Does Heaven and Hell exist in all dimensions?
Or only ours?
When Eddie finds himself awake and unharmed, he's trying to figure out if he really did die. He expected to burn in hell, not wake up in some foreign, barren land.
What he doesn't expec...
I gasp awake with no memory of how I got here, gazing up at a sky full of various hues of oranges and reds and grays. It moves like oil over water, touching but never mixing. A tapestry of ominous shades.
Dry air fills my nose with the scent of sulfur and dust.
I barely have time to adjust before the flash backs come. Memories I don't want to call my own.
Of a demon haunting and torturing me for weeks. Stalking me like a parasite. Taunting death. Demise. Pain.
I wanted it to end so badly. I went to Eddie out of desperation. To numb myself enough to die by own hand.
But the monster got to me first.
* * *
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* * *
Before I got separated from my cave, I gathered a decent amount of dry wood. When I was alone, I prepped as much as I could, not wanting to venture outside more than I needed to.
I show Eddie how I've been making fires all these months by crumbling up dead branches and sticks, then using two different colored stones to click together.
For some reason, the land on the other side of the river is light in color, while over here, it's black. Hitting them together causes a spark. I have no clue why — something about the chemical make up, I'm sure.
"How'd you figure that out?" he asks, hand on his chin, as he watches me click the rocks together.
"The first time I threw a rock across the river," I reply, grinning once a spark turns into a small flame.
I was so bored and decided that throwing rocks would be a good way to pass the time. It wasn't.
"When it hit the bank, I saw the sparks... Figured out how to build a fire that night."
"Nifty."
"Tomorrow," I continue, softly blowing on the fire. "I'll show you where I got the wood. There's so much, yet so little out there... almost as if this world used to be something else."
"Living?"
I nod. "Maybe. But I dunno."
Once the fire is burning well, we start removing our heavier pieces of wet clothing.
I hate that I died in my uniform. It's skin tight. Showing too much of my body. The skirt is short. The fabric is scratchy and tough. I didn't mind wearing it for cheer a couple times a week, but now it's all I can wear.
