Sem hung in the darkness, dirty blond hair floating about her shoulders. She knew what lurked out there watching her, eyes gleaming: demons, imps, devils. Foul creatures of darkness, twisted monsters with rotten minds and bodies. They had come to stop her, to stop John's voyage, but they could all fuck off. She wasn't stopping today.

The Abyss was a dark strange vacuum, and it took an angel a tremendous amount of strain to wring thoughts out here, to strain past the emptiness and shape thoughts, focus. Sem looked back at the black box that hung behind her. 'How have you done it John Finnie? How have you created a solace in this place?' She shook her head and smiled, an alien thing to do in the Abyss. It seemed to suck the life and happiness from everything.

Sem looked left and right, then snorted. 'Ha!' she shouted. 'The Abyss! A place or thing to frighten us angels, a place where the darkness can gather. I aint afraid of the Abyss.' She shuddered, summoned her knife, then whispered, 'I aint afraid of nothing.'

Gripping the knife hilt, she moved through the void. No air touched her, no movement ruffled her clothes. Thus was the Abyss. An emptiness, nothing to define it but the absence. Of light, of joy, of life. Absence of air and the good things He had made...A place where the immortal can die. Rumour had it her father, Gabriel, had once journeyed to the gates of Hell through the Abyss. Time and again celestials requested she recite the heroic tale, but her father had never spoken of it to her. Still, she liked the approval of her peers, so she pretended to know the story and liberally embellished it with grandeur. Deeper into the vast stretch of darkness she floated, searching, hoping, almost scared. 'Only almost,' she swore under her breath.

Turns out finding the gates of Hell in the Abyss wasn't hard at all. Sem just focused on where she didn't want to go, as Anubis had said. A sudden pang of guilt hit her as she thought about the kidnap, then she giggled behind her hand. She had done some crazy ass shit before, but since taking over as John Finnie's guardian, Sem's life had gotten bat shit crazy. And she didn't mind that one little bit, but kidnapping Death...had she gone too far this time? Sem shook her head and carried on. If she was in trouble she would weather it like she did everything else. She had a mission: get John the photo, get him out of the box, save the world. Nothing else mattered.

Every fibre in her being thrummed with the urgency to get away, compelling Sem to rush in the opposite direction, but she wasn't listening. The quickest way to the mortal plane cut straight through Hell, and unlike Heaven, Hell's portal sometimes stood unguarded. Ripe for intrusion. Well, at least that's what Anubis had said, and she had been jabbing the tip a knife into his back at that point.

Sem shrugged as she moved forward. A sudden thought came to her, suggesting she wasn't moving at all, that she was stationary and the Abyss moved around her. You think weird things when you're in the Abyss, that's for sure. The darkness seemed to twist and roil just beyond her, but this she knew to be another trick of the Abyss. It messed with minds and sucked even sanity from those who stayed too long in its embrace.

Ahead loomed a humongous back metal gate, towering at least six times her height. Decorative flames ending in a sharp tip capped each of twenty six rods as thick as her thighs. Gargoyles and all manner of hell spawn roiled in debauched acts in the metal frames of the two gates, moving momentarily and pausing, then moving again with a grind. Semila shuddered. Wisps of smoke escaped in tendrils from beneath the gate, and a hot glow shimmered orange around it. Nondescript cackles and screams, as if far away, moaned in the air. Just as Anubis had said.

One tall man dressed in a rather dashing suit stood just outside the entrance. Sem looked down, tilting her head and frowning. The man clutched a clipboard and looked quite fed up with his lot. Everything about the place screamed evil to the angel. Her heart slammed against her chest and her mind clawed at her resolve, but this was the path she had to use. This was the fastest way to that photo, and John needed it.

This was her dark road.

Sem landed in front of the large, suited man on something similar to concrete but a darker grey in colour and hot to the touch. She half expected a horn to blow and all the denizens of hell to spew forth, but that didn't happen. Kind of disappointing. The man looked up from his paperwork, a bland nose on a bland, pallid face bearing a bored expression rivalling all others.

'Name,' he droned, tone of voice as neutral as Anubis.

Sem took a step forward and furrowed her brow. 'What manner of thing are you?' The man in the suit stood impassive as she circled him.

'Well,' the angel asked, 'what are you?'

'I am twelve,' the man droned, 'a Sentinel shaped for the guarding. You are an angel. Name...'

Sem smiled and tried to look the Sentinel in the eyes, but his vacant expression didn't so much as flicker as he stared into the vastness beyond her forehead. Her eye trick didn't work on him, though she'd expected as much. She shrugged, thumb in belt. 'I am Semila, a Guardian Angel of renown, and I need to enter through the gates.' She cocked her eyebrows sarcastically even though she knew he wouldn't get it. Stupid Sentinel. 'I will destroy you if I have to. So I am asking nicely" --she forced a smile through clenched teeth-- "let me through please, my case is quite urgent you see.'

The Sentinel wrote something on the clipboard and then looked up. 'No. You are not permitted entry. You may depart with immediate effect.'

The angel looked around, confused. 'Look fucker, I'm not sure you understand. I will go through the gate, even if I have to-'

'Kill me,' the Sentinel answered for her and wrote something else down on the clipboard.

How frustrating and curious. Sem walked closer to the Sentinel and looked at what he was writing. A transcript of everything they had said, word for word. 'Why do you write everything?' A tendril of smoke curled around her ankle and she shook it off.

The Sentinel looked down at her, though meeting his eyes she found no hint of passion. 'After you kill me, thirteen will take my place. It will read the information and guard just as well as I.'

'I haven't decided to kill you yet,' Sem answered, 'so let's try to sort-'

'We will fight,' the Sentinel interrupted. 'I will die, and thirteen will take over. I have seen it, it's our gift. We know the time and details of our death, and thus we help our successor in its duties.' Sem tried to cut in, but the Sentinel held up a stoic hand. 'I have alerted the guard, they will be here shortly. I must detain you until they arrive.'

'The fuck you will!' Sem backed up and summoned her knife, snarling.

The Sentinel removed its suit jacket and placed it on a rock of the same ash colour as the concrete-like slab on which they stood. It ensured there were no creases, then removed its tie, placing it beside the jacket. It then removed the cuff links, placing them carefully beside the jacket, and rolled up its sleeves. 'I am ready now Semila, if you want to continue your journey, you must go through me.'

Sem looked up into the Abyss. 'Give me bloody strength!' she growled as she strode forward to deal with the Sentinel. The thing before her stood at least a head taller than her, crouched in a fighting stance. She circled and it followed, matching her step for step.

She kicked out before her to catch the Sentinel in the chest and put him down. It dodged with ease and countered with an elbow to her face. Sem staggered back at the crack of pain blooming under her eye and wiped a trickle of blood from her nose. 'You have some skill I see. And here's me thinking you were just some dumb-'

The Sentinels launched itself forward, its right knee brushing her face as she leapt aside. That had been close. She batted the knee away mid air, and followed through with an elbow to groin strike as she landed.

The Sentinel didn't flinch but smashed down on her shoulders, punting Sem to her knees. This time its knee strike hit home and smashed the angel square on the jaw. The world blurred and spun, and an irrational fury made her want to lash out without considering the consequences. Sem rolled out of the way as the Sentinel stamped down twice, just missing her. She got to her feet and staggered back, spitting into the darkness and growling a "fuck." The Sentinel didn't follow.

A particularly bone-chilling scream echoed from beyond the gates then, and Semila flinched. The Sentinel still stood between Sem and the gate. She squeezed stray tears from her eyes and shook her head, Death hadn't mentioned any Sentinels. She made a mental note to have a quiet word with him if she ever got back. She had to gain control over her emotions if she was going to win this. The Sentinel had obviously been trained for combat, and acting out of anger now would ensure her defeat. She breathed deep through her aching nose and rubbed once at her jaw, then summoned her knife and walked forward. The Sentinel looked down at the knife. Sem cocked her head. Did the corner of its mouth just twitch?

She jumped forward, scissor kicking as she moved, four, five, eight, ten punches. Each the Sentinel blocked with ease, that infuriating expression dressing its features. It kicked forward but Sem grabbed its foot, followed through with an elbow strike to its knee, then spun and kicked the Sentinel's planted foot out from under it.

The Sentinel landed hard on its face, before it could rise Sem leapt high and drove her knee down on its back. A crack sounded, she heard a gasp issue from the Sentinel. She flipped it over, in an instant the angel's knife pressed against the skin at its throat.

As it lay on its back gasping for air, the Sentinel closed its eyes. A sudden and intrusive feeling invaded her mind. The Sentinel was praying and she could feel it.

She stepped off it, still holding her knife forwards. 'What the fuck were you just doing?'

The Sentinel opened its eyes, a quizzical expression on its face. It stood up, its eyes fixed on the knife in the angel's hand. 'This is strange,' said the Sentinel as it looked at its hands.

'What's strange?'

'You were supposed to drive your knife into my neck, thus killing me. Why didn't you? I have seen you do it since my creation, in my mind's eye. It's our gift, we see our death and it never changes.' It looked Sem straight in the eyes.

Sem tucked her knife into her belt. 'Some fucking gift, knowing when you will die. What miserable fucker gave you that?' She stepped forward. The Sentinel stood like stone, waiting for the answer to its question. 'You prayed to God,' Sem answered.

'I only asked for you not to be burdened with guilt for killing me,' the Sentinel said.

Sem laughed. 'A prayer! You prayed, and you prayed to my God not the fucker who resides in there.' She pointed at the gate.

The Sentinel turned and looked at the gate. As he did so, three demons walked through in a semi-circle behind the most beautiful woman Sem had ever seen.

P.S. Guys, thoughts? We're so amped about our novella, and it might help y'all hold out till we publish book 2 of BLINK, hey?