Chapter 1
Once, there was a girl. The girl had long, dark hair and eyes flashing with insolence. It's hard to say whether they sparked with such venom because of the hard life she had led, or in spite of it. It was a life that ended, perhaps, too soon.
Many end their own life in an act of submission, of defeat. Life has taken everything out of them. It was not such with the girl. A knot tied tight with rebellion, and a final moment of resolve that failed only to waver as the rope went taut. The girl would not allow herself to be taken from again.
Life released the girl, and her soul continued on. Soon the girl found herself before the gates of heaven. An angel waited for her there. His face was beautiful, brilliant, and yet shadowed, for his expression was one of pity, for he thought her not a malignant soul. He offered the girl forgiveness for what she had done, should she be truly repentant and willing to redeem herself, that she may in exchange enter paradise and God's grace.
But the girl wanted none of the God that had failed to do more than cast her into a bitter existence of misery, nor did she desire an angel's pity; she could have only contempt for the offer of an idle existence spent even in bliss, for it came with the accepting of a foundless faith. So the girl refused.
Once a soul has rejected, or has been rejected by, the hallowed place of "paradise," there is only one place for it to go. The girl knew this, but no flicker of remorse nor fear lingered in her thoughts. Indeed, she was curious to see the infamous land of the damned, as well as its ruler. The girl believed she had nothing to lose. She wondered if she could still be burned.
