It’s working. The dot in my mind turned a brilliant blue once my magic connected with it on the plane below us. Can you see that? We found it. It’s to the left. We have to force ourselves to fall that way. I willed us to move that way with everything I had and the beacon miraculously came closer.
With a snap of power, our magic fully engaged with our destination and a tether formed in the air between us, the magic connection guiding us. The witches were brilliant and I owed Tally my life for this.
We were closing in on the destination fast.
Smells, sounds, and lights started to whip by us as we flew at high speed into the demon atmosphere. The demons must know how to slow down, I told my wolf. We don’t. We’re going to crash hard. Try to brace—
We hit a pile of something with the force of a canon ball.
Large chunks of what appeared to be some kind of plastic flew in an arc around us as we plunged all the way to the bottom of the stack, hitting the ground so hard starbursts of light erupted in my vision and my brain felt like it had been scrambled. If the trash hadn’t slowed us down, we would’ve splattered all over the ground.
I was just happy we hadn’t lost consciousness.
I took in a few breaths and tried to steady myself. What is this stuff? We were covered from head to toe. It was impossible to know how much was on top of us, but the stuff surrounding us was oddly shaped and smelled strange. I moved my hand to grasp an edge of the plastic and a chain reaction of movement followed, causing a tinkling like dominoes. Are these TV trays?
Luckily for us, the trash was lightweight and angular and resembled some kind of cafeteria tray, which made pockets of space around me. There was an odd light filtering in from above. Judging by the awful pungent stench radiating from around us, there used to be something alive on these trays. On closer inspection, some of the trays also had bite marks out of the ends and residue that was bloodlike.
We had indeed landed in a trash heap. It also appeared that every demon here ate the same thing. And it didn’t smell at all appealing. I gave an inward shudder. Time to move.
A sharp growl erupted from somewhere outside the pile.
Another joined it.
Those must be the chupacabras, I told my wolf. But she was way ahead of me. She’d already contained the magic that had been outside us during the vortex ride, and had begun to fortify a shield. They must eat the leftover crap on the trays. I wasn’t looking forward to my first introduction a chupacabra. Let’s sit tight for a minute and see if they leave on their own. Fighting a hell beast when my body was healing from the landing was not on my top ten list of things I wanted to do at the moment.
But of course that was wishful thinking. In less than a minute, there must’ve been twenty of them growling and pacing out there.
Okay, we need to rethink. I believe the best thing we can do is try and outrun them. Judging by the light, we’re in some kind of building. The demons must keep them locked up in here, but if we can get out of the building we may have a chance to lose them.
My wolf did not seem convinced.
Do you have a better idea? The trays started to shift around us as the beasts started to paw at the pile. We’re out of time. We run for whatever door we can find. Go! We dove out of the mess, aiming for the least smelly area we could find. Less putrid hopefully meant fewer beasts. The trays scattered around us like dried leaves as we leaped. I hoped it was enough of a distraction to give us a head start.
We emerged and quickly rolled. I tried to find my footing, but hit a few trays and inadvertently slid over the slick floor using them like skateboards. I jumped off and spun in the air, landing in my fighting stance.
Right in front of thirty snarling chupacabras.
Jesus, they look like something straight out of a horror flick. Meaning they were some of the ugliest things I’d ever seen. But I shouldn’t have been surprised. We were in Hell, after all. The only positive thing was that they weren’t much bigger than a full grown Pit Bull. Look at their creepy eyes. They’re tiny and matte black. But the most freakish part wasn’t their beady eyes. It was that their front legs ended in hands. Hands! Little creepy black monkey paws with opposable thumbs.
I had to quiet my inner shriek quickly, but it wasn’t easy. Their delightful appearance didn’t end there. Bony spires stuck out of their heads and ran all the way down their backs. As they moved toward me, hissing and growling, I saw that only a portion of their skin was covered in spotty fur the color of death; the rest was translucent. Their organs beat right under their hide. One of them opened its maw wide and flashed a few rows of mismatched teeth—some long, some short—all sharp.
I growled back, flashing my own teeth, and edged slowly to my right.
They don’t seem to have any urgency to attack us. A few of them were openly scenting me, their horrid snouts in the air. Maybe I smell too much like a demon? Or at least enough like one to fool them? I flexed my inner magic, pushing the muted gold, my signature mixed with the demon essence, outward.
If the chupacabras thought I was a demon, it was my lucky day. But before I had time to decide what to do, a roaring noise erupted overhead and the ceiling began to move. Slowly, a portion slid open to reveal some kind of weird-looking chute.
As one, all the beasts glanced up.
We have to move. We can’t be spotted if this is some kind of surveillance apparatus.
I stumbled backward as plastic trays and food began to rain down from the chute above. Hearing the noise, the chupacabras took off after their next meal, slobbering as they went. They attacked the new pile of garbage, twenty feet from where I stood, like the rabid beasts they were, clawing and snarling their way to the top to get the choice pieces. A few of them began to fight one another for what looked like hunks of decayed meat.
Whatever it was, it was limp and gray and highly disgusting.
No wonder it smells like death in here. They’re consuming rancid meat and they all smell like it. Good gods. This place wasn’t going to get any easier, either. The Underworld was already proving to be tons o’ fun. Once they’re done with that, they’ll be back on us. We need to move now.
I started to race in the opposite direction of the feeding frenzy. There had to be a door somewhere. The hazy blue light above made it hard to see. There were piles and piles of trays in every direction, some reaching the ceiling, which was made up of a shiny material that didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen before. Not metal, not wood, something completely artificial.