All the Gates of Hell (2 page)

"You can't go back that way, Jin. Not yet."

"Where am I?"

"Now she asks. Did you seek to satisfy your curiosity first? No. Your first instinct was to run. I find that very interesting."

"I was lured into some sort of weird cave by an obvious deranged man! Of course I tried to run!"

Teacher sighed. "That's one way to spin it. Another is that you ran because you know exactly where you are, and who I am."

"Look, I don't know what game you're playing--"

Teacher's smile went away. "Oh, for... Are you still pretending you don't remember? Really, Jin, this is very annoying."

Jin's hands balled into fists. "You pretend to be sick or hurt and lure me into the middle of heaven knows what, and
you're
annoyed? Tell me where I am and what's going on right now or I'll show you what annoyed means, Teacher."

"Come over and we'll discuss it."

Teacher waited for her while Jin made her way down. There was a very slight incline toward the center of the cavern, which Jin hadn't noticed at first because the height of the statues made almost everything look "up." The ground was sand embedded with rocks and loose stones. She almost slipped once or twice but finally made it down to where Teacher stood between the braziers.

"Now then," Teacher said, "what's going on is a little complicated and you're obviously a little confused by that physical body you're wearing, so let's stick with the basics for now: You are at the Gateway of all the Hells."

Teacher had barely finished speaking when Jin took one step forward and struck him hard in the jaw. He staggered and fell back against the dais. There was a trickle of blood from his mouth and he wiped his jaw, slowly, but if he was angry he didn't show it. Rather he looked like a patient father who wasn't really sure how much longer his patience was going to last. Jin, for her part was a little stunned. When her fist had connected with Teacher's jaw and just for that instant she'd had a vision of a deep red boiling ocean. It looked like blood.

"Really, Jin," he said. "Is that any way for a goddess to behave?"

"Goddess!?" Jin took a deep breath. "Teacher, I've had just about enough of your bullshit. You will tell me where I am and what's going on right now or so help me I'll beat the living shit out of you!"

Teacher just sighed. "The answer is behind you, if you really want it."

Jin glanced behind her, intending to do no more than that as she kept most of her attention on Teacher. "No tricks...oh, crap."

She saw the vast circumference of the cavern, marked at intervals by doors identical to the once-open one she had come through. There were hundreds, possibly thousands.

"You asked where you were and I told you-- the Gateway to All the Hells."

Jin glared at him. "Stop it! How are you doing this, anyway? Are you some sort of magician?!"

He spat blood. "Don't be ridiculous, Jin -- of course I'm no magician. I'm the King of the First Hell."

Teacher stood up in one fluid motion, and in that instant he seemed to tower over Jin, despite the fact that he was only an inch or two taller than she was at best. He was surrounded by an aura of flames and, though Jin could not feel any heat, she still staggered back.

"You're the Devil...?"

He looked disgusted. "Oh, for pity's sake. Jin, if you could get your head out of this dualistic universe for a second you'd know very well that we don't have
a
devil. We have millions. And no, I'm not one. I'm the King of the First Hell, as I said. Now, are you going to stop pretending you don't know me or do you want to take another swing? Suit yourself, but I warn you--only the first poke is free."

Jin just stared at him, for many long moments. She finally relaxed her hands and let her arms drop down to her sides. She kept her eyes straight on Teacher. "Look. Just tell me what it is you want so I can get out of here."

Teacher's puzzled expression slowly gave way to a look of honest surprise. "You're not pretending, are you? You really don't know?"

"Listen to me very carefully, Teacher: I have no idea who the "King of the First Hell" is, I've never seen this
place
before, and I don't like it one bit. It's creepy and the smoke from that incense or whatever is making my eyes water. I want to go home."

"All right," Teacher said.

Jin blinked. "You're going to let me go?"

"I don't have a choice, Jin. No one can bar any door against you for very long, and that includes me. Even so, a part of you knows that I'm telling the truth, and sooner or later you will remember. Whether you do it here or back in Medias makes no difference to me."

"I'm no goddess! I'm Jin Lee Hannigan. I've lived in Medias most of my life and you've known me for years!"

"The one doesn't change the other. I wasn't sure at first, but when you smacked me with that hard little fist of yours you saw something, didn't you? So did I. Your contact with me generated a vision. That's an attribute of a bodhisatva."

Jin had a little more idea of what he was talking about now. She had heard of the bodhisattvas through her mother. She at least knew what spiritual corner of the cosmos Teacher was talking about.

"Dammit, how can I be a
bodhisattva
? I'm not even Buddhist!"

Teacher shrugged. "What has that to do with anything? You are what you are. You have a job to do. A job, I might point out, that you've been slacking on for the past couple of centuries."

"Job? I work at the Legal Aid office. You know that. And what's this 'centuries' nonsense? I'm only twenty!"

"Your fleshly incarnation may be twenty but the real you inside is a
lot
older than that. And I'm talking about your actual job. As the mortal incarnation of a goddess -- ok, technically a
bodhisattva
-- you have many attributes but only one real power. That power brings obligation."

Jin just glared at him. "What power? What obligation?"

"To bring those suffering in torment out of hell. You are the mortal incarnation of the Goddess of Mercy, Guan Shi Yin."

(())

Chapter 2

Teacher walked past Jin back toward the two huge guardian statues she'd passed on her way in. Jin hesitated then fell into step behind him.

"I hope you appreciate your place in the scheme of things," he said over his shoulder. "The ability to fetch a person out of hell is quite a talent. I'm the anointed king of these regions but even I can't do that. I can only put them there."

"You do realize I don't believe a word of this," Jin said.

"Yes, and that's very strange. A Bodhisattva may choose to incarnate for any number of reasons, but normally they do so with their memories intact. It took me nearly a hundred years to track you to this plane and nearly another seventy to get a rough idea of your location! I hope you're wearing that physical body for a good reason."

"Why shouldn't I be wearing a physical body? I'm a living person."

He shrugged. "Granted, if there's a better way to patch into space and time I don't know what it might be, but incarnation does have its inconveniences. Pain, for one." Teacher felt the side of his face, gingerly. "For a moment I thought you'd broken my jaw."

"I did my best," Jin said grimly.

"You always do." Teacher stopped in front of the door that was flanked by the statues. "The guardians mark the way you came. If you really want to go back to Medias, this is the way."

Jin reached for the door, hesitated. "That's it? I walk out of this mad house and I'm done?"

"You most definitely are not 'done.' I said this is the way back to Medias and it is. There is a catch, of course."

Jin sighed. "Yes, I was expecting that. What is it?"

"Simply this: when you came down the passageway the first time, you thought it was deserted. Now you'll know better. Your third eye is opening, Jin -- " Jin gasped and reached for her forehead, but Teacher smiled and said, "Metaphysically speaking. It was already happening or I wouldn't have been able to find you. You're waking up, like it or not. Perhaps you'll remember more when you meet what's waiting for you in the passageway."

"What is it?"

"I can't tell you that. You'll deal with it or you won't, but it stands between you and Medias."

"Fine, so how do I open this door? It's locked."

"No door is locked or barred to you, Jin. Didn't I mention that? That's an attribute of Guan Yin, in case you were wondering. You'll discover the others in time."

Jin leaned close, examining the door. It looked solid enough. "It damn well
is
locked. Where's the key?"

"You're the key."

Jin felt a shove on her back and she stumbled forward. She stuck out her hands to block her fall against the door and felt a lurch in her stomach as her hands passed through the door with no more resistance than the surface of a pool of water. She flailed to regain her balance, failed, and landed hard on the cold stone floor of the passageway.

"Crap!"

It was several long moments before Jin could breathe normally again, and several more before she staggered to her feet, her hands pressed into the small of her back all the while. "Lousy old man... that hurt! Hey, Teacher! Where are you?"

No answer. Jin reached toward the door, hesitated, thought better of it. If he wasn't going to follow her now, that suited her fine. The sooner she was out and away from him, the better. Jin headed back down the passage at a brisk walk. Another moment and she was running. She ran until she was out of breath and had to stop; there was no end to the passageway in sight.

Jin told herself that this was some sort of trick. She could go back to her apartment, back to Pepper Street Legal Aid, back to her life. She wouldn't go down any more alleys or breathe anything Teacher Johnson set fire to. In time she could even forget that it happened, or chalk it up to a bad dream. She would be all right again, and if Teacher came anywhere near her she'd swear out a complaint and have him committed. She could do it; she knew the procedure. Teach the Teacher to mess with her...

"If I say it's not real, it's not real."

Jin started walking again for want of a better plan. She hadn't gone more than a few yards more along the passageway when she heard someone crying.

Fool me once
... "I'm not listening, Teacher. Whatever stunt you're pulling, however you're doing it, I don't care! It's not going to work this time, you hear me?"

Jin took another step and the crying stopped. "There, that's better -- "

"Fix him."

Jin shivered. There was a rustle of movement ahead of her, but she could see very little. No matter, it was not what she had seen that startled her -- the voice had been enough. It sounded like some unnatural mixing of the cry of a lost child and a madman.

"Who's there?"

What approached her then was a living shadow. It was small, maybe three feet high. She couldn't see its eyes, there was nothing but a greater darkness coming toward her out of the gloom, a darkness in the shape of a child. It held what looked like a broken doll.

"Fix him!"

Jin's notion of running around or over or through whatever she met in the passageway died then and there. She stopped. "Stay back!" In that instant the creature's eyes became visible, as if it had only now opened them, only now truly knew that she was there.

"Please..."

Please
?

It was several moments before the word registered, and the change in the voice, but even when it did there was no time to think about it just then. From one instant to the next Jin changed. The hands she held out to ward off the creature turned green, the nails became talons like those of some great cat. She towered over the shadow, impossibly large and, for an instant, she saw herself mirrored in the shadow's eyes. Not as Jin Hannigan, but a green-skinned horned demon, over eight feet tall. Jin recoiled in shock, but there were two screams in the dark passageway and only one belonged to Jin.

What's happened to me
?

Jin stared at her hands in horror. She raised them slowly to her face, felt rough scaly skin, tusks. She felt a roaring in her ears and for a moment the world went dim, and for a moment Jin thought that the light would go out completely and she would never find it again, never find
herself
again. For an instant Jin hovered there, hesitating between insanity and sheer blind terror as if unable to decide which way to run.

The tears brought her back.

Not her own tears though she knew she must be crying; her face was wet. She ignored that. The small shadow shaped like a child was crying. It huddled on the cold stone floor of the passageway. Jin took a step toward it, and now she did not see a shadow at all. A little girl sobbed on the stones. She might have been five or six, but no more than that, with long auburn hair in ringlets and very pale skin. She held a doll with a broken head cradled in her arms.

"...won't let the monster get you, Matthew. Won't! But I'm so scared..."

Somewhere in Jin's brain she was still screaming, but for some reason she could not focus on her own fear, her own shock. That remained, but Jin could not take her eyes off the child.

That's all it was? A child
?

Why hadn't she known that? How could she possibly have mistaken that little girl for some sort of monster?

"I won't hurt you," Jin said. "I'm not what I look like!"

It seemed a silly thing to say, even then. Of course she wasn't what she looked like. She was Jin Hannigan, not some demon. It suddenly occurred to her that this, too, might have been one of Teacher's tricks. Not real. She held onto that thought with all her strength, even as she held out her hand toward the child. "I won't hurt you," Jin said again. "It's all right."

Jin gasped. Her hand was back to normal. She reached up and touched her face. She was herself again; the demon was gone. Jin was almost giddy with relief, but she forced herself to concentrate on the child. "What are you doing here? Are you lost?"

The little girl finally opened her eyes and looked at Jin, blinking through her tears. Jin was doing the same, though in her case they were tears of relief.