Hellraiser: Beyond the Gates of Hell

Disclaimer: Well, well, well... My first Hellraiser fic. Look at that. It's about time I did one of these. Remember this, readers: I take CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, but not flamers. So kindly step away if you feel such an urge. This story is going to be written for the fun in it, but I have done as much research as one can. Clive Barker owns all things flesh and blood in Hellraiser, but I own the plot and the few characters he DIDN'T make. Well, since I got the okay, I want to dedicate this fic to laura 101 and Blue Kitsune. They're real hardcore Hellraiser romance fans! Gotta love that!

"The flesh endures the storms of the present alone, the mind those of the past and future as well as the present."

-Epicurus

"Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it."

-Thomas Jefferson

By: VampireQueenAkasha

We have such sights to show you...

Chapter Four: Unlocking Your Tommorrow

"Sooo ... how'd it go?"

Katie was eagerly waiting for Alice after work in the lobby, antsy about learning how her so-called date with Barry had gone. Alice wasn't really eager to discuss it right now, but it wasn't fair to blow her friend off because she was in a bad mood.

"As any conversation with Barry goes," Alice answered, carrying her uniform in her bag over her shoulder, "He took everything so seriously."

Katie's smile disappeared and her brow furrowed. "Well, did he at least tell you anything important about your mom?"

Alice shrugged her shoulders. "I don't really know," she answered, "He started to, and then he acted like the demons were some part of why my mom was the way she was. Christ, I don't know if he was just fucking with me or not. Anyway, I just ran out of there and he brought back that stupid puzzle box that I tossed out of the window."

Katie's brows shot up in surprise. "Say what?"

Before Alice answered, Katie looked over her friend's shoulder and she made a face. "Oh hell, here comes Barry..." she murmured, discreetly, "Life's too short ... " She turned her back as Barry approached the two women with a smile on his face.

"Ahh, there you are, Alice," he greeted, "May I have a word?"

Alice turned and gave him an irritated look, but she was too tired to really go into a full-out argument with him tonight. "Is it sorry?"

Pinhead chuckled softly and shook his head, folding his arms behind his back. "Perhaps," he replied, raising his "human" eyebrows thoughtfully, "Maybe we can arrange something for tonight. You know, to continue where we left off."

Alice scoffed and Katie grinned broadly to herself. "Why should I?" she snapped, glaring up at him, "You certainly didn't take it seriously last night."

Pinhead laughed, feigning embarrassment and even pity. "Yes, forgive me," he told her, "A meaningless and petty joke. Although I do hope that yesterday won't be the last time that we share a decent conversation. Maybe my home would be a more suitable location?"

Katie cleared her throat, a way to cover up her surprised gasp and Alice frowned at her skeptically, reading her easy. She didn't want this to be treated as a sexual matter among her friend and co-workers. She had enough shit to deal with.

"I don't know, Barry," she answered, giving him a weary look.

Katie elbowed her in the ribs and made a flirty, indicating gesture. "Alice, go on ... !" she whispered, carefully, "Get your freak on, girl! You have to set your standards low these days!"

"Katie!" Alice protested, angrily. Her face went red with embarrassment.

Pinhead was amused by the bright red that touched Alice's cheeks. He leaned his head back and took a deep inhale, imagining bright red blood trickling down her face, her eyes squeezed shut in pain, her full lips opened with moans and cries, her chest ripped open and what little heart she had crushed beneath his hands ... Her soul was his to take along with everything else; everything that made Alice Cotton what she was. He could not wait to ruin her purity with his own two hands ... her innocence ...

Alice skeptically looked up at him and spoke, snapping Pinhead out of his imaginations. "Alright, I guess that's fine," she said.

He brightened and pretended to be delighted with this knowledge. "Excellent! I will see you there!"

O

Alice whirled on Katie angrily as he departed for his vehicle. "Why'd you say that?" she demanded, "That's nobody's business but mine!"

Katie laughed and dodged Alice's fists as the woman attempted to hit her on the shoulder. "Alice, come on!" she insisted, "You might as well be wearing the sign on your forehead! 'I am a sad, lonely desperate little virgin in need of a man'."

Alice glared at her and started for her car. "What kind of friend are you anyway?"

"A good one, Alice," Katie said, "Listen, I think a man is just what you need. Barry might be able to help you unwind. Sure he's older than you, but look on the bright side. He's trying, I can tell. Maybe you should give him a chance."

Alice shuddered at the thought. For a while now, Katie had been trying to help her find someone. Alice was somewhat timid about going into a relationship, even though she pretended like she was a tough girl about it and it really didn't bother her. In truth, she did feel a little bit lonely; her best friend had a boyfriend and she had to watch day after day of their utter happiness. But no one gave her the time of day because they were afraid of her. She was weird and they worried that she was just as crazy as her mother. It wasn't fair sometimes, but if that was how it had to be, she'd just have to learn to deal with that.

But still, there were so many unanswered questions that she still had. She had to see him tonight. Only this time, if he so much as tried anything funny, she would be there...

... with a can of mace and a foot in his ass.

O

Alice had never been to Barry's house before; she didn't realize how close he lived to her. She lived on West Huron River Drive and he on Bryan Boulevard. It was rather creepy, but nonetheless, his house was quite charming and even beautiful. She had to admit, being in Waltz Woods with no neighbors behind you was almost convenient. Nosy neighbors were sometimes a problem with her place. There was also an attached 2 - car side - entry garage where she could park instead of having to do so on the grass.

Alice was led inside by the "man" who greeted her on the front porch.

"Welcome, Alice," he greeted, "Come inside and make yourself comfortable."

That might have been a problem; this house was fancy, even for her. Sure, she had her inheritance money to use with whatever she wanted, but wow - Barry was living it wealthy! She had walked right into an impressive 2-story foyer entry with beautiful hardwood floors, a double coat closet with organizers, and an attractive wood-railed staircase to the 2nd level.

"Swank ... " she murmured, impressed.

Meanwhile, in the darkness of her own home, the Lament Configuration began to radiate with intense warmth, heating up the table where it sat and melting the limestone until it dropped onto the tiled floor where it melted there as well, dropping and dropping until it reached Alice's finished basement filled with various shelves of old dance trophies, an entertainment system, a couch and several closet spaces. The box slowly performed turns and clicks before a heavy mist began to fill the basement. The floor began to pool with sticky goo and the room filled with chains, hooks and torture pillars. An eerie hissing sound echoed through the stone walls.

Amid the darkness in the wall opposite the end of the couch, a very narrow doorway has simply opened in the wall and the Cenobites of Pinhead's troop slowly emerged, stepping close to one another. Nikoletta, Butterball, the Raven, Chatter Beast and the Chatterer himself. They surveyed their surroundings with curiosity and dull boredom.

"We wait ... " Nikoletta told them. "She has teased him enough."

The Chatter Beast gave a deep, impatient growl and moved across the basement, its paws thudding heavily against the stone. Nikoletta watched it pass. All around the Cenobites, the basement began to transform itself; the wooden shelves and tables began to rapidly decay like in Alice's dream, the television flickered wildly between static and blackness, a fleshless rat scampered on by, squeaking painfully and the windows of the basement were covered in a sticky, red substance.

The Chatterer's teeth snapped together over and over wildly. These Cenobites were impatient to experience the young girl, to take her to Leviathan screaming.

Back at Barry's house, Alice and the demon - in - disguise had already started in on their conversation with wine and sitting close to the fireplace. Alice had begun to relax after a while and she didn't feel so very tense when he started talking about his past life with her and what kinds of sufferings he had dealt with. It was good to not feel like a freak all of the time.

"Barry?" she said, "Do you believe that prayers can be answered?"

Pinhead chuckled softly. "Well, I don't know about prayers, Alice," he replied, "But I believe that if we desire something strong enough, we can make things happen on our own."

Alice raised a brow up at him. Her features were somewhat flushed from the wine. "And what does a guy like you want?"

Pinhead's brows went up at the naivety of the question. Finally, he gave it some thought and was surprised to learn that he had no real answer for it; at least not the answer that he knew she'd want to hear. He smiled and uttered a gentle sound of amusement, paused and thought about her question before he looked at her. "I don't really know, my dear," he told her, "What I want merely pales in comparison to that of an even greater force's appetites."

"Funny, you never struck me as the religious type."

"Hah. And what is it that YOU desire, Alice?"

The question caused Alice's cheeks to redden to a deeper crimson. It wasn't the question rather than the manner of which he had asked it. She didn't want to tell him her deepest desires because she just wasn't that open of a person.

"I don't know," she lied, "A lot of people think that I'm some kind of psycho like my mother once was. So, it doesn't even make any difference because whatever I want doesn't matter as long as everyone's miserably happy with torturing me."

"I don't think that is true at all," Pinhead told her, "You will be surprised what kind of potential you have, Alice. You have something that they will not have, and that is the secret of knowing them completely. Of seeing them for what they really are, peeling away their flesh to see what secrets beat within. You see the monsters within them and they cannot stand that. They feel naked, exposed, at your very mercy. You are more powerful than you believe."

Alice looked somewhat surprised by the strange compliment. She had never heard anyone say that to her before. She felt somewhat vulnerable by the words that he said, but at the same time, not entirely thrown by them. "Thank you ... "

"Hm ... " Pinhead studied the clock hanging on the wall, "It is getting late I see. Perhaps you should return home. I will call your friend, Katie to take you there. Your vehicle will arrive at your house tomorrow morning."

Alice smiled slightly to herself as he rose and disappeared into the other room. Hm. This had been a rather pleasant evening for her. It was good to relax sometimes and not worry about who'd be jumping down your throat.

After waiting for Katie, Alice stood at the front door with Pinhead and they watched her vehicle pull up into the driveway.

"Have a pleasant evening, Alice," he told her.

She smiled up at him and cautiously gave him a kiss on his cheek. The demon - in - flesh reacted slowly, carefully at the gesture and touched his cheek as she walked out of the house. What a peculiar gesture indeed and it felt somewhat strange to him. Not different as he had been familiar with such things, but this was ... unique somehow. A sensation that made his demonic flesh tingle in a peculiar and despicable way.

His features darkened coldly as he watched her driving away with her friend. This flesh would be stripped tonight. He would not have these weak, pointless sensations with the pitiful human wretch any longer.

O

"Sooo ... are you going to tell me how it went?"

Katie's teasing voice was almost musical and Alice couldn't resist her laughter. "Katie, get your head out of the gutter, we just talked."

"For two hours?" Her friend's voice was positively mischievous.

"Yeah. he was actually decent tonight. He didn't joke about anything." Alice trailed off and frowned. "It's just weird, Katie. He's changed somehow. You don't change overnight. Not unless you were visited by God or something."

"Maybe he's been planning this the whole time," Katie offered, watching the road ahead, "I mean, stranger things have happened."

Alice wasn't so sure about that, but she kept quiet as she watched the road through her slightly intoxicated eyes. Things just seemed strange for her lately, and not the usual strange that she often dealt with. She didn't have any name for it. When she spotted her house in the distance, she smiled at her friend and patted her leg with one hand.

"Hey, I'll see you later then, huh?" she said.

Katie watched her friend climb out of the car and then she gave her a piteous smile. "Hey, try to get some sleep, okay, Alice?" she told her, "Maybe tomorrow we can have a night out or something; you know, clear your head a bit."

Alice smiled at her. "Yeah, maybe."

She shut the door and walked to the front of her house, watching as her friend drove off with a parting wave. Then, she turned and started to take out her house keys, but then, she stopped and squinted up at her house. Something felt a little strange all of a sudden; a bizarre coldness that filled her body, sending prickling shudders down her spine. When she stepped inside the house, she immediately smelled something very rancid, like cooked meat that had been left out in the sun for too long to rot.

"Ugh ... " She covered her nose with one hand and switched on the dining room lights. She zeroed in on the hole that had been melted into her kitchen floor and growled in frustration. Being slightly intoxicated really kept her from considering how dangerous this was.

"Goddamn it ... "

Alice walked over to the smoking hole and peered down it into darkness. She furrowed her brow and sniffed. "Shit ... " Standing up, she walked over to the basement door and opened it, feeling for the light switch. She flicked it a few times, but there was no light. She rolled her eyes, not eager to do this right now, not when she was so tired. Just as she turned to go, a low whispering sound stopped her in her tracks.

Alice frowned and stared down into the darkness of her basement. She carefully, slowly walked to her couch and pulled out a metal baseball bat before peering down the basement stairs again. "Hey!" she hollered, making her voice as strong and as threatening as she possibly could, "You got one chance to come out before I come down after you! And if I have to come down, you sure as hell ain't coming back up!"

There was no response.

"Tired of people fucking with me ... " the woman growled angrily, stomping down the stairs.

It was entirely too dark for her to really see anything, save for the small beam of light that shone down from the kitchen above where the hole had melted down into the basement. The Lament Configuration was lying there where it had fallen. She walked over with a confused mumble and bent down to pick it up. It was hot to the touch and she sucked in a sharp breath, dropping the box to the floor once more, stunned by the intense heat that it radiated.

"What the hell ... ?" she murmured.

She used her jacket to wrap around the searing box and picked it up, turning it in her covered hands for study. Behind her, shadows of the Cenobites began to emerge. She didn't sense their presence until a voice purred behind her.

"Alicccceeee ... "

The woman whirled to face the demons approaching her and her eyes widened with horror. She thought that perhaps she was just drunk and what she was seeing was not real. But Nikoletta spoke for her and smiled fiendishly.

"I can assure you, Alice, we are as real as you want us to be," she told her, raising one hand in a snatching gesture.

Alice had never felt such a swell of terror inside of her before. She never had a reason to be afraid of anything up until this point. And now, here it was; the demons that her mother had spent so long obsessing over, so long trying to protect her from.

They were real.

Alice ran passed them and up the stairs. The Cenobites did not make an effort to pursue her and she spotted Barry at the very top, smiling down at her. Relieved to see him and not even angry that he was in her house, she rushed into his arms.

"Oh God, Barry!" she cried, "We have to go! We have to go, NOW!"

He just continued to smile and Alice noticed a change in his attitude this time. "Oh Alice, you don't have to run away from this," he told her, "After all, it is a great honor."

Alice scowled at him and she could hear the Cenobites below. They almost sounded closer to her this time. She glanced over her shoulder before glaring at the "man" standing there. She raised the baseball bat menacingly with every intention of hitting him with it.

"You get the HELL out of my way before I bash your brains out with this bat!"

He just chuckled quietly at the threat, as if it meant absolutely nothing to him. That angered Alice even further and she swung the bat, aiming for his head. At that precise and almost immediate instance, he caught the bat with one hand and she watched in horror as it began to buckle and bend in his grip.

Alice backed away, stumbling on the steps until she was back into the basement once more. She kept her eyes on the so - called man who slowly and very elegantly descended the stairs, the irises of his eyes seemingly expanding into endless black. She didn't know what to do or even what was going on. Alice prayed that this was only a dream, a dream wrought on by stress and alcohol. She would wake up and be in her bed ...

Pinhead laughed. "This is not a dream, Alice," he told her, reading her very thoughts, "And I am not your precious lawyer." His eyes closed and he shed the skin that he was wearing, changing back into the Lord of Hell once more.

Alice gasped and the demon smiled. "Oh God ... This ... This can't be right! You can't be real!"

The Cenobites laughed at her terror, the sounds very unpleasant to the ears. Alice managed to find some small portion of strength in her.

"What do you want?" Alice demanded, struggling to find her voice.

"We want you, of course," Nikoletta answered. When the female spoke, her voice was almost comforting, a sweet and placating gesture, in some small way, but her eyes glittered with some hidden wickedness.

Alice blinked and shook her head, backing away from the advancing Cenobites. "No ... No, you can't!"

"We can ... and we will!" Pinhead hissed, his powerful voice practically piercing her very chest with his harsh punctuations.

Alice collected her thoughts and made every attempt to try and find a way to get herself out of this. She raised one hand and smiled weakly, trying something utterly ridiculous, but hopefully, she would be right in her deduction.

"Wait ... !" she said, "Y-You can't take me! I have to GO to you. It was a part of some deal, or something. You can't touch me! Not unless I want you to."

Nikoletta arched her brows and moved slowly behind Alice, her throat wound pulsating as she breathed roughly through it. Alice wished that she wouldn't stand so close to her like that. "Oh? And is that an invitation, little one?"

The woman felt something drag itself across her spine and she looked up at the Raven Cenobite standing there now, dragging its razor knuckles gently against her clothes. They were toying with her, testing her to see just what she'd do, what she'd offer them. It was a game to these creatures, it always was. She stared down at the box in her hands and realized that it was suddenly cool to the touch. Her fingers ached to touch it, to send them back.

It was strange. Alice had never known how to work such a box, but for some reason, her hands wanted to learn. In some strange, outlandish way, she felt as if she had always known how to solve it's every turns and mechanisms.

Pinhead read her thoughts and he smirked at her, no longer that thunderous, fearful Lord to his more usual persona - the cold, persuasive, articulate Black Pope of Hell. "You could use it to send us back, Alice," he told her, "But why? Why run? Where to? Do you know where you are?"

Alice furrowed her brow and held the box close to her chest as she found her voice this time. She couldn't let them get into her head. "Exactly where I want to be and I'm doing fine."

But even she knew that was a lie. Alice had always looked for an escape from this horrible existence, but she wasn't going to do it this way. Not with these demons and certainly not in the bowels of hell itself. But it seemed as if the demon facing her knew very well that she was just lying to herself.

"Oh Alice ... pretending to be somebody that you are not. To be half of what you are ... " Pinhead said, softly, "How long can you last like that? This world, this Garden of Eden grows, and grows, forcing you to feed its appetites, but it never feeding you, is it?" He made a gesture with his hand. "It washes through you, down the drain, wasted. All the futility of the world itself pours into you. How much can you take, Alice? How much can you take before your very fiber snaps?"

He read a change in her eyes, a look of defeat, but at the same time, defiance. A defiance that made her look so much like her mother.

"You lie here, in your bed ... looking at the ceiling and waiting for something to happen. And knowing all the time that you were meant for something better. Something more than what you have been given. Feeling it. Wanting it."

Alice's very flesh tingled with sweet heat at the demon's words. They were just words of course, but for some bizarre reason, they sounded so sensual and sweet coming from a powerful voice such as Pinhead's. She felt fascinated and afraid all at once of this Dark Prince of Pain.

"You have the keys to your dream, Alice," Pinhead continued, "To a world of black miracles, dark wonder, and blood - drenched beauty like nothing you have ever seen. Another life of unknown pleasures. It can be yours should you chose this path."

Alice held the box close and she walked passed them, receiving no resistance. Pinhead watched the stunned, immobile creature walk slowly up the stairs of the basement and smiled to himself.

"We will be here for you, Alice!" he called to her, "Just as we had been for your mother!"

Nikoletta made a wheezing sound in agreement and she tilted her head to one side as the door slammed shut. "She will come ... "

"In time ... " Pinhead finished for her. "Oh yes ... in time ... "

O

Note-Now Alice has these Cenobites lurking in her very shadow. What is to become of her now?