Eighth Grave After Dark

“Yes,” I said, biting my lower lip.

“You can’t just go to hell. There’s a void between here and there.”

“But the map is imprinted on my husband’s body,” I explained.

“Yes, on his. Not yours.”

It was now or never. I closed my eyes. “Lucky for me, I have an excellent memory. If I don’t make it back, explain to Reyes I went to find Ellix.” I opened my eyes again. “But I’ll make it back. Give me two minutes.”

I closed my eyes again, envisioned the map on Reyes’s torso, the one that would lead me through the void, and I fell into darkness.

* * *

Admittedly, I didn’t understand how the map worked. Not until I actually used it. There were paths, almost imperceptible paths, and I wound through them, meeting obstacle after obstacle, but knowing which way to turn, which opening to take. As long as I envisioned the map, as long as I let myself fall into it with complete and total faith that it would get me where I needed to go, I flew threw the void. It felt a lot like a head rush but it was all over my body. Tingling and cold. I hadn’t expected the cold. I felt a frost form over my skin, and yet I didn’t have skin here.

I looked down and it cracked when I moved my hand, only to re-form, creating tiny crystals that spread over me, up my neck and over my face. But I kept envisioning the map, suddenly scared to death I’d get lost in the void. Reyes would find me, though. I knew he would find me if I did go astray. But another thing I didn’t count on was the audience I’d gained.

I couldn’t see them, but I felt their glassy eyes watching me, their hot breath on the nape of my neck, the prickling of their teeth. Were these beings the demons that had become lost in the void? Were they still trying to make it to the earthly plane, I wondered, and if so, how long had they been there?

In a heartbeat, I was standing on solid ground, a hot wind raked over my skin. It burned like acid, and my skin started to darken. As though I had a disease, I began to turn black, the top layers of my epidermis drying and floating off in thousands of tiny flakes. Wherever the skin peeled off and flew away, my flesh glowed a bright orange, as though I were made of molten lava on the inside. And I burned. Every breath I took scorched my throat, set fire to my lungs. My eyes calcified, leaving spiderweb cracks for me to see through. It was like looking at the desolate landscape through a shattered windowpane.

I stepped forward, the sound of a thousand screams swirling around me, carried on the blistering wind like whispers of agony. The ground broke beneath me, the top layer black with the same molten orange underneath. I tried to take another step, but I was melted to the spot. I couldn’t move. Then I looked harder. In between the cracks of inklike crust were people. I could see faces screaming in pain, hands reaching out to me. I gasped and paid the price as the scalding air entered me again, turning my lungs to boiling acid, eating me away from the inside out.

I looked across the landscape again and realized what I thought were boulders on the horizon were people, melting into the maelstrom. They couldn’t move either. All that was visible of them was their eyes. Wide. Terrified.

Sorry.

They were all sorry for whatever it was they had done. The screams started to make sense to me. They were a chorus of pleas, apologizing for what they’d done, begging for forgiveness.

I watched as my skin peeled away, just like what was happening to those around me who had yet to melt completely. The skin drifting off them was like fireflies at night. Horrific yet magical.

I had never imagined in my wildest dreams it would be like this. I knew it would be hot. Like my husband was. I realized I was on a surface that descended for thousands of floors beneath me. That was where Reyes was born. That was where Lucifer ruled.

I wouldn’t be able to get back. I was stuck in hell, and by the time Reyes found me, I would be a melted glob just like all the others.

But I wasn’t like all the others. I was a bit different. This place held no sway over me. At least, that’s what I chose to tell myself. I lifted my foot and forced it out of the glassy quicksand. I lifted the other and then forced the fires off me with a thought. My skin began to heal. The darkness drifted off me one last time as I stood my ground. Finding anyone in this sea of condemned souls would seem an impossible feat, but I knew exactly how to get him to me. He was now a bound spirit in the underworld. I could summon it, just like any other soul.

I bowed my head and ordered him to appear in front of me.

The melting, fiery thing that materialized looked nothing like a man, though I could see its eyes, like saucers, afraid. Sorry. Begging for forgiveness.

I decided he’d need his mouth to talk to me. I reached out and touched what I’d hoped was a shoulder. He slowly re-formed and, now that he had a voice again, screamed in agony as a pain like none other consumed him. Continuing to heal him, I waited until he was able to stop screaming long enough to talk.

Once he was partially human again, his skin blackened but remained intact. I began my interrogation.

“Where is the girl?” I yelled at him. I had to yell to be heard above the wind and the screams.

He looked confused at first, then surprised. “You’re here for her?”

“Where is Faris? Where did you take her?”

“You aren’t here to get me out of this?”

“No,” I said. I should have lied, but I didn’t want him to feel any hope when Faris damned sure didn’t. I didn’t want him to have that luxury.

His shoulders collapsed the moment he realized he was going back.