The Gifted

Hell

The air was a dark, murky red. There seemed to be a sun high above them but it was obscured by a thick smog that hung low. Lightning flashed across the sky, lighting up the dim ground and clouds. The ground was a dark sand, pockmarked with unforgiving holes and caverns and large chunks of obsidian that reached for the sky in massive spires of smooth glass. Nobody said a word as they trudged forward, taking in the gloomy scenery. In the distance, they saw a large cliff face that extended past the clouds into the sky above. Jace nodded towards the cliff, saying, "That's our destination. We better move fast. We don't want to be out in the open when night falls." Taylor said, "Why? What happens when night falls?" Jace simply turned back and gave him a look that said he was better off not asking.

Pierce was crying. Crying in a way that would make his friends (not to mention the entirety of the school) laugh at him for the rest of his life. He had lost the group, and he had promised Principal Windonson he would bring them back. He had woken up to find the last few skeletons he had summoned wandering aimlessly around for a while until the magic presumably wore off and they all crumbled into dust. Pierce had gotten up from where he had landed when Taylor came through the portal behind him and blasted him with lightning, and he stumbled over to where the door had been just a few minutes earlier. He stayed in front of the door for some time, kicking it and punching it and screaming at it and coating it with his fire, but to no avail. Eventually he sat down with his back to it and started his ugly crying. He stayed there for what felt like an eternity to him (but was really only maybe an hour) and then got up and started the hike back down the mountain to the village, where there was a car waiting for him with a different driver than there was before. He spent the drive in a sullen silence, not answering any of the driver's questions. They drove the many hours to the nearby port town of Beringovsky. Pierce didn't pay attention very much, he only "zoned in" when the driver put the vehicle in park just outside of a small hotel. The driver just said "Top floor. Room 204." Pierce got out and collected what little things he had brought with him, and walked through the door. Nobody was at the counter, so he just walked up the staircase to the top floor. There was only one room to be found on the floor, so Pierce knocked. A voice called, "Enter" and Pierce opened the door. Avery Windonson waited for him in the main room, standing at the window with his hands clasped behind his back. Without turning around, Avery Windonson said, "Take a seat, Pierce." Pierce sat down on the edge of one of the long couches, not daring to make himself comfortable. Avery didn't turn around, and just stood there for a few moments, looking out the window at the distant Koryak mountains. He finally breathed out a heavy sigh and said, "And why, might I ask, are the others not also gathered here in this room?" Pierce started stammering, trying to get out how everything was going right until Taylor came up behind him when Avery cut him off with a roar. "I GAVE YOU ONE, SIMPLE TASK. BRING JACE AND HIS INSUFFERABLE COMPANIONS TO ME, IN ANY WAY THAT YOU CAN. WHAT IS THERE TO SHOW? NOTHING! YOU...HAVE...NOTHING!" By this point Pierce was thoroughly pressed into the couch, hoping he could just melt away into nothing. He mumbled something under his breath, trying very hard to not meet Avery's eyes. "What did you just say?" asked Avery. Pierce said "Please don't talk to me like that. I don't like being yelled at." Avery moved directly in front of Pierce, leaning over him. "I will speak to you any way I please, you putrid piece of filth." Pierce sat there for a moment, and then his eyes lit up in flames, along with his hand. He thrust his dripping, fiery hand up to Avery, who promptly caught Pierce's wrist. "So," he said. "It's going to be like that. Very well. You have chosen your punishment!" Avery took Pierce's hand, still alight, and thrust it back onto Pierce's own face. Pierce started screaming in agony, his face burning under his own touch. He was trying to extinguish his flames, and yet they stayed alight on his face. Avery yanked Pierce's hand away from his face, pulling him off of the couch, upon where Pierce went down to his knees, whimpering in pain. "You," said Avery, "Will no longer have the gift of resilience. Your own liquid fire shall burn you forever more. This, is your punishment. You will serve at my feet, dealing with the menial tasks I deem unfit for anybody other than the filth you are. You will still return to classes, and you will be ridiculed by your schoolmates, and you will do nothing to stop them because you can do nothing. Do you understand me?" He bent down and lifted up Pierce's chin. Pierce nodded weakly. Avery dismissed Pierce with a wave of his hand, returning to his view at the window. Pierce staggered to the door, opening it and stumbling out, barely managing to close it behind him.

The group stumbled across the black sands towards the cliff face. It was close now, much closer than when they had first entered hell. It had finally hit all of them that this wasn't some play-date adventure where if anything happened, they wouldn't be going home. This was the real deal. They were in the hell. There was no going home until they got what they needed, which Jace still hadn't told them about. All he kept saying was "You'll see." Eventually they came to a line that had been drawn in the sand, extending as far as they could see in both directions. Everything was murky past the line, blurring together so that they could only see basic images beyond. Jace stopped before the line, turned, and said, "This is where things get difficult. I know of a few legends, but I have never been here to confirm them myself. No matter what, let me do the talking." Taylor said, "Hold up. You're telling me there are other people here?" Jace said, "I don't know for certain. If there are, let me do the talking, and if there aren't, then it doesn't matter. Let's go." He stepped across the line in the sand, and promptly disappeared from view. Analise went next, stepping across and also disappearing out of sight. Jack went third, and once he was across, Taylor muttered, "Here goes nothing, I guess." and stepped across. What he saw baffled them all. The cliff face was no longer multiple miles away, but right in front of them. It towered into the sky, the low clouds seeming to eat it up. It extended for forever in both ways, yet what held their attention the most were the soldiers and the demons. Black forms, almost like feral dogs with longer legs and arms were savagely attacking what looked to be fortifications of United States military. They were holding back the creatures fairly well, but occasionally a form would make it through a section of the fortifications and take down a soldier before being put down by the others around him. The group all looked at each other, and leapt into the fray.