Prologue
I was running, running as fast as I could, glancing behind me every couple of seconds. They were coming. I wasn't sure I could survive it this time. It had been so long, so long, and I was so tired. And the things I had seen. I... I couldn't even describe them. This was literally the Hell of hell. Where the worst things went. I didn't know how I knew it's name. Nobody had ever taught me about it. The name just came into my brain when I fell. And the life I'd had since then -no, you couldn't call it life. Life couldn't be like this. The horrors I'd witnessed, the horrors I'd experienced. That wasn't life.
My feet sank into the thick, fleshy membrane that made up the ground. I was choking on thestale, boiling, acidic air. I could hear them behind me: "Come back here! There's never anything fun to hunt down here. A human would be amazing. Let's get her!". It was Kelli and her mob of empousai.
I tripped over my feet,and scrambled to get back up. I hadn't slept in days, and the River Phlegethon was unreachable from here. I'd hurt my leg, badly, and I couldn't climb down the ledge. I'd tried, but I almost fell, and I decided it wasn't worth it. I had to get out of here. I still had life ahead of me, or at least I... thought I did.
Time didn't work right down here. I'd tried to keep count when I first fell, but lost track of time after the first 6 months. I knew it had been years. My bones should be creaking, and my hair should be grey, and I should be about 80 years old. But I wasn't. I still looked, and felt, 15 years old. The age I was when I fell down here. When I fell into Tartarus.