To Hell and Back for You

Chapter 11: Welcome to Hell

It was good that I didn't waste time with preparing myself because there would have been no point. Hovering above Hell was incredibly akin to observing a planet from satellite, but I was only given a second to wonder if glancing about would reveal other realms lined up like a solar system. 

The swirling lights around the void flew out like whips and sparked like electricity yet somehow their menacing sounds were far more inviting than the hollow blackness they encircled. Once my vision rested upon it, my head was filled with screams and cries and my body was instantly drawn in.

A sudden chill encased me and I found it impossible not to resist being sucked into the abyss even though I knew it was my destination anyway. Emma? my mind called out, receiving no answer. Duh, they couldn't leave Earth. Remembering her warning not to be frightened had me trying to focus on their words in order to keep calm.

It hadn't struck me at the time, but wasn't Hell supposed to be fire and brimstone? True to the ghosts' description, however, I felt as though I were freezing to death. The nagging pull which had previously begged me to return to my body was now gone and I was having trouble feeling or seeing the physical at all.

I was stuck in this emptiness, helpless to resist entering. Inhaling sharply, I widened my eyes and focused on my target. The terrifying noises echoing in my skull had grown shrill and unbearably loud as the blackness approached. Soon, there was absolutely nothing to see; all that existed was my energy floating amidst piercing terror hiding in the dark.

Abruptly, everything stopped. I heard nothing. I felt nothing. Wondering if I had accidentally shut my eyes, I stretched my forehead to realize that wasn't the case. My head rotated from side to side, desperate to make sense of my new surroundings.

Sense.

Spiritual sight in my world was different than the physical. Surely that meant sight here differed as well. As I peered into the blackness, shifting my senses, structures began to form. They looked like huge rocks and caves. Grey stones lined the shadows under a deep blue sky. Not the atmosphere I expected, but I guess I shouldn't really expect too much when venturing so far into the unknown.

I found myself floating again, journeying slowly past the boulders and crevices. The further I got, the more alive the place seemed to become. Instead of the limited hues, energies came into view of various colors. At first, they appeared similar to the vortex where I had entered, but as I gave them more attention, they became various shapes. Gradually, I saw that many were moving, taking the form of creatures. Were they demons?

I didn't stop moving for fear that I, too, would cease being ephemeral and become human in Hell. Certainly, not a good thing. I'd probably became a toy or a meal for them. However, as I kept traveling, it seemed that none of them were taking notice of me. Was I like a ghost here? Maybe I was at least as long as I retained my physical body somewhere. It was truly interesting and I needed all the information I could gather, so I continued studying the beasts as long as I could without halting my trek.

They weren't really monsterish in appearance either. They looked like animals, ranging in size from house cat to elephant or larger. Not necessarily like any animal I had seen before, but they weren't the nightmare fuel that humans depicted them to be. It was like I had been thrown into an alien world with a different evolutionary timeline.

I ended up flying quite a distance and overall, Hell didn't seem very terrifying until I ventured farther in. The part that I had seen thus far lacked any life other than the creatures I mentioned. It was barren, consisting of dirt, stone, and sky and remained with the same cold, empty feeling I had first encountered.