I prepared myself for the journey as best I could. There really wasn’t that much I could really do to ensure my safety, given where I was going. I committed to memory a few special spells that I thought might come in handy. Especially when confronted by hellishly powerful beings who could snuff me out with a thought. Or play with my soul for eternity. And yes, ‘play’ was a euphemism for ‘torture me until I became a broken, pitiful thing’. Sometimes, I wondered if I was a bit of a masochist.

Finally, I was as ready as I would ever be.

“Joydon?”

Yes, Professor?

“It’s time. Is everything prepared? Is Sam ready? Are you?”

Yes, Professor. I feel it is important to make you aware that Sam is planning to attempt to shut down my operating system once you have departed.

“It’s not a problem, Joydon. She won’t be able to. Besides, she’ll soon realise that you’re no immediate threat to people. Just, please, try not to antagonise her too much. I really don’t want her hurt, you know?”

Of course not, Professor. I will endeavor to facilitate a positive relationship with your sister.

“That’s the spirit! I’ll go and make my goodbyes now. Thank you, Joydon. For everything.”

You are welcome, Professor. I look forward to your return.

I went to Sam’s room. I knew she would be there, probably trying to figure out how to disconnect Joydon. I ordered the notification panel to alert Sam to my presence. After a moment, the door swung open.

She looked at me in appraisal. “Hiya, Tom. You ready for your insane mission of suicide?”

I smiled at her, “As ready as I’ll ever be. Before I go, I just wanted to make sure that you were OK. And to get your promise that you will at least try to work with Joydon. Honestly, you won’t regret it. I know you have issues with the idea of a sentient AI, but there’s no threat there.”

She looked like she was going to argue with me about it again before she sighed. “Fine, I promise to give it a chance. If it messes up even once though, that thing is going on the junk pile faster than a broken toaster.”

“That’s all I ask, Sam. Just give her a chance. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by just how much advice and support she can give.”

“’She?’ It’s an ‘it’. You’d better be right. I said I’ll give it a chance and I will. Now, what about you? Are you still determined to go to Hell?”

“Thanks. Yes. I must. There’s no other option that I can see. Who knows what Razor is up to right now? There have been no reports, but all that means is that he’s not been caught yet.”

“I guess there’s no point worrying about it unless and until we can actually do something about it.”

“Very pragmatic, Sam. I’m impressed. I thought you’d want to go running off after him and try something stupid.”

“Yes, well. Let’s just say that the time I spent with him convinced me that we need something more than just punching him.”

I nodded. “Yeah. You won’t see me again if I don’t pull this off, so I’ve encoded the base for you. You are now the proud owner of all my tech and secrets. Use them wisely. Bye, Sam. I love you, sis.”

She teared up and choked back a sob. “Thanks, Tom. I will. I promise. I love you too, brother. I wish we had been given more time.”

I blinked rapidly. Something must have gotten in my eyes. “Me too. Me too.”

Without any further words, I turned on my heel and made my way down the corridor. I didn’t turn back.

I reached my destination quickly. After all, there’s only so much room in an underground base.

The door I stood outside was ornately decorated with bas reliefs of devils, demons and images of people performing all manner of depraved acts upon one another. I bit back a quick smile. I did enjoy the old favourites.

“Open.”

The door opened silently. I advanced into the room. It wasn’t too large as these things go. It didn’t need to be. The only object in there was The Grid.

It appeared to be in the shape of a pentagram, but the lines comprising it seemed to subtly shift and blur depending on what angle it was viewed at.

Luckily, I could operate it with voice commands. It was always ‘on’, I just needed to direct it to a specific destination. I usually just used it to teleport myself to the store. A flagrant abuse of power.

It was fun.

Of course, this time I was going to try to use it to send myself to a destination that while really easy to get to, was generally acknowledged to be far more difficult to get back from.

I entered it and centred myself. I set the operational parameters, spoke the words that would activate the spell and took a deep breath. I was a little apprehensive. I had never used it for inter-dimensional travel before and, although I knew it was theoretically possible, it was still a huge risk.

Fuck it. I spoke the activating word.

“F’Nargh.”

There was an almost subsonic hum of power from the Grid, initially felt more than heard. It gradually rose in pitch until it became almost physically painful before it reached its peak.

I closed my eyes tightly.

I just knew I wasn’t going to enjoy this experience.

I was right.

I began to feel bodily sensations for the first time since the loss of my physical self.

The feeling was very different from using it to teleport site to site.

It wasn’t pleasant.

It began with a sense of cold. A chill that built swiftly. Not simply into a nice, bone-chilling, Arctic cold. Oh no. Nothing so quaint. It was the cryogenic cold between the stars. A freezing pain that became a paradoxical heat. My whole body was aflame.

I felt every nerve in my body shoot splinters of agony into my mind, shredding my soul. I lost all sense of time.

There was only the pain. I desperately tried to hold on to thoughts of myself. I filled my mind with memories, attempting to compartmentalise the tearing, burning, ripping torture. I saw flashes of my foster parents, Jim and Jane. Sanctimonious bastards. My mom. My dad. I felt myself slip away, despite my best efforts. It consumed me, tearing my thoughts and mind away until all that was left was a gibbering mad thing, seeming to shriek its pain forever into the darkness.

***

An eternity later, I became aware of sound. A kind of constant, droning noise. It was hurting my … ears? Throat? Whatever it was, I wanted it to stop.

That’s when I understood what the annoying sound was. It was someone screaming. A hoarse, breathless cry that seemed to echo the torment of a lost soul.

It seemed an age before I realised it was me.

The pain suddenly left me, as if someone had flipped a switch. I stopped screaming. The sudden absence of pain was almost as bad, a sweet agony of relief that made me cry out again.

I sagged a little before wearily cracking open my eyes and looking around at my surroundings. I didn’t recognise anything. The distant mountains were unfamiliar. The lowering sky was dark and threatening. I looked down at myself. I was kneeling on what appeared to be coarse, red sand. The small particles were shifting restlessly under my legs.

I peered at myself in confusion for a moment. There was something I was meant to do. I couldn’t remember what. I searched my mind. It didn’t take long. I couldn’t remember anything.

Who was I?

“Fresh meat.” A thick, phlegmy voice spoke behind me. I hadn’t heard anyone approach. I remained where I was, hunched over on the sand.

“How did you get out here, Meat?” The owner of the voice came into view. “You look new, shouldn’t you be in Processing?”

I couldn’t help myself. I started, falling on my back as I looked up at the creature. The being stood in front of me was straight out of a nightmare.

I may not have had my memories but I didn’t need any to have an awareness that its shape was wrong. I felt revulsion simply looking at the thing. It had eight legs. A flexible, segmented tail with a flattened, serrated edge. Its body was fat and bulbous. It had several eyes arranged in a semi-circle over a gaping hole in the middle of its face. Its mouth was a slit, filled with sharp, dripping teeth.

“What? Where am I? What … what are you?” My voice was filled with fear as I gazed up at the being in terror.

“I’m here for you, mate. My name’s Rend.” The creature towered over me and raised a fore leg in a hideous approximation of a hand shake.

I scrambled back, away from the monstrosity. “Rend?” I tried to think quickly. I may not have been able to remember anything but my instincts were screaming at me to be careful. I picked a name at random.

“I’m … uh…Sand.” Huh, maybe it wasn’t that random after all. My surroundings were all I knew at the moment after all.

“No, you’re Fresh Meat.” Rend laughed coarsely. “Just my little jest, mate. What are you doing out in the Desolate Lands, Meat?”

I decided there wasn’t much point in lying. “I don’t remember.”

Rend unexpectedly reached over to me and raised my head before I could move out of his way. His head lowered as he peered into my eyes. He grunted something unintelligible before releasing me.

“You’re coming with me, Meat. I’d better bring you to the boss. Can’t be having Humans running around free out here. It’ll play havoc with the property prices.” He laughed again.

“The boss?” I did my best to swallow back my fear as I didn’t seem to be in immediate danger. “Will he be able to help me?”

Rend peered at me and eventually sighed a little. “Look, mate. You seem a decent sort, which is a bit out of the ordinary around these parts. I’m just going to assume it’s the memory loss and you’re really an evil bastard. So, you’re going to see my boss, he’ll assess your soul and check the balance. If you’re really bad, well, you’re screwed. If not, you’ll probably just get a job licking clean the asses of demons after they’ve been on the shitter.”

There was a lot to process in that short speech. None of it was encouraging or pleasant.

I decided that it might be better if I made a run for it and hoped my memory would return. I tensed myself and prepared to make my escape.

Rend held up a clawed leg and muttered a guttural word. I found myself suddenly frozen. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t so much as move a muscle.

“Sorry, mate. No running off. This aint my first time, son.” He laughed again before unspooling a coil of rope from his back and approaching me. He swiftly wrapped me in the rope and swung me on his back.

“Righto, off we go, mate. For what it’s worth, I like you, Kid. I don’t know why. I hope you don’t get the toilet attendant job. It sucks.”