The wheel of crimson threw him into a Tower. He was on the top, he could see grasslands before him, the sun over the horizen. The waves of grass. Zack looked around the top floor of the Tower and found a hatch. He flung it open.
Zack decended into hell.
There was no fire, no brimstone, no constant screaming of pains or the heat of sin.
Instead, it was a staircase made of stone, the only screaming was that of the birds outside of the window, the only sin was what he had commited.
His eyes flicked back and forth, to the wall, the window, his feet. The air was sweet, the skies outside of the window were stormy and grey, but otherwise fine. Green grass flowed like water, waving with the wind. He decended the stairwell with fear in his heart. Fearing the devil, fearing torment. He stepped down, farther and farther, deeper and deeper. He questioned reality, himself too. Each time he went down a floor, he saw he was at ground level, the grass was there each time. So he'd go deeper and find the grass was still there. Not once did the thought of going up occured to him. He was scared that if he went up God would strike him down for entering his domain with sin on his shoulders. Murder on his hands.
He kept going.
Each step echoed alone, each tap of his shoe on stone was driving him insane, crazier than before. The beat of his heart was a constant, drumming, sound. The thud was loud, he could hear it in his ears. The taps of his feet and his heart beat seemed like they were competeing. He felt like he'd been walking for days, but he was not tired, not hungry, not thirsty in the slightest. He still kept walking.
The chirps of the birds rang in his ears, he tried punching through the glass but only met pain, which eroded into nothing a moment later. He stopped on the stairs, resting even though he felt full of energy.
"Come on, Zack, get ahold of yourself..."
He pushed himself up and began walking. He felt like he was going crazy with each step, each perfectly shaped step. At one point he read something etched on the wall, it was crude, but readable.
Obiml ot Emoclew
Gibberish, he thought. Just gibberish.
He kept walking until he found another inscription, this one was less readable, and it seemed to have been written by a trembling hand. But Zack could still read it.
Hcae Pets sgnirb uoy Rehtraf
He continued on. He didn't look back, he kept walking. He felt the sun on his shoulders, he would walk until the end of time, maybe this was his Hell, maybe it wasn't. He would endure this test, endure until the time came, endure forever.
Endure. That was the word that came to him for each obstical, it was the word etched on the stair steps. It was etched in his head. His shoes showed no sign of withering. But his soul drained with each step. It was once a blaring light, grey. Now it was an orb of blackness. Empty. Alone. These feelings were all he could feel now. The truth had ben revealed. He'd killed his family from insanity, he did it with little remorse. He'd been caught when semen was taken from his wife's insides. Now he was here. All because he'd been too lazy to fix the T.V.
His heart hoped for a dream, he'd pinched himself, fell back, but nothing worked. He was awake, no matter how impossible it was to believe.
But a little bit of him held onto the notion. He'd wake up any minute now, it was a lucid dream. It would end, he'd wake up, kiss his wife, make breakfast, and it would be a saturday, too. He'd play catch with his sun while his daughter and wife went shopping. He would be back to his normal life. Everything would be ok. He saw a final inscription. He read this the most clearly, there was no brutality in it. It was cut with a calm, steady, hand.
Htaed.
Zack kept on walking. Feeling the sun on his shoulders burning through the window. He walked for hours until he reached a new sight. It was the bottom of the stairs. His portal stood there. Solid black, no color shone through. It was spinning patiently. It had waited for him, knowing his mind better than him. He heard a lazy voice call from it.
"Cooome to meee...." The voice said. "I've waaaaaited so loong...." The voice sounded tired, lazy, with sort of a yawn.
"Pleeeease, end that dreaded sorrow, come to mee... You're tired, let's sleeeep. Zaack."
"Ok."
He felt the true weight of his feet, they were like fifty pound weights. Zack moved his feet at a sluggish pace, raising his arms to the black mass before him. He thought for a moment. He WAS sleepy, maybe a little nap would be good for him. It was all a dream after all.
He focussed on picking his feet up, and dropping them. Every step made him sleepier. He gazed out a window, saw his house, his family waving to him, his son had a baseball mit and was smiling. He was missing a front tooth and the smile was goofy. Every step brought him closer to them. There was something wrong about their smiles. something... off. But he ignored this, kept going.
He was drawn to it, the smell of fresh meadows sprung from the portal, from his Mind Gate. It called to him, like a mother calling a child. He went to it, his defences shredded by the somber voice. His will, cut by the gracious oder. He knew he didn't want to go, not yet. He wanted to stay here and be safe. His mind tried to fight it, his mind tried to warn him.
It failed.
He stepped into the black portal, feeling his skin shed off of his body. Feeling his flesh melt and float away. He felt his eyeballs slip out of their sockets. His final thought was of his family. Tears dripped down his skinless cheeks. The pain was the worst thing he could had endured. But he did. He endured. His knees gave out, his Minds last command, an attempt to survive. He got onto his hands and crawled forward into the black fire. The flames licked at him, tasting his flesh. He dug his nails into the stone, felt them burn off, and pulled himself further. His family was smiling at him, still. He pushed harder. He tried opening his mouth to speak to them. His teeth fell out and his gums started to bleed. He made sucking noises, his lungs shriveled and died. His Liver failed with his kidneys.
Soon he was moving on nothing but his heart, it pumped blood to the dead organs, trying in vain to survive.
I'll wake up any second now, any second, any second. Oh God, it hurts, but I'll wake up. I'll see Hannah, Izzy, my darling boy. Oh God, why aren't I awake yet? Maybe I have to die in the dream. Maybe I have to-
"Die."
His last sight was that of his family. They hadn't been smiling, they're mouths were spread in horrofied, stunned, O's. He finally understood it all. His Mind had been beaten. He had endured. Now, Zack, closed his eyes.
View User's Journal
A few Books.
A little writing since I plan on being a writer.
Bear, Seek, Seek, Lest!