought to myself, grinning.

“You cannot be serious,” he murmured quietly.

“I am… seriously… going to kill you,” I told him, closing my eyes as a wave of pain rushed over me. I fought it back and added, “Cut your damn… head off… I’m gonna…”

“Are you insane?” he asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“Depends… on who’s asking,” I replied, forcing a laugh and sniffing. “I’m not… but she is…”

“This is ridiculous,” he announced, standing up.

“That’s just… like… your opinion,” I replied, panting and laughing. “Mister… soon to be… headless… asshole.”

He responded by kicking me in the stomach. My breath left my lungs, and I felt my ribs give. I would have screamed in pain, had I the breath for it. Instead, I just wheezed and tried to keep breathing. He grabbed my ankle and yanked me toward him. I managed to cry out in pain as I slid across the floor. I felt him pull my ankle up into the air. He had my foot in one hand and my ankle in the other and started to slowly twist.

“Last chance,” he said.

I laughed, choking for a moment. When I could manage a breath, I said, “Never was much… of a dancer, anyway.”

I braced for another round of pain, but instead of feeling pain, I heard a shriek. It was a loud, angry cry that I recognized instantly. I didn’t think I could be more happy to hear such a bone-chilling, harsh sound, but I felt my lips pull into a grin.

“Too soon,” I heard Don whisper.

“I’m going to tear you apart!” I heard myself scream as a crash sounded outside.

Don dropped my foot, letting it fall to the hard marble floor. I winced, but kept still, while fighting for breath through the pain. When I looked up, Don was standing over me, facing a door which exploded inward moments after I looked at it.

I got a brief glance at Victoria and didn’t care if she was a giant, scary, black monster; she was the loveliest sight in the world. She charged, moving faster than my eyes could keep up with, and slammed into the demon standing over me with a crash. They tumbled over and away from me, out of my sight.

All right. I want out of this place, I decided numbly a moment later. Out, out, out; we are leaving, Stas.

I tried to sit up, but pain raced through my system from my ribs, so I painfully began to crawl towards the door Victoria had come through. It didn’t take long for the pain to catch up to my resolve, causing me to stop. Tears poured out, blurring my vision too bad to see, so all I could do was close my eyes and grit my teeth.

“Staysa, is that you?” I heard from a curious sounding voice.

“Go away!” I said, clenching my teeth, but opening my eyes to look at the source of the voice. “I’m retired.”

The man that had called to me smiled when I met his gaze, then said, “Ah, so it is you. Good, I’m glad.”

“I bite,” I warned him warily, baring my teeth at him. “Hard, fast, and repeatedly.”

“Oh? I’m sure your girlfriend approves mightily,” he said with a laugh. He looked like a mid-twenties human, and a handsome one at that. His warm smile almost made me forget how horribly hurt I was. “You never quit, do you? Good thing, because you, young lady, are quite hard to find.”

He knelt next to me, looking me up and down as he did. He gently pushed me flat onto my back, raised my shirt to just under my breast, and eyed where the demon had kicked me. When his hand touched my skin, I felt an instant connection. He radiated power like I had never felt. It felt like I had just tapped into a dark, smooth, and absolutely enormous reservoir of energy.

He isn’t just really powerful; he is… something else, something more, I thought, my eyes going wide. But how come I didn’t feel it until he touched me. How does he hide this kind of power? That’s like hiding a bus in your pocket.

When he put one hand just under my breast, I muttered, “Most guys take me to a movie before they try that.”

“You get taken to a lot of movies?” he asked.

I think he said more, but a strange warmth filling my chest distracted me. It was coming from his hand. The pain started lessening immensely, drifting away to be replaced by a much more bearable, dull ache.

Demons can heal? I wondered.

“I’ve never been on a date before,” I admitted after a moment.

“Really? What a shame. You’ve grown up to have a nice rack, and it’ll only get better, I’m sure, so don’t worry, the boys will come around,” I heard him say. “Ah, there is no way around this. This will hurt a great deal, I’m afraid.”

I closed my eyes and grit my teeth as he took up my mangled hand. One by one, he curled his hand around my broken fingers and pushed them back into place. It hurt less than when the demon from before had broken them, and I was obviously numbed from my overall condition, but it still hurt a hell of a lot.

After they were somewhat set, I felt warmth pulse through my entire hand. A few moments later, only a dull ache remained in them. I stared at my hand, exhausted but amazed.

“In the future, you need to pick more trustworthy men to give your hand to. Wiggle them for me?” he told me.

“He… seemed so nice, at first,” I whispered, feeling woozy. I moved my freshly healed fingers as instructed and said, “Am drunk?”

“That is better. They might get stiff if you don’t work them over the next few hours,” he said as he watched me wiggle my fingers about. He looked up and past me and said, “No, don’t— Shit. Never mind. Well, good work, my dear.”

I followed his gaze to see Victoria, back in her human form, looking over at him. She was holding the head she’d just severed from Don’s body. From the looks of it, she had cut off both his arms before she got to his head. I had forgotten they had been fighting. His body had a multitude of long slashes in it.

Gross, I thought, wrinkling my nose.

“Staysa,” the man said, looking at me.

“Y’huh?” I said, squinting up at him.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“I’m...” I started before I trailed off. His question cut through my haze like a hot knife through butter. I started crying before I could think of anything to say.

I sniffed and thought, I’ve started crying again, goddammit. Don’t be such a wimp, Stas, it was just a little torture. A little torture never hurt nobody.

“I apologize for not coming for you sooner. I was— Well, that is not important now,” he told me, using his hand to wipe away the tears trailing down my face. “You are safe for the moment.”

“Okay,” I whispered, closing my eyes. I was determined to stop crying; I hated crying. “I’m not usually like this.”

“I think having a bit of a cry would be considered normal, given the situation,” he said.

“No, it’s not,” I whispered, sniffing. I put my arm over my eyes, suddenly wanting everything to go away, or at least to not be seen crying. “Dammit.”

“Mmhmm, you’re definitely a woman. Only a woman would argue that point,” he replied.

“Fuck you, mister,” I replied, peeking out from behind my arm to glare at him, then hiding my face with my hands.

He just chuckled and said, “Anyway, your body and mind both may… Well, just know that you can expect to be feeling a bit off for a while, you might say. You should heal everything, no permanent damage… but if you can, you should see a healer as soon as possible. You know, just in case.”

“Okay,” I whispered, sniffing. I didn’t believe him, but I didn’t know what else to say.

I felt a weight on my shoulder, so I glanced up to see Victoria was resting her head on my shoulder, looking at me. She smiled and I smiled back.

“Nice to see you, little monster,” I whispered.

“Victoria protect Staysa,” she crowed. She sat up and presented Don’s head to me, then said, “Head!”

“Yes, yes, you took his head, just as you said you would do. We haven’t much time,” the man that had healed me muttered.

“What’s your name?” I asked, looking back at the man.

“My friends used to call me Trente, though it has been some time since I used any name,” he replied. “Most use my title when referring to me.”

“What’s your title?” I said. “Stop being so damn… whatever you’re being.”

“Elusive is the word you’re looking for, I think, though there are several candidates,” he said. I just glared at him. After a moment’s hesitation he said, “I suppose there is no sense wasting time… In your language, ‘Satan’ or ‘the Devil’ would be the appropriate title. I find the name rather tacky, but no one ever asks me my opinion on it… Does that seem right to you?”

I stared at him, thinking, The Devil? As in lord of— Why am I talking to myself and not to him?

“The Devil’s name is Lucifer,” I said after a moment.

“Ah, well, yes… It is quite true that it used to be, once upon a merry time,” he replied. “Lucifer has long since become one of the departed. It is a sad tale, really. An epic in its own right, though it had a poor ending, in my point of view, but no sense reminiscing on the past, as they say.”

“What?” I asked, confused.

“When you are recovered some, we shall speak again, but until then, you should stay out of trouble,” he said, beaming a smile at me.

“Okay,” I said, even more confused. “You just want to talk?”

“Yes,” he said, still smiling. “I realize people haven’t been treating you very well lately, but I just want to talk. We will exchange words, nothing more.”

“Why?” I asked suspiciously. If he is really the Devil… “Why do you want to talk to me? What’s the Devil want with me?”

“I’ve missed your sharp wit, shining personality, and you’ve grown to be nice to look at. What more can a guy ask for?” he told me. I just stared at him for a moment, then I put my arm back over my eyes.

“Whatever,” I said before asking, “How?”

“Keep this with you. I’ll find you,” he said, making me look back at him. He handed me a blank business card. When I just stared at it, he took it from my hand, lifted up the side of my shirt, then stuffed the card into the side strap of my bra.

What in the— That is brilliant. Why haven’t I been putting stuff there? I thought, staring at the spot. For a moment, I just felt torn between wonderment at discovering a new way to store things and everything else that just happened.

“Are you ready to go back to your realm?” he asked.

“You didn’t answer my questions, not really,” I replied, feeling things get hazy again. “What do you want with me?”

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” he said with a shrug.

He raised his hand, paused for dramatic effect, then snapped his fingers. My world lurched, instantly going black as I was torn violently from one realm to another.

~To be continued~