All Chapters of What Hell May Come: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

PROLOGUEThe ritual had taken eighty-one days.They were at it for more than a quarter of a year.Eighty-one days of smoke, and animal shrieks, and groans of pleasure, and spilled blood. Months of heady incense burning. The occasional hallucinogen was tossed into the mixture, turning the world into a fever dream. Weeks of chanting. The constant intonation fell behind the ears and awoke powers in the subconscious. Robed heroes of all races and classes came and went, adding to the celebration, until they collapsed and were dragged off to recuperate.Crixen Runeburner, elf mage, had been there for all of it. The chanting, the killing, the sex. He had cast down enemies, seen proud heroes fall, and evaded all magical traps to come here at this time. Many adventures across bleak and alien landscapes had led him to this ancient crypt. He had faced dagger fanged monsters, green skinned humans with cruel blades, and pale shadows of the formerly alive. All of these he had struck down to reac

CHAPTER 2The Tragedy of ManBuffalo was the faded queen of old New York, the leftovers of an industrial era ground to shit. It had once been a showpiece of culture and success, industry and shipping, where the working slobs could pull down beer money and the educated snobs could twitter their noses at a host of artistic feasts. It wasn’t fully gone, but the city was quickly fading into a new Detroit or Baltimore—hubs of corruption and squalor. As opportunity slowly leaked away, so did Buffalo’s best and brightest. More and more vanished each year, leaving behind only those who were too lazy or stupid to get the hell out. Nowadays, all the city had to boast about was a chronically losing football team and the invention of Buffalo wings.If the city proper was that bad, Jon’s home of Black Rock, the area he now pedaled through, was its retarded cousin. Once the berg had been a commercial rival for its dominant sister and had nearly been the chosen terminus of the Erie Canal. The War

CHAPTER 4The Judas GoatJon woke with a start on Michael’s bedroom floor. The grungy shag carpeting had scored a number of macaroni-sized ruts in his face. The usual disorders of not knowing where he was claimed him for a second, but his senses took in reality quick enough. The stink of yesterday’s clothes, hard particles of crud from a carpet that had never been vacuumed, stale air from an unventilated room.A typical teenage boy’s room. Iron Maiden posters on the wall. A pile of dirty laundry in the closet. A tottering stack of well-read comics next to the bed. Porno mags hidden under the bed. Trashcan filled to the brim. Loose leaf paper, pens, spiral notebooks, backpack. Textbooks with a brown paper bag cover to minimize damage. Not much different from his own, except the furniture was more ragged.He shook the sleep from his face. Michael was elsewhere, which was just as well, Jon needed to scratch his balls and didn’t want anyone around for that. After the game last night, w

CHAPTER 6Blessed are the Bold“The name means Hill of the Ghouls. Isn’t that messed up?”The black van clunked on through the fading light of day. It was All Hallow’s Eve and rather than get drunk and steal candy from children like their peers, Jon and friends were bundled away in warm winter gear and passing around a bottle of scotch Kathy had stolen from her parents’ liquor stock.“How much longer, you reckon?” Louis asked.“Soon. Maybe twenty more minutes,” Michael answered from the driver’s seat.“You actually been there?”“Uh . . . ”“That’s what I done figured.”“Hey, I got a road atlas.” He hefted up a massive spiral notebook filled with the finest AAA maps. “It’s current. Came out last year. I know where I’m going.”Michael lapsed back into discussing the fanciful and grotesque history of Goodleburg Cemetery, their ultimate destination. Jon only tuned in with half an ear, since he knew the first thing Michael said was untrue. The place was named after one o

CHAPTER 8SnakelandMichael claimed he was fatigued, so they agreed to meet after school the next day to attempt contacting Brian Elder. The school day stretched on at an agonizing pace, until that blessed final bell released them all from captivity.The day would’ve easily been forgotten, tossed into the lump of other boring days in their memory, except they were about to leave the building with a gaggle of Italians, led by the snarling Gabbaducci. As usual, the girls followed. Jon’s nightly fantasy girl was among them.“I heard you’ve been telling people that I’m a faggot,” Gabbaducci yelled at Michael. His nose bumped Michael’s.“I . . . I didn’t.”And of course, he hadn’t. It’s just that the boy wanted to fight and rather than find a reason, he manufactured one to justify his assholeishness.Gabbaducci slammed Michael’s head into the wall.“You want to fuck me in the ass? How ‘bout I do it to you and we’ll see who’s the queer.” He punched Michael in the nuts and s