Sweet Dreams | Dream Of The Endless

8 | Hell

Hell was a realm draped in shadows and echoes of despair. A place where the air is heavy with the weight of despair and seems to seethe with unspoken horrors. The boundaries between torment and reality blur into a beautiful, yet horrifying, surreal dance.

Hell was not merely a place of fire and brimstone. No, it was like a maze, where the very essence of torment is craved from the substance of the damned.

For most, every step taken is a journey deeper into the labyrinth of remorse, where regrets morph into spectres that claw at the edges of one's sanity.

Avernus, Tartarus and Hades were only few of many names this realm had been given.

"So, Hell does exist?" Matthew wondered out loud.

"It does," Morpheus said. "For some."

"Does that mean it doesn't exist if you don't believe in it?"

"Did you believe in it? When you were a man?"

The two beings looked towards the raven, who finally looked away from them, towards the vast, empty land before them.

"Yeah," he confirmed. "I just didn't expect Hell to be cold. So, which way do we go?"

"I suggest we follow the damned," Dream said simply, then without sparing the raven another glance, lead Atia forward.

Straight towards the line of damned souls, going to their eternal punishment.

"They make you bring your own fire to Hell?" Matthew tilted his head to the side as he observed that every single soul had a basket with fire on their back.

Neither of them replied. Instead, they just continued on with their way.

As they followed the damned, Mattew asked some questions, but it seemed like he either ran out of them or got bored of single-sentence answers Morpheus gave him. Atia was a little chattier then her husband, but she also didn't give elaborate answers.

They stopped just before the gate, watching as the damned walked in.

"We're not sneaking in with them?" the raven asked confused.

"For you, that could've been an option, if you'd like to get tortured for an eternity," Atia shot him a look. "For us, however..."

"A ruler may not enter another monarch's realm uninvited," Morpheus finished. "There are rules, protocols which must be followed."

They approached the gate. There was a brass gong hanging on the wall beside them. They looked at it for a second, before a damned soul broke out of the wall and weakly weld out a mallet.

Morpheus slowly reached out and grabbed it, before yanking it out of the damned's petrified hand. As soon as the mallet was out of it, the soul morphed back into the wall.

Sharing a look with Atia, Dream struck the gong. A loud noise caused the damned souls around them to let out a collective growl and shift restlessly.

Matthew looked around unsurely and subconsciously shifted closer to Atia's feet. The woman glanced down on him but didn't mind.

They watched as a demon approached the gates.

"There's one at the door," he mused. "At the gate of damnation. Is it thief, thug or whore? There's one at the door. And there's room for one more. Till the end of creation."

Pleasant as always, Squatterbloat, Atia thought, barely holding back a scoff.

"Greetings, Squatterbloat," Morpheus spat. "We seek an audience with your sovereign."