I had you in my grip

Part one

No God, no religion. The four words that spun spirals around your head now echoing loud within the halls of the church you'd found yourself in on this Sunday morning for your best friends, daughters christening. You pondered on the fact that if there was a God, he was surely judging you right now, whilst the face of his son was staring at you from the sunlit stained glass. As the vicar invited everyone into prayer, you felt like an impostor, noting everyone joined in, knowing the words like a well rehearsed script, their eyes shut and hands together. 'Amen', reverberated off the walls from their unison, understanding their prayer was now fixed, a message to their God. Looking down at your watch you panicked. 'shit.' You noticed the Vicar snap his head towards you, disapproval on his face, a small, 'sorry' escaped your mouth. Your work meeting was about to take place in 10 minutes and you couldn't be late. Your friend already knew that you had to go to this meeting and that it couldn't be missed. You gave her a small wave and then quickly took off and out of the sacred building. The heavy wooden door slammed shut behind you like God was kicking you out, guilt twanging in your heart that you couldn't stay for your best friend, but relief washing over you. 'Hopefully I won't have to come back to one of these until someone dies', you laugh to yourself as you unlock your car and climb into it.

Thankfully, your workplace was only round the corner so you should make it on time. Slamming your foot on the gas you speed out of the car park and join the road. You flipped down the mirror on the sunvisor and reapply your lipstick, not paying much attention to the road until a beep from your left brings you back, you'd almost gone into the other lane. Panicking, you swing the steering wheel to put you back on track, 'shit', you cursed again, catching a quick glimpse at yourself in the mirror not seeing you smudged red lipstick on your cheek in the almost accident. You wiped it off and had to slam your foot on the break as to not hit the car in front of you. 'Damn what is up with me today?' You mutter. A smash was the last thing you heard before your car was being rolled sideways and down the hill on the grass banking. The world was tumbling around you, and before you even had a second to fully register what was happening, it was over everything went black.

It didn't happen like they say movies, your life didn't flash before your eyes over and again like projection, you didn't think about everything you wished you could've done and regrets never came to mind. Your life just came to an end. It was over. Your existence would soon become a shadow of what once was, and your friends and family would probably mourn you in that church you had been in today.

Darkness descended into a realm where the sun is silent and eternal flame burns.

"Welcome, Y/N." A velvet voice bellowed and reverberated back to you, rattling your being. Your eyes snapped open as your hands groped at the cold stone floor beneath your laying form. Standing, you looked for the man who had spoken your name only moments ago but had to strain your eyes as the only light describable was that of which the glow of the fire river touched. A silhouette cascaded and shadowed your much smaller figure, rendering you completely at its mercy.
"Are you the devil? Am I in Hell?". You croaked out and he tutted back at you.
"'No God, no religion', isn't that what you always said, Y/N?"
"Yes but I died, didn't I?"
"That you did." The figure edges forward.
"So, then where am I?"
"You, my dear, are in the world of the unconscious, and I am the fucking king." He stepped into the light as the fire erupted behind him and fell back into itself. His cloak of shadows trailing behind, each penumbra ricocheting off of the other until they came to a sudden stop, flowing around his tall and thin stature. On top of his short black hair sat a golden crown which reflected the fire to the side of you and relayed your own fragile image back to yourself.
"Strange." You declared.
"What is?" He laughed wickedly.
"I've spent my entire existence dismissing - no - refusing that there was a life after death, but"
"This is not life, Y/N". He interrupted. "Your life ended in that car, everything you was in the land of the living serves no purpose here. You are but an empty vessel drifting through space. Lost."
Your stomach dropped at his words, your past self was now rendered insignificant. A solitary tear fell down your cheek. The man lifted his hand up to you, and wiped the stray tear away with his thumb.
"Don't cry. Though you may have been confined here, you do not walk alone." The king whispered softly, a soothing warmth embedded within and your eyes locked. "Other souls reside here, and I will always be close by." A slight smile tucked into at the corner of his lips and disappeared almost instantly, bringing a sense of comfort to your new existence. You offered him a smile back. "Now, please follow Me." He extended his hand out towards you, which you took without even a moments hesitation.
"Where are we going?" You ask as fire from the river spluttering around you almost burnt you.
Watch out for Phlegethon." He motioned to the fire river. "We are going on a tour."

"Is this some elaborate trick to chuck me into a room where you can torture me?" You laugh nervously.
"Torture? No." He laughed. "That is for later."
You gulped and hoped he was joking. "Do you give tours to everyone? Surely that would take forever."
"No, only to my most special guests." He winks.

It felt like hours had passed as the king takes you around a slither of the realm as he explained it would take a millennium to explore it all. You noted how a lot of it looked the same, more fire, more stone, some rooms here and there. You walked past a few of the other souls who seem to have lost all sense of purpose yet some tried to speak to you but your king would cast them aside, even chucking one into the fire in a rage. He made you aware that until you had spent a significant amount of time here, they would be under the illusion that you were alive and would try to bargain with you. In exchange for what, you didn't dare ask.

"So, I know you're my king but, do you have a name?" You question.

"Noah." His hand tightened around yours.

"Noah?" You laugh. "So not anything like Satan or Asmodeus?"

Noah tilts his head to the side. "Sorry to disappoint you, but this was my given name."

"No, I like it." You smile. "Not threatening, I suppose."

"I don't threaten you?" Noah's face changes as he slams you into a wall, arms either side of you. You shook your head.

"I am the keeper of the damned, the ruler of the underworld, torturer and punisher. I don't threaten you?" Your core burnt at the closeness. His face so close to yours, you couldn't help but note how gorgeous he was.

"No." You couldn't explain it, but there was a glossiness that cast over his eyes that dared you to carry on. "I am not threatened by you."

Noah narrowed his eyes, a flicker of anger passed through his features. "You underestimate the depths of my power, little one." He warned. "Do you not understand the consequences of questioning me? Your suffering is at my command, your mind cannot comprehend the torture I can and will inflict upon you."

"And what torture might that be, Noah?" Flirtation in your voice and a glint of playfulness in your eyes as they glanced between his eyes and his lips.

"Eager to find out, are you?" Noah lifted his hand up to your cheek and before you could even respond his lips were on yours in a heated passion. Your stomach did flips as you responded with the same hunger and your hand found its way into his hair and pulled it slightly, begging for more. He bit your bottom lip hard and drew blood. You moaned through the pain and tasted the copper liquid as your tongues collided in a fiery dance, both fighting to win dominance.

But then, a sudden jolt of pain spread through your chest causing you to break the kiss and gasp out, your eyes wide. "What did you do, Noah?" You ask as you clutch to where your heart would be.

"N-nothing." He retracts as he watches you fall to the floor and scream in pain as another bolt floods through you, an intense feeling you'd never experienced before, it felt like electricity causing through you. Noah kneels down beside you. "I don't understand what's happening! I swear, this isn't my doing." He shouts out, worry tinged in his voice and confusion painted across his face as he reaches out to grab your hand.

"Make it stop." You choke out a sob as you claw at your chest.

"I don't know how!" He scans the area to see if there's anything or any soul doing this to you.

"Fuck!" You scream in agony as another hit pulls you through the darkness.

Your eyes snap open and a breath floods your lungs. Bright light penetrates your eyes causing you to squint.

"We've got her." A woman's voice shouts out from next to you. "Welcome back to the land of the living." You notice the paddles of a defibrillator in her hands. Blinking rapidly, you struggle to make sense of your surroundings as you lay sprawled out on a road with glass and blood surrounding you. Then to the corner of your eyes you notice your car on its side and remember that you'd crashed and ended up in a different world.

"N-Noah?" You croak. "Where's, Noah?"

"Is that your boyfriend? Was he in the car too?"

"No." Had you dreamed all of this? Surely not. It had all seemed so real. Disoriented was an understatement so you tried to sit up.

"Wow wow. Stay laid down, we don't know if you've broken anything. We need to place a neck brace on you and get you on a board."

That was the last thing you remembered before you blacked out.