We raced out of the room after he unlocked the chains but sadly, ran into someone. The three of us plummeted to the ground with an 'oof'. My curious eyes trailed up to our intervention. The unknown man was shaking out his overly perfect dirty blonde hair when he actually looked up at us.
"Evelyn?" Okay so this guy knew me...where have I seen him before? Wait a second...
"Erik?! What the hell are you doing here?!" The popular, arrogant jock at Willowbee, was here, wherever here is. I never did figure out where we were.
"You're asking me what I'm doing here?! You're in Hell too, you know!" My eyes widened significantly at what he said. I'm in Hell? No, he's just trying play another prank on me, like he did all those other times.
"We are not in Hell. This is the stupidest prank you have pulled yet," I looked over at 'Avian' and pointed at him, "You were in on this too weren't you?! And to think I was going to actually trust-" 'Avian' grabbed my arm forcefully with his 'skeletal' hand and pulled me closer to him to where he was right in my face. Come to think of it, his hand actually kind of feels really...real.
"You think this is a joke?!" He whispered roughly, "Do you think those screams of pain can be faked? Do you think I would be half skeleton if this was fake? Do you think that the fire can be faked?" He looked at me with a sense of determination, but you could see the wrath hidden under his facial features. When I didn't answer but merely looked down, still not believing him, he grew impatient and I could hear growls coming from him. I looked up shocked at the growls and the fact that he was pushing me into a 'cell'.
"Stop! Hey! What are you doi-" I stopped mid-sentence when I realized what was going on around me. A woman and two children being beaten by who I think is the father except that his eyes too, were completely black. He kept punching them and throwing knives into their already bloodied skin. But it all became worse when I noticed the little maybe five-year-old boy in the corner, shaking, and sobbing into his knees as he watched the violent scene. I tried to run over and comfort him when a hand started pulling me back. I looked over and saw Avian pulling me away from the cell, trying to tell me something.
"No! No! Stop! Let me help him!" I tried holding onto the cell's frame but my arm went limp when I saw the man start stalking towards the young boy with a pistol in his hand. With a sudden burst of strength, I heaved from the cell frame into the actual cell and charged at the man. The 'father' had the gun already pointed at the small boy when my fist connected to the man's cheekbone with all my strength. I heard a loud snap as the man fell to the ground unconscious, but I didn't bother with him any longer. I picked up the still crying boy and looked over to see if the woman and other children were in need of help or could get up on their own. When I looked over though they were on the ground in a pool of their own blood. I cringed at the sight but had to keep moving before the man woke back up, so I ran out of the room, the child digging his face into my shoulder.
I looked over at the two men in front of me after slamming the cell door closed and locking it tightly, hoping that would help at all. What I saw wasn't what I expected. Erik was looking at me almost in awe while Avian was raging in anger at what I did. Luckily the first to speak up was Erik, and not raging skeletal man.
"How did you do that? You took out a demon in one freaking punch! Not even I can do that and I'm a demon too! A high ranked one at that! I can come and go as I please but you-"
"ENOUGH!" I flinched away from Avian as he seethed in rage, and even scooted closer to Erik surprisingly.
"That was one of the most irresponsible things I have ever seen anyone, or anything, do! Do you understand how much trouble you can get into for that?! Ruining a demon's chance to get a pure soul?!"
"What do you mean 'ruining a demon's chance at getting a pure soul'?! Demons aren't real! That guy was about to kill this poor child and already killed, who I can assume, are his mother and siblings! So he can be considered a demon, yes, but real demons aren't real!" While yelling at each other, I heard the boy start crying louder, and turned his head towards me to comfort him, but nearly dropped the boy at what I saw. There was already a bullet hole straight through his head but I could have sworn I got there before the man shot him... and he's still crying so that worries me a little. My eyes widened when I looked over at Erik and Avian, then slowly turned the boy to face them. Avian's expression didn't change in the slightest but I saw Erik's take on one of pity.
Then Avian said something I will probably never forget:
"Welcome to Hell."
