Erik held his hands out to his sides and stepped slowly towards the demon. He had to sacrifice himself. There was no other way. There was nothing else he could do. He’d seen this monster in action, and there was simply no way to fight against it. His options had run out.
He turned and looked at Vickie one last time and smiled. Somehow, he managed to keep his composure, though he was dying inside. Everything he had worked for, everything he had believed in was coming to an end. He was about to exile himself forever to hell.
Hell wasn’t a fairy tale from a book of Bible stories anymore. He’d been there-was still there-and had experienced all of its agony and despair. He had felt the anguish of the swarms of doomed, damned souls, and he was about to become a permanent part of their number. He was about to forsake everything-his life, his family, even his eternal salvation. And he was about to do it by his own choice. Willingly.
Vickie tried to smile back at him but she couldn’t and he had to turn away. He couldn’t bear to see her cry anymore.
“Ok, what’s the deal here?” he asked. “I submit to the sacrifice and then what?”
“You give up your soul to the Dark One and I take your son.”
“And my wife? And my friend?” He pointed towards Dovecrest. “You take them back and let them live their lives in peace?”
“They won’t remember that any of this happened,” it said. “They’ll be brought back and as far as they know, you were killed destroying me, and Todd is a normal boy.”
“All right, then. I agree. Let’s get it on. What do you want me to do?”
The demon grinned. “You must stand here,” it said, pointing to a spot in the sand with its right pincer. “Just stand there for a moment. I’ll do the rest.”
The monster extended its claws to either side to make room for Erik to move forward. He stepped in between the thing’s deadly pincers, knowing full well that the monster could tear him in half at any moment if it wanted to. Then again, he’d seen what it did to Todd from twenty feet away, so what did it matter how close he was.
“Just look at my face,” the thing said. “It’ll be more pleasant that way.”
Erik swallowed hard and looked into the creature’s blue eyes. The face that looked back at him was stunningly beautiful, and he tried to forget about the body that housed it. The eyes were bright and feminine, and they looked at him with sensual delight.
“Just look at me and pretend I’m real,” the face said in a sexy, seductive voice. “I can be your dream woman.”
Erik looked into her eyes and saw only her face. He tried to relax and lose himself in her sensuous gaze as she slowly and methodically began to recite the words of the spell that would keep him here in this world forever. The woman was beautiful-the demon certainly recognized what would appeal to a man. But as much as he tried to concentrate on those cool, blue eyes, his mind kept seeing them as green. The blond hair kept turning red, and he just couldn’t get Vickie’s beautiful features out of his mind.
He longed to turn back and look at her again, but dared not. He did not know how he would bear existence without her.
He could tell from the tone and speed of the demon’s chants that the time was coming to an end. Then the demon was silent, looking at him intently.
“Swear that you willingly give up your immortal soul to the Dark One,” it said. “Do it now.”
Erik swallowed hard. His mouth was so dry he didn’t know if he would even be able to speak. He opened his lips to mouth the words.
Then, just before he could speak, he suddenly heard an animal-like shout from behind him and felt arms grabbing at his shoulders, pulling him down. He fell backward and on his side. A pincer reached for him but missed its mark and snapped on dead air.
He hit the ground and rolled onto his side just in time to see Johnny Dovecrest charge into the demon’s embrace, carrying a sharp obsidian stone. He plunged the stone into the demon’s eye and shouted at the top of his lings.
“I sacrifice my soul for these good people in the name of Christ who died for our sins!”
The demon’s eye disintegrated into a mass of blood and pulp and it staggered backward in shock. It looked at them with its remaining eye full of hate and rage as Dovecrest merely stood there in the place between its claws and waited. The monster drooled and raged, but nothing happened. Erik rolled clear of the demon and rushed to Vickie, Todd, and the baby, who were watching in horror.
“I gave him my stone,” Todd said. “He told me he needed it.”
Erik nodded. “That was a good thing,” he said. “A very good thing.”
“Damn you!” the demon screamed, and then it began to dissolve and transform once again.
“It can’t take him,” Erik said. “It can’t take his soul.”
Then the demon lashed out in uncontrolled wrath, grabbing Dovecrest in its huge claw.
“You can kill me!” the Indian said. “But you can’t have me!”
The Indian seemed to be covered in a yellow glow, like Erik had seen before when they’d escaped from the crush of the doomed souls.
The demon’s face was ugly now, one eye missing and oozing and the entire face contorted in rage. It screamed a piercing cry of agony, and then snapped its claw shut, cutting Dovecrest in half at the waist. The monster dropped the body to the ground and curled up on itself, still transforming, growing solid once again.
Erik held his family close as they watched, transfixed in horror. The thing formed once again, this time in a grotesque parody of a being. The thing was about four feet tall and bloated like a toad, with warts and ugly red splotches on its dry brown skin. Its eyes were yellow and glutinous, and it had grotesque-looking horns on its head. Erik thought the effect was almost comical as he saw the demon for what it really was.
The thing suddenly looked terrified and weak.
“You have no more power, here or anywhere,” Erik said. “In the name of Christ, be gone.”
The thing’s eyes went wide and glazed over. Then fire began to consume it, beginning at its feet and working its way up. It burned away to nothing, from the bottom up, until only the bloated head remained, perched on a pyre of flame. The monster screamed once, and then exploded in a meteor shower of red and white sparks. When the smoke cleared, it was gone. All that remained were a few ashes that slowly floated to the ground, where they quickly blended away into the black sand.
Erik watched in stunned silence. The monster was gone. But Dovecrest’s torn body still lay on the ground, shrouded in a yellow glow. Then the glow brightened, giving him an angelic appearance. Although cleaved, his body appeared pieced together, and the Indian stood and looked at his friends. His smile was huge and genuine and he seemed totally free from pain.
“Follow your instincts to escape,” he said. “God will show you the way.” Then his body shot off like a lightening bolt and was gone.
“Did he go to heaven?” Todd asked.
“Yes,” Erik replied. “He’s with his family now.”
“And so aren’t we.”
“Right. Now I think we have to get the hell out of here. Pardon the pun.”
Follow your instincts, Dovecrest had said. The Lord would show the way. Erik took a moment to look around in every direction, scanning the horizon for a sign, any sign at all. There seemed to be nothing. The same old plain monotonous landscape.
Strangely enough, the baby saw it first and begin pointing. Todd called to his father and showed him. Erik didn’t think babies could respond so quickly, but this one was definitely pointing to a single bright star that had appeared in the horizon.
“Look, it’s like the star or Bethlehem,” Todd said.
Erik nodded. Something told them they needed to leave while the getting was good.
“Are you up to walking?” Erik asked Vickie.
“I’ll try.”
“Are you up to being carried then?”
Before she could answer he had carefully picked her up and slung her over his shoulder.
“Come on,” he said. “It’ll be like following the yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz.”
“It’s not actually a road, Dad.”
“No, but it’ll give us a roadway. Hurry!”
They passed the empty stretches quickly now-even here in hell it seemed to take less time to go home than what it did to get there, he thought. They made it back to the entranceway, and then into the huge funnel leading back to where they had come from. Vickie was getting heavy and difficult to carry up the incline, but he knew she was so weak that she’d hold them behind and he had a strong feeling that their window of opportunity was quickly closing.
Climbing up the funnel was more difficult that coming down. Not only was the climb steep, but Erik carried his wife and Todd carried his baby sister. They were running on sheer adrenaline now, pumped up with the knowledge that they might actually be able to escape this ordeal after all. His arms were aching, his lungs were burning and he didn’t know what would happen next when he got to the top.
Slowly, he climbed up over the lip to the spot where they had entered originally. He looked in every direction. Solid rock walls surrounded him on all sides, circling the pit and even covering the top. It seemed that, once again, they were trapped with nowhere to go. He placed Vickie carefully down on the rocky ground and sighed.
“There just doesn’t seem to be a way out of this mess,” he said.
“It’s ok, Dad. Just wait. Something will happen.”
He nodded. “I guess we have to have faith.” And he put his arms around Vickie. He knew she was so weak and needed a doctor, but there was nothing else to do but hold her.
“Look, Dad. Something’s happening.”
Erik looked up. Sure enough, of the walls had began to glow in a soft, yellow light. It became progressively brighter and took on the form of a portal, almost. The light intensified more, until it almost hurt the eyes with its radiance.
“What is it?” Vickie asked.
Erik stood up and took a step forward, but the light burned too brightly, like a welding torch and he had to step back.
“It’s the Indian,” Todd said.
Johnny Dovecrest stepped to the edge of the doorway and smiled. He was young now, and beside him was his wife and his children. They were all young and happy as they embraced.
“It’s ok now,” Dovecrest said. His voice was very far off, as if coming from a long way off. But the words were crystal clear.
Then a small cat walked out between the Indian’s feet and meowed softly. Dovecrest bent down and picked the creature up and stroked it gently on the ears.
“Faith!” Todd said. “Faith is in heaven too.”
Dovecrest nodded and spoke again, but he was too far away now to hear and already the white images were dissolving. Just before he went he pointed to the opposite wall.
“Hurry, there are people on the other side waiting for you,” he said, and then he was gone.
Erik turned and looked to where the Indian had pointed. Another door had opened up. This one was more mundane-it was simply an oblong opening cut into the rock. Erik looked through it and saw the morning sky.
“It’s the altar,” he said. “From the other side. Hurry up. We’ve got to get through quickly before it closes.”
The opening felt like a magnetic force that was repelling them rather than attracting them.
“It’s trying to keep us in,” he said. “We can’t let it. Todd, hold the baby tight.”
Erik dragged his son to the edge of the opening and forcibly pushed. The opening pushed back for a moment, and then something seemed to pop, and he and the baby slipped through. He picked up Vickie in his arms and walked deliberately towards it. It was like walking into hurricane force winds, but he closed his eyes and walked on, determined.
“Did you see a glimpse of heaven?” Vickie asked softly.
“Yeah,” he said. “Just a tiny corner. It was beautiful.”
“Yes. It was,” she said.
Then they were outside, standing on the top of the altar stone surrounded by a hundred soldiers with rifles leveled at them.
Pastor Mark walked forward and hugged them both. “Boy, am I glad to see you,” he said.
“And I am glad to see you,” Erik said. “It is so good to be home.”