Another Hell

Prologue

"I suppose you must be wondering why I'm here? In Hell." Keisha lowered the toxic cigarette from her mouth, deeply exhaling, releasing the sickening smoke from her lungs. A small chuckle escaped her lips before she took another drag, staining her unnecessary lungs with rotten tar. She brushed her big purple ears away from the front of her face, where her green eyes glowed a deep, emerald color, stunning anyone who caught her gaze.

"Maybe you're thinking I was some kind of street slut? Or maybe a biker girl? To be honest I was neither." Her face softened as she thought about her previous self – the struggling, and fighting to be herself, and the downfall of being so oblivious to her surroundings.

"There's no room for weakness. Not in this unforgiving world. Not in a world that even the Gods have given up on, and maybe that's where I went wrong." A flash of anger, and sorrow crossed Keisha's face, before being replaced with another mask of nothingness, the emotions hiding away just as quickly as they came.

"Sit down. I'll tell you a little story, but listen close. I won't be repeating myself." She exhaled the smoke, and took a deep raspy breath in, and began to tell.

It was a classic dark, and stormy night. I ran as fast as I could in the rain, with each step splashing up water on my bare, soaked legs. The world felt surreal, and the yelling behind me suddenly felt miles away. However, I didn't dare stop running. The thought of being caught, and beaten until every breath makes me beg for death didn't seem all that appealing to me. The lights on street corners were so bright everything seemed hazy.

My heart was racing, and beat straight out of my chest. My stomach churned, and clenched, forcing vile up my throat, and then threatened to spill out. My shirt clung to my torso, as if afraid it will get lost if it lets go, my skirt thrashed around as I ran. My chest tightened, and my legs trembled, threatening to give way, but I had to keep going. I gripped my chest, hoping to ease the pain, as my lungs tightened, and refused to let any air in. My vision came, and went, it never let me focus in on any specific direction, or let me study my surroundings so maybe I would have a hint as to where I was.

The rain belted down on me, making my long brown hair clump together, and sit in my face. I brushed my fringe out of the way, as I sat there catching my breath. My eyes felt heavy, and my head was throbbing. I sat in a puddle of dirty, murky water, but I didn't care. I was too exhausted to move. Running away from my husband wasn't anything new. I studied the ring on my left hand, the diamonds shimmered, and danced in the rain, and a soft smile snuck its way onto my face.

"Why did things have to change?" I asked myself knowing full-well that I'd never get an answer to that question. I took a deep breath in, and sunk down further against the wall. My eyes stung, and tears threatened to spill, I tried to blink them back, but I couldn't control them, and I sat there in the rain, sobbing in an alleyway at midnight; hiding away from my husband who was drunk again. 

"H-hey! T-there you-u are~" My eyes snapped to the entrance of the alleyway. No way. He found me. He stumbled forward, waving a broken glass, stepping in puddles, and drenched by the pouring rain. I crawled backwards, inching away, as he stumbled closer towards me. My body trembled with fear, not knowing what was going to happen next, the only thing I knew is that it wasn't going to be good.