Chapter 1

Hell and Its Occupants

Aaron Baker trudged slowly up the stairs to his room, sleep calling his name loudly. "Goodnight." His mother called to him from the study at the end of the hall, as he reached the top of the stairs he murmured a semi-awake reply then pushed the door to his room open, bright moonlight streamed into his room through the large window to his right, he closed the door behind himself and walked to his bed collapsing onto it, clothes, shoes and all and falling instantly to sleep.

A gentle hand slowly brushed against his forehead cooling the night heat from his face. "Come on Rianna, he'll be fine, she assured us both." His father whispered quietly to his mother.

"I know, I know, I just wish we could be together a little longer, just for a little while." His mother replied sadly.

Aaron's mind tried to shed the veil of exhaustion plaguing him so that he could tell his mum they would all be together for a lot longer but the tiredness didn't leave and he remained only semi-conscious.

"Come on Rianna let's go." Weight lifted from the edge of his bed and he heard soft footsteps walk to the door.

"Be safe Aaron." His father whispered softly and the door closed quietly and his mind returned to its deep sleep.


"THAT, IS HIM?" A strange feminine voice, soft as feathers but at the same time greater than a thunder clap echoed incredulously around a small starlit bedroom.

"That, is him." A malignant voice confirmed in disgust. "The cursed one." The second voice was much quieter than the first and sounded allot like a group of people heard from far away.

"HE'S NO MORE THAN A CHILD." The first voice retained the penned up fury of a storm but seemed amazed, as if a child had been the last thing it had expected to find.

"You have your task abomination, be quick about it less we decide to withdraw our generous 'offer'." The hateful voice had grown even weaker than it had been at first as though it drew further and further away.

"YOUR WEAKNESS DIGUSTS ME JAI-ZHEN" The first voice answered without a trace of the softness it had contained earlier and as if in contrast with the second its voice grew stronger as each syllable left its mouth. "YOUR SILKEN WORDS AND THINLY VEILED THREATS WILL NOT PROTECT YOU FROM YOUR FATE, ONCE THE PACT IS COMPLETE YOU WILL REGRET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE-." The first voice hid nothing and dripped with pure malice, slowly becoming more evident until?

"-LIVES."

The word startled Aaron out of the dream world, off his bed and onto the floor where he quickly jumped up to scan his room for the source of the terrible voice that had woken him.

"Wh-who's there." He squeaked in a small thin voice he immediately regretted.

"YOU MUST SLEEP NOW SMALL ONE, IT IS NOT YET TIME." The first voice no longer held any threat and answered Aaron immediately but he was still unable to place where the voice had come from.

""JERU."" The scent of roses filled the air and dulled the alarm bells ringing in his head, the voice itself soothed the fear in his mind and wrestled his struggling conscience to the ground.

""JERU."" The sweet smell of roses and the soothing voice blew over him again, gently lowering him back to his bed.

""JERU."" The word drew Aaron to the farthest reaches of his mind where he soared over mountain tops on clouds softer than air.

"WAKIE WAKIE."
"I'll be up in a moment mum." Aaron mumbled into his pillow before he reached blindly for the covers which had fallen off of him somehow during the night.

"I'M NOT YOUR MOTHER FOOL." The thunderous voice from the night before had returned full of indignation.

His two storm-cloud-grey eyes flew wide open in fear then he screamed louder than he ever had before, at the foot of his bed was the creature, undoubtedly the source of the storm-like voice.

Its hairless blue-grey body was roughly humanoid, hunchbacked just to fit in between floor and ceiling. The only shreds of clothing it wore were two small, triangular black pouches that wrapped around its rippling shoulders on equally black belts. Its shoulders were also where the normality of the creature's body stopped.

Two muscle bulging arms branched at the elbow to sport not only a hand each, but two thick scorpion tail arms that ended in knife-like points which were definitely not mere adornment. Powerful legs turned the wrong way to end in clawed feet. Its head brandished two golden horns that stuck jaggedly out from either side of its forehead to end in points finer than any needle's.

The most disturbing image of all however was not its backward legs or its odd limbed arms, but its face, scarcely yet surely; human.

If it hadn't been for the branching arms and twisted legs he would probably have thought it was a stereotype demon.

"Aah-." Another terrified scream began to leave his lips, but the demon seeing this slapped him across the face, hard with the flat of its left arm's scorpion tail's knife-like appendage and numbed him from top to bottom with a feeling not unlike the one he'd gotten from having a tooth pulled at the dentist, his arms and legs held up protectively infront of his face fell limply to his sides of there own accord.

"ENOUGH FOOLISHNESS BOY, I'M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU, I HAVEN'T THE TIME OR WANT AND WE MUST LEAVE NOW BEFORE THIS CURSED DIMENSION DRAINS FROM ME MY REMAINING POWER.

AND YOU ARE COMING WITH ME, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT."

With that the creature slung his limp, paralysed body over its shoulder, drew back its hand and punched mightily into thin air.

The image of his bedroom shattered as if it was made of glass, to be replaced by a steaming inferno of rippling magma lakes, boiling mountains of semi cooled lava and dark red sky, here and there crossed over by walkways of transparent red crystal.

A blistering wave of heat rolled over his paralysed body as the monster, carrying him stepped into the furnace, it was the final shock his fifteen year old mind could take in a night full of shocks and surprises, he'd expected to go to sleep and wake up the next morning in his own bed, instead in the middle of the night he'd been confronted by a demon and taken somewhere that resembled what he thought hell should look like.

Aaron fainted.


The sound of unearthly howling interrupted hellish nightmares and brought Aaron shaking into a world of grey stone and architectural magnificence left for centuries to become ruins of their former glory.

Slowly he opened his eyes, blinked twice and stopped the scream before it could leave his mouth, the demonic creature stopped shaking him by the shoulders and stepped back a foot. "Follow me bo-." Aaron ducked as the hellish creature broke off into a hacking cough that sprayed his back in what he assumed were globules of blue demon blood.

As he uncurled from his huddled position he noticed a patchwork of deep wounds crisscrossing the demon's stomach and a wave of mixed emotions suddenly took hold of him, despite his extreme fear of the creature his gentle nature got the better of him and in a quavering voice he asked. "Are you hurt?."

"I'm fine." The creature replied impatiently then it turned and jogged away into the immense stone-grey corridor leaving Aaron behind to wonder if the creature was really the source of the voice from the night before which had contained so much malice and fury, it did sound slightly different, as though it had become weaker which wasn't surprising considering the score of wounds all over its body.
As the creature drew further away it yelled back. "Are you coming or not."

Another deafening howl soared through the air seeking its prey and he wondered if it would be wise to follow a demon or try to escape on his own, the chilling howl abruptly ended and Aaron made up his mind, quickly he hurried after his would-be-kidnapper yelling. "Wait up."

Hurdling fallen chunks of wall and pieces of once elegant furniture Aaron caught up with the demon. "I thought you wanted to." He thought about his question for a moment and decided that if the creature had wanted to kill him he'd probably be dead right now so changed his question to. "Why'd you kidnap me?"

The odd beast continued to run in silence until Aaron thought it hadn't heard him and he was about to ask again when it spoke. "It was not my choice." Aaron wasn't sure that he believed the words, but when he glanced at the creature's face he saw pain enough to believe that the demon was as much a victim as he was.

"What's your name?" He asked the question in all innocence not knowing exactly why but the creature turned on him viciously, shoving him against the cold grey wall of the corridor, it held one razor sharp blade to his throat. "WHY WOULD YOU ASK SUCH A THING." Its voice was momentarily returned to its former fury leaving no doubt in his mind that it was the source of the voice from the night before.

Aaron withered under the gaze he was receiving. "I-I, well." He didn't know what to say, he hadn't meant to insult the creature so he replied. "Mine's Aaron."

"You trust me to know your true name?" The creature sounded astonished as though nobody had ever told it their name before.

Aaron thought for a moment but couldn't come up with a reason why he shouldn't so he replied "Sure, unless you want me to pretend it isn't."

The demon looked at him for a moment more then withdrew the knife-like appendage from his throat. "Mine is Azenlond."

Another howl filled the musty air, louder and more terrible than all the others but unlike the previous howls it was no longer a howl of the hunting it was a howl of triumph.

"The Hell beast has found us, you must leave now." The creature actually appeared fearful, almost terrified even.

"Ha, I wouldn't leave you to fight whatever a ?Hell Beast' is, I can see your scared of it and that probably means it could ki-." He didn't seem to be able to keep his mouth shut, words just kept spilling out of there own volition, luckily he was interrupted by another ferocious howl.

"FOOLISH HUMAN, you must run now, what do you think you could possibly accomplish against the Hell beast."

Aaron didn't really have an answer for that, he knew that whatever it was that kept howling, it wasn't a small whatever, but he knew that if he left he wouldn't ever be able to forgive himself, no matter how badly the creature had treated him.

Growling in frustration Azenlond turned back to him. "Take this." The creature unstrapped the belt on its right arm and handed it to Aaron who began to tie it around his waist.

"Listen carefully, there are some items in that pouch that if you tell someone about, you'll be dead within a day but there are also some things in there you will need. Now run."

As he struggled to secure the pouch Aaron replied defiantly. "I'm not just leaving you here."

"Two things boy, A; When you get out of the castle head east or towards the rising sun whichever you can find the fastest, B; when you reach the village at the foot of the hill covered in forest, ask the residents what the price of inter-dimensional travel is, then you can decide whether or not you should have left me here."

As Aaron finished buckling the pouch around his waist he looked up in time to be slapped, hard by the flat of the demon's right arm's scorpion blade, suddenly his face felt far to heavy to be his, hesitantly he reached one hand up and found a hard, stone cold surface, as he began to move his hand away it froze in place directly infront of his eyes and revealed exactly what was happening to him.

Crawling up his palm just reaching the fingers was a shining black wave of polished iron, it wasn't paint or anything of the sort it was his body, his own skin, he was turning into an iron statue.

He tried to close his eyes in frustration but they to had frozen into place, he was entombed in his own skin able to see, hear and smell but unable to move in any sense of the word.
Aaron heard a grunt from Azenlond as she slung him over her shoulder. With one arm holding him in place she hurried off down the corridor weaving between fallen chunks of wall, collapsed floor and smashed furniture.

Aaron's brain registered the fact that he was immobile but he was unable to fully comprehend just what had happened to him, it was as if a thick fog was clouding his thoughts.

As Azenlond jumped over a hole in the ruined floor of the castle however his mind became razor sharp and he found out exactly how big the ?whatever' was, two stories down from the hole looking straight at them as they'd flown across the gap had been a colossal beast easily occupying the space between floor and ceiling of the level it had been on, its scaly grey-on-black body had the hind quarters of a lion and the forequarters of a dog, slightly altered to include a second canine head, its dark faces were distorted by a predatory cunning that chilled him to the bone, worst of all where its eyes, reflected in the inky black depths was pure unmistakable evil.

Azenlond stumbled under the weight of Aaron's solid iron body as they landed on the other side of the gap but managed to check her balance in time to continue their desperate escape down the dank grey corridors.

From somewhere behind them an ominous thud announced the arrival of the Hell beast on their floor closely followed by a roar somewhere between a dog's bark and a lion's roar that sent shivers down Aaron's spine.

Unable to look behind himself Aaron had to rely on sound alone and as his view of the floor shot by beneath him he heard the sound of claws on stone and the continuos thud of paws as the Hell beast gave chase.

His view spun dizzyingly as he was thrown by Azenlond into a pile of grey bricks and decayed tapestries where he landed with a puff of dust and rolled down the mound of rubble until he faced the creature who had kidnapped him.

"I wish thee luck Arlin of the dragon kin, guard my daughter well." Azenlond spoke hurriedly as the Hell beast closed in behind her.

Aaron tried to warn her as she turned but to no avail his frozen lips uttered not a peep and as Azenlond turned she was rent in quarters by claws the length of Aaron's body, falling without a sound to the ground to lie still.

The Hell beast reared back on to its hind quarters in triumph and fell back to the ground shaking the foundations of the castle.

Aaron tried to close his eyes or look away but his eyes frozen in place could only stare at the remains of his kidnapper and the beast which had killed her.

The Hell beast walked forward a few steps and stopped infront of Azenlond's quartered body which lay in a heap oozing blue blood, its paw descended towards the gruesome remains, then with one claw it drew a perfect circle around the blue-grey body.

""Arhageb dell caya semderal."" Aaron's dazed mind gave a start, the Hell beast was actually talking, he couldn't see its lips moving but a whispered chant that seemed to drain the already sparse light from the corridors, was coming from it.

""ARHAGEB DELL CAYA SEMDERAL."" The Hell beast's voice grew lower, but the power of the words increased.

Aaron had no idea what was going on but he doubted the words were just a meaningless chant and it was pretty hard to mistake the Heal beast's attention to be anywhere else but on the quartered body.

Suddenly the Hell beast reared back and swiped fiercely at the air with its pitch black claws but as the claws swept through the air they slowed as though they'd snagged on some unseen obstacle.

""ARHAGEB DELL CAYA SEMDERAL."" Aaron barely heard the chant and only saw the beast's lips move slightly but the words seemed to pound at him like physical blows.

Infront of his iron eyes, Azenlond's body slid across the floor leaving a smear of blue blood across it until the body rose into the air and floated towards the Hell Beast's slow moving claws.

The Hell beast's dark black claws twitched slightly as they came in contact with the blue-grey body then slowed even more until they were at snail pace.

Astonished Aaron watched as the Hell beast's claws slowly began to mend the broken body, flesh slowly folded back together, splintered bone mended back into place, muscles and sinew grew slowly back together, then one last time the Hell Beast chanted. ""ARHAGEB DELL CAYA SEMDERAL."" And an awful stench he was sure sulphur must stink like rolled over him.

An ear splitting, unearthly scream of pain, torment and pure agony ripped through the air then suddenly the Hell beast's claws returned to there unearthly speed finishing their descent and returning to the ground with a dull thud.

Another high pitched scream echoed through the dilapidated corridors before the blue-grey body of Azenlond fell back to the ground in a heap, no longer in quarters, no longer lifeless.
Aaron stared in disbelief as Azenlond picked herself up and faced the Hell beast and was promptly swatted to the ground with one paw as though she were nothing more than a fly, she was however was no weakling and raised herself back to her feet almost instantly.

"YOU KILLED MY SIAD" Azenlond's voice rang through the grey corridor tauntingly restored to its former fury.

The hell beast laughed mockingly in its strange voice without moving its lips then took another swipe at Azenlond. She caught the paw, that was easily four times her size, two handed and slid back mere inches from the blow then began carving into the Hell beast's paw with her scorpion tale arms like a crazed butcher covering the paw in inky black splotches and streaks.

Aaron suddenly realised that the Hell beast's paw wasn't turning any blacker, it seemed the Hell beast had an immunity to whatever it was that had happened to himself and it wouldn't be turning into a statue any time soon.

As he watched he noticed something else strange, the Hell beast sat idle observing Azenlond carve into its hand as though it were curious, but as he watched he changed his first opinion it wasn't curiosity but play.

Aaron tried to move his frozen lips to warn Azenlond as he saw one giant paw rise into the air, with all his might he tried, but to no end, his lips stayed frozen in place as the Hell beast's paw reached the pinnacle of its arc, then in a blur the paw came down to meet the other and burst Azenlond's body like a water balloon sending waves of blue ooze across the walls and over Aaron's cold black body.

Something inside Aaron stirred then burst into life, the hand frozen infront of his face gradually became pink again then slowly spread up his arm, the Hell beast's eyes locked onto him then it took a step forwards.

"NO ARLIN." A sad voice brought him back to his senses and the iron coat changed direction once more slowly crawling back up his arm, the Hell beast's eyes stayed on him for a moment longer then returned to the body at its feet.

As Aaron watched, frozen in place he was suddenly overcome with drowsiness and he was sure that if he hadn't been an iron statue his arms would have fallen limp to his sides just like they had when he'd been hit by Azenlonde the first time, infact the feeling was identical to when he'd been hit by Azenlonde the first time, realising that he was losing consciousness he struggled back to the surface just long enough to here; ""ARHAGEB."" Then he was gone.


"Wake up." The same sad voice Aaron heard earlier tore him from his nightmares and hurled him into a dark corridor filled with the awful stench of sulphur and the sound of claws on stone drawing closer to him. No he wasn't here, he couldn't be, it had all been a nightmare, this wasn't real.

Out of the darkness appeared two monstrous faces drooling blue blood, intelligent eyes distorted by animal hunger focused on Aaron who didn't need to try, just to be as still as a statue or to stop from screaming.

A wet nose poked into his chest and sniffed at his iron body, then without warning the Hell beast leaned forward and picked him up in one of its mouth trying to chew on him.

Inside its mouth Aaron could barely see, but it wasn't hard to tell that the sticky fluid that splashed onto him several times wasn't only the creature's saliva, it was the blood of its previous victim.

Aaron felt something break accompanied by a loud yelp from the Hell beast then he dropped to the floor with a loud metallic clang.

""ASHOT."" The Hell beast swore in its loud unearthly voice then picked Aaron up in its mouth and carried him to the end of the passage, drew back one immense paw and knocked a hole in the solid stone wall.

Aaron suddenly got an extremely accurate estimate of just how big the castle really was, in his view were eight large turrets sprouting from a wall easily fifty stories high, each turret unique in its own shape and proportions and even further below them he could make out a large stone wall surrounding the castle.

Behind him he heard a clang and he found himself hanging in mid air, then his body tipped and he caught a brief glimpse of the ground far below him before his body spun wildly into a pin drop and his range of sight was locked onto the blur of grey bricks as they sped away.

In a way it was worse than just falling, his eyes frozen in place, were unable to look beneath him at the approaching ground and when he finally did hit, he'd given up bracing for the impact and ploughed into the soft earth disappearing up to his knees in the dry ground, completely without warning, standing straight as a flag pole.

The Hell beast suddenly let loose with another spine tingling howl that split the morning air, reaching an ear piercing crescendo that was accompanied by a thunderous crash and brilliant waves of slimy green light that fell to the ground in sheets, each one pushing him further and further into unconsciousness until he rested on the very brink of death where the final sheet of green light that should have been his end was dissolved into nothingness by the morning's first ray of sunshine.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 17.10.2011

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