The Realm of Question

Chapter 24

The world around me faded, a distortion of reality. Hot water surrounded me burning and blistering, I felt it every time I moved. I kept swimming. It wasn't air I needed. I wanted to reach the top for relief¼ relief from pain¼ from suffering. My eyes burned but wouldn't close. Bars of black iron surrounded me, contracting around me, the hot metal burning my skin, but making no marks. I cried out but made no noise. I was completely vulnerable like an infant who could only sit and cry in the mess it had made. The cage around me began to shutter and heave. I pathetically clung to the bars trying to stop being jostled.

Suddenly, I realized it was solid underneath me. I heaved myself upright, my bones aflame. I was going down. My head was slammed backwards with the force of the lurch. It was like being on the double shot but instead of padding behind your head, spiked iron bars. The water was abruptly released through the bars causing me to be thrown forwards again, my face slamming the metal. I lay limp, a wet heaving mass. I didn't have the strength to even lift my head. I decided to just lie there.

"Poor little Regina, all alone in the big bad underworld." A beautiful soprano voice teased. "I would say welcome to hell, but, that would be a cliché would it not?" She chuckled. I lifted my head up against the bars to get a better look. There leaning against the opening of the cage was Bella, her hair perfect, the shadows of the flames that surrounded us playing across her face.

"Where am I?" I rasped out in a pained whisper.

"I told you already. You're dead. Just like I promised," she said, pleased.

"How can I be dead?" I asked disbelieving.

"Don't you remember? The car, the cliff, the crack your legs made when their hinges snapped." She grinned maliciously.

"I do!"

"Oh good" She grabbed me by the hair. "Then I don't have to explain it," she whispered fiercely into my ear, throwing me down on my knees outside the cage. "Get up, You're a big girl. You can walk!" she demanded giving a kick to my side. I landed face first in the dirt.

"Oh, did that hurt?" she asked. I whimpered.

"Good." She grabbed me by the hair again dragging me in front of her. Everything around me smelled of cinders and ash. Fire surrounded us at every twist and turn. Hanging from the ceiling were jagged rocks that looked like fangs. They looked ready to impale me to death at any moment. Up ahead I could see nothing but darkness. There was light only when Bella took a step. Her blood red nails dug into my scalp but I refused to satisfy her with any pitiful screams of agony.

"When you see my Master, you will address him as such," she demanded with a sharp tug of my hair. "Is that understood?" I said nothing. "Answer me!"

"Yes," I groaned.

"Good little angel." She patted my cheek. She led me to a small, well lit entrance carved in the face of a stone wall. My footsteps faltered. I could hear cheering, but not like at the street race. It was louder, more pounding, taunting. We came to the entrance and she pushed me inside. I landed on my knees in the center of a massive circular room. All around me were people and creatures like Mason, and some that had no human features. They were all yelling and mocking. My head pounded. The only one who was silent sat in the middle of the jagged decrepit dome. The room was lit with black iron torches and the fire danced wickedly throwing disturbing shadows onto the walls. He was more beautiful then any other in the room. He was the man in the drawing that I had seen in the library. His red eyes swirled with pleasure as he surveyed me.