Thank you for taking a look at my opening chapter and hope that I've hooked you to continue reading.
Rating: T, Violence
Chapter 1
Somewhere in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA
~1:00 AM, Saturday, March 28, 2015
A young woman barely old enough to legally drink in the States stared into the bathroom mirror of the small ranch house that she was currently 'borrowing'. She was a lovely woman of mix Caucasian/Hispanic heritage with lightly tanned skin and long dirty blonde hair which leaned heavily on the dark side and for the moment was put up in a messy bun on the back of her crown. She wore a light blue, nearly white silk bathrobe over her slim body as she was examining her eyes to see if there were any physical changes she spot see after nerve-wracking experience just few hours ago. She glanced away from the mirror, satisfied that her eyes hadn't turned color or some monstrous growth had started on her face. She looked down at her right forearm and ran her fingertips across her smooth and tanned skin. She opened her fist then clinched it, feeling a dull ache in her arm.
A concerned voice called out behind her at the entrance way of the bathroom, "Jessica? Are you alright?"
The dirty blonde turned away from the mirror and looked to the handsome eighteen year old standing at the doorway. He was taller than her by nearly half a foot with long hair with a mustache and trimmed chin hair. His current appearance wouldn't give him much trouble in dressing up as Jack Sparrow for the next Halloween. She pulled the sleeve down of her silk robe and glanced to the floor. She idly pulled the top of the robe to make sure it was closed then absently tightened the silk belt. She muttered, "I'm fine."
He raised an eyebrow and reassured her, "Are you sure? You don't have to be. What happened was pretty… terrifying and we don't know how the ritual affected you. You did collapse after you read the incantation."
Jessica looked up from the floor and reassured him with a sweet smile, "I'm fine Danny, but I could use a long good night's sleep though."
Danny brightened with a charming smile that on more than one occasion caught the attention of the girls at his former high school at hearing the sensible news.
"Absolutely." He thumbed over his shoulder and continued, "Your bed waits."
She thankfully smiled to the handsome teenager and answered, "Thank you, but… as much as I want that night's sleep, we're on the clock and I don't have time to rest." She walked past him out of the bathroom and headed down the hall as she continued, "Killing their Hellhound would certainly grab someone's attention and they are bound to start looking for us."
Danny eagerly countered, "Yeah, but they don't know it was us that killed it. They would just assume that Ross would have somehow pulled it off."
She stopped at the entrance of another bedroom and looked to her companion. "And when they find him, you don't think he'll give us up in a heartbeat?"
The teenager paused, apparently not considering the possibility, but quickly attempted to reassure her, "Maybe, but we're safe for tonight. We have this place warded enough where they can't find us."
"All wards can be broken. It's just a matter of time and will and killing one of their hounds is pretty good motivation."
Danny sighed, not liking her point, but really couldn't argue against it.
Jessica stepped inside the bedroom, cleared of everything except for a black painted altar with a number of different items meticulously set on it: a Coptic cross, some bones, blood, a crucifix, some gold ore, a bit of hemlock, mace and several unidentified ingredients. In the center of the room was a large mat with a perfect circle was printed on it with a large sigil inside the circle.
The young woman walked to the altar and knelt in front of it. She looked to a piece of paper that looked like a cheat sheet then looked over her shoulder and asked, "Are you ready?"
"No, but do it anyway."
Danny reached inside the left flap of his black jacket and pulled out a foot long tapered silver blade.
Jessica turned back to the altar and took a few of the items to place in a silver bowl. After mixing some of the pieces, she began to speak a few words of Latin, "O theris tes, caleo se cai deo."
The overhead light in the bedroom dimmed then restored to full brightness then dimmed again. This happened several more times before a young woman of similar age to Jessica with dark redhead and fair complexion a hint of sun kissed skin, barely standing five feet, wearing a black leather jacket, black jeans and a crimson scoop-neck shirt, just appeared in the center of the trap.
The summoned being looked about the room, panicked with her sudden appearance in the unknown place.
Jessica looked at the surprised at the appearance of the trapped spirit. She stood up and cautiously greeted her, "Hello, ah… you're okay."
The redhead turned and glared at the hellhound killer, turning to outrage as a refuge from the fear. She may have been small and probably just over a hundred ten pounds wet, but she wore a fierce expression and Jessica understood the true power of the being in front of her. The redhead hissed with a penetrating glare, "Let me out."
Jessica swallowed down her fear and answered in a timid voice, "I'm sorry, but I can't."
The reaper sneered, "You can't?"
Danny spoke up and made the blade in his hand clear for her to see, "No, we can't."
The dark redhead took a hitched breath, a visible flinch at the weapon in his hand as she recognized it as blade of an angel.
Jessica raised a hand towards Danny and to the trapped reaper, "We're not going to hurt. We just need your help, but I can't risk you saying no to me."
The petite girl looked to the young woman and sensed that she was telling the truth even through the trap.
Jessica turned away from the bound reaper and walked to the black altar to kneel in front of it.
The petite reaper questioned, her voice still filled with outrage with laced with a hint of fear, "What are you doing?"
Jessica ignored her for the moment and opened a worn leather-bound journal. She looked over the page, skimming over the word then picking up a small Coptic cross resting on the altar. She took a second silver bowl and started mixing some of the other ingredients until it looked like a sickening mess that caused a puff of smoke to rise from the bowl. She put it around her neck then started reading another incantation.
As the kneeling woman spoke the words, the reaper clenched her jaw as she felt an unknown sensation ripple through her vessel's body and into her spirit. It passed just as quickly as it came on.
Jessica stood up to face the reaper and cautiously asked, wrapping her fingers around the cross hanging from her neck. "You're bound to me, right?"
The reaper clenched her jaw, fighting the sensation to comply, but after several seconds she answered, "Yes."
The dirty blonde nodded her head, still fearful of what she was doing with a hint of the deep regret. "Okay. I promise you as soon as we're done that I will release you."
The redheaded reaper didn't believe a word falling from the girl's lips, but she could see the fear in her eyes. She slowly asked, "And what is that?"
"I need you to smuggle me into Hell and back out."
The young looking reaper's barely contained fury was replaced with an expression of deep confusion.
Greystar Apartments
1901 Callowhill St
Philadelphia, PA
A light brunette woman in her mid-thirties was sleeping comfortably in bed as the digital clock on her nightstand displayed in green that that the time was just after four o'clock in the morning. However, that peace would be interrupted with a ding of her doorbell.
She initially stirred from her slumber, trying to ignore the doorbell, but the repeated dings caused her to roll in bed and look at her clock. She pouted in frustration at seeing the time and finally roused herself from bed and started her way out of her bedroom to bite off the head of whoever decided to wake her up.
She blew out an irritated breath at her sleep being interrupted over what was probably someone tapping the doorbell of the wrong apartment. She turned on a lamp in her living room then stopped in front of her door. She didn't bother checking the peephole, but called out from the other side in a groggy voice, "Whoever it is, you have the wrong apartme—"
She didn't get to finish her statement as the door flung opened as if the locks weren't even there, smacking her in the face and breaking her nose in an instant. She flung backwards and landed hard on the floor, causing her to draw up her arms and legs to her body.
Mandy and Brandon casually stepped inside and the dark haired demon looked down at the secretary that was struggling to pull herself into a seated position while covering her bloody nose.
The blonde looked up to Mandy's crisp blue eyes and mumbled while blood ran over her lips and onto her chin, "Who are you?"
Brandon glanced around the apartment, particularly unimpressed with it, and looked to see if anyone was about to interrupt them.
Mandy closed the door behind them and glanced down at her and answered, "Oh, I'm just someone that is looking for your boss, Christopher Ross, and figured you would know where he would go in skipping town."
"Skip town? What are you talking about?"
The dark brunette demon took a deep, unnecessary breath. "I don't have the time and frankly not in the mood to torture you, so…" She glanced over to her companion, signaling what she wanted him to do.
Brandon leaned his head back and opened his mouth. A jet of billowy black smoke escaped his mouth into a corkscrew manner into the air then dove at the terrified secretary. Mandy grabbed Brandon's collapsing body and moved it over to sit in one of the chairs.
The smoke force itself into the secretary's mouth then her eyes suddenly became black and she easily stood up. She looked to Mandy with a vacant expression for several seconds before answering in clear annoyance, "She really didn't know that he's skipped town. She doesn't know where he's gone."
Mandy growled and glanced away while gently sitting Harper's body in a chair, "Damn."
"But…"
The attractive brunette hopefully questioned, "What?"
"She does have access to all his files as secretary, so…"
A wicked smile grew on the pale girl's face. "She might know where he's gone without actually knowing. Where's her computer?"
The possessed secretary turned and headed for the bedroom with the Mandy just a few steps behind.
The reached the room in only a few strides and saw a laptop was resting on one of the dressers.
Mandy approached the dresser and picked up the computer then had a seat on the covers turned bed. She opened it up and booted it up and got onto the apartment's Wi-Fi signal then several seconds later handed it to the female bodied Brandon. "Just get me inside with her passwords, I'll find out what we need to know."
The fellow demon took the laptop and a seat next to her. He typed in the necessary username and passwords to get into Ross's personal files then handed it off to her.
The fair skinned demon quickly typed away, looking into all the inner workings of Ross's life.
North I-95 out of Philadelphia, PA
After Jessica grabbed a quick bite to eat and finishing dressing, she, Danny and the bound reaper was in a black SUV and heading for north out of the city. Danny was behind the wheel as he had uncanny vision they made their way down the interstate and let Jessica catch a nap if necessary in the passenger seat. The reaper was remaining quiet sitting in the center of the backseat.
At the moment, the dirty blonde was too windup to sleep over the events of the last several hours. The only sound other than the sound of the road under them was the radio softly playing the very early morning news, yet there was still an eerie quietness in the vehicle.
Danny seemed to be able to ignore it fine as he focused on the road, but it was bothering Jessica too much and she understood the source. She looked into the rearview mirror to the dark redhead and spoke, "I'm really sorry for doing this to you."
The reaper stared back into the rearview mirror and spat, "Do you think saying that is going to stop me for making you pay once I get out of this binding?"
Jessica shifted in her seat and looked over the left shoulder of the seat. "I'm not saying it to keep you from doing whatever you want to me after we're done. I hate doing it and I wish I didn't. I really wish I didn't, but I promise as soon as we're done that I'll release you and you can do whatever you want to me."
The redhead gazed back at the girl and sensed that she was being sincere in her words. She was frightened and desperate, leading her to such an action. She may have been a being created to keep the natural order between life and death, but that didn't mean she was heartless, quite the contrary where it came to humans. She felt a sense of compassion towards the young woman, but that didn't prevent her from being angered at being bound and what she could be forced to do.
"Do you have a name?"
"Yes."
Jessica patiently asked, "And?"
The shorter woman slightly tilted her head to the side. "You expect me to tell you?"
The young woman disappointedly frowned and simply slumped back into her seat.
The dark redhead wondered if the girl would simply compel her to speak her name, but was surprised when the girl didn't. She thought perhaps she didn't realize she could do such a thing. "I'll tell you my name if you tell me why you want me to get you into Hell and out?"
"Okay, I want to rescue my dad."
"You dad? Your dad's in Hell?"
"Yes."
"How do you know that? How do you know he's not in Heaven?"
The redhead refrained from commenting that even if Jessica's father deserved to go to Heaven, if he had passed in the last two years, he wouldn't be getting inside as the gates were still closed. It was something that haunted the reapers as they heard the confusion and suffering of those souls waiting in the veil to pass onto Heaven. The only solace that they experienced was that they could still take the ones that deserved to go to Hell to their destination and they could still take the souls of monsters to Purgatory. She still wondered why Death with all his power had not stepped in and helped get the gates open so they could do their jobs.
"No, he made a deal with a demon to sell his soul a little more than ten years ago and they collected his soul. I just want to get him out so he can go to Heaven."
The reaper pointed out what she felt was obvious, but clearly had gone over the mortal's head. "He made a deal with them and he owed it to them. He shouldn't have sold his soul if he didn't want to go with them when his time was up."
Jessica turned back around in her seat to look over the shoulder of the seat. "He didn't have a choice. I was in an accident when I was ten. I was comatose and everybody thought I was going to die, but I recovered. It's my fault he's there… that he had to make the deal, so I have to get him out."
The reaper sympathetically looked to Jessica, understanding the love one had towards one's father. She had never met her father, but felt her love towards Him—God, not Death as most other reapers considered him. "Okay… my name is Abigail."
A genuine smile appeared on Jessica's face as she answered, "That's a pretty name."
Abigail couldn't help the small smile that tugged on the corner of her lips and quietly answered, "Thank you."
Danny finally spoke up with a glance into the rearview mirror, "So, how are we going to get into Hell?"
The mood was nearly soured as the question reminded Abigail that she wasn't with them of her own freewill. She took an unnecessary breath and answered in a clipped tone, "If we're trying to sneak into Hell, we can't use the main entrance that my brothers and sisters and I used to bring souls to them. We drop off, we don't go inside and we certainly don't bring flesh and blood to them."
The long haired teenage boy sarcastically remarked, "You make it sound like it's no big deal that you deliver people to Hell. I guess it's just a job to you."
Abigail stared at the rearview mirror and answered, "You think that serial killers, child molesters and the things I don't even want to describe deserve to go to Heaven?"
Danny shut his mouth and focused on the road ahead of him.
The reaper continued, "I'm not their judge, I just take them where they are supposed to go. It's not personal for me, just like it won't be personal when I or a sibling takes you where you are supposed to go one day."
Jessica interrupted before the conversation could turn really nasty, "Then how do we get inside Hell without them realizing it? There has to be a way."
The redheaded reaper thought for a few moments then answered, "There are other ways to get into Hell without them realizing it. There are gates that they're not aware of scattered across the world that can get you inside."
"And you know of them?"
"Yes."
"So where do we have to go?"
"Where are we?"
Jessica pulled out her smartphone from her pocket then quickly pulled up a map of their current location. She turned and handed the phone to the reaper, assuming she could read a map. "The red pointer is our location."
Abigail brushed her fingertip across the surface to zoom-out for the map, surprising Jessica that she would understand how to use the phone. She marked the spot on the map and the phone quickly calculated the route from their current location. "There. There is one in what's called Clifton, Passaic County, New Jersey. You get us there and I can use the gate to slip us inside."
Danny remarked as he looked at his phone attached to the dash being used for navigation. "Good, we're going in that direction. We should be there in an hour."
Hard Rock Hotel
Cancún, Q.R., Mexico
Christopher Ross relaxed back in his lounge chair and sipped on his drink on the balcony of his Presidential Suite room. It may have been about five in the morning with the sun at least a good hour away from rising, but he was enjoying his newfound sense of freedom.
However, that sense of freedom was cut short when he heard a sharp whistle came from behind him, startling the late forties man. He sat up in his seat and swung his feet out to the rest on the floor to see stepping out of his room and onto the balcony, Mandy and Brandon.
Mandy predatorily grinned yet remarked with a pleasant voice, "I see you like that warmer climate. I think I would get sick of having so much snow as you experience in the winter."
The businessman glared at the intruders and demanded, "Who are you? How did you get up here?"
The female demon smiled and blinked, allowing her black eyes to appear, "Mister Ross, isn't it obvious? We're the ones to collect your debt you owe our boss. You know, the one he sent his hound to retrieve, but you tried to get out of your deal by killing him and running."
Ross leapt up from his seat and looked to the pair with dread and his blood feeling like it was freezing in his veins. He shook his head and uttered, "You can't be here. You shouldn't have been able to find me. I'm… I'm…" He glanced towards the table that he was resting his drink upon to see the small dark brown leather bag still resting where he placed it.
Mandy smirked as she passed a glance to the small bag. She questioned as if she was flattered, "A hex bag? A pretty reasonable precaution, but I'm a modern girl. We tracked you the old fashion way: we followed the money."
The demon took a step to him and he naturally took a step backwards to the guardrail to the balcony. "Did you really think you could escape from your deal?"
He swallowed down fear and tried to tighten his gut enough not to mess his shorts. "I ah… I, well…"
"Oh, you're in so much trouble. It's not the fact that you ran. So many run and it's understandable, but… you killed one of our hellhounds. That… that is why you're going to suffer."
Mandy licked her lips and took another step closer to him. "It wasn't just anyone's hound, but the King's hound."
"King's hounds? What king?"
"The King of Hell."
Ross's face turned a lighter shade of pale than Mandy's face and stuttered, "The Devil's hound?"
The dark haired demon licked her lips and shook her head. "No, Lucifer doesn't run Hell. He's… preoccupied at the moment."
"I ah… I didn't kill the hound. I didn't. I swear."
Mandy took another step towards him and he naturally took another step backwards to the guardrail. She spoke low, just above the breeze coming off the sea, "You didn't kill it did you? You don't have the stomach or the ability to pull it off, so who killed the hound that was sent for you?"
The businessman held his tongue, either due to the wave of fear of the situation or defiance.
Brandon motioned with a nod towards him and asked, "Do you want me to slip inside and find out?"
Mandy reached inside a hidden sheath under the left flap of her leather jacket and pulled out a polished single edged knife. "No, I think I'll have some fun for all the trouble he's caused us.
Ross raised his hands up and confessed, "No, you don't have to do that. It was some girl and her boyfriend. They found me and somehow knew that I had made a deal and offered to help me. She's the one that killed your hound."
Mandy lazily held the point of the blade in his direction and mocked, "Some girl out of the kindness of her heart offered to help you and kill a hellhound?"
"Yes, she said she was a hunter. It's what she does."
The female demon gripped the handle of her knife tightly, ready to plunge it into his heart out of sheer frustration, and set her jaw tight, clearly upset by the news. "What is this hunter's name?"
"Jessica."
"And?"
"That's it. She wouldn't tell me anything else about herself, just that they could help me get away."
"What did they look like?"
"Ah… she's twenty, twenty-one with long dark blonde hair." He lifted his hand to the side and continued, "She's about this tall and thin. She looked Hispanic. Her boyfriend was taller with long black hair and a mustache and trimmed goatee. He was thin build."
The dark haired abomination narrowed eyes on him, trying to sense if he was telling the truth or not. She slipped her knife back inside her jacket and asked, "So I assume you wouldn't know where we could find her?"
He shook his head. "No. I don't have a clue. She killed the hound then they left and I got on a plane… a lot of good it did me."
Mandy stared at him, perhaps trying to will her frustration out on him and kill him by a thought, which wasn't too much out of the question.
Ross instinctively took another step back and tried his best not to lose bowel control as though Mandy was quite the attractive girl with who he wouldn't mind sharing a fun little weekend tryst, she was giving him such a hate filled and terrorizing gaze.
She whispered, "Brandon?"
"Yeah?"
"Get in there and see if there's anything else he knows and we can see exactly what they look like."
Brandon took Ross's former seat the opened his mouth to allow him to escape in the billowy jet of smoke.
Ross screamed terror for the brief moments it took the demon to easily slip past Ross's lips and inhabited his body. His eyes turned black for a moment then reverted to normal. He took several seconds to shift through the businessman's memories then raised his hand and placed two fingers onto Mandy's forehead, sharing all the memories Ross possessed of interacting with Jessica and Danny.
Brandon left Ross's body just as quickly as he entered it and repossessed his original meatsuit.
Ross took several deep breaths, trying to calm is frayed nerves of being temporarily possessed and unable to control his body.
Mandy sweetly spoke, "Thank you Ross, but now it's time to go."
Ross threw his hands up in a panic and rattled off while shuffling away from her until his lower back made contact with the railing, "No wait, maybe we can cut another deal."
"Ross, if it was up to me, I would cut you another deal—an extension if you will, because you could be very useful, but I'm not the one you made your original deal with and my boss didn't say I could extend it, so…"
She gave a gentle push on his chest and he went tumbling backwards over the rail. His screams filled the very early morning as he plunged and uselessly flayed about the dozen stories before hitting the pavement.
The pair of demons looked over the railing to see Ross's sprawled out body with a blood pooling under him.
Brandon lazily questioned, not taking his eyes off the sight, "What now?"
Mandy answered in a detached voice, "Deliver him to Hell then meet me back at his place in Philadelphia. We have to find these hunters and gut them."
Author's Note: So you've met the rest of the cast and they have a plan. Don't worry, our favorite hunters and angel will appear, but you know they are a little busy with the canon at this moment. Thank you for reading, OneHorseShay.