Welcome to The Nether Realm

From the perspective of Chase Cringle.

I awoke, and, for a moment, I could see only darkness. Then my eyes began to register my surroundings. Dust and ash floated through the air. I looked down. I laid on bare, dry, ashen earth. Then I looked up. Ashes fell from above into my eyes; I wiped them out before I rose to my feet.

I paused to observe everything around me, as I would in some lucid dream. I did tend to have very lucid dreams. I took in my surroundings, every fine detail.

The world around me was surreal and hazy. I could see and hear and speak and move around freely. Only, my words were shallow and muffled from the toxic, suffocating air. The colors of the Nether were drab and dull, except for the blood-red sky and the flames erupting from the occasional hole in the earth. The air held zero moisture, and my mouth felt like two sheets of rough sandpaper chafing against each other. There was absolutely no sign of life in this dreadful place, except for myself. The heat was unbearable for any living organism. I was roasting, yet my body failed to burn. I was immortal in this realm, it seemed. Why am I here?

Dreams always seemed foggy to me, as if they were just another distant memory. I knew for sure I wasn't dreaming, though. This was reality. I was trapped and alone--in the frickin' Nether. I feared I wouldn't be able to leave. Fortunately, I always had a way to get out of desperate situations. My circumstances made no difference.

I had been warned about this cruel realm. I was warned that I could, without notice, be dragged into the Nether, just as Gene Hart, my lord, had warned me.Woah, woah, woah. Wait a minute. Who's Gene Hart, exactly?

My brain felt fuzzy. I didn't know how or why I was in the Nether. How would I get out of the Nether, and how would I return to the realm of the living? That's a damn good question.

A moment later I sensed danger, though there was nothing near that I could see that could hurt me, and yet I sensed vibrations in the ground resonating from something huge. I didn't know for sure what it was. Ashen trees fell in the distance, one by one, as the humongous hulking creature bellowed deep, ghastly roars.

I darted my eyes around to try to find a way to escape. It didn't take but a few seconds to realize that there was no way out. Joyful.

The obscured beast in the distance wasn't nearly as slow as I'd thought. There was no way I could combat anything that called the Nether home. I'm not that crazy. I had to leave. Sure, the Nether would be a cool place to live, if you could withstand the heat. But even I, a vampire, a creature of death, could not, nor did I want to, stay another moment in that awful burning desert devoid of oxygen. Fuck that.

I forced myself to brainstorm a way to escape this nightmarish realm. I began to bash my head with my fists. As I was beating myself up, my mind began to filter through bitter memories which I didn't remember, memories that did not belong to me, and memories that have yet to occur. One by one, memories entered my head, then vanished. These memories were deeply troubling and highly emotional. Why am I being plagued with memories that aren't mine? I was paralyzed by the memories coming and going. I continued to witness more and more memories until, finally, I collapsed from sheer mental exhaustion and I instantaneously closed my eyes.