Chapter One

A Chapter by bitchiinelijah

Screaming. It was all around me, piercing my ears, shaking my soul. Screams of pleasure or screams of terror; I couldn’t tell the difference. Darkness filled my sight. I believe blindess was forced upon me, not by a cloth or anything like that; but a force had taken my sight from me. Fear and pain controlled my body, making me twitch this way and that.

I had no idea where I was. There was a liquid that reached up to my waist, and from the small movements I could take I could tell it was thick. A stench violated my nose, one that made me want to gag but I wasn’t able to. The only thing I was able to do was try to scream, but it seemed my voice was too scared to leave my throat. I really couldn’t blame it.

That’s when I heard it. A low, dark laughter filled my ears. It was like the constant shrill screaming; this laughter was clear and made itself known to me. “You know what I love?” the voice asked- this time I could tell it was a man’s voice, but it didn’t sound particularly human, “When your blood spurts out wildly! Like a fountain!”

My blindness had been lifted from me. The screams had been paired with faces and bodies, the screamers not scared at all like I was; instead they, I found, were cheering. Twisting around in a panic, more pain shot through my body. My eyes found their way to my own body, noting all of the cuts and tears that had been made on it. The liquid that I stood in was my own blood- did I even have that much in me? I watched, mesmerized, as more and more of the red plasma poured from me.

“Your blood; my blood; the cheers of thousands of my servants… It’s a true father-son moment!”

That’s when He appeared. At first his skin was red, horns atop his black curls, freakishly tall, and red eyes that could steal a soul from its body. But slowly He morphed into something less frightening, a tanned white man with, thankfully, no horns. His eyes were still as piercing and his thin lips pointed up in a smile.

Death. Hades. Satan. Lucifer. Call him what you will; but in this case it seemed he wanted me to call him dad.

“Don’t worry son, it’ll all be over soon!” He began laughing again, causing my heart to race.

Shouldn’t I be dead?! With so much of my blood escaping me… As if reading my mind, the king of evil shook his head. “No, I am keeping you alive myself! It’s hard work, really, but I believe it’ll pay off.”

That’s when something inside of me began to burn. My gaze earned a pink tint and I felt the burning sensation inside me start to tear at my lungs. All air escaped me and my knees buckled, causing me to be engulfed totally in what I knew to be as my blood as well as His. “Yes, good! While you’re down there, if you can, try drinking your own blood back up!” His laughter was still clear in my ears.

It felt like I spent hours at the bottom of that pool. Images flashed before my eyes, most cruel and sickening. Wanting to scream in agony, I opened my mouth, but as I did such the surrounding crimson liquid flooded in, causing me to cough and shake. But despite the fact that I couldn’t breathe I didn’t pass out- no matter how much I wanted to. The burning from before fed my pain, and soon it felt like every inch of my body was on fire. Kicking my way back to the surface I sucked the air in greedily, though I wasn’t sure if I needed to or not.

That’s when a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me from the pit. The surrounding air was surprisingly freezing against my legs, which only caused me more pain. “Let him go! Or I’ll kill him now!” Satan shrieked, ascending from wherever it was he was, stepping in front of me.

“You can’t have him! You’ve no right over his soul!” The woman yelling tugged me father away from him, though the devil just made a reach for my other free arm.

“It already started! Look at him for yourself! He’s mine now; let go!”

She barely paused to take a glance at my face. It must have been disgusting because she made a sickened face, but that didn’t stop her from trying to save me. Or was she? I could barely process a thought, let alone try to run with her. “Well you can’t have him! I won’t let you!” Tapping on my chin, she tried to smile at me but ended up forcing it, “Come on, Elijah, we’re going now!”

But as she ran from him, dragging me by my arm, a loud alarm rang. He probably set it off so I wouldn’t be able to get away, probably so others could come and capture me again, probably to let everyone in Hell know I was escaping. At least, that’s what I thought. The ringing got louder and louder, consistent still, until everything around me vanished. I closed my eyes, stupefied and still terrified, but once I opened them again I found I was lying in my own bed.

The soft hum of my ceiling fan greeted me, along with the ringing of my alarm clock. Seven a.m.; time to get up and go to school.