ACEDIA: Love in Hell

1 - DEATH

I know I didn't die drowning out at sea, but I wake up washed ashore. As my eyes flutter open, I let out a blood curdling scream and press my hands to my stomach. I remember! Jason and that stranger Sean, apparently his friend; those bastards gutted me like a deer. They let a demon rip my heart out like in fucking Temple of Doom.

Rolling on to my back, I feel no gash splitting my belly in half. No gaping hole in my torso. Just sticky, wet skin. Instead, it's like that scene only played out in my head in a dream. I know it's real, though. I know I didn't fall off a boat and end up here, staring up at a cloudy sky on a beach of black sand.

"I think I'm dead..."

I don't feel dead. I feel alive; I'm breathing, sore and coughing up water, but you don't wake up from a demon ripping your heart out. I sit up and look around, unable to take my hand off my stomach for fear if I do, my intestines will spill out again. Tears begin to blur my vision, not at the memory of such a horrific sight, but at the fact that some asshole frat boy seduced me for weeks and then sacrificed me to the devil. How twisted do you have to be to play such a game with someone's heart? What did I do to deserve this?

For what feels like a good hour, I curl up into a ball and simply sob. I cry at the thought of my lost life, that I was betrayed by Jason, humiliated and murdered, that whatever few friends I had will not know why I've suddenly disappeared, and that my dreams of being a teacher are gone.

When I can feel no more tears able to leak from my eyes, I rise to my feet, relieved that while I'm shirtless, I still have my bra and jeans on. No use crying; I try to get a sense of my surroundings and figure out truly where I am. It's a beach of some sort. It looks like a high resolution Ansel Adams photo; everything achromatic and twisted with a tinge of beauty. My fingers curl into the wet, black sand; it clumps like sand at any normal beach. The clouds roll by slowly and lazily, dense fog in the distance cuts my view all too short. I don't know what lies beyond the beach where it starts turning into grassy dunes.

In the distance, two upright figures come into view. Only then do I notice I'm not alone and a few other bodies are washed up around me. They're also beginning to wake up and look at themselves in horror. One man in business attire grabs at his neck. Did he hang himself? A middle aged woman runs a hand down the opposite wrist. The distant people walking get closer, and as they do I see they're not very tall. They're like two children wrapped up in tattered cloaks, reaching out to people with wiry, elongated fingers. I watch them grab a person by the hair and jerk his head back.

"Nope." One says.

"Of course Nope. We seek woman." Replies the other, slightly louder. "What was description again?"

They get closer. I stand up straight again, wondering if I'm strong enough to run.

"Small. Pink skin, fluffy red-brown hair, dark blue eyes."

"ALL HUMANS LOOK LIKE THAT YOU FOOL!"

That jarring exclamation snaps me out of my thoughts, and I decide I probably can run. I turn on my heels and start to sprint down the shoreline. My body takes a moment to adjust to the gravity - I must have been floating for a while – and soon I'm in a sprint. Whatever those things are just described me, and I'm not particularly curious as to what they want. I don't look behind me for an instant; simply run, jumping over bodies, ignoring cries for help. It didn't take me that long to fully wake up so they'll be fine.

I mean if we're really dead, none of us is fine, but for the time being I can't focus on that.

The faster I run, the less I can tune out the footsteps behind me. They're gaining on me. That's impossible; they were far away when I started and I'm taller than they are. But when I force myself to glance behind me, I see the spindly claws reaching out and one of them jumps on my back. The other comes to my side, wrapping its arms around my legs to trip me. We roll to the ground and I kick and scream and fight against them until they manage to subdue me. While the one around my legs keeps itself there to pin me down, the other sits on my stomach and holds my wrists between us so it can get a good look at my face.