Heaven and Hell is pretty cringe, actually: Part Seven

*This story is underneath my folder titled “Heaven and Hell is pretty cringe, actually”. Gacha Club character designs are under this forum: https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=116005&start=1455. Enjoy!*

We are all in the hallway, away from the beach and Lisa’s Dad. Nobody says anything. I think we’re still trying to collect ourselves after we were just propelled from the second Great Horror into safety. I still can’t believe that we managed to get through two of the Great Horrors without Carrie finding us. There’s no way we’ll be able to get through the last one…but there might be. I don’t know. I want to try.

“My Mom killed him and trapped him in here a year before she locked me in the closet. She said I was useless just like him.” Lisa suddenly says.

Her red eyes look like they’re burning, so full of life and destruction and her voice has an undercurrent of anger in it. She’s so frail, so much like a ghost, and yet I don’t think that I’ll be surprised if she attacks.

“I’m sorry about that. Nobody deserves to be called useless.” Dane says, standing up. The rest of us are getting up from the ground too.

“And nobody deserves to be taken by a demon, but you still let that happen. Because you’re selfish. You only ever thought about yourself.” Lisa snaps, narrowing her eyes at him.

“What? Lisa, I-“

“Shut up. You don’t get to have an opinion. It’s not your problem. You have bigger things to worry about than me and my life.”

Lisa has raised her claw-like fingers towards Dane, who is bending backwards, screaming as she twists his bones, pulls at his skin-what does she think she’s doing? Why is she-what-I can’t believe-

The rest of the hallway blurs as I rush towards her, trying to stop her from doing whatever she’s doing, but she doesn’t stop. She won’t stop. Why is she doing this? He was being nice to her. He’s just a kid. I don’t understand. How come Adele and Lauren aren’t doing anything? Do they not care that much? Do they just want to watch?

“Stella, stop it!”

I’m flung backwards, the hallway seeming to float around me as I land on my feet.

Black goo drips down from her red eyes, like tears. There are claw marks on her pale skin, deep blue-black lines. Her whole body shakes like she wants to crawl out of her own skin.

“Dane did something bad. It does not matter if he isn’t as bad as you think he is. It doesn’t matter that he’s sorry. None of that matters because he still gave his only friend to a demon. And now that he’s here, I have to make him a demon. That’s what he deserves. Don’t stop me.” Lisa seethes.

I don’t know what to do. I don’t think that there is anything I can do. I already see the horns and wings finishing up forming on Dane. The tail, teeth, and claws are next. I know that Lisa is right, but…

I just…it feels wrong. Why should he have to go through what I’m going through in Hell? Why should he have to suffer? Why…well, it’s Hell. If we’re here, then we all did something terrible.

It’s not like I can change anything. The monsters come and go and I’ll have to deal with it.

I’m not perfect myself. I was more enraged at Lisa than I needed to be. She’s young too. She was trapped and I gave her those marks. I made her shake the way she’s shaking now. She may not be human, but she still feels. She’s just doing what she is meant to do. One parent doesn’t want her and the other is trapped. And yet I didn’t give the time to listen.

I never thought of myself as a completely good person, because I don’t think that anybody can truly be good, but hurting a fourteen year old? Nearly making her bleed? That’s a low I never thought I’d go, a deed I never thought I was capable of doing.

You killed your twin sister. It doesn’t matter if she deserved it or not. You still did it. You go around thinking that you’re so reasonable and level-headed and above Adele and her madness but you are not. You are a demon who wants to act like a self-righteous servant of God. Who are you to decide what’s fair and what isn’t, you pathetic mortal girl?

I don’t know where these thoughts are coming from. It sounds like me, but different. It feels familiar and strange all at once, like the thoughts were there all along and only now they come out.

My vision is getting blurry. But it can’t be tears. I haven’t cried since I was little.

Maybe nobody is perfect, but don’t go around thinking that everyone is as bad as you. There are people who are better than you. Amanda was better than you. Amanda was close to perfect.

Amanda. Yes, Amanda. Auburn hair and autumn brown eyes. She loved beautiful things like butterflies and wicked things like flies. She was an unbelievably beautiful person, inside and out, almost too good to be true. She deserved to live, to grow old, to spread her love.

What do you think Amanda will think of you…when she sees you like this?

Me. A monster. My emotions getting the best of me. That’s not mature. That’s not how I’m supposed to act. What with my horns and my wings and…and everything that Carrie did to me…I look like me…but different. Or am I different? Is this what my soul always looked like? Is this finally the truth? Is-

Maybe you shouldn’t be making this journey at all. Maybe you should never see her again.

I can’t see the hallway anymore. I can’t see them anymore. It’s dark. Completely dark.

And I can’t move.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Well, I can move, but when I reach out, I feel something holding me back. Like there’s something in front of me that’s keeping me from leaving. I can only hit a hard surface when I bring my knees up. It’s all around me. I don’t know where I am, but this darkness is all that I see and no matter how hard I bang against it, it won’t let me out.

I hear muffled voices above me. I don’t know what they’re saying or who they belong with to, but I want to find out. I want the people talking to see me.

I keep trying to get out. Maybe if I hit it hard enough it’ll break. Everything will be clearer for me after that. I just need to keep hitting and-there’s a tingling all throughout my body. What is it? Why is it here? What-

A white flash like the camera app on my own blinks before me. I can see my raised hands, the centipedes and the maggots crawling in my decomposing, peeling skin…oh…oh my…

A scream breaks out from my throat, but it sounds raspy and feels weary. My top teeth hurt…no, my gums, not my teeth…are my gums falling off? No, they…maybe they are…

This is what you really are. This is what you really look like. So you know what? Why don’t you just let me help you teach them all a lesson? Every human has their vices and the truly good ones end up dead or missing anyway. Do yourself a favor and say yes.

I freeze. The voice in my head is a woman’s voice, harsh and biting. A part of me understands what she means and another part of me doesn’t want to ask.

“What?”

Let me take over your dead body and bring the rest of the world with you. It is what they deserve.

Take-take over?! This is what Celeste briefly mentioned before letting me and Adele go. The demon controlling dead bodies on Earth to do what she wants with them. And somehow, she’s got me.

I’m kicking and banging my fists against my coffin-that is what this place must be-not to get out, but to get rid of her. I don’t know any magic to get her out, but maybe if I shake and scream hard enough, she’ll leave me.

I need to keep moving like she’s inside my skin, because in a way, she is. I can hear her telling me to stop, to give in, but I won’t stop, I can’t stop, because this is my body and I won’t let her wear it. I don’t want to give up. I want to go back, I have to go back.

Nothing hurts except her voice and the tingling of the bugs. Her essence is clinging onto me like how Adele clung onto me as we fought, digging her nails into my skin, trying to break me apart.

I won’t let her. She won’t break me.

My screams don’t stop. I don’t stop fighting.

I’m going to force her out of me. She does not belong here.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

I didn’t know what would happen if I kept fighting, but I hoped for the best. At least I got out. At least I don’t feel or hear her anymore.

But I still don’t know where I am. Everyone else is gone. I know that I’m in Hell, but where in Hell?

The room I am standing in has lavender walls with pink butterfly and flower decals. There’s a white bookshelf next to a door that looks like a closet, but all of the books look blank. No titles, no author names.

The floor is covered in white carpeting and stuffed animals. The bed behind me has a lime green bedspread with a cartoonish blue and purple owl printed on it. Above me is a circular white bulb and in front of me is a pink frame wall mirror. It reflects the room I’m in and me, with my leather black wings and gray, curving horns.

I don’t look right here, in this childish room. I don’t feel right here.

I walk up to one of the windows (there are two) and pull back the white lace curtains. I only see a kaleidoscope of stars in a black-blue sky. Pure space.

I let go of the curtains. It’s okay. I’m okay. I just need to find the others. This is what Hell looks like. I’ll get going now.

But I hear someone now. Somebody panting, struggling as they walk. It’s coming from outside of the room, I’m sure of it.

I walk out of the room. I was going to get out anyway. Whoever it is, they might need help. Maybe we can both get out of here together.

There’s a human-shaped silhouette made by a mass of orange, red, and even blue burning blobs. A soft white, halo glow glimmers above the silhouette’s head and is shining on the beige hallway walls.

They are leaning onto the wall to help them walk and I’m just standing here, watching them. I can’t. Not anymore. They need help and I have to help in any way I can.

I run over to the silhouette and embrace it. It does not hurt me. Nothing can really hurt when you’re dead.

It shakes and sobs into my arms, the burning blobs melting away from it, bit by bit. They sink into the hardwood floor and disappear.

Some of them stick onto it-her. It’s her. It has to be. Her warm orange-rouge hair all tangled up in knots, her peach skin holding gray bruises on it. She’s wearing the pastel colors she always has and a white halo drips gently on her head. I just can’t believe that she’s even here at all, but anyone with eyes can see that she’s…

“Amanda?”