Alek crouches in front of me. “We’re not demons.”
“We are! What are demons, Alek? Things that want to escape an eternity in Hell - their only option, if they can’t go wherever Reapers take them. Over - what is that? Heaven? Is that where Reapers come from?” I run my hands over my hair; I never believed in Heaven or Hell before. “Whatever, we want to escape an eternity trapped and can never be good enough to pass Over. So yes, Alek, we’re demons.”
Alek stands. “I don’t think your soul is as damaged as mine.”
“Do you know something I don’t?” I ask him.
Footsteps echo along the hallway; I can’t tell which direction they’re coming from. A short, balding man dressed in a brown suit scrutinises Alek.
“Are you Alek?”
“Yeah.”
“Perfect. My name is Eric. Come on.” He appraises me. “Are you bringing her?”
Something in the way Alek refuses to meet my eyes, in the strange aura surrounding this man, sets me on high alert. Man. He’s probably not even that. “Bringing me where?”
“Home,” says Alek.
“It’s that simple?” I say doubtfully.
“For you,” smiles Eric, showing yellowing teeth.
“And Alek?” He’s staring at the floor. “Alek?”
“We have to take someone with us,” he mumbles.
The man claps his hands together. “Chop, chop! Come on!”
Something is very wrong here. Alek comes for me then someone comes for both of us. I know Alek well enough to sense his wariness. “No.” I turn away from them.
Alek walks around and dips his head to look at me. “You have to come with me. Please. I’m doing this to help you.”
“Doing what, exactly?”
“There’s someone who needs a lift to the living, and I agreed to do it.”
“Someone? Who?” Alek shifts his look back to the tiled floor. “Who, Alek?”
“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is you get out of here.”
I step back. I don’t know what’s happening but I’m certain whatever it is, I don’t want to be involved. “Yes, it does! A demon?”
“Rose, it doesn’t matter; it won’t affect us!” pleads Alek, glancing between me and Eric.
I shake my head. “No, Alek. Leave me here.”
“And get stuck in the Void?”
“I don’t care!”
“You will!”
He attempts to take my arm and I shove him. “Finn made me, then took away the power he gave me, and that sent me here; is that right?” Alek nods. “So to go back to the world, a Dark needs to give me the power the same way Finn did last time, is that also right?”
“Yes,” he says, voice barely audible.
“Then no! I won’t allow myself to become a demon.”
Eric chuckles. “Oh, dear, this is awkward.”
“You won’t be! You’ll still be Between!” protests Alek. “Please, Rose.”
“Created by Dark - Finn told me the difference! They’ll own me, like they own you. No!”
“Tell her what’ll happen,” says Alek, gesturing at me. “Tell her she’ll go to Hell if I don’t bring her back!”
“No, she’ll stay in the Void,” says Eric.
“No. Hell. Julian said if I didn’t come here, she’ll go to Hell.” Alek’s eyes open in realisation. “Fuck! You bastards! You weren’t going to?”
“No, she’s more useful to us here.”
Alek launches himself at Eric, who sidesteps him with more skill than I’d expect. “Now, now, Alek. This was always inevitable. You just needed a little encouragement.”
“No!” Alek seizes the smaller man around the throat with both hands and slams him against the wall.
Eric’s face transforms into something more sinister; eyes blackening until they appear to sink into deep holes in his face, a face morphing into anger. “Bad idea,” he chokes.
A split-second later, Alek is flung across the corridor by an invisible force, head smacking on the wall between the doors opposite. Eric stands, hand outstretched in Alek’s direction, as if holding him there. I back up, heart thumping in my ears, waiting for the same treatment.
“She can choose whether to go with you, Alek, or stay here in the Void. We can’t send either of you to Hell right now, you idiot, not unless your souls are completely broken.” He steps closer and Alek winces, putting his hand to his head. “We can break your soul if you don’t do what you’re told; we own part of you. We don’t own her. Yet.”
The horror of what I’m witnessing cements my decision. How could he think I want involvement with these people? “Don’t you see, Alek? If they give me the power to go back, they’ll own me, like they own you!”
Alek falls to the floor as the man lets him go. “See, one of you gets it.”
“The Void. I want to go there,” I stand. “Tell me which door!”