“Oh I’ll take her,” he said as he grabbed my arm.
I watched myself disappear and a moment later we were standing near the large gates at the entrance of the Pits. He dragged me over to the guards.
“Open up!” he commanded.
Neither of the guards spoke; they just quickly opened the gates and stood aside. We went through and the gates shut behind us. We walked across the wasteland for a couple of minutes, again in silence. The screams that surrounded us grew louder and louder as we walked further in. I went cold, so cold I started to shake. I felt sick to my stomach. The screams and cries were really starting to affect me. How many people must be here? I thought to myself. He stopped us walking and put his hand out in front of him, his palm facing the floor. The ground seemed to dissolve in front of us, showing the true form of the Pits.
My legs gave way underneath me and Eligos let me fall to the floor. Now I knew I was in Hell; until this point it had just felt like another realm. I looked down. The hole seemed to go down forever. It had layers on the outskirts of the hole, with stone steps leading to each one, all with different torture devices and tunnels leading off them, but I couldn’t see where they led too. People of all kinds and species were tied up, being whipped with large chains by creatures like the one who had brought Elizabeth to me. Scaly creatures, red or yellow in color. Others were being burned with what looked like pokers, and cut and beaten when they tried to fight them off. There were so many of them, all of them crying and screaming, trying their best to run away. None of them could escape. People were climbing the walls, trying to get away, to hide themselves for some time before they were tortured again, but the creatures would grab them and beat them, before dragging them to whichever torture device wasn’t currently being used. I saw people being dismembered, having their hands sawn off while they were fully conscious. Both men and women were being abused. I couldn’t see what was happening on the layers further down and I was glad. My stomach couldn’t take it. I dragged myself a few feet away and threw up. Tears rolled down my face. How could anyone have deserved that? Not even the movies back home could have made something so horrific. Eligos dragged me to my feet and out of the Pits. As soon as we were outside of the gate he took us to his castle.
We reappeared in one of his living rooms. He pushed me on to the couch and left the room, I felt numb, sick and dizzy. I couldn’t move. I was half lying on the sofa, my legs hanging off and my feet still slightly touching the floor. I heard Eligos walk back into the room and he slammed a glass of water on the table in front of me.
“Drink it!” he said coldly.
I couldn’t move; I was frozen.
“Keira, I said drink it.”
I felt tears run down my face again. I couldn’t stop them. I had no control over what my body was doing. He grabbed me again and sat me up. He had to hold on to me; if he had let go I would have most likely fallen on my side again.
“Say something!” he said, shaking me lightly.
“All…all…those peo…ple!” I managed to say.
“It’s not a pleasant place, is it?” he said plainly. “But you had to see it; you had to see it with your own eyes. Maybe now you won’t be so stupid.”
I didn’t understand how it hadn't affected him; it didn’t seem to bother him at all. I knew he had been here a long time and he had probably seen it many times. But could someone ever get used to that, to watching those people being hurt so badly, knowing it would happen to them over and over again. Some of them would be down there forever. After seeing that, two minutes down there would have been unbearable. This was the place I was going to end up spending eternity, could I really do that now I knew what happened here?
He put the glass of water in my hands and held them around the glass.
“Try and sip it,” he said, his tone warming slightly.
He held my hands as I brought the glass to my mouth and managed to take a few sips.
“How could you have been so stupid?” he shouted, putting the glass back on the table.
“Don't…shout at me,” I croaked.
“DON'T SHOUT!” he said, getting up of the sofa. “What do you expect me to do, Keira?”
“Please, don't sho…”
“What did you think you were doing, why didn’t you tell me what you wanted to do. Why are you so selfish?”
“Selfish!” I said shocked.
How could I possibly be selfish when I just risked everything to bring a woman out of there?
“Yes, SELFISH!” he shouted. “How do you think Elizabeth would have felt if Lilith had thrown you down there? Well? Did you even stop to think about that?”
“No.”
“What about me?” he asked, knocking the glass of water off the table so hard it smashed against the wall.
“What about you?” I asked.
“What about me?” he repeated after me, the look of hurt appearing on his face. “What would I have done if she’d have thrown you down there? How do you think I would have felt, knowing what those creatures would be doing to you? I couldn’t have lived knowing that they were hurting you…” His voice trailed off for a moment. “…Touching you…” he managed to say.
Then I thought about the creatures raping the women down there.
“Do you think I could just stay here and wait for them to stop…touching you, abusing you like that.”
I looked up at him; his fists were clenched by his sides. His eyes we’re blood red, a sure sign of him being upset and furious. “If you had been sent there I would have come for you. I would have been caught and killed,” he told me.
Fear filled me at the thought of him being taken from me. Then I realized how he was feeling, he had been frightened.
“Eligos, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry, doesn’t cut it, Keira.”
I started snapping out of it now; I wiped my tears away and walked over to him. I went to put my arms around him but he pushed me away. I felt like I’d been shot through my heart. Then he grabbed my arm and within seconds we were in the hallway at my house.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Aftermath
“Hey, you two, did you…” Lily started to say.
“What’s going on?” Tyler demanded, walking over to us.
Eligos glared at him for a moment, his eyes blazing. Tyler stopped dead in his tracks. He let go of my arm and disappeared again. I stood there staring out in front of me.
“Keira?” Lily said, slowly walking towards me. “What’s going on?”
“I think…I think I’ve just…lost him,” I said, bursting into tears.
She grabbed me and hugged me.
“Hey, hey, come on, he loves you, why would you lose him?” she said. “Come on, come with me.”
She kept her arm around me and led me towards the stairs. Danny and Lucian had come into the hallway now, but when they saw the state of me they stayed back and let Lily handle me. I turned to look at Tyler for a moment. He smiled at me a little.
“WHAT ARE YOU SMILING AT?” I shouted. “I BET YOU’RE HAPPY NOW, AREN’T YOU?”
He didn’t rise to me; he just turned away from me.
“Hey, enough come on!” Lily said, taking me upstairs.
She led me into my room and sat me on the bed. She closed the door and came and sat next to me.
“Tell me what happened,” she said, pulling my hair away from my face.
“I was an idiot, I thought I was doing the right thing, but now I’m not sure. I didn’t think about what the consequences might have been and I should have,” I said between crying and trying to swallow and breathe.
“Start at the beginning,” she said, taking my hand.
I told her all about Elizabeth and the argument with Lilith. Then I told her how Eligos had taken me to the Pits to see where I would have ended up if Lilith had decided to punish me.
“Lily, I’ve never seen anything like it. I’d never imagined such a place could exist.”
“I feel sick just th
inking about it, so if I’d been there I’d been throwing up with you.”
I told her about the conversation when Eligos took me back to his place.
“He must have been scared to death,” she said quietly.
“He said he couldn’t have waited, knowing what those creatures would have been doing to me.”
“Can you blame him? I mean, I bet the thought of someone else touching you makes him feel sick anyway. He loves you so much, only he is allowed to touch you. So to think those things could have been raping you…I can’t imagine how that must have made him feel.”
“He said he would have come for me and that he would have been killed for it.”
“Doesn't that show how much he loves you? He would die for you.”
“I know,” I cried. “But then how would I have lived?”
“You wouldn’t have,” she said sadly. “I think we both know that.”
“God, what have I done? Why didn’t I just talk to Lilith calmly, tell her how I felt. None of this would have happened.”
“You were angry, you made a mistake.”
“Yes, another one, and it involves hurting Eligos again. I attacked him a few weeks ago and now I’ve hurt him,” I said, turning to face her. “Last night was the best night of my life. I had him in my arms, all over me, holding me, kissing me, touching me, telling me how much he loves me. I woke up this morning with him pressed up against me, and now, now I’ve lost him.”
“Talk to him, call out to him,” she said. “Tell him you love him, that you made a mistake, that you didn’t know what would happen.”
“I just want to be on my own,” I told her.
“OK.”
She got off the bed and walked out of the room.
I curled up into a ball on my bed, crying again. I could still hear the people screaming and crying, and when I closed my eyes I could see the fear and sadness on Eligos’s face when he told me how frightened he had been. He was right. I was selfish, I never stopped to think about anyone else’s feelings or how my actions might affect them. All I ever thought was “This is what I want and this is what will happen.” He was never like that with me. All he ever wanted was to see me smiling and happy. He did everything he could to make me that way. He took me out, messed around with me, even brought my dad to see me. He defended me all the time, fought for me, saved my life twice, no, three times including the run-in with Crystal. What had I ever done to try and make him happy? Nothing, I never asked him what he wanted or if he wanted to do anything. It was always him asking me what I wanted to do, and then he would just go along with it.
I lay there for what felt like hours, staring into space. I thought back to when I first went to Hell, right after the incident with Tyler. I remembered how happy I was spending time with him, even when we were just playing pool at his place. I loved talking to him, being around him. Whenever I had to leave him or he had to leave me I was always so sad. I couldn’t wait to see him again. We’d spent hours at his castle just talking; he told me what it was like thousands of years ago and how much the world and the people in it had changed. I loved hearing his stories. I would sit there listening to him, most of the time staring at him and getting lost in his voice. When I was at the Palace, he would walk into the same room as me and my stomach would tie itself in knots. All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him and tell him he was mine, whether he liked it or not. I remembered the first time I kissed him properly. Standing in his dining room, after seeing his true face for the first time. How as soon as my lips had touched his I felt as though my whole body was on fire. How happy I felt knowing that he was finally mine and that he loved me.
I dragged myself off my bed and went into my bathroom to get some water and to wash my face. I looked terrible, tear-stained and red-eyed. When I walked back into my bedroom Eligos was standing leaning against my window, one leg crossed over the other and with his arms folded across his chest. I stood still, staring at him.
“Come here,” he said, looking over at me.
I walked over to him slowly, his eyes never left mine. I stopped a few feet in front of him; his eyes were normal again now, so I knew he must have calmed down a little. He pulled me towards him and held me close to him. I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist and lay my head against his chest.
“I’m sorry!” I told him.
“It’s OK.”
“No it isn’t. I never thought about what the consequences could be.”
“It’s OK,” he said again. “Come and lie with me.”
I lay on the bed facing him, my arm around him again.
“I understand why you did it, Keira, I really do. But you didn’t have to do it that way. If you had calmed down and, if you had talked to Lilith about it, she would have released Elizabeth. She is a fair woman; she doesn’t just punish people for the sake of it.”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
He ran his fingers down the side of my face.
“I think it’s my fault. If I hadn't of been so angry with Tyler I wouldn’t have taken you. But I let myself get so worked up over him and it was either leave or knock his head spinning.”
“It was not your fault, do you hear me. I kicked it all off, I let my mouth run away with itself, how is that your fault?”
“She was so angry with you,” he told me. “I really thought she was going to send you…I don't know what I would have done. I can’t stand the thoughts of someone hurting you, and nobody in this realm or any other is allowed to touch you other than me. If any of them had laid a single finger on you…”
“I know, and I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I don't want to hurt you, or frighten you, and it seems like that's all I’ve ever done. I won’t ever do it again I swear,” I told him.
“It’s not all you’ve ever done at all. Don't think that,” he said before kissing me for a moment. “Just promise me that next time you want to do something stupid, you’ll talk to me about it first. You can trust me you know.”
“I know, and I promise.”
“I don't ever want to feel like that again.”
“I won’t let you,” I told him before kissing him again.
“You know, I loved you before you even knew who I was, before you even knew I existed,” he told me when the kiss ended.
“I don't understand how could you?”
“Well, about a year ago, that’s a year ago in Earth time; I walked in and saw Lilith watching you through the viewing pool. You were sitting at a table drawing something out; it looked like plans for a room or something. As soon as I saw you…you blew me away. Lilith saw me staring at you and stopped using the pool. I asked her why she was watching you and who you were.”
“What did she say?”
“She just told me you were a person of interest and that you had a strong power in you. She told me your name and asked me to keep an eye on you for a few weeks while she went away somewhere. I don't know where, before you ask. She said if you got in trouble I had to come to Earth and help you, so I watched you almost every day for over two weeks.”
“All the time?” I asked wide-eyed.
“No, not all the time.”
“When, what did you see?”
“I saw you in the shower and…”
“What!” I said in shock.
“I’m kidding, I saw you designing someone’s house for them, and I saw you with Lily. You were out in a bar somewhere and I watched you both dancing. It was the night before Lilith returned. I saw a guy buy you a drink and then I watched you kiss him. I got a shooting pain in my chest and I instantly wanted to kill him. That was when I knew…I knew I had feelings for you,” he said, looking me in the eyes to see how I reacted.
I just lay there, smiling at him and running my fingers slowly up and down his back.
“I spent weeks and weeks trying to get you out of my head. I didn’t go to the viewing pool and I didn’t mention you to Lilith. Then she called out to me and she was in the little room again, watching you. She sa
w me staring at you again and smiled at me. She said, “You like her, don't you?” I couldn’t lie to her; she always knows when I’m lying, so I confessed. She said you were very special, so I asked her why and that’s when she told me you were her daughter.”
“What did you say to that?”
“What could I say? I’d already told her you’d more than caught my attention, but I’d also told her that I knew I couldn’t have you. You lived here; I lived in Hell. Plus, I looked at myself in the mirror; I didn’t think you would give me the time of day. Part of me didn’t want to meet you, not just because of the scar, but because I didn’t understand why, after over four thousand years, I had fallen in love with someone I’d never even spoken to. Anyway, you can imagine my surprise when Lilith asked me to protect you. I was excited, nervous, frightened, all things I hadn't felt before. She told me she’d asked me first for two reasons. Firstly because she trusts me more than anyone, and secondly, because she thought it was about time I actually liked someone, and she wanted me to meet you in person.”
“So you accepted the “protector” position, hid yourself, and came to me?”
“Yeah, after nearly talking myself out of it over a dozen times. And now look, I’ve got you in my arms,” he said, pulling me close to him. “I never for one minute thought I would get close to you, never mind actually be with you.”
“You never seemed nervous when you were with me, you always seemed so confident, and sarcastic.”
“I did a good job hiding it then. I was quite frightened. I didn’t want you to reject me; I wanted you to love me. I just couldn’t tell you that, not when you hadn't seen the real me.”
“I think I was born to love you,” I told him.
“Well, you took your time coming here. I’ve waited my whole life for you,” he said, stroking my face again.
“Was I worth the wait?” I asked, smiling cheekily.
“Definitely.”