Flirting with Sin Ch. 01

Ever in the distance. Far enough away that I could only just make it out. Squeezing and struggling, I inched along. It wasn't getting any closer.

I turned my head to look back on the way I'd come from. There was no path, only a brick wall behind me. Swiveling back to look at the door again, my nose banged against wood--the door was an inch from my face.

With great effort I turned the knob, rusted and resistant, and scraped the door along the stone floor to open, finally gaining enough purchase to stumble inside. I fell face first into the room and a bewildering sense of vertigo came over me as I plunged into absolute darkness.

There was no floor. The air rushed past me, the infinite dark of the abyss swallowed up my senses. I don't know how long I fell. Seconds, minutes, hours, it all blurred together in an insane, thoughtless rush. The air rushing past my ears deafened me. Would I ever stop falling? When did I start? At any moment a bottom would come, and my being would be crushed into a million pieces.

The past and present seemed to run together. At some point I stopped falling, but I couldn't say when, or if I had ever truly begun. I opened my eyes to see a circle of stone flooring in the radius of the torch's light, surrounded by endless black. There was a short flight of stairs in front of me.

The stairs carried me to a small platform above the darkness where a small wooden altar stood directly in the center, a golden cross standing atop it. There was, too, what appeared to be holy scripture, but the pages were a jumbled mess, the words and letters nonsensically scattered all over like the scribbling of a madman. I put my hand on it to turn the page and the holy symbols on my arm shocked my skin.

I was atop a platform overlooking a great expanse. Below me, a lake of fire stretched out in all directions without end. The flames melted into the horizon, an endless void, and gazing up the black threatened to swallow everything whole. Great masses of burning flesh walked the flames below, their bodies nothing but pulsating muscle and burning blood. Far below, I could make out endless pieces of human remains aflame, melting and twisting. On the edge of my perception were constant screams of pain and suffering, the muffled cries of souls in endless torment.

Inferno.

In the distance was a great structure, a hellish crimson ziggurat. Small pyramids dotted its surface with pockets of robed figures praying all around them. Hell Knights roamed the grounds freely and seemed to be taking orders from these acolytes. In large pens were corralled pink masses of flesh and teeth gorging themselves on human remains.

Chained to one of the pyramids was a naked figure; I could make out flecks of gold all around its being. A crowd of the infernal acolytes seemed to be chanting some incantation around it.

... It's Shuu'Vohsa.

My teeth felt like they might crack under the pressure of my jaw. I gripped the hilt of my sword like I meant to strangle it. Five bullets in the chamber of the magnum--before I was through, the gun would drink one of these bastards' blood.

Behind me a flight of stone stairs led down in a great spiral as far as I could see. A passage along the way took me to a balcony with a platform bridging the gap between the two buildings. If I was to cross it I'd be spotted easily, but there seemed to be no other way to reach Voh--the two structures were floating above the lake of flame below, held aloft by some satanic force.

Below the bridge was a very large cadaver, badly burnt by the flames. It wore a crown of thorns and its wrists were nailed into the side of the structure. It would stir and groan every now and again, no doubt kept from expiring by the tormentors here that it might suffer eternally.

There was a robed figure near the bridge staring into the fire below. Quietly I stepped through the shadows to approach the figure. It didn't seem to sense my presence, even as I leapt through the dark and forced Lightsbane through its abdomen.

No sound of wincing in pain or gurgling on its own blood. It merely went limp, the hood falling from its head.

Dull red skin. Horns. Empty white eyes. A satyr--a former human fully twisted by demonic Possession. It collapsed without so much as a sigh, but it was mouthing a series of incomprehensible words again and again even as it lay there dying. Some kind of incantation.

Across the way, a group of the robed figures were staring at me from beneath darkened hoods. A Hell Knight was crossing the bridge, one heavy step at a time. With sword and gun in hand I approached him, unafraid.

The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts in Him, and He aids me. My heart exults, and with song do I give praise to Him.

Grey-skinned with a goat's head and hooves, its gnarled limbs nothing but muscle. It lumbered toward me, shaking the stone passageway, smoke puffing from its large nostrils. There was no intelligence in its darkened eyes, it was all hatred and hunger. These creatures existed only to destroy and consume.

I held the blade to my chest, felt its unquenchable thirst for blood. For the first time, I gave in to it.

Bang! One bullet in its ribs. It hardly winced. Another in its shoulder, which caused it to slightly recoil. Finally, a bullet in its left eye. It covered its eye with its hand and growled in pain, but continued its steady path toward me.

Swiping its great claws at me, it hit only air as I leapt backward and emptied the rest of the chamber into its face. Snorting and puffing, it stomped its hoof and charged at me.

With its massive hand it formed a fist and smashed it into the stone--I rolled between its enormous legs and shoved the sword into its spine. Both hands on the hilt, I carved it upwards through the monster's flesh, bellowing in righteous fury. The blade slid through its meat and bone like so much butter, cleaving it cleanly in two; gallons of boiling blood sprayed everywhere.

As the gore painted my body I held open the magnum's chamber and allowed it to drip into the barrel. The metal became hot to the touch; I felt something wet running over my fingers like an unseen appendage was trying to lap up the blood.

Another Hell Knight began across the bridge toward me, followed by a group of the pink masses of pulsating flesh and teeth. I pulled back the trigger--the barrel grew red-hot, blood bubbled inside the cylinder, there was a buildup of plasma at the business end. Finally, a gush of corrupted blood was ejected from the barrel, the recoil nearly enough to knock me over. It ripped through the bodies of the demons crossing the bridge; the Hell Knight's midsection exploded, sending its top half flying into the flames below, and the teeth from the masses of flesh flew in a million pieces in every direction.

Low chanting voices filled the air. Dark incantations and blood magic. Bolts of darkness flew toward me; pillars of flame rose to halt my advance. Swinging the sword through the concentrated dark cleaved it in twine and the soul gem swallowed it up into its lightless gloom. With a swift leap I crossed the gap cornering the bridge and the ziggurat on the other side.

Several of the satyrs raised their hands to stall me, their claws filled with bolts of darkness and blood. I wouldn't be able to dodge them all or stop all of them from hitting me--then a thought crossed my mind, forced its way into my consciousness by the bloodlust pulsating in my hand.

With Lightsbane lifted over my head and both hands on the grip, I brought the blade down on the crimson ziggurat's surface with all the strength my arms could muster, shattering the sword into several pieces. The chunks of the blade did not fall to the ground, but rather floated in the air around my body as if waiting to be commanded. I pointed the broken blade toward the group of satyrs and the chunks of steel flew at them like a hail of arrows, piercing their sternums and sinking into their guts.

I pulled the hilt back and the shards tore themselves free of the satyrs' bodies, the black blood dripping from the sword as it reformed in my grasp. Not a moment too soon, for mere seconds after it was back in my grasp, a pink mass of muscle and teeth was roaring toward me and biting at my legs.

Driving the blade into its mouth only seemed to irritate it. Growling and slobbering all over my arm, it pushed its way toward me even as the blade sunk further into its flesh.

Gripping the hilt and struggling, I saw Lightsbane changing inside the creature's maw. The sword was swelling, growing wider and wider until it split into a three-pronged splay of blades. It spread itself open, tearing through the creature's flesh, eliciting horrible gagging and gurgles. It jerked helplessly, burning bile pouring in an endless torrent from its opening all over my robes as I cleaved its 'head' from its body.

Nearby, Voh was strung up against the side of one of the pyramids. Blood was flowing from her wrists, dripping down her naked body to be collected in a depression in the stonework that drained away to be used in some foul ritual, fuel some wretched blood rite.

I struck her chains with the blade, shattering the links, and caught her as she fell. Gently I cradled her in my arm and lowered her to the ground. The songstress's golden lashes fluttered weakly open, her blue eyes vacant until they found focus on my face. She gave a frail smile, her bloody, trembling hand reaching for my cheek.

"Mister Trevor... you are not hurt," she managed, her voice a tiny whisper. "I am so, so glad..."

"I'm going to get you out of here, Voh," I promised, clasping her hand in mine.

"You... you look so worried," she squeaked quietly. "Do not worry, Trevor. I am here with you, now... I will protect you. No one will hurt you, so long as I am with you. So do not worry. Everything will be alright..."

Shuu'Vohsa's eyes fell shut and she went limp in my arms. A wave of panic shocked my spine; I put my ear to her chest--still breathing, heart still beating. She had merely passed out.

Bitterness washed over me. I knew it would turn out like this. I dragged her into this mess. I could have just put one between her eyes when I first met her, spared her all of this. If only she had stayed with Alice. If only she had stayed in the apartment. If only she had never gotten mixed up with me in the first place. God damn it!

I swore to myself, there on one knee holding the song demon's body close, that this would not be the end of her.

"Mea culpa," I whispered to her.

How very foolish of me, I thought. How fickle I am. I could laugh, if I wasn't surrounded by hellspawn and burning bodies. I had known this dumb little bird for such a short time and grown so shamelessly attached to her dimwitted nature. Not so long ago I would have shot her dead without a second thought.

I hoisted Shuu'Vohsa up over my shoulder and returned the sword to my belt. Looking around, there were yet more of the pink masses of flesh and satyrs inching toward me. I rolled up my sleeve to show the heretic bastards the burning symbol of the Trinity on my arm. No devil's sin-drenched slave would stop me from carrying Voh out of this terrible place.

The magnum was burning hot. Blood trickled from the barrel and spilled over my fingers with each shot. I made a mad dash for the darkened tunnel at the far end of the ziggurat that lead to what appeared to be the inner sanctum, the fleshy bags of muscle and teeth lunging at me all the while.

When I reached the tunnel, the sounds of growling and biting ceased. The light of the lake of fire rising into the horizon quickly faded from view and I was surrounded by endless black.

XIV: His Holy Duty

A large brazier burst into flame before me. Hellish runes on the stone floor came to life, an eerie red glow in a circle around the fire. From the fire's light I could make out what appeared to be a service room, albeit twisted and absurd.

There was a stage with an altar, a large obsidian cross behind it. It was a blasphemer's inverted symbol, and some kind of noxious black ooze was flowing from an unseen orifice. It was leaking into a series of bloodstained cracks in the stage and floor. The cracks were deep, cratering around the altar like some terrible beast had been sealed directly below, its veiled abyss barely concealed by the blasphemous symbol.

On the stage and behind the altar was what had the figure of a man but its face was all wrong. Like a tight sheen of skin had been pulled over a man's head--I could make out the sunken eye sockets, the nostrils bereft of flesh, the gaping maw underneath the sickening dead skin, pockmarked and scarred. The thing was dressed in a long, flowing golden robe, but there were no arms, no legs. Extending from its sleeves were a series of very long appendages that trailed away onto the floor like great thick boneless fingers, writhing and undulating beneath the horrifying visage.

The creature's 'head' turned toward me and it pushed itself high into the air, standing on several feet of appendages coming from the bottom of its robes.

"Welcome, good Hunter."

I didn't hear the words so much as I felt them, hammering against my eardrums and pounding into my temples. The room seemed to pulse and throb when it 'spoke.'

"How fortuitous that I should receive a servant of the Lord on so blessed a day. My daughter has returned to the Church, you see," it said, gesturing the long appendages of its left 'hand' toward a far corner of the room.

Alison was there, caught in the grasp of this monstrosity from the neck down, her body wrapped inescapably in its writhing appendages. "T-Trevor! This thing is...!"

"I am Father Richard Gales, minister of this chapel. I am but a humble servant of the Lord and those who worship here are the members of my flock," he boomed. There was a subtle twitch in the flesh covering its face, like it was trying to smile. "I must thank you for bringing my daughter back into the fold, Trevor Rensor, albeit through false pretenses."

I set Voh down to rest against the wall and drew the sword. Waves of malice ran up my arm, Lightsbane's murderous intent rippling along the holy symbols, causing a crackle of holy light that shocked my nerves and made my muscles twitch. I pointed the sword at the malformed creature floating on his writhing mass of tentacles.

"You are no servant of God. You're a shell of a man, twisted into a demon by the blood you've drawn from the former clergy who infest this place as satyrs and undead," I accused him.

"I am a righteous and charitable man, and the form you see before you is the result of my piety. My Lord has gifted me with many arms with which to cast my blessings and dole out his judgment," he spoke into my head, stretching his long fleshy tentacles toward me. "If the Lord's choice was for me to draw His gift from the blood of those less pious than I, I am not one to question His judgment. For the Lord works in mysterious ways."

"You're sick!" Alison hissed, struggling against her binds. "You killed Mother, and for what?! To sit down here in your little basement and grow fat off her blood?! You're no man! You're a swollen, bloodsucking monster!"

Father Gales turned his sightless gaze toward Alison. There was a scratching noise in my head that must have been laughter, but sounded more like a hideous cough.

"Gentle Felicity. So beautiful. Such a devoted woman of the cloth, despite her sinful existence. Such a temptation set upon me by the Lord. And though I sinned, I did make amends. Even in death, she was so beautiful." One of the Father's veiny, throbbing appendages wrapped near Alison's face stroked her cheek. "You bear such a resemblance to her--you even have her eyes."

Alison roared, her face twisted in fury. "You stole her from me! I'll kill you!"

"To think such terrible, sinful thoughts. But for you are a woman born of sin like your mother before you, the devil may yet still have his tendrils in you. I forgive you for them, my daughter, but the Lord may not," he said, his wispy voice echoing inside my skull.

The mass of appendages wrapped around Alison carried her to the center of the room. Struggle as she might, the cat demon could do little but growl.

"Demon Hunter, bear witness to the Lord's light. Though Alison is tainted by Lucifer's nefarious touch, she may yet be saved."

The appendages around Alison's body constricted, their veins pulsating like they meant to break free from the flesh. The grey skin darkened to a deep crimson and rhythmically expanded and contracted around her body. The room filled with the sound of crunching bone; Alison wailed in agony.

"What are you--stop!" I shouted.

I pulled back the hammer of the magnum and squeezed the trigger--click.

"Damn it!" I swore. The gun was dry of blood and empty of bullets.

I slammed silver into the chambers, aimed at the writhing mass above and pulled the trigger. The bullet ripped one of the appendages free, black bile oozing from the wound. Gales did not so much as react, even as I emptied the chambers into his limbs.

As I was reloading the tendrils coiled around Alison loosened. A bundle of autumn-colored hair and sickeningly twisted limbs crumbled to the floor. She twitched and shook violently. Her arms were bent and twisted in unnatural ways, the bone cracked free from the muscle and pierced from the skin. Then she reeled, arched her back and her spine cracked; the limbs curved back into their proper places but grew longer; the muscles swelled, the hair and fur covering her body thickened and covered more of her skin; her paw-like hands and feet grew larger and her claws elongated like swords coming from her appendages. The cat demoness turned to look at me, her great mane of hair twisting around her body, her emerald green eyes eerily aglow, sitting below her fur-covered forehead and the whiskers coming from her eyebrows.

"Trevorrrrr...!" she growled my name, a crazed bloodthirsty slur.

Alison's green gemstone eyes set on me, filled with primal hunger. A familiar chill crawled up my back--a trembling in my spine, a fear that dug its way into my every nerve. The feeling of being seen as prey, as merely a meal for this terrible predator. Alison was gone, only the demon remained.

"Look upon my daughter, Hunter. This blessed form is what the Lord has chosen for her. Is she not beautiful?"

Gales' voice echoed in my head like painful stabs against the walls of my sanity. The demoness before me clutched her head and wailed, crooning and roaring in confused agony.

"Get... get oooouuut! Get ooouuut!" Alison cried, falling to her knees.

"In this most holy of forms, she may even help me to spread His blessings. Lay down your weapons, Hunter. Allow His gift to grace your body."

The Father's maddening voice triggered some unnatural response in Alison--she sprang up from the ground as if pulled by strings. With her hungry gaze affixed on me she sprang into the air, claws sailing through the heavy atmosphere toward my navel.

The long demonic claws clashed with gun and sword; we were face to face with her struggling to push her blades into my neck. She was hyperventilating through her fangs and her eyes were crazed and confused.

A tentacle came soaring through the smoke; I pushed Alison away and fell backward just before the appendage smashed the stone where I was standing. Two more whipped toward me, the writhing mass that was Father Gales sliding along his appendages into the middle of the room. I managed to duck under one of them, but the other wrapped around my ankle and flung me into the air, where it caught me again and dangled me in front of the cat demon.

"Face the weight of your sins, Demon Hunter. Face His judgment," the voice bounced off the walls of my mind, growing louder with each word.