The Original

Chapter One

"How much further are you going to drag me into this forest?" I whined as I throw a quick glance behind me. The darkness doesn't scare me it's what's in the dark that scares me, who is in the dark scares me.
"We are almost there I promise." Lance yells back to me. He is a couple feet ahead confidently pushing through the brush and only pausing when he notices me lagging behind. I listen to the wet moss squelching underneath my black combat boots, my mother is going to kill me for getting these dirty. I hear a branch snap behind me and I whip my head backwards but I couldn't see anything in the darkness.
"What are we looking for anyways?" We have been walking for what seems like hours now. Lance grabbed me from school and dragged me off to another one of his excursions. I assume he takes me because I don't usually freak out and I don't complain that often, so I guess that makes me good company.
"The entrance to the underworld." I stop walking at this remark and look at him. This cannot be good.
"Excuse me?" He stops and turns to me, a dorky grin spreads across his face with all his teeth shining brightly in the darkness. Honestly why doesn't he have a girlfriend, he is the most adorable thing. Whenever he is around he lights up the room with his bright attitude and contagious smiles. It's like that feeling when the sun is covered by a cloud and it's chilly, but then the sun comes back out and it fills you with warmth. Then you close your eyes instantly forgetting that cold. It scares me, if someone like him can't find love how will I?
"Ok look," he says giving me his phone. There is a red dot on the map of our area, it seems not too far from us but there's a problem.
"Are you taking us up Castle Mountain?" That's why it took us so long to get here. The mountain is about thirty minutes from Pincher Creek and it's a three hour hike to the top... well for most people, for me it takes like ten days. I'm not the most active chap.
"Not exactly up per say." Well at least I don't have to climb a mountain tonight.
"Thanks for that super specific location, I know exactly where we are going now!" I say gleefully but sarcasm is thick in my words. I look at Lance his soft black hair messily falling over his face as he looks down, watching a small spider crawl over his tan hiking boot. He brushes his hair to the side and you can see a soft blush in his cheeks and a smile playing on his lips.
"You know like... the entrance is not on top on the mountain it's... it's in it."
"Oh?" Obviously how did I not know that, he made it so obvious where we are going.
"We are almost there, but we have to hurry." He wastes no time turning around and walking. I take a deep breath and follow him. Let's go to Hell I guess.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

"I think it's right up there." Lance is still pushing ahead like the rough mountain terrain was nothing for him. What about me? I'm just here sweating like a pig in the summer and barely keeping up.
"Now can you please explain why we are looking for this door to Hell." He keeps walking up the steep slope not even pausing to look back at me. That's good, I probability look hilarious.
"It's not exactly a door... and it's not exactly hell."
"Then what exactly is it?"
"The entrance to the underworld is shown as many different things in many different cultures. There are seven entrances spread out across the world, but they usually aren't stationary. You usually will hear them depicted as the seven gates, the seven layers, or the seven circles. The seven can disappear and reappear spontaneously, and that's why almost every culture has their own take on it because they can be anything anywhere."
"So how did you find this one."
"This one is different. Like I said, the seven move around, they never stay for more then a week before they are gone. It's all about chaos and mischief, two things the inhabitants of the underworld know well. But this one is different. There is a long and ancient history about the entrance to purgatory or limbo. Where souls are kept before judgement and where the dark angels earn their dues."
"Dark angels?" I'm not a religious person, nor do I really believe in myths or legions, that's more Lance's thing.
"The fallen angels? Like Lucifer, Asmodeus and Semyaza. All angels who were in heaven but couldn't obey to the rule of the creator so they got cast down from paradise and now have to stay in hell as a punishment."
"Oooookay, so what about them?"
"This location never moves, this is where souls are taken by a psychopomp or a guide after death," Nothing he is saying really makes sense but this is what makes him happy, and so I continue to listen to him ramble. "And so if this really is the entrance that souls regularity come in and out of then it should be easier to find  then the rest."
"Makes sense."
He helps me pull myself up onto a small ledge and to my amazement a large cave stands before us like it was dug out of the mountain by a giant hand, the nails leaving deep scars on the floors and the oval ceilings look smooth and untouched.
"Hasn't this cave already been conquered by thousands of explorers." He gives me a funny questioning look. "Tourists buddy, this is a large tourist attraction." He laughs.
"Yes but not this cave..."
"Do I want to know why?" He smirks.
"It's haunted."
"Oh great." I know it's not real, people usually have over active imaginations, and sometimes a fear of something can make the brain produce a kind of blurry image of it. Which people interpret as supernatural. Or that what my psychology teacher thinks. It's the dark open cave that scares me. The fear of someone or something jumping up and grabbing me in the darkness and catching me by surprise. I shiver at the thought. I take a breath, we hiked all the way here I'm not bailing now. So I follow him into the dark cave with a small flashlight being our only light.