Obsidian Ring

Chapter 2

Hell has many entrances, and only one exit.

Having started the day with the daily execution that reminded everyone what kind of a world they were living in, Aislinn once again opened her wagasa after the king had left. Even with her wagasa and floating skulls guarding her, she kept her head down as she waded through the others.

Fire burned under her feet. Fire burned in her eyes.

Quickly, Aislinn traversed the central plaza, filing along with most others out of it. The central plaza was an accursed site of execution, rarely serving as anything else. It was treated as the palace of the king himself, although in truth, he visited it only as often as all other inhabitants of the abyss did—once a day. It was there that the seed of terror was sown inside the souls of everyone, and watered every morning. Terror was always renewed, and never dying.

"Someday, it could be me," Aislinn found herself thinking, unaware that she had spoken aloud. This, too, she did almost every day after the execution.

"What could be you?"

It was only when she heard a response that the girl realized she had broadcasted her thoughts so. Immediately, she closed her wagasa, whipping around to the source of the voice.

The voice belonged to a bull twice the size of Aislinn. It was towering over her, only a breath away—until Aislinn jumped back, putting in some distance between them so that she could at least see her company. The bull's eyes were not an ordinary shade of bloodred; they were a glowing red. There in the dark alley, they seemed to shine brighter still, creating a faint trace of crimson in the air every time the bull moved.

Every alley looks the same, I don't even know which one I've walked into, Aislinn thought, her eyes darting swiftly from left to right, just to take note of her immediate vicinity.

The bull soon demanded her attention once more.

"What could be you, I ask?" Its voice was a low bellow, echoing through the alley despite it being in the open. And despite it being open, no one else was present.

"Nothing," Aislinn mumbled.

The hostility that the bull showed could not possibly be mistaken. As a living creature, you should know it better than even Aislinn: the feeling of dread the instant you accidentally make eye contact with the beast, the pounding of your heart that seems to you louder than anything else in the world, and finally, the urge to run...especially if you are an ordinary being.

Aislinn, too, staggered for a moment, one foot sliding backward as if readying herself to run away. But remember: this was not the human realm, but the abyss. And down in the abyss, no being is ever truly helpless.

The foot that was beginning to make way to escape skid to a halt. All that happened in merely a fraction of a second, in the dark; but perhaps the bull's glowing eyes indeed meant that it could see better than most, for it noticed.

"Are you afraid that you will be executed?" the bull asked. The words in the question appeared perfectly normal, almost akin to chitchat; yet, more often than not, it is the tone that matters more than the actual words, and the tone that the bull had used was unmistakably disdainful, if not altogether contemptuous.

Spreading her arms slightly, Aislinn readied herself for a fight, should that come to be the case. "Maybe," she said as her only answer.

"If your only options are to die here and now by my horns, or to be executed by the king, do you still fear him more?" the bull asked again, lowering its head so that Aislinn was looking directly into its eyes. The beast advanced, breathing out a threatening hiss that only the girl could hear. It was no battle cry; it was the whisper of death, meant only for her ears.