Kara spoke in a rush of incoherent words. A stream of nonsense I could barely comprehend. It was as if she was speaking a different language even though I understood most of the words. It hit me in that moment that the vernacular of the world must have greatly change. Kara bombarded me with thousands of questions.
“I can’t be in hell that’s impossible, where am I really, and is your name really End that’s a weird name, why are you dressed in a loincloth, don’t tell me your a beggar that kidnapped me, where is Mary, where is my father” as her words spewed out of her mouth I began to tune her out. At this point I did not know what to do, I could just leave her here, but I quickly discarded that idea as my conscience wouldn’t allow it. A smirked appeared on my face at that thought. To think a resident of hell would still have a conscience was hysterical and paradoxically. Kara looked at me strangely as I chuckled, and then her look turned to terror.
”You aren’t going to deflower me are” she said inching backwards, her words trembling off her lips.
“No, I am not some child predator” I said with a sigh. Though I could understand why she would think that.
“You could be lying” she said boldly.
“What point would there be to lying? If I truly was a predator of which you speak I would have already pinned you down and had my way with you, and there would be nothing you could do about it” I responded matter of fact. Back in my living life I had killed a few child predators and I must admit would have done so even if it sent me to hell. Nothing is lower than a child predator.
“That’s true, do you intend to ransom me back to my family” she asked looking a bit calmer.
“Kara whether you believe it or not you are in Hell”. I said once again.
“No that’s impossible, I was just with my father in his study their is no way I am dead, I can’t be, it’s not possible” Kara was beginning to spiral at that point. I clapped my hands in front of her face in order to grab her attention.
“No Kara you are not dead, but you are in the land of the dead and the damned also known as Hell” I said.
“No, this is just a dream or a nightmare” she said, sanity slowly leaving her voice.
”I will wake up and everything will be fine. Mary will help me change and get my breakfast and then I will continue studying with Theo” she said. Kara started to babble on and on about what she would do when she would wake up from this dream, more like nightmare. I was once good with children though that was several lifetimes ago. Hell was no place for a child, I had never once spotted a child here, not even the ones who deaths were my fault. Children were never sent to Hell, a few adolescents who had crossed one line to many, but never a child. Tears streamed down Kara’s cheeks and sobs tore free of her throat as she continued to spout out all the things she would do with her mother and father. The poor child had been used as a sacrifice for some profane ritual that failed miserably and now trapped her in Hell. A scrapping noise grated against my ears, a noise I had heard many times. As I peered behind me and caught sight of a lost soul trudging towards us. This was not good.
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“Kara I need you to stay here” I said simple.
“Where are you going, don’t leave me!” She gasped out.
“I am not leaving you child but I need to take care of something real quick. Now go to sleep” I said gently as I drew a sigil for sleep in the air with my finger before placing the sigil on Kara’s brow. She instantly passed out and even started snoring. It almost made me forget the pain of using magic, almost. The stabbing sound had gotten a lot louder. I exited the cave to find a horde of lost souls encroaching on us. A horde of faceless monsters whose features were disguised by gray fog. To look upon a lost soul was to look at a being who had given up everything in hopes of escaping the pain of Hell. There was no escape however, not for any of us. I tore a bolder from the ground and placed it in front of the cave blocking off the entrance. The lost had been attracted to Kara, to her pain and despair. They wanted to comfort her, but like all things in hell it was not that nice. The lost were rip her to shreds believing that it would be for the best and then force her soul to bath in the river of Lethe until she forgot herself and just became another mindless drone. The thought sickened me, this young girl should not be in Hell, I felt in my gut that I was right. My sword appeared in my hand, and I gazed out over the horde. They shambled over the terrain, slowly encircling me and the mouth of the cave. As the first lost got within arms reach I struck. My blade sliced through the lost and shredded it to pieces in a single strike. Spiritual beings can not be killed, a soul can never be destroyed, on rare occasions a soul can be splintered but this is usually instigated by the soul itself whether on purpose or on accident. No as I struck each lost I was not killing them, we were in hell there is no where else for their souls to go. However, I was causing their souls an inordinate amount of pain with each cut of my blade. This resulted in the lost fleeing back to the river Lethe where they would bathe in the water and forget their wounds before stalking out into the wasteland once more. If this was another spirit such as myself attack its soul would eventually drive it off or cause it to go into coma due to the agony they were experiencing. In hell pain never went away, only compounded. You never grew numb to it it always just added on to itself. A lost claws attempted to strike at my back as I was finishing off one of its compatriots, I reversed my grip on my blade it drove it into the Lost’s abdomen cause it to flee as well. My blade a long sword, a four foot blade with a one foot handle. A simple weapon but a cursed weapon, forever bound to me even in death. A lost struck my ankle as it drew itself out from the ground. The wound ached as I drove my blade down into the skull of the Lost. After what felt like hours of fighting all of the Lost had finally fled, though our fight must have drawn the attention of more powerful souls. I opened back up the cave entrance. Kara was still asleep, which was good, we needed to move, and move quickly. I snatched her up and as I did I looked down at myself. Originally I was in a loincloth and covered in dirt, now I appeared as a knight with black rusted armor and a red cape. With a chuckle I picked the girl up and wrapped her in my cape. Hell is funny, your appearance is dictated by how you appear to yourself. If you see yourself as a king you will appear as if you are draped in gold and bespoke clothes, if you see yourself as a beggar you will be dressed in rags and dirt. I believed it was a form of mental torture to bring down those that saw themselves as all powerful. If you believe yourself all powerful but are brought low time and time again you will begin to doubt yourself slowly eroding your self image before you barely recognize yourself. Hell was full of ways to destroy beings mind as that is all we had left. I raced throughout Hells wastelands heading to the outer rim to a place I had set aside for myself long ago.