The Guardian of Hell on Earth

"That Night" was two weeks ago. Since then, I ran away from home and started to make my trek towards the gates of hell. There are apparently many portals to hell dotted around earth, opened by ignorant pagans and Satanists. One of these portals apparently lies in the middle of Stonehenge, however, it lay dormant. It apparently would take some effort to open this by myself, requiring not only a large amount of demonic energy but the horns of a guardian of the gates of hell. The story of my mission to open the gates is a long one.

I mostly made my way to the south of England by hitchhiking. I originally came from Manchester, so there was a long journey ahead of me. Three different drivers got me to Birmingham, but I still had about half of the journey ahead of me.

Stood on a dual carriageway just outside of Birmingham with my thumb thrust firmly in the air, I waited. For a long time. I was stood on the side of the road for what felt like an eternity, but in reality, it was about nine hours. It was in the ninth hour of mind-numbing boredom that a car finally stopped to pick me up. It was an old ford fiesta, very old. I wasn't even sure how the thing was still running. It was a well-used car but it didn't seem loved. There were three long scratches down the passenger side of the car, the silver of the exposed metal starkly contrasted against the jet-black paint of the car. They almost looked like claw marks. There was a dent on the back bumper, although I wouldn't find this out until later. Finally, the right headlight was busted. But in my current situation, I couldn't decline the trip, even if it was in this rustbucket.

As the car pulled over and crawled up to me, I felt the scar on my chest start to tingle. I didn't think much of it.

The driver was alone. As he pulled down the window a faint stench of rotting vegetation wafted out of the window. I could just make out some of the insides of his car. It was filthy. There were food packaging and wrappers all over the backseat, not a scrap of food on them. It was as if a swarm of locust had devoured everything. His raspy voice cut through the cold night air.

'Where are you headed?' His voice had an undertone of an insect-like clicking.

'Salisbury, I understand if you can't take me the whole way. I'll go as far as you'll take me.'

'I see, makes sense...', this time I thought he even intentionally clicked his tongue, 'Get in, I just so happen to be heading there too.'

It felt too good to be true, it couldn't be a coincidence. I acquiesced to his offer as I really didn't have any other choice. I'd just have to stick out for a couple of hours with this weirdo. As I put my hand on the door handle, the scar on my chest twanged. The annoying hitchhiker in my own head decided to pipe up.

'Oh, this is going to be fun.'

That made me nervous. He knew something. My heart started to pick up the pace a little bit. My hand was shaking as it lay hovering over the handle. I was frozen for a few seconds. The driver gave a disgruntled clearing of his throat and I snapped back into it.

I felt an unfamiliar comfort as I opened the door.

The passenger side wasn't as bad as it seemed from looking through the window. The footwell only had a couple of chocolate wrappers and crisp packets. The stench seemed to subside inside the car and the interior was as clean as it could be given the age of the car.

The engine rumbled as he started the ignition. Almost with a reluctant sigh, it roared into life. We drove off.

Silence...

The roads were practically empty. It was quite late at night on a weekday so this was to be expected. We crossed two cars, maybe three, in about twenty minutes. As we were driving along, on a stretch of road with no streetlights or other cars, the driver slammed the brakes on. The pile of food package debris shifted with sincere force and I thought for a second it was alive. At the same time it slammed into the back of my seat, my head slammed into the dashboard. When the car came to a stop I recoiled in pain and exclaimed,

'What the hell! Are you crazy or something?'

'I'm glad I found you master, but where in Lucifer's name have you been. The whole army is in disrepute.' He spoke in a calm manner, in massive contrast to the abrupt stop to the car he just induced. While he was speaking calmly, his inflexions told me he was annoyed.

'What are you talking about?' was all I could manage to spit out. He caught me off guard and my head still ached from its impromptu meeting with the dashboard.

'Don't try to play with me, I can smell you from a mile off Lord Abaddon.'

A thousand questions popped into my head and just as quickly disappeared. I felt Abaddon reach forward and try to take control. I could feel the warmth of his blue flames creep throughout my body, trying to grab my limbs. It took all my might to fight him off. His voice came to me again. I was really starting to get annoyed by his incessant comments.

'Yield to me boy, let me speak to him.'

'No, you need to start explaining whats going on. Quickly.'

When the seemingly not-so-stranger turned his head at me with an offended glare I realised I had blurted that out loud. In my second of confusion, Abaddon saw his chance to forcibly take my body from me. The physical transformations of my body were quite pleasant, they always burned with the familiar warmth of his blue flames. I noticed in the wing mirror, that when he took over my eyes burned with that same blue light. It was eerily beautiful.

'I have so much trouble dealing with this insolent little brat. How have you been Arbeh?'

'M'Lord, what happened to you?'

'After the Sins killed me my soul left my body. While floating around in that damned ethereal form I made the mistake of trying to steal this boys body. He somehow resisted me and our souls are now merged. What were you saying about the army to this brat?'

'You have to see sir... with your death... and it was all so confusing... and with the... they meant no disrespect, M'Lord.'

'You can't even get a sentence out? Pathetic. Take a moment, really think, and try again.'

'M'Lord, many of our ranks deserted after your death. Then none of us were able to sense your rebirth, you have to understand. We thought you were gone for good.'

'How many deserted?'

'Uh, hmm.'

'Grunts? Is that any way to speak to your Lord?'

'Sorry M'Lord, it's just that... they all deserted.'

'Wait a moment, Arbeh why are you in the mortal realm?'

'You must forgive me. You must understand the situation we were in.'

I was so confused. Trapped in the back of my own mind everything sounded fuzzy, my vision was blurry. I could just barely make out what they were saying but I didn't have the mental faculties to process it. I almost felt sorry that this was how Abaddon was all of the time.

'YOU DARED TO DEFY ME?'

'I am sorry M'Lord. What must I do to repent?'

'Nothing. You are lucky you picked me up. I will turn a blind eye on your desertion... but only on this occasion, given the circumstances.'

'Thank you. Oh thank you dearly M'Lord'

'Seeing as you are the only drone who didn't desert, it's only proper that you would be made general.'

'Oh M'Lord, you are so great and merciful. I shall be the greatest general you have ever had the pleasure of serving with.'

'I highly doubt that.'

I had let them have their fun. To be honest, in the backseat of my mind it felt a lot like sleeping so I wasn't complaining, but I needed to find out where my place was in this situation. I needed to talk to this Arbeh. So I forced Abaddon back into my mind and took back control of my body. The newly appointed general let out a low hiss as my body formed back to normal.

'So, you are the cretin who dares sully our Lords great demon soul.'

'Stuff it bug brain. Listen here, I don't care what you're the general of, your master and I are one and the same so you treat me with the same respect you would him. Understand?' I spat with the arrogance only found in teenage boys.

In response to me spitting my words at him like dirt Arbeh turned to look at me and literally spat back at me. It was an awful grey sludge, it smelt like rotting flesh.

'You humans are nothing like my Lord, how dare you blaspheme yourself like that.' The tone of his voice and the look in his eyes told me he did not like me very much. I was going to have to earn his trust.

We drove for a few more hours before entering Salisbury, the town in which Stonehenge lay. I felt a faint feeling of dread that I shrugged off as the fear of the unknown, but the closer we got to the henge the stronger I felt it. It seemed to be resonating from deep in my chest, incidentally laying somewhere behind my scars.

'Do you feel that?' He whispered from the back of my mind.

'Yes, what is it?' I thought to myself.

'It's my soul sensing one of the guardians of the gates. I see. So you manifest this as a physical sensation. How peculiar.'

***

Long after this, I decided to look into the events that opened my first portal into hell. The stones at Stonehenge actually massively predate its opening as a portal to hell, it was constructed somewhere around 2000 BCE for unknown purposes, possibly an early astrological calendar or clock. It appears that in the early fourth century some pagans mistook its significance to be religious, and decided to perform their sacrifices there. It seems to be a coincidence but they performed their ritual on a night when the stars aligned above Stonehenge. This along with their ritual carried enough demonic energy to open a portal. The four or five pagans who were sucked into the portal were never seen again.

***

We pulled up to the Stonehenge visitor centre at about 3 am. It had been closed for hours, no one was here. Not even night security. I guess us mortals don't fully understand its significance and danger. Apparently, it was much easier to open a dormant portal than to create a new one. It required the horns of a guardian of the gates of hell. Abaddon informed me that a guardian was a powerful demon tasked with stopping humans accidentally opening more portals to hell and to prevent dormant portals from being opened. They were usually found somewhere around the portals and not only did they possess the horns we required, but they should also give us just enough demonic energy to open the portal.

'Nice night for it, I guess...' Arbeh muttered.

'I can't believe he's the only one left.' my passenger retorted to himself.

We both got out of the car. I could see Arbeh's legs were shaking. I decided to pry.

'Nervous?' my tone was full of smug gloat.

'Fuck off.' he replied. I decided it was probably best to not annoy my only tangible companion.

Walking up the path to Stonehenge the feeling of dread just increased.

'How will I know I've even found this guardian when I see him?' I sent the question all throughout my mind hoping it would reach Abaddon.

'Oh you'll know.' he responded with a chuckle.

A few minutes later the feeling in my chest was so heavy it felt like it was weighing my chest down, it made my legs feel like the ground was shaking. The thing I didn't realise was that the ground was actually shaking. About ten metres ahead of me a giant demon jumped out of the ground, debris flying everywhere, leaving a steaming, red pit behind him. His skin was mottled with grey and dark soot-like colour with a thin fuzz surrounding his entire chest. Some large veins popped out over his arms and chest, his muscles would have put even the most dedicated bodybuilder to shame. His legs were furry goat legs, they were popping with muscular force. Two long, curling, red horns protruded from his forehead. His face didn't even look human, somewhere between man and bull. His beard wrapped around his chin and was long and scraggly, it perfectly hid his sharp fang-like teeth. I could barely believe what I was seeing.

Before I had time to react the demon screamed in a language I didn't understand and couldn't recognise. He sprinted at me, perfectly utilising his legs to bounce from each stride. I didn't know what to do, I was frozen. He smacked Arbeh to the side, he hit the stone wall at the side of the road will an immense force. He slumped to the ground, motionless. The beast didn't stop running.

'Do something! Quickly!' Abaddon yelled into my mind. But it was too late.

The demon slammed into me full force, up close I could see he was probably about five metres tall. I was flung back through the air, down the road. As I flew, I could feel my conscious leave me. At the same time, I felt the familiar warmth of Abaddon's blue flames.

Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.