Chapter 1
The dead, black trees complimented the moss-like grass and misty breeze coming off from the ocean. Waves crashed against the cliff shores below, the cold rain soaking all those without shelter.
Four walked on the cobble stone making their way to the crumbling lighthouse. There they would enter the dark pleasures of Hell, and there would they use this box that they had pried from the bleeding hands of a dead man.
At the front of the group, Mammon (as he so called himself) kicked the door down and entered with the Lemarchand configuration folded tightly in between his palms. Samael, Leviathan and Enoch followed him to the circle of melting candles around the decrepit mattress sitting in the center of the round, wooden bottom-floor of the Lighthouse.
"Here my friends we shall open the gateway to Hell itself. And there, we'll indulge ourselves in all the dark pleasures of that world that we couldn't find in our own. Every commandment shall be broken in this place, and when I complete this puzzle, we shall all bask in lust, greed, sloth, gluttony, envy, wrath, pride as never before!"
The other three, and less zealous in their hedonistic practices let a contrived chuckle escaped from their quivering and apprehensive lips.
But, unknown to these four naïve teenagers, the puzzle box would only give them suffering and pain because of their ignorant hedonistic searches. In even greater ignorance were they of the creature following them so closely behind. It, neither human nor spirit, was Czairn-Amon: avatar of darkness, angel of the shadows and a creature with an agenda.
Mammon ushered the other three to his side and they sat in a tight-nit circle around the puzzle box. He passed it to Samael, who ran his fingers across the wheel on the top of the box, lifting the indescribably shaped piece that extended from the slot that it shared with the wheel. A creaking noise was heard, and bluish light leaked into the ruined lighthouse.
Samael handed it to Leviathan, who pushed the piece down. The creaking noises became more intense, and the floor began to rumble.
He passed it to Enoch, and she watched as the final movement began from the box: long rectangular pieces that began at the top of the box and extended from to the bottom, raised and shifted one place over.
As Mammon attempted to make another move, they received what they so desired.
The walls opened up, and a man in black robes stepped forth from the void. Weathered and faded bricks were replaced with the cyclopean architecture of the Labyrinth. Pins covered this ash-colored man's face in a grid pattern, and his eyes were as black and cold as hell. Six rectangles could be seen on his torso, in each his peeled back flesh revealed his mutilations.
Another creature stepped forth, this one with amber-toned skin and the flesh on his face peeled back around to the back of his head, his eyes completely covered and his ears only beginning to grow back. His teeth chattered constantly, and he was adorned with black leather just as the first one was.
Another monstrosity, this one less androgynous and more female than the others, was ash colored as her first predecessor. Wires peeled back the flesh on her body, and her throat was stretched apart with four hooks across the jugular. Another adorned in black leather with mutilations across her form.
The fourth, this one with the same toned skin as the second and rather obese, had what appeared to be glasses forced into the skin behind his ears and his lips peeled back with countless other mutilations on his body.
The first horrifying being that stepped through came to face Mammon. "Are you willing to experience our dark pleasures? Are you the one who opened this box?" He picked up the box and showed it to him.
"We all did." answered Samael.
"Every one of us had a part in figuring out the box." Leviathan added.
"So we should all experience these dark pleasures." Enoch concluded.
This brought a smile of grim and unwelcome satisfaction to the demon's face.
"So be it."
Just as he was about to act on their foolishness, Czairn-Amon descended into their plane. His face, marked with scars of battle and hideous furrows, was covered in darkness. Eyes that were darker than the demon from the void, they seeped endless oily shadows and his mouth adorned in pearl white fangs.
Four horns extended from where his hair line would be, his muscular form covered in sharp and bone-like armor. His talons were long, bony and razor sharp, claws were no less intimidating. Czairn's massive and leathery creepy wings were enveloped in the same darkness from his eyes and the bone-armor on the rest of his body. Despite being folded to his back, they were still easily visible to those in the room.
"What is the meaning of this interruption?" the demon, now enraged, demanded.
"I have come for an audience from the leader of the cenobites. Pinhead, do they call you?" Czairn asked with his guttural rasp.
"And what gave you the impression you should come in this fashion? To me?"
"I've come to do what all others have done in the past when seeking your audience, Captain Elliot."
"And what might that be, Czairn?"
"I want a deal."
