Love Is Hell: Ghosts From the Past
Limbo"K-Katie? What in the heck
are you doing here?" Elsie asked in disbelief as she turned to see the wolfess
step out from the shadows.Katie smirked and ignored
the question. "Nice to see you remember me after all this time.""How could I forget, especially
after our last encounter?"Elsie was of course
referring to a deadly plane crash that Katie had been involved in. It was
supposed to be a short trip from Miami back to Atlanta after a two week mission
trip in Panama, but shortly after takeoff her plane suffered severe structural
failure and the cabin explosively depressurized. The entire plane broke apart
at 20,000 feet above sea level, killing everyone onboard in seconds as they
froze to death from the lack of atmosphere. Naturally, Elsie arrived to collect
the souls of the dead. She was incredibly punctual, having shown up before the
first piece of debris even struck the ground. What she didn't count on was
Katie putting up a fight, even though in the end it was a futile one. "Katie...how did you get here?" Elsie asked once
more. "I-I killed you!""Like how you killed Kyle?"
Katie smirked while also revealing that she was not merely a ghost but rather a
flesh and blood mortal like her brother.Elsie bit her lip and
balled up her fists. "No...no no no no! You can't be alive!""And yet here I am. I guess
this ruins your little plan of having me vouch for your father's entrance into
Heaven, huh?""Katie...are you actually
enjoying my misery?""A little."Elsie took a step back and
studied the white wolfess before her. Something wasn't right here."Katie...you're still mortal.
How did you end up here?""Remember when we were
dueling it out in the sky? In your panic you used the wrong magic on me.
Instead of sending me where I belonged you sent me into the Styx where I was
plunged hundreds of years into the future..."Los Angeles - July 15th 2195 Katie groaned as she felt
solid ground beneath her once more. Seconds earlier she had been standing in
the still falling wreckage of a Boeing 757 just off the Florida coast while
dueling Elsie with one of her own sickle blades. It hadn't been an easy fight
to be sure, but Elsie's overconfidence had allowed Katie the chance to disarm
her opponent, leaving Elsie with just her scythe and dark magic. Katie hadn't
even considered the consequences of killing Elsie and taking on her curse; all
she wanted was revenge for Kyle's death. Then, just as she had been about to
strike a killing blow, Elsie shoved her back with an invisible force that
tossed her into pure darkness. Katie had wanted to scream but nothing came from
her lips as she watched the swirling void engulf her. Suddenly she felt a paw
grasp her wrist. Startled, she glanced to see Kyle floating along with her
through whatever hell Elsie had cast them into. Strangely, Kyle didn't seem to
recognize her as he mouthed words at her.Who are you?Are you okay? Don't let go! And then, without warning
ground came up beneath them. Shivering with fear, Katie pushed her hair out of
her eyes and realized that she was completely naked...and so was the wolf next to
her. It became instantly apparent that despite looking like Kyle in every way,
shape, and form...this wolf was someone else altogether. His voice was deeper,
and instead of Kyle's Georgia twang his accent was more akin to that of
Virginia. "Aww, god...where the hell am
I?" he groaned before looking over at Katie. "Oh, sorry!" Quickly he averted his gaze
and tried to shield his own nudity from her. "Wh-what just happened?"
Katie stuttered. "Who are you? You're not Kyle...""Kyle? Kyle who?""Blackmon."The wolf's eyes locked on
to hers as she uttered that name. "No...no I'm not. My name's George, but usually
I go by Clark. It feels a little less antiquated." She nodded. "Katie. My
name's Katie.""Nice to meet you, I
think.""So...Clark...what just
happened? Where did you come from?""Last thing I remember I
was in the car with my wife and son when this car came out of nowhere and
slammed right into us head on," Clark recounted while rubbing his forehead.
"Then...oh fuck I can't believe it...I think I literally fought Death incarnate.""Heh...same," Katie admitted
with a slight chuckle. "So I'm not crazy then?"
Clark asked."No more than I am," Katie
replied while looking about to gauge their surroundings. "Man, where are we?""Looks like an office
building of some sort. C'mon, let's see if we can find some curtains or spare
clothes lying around.""Who keeps a spare change
of clothes in an office?" Katie wondered aloud as she stood up to follow Clark.Ignoring her question, he
lead the way down the hall into a large room filled with cubicles and offices
lining the walls. Strangely, none of the lights in the building were on, yet
all of the neighboring sky scrapers were brightly lit and thankfully provided
enough illumination through the windows to allow her and Clark to see. "We're definitely not in
Atlanta anymore," Katie mused."Or Norfolk, in my case,"
Clark commented. "Norfolk eh? My dad and his
best friend used to live there back in the early nineties when they were in the
Army.""What are you talking
about? It's 1992.""No...it's 2016," Katie
corrected him. "Just look at the computers on the desks. Do these look like
anything from 1992?"Clark's mouth hung open as
he noticed the lack of bulky, off white CRT monitors adorning the desks.
Instead, most of the workstations contained slim all in one PCs, or in some
cases a razor thin screen connected to a more traditional tower, but even then
they were clearly not from his time."Then again...this doesn't
exactly look like 2016 either..." Katie observed as she saw holographic
projectors playing advertisements on billboards from across the street."Katie," Clark interrupted.
"What was your dad's name?""John. Why?" Katie asked."And your mom's name was
Ellen, right?""How did you..." Katie paused
as she suddenly remembered that fateful day when she and Kyle had caught in bed
together by her father. The anger, the shouting, and then the awkward
revelation in the living room..."Your father's name was George Clark, Kyle. He died
shortly after you were born.""OH MY GOD!" Katie shrieked
in a mix of jubilee and terror. "You're Kyle's dad! That's why you look just
like him!""I guess it would...but isn't
he dead?""No! He survived that car
wreck and my dad adopted him...""John took him in?""Yeah!" Katie exclaimed.
"We grew up together with him as my big brother. We didn't find out he was
adopted till he was seventeen.""Why'd John wait so long to
tell you guys that?" Clark wondered."Uh...it's a long story. Come
on, let's try to find a way out of here."CRASH! BANG! "AAAARRRGGHHH!""What the hell was that?"
Clark jumped as he looked away from the window towards the ceiling behind him.
"That sounded like it came from upstairs."Suddenly a staccato of
gunshots erupted one floor below them. "What's going on?" Katie
asked as she backed against wall, her eyes scanning every inch of the room for
danger. Just then a clap of thunder
erupted and a bright orange light filled the building as balls of lightning
seemed to burst all across the room. Men could be heard shouting in the floors
above and below them; more gunshots echoed while strange, feral noises and
grunts hauntingly sounded nearby. "I don't know what in God's
name is going on, I just know we need to leave now," Clark said as he took Katie's
wrist and lead her towards the emergency stairs. As they entered they found
a trio of police officers decked out in full SWAT gear lying dead at their
feet. Their corpses were mangled and missing chunks of flesh; body armor lay
torn in curled ribbons of Kevlar or broken shards of composite carbon fiber. Clark
nearly slipped as he accidently stepped in a puddle of their blood that was
still freshly dripping down the stairs. Katie was speechless, her
mouth hung open as she tried to scream only to be stopped by her throat
clenching into a strong gag. Clark quickly pulled her with him and lead the way
down the stairs. A sign showed they were just passing through the fourteenth
floor down to the thirteenth, but as they rounded the corner they could immediately
see something was wrong. A river of blood seemed to be flowing out from under
the stairwell door while severed limbs and detached eyeballs and teeth floated
daintily in the murk. "Dead God...what the hell is
this place?" Clark wondered before jumping at a deep, throaty growl coming up
the stairwell.Looking down, he and Katie
were greeted by the sight of a massive, bull-like creature making its way up
the stairs. Its flesh was pale with pink burns staining its complexion; its
eyes glowed yellow through the dark, highlighting its angered face and the rows
of razor sharp ivory fangs adorning its gaping maw. Upon seeing the two wolves,
the bull that could only be described as a pure blooded demon roared with
hunger and charged up after them. Clark wasted no time shoving the door open
and rushing with Katie into whatever hell awaited them on the building's
thirteenth floor. Sure enough, the floor was
soaked with blood. Dead bodies of civilian and policeman alike coated the floor
while smaller, humanoid demons with rows of beady white eyes hunkered over the
corpses and consumed their freshly slain victims. Many of the walls on the
floor had been blown to bits, leaving only concrete beams and twisted steel
rebar behind. Fires burned everywhere as stacks of paper to even the carpet
smoldered with orange tongues of flame, their light shimmering off of a sea of
spent shell casings littering the floor near each of the dead SWAT officers. And
yet despite the death and destruction that surrounded them, it all paled in
comparison to the monstrosity standing at the center of the floor.A slim, oval shaped cloud
framed in orange lightning hovered in the center of the room. A hideous red
mist crept out of it and covered the floor nearby, only to condense into
droplets of blood that added to the deluge already drenching the room. "Ho-Ly FAWK!" Clark gasped."Clark!" Katie shouted as
she tried to back out into the stairwell only to find that they were now both
cornered by the pink bull as it came crashing through the door after them. Before Clark could react he
felt himself struck from behind as the bull head butted him square in the back.
The next thing he knew his body was rolling limply across the floor with Katie
following suit as she slipped and slid through the blood. Her white fur became
stained and matted as she shrieked in terror while desperately scrambling to
escape. Suddenly one of the smaller demons took notice and pounced upon her,
pinning her to the floor and pressing its long, needle like claws against her face
as it held her against the floor."NOOOO! NOOO!!!" she wailed
as she looked up and watched it open its mouth; its acidic drool singeing her
flesh as it lowered itself to take a bite. "Oh god...""ENOUGH!" shouted a voice
that seemed to emanate from every corner of the room at once.The demon stopped and
turned its attention towards the portal. It hissed, but relaxed its grip on
Katie enough to allow her to turn and see for herself just what was going on.
Clark, meanwhile, was still stunned and could barely move. Out of the corner of
his eye he saw a massive black figure step out from the cloud and walk towards
the two of them. Standing before them was a
creature Clark had never seen before, but for Katie she remembered his kind all
too well from her last incursion to the Great Beyond. He stood nearly twelve
feet tall, with hooved feet and legs covered in shaggy black fur. His torso
rippled with muscles carved out of gray, metallic flesh that highlighted a
bright red pentagram tattoo over his heart. He did not have hands so much as
claws, with each finger narrowing into an almost avian like talon. What was
most striking though was his face; being a minotaur it resembled that of a
bull, only his horns were even larger than those of his brethren. But even that
detail seemed miniscule compared to the scar upon his forehead where a black
swastika had been carved into his flesh. "What. Have. We. Here," the
minotaur verbally strutted as he approached and lorded over Katie's cowering
figure. "You seem frightened, my dear." Katie nodded, her face
frozen into a stiff, unblinking gaze that never left the minotaur's face. "Tell me, will God save you
from this bit of trouble like He has so much in the past?" he taunted while
picking a loose piece of flesh from one of his claws. "Or are you just another
whore of Babylon sent to be fed to my minions?"Katie shook fiercely as she
noticed the demon atop of her open its maw again, evidently perceiving its
master had given him permission to start his meal. The minotaur only chuckled. "You may not know me little
wolfess, but I know you. You, and that troublesome brother of yours. You both
escaped once before, but you won't this time. If you won't ever bother coming
to us, then we'll come to you. Your little friend Elsie has given me the key to
unlock the gate that separates my world from yours, and soon it won't be long
before we consume your entire world like locusts upon fields of grain."He paused to gauge Katie's
reaction. Her eyes reflected nothing but pure fear."I could finish you off
now, but after all the trouble you've caused my kind I think I have a far
greater use for you," he grinned evilly before looking at the demon crouched
over her. "Bring her, we're leaving now.""But what of the other
wolf?" hissed a third demon lurking in the shadows by Clark."Leave him as bait. His son
should be reappearing in this world soon, and when he does we'll make our
move."And with that, the minotaur
strode off into the red mist from when he came, his minions quickly following
him and dragging Katie along as she screamed for help while digging her claws
into the floor, ripping up shreds of carpet as she went until disappearing
without a trace into the cloud."What the hell just...fuck!"
Clark swore as he looked around the room and tried to mentally process what had
just taken place. "Breaching!" yelled a voice
from around the corner. Clark watched as a door
from the central hallway was kicked in and a squad of black armored soldiers
charged inside, weapons at the ready. They moved quickly and with precision,
their tactical lights shining blinding white beams through the murky darkness left
in the wake of the demons' exit. "Jesus sir, it's a
bloodbath in here," one of the men quipped. "Any sign of survivors?" "OVER HERE!" Clark yelled.In seconds he was
surrounded, the soldiers quickly taking him into custody and escorting him
downstairs to the police and paramedics waiting on the street. He felt
relieved, knowing that for now the nightmare he had just witnessed was over.
Part of him even wondered if it was all just a dream and that he would wake up
in a few minutes. But deep in the back of his mind, he knew this was only the
beginning, and all he thought about that night was the echoing screams of
Katie's voice. **********"Dear god Katie...what did
they do to you?" Elsie wondered aloud as Katie finished her explanation."To me? Nothing, nothing at
all." she said before the whites of her eyes suddenly glowed orange and her
lips curled into a sickening grin. "The Baron just happened to find a new home
for me is all."Elsie scowled as she
recognized the ghostly demoness's voice. "She did nothing to deserve being
possessed, Jezebel, leave her out of this."The demoness flaunted
Katie's hair as her eyes returned to normal. "It's not my place to decide what
happens to her, although I must say I did forget how good it feels to be mortal
again. Being a spirit just isn't the same, you know?"Elsie didn't respond to
that. "You still haven't told me why you're here.""We-e-e-l-l-l-l-l-l,"
Jezebel said drawing out the word while twirling Katie's hair between her
fingers, "For starters you've been trying to weasel out of your little bargain.
What was again? You give us your sickle blade, we give you back your father?""The Baron still has it,
doesn't he?" "Oh of course he does! But
it seems you've enlisted your little boyfriend there to try and steal it back.
That's very fair, is it?" Jezebel smirked."I have no idea what you're
talking about," Elsie flatly denied."Don't be coy Elsie, it's
beneath you. I saw your little fuck fest there with him, I heard everything you
two are scheming," Jezebel sternly retorted. "Naturally we expected you to pull
some sort of stunt, but we'd never have expected your boyfriend from 200 years
ago to show up.""He's not my boyfriend.""Fuck buddy then. Really, I
don't care what he is, I just know that ever since The Baron found out Kyle's
still alive and kicking he's the only thing on his mind. That's why I've come
here to renegotiate our little deal.""Oh?" Elsie cocked her
head."You give us Kyle, and in
return we don't repossess your daddy's soul," Jezebel wickedly grinned. "What? If you think you can
just walk in here and take him away from me you're..."Jezebel suddenly lifted her
paw and snapped her fingers, causing a wall of flames to erupt behind her. The
sudden burst of illumination revealed dozens of her demonic minions poised in
the shadows of the dead forest behind her. Some were pink bulls with razor
sharp fangs, while others were the more common imps with thirteen beady white
eyes and needle like claws. There were even some new varieties with mandible like
jaws and scythe like hands, or one monstrosity that was nothing more than a
floating ball of boil covered flesh with a single eye, horns, and a massive
mouth drooling blue slime over its massive teeth. "You see Elsie, even if my
pets can't hurt you, we can still hurt your father. And you know as well as I
do that there's no way you can kill all of us before we get to him."Elsie gritted her teeth as
she clutched her scythe with a white knuckle grip. She knew Jezebel was right.
Sighing in defeat, she lowered her head and nodded."Fine. But what do you want
with Kyle?""He escaped Hell once
before. He shan't do so a second time," Jezebel explained while waving her paw
in the air to kill the flames behind her and plunging the forest back into
darkness. "He trusts you, or at least doesn't suspect you of wanting to bring
any harm to him. So tell me, where did he go?"Elsie took a deep breath
and tried to think of anything that wasn't the truth, but her mind only drew a
blank. "He's...he's looking for his
father.""Ah, of course," Jezebel
said while scratching under her chin. "That's too perfect. They'll both be
trapped on that little moon base with nowhere to go or hide.""As will you, bitch," Elsie
retorted. "Aw, don't be like that
Elsie. After all, you've wanted revenge on him your whole life, and now you'll
finally get it," Jezebel cackled as she strode back into the forest. "We'll be
in touch Elsie, but for now...I'd get back to reaping a few souls if I were you.
My pets are growing hungry, and you
wouldn't like them when their dinner is running late."With that, Jezebel
disappeared back into the darkness as mysteriously as she arrived. Elsie just
shook her head and looked at the ground.What the hell did I just do? Looking up, she saw her
father standing in the doorway of her hut, scowling and shaking his head."Daddy? What?""Am I really worth more to
you than the last living friend you have, Elsie?""Kyle's not my friend...at
least, not anymore. I made sure of that," she solemnly frowned."If that's true, then why
is he willing to free you from this curse once this is all over?" Elsie looked at the ground
and said nothing. "I know he made some
mistakes, Elsie. God knows I've made plenty of my own. But the difference
between him and me is that he owned up to his faults and tried to redeem
himself. I've just been running from them ever since, but that ends now.""Dad...what are you saying?""Do you really think that
when those bastards take everything they want they'll be content to let me stay
with you for all eternity? They'll consume every living soul they can sink
their fangs into, and we both know I'm 'living' on borrowed time down here."Elsie blinked as her father
stepped out and rested a paw on her shoulder. "I'm not gonna just lay down and
let them take you...you know that right?""I know kiddo, I didn't
raise you to be a pushover. But I didn't raise you to be a traitor either. You
can stop them before they get to Kyle and his friends..."Elsie looked past her
father back into the hut. "Speaking of which...where'd they go? They were inside
just a minute ago.""Kyle already opened a
portal for the three of them and headed off to Europa.""He knows how to do that?"
Elsie gasped. "Apparently," Baker
shrugged. "Should he not?""No...it's just that the more
of my curse and powers he takes on, the weaker I become until my curse fully
shifts to him."Baker raised an eyebrow.
"What would happen to the Baron's sickle then?""He'd lose it, provided
Kyle freed my soul by slaying me. Otherwise the power provided by my weapons is
just divided between the three of us."Baker nodded and folded his
arms across his chest. "Well then you better get to making sure Kyle makes it
out of there alive.""I just..." Elsie's lips
quivered as she looked at the sky and winced. "What's he going to do when he
finds out what happened to Katie? That's my fault.""It wasn't your intent to
give her to them Elsie, you couldn't have known...""I could have left her out
of this!" Elsie screamed at herself. "He's never going to forgive me for what
I've done!"Baker's expression softened
as he saw tears beginning to cloud Elsie's eyes. "Elsie, c'mon baby girl, you
don't know that for sure."Elsie stifled her sobs as
the familiar pain of utter helplessness set in. "And if he won't forgive me...why
should I forgive him?""Elsie!" Baker said as he
rushed towards her to comfort her, only for his daughter to strike him in the
chest and knock him on his butt. "Shit...Elsie, please...just calm down and listen
to me."Elsie ignored him and
started walking towards the river, with Baker staggering to his feet desperate
to stop her."I'll kill him and his slut
of a sister," Elsie growled to herself as she summoned her scythe and prepared
to open a gate back to the land of the living. "I'll kill that demonic wretch,
I'll kill his bitch, I'll kill his pets, I'll fucking kill them all!" Turning around to face her
father one last time, Elsie held her scythe above her and screamed, "Do you
hear me daddy?! I'm gonna kill every last one of them! If Heaven won't open its
gates for you, then you can climb over on the mountain of bodies I'm about to
build."Pulling up her hood,
Elsie's face was once again shrouded in black shadow as all semblances of flesh
disappeared from her limbs and her fingers resembled polished bone. Holding her
skeletal digits before her, she motioned for the river Styx's waters to part as
she stepped into their murky depths and made her way to the UAC Europa
facility. All the while, Baker just stood and watched."My god Elsie...what happened
to the little girl I used to know?" Solemnly, he walked back
into the hovel and locked the door behind him before collapsing on the bed. His
mind felt numb, as did the rest of him. Part of him wished he could just sleep,
but not being alive anymore negated his ability to lose consciousness. The only
thing left to do was let his mind drift over the memories of his past life,
along with the many regrets that came with it. Pondering what he could have
done differently, he realized he never spent as much time as he would have liked
with her. All those days working for the CIA, the many weeks or even months
spent abroad in foreign lands trying to keep the world safe for Elsie...and in
the end he'd never taken the time to appreciate the very thing he'd spent his
life trying to protect. "God, I don't know if you
can hear me," he muttered aloud, "I don't give a crap what you do to me, but if
you're as kind and benevolent as they say you are, then you'll send someone to
save my daughter."Just then there was a knock
at the door. Baker sat up and looked around for something to use as a weapon,
when a female voice huskily purred from the other side."If I wanted to kill you,
Darrel, I'd have already."Baker relaxed a bit and
cautiously opened the door to find a white furred wolfess in a flowing blue
knee high tunic. She was nearly as tall as he was, and even more striking was
the pair of white feathered wings folded behind her back. "If you're not here to kill
me then what's your business?""You asked for a little
help with Elsie, didn't you?" she coyly asked with a smile. "Yeah...like ten seconds
ago.""Shoot, that means I'm late
by five," she grinned. "Who...who are you?" Baker
asked in disbelief."You can call me Remy," the
wolfess said while warmly extending a paw.