Where All Souls Meet (12 page)

"No," Eden said, though Donovan grabbed her arm.

The shadows moved in even closer and began to circulate around her. Her vision filled with flashes of black and red. She smelled sulfur as they cackled around her. Her soul was a fiery inferno of fear. She wanted to close her eyes and pray it all away, but she knew it was better to keep her eyes open. Satan was going to find out now what was truly going on, but she had bought her friends some time, which gave her hope. Shutting her eyes, she willed herself to think of other things, things which would keep Satan out of her mind. Her dad. Oh, how she loved her dad.

"Your father will not save you," Satan said. "Compared to me, Agares is weak. I can probe your mind much harder."

Once again, Eden felt the forceful, crippling power from all sides as Satan levitated her off of the street and she hovered, thrashing wildly.
No, no, no, no.
She tried to keep her head clear as she felt Satan's cold hands grip her waist and pull her into his lap. She stared straight in his corpse face and her mind was engulfed with such overwhelming fear it was like she was drowning in it. Her churning feelings paralyzed her.

The shriveled head looked like that of a corpse that had been left in a lake for too long. A yellowing Blood Worm crawled from the side of his teeth and squirmed wildly. The shriveled head grinned as he crunched down on the worm and a sneer of pure evil crossed his face.

The snake head had red eyes which glowed. Two fangs dripping with venom peeked out of the sides of his mouth and a small, thin tongue flicked in and out, in and out. The hand head, if it could truly be considered a head, had glowing red eyes on every one of its shriveled fingers. The demon head was what Eden always imagined a demon would look like, two brownish horns the size of her upper arm poking from its head. The beautiful woman's head was brown-haired and blue-eyed with skin the color of a cumulous cloud. Her lips were dark red, the color of a rich wine.

It was the first time Eden had seen Satan up close and personal. The odd assortment of heads shouldn't have worked so well together, but they did. She moved right, attempting to scramble from Satan's scaly lap, but he held her in place by the waist. Looking down, she saw his yellowing, dirtied fingernails and his greasy black skin. The smell of death grew stronger as Satan seized Eden's chin with his free hand and forced her to look the rotting head straight in the eyes.

Before now, Eden thought she had known fear. She thought she had known it when she lost her mom, when she had fallen into the Blood Stone cave, and when the gates of heaven closed. As she stared into the red-eyed gaze of the rotting head, she knew fear as she had never known it before. Not of this magnitude. It was now, as she gazed into his faces, she realized what Natalia had meant by sacrifice. It didn't matter whether or not she succeeded in saving the world. Satan was going to have her either way. This was her sacrifice.
This
, for all eternity.

Her heart gave way to fear so all-consuming, she could only be silent. There was no fighting, no winning. She was locked inside a place she could not leave. Satan stared at her threateningly as the revelation struck her.

"Finally, she understands," Satan said.

With an evil grin, he placed his scaly hand over her heart and then plunged inside of her soul. She screamed in pain and thrashed as she gazed down at Satan's hand and saw he was wrist-deep in her chest. She knew now she could have been stabbed with a sword, but it would not have caused her heart to burn as much as it did now.

She groaned as hot burning pain filled her entire soul and stared at the darkened sky. Unlike Agares, Satan managed to get to her center a lot faster and with a lot more agony. Every centimeter he sunk into her heart, she felt more agonized, more vulnerable. Though she knew he did it on purpose, she struggled to find her reason for living and the strength to fight him. Satan was Agares times ten. No, times infinity. How could she hope to battle such evil blasting straight into her core?

But as she stared at the sky, she realized she could.

The night before they were going to move from their small apartment in Queens, New York City to California, her dad sat at the table with a cup of coffee in his hand. Eden's mom was not home. Eden guessed she had gone to be with another one of her lovers somewhere. It would be a last day for Rebecca and her lover too, after all. Eden silently moved past her dad, head down, as she stared at the card her friend, Maddy, had made her.

"Eden," her dad said, glancing up from his coffee.

"Yes, Dad," Eden said, shocked he had noticed her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm just sad, I guess," she responded honestly. "I'll be moving away from the school I've been going to practically my whole life."

Her dad was silent for a moment, and then he patted the sofa next to him. Eden stared at the sofa a beat and then she walked over and sat down. Once again, they were silent. Her dad cleared his throat and wrung his hands. Eden realized she made him uncomfortable for some reason.

"I'm sorry I'm tearing you away from your friends," her dad said. "I could have honestly fought the move a little harder, but I thought it would be good to get your mom away from… You know what, never mind."

"This one's name is Joshua, I think," Eden said, staring down at her hands. "She met him at the coffee shop."

Her dad grunted. "She tells you all that, huh? I wish she wouldn't. You're too young."

Eden shrugged. "No, she doesn't tell me, but I see it. I… see a lot of things."

"Eden, I'm sorry," he said.

"It's not your fault," she said. "It doesn't matter."

But it did. She moved to stand up, but her dad seized her wrist and stopped her. Turning, she gazed at her dad in shock.

"Promise me something, Eden," he said. "Promise me you won't be like your mom. I don't know what cracks in her heart she's trying to mend, but there's better ways."

Eden smiled sadly. "I haven't had a boyfriend in my life. I doubt you have to worry about me being a heartbreaker, Dad."

Instead of smiling back at her, her dad continued to stare at her. His eyes were wide. She didn't understand why.

"Do you know what my co-workers tell me about their kids, Eden?" he said after a moment.

"No."
Where is he going with this?
"What do they say?"

"They have teenagers," he said. "Most of them act up. They ask for money, cell phones, and cars. They slam doors, sneak out of the house, and play rock music. As far as I've seen, my co-workers are fairly normal compared to us."

"Um, okay." Eden was unsure of where he was going with the conversation.

"You don't do any of that," her dad said. "I don't think I remember a time when you yelled at me. You are so good."

"Dad?" She frowned in confusion as her dad stared at her a beat longer.

Finally, he released her arm, stood up, and dusted invisible dirt off of his pants. He squeezed her shoulder for a moment and then spun and walked away. She stared after him, still confused. But then she realized something. Her dad, the one who hardly ever showed emotion, called her good. It was enough to fill her with happiness.

Warmth and love filled her heart, and she focused on the feelings with every part of her soul she had. She heard Satan chuckle above her, but she didn't care.
Focus, focus, focus.
Keeping her mind concentrated was what she had to do.

"How touching," Satan said. "Agares said you used love to keep him out. You had your turn, now I'll have mine."

Satan delved deeper into her heart and she felt the love and warmth dim. She felt as if she was seeing the world underwater.

She was immersed in a horrible memory.

Eden's mom and dad stood in the kitchen when she was ten-years-old, arguing. Eden sat with her back to the wall and her arms tight around her chest. Her heart thundered against her ribcage and she shuddered in horror as well as in pain.

"A week?" her dad asked. "You want to leave for a week to go on a vacation with one of your lovers? Eden is here. Have you thought about what this could mean for her?"

"It's just a week," her mom said. "She won't even realize I'm gone. I deserve a break too. I didn't sign up for raising her, as you remember. The girl is supposed to be your responsibility. You can take charge of her."

"You're her mother," her dad said.

"You're her father," her mom countered.

"Fine." Her dad gripped the counter in anger. "Go away for a week. Try having Eden explain it to her friends."

"Well, she would, if she had any friends," her mom said.

"Stop talking about her that way," her dad said.

"She's my daughter," her mom said. "I can speak about her any way I wish to."

"So she's your daughter now, huh?"

Growling in anger, her mom bent over sideways, picked up an ornamental plate from the counter, and hurled it at her dad's head. He ducked just in time and then swore. The shards of glass skittered across the floor and coated the tile. Eden cried out in worry, leapt to her feet, and then sprinted down the hallway. She did not know whether her parents had heard her hurried departure or not.

But this memory wasn't good enough. Her mom's words still stung her, but she knew one thing — her mom had not gone on the vacation. Her dad had also defended her, as he had many times before. She pushed away the pain and focused on another memory, one of her mom.

On Eden's fifteenth birthday, Eden stood, shivering from cold, on the outskirts of the ice skating rink. A group of skaters twirled on the ice. In the center of the rink, herds of people moved at a quick and frightening pace, kicking up ice with the blades of their skates. Her mom stood beside her, arms crossed over her chest, as she gazed at the other skaters too. Somehow her mom wore a bright green dress.

"Eden, I don't know about this." Her mom's brows furrowed.

"It's not too hard." Eden grinned at her. "I've been ice skating on plenty of school trips. You'll be fine. I promise."

"If you say so." Her mom frowned.

"Come on."

With a grin, Eden hobbled toward the door of the ice rink on the edge of her blades. Her mom clunked behind her, muttering under her breath. When Eden made it to the rink, she stepped out onto the slick ice and felt her cheeks chill as the cold air caressed her and caused her to shiver. She hung onto the wall, allowing others to go by, as her mom gazed at the ice wide-eyed.

"Have you really never been ice skating before?" Eden raised an eyebrow.

"I was never fond of cold," Rebecca said. "It would have taken a tow-truck to get me out on the ice when I was your age. Just help me in here, would you?"

Eden extended her hand to her mom. With shaking fingers, her mom grasped her hand for the first time in years. Her mom's hand was soft and slicked with nervous sweat. As her mom teetered on the ice, she looked like a newborn foal just learning how to walk.

"It's like using regular rollerblades, Mom." Eden demonstrated by gliding her right foot over the ice. "See? Glide. Glide. Easy."

"I never did much rollerblading either, Eden." Her mom clung to the wall, unmoving and trembling.

"You never went rollerblading?" Eden's mouth fell open. "What exactly did you do, then?"

Her mom was silent for a moment. Eden realized her mom actually had to think about this.

"Shows, mostly. I've been acting since I was a kid." Her mom still did not let go of the wall. "A lot of child modeling jobs too. My agent had a lot of work for me."

"But what did you do for fun?" Eden asked as she was pelted with ice from the blades of a fast ice skater.

"That was fun for me, I guess."

But Eden could tell by the way her mom bit her lip it hadn't been much fun for her at all. She started to pity her mom. No ice skating, no rollerblading. It didn't sound like she did much outside, either. Suddenly, she wanted to show her mom how to skate more than anything in the world.

"Come on, Mom." Eden tugged her forward. "Let's move. Inch along the wall a little at a time."

"I think I'm good right here." Her mom trembled.

As Eden tugged at her mom's arm, a blonde-haired skater whirled around Eden so fast she had to leap backward. When she landed, her blade slipped out from underneath her. She landed on her hip agonizingly and then slid straight into her mom. Her mom windmilled her arms then fell straight on her butt against the wall with a scream. Eden finally stopped sliding and sat, stunned, with her butt growing frigid and wet from the ice. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

"Ouch," Rebecca finally said.

"Yeah." Eden rubbed her hip where she had landed. "Double-ouch."

Both of them exchanged glances.

"It looks like you got your father's balance." Her mom laughed. "On our first date, we went to a swimming pool. He attempted to jump off the end of the diving board, caught his foot, and toppled into the water like a whale. I laughed so hard I got water up my nose."

Eden tried to imagine her always-do-things-a-certain-way dad leaping off of a diving board, period. She didn't think she had ever seen him in swimming trunks. Even when they went on vacations, he wore a suit and tie.

"Dad did that, huh?" Eden grabbed onto the wall of the rink and struggled, shivering, to her feet. A dull, throbbing pain overwhelmed her hip. "It's hard to imagine he would even go to a pool."