Sett once again found himself in darkness. This time was different from the first. This time he could feel his body. He could walk around in this dense darkness. He felt fully awake.

This darkness, however, was not empty. From all around him, Sett could hear voices. They all told different stories. Some were greatly angered. Others were questioning their existence. Some were simply crying. But one thing was certain, they were all miserable.

Sett soon discovered that there were countless people around him, some of whom he had recognized in the great hall, only that they were faintly transparent now. They would appear at random and then after a couple of seconds proceed to walk in a certain direction with a trance-like gait.

Since the time he had arrived here, Sett had attempted many times to gain the attention of his fellow sacrifices, but they simply ignored him, continued their rambling, and kept walking. Even if he stood in front of them to block their path, they would simply pass straight through him as if nothing had happened.

He had tried to yell at them and even punch them, but nothing seemed to work. He felt incredibly alone in the unending darkness. It was as if he was alone in the world, despite there being so many people surrounding him.

Sett grew increasingly frustrated as time passed. He found he had two choices. On one hand, if he followed his fellow humans into the darkness, he would more than likely be following the monster’s ploy whatever that entailed. On the other hand, if he stayed put there was no telling if he would be any better off. Perhaps he would be trapped forever if he chose to stay in the darkness. To Sett, it truly was a situation that he could not win.

No one prepared to be thrown into a magical hellhole by ritualists that had monsters for servants. No one expected such a place to even exist, but Sett saw it with his own eyes. The magic that was told of in fantasy novels was forever gone, exchanged instead with lifeless horror-filled void and ravenous monsters.

Sett grimaced, becoming angrier the more he thought about it.

So what if he was in a void that existed only to torment him? So what if he had been captured by monsters that originated from an overly imaginative piece of pornographic art? So what if he had been sacrificed by a cold-hearted woman who worshipped an evil god? So what if fate had cast him aside? Sett was alive and he would not give up till it was all over!

Sett’s determination grew as the number of unfeeling transparent humans that passed him increased. He had not bothered to count them, but he imagined that they would soon run out of sacrifices in the real world. In other words, if he wanted to make a choice, he had to make it soon.

In fact, he had already made his choice. He was simply waiting for a specific person. He was naturally waiting for Jess, who would be one of the last to be sacrificed. If he had to follow someone into the unknown, he knew he wanted it to be Jess.

And so, he waited. Even when the number of ghost-like humans fell greatly and the stories they told waned, he waited. Finally, after what felt like hours, she arrived.

It hurt to see Jess like this. She was just like the rest. An empty shell. The once bright young girl had been drained of joy and all that made her good. Her colourful demeanour was replaced with the signature transparent grey.

Above all else, Sett felt guilty. How could he not? it was he who had invited her on their last criminal job. It was he who had spoken of the great benefits when she hesitated. If he had not spoken to her that day, she would surely be at home, cosy and happily painting. Despite the social norms saying otherwise, Sett felt that she was the only innocent party in all this. That she should not have to face this fate.

Yet, his thoughts mattered little. She had already been sentenced to death in this unjust place. The only thing that mattered right now, was whether or not he could save her from that fate. To make up for his sins.

He did not believe he could do much in this magical hellhole, but he would be damned if he did not try.

Soon after, Jess began to move along the same path that all her predecessors had followed. Sett followed right beside her without a second thought.

“Mom. Where is dad? Why did he leave? Is it because of me? Does he hate me? Did I not do well enough?”

Soon, like all the others that had come before her, Jess began to mutter in a sad depreciating tone.

Sett knew little of her home life. The only thing he knew of her family was that her father was a rather zealous up-and-coming businessman and that her mother acted as his secretary. Before this, Sett had thought of her life as ideal. A loving home with a stable economy. He had, in fact, been rather envious of Jess.

The idyllic picture crumbled before him. From the tears that were streaming down her cheeks, it was clear to him that there were some serious problems in her home life. Come to think of it, if she had a perfect home life, why would she rebel so grandly as to join Jack and Sett in their petty criminal acts?

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Sett and Jess walked as she continued to cry. There was little he could do to ease her pain. He could only remember her pains so that he could act like a proper friend when they made it out of here.

Walking further, Sett realized that the number of humans was fading drastically the further they got from their starting point. It was as if they had been swallowed by a portal, disappearing from sight without anyone noticing.

Seeing this, Sett decided to stand as close to Jess as he possibly could.

Soon, they were the only ones that were left in the harrowing void, the only sound that could be heard was her weeping. Then suddenly and without warning, another darkness opened up before them instantly swallowing Jess within it. Sett only managed to jump straight into it moments before it closed behind them.

Sett was surprised. They were no longer in the endless void, but rather in a midsized dining room. Sett found three figures seated around this table. Among them were Jess and two others, a man and a woman. They were eating what appeared to be breakfast, but a hostile atmosphere ensured that it was not a pleasant sight.

The middle-aged man had an enormous scowl on his face, while the woman simply looked to be disappointed, hanging her head by her hands. Jess looked anxious and seemed to not dare to look at the elder’s faces.

Sett moved forwards to explore this scene. He quickly found out that, much like the people from the void, no one seemed to notice his presence. Even waving his hands before their eyes did not produce any result.

Undisturbed, Sett simply decided to pull out a chair and watch.

He did not have to wait long.

“Jess… I heard you went out last night again.”

The man began to speak with a barely suppressed anger in his voice. Jess shrank back from the man’s words as if they were venom.

“Hmph… So, you did, I see. Do you not see how much we have done for you?” The man’s voice gradually rose in volume. “Do you not see how much we have sacrificed for you! We have given you a great childhood and more than plenty of opportunities! Yet, you repay our sincerity with this! You could have entered the most prestigious academies and yet you decided to play around with lowlife scum and waste your time painting instead! Look at me, young lady!”

Jess simply stared down at her cereal while the man continued with his tirade of thinly veiled insults. The woman simply looked on in silence without making a move, allowing the temper tantrum to continue.

Sett sighed. He had been prepared for this kind of scene but was nonetheless surprised at the extend it went to. It did not take a genius to figure out that the scene before him was of Jess and her parents.

It was eye-opening for Sett. If he had to wager, there were more between him and his house matron, than there were between Jess and her parents.

Surprisingly, the scene became more and more horrifying before his eyes. The once rather mundane-looking parents slowly began to morph, turning into ravenous monsters before his very eyes. Despite their change, the words of the monster that had once been Jess’s father were still the same.

Could it be that this was the way that Jess thought of her parents?

The scene continued to evolve into more horrible shapes. The walls that surrounded them turned into fleshy appendages and the food they were eating turned into various different insects. The sight could make even a horror film director squirm in fright.

Gradually, more and more faces began to appear. They soon surrounded Jess.

“Horrible…”

Gradually, these faces began to spew more and more angry statements at her, overwhelming her to the point of tears. Jess clutched her head, while the downpour of insults continued.

“Disgusting…”

“Waste of space!”

“Should have never been born.”

Then time seemed to freeze and the little light that the abominations had in their eyes was extinguished.

“The expectations of the parents were great, but the child wished for something else. Something more” A low voice that seemed devoid of energy, echoed from all around the room. “The anger of the parents becomes the sadness of the child.”

Sett looked all around the room but could not find any person who could have spoken the words. He could only chalk it down to being part of this place’s peculiarities.

Soon after the voice faded, the scene changed greatly. A bright light flashed, and Sett found himself staring at a typical stairway.

This scene also included three people. Jess, her father, and some nondescript man wearing a seemingly expensive business suit. Jess hid on a higher level of the stairway, gazing on the two men conversing below.

“Mister Rockwell, you have been instructed to erase seven different case files on the Xel incorporated computer mainframe, do you comply?”

The unknown man spoke with an eerily noncaring voice.

“I understand, mister Seven.”

“Just Seven will do.”

“Yes, sorry.

“Good, once the seven case files have been confirmed to be deleted, the company will deliver ten million Federation Dollars to you as well as accommodating you and your family with new lives.”

Sett looked back at Jess, who was peeking on her father’s conversation. She looked horrified. Who would not be? She had just learned that her father was working with criminals. High-level organised criminals at that.

“Jess!?!” Jess’s father had caught sight of her in Jess’s moment of anxiety. “Did you hear anything?! Tell me!”

The faces of both father and the mysterious criminal warped into monsters as they quickly walked up the stairs to confront Jess. Under the constant assault of questions from her father, the girl quickly broke into sobs.

“The child saw her first villain in the form of her father. A sight that would send the child spiralling into a world of sins herself.”

The low energy less voice once again sounded out in the stairway and the scene shifted once again.

When the light settled, Sett was greatly surprised. It was the SenCorp power station that they had been trying to steal from earlier that night.

“…When we have proven our worth then, and only then, may we join our masters at the high table.”

Sett heard the voice of the half-monster half-man Lark. Remembering back, it was truly terrifying being held by those horror-inducing creatures. Seeing them up close did not ease his fears much.

The scene continued to play out as he had remembered it. The one named Lark took hold of Jack and Jess, while Derek took hold of Sett.

It was frightening and slightly fascinating just how well this space replicated those horrible moments.

“The girl dug too deep into the underworld and found horrors she would not believe existed. Trapped in the horrors of the heart only to be devoured by the false children of blood. A fate worse than death, that should not have befallen on anyone.”

Then the bright light flashed once again.