The Pentagram Child: Part 2 (Afterlife Saga Book 5) (20 page)

“Uh.” I said and I don’t know what I was expecting exactly but I was a little disappointed to find it wasn’t bright green and glowing. No, it looked no different than it always did and it was sad fact to admit but I had seen quite a lot of it over the time I had known Draven.

“So what now?” I asked myself finally being able to hear my own voice. I looked around the small cramped space and suddenly regretted not ever getting into rock climbing as a hobby.

“Ok, so new rule, if I live through this I am going to a survival army camp to learn kick ass survival skills!” I said as I jumped up at the first jutting rock that looked like it would make a good hand hold. I missed the first few times but got it on the third. I had already eyed up where I planned to put my foot and my converse squeaked against the rock before I could dig my toes in. I looked up as I hung there feeling like a plonker considering I had no clue what I was doing.

“Give me ivy any day of the week!” I huffed out before launching myself up to the next hold. I just managed to grip on but I didn’t think I could hold it long as the strain hurt my fingers. My final triumph came when I thankfully reached the top of the ledge and by this time I barely had enough strength to lift myself up. I did this with no grace whatsoever and I grunted as I flopped onto my belly and dragged myself along until only my feet were dangling over the edge.

By this point I could only lay there panting trying to catch my breath.

“Gym Keira, you’re getting your ass to a gym…” I said out loud to myself looking down at the floor with my forehead on my folded arms in front of me. I then took a deep breath and dragged my legs over the side when I heard a haunting sound.

“Oh shit!” I shouted scrabbling to my feet and making a run for it. I recognised the sound of the crank turning from before and all I could hope for was that I could make it to the door in time. I pushed myself like never before and ignored all the snarls and growls from the inmates below. They obviously had their own way of dealing with this torture but I wasn’t going to wait around and find out if I could!

I saw the door coming closer and started chanting,

“You’re going to make it, you’re going to make it, you’re…going…to…make…IT!” I shouted this last one out just as I flung myself against the door before the doors above swung open and a torrent of water escaped the small space into the cell below it. I grabbed the handle not waiting around to find out what happened next,

Only…

It was locked.

Chapter 63 –

When did this turn into a Damn Western.

I closed my eyes and could do nothing but wait for whatever Aurora had endured the first time round. I thought about all I had been through in my life trying to save Draven and knew it would come to this at some point. My endurance as a mortal could only stretch so far and evidently something would have to give, snap and break. And out of them all I would have put bets on the human going first.

Which was why, even though I wasn’t brave enough to open my eyes and watch what my death was going to be, I refused to panic in the face of it. I refused to give in to my fear but in truth I just wished my body would follow my mind. Because all that was happening in these short and few seconds left was my whole body shaking waiting for the pain of death. My face was pressed to the door like I had the jaws of a predator breathing against my skin. My chest rose and fell with heavy gulping breaths that were out of sync with the way my limbs quivered. And beads of sweat rolled down my face to join the silent tears I shed. It was my end and with it…

I fell.

“Dang, what the Sam Hill?!” Ok, so I must admit, that wasn’t the first thing I expected to hear when getting into Heaven. But then again neither was landing sideways into a hard body before being spun around violently and at the same time covered inside a big cape. I heard the door slam and after that the protective arm around my waist went slack.

“Tis alright now little lady.” A gruff voice spoke and the strength in it made me a little reluctant to come out from under what was now obviously his long jacket. However when I did I couldn’t hide my shock at who I was faced with.

“You’re…you’re a…uh…what are you?” I said stuttering as I struggled to form that sentence in sight of this mystery man.

“How’d I do you for little Miss, the names Bill.” He said taking off his brown top hat and bending at the waist. I half expected all the things he had attached around his hat to come off but nothing moved.

“Uh, well I guess I could be better considering I’m a human stuck in the lowest levels of Hell and was about to be scalded to death because some bitch double crossed me and pushed me into a pit surround by a flesh eating twister…”

“Could be worse.” He said making my mouth drop open as he put his hat back over his shoulder length, curly dark hair. I didn’t need to ask what was worse because one look of disbelief on my face and he elaborated,

“You could be dead.” To which I could only nod and agree with him.

“Time we vamoose little lady.” Bill said walking past me, leaving me feeling bewildered. Was this guy real?

“Your name’s Bill?” I asked thinking this must be a joke Hell was playing on me.

“Yup.”

“Let me guess, first name ‘Wild’.” I said unable to help myself. He stopped walking and looked me up and down. One eyebrow went lower and then he said,

“Have we met before?” To which I nearly burst out laughing.

“Umm, nope, definitely not because don’t take this the wrong way but I think I would have remembered you.” And this couldn’t be a truer statement. Because the very last thing I thought I would find down here was a bloody steampunk cowboy!

“They call me Wild Bill Hickok.” He said tipping the rim of his hat and again my mouth opened like a damn fish.

“Wait! Are you telling me you are the Wild Bill?” I said in disbelief. I mean the Wild West wasn’t my forte or anything but there was a handful of famous cowboy names everyone knew and Wild Bill was about as famous as they came.

“The one and only, darlin’.” He winked at me and then turned on his metal heeled boots and walked away expecting me to follow.

“Ok, so even if you are who you say you are, why should I trust you, cowboy?” I said knowing he had saved my life yes, but knowing that Aurora needed me alive and that there was someone coming to get me, I couldn’t really trust anyone at this juncture. So I started backing away and he looked over his shoulder to see me putting distance between us. He rolled his eyes once before turning back to me and then held up his hands, on which he wore cut off fingerless leather gloves that were cracked with age.

“Tis alright now little lady, don’t you be fearin’ of old Bill.”

“Don’t come any closer, cowboy!” I said as he started to walk closer to me. I didn’t want to trust those midnight blue eyes no matter how kind they looked.

“It’s Keira right?” Bill said and then my heart started to race when he pulled out a gun from one of his holsters and pointed it at me. I nodded and swallowed hard. I was just about to resign myself to the fact he was going to make me follow him at gun point when he surprised me by saying,

“Then duck and get behind me.” I didn’t even hesitate to do as I was told when I heard the familiar sound behind me of a Harpie’s hissing. I ran behind him as I heard the shots going off and by the time I turned all six Harpies were on the floor and trying to drag their damaged bodies away. I half expected him to blow the smoke from the end of his gun but instead he just scattered the floor with empty shells and refilled it again from the bullet stash on his gun belt. He then rolled the revolver back in place with a flick of his wrist and once it clicked home he walked closer to the wining creatures dying on the floor.

One looked up as he approached and snarled before saying,

“She killed our mother.” And Bill looked round to me with an eyebrow raised. I lifted my hands as he had not long ago done to me and before I could speak my defence he said,

“Double crossing Lickspittle?” I frowned and said,

“Uhh…If that means bitch then yeah, that’s her.” He nodded once and then without looking down he unloaded all six bullets into each of their heads. My mouth gaped open at what seemed to be the theme being round this guy seeing as he didn’t even look to aim once. He didn’t even need to look to make sure he had killed all of them, he was that confident in his skill. No, he just spun his gun round his finger and holstered it like the coolest cowboy in the world. Then to make it even cooler he started walking, stopped next to me and said,

“I’m no cowboy, I’m a lawman,” and then carried on walking.

“Holy shit.”
I whispered in awe of the guy. One I was definitely sticking with like Winnie stuck in the Poo!

“Hey wait up!” I shouted as I ran to catch up with my new protector.

“So who sent you?” I asked looking up at yet another tall man making me think I should start asking people to buy me high heeled shoes this Christmas...! Did they do converse high tops with heels I wondered? Well if there was one person on this planet that would know it would have been Pip that was for sure!

“The Big Bug.” He answered…or at least I think he did!

“Sorry?” I asked shaking my head.

“Why? You ain’t no Corncracker.” He said confusing me further.

“Ok, so now I am lost…” He smiled at me, scratched his beard and ran his finger and thumb down either side of his thick moustache that reminded me of handle bars on a motorbike.

“You said sorry but you don’t strike me down as stupid like some buck tooth farmer that could eat corn through a picket fence.”

“Uhh…O…kay…well thanks,
I guess.”
I said left utterly confused now and wondering if he was complimenting me on my teeth. 

“Good, now let’s vamoose.” I wanted to ask what he meant but seeing as he’d said it before I just put two and two together and was surprised I didn’t get 66 reasons to be confused. I started to follow him and tried to take in everything about his appearance. He wore massive heavy leather boots with wicked looking spurs attached in deadly spikes. They were very detailed with scenes of a skeleton riding a motorbike drinking whiskey and it reminded me of the comic Ghost rider.

I was happy to report his beige trousers were void of tasselled chaps but instead had the manlier gun holster strapped to his thigh along with a long thin sabre hanging down. The other side held his bigger gun that fit snuggly in the holster that attached to his thick gun belt, one that was decorated with rows and rows of bullets.

“Look in your fill sugar, old Bill doesn’t mind.” He said looking sideways and catching me eyeing him up. Obviously he was taking my interest in him the wrong way.

“I am just trying to way up why you’re helping me?” I said honestly.

“Usually I would say I owe a demon a debt.”

“So that’s not the case this time?” I asked making him smirk. He had a handsome face that although a little weathered, it just added to his charm. He had little laughter lines in the corners of his eyes which reminded me of Draven sometimes. His eyes were kind and thoughtful, which dangerously drew you into trusting him. His hair looked a little wild with some curls tighter and perfectly formed as opposed to the ones that were more of an unruly wave.

His nose looked to have been broken at some point but didn’t by any means detract from his handsome features. One of which was a dimple that became a creased line half way up his cheek and only made its appearance when he smiled. It was the type of mark that I could imagine a lover caressing after affectionately making him laugh. I don’t really know where that thought came from but it was so strong I blushed.

“No, although I do owe him my soul.” I almost missed his answer when getting lost in my thoughts.

“You owe a man your soul?” I asked horrified.

“You’re a bit of a biddy little lady ain’t ya?” He said and again there was that dimple.

“I don’t know what Biddy means.” I said and he laughed before saying,

“Probably a good thing seeing as it would just make you more biddy.” He sniggered and turned a corner. I frowned at his back and huffed hating not knowing what a stupid biddy was.

“So, are more of them going to be after us?” I said letting the biddy comment go after deciding this was a far more important question that needed answering. I could only hope of course that I would understand the answer.

“I would think so, but don’t worry little lady, I got plenty more bad plums for ‘em for when they do.” Uh, I wanted to tell him that I don’t think rotten fruit was going to cut it until I realised he meant bullets when I noticed him patting his gun belt.

“Are we going back to the Janus Gate?” I asked trying to keep up with his long legged stride. He was about the same height as Draven but it became obvious that Draven took my shorter legs into account when we were walking together. Now though, I was practically jogging next to Bill just trying to keep up.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m fixin’ on doing but I reckon we need to get a wiggle on.” He said and I hid my smile at hearing the way he spoke. It was almost as bad as trying to understand Pip and I would have said, if she wasn’t blissfully married to Adam, then this guy would have been the perfect second for her.

“Okey dokey” I said sounding like an idiot, one he looked at like he couldn’t understood a word I said, which was just laughable considering who I was speaking to.

“You have all your saddle bags in the right place?”

“Eh, yeah thanks.” He nodded and I rolled my eyes as soon as he turned his back and started walking again.

We continued on pretty much down the same path that Aurora had led me down but for some reason we seemed to get to our destination a lot quicker than before. I put this down more to despising the company in Aurora than the fact that I had to practically run to keep up with Daddy Wild West long legs here!

“Oh thank God.” I said out loud and received a disapproving frown from Bill. 

“Now I’ve gone and taken a cotton to ya, so don’t you going spoiling that purely purdy self of yours by cussing little lady.”

“Uh…come again?” I asked wondering what on earth purdy was.

“No cussing and taking the Lord’s name in vain.” He elaborated and I snorted in disbelief. This was a demon I was speaking to …right?

“You’re serious?”

“As serious a
s
squatting on your Spurs.” He said and just his face alone answered my question.

“Alrighty then.” I said making him tip the rim of his hat at me again before praising me, 

“Good girl”.

I was left standing there looking a bit bewildered by the guy. I mean I know that not all demons are bad guys as I have learnt many times before this day but God fearing demon folk that don’t like swearing? The mind just boggles.

“What the Sam Hill!” Bill shouted from across the Temple, causing something I once again had no clue to what it meant echo around the room.

“What is it?” I asked climbing over one of the giant fingers that looked like a tree log. I almost got stuck with me straddling it in between my legs and my mind flooded with so many rude jokes I had to bite my lip. This was to stop from obviously upsetting the gentleman cowboy, lawman steampunk dude but also to stop from breaking the cardinal geeky sin and that was when someone starts snorting at their own jokes.

“The gate, it’s gone…it’s…why tha
t
Cultus dung eating…”

“…Bitch?” I said finishing it off for him so that he didn’t have to be the one cussing as he called it. He didn’t agree but I took his growl as one aimed at Aurora and not me.