Order of the Golden Dawn (Neophyte Series 2)

CHAPTER 19: THE HILLS THAT MOCK THE SAVIOR

        I awoke to the sound of terrified children and it took a few moments before my memory came screaming back to me. I remembered how I had lost consciousness and that my new foreign friend was gone out of my life just as fast as he had arrived. I struggled to sit up, feeling utterly hopeless. There was nothing that could be done to stop the children from being taken, and nothing I could do to free myself.

    'Does anyone here speak English?' I asked, but nobody replied. 'Anyone at all? Please?' When nobody responded, my heart dropped to an all new low. Wrapping my arms around my knees, I lowered my head and tried to think of some possible way to escape. Deep depression settled over me. Perhaps it was the atmosphere itself that was causing me to give up so easily. I stared at one of the children who was clinging to what I thought might have been an older sibling. Her leg was badly wounded; bone protruding from the flesh just below her knee, but for some reason she didn't seem affected by it. Together they wept, and as they did so, I thought back to when Jordan and I were trapped beneath the Sanctuary. I could hear her voice speak as clearly as if she were right there with me.

    'Well, if you feel like giving up then you can go find a nice cozy spot to curl up and die in; but I'm getting us out of here.' Her words of courage and determination echoed through my head. It was that same endurance that had gotten us to the Visum that night and that had been the beginning of my inner journey. I remembered meeting Malach and recalled him telling me that everything I did on my path would affect the world in some way. I bet he never guessed that I would end up there; trapped in the bowels of Hell. Maybe he did, who knows?

    Knowing that if I did nothing I would surely die in this prison along with the rest of the children, I searched for any clue that resembled a way out. Once my efforts had been exhausted, I came to the conclusion that there may be only one other way.

    I closed my eyes and searched my emotions. Channeling the dark room, I pictured myself within it. As the familiar lightning flashed on the windows of the room, I listened carefully for my personas. I was hoping to hear the southern voice, but I was disappointed to hear the raspy and somewhat angry response of my inner demon.

    'You are indeed a pathetic specimen. We could have made our own way back to earth, but here you stand; a fool in need.'

    'How is this possible? Can I still make my own way home?' I was somehow able to speak to it for the first time.

    'You never really were in Hell, you moron. Your body remained on the living plain until you agreed to let the Demon Lord push you through the mirror, instantly transporting your physical body and trapping us here.'

    'But how can I be in two places at once?'

     'The mirror only transferred your primary persona through the looking glass. While you ventured through the mind of Lewis Carroll and into the temple of your enemy, the rest of us personas remained. All you had to do is travel back through the looking glass. Now you have compromised us all. This is why Belial closed the portal behind you, to make sure you weren't able to return to his temple.'

    Okay; now I got it. This explained why I felt no fear or lacked any sense of hysteria on Belial's side of the mirrored floor. When I was pushed through its surface, my body met me on the other side — which is why all my emotions and fear came flooding in at once. This told me instantly that I, myself was no coward; but one of my personas clearly was. One of the seven needed to be destroyed; for, given their history; the characteristics of the other six simply did not match. I highly doubted that fearless figures such as Doc Holiday and Lancelot of the round table would cower in the face of danger as I have a habit of doing.