I didn’t know and had no answers for myself. But I was smart enough to know it was the reason my body struggled as it did. Because I was alive and I was human, and down here, the two didn’t exactly mix. For there was nothing down here but demons, the Devil’s creatures and the dead that powered the whole realm. Layers upon layers of Hell that made up a whole world. There were villages, towns and even cities and each made up individual Kingdoms of Hell. Each had their own ruler and with it, their own laws to enforce upon their land. But with this being said, this world could still claim only one overlord the other Kings obeyed and that was Lucifer, better known as the Devil.
I finally felt my body twitching as life seemed to flow back into me and I sat up to take in my surroundings. Because I had to wonder where that portal had led to. I knew as well as being home to many cities of demonic life, there were also vast planes of space in between. Lands filled with deserts, mountains, oceans and even forests, just like the one it seemed I was in now. I pushed myself up on shaky feet and stumbled at first as if the world had tilted on its axis.
I rubbed the dry dust from my eyes that had covered my body and face after my fall into this world. And when I did, I finally managed to blink my eyes clear, despite it sticking to my contact lenses, doing so enough that I could see the strangest forest staring back at me.
I was thankful that I didn’t exactly frighten easily, but even I had to admit that I would be thankful when Lucius finally got here, despite how mad he was going to be. Gods, forget about just being mad, he was going to be furious. Although, I was hoping that when he realised my idea of having him follow me through the gateway, like I had always intended him to, would help with the forgiving process.
However, like all best laid plans, this was one of those times it utterly went to shit! I turned around and couldn’t even see where I had come from. Dread then suddenly started to creep its way in, as I spun around over and over again in panic, trying in vain to find that damn portal!
“Where is it!” I snapped and I looked from one direction to the other and all that met me was a forest of eerie dead trees that twisted and knotted like gnarled, old fingers. But the air was strange, not exactly dark but as if the whole world had some strange filter on it. As if it was some old vintage photograph I had just stepped into, where everything had that strange burnt touch to it, that looked like the calm before the storm. As if the air was statically charged, ready to join forces with the sparks of lightening that felt as if just at the ready to blaze across the strange sky.
I had to say that when I thought of Hell, (not that it was a regular occurrence, because…well, morbid much) but when it did happen to be in my thoughts, I never really imagined it to have a sky. The land, the trees, the demons and the famous rivers of fire I had all associated with it, but the sky was something that I had not been ready for. A burnt orange hue with no blue in sight, seemed to tell me that it was still day and night hadn’t yet fallen, making me wonder that when it did, what colour it would be.
Would it be black the same as when the sun disappeared and set for the day? Because the strangest thing of all was that I had no idea where the light came from, as there was no sun above us. Of course, these would have all been things I could have asked Lucius after he had stepped inside the portal for himself right behind me. But unfortunately, he was still yet to appear and I had to admit, that the longer it took, the more time it gave me to allow fear to take over rational thought. Because I knew that I couldn’t do this alone, and I never had intended to when walking through that damn tree!
Of course, now I was regretting my decision not to speak up about my plans, instead of letting him know at the very last moment before stepping inside. My reason for this had been the Keepers of Three. I couldn’t chance them trying to stop him in some way, as they were obviously the ones who controlled the barrier, and they might have refused to bring it down had they known he intended to follow me through and potentially try and take me back before I had completed my mission. Of course, I knew this was also mostly on the cards for my future as this would be Lucius’ main focus. But my hopes had been that once here, then I would have a greater chance at convincing him for us to stay and work together to try and beat this curse.
Of course, that looked to be all in vain now and had me questioning, was this why he seemed so panicked? Because he knew for some reason he wouldn’t be able to follow me through into Hell? The Keepers of Three had said that one person at a time could enter, so surely that meant the barrier between us would have been lifted the moment I made it through here. Which still remained the biggest question of all… why wasn’t he here now?
Had I got it all wrong?
“Oh, Gods…what have I done?” I whispered, now turning around and no longer looking for an opening. No, now I was looking at the Hell I had just foolishly stepped into, with every plan I’d made being labelled useless. A plan that was solely based around Lucius being by my side and guiding me through this.
And now I was alone.
This was the moment I slumped to the floor, pulled my legs up to my chest and sat there, now praying that he would step through a slice in the very fabric of time that made up the edges of this realm. That he would come for me. That it just might take him some time, but he would come…
“He will come for me,” I muttered to myself quietly, as I eyed my surroundings with caution and unease. Because I couldn’t stop thinking that here I was, a human with no powers whatsoever and the pointless skill of being able to kick human ass. And what had I done…?
I had stepped into Hell…alone.
“Gods, you fucking idiot, Fae!” I cursed myself and smacked the side of my head, wishing I had known the biggest danger in coming to Hell was ending up here all by myself! Because Lucius had been right… this was a fucking suicide mission!
“No! Don’t think like that…don’t you fucking dare, Fae, you’re a Draven, now it’s time to fucking think like one!” I chastised myself whilst shaking my head and telling myself I couldn’t just sit here any longer, waiting for something that was obviously not going to happen.
Because Lucius wasn’t coming and sitting here waiting for him to suddenly appear out of the thick Hellish air and save the fucking day wasn’t going to happen! Besides, I didn’t exactly think that being out in this dead forest was going to be wise when it did turn to night, whatever the Hell that looked like…pun, most definitely intended!
So, I forced myself to get up off the ground and hated the uncertainty I felt as I looked for even a single clue on where to go. There were no roads or even a path, just a vast and endless looking mass of twisted trees that looked as if they had been frozen in time. For they were long ago dead and pointless even being here. For what they offered this place, I didn’t know. No creatures lived here, a small grace to be thankful for I guess, seeing as I didn’t exactly hold out much hope for animals in Hell being the cute and cuddly kind!
Which meant that I picked a direction and started walking, because I couldn’t wait around any longer. Not when it felt like I would just become a meal ticket waving my flag of humanity at anyone hungry enough to come sniffing.
So, I walked and I walked and I walked some more. And I did this without coming across a single soul, something I no doubt had to be thankful for. Because the moment the forest began to change, I was wishing for the seemingly endless dead trees and nothing more. This was because now the land became harder to walk across, as the floor became a series of roots, all snarled up in a mass of angry twists and knots. Naturally in a place like this, there wasn’t an inch of green to be seen, for they were in tones of oranges and burnt reds. A mass that spanned across the forest floor like millions of snakes that had been baked by the nonexistent sun as they slithered towards the trees. Then, like veins providing a live source to the trunk, they flowed up covering the entirety of its girth in different thicknesses.
“Oh, Gods!” I muttered in a cry of horror before my hands flew to my mouth. Because it was only w
hen following the sight up that I noticed the mummified bodies that were suspended about ten feet up from the ground. They each had their backs to the trees and at one time had been lifted up there when naked. And they still would have been, had it not been for the roots that covered most of their bodies as all that was left on show was their chests.
Their arms were held slightly out to the sides and entwined with the same roots that looked more like restraints, with their knees bent and the pads of their feet held flush to the rooted bark. But it was their heads that made the sight even more haunting. With their chins raised up as if looking to the Heavens and silently asking why their prayers hadn’t yet been answered. Their mouths were open as if they had died screaming before the roots had swarmed in between their teeth from all sides.
The next tree had a woman’s figure, as her naked breasts had roots circling them and the flare of her hips had been left exposed. She too was in the same position as the one before her and it was only when I let my eyes travel the length of the tree line, did I see the true horror…there were thousands of them!
A whole forest where human life and tree had merged like living tombstones displaying the bodies instead of letting their hosts rot underground. No, instead the trees looked to have fed from their now withered flesh, and it became harder to see where human life had ended and where the life of Hell’s trees began. It was so startling that all of a sudden, I found myself running, as if my feet had made the decision for me and my mind was left playing catch up.
But then, as I finally broke through the edge of the forest, I soon discovered that by getting away from one horror, it had only ended up giving way to another. Because this time it wasn’t trees of the dead I had to contend with, it was trees that held the living that I needed to be fearful of.
This part of the forest had tall branchless trees that looked more like black pillars lining the way to some Hellish Roman temple. This time a line of columns framed a path of ash toned dirt. Dirt that could have been made from the bones of man ground up into powder for all I knew, as I was starting to understand that anything found in Hell wouldn’t surprise me.
“Well, at least it seems to lead somewhere,” I told myself, needing to hear at least one sound or voice, even if it was my own. However, the life these trees held was one I discovered to be even more sinister the further down I ventured. The pathway was probably wide enough to drive three cars down side by side, which at least helped me avoid them. However, what had looked like a canopy of thickly dense grey leaves above, I could now see was something else. It looked more like rain clouds, thick enough you could have scooped them up. But the more time you spent looking at them trying to discover what they were became yet another mistake made out of many. Because what they represented was one of the things I was actually scared of. It was masses and masses of webbing.
“Oh shit…oh no, no, no, please…anything but spiders!” I pleaded to no one, but as I backed away from one tree, I only ended up having to do it again from the one behind me. This was why I thought it best to travel directly down the centre, which I had to admit, felt more like a trap when doing so. The long cleared road looked as if there was a darkness at the end, that I was hoping marked the finish line to this new nightmare.
I hated spiders!
Which meant that I also hated everything that came with them. Like the massive treetops filled with one giant web, that instead of holding the classic shape, was nothing more than a mass of sticky webbing the size of cars that all seemed to connect together. Then the further I travelled, the scene changed once more, adding what looked like huge egg sacks that hung down from thinner webs. These were in giant white teardrop shapes. Ones that looked to be defying physics as the weight inside of them looked too great for the thin lengths of web they were attached to. They hung down from the tops of the trees as if the forest was weeping the poor souls that looked to have fallen victim to whatever beast had made them.
I could just barely recognise the shapes of boned limbs inside the layers and layers of sticky thread. It also looked silver in some places, whenever the light from the sky above managed to break through the canopy. But then I felt the ground start to tremble and couldn’t help but comment,
“Not a good sign, Fae…definitely, not a good sign.” Of course, this was then backed up by the jolting movement coming from the pods, as they seemed to suddenly vibrate as if whatever I had foolishly thought dead inside them had started to waken. The sacks then all began to swing at the same time as the webbing that encased them started to stretch. This allowed me to see the limbs that were moving beneath the layers, obviously trying to break their way free. Which, naturally, I took as a very bad sign!
Especially when there were hundreds of them all hanging there, now jerking as though a silent timer had gone off, telling their maker her creatures were fully baked and ready to go. However, it wasn’t long before I discovered that this had nothing to do with the rumbling on the ground, as I had expected. No, because that sound was emanating from behind me, the one I had named the rooted forest of the dead and where I had just come from.
What by the Gods was happening here now?!
I had to say when asking myself this in my head, I had wished the answer never came to me. That it had simply passed me by to remain forever unknown. However, this unfortunately didn’t happen. Instead what did happen, was that all the sacks started to split and tear open. It made the webbing look more like the stretching of old grey chewing gum as you pulled your shoe from where it had got stuck on the sidewalk. The long holes that appeared started where most movement was made. This being the stretching of the head, as it folded back on itself, thus creating great tears at the neck as it started to appear. Then came a ladder effect all the way down the spine as it stretched before snapping completely.
After this what appeared was truly monstrous, as it looked as if a new creature had been born from what must have once been the husk of a human vessel. Now making me wonder where did they even get these bodies from?! Did they suck them from the very ground we thought to have safely buried our dead in?!
A white, almost bleached flesh appeared that was like dead skin without the decay. Almost translucent in places with more bone beneath than that of any muscle. An overly long neck and long stretched limbs came down from the torso that no longer looked to have any shoulders. Its bottom half was even more sickening, as if it had been twisted completely, so that now the pelvis faced opposite to where it should be. This meant that the legs bent at a pair of pronounced knee joints of gnarled bone behind the creature not in front as on a normal human. This strange angle therefore meant that when the creatures started climbing down, escaping from their sticky pods, they did so with an odd bend to their bodies. As their stomachs dipped lower at the hip bones, making them move like a two-legged spider.
I screamed when I saw that instead of just climbing down the bare straight column tree, some were using the webbing they had been born from to jump and leap from the sacks to the ground. I could now see their faces had been stripped of any distinguishable features other than white eyes permanently held open due to the removal of the eyelids and a space where their nose once was. They all spotted me and snarled in some kind of demonic call that stretched the remaining webbing coating their bald heads. This was due to them throwing their heads back and opening their overly large, spade shaped mouths that were lined with tiny pointed teeth, reminding me of a pike fish.
This was naturally when I started running the other way, as they all started dropping from above or scurrying down the trees all around me. But then that thundering sound started to get louder and seeing as I was now running towards it, I could soon see why.
The root covered forest I had just come from had released its captors just as this part of the spider forest had done the same. But this only became obvious once the rumbling sound grew louder, doing so now as I could see mounds of earth rising and travelling towards me at speed. It was as if giant worms were slithering beneath the
surface ready to burst free any moment and I really didn’t want to be where I was when they did. However, I was trapped, as I couldn’t run to the sides without getting caught, as the spider creatures started to close in around me.
But wait, there looked to be one place left to escape if I could just get there quickly enough! It was a break in between the two sides of the forest where the creatures looked as if they would soon come head to head. I started running towards it but then found myself suddenly screaming as the earth started to quake harder. It then split open and the bodies that had been captured by the trees now emerged in an explosion of erupting earth. They rose up like giants, made bigger by the extended roots that heightened their limbs, making them look like giant tree people. Wow, Groot would be right at home here, I thought as I skidded to a halt, wishing now I knew exactly who the good guys were and who were the bad.
Although, I was in Hell, so chances were high that there weren’t any good guys and I was just the human bug about to get squashed. However, the question of who was who, seemed to be the least of my concerns right now as I saw three powerful looking figures emerge from what had potentially been my only escape. It was the only side of the forest that hadn’t yet been overrun by creatures and one that was now a hope that seemed dead in the ground, just like I was soon to be.
The three beings were each riding massive creatures that looked more like mighty battle beasts, as they were covered in spiked armour, each one snarling and equally terrifying.
I looked behind me to see the line of spider creatures mirroring those of the tree people, now lining up in front and I soon realised the true horror of my situation.
For there was no place to run. Not when I was surrounded and in the middle of what my mind quickly realised was nothing short of…
A Demonic War.
Kingdoms Of Hell: Vampire Paranormal Romance (Transfusion Book 7) Page 10