It happened so quickly, I barely had time to react to the shadowy figures who had grabbed her. I felt helpless to see my angel, the love of my life taken from me; they made quick work of my attempts to save her as if they wanted me to just sit and watch. I tried to close my eyes as they stripped her down in front of me and began to drag her kicking and screaming out of the room and out of my life; it was like having to watch my heart ripped out my chest. I clutched the bed as they beat me unconscious; my dreams were filled with images of her memories of happier times, it was like my life was flashing before my eyes until her scream woke me up. I felt the sadness crept over me as the morning dawned; it's the times like these when you feel helpless and weak and even the smallest glimmer of hope can bring you back to life but today was not a good day in my life. My wife's enigmatic kidnapping at 3am left me clues as to what course of action I should take; whether I should go to the police, but even if I did they wouldn't be able to do much or if I should simply get on with my life but how could I, she was my everything and I needed her to survive. The phone rang; it was muffled within my thoughts of getting her back, it rang again just a little bit louder this time but it seemed far way this time or maybe I was the one who was too far, I turned and looked at it the ringing seemed to make my ears bleed this time; I picked up the phone and dredged out a dry, distasteful hello. The caller I.D. read six-six-six I paid it no mind until I heard her, my wife say “Purgatoire.” Was this a lead, was I going to find her; all I had was a number, 666 all I had was a number and it was enough.
I called information to find out about the number but everyone I talked to thought I was crazy and brushed me off; this one woman even asked me if I was sure I wanted directions to hell. That’s when I realized it; I hadn’t even seen it, that was the devil’s mark but why, why didn’t I notice it sooner perhaps I was just being careless. However knowing this set me back a few steps; now that I knew what the number meant, where do I go from there? I decided to go to the library and search for information on the number; at first I came across mostly occult practices and conspiracy theories. That’s when I saw the name Purgatoire pop up on a page about a French company with the number as its address. I did a bit of research on the company and learned that it was shrouded in darkness and mystery; the C.E.O. was unknown and the companies, which was a multi-million dollar corporation, was even more mysterious with almost no-one knowing about its goings on. It didn’t matter how much I didn’t know I knew that my wife was there and it was there that I would find her and take her home with me. Have you ever thought that something would be so awe-inspiring and stupefying, that anything less than great left you with despair well that’s how I felt as I arrived at the building. It loomed over the town like an obelisk in the desert; it was a strange building huge yet unimpressive, it seemed to blend in to its background almost too much. I walked in to the lobby and it was eerily except for this one old man sitting in a corner reading the newspaper he seemed to be waiting for something or someone. The security guard told me to take a number and wait; I got six so I assumed the old man was at least number five. We sat for what seemed like hours I probably dozed off a couple times but that old man; he never moved or turned that blasted page. Then he began singing, it wasn’t French but some sort of old Celtic, it was so entrancing; like a whisper that only I could hear then the guard started to sing too, it was the same song and they had the same voice it was scarily strange. Suddenly I began to drift off as if under a weird spell; when I awoke a woman, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen other than my wife, she walked right up to me and called “Number six it’s your turn now!” I was stunned as I walked off I glanced at the old man who had this strange smile on his face as if he wasn’t expecting to leave as yet. In the elevator I tried to talk to the woman but she simply refused to answer or address me; until she asked me to press floor one. When I looked at the pad it had only three numbers and I began to question why a building this big had only three floors again she ignore me and when we arrived on the first floor I saw something that was awesome and horrible at the same time.
