Hellborne

Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Eva screamed and everybody in the room went silent.

In an instant, Madden was peering into her eyes. “Eva, what is it? What did you see?”

Beyond words, unsure of whether the vision had been real, but still smelling the stench of decayed flesh, Eva pointed at the window.

“There’s something out there,” warned Swanson, following her gaze.

Before anybody could stop him, Madden leapt to his feet, the force of his movement whipping the air past Eva’s face. Gila tried to shout a warning, but Madden was out the door and outside the window in moments. He appeared in the distance, as if chasing something or someone, but then stopped and turned back. Approaching the window, he shrugged and mouthed the word ‘Nothing’.

“So two of you saw something out there?” Madden asked when he re-entered the hall. He knelt next to Eva, holding her hand.

“There was somebody out there, peering in from the side, when I heard Eva scream,” Swanson stated. “I stake my reputation on it. Eva, what did you see?”

Sure now she was safe, Eva said, “Death. Fire. The end of this place. I saw the Behemoth. It hungers for me.”

By the sudden increase in pulse, and the sweat on his hand, Eva knew he was incensed. Madden turned his rage on Swanson.

“You said we would be safe here! You said this was over!”

“Who knows what drove Eva to see what she did,” Swanson countered. “I saw something, too. What it was, I cannot say. I thought it was a man.”

Eva felt suddenly drained, and halted the argument before it became any more heated. “Madden, today has been the best day of my life, but I’m exhausted. Can we go home?”

He squeezed her hand in response. “Of course, we can.”

That night Eva's dreams were haunted by the recent past. Iuvart, Behemoth, Brian. Other nameless faces and shapeless forms. All sought her. Portals sprang open and nightmares erupted from them, beings of twisted flesh screamed obscenities at her. Gibbous, drooling creatures with leather wings stretched impossibly thin over deformed skeletal protrusions hungered for her. Only one thing kept them from her. Her unborn child was a beacon of hope and, in times gone by, her most ardent protector. Somehow, the child within held them at bay.

In time, she woke, gasping for air and sweating profusely. Laying her arms around her middle she hugged her bump, aware that as was his preference lately, Madden would be up already.

“Thank you,” she said to it, sure in the belief her gratitude was received.

Resting for a moment, Eva wondered what Madden was doing, until she heard two axes chopping wood outside.

She groaned as she stood, throwing her hands out to the wall to steady herself before making her way to the window. Throwing it open, she breathed in the chill of the early morning air, scented heavily with pine. Having adapted to many Nordic customs, she accepted the cold air was good for mother and baby alike. The two-toned call of a cuckoo echoed through the forest. Mornings were always her favorite time. The day was still so innocent.

Outside Madden and Eyvind were trading blows as they assaulted a pile of wood. Eyvind Moltke was an accountant by trade, but owned and ran the house with Rikke, hiding, by his own admission, persons of significant ARC interest. He was a heavy set man with dark, curly hair threatening to reach down his back. He wore a jacket unlike Madden who had stripped bare to the waist, covered in sweat, and glistening in the early morning.

Intense physical exercise had been a large part of his recuperation, and the way the muscles of his shoulders bunched under his skin, Eva could see the benefits of the therapy. He glanced up and waved, resuming his attack on the woodpile shortly thereafter.

Not wanting to distract him anymore, Eva washed and dressed, making her way down to the kitchen. Scents of breakfast assailed her as she opened the door. Toast, bacon, and the sweet scent of honey made her realize how truly famished she was.

Sitting at the table near the bay window offered a fantastic view of the road and forest beyond. She smiled at Gila who had a mouth full of honeyed oatmeal. The house was large enough that Eva and Madden shared it with both Eyvind and Rikke, as well as Swanson and Gila. In an instant, Rikke had poured her a large steaming mug of decaffeinated coffee and placed a large plate piled with toast and bacon under her nose. The combined smell of the two was enough to make her ignore her first sip of coffee.

Nodding thanks, Eva eyed the food, slathering butter all over the toast and placing a healthy amount of bacon between two slices.

“Bacon isn't the best food to be eating in such a quantity this late in your pregnancy,” Gila warned.

Eva tilted her head to one side, seeking inward for any sign of warning. There was none.

“Baby says it is fine,” she countered.

Gila shrugged. The answer was good enough for her.

In the preceding months, what could only be described as a force had protected Eva any number of times. It came from within, and grew stronger as the pregnancy advanced. Eva had been forced to reassess the limits of reality since meeting her current companions. Demons should not exist, yet they did. Her reasoning stretched now to include the idea that if evil existed then so did good. In short, Eva concluded she had found faith. What good that did her she had yet to determine.

Eva made short work of the food, and relaxed with the coffee.

“Feel better?” Gila moved to an adjacent seat so they could chat without shouting. The large whitewashed kitchen had a wood burning stove that crackled and spat as pine logs too full of resin burned down, enhancing the scent of the trees outside.

“I do, now,” Eva admitted. “Not a good night's sleep. Being awake and exhausted is the easy option lately.”

“You went through a hell of an ordeal, Eva.”

“Yeah, literally,” Eva agreed and the two women laughed. “Madden is right, though. There is something missing since the portal closed. He is the same man on the surface, yet there is an indefinable absence to him.”

“You are aware of what defined Madden, and you saw part of that ripped away. He might still be that same man, but you have to seek those parts of him and bring them to the surface. He has a wife and soon, a child to protect. He just needs to remember that.”

“He remembers that all too well,” Madden said from the doorway. “But there is more to it than that. Eva is the qualified professional. With what do I protect my wife and unborn child beyond my irascible nature and a skill set unique to a demon that no longer exists? Where do we go now if not at the whim and difference of ARC? We may as well be prisoners for all that our cell is rustic and surrounded by forest. I'm gonna take a shower.”

Not giving Eva a chance to placate him, Madden crossed the kitchen, slamming the door behind him. Eva winced at the noise.

“You need to make him see, Eva. Go after him. Do not let this fester.” Gila's stare was deadly serious.

“What if he just doesn't want to?”

“Then all you fought for on that mountain is lost.”

Perplexed at what she was supposed to do to convince Madden that there was more to life than being a reborn demon, Eva crept hesitantly up the stairs. The ancient carpet, worn and, in places, entirely bare, mixed with the scents of the aged pine beams to create an aroma straight from antiquity. The wooden steps creaked under foot, reminding Eva, if she needed such reminders, of her delicate condition. As she topped the stairs, the sound of water rushing from the showerhead indicated Madden was already in. She decided to wait for him to come to the bedroom.

Reaching for the handle, a noise gave Eva cause to wait. As quietly as she could, she put her ear to the door. Two people were talking. The words were indistinct, but Eva managed to pick out the words ‘born’ and ‘master’.

She threw the door open to find Elaine rising up from the bed Eva shared with Madden.

“Elaine, what are you doing?”

Stone-faced, Elaine answered, “Tidying up after you; someone has to clear up this mess.”

Eva peered into the room. It was spotless, exactly as it had been when she had left it not a half hour before.

“Who were you talking to? I heard voices.”

“Don’t you ever talk to yourself?” Came Elaine’s more than defensive reply. “People seldom make sense. Sometimes it’s the only way to get a decent answer, especially when nobody listens to you.”

Elaine shouldered past, stomping down the stairs and muttering to herself.

Eva watched for a moment, bemused, and then turned back to the bedroom. Examining the bed, she found there was a clear impression of a body stretched out on the side Madden usually slept. Furthermore, there were impressions of a second person on her side.

The door creaked, and Eva jumped, her hands going to her belly in reflex.

Madden peered in. “Sorry, love, didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s not you. Elaine was in here, apparently talking to herself.”

Eva described the brief encounter while Madden stood in the doorway, a towel wrapped round his waist.

“Interesting,” he concluded. “Has she ever done this before?”

“Not in all the time I have known her.” Eva realized that purely by chance, she had stumbled on exactly the sort of cause that would make her husband forget his woes: a mystery.

“I will keep an eye on her and ask Rick to do the same. Maybe we can have Swanson dig a bit deeper.”

“Be careful. It is probably nothing. God knows we have all had cause to become a bit unhinged in the past year. She’s probably innocent. Everyone goes a bit mad at times.”

Madden chuckled, and gently hugged her. The warmth in his bare muscles comforted her as never before. “I’ll be down in a minute. Go have some more breakfast. You aren’t eating enough.” He swatted her rear and closed the door behind her.

Back in the kitchen, breakfast had become a crowded affair. Eyvind had joined his wife, and Swanson had appeared. They were crowded around the table. There was no sign of either Rick or Elaine.

“They are taking point outside,” Swanson said when he caught Eva’s eye. The look on his face said as plain as day he was aware something was up.

Eva smiled at Gila as she entered, and nodded. Resuming her place, she helped herself to another dose of bacon and thick, toasted bread.

Soon, Madden joined them and did the same.

“Better?” Swanson asked.

Madden shrugged. “It comes and goes. I have good moments and bad moments. I don’t foresee any change.”

“Well, let me put your mind hopefully at ease,” Swanson offered. “Given your importance in the events recently played out, you can consider yourselves operatives of ARC, with all the benefits therein granted. You are unlikely to want for anything ever again since you basically saved this planet and every living soul on it. Once the media frenzy quietens down, we can discuss where we go from there.”

“How much are you talking? Salary-wise?” Madden asked, earning a smack on the arm from Eva.

Swanson laughed. “Madden, the ARC budget is almost without limit. As such, we don’t tend to think in terms of financial gain. Ask and it is yours, within reason, of course before you decide on a rocket car and solid gold house.”

“What about jobs?” Eva asked. “Could I, for example, resume practicing psychology?”

“There is no reason to presume otherwise. ARC has facilities all over the planet. Our organization is split between the theological and the scientific. We have portal research, green energy, research, logistics, media, security, and global defense. You name it; we have it under our umbrella. Believe me; you two will be in great demand. I might recommend you not going back to Worcester though. There are more issues there than the consequences of a few escaped demons.”

Eva shuddered at the thought of the detective who would not believe her, and of Brian, under the influence of gluttony, tearing a small child apart.

“What do you do? We never really covered that in all our time together. I thought you were just some on-call hero type.”

Swanson took a sip of his coffee. “For my sins, I am the ARC council member in charge of defense and tactics. My responsibilities include frontline threat response, portal monitoring, and of course now Legion, your own private army.”

“And do all of your family sit on this council?” Madden asked, a touch of cynicism in his voice.”

“Only my uncle, Daniel. He heads up Security and Global Response. On occasion, other members of my family have been involved, but only on merit. Obviously, Jerome founded ARC, and many of the council of twelve are descended from the original members.”

“So why are you out here and not wherever your council is?” Madden continued.

“We have seven sitting members of the council so as to always ensure a vote. The remaining five are non-sitting and while they have to travel to the headquarters every so often, they can effect better change elsewhere.”

“Such as your work in Cairo,” Eva provided.

“Exactly,” Swanson replied, his face animated.”

Eva glanced around the table. Everybody had stopped eating to listen.

“Thanks to your recent involvement, we now have a much more complete record of portals to Hell and where they open. It seems across the world, portals began to spring into life at the anticipation of the scroll being completely accessed. Of course it was not, yet we have records of all, and footage of many. Some in the strangest of places. One opened up right over the Grand Canyon, if you can believe it. Lightning was hitting the ground all over the place. We have energy signatures the likes of which we have never before seen.”

“Do you think this is what happened last time?” Eva asked.

“Maybe,” replied Gila, “although mankind was not as prolific back in those days, and, as such, the detail was sketchy. Some wall art, ancient hieroglyphic passages that have been deciphered hint at a cataclysmic event in the ancient past. There are a few drawings too faint to make any meaning of. Mostly word of mouth carried the tale through the ages. But there is one source we now know to be irrefutable.”

“The book of Revelations.” Madden confirmed.

“Exactly,” Gila said in triumph. “The scroll of judgment is real. The tale is real. These beings exist and now the whole world has seen it. You have seen it up close.”

“Whether they choose to believe it is another matter entirely.” Swanson added as he spread butter on yet more toast. He waved his knife in Eva's direction. “You, my dear, might well end up the focal point for a new religion.”

“Great,” Madden said in a sullen tone. “I get to become Joseph to your Mary.”

“What you get to do, Mr. Madden Scott, is spend every waking moment on this earth at my side,” Eva replied, and pointed at her belly. “With us, your family. What more could you want from your second stint, third even, on this earth?”

Gila put her hand on Madden's arm. “All of our research indicates only one other had the chance you do, to live a second life on earth, and he only did it for a day.”

Madden stared in astonishment at Gila. “Are you saying Jesus was a hellbounce? That He rid himself of the demon?”

“Maybe He was the first hellbounce. Maybe he was the original.”

There was a twinkle in Gila's eye and Eva could see she was playing with him. Madden caught on eventually, and the table erupted in laughter. Madden took her hand to reassure her, but Eva could not help but think there was a deeper meaning to Gila's tale, as if her story was not yet complete.