Drag Me to Hell

Touched

"I loved listening to their screams.  Their pleads for mercy.  Their frightened groans of agony fading into silence as their eyes glazed over in death.  I loved feeling their pulse diminish in my grasp, their blood falling from my fingertips, my lips.  It is quite humorous, isn't it?  They don't know when I'm coming... but they know life is the only game where no one comes out alive."

                                                                                    ~The Diary of a Reaper

She fondled the slip of folded parchment in her slender fingertips, the singed corners of the paper a reflection of her sultry domain.  Her lips pursed in a cryptic insanity as her eyes revealed no detection of emotion or revealed knowing behind her hellish masquerade.  Her locks of ebony falling about her thin shoulders in straight and sophisticated wisps, as a heinous harmony escaped her closed mouth.  

"New Assignment, my dear?" an alluring murmur ringing from behind her as she felt the palms of a familiar miser rest on her bare shoulders.

She pulled away from his touch as her tune fell silent, her body turning gracefully to face her calamitous acquaintance. 

"What an honor it must be for me to stand in the junior Master's presence." the words rolled off her tongue in a malevolent venom as she lowered herself into bow; a snicker escaping the gentlemen's lips as the echo of his footsteps drawing nearer signaled for her to regain her composure.  

"You shall not bow in the prescense of a friend, my lovely" his dark tone softening as he took her hand in his own and lowered his own head in order to graze her knuckle with his lips.  

Her lips curled into a mysterious grin as a slim chuckle escaped her throat as she redrew her hand and unfolded the slip of parchment with both hands, reading the ink aloud, "Miles Holland." 

She spoke this name with a  malignant excitement, adrenaline causing her blood to pulse with the thrill of a new assignment.  A new chase.  A new kill.  Her eyes darted to the handsome youth leaning against the cavern's foundation, he only winked and nodded, his gesture signalling her release.  

She hesitated not, and felt her limbs crouch for but a moment before darting from the chamber with a curious agility and disappearing into the devastating inferno.  The agonizing screeches of the tortured filled the troubled air, her thin frame maneuvering about the underworld with a vicious strife as her nimble feet grazed each stone as she failed to tremble or stutter with each step, despite the fact that she wore heeled leather boots that rose beneath her knee.  

Her unflawed skin and demonic structure gave her a distinguishing composure amoungst those in this domain, a cloak of opal shrouded her petite form as two long horns grew from her darkened mask.  The screams grew louder as she made herself visible, the souls doing their best to avoid her torturous mind.  She descended a staircase and paused at the dock overlooking a putrid river, polluted with aggrieved souls.  Awaiting her arrival was a small ferry at the end of this dock, a gruff man watching her make her way to the shore.

"Greetings, Reaper." his voice was blunt and expressionless, an aggrieved fury hidden in his throat as he positioned his paddle so that she could mount his vessel. 

She only nodded in acknowledgement and clambered aboard the empty ferry, souls of the damned already sorted to the decided circles.  She felt the boat kick from the dock as the sound of the polluted stream beating against the boards of the boat, and the screeches of souls from afar, the only noise breaking the silence.

The venture only lasted for what seemed like moments as she escorted herself off the vessel and onto the dock positioned on the opposite side of the dark abyss.  

"How many will you return with, Reaper?" the voice was in a drawn out and blunt growl as the ferryman rotated his paddle in his hands.

"One." The words were sharp and spoken with an aggressive snarl as she turned abruptly and stalked across the dock, her heels clicking against the boards until they met the soft foundation of bracken sediment.  She heard the irritated groan of the ferryman as he docked his vessel and awaited her return.  

She carried herself from the depths of this hostile territory, the screeches becoming ever so distant.  She escaped from an enormous gate and felt the breeze of the earthen breath against her revealed flesh.  She trembled in disgust at this mortal realm and faded into the shadows of this brisk night.