'Is hell a real place?' I asked myself that question a lot, however now I am certain…
Hell isn't a place, it's a person.
Having spent the last six years or so, dying and watching my only loved one die 879,087 times with no sleep, water, food or rest. There were times when I was left to starve to death, was brutally mutilated by my best friend and times went I lost myself. The ever so persistent mockery and torture from an eccentric and crazed Goddess haven't been plesant. But I still haven't given up; I will escape this hell and return to the real Hazel.
"Is that what you have chosen to believe, how laughable." Erebus's voice echoes breaking the silence, "How are you liking the new scenery, Eden?"
"Are you mocking me, how could anyone enjoy this." My eyes narrowed in annoyance as I clicked my tongue. Hazel then appeared in front of me surrounded by dozens of blood tendrils which slowly pierced into my flesh, my blood splattered to the ground as Whisper's arms latched on me and he snapped my neck.
I then woke up with my head submerged underwater unable to get a breath in, I felt the water painfully fill inside my lung and brain, I drown.
'It's been years Erebus! Don't you ever get tired?!' I yell out, my tone an irritated one, she responds with a maniacal laughter that rings through in my ears.
My head is then grasped suddenly by Erebus, "You know what boy, you might have a point." She says as her grip on my head tightens and blood leaks out of my nose. "You losing your mind was fun to watch, but you always regain your sanity somehow and you haven't mourned in sorrow for over six months it's such a bore. Maybe I need to take a different approach with this." She then rips my skin off.
This time I didn't reawake anywhere, it was just dark. The same dark I had been in when I first got here, but I was different this time. I was able to move, speak and breath, 'Why did you bring me here.' I demanded, "You know nothing of respect insolent brat, alas you were an orphan after all." Erebus says as she reveals herself.
"How would you like to be revived?"
My eyes widened, I opened my mouth to speak but then withdrew. 'Why?' I said as I regained my composure 'You're obviously lying.' I turned my head and clicked my tongue at her.
"Regardless of what you think, my mind is already made up." The goddess says to me with a mischievous grin on her face, she brushes her lips on the tip of my ear and says something to me.
"Burn your world for me."
She then broke out in a maddened laughter as she pointed her pale white finger with a blackened tip at me. Her hand was then enveloped in dark violet tendrils of Fortsia as she chanted aloud, her voice so loud it sounded like the continuous claps of thunder. The violet tendrils shot from her arm directly to my chest leaving me in a fit of unbearable pain.
'WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME!?!?'
I yelled out, my voice ripping through my throat. "I'm giving you what you have been longing for." Her voice was calm, calmer than ever before, she is usually in such a maddened state you'd think she's insane. 'IT BURNS STOP IT!' I cried out in pain, my limbs contracted and twisted over and over.As the pain started to subside my mind flashed with distorted visions of a unwelcoming future.
I was in a foreign land and there were mountains of dead bodies around, I saw myself but was it really me? I looked older than and more 'broken', the vision was hazy I couldn't make out anything else that was happening. Eden or future me conjured a spell of sorts, one which clouded him in darkness.
The pain from her tendrils had finally ceased, 'What exactly have you done to me?' I ask with a fatigued voice as I gazed at the nasty scar that was burnt onto my chest. She simply gazed at me for a moment before it shifted to the necklace on her neck. She takes out one of the gems from it and it changes into the form of a black and violet flame.
"This flame is now our shared familiar. All that it sees I see as well, it shall be with you from now on." Erebus says as the flame floats towards me. 'Get that thing away from me, GET IT AWAY!! I don't want it.'
Erebus remained silent, her face remained expressionless. "Your ignorance will bring about your downfall Child." She says as her hand runs through my hair and lips reach my ear. "Dear Child of Ruin, you have no idea what lays ahead for you."
Hazel Evertwigh
As I sat in a pool of Eden's blood, my heart ached for him.
'I am lost without him.'
That was the thought lingering on my mind, everything else felt hopeless and not worth trying. But then the room gleamed with an unworldly presence, it was majestic. Eden head re-attached to his neck and a sapphire flame enveloped his wounds slowly healing them. I crawled over to his body with tears forming in them, "Eden, please." I thought as I rested my head on his body and broke down at the sound of his heart beginning to beat again.
End of Chapter