3 Chapter Three: Gehenna

Pain enveloped my whole body and I tried to steady myself but couldn't. Opening my eyes, I tried to look at my surroundings. They had beaten the hell out of me during the interrogation.

Darn it, it's too dark.

I need to heal myself. With every ounce of my physical strength, I positioned my back on the wall. Then I pulled myself into my astral body. Performing magic while on your astral body required great magic. The degree of my wounds meant that, as a result, I would not be able to use magic for several hours. Even so, I still did it; there was a need to gamble, a few hours would be worth it.

"Harwa be fallane". I spoke in Tel'Quesir tongue.

It's working! One by one my bruises faded, cuts started to heal and broken bones started to mend. Excruciating, yes, but I can feel each movement as, bit by bit, my body healed. More painful than actually being wounded, the healing process is so damned inflictive.

Footsteps! Oh come on, I have just started.

I quickly returned to my physical form and, half closing my eyes, I pretended to be asleep but I was watching. Then I realized!

Yuck!

It's stinky in here. The floor and the walls are mouldy; I think there is a dead animal in here. The stench was penetrating to my lungs and made me want to puke.

I hated it when I was in this situation.

"Hey, you there! Come near the bars," shouted a man whose footsteps I had just heard.

What the heck is he saying! Did he not know that I was beaten almost to death? Or was he just plain stupid? I didn't move.

Another voice came, a woman's. I could sense that she was a mage, a type C mage. She scolded him, "Can't you see she's beaten to a pulp," she said, "You are such an idiot!"

Yeah, you got that damned right; very stupid.

"Let me handle it from here. Just don't forget to close the barrier as you leave," she commanded. Then she looked at me.

"Can't risk her getting out here", she said to herself.

She got inside my cell and grinned. The Ef! She dragged me by the hair. Good thing my bones had been mended. I was grabbed her left boot but she shook me off, still gripping my hair.

FFFFFFFFFFkkk!!! I kicked her leg. She was then forced to kneel and lost grip of my hair.

"Oh, a feisty one," she smirked.

I readied myself for what she was about to do. Behind my back I had conjured a knife.

"Take this b***h," I said while throwing the knife at her face.

She dodged, rolled to the side and charged towards me, slyly smiling.

Oh God. Help me

She got the knife now and, what was worse, my wounds were bleeding again.

"B***h? Really?" Her eyes were bloodshot.

HOLY MOTHER OF BEETLES! I am f**ked up!

"Katarina. Enough." Deep but soft spoken words came out from the shadows. There was an authority to them.

I looked to where the voice came from. The woman then wrestled me and cuffed my hands. Okay, I let my guard down. Stupid me!

"Hello dear. It's good to have you as our new company," he said.

"Company my ass," I scoffed and, because I bad-mouthed her master, the woman, Katarina, slashed my back with her whip.

"Ahh! Back off bi-," but my words were cut off as she let out another lash with her whip.

A figure stepped out of the shadows and I saw it was a tall man. He raised his hand to stop her and, without question, she did so. He had pale skin, as white as alabaster, silvery-white spiky hair and bushy brows but not too thick.

And ooooh, those eyes. Gray eyes with specks of blue. I liked them.

Darn it Veronica, pull yourself together!

I shook my head. When I looked back, he was gone. The surroundings had changed. I was now in a huge room with no roof. Flickering torches on the walls dimly lit the area. My wrists were not cuffed which confused me. Moreover, the weapons on the nearby table frightened me.

Then, I knew it.

Great! What a moment of my life!

Before I could choose one, a roar echoed from behind the metal doors in front of me.

With no time to lose, I grabbed the nearest weapons, a pair of throwing knives.

Good enough.

I posed in a fighting stance, drew energy from within and converted it to electricity leading the current to each knife.

A monster charged in. It was huge and hairy, like a yak with horns like a satyr. It had three tails like a scorpion, four legs like those of a spider and a huge hairy body.

Hideous.

I rolled to the right side to dodge it and, making my weapons float, raised my hands and put them in outstretched position to form an arc. With each move the weapons multiplied. I flicked my hand and all of them flew towards the creature.

Some managed to cut it, but most of them bounced off. I ran again, calculating each move, both for preparation of attack and evasion of each blow.

And I found a blind spot. It was a bit tricky, though, but it was my only chance to kill it as soon as possible.

I took a torch off the wall and an oil lamp near the table. While throwing the oil from the lamp, I also threw the torch with it. The fire caught the creature's fur and it ran, wildly, across the room spitting gross venom. Now is my chance! I took a sword from the table and slid under the monster's body. As I came near to its chest, I plunged the sword into it. I pushed the weapon deeper with all my might. Then it fell on me.

Uugghh. Too heavy.

I pushed it away and took deep breaths, panting hard. Then I heard someone applaud. It was that stingy little wench.

"Such good, reflexes," she said, "I never thought you could handle that with all those wounds."

My eyes went down to what she was referring to; I was covered in blood again. It must have been because of the adrenaline rush that I forgot I hadn't fully recovered. My vision blurred and I fell. Just before my eyes closed, I saw the man beside her holding her waist.

Damn these wretches.

~~~~~~~~

"What do you need with that girl?"

"A bridge to a place I cannot go"

Katarina raised a brow. "You know what," she said, "I don't get you. I'd better go and train some more. Just call me if you need me." She tossed her lustrous fiery red hair before turning and heading to the door.

The man was left alone on the room his arms folded on his chest, leaning on a pillar. He could feel his thirst for blood again; a thirst ignited by the girl he had just captured.

He bit his lip.

"Soon," he thought, "you will be mine. "

~~~~~~~~

"I was at a dark place. Fire poured out from a goblet made of gold and precious gems. It flowed to a river and the waters darken. Then there were these iron pillars. One rusting and another already crumbling. Below it were dead people lying..."

I jolted. Cold chains were around my wrists and ankles and I was laying in a steel bunk which was attached to a wall.

Another dream… what could it mean?

Since I was eight, I began seeing or dreaming things which eventually happened. This worried me and I told my parents but they told me that they thought I was just making it up. It became more and more complicated as I grew older. Then I met Magus, he came to my house after he'd heard about my claims of prognostication.

He asked about my dreams and made me hold a ring. He said that if my claims were true the beetle formed ring would move and cling to my forefinger and, if that happened, I would need to go with him.

As I was telling him all that I had dreamed and foreseen, the beetle began to move. It shook its wings, crawled along the palm of my hand, to my forefinger, and fitted there like a ring. That is when I left my family and became his apprentice. I lived with him and his son Sebastian.

"If only I hadn't told anyone about my dreams," I thought looking at the ring on my right forefinger, "I wouldn't have been here."

I was so preoccupied with my thoughts that I forgot to check where was. A drop of water fell on my head and I raised my eyes to see where it came from. To my horror, I saw three huge cages.

There was a prisoner in each cage. The first had his mouth covered with a muzzle, his hands tied over his head and his torso fastened with iron rings. The second cage had a woman in it. Her hair has been cut irregularly, her wrists were cuffed with heavy iron. She was looking up and murmuring. The third had a boy in it. He watched me, his stare piercing me.

Wait, isn't this the boy that I helped at the market?

Both of his hands were impaled on a steel bar which would explain his pained expression.

"He's still in a state of shock," I thought, "and because he knows me, he might be thinking that I can help him."

I was startled. Then the woman shrieked before loudly muttering over and over; her hair was falling out. The boy near her became frightened and he scampered off to the far corner of his cage.

Her eyes were blood red and that's when I noticed that she was being consumed by tiny parasites. The parasites were contained in a glass cage on her body, denying them escape except by devour eating into her. Blood seeped from her sides as the parasites bit into her flesh. Her screams echoed in the large dungeon.

After a time, it ended leaving only shreds of cloth and blood soaked bones in the cage. What a frightening sight.

What will become of me?

I felt fear and pity. Fear that I will die here and pity for the other prisoners that were kept here.