Chapter Eight #2
His malevolent presence filled the cavern.
Broad-shouldered and slightly hunched, he wore a dark robe that engulfed his form.
Where his eyes should be, there were two black pits.
Thin grey lips sat on sallow skin, and his smile was a cruel slash.
White hair fell in wisps over his shoulders, emphasising the accumulation of decades, maybe even centuries.
He moistened his lips with a flick of his long tongue. “Forgive my pet. She forgets that we don’t eat souls that aren’t ours yet.”
“And you are—”
“Dimitri, the Demon of Fear.”
The cavern trembled and shuddered and shrieked.
A crackle of lightning illuminated everything around me, and the ground collapsed into shadow.
I paused for a moment, wondering what would happen to the condemned souls below in the pool of water.
But then I realised I wasn’t inside the cavern anymore.
I was standing atop a gigantic skull, staring over the drowning city.
The sirens stirred in the muddy waters, their mournful songs rising.
I teetered on the brink, the calm shallows beckoning me to jump.
“You could fall,” Dimitri said, circling me. “Or I could take it all away. Your fear, your pain. You wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. Stay here in my domain.”
I swallowed hard, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. I closed my eyes, focused on quieting my mind.
“Perhaps your fate lies with the sirens,” Dimitri cooed.
“No,” I said, my voice steady despite the fear clawing at my chest. “I don’t belong here.”
Dimitri stared at me. “Are you not afraid?”
“No.”
“Fear is such a delicious thing,” he purred. “It makes the strong weak, and the weak . . . mine.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“A bold claim.” Dimitri continued pacing in sluggish circles, the musty odour of his robes overpowering despite the open area. “Why do you cling to it? I could take it all away. No more fear, no more doubt. I will take your pain and your failures. I can reunite you with your brother.”
The sirens’ song swelled into a crescendo.
I let the idea take root in my heart. I wanted to be back with Tobias. The guilt was growing unbearable. Knowing he was alone in the village, it hurt me more than the fire ever did. Could Dimitri really give me that?
“The demon lies,” the whispers brushed over my consciousness. “You are stronger than your fear.”
“I’m stronger than my fear,” I repeated, more to myself than the demon. “I want nothing from you. Not your bargain, and nothing from the sirens either.”
Dimitri’s smile dissolved, and his body contorted as shadows pulled him apart. Flesh stretched over twisted bones, and he morphed into something monstrous. His teeth lengthened into fangs, and his fingertips grew into blackened claws. He stepped towards me, and I braced for the strike.
“Nina!” someone cried, slicing through my terror and bringing me back to the present. I veered towards the sound.
“Tobias?” My voice was a whisper.
Happiness flooded my entire being. My brother was in Hell. My heart ached at the thought that he had been sentenced to the same fate as me, but the selfish half of my soul . . . the part I never wanted to face . . . was thankful.
Tobias yanked me back and forced Dimitri away, waving his arms ridiculously, till the demon collapsed to its side. Where did this courage come from?
Pride blossomed within me. Tobias clasped my hand, his skin warm and gentle as if we had never parted. I never imagined I’d feel that again.
“Run!”
We followed a slope down from the skull’s crown into a passage.
Darkness consumed everything. I took slow steps, our erratic breathing the only sound.
For a moment, he was all that mattered. I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed my brother.
I could’ve laughed, could’ve cried. Then a sliver of light broke through the dark, and we emerged into open land.
A rough trail cut through stony hills, and beyond them . . . mountains. Real mountains, their peaks clawing at the sky. I almost forgot where we were. Hell wasn’t supposed to have horizons. It wasn’t supposed to have a blue sky.
Tobias dragged me into the treeline of a forest, branches snapping beneath our feet.
My lungs burned, but Tobias didn’t stop.
His grip was fierce, and his pace unrelenting.
The pine-covered floor was familiar, roots nipped at my boots, and the sirens’ melody faded as we fled the Domain of Fear.
I had no idea where safety was, if it existed at all.
But I knew one thing: I intended to follow Tobias wherever he went.
The whispers tickled my mind. “Leave, or fall.”
I shook them away.
We broke through the trees and staggered to the edge of a cliff. My chest heaved in breath after breath. Waves surged below, frothy white water on the rocks.
“This way.” Tobias’s wild eyes glittered. “We have to jump.”
I froze. “The water?” My chest tightened. “I can’t swim, Tobias.”
“It’s not so hard.”
“I don’t go in deep water . . . I’ll drown.
” I couldn’t swim. I’d been terrified of water for as long as I could remember.
The deep, murky kind that hid what waited below was the most terrifying.
Water could turn me into something small and helpless.
One wrong step, and I’d be gone, sinking into the deep before I had the chance to fight it.
“That’s a bit dramatic.” His voice sounded rough and raspy, as if he had been screaming or inhaling smoke. “It’s just a river.”
Slowly, I let go of him. But he grasped my forearm and hauled me towards the edge of the cliff.
“You’re coming with me whether you like it or not,” Tobias hissed.
“Stop!” I cried, panic racing through my veins. My fist landed squarely in his chest, causing him to stumble and fall to his knees. I pulled free of his grip and backed away, breath rushing in and out of me.
“You’re not Tobias.”
My heart could have cracked open at the realisation.
A scream tore out of him, more feral creature than human.
The abomination with my brother’s face twisted onto its side, trembling.
However, it was not my brother. It was something created in Hell.
Its head rotated at an unusual angle. A toothy smile spread across its face and continued to expand, splitting skin.
I felt sick watching my brother-not-brother deflate like a balloon and collapse in on itself until it no longer resembled anything living.
What remained was a mound of sloppy, dense black slime.
I stumbled back, bile clawing my throat.
Then everything melted away.
I was a shaking mess as I realised I was back in the cavern. Dimitri stood before me, perfectly composed, his monstrous form erased.
He gestured to the pool, where the damned souls screamed.
“I’ll give you one more chance.” His voice was a vicious grumble that echoed around us in the cavern. “You cannot run from fear. But you can end it. Let the sirens take you or join the damned in their punishment . . . I promise that you will suffer no more.”
I shook my head, unable to trust my voice to sound brave.
Dimitri’s lips set into a thin line. With a flick of his hand, a locket appeared, dangling from his fingers.
“You’ve earned it,” he said, though his tone carried a hint of reluctance. He tossed it to me, and I caught it, the cold metal biting into my palm.
A memory stirred in my chest, but it was murky. I couldn’t bring it to the foreground of my mind. It was an old memory I hadn’t thought of in a long time. Before Tobias and I ever arrived at the village . . .
“You’ll want to put that on, dear,” Dimitri said. “You don’t want to leave your relics around for someone else to pick up, do you?”
I kept my eyes on the demon as I draped it around my neck and fiddled with the clasp until it was secure.
“Such an interesting Champion,” he purred.
“I wonder why you were chosen for him. I was so pleased to meet my precious Selene. She’s a fearless, pretty bird.
A perfect creature to wrestle terrors in Hell.
She does put up a nice fight against them.
But I wonder how long that will last.” He chuckled, a dry, sickly sound.
I cringed away at the implication. At the idea that his Champion would break during The Cycle.
“Fear has a way of coming back to haunt you.” He grinned. “You may go now.”
Dimitri’s gaze pierced through me as though he could read everything on my face and fed on it. He smiled one last time and then vanished. No smoke. No theatrics. Just gone.