When I open my eyes, I'm standing on... a strange alley, if it can be called an alley. On my left and right there are giant stones, so tall, like a ten floors building. But these stones are messyly line up. It's like a child was one who placed them.
It's not too dark. There is light though I don't know where it is from .. nor what it is. It's almost like a moonlight, but way more gloomy. The whole atmosphere is gloomy and sad.. and cold.
I walk for few steps then remember about my broken shinbone. I can walk normally. It is not broken. So, I guess.. it's another dream ?
I pinch my self. Okay, it's hurt. So, it's not a dream. Unless... I remember the last moment before I got here. The peacefulness. The darkness. Am I..
"Hey, hold it right there, Mister!" Sound of a lady calls me from above. I look up and yet see nothing.
But a second later, a woman appears before my eyes from above.
;H.. Hi.." I says in stammered.
"What's your name ?" she asks.
"Scorpion," I answer her without thinking. She is petit and sexy, even more with horns on her head and tail on her back. Is it Halloween already ?
She is checking the list she has. "Nope.. You're not on the list."
"Maybe I'm on my civil name.. Scott Bennet ?" I suggest. She glares at me before checking the list.
"Nope," she says a second later. "Are you sure you deserve to be here ?" she asks.
"What is this place ?" I ask her back. She stares at me in disbelief.
"Hell, of course," she answers, rolling her eyes over my stupid question. "What did you do in your mortal life ?"
"Assassin.."
"Hoo.. you are definitely belong here, buddy," she immediately cuts me. "Come on, follow me," she adds before walking before me.
I follow her while my sight is wandering around. So, this is hell. Everything they said about it is wrong. There is no fire. it's not even warm here.
"Yeah, I know.. those sick bibles and tales' description about this place is totally bullshit," she says, like reading my mind. She turns her head to me and smirks, "Incase you haven't figured it out. I'm the cute little demon they mentioned."
"I guard the gate. Not for someone to come in, actually. But to make sure no one is out," she continues.
"So no one has ever come out from here ?" I ask.
"The last person was... more than 2000 years ago," she says.
"Are you torturing us here ?" I ask.
"Noo... we don't torture people. Damn it, those religions!!" she curses.
She then walks toward one of doors that are put on each stones. I follow her, picking out to see from a small window in the middle of the door.
There is a room on the other side of the door. It looks like a casino. In the middle of the room there is a table where it is only two people around it, a man with a uniform that looks like he works in the casino, and a woman.
There are piles of chips before her, but she seems to be very sad. She cries so hard, sobbing with panting breath, while shaking the dices in her hand. She rolls the dice then wailing to find out the outcome. The man takes all chips she has. She cries.. and cries...
But then, everything back like exactly few seconds before it. The chips are in front of her. She screams, "No!!" while her hand is shaking the dices. She is clearly being tortured by what she is doing, but she seems can't stop it.
"You see... we don't torture them.. they torture theirselves," The demon explains. She pulls the door to open it. "Look.. we don't even lock the door," she continues, "And yet.. no one is leaving."
"You're saying, they keep drowning on their mistakes ?" I ask.
"Not mistake.. Guilty.. Regret..," The demon corrects me, "They're punishing themselves for their deepest regret."
"And no one has come out of these rooms for over 2000 years ?" I ask.
"Oh.. you mean whether they are ever finish regretting ? Well, fews are. Then they go straight to up above," she says unchantantly then shrugs. "What I meant previously was there has been no one ran away from here. You know... escaping before he finishes his sentence."
"Oh.." I nod. My eyes still stare at the gambling woman.
"Okay.. I need to report you to Luci," the demon says. "You can look around. Just don't go inside an empty room.. yet.. or well, why not. You will enter it anyway." With that words, she vanishes before my eyes.
Being left alone, I let my feet lead me wandering around the place. I peek another room where I see a man is pounding from behind a woman who lays chest-pressed on an office desk. He is wailing heart brokenly, murmuring sorry for umpteenth times. Few meters in front of him is a scene where a house burned down, along with a woman and two children.
In the second room I see a male with full make up, crying desperately while a surgeon cuts his penis and forms his new 'vital'. In the third room, a cute pretty little girl is bullying her friend. She pushes her friend to a sewer but her mouth screams, "I'm sorry!!"
I close my eyes to dispel horrors I saw., but my feet leads me to another room. I hear a shotgun and then a man cries, screaming how sorry he is. I peek from the small window.
"I'm sorry, Valentin.. I didn't trust you..."
Artur Chekhovsky is kneeling in front of a dead body. Valentin Sternov. Mr. Chekhovsky killed dozens of people, both directly and indirectly. It is surprised me that one he regret deepest is to murder Mr. Sternov.
Mr. Sternov opens his eyes and gets back on his feet.
"Artur.. I've been nothing but loyal to you for the last 20 years. Why did you kill me ?"
"Because you betrayed me !!"
"That's what I want to tell you!! There is no way I would betray you!"
"But I have proof !!"
"No! It can't be!!"
"I am so mad at you, Sternov. I can't believe you betrayed me!"
"I am NOT!! It is a setup ! Please, Artur, You have to .."
A gunshot is heard. "Nooo!!!" A heart shredded scream comes out of Mr. Chekhovsky's mouth, while Mr. Sternov once again lays on his own blood pool.
"Why.. whyyy ?!?!" Mr. Chekhovsky is wailing, his hands pulling his hair. Then out of nowhere, his eyes meet me.
"It's you !! it's you!!" he shouts at me full of anger.
For a second I freeze. I can't believe he remember me! When my brain is working again, I see Mr. Chekhovsky is approaching me. Out of reflex, I run away from the door and go straight to the only room that the door is opened.
I close the door while evening my breath. It is then I realize that this is one of the torturing room. I turn my head, staring at the dark blank room behind me. I wonder my self, what is my deepest regret ? I can not recall one from the life I remember. Maybe there is one from the life I forgot.
I walk to the center of the room, expecting the ambient will start to change. But it is not. It is still the same dark blank room. I wait for another minute and still, nothing happens. Finally, I decide to walk out of the room.
Before I manage to open the door, something is tickling my chest. I swipe it away. I can see it falls on the floor. It's the scorpion. The same scorpion that had been in my dream.
It runs away from me, but I easily can catch it. I can just squeeze it dead, but I hesitate. Instead, I look at it in the eyes. And just like previously, it suddenly jumps onto my head and stings me.
A painful burst is following its sting. I fall down on the floor as I can feel the venom is entering my brain, popping its muscles one by one. I scream in pain, pleading for the pain to be over. I remember it always subsides when I wake up from my dream. But this is not a dream and the pain is not subsiding. I scream and I scream until I loss conscious.
When I wake up, I am in fetus position, both knees stuck in front of my stomach, chin touching my knees while both hands covering my head. I'm hoping it was all just a dream. But it is not.
I still in the same room, few steps from the door. I decide to try to walk out from the room. But before I can even stand, the tickling is back. Just like before, I swipe it away, catch it, hesitate to kill it, then it jumps and stings me again. So I experience all the pain and brain muscles popping all over again. I'm knock out again and wake up in fetus position again.
And this happens to me... over and over and over again. I know I just have to kill the scorpion. But every time I'm about to, I become hesitate.
i'm so tired and has no energy, yet I can not break the cycle. I scream so loud so many times that I think I just lost my voice.
"Shit!!" someone curses then drags me out of the room. "Are you alright ?" That's the demon asks.
Though still in pain, I nod.
"You met your deepest regret," she says.
"Not killing a scorpion ?" I ask in confused.
She laughs. "Your regret is not as clear as others. I can not tell you what it is. You have to figure it out by yourself," she says.
I look at her with blurry mind in cause of the popping muscles that still happen. "How ? And why you took me out of the room ? Weren't i suppose to get out of there by my self ?"
"Well, yeah if you are dead already," she says, "But you are not dead.. yet."
"I'm not ?"
"Well, you were... but then you're alive again."
Once I stand up, my eyes receiving her big grin.
"So.. Are you ready to get back to that hell ?" she asks. I chuckle to hear her calling earth as hell.
"Don't laugh, buddy. It will be hell for you," she says petting my shoulder. I just nod.
"Come on, I'll walk you out," she says again before leading me.
---------
The next time I open my eyes, I am laying on the bed with white walls surround me. It doesn't take me long to know that I'm in a hospital.
Though, that thought scares me Since, it means.. Jennifer managed to get us out of that place and perhaps.. no.. not perhaps.. definitely, definitely involved the police.
"You're awake," Jennifer's soft voice brings me out of my thought.
"Hey," I greet her and give her a thin smile.
"Are you okay ?" I ask her. She chuckles and then nodding, releasing a drop of tear to her cheek. I widen my smile. No matter what, I'm relieved to know she's alright.
"I'm the one who should ask you that," she then says.
"I think you are more well informed about my condition.than me," I say to her. She nods then drops another tear while reaching for my hand.
"I'm glad you're alive," she whispers then sheds her tears. "Broken shinbone on right leg, broken trapezium capal on left hand, broken ribs, ripped diaphragm, shrapnels on lung and heart. Any man will die with a less cause than that, you know," she explains my wound in a very.. evidence reading way.
"Now you think I'm Superman, don't you ?" i ask her jokingly. But that question changes her expression.
"I..." She hesitate to say whatever she wants to say. Instead, she shifts her sight from me, makes me follow her.
Two police officers are entering my room. My body gets tense all a sudden. She reports me to the police.
"Good day, Mr. Bennet. We are glad that you're awake," one of the officer greets me with a big smile.