Demon Gate: Beyond the 9th Circle: The Rapture Was Just The Beginning. (14 page)

“So, it’s all about revenge.” Jessie said,
“God cast you out, and now you want revenge.”
“More than that,” Lucifer said turning on
Jessie, “he denied me the glory that I deserved.
He took away my rightful place in heaven, my
kingdom,
EVERYTHING!
” Lucifer shouted, and
then quickly regained his composure as he pulled
something from the inside pocket of his silk suit
jacket, it was a small sphere no more than a half
an inch across; it was black, and smooth two
holes, one on each side.
“What’s that?” Spencer asked.
“This is the beginning of your servitude
to me,” Lucifer replied. “A sort of virus that will
turn you into one of my demonic servants. It
feeds on your strength, and the only way to undo
its effects is … death. You would have to die
before the change takes full effect.”
Vince decided now was the time to act, in
a single move Vince wrapped his fingers around
the only shaft of light he could find, collected the
light and the celestial sword coalesced.
Lucifer gawked in confusion, “How did
you do that?” Lucifer demanded, he was shocked
that a mortal had learned about celestial weapons.
“It doesn’t matter; we’re not going to
serve you,” Vince shouted before taking a swing
at Lucifer. The blade struck Lucifer across the
forearm and the sphere in his hand dissipated.
Lucifer held the wound and he glanced around at
Spencer then Gretchen and then Jessie wondering
who else was going to draw a celestial weapon.
“You win this round,
but I will see you all
soon. Auf Wiedersehen’,
” Lucifer said, Vince
made ready to take another swing, this time he
wanted blood, but before Vince could strike,
Lucifer faded into a mist of darkness and
disappeared.
“Damn it!” Vince seethed.
Spencer turned to Jessie, “We’ll have to hold off
on your Prince Class demon, it looks like we
have bigger fish to fry now.” Spencer headed for
the door. Outside Spencer looked for the sun, it
was minutes away from vanishing behind the
horizon.
“Spencer,” Rodney said, “We should get
going soon.” Spencer nodded as Vince, Jessie
and Gretchen emerged from the office. Spencer
walked away.
“Spencer,” Gretchen called, “Where are
you going?”
Spencer paused at the question, then stoically
replied. “I’m not sure yet. But this place isn’t
safe, we shouldn’t stay,” Spencer said and then
resumed walking.
Arriving at the Hummer, Gretchen could
tell something was bothering him.
“Spencer, what’s wrong?” Gretchen
asked.
Spencer sat down one a bench nearby.
“He was trying to drive us apart to get to
me,” Spencer said.
“Well,” Gretchen started as she stepped
closer, “You are pretty amazing.”
Spencer stopped Gretchen, “What are you
doing?”
“How do you feel about me?” Gretchen
asked, tear about to form in her eyes.
Spencer paused for only a second, one that
seemed an eternity. Was it a good idea to start a
relationship with her? The devil was preparing to
attack the gates of heaven, would they all be dead
soon. Gretchen didn’t know if Spencer felt it was
worth it, but then Spencer’s lips found
Gretchen’s and they kissed.
“I thought you didn’t care for me,”
Gretchen remarked.
“For once, the Father of Lies was telling
the truth,” Spencer replied.

Spencer hefted an M249 as he peered
across a large train yard outside Ogden Utah. An
eerie quiet hung in the air like terror that blended
with the autumn fog.

“Are you sure they’re here?” Gretchen
asked leaning in affectionately close.
“They’re here,” Spencer replied with
certainty. Through the early morning light a
wraith-like shape raced across the open train yard
to a derelict train car. “There’s one of them.”
“Where’s the other one?” Gretchen asked.
“Maybe Vince or Jessie has spotted her,”
Spencer hoped.
“Next time we go demon hunting, let’s
not chase them into a train yard.” Gretchen
protested. The sound of several bullets ripping
through the still quiet alerted Spencer and
Gretchen to the impending danger, Jessie had
spotted their quarry.
“Let’s go!” Spencer loudly whispered as
he charged. The hiding target drew a sword and
bounded out of its hiding place toward the sound
of the gunfire.
As Spencer and Gretchen arrived on the
scene, they saw Jessie and Vince weren’t alone.
They had the thing trapped in a small gap
between two train cars. A hive queen stood alone,
she was caught in a pincer; on one side was
Vince and Jessie and on the other was Spencer
and Gretchen.
Spencer looked around expecting to be
skewered by the second hive queen, but she was
no where to be seen, they had lost her. The queen
noticed a gleaming sword in Vince’s hand so she
turned to fight her way past Spencer and
Gretchen only to have Spencer drop to one knee
with his machine gun and unleash his weapons of
fury upward towards the queen’s head, Jessie did
likewise. The queen was left with no alternative
so she leapt into the air and landed atop the train
car.
Spencer and Jessie didn’t miss a beat;
their weapons followed the queen.
Bullets rang out until a loud, thunderous gunshot
ripped through the hive queen’s left shoulder,
knocking her off the train car to the rock-strewn
ground below and leaving a gaping hole in her
shoulder. Now there was a train car between the
group and the hive queen. Spencer and Vince
raced around the train car to attack the wounded
queen, however the wound was healing itself at
an alarming rate, she would be back on her feet
in mere seconds. Vince quickly stepped up to the
queen and forced his shimmering sword’s tip into
the queen’s throat. Within seconds the queen
turned into a fine grey dust and blended with the
rocks under her.
Spencer turned to Vince, “I told you I
should have been at the sniper rifle instead of
Rodney.”
“Where’s the other one?” Vince asked
ignoring Spencer’s comment.
“I didn’t see which way she went,”
Spencer said “She couldn’t have gone far.”
“Yes, that’s what concerns me,” Vince
admitted.
A voice erupted from the depths of terror
to catch Spencer’s attention. “SPENCER!” It was
Gretchen! Was she in trouble?
Spencer raced toward the voice of his
beloved. But just before he rounded the last
corner a bright light exploded outward in all
directions briefly leaving the silhouette of a
woman across the train car.
When the light lifted Spencer and Vince
got their first glimpse of Gretchen thrusting a
luminous sword toward the sky, a sword that was
identical to the one Vince was able to create in
moments of great need. Between them was a hive
queen.
The remaining hive queen tried to slink
away in fear but she was caught in the middle.
Vince and Gretchen shared a glance and silently
communicated a course of action. Closing the
distance, Vince and Gretchen raised their
weapons and swung, the hive queen was caught
in the middle, but only for a brief second.
Leaping to the train car at her left she scrambled
up the side of the car as both radiant blades
connected. There was a momentary flash of
brilliant solar white light. When the light lifted
the second of the two hive queens was leaping
from atop the train car and headed north, moving
at superhuman speed.
A loud thunderous crack ripped through
the air. Rodney’s first attempt to eliminate the
queen, but the shot missed. Rodney reloaded
again as Spencer, Gretchen, Vince and Jessie
gave chase but the queen had already reached the
24
^th
Street Bridge and disappeared from
Rodney’s field of view.
“Where is she going?” Jessie wondered
aloud.
“She’s retreating,” Vince guessed with a
degree of certainty that, unfortunately, fell short
of the mark.
“No, she’s regrouping,” Gretchen
observed as the queen reached a large building
that looked in severe disrepair. Then the creature
began climbing an exterior wall toward a
shattered window on the third floor, right under a
sign that read
Smith and Edwards
.
Jessie saw the building and filled with
dread for no apparent reason. She had tried to
block out the memories but at the sight of a
derelict factory, the memories came flooding
back.
“Jessie,” Vince called as he glanced back
and noticed the terror in Jessie’s eyes. Vince
stopped causing Spencer and Gretchen to stop.
“What’s wrong?” Spencer asked.
“I don’t know, Spencer. Something about
has her spooked. She just froze up.” Vince asked
as he approached Jessie.
“Are you alright?” Vince gently shook
her should while asking in a low voice.
Jessie turned her focus away from the building,
then to Vince, “I’ll be fine.”
Vince and Jessie took off running to catch
up to Spencer and Gretchen on their way to the
rundown building that concealed a deadly and
angry queen who was anything but rundown.
Spencer was the first to round an over
turned delivery truck before reaching a door on
the south wall.
“Spencer, wait,” Vince said. “Gretchen
and I should go in first.”
“He’s right,” Jessie agreed. “If the queen
is just inside they would stand the best chance.
I’ll go in behind them.” Jessie’s voice trembled
as she put her offer on the table; something about
the building terrified her.
“I guess I’m taking up the rear,” Spencer
conceded. Vince raised his foot and kicked the
door open and charged in.
The light emitted from the swords in
Vince and Gretchen’s hands lit up the interior
which looked like a sort of office, or it had been
several months earlier. Vince reeled at the
pungent odor of rotting corpses and mold that
was now flooding out the open door as Gretchen,
Spencer and Jessie charged in behind him. A
heavily decayed corkboard hung on the wall
fastened by a single rusted screw. The floor was
plastered with papers, long dried blood and three
severely decomposed bodies.
A sound bounced throughout the room,
like corroded metal scraping against something,
concrete, another metallic object. The sound
came from a double door on the north wall, one
of the doors hung on a single hinge the other door
was laying on the ground as though it was forced
opened by something large. Several large gashes
in the door which lay on the ground testified that
it had been attacked by a large creature. On the
west wall there was a single door, sitting slightly
ajar. Beyond the doorway was a long corridor
which stretched away from the office before
turning north. A double door
Spencer headed for the double door and
peered into the main factory which was kept dark
from a lack of electric light. The only source of
light beyond the white swords was the sun that
was streaming in though a series of windows on
the west wall and shining down onto the factory
floor. It seemed safe enough so Spencer and
Vince pressed forward into the factory, Gretchen
and Jessie followed.
The light from the windows and the
celestial swords were focused toward the ground
leaving the rafters of the factory in darkness.
Most of the equipment that once occupied the
factory had long since been removed leaving the
floor vacant except for a dusty grey concrete
floor.
A vague silhouette of a catwalk could be
faintly seen, but there was no sign of the hive
queen.
Spencer stopped; Gretchen looked around
for the hive queen. Vince attempted to keep
Jessie calm even as she looked as though she
would bolt.
“Jessie, what’s bothering you?” Spencer
asked while scanning the area for their quarry.
“I told you I was from the area, right?”
Jessie asked, and Spencer nodded as if to imply
that he only vaguely recalled.
“When my mom died, I came here; the
factory had been shut down because of a union
strike years earlier.” Jessie tried to explain, but it
had become difficult, she gulped to try to stop
herself from hyperventilating. Spencer’s eyes
widened in shock and concern.
It had become clear that the factory had
become a sort of emotional wound that reminded
Jessie of her late mother, perhaps even more:
perhaps the sight of some terrible abuse.
“Jessie, I need you to pull it together. Can
you do that for me?” Spencer asked. Jessie
nodded quickly, and then he focused on
Gretchen.
“Gretchen, do you see anything?”
Spencer whispered.
Gretchen paused, staring up into the darkness.
But after a minute Gretchen gave up the search.
“No, if she was up there we would have
been attacked by now.” Gretchen suggested.
Gretchen immediately regretted her
words; a hiss pierced the silence that filled the
deserted factory; a long menacing hiss that made
Spencer’s blood run cold.
The hiss was followed by a brief silence
as Spencer, Gretchen, Vince and Jessie glanced
around the room, and then at each other.
“She’s here.” Spencer said looking
around. A shape dropped down from the ceiling
just as his words faded. Barely noticed inside
Spencer’s peripheral vision. Spencer turned his
head expecting to see the hive queen, but she was
nowhere to be seen.
“Spencer, look.” Vince said drawing
Spencer’s attention away from the darkened
shape, “There’s something in the shadows.”
“There’s another one.” Jessie shouted,
realizing that there was more than one.
“You think she called for
reinforcements?” Gretchen wondered aloud.
Jessie raised her M249, and fired a volley
into the shadows, intermittently dispelling the
darkness, but the muzzle flash did not reveal a
hive queen or even any demon. What it did reveal
was darkness that had taken humanoid form;
bullet after bullet penetrated the shadow demon
and ricocheted off the far wall leaving the
shadow demon unharmed.
“Spencer?” Gretchen asked as she noticed
what she hoped was just a figment of her
imagination. “Is it me, or is it getting darker in
here?”
“I was just about to ask the same thing.”
Vince fretted as he noticed the encroaching
darkness.
Four pairs of eyes could be seen; the eyes
were glowing the color of blood, and advanced
with the darkness before stopping three feet from
the group.
The first of the shadow demons lurched
out from the darkness, its target: Spencer.
Gretchen raised her sword and carved a gaping
hole down the demon’s right side, it hit the
ground shrieking in agony, flailing and kicking.
Another shriek echoed from the darkness of the
rafters and three more shadow demons left the
safety of the gloominess to join the fray.
Vince and Gretchen moved to defend
Spencer and Jessie and effortlessly dispatched the
three remaining shadow demons.
“That wasn’t so hard.” Vince haughtily
commented with a smirk.
The factory was filled with silence. Then
the hive queen spoke; her voice seemed to
increase the silence which caused her voice to
echo.
“Foolish mortals!” the hive queen hissed
from the darkness, “My servants of darkness do
not die so easily.”
At those words, a dozen dark tendrils
lashed out from the mire that created them and
latched onto Spencer and Jessie before pulling
them in.
“SPENCER!” Gretchen yelled, but he
was beyond her reach in less than a second.
“Get back, Gretchen!” Vince called
pulling Gretchen away from the shadows.
Gretchen looked back at Vince, but he pointed at
the wall of impregnable darkness, it started to
inch closer.
Gretchen raised her radiant blade and
sliced at the shadows only to cause a momentary
gash, like smoke being dispersed and then
rejuvenated. Vince raised his blade and cut
through the shade and met the same result but
one thing was different: he caught sight of a face,
a human face. It was Spencer and he was
mouthing something, “
Jonah.”
Was he saying? Was it a name? If it was
it seemed unfamiliar.
Vince raised his shimmering sword again, and
then it hit him.
“Jonah!” Vince said in shock and awe,
Spencer and Jessie must have already pieced it
together, and suddenly it seemed odd that the two
who could not summon a celestial weapon were
taken while Vince and Gretchen were not.
By now Gretchen was frantically
attacking the wall of darkness; tears were
showing on her fair but weathered complexion.
Vince grabbed Gretchen by the shoulders and
pulled her away, but she fought him.
“Gretchen, listen to me, Spencer needs us,
and I know how to save him, but I need you to
focus.” Vince urged and Gretchen nodded.
“What do you need me to do?” Gretchen
asked. Vince glanced at the wall of darkness.
“Stay close, because we’re going inside.”
Vince said.
“Are you crazy?” Gretchen asked moving
her gaze from the shadows to Vince and back.
The shadows had spread across the windows
blocking out all light except for the light that the
two celestial swords gave off.
“Maybe,” Vince admitted “But it worked
for Jonah, it’ll work for me.”
Vince charged the shadows that contained
Spencer and Jessie, swung his sword leaving a
gash in the shapeless black mass that was barely
big enough for him to fit through and jumped in
as Gretchen cut her way in as well.
Once inside Vince and Gretchen found
Spencer supporting Jessie, both were on their
knees. Jessie’s head was slumped over; nearly all
color had fled from her body. Her skin glistened
from sweat that poured off her nearly motionless
body. Jessie’s strength was spent; she was unable
to keep her head from drooping down. Spencer
looked almost as bad. He still had some strength
left, but his checks were taking on the same color
that Jessie already exhibited. Both were barely
breathing, a symptom that was quickly starting to
overtake Vince and Gretchen.