Hell English version

Chapter 1: The Scholarship Student

Chapter 1: The Scholarship Student

Lucas Hel woke to the sound of rain striking the glass.

At first, he did not know where he was.

The world was dark. Everything smelled of wet metal, smoke, and split-open earth. Red lights blinked in front of him, reflected in thousands of pieces of broken glass. Something was dripping from the roof of the car. Something warm was running down his forehead.

"Lucas..."

His mother's voice reached him from somewhere nearby.

Weak.

Distant.

As if she were speaking to him from the bottom of a well.

Lucas wanted to answer, but his throat would not obey. He tried to move and felt a sharp pain in his leg. The seat belt held him trapped against the back seat. Outside, the rain was falling so hard that the world seemed to be melting.

"Don't look," his father said.

But Lucas looked.

Beyond the cracked windshield, in the middle of the road, there was something impossible.

A door.

Not a door like the ones in a house.

It was a vertical opening in the air, black inside, surrounded by violet light. The rain did not fall on it. It slid to the sides, as if that thing were pushing the world away.

From inside the door came a deep sound.

A snort.

Then a hoof struck the asphalt.

Lucas felt fear close around his chest.

The creature that stepped out of the door had the shape of a bull, but no bull should have been that large. Its body was covered in dense shadows, as if the night itself had clung to its skin. Its horns glowed with a dark light, and its eyes looked like embers sunken into the skull of a beast.

His father said something.

It was not an ordinary word.

It was an ancient phrase, strong, almost luminous.

For one second, the air inside the car trembled.

The door shook.

The creature lowered its head.

Lucas saw his mother turn toward him. There was blood on her lip, but even then, she smiled at him.

"Close your eyes, my love."

The beast charged.

The car screamed.

Lucas opened his eyes with a start.

Rain was no longer falling on the broken glass of a car.

It was raining against his bedroom window.

He was in his bed, with the sheets tangled around his body and his heart pounding against his chest as if it wanted to escape. The room was dark, barely lit by the gray light of dawn. The low ceiling, the simple walls, and the old wardrobe in front of his bed reminded him where he was.

His house.

His grandfather's house.

Lucas breathed with difficulty.

He touched his forehead with one hand.

There was no blood.

Only sweat.