All Souls' Day

VIII

They continued on in silence for some time more, quietly shuffling along on their hands and knees passing by more stone grates as they went. At one in particular, the elder Christina gestured for everyone to stop. The child Christina blurted out "I'm hungry" before the elder furiously held up a finger to her mouth and gestured for silence.

Half a moment later, as they looked on quietly, footsteps clanged and clattered along a metal walkway just outside the grate, as two looming figures stomped along. Two giants, at least 8 feet tall. Entirely human looking figures aside from their bright blue skin. So bright it seemed to glow in the dim corridor in which they traveled. Between them was half a dozen men and women being ushered along in chains, trembling in fear, as the two massive figures pulled them on a leash like dogs.

"Grash nagkh!" one of the giants exclaimed, before gesturing for them to stop as he pushed a button near a sliding stone door, causing the door to quickly slide open with a low scraping sound.

"Please!" one woman exclaimed. "I've been faithful all my life! I just—I just had some questions. The pro-procedure. I'm still willing to—"

"Uul galashg!" the other giant exclaimed as they both started to herd the small crowd into a room just beyond the sliding stone door.

"Please!" a man called out. "I swear I'll do whatever is asked of me from here on."

To that, a fiendish smile slowly crept across the first giant's blue face, just below two black pools of soulless eyes. He spoke out in halting English to the man, "You do whatever we ashk, nakh?"

"Yes!" the man shouted back as the giant closed the door. The man's muffled voice continued through the clear window of the stone door. "Anything you ask!"

"Good!" the giant exclaimed. And with that, some hope came to the man's eyes and an insecure smile started to form, before the giant spoke again. "Then we ashk you to die!"

And with that, the tall blue monstrosity slammed his finger against a button, sliding open another door behind the group. All of the men and women were then swept out of that apparent airlock. A whoosh quickly followed by a cacophony of muffled screams, before the outer door was closed again.

The giants then slowly sauntered off, chuckling, snickering, and casually bantering among themselves. Christina shuddered at the horror of what she had just witnessed, while the other two adults sighed in melancholic resignation.

Once the giants appeared to be gone, she turned and whispered to Phil and the older Christina. "What the hell was that?"

"Devas," Phil explained. "They're guards of sorts in certain sectors."

"Those poor people..." Christina said in lament.

"They call that the 'outer darkness,'" Phil explained. "There are worse fates in this place."

"Come on," the older Christina said quietly. "Let's go." And with that she lightly placed her hand on her younger counterpart's trembling shoulder. She rubbed it momentarily as a gesture of comfort before gesturing her to follow.

The last leg of their journey grew darker. They had passed by a few more lighted grates before there were no more for a long while. They crawled on their hands and knees in pitch black for some time, before another shaft of light from another grate up ahead could be seen. They remained in relative silence, apart from the little girl who issued the occasional complaint.

Finally the younger Christina spoke up. "There's something I still don't understand."

"Yes?" the older Christina replied, neutrally. Her intolerance of "irrelevant questions" having disappeared for the time.

"Why did you guys need me?"

"Because... Christina's a primary," Phil interjected. "The gate is somehow able to distinguish. It can detect what's called a 'terminal' neefesh."

"So... you're planning to just sneak in behind me?" the younger Christina asked with a growing smirk. "Tailgate through security?"

"There's... no guarantee it will work," Phil explained, solemnly.

"Stay sharp, everyone," the older Christina said. "We're almost there."