SUNNYVALE

(94) WHO KNEW HELL WAS KINDA ROMANTIC?

flashback

Tierna is woken up by the warm feeling taking over her whole body: she has just be propelled from Sunnyvale to an unknown place, and her mind was paying the price of that, as everything was turning. Coughing because of the amount of ashes around her, the brunette looks around, and sees nothing but dark trees and a dark sky over her head. And then, amongst those dark colours all around, there was Sam's white skin standing out from the rest, while the blonde was lying down on her side, turning her back on Tierna, visibly still unconscious.

When Tierna rushes toward Sam, barely even walking, and turns her around, slapping her face in order for her to wake up, the blonde opens her eyes in surprise and starts coughing again. Tierna sighs in relief, hugging the blonde tighter.

They remain in that position for a while, before Tierna whispers:

"Where are we...?"

But when Sam shivers, she waits for her lover's explanation, that comes quite quickly:

"I've been here before... when I reached for Shelina's mind when she was emprisoned in..."

"Hell" they both say at the same time, their eyes going wide.

Indeed, howling and screams weren't fare away, and they seemed everything but human, actually freaking them out. When they finally manage to get on their feet, helping each other up, they both freeze: not far from them, they could see an army of shadows approaching them quickly, clearly aiming at them.

They soon are surrounded, as Tierna's powers were no use where vegetation simply didn't exist: they were trapped, and when they reached for each other's hands, they close their eyes thinking this was their end.

But, coming out of nowhere and everywhere at the same time, a voice raises from the depths of Hell :

"Αρκετά με αυτό! Μακάρι αυτός ή αυτή - και όλοι όσοι βρίσκονται στη μέση - που αντιτίθενται στις εντολές μου να πεθάνουν μέσα σε αφόρητους πόνους, γιατί όποιος τολμήσει να αγγίξει αυτές τις δύο γυναίκες θα έχει να κάνει με την κυρία του Κάτω Κόσμου." 

(English: Enough of this! May the man or woman - as well as all those in the middle - who oppose my orders perish in atrocious sufferings, because whoever dares to touch these two women will have to deal with the mistress of the Underworld.)

Immediately, the shadows stand down, literally going back to the ground, while some of them just transform into human forms that are pretty familiar: they recognise Tobin, Lindsey, Megan, and a handful of their former friends now turned demons it seems.

But, most importantly, they see the form emanating from nothing, constructed by shadows turning in circle, before Abby's face appear before them, and her whole body as well: the emotions in her eyes were palpable. 

"Oh my God..." Sam breathes out, unable to believe that Abby was in front of them and alive.

"Abby..." Tierna whispers, emotional.

The blonde seemed so different - colder, less emotive, and her bloody eyes sometimes turning all back were enunciative of what she had become, or rather, WHO she now is: Satan.

Still, she advances to the loves of her life and hugs them tighter than she ever has.

She then simultaneously grabs their faces with each hand, setting her jaw and tears starting to fall from her eyes - the loneliness and despair she has felt for hundred of years (as time in the underworld goes by much quicker than on Earth) finally coming out of her body - before crashing her lips on Sam's, and then on Tierna, kissing them both equally.

"I have been waiting for this moment since I was brought here..." Abby whispers, as the three girls are gluing their foreheads together longly.

The three of them are crying.

"We have never stopped thinking about you, Abby - we love you" Tierna says, seconded by Sam kissing Abby's face all over.

"But if you're here, it means..."

"That we're dead, yes it appears so" Tierna concedes, before adding: "but we'd rather be with you than alive..."

***

present

The flames of Hell were burning, and the warmth that emanated from the outside would make Sam's heart warm up. 

As for now - there is no morning and no day in Hell, only eternal night - she was lying down naked in a large bed, with, on each side of her, a sleepy Tierna and an empty bed where Abby slept last night.

She quickly gets up and finds Abby sitting down on the outsides of her palace, sitting down on the ground and watching over the astonishing view they had on Hell as a whole - as Abby's castle was so high on a mountain made of steel that it had a 360° view. Sam sits down next to her, wrapping her arm around the other blonde's shoulders.

Abby doesn't smile.

"The other dimension Shelina created is still a mystery to me" she says out of nowhere, thoughtful.

"You sent Jessie there, she'll warn the others I am sure of it - Christen and Crystal are two of the most clever people I know" Sam says.

But it was as if Abby was too lost inside her own thoughts to truly listen to what one of her partners was saying.

"Have you tried joining them again?" Abby then asks, her eyes set on the view in front of her."

"Yes" Sam sighs, disappointed, "and nothing's working so far - all I could do was warning them we were in Hell with you, but it only lasted a few seconds..."

Realising how angry Sam was at herself, Abby grabs her hand, before saying in a serious yet soft voice:

"It's okay - it is amazing that you managed to reach someone in another freaking dimension, Sarm. You'll get there I know it."

As they were kissing softly, shadows appear in front of them, and suddenly turn into Tobin and Leah, who seem highly confused.

It is the brunette who urgently says:

"So, something weird happened..."

And, just like that, they explain to Abby and Sam how they ended up in the grounds of Melas University - visibly the equivalent of Sunnyvale in Shelina's new reality - only to face an unknown blonde person who could actually... see the dead? and who seemed to know other versions of the two demons...

Abby frowns, but it is Tierna, who just got up of her bed, who says:

"What if, in this other dimension, there were other anomalies...? And that the girl who saw the dead is one of them...?"