Chapter 8: City of the Tormented

All rights reserved © by Jsovirall

Today was Wednesday. We were still in the land of Dempee. We followed Marphious and her tribe deeper in the woods. Mundie was next to me. Rest wasn’t a word used in the demon world. Exhaustion was the harsh truth of survival in a world where deception was notorious.

Marphious told us that the eyes of Harlem had the power to restore the broken energy within the Hacranium knife to make it more powerful. During the time Harlem reigned as the protector of the human race, she was given the power of the Semidomes: These were stones forged from Dabias' sorcery and polished by the ancient demons of Hanasabashan'thahabian. I can't even call the word. These demons were masters of forgery. They could forge anything. It was said Harlem's eyes became purple when she was consumed by the power of the Hacranium making her more powerful than ever. It was then the innocent turned on her and killed her. She transformed into a demon—her eyes became darkness but her powers became most powerful. That was why the innocent had to remove her eyes to put an end to her wicked ways.

If the eyes of Harlem were discovered by the wrong hands evil would reign upon the land of the living. The chosen one must find the eyes of Harlem and agglutinate them with the Hacranium knife. One of Harlem's eyes was in the badlands of Dempee where Umtacks abode. Umtacks were demons that moved on their hands and feet similar to animals. They were nude and hairless. Their eyes were white and their teeth were chisel-shaped. They had no nose and ears. They would do anything to protect the eyes of Harlem.

Marphious stopped because she sensed something. I could see the smoke of fear oozing from her eyes.

"The demons from the underworld have risen. SHE has awakened them. They are coming for us. All of us. We must find the eyes of Harlem and restore the power of the Hacranium blade. We don't have much time." Marphious pronounced.

"She's right. I can sense them too. We are running out of time. We can't let them get the eyes of Harlem to give to their mother for she will use it for pure evil." Mundie added. Marphious whistled and dog-hounds arrived. The dog-hounds, big and black sprinted toward us following their mistress command. The dog-hound I was on was red. A white stripe was on it. The dog-hounds were very fast. We rode them like horses to the badlands. The badland was dead-silent and a bit foggy. The withered dried trees saluted the cursed atmosphere of the badlands. Their roots went deep in the black soil. I felt strange like something was pulling me into the badlands. Maybe the trees had magical powers. 

"Mattew, are you okay?" Jean asked.

"What's wrong?" Melisha joined.

"I feel strange like something is pulling me in," I answered.

"Wait, I can feel it too." Melisha and Jean said. We could hear the voices of demons in our heads trying to control us.

"Ha laha ya na madiduun antee sha apaa lah sinchee!" Marphious spoke in her demonic tongue and the demonic voices stopped in our heads. I didn’t want to experience that again.

"Let's go. Get ready for war. The Umtacks are already watching us." Marphious said. I could hear movements everywhere. Suddenly, the atmosphere became dead silent. Mundie looked around and bam! One of the Umtacks jumped on him and tried to bite his neck. He managed to get it off and then broke its neck. Melisha, Jean, Mundie, Marphious, her tribe, and I fought our way through the Umtacks until we reach the Fountain of Youth that was dried up. The eyes of Harlem weren't there. We continued until we saw a beast demon with chains around its neck, hands, and feet. The beast had an ax.

"It can't be...impossible. This is one of the demons from the underworld. It's the Anaton—God of pain. He is guarding one of the eyes of Harlem. We must defeat him before he can defeat us. Mattew, use the blade of death to kill this beast from the underworld." Marphious said to me. I told her okay. We all fought the beast together and defeated it. Anaton was badly injured but he wasn’t dead yet. What could go wrong? The Hacranium knife fell from me during combat with the beast of the underworld. Anaton struggled to get up. Melisha took up the blade of death and threw it to me. Now I had a knife in my grasp again. Surely I was going to put an end to Anaton. I pushed the blade of death into one of its eyes and watched it die. I retrieved one of the eyes of Harlem from the place Anaton was guarding but one of the eyes of Harlem was missing.

"Wait, the other eye is at Therbia. We must leave now while we can. Call the dog-hounds and let's go." Mundie said to Marphious. She called the dog-hounds, we mounted them and rode off.

After hours of riding, we reached Therbia. The trees of the forest were withered and dried. Many dried leaves were on the ground. I saw a few tombstones. The breath of the fog wasn’t upon the land of Therbia. The radiance of the clouds welcomed the forest politely.

We started walking on the path in the forest as we followed Mundie and Marphious. Many demons speculated that the witch of Therbia was the one who had stolen one of the eyes of Harlem to harness her powers. However, the witch could harness Harlem’s power because she wasn't chosen. Only the chosen ones could use the eyes of Harlem. The witch of Therbia was called Goklam—the demon of deception. With her was a strange wolf that could see the future and also raise the devoured souls that Goklam consumed. Where ever she was present the wolf was present. They were bound by a spell that SHE placed on them. We must find the witch of Therbia to find the other eye of Harlem. That was the plan but we had a long way to go. Goklam was a mistress of deception and so we must proceed cautiously in her domain.

Suddenly, darkness swallowed the land within minutes and the trees started making unearthly noises. Jean and Melisha were next to me. Mundie, Marphious, and her four Kamolians were in front of us. The atmosphere had become stagnant. The wind became frightened by the sudden darkness and refused to be active. The Hacranium knife started glowing brightly. It could sense that Goklam was close by. I felt the presence of evil approaching. The eyes of death were secretly staring at my soul.

"What day is today?" I asked Melisha and Jean. I had a feeling that the sudden change in atmosphere was similar to the ones I have experienced in my haunted house.

"Oh my God! Today is Creepy Thursday." Melisha and Jean clamored. All of us could feel a strong demonic force trying to make us demented. Goklam was indeed powerful. Demons with red glowing eyes attacked us strategically. They were consumed by darkness only their eyes we could see.

"Make sure all of you stay on the path no matter what," Marphious said. She engulfed herself in flames. At that very moment, we saw a beast running towards us. The light from the Hacranium knife protected us. Melisha stopped. I saw a black slimy hand with long claw-like fingernails on one of her shoulders. An invisible entity was trying to pull her off the path by grabbing one of her legs. She screamed. Jean grabbed onto Melisha while I use the Hacranium light against the demon of darkness. It disappeared in the darkness. I was shivering. I couldn’t even hold onto the knife properly. Something pulled Mundie in the darkness and killed Marphious' four Kamolians. We couldn't even see what we were fighting against. Jean, Melisha, and I started running. The thick darkness swallowed Marphious within seconds. My spine was tingling. I could hear the wings of something big flying over our heads in the eternal darkness.

"Mattew! Mattew!" Jean screamed while something pulled her into the darkness and then it took Melisha also. I was the only one left. I was ripe in fear but I wasn't going to let the mouth of darkness swallow me. I heard a little girl singing behind me. When I turned around I was face-to-face with a demon lady that had no eyes. She was naked and worms were coming out of her body. It was an awful sight to witness. She walked backward until she disappeared into the darkness.

"We are going to get you. Your soul belongs to us. Mattew!" The spirit sang.

I saw a woman in full white standing at a distance with a baby. Her bowels were hanging out of her and touching the ground. Both she and the baby were covered in blood. Within the blink of an eye, she was standing in front of me. My heart felt cold and lost. I was the only one left in a nightmare I couldn’t escape. The woman swallowed the baby and vomited blood on me. She was trying to make me run off the path but I didn't. She ran off in the darkness. Infuriated she was. I knew she wasn’t finished with me. She walked out of the eternal darkness and approached me with her hands clasped. It was Goklam and the wolf approaching me. Something strange was happening. The Hacranium knife was talking to me. It told me to kneel before Goklam and let the wolf show me the way I must go. I knelt before Goklam. The wolf placed one of its paws on my head. I saw the past and the future of Goklam and what was going to happen if the eyes of Harlem were to be in the wrong hands. I saw Harlem's eyes pulling me in its eyes with the blade of death. I could see a wormhole. I started seeing the future. I saw Jean and Melisha lifeless. The human world was being overrun by demons. The demons were committing an act of genocide on humans. I reached for the eyes of Harlem with my spiritual energy and grabbed it out of the wormhole.

When I opened my eyes, all of the darkness had disappeared from the forest of Therbia. The witch Goklam was on the ground. She was in a vintage black garment. She was weak because I was more powerful than she was. The wolf revived Goklam and she stood. Some trees magically expelled Marphious, Mundie, Melisha, and Jean from their [tree] barks. I had the two eyes of Harlem now. It was still Creepy Thursday but at least we survived another demon confrontation. Goklam kneeled before me.

"You are indeed the chosen one. I will fight alongside you in the great battle to come to defeat the queen of the demon world." Goklam said and the wolf raised one of its paws as a sign of trust.

We were going to the Valley of the shadow of Death to reach Bahal: The land of the sorcery stone where I will combine the Hacranium knife with the eyes of Harlem. We traveled until we reached the City of the Tormented. Ruination was the face of the city. It was abandoned. Only a few trapped tormented spirits dwelled in the lifeless city. The apparitions inflicted pain upon themselves and committed suicide repeatedly to taste their final deaths. However, dying wasn’t possible. The spirits were imprisoned by an eternal loop of torment. Their greatest desire was death. They felt unbearable pain. The horrifying screams kept replaying in my ears as the apparitions continue to hope for a wish they wouldn’t get. Bam! An old lady jumped from the top of a nearby roof in front of us. She was trying to kill herself like the rest of the tormented spirits.

"Kill me, please! I beg you." The old woman begged Jean. Jean couldn't kill her and neither could Melisha.

"Going through the City of the Tormented is the safest route to get to the Valley of the shadow of death,” Mundie said. Goklam and the wolf were side-by-side. She was quiet.

Goklam told us a story about the City of the Tormented. The City of the Tormented used to be a city of togetherness and life. The spirits that dwell in the city once were good until SHE came along and corrupted the city with darkness. Darkness can be both good and bad but many humans in the human world think that darkness was pure evil. It was the source of truth and a greater understanding and the dark ones knew. That was why they dethroned the demon queen. They saw that SHE was going to use it for evil and she did. After SHE understood the prophecy and the power of the dark ones she destroyed them all and corrupted the demon world with her doctrines and authoritarianism. The tormented souls only wished for death.

Mundie saw one of his kind cutting one of its arms off. There was blood everywhere but its arm kept growing back. Continuous pain was its answer. Well, at least we were taking it easy for now. We were going to find a safe spot to rest.

After a long walk on the street of bitterness and terrifying suicidal attempts, we went into a building that Goklam told us was the safest place to stay. She cast a spell on the building to protect us. It was like a shield to keep us safe. The night was going to be upon the land soon. There are many deadly demons out there that can attack us at any time so we needed to be prepared. To make things even worse, the demons from the underworld were unleashed. I was the target. They all wanted the Hacranium knife and the eyes of Harlem to give to SHE—the evil one. The queen of the demon world. SHE wanted to be the supreme ruler for everything.

Anyway, we all went upstairs while some tormented spirits staggered down the staircase. They knew that they were alive but they were lifeless. They didn't even care that we were invading their space. We finally found a good apartment to stay in. It was old but it was safe. The wolf put a protective shield around the apartment. In the demon world, you have to be well prepared. Anything can happen at any time. The shield that the wolf cast upon the apartment was two-sided. If you were outside you would see the shield as a part of the building. The exterior of the shield was similar to camouflage. The interior of the shield was dark [we could still see outside] and it gave illumination to the apartment. The protective shield was soundproof also. The witch Goklam was very handy with her magic. She used her magic to make the old apartment new. It was shinny. She had talent. The refrigerator was packed with food, beverages, and water. 

Melisha opened the bathroom door. She wanted to take a bath. Jean wanted to take a bath also. Melisha was going to take a bath first. She told me that she was cramped because she wanted to go number one and number two. Jean wanted to do the same thing. To be honest, me too. Sometimes I forget that I was a human. Anyway, the ladies used the bathroom. They smelled nice.

"Aren't you ladies forgetting something?" Mundie asked Melisha and Jean.

"What? They asked.

"The Exelliums. You need to keep them on at all times."

"Yes, he is right otherwise the demons can pick up your scent from a mile away. Put them back on." Marphious joined. Melisha and Jean put on their Exelliums while Mundie and Marphious cooked food for everyone to eat. While I was taking a shower I remembered Mary Lynn. I saw her pointing at the lake. I was having a sudden vision. As I came out of the shower, I saw writing on the wall. She wrote ‘A Mole’ then she disappeared. I dried myself, did my laundry, and put on the Exellium. Mary Lynn's spirit was telling me that one of the demons was a mole.

Everyone was eating except for me. I was still trying to figure out who was the mole. It was a plan. It was all a plan. They wanted me to find the eyes of Harlem in order to combine them with the Hacranium knife so that they could take it from me.

Do you know what they say? If you live to see another day you are a survivor. I don't even know what I am saying but it does make sense. We survived the night. I was the first one to wake up. The others were sleeping. The wolf was awake. It looked at me as if it knew a mole was among us. I went to the bathroom to piddle. Guess who I saw? It was the demon cat drying himself with one of the towels.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" I asked.

"I followed you guys here. Close the door and be quiet. There is something that I need to tell you." The demon cat said.

"Okay, what?"

"SHE has poisoned--" the demon cat was about to tell me something important then Melisha entered the bathroom.

"Mattew, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you were in here. Who were you talking to?"

"I was just humming a song that was all."

"Why don't you have your Exellium on?"

"Because I need to pee and take a bath. Are you finished?"

"Yeah, I am." I lied. She entered the bathroom and then I exited. I didn't know where the demon cat was. Probably he disappeared.

Now, everyone was awake. I had a strange feeling that they all know what I was going to say. Before I could say it Goklam did.

"I am the demon of deception and there is a traitor among us. I can sense the deceiving patterns plotting within this room. SHE is among us." Goklam said.

"Goklam, if that is the case then this was all a setup. I know I am not the mole." Mundie said. Marphious was very silent. Jean stood beside me. We all stared at one each other for about two minutes. That was when the Hacranium knife told me to test them by placing the blade on each of them. If smoke were to ooze from one of them then that person would be the mole. I was so nervous. The demon cat told me that ‘SHE has poisoned’…I didn't think he was talking about the demons. I tested, Jean, the wolf, Goklam, Marphious, and Mundie. It wasn’t them. Melisha exited the bathroom and became curious as to why everyone was staring at her.

"Melisha, we have all concluded that you are the chosen one. Here is the Hacranium knife. I thought it was me all along but it wasn't. It was you." I lied.

"What? Are you sure?" Melisha asked.

"Yes, I am sure. Don't you want the Hacranium knife?"

"I think so." She replied. As she touched the Hacranium knife smoke oozed from the palms of her hand.

"You figured it out." SHE said. Melisha's eyes became black and now she had the features of a demon. She climbed on the walls like a spider trying to run from us. She wanted to escape.

"Her body belongs to me now," Melisha said in a demonic voice and laughed. The demon cat exited the bathroom with a gun. He was ready to catch Melisha.

"That was what I was trying to tell you. She was poisoned by Mother from your human world." The cat said to me. Oh, now I remembered. It was that time she vomited the three fish. All this time she was tricking me.

"What are you waiting for? Do you want this p*ssy to do the work for you?" The demon cat said to me. Mundie took up Melisha's Exellium while Melisha smashed through Goklam and the wolf’s protective shield. She fell on the road and started running on all four as if she was an animal. She ran through the tormented spirits that crowded the street. We had to chase her and catch her before she fully turns into a demon—a puppet that SHE would control. Together we jumped through the window and then started chasing her. Melisha was very fast but the demon cat was behind her.

After twenty minutes, we still couldn’t catch Melisha. She entered a building and we continued to chase her. Mundie almost caught her but she got away. I saw her going down a staircase. I jumped at her without hesitating. I grabbed her while the demon cat approached. Melisha was very strong. She managed to get out of my grip. The demon cat chased her. The cat shot her and knocked her out on the street.

Goklam, Marphious, and the wolf spoke their demonic tongues and the darkness within Melisha's body came out of her mouth. Melisha became normal again after she vomited green liquid. She embraced and Jean and me.

"Put this on to stay safe. We have a long journey ahead of us." Mundie said to her. He gave Melisha her Exellium. Goklam gently slapped Melisha’s face with a water hand magic to clean her face. I think I will give the demon cat a nickname name. I will call him DC—short for demon cat. He was walking away with a sad face.

"Hey, DC, do you want to come with us?" I asked him.

"I thought you would never ask. Of course, I would love to. Let's go." DC said. 

Read Chapter 9

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