Hellfire

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I tugged the door open, wrinkling my nose at the wet strings of gore that grew between the door and the frame. Little One clutched at my hand tightly as I half-stepped out of the study, expecting the house to at least look vaguely like home. It didn't. For staters the hall was fucking endless, just sweeping west and east like an endless tunnel. It also rose and fell like a hill, twisting about so the ceiling became the floor, and furniture, rotted and broken, were remained fixed in place, not caring how gravity worked.

I wrinkled my nose. Already I was out of my depth. Lucius' dreamscapes usually made sense...

'Is it usually like this for you?' I asked as I deeper into the hall.

'No.' She whispered back meekly. 'Daddy's upset.'

'Do you know what with?'

'He's not happy with himself.'

That thing is not Lucius!

I blinked away the vicious words I'd bellowed at him, full of pure terror and fury, the guarded way he'd stood, the ice and the stern frosted expression.

It might not be what I said, I reassured myself, knowing that was a flimsy lie to make myself feel better.

'Which way?'

Little One pointed to the east. 'Where the cold is.'

I couldn't feel it though. No utterance of winter echoed about me, no frost and no ice.

'Make sure I stay on the right path.'

Little One nodded obediently and pottered after me the moment I stepped out into the hall.

I was glad the gore wasn't as horrific out here. No fleshy walls, no weeping cracks of blood or puss, no decaying furniture that were melting into ooze. It just didn't make much sense to look at. The path beneath me twirled ever so slightly until, when I glanced behind myself, the office door was now on the ceiling. A blew out a breath and moved on, trying not to worry about the shifting gravity, the furniture that refused to budge and began to grow and shrink in size. I just focused on the girl following me and the fact Lucius was being attacked by his own mother.

We moved through the bizarre hallways. Sometimes we'd get to a door and Little One would point at it while cowering behind me. I'd open it, hoping and dreading Lucius would be behind that door, desperate to protect him yet terrified to face him, but instead a new hallway began. Always darker than before. Always more broken and bloodied. Always colder.

And then one door we opened unveiled hell.

I froze at the winter wind howl into my face, making me flinch and cover my eyes. Beyond black ice had formed, trapped blood marbling it and jutting out into dangerous edges. But my eyes latched onto something above. Muttering echoed in the frozen, twisting hall, the muffled ruffling off wings and soft breaths. There, clinging to the ceiling, were hundreds of bodies covered in blood and hoarfrost, their monstrous faces ducked beneath their broken, gangly wings. Morrigan's bats.

Little One huddled close, trembling as she stared at the bats above. Her grip tightened as she noticed I was removing my shoes then flexing my toes, letting fire sputter from them.

'They'll hurt us.' She breathed with a tight voice.

'Only if they notice us.' I whispered cautiously. 'And, if they do, they'll only hurt me. Just take your shoes off and walk slow, like a cat.'

She looked uncertain, her icy eyes wide and terrified as she looked above at the demonic things dangling so far above, so I took her back behind the door and settled her on the floor.