Demons Ascension - Not Earth

[Posted by Ted H]

Next week will be the confrontation we've spent the last friggin year building up to...

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[Demons Ascension - Not Earth]

            Back where there was light, James looked to his watch and noticed he still had just under an hour to go. "Plenty of time," he said as he quickly ascended the stairs. The top of the stairwell led to a large metallic door, barring entrance to the final floor. An uncomfortable thought crossed James' mind that the door would be locked as he tried the handle and the door gave way.
            The other side was pitch black, but James wasn't going to let that deter him. He had an idea of where to go and if he had to grope around in the dark for half an hour, he would. He stepped through and tried to let his eyes adjust to the darkness. Even with the light from the stairwell, nothing could be seen. It was as if the darkness was too thick to cut through. The stairwell door slowly swung close behind him.
            After the soft click of the door, there was no sound to accompany the darkness. James began to feel around for a wall but couldn't grasp anything. He reached for the stairwell door to find that it too was gone. "That's different," he said as a soft, red light similar to what he knew from the basement began to light up all around him.
            Where he was no longer resembled a hallway or a room of any sort. It felt like he was outside, but he couldn't tell if there was a ceiling or just more darkness when he looked up. There was no wall nearby but he felt like he was in an extremely enclosed space. "Take a damn breath," James said to himself as all his senses seem to be on edge. Wherever he was, it didn't feel like earth. At first glance the floor appeared to be hardwood like all the hallways in the apartment, then he thought he looked down and saw carpeting before seeing elaborate tile work. One glace, James thought he was standing in mid air.
            He closed his eyes and the sensation of plummeting overtook him. He opened his eyes to reveal he wasn't moving. Pungent sweet and bitter smells assaulted his nose and he dared not open his mouth, lest he taste the air which seemed weighted down by something more than just darkness. The silence was deafening and at the same time blaring. A complete sense of both dread and calm shot up and down his spine as he tried to make sense of where he was.
            "There's nothing here," James said as he took another long breath. His brain was overloading, trying to piece together feelings and sensations that it felt were required. He took a step forward and felt something beneath his foot when it landed. He slowly made his way forward, in a direction he felt was the one he needed to be walking. In the distance were six figures he deemed not to be illusions, standing and looking towards James with their arms at their sides.
            James continued forward, the ground never even with his previous steps. Sometimes he found himself going up, and sometimes down, both steeply and gradually, never the same twice. The figures became more and more clear as James approached; three men and three women, all nude, all showing no emotion as they watched James. Their faces and skin had all been torn apart and awkwardly stitched back together, as if they were wearing masks of themselves. James recognized most of them. One girl he assumed was named Sarah, he remembered the priest and Williams. The Praque sisters and Bradford stood farther back, eyeing James as if he was just another wandering soul.
            "Amanda's still alive then," James said to Bradford as all six opened their mouths in unison and spoke with one voice, seemingly comprised of all six. James couldn't make out what any of them were saying. It seemed like they were talking in reverse, but much too fast for James to keep note of. "Slow down," he said, unsure to what was happening. He glanced down at his watch and caught his breath at how fast it was moving. The half hour he thought he had was now less than ten minutes.
            Wherever James was, time wasn't keeping the same rules as he was used to. "My watch is broken right now, right?" he asked towards Bradford. "Ohn!" all six said in unison. "Thought so," James said as he pushed himself passed where Bradford was standing. He felt his steps grow more and more heavy as he pushed, the red glow of the world around him slowly growing darker and darker until he was once again in darkness.
            Not far ahead of him he saw a faint outline of a door, struggling to pierce the darkness with whatever light it contained. James knew that was his exit. He was almost at a crawl with how heavy his walking had become, but he was able to reach out and grab the door and pull himself through it. As he fell through, he felt himself land on the familiar local of the apartment hallway. The door slowly clocked shut and he was once again where he felt he needed to be.
            He quickly rose and examined the door he just came through. All over the frame were various carvings, some of which were glowing, not unlike the ones he came across before in the basement. "I don't think I was suppose to get through there," he said as he pondered whether or not the trench coat once again had aided him in this impossible journey. He then quickly snapped out of thought and looked to his watch, now running normal again, and found he had under five minutes before midnight.