his gaze focused away from Morgan, Walter looked over at the lake, just a few feet to his side. The glow from the angels illuminated the surface. Black tongues of flame leaped and fell like waves on a storm-tossed ocean. Finally, those bobbing red lights came into focus—the heads of flailing people, their faces and hair afire in crimson flames and their mouths open in silent screams.
Walter clutched his chest. It felt like his heart was ripping in two. Hot prickles ran across his skin. Such awful pain! Who could stand a minute in that fire, much less an eternity? As he imagined himself in the lake, fear rifled through his body—a dagger that peeled away the lining of his stomach and shredded his bravado. He felt like a cowering pup. If he had had a tail, he would have tucked it between his legs and whined. This is what Ashley must have felt in the stairwell to Hades, the gut-wrenching nausea of naked exposure while trapped deep within an inescapable pit.
“Let the first condemned soul approach!” the lead angel boomed.
Walter jerked his head back to the prisoners. Morgan stepped forward. Her stare, red and flashing, locked on his. An evil smirk dressed her face with insolence, but she said nothing.
Unable to pry his gaze from Morgan’s wicked glare, Walter intertwined his fingers and twisted them painfully. She had never looked so evil, so hate-filled.
The angel’s glow brightened. The light seemed to ooze into Walter’s body, soothing his stomach and quelling his shakes. That helped, but Morgan’s stare kept the shivers running up and down his arms.
Opening a book that spread over his palms, the angel looked at Morgan. “Your name is not written in the Book of Life, so the Lamb has sent you here from his judgment seat where he condemned you to the eternal fires. Justice does not demand that I explain the Lamb’s sentence, so I do this for the sake of the two witnesses who can testify against you if called upon. They will bear this witness to the race of humans and hybrids, not for the purpose of proving your guilt, for your sins against dozens of generations are already well known. Their witness will serve to give the waking world hope and renewed confidence that, even though there is much evil and suffering in their realm, justice will ultimately prevail.”
Morgan spat at his feet. “Jehovah is pure cruelty! Any so-called god who would condemn someone for all eternity is worse than cruel. He is a hateful monster. If all of you angels had joined my lord Lucifer in his quest to unseat that tyrant, we would be enjoying wisdom, freedom, and the pleasure of our bodies. You would”
“Silence!” The angel closed the book and pointed at Morgan. Her lips melted together, and her face withered. Within seconds she looked like a hairy prune—dark, warped, and wrinkled.
The angel’s eyes blazed with white fire. “I need not defend Jehovah-Sabaoth to you, but for these witnesses I will proclaim the truth. Every man, every woman, every ancient witch who suffers in the second death is a faithless rebel. They are liars. They are murderers. They are idolaters. They are stumbling blocks to those who seek the truth.” He pointed at Morgan again. “And you, Lilith, are the symbol that represents all of these sins. A day will come when Hades will give up its dead, and all of your kind will join you in the Lake of Fire, but you and these other nine must go now.”
The other two angels grabbed her arms and dragged her to the edge of the platform. As they passed by the bench, Morgan’s dress swept across Walter’s arm, boiling his stomach once again. Then, picking her up, the angels threw her into the lake.
Walter grimaced, expecting to hear the sounds of horrible agony—a blood-curdling scream or a lamenting wail, but not even the tiniest splash erupted from the lake, only a strong sulfur odor that quickly diffused. Morgan’s wrinkled head bobbed to the surface, her face in red flames as she joined the other crimson beacons in the eternal black void.
The lead angel’s voice boomed again. “The rest of you come forth!”
The other nine shuffled forward. Most seemed well dressed and groomed, making them look like respected professionals who might be gladdened by the company of angels, but their terrified faces and shaking bodies revealed the horrible truth—they feared the torture that lay ahead.