DIMENSION: RED ORIGIN DIMENSION (AKA HELL)
Illusion. Illusion. Illusion. It all had to be an illusion. Boogeyman was not getting me again. I kept my mind positive. I did not deserve this, and neither did Mister Umbrella. Sure, I didn't do everything in life right, but I still made some difference. Well, I was at least good as a child. Not only that, but I never used drugs or alcohol. I stayed on track. Although, that was mostly because of Aunt Merissa. Would I have stayed on track without her? Maybe not, I don't know, but I had to be positive.
I wanted to be with my Mister Umbrella in the Sky again. I wanted to be in his arms, floating and dancing with him. I could not do that if I became one of those rotten seers from this dimension.
When a man ropes the moon for you, it's hard to stay out of love. I had never felt those sensations for any of the guys I dated. After college, I hardly dated at all. It seemed so pointless, going out. I just couldn't create a connection with anyone.
Now, I guess I knew why. Oh, and that moment with him! That feeling, it was one of the things sustaining me. I had to believe. I kept my eyes shut tight as I felt boots step on my poor fingers. I held back a scream again, knowing they would be pulled off soon. Boogeyman only did it to frighten me.
As if the fiery lava pit below this cliff I had been hanging on wasn't doing the job. I told myself illusion, but I didn't know. He didn't pretend it wasn't Earth. He could actually toss me down into the lava. As a non-human, could I survive? Would it still be painful? His boots hurt, I bet the lava wouldn't be a walk in the park. I continued to cling on, wishing Mister Umbrella had been there. When he was around, I had been able to float on my own. Around The Boogeyman, I simply seemed to be regular Jewelsy, unable to float at all.
So far, The Boogeyman had thrown me into the icy cold tundra, the burning heat of a blistering sun, and now I was hanging on to avoid a lava pit. For being illusions, each piece really hurt. I mean, they really hurt! That's why I had no choice but to dwell on something else. Mister Umbrella was the easiest and most positive thing to imagine.
I thought about my Aunt Merissa and Uncle Charles for a little while, but then that drifted back to the fact I wasn't human anymore. I was technically dead to them. The look on their faces when they stared into where my bed used to be. I let them down so much. No, no, I had to focus on the positive.
It's easy to see why I focused on Mister Umbrella. I imagined the way he was before he was thrown into hell for me. Honestly, if I thought a man roping the moon for me wasn't enough, all bets were off when he chose hell for me.
He chose hell. . .for me. I never even said 'thanks for choosing hell to stay with me'.
"Just give into the darkness," The Boogeyman complained to me as he stepped on my fingers again. "Give in, Julie Mars!"
"Never!" I yelled back. "I will never give in. I don't deserve any of this, and I don't deserve you!"
"Who do you deserve, hmm? Some pansy like Mister Umbrella in the Sky? Is that what you want for your future?" he teased me. "Stay here and give up. No more terror. No more chasing. Just give me what I want."
"Why?" I asked for the hundredth time. "You have me stuck in your dimension, why are you doing this? The apocalypse can't be stopped anyhow, so what do you want?!"
"Your relationship." He finally spilled it. "You are the key to the apocalypse. It doesn't matter whether you are human or not. You are a key. This world is still years from it, but with your help, I could get the apocalypse started sooner. I could free myself from this fiery place once and for all."
That didn't send warm fuzzies to my insides. Oh think positive, think positive, think positive! Fairies, bunnies, teddy bears. . .come on, Mister Umbrella.
"That's it! No more Mister Nice Boogeyman," he said as he grabbed his hand. "Illusions don't work anymore. Holding you over this lava isn't doing the job. It's time to go deep inside."
I closed my eyes. I didn't want to know what kind of hypnotizing he could do to me. His illusions were bad enough, what could he do to my mind? Ponies, unicorns, rainbows. . .umbrellas. Think positive. I saw fires, burning bodies, and screams of help. The Boogeyman was pulling all the stops! I couldn't take much more. "Stop it!" I screamed. The last image was of a man with a deathly grin hacking another up to pieces. I wanted it to be over.
Umbrella. Umbrella. I had to be stronger. Please. Stay positive. Mister Umbrella, I can't let him down. I can't. . .I can't. . .
I watched as the striped umbrella in my mind caught fire and burnt to a crisp, leaving nothing behind but a charred handle.
I'm sorry. . .
I'm so sorry. . .
I climbed over another jagged rock. My skin was covered in dirt, and the clothes I once had were grimy and torn. My arm sleeves were so ragged, I ripped off some of the top since it was dragging alongside my arm and making it difficult to climb. I had been following The Boogeyman's trail of evil for hours. Searching for hours in hell felt like an eternity. The closer I got to him, the faster he moved away. The Boogeyman was powerful, he had been merely playing with us so far. Could Jewelsy actually defeat him? Stay positive, Jewelsy. I need you to stay positive!
As I climbed the ledge, I saw the black mass in front of me. It was like a hurricane, swirling around. In the middle though, was Jewelsy. She did not move.
This was not a good sign. "Jewelsy?" I called out to her. She did not recognize her name.
"It was a waste of time, I warned you. I already had her before she even came to hell," The Boogeyman's voice bellowed from around me. "The apocalypse is inevitable, you can't fight it."
"She is not yours!" I shouted at him. I wanted to punch him with all I had! Evil thoughts and tendencies did not often interfere with my mind. I tended to be more open and hated brute force. Yet, all I wanted to do was beat Boogeyman's skull in! I craved it.
And that was bad. The Boogeyman was trying to make me lose it. It was up to me. I must remain calm and positive. Calm and positive.
The Boogeyman appeared in his physical form next to Jewelsy.
Calm and positive. I must remain calm and positive.
The Boogeyman grabbed her arm and licked the side of her face, causing a large burn on the side of her face. "That is only the beginning."
"You dirty fiend!" Calm and positive were becoming hopeful words, but the actions were harder to achieve. All I could envision was smacking Boogeyman so hard that this creature was flung out of the red dimension itself! "Jewelsy, please respond. Please."
"Too late," The Boogeyman said. "She is completely mine." He waved his hand in front of her face. "She was a little tough to crack, but not a large struggle."
"You messed with her mind. You killed her parents. You essentially took her chance to be happy as a human." I just, I couldn't do it. "Let judgment rain down upon me." I did not recognize the tone of my voice, but I didn't care. I didn't care. Who cared? Who cared about anything any more.
There was only one bright light and it was Jewelsy. My soul mate. My chance to never feel alone, to never be alone. That smell of sweet cherry cookies, it was not even softly upon the air. There was nothing. Evil had won against good.
But I'll be damned before I leave her damned. I pulled power from the dimension around me. Boogeyman was much better at this, having done it for thousands of centuries, but I had something he didn't have.
Nothing to lose. I felt the darkness fall into me. It burned me from the inside out, but I continued to gather strength. The pain and suffering. I even heard the echoes of lost souls filtering out from other dimensions. Darkness. Consume.
"Challenge? You wish to challenge me, you wretched cur?" The Boogeyman moved from Jewelsy. "Drop her. If you don't, you will lose to me. You will never recover from what I do to you."
"I would risk anything before I'd ever let you have her." Waves of red were spilling from around me. An ocean of rage swept through me.
End it. End him.
The Boogeyman pulled his own power from around himself. He gathered what he could, but he had been unprepared for me. My emotions had pulled power from every rock, every stone, every piece of matter within miles of there. Boogeyman had his own reserved energy, but in order to put up a fight, he pulled his controlling power away from Jewelsy.
One of my goals. Go, Jewelsy. I held my hand tightly, red power enraging from within and closed my eyes. I would not survive this. If I did, I would be doomed to become like those seers of the pits. The energy was negative, and too much evil had seeped into me.
Go. Go and be happy until it's over, my Jewelsy. . .