Page 21 of Guarded By the Hellhound
I think of giving up and just closing my eyes and falling asleep. I’m pretty sure I have serious injuries, and I could just let go. I feel so tired, so tired of being afraid.
My breathing evens out, the little voice inside my head whispering, ‘Just let go, you’ll find peace,’and I yearn for peace. Like I found with Raider…
Thinking of him makes me open my eyes. What the fuck am I doing? Giving up? After all, I have been through, after the hell of the last hours. After the fucking worst year of my life? I am not giving up! My body may be broken, but my spirit is not.
Raider has kept me safe, and Joe’s screams, which still echo in my mind, leave no room for doubt. He is gone. He will never hurt me again. Giving up is not how I repay Raider.
A yell bubbles up in my body, starting in my toes and making its way up until I let it out and scream until my voice breaks. It feels liberating to release my despair and anger in that way.
Groaning, I push myself up, and I stumble to the door, making my way to freedom.
Outside, I pause. The ground behind the building is black. Scorched black. I gasp and scramble back. Raider, he must have had something to do with it. I look around for a trace, but all I see is the giant scorch mark. This must be where Raider took Joe to… Hell, I guess.
I’m a mess, a bloody mess. I need to find some help, but when I look around at the deserted spot, I know I’m going to have to pull myself together somehow to find it. The carnivalis at my back, and I only have to circle the house, but soft voices and chanting reach me over the sounds of the crowd. Pulling me in against my better judgment.
I crawl towards the wooded area behind the building. It’s a small spur of the bigger woods separating the old cemetery and the church from the carnival grounds. Now that I think of it, this location makes a lot of sense.
The intoxicating chanting grows louder with every foot I near, making my way through the bushes. The adrenaline that left me in the House of Mirrors comes back as the hairs on the back of my neck rise, activating my fight-or-flight instinct.
As the cemetery comes into view, I notice dim lights shining through the trees. I pause at the edge of the forest, hiding in the shadows as I attempt to make sense of what I’m seeing before me.
Candles everywhere light up the center of the cemetery, appearing to have been placed in a star-like pattern. I stretch myself to get a closer look. A hooded figure stands in the middle of the pattern. They are chanting softly, and it appears as though they are waiting for something. They throw their arms up, and the fire blazes before returning to its natural, small flame. I shiver. If the supernatural exists, this must be a witch. But what are they waiting for?
They move around as I sink back into the shadows. When the figure shifts, I notice an altar of some sort behind her. The candles blaze again, and realization strikes me. A pentagram with an altar centered inside. This witch is performing some kind of ritual. Fear courses through my body, but somehow, I feel a deep-rooted urge to be here right now. So, I hide and wait, allowing my beaten body some rest.
RAIDER
The asshole who dared to touch my Kat softly whimpers as I drag his body through Hell. He stopped screaming when I took him down underground. Creating my entrance to Hell turned out to be another neat little trick in my book.
I am disgusted by this piece of filth. Leaving him in the hands of my king is not going to be a hardship.
“That was fast,” Lucifer’s voice sounds through the pits. I huff, letting go of the body, and step away from it. Shifting in the process.
“I live to please, sir.” Sarcasm drips from my tone, but the devil ignores it.
“Let’s see what you brought me,” he says as he walks towards us, appearing out of thin air.
“That looks like a fine, rotten specimen.” He makes a hand gesture, magic brimming in the air. The asshole starts crawling back, pleading and crying. He is pathetic.
“Here’s your soul, Lucifer.”
“That gives you a year, Raider.”
“A year?”
“Yes, until you bring me another soul and another, and so on.”
Lucifer crouches before the human. “You’re a pathetic little bitch, aren’t you? I see why he took you.” Another wave of his hand, and the human disappears.
The devil stretches out, giving me a blank look. “Every year, on Halloween, you bring me a soul. A dark one, like this. Halloween gives them extra spice, and it’s the one night I can take a soul that’s not rightfully mine.”
“You can live out your life with the human girl as long as you stay close to the gates and keep guarding them.”
Nodding, I look him in the eye. “You have yourself a deal, Lucifer.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that before. Goodbye.”
He disappears in a cloud of red smoke. I turn around and shift as I make my way back towards the gates, back towards Katherine.
