Netherworld, Soul Guardians Book 4 (20 page)

But this mist was different. Black
withered trees swayed grotesquely in the wind; their broken limbs
cracked and split apart. A choking stench of decaying flesh and
blood rose around them. Green lightning shot from dark clouds above
and illuminated the scene in an eerie glow. Brilliantly lit
carousels rotated smoothly, their lonely steeds galloping in an
endless race. Different rides were situated throughout the park,
but one stood out amongst the others. In the distance, a giant
Ferris wheel turned gradually in a clockwise motion. Red and orange
lights flickered in rhythm with the wheel as it turned. Empty metal
seats swayed to and fro.

Then Kara saw her—a young woman was
tied to one of the seats with a metal chain. Her short purple hair
gleamed in the soft light. Her head hung down. Even from the
distance Kara could see her sickly white skin. She appeared to be
unconscious.

“
Jenny,” whispered Kara,
horrified.

Great iron doors mounted on
granite columns blocked the entrance. Intricate carvings ran down
the length of the doors with two creepy sculpted faces on each
side. Kara could see a metal lock fastened between the doors. A
neon sign above the doors glowed with red and green light—it
read;
Welcome to Lilith’s
Extravaganza.

David stood next to Kara.
“This is
really
going to suck.”

Chapter 16

Carnival Extravaganza

K
ara walked over to the gate. Shadows moved beyond them. She
knew this was a trap. Once they passed through something horrible
was sure to await them. She wrapped her fingers around the cool
metal poles and pulled. The doors rattled but didn’t open. “Well,
at least I gave it a try. Do you think you guys have enough
strength to climb up the gate?”

Peter glanced up and shrugged. “I
don’t think I can. I’m having a hard time walking as it
is.”

“
There’s got to be another
way in.” Kara let go of the gate and walked over to the side. Thick
iron poles reached up into the darkened sky. She leaned over.
“Maybe we should go around and look for another way in. There’s got
to be an opening somewhere.”

“
I don’t think we’ll have
enough time.” Peter leaned against the gate for support. His pallid
face stood out against the black of the iron poles. It pained Kara
to see him so weak. It would be her fault if she lost Peter and
David to the netherworld,

“
Does anybody know how to
pick a lock?” asked David. He wiggled his index finger into the
keyhole. “Ah!” David jumped back in alarm. He cradled his
finger.

Kara ran to him, her soul blade ready.
“What is it? What happened?”

David lifted his index finger. Light
shone though where his nail and the top part of his finger used to
be. “That stupid lock bit me. It bit me! It took a chunk of my
finger. Look—”

“
It bit you?” Kara
inspected the lock. She couldn’t see any teeth or anything that
could have taken off a piece of David’s finger, just a regular
metal keyhole.

“
I’m telling you, that
thing bit me!” David kicked the gate angrily.

Once David had finished his tantrum,
Kara slipped her blade into the keyhole slowly. She heard a soft
click, and the keyhole slammed shut suddenly. “What
the—?”

She tugged at her blade. It was
jammed. She lifted her leg and pressed it on the gate. She gave a
sharp pull with two hands. Nothing. She put her back into it, gave
a final tug, and the blade slipped out. Kara stumbled back and
nearly fell. When she had steadied herself, she leaned forward and
peered through the key hole—

“
Payment, please,” said a
voice.

Kara jumped back in surprise. She
pointed her blade towards the doors. Where had the voice come
from?

“
Yeah, you need to pay up,”
agreed another voice.

Kara waved her blade around
menacingly. “Who said that? Where are you? Show yourself!” she
looked through the iron bars but saw no one. She glanced back at
David and Peter who both gave her a shrug.

“
I did,” said the same
voice.

“
So did I,” expressed the
other voice.

Kara followed the source of the
voices. She was positive it came from the gates. She inspected the
front doors. Two iron gargoyles faced her in the middle of each
door. The metal seemed to crease suddenly. She examined the faces
more closely. They blinked and then grinned.

Kara staggered back. It was
impossible.

“
I think the girl thinks
you’re handsome, Right,” said one of the faces. Its enormous
bulging eyes rolled and observed Kara.

The other iron face wrinkled in a
grin. Its small beady eyes blinked earnestly. “I do believe you
speak the truth, Left. I am more handsome than you. I’ve always
known it.” Its large nose bobbed and it smiled.

“
You’ve got to be kidding
me?” laughed David. “Frigging talking doors!”

The face on the left wrinkled its long
hawk nose. “We are not doors—we’re guardsmen. And what are three
angels doing here? By the looks of you, I doubt whether you’ll be
angels for very long. You look awful.” It smiled wickedly and
revealed sharp black teeth.

Kara scowled and stepped forward. The
eyes from the faces watched her every move. Their sculpted faces
gleamed under the green neon light. They seemed harmless enough,
but Kara couldn’t take a chance. She pointed her blade at their
faces. “My friends and I really need to get to the other side.
Someone is waiting for us there. May we pass? Please?”

“
In order to pass, you need
to make payment. No payment, no pass,” said the face on her right.
Its large pointy ears twitched nervously from the side of its
head.

“
Yeah, no payment, no
pass,” voiced the face on her left.

The faces gave Kara the creeps, but
she had no other alternative then to try and negotiate with them in
order to get through. There was no way Peter could climb over the
gate, and David was getting weaker by the minute.

“
So what kind of
payment
are we talking
about? I don’t have any money.” It was the first thing that popped
into her head. Maybe they would take buttons as payment, like the
drivers from the sky-cars.

The face on her right compressed into
a frown. “Money? What’s that? No, you need to provide us with a
mortal soul. Without a proper soul for payment—you cannot
pass.”

Kara’s mouth dropped horrified. She
composed herself after a moment. “I don’t have a mortal soul. Even
if I did, I would never give it to you.”

“
Hmmm. Well, that does pose
a problem for you, doesn’t it? How do you propose to pass then? By
the looks of you, I thought you’d be smarter than that.” The face
turned to its right. “Left, it appears we have a simpleton in our
midst.”

“
Indeed. I think I might
break into a song,” said Left, and he puckered his lips in an ugly
‘o’ shape.

Kara heard a plop and turned to see
David sprawled on the ground. She ran to him as he tried to get
up.

“
I’m all right,” David
tried to yank his arm free from Kara’s grip. His hair was nearly
completely white. He shivered. Pain stabbed in Kara’s chest. This
was so wrong. She should never have agreed to take them.

“
You’re obviously not all
right. This is all my fault. I’m so sorry. I’m taking you
back—”

“
No!” David grabbed a metal
post and pulled himself back on his feet. “I’m coming. It’s too
late to go back anyway. We have to go on. We have no other
choice.”

Kara glanced over her shoulder to
Peter. He sat on the ground, his head against his chest. It had
only been a few minutes since they had arrived at the gate, and
Peter and David were deteriorating rapidly. How long did they have
until their transformation into higher demons was complete? Could
she still bring them back with her? Would they even be the same
people once transformed?

Kara’s temper flared. She stormed to
the doors. She wanted to pluck out the gargoyle’s eyeballs with her
blade. “Look. I don’t have time to stand here and argue with you. I
don’t have a mortal soul. We need to get through—now! I know Lilith
is expecting us. You should really let us in. You don’t want her to
get angry, do you?”

“
Mistress Lilith? Hmmm.
That does pose a bigger problem,” said Right, and he lowered his
thick brows. “The one with the temper does have a point. We don’t
want the mistress to be upset with us. What should we do, Left?
Should we let them in?”

Left’s ears shot up straight. His
black beady eyes analyzed Kara for a moment. “I don’t know. Should
we? You remember what happened the last time she got angry with
us—the boiling magma river ring any bells?”

Right wrinkled his black face. “Well,
the mistress did say she was expecting a girl…but not a girl and
two boys.”

“
Yeah, just a
girl.”

“
The boys are in an awful
mess,” scrutinized Right. “I doubt they’ll pose a threat to our
mistress in their present state.”

“
I agree,” said Left. “An
awful mess, indeed. The one with the glasses can’t even stand up.
He’ll get eaten alive.”

“
Yes, eaten
alive.”

Kara lifted her head.
“Listen—Left, Right.
I
am the girl. You have to let me and my friends pass
immediately...before your mistress finds out you’re not letting us
through. I’m sure you don’t want to visit the hot
boiling
magma again. She
won’t be happy to know you’re not letting her guests
through.”

Left pondered for a moment. He pursed
his iron lips together. “Okay, you may pass.”

“
You may pass!” echoed
Right.

With a deafening creek the doors swung
open. Kara helped Peter to his feet and wobbled through the front
entrance. David limped closely behind. Kara heard the doors lock
behind them, and the horrid voices of the guardsmen rising in song.
A gothic symphony rose around them, as though in welcome. They
passed a carousel gleaming in jewels and light. Black steeds with
yellow sharp teeth rose and fell slowly on golden poles. Instead of
hooves, their claws scrapped the metal platform. Their heads
turned. With glowing red eyes, they watched Kara and the others
pass. Kara suppressed a shiver as they made their way past the
sinister black horses. She had a feeling they weren’t really
attached to anything.

With the giant Ferris wheel still in
Kara’s view, they carefully made their way through a maze of eerie
rides and kiosks made of human bones. A horde of female demons with
yellow and blue skin stepped out of a tent. They belly danced their
way around the group, flaunting silk scarves at Peter and David who
did their best to ignore them. The demons wailed in laughter, their
forked tongues licking their lips as they skipped
around.

A great tent came into view. Long red
and yellow stripes of thick cloth spilled to the floor. The door to
the tent flapped open. The female demons squealed and ran away.
Kara took a step back involuntarily.

Demons crawled out of the tent. Their
emaciated white faces leered at them. Their unnaturally large
gaping maws revealed rows of rotten teeth. Their yellow bulging
eyes were rimmed thickly in lines of black, and their bulbous red
noses drooped above messy red colored lips. Their jutting limbs
twitched grotesquely as the demon horde formed a circle around the
group. Some wore black top hats; others were bald. A strange
guttural language danced on their blackened tongues. Kara fought
the urge to run and remained where she stood.

A demon in a decaying red and black
jester outfit with fat black boots broke from the group and
approached them. A mess of red paint covered his sunken cheeks and
thin stretched mouth. A large machete hung at his side.

“
This is my lucky day.”
David limped forward to meet the demon. “I’ve always hated clowns.
And now it’s payback time for all those stupid birthday
parties.”

The demon lunged.

David threw his blade. It perforated
the demon’s forehead with a wet sound. The creature swayed on the
spot and then went down. “They just never knew when to shut up. I
hate all that singing and creepy laughing.” David reached down and
pulled his blade from the clown’s forehead. He wiped it clean on
his jeans.

Kara pushed Peter behind her. “Stay
back and down. Don’t try anything heroic. Do you have a weapon with
you?”

Peter sat to the ground and rummaged
through his backpack. He drew a moonstone and held it with both
hands. “This should do the trick—I hope.”

“
Good. Stay put.” Kara
stood protectively before Peter. A surge of fury washed through
her. It tingled in her fingertips, and she squeezed her blade
against her palm. Peter was in no shape to put up a fight. He
shouldn’t even be here. Kara directed her anger towards the ugly
horde of clowns.

With a roar, all the demon clowns
launched their attack. The demon with a black top hat and long red
coat ran towards her. Two black blades waited in his skeleton
hands. Black vapors coiled around his hand and up his arms like
fur. He swung the blades over his head skillfully. With an angry
roar, he leaped into the air, and aimed his blades to Kara’s
throat.