Tim Marquitz - Echoes of the Past

I called Katon. A few seconds later a telepathic connection was opened between the two of us. “Hey, I need to find Scarlett. Have you seen her?”

His distinctive voice cut through the psychic ether and sounded inside my head. “I haven’t. What’s wrong?” I could hear the concern in his telepathic voice.

“I don’t know for sure that anything is, but I need to warn her…just in case. The alien and I duked it out over Lucifer. The guy got away, but before he left he told me he would hunt down another person on Earth who shared my uncle’s bloodline. That’s Scarlett.” I heard Katon growl.

“I’ll find her.” He got straight to the point, empty static ringing in my head right after.

He’d developed a crush on my cousin recently, so I could count on him to race to her rescue. Better still, he was capable of defending her, or at least backing her up more than proficiently as Scarlett could take care of herself in a fight. The two together could probably whoop Mihheer’s foreign butt. Figuring Katon had already cut the link, I headed out to hop a ride back to Hell.

Katon surprised me when he cut back in. “Frank?”

I nodded, and then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Yeah?”

“I couldn’t find anything about your alien buddy…”

Seeing how he was trapped in my uncle’s basement for a millennium, I pretty much expected that.

“…I did, however, come across a report of a couple of dimensional anomalies that happened during the fight for Heaven,” he continued. “The first one was just a tiny blip, several dimensions away. It happened at the height of the storms. The contact was blurred and unsteady, and only lasted for a few moments before disappearing or being shielded. It originated from somewhere outside of our connected dimensions so there was no way to trace its origin. The second one was a far more powerful disturbance. It came from within Hell and reached out into the unknown, right around the time we were gathered outside Eden. Rachelle wasn’t able to track that one either, but upon reflection, she said it probably lasted for several hours before it went away. She couldn’t even be sure where in Hell it came from, given how little attention she’d paid it.”

I sighed, thanking Katon for the information. He signed off to find Scarlett, promising to let me know as soon as he did. Once he was gone, I made my way to a portal to Hell, all the ones at DRAC shut down. It gave me some time to think about what Katon had told me.

The first blip was most likely Hasstor. He’d said his arrival would most be noticed, and it seemed he was right. While Rachelle had been with us then, she was still unconsciously scanning the integrity of the dimensional walls to be sure nothing came through and surprised us. A powerful mystic, she was in tune with the ether and would have reported the disturbances had she not been so distracted.

The second incident was Baalth’s little science project. He’d always underestimated Rachelle and her ability to pierce the gloom of protective wards and spells. She was far more powerful than anyone gave her credit for, her flighty and distracted nature the perfect cover for her astounding abilities. She, no doubt, picked up on Baalth’s gate as he tried to block it from view. I smiled at that, the information giving me something to dig at Baalth with. He hated being one-upped.

As I headed off to the portal, laughing, a cold realization popped into my head. My laughter died.

Baalth was already gone by the time we reached Iran. He was with Lucifer then.

All of sudden it made sense. It couldn’t have been Baalth’s portal that Rachelle sensed. It had to be another one; one that had been used to summon Mihheer to our universe.

Gorath was in Hell.

Panic fueled my rush to find a portal. If Mihheer could track me using just the tiny bit of my essence found in the vial I’d buried at my mother’s grave, would he have a problem finding Lucifer were Baalth’s portal to be opened? In the midst of a war, it was a good bet they’d be calling on the power fairly regularly, opening up a glowing beacon that led straight to my uncle.

Another thought came to me, smashing into the insides of my skull like a bullet train. Mihheer finding Lucifer wasn’t the worst that could happen.

Back in Hell, my heart was drumming a blast beat in my chest. I ran through the corridors of Lucifer’s chambers and down into the fiend room. Barely able to breathe, I pointed at the wall where Poe had magicked his way into the hidden chambers and set the dread fiends loose on it. I didn’t have time to figure out how to open the door, but I sure as shit could tear it down. In a whirlwind of claws, hundreds of the sub-demons attacking it without hesitation, the wall gave way and revealed the corridor beyond. I waved the fiends aside and ran through the ravaged opening, sucking in deep breaths of gray dust, which had yet to settle.

After another minute or so, I was at the door to Baalth’s portal. The cadre of fiends still outside was a good sign. I shooed them aside and burst into the room, slamming the door shut behind me. The flux of energy nearly knocked me on my ass as I charged for the tub that held McConnell.

Poe met me halfway and blocked my path, but I ignored him and looked over his shoulder to see Baalth. He stood before the tub, his hands aglow with power. Sweat streamed across his forehead as he unleashed burst after burst of magical energy to be absorbed by McConnell and the system they’d devised. The wizard’s shadow flopped about inside as Baalth fed more and more of his power into the tub. At last, the barrage stopped and Baalth crumpled to his knees.

Poe gave me a dirty look and ran to help his boss. I followed after. He gently eased Baalth to his feet. There was nothing resembling the demon lieutenant I remembered. He was exhausted, drained of nearly every drop of his energy. His essence felt like a trickle in the ocean against my senses.

Baalth hung nearly lifeless in Poe’s arm as the mentalist growled at me. “What the hell are you doing here?” He’d left out Mister Trigg, so I knew he was pissed.

“Has the portal been opened?” I asked him, in a rush. “Has it?”

Poe must have caught on to my panic and looked to Baalth. The demon nodded.

I felt my ball sack retract. “We’re in deep shit.”

Poe stared at me without understanding. “What are you-“ He didn’t get any further.

The door to the room exploded off the hinges and flew inward in pieces. Chunks of dread fiend came with it, coating the floor in stinky yellow bile and demon guts. I spun to meet Mihheer as he leapt inside. Poe twisted away to defend Baalth, the two hobbling off in the other direction.

Mihheer didn’t seem surprised to see me. He laughed as he charged straight ahead. There was a book in his hand, and it was glowing blue. I drew my power to me just as a swarm of mutant spiders exploded from the pages in an arachnid volcano.

Mihheer tossed the book in my direction. My first instinct was to throw up a shield. Thousands of creepy little twelve-legged spiders slammed into it as though it were a windshield on the highway to Hell. The book hit a second later and I spied the author’s name as it bounced off. I cringed when I noticed it was the Stephen King story, The Mist. Great read, but I sure didn’t want to be part of the story.

I batted away the mass of creatures, but they were everywhere. They crawled across the shield and around the edges, pushing their way underneath and dropping down from the roof above. A couple of them bit me as I was shaking them off, but it wasn’t too bad. I’ve had worse hickies.

Right then, I heard Poe scream.

I spun around and realized the spiders had been nothing more than a distraction. Mihheer stood before Poe and Baalth, both lying flat on their backs. Poe was holding his face. Blood bubbled up between his fingers, thick and dark. Baalth didn’t seem able to move.