Chapter 38
Haatim stood over Abigail in the small room where he’d found her. It looked like an underground cavern lit by candlelight, though he could see no candles anywhere. The room remained empty except for himself, and Abigail lying on a large wooden table.
She had to confront something inside her memories, but wherever she had gone, it proved somewhere that he could not go. He felt alone in this space, and it felt less real and tangible now that she had disappeared mentally.
He had nothing to do except clutch her hand and pray that she would make it. Fear filled her wide-open eyes, and she saw nothing through them. Wherever she’d gone, the place brought something that had truly terrified her.
In this place, he didn’t belong. It had seemed as though he had stepped outside himself, and he could feel his spirit weakening while the seconds ticked past. He realized, as he waited alone in the room, that the longer he stayed out of his body, then the more difficult he would find it to go back.
How long had he been here? Time didn’t make sense in this realm, and it felt like he hovered somewhere between Surgat’s hell and his world. To be honest, he didn’t know if he would manage to go back to his body now because he had no clue how to go about doing so.
He remained stuck in the chaos that the demon and Abigail had created, and should leave right now and attempt to get back to the safety of his flesh.
“Hurry up, Abigail,” he said, clenching his teeth. He couldn’t leave Abigail until he knew that she’d reached safety, but that didn’t mean he wanted her to take her time. His hand grew cold where she held it like her skin had become ice. It seemed almost as though she siphoned off his energy.
A scary thought: he’d barely noticed it at first, but now it felt like a dull and cold ache in his hand, climbing his wrist and into his forearm. It further weakened him, draining what little strength he had left.
He would tolerate the pain as long as Abigail needed him. To distract himself, he looked at the area around him. Not at the objects in the room, though, but rather at what lay past it. He found that when he focused, he could see through the walls and into the world around them.
Off in the distance, warmth poured out of an area of pure reddish-light that could only be the portal. Surgat had opened it, and now, brought forth demons.
Every few seconds, he could sense another presence in the area when something climbed out of hell and made its way to the surface. He could sense the portal as an object of pure evil, abstract and powerful.
The breach let through demons, he realized, and a lot of them. They didn’t seem to have any sense that he stood here, flitting right past and disappearing as they entered his world. He could still sense them once they got up there, but it proved more difficult. Once they got outside this realm, they spread out, as though this made a funnel through which they entered the Earth realm.
He hoped his friends remained all right. Dominick and Frieda fought up there alone, facing this horde. Haatim didn’t know how long they would manage to survive, and suspected that things would only get worse once Abigail had finished her fight with the demon.
No matter which way that fight ended.
He closed his eyes and thought about that energy portal. If he could block the breach, then he could stop the flood of demons and end whatever Surgat tried to do. It wouldn’t solve all their problems, but it would make a sizable step in the right direction.
The only problem? … He had no idea how to go about closing the thing.
Frieda had said something about knocking the energy off balance, but it sounded like a guess as much as anything else. She knew nothing about this realm, or his abilities, and wouldn’t prove of any help with this.
Still, it made a good a guess and something he felt willing to try. At least, he would attempt it once Abigail had finished with whatever she did inside of that memory.
***
The demon pressed in on Abigail, merging with her identity and becoming one inside her. She could feel every single part of it as though it happened right now, even though it had happened a long time ago. Surgat had entered her and lain dormant, waiting for the ritual to wake him and give him the strength to overcome the weak and fragile little girl.
The moment had arrived. The moment when the demon had created the bond with her. It didn’t make for a one-way connection, and as Surgat stepped into her existence, so too, did she step into its. That was, after all, why they’d chosen a child; she felt too afraid to fight back and would prove easier for the demon to dominate.
In her memory, she pushed past the demonic entity. It whispered in her mind, offering soothing words to calm her heart. She pushed back her hatred of the situation, her anger at herself for letting it in, and forced herself just to embrace the moment.
Embrace the demon and listen to its words.
The little girl that she had been, on the other hand, gave in. She listened to the soothing words and became unwilling to fight back, retreating into herself and cowering from the presence. The demon, triumphant, realized that it had dominated her, and that the time had come for the final part of its merge.
That had become the part that hadn’t happened; the part when Arthur had shown up and freed her. The little girl she had been didn’t know that Arthur would come. She’d believed herself alone in the world, uncared for and abandoned.
That little girl in the memory didn’t want to remember any of this and tried to push out the adult version of her. It attempted to push her away and stop the memory. She had hidden this for a reason, to protect and save her from the pain.
But Abigail couldn’t stop now. She’d come so close, moments from truly understanding what had happened to her, and needed to see this through to the end, to experience every moment of it, no matter how horrible.
Outside the memory, she clenched down on Haatim’s hand, using him to steady her. She waited, focusing on the moment, and listened.
The demon whispered in her ear, offering lies and promised to calm her. Abigail ignored it all, listening as hard as she could for the one thing she truly needed.
Finally, the demon spoke its name.
***
Abigail’s eyes popped open, and she took a few steadying breaths. She still lay on the table, but no longer tied down. Haatim remained standing next to the table, though he looked considerably worse than when she’d gone into the memory. Other than him, the cult room appeared empty.
“I have it,” she exclaimed. “I have the demon’s name.”
“What? Really? That’s amazing! So, it’s over?”
She hesitated. “Not quite.”
“What do you mean?”
She closed her eyes and focused, willing the table away. Her fear gone, she felt more in control of herself. When she opened her eyes, she stood next to Haatim. He had a shocked look on his face while he looked around, realizing that everything had changed all of a sudden.
“That’s … disorienting.”
“Sorry.”
He stepped in and wrapped her in a tight hug, and just like when she’d touched his hand, warmth flowed out of him and into her. It filled her with confidence in herself and a belief that she could overcome this. They could all survive this.
However, she checked her elation: this remained far from over, and they hadn’t won yet. The demon still lingered outside, banging against the walls and trying to break in, but she felt revitalized now that she had the demon’s true name.
It had given the name to the little girl as a way to unite them, assuming that once the ritual completed, and he’d dominated her, then Surgat would no longer be exposed and vulnerable. It knew the deadliness if that name got used against it, and so had fought so hard to keep it from her.
Now, though, she had it. That single piece of information would change the fight utterly.
“The name gives me power over the demon,” Abigail said. “But I can’t use it to send Surgat home like I could with a normal demon.”
“What? Why not?”
“The demon is me, Haatim. The ritual The Ninth Circle performed on me bound us together, and I invited the demon in.”
He shook his head. “So, just uninvite him.”
“It isn’t that simple. Our fates have become intertwined. When Surgat returns to hell, I go with him.”
“So, what do we do?”
“I need to confront the demon. I have a weapon now, which gives me a chance, but it won’t prove easy and brings no guarantee that I can do this. If I lose …”
“What?” Haatim paled.
“If I can’t win the fight, then I have to use the name to kill him.”
“But you just said that will kill you, too.”
Abigail didn’t reply.
“No.” He shook his head. “No, I won’t allow you to do that. I just got you back for like the fiftieth time. I shan’t let you go.”
“I don’t intend to lose,” she said. “But I won’t let him stay in control and use me to hurt more people.”
He stayed silent for a moment, and then nodded. “How can I help?”
“You have already. You helped me get his name, and it gives me a chance I would never have had otherwise. I have to do this on my own, though. You won’t stand a chance against Surgat.”
“What if you tell me his name, too? I can help.”
“It doesn’t work like that. The name is more like a feeling. An idea. It isn’t something I can repeat aloud. Just knowing it gives me power, but I can’t pass it on.”
Haatim hesitated, and then said, “I can still help.”
“I won’t risk losing you. You should go back and find the others. Help them, and you’ll help me, too.”
“No.” Again, he shook his head. “I love you. I refuse to leave you.”
Abigail stepped forward, wrapped Haatim in a tight hug, and pulled him close. “I know.”
She forced the memory away, pushing outside of it and heading straight for Surgat. She did it suddenly, forcing herself away and blocking him from following her.
She left Haatim there in the memory, standing in the empty room, and headed off to confront Surgat.
***
One second, Abigail stood there, and the next, she had gone. Just gone. Haatim had no idea where she went, or how, and now he stood alone in the empty underground room. The walls around him disintegrated, lost their partial reality, now that Abigail had left behind the memory.
Mentally, he reached out, scanning for her in the surrounding area, but couldn’t find her. She had gone somewhere else, another realm perhaps, to fight Surgat. He had no idea how even to start searching.
Nor, he realized, did he even have the strength left to make the effort. He felt exhausted, and doing even the smallest things now seemed overwhelming. Abigail had gone to face the demon and intended to do it alone.
Even if it meant he would die, he should be with her. If he could help her overcome this, then knowing that she would reach safety would give enough solace for him. He didn’t know what kind of help he could offer, but at least he could try to do something. It would feel better than just not knowing what went on.
With a groan of frustration, he squeezed shut his eyes. He should retreat to his body now. The more tired he grew, then the more the corporeal connection slipped away, but he couldn’t leave just yet. Not without trying his hand at closing the portal, at least.
Mentally, he focused on the portal, willing himself next to it, and when he opened his eyes, he stood right beside it. The laws of normal physics didn’t apply here, and moving proved as simple as thinking.
He shifted to the side when more demons came hurtling out of the portal. They didn’t even seem to notice him as they rushed out. He watched them transition from balls of hate-filled energy into half-formed creatures as they went, and then they would disappear, crossing over to the world above.
Another demon for his friends to face alone. What did Frieda and Dominick have to deal with? A lot of demons had poured out of the portal, and he hoped his friends remained okay.
Did he stand up there next to them, a vacant and empty shell, or had he fallen to the ground when he left behind his body? With any luck, he hadn’t hit his head or anything.
Would he even know if something like that had happened to his body? Maybe, he’d died already and would have no body to which to return.
Haatim forced those worries away, having no good answer for any of them. It didn’t seem worth his time thinking about it if he couldn’t do anything to fix it. Right now, he had to focus only on the portal.
He scanned it over: basically, just a ring of tightly-bound energy emitting a swirling red glow. It almost felt like he and the ring were underwater, floating on the currents of the sea.
However, it proved different than that, and even though he had the sensation of floating, it felt numb and empty without any sensory input—like getting stuck in a sensory deprivation tank, and the closer he got to the portal, the worse it got.
Physically, he couldn’t touch the portal, so instead, he tried to reach out mentally and push. It wobbled, but the action of pushing it drained him.
“All right,” he said, the words echoing only in his head. “Let’s do this.”
He reached out again, and this time, instead of just pushing the portal, he mentally redirected the energy and pulled it closed. A few seconds passed, and he wondered if he hadn’t just wasted his time and the last of his energy.
Nothing happened, at first, except that a wave of exhausted nausea washed over him again. If he could have puked, he would have, but instead, he just felt disoriented and confused. Suddenly, though, something changed. The portal didn’t move, exactly, but he’d done something.
A long moment passed, and then the silver ring collapsed in on itself as if in slow motion. It seemed as if someone had grabbed hold of the drawstrings of an open bag and tightened it up.
Haatim felt a moment of triumph as he watched the portal shrink.
“Yes!”
The euphoria ended, though, when he glanced through the portal itself. He could see into the hell-scape from whence the demons came. It looked like an endless dark tunnel, full of green ichor on the walls and no light at all. He could see into Surgat’s hell, though not visually: rather, mentally, like touch.
He could feel inside the place, though. He could feel a trapped human in there, covered in ichor and completely lost to time and sensation. He could feel Arthur.
