AllFreeNovel
Share Us
One
Deep in the bowels of Hell, darkness awoke.
At first, it was little more than a lingering presence. But before long it became denser, manifesting into an opaque shadow that slipped down a long corridor, hiding from the flickering light from the fires of damnation burning in a cavern far below. When it came to a thick metal door almost hanging off its hinges in the rock that formed the corridor, it paused.
Tendrils of shadow began to seep through the open doorway, puffing like steam. But where steam would rise into the air, the darkness did not. It spread across the dirty floor of the cell, slithering along like a thick snake on its belly. It gathered momentum as it moved, slowly separating into a pair of bony feet that marched across the dirt floor of the tiny room it now hid within. Still more shadow flowed into the manifestation, becoming tibia, fibula, and femurs. They joined to hips and a spine, before spidering out into ribs.
The skull was next to materialize, two gaping eye sockets seeming to search the dank space as the neck craned this way and that, looking for something. Shoulders and arms formed in black shadow bones now, fingers just starting to sprout in a longing gesture as they reached out toward the body of a man crumpled on the filthy floor.
“Caw!”
A smaller shadow that had been hiding up in a corner of the room swooped down, sprouting wings and a beak as it formed. The shadow-crow swooped to land on the floor beside the man’s body, head tilted to one side in curiosity as it watched the skeleton sink into the otherwise lifeless body of the Soul Dealer. His eyelids began to flicker as the rapid eye movement behind them increased in ferocity.
The almost insignificant sound of a rock skittering on the floor outside the room was the only warning the man was afforded. His eyes snapped open as more darkness filled the doorway.
“You incompetent fool!”
The heated words would have boomed like thunder in a large cavern. Here, in this dank cellar, they were deafening. The Soul Dealer clapped his hands over his ears in a futile attempt to protect them, eyes screwed up even as he backed away from the doorway in terror. Some of the rock wall behind him crumbled under the pressure of the noise, revealing a cliff-face that led down into a pit which glowed a dark, dangerous red. The chasm on the other side seemed like forever, eventually disappearing into darkness above and below.
The encroaching darkness began to solidify, melding into an immense being. Huge footsteps echoed in the chamber, making the Soul Dealer shrink back in fear. The being drew back a hand sharply as though intending to strike the cowering, pathetic creature at its feet. Lifting a hand to protect himself against the blow he knew must be imminent, the Soul Dealer winced.
Instead of a slap, the palm of the being's hand stretched out wide. Tiny pinpricks of sullen, red light began to appear beneath the black skin. Moving. Seeking. Another heartbeat passed and they began to emerge, trailing into the dark air like parasitic worms twisting this way and that in search of a host. The Soul Dealer’s breath was ragged as he tried to move away from them, even going so far as trying to widen the hole in the wall in search of a possible escape. But before long they had found him, latching themselves onto his skin before wrapping themselves around him like red-hot glowing whips.
Screams filled the air as the fire-worms began to overlap each other, connecting and intermingling into a living, searing cage around the Soul Dealer’s flesh.
“Master,” he gasped desperately. “Please!”
In the space beyond the searing cage, another man had materialized. Unlike the ragged creature before him, this man was nothing short of suave. If it wasn’t for the fact that everyone knows the Devil has been around since the dawn of time itself, he could have easily been mistaken for a college graduate. A plain black t-shirt showed off wonderfully tanned arms, suiting the pale blond surfer’s hair that was slicked back off his brow. Dark denim jeans culminated in pools of shadow at his feet.
His clear gray eyes were cold with malice.
“You useless, mangy, pathetic fucking shit-stain!” Satan raged, punctuating the end of his sentence with a sudden kick to the Soul Dealer’s guts. The man groaned, writhing in agony caused by the burning net around him.
“I had her!” Satan hissed. “Right under my nose, I had her! Her mother was hard enough to get and should have been the perfect bait. And thanks to you—”
The Soul Dealer sucked in what little breath he could. “She had Death and an angel to back her up.”
Satan rounded on his minion like a hungry wolf stalks its prey. He blurred within the air itself, seeming like a strange projection, until he was leaning down over the Soul Dealer. Pressing in on him.
“You dare to talk back to me?” Satan whispered quietly.
The Soul Dealer realized his error too late. He stared at his master, eyes bulging, his voice dry as he croaked. “N-no, I—”
Another scream pierced the air as the burning cage began to glow. Within the span of seconds, it was white-hot. Screams filled the room one after the other—a succession of howls that drew a small crooked smile from Satan’s lips as he stood to better appreciate his handiwork.
“I’ll fix it!” the Soul Dealer cried as soon as he was able. “I swear Master, just—please!”
“Fix it?” Satan asked, tilting his head curiously. He peered down at his lackey with eyes as hard as clouded diamonds. “I trusted you the first time and all you managed to do was fuck it up. What makes you think I’m going to trust you to fix it?”
The Soul Dealer’s breath rushed out of him in quick, ragged bursts. “I h-have something for you!” he insisted, falling over his words in his desperation to convey them. He nodded his chin down in the direction of his chest. “It’s right here, in my coat pocket!”
The burning stopped. The cage cooled as rapidly as it had heated, providing relief for the man still trapped within. Satan’s gaze snapped downward. He raised a hand, fingers curled as though lifting whatever was concealed in the coat from its hiding place.
A silver chain began to snake upwards into the air, raising from one of the pockets. It glinted with promise in the dim light from the fires that burned below the platform. And there, threaded onto the chain, was a black oval-shaped pendant.
Satan’s eyes gleamed as he took in the sight of the pendant, before slowly turning to regard the Soul Dealer.
“And when were you planning to tell me you had this in your possession?” he asked, his voice sibilant in the darkness like scales rasping against rock.
