Fear, raw ragged fear twisted Nate’s soul from the inside out. He knew this was it. This was the last few seconds of his life. This was Nate’s last few moments of breath. For him this was the only chance he had to make things right. If only he knew where to start. There were so many things… terrible things he’d done in his life. His utterly worthless short life: the murder of his mother, the attempt to kill his sister on more than one occasion, the many thefts and drunken altercations with women.
The light was fading from his eyes. The convulsions of death were right now at that moment quaking his body, slamming him painfully against the pavement. And Nathanial was alone. The bitter taste of death was even now as he thought; I’m alone, coating his tongue. He could feel the hounds of hell circling around him, gnawing at his flesh with razor sharp teeth, and clawing the open wound gapping across his chest further opening it. Blood spilled down his shirt and pooled around him. The devil himself had crawled from the deepest pit of hell to carry his sorry ass to his final resting place, a prison worse than any he’d ever seen. It was a fate worse than dying alone among the cold streets of London. Nathaniel Thorn would be tortured within himself. Tortured with the wrongs he’d caused others, he’d be forced to see the faces swirl around him, the faces of the innocent victims he’d selfishly killed, beaten, and raped.
And for a brief moment before death completely took him over, he thought of his sister. Her angelic face looking up at him; the gentle curve of her lips as she called out his name. He thought of her tears as they streaked down her rosy cheeks while she cried in the middle of the night after she’d awoken from a terrible nightmare. The way her hands grasped his when she was frightened. “Tay,” he whispered. “I’m sor… I… love-”
He died, unable to finish his last sentence. His last words were nothing more than a hushed stutter, falling breathless upon his ragged lips. The flames of hell ripped through him, engulfing every inch of his being. The flames sharp as daggers tore through his wilting flesh, unearthly screams filled the night as his body was pulled from this world and taken to the darkest depths of hell.
