Chapter 1
My death was rather unexpected, to say the least. I had no time to scream, run or defend myself in any way. It perplexed me as to how a healthy, young girl, such as myself, could meet their demise through such an... odd manner.
For some reason, I couldn't consider my death as horrible. It was a rather painless death after all. Of course, we are all expected to die at some point or the other, but no one ever thinks about it. No one ever wonders how they are going to die. And certainly, no one ever expects to be intentionally killed for a crime they didn't commit.
Well, I suppose there are some who are forced to live their lives in paranoia due to their profession, crimes or involvement with others. However, I never did involve myself in such activities. I was a plain, simple girl who was shot, murdered by someone I didn't even know. Questions after questions, with no answers. By this point in time, I'd assume the untimely and unjustified nature of my death would earn some sympathy and some brownie points to Heaven. Not that I'd ever believed in the after-life, but still.
Was death the worst part of my life? Far from it. I'm sure my after-life was a much worse and more strenuous situation.
The actual memory of my death was quite blurred, which I suppose, was quite intentional. The parts that adhered to my memory were quite vague. The town I lived in was far from dangerous, so I'd had no particular fear of walking up to the park that night. Being a care-free girl, brought up in a sheltered family, I hardly noticed my surroundings.
Like I said, it was supposed to be one of the safest towns in the country. I shivered as I tried to recall my actual death.
The bullet had expertly struck my stomach. Not a single passerby was present at that time. But then again, help would have been too late anyways. My eyes tried to catch a glimpse of my shooter, but alas, the blood staining my chestnut hair and red reflecting in my colorless grey eyes were the only vivid memories that still remained. Of course, throughout all my mental rambling, I have yet to understand what exactly happened to me.
"Where on earth am I?" My voice croaked as I asked the same question for the millionth time. Just as the question left my lips, an absurd thought ran through my head; 'This is not earth.' Due to my thorough lack of belief in religion, and God for that matter, my closed-minded brain had yet to understand that I was no longer actually alive.
My eyes bored into the back of the dead person I was following as if I was mentally willing him to answer me. When I had initially woken up I found a skull, bobbling up and down, hovering over my head. Its empty eye sockets had stared into my soul and I did what any girl in my situation would do; I screamed!
Not that you could blame me of course, but the skeleton didn't seem appreciate the noise. It bony hands moved as fast as a snake and went up to cover my mouth. Once I had calmed down, I took in my surroundings. As far as my death was concerned, my mind was still having a hard time comprehending the situation. I suppose, waking up dead wasn't something anybody just expected to happen to them. My mind still urged me to sum this all up as a simple delusion of the mind.
I had woken up on a concrete floor, which was freezing cold, much to my displeasure; the first sign of my supposed death. My eyes scanned the room in order to re-orientate my mind. The walls were painted black and red with no other variations in color. The room was empty save for the skeleton with the bobbling head. I had tried to pinch myself awake, but unfortunately, it seemed as if I was never asleep. So maybe, this wasn't a crazy dream. I still hadn't accepted that thought.
"Where are we going?" I asked repeatedly. The skeleton twisted its skull around stare at me. I was unsure whether my fear was heightened or diminished due to its lack of actual eyes. I tried to ignore the hollow skull, and simply focus on following it. If I allowed myself to dwell of the practicality of my situation, my fear would be quadrupled, and I would start to lose any grip on my sanity. I still had an insignificant speck of hope that this was simply a dream.
We walked on for what seemed like miles through an endless corridor. The darkness shadowed everything and I couldn't see more that two inches in front of me. No noise was heard except for the echoing of our footsteps. For a moment, I had the strong urge to cry, and yet, I knew that there was no use. I gulped down the lump that had formed in my throat. I was still clinging to my last shred of hope, that this could have simply been a nightmare. Maybe I only gained a mild concussion when I'd tripped on the pavement.
However, I knew what had happened. Even if I didn't remember the details, my gut told me that this was far from a dream of any sort. Despite this small string of hope, I knew that I was deluding myself. This was real, but I was still in denial.
After a rather long period of time, my legs started aching and a headache had started rooting itself in the back of my mind. Could you even feel pain after your dead? I really didn't understand how we could feel pain if our body was technically dead. Lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice the titanic doors we were approaching; so when the skeleton stopped moving I ended up crashing into its back.
The skeleton fell into a pile of bones and the skull hissed at me. If the thing wasn't in pieces, I might actually have been scared. I smiled at it sheepishly. No more than a second later, my eyes roamed back to entrance in front of me. For some reason, the beautiful and intricate patterns on the door created a sinister atmosphere. It was as though these patterns were meant to falsely lure you into a sense of safety. My eyes devoured each and every detail of the gold plated patterns, as if it was some sort of drug I was depending on. For a moment, just for a moment, it seemed as though I was severed from an intangible link I had with life.
I shook off those absurd thoughts as the doors finally started to open.
Fear, actual cold blooded fear, ran through me for the first time since I woke up. I was partially aware of my position, but what I never expected to find were others just like me. People, ranging from babies to teenagers to old grandparents, were lounging around the place. What frightened me even more was that there wasn't a drop of sound being whispered by anyone. The babies weren't crying and the teenagers weren't gossiping. The adults were simply staring off into space and the grandparents had their eyes closed and were sitting too still to seem alive, not that they were alive; or at least, that's what I thought.
The sense of calm I'd had suddenly started to dissipate and fear was rapidly overcoming my mind. I had no idea what I was doing here or even where I was. What I knew was that I was dead; the sudden realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I surveyed the area around me and found flames licking every wall reaching all the way up to the ceiling. If I was dead...?
That stray though was cut off, and dismissed as absurd, as I heard a voice call my name.
"Sally Jackson! Sally Jackson!" A voice boomed from the corner of the room and echoed as if the room was empty. The silence had returned and I felt the burning gazes of everyone boring though the back of my head as I made my way towards the corner of the room.
As I approached the secluded corner, my eyes were drawn up to the huge man waiting by the side of a black gate. Upon further inspection, I realised that he didn't seem human at all! Bull-like horns stuck out of his head and a forked tail could be seen flicking back and forth. His pitch black eyes seemed to be a void of any emotion and his deadly claws were made prominent by his constant finger movements, as if he was waiting to rip our throats out.
I took a large visible gulp of air as I cautiously approached him. The monster-man smiled wickedly as he noticed how nervous I was.
"Sally Jackson," he spoke emotionless, "you should be aware of why you are here." I clawed my mind for any hints I could find, but I drew a blank. The ominous nature of my death posed no help what-so-ever.
I spoke, praying that my voice wouldn't show any sign of weakness. "No. In fact, I don't even know where the hell I am!" I was growing more restless by the moment, my own thoughts quenched in fear. I was starting to piece it all together, but the answer itself continued to evade my mind.
"Oh, my dear, if you haven't noticed by now, you must be stupider than I thought." The corners of his lips lifted, as if to mock me. "You are in the worst after life residence..."
The color drained from my face as he uttered those words. Smugness crept onto his face as I took in my surroundings once again. After life, as in Heaven or Hell; I never really believed in all this stuff, but if it was true, than I must have been in-
"HELL!" His voice boomed again, louder than the first time. The word itself sent a shudder down my spine as my brain suddenly started working overtime spiraling in all directions. I was in hell for a crime I must've committed - but that was the problem, I had never done anything wrong. I was a model daughter and student who never dreamed to deceive anyone or wrong them. I had no grudges and as far as I knew, I had done nothing to be the object of any hatred.
My fear was soon replaced by confusion and uncertainty as I tried to comprehend this misunderstanding. I attempted to defend myself, seeing no need for the problem to blow out of proportion. I began steadily, "There has to be a mistake, I've nev-"
He cut me off with the flick of a hand. "No mistake my darling. Sally Jackson is to be sent to hell. Your torturer..." He trailed of and my eyes widened considerably at his choice of wording. "Hmm... Looks like you're stuck with the son of The Devil himself." A crooked smile covered his face once more.
"But-" With no chance to protest, I suddenly started feeling light weighted, as though I was defying gravity. My head started swimming, and I could barely hold in the scream which threatened to escape my lips.
After I felt myself returning to my stable self, I managed to peel my eyes open. My head started swimming once more as I tried to study my location. My eyes widened in shock as I realized that I was no longer in the same place.
I looked around, in order to understand where I was exactly. The walls were bare and painted red, and black, much like the room I had woken up in; however, this room offered less hostile environment than the previous room. The only furniture I could see were the large double bed in the center of the room, and a slightly ruffled study table. The room itself seemed currently inhabited.
I walked closer towards a window and let out a loud gasp at what I saw. A seemingly dead forest encompassed the land. The leaves were a mossy green color and the barks seemed dead. No light penetrated the grey sky and the never ending woodland seemed lifeless. My gaze shifted to the rest of the room, trying to pick up any signs of life. I noticed crinkles on the bed, as if it was recently made, and a full trash can next to the desk. My body suddenly froze as I realized that I could have very well been occupying a demon's bedroom.
Not wanting to spend any more time in this isolated room, I quietly made my way towards the door. As I crept towards it, my nerves went on overdrive as I thought of what would happen next. I was in Hell for no reason at all! If they thought I would just sit back and follow them like a scared little puppy, they-
My thoughts were suddenly cut short as the door was slammed open by a boy, seemingly around my age. I was about to let out a sigh of relief before I noticed his t-shirt. The word imprinted on the t-shirt was what reignited the fading sense of fear that had consumed my mind: 'Lucifer'.
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Okay you guys, this chapter has been edited and hopefully doesn't have any more annoying errors. I basically went thyough this three times, rewriting it around twice.
I really hope you guys actually like it.
And also, a fair warning: the rest of the book hasn't been proof read or edited at all, so if you see a deteriorating writing style, please don't go all ape on me.
That being said, I would still love you guys to continue to post critiques for each of the chapters. Even the grammer errors or perhaps any plot holes!
I really hope you enjoy this book! Thank you so much for your support!!!