Heaven and Hell (37 page)

What now? In her wildest imaginings, she had not expected to get this far. Not only had she escaped the terrible sea, but she had found shelter as well. It would be a rough life here, the life of a cave dweller, but it was infinitely preferable to the alternative. Here, she had found refuge from fear and pain. She thought of the odor of moisture within the cave. Perhaps, somewhere in its depths, she might even discover water. It just kept getting better and better.

No, now she was thinking too optimistically. She had found shelter and safety for a time, but only for a time. Her mind wandered back to the woman in the geyser. She had carefully planned her escape too, hadn’t she? Serena shuddered to contemplate the sacrifices she had endured along the way, cutting off her own foot with a makeshift knife, to rid herself of her shackles. It was unimaginable. But, in the end, the demons had thwarted her efforts. Perhaps they’d known what she’d been up to all along. Afterward, she was all the worse off for her efforts.

Serena wondered if she would face a similar fate. Had she been allowed to escape the sea of fire, only to set the stage for an even grizzlier means by which to face eternity? That trail beyond the cave had most certainly been cut from the rock by someone or something. That entity, whoever it was, might return, perhaps soon.

No, this kind of thinking was getting her nowhere. She would set such thoughts aside for the moment.

Serena curled up on the bare floor of the cave, watching the tempest beyond. She thought of all of the times she had experienced it before, experienced it more intimately. Still those meetings were in a state of half-crazed pain. From the safety of the cave, she could view it more objectively, yet it was none the less frightening. She watched all the while as the infernal storm raged, a horror that only Hell could offer; yet she did not witness its end, for the nearly forgotten blessing of sleep overcame her. It was a blissful sleep that offered her the escape she had so often prayed for, yet had hardly thought she would ever experience again. She dreamed of home and her lost love as she lay there in the darkness.

T
HE sound of flapping wings, then light, awakened her. At first she was confused, not sure where she was. This wasn’t her bedroom in the rock house; it was a cave, a temporary sanctuary in the very heart of Hell—and she had been found. She focused her eyes on a large crystal imbedded in the black rock ceiling. It was glowing with a sallow yellow light, illuminating the cavern room around her. Then she heard a voice like the sound of thunder.

“You are a trespasser! Your place is in the sea of fire, human, not here in my domain.”

Serena turned quickly—ten feet away, a crouching dark form with folded wings was watching her. He was a strange being, a demon of a sort she hadn’t seen before. His wings were not like those of a bat but like those of a gigantic crow, black and feathery. His long dark cloak nearly covered his body, and his flesh was light brown, like a man who had spent much of his life in the open sun. He was large and muscular, and his face was that of a middle-aged human man, a rough burley face, handsome in a way, but the face of one who had seen his share of trouble. His dark eyes were deep and penetrating, seeming to stare into Serena’s very soul. The scowl on that face was far from encouraging.

Serena quaked in fear. Yes, she had expected this, but she had expected it to happen on the cliff face or on the ledge, not here and now. Now more than ever she wanted to stay. To be cast back into the sea, now that she was whole once more, was an even more ghastly thought. She sat up; her eyes met and locked with those of the terrifying being. She was surprised when his countenance transformed from one of anger into one of amazement.

“It’s you,” he said in a quieter tone. “I know you, Serena Farnsworth. I was at your sentencing, though I hardly expected to see you again.”

Serena held her peace, unsure what to say to this terrible being. She would do everything possible to delay her return to the sea of fire.

“Yes,” continued the dark being. “Satan was rather impressed with you, as I recall. Most humans cry and grovel in his presence, but not you. No, you stood boldly before him, riding the thin line between evoking his anger and titillating his curiosity. It was amusing.” The demon paused, reflecting on some thought. “And you’ve been in the sea of fire all of this time?”

Right now, Serena was too terrified to respond verbally, all she managed to do was nod her head.

The demon scratched his short, dark beard, apparently still deep in contemplation. “Yes, I wonder how so much time in the sea, so much pain, has adjusted your attitude. Would you grovel before him now?”

Still Serena held her peace, sizing up this strange being as best she could. She hadn’t expected him to engage her in conversation, far from it. She had expected to be mauled, torn to shreds, and then thrown unceremoniously back into the sea below.

“But what strange twist of fate has brought you to me, here and now?” It was then that a scowl swept across his face as his mood abruptly changed course. “Who sent you here, Serena? Speak, or you will be all the sorrier for your silence!”

The question caught her by surprise. “Sent me here? No one sent me.”

“Liar!” yelled the demon, growing vastly more agitated. In his rage, he struck the cavern wall with his huge fist. Serena was surprised to see a shower of sparks, as shards of rock scattered about the room. As he withdrew his hand, a visible indentation was left upon the wall.

He growled like an animal; then roared in a loud unearthly tone. He lunged forward, grabbing Serena by her right wrist and drawing her abruptly to her feet. The action nearly pulled her arm from its socket. She cried out in pain.

“How did you get here?” he demanded, shaking Serena like a child’s doll. “Tell me!”

“The waves threw me up against the cliff,” she replied, her voice soft and trembling. “I climbed from there.”

The dark being stared at her. “Do you take me for a fool, woman? It could not be as simple as that. My island is well to the north of the mighty current that ushers your kind along on their eternal journey through the vast realm that is the great sea of fire. Even if one of your kind were carried here by some rogue tide, the currents that sweep around this island are far too violent, too cruel to have been as accommodating as you claim. The undertows, the riptides, and the razor sharp rocks, would act as a barrier against unwary souls so foolish as to approach it. In the end, the currents would carry them far away, beaten and battered, all the sorrier for the experience. The currents alone could not have brought you here.”

Serena didn’t respond. She looked up at the demon, dazed and confused. What was happening here just didn’t make sense. What was he talking about?

“So, you expect me to believe that, after months of pain and abuse in that terrible sea, after being violently thrown against the scalding hot rocks of that cliff, your weakened and desecrated body was actually capable of scaling its craggy flanks. It is nearly vertical, with few handholds, yet you climbed it barefoot. Tell me, have I left anything out? Its location and these dire perils have kept your kind off my island, safeguarded my solitude, until now, until you.”

The demon hesitated, staring intently at his uninvited guest. “I do not know what pains satan threatened you with before sending you here. I’m sure that he did not attempt to entice you with rewards, no, that’s not his way. But whatever he threatened you with, I assure you, I am capable of doing far worse to you, if you do not answer me truthfully. If you tell me all, I might be merciful. Now, I will ask you again, what did satan tell you?”

“Satan didn’t tell me anything, I swear. He didn’t send me,” objected Serena, her voice pleading. “I don’t even know who you are. Please, you’ve gotta believe me! I haven’t seen him since the day I was cast into the sea of fire.”

“Liar!” screamed the demon, grabbing Serena by the throat and lifting her off her feet. He held her in midair with one hand, his long fingers tightening around her neck. She gasped, unable to breathe, unable to dislodge his powerful hand. Then he threw her violently at the wall. She struck the rocks with a force that most surely would have killed her, if she were still mortal. She heard the terrible crack within her body and felt the sickening pain shoot through her spine. She cried in agony as she hit the ground. She crumpled to the floor gasping for breath. There was blood oozing from a wide gash in the side of her head, and pain shooting through her dislocated left shoulder.

The demon took two steps toward Serena, rage in his eyes. “Death can’t release you from me and what I can do to you. There are no limits. Now, you will answer me. Spy on Abaddon, yes, that’s what he told you, but what else? What else did he say? I will know it all! What did he say?”

“This doesn’t make any sense!” cried Serena, trying to rise from her prone position, yet without success. She quickly realized that her back was broken. She could still move her right arm, but she was paralyzed from the waist down, and overcome with a terrible nausea. She stared up helplessly at her advancing adversary. It was only then that Serena’s fear turned into a rage, a rage to match that of this physical titan.

“I wasn’t sent to spy on you!” she cried. “Why would satan be spying on you? It’s me you both hate! You know what I think? I think you know damned well that he didn’t send me; no, you just want an excuse to knock me around. The big bad demon beating up on a helpless woman! Oh, you’re the brave one, you are. Your kind, you’re all the same! Does it make you feel good; does it make you feel powerful?”

For a moment Abaddon was taken by surprise. Never had a human spoken to him in such a tone. Humans usually begged and groveled in his presence, but not this one. This woman was full of surprises. “That will be quite enough!” he roared.

“No it won’t. I’m not finished!” Serena said, not backing down in the least. “I wouldn’t help satan! I’d never help him, no matter what that megalomaniac threatens me with! And if you don’t believe me, you can just go to….” Serena stopped dead in her tracks, growing suddenly silent.

“Go ahead, finish your sentence. Just in case you haven’t kept up with current events, we’re both in Hell,” Abaddon said. Amazingly, despite this human’s challenge, his anger had ebbed a bit.

He continued to move forward, but amazingly, stopped about 4 feet short of the prone woman. He abruptly dropped to his knees. His piercing dark eyes met Serena’s; their eyes locked in a tight embrace.

Nearly a minute passed between them, an incredible minute of total silence. There was no movement from either of them. Their mutual stare was unflinching, unrelenting. Yet even as the seconds passed, the anger drained from both of them. In the end, it was Abaddon who spoke.

“You are telling me the truth; I can see it in your soul. In all of my existence, I have never seen a human soul such as yours. Even after so many months in the sea of fire, it is so lucid, so pure. Yes, now I truly see what satan saw in you. You would have been a considerable adversary, had you taken sides with the Creator. Yes, satan was interested in you, but he didn’t send you.”

“No, he didn’t send me,” replied Serena, wiping away the blood from the side of her head. She was surprised to find that the gash on her forehead was nearly healed. Sensation was even returning to her legs. Unfortunately, that sensation mainly took the form of sharp shooting pain.

“Then tell me,” continued Abaddon, his tone of voice now calm, “tell me how you came to be here.”

“I already did,” Serena said while trying to move, though without success.

“Humor me,” replied the demon, his tone patient but insistent. He sat down upon the floor but a few feet away, facing his uninvited guest.

Serena wasn’t sure where to begin. Should she give this dark being the long version, or would that try his patience? In the end, she told the whole story, in all the detail she could remember. Abaddon didn’t seem impatient during the telling at all; in fact, he listened intently to every word. He wanted to hear it all, every detail. From her journey across the barren plains, to her mountaintop encounter with satan, to her encounter with her mother and her plunge into the great sea of fire, she unfolded her journey through Hell to the dark being. He seemed particularly interested in her struggle to ascend the cliff to the cave. When the story was at an end, Abaddon didn’t immediately respond; he seemed deep in thought.

“You are the clever one,” he noted, smiling slightly. “But not cleaver enough, I think. You were thrown with such force against the rocks, and then climbed so very far, suffered so very much, and for what? Certainly you must have realized that you would inevitably be caught, and then matters would be all the worse. Was it really worth it?”

That was not a difficult question. “Yes, to be free of that horrible boiling sea for just a few hours, it was worth it. Do you have any idea what it’s like to be in there, day after day, till eternity? Can you even imagine the pain that your kind puts us through?”

It was an impertinent question, one that might arouse a demon’s anger. Serena knew it, but right now she didn’t care. What could this being do to her that would be more horrible than what she had already been through? She was surprised to see a trace of sympathy in Abaddon’s eyes.

“No, I suppose I don’t.”

“So why do you do it?” continued Serena, pushing the point on home.

That comment ruffled Abaddon’s feathers, figuratively speaking. It was met with a scowl. “Me? You speak as if you think all of my kind are the same, of one mind and body. We are not. Anyway, it was
your
decision to reject the Creator’s plan of salvation and place yourself in satan’s path. That was most foolish, for it cast you into the most terrible region in all of creation. The fire of satan’s hatred for your kind has never dimmed, no, not one bit over the countless thousands of years he has been here. If anything, it has grown greater. He has lost any trace of mercy; his vengeance knows no limits. At this point in time, I believe that he is mad.”