Darkness, never ending darkness, always so silent, yet so loud. The splitting pain in my head would not cease. How long have I been here? How long will I be here? It seems endless, no escape in sight, nothing I can do, but keep. Moving. Forward. I don't even remember who I am anymore, but I have one memory, of great anger… of that little bastard. I know I hated him, but I don't know why. There's just this never ending anger that leaves my face red and hot. I want him dead, I want nothing else, his long dirty hair, his tiny slender frame…. How is he even still alive?
Wait, how do I know he's still alive? Just a gut feeling maybe, or maybe this place is driving me insane, after all I can't even see my own hands. All that keeps me sane anymore are these thoughts. And that anger. It just continues to grow… WHY WON'T IT END I- I actually think I see something, hold on. Is that, a mirror? It seems so bright to me, the first thing I've actually been able to see in so long. Is that me? My own reflection. It's all starting to come back to me.
My name is Ahlai Abaddon, I'm a 40 year old woman. Despite my age I still look as if I'm in my twenties, not a gray hair or wrinkle insight. Not even crows feet. My pale skin shone against the mirror, highlighting my beautiful long blonde hair, my piercing blue eyes and my slender frame… in fact… I look exactly like… that bastard. In my memories, always there. Why?! Why do I look like him? What? The mirror… it's doing something. It's changing, as if… it was a movie… I see him, hiding behind the stairs like a coward, and I'm… chasing him? What is he saying? What Am I saying? WHAT IS GOING ON?! I'm… watching myself fall… to my death? Am I… dead? Is this hell? Pain is swelling in my head, far worse than before. I'm facing so many memories, this mirror. It's taking me through so many memories.
My life was always so easy. I always got what I wanted, and I barely had to work for it, I was exceptional, I was perfect, I always have been perfect. Never failing, never suffering. Truly the best thing to ever grace this world since Jesus Himself. I was accepting a prize, I think, a Nobel Prize in Physics. I revolutionized how we viewed the cosmos, proving multiverse theory to be factual, and breaking new heights in the world as we know it. I met this man there. His name was Jeremiah Abaddon? The same last name? No… I am Ahlai Apollyon? Then, why does Ahlai Abaddon sound so natural to me? Who is this man?
Gazing into this mirror, I feel my headache subsiding, I'm getting married to this man. Married to Jeremiah. I love him. He even has his own business? That's amazing. My life of comfortability is guaranteed. The darkness? It's… turning red? What is this? The mirror? It's gone… what's happening, what am I looking at? This world is morphing around me, I'm staring down at some sort of… altar? And a pentagram?
"My children, we gather today for the birth of a new child, my child, a child of Asmodeus himself, he shall be Moriah, a sacrifice to the great lord Asmodeus, for my next child to live the life of their dreams! A perfect life!"
The man laid the child on the Altar, turning to a man who just seemingly appeared from the mist, carrying a pillow and a knife. I want to look away, but I simply cannot help myself, I just keep watching as the Man drives the knife into the baby, its blood flowing into the altar, causing it to glow and a wave of an unknown energy to me was released. And it all just disappeared, the mirror is back. Is it trying to tell me something. It's him again, I see the man, he's with…. Me? He's trying to tell me something
"Ahlai, my dear. Our family has sacred traditions that we must follow. It's been this way since the very beginning of our lineage, we have perfect lives, we've always had perfect lives thanks to it. I know it's terrifying to think of, but think of how great your life has been, all thanks to the sacrifice. And you will be up next, as long as you sacrifice your first born to Asmodeus, your perfect life will continue, your children after will have perfect lives too, everyone around you can and will be perfect as long as this cycle continues. Otherwise it will bring nothing but misery. Do you understand?"
Why did I nod? Why would I agree to something so terrible, I'm not that kind of person am I? Wait, there's more? I'm hiding behind a door, watching that man, is he my father?
"So that's the case? The spirit of Asmodeus resides in her now? That's just amazing, we learn something new about the sacrifices every day, my second born. So he passed through me into her? This is great knowledge, she will be compelled to continue our tradition! Regardless!"
Compelled? The spirit of Asmodeus? What does it all mean? I need to know more... Oh it's all going red again? Am I going to watch another sacrifice? Wait, is that me? Am I watching myself
"My brothers and sisters, today we gather thanks to the birth of a new child… my child. A new child of Asmodeus, a sacrifice to the great lord Asmodeus, for my next child to live the life of their dreams! A perfect life!"
Everyone around was cheering, they were happy? But something is not right? The other me is crying as she approaches the altar and lays her child down. The man from the mist appears yet again with a knife, still stained with the blood of the last. What is this? Without hesitation, the other me took the knife and drove it through the child. Same as my father… but nothing happened. The blade did not penetrate the child… it froze in place, right above the skin and I was thrown back. The sacrifice failed. Everything was falling apart. The other me grabbed the child and ran with the other… cultists, escaping the scene.
The mirror is back, and thus the darkness, inside it I'm seeing myself scream in fury "The sacrifice failed?! How could it fail?! I did everything right"
My eyes fell on the child, my child and in fury, I tried to stab it again, and again, and again, but continuously, the blade stopped right at the skin, there was nothing I could do.
My life began to fall apart around me, my scientific theory was disproved. People were calling me a fake, a liar. I had to hide myself away, lock myself in my husband's home. No one would listen to me anymore. My life, it fell apart. All my friends left me… all because of that child? Wait… no. I had another child, they're fighting each other. Trying to kill each other. They… they aren't perfect. It really did fail.
The little bastard… the one who killed me was my son? It was all his fault?! How could this happen? How could I let this happen?! What did I do wrong? I don't understand! Everything was perfect before he came along! Everything would have been perfect for me, my family… so I tried to starve him, but he wouldn't die. No matter what I did, that bastard would not die. So I took it into my hands one last time and he… he shoved me out of the window. I fell to my death. I keep reliving it over and over. What could I have done differently?
I just want another chance, one more chance to kill that little bastard. I failed in life, but maybe in death, I know who I am, I remember everything!
"Miss Abaddon?!"
What is that voice?!
"Miss Abaddon!"
I woke up in a cold sweat, I was in some sort of cabin, standing next to me was… is that the sheriff?
"Sheriff Philip? What? What's going on?" I asked him, confused and disoriented
"You've got the same idea as me Ma'am, I was lost in these woods and I saw this cabin here, and I just found ya sitting here. I don't understand what's going on, you and I… well we are supposed to be dead, and yet here we are"
I nodded silently, knowing it was true, that wasn't just a dream, I was regaining my memories, we're in the woods huh? Some sort of forest in the afterlife… interesting "I think we are… I can't quite explain it, but this may be some sort of purgatory, we aren't allowed to pass into the next life yet. How did you die, sheriff?"
He let out a soft sigh and looked to me, was he not going to question the purgatory stuff? Was it that easy to accept? "Well… I didn't feel like the case of your death was as open and shut as it seemed, so I reopened it and went to question your son, which led to a chase… and well, he killed me, same as what I believe happened to you, he pushed you out of that window didn't he"
I nodded to him and stood up from the bed I was in approaching the door to the cabin in complete silence, he of course stood up to follow me
"Yes, it was a matricide, however there's nothing that can be done by sitting in this cabin forever" I opened the door and looked out, he was right, what seemed to be a never ending forest stretched out before me "All we can do is move forward, escape this forest. Maybe there's a way back. I don't know about you, but I feel our deaths were so unfair… and they were all his fault"
The sheriff looked at me and his brow furrowed, he acted like he knew something but didn't speak up. I'm going to leave that for now. There are more important matters to attend to.