(4) Into Purgatory

Yuna clung to her elder brother. He had woken up about half an hour before and she had explained to him what was happening. He seemed to be taking it better than she did, but she could feel him tremble.

The black carriage would tremble and rattle incessantly, but the noise much preferred over the sound of marching demons outside. Tanner was fidgety and couldn't hold still in one spot for more than a minute or so, and some of the little kids, which there were about six of in their carriage, all would whine constantly. They were all between around three and five years old.

"How much longer, you think?" Tanner asked with a slight stutter.

"Not sure.." Yuna said softly.

"They are going to take us to purgatory. Not much we can do about it, but it will be alright! I promise, I'll protect you." Edric smiled down at Yuna.

"Protect her? Yeah, right." Came the voice of the older girl.

"I will." Edric said. "It's my responsibility."

"Responsibility? Look at where you are, kid. You are in a cage being taken to purgatory by a demon army. You really care about responsibility? If you ask me, you should look out for yourself, and no one else."

"I don't care what you say. No matter what, you should always do what's right, even if no one is there to praise you for those deeds." Edric said.

"That's right, because if no one else, the gods are always watching." Yuna said, brightening up slightly.

"Oh boy, looks like we've got ourselves a knight in shining armor. We are saved everyone." The girl mocked with a wave of her hand. "Tell me, if the gods are always watching.. then where are they?"

"I-" Yuna began, but the girl cut her off.

"Let's say the gods are actually watching us at this moment. They can do pretty much whatever they want, am I wrong? So, if they cared, they would be here by now. Am I wrong? So, in that case, if the gods truly are watching us, as you say, wouldn't that simply mean they could care less about us?"

"Just shut up already, you bitch!" Edric said. "Why are you being so negative? We need to hold on to what we can, without hope we'd all fall apart."

"Hope leads to despair." The girl said bluntly. "Just give up already."

"The girl.. is right.." came a hiss. The demon from before appeared beside the cage, it's distorted face barely visible. "You've got quite the wisdom for such a young girl. I like you, maybe I will put in a good word for you to the Prince." The demon chuckled.

One of the younger kids saw the demon and let out a terrified scream. Yuna covered her eyes out of surprise, the scream startling my her.

The demon hissed, "SHUT YOUR TRAP!" A flash of silver flew through the cage. Then everyone went still.

The little girl, maybe four years old, now had the blade end of a spear going through her eye socket and out the back of her head. Blood began to spill down her face, which was now frozen in an expression of pure terror. The girl went limp, her arms falling weakly to the ground. The demon withdrew the spear, the girl slumping to the floor of the cage, her blood pooling and soaking the kids' clothes.

Yuna felt like she was going to vomit. She just barely caught a glance as she watched the girl fall dead, but she had seen the hollow slit that went into her skull through her eye. She buried her face into her brother's chest, crying. Tanner held onto the bars of the cage, vomiting through them. Edric stared blankly into the darkness beyond, tears welling into his eyes.

The older girl stared, eyes wide, at the little girl. She seemed to be petrified, unable to move as she stared.

"Now you all know what will happen if you don't behave.. so shut the fuck up!" The demon growled, moving back into the shadows away from the cage. "We are almost there."

Yuna lifted her head, looking towards the dead girl, but she couldn't bring herself to look directly. It was like some uncontrollable instinct forced her to look away every time she tried to turn her eyes to the corpse. She just couldn't look at it, she couldn't.

Then, the sound of some kind of horn being blown exploded through the air, rattling the cage and vibrating in Yuna's chest, startling her.

"Look!" Tanner called out, trying to peer around the carriage in front of them.

Some kind of red light was shifting beyond the carriage and they were headed straight towards it. Then more of the light appeared outside, and Yuna realized, as she watched in horror, there were more carriages, all of them filled with children. Hundreds upon hundreds of demons of all shapes, forms and sizes roamed alongside the carriages as they passed through some sort of red, glowing magical gateway like a portal.

Yuna could hear the screams of other children… but she turned her eyes away from the other carriages as she heard those same cries being cut short.

"Into purgatory we go…" the older girl muttered, still staring blankly at the corpse of the little girl.

The red light began to engulf them. Yuna suddenly felt a strange tingle all across her body, but the longer she felt it the more it began to become a burning sensation. She could no longer see anything except red, bright red, and her skin felt like it was on fire.

She let out an agonized scream, but quickly hit her lip, silencing herself. She didn't want to be killed. Edric held tightly to her. She could feel him tensing up, and she assumed he was feeling the same pain.

And then the feeling of her stomach rising into her throat came. The tingling burn went away, but the red did not. Except, it wasn't the only thing she could see. That's when she realized, the sky was red with black, drifting clouds. The ground was barren and black like ash and the figures of demons marching and the black carriages could be seen as far as the eye could reach.

Yuna began to lift up from the floor of the carriage, and at that moment her heart froze.

The carriage was falling.