Eternally Yours

Welcome To Salem

Cleo overlooked the large body of water that was all around her and she breathed in the fresh ocean air with her eyes closed. It was a sensation that she had missed feeling and it made her glad inside that she was around water once again after so many months of being out of it.

Hannah and Garin were flying beside her and while they hovered over the ocean, they stared at each other in confusion, for they were unsure as to why they were there and what was to happen next.

“What are we doing here, Cleo?” Hannah asked.

“I did tell you that the path to Salem wasn’t in the sky, didn’t I?” Cleo asked.

“Yeah, you said it was underwater,” Garin answered.

“Yeah, I did and that is exactly why we’re here,” Cleo said.

“So, what happens now that we’re here? How do we get to Salem?” Hannah asked again.

“We dive! We plummet as deep as we can, as fast as we can and after I build off enough speed, I’ll rip a hole through the fabric of this reality and open a gateway that will take us to Salem,” Cleo said.

Cleo took a deep breath as she hovered closer to the body of water. She looked at it and was ready to dive in.

“Stay as close to me as you can so you’ll be able to follow me through the rip. It will stay open for like a second after I open it so you have to be quick,” she warned before letting go of herself and splashing into the water.

Hannah retracted her wings and fell into the water as well. Garin did the same and the three of them began the first part of their mission to rescue Jasmine and Yelena.

*******

Back in Hell, Zarif and Kari had been whipped by Sagarus until his hands were bloodied because of how tightly he held his whip. The Tormentor had worn himself out by beating the demons as mercilessly as he could and he had had enough so he stopped and untied them so they could return to the hall of the warrior demons.

Zarif and Kari did the walk of shame that all demons that are whipped by Sagarus do and made their way into the hall. As they walked by, the rest of their demon siblings looked at them in silence while they grunted and muttered inaudible remarks to themselves. The two demons found a rock to sit on and waited for the wounds on their bare backs to heal. They didn’t know what Lucifer was planning to do next but they knew he didn’t want to delegate the task to any other demon.

“This is all your fault, Kari. You’ve been absolutely no help since you joined me on this task. When it was me and Gentel, we weren’t made to look as foolish as this and we were able to have an impact in this bet,” Zarif said to his brother.

“Oh please, don’t give me that. I seem to recall that Gentel was also whipped by Sagarus when she was the one working on the task. Also, if she was so great and was such a better partner, how come she’s dead right now?” Kari asked spitefully.

“You know she was betrayed by Sader,” Zarif roared in anger, “It wasn’t the angels that took her out. It wasn’t Hannah or Garin that killed her. It was one of our own and she never saw it coming, neither did we and neither did Father,” He sounded very upset about it and for a split second, he even seemed…saddened that she was irreversibly dead.

The brothers remained silent for a while until Kari spoke up after coming up with an idea in his head.

“We should do something about this,” he suddenly said.

“There’s nothing we can do. Father was clear that he isn’t going to give you, me, or anyone else any more chances to win the bet. We’ve been benched so it’s best that you just accept it,” Zarif replied.