A sudden and deadly silence swallowed the Pits as the last shared of wood clattered to the floor. The only sounds the distant crackle of the fires and the hollow creak of the doors hinges as they rocked, empty and ominous. My shadow cast a silhouette across the floor as I lingered in the doorway beneath the one burning light the tunnels possessed, hesitant to move forwards. I hadn't really planned on making quite such an entrance.

The Berserker guards dusted himself off, brushing large wooden fragments from his thick hide, appearing little phased by the power that had destroyed the object he'd been tasked with guarding. I could have hoped the blast would have knocked him out, but their thick skins were all but impenetrable to both blades and magic, worse luck. Behind me Jesse still lurked somewhere, waiting to drag me to Malick, in front that Berserker, and countless other demons.

How many of them were also comfortably situated in Malick's pocket? It was a thought that hadn't yet occurred to me until the moment they were staring me straight in the face, it was a discomforting thought. I knew in which direction the bigger evil really lay, and yet I had to keep heading towards it, there could be no turning back.

Taking a deep breath I stepped further out into the light, feeling the heat of the Pits wash over me like a balm; soothing and calming. It gave me a new and much needed boost of confidence. I could do this, I could get out of there in one piece, I just had to believe it. Splinters of wood dug into the soles of my feet as I trod, carefully, into the gathering crowd of demons who'd all been drawn to the commotion; last thing I wanted to do was go and injure myself before anything really kicked off.

Smatterings of chatter rose in the air like a swarm of insects, not many of their words particularly discernible, but the excited tension in the air was thick and palpable. Demons always loved a show, and some prisoner – apparently with some un-contained power – trying to break out of the Shadow Cells was not something they got to see everyday. But it was the words of the Berserker that actually reached my ears.

"You pay for what you break!" It growled.

Its stunted speech rumbled the stones beneath my feet, its voice so low and loud. They didn't often talk and tended to stick to single syllables when they did, they weren't the brightest of sorts. Though I had a feeling when he said pay he didn't mean in the monetary term.

I shook my head. "No. No, everyone will pay once that thing gets out."

I rushed – rather more gingerly than was really effective, but they did not seem to notice – towards the crowd. My voice was already shaky with nerves, so I had not needed to put that on, but the words had been over my lips and out of my mouth before I even had time to process what I was saying, and I have to admit it wasn't really my best work. But what was said was said, there was no chance for me to take it back now.

"What d'you mean?" A voice enquired, though I could not pin point exactly where it had come from.

Then more voices started to pick up, a bubbling murmur of chatter that surrounded me, all curious and questioning, many doubtful, and all hungry for blood. There must not be any executions scheduled for that day.

"Why are you listening to her? She's a prisoner." Another voice suddenly piped up.

"Yeah, throw her back in the cells!"

"She's just trying to fool her way out. Don't throw her back in, string her up."

"Does she look familiar to anyone else?" That one had me turning in search of the speaker, but there were swallowed by the crowd and yet more voices the instant he'd stopped speaking.

"There'll be no keeping them in there now, we should just kill the lot of 'em."

"Should've killed them all in the first place if you ask me."

The relentless babbling made me roll my eyes. Demons, they all thought they were far superior to humans, better, so much more powerful, and yet they were all so similar. The mob mentality that rippled through them all, the conspiring, the bickering, even their blood lust and brutality were not unheard of amongst the world of men. But it was only now that I was really seeing the truth of it. My awe of the pureblood demons had fizzled away, and I was beginning to see them all for what they really were.

I backed further up into the jostling crowd, making use of their distraction and yammering to slip out of sight of the Berserker, he was still the biggest threat. Some movement flickered in the light at the door to the labyrinth of cells – either the other prisoners were growing curious of the potential to escape, or Jesse was coming after me. Either way I took advantage of the potential distraction.

"Look there, it's there!! I shrieked, pointing at the ruined doorway, drawing their stares away from me. "It's there, it's coming."

The prospect of some unknown monster, something powerful lurking just beyond the shadow was far more interesting than an old prisoner dressed in rags. They're always drawn to power, and if I wasn't the one who made the door explode, then I wasn't worth so much of their attention; all the better. Unfortunately the Berserker, towering tall over the rest of the crowd, still seemed to have his beady little eyes on me.

I jostled my way backwards through the swarm of demons, as they all shuffled forwards, eager to get a closer look at the danger that might be lurking in the darkness. There was no fear amongst them, even despite my warnings and the quivering anxiety that I piled into my voice. I shouldn't have been surprised, they feared little, and something that might give them a good fight, spill some blood was appealing. It was a decent enough ruse, for the first thing that popped into my head, I just needed to make my escape before they grew bored and realised that no such beast existed, that it was really me that they should be concerned with.

I was at the back of the crowd, almost free to make a dash for one of the stone staircases when the Berserker finally understood exactly what I was trying to do.

"Stop her!" It thundered, pointing a large club-like hand in my direction, "She get'n'way."

Its stunted speech may have seemed comical had it not been roiling with raw aggression and unwavering purpose directed straight at me.

I didn't wait to see how quickly their attention diverted back to me. Turning on my heels I made a dash for it, elbowing a few demons at the back of the crowd out of my way as they tried to figure out what was going on.

The ground was rough and warm under my bare feet, and I no longer had time to care where I placed them. More than once I winced in pain as something stabbed into my soles, but I forced myself to keep going; the stairs weren't far now. Once I was out of the Pits I could easily lose any tail that was still trying to follow me. Finding Lucas and Frank might be trickier, but at least I'd be able to think, to plan without demons coming at me from all angles. Not to mention I needed more information, both on what Malick was up to and, most importantly, how far Lucifer had progressed with his plan.

Malick had spoken, very briefly, of a new plan that Lucifer had been formulating, a new experiment that he believed would allow him to overthrow the other powers in Hell and leave him to reign supreme. Death and souls were his work, I could only imagine the chaos he would rain down on Earth should he be free from all the red tape. It'd be like so many horror movies all come to life at once.

The tunnels to the stairs were in view. I put on a new burst of speed and barreled headlong into a a demon who suddenly rushed into my path. I saw him all too late to stop and braced myself as out bodies collided, pushing myself off of the ground so that I went down above hi, letting him take all the impact of the fall. As soon as I could draw another breath I was back, scrambling to my feet over the top of his prone body, but the pause in my momentum had given other demons enough time to catch up.

Another one loomed in front of me as I was straightening back up. I threw out a hand and let loose another jolt of power – it was becoming like almost second nature now to summon the magic, required little thinking. The power caught the demon hard in the face as it leaned towards me, its arms outstretched and ready to grab me. It flew backwards, almost into the mouth of the tunnel I was heading for, and with another flick of the wrist he was swept across the floor and out of my path.

A few steps more were all I managed to get when my feet were suddenly taken out from under me. With a shriek I found myself on the ground again, my forearms stinging from the impact with the stone. Looking back I saw the demon I'd squashed lying on his front with a grip on my ankle. I had but a moment to register the crushing tightness of his grip as it tightened against my shin before that pulling sensation dragged at my senses once again.

No. No, I don't have time for this, I thought frantically as I descended into the knave demon's memory.

It was strange at first, everything a blur of unfamiliar surroundings and faces. I didn't know him, or a whole lot of what this demons job entailed so it took a few moments for the image to gain some clarity – falling into Jesse's mind had been simpler only because I'd seen that scene first hand and could fill in the gaps myself.

There was a man in the centre of a darkened room, naked and huddled in shame upon the shining tiled floor. It was hard to make him out in the deep shadows, not only because he tried hard to hide himself from view, but because the eyes I saw with pranced and capered in an excited circle around the scared and trembling form.

A giddy excitement bubbled in the pit of a stomach I knew wasn't my own – it felt odd if not a little nauseating to wear another's emotions – and a high pitched chuckle sneaked its way from my throat.

"How many more shall we tempt you with, hmm?" The voice that spoke was bright and sing-song as the man beneath us trembled harder, ragged sobs spilling from his lips. "You just know you won't be able to resist them."

"NO!" The man cried, a despairing wail as he curled further around himself. "No more, don't make me take another one."

"But you know how much you like it." The Knave simpered, "and the Masters demand it, we don't want to disappoint them now, do we?"

The man sobbed again, his soul eternally in torment for whatever sin it was he had committed in life, the Knave there to witness and administer the daily regimen of punishment. An underling breed of demon that served as servants to those more powerful, this one, it seemed, had lucked into a job he appeared to thoroughly enjoy; it was all right for some.

To my immense relief I saw no more of the scene, finding myself dragged back to present reality as the bone crushing grip around my ankle was ripped away. The Knave demon wailed and screeched, clutching over dramatically at his hand which I saw was a bright shiny red, hot and angry against the muddy brown of his greasy skin. Jesse had done the same, clutched at his hand as if contact with my flesh, and my resulting descent into his memory, had scorched his skin. Perhaps it had, thought I had no idea how, and not time to ponder on it either.

I had to get out of the Pits, and before any other demon tried to lay its hands on me.