The beast, its eyes deep within mine, snarled. Whatever it allowed me to bear witness to was meant to break me into the dark human being I truly am. I couldn’t believe it, my past coming back to not only haunt me, but to obliterate me into nothingness. Staring back at the beast was too much to handle while reliving all that brought me here. Learning no mercy was available to me, and all I could do was take in only what it allowed me to see. He was in control now, his wish a reality.

I try to turn away from its glare but a figure appears in my line of sight. A shape muscular in stature—sure and strong slowly moving towards me. Its two legs are bent back like those of a deer. His hooves dig into the crimson coal covered ground along with the sifting sound of a heavy axe being dragged behind him. Perfidiously raucous piglike grunts increase as he draws closer. When this incubus reaches me, I notice the familiar pale face—the same one I saw in court. A layer of twisted horns surrounds the top of its head like a crown as blood red eyes peer down into its snout and into mine. The creature flashes its fangs to elucidate its pleasure as it brings the three bladed axe around ostentatiously. A thorn tipped tail whips frenetically up and down behind it.

With my imminent annihilation upon me, it’s clear my life was consumed by darkness and the price for my carelessness was now being paid. I guess I hadn’t suffered enough in their eyes.

“I’ve waited so long to show you how vile you are. How deeply rich in treachery your soul is—the filthiness of your heart. You are the truly treacherous one, worthy of eternal damnation. You fell into the trap I set for you and the bait is under my talons to be lost forever. She belongs to the Prince, Culver now. He will destroy all that ever existed between you. Her true destiny.”

At this point, I realized this creature, Culver, had always been there, lurking—I just never realized his presence. He meshed in with the rest of the crowd but was always there in my most trying moments, feasting on my insidiousness—making sure I felt every disregard I ever had for my life. This prince was the advent to my arrival in hell and Paige was his princess. The blades of his axe, all three, were not meant for me, but rather for the one under his master’s talons. The one who dared to protect me, who tried to bring me to reason, but earth denied me it—like it denies us all. The man the beast allowed me to see, but not recognize until my despicability had reached its apex. The beast’s deception, his adroitness in mixing lies with the truth, leaves me to feel defeated. I am grossly despicable and filthy hearted. It’s what I’ve become and always destined to be.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

I’m now jettisoned again to another scene, but this time, the creature allows me to recognize the man is me from the beginning. I’m sitting in front of a laptop computer, isolated inside the den of my parent’s home. I consume a beige rounded pill, a forty milligram OxyContin, with a tall glass of water. I start to type, but I stand abruptly and begin to pace the room unable to breathe. As each second passes, thoughts of mortality fill my head. Is this really it? How my story ends? I had taken too much, a pill off the streets, not a pharmacy—a hot dose. I try not to panic and concentrate on my breathing but my heart wants to jump out from my chest. I resign to eventual unconsciousness, falling down on a couch then turning on a black fan sitting on a glass coffee table. I regain consciousness as the fan’s breeze upon my face, but awaken to a woman with dark hair in a black dress perched where the fan should be. Unable to see her face through a rush of blurriness, I blink to clear my vision but she is gone—just the black fan blowing recycled air upon my face.

The monster and its prince bask in my situation—delighted to make me aware I led love to the depths of hell. Gleefully showing me how I’ve wronged others by trying to cope with earthly dilemmas and how love only led to my eternal damnation. Paige did all she could, but in the end, I betrayed her and destroyed all she fought for. My mere entry into this realm also brings a universal understanding—they can’t deny the other parts of a life that led someone here. Bound to a spiritual law that called for a full review—not just excerpts. An edict the monstrous one, despite its attempted delineations, was fully aware of but it snatched a head start until Paige arrived. Before it could finish painting my turpitude, she served it a reminder I didn’t belong yet—my soul on trial.

Culver glared down upon me, smoke propagating from his snout and flashing his rotted yellow fanged teeth—his pale face a satiety of deep wrinkles. There was no denying he was after me—always had been. He worked through different monsters on earth, but his portal to me was through Paige. I instinctively knew his intentions, the bastard of all bastards, was to kill love forever by slaying Paige into oblivion. By killing her, he’d end me too.

I saw the fear in Paige’s eyes under the beast as Culver made his way to her. Growing cognizant she tried to save me before my descent from earth, but unable to it make in time to save me from this trial under duress. All I could do was hope the beast wasn’t the only judge as Paige’s thoughts filled my head with one last commandment.

“You must tell your story.”