"Speak!"
He was out, going for the door when it sealed shut by a wall of light. Suddenly every window flooded with light that bounced off the bathroom mirror, blinding him. Light poured in from the edges of the doorframe. Then the walls of the bathroom closed in on him.
"You sat in the unmentionable," one voice said.
"You defied a direct order; the consequences are grave!" another said.
"You acted prematurely," another voice argued.
"You know not what you have done," a chorus said.
"I didn't know," Carlos said, not sure where to turn his attention. Voices had slammed him from every direction, making him whirl around in the now-tiny space. The sensation of vertigo made him fall to the tile floor, but he outstretched his arms, trying to make them understand.
"It attacked me," he said, tears running down his face. "I went in, searched, and under the crest, it was gone - then it attacked me!"
"You were not to go there until you had integrated the fragments of your mind," one voice said. "Your spirit is now in peril."
"We know of the attack," another said.
"You've released the realms. The Damned are now upon the earth with the Lilith."
"Armageddon has begun too soon."
"No, no, no," Carlos yelled, scrambling to his feet. "I didn't release - "
"The original demons of darkness feared coming out to search for their once-captive Damned, until each of their levels was made intolerable, even for them."
Carlos opened his mouth, then slowly closed it. He knew exactly what they meant. When he'd gone level-by-level wreaking havoc, those entities were to hit the sealed portal and be trapped, tortured. Now they'd flooded the earth.
"Yes!" one thunderous voice boomed. "That was your mission, but your timing was in error. We commanded you to wait for a sign! You were to send the Damned to the surface, but not the original demons that feed upon them, only once the book was acquired. Our Light would have held the Lilith back; the Damned would have fled blindly, aimlessly away from the horrors of the pit. This would have allowed us to decimate their numbers with swords raised at every gate, their names listed, and we would have been able to swiftly commend the lost to peace!"
"Now they all hide, unnamed, unseen, and await nightfall," a very quiet voice said. "The Damned, with the Lilith, further spreading the contagion among humanity."
"Like in the days of old, when Lilith spewed a hundred demons a day upon the earth and our warriors slew them by the thousands!"
"Now their leader is within you; they await your command. Their exterminator is also within you. Decide. Separate yourself from this iniquity."
"How?" Carlos whispered. "Tell me how?"
"The unnamed one's essence was within Lilith's womb, like the original demons she helped give rise to using the seed of human males. Its abomination filled your lungs, began to taint your spirit, and by day it lay dormant, by night it stirred... but the throne ignited it to life. Kill it."
Carlos whirred around in a circle. "If it's in me, then how do I get it out of me?"
"This is your task. Bring us the book. The struggle is within."
"It was and remains in the chamber, under the crest, but your eyes were blind to it because you still lusted for that world."
"The contagion weakened me," Carlos said in an urgent tone. "Even as a man, not a Neteru, I was stronger than that!" He stared at the Light unblinking. "Help me make the separation."
For a moment all went still, and then the battering of voices again splintered into echoes throughout the tiled space, increased in tempo. The tone of urgency made his head pound. He was no longer able to separate where one voice began and another ended. His senses on overload, it sounded like one long run-on sentence spoken by many voices without any taking a breath.
"Yes, the contagion is insidious - that is why we said to wait for a sign."
"You saw the illusion of emptiness."
"We will not leave you as long as your will clings to us."
"Your impatience made you disobey our command."