"HELL"

"She is punishing us more severely, these days. Many of us are on the verge of death. Most of us are starving. You have to do something, Miss. Sara. Only you can help us."- Saying this, she turned her face away and sobbed harder.

"Nicole. Why is she doing all this? Please, I can't understand a thing, Nicole. Please...If you want me to help you, then you should tell me everything, Nicole."

She nodded and raised her tiny hand. I eyed her hand, as I didn't understand why she raised her hand.

"Hold my hand, and then I'll show you our condition."-She said. I kept my index finger on her small palm. She looked at me and smiled.

"Are you ready, Mi...Sara?"...Though I didn't know what was going to happen next, I nodded at her.

"Close your eyes, Sara."- She said. And I did as she said. Maybe she was going to show me a vision or something. I closed my eyes and waited. All of a sudden, I felt too cold. A weird sensation developed inside me. I felt as though, I just jumped into a freezing river. I kept my eyes shut. And then I heard a call.

"Mis...Sara, open your eyes."- She said. I slowly opened my eyes. As soon as I did so, I looked down for the Little Creature; Nicole. But, instead of a tiny, little figure, I saw the tips of a fading black frock. My eyes traced up, to her head. She was no more in her miniature form, instead was now a fully grown lady. She was taller than me. My hands were on her hers, and she held to it tightly.

"Nicole...You, what just...?"- But before I could finish.

"This is my home, Sara. Here, only my true form will work."- She said, smiling slightly.

"Your home? What do you mean?"

"This is where I belong, Sara. This is where my family is grappling against Belladonna and her followers. This is where my people are being punished for no reason."- She said, looking around. A single drop of tear rolled down her cheek. I looked at her, and then around. But all I could see was endless darkness.

"I...I don't see anything yet, Nicole."- I said.

"You won't unless I give you the permission to."- She said. She looked at my hand and traced something on my wrist softly. She closed her eyes and muttered something.

"Close your eyes, Sara."- She said and I closed my eyes. Once again I felt like something was being sucked out of me.

I slowly opened my eyes. It felt very hot around. And I understood why. Now, I was no longer in any dark place or something. Instead, I was in some kind of long field. The atmosphere was kinda creepy because it was all dark and dim with a fire lit up at, few places. Some people were digging. While some others were cutting up wood.

There were many people, men, women, some children. All wearing black, fading dress. All the women had the tiara, just like Nicole. And the men were having something like a silver strap along their necks. All of them were doing one thing or the other. And there was a lot of screaming too. Wait, why? I looked closely and saw the people getting bruises. It was as though there was some invisible whip and it was lashing at them, now and then. And then appeared bruises on their body. Most of them looked so malnourished. Starvation had affected them so badly, their bones were quite visible from this distance. It hurt my heart to see this. The people were half-dead and still, they were made to do works. I was looking around at the pathetic situation, these people were suffering a lot. When suddenly my eyes darted towards a very small child trying to dig out mud. With what strength that was left in him, he pierced the spade into the dry land and bought it up, only to find very little mud on his spade. Suddenly there was a whipping sound and the child fell over the spade, crying loudly. I ran to help him up. I tried to get hold of the child's hand, but poor me, my hands just went through his. Yeah, again I tried to get hold of him, it just simply went through him. I tried to take the spade, but the same happened. The frustration in me developed. A child was in front of me, injured and I could do nothing of it.

"Sara, you can't."- Nicole said. I looked back.

"You can't do anything. The only thing now that will help is your win against Belladonna."- She said, fighting back tears. She looked so sad, which made tears to spill out of my eyes too. I looked back again, to see the little child. He was slowly waking up and standing. His hand wandered over to the spade. His small, red eyes were filled with tons of tears as he took the spade and dug it harder into the earth will all his might.

I stood up slowly. What is this? Hell?

"Nicole, tell me. How can I and my friends defeat her?"- I said, trying hard not to concentrate on the noises around. That's when I heard someone calling me.

'Sara', 'Sara'.

The last thing I saw was Nicole smiling at me and saying-

"Goodbye, Sara."

I didn't have much time to bid her a bye, cauz, all of a sudden I felt hands on face. I felt like someone was patting on my cheeks...I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I experienced the sensation of something being sucked out again. And then, my eyes fluttered open and I jolted up.

"Uhhh.."- I said, taking air inside. I looked around to find four worried faces looking at me.

"What...Just happened?"- I asked, looking around.