The Raven

Entrance to Hell

We went across the river without any more comments from either the ferryman or us, but I spent the whole trip hatching a plan to get away. While we were crossing the river I could hear a lot of voices whispering hoarsely to us, asking us to save them. 

I knew there was no salvation for any of us, except for my friend's soul, and even that was questionable. The whispers were tortured and desperate, and it made my skin crawl. Even though I had no skin, the sensation was the same. 

Upon arriving at the other side I saw that the surroundings were getting only more gruesome as we went on. As soon as we reached the other bank we were led into a huge and ominous looking cave. It was pitch-dark and it made me feel frightened, but also hopeful. It might be the chance I was waiting for, to get away from the ferryman.

My basic plan wasn't the smartest one since I just wanted to get rid of the guided tour of Hell and go my own way. I had to reach the Dark Lord's place quickly. 

The cave was even darker than I expected, and it seemed to have only one path that we couldn't actually see but the ferryman knew his way well enough, without any light. There were some torches at the entrance, but he just ignored them and went straight ahead. We blindly followed, somehow knowing that we would be in trouble if we didn't. 

Upon entering the cave I could barely see where I was going; luckily it was mostly a straight line. I could see some vague shapes on both sides of the path. They were so unusual that I thought they were demons, but after staring at them for a while I realized that they were actually parts of the cave. 

They were mostly spear-shaped parts hanging from the roof, but some of them seemed to grow from the ground. It would have been fascinating if it weren't so petrifying. Some parts resembled huge columns or rocks, while others had the strangest shapes, enormous mushrooms and, surprisingly enough, huge seashells. 

There was some type of liquid dripping from the roof of the cave, and I was just hoping that it wasn't the burning kind used for torturing people. There were some smaller caves inside the bigger cave, but I wasn't sure where they led. 

It was so eerily quiet that I started rethinking my idea of every leaving the guide, but after some thought, I decided that no place in Hell was safe, so I might as well try to get away.

Finally, I got an idea. Since the ferryman was ahead of us and didn't seem to pay any attention to us, I decided to sneak away. The ferryman just assumed that we would be too petrified to do anything but follow him, and that was true for everyone but me. I had nothing more to lose, I was already in Hell. 

I quickly hid in one of the smaller caves, waiting for the others to leave. Even after I felt they had left, I continued to hide quietly in the small cave just to be sure. After some time, I decided that there was no way to actually be sure, so I came out and started thinking about what my next step should be. 

As luck would have it, I heard some booming voices in the distance. They sounded monstrous, but I wasn't perturbed by that fact. I sank back into the cave and focused on the oncoming voices. They were close enough for me to be able to discern what they were saying. 

"The master shall reward us greatly for the gift we bring him. We managed to bring him living humans for his feast. Fresh blood will please the master greatly. Maybe he would even allow us the taste of their blood or maybe a piece of flesh, they do look quite delicious." one monster said. 

"Where should we take them?" the other monster inquired. 

From their voices, I could notice that they were different kinds of monsters, one of them produced a kind of hissing sound that made me think of reptiles, while the other one sounded very slimy. I could hear a sound similar to that of a slithering snake. 

"We will take them to the master's den, and they shall wait for the feast in the master's dungeons" replied the reptile-like monster. 

"The master's dungeons!? That sounds like a big honor! Huge honor they do not deserve, but I guess the master has his reasons." It said. After that, they continued talking as they passed my hiding place, and went on.

That is when I got the craziest idea ever- I decided to follow them. At the time it sounded like the easiest way to reach my enemy since from what they were saying I was pretty sure that the Dark Lord was their master. 

I guess dying made me much more courageous than I was while I was alive. I knew it was not a good idea but I still went on. 

I tried to keep my distance since I wasn't exactly sure what kind of powers the monsters had, but it was easy to follow their loud voices. They weren't expecting any human souls wandering around as they lead the group of future human sacrifices to their slaughterhouse. 

I wasn't sure how they got living humans into Hell, but I knew that it wasn't good that their master needed human sacrifices. From the books I read while I was alive, I knew that the use of human sacrifice in demonic rituals was always a bad sign. 

In this case, I suspected that the Dark Lord planned an uprising, that he planned to use the humans and my friend's soul, but I had no idea how. What was worse, I had no idea how to stop the uprising.