Lucy, Fallen (12 page)

“I
feel like I’m going to be sick,” Zahara said as we started walking through the green river.

“Now you know how we felt up there,” Lorian said as he held onto her tightly laughing.

I led the pack through the river and used my bind to Lucy to figure out which way Stratus had taken her to. Once I found them I was going to throw him to the demons and let them tear him to pieces so that they could dispense him to the Seven Rooms of Punishment.

“You’re walking too fast Master Deveraux! The angels are having a hard time keeping up,” Arissa said behind me.

“Then put them on your back and carry them,” I commanded. “Lucy and Keilyn are being dragged through the Below without protection from the evil here, I don’t have time to wait or slow down.”

As we reached the fork, I closed my eyes and lifted my head. I would have to use the evil inside me to be able to follow her scent only because there was so much in these rooms, it would be the only way to find her without distraction. When I opened my eyes, I turned and looked at my family who nodded, and in turn called up the evil inside of them as well. I knew they would do well with the angels; they had survived the Above without the evil and they would need it to keep our new friends safe until we found my Lucy.

“To the left,” I said in duality as I lead them to the third tunnel.

“Deveraux,” Hadrian said behind me.

I turned and looked at the lot of them sharply when I realized they hadn’t moved.

“Deveraux, the demons will try to kill the angels, how do you want us to proceed when they attack?” he asked in his dual deadly tones.

“We don’t fear the demons,” Micah said on Arissa’s back.

“I know you don’t,” I replied, “But they
will
attack you all. And they
will
try to tear you apart or at least take your wings. If you feel yourselves threatened by them, let go of your devil and fall into the river. No harm will come to you if you submerse yourself completely and we will take care of the demons,” I said as I began to make my way into the tunnel.

Behind me I heard the shuffling waves of the river as they began to follow me. The first room was going to be the easiest for us to pass through. The angels didn’t know of being greedy so the only thing they would suffer is the urge to save the damned. My devils had strict orders to hold onto them no matter how hard they tried to get away from them to help. Those that were being melted by the fires of Greed deserved it and nothing less.

As we walked through and I heard the angels marveling at the jewels, a small smile crossed my face. They found something in the Below beautiful. That was something to be proud of, but I would have to lose those feelings of pride before we entered that room or it would consume me.

“Oh
God
,” Isaiah yelled as the first wave of the Greedy caught fire and began to melt into the river below us.

“Don’t pity them,” Lorian instructed him as the devils tightened their grips.

“Keep your eyes forward. No matter how badly you want to save them,
do not
get off of your devil’s back,” I directed them.

“But they need our help!” Micah yelled as he began to struggle against Arissa.

I turned and saw the angels fighting my devils and became angry.

“Understand this. If you fall off of their backs or attempt to save the damned in anyway, you will be lost forever. I cannot nor will not, bring you back to your former selves. My sole purpose right now is Lucy and I will not stop to save any of you. Stop struggling and hold on tightly because the tunnels will get worse from here.”

“Don’t you care about Keilyn too?” Dorian asked.

I noticed that he seemed to be the most level headed angel so far. He looked straight ahead, refusing to see the damned being punished so they weren’t afflicting him. I also think it was because since he and Lorian were twins and united at one point in the Above that he was able to resist them with his brother’s help.

“I.... have a theory about her,” I said as we wandered through the next tunnel.

Lust.

“Close your eyes and cover your ears my friends. These aren’t things creatures as pure as you should have to see,” I said softly as I trudged through the river.

I heard the sounds of their wings as they simultaneously brought them up to shield themselves from the horror of Lust. As I and my devils, waded through the river as quickly as we could to spare the angels, I wondered if this would be the fate that my Lucy would face if I couldn’t save her.

They will have to kill me if they think I would let her suffer like this
, I thought grimly to myself.

We made our way through Lust quickly and I heard the angels start to gag as we walked into the dimly lit room of Gluttony.

“Bring your wings back up. It will shield you from the smell. We’re used to this,” I said to them.

Ugh.

I brought up the collar of my shirt and covered my nose as we watched the demons force feeding the Gluttonous the remains of the Lustful.

“I always hated this room” Arissa muttered under her breath.

“I don’t think I can find one devil that’s fond of it,” I replied with a chuckle.

“The demons sure seem to like it though,” Hadrian said grimly as we exited Gluttony and entered into the domain of Pride.

Interestingly enough, every one of the damned in this room always appeared strangely calm and catatonic. Their true punishment was not something to be seen on the outside right away. Only those who lingered long enough saw the horror that would happen; and that’s when it was visible to curious eyes.

We had to move quickly because I could see the remains of the first row of the Prideful had already been pushed into the river for recycling.

“What’s so bad about this room?” Zahara asked.

“You’ll see,” I replied quietly.

I listened as the angels gasped in unison and glanced over at the new row of the Prideful. They sat in wooden chairs with their hands on their knees looking straight ahead. A few moments passed before their arms and legs started to cave in and a wealth of insects exploded from their chests and poured out of their eyes. As the damned began to scream in pain, the insects would crawl into their mouths and begin to explode through their stomachs.

That was the thing with Pride.

It always would eat you from the inside out.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Lorian yelled to the others as the remains of this row began to pool around us in the river.

“Everyone go ahead of me. Take a right at that next opening,” I said to them as I moved back to help my struggling devils.

While I wouldn’t do anything to save the angels, I wouldn’t lose one of my own. They all meant too much to me to let them drown in the river because of Pride.

I pulled each of them ahead of me and waited until my last devil turned the corner with the last angel before I glanced back at the next row of the Prideful moving forward to take their place by the river bank.

“Dev!”

I hurried out of the room at the sound of Hadrian’s voice and saw that the devils were surrounded in the river by the damned in the room of Envy.

“They want the angels,” I said grimly.

“Maybe I can be of assistance then,” Zahara said as she asked her devil to release her into the river.

“They’ll tear you to pieces. They Envy your beauty and that’s what they want,” I warned as the devil held onto her tightly.

She smiled kindly at me, “I have the gift of Illusion, Sir Deveraux. They can’t harm us if you just allow me to get into the river and use it.”

I looked at Hadrian and nodded. He went over to the devil carrying Zahara and traded angels. Once she was in the river, the Envious howled and their eyes became wild. Hadrian stood between her and rabid pack of blue skinned, black stringy haired, green eyed, razor toothed monsters. Some were already in pieces from fighting with the others for parts of their bodies they had lost in the Below, and now they saw the angels as ultimate prizes. 

“Be quick about it,” I said urgently to her.

Because there were so many and we were outnumbered, slaughtering them all to save the other angels would put a wide gap in time between us and Stratus.

In a brief moment, all of the Envious climbed back onto the river banks and continued to consume one another viciously.

“What did you do?” I asked her curiously.

“I made them see each other as they saw us,” she replied with a small smile.

“Genius angels,” Hadrian said with a laugh as he leaned down so she could climb onto his back.

“Well done, but the worst is yet to come. This next tunnel we pass through will take us into the domain of the Slothful. They will make every attempt to drag all of us to a halt. Push through them. They can only stop you if you believe they can.”

My devils and Lucy’s angels all nodded with serious eyes as we took a left and found ourselves wading in the open pool of the green flowing river. Beneath us were the damned because of their laziness; the Slothful.

Almost immediately I felt a hand grip firmly around my ankle as I began to wade through the infinite pool and I instructed the angels to get on the shoulders of their demons so that they wouldn’t be saturated in the green waters.

Below us, white soulless eyes watched us as they floated past, trying to grab a hold of us with each lazy lap.

“Eyes forward everyone. I can see the tunnel that will lead to the Swamp of Acid Smoke. We need to get there quickly,” I yelled back.

“Master Deveraux!” Arissa yelled desperately.

I turned in time to see her being dragged underneath the water and Micah hovering above.

“Arissa!” Hadrian shouted.

“Keep moving forward!” Micah yelled before he dove into the green bile lake after her.

“Move!” I shouted at the now frantic group of creatures behind me. The angels desperately wanted to save Micah and the devils wanted to save Arissa. I needed them to move forward and now.

“We can’t afford to fall too far behind Stratus and Lucy! MOVE!”

Hadrian swam quickly through the waters with Zahara on positioned on his shoulders, but his face showed his inconsolableness at the loss of Arissa.

Zahara was crying. I knew it was because of Micah and I only hoped that out of all of the evil that consumed the Below, that something, anything, would show him some mercy for trying to save a devil.

We reached the opening and walked into a large swamp area where Zahara dropped off of Hadrian’s shoulders and wrapped her arms around him as he sobbed on his knees.

I went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry old friend,” I said quietly. “We’ll get her back, somehow. I swear it.”

“I know, Master Deveraux,” he said looking up at me with anguish ridden eyes. “First we must save Lady Lucy.”

I looked at him for a moment, “Arissa is strong. She’ll survive whatever is in the lake.”

He nodded and got to his feet wiping away the tears that kept flowing so freely.

I looked at Zahara, “Micah is one of the strongest angels there is. He will be okay.”

Hadrian put his arm around her and helped her to her feet, holding her close. He whispered something to her and she nodded and looked at me with a small smile.

“The last Sin is before us. It will be worse than anything we have gone through so far,” I said to the group. “Be careful not to lose sight of what we have come to do. And of what we have yet to do,” I said putting a hand on Hadrian’s shoulder.

“Lead the way, Master,” he said hoisting Zahara firmly on his back again.

W
e entered the Swamp of Acid Smoke and I immediately felt myself becoming apprehensive. That was one of the many tricks of this place; to draw the anger, the wrath out of you so that you would drown in it.

Then you would be stuck in the Swap forever; damned to fits of uncontrollable rage that nothing would be able to assuage.

I looked at the gnarled trees and saw the bodies twisted into them. I was looking for Lucy in the bodies because I was sure that had she had survived the other Seven Rooms of Punishment, this one would not be one she made it out of.

Please don’t let her be here,
I thought desperately, as we continued to move slowly through the murky swamp.

“Uh, Dev?” Hadrian asked suddenly.

I turned to look at him and rolled my eyes. There was a small group of demons perked on the banks of the Swamp watching us curiously. I wasn’t concerned about them, because they were just curious as to why we hadn’t been taken over by the Anger yet.

“Let them sit there and pay no mind,” I said to them.

As soon as I turned back around, one of the larger demons was hovering five feet away from me, directly in my path.

“Yes?” I asked, speaking its language.

It closed its eyes and inhaled deeply for a moment. Then it opened its snake slit, yellow eyes.

“Ahhh! Your scent has already passed through here,” it croaked.

“In what form?” I inquired.

“A scared angel with devil eyes. A swollen, scared angel,” it replied gleefully.

“Don’t take the bait, Deveraux,” Hadrian said seriously.

I took a deep, calming breath. The demon was goading me. It knew that if I gave into Anger in this place I would be lost forever.

“Did she make it out?” I asked it.

“Oh yes. She made it out. But she doesn’t have much longer. The devil that has her has grown very strong and he means to kill her and the child once he reaches his destination. A devil killing an angel in the Below ... there is no greater glory. But this you already know!”

It tore its gaze from me and looked at the angels that were holding on to my family.

“You will achieve much glory,” it said, looking back to me.

“I do not mean to kill or harm them. I mean to get Lucy back and return them to the Above,” I explained.

“But that’s not what your heart wants,” it replied, peering inside of me. “You
want
glory.”

“Not at the hands of
their
deaths,” I replied, my voice starting to shake.