DEAD SEED (AKA "Vampires Don't Exist")

Twenty-Seven: Welcome to Hell

The first thing Aralyn noticed was the intense heat. She felt like she had been thrown into an oven. Her cheek was on a stone floor, hot against her cold skin. She heard the rolling sound of boiling liquid and screams of pain. Smoke filled her lungs. She coughed as she opened her eyes and sat up.

Her blurred vision cleared and she saw an orange glow before the rest of her surroundings came into focus. She seemed to be underground. She was surrounded by stone walls and ceilings, dripping stalactites from the ceiling and stalagmites that grew from the floors. Steam rose between the stones. She was on a natural rock bridge. Bubbling lava popped around her from all sides. Inside the lava were thousands of men and women, maybe more; Aralyn couldn't count them all. They struggled to get out of the fire but could barely move. The ones nearest the bridge clawed at the rocky sides with burned and mutilated hands and arms, their flesh charred and falling from their bones, revealing stringy tendons and muscle tissue.

Aralyn looked down at them, her lips curling in disgust. They looked so helpless and pathetic. Their faces were the same as their hands: skin burned and melting off their cheeks, eyes bulging and popping from the heat and pressure, sending gross, gooey liquid to stream down to their chins.

Their screaming was shrill. The sounds gnawed on Aralyn's eardrums so much she covered her ears with her hands. Awful and annoying. She kept watching though. Once every inch of flesh had melted off these wretched humans, and they were just screaming skeletons, their bones and skulls would sink beneath the liquid fire for a moment or two until they would pop back to the surface as fully regenerated humans; beautiful brown, black, and white faces all intact once more. No burns, no blemishes.

But for only a moment or two before the cycle began again and they were once more consumed with fire and pain. A never-ending cycle of burning and dying a horrific death, just to be brought back to die again.

This was their eternal punishment.

This was their hell.

"Welcome to the Lake of Fire."

The voice seemed to come from the smoke tendrils that surrounded her. She didn't see anyone except the tortured souls below her.

Then something began to materialize in front of Aralyn. A man. Or was it a woman? She couldn't tell, perhaps they were both. They were tall, dark, and perfectly sculpted.

Their long hair was white on one side, black on the other. Two wings dragged the ground behind them: one bat-like and black, the other angelic covered with white feathers. The figure that was neither man nor woman came to stand in front of Aralyn, their eyes adhering with hers as they walked towards her. Aralyn couldn't look away from the orbs, which flashed all different colors from silver to blue, then hazel, red, brown, black. Their pupils changed too, going from human, to dancing flames, to reptilian. Under their pale flesh were veins that didn't seem to carry blood, but fire that resembled the pools of lava, making their skin bubble in some places.

This person — or creature — was both beautiful and terrifying.

"Are you the devil?" Aralyn asked.

They smiled, then snapped their fingers. Suddenly the tormented screams of the dead went silent.

"Sorry for the noise. What was that now?" Their voice sounded like several voices speaking at once, both men and women.

"I said, are you the devil?"

"That is one of my names. I have many."

"What should I call you?"

"Call me Angel."

Aralyn couldn't help but snicker at that.

"Is something funny?"

"It's just ironic that's the name you choose."

"I don't see anything ironic about it. I am an angel after all. But let's forget the small talk, I am a rather busy being. Do you know why you're here?"

All that had happened the moments before she found herself in this fiery pit came rushing back to her. The labor and birth of her child, Aimeric turning her into a vampire, Claire betraying and killing her. Aimeric was probably furious. Perhaps Claire would be joining them down here soon.

Aralyn clenched her fists. "I was murdered."

"That's not what I meant. Aren't you curious why you ... descended rather than ascended?"

"What do you mean?" Aralyn asked, confused. Descended, ascended. What were they going on about?

"Why you are in my clutches, rather than ... God's." Angel cringed as they said the word.

"I don't know. I haven't really thought about it."

"May I enlighten you?"

"You seem pretty excited at the idea, so go for it," Aralyn said dully.

Angel grinned, showing a line of pointed teeth. They folded their hands together and took a few steps forward. "You are here because you willingly chose the damned life of the undead."

"Isn't that kind of an oxymoron? 'Life of the undead'?"

Angel waved a hand. "Whatever. You also, as a human, willingly had sex with a vampire on many occasions ... and enjoyed it."

Aralyn shrugged, a smug smirk on her face.

"But the greatest so-called sin of yours, was assisting in damning the life of an innocent. You gave your child to a demon to be transformed into something not entirely human."

"So?"

"Do you not regret it?"

"What could I have done? Aimeric isn't just a vampire, he's a Master. He demonstrated his strength to me several times. Is there really anything I could have done to stop him?"

"I suppose not but ... I don't make the rules for your kind."

"If God would send me to hell for things I had no control over, then I guess I'm better off here."

Angel grinned. "I was hoping you would say that."

"So ... now what?" Aralyn asked.

"Now? You have a choice. And I would choose carefully, Aralyn, because few get to choose." Angel gestured to the tormented souls in the fire. "You're lucky you were turned by Aimeric before your demise or you would have wound up like them.

"You can swear your loyalties to me and rank among my highest officers. You will do my bidding, create more soldiers for my army, and go back to the ones you love with your newly blackened heart."

"Or?"

"Or," Angel sighed, "you can whine, and beg, and plead for me to send you up there," they looked above and rolled their eyes, "to which I will laugh in your face and throw you into the pits with the others."

"Gee, what should I choose?" Aralyn pretended to contemplate her decision.

Angel held out their hand. Aralyn fell to one knee and bowed, taking their hand and kissing their fingers.

"I pledge myself to you."

"Good. Go make me proud, my child, but leave with a warning: If I think for one moment you will betray me, I will send my Death Riders to drag you back. You will be reverted to a mortal and cast into the fire."

She smiled, standing and holding Angel's gaze, mesmerized by their ever-changing pupils. "You don't have to worry about me. I will be loyal to you."

Angel smiled.

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