Todd hadn’t thought about anything when he leaped onto the altar and fell through the doorway leading to another world, another dimension, another existence. He’d seen his mother going away and he had just reacted. He didn’t know if it were right or wrong, good or bad. His body had simply taken over his mind, and had acted on its own.
Only now, as he fell in what seemed like an endless thrill ride, did he have the time to consider what he had done. Except now he was too terrified to even think.
He felt as if he were falling from an airplane-only he was so far up that he couldn’t see the ground. Everything was so black that he couldn’t even see his fingers when he held them up in front of his eyes. He was falling fast and hard, and straight down-to what, he had no idea. If there had been a ground below, he would have smashed into it by now, and the horrible picture of the soldier smashing to the pavement haunted his memory once again.
He knew he was falling because he could feel the air rushing past him, like when you put your hand out the window of the car on a long trip on the highway. Only this felt even faster than what the car would go. His stomach also knew he was falling. He felt that it was at least a ten story building behind him already, and loosing ground with each second.
He felt like he should be screaming-that’s what people did in the movies when they fell-but he couldn’t. For one thing, he was falling too fast to even catch his breath long enough to scream. And for another, he knew no one would hear and it would be a waste of energy. In fact, he wasn’t even sure if he could even dent this soundless vacuum with a scream. It would be like putting a drop of red paint into the ocean and expecting it to change color.
He wondered how much longer he would fall. After all, he couldn’t fall forever, could he? That was impossible. Then again, so were demons that turned from molten lava into winged obsidian and that could overturn a tank and disappear into an ancient stone. Or at least he thought they were impossible until now. No, the rules of the universe, as he knew them, had definitely changed. And not for the better.
After what seemed like an eternity, he thought his fall might be slowing down, and he sensed that he was now falling forward and not just down. It was like he was flying. Not flying, exactly, because he couldn’t go back up. Gliding, maybe. Gliding downward.
As he fell, he also felt it getting hotter. He’d overheard his Dad and the Indian talking about following this demon into hell. Apparently, that’s where he was falling. Into hell. He wondered if he’d meet up with the devil. He supposed even Satan couldn’t be much worse than this demon he’d already run into.
Finally, he felt the fall slowing, but the intensity of the fires was increasing. He felt sweat pouring from his forehead, and in the distance he could see a red-hot glow, like the top of an active, flowing volcano. Only this volcano didn’t seem to reach upward. Instead, it was reversed, pointing downward, like it had been turned upside down and he was entering it from its base and heading towards the volcanic cone.
Before he got to the center, though, he slowed almost to a stop, and then felt solid ground beneath his feet. He dropped to his knees and reached down. The ground was made of the very same rock as the altar stone was made of. He wondered if this was another place or another planet. But the first thing he had to do was find his mother.