Read What Following Brings Online
Authors: S. E. Campbell
What Following Brings (20 page)
Leaning downward, she kissed him, pressing her lips against his own, and thought,
I have to save him. I have to. I don
'
t know what draws us together or what made me like him so fast, but I don
'
t care.
She felt a tingling sensation on her lips that did not come from the kiss, and beneath her hand, she felt Yuri
'
s soul strengthen fro
m the energy she gave to him. Yuri wrapped his arms around her shoulders as she shuddered and gazed down at him.
“
Eden,
”
Yuri said, when she pulled back.
“
Yes?
”
Then the two of them were pulled into the stream together, eve
n though both of them still had enough energy to function
.
Eden felt strange in the river. Cold. Uneasy. All around her were white, faceless souls
similar to
all of the Raiders she had seen, and they all ignored her. She tried to gain control by kicking her legs like she might if she was swimming, but doing that didn
'
t propel her an inch. She was truly in the control of the dark river
which
surrounded her. And Y
uri. She and Yuri were together
too. He still held her close
. She
had her hand on her stomach as she winced and was filled with pain from the Morsus.
As she floated along, she was overwhelmed by her worst memories. That was what the Morsus did, after all. It kept her from being happy. It showed her memories she had
which
were so terrible
they
filled her with sickness
. It
also showed her other bad memories as well. And darkness. Terrible, terrible darkness.
Eden was eight years old again, sitting on the steps. She
sat
there often, listening to her parents argue. It was easy for her to name the same topics
â
work, her mom
'
s boyfriends, and sometimes, her. She hated it when they spoke about her.
“
She
'
s odd,
”
her mom said.
“
The teachers say it. She
'
s different than the rest of the kids and doesn
'
t fit in. Too quiet. She hasn
'
t spoken one word all year.
”
“
She speaks to me,
”
her dad said.
“
Eden
'
s fine.
”
“
Well,
I want to move,
”
her mom said.
“
I don
'
t like this town.
They are too judgmental.
”
“
A
h
a
,
”
her dad said.
“
Don
'
t blame Eden for what you want. You got caught with the neighbor man again, didn
'
t you? I just don
'
t understand, Rebecca. Why him?
”
“
It has nothing to do with that,
”
her mom said.
“
It
'
s Eden. She is odd.
”
“
She
'
s not odd.
”
“
She is,
”
her mom said.
“
And she gets it from you.
”
Eden was gone
from the memory
again. It was just as well. She didn
'
t want to see that
memory
anymore. She hated that memory, like a thousand others. She buried her face
in
Yuri
'
s chest, and he tightened his grip around her shoulder blades
;
she could feel his lips against her hair. At that moment, she knew he was consumed by Morsus too. The two of them were in this together.
They
had to
get out of it together
too.
Eden opened her eyes and began to struggle. She
gazed
through the stream and saw every once in a while they got close to the side of
it
. Maybe she could pull herself out
. Just as she got close enough, though, darkness overwhelmed her. This time, she did not see her
own memory. She saw her dad
'
s, but unlike when she melded with her chosen souls, her mind did not me
et
with his. She stood next to him, a shadowing ghost.
Her dad lay upon the ground and everything around h
im
was dark. So dark he could have been in the river too. All around,
there was the sound of loud screams.
The air smelled heavily of smoke and her eyes were groggy. He
r dad
sat up, glanced around, and
looked
down the street.
Corpses
littered the
road
and the smell of something sour filled the air. The ground was covered in deep gouges and cracks.
Osier stood up shakily, sweat dribbling down his forehead
, and took a stumbling step to the side.
A man stood next to him
. A man that
caused him to pause
. The man had dark brown hair and eyes and a sinister smile.
It was someone Eden recognized.
“
Dad, get away from him,
”
Eden said, but he did not hear her.
“
W
h
-
who are you?
”
he asked.
“
Asag,
”
the man said.
“
Asag?
”
Asag reached forward and touched h
er dad
. His skin grew flaky at the touch and his veins bulged and grew prominent.
The smell of searing flesh
filled the air, and he gasped in his pain and threw his head back and started to yell. He tilted his head to the right and
stared
into the glass of the store next to him.
Eden
turned
and
stared
too.
Instead of a man reflected in the glass,
a
demon
with eight limbs and a long, dry tongue
stood
. His eyes
appeared
like white bil
liard balls
,
without the numbers
,
and he had long claws. The stink of rotten fish filled the air, and
her dad
cried out as the impossibly strong
demon
embraced him and his body sh
ook
.
“
No, no, no,
”
he said.
And Eden screamed,
“
No, no, no
!
”
too as she was pulled from the vision and realized she was back in Yuri
'
s
arms again.
“
It
'
s okay,
”
Yuri said, though she could see the pain in his features.
“
We have to get to the wall of the river,
”
Eden said.
“
We have to get out of here.
”
“
Okay,
”
Yuri said, shuddering.
****
Trapped. Imprisoned. Lost. Eden could scarcely get to the edge of the river of souls, and when she tried to it felt like she could hardly move.
She
reached forward,
grasped
the wall, and felt cold as her hand slipped through. There was nothing to grab onto, though, just cold air around her hand. The river was already moving her away from the side, taunting her. She shuddered against Yuri and felt blackness, and Yuri pressed his fingers into her hair.
“
It
'
s okay,
”
he said for the thousandth time. She thought she would have been tired of that by now, but she wasn
'
t.
Everything slipped away into blackness as she shut her eyes, and then she saw the most horrifying creature of all. Satan, standing in the middle of a barren land she realized was
E
arth. Building
s
fell apart and crumbled to the ground, cars lay on the ground upturned and rusty, and all around her, she saw demons. Horribly malformed demons. Demons with six heads and cloven hooves. Demons with sharp
as
dagger nails and sharp teeth.
There were several stronger demons
that
stood beside the five-headed beast, Satan. There was a demon
who
, instead of hair, had a bald head and slimy scales that covered her entire body. Her face was narrow and elongated, like the front face of a fish or a dolphin. There were shriveled wings upon her back.
An elderly man with bulging, blank
,
billiard
-
ball
eyes stood by
the demon woman
'
s
side. He wore an aged kimono
,
like an oriental person might wear, but he had long teeth
like
a crocodile that peeked out of his mouth like sharp scissors. A smile was on his face as he
leered
forward, into the darkness.
There was one more woman among them, a woman who possessed a great and terrible beauty. Her hair hung down her back in long auburn strands
and
her eyes were bright blue and appeared intense and staring. Her face was fair and pale. She wore a long black
dress that floated around her in a nonexistent wind
and a crown was upon her head. She held a stick that appeared to be a walking stick.
The figures began to change, to morph
.
Eden
watched every demon become human within a blink of the eye. The fish-faced demon became a plain, middle-aged woman, the elderly man became a middle-aged Chinese man, and the auburn
-
haired woman became a young teenaged girl in a pair of jeans. They
appeared
so average, so ordinary. Eden
gazed
at Satan and saw he had changed to
o
.
Instead of being a five-headed beast, he stood before the crowd with black ebony hair and glowing blue eyes. He stared forward, his fists clenched.
The sound of a helicopter filled the air, loud and distant.
Thud, thud, thud.
Sat
an
threw up his hands
and Eden saw his red aura stretch out across the sky like a
draft
. It consumed the helicopter, shrouding it in red
;
the helicopter sputtered and the sound of banging and the smell of burning filled the air. The helicopter, with a loud
, high-pitched shriek, was pitched backward and began to hurtle toward the ground while aflame. It fell with a loud crash and an explosion of sound
.
“
Lady Midday, Abyzou,
”
Satan said, first turning toward the auburn
-
haired teenager who had been the auburn
beauty and then the fish
-
faced woman who was
now
a
middle-aged woman.
“
Clear of
f the land and prepare
to summon the two million warriors.
”
“
Yes, Lord,
”
Lady Midday said, bowing before him.
“
Thank you for this opportunity, Lord,
”
Abyzou said, kneeling and then standing up and heading away.
There was silence for a moment as the two she-demons walked away
.
Satan
and the final male demon lingered along with the rest of the pack of unnamed, lesser demons
who
were now human.
Near
the
site
, the sound of
scraping metal
could be heard. There was then the sound of worried, garbled talking. Human
s
talking.
“
Lord, what do you will
of
me?
”
the male demon asked.
“
Agares,
”
Satan said,
“
I have a fly under my spell of Morsus, but it takes my concentration to continue to torture her to keep her in one place. My she-demon was
of little use
.
”
Agares
crossed his arms
.
“
Where is she, Lord? Should I destroy her?
”
“
She is here with us now,
”
Satan said.
“
I have made sure of
it
.
”
Agares shut his eyes and dark red energy poured out of him, filling the night sky.
Sensing.
“
The Morsus,
”
Agares said.
“
Yes,
”
Satan said.
“
I have two jobs for you.
”
“
Yes, Lord.
”
“
First, there are humans approaching,
”
Satan said with a demonic rumble.
“
I want you to
get rid of them
.
”
“
Oh, thank you, Lord,
”
Agares said.
“
I shall do it, and I shall love it.
”
“
Then I want you to tell Asa
g his prisoner has escaped
and when he finds her, he can
imprison the man
who
defends her and keep his soul as an eternal pet
.
The man
has betrayed me, and I do not stand for betrayal.
”
“
Yes, Lord.
”
The sound of human footsteps grew closer
. Five
people could be seen, walking down the road. When the group spotted Satan and the other beings, big grins lit up their faces and they ran to
them
. Agares cracked his knuckles and his smile widened.
“
Shall I begin, Lord?
”
Agares asked.
Satan nodded and the sound
of loud, ear-splitting screams
fill
ed
the air.
The darkness faded from Eden
'
s eyes
. She
grabbed onto Yuri
'
s shirt as they floated along in the river. She could hear Satan
'
s words echoing loud
ly
in her head. She had been with Satan, and Satan had known Yuri had defended her and rescued her, even though this entire mess was her fault.
But she would not allow
Satan to have Yuri
. She would
also
fight the Morsus. Fight it any
way she could. And the first step was to get out of the river.
A soul floated by her, and Eden seized it and discovered other souls, though shapeless, still had a physical presence, even in the river. She pulled herself forward, through the cool stream, and felt her and Yuri give. Yuri, whose eyes were squeezed shut as he endur
ed
something terrible, was silent. She realized he probably had not
known
he had even moved.
Darkness clouded Eden
'
s vision again, but she thought,
I will fight this. I will get Yuri out of here before Asag gets back, and I will make sure no demons can rule
Earth
again.
She pulled herself forward, through the stream, and grabbed yet another soul. Her vision flickered, and she tried to shake her head to fight it. Shaking her head did little good.
In her mind, she saw
the
same group of five people, tied up by Agares on their hands and knees. The two women, one blonde and the other brunette, were in tears.
Crimson
streamed through their shirts because of what he had done to them.
“
No,
”
Eden said.
“
Stop controlling me. Morsus or not, I am not going to see this.
”
Eden grabbed another soul, pulling herself along. The soul was propelled backward as she was propelled forward. Grunting, Yuri tightened his grip so hard
it hurt
.
The
pain centered Eden and made her focus on the dark river and the next shapeless soul that was just an arm
'
s length away. If only Yuri
wasn
'
t about as helpful as a dead fish
â¦
As Eden reached forward
toward another soul
, she
saw
Satan
'
s cold human face. It was odd to see, after she had witnessed his terrible five-headed self.
Eden
could hear loud, pained scream
s in the Morsus vision. One of the group of five humans
lay crum
p
led on the dirty ground.
Eden put her hand in her mouth and sunk her teeth into her index finger.
. Sharp pain fille
d her hand, but the pain once again brought her back to reality. She could only pray she wasn
'
t about to lose her place and become a shapeless mass, as she assumed
that
was
what would happen when she depleted her energy
enough.
Almost there,
Eden thought,
reaching for the next soul.
Almost. I
'
ll get out of here and save Yuri. I will.
“
You will never escape me,
”
Satan
'
s voice said, and she realized he was speaking on earth, knowing every cold word he uttered drilled into her head like a hammer forcing nails into her ears. She hated the
chilling
sound of his voice.
“
When I own the world
â
and I will
â
I will make you my own personal slave and will keep you locked in a cage. You will never escape me.
”
No.
Eden once again reached into her mouth a
nd
bit down. It se
ared her fingers, but it did little to help her get away from Satan
'
s hateful voice. She had to shake off this Morsus soon, or else she would never be able to get away from Asag.
If he caught them, she would never be safe
and neither would Yuri. She manage
d to get ahold of the next soul
and was able to pull her
self
yet another foot toward the edge of the river. There was a soul
who
hovered right by the side. If she could grab his arm, if she could haul her
self
and Yuri out, then everything would be fine.
“
Do you know what I will do
when I own you?
”
Satan asked.
“
I will beat you and hang you from your long hair. And do you want to know what will happen to your beloved mother?
I will torture her and make you watch every painful second.
”
Not my mom. Anyone but my mom.
“
Yes, delicious,
”
Satan said.
“
Even in a different
world
, I can taste your fear and loathing, and I love it. I will drink it every day.
”