Hellwalkers by Alexander Gordon Smith

Author:Alexander Gordon Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

BACK THROUGH THE RED DOOR

They stood there, the four of them. They stood there and stared like they were expecting it to open by itself.

And the Red Door just stared right back.

“You gonna do it?” said Charlie.

Pan wiped a hand over her face and it came away smeared with blood. Herc’s nose was bleeding too, something to do with the canister he cradled in his arms. It was pumping out a vibe of pure evil, a pulse that ripped through every fiber in Pan’s body.

“Pan?”

She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t seem to move. She wanted to open the door more than she’d wanted anything in her life. But what would happen if she twisted that handle and the door didn’t open? She’d be sealed in here forever—or at least until Ostheim and the Devil hauled their way up from the cavern. She could still hear them down there, their rage threatening to shake the Nest to dust.

“Pan,” said Herc, struggling with the weight of the canister, his arms knotted with veins. “Just crack the damned thing before I give myself a hernia.”

She swallowed painfully, walking the last stretch of corridor, reaching for the handle, pausing again. The Red Door linked to a dozen other places—maybe more—and they had no idea which of those it would open onto now. For all they knew, it might take them back into Meridiana’s lair, where Ostheim’s demonic offspring would chew them to pieces. Or maybe back into the graves beneath Paris where they would slowly rot in the Liminal.

For all they knew, it might open up to a brick wall.

Pan turned the handle and the door clicked, but when she pulled nothing happened.

“Dammit!” she yelled, kicking it, shouldering it, hanging off it. The door didn’t so much as tremble. “Locked.”

“No,” said Marlow. He limped to the door, Pan stepping out of his way.

“Yeah, right,” she said. “Like you’ll be able to—”

He grabbed the handle, twisted it hard, then pulled. The Red Door made a sound like a gunshot, which echoed down the corridor. Pan’s ears popped, and she felt her stomach cramp as she rode out the wave of horror that always followed. Marlow pulled and the door opened smoothly, without the slightest creak.

Pan swallowed, leaned out, feeling the awful sensation of crossing the Liminal. She saw a barren stretch of stone, empty of life.

Beyond it, clustered on the horizon, distant buildings that might have been ruined skyscrapers.

And ash, so much ash, a world drowning in the stuff of the dead.

“No,” she said, her body carved from ice. “No, no, please God no.”

The door had opened up into hell.

They were still there.

“Please,” she said again, less than a whisper. She looked at Marlow, his face gaunt, everything good sucked right out of him.

Pan heard the drumming of feet, pictured a demon running for them, ready to burst into the corridor and pull them to pieces.

“Close it,” she yelled. “Close the door!”

And Marlow was doing just that when a woman in yellow gym gear and pink sneakers jogged past, a huge pair of headphones resting on her head.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.