Good Things Never Last

Chapter 81

The purple hue was calling me.

Its hypnotising lullaby slowly drew me in as I stepped into the obsidian doorway, only focusing on the sweet humming. I was bewitched by its trance as the hue consumed me whole, swallowing me up and taking me to a place I once loathed.
A place I couldn't recall existing.

It was warm.

So unbelievably warm.

I was hit by a wave of nausea as I tumbled out of the obsidian doorway, slightly shaken up after being transported to hell itself.

I was standing in a cave-like tunnel that was fully covered with red stone rather than the usual grey stuff. Netherrack.
My instincts told me it was too hot to touch as I began to look around. There was a pool of light that signalled that I wasn't confined inside the enclosed space. Warily, I continued forward to the mouth of the cave, the humid air failing to produce any type of breeze to cool my already overheated body. The cave opened up to reveal a land filled with constant reds and oranges. To my left and right, the ground continued, but ahead of me was a cliff that led to being toasted alive in a pool of lava.

Glancing to my right once more, I spotted a hill and decided I wanted to get a better look at the place, curious to see if the entire area resembled hell itself. The climb was excruciating, with the thick air stopping me on several occasions as I gasped for air, seeking to fill my lungs once again as I dragged myself up another ledge.

The climb to the top of what I thought was a small hill took much longer than expected, but once there, it was a sight to behold. Hundreds of streams of molten magma flowed from the ceiling and into the massive sea below, the ash that it produced floating freely in the air.

But that's not what caught my attention.
It was something else.

I didn't care about the death pool or the floating ash particles flooding my lungs.
I cared about the gold.
It was a blob of gold that shone brighter than any gold ingot I'd ever seen.
It shone like no tomorrow.
The molten liquid was no match for it.

I staggered forward, inching closer to the cliff's edge, where the gold gleamed.
It was incising, pulling me in.

Yet when I approached it, I realised it wasn't quite an ingot.

More like a tuff of sandy blond hair.

The blond hair that belonged to a ragged young boy. His clothes were ripped to shreds, displaying several gashes and cuts, all of which were covered in mud. I took a step closer, nudging a stone as I did so and that's when he turned to look at me. Blue eyes that had once gleamed like the sky had lost their sparkle, appearing dead and tired as they stared into my own.

The eyes that belonged to he who meant most to me.

"Y/N!"
I leapt up and rushed straight to the front door, stumbling over my feet several times as I did so.

Mum and Dad were finally home.

Dad took a step forward and pulled me into the tightest hug I'd ever felt, attempting to shield the surprise from me.

He pulled away from me before placing his hands on my shoulders and squeezing them.
"I've got something to show you"
He took my hand in his and led me back to the doorway, where my mother stood, holding a small bundle of red in her hands.