24 Vermin

-The devil must be having the best moments of his existence. Cracking a sick joke that I refuse to find amusing. What is this now? Or has my punishment for the questionable thoughts that I have ever conceived begun? Wait, it can't be. Could this mean I'm already in hell?- Finn thought.

The cracks on the ground were now wider than before. The heat escaping from the cracks was getting intense by the moment. But that was far off on the least of worries that Finn had now.

Looking at the demons that carried his face, they all seemed to have one thing in common. Two hearts beating out of their chest area. He didn't require any special eyesight to see this.

It was bare in the open. Their skins looked like they had been scraped off exposing their flesh. He could see the numerous network of veins running through them. Black blood flowed through these veins.

He saw so much at once that he felt by now he should have emptied his guts out of disgust. But whenever he looked at the demons and saw their faces, all he saw was himself which brought him back to realize they had one extra feature that he did not possess or know how to do, A broad smile.

This smile was so wide it looked like it was spreading up to their long pointed ear. But their smile looked faked. Almost like it had been drawn on their faces. But his attention slowly drifted from their smiles to their back where something was beginning to happen.

Their wings, one after the other began to retract. Now they stood wingless and were marching toward him. He tried to turn around and run the other way but his feet were stuck.

When he looked down, he realised they were stuck in between the cracked ground and his skin had melted off. Now only the bones on his feet remained and they were stuck to the ground as thousands of demons began to rush toward him. He tried hard to pull his feet but it seemed as though his melted flesh acted as a form of adhesive and glued his feet together with the ground.

It didn't take long and the first demon was open him. The demon with a face that resembled his thrust its arm forward and pierced Finn in the heart. Finn immediately let out a gasp as he felt pain beyond description. The demon retracted its arm and a huge hole the size of Finn's head could be seen in his chest area. The demon stood in front of him motionless as if awaiting its victim to make a move. Which was impossible in this case as Finn had no energy left.

But something began to happen. The demon that had stabbed him suddenly busted into dark particles and faded away. The particles looked like dust but to where they had faded to was unknown.

Another demon came up to him and stabbed him again in the chest. Oddly, just like the last one, he heard his bones and flesh giving way as the powerful arm pierced through him. A hole was created where the first one was.

Finn found this odd but wasn't given enough time to think about it as yet another demon came up and did the same by stabbing him in the heart. And just like the last two demons, this one also dispersed into dark particles and vanished.

After the demon vanished, Finn saw another one coming to do the same to him. He looked at his chest and found that it had closed up. That was why the pain felt the same each time he was stabbed. It was like a new stab each time at the same place.

But figuring out this piece of information did not do him any good. Five demons had stabbed him with their red flesh-looking fist and dispersed. The 6th one came and did the same. So did the 7th, 8th, 9th... The thousandth time it happened.

And each time, it felt like he had died but survived to experience it all over again. Several more demons came and stabbed him. Several more times he healed until the last. The last one came up to him and drew its hand back ready to stab him.

But Finn already had enough then. He twisted his ankle and broke his foot off from his body. Now his foot was wedged between the cracks. With the bone sticking out from his broken foot, he pushed forward and impaled the demon in its chest. Not just that, he was lucky enough that it pierced one of the demon's hearts.

A loud squeal emanated from the demon's mouth which was filled with jagged teeth. The demon stumbled back and with this slight space, given to him, Finn broke off his foot from his second leg.

Now he was free and was walking on his bones. Not wasting any time, he looked past the demon toward the fluctuating white light. Without a second thought, Finn began to run with his bones acting as feet. He felt the pain to be unimaginable but allowing himself to get stabbed by creatures that had his face was intolerable.

He ran through the cracks on the ground in the dark void hopping over large ones that spat fire as they cracked wider. The light was getting brighter now. He could feel the pure energy emanating from it. He felt hope as he got closer.

But then a horrifying sound struck his hypersensitive ears. He turned around to see that the demons were back and chased after him.

Without a doubt, he knew the goal of the demons this time was different. They weren't out again to simply punish him, they were out for revenge and sought his permanent destruction.

But he knew this time there was hope. So he ran as fast as his bones could hold out. He fell but got back up and kept running until he was inches away from the light.

Then a smile for the first time appeared on his face as he leapt into the light.

"It was over, "he thought as he passed through the light. He knew the light was a gateway between life and death and he had just crossed to the other side leaving darkness and all that it inhabited behind.

But unfortunately, he hadn't made it across as he thought. Instead, as he passed through the light, his body was instantly plunged back into the abyss again.

-There is no life beyond death. I get it now. This is it for me. The final stop-Finn thought.

While he was falling, he realized this time, the landscape was different. He wasn't falling into a dark endless void like the initial one.

He was tumbling through space and could see the ground not too far from him. Of all things, now he wished it was endless like the first one. But there was nothing he could do to stop himself from falling.

From the space he was falling from, he could see an uneven structure on the ground and he was heading directly for it. In no time, he then landed hard on this uneven surface and began to tumble and roll over it breaking whatever pieces were left remaining of his body. His arms, legs and everywhere were badly damaged from the fall. The force from the landing had made him tumble so much he had been sent smashing a rock to bits. He groaned in pain, excruciating pain.

If there was anything, it was that this place had more light than the former, which was why he could tell that his vision was fading out quickly.

-Nothing makes sense again. Logic has been proven to be illogical in this very place. All that should exist...does not and all that shouldn't exist...does. A world rid of hope, peace and freedom from endless torment. For once, I crave to be dead yet that is already what I have become, dead. Even death here has a different concept which makes me wonder, all those times I died, was that truly death? Because this...this is..- Finn reflected.

His eyes began to open again. He was welcomed with two things. A bright yellow light which he later figured out was coming from numerous flying insects all around him. These insects were almost the size of his body and emitted a bright yellow light from their underbelly and were swarming a particular area. Their bodies were black except for the stomach area which was transparent and showed the internal organ of the insect. They passed him by with their huge mandibles like he was invisible. For the first time, he was glad he was being neglected.

And the second thing he found on regaining his consciousness was a putrid odour. This smell was nothing like he had perceived before.

But it stuck out to him to find out its origin. So he got back to his feet only to realize that his feet were back to normal. It had healed completely once again. Not just that, his body which had been completely mangled from the fall was also back to normal as well. Everything looked like it had been reset in his body. He feared the worst was to come knowing each time this happened, it meant more suffering was on the way.

He turned around to find the source of the awful odour and was greeted with a shock. He had seen many insects pass him but never knew they were that many on the other end. They seemed to all be hovering over the large uneven structure he had landed on from his fall.

Though the size of the insects intimidated him, something kept pushing him to investigate what they were attracted to. His senses which seemed to be heightened in the dark void was now dulled to a significant degree. He couldn't see as good or hear as well as he did in the former space.

So he walked closer to them with the knowledge of being careful not to attract them to himself. He got close enough while hiding behind a rock and stopped. His face expressed concern not because he had been spotted by any of the insects but simply because he had spotted something.

"Those..those are... my bodies..my dead human bodies from all my previous lives stacked up and being fed on by these..these vermin!!!"Finn let out a loud yell. One loud enough to make the space he was in tremble. One loud enough to make the insects turn around to discover him.