Page 29 of Guarded by the Gargoyle (Hidden Hollow #3)

27

WILLOW

I t wasn’t really a nightmare, but it certainly seemed like one. It started with a deep grinding noise that penetrated my dreams. Then a dull orange glow pressed against my eyelids and I began to get uncomfortably hot.

I woke confused, my eyelids fluttering open. I was alone in the bed and the room was bathed with a reddish-orange light. I was terribly hot—something at the end of the bed was emitting heat like a furnace.

At first, I thought the cottage was on fire—there was a scent like rotten eggs and burning in the air. But then I saw the source of the heat—there was a huge iron door, right at the foot of the bed. It was open and I could see a hellish landscape beyond.

Barren, hard-packed earth crisscrossed with cracks and fissures was lit by burning red light. In the background, a jagged mountain range rose. There was a river running sluggishly through the landscape and at first, I thought the water in it was being turned red by the strange light. Then I realized the truth—the river was filled with bubbling lava!

“Oh my Goddess,” I whispered shakily. “What in the world…?”

And then I saw something moving towards me—some kind of animal. It was coming up fast, approaching the open doorway at a kind of gallop. But despite the reddish-orange light, the land I was seeing was full of shadows. So I didn’t recognize it until it was nearly at the door.

As it got closer, three sets of burning eyes and three slavering mouths came into view. A volley of hoarse, growling barks filled the room as the Hell Hound that had chased me earlier suddenly loomed in the doorway.

I felt helpless and trapped. I scrambled to the back of the bed, my shoulders pressed against the carved wooden headboard, so hard I was sure I would have marks later. I wanted to get off the bed and run but I was frozen to the spot and besides, I wasn’t sure I could get around the door. I needed a weapon!

“Cottage—give me a gun!” I begged. “A loaded one!”

A heavy revolver suddenly appeared in my hand. Luckily, Carlo had taught me how to shoot—mainly because he wanted someone at the shooting range with him that he could show off for.

I aimed the gun at the approaching Hell Hound and shot through the open doorway.

But though I saw the bullet fly, I must have missed. Or else maybe Earth weapons couldn’t hurt Hell Hounds. Whatever the reason, it only snarled at me with all three heads and kept coming.

I shot again… and again and again and again with the same results.

Then I heard a voice calling from the hallway.

“Willow? What’s wrong? What was that noise?”

Kael ran into the bedroom and saw my predicament at once. The Hell Hound was nearly in the doorway by now and I was shivering against the headboard with the gun held out in front of me with a stiff arm.

“Get out of the way—I’m going to try to shoot it again!” I yelled at him when ran to the door.

“No—you can’t hurt it like that. We must close the door!”

He was already changing, his eyes burning red and his feathers melting into leathery wings. His face grew twisted and ugly and he seemed to get even bigger.

“How can you shut it?” I demanded, putting down the gun. The iron door wasn’t open from my side—it was open in the Hellscape. I could see it outlined against the red glow—it was standing ajar. We would have to reach into that horrible scene to grab the knob and drag it closed. I didn’t see how I could do that—not with the Hell Hound coming.

Kael didn’t answer. He stepped forward, coming right up to the burning doorway. Then he leaned in to grab for the knob.

But he couldn’t reach it and then the Hell Hound was there—trying to get through.

Kael grabbed one of its heads by the throat and punched it, knocking it unconscious. It was the middle head and it sagged in his grip, but there were still two more on either side, slavering and baying for blood.

My guardian gargoyle was holding it back by sheer strength but the thing was huge—as big as a horse! I knew he couldn’t hold it for long.

Kael seemed to know that too.

“Mistress,” he panted, turning his head to look at me. “Run!”

But I couldn’t just leave him.

“No—I have to shut the door!” I exclaimed. “I’m the one who opened it in the first place—I have to shut it.”

“Then let me get this hound out of the way first!” He punched another head and it slumped, drooling, to one side. But the third head was still howling and I was afraid the middle one might wake up again soon. Its eyelids were already flickering.

Holding the third head on the far left by the throat, Kael put his shoulder against the beast’s broad chest and began to push it backwards. It had been trying to get through the doorway at me, but slowly he shoved it back into the Hellscape.

There was just enough room on the right side of my gargoyle protector for me to put one foot over the threshold and reach for the doorknob. I leaned forward, stretching, trying to keep as much of my body in Hidden Hollow as possible while still trying to reach the knob.

At last I grabbed it—but I let it go a moment later with a gasp of pain. It was scorching —I felt like I had laid my bare hand on a red-hot stove burner!

“I can’t do it—it’s too hot!” I shouted to Kael, who was fighting two heads instead of one since the middle head of the Hell Hound had revived now. If the right-hand head came back, I was going to be in trouble. It was barely twelve inches from my face!

“You have to get back—let me do it!” Kael growled. He was doing his best to shove the Hell Hound backward and had mostly succeeded in getting it through the doorway. The problem was, he had stepped over the threshold. He was standing on the barren, cracked land of the Hellscape as he fought the demonic beast.

“You can’t!” I protested again. “It’s my fault. I should be the one?—”

And then the words died on my lips, because I saw something even worse than the Hell Hound.

It was Carlo and he was coming for me.

His head was still caved in, his face blackened and his lips dry and cracked. One eye dangled out of its socket like a deflated balloon. But the other eye met my gaze and he smiled at me—a horrible smile. One that said he was going to pay me back for what had happened to him.

“Hey, babe,” he slurred, leering at me. “Look at you—all naked and hot. Come here—we’re gonna have some fun!”

My dead ex reached for me and I couldn’t help it—I jumped back, out of the doorway. It was an instinctive reaction—I couldn’t let him touch me with those dead, swollen fingers—I just couldn’t.

But it seemed this was the opening Kael had been waiting for. With a mighty heave, he shoved the Hell Hound backwards, knocking it off its feet and into the sluggish river of lava flowing nearby.

I heard its agonized howls but before I could reach for the door again, Kael was pushing my ex out of the way and grabbing the doorknob. Despite its scorching heat, he gripped it hard and pulled…but it didn’t even budge.

Kael, come on—come out of there!” I begged him.

He shook his head.

“It won’t close from this side—it has to close from the other side.”

“What? What are you taking about?” I cried. But he didn’t answer. Instead, he ran around to the other side of the door—the Hellscape side. Putting both hands against the heavy iron door, he began to shove it closed.

“Kael, stop! Don’t do that—you’re going to be trapped!” I shouted as panic rushed through me. I had just admitted my feelings for my gargoyle protector—I didn’t want to lose him!

But Kael didn’t pay any attention. Through the crack in the other side of the door where the hinges were, I saw him shoving with single-minded attention. His gargoyle face was a sneering mask of effort—the door must have weighted a thousand pounds!

“No!” I shouted as, inch-by-inch, the door began to close. I wanted to rush in and drag him out, but then Carlo was there again. He was dragging himself off the ground and grinning at me again, the horrible deflated balloon of an eyeball smacking wetly against his sunken cheekbone as he moved.

“Gonna get you, babe,” he croaked, reaching for me. “You sent me here—sent me to Hell. Now you’re gonna come stay with me so we can have fun forever!”

“No… no!” I gasped, backing further away from the doorway. “Kael, please! I need?—”

But just at that moment, the huge gargoyle gave another mighty shove…and the iron door leading into The Pit closed completely.

I stood there, stunned for a moment, unable to believe what had just happened. It all seemed like some kind of crazy, vivid nightmare I would wake up from at any moment.

Only I didn’t wake up.

The iron door stood quietly at the foot of the bed like some kind of strange monolith for about a minute. And then, like a magic trick, it folded itself in half. The top half came down and met the bottom half with a snapping sound. Then it folded again—this time vertically with the right half folding over the left half. Then it folded down again.

By this time it was barely a foot tall. It was happening so fast I couldn’t move. I watched in horrified fascination as it just kept folding and folding—like an impossible piece of demonic origami.

And then, with a final snap! it folded one last time so it was no bigger than my palm—and abruptly winked out of existence completely.