Alex stood in the graveyard, silence and darkness surrounding him. Before him was a marble tombstone that glimmered in the moonlight. Alex took a knee and placed his hand on its corner. “Damn you, you stupid fool,” he whispered to the grave as a tear trickled down his face. Beneath him, buried, was once his closest friend. He was more than a friend, a brother.

During his lonely nights, his moments of rage, and instances of deep despair, he had always been there without fail. Alex raised himself up and scowled, wiping his face. “How could you have been so selfish?” he said in a low tone. Part of him still had yet to forgive the action his friend had taken.

Alex had always been the broody one, skulking about, nurturing the hateful thoughts that followed him inside his mind. The man buried however, was a ray of sunshine in a dim world. Always positive, always cheerful, always looking for a way to help those around him. But to Alex’s dismay, he had been fighting his own battles silently.

The divorce of his parents, the loss of his sister, all of it had eventually caught up to him. The day Alex found him forever haunted his soul. He had been trying to contact him, without much success, so he took it upon himself to investigate. When Alex finally managed to budge open his apartment door, what he saw changed him.

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Bits of brain and splashes of blood covered the white wall, his body lying silently with a revolver in his hand, and the smell, it burned, oh did it burn. As Alex relived the scene in his head, staring at the grave, he keeled over and vomited. Such a flood of emotions had made him sick. As he wiped his mouth, he returned his gaze to the tomb. “Sorry about that,” Alex muttered as he coughed. “I…I wish I could see you…one last time…” he whispered as his voice broke.

As he began to leave and return to reality, an odd, deep rumbling was felt. With confusion, Alex turned around and looked at the gravestone. “Oh…but you can see him, you will…” roared a loud, thunderous voice that rattled the bones inside his body. Right before him, the ground began to break open, a massive crack had formed, splitting the Earth in two. The tombstone was torn in half as two sides of the world began to crack apart. Right below his feet, he could see fire, an untold amount of fire. Flames stretched outwards, grasping Alex’s legs.

The sight before him was incomprehensible, it was as if he was staring straight into Hell. Screams filled his ears and his entire soul. Alex let out his own scream as he was slowly pulled into the pits of the Earth. “Welcome…home…” shook the voice, the ground returning to its form, sealing the gateway where evil and suffering resided.