Prologue
Blazing light fell down upon me, lashing my already-bloodied wings, forcing me down to Earth, forcing me to scream in agony as the others circled around, their eyes cold, their hearts still.
"I'm dead, brother!" I spat through clenched teeth. "You can't kill me twice!"
A shadow formed before me, eyes blazing red. "You know what you've done. You'll die a million times for that." He took hold of my wings, stopping my falling, and pulled me closer. "You deserve no pleasures, sister. None!"
"I'll always have flight, Blaze." I told him softly, my voice starting to fail. "You can't take my wings. Your soul will never rise."
"Watch me." He spat, digging his claws into my back. He raked them against my flesh, blood spurting everywhere, and grabbed the base of my wings. I felt him start to dig in, slowly, making me feel every prick, every agonizing movement he made before he ripped my wings off and sent me falling in a waterfall of reflected blood. I awaited the silence of the Nothing condemned to me.
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It begins with the numbing cold, always lurking, always lingering, always ready to snatch the next soul within reach and smother it with the jagged claws of death. I can't remember the last time my eyes fell upon any form of light or substance. What I would give for a candle... just one, oh, God, just one candle, just one light....
You're always falling, but without the sensation. It's a little hard to explain, perhaps I can relate it to space. Cold, dark, unforgiving, just a big empty sky of nothingness where all you can do is drift and drift and drift, never changing course, never getting any closer to whatever destination awaits you at the end.
Welcome to the real Hell. No fire, no brimstone, only eternal damnation in what is known as the Abyss, the Nothing. Self-explanatory really, here there is nothing. No pain, no fear, no change... and yet, this is no utopia. Without pain, there is no thrill, no jolt to keep you going. Without fear, there is no relief, no joy at living and watching others live because there is no one else here, not a single soul.... And without change, there is no hope, no more wishing for the better, no more wondering, imagining, there is only nothing. I swear there's nothing, nothing more terrifying than Nothing itself.
I hate to admit this, but I suppose there is a reason for my being here... a rather large reason, really. I've tried to regret my decision, the one that landed me here, but I can't. My life was mine and mine alone, I hold responsibility to it and I have no regrets. What's the point of a regret anyway? I'll stand by my choices, I made them myself, after all, and I'm not about to go blaming anyone else or regretting any foolishness if it was all my own doing-
-But I digress. My past... I was remembering what brought me here....
