Between Heaven and Hell | A Rain-Ghoul Fanfiction

15. The Summoning Room

I looked up to Mountain. ''There's enough salt in the kitchen.'' He answered my question. Papa gave us a confused look. He was always confused about almost everything that was happening in the church, but now he was somehow extra confused. ''What are you going to do? Throw salt at him? There is this super strong quintessence ghoul with strong emotions in hell and your plan is to throw salt at him? Seriously?'' ''Yes.'' I said stubbornly, deep down I knew that Papa was right. My plan was ridiculous. But I wasn't going to admit that. Papa just sighed. ''Eve, I get that things haven't been fair. You have been falsely accused of stealing by almost all of the ghouls and siblings of sin, you still feel guilty over being a spy so you want to do something for the church, and Cobra attacked you and your boyfriend. I get it, there are plenty of reasons for you to go to hell. However, you're still human. Besides that, look at you, you need at least 6 weeks to heal.''

I had never felt more disappointed in my life. ''So you're just going to let him get away with it? I'm begging you, please let me go to hell!'' But Papa already stood up from the chair beside my bed. ''You're human, Eve. Accept that. There's a lot of unmasked ghouls in hell and you can't even see a ghoul without their mask on.'' He turned around to face the door. ''But I can see unmasked ghouls!'' I yelled before he could leave the room. He froze in place. ''What are you saying?'' ''I can see ghouls without their mask on. The first time it happened it was an accident. I accidentally walked in on Rain when I first started living here and that's when I saw his face.'' Papa turned around and gave Rain a stern look. ''Rain, you could have killed her!'' Rain put his hands in the air. ''It was an accident! I swear I-'' Papa cut him off. ''That's none of my concerns right now. Eve, you and the ghouls have my permission to go to hell once you're healed. This has changed everything. It was meant to be then. I- I have to tell Sister Imperator.''

It was like Papa had realized something. Like he knew something that we didn't. He walked out of the room, leaving me and the confused ghouls and ghoulettes behind. Dewdrop laughed uncomfortably. ''Bet that she has seen more body parts of Rain than just his face.'' Cumulus softly pushed him away by his shoulder. ''This isn't the time, Dew! Does... Does anyone know what it means when a human can see our faces? The only human that has ever seen my face is Papa.'' The rest of the ghouls nodded in agreement. ''Yes, Papa is also the only human that has seen my face. And one of the only humans who has been to hell.'' Mountain said, deeply thinking about what this could mean. But none of us knew.

The next few weeks went by slowly. The nurses took good care of me, but lying in bed all day was still boring. What Papa realized that day still remained a mystery. He said that he'll tell me when I got back from hell. If I got back from hell.

Rain visited me every single day. He brought me flowers, talked to me about everything, and told me how glad he was that I was still alive at least twice a visit. Phantom got me a bouquet of roses in every single color, but once Rain saw it, he left and returned with a bouquet that was at least twice as big. Another time, he brought an acoustic guitar with him to serenade me. He was halfway through the first song when the nurses told him to stop playing because the other patients needed to rest.

The rest of my friends also visited me often. Roy and Dewdrop even brought the karaoke set up to The Hospital Wing. Satan knows how they got it all the way up the stairs. The nurses told me that I could get out of bed so we could sing karaoke elsewhere, before we woke up the rest of the patients. When I heard Roy singing, my ears hurted more than my leg and my arm combined, so that was a nice distraction.

Mountain, Nali, and the ghoulettes came by to paint their nails with me. The girls finally convinced Mountain to let them do his nails. They agreed to do it in the theme of his element, earth, so his nails were brown with a small green stripe on top of it. They looked like the Minecraft logo.

Swiss came by to talk to me for hours about hell. He told me about the politics, elemental powers, and cities that were there. He also told me that the book that I tried to steal months ago, Liber Magicae Tenebris, was written by Lucifer himself, who created the summon and un-summon spells in the basement of the church. I had asked him if I couldn't just bring a crucifix with me to hell to defeat Cobra, but he said that a crucifix would immediately burn to ashes the second it was in hell.

The time was finally there. 6 weeks had passed since Cobra had attacked me and Rain. Papa, the ghouls and ghoulettes, and I had gathered ourselves in The Summoning Room to stop Cobra.

''There you go, I got you the salt you asked for.'' Mountain said, while he handed me a bag full of salt. Some of his nail polish was still on his nails, but most of it had fallen off. He was holding a rope in his other hand, and he had a backpack on his back. I imagined that it must be filled with stuff to catch Cobra.

Papa opened up Liber Magicae Tenebris, ready to put the hell resistance spell on me and to un-summon the ghouls. ''I will go over the rules once again.'' He said. ''Technically, I can un-summon a ghoul from earth back to hell no matter where they are. But we don't want you to get stuck inside of any objects in the other dimension, so that's why we're here, in The Summoning Room. However, I can't summon a ghoul from hell back to earth if they are not in The Summoning Room on the other side. It is 2 PM now, I will be summoning the ghouls here, and some other ghouls from hell back at exactly 3 PM. You only have 1 hour because Eve's hell resistance spell will only last that long. If she's not back in time she-'' He didn't finish his sentence. ''Please, just bring Cobra back with you within an hour. It is impossible to summon and un-summon a human, so you have to hold onto a ghoul to go to hell and to leave hell. Is that clear?'' ''Yes, Papa.'' I said. ''First, I will put the hell-resistance spell on you, can you stand over there please? There needs to be enough distance between you and the ghouls. I must warn you though, you might get a little cold.'' Papa instructed. I did as he said, and then he performed the spell on me.

''Haec alica non sinet cutis et ossa in inferno ardeant!''

I was completely freezing after Papa had performed the spell on me. He had warned me that I might get a little bit cold. Not freeze to death. I quickly walked back to Rain, in the hope that his body heat might warm me a little.

Papa flipped through the book's pages. ''Don't worry, you'll be warm in no time. Is everyone ready?'' The ghouls and ghoulettes all nodded, indicating that they were ready. ''Then I'll start un-summoning you now!''

I held tightly onto Rain's arm with one hand. In the other hand, I was holding the bag of salt. Papa started to perform the un-summoning spell on the ghouls.

''Igne calet...''

Papa's eyes were focused on the book. Even though he had probably casted this spell at least a thousand times, he still wanted to make sure that he was pronouncing all of the words right.

''Per aspera ad inferi...''

I never knew that the song was part of the spell.

''Lucifer porta ad inferos...''

I held onto Rain even tighter, his body seemed to be getting weaker.

''Daemones revertere ad inferos...''

Rain and the other ghouls and ghoulettes didn't have the power in them anymore to stand up straight. They fell to the ground. Luckily I could catch Rain before he hit the ground.

''Ad ubi pertinent!''

I closed my eyes.

''Ardeant!''