Suzette B's Blog

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Suddenly…the electrical power in the hotel went out…

…at the same moment that Setho Zang’s magma talons lifted Mr. Tracer (Maatu) from the flames of salt encircling his feet. Frantically, Setho Zang tried albeit unsuccessfully, to pull Mr. Tracer (Maatu) through The Door with her.

In the now dimly light darkness of the stairwell, the only true light— was the two-meter diameter circular door around the abyss of the Dark Realm. The flaming hand still writing meticulously letter-by-letter: the incantation that Isabella had spoken to open The Door.

Then came thunder…

And out of the thunder, a voice…like the sound of many waters, spoke:

“No! The die has been cast. Let him go!”

Screaming louder than Mr. Tracer (Maatu)’s still-screaming voice, Setho Zang, queen of the harpies gripped her son with her magma talons more tightly, (for he was her son, centuries ago when she gave up her human soul to save his life in a spell which bound him, her dying newborn child, to life while she assumed the harpies’ throne as queen, in exchange)…

Still wailing, for she knew what was to come, Setho Zang surrendered to the voice’s command and released her son Mr. Tracer (Maatu)…who promptly went silent as he vanished from this life…banished by the voice like the sound many waters to the abyss until that day of judgment.

Suddenly…

The box of salt Isabella had been clutching tightly containing The flaming sword normally carried along in her half-angel, half-human bloodstream, sprang from her arms towards The Door spilling every last drop of salt in mid-air.

The expunged salt formed a massive shepherd’s staff hovering over Isabella’s head.

Then like the sound of a jet engine on takeoff, every granule of salt transformed into a nail!

Meanwhile…

In between the transfixion of the now about 28,000 nails, the flaming sword materialized in Isabella’s right hand.

Isabella knew what to do.

She wielded the two-meter flaming sword as only she could, swinging for the divine fences; she swatted the shepherd staff of nails (salt) towards The Door.

Then… Isabella whispered the incantation in Latin, (for there were no equivalent words in ancient Aramaic), to close The Door:

“Sigillum Dei!” (meaning, “seal of God”)

Suddenly…each one of the twenty eight thousand nails (once granules of salt) took off like arrows from an invisible army of archers firing every one of the seven arrows in their respective quivers, at will, on a course heading for The Door.

Then it was as if time froze, everything except the advancing nails stopped.

As the nails began one by one to fasten themselves to the circumference of The Door…the flaming hand that had been writing the incantation Isabella spoke to open The Door…vanished— as if someone had softly blown out a candle.

Blood-curdling screams could be heard from the now halted/thwarted army that Setho Zang and Legion had amassed behind The Door in the Dark Realm. Their screams were not out of fear; but, at their horror at their new fate— condemned to fester in the fetid darkness of absolute nothingness, forever.

One hour later…

Just as the final nail, began the important task of putting the finishing touch to The Door’s seal, Setho Zang swatted the final nail with her massive wings as she flew out The still-open Door…

Inexplicably, or so it seemed, that one final nail deliberately missed its mark and reverted back to salt.

But it did not revert back to just any grain of salt. This final “nail” (salt grain) now sparkled diamond-like and appeared larger than even the coarsest grain of salt imaginable. It fell eerily, silently to the stairwell floor in front of The still-open Door.

Taking up a position to block Setho Zang…

Isabella spoke with authority to the queen of the harpies:

“You should not be here…”

Before Isabella finished her sentence, she restrained her words. She realized what had happened.

Isabella realized that she had not paid Setho Zang’s price for saving her life last night from an almost certain death plummeting from the Burj Al Arab Hotel’s rooftop.

Isabelle knew two things as guardian of The flaming sword. First, to close any spiritual door: the Word must be fulfilled. And second, of no less importance, a promise/oath must be honored.

“What do you want, in payment, queen of the harpies?”

“My son brought back alive to this world!”

At Setho Zang’s words, The flaming sword vanished back into Isabella’s bloodstream.

With her mind racing…Isabella owned her mistake and quickly hatched a plan. She had one chance to set things right. But she would need help; and, that help was very far away and long ago…

But first…she had to slip away unseen, from Setho Zang one of the fastest-winged demons of all time at flight speeds up to Marc 1.

Isabella searched the stairwell floor with her spiritual vision (not her real eyes) looking for the last grain of salt now camouflaged or transformed, or whatever had happened to freeze the grain of salt into a small diamond-like object.

First, she prayed.

Then, in her mind’s eye…she saw the diamond-like grain of salt a short distance away on the stairwell floor. As fate would have it, or not, it was behind the tip of Setho Zang’s massive right wing.

Oblivious to the last grain of salt and its transformed nature…Setho Zang stepped on the final grain of diamond-like salt with her magma talons as she readied herself to leap toward Isabella. The diamond-like final grain of salt began to smolder quietly, its soft plumes drifting upward…

In that split second…

Without hesitation, Isabella spun upward off her feet and lunged between Seth Zang’s advancing talons. Isabella twirled 360 degrees while falling backward in mid-air between Setho Zang’s massive wings, hoping to get enough of the now smoldering salt ash over her head…to disappear out of the stairwell.

Miraculously, it worked…

Thus, in the almost imperceptible puff of smoldering salt dust mingled with magma…Isabella vanished.

Isabella landed courtesy of her vanishing act outside the Jumeriah Hotel Southeby’s main floor Emergency exit, while Setho Zang still on the other side of the exit door, howled in disappointment.

—Smiling to herself Isabella whispered in her heart: “Who said hope was not an exit strategy?”

Meanwhile, Setho Zang pacing back and forth inside the Emergency Exit stairwell mumbled necromancy incantations to shapeshift herself, temporarily, and successfully into a human female.

Now, in a female form, Setho Zang’s complexion/skin was the same navy blue to jet black shade as her plumage. She was “clothed” in a ninja-style body suit made of her armored soft inner feathers. Her eyes flamed. Their red orbs dripped magma when she blinked.

Setho Zang cursed a host of expletives, angry that all her abilities save for her incalculable strength, had to be sacrificed for her shapeshift to human form to pass muster alongside the inquisitive gaze of the real humans that she might encounter.

Then the transformed Setho Zang raced out of the Emergency Stairs Entrance/Exit. She kicked the door with inhuman force.

Angrily, (because she knew that was not as fast on foot) she let the door and its hinges fly off into the lobby with a loud bang, as she sped, unflinching, her arms flailing with military precision as she sped to catch up with Isabella…

“****To Be Continued Next Sunday****