DIMENSION: RED ORIGIN DIMENSION (AKA HELL)
I shivered. The ground was rough and cold. I looked for something to wrap around me, but I felt a piece of. . .wood? I opened my eyes and looked down. I had a big sign in front of me that said NEED MONEY.
I sat up and carefully stood. This awkward sign looped around my head. Looking at it, I think it was only ply board. Around me I could smell decay and a foul stench. Beside me was a heap of trash cans. There was even a dead rat hanging out of the side.
"What will you do for money?"
I heard a sound from behind me and turned around. There had been a man flashing his bills at me, mischief in his eyes. I tried to speak, but I didn't know where to begin. I know whom I had been. I was Julie Mars. I lived with my Aunt Merissa and Uncle Charles. What was I doing on the streets with a sign wrapped around me begging for money? "I don't know. Why am I here?"
"I thought you were here for money." He waved the cash at me again. "Then again, you look disgusting. Probably have some kind of infectious disease." He sneered and walked away.
I stood there, waiting. How did I get here? My mind tried to think back but my memory was a blur. Had my Aunt Merissa kicked me out? She always threatened to if I didn't get a job. Did I become too lazy? Too much for her to handle any more?
"You don't look happy here. Would you like some help?"
I turned around, hearing another voice from behind. A man had a nice shirt and pant suit to wear. They all looked about my size. I wanted to reach for them, but there was something in his eyes. They were green, but too green. A dark green. There was no shade of emerald like someone else I had known. "Why are you giving me clothes?"
"I am compassionate enough to see when someone needs an extra hand," he said. It looked like he attempted to smile, but it had been more sinister. I wanted those clothes, but taking them from him felt wrong. He wasn't sincere, he was offering them for a reason. I looked at the clothes again. They turned into a fiery red sequin dress, along with matching undergarments and a pair of devil red high heel shoes.
"I suggest you take them." He walked forward toward me. "Take them, Julie."
I had no choice, but I feared that option even more. Whom had this been? Those eerie eyes, I didn't want to.
"That's better."
I looked down and realized that somehow the dress had appeared on me. The sign had left. I could feel the garments on me, and even the high heel shoes. I took a step back. "Who are you?"
"I've been waiting for you." He grabbed my hand. I swore I had felt it burning. "I've been waiting a very long time for you, Julie." His mouth hit mine, but I could feel such heat from it. It was like swallowing lava! I tried to push him away, but he was incredibly strong.
"I have complete power over you," he said somehow with his lips on mine. Was he speaking directly mind to mind? "This power, this ability to make anyone do what you want. It's yours now. No one will boss you around. I will show you how to get more." He finally removed his lips from mine. "I will make you so powerful, no one will know the difference between us."
Power. The power to never be bossed around. To have my life under my control. It sounded good, but I couldn't get over him. His lips felt like they singed mine. Darkness. His power was full of darkness.
"Come on, Julie," he warned me. "Both of us feel the power of darkness. Join me, and we will have so much power together. The Earth won't be able to deny our existence. Our power will be so vast, nothing could stop us."
"That's the thing about umbrellas," I heard a voice say.
Then, I remembered. I wasn't human anymore. I was in the red dimension. I was dragged away, and this man kissing me was the one who murdered my family! I pushed away quickly and saw my friend. He didn't have his tie or hat, but he managed to retrieve a spotted umbrella from somewhere. My heart beat rapidly as I stared at him.
"That's the thing about umbrellas," Mister Umbrella repeated as he approached us. "If it's not raining, we often look silly with these. Yet, I still like to carry them around. It's a part of me, nothing else will do. There are just certain things that belong together." He shoved the end of the umbrella into The Boogeyman's hand, causing him to loosen his grip. "And others that don't!"
Mister Umbrella grabbed me and jerked me back toward him, taking several steps back.
"By the skies, any place besides hell is too gracious to hold your stench," Mister Umbrella sneered at him. I believed it would be the closest to swearing he would ever do. I didn't think Mister Umbrella's grip could have gotten tighter. His eyes narrowed at The Boogeyman, and I even saw his nostrils flare.
"Careful, boy of the skies." The Boogeyman in his skeleton started to burn. "Anger won't appeal to your Superiors. They may decide to leave you down here."
"Jewelsy will not be a part of the end of everything," Mister Umbrella growled toward him. "I don't care how old you are."
"Thousands of years," The Boogeyman said. "Thousands upon thousands of years."
"I don't care," Mister Umbrella said again, "and I don't care how long I have been here."
"A quarter of a century," The Boogeyman declared. "Thirty years and two days. I know exactly how old you are, weakling boy. You have nothing against me."
"I have one thing," he said. "Faith. I know that Jewelsy is good, and we will be moved. You can't separate us, even in this hell." He pulled on me and we started to run.
The Boogeyman didn't run though. He chuckled.
I looked around. The trash, the strange clothes, and the entire alley was gone. I was still in the fiery pits of hell. I couldn't stop to think about anything else. I was running with Mister Umbrella in the Sky, and trying hard to get away. How do you get away from a nightmare though? "What do we do?"
"Run, just run," he yelled back at me. He tossed the stick I had thought was an umbrella to the ground and grabbed a dangling rope on the ceiling. We swung across an open hole full of demons.
Until now, I hadn't seen anything except Boogeyman down there. "Demons?!"
"No, selective seers of the red dimension. This is how they choose to live," Mister Umbrella said. "It is what will become of us if The Boogeyman wins. You must stay positive, Jewelsy! Stay in control."
Then, we stopped. A new figure appeared in front of us. Dressed in a navy suit with short brown hair and a briefcase.
"We've re-evaluated you and your companion, Mister Umbrella in the Sky." He opened his briefcase and handed Mister Umbrella a sheet. "Your loyalty, and the fact you came down for sacrificial matters has been enough to allow you back into the blue dimension." He tapped his briefcase. "I can escort you back."
That was not the news I wanted to hear, but, I did this to myself. I fell for The Boogeyman's tricks, and fell down into my own pit in life. "You better go." I kept my head down, but felt his hand beneath my chin.
"Never."
Enough bravado. "Mister Umbrella in the Sky, you've been a great friend," I answered. "You don't deserve to be here. This is all my fault, and I can't let you stay." I was not a positive person. It wasn't within me anymore. "Go."
I watched as Mister Umbrella held the paper tightly with his hands, and then ripped it in two.
"Judgment has been cast and will not be changed," the stranger said to him. "She cannot go."
"Then I will not go," Mister Umbrella announced.