2 Life In Hell (I): EVE

NATHANIEL

Nathaniel blinked his eyes in surprise, this was hell?. It was a little cooler than he imagined. Nathaniel got to his feet with the girl looking up at him as if he was some sort of fascinating creature, but Nathaniel did not pay her any mind, he was taking a good look at his surroundings.

For as far as his eyes could see, all he could see was rocky hills, caves, craters and steam. He had no idea at all where he was, or what he was supposed to do next. His only guide is a seven year old girl that so far, Nathaniel has been able to successfully ignore, especially when he was usually aware to the fact that her skin was as red as blood.

"How do I get out of here?"

"Huh are you leaving already? But there's no where to go. They already destroyed the village and there's no more food available."

"They? Who's they.?"

"The hunter's, they hunt people like me, I'm the only one left you know. They say I'm not supposed to exist, and I eat to much, and that I would bring war and destruction to the world."

Nathaniel did not know what to pick up from the explanation this little girl had just given. The only thing he could understand was that she was in danger, she was dangerous, and apparently there were people in hell prejudiced about her race, shocker. Racism was every where, even in hell.

"What's you're name little one."

"Uhh my name? I don't have one, those people just call me beast, or demon queen, or pathfinder"

Nathaniel was rather taken aback by such crass words from the mouth of a child, he could not begin to imagine the amount of torture those people hunting her had put her through. No matter how you looked at it, This girl was just a child, there were things you were not supposed to say, even to a child. Though he could did not understand what the pathfinder name meant.

"Err do you like Eve, let's call you Eve."

She looked as if she was contemplating for a moment before she nodded her head in agreement. Nathaniel had chosen to give her that name because it was rather symbolic, after all she was the first living thing he had seen since he died. so he felt duty bound to connect with her, though he did not have much of a choice since she was the only one here.

"Okay listen to me, Eve. I'm not from around here okay. I'm not from hell, I'm from a place called ear...th, I mean from a place called Zion. And I need to get back. Do you know anyone who can help me."

"You're from the stories, really?"

"What stories?"

"My nurse used to tell me stories of this place called Zion, she said it was so beautiful and peaceful and that one day a great king would take all of the tribes of hell and invade. Then when we have taken over the fertile land, we never have to hunger and worry again."

"Oh okay. So um do you know how to get there?"

"Yes I do. My nurse says my blood is the key, and my husband is the king who's going to take us there."

Nathaniel did not know what to say, this whole conversation had gone from weird, to very weird in mere moments, and he was finding it very hard to keep pace with it. Of course none of the stories she just told him helped him out of his current predicament, only that she was the child bride of some sort of conqueror, and she was the key back to Zion.

This was supposed to be a test, no this was turning out to be something really strange. Nathaniel did not believe for one moment that he was dead, at least not here, since apparently this was hell. But Nathaniel knew how this worked, the protagonist of a fantasy game gets thrown in hell, he's found by a princess and together they unite all the demons and invade the human world. The protagonist gets known as the demon king but ends up defeated and a lesson for history about how much of a bad idea it was for demons to invade anywhere else other than hell.

Nathaniel knew the script he had to play, he knew every step he was meant to take. But that would take too long and his sisters would most probably be dead already, either from natural causes as far Zion was concerned, or killed. He had to make some changes to the script, hopefully he was not annoying some God of destiny or fate somewhere.

"Listen to me Eve, my name is Nathaniel. And I have come a long way to find you my queen. You're my destiny and together we're going to take Zion for ourselves."

Nathaniel felt he had taken it to far, he had made his eyes as intense as possible, made his voice deeper and showed her the side of his face he could consider handsome, which was not any side really, but even Nathaniel was allowed to have his own delusions.

"You're the King, I thought that was Bosco the arch fiend. Yesterday he wanted consu.....con.....consum. Oh that word is so hard to say."

Nathaniel decided to offer a suggestion. With skeptism and horror creeping into his voice.

"Is it consummate."

"Yes that's the word, we were supposed to do that yesterday and get married. But the hunters came and trashed my wedding. And then my nurse died because she had to become food."

Nathaniel felt like puking, he hated hearing this from such a little girl. He did not care how savage hell was supposed to be, this was going to far. She was just a child, and the very thought of whoever that Bosco was touching this girl left a really bad taste in his mouth.

"Listen to me Eve, how old is this Bosco guy."

"Oh his 2000 thousand years old. My nurse say's he's very powerful for someone so young, and that we would make very powerful children."

"And how old are you Eve?"

"I'm Six years old hehe. My nurse says I'm such a big girl."

The nurse was right about that though, she was six but looked like she was eight or nine, but that made the whole situation even worse. Nathaniel felt bad for trying to deceive her, he felt like the worst person to have walked the face of the earth for trying to take advantage of the little girl's innocence.

"You're right Eve I'm not your king."

"So you were lying to me, why?"

Eve looked like she wanted to cry, and her surprisingly normal looking black eyes were beginning to water up in grief.

"I'm sorry don't cry Eve. I may not be your king, but neither is Bosco."

"Then who's my King?"

"Only you can choose who you're king will be Eve, only you."

"Then what are you, if you're not my king?"

"Well me? I'm your friend."

Eve nodded her head and Nathaniel hugged her. His whole experience in hell for the first few minutes that he spent here has been nothing short of bizarre. However Nathaniel had learnt to live life as it comes, or afterlife what ever you would call this. But he also knew that he had to keep moving forward.

"Arghh!!!"

The scream was sudden and so was the attack. Nathaniel was hit by a war hammer and flung aside like a rag doll completely separating Eve from his grasp. His body crashed down hard, but apart from his aching chest there was no other damage. In fact the pain was negligible enough that Nathaniel was on his feet fast enough to see what had attacked him, and boy what a sight it was.

The man or thing in front of him was huge, almost eight feet tall and packed with muscles. His skin was grey, and he had two heads and a giant Warhammer in one of his beefy hands. Nathaniel could not fathom why he was not a mere stain on the rocky ground, but the way this new arrival was holding Eve by her neck was pissing him off.

"Let her go!"

Nathaniel shouted, trying to sound as fearsome as possible, but only ended up sounding like a pleading child.

"What sort of a demon are you?"

"I'm not a demon, now let her go!"

"HUMAN!!!"

And then he attacked. Usually when you see someone four times your size, with two heads, and a war hammer the size of a bicycle, what you did was to try and talk it out. But when that hunk of a monster comes barreling for you, the only other option left was to either turn around and run for your puny life, or wait to be pummeled. Nathaniel chose neither as he ran towards the incoming monster man thing.

When he chose to move actively, Nathaniel discovered he was faster, every move this monster made was made in slow motion. The monster swung its war hammer at Nathaniel's head, but a quick duck and a punch to its midsection sent the monster flying past Eve and into a rock wall, with its body making a clear indent in it. It's body was broken and mangled from the impact shocking Nathaniel greatly about the scope of his strength. He turned to Eve hoping she was okay. Apart from a purple bruise around her neck she seemed relatively fine.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded in response and held her rabbit closer."

"Do you know who or what he is."

"He's a grey demon, they're the foot soldiers of Corvax the undying. He's a demon prince that wants to be king. So he wants to consu…..consum...…con… su…..mate. With me too."

Nathaniel was stumped by her answer, it seemed there was more to this little girl than was being let on. Nathaniel was sure even she didn't know the scope of her own importance, which meant she was in more danger and so was he by virtue of association. he had to figure something out, and fast. But the only lead he had out of here was based on a story or some sort of prophecy that placed the virginity of a six year old girl as a price. This place was even more fucked up than he imagined.

"Eve do you know a way to leave hell, I need to get back to Zion because my family is there waiting for me."

"You're leaving me, did I do something bad again."

"What are you saying you silly girl, you're coming with me. I am your friend remember, so which means I have to protect you."

A wide smile broke out on her face, which treated Nathaniel to a little fanged mouth....vampire fangs.

"Yah, I'm going to Zion. But are we not taking our army."

"No need for any army, Eve. It's just going to be me and you. We don't need the army, there are better one's in Zion. But you have to tell me if you know a way there."

"Yes I do, it's way over there, very, very far away. Its going to take us a long time to get there, but I can feel it."

Nathaniel looked to where she was pointing and could only see this rocky mountain range for as far as his eyes could reach. But he estimated she was pointing east, right at the point where the sun rose every morning.

Nathaniel was not sure if he should bet his return and survival on the random pointing of a six year old child, but it was all he had to go on, and not to mention he had to keep her safe in a place he was not familiar with. She had given him a direction, it was up to him to trust her and believe it was the right one. He knew for a fact that Faith would never agree, And Esther would probably be telling Eve about the wonders of protected and unprotected sex.

He already missed his sisters so much that he would go any direction if it just showed him even a glimpse of hope that he would be able to go back home to them. Even if it meant following a red skin demon child

.

"Alright Eve, it's time for an adventure, let's go find the way to Zion, and I will tell you stories about my home."

"oh is it Zion?"

"No silly girl, it's a little blue planet called Earth."