Chapter 2: Welcome

I heard the wind blowing against my ear with thunderous cries roaring out in the distance. I woke up in a cold sweat, and the first thing I saw was the cloud-covered sky, some light bleeding through them. I sat up, holding my head and grunting in pain as I opened my eyes and scanned the area I was in. The environment was completely different from where I was before. It was like a barren wasteland with dirt that felt like sand on my fingers. I turned to my right and found a skeleton right next to me.

Startled, I jumped up to my feet as I heard clunking from underneath me. I looked down and saw I was stepping on a sword and some armor around me.

"What the hell?!" I yelped as I looked around to see that the barren wasteland I was in was all covered with armor, weapons, and bones of all shapes and sizes.

Baffled at this sudden change in environment, I sat down on the ground on the dark colored dirt-sand and tried waking myself up to see if I was dreaming. Trying every possible way by slapping to pinching.

Nothing….fucking nothing.

"Am I…dead? Is this hell?!" I slapped myself after saying that.

No, I couldn't have died by just tripping and falling, that's the stupidest way to die.

I got up and surveyed everything around me again. The light from the cloud brought some visibility but it was all just junk.

"Where the fuck am I!!!!!" I shouted to the sky. My heart was pounding with the weight of reality bringing it down.

I closed my eyes, trying to go to sleep, thinking that this was all just a nightmare.

Until I felt a heavy pelt of water on my face. I swiped the water off my face and looked at what it was.

It was blood…it's blood.

More of it came down from the sky, pouring down like rain.

"What in the..."

It came down hard, covering me in blood as my clothes were soaked in red. I grabbed the nearest object to take cover from the bloody rain. The chestplate I held up over my head made pinging sounds from the blood falling down.

Yeah, I am dead! I'm convinced! In hell too?! Why am I in hell in the first place!!! Forget about that, need shelter.

I took one step and unexpectedly a scream was heard from underneath my feet. "Oh! Sorry I—" I stopped myself when I noticed no one was there. I put my foot down and it screamed again.

Yep, this is Hell.

I hesitantly walked around as I heard screams from under my feet and the loud pinging from the chestplate I was using for cover.

Day 10

It has been 10 whole days in this barren wasteland of a place. The ground keeps screaming in pain with every step I take and it has drawn me to the brink of insanity. Including what the storms of this place have done to me. With every strike of thunder coming onto the ground is a screech of pain to replace their usual noise. I truly think this is hell now. I need to figure out how to get out of this place.

By, Jarrod

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I kept on walking in random directions, not knowing where I was going. The rain had stopped as the clouds dissipated, showing the red sky and the sun.

I can't believe there is a sun here but I have to ignore that. I need to find some place other than this one.

Every step I take is just screams of agony, making me go slowly insane with each step I took. I was sweating from the heat that this place that I had to take my shirt off, leaving it hanging around my waist. I tried to find some shelter but there was nothing but weapons, armor, shields, bones and other things. I grunted in anger as I kept on walking, feeling like everything was getting heavier and heavier every minute that passed. Miraculously, there was a huge rib cage that looked like it was the perfect place to rest.

I sighed in relief as I went under it and layed down. Closing my eyes and falling into a deep sleep, a sleep that was very much needed.

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I kept on walking with this heavy invisible weight on me as I was writing in my journal, trying to keep my mind off of this nightmare. The screams from the sand were still happening but I've gotten used to it, I didn't know if that was a bad thing or not but here I am.

Then I heard the sand screaming more loudly than usual, I looked up in curiosity stopping in my tracks and dropping my book and pencil when I saw a huge creature swimming through the sand right in front of me. I was frozen in fear as it circled around me, making the sand cry in pain and agony as a rumbling noise came from the creature, this has to be a demon.

After a gruesome minute. It leaves, going to some place else to stalk. I was shocked to find such a heinous, gigantic creature in this place, though this is Hell and I should've expected it. I slowly sat down, not daring to move as I wrote furiously in my journal.

Day 15

I think I have been going in circles for the past 15 days but some new information has come to light as I saw a heinous creature from the depths of the sand. I stood still to not attract the demon and went away after a heart stopping minute. I would not want to see any soul come across this creature.

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Walking desperately through the wasteland, I was losing so much hope. So much in fact that I almost committed suicide. Luckily though, I didn't commit to it but I'm starting to think of doing it again.

I pulled out my journal and looked at it for a second before I started to grip it hard before I angrily ripped the pages off of the book, grunting and screaming in anger as I ripped it piece by piece, letting the pages fly into the air as I cried. "FUCKING DAMN IT!!! THUNDER SCREAMING, THE GROUND SCREAMING, THE SHITTY DEMONS ALWAYS STALKING ME LIKE PREY!!! HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN!!! HOW FUCKING LONG!!!" I yelled from the top of my chest, slamming my fist on the sand and throwing random things I found and yelling. "WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS!!!"

I yelled as it echoed out. I panted as I fell on my knees and just accepted death, I wanted that more than living in this place.

I picked up a dagger on the ground and pointed it at my neck, ready to stab myself, to relieve me from this stress.

That was when something caught the side of my eye. It was something like a forest but with red leaves, and grass.

As tears flowed down my cheeks, I dropped the dagger and slowly got up, mesmerized by the forest's color. I chuckled quietly as I stumbled my way to it, the invisible weight was so unbearable that I almost fell but I kept my balance as I chuckled quietly.

I was getting faster and faster until I was sprinting towards the forest, laughing maniacally as when I took a step on the red grass, I fell onto my knees feeling the weight being elevated from my body and wailed in delight. "Oh sweet jesus, THANK GOD!!!"

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I was resting underneath a tree, under the shade as the wind gently blew my hair away, caressing my body so carefully, it tickled me.

I was delighted, in heaven, to find this place so I wrote it down in my journal.

A place that looks like the earth but in contrast to it. I had to keep reminding myself that this is still Hell but it felt more like a paradise to me. I then thought up a name for this place.

The Devil's forgotten paradise.

I felt that was appropriate considering that Satan was once an angel of god and this place seemed to be what once was him. Might have gotten me burnt by the christians if I expressed this out in public but they're not here right now.

I then felt a tight feeling in my gut, telling me that I'm hungry.

I haven't eaten or drank anything in the past days and I'm disgustingly skinny, in my personal opinion.

I looked around the area, looking for something that could be edible until I accidentally placed my hand on a mushy, sticky thing on the ground next to me. I looked at my hand and inspected this mushy mess and found out that it was a rotten fruit.

I was surprised by this as I looked up at the tree I was resting at and saw many apples hanging from the tree that I was under.

I immediately started climbing up the tree all the way to the top as I sat down on it and plucked one from their stem. The apples had a green look to them but it seemed safe to eat so I took a bite of it.

It was so juicy and so flavorful that I started to cry as I continued eating the apples, feeling the juiciness overflow in my mouth and making me shiver in pleasure, until they were only a pile of stems behind me. Knowing that I was full, I climbed back down from the tree and tried to find some water somewhere in this forest.

I wanted to explore deeper but I was afraid of what I might encounter. I looked to my right where I saw that shithole of a wasteland I was in before and decided to walk into the forest, getting far away from that accursed land.

This place had a lot in common with the forest I was in before, trees, grass, rocks, boulders, everything except animals. I couldn't find nor hear any animals, only the wind blowing.

While walking, I caught a glimpse of a pond, shimmering in the light of the sun. My face lightened up as I ran up to it and kneeled down and started to drink it. Enjoying the refreshingness of water. I then decided to wash my hair in it too and sighed in delight, closing my eyes while doing it.

When I opened them again, I saw a horrific, nightmarish, grim, dreadful, and horrendous look-a-like of a deer in front of me. I screamed as I fell on my ass and scurried away from it as it looked at me in curiosity.

This deer had the fur and eyes of a deer but its antlers had pointed tips and jagged edges like its made to torture anyone that is trapped by it. Its front teeth, flat as a regular deer but the sides of it were sharper than a wolfs, I know this because it showed the side of its face, the teeth not even being covered by lips, as it had 8 eyes on its face. I then started to hear flesh tearing apart as those very antlers on its head started to grow everywhere around its body as it yelled out in a horrific pitch.

The antlers rapidly pointed towards me and, out of instinct, I got out of the way as they were shot out of its body and stabbed the tree that was behind me. I looked at the creature as it was already next to me, ready to kill me. That was until it disappeared out of thin air.

My heart pumping from fear as I ran back to the plains I was just in and panted as I laid beside the tree where I found the apples.

"This is hell…this is just an illusion of paradise, of course it would be Jarrod, why wouldn't it. You're in hell after all! Not knowing why you're in here even though you were a good person…fuuuuUUUUUUCCCKK!!!"

I panted as the wind blew harder but ever so gentler. I relaxed as I got up and started to walk down the plains of hell, seeing that the red grass began to have some color change, going from red to white. I admired it a little before ignoring it and kept on walking. The rustling of the trees and grass with—finally—the sound of birds in the air. I'm afraid to know what the creatures of this place look like now. I'll try my best to avoid them for now and explore this place as best I can.

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It has been so long, I started to get my usual body back again because of the things I found and hunted—little fact, the hunting part was extremely difficult due to the fact that these demons were faster, stronger, durable, etc. In fact, this entire place is stronger than me. Before it was hard to even pull out a blade of grass but now it's a little easier, not like how I would pluck the grass on the earth but easier. The bark is hard to cut down even with the knife I had in my bag. I remember trying to cut a branch with it and the blade snapped from it, not even making a dent in Hell's wood. So it was a bit difficult to live in this place but…I did it…I don't know how but I did. Even though the wood was more durable, I was able to make a fire out of it, showing how this place is, again, similar to earth. I had my sleeves up to my elbow and saw that I was starting to gain muscles. I was shocked and enjoyed flexing them until I heard a clunking sound from the distance. I grabbed the water pouch that I had and dumped it into the fire to extinguish it as I hid somewhere safe. That clanking sound could mean that there are people here with armor. I was hoping that they would be human but I could never get my hopes up for this place.

I heard the mumbles from where I was before as a female voice said, "Look for the person that lit this fire, they couldn't have gone far."

I was worried and a bit confused. Why is there a woman in an armor suit? Then when I was about to run, I bumped into something and in a split second, I blacked out.