The road we walk

An End Or A Beginning?

You know when you talked to your friends and they all told you that you would see a white light when you die? I'm here to tell you it's nothing but hellfire.

My name was Lucian, and this tale began like any other, on a school field trip to some shitty museum or something. I didn't really read the permission slip or anything, I just had my parents sign it to get me out of class that day. So there I was, in the big yellow twinkie, sitting by some mouthbreather who wouldn't shut up about bandcamp and was spewing flem on the seat in front of us. I really couldn't have cared less about what the guy was saying but if i didn't pretend to listen and enter a universal comment here and there he'd tap on my shoulder and spew his flem all over the place.

"Are you listening?" -insert flem here**

"What?" Would always be my initial response to something, then, "yeah yeah, I got it."

The bus was driving for what seemed like hours on this damned highway, then I saw some jackass speed past and a herd of pigs after him. Sure enough every head on the bus swiveled and followed said jackass until he tried to weave between two SUV's and flipped. The dude spun three times in the air, then one of the pigs ran right into him. The rest didn't slow down like that bullshit you see in the movies. We ran into the fucker at seventy-five miles an hour and the tail end of the bus took to the sky, bandgeek flew to kiss the love of his life, "Mrs. Windshield" and a few others followed suit. I managed to grab the seat and keep from flying forward. Then, Newton's law took effect and what had once went up now decided to become upside down. The ceiling of the bus got real close to my face, and everything went black...

Let me tell you, right here, right now. When you die, you don't see your life flash before your eyes. Everything just snaps to black like one of those old ass black and white TV's, and what comes next, isn't paradise, isn't a white light leading to pearly gates, no, what comes next is a sky of crimson. The smell of scorched flesh, and decay. My eyes snapped open and I was lying on the ceiling of the bus. I had to blink a few times to fight off the delirium and got to my hands and knees, the corpses of my classmates all around me. I was covered in blood already, so I crawled out of a broken window.

What assaulted my eyes was something that would've haunted me for years had I not been too busy laughing at the insanity that surrounded me in that moment. Everywhere I looked there was mass destruction. Cars and corpses alike were lit aflame and what I imagine had to be a child's severed head laid at my feet. There was a red mist concealing everything past the road on both sides. Still laughing at what had to be a medically induced hallucination, I walked down the road past the flipped cars and over the corpses in the streets. Each one strangely held no face, unlike those on the bus. I kept walking, through, for what seemed like miles and miles of wreckage, and after the first hour I realized this was no trip caused by some acid in my Fruit Loops. This was real. And I was more than likely dead.

In my madness I began to check the cars for someone, anyone, anything. Something to end this monotony, and yet all I found was a gruesome scene of flesh merging with metal and steering wheel. Each time I looked I saw nothing, I grew frantic and screamed at the top of my lungs,

"Is there anyone here?"

Nothing but my own echo answered my plea, I walked on, seeing more and more carnage and destruction, more chaos and calamity. As I walked I stopped looking for anyone, I realized that there was no one here to talk to, no one here to save me. No one here, to cure my insanity.

As I walked I thought to myself, curious of the purpose of this walk. Why was it that I kept walking? Where is it to which I am walking to? What is the cause of such a long road full of death? Yet still I strode forward, Waiting for my legs to take me to the end, I started thinking aloud, as no one would hear me regardless,

"Why am I here?" I asked into the air.

"What awaits me at the end of this road?"

"When will it end?"

Only my echo answered me. I was the only one here, my only company, the echo. I looked to the crimson sky and immediately wished I hadn't. Hundreds of Vultures circled around me in the sky, and as if they noticed my gaze, They all simultaneously cocked their heads in my direction and descended from the sky. No matter how fast I ran I could not outrun their onslaught, pecking and clawing at my skin, then my tendons, then my bones. The world once more faded to black.

I awoke once more to that crimson sky. The vultures were no longer occupying the sky, but the feeling of their talons tearing at my flesh was still fresh upon my mind. I sat up slowly, a tear dripped down my cheek and evaporated before it touched the ground. I looked to the sky once more and wondered why I was stuck in a world such as this, What had I done to deserve this?

I stood to my feet once more looking at was once my flesh, but now was no longer. My hands held claws of bone extending two inches and my body was now nothing more than bone. The feathered devils left nothing, I now stood taller than I had before which led to my confusion, but i cast it aside and kept walking. Determined to find whatever demon ruled this hellish land and tear them limb from limb for damning me here. I walked for miles more, my fatigue no longer an issue as I held no lungs to tire, no heart to beat. I walked ever onward, waiting for something to change.

Finally I saw an ending to this long road, the ground turned from asphalt to a dark stone, And a gate of black marble stood towering above me. There stood a statue bearing a scythe, it was still as stone yet held a strange life. I approached slowly, watching it as I grew near, I felt eyes upon me in the form of a leer. An old man in robes emerged from the shadows, he had rope around his neck as if fresh from the gallows. He stepped forth slowly and whispered,

"Who treads from the path, broken and blistered?"

I held no tongue in my skull to answer his query, So I simply stood and awaited his words with eyes fiery.

"Bare of flesh, reeking of death," he spoke slowly, "the path you have traveled has stripped you of your flesh, it is a wonder you still reek of death..."

Thinking him mad I walked to the gate, the stone cool despite the burning air. The gate held fast and would not yield, so I turned to the man who had now kneeled.

"Take a seat and rest thy soul, all that awaits thee is misfortune untold." he gestured before him,

I took a seat and waited for him to continue, as the gate would not budge, and back down that road I refused to trudge. I looked to him solemnly tired and weary, to him I must have seemed so dreary.

"It has been many an age since I've yielded a lich, killing you lot is quite a bitch." the man chuckled and spoke, "passage you seek yet custom you have broke."

I tilted my head, unaware of his meaning, his word then sent my thoughts a reeling, "What custom have I broke?" I thought to myself,

"A name must be stated for your thirst of freedom to be sated." the man's eyes narrowed and his voice grew cold.

"How can I speak my name if my mouth holds no tongue?" I thought once more,

"You can speak it as it is your own." he grew cold in appearance as well as tone,

"Then speak it I shall, Mazus Morden." the words echoed in the air around us, and gate cracked and groaned as its doors swung open.

I nodded to the man and forth I crept, toward the gates and through I stepped.

(WIP need feedback)