Hellbound

Railroad to Hell

        Pushed to the limit, anyone is capable of anything. Killing is one thing, but saving lives is another. What happens when everything you thought you loved, you thought you trusted, diminishes to ashes before your eyes?

         Try handling that. Just for a second. The grief, the anger, the frustration of not being capable of saving them, it consumes you. This burning hatred for yourself, the agony of loneliness is almost too much. And the nightmares, those are the worst part. You hear their cries every night, you smell the smoke, the ache in your lungs. It pushes you to the edge, and makes you do the most irrational, non logical things. Things that might tell your oh, so mighty Fate, they fucked up.

             That was what brought me here.

            Fate.

            Standing on the dirt of a crossroad, miles out of town, away from the place I had lost everything. Well, what was left of it. The haunting disc of a moon hung high in the sky, above my head. It's canvas a hollow illumination that waned with every passing night. The sky was starless, hopeless, opaque and depth less with sorrow. Or so it appeared to me. A field of grains surrounded me, I felt eyes on me, as if they were waiting for something to happen. Urging me, yearning to grasp my soul within their hands.

           Fear crawled up my spine and sent chills through my body. It was as if all my instincts were to run far away. Get back into my car and drive as fast as I could. I clenched my fingers into a fist so that my nails dug into the soft flesh of my palm. Pain reminded me why I had come here. It always would.

          In my other hand was a small box, plain and meaningless to others. A rusty, old thing with a fading blue finish that contained a few bones of a black cat, my picture, and some graveyard dirt. I stared down at it, considering how low I had sunk. I was about to sell my soul to a crossroads demon. Some no name bitch from the deepest pit of hell that probably was pulling the skin off a fellow who killed one too many.

          All for what?

          For your life, you idiot, my conscience reminded me, now do it.

         I worked quickly with the toe of my shoe, and dug out a well big enough for the box and dropped it in. My heart pounded against my rib cage in a throbbing fashion when I had covered the box. I let out a breath when the blue finish was covered with the last heap of dirt. The dust that I had kicked up was clearing as a chilling breeze carried it into the field. I turned around to search for the demon within the field.

           All the research I had committed to told me nothing about the appearance of one. My nerves raged with impatience, every moment that I was here could mean the vulnerability of myself out in the open. Knowing that I was being watched, stalked by the ones that had killed my family.

          ''Finally, I thought you were going to chicken out.'' A deep voice that was not too far away danced into my ears and resonated danger through my veins. I whirled around to the sound of a snicker when the demon revealed itself. Or himself.

           I cocked a brow and masked my fear and desperation as I observed him. He was human, above all things. Tall and lankly shaped, dark hair, and for Gods sake, human brown eyes. But he was dressed in a way that I had almost expected. Black jeans, black shirt, black leather jacket, and black shoes.

        ''What can I do for you, Sparrow? Frankly you don't seem like the type of person who would believe in something like me.'' The demon snickered as it gestured to its vessel when the human eyes clicked away and opaque obsidian took the place of them. Completely.