Thread: Passing Strange

It might be my imagination but it seems like your writing keeps getting better.

Thank you M'Lady!!

I thought it kind of fell apart back there with the whole comic relief thing at the tourist station - but my heart wasn't really in that - I just wanted to get some funny cameos in for some of the IRC crew, and it was a complete break from the actual progression of the storyline. To me that makes it feel like something unnecessary, and one of the rules of good writing is - mercilessly cut out anything unnecessary!! But It's staying in anyway of course.

I was also thinking about the old idiom - if you want em to laugh make em cry, and if you want em to cry make em laugh. It seems to be a good formula.

Anyway, once I got back to the actual storyline and back to the serious stuff, I was pleased to see my writing come back up to par IMHO.


.. And thank you once again for offering yourself as a character!! Now I can't imagine how this would have been without you!!

I enjoyed the Dark Merlin cameo - very random and surreal, but brief enough to leave you with that 'wtf was that about?' feeling, which is good for a dream.

Mouth smeared with black blood she pokes her tiny white fingers deep into the gaping wound in the side of the still-twitching harpie and plucks out a small crescent-shaped organ that I can only assume must be its liver.

Staring mockingly into my eyes she presses the tiny organ up to her thin lips, slides it tauntingly across, and sucks it into her mouth - then with the tip of her tiny pointed pink tongue she licks some of the dripping blood off her upper lip and smiles at me.

We watch in stunned silence as she picks up two more of the shuddering dying things, grasping the arrow shafts and holding them up daintily as if they're hors d'oeuvres skewered on toothpicks - and bites another big chunk from the side of each, digging around inside with her mouth - forcing her sweet innocent face deep inside and emerging dripping with gore and thick black blood, each time swallowing daintily with obvious satisfaction.

Diddy presses his hands to his mouth and starts retching, just as I step forward with some notion of restraining the abhorrent child, but before I reach her she snatches up another pair of the little beasts by the arrows impaling them and thrusts one of the trembling filthy carcasses intrusively, almost violently, into my face.

Taken aback I can only watch in horror as she now whirls and jams one of them right in front of Zombie_Muffin's slavering snapping jaws.

Xey, who must have taken the leash when DeMonica fired her arrows, yanks Muffin back just as those powerful jaws snap shut hungrily with a vicious snarl.

And the horrid little child laughs - a sound reminiscent of DeMonica's tinkling fairy-bell laughter in that other grove this morning, but deeply chilling at the same time. Somehow this dead haunted wood is the mirror opposite of that sun-dappled and joyous one - this wretched child some kind of twisted caricature of our beauteous Amazon.

DeMonica steps forward and tries to grab the little wild child, but she ducks and spins with dazzling speed - twisting away - and bites out both livers rapidly before our horrified eyes. Thick gouts of blood hang in strings from her grinning mouth to the ground where she crouches - low like a lizard.

They look normal enough, but those little teeth must be razor sharp!

Now the little girl stands challengingly, tiny bare chest thrown out, casts a defiant glance all around - meeting each of our eyes in turn - and actually clasps her little hands behind her back prettily and skips back to the remaining three bodies - rubbing our faces in the fact that we can do nothing about it.

Switching tactics, she now forces an arrow out through the back of one of the creatures and uses the knifelike tip to dig out the remaining trio of livers, which she skewers together on the arrow and gobbles like shish-kabob.



"So... " Diddy ventures, voice quavering slightly.

"You must be Sarah."

*Character Notes Serafiend*

Sero's character is a mix of several things:

Regan from The Exorcist


Hannibal Lecter


This wasn't one of them, but it came up in the search and was really disturbingly hot


And even little Natalie Portman (mainly for the hairstyle - and the tough street urchin thing)(Ok dammit, now I picture the character totally looking like her!!)

Ok no not quite - Sera's not as tall and thin as Natalie, and has much thinner lips. Same hair though. Definitely.

And now David Bowie has entered the mix after hearing Under Pressure today

Not sure quite how he can be an influence, but just keeping him in mind will flavor the character a bit.

But it didn't truly all meld together until I discovered the last puzzle piece -


Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream! Impish, irrepressible and mischievous.

Fitting, in a story whose name is a Shakespearian reference! The above portrayal is a very energetic one by a very young Mickey Rooney.

*Character Notes DeMonica*

Might as well do the same for DeMonica, another character constructed from a lot of bits and pieces.


Callisto



Milla from The Messenger: the Story of Joan of Arc


Amazon babes


Hot chicks with washboard abs


The infamous finger glove or half glove (which apparently is not called a wrist glove)




And Diana Goddess of the Hunt


Whew! Damn...

... And of course there's a healthy dose of Dianeva herself! (at least as I perceive her)

And this

Spoiler for Hot naked Knight chick - almost invivble nip:

Ok, I just found it, but it's now retroactively an influence on DeMonica. Hey - sword and gauntlet...

But yeah, it's by Sanjulian, who's paintings along with Frazetta's were a huge inspiration.

She mumbles something I don't quite catch.

"Eh, what was that?" Xey prompts. "Seraphim?"

"Sarafine I think" Diddy offers.

"No." The child says. "Serafiend."

"Ah!" Diddy seems impressed. "Seraph/ Fiend! Angel/ Devil. Very good!" He claps his hands weakly but with some enthusiasm, and she steps nearer, obviously reveling in the praise, and does a little curtsey. It's rendered grisly by the horrid black blood smeared all over both hands and arms and the lower half of her pale face and running in thick rivulets all down her nearly naked body.

Noticing us all staring at it she starts tracing lines around her blood-soaked torso with bloody fingers - drawing little smiley faces and looping lines - head tilted coyly down and making sweet puppydog eyes at us.

DeMonica drops to a knee beside her - upset and flustered, uncorks one of the water jugs hanging at her breast, and starts sloshing it all over the little girl's face and body and briskly rubbing her down. It takes the entire jug and several minutes to get her scrubbed clean, by which time her gauzy white loin clout is soaked through and deeply bloodstained.

And I'm thinking back to that other clearing again - the waterfall and DeMonica's bath...

"Hold on Dem," Diddy admonishes, raising a hand toward her. His eyes are hard and flat, his mouth a grim line. It's his angry face.

"Let me have her."

Diddy suddenly grabs the dripping girl hard and yanks her over his knee (he's seated on a low tree stump). The sheer physical exertion makes his arms shake, but he forces her down over his knee and flips up her little twist of drenched fabric and administers a stern resounding spanking bare-handed against her white buttocks, which rapidly begin to glow a fierce angry red. Little drops of water fly off his hand with every stroke.

She looks up open-mouthed in shock as the blows fall savagely one after the other - then her face turns petulant and angry.

"Stop. Ac-Ting. Pro-Vo-Ca-Tive-Ly. You. Lit-Tle. Wild. Child. Ur-Chin. Tramp!"

Each syllable punctuated by another hard whack across her bottom.

When he stops, he's red-faced and exhausted, but she's not crying. In fact she leaps lightly to her feet, rubbing her bottom a little, but idly, as if it doesn't really hurt much, and fixing him with an arch, almost seductive half-smile. He on the other hand looks shocked and a bit frightened, staring at the spot on his thighs where she lay writhing a moment ago as if convinced there's an invisible rattlesnake coiled there ready to strike.

Meanwhile the rest of us have silently assented to a little rest stop here in this grisly clearing and begun to shrug off our loads onto the ground. One end of the stone altar is still clear of blood and not littered with tiny mutilated corpses.

Xey has walked Muffin over to it and she turns and sits down on the edge of it and calmly looks around, surprising us all. I suppose when she does, it by default becomes her tuffin.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

It might be my imagination but it seems like your writing keeps getting better.

that would make sense

Carou!!

Great to see you in here! You know, if you'd have been around a month or so ago, this might have been different...

(Actually I'm not sure I could write you at all - I don't know you well enough. You're - enigmatic)

Now that she's asserted herself sufficiently and proved - at least to her own satisfaction - that she can act with impunity in our presence, the little girl relaxes and in fact becomes downright friendly and pleasant.

DeMonica had tried to examine the wound in her side, but it's already closed up mysteriously leaving not a trace.

"Yeah, I heal fast - " is the girl's enigmatic response. "I need to - they feed every day."

We all shudder at this thought. However strange and frightening (and possibly murderous) this little girl is, she's human - and a little girl - and her being attacked and torn open like that every day by those terrible filthy things is unthinkable.

We take the opportunity to re-organize our dwindling gear. One water jug is empty now and each has been depleted somewhat. Xey combines what's left into two jugs and sets the empties on the edge of the stone dais.

In unrolling the blankets to fold them smaller and re-roll them, I find some clothing Zha_Zha had included - apparently in case Zombie_Muffin needed to change along the way, and the white shorts and black hoodie actually fit our new charge quite well if slightly roomy, and amazingly the white sneakers fit perfectly.

All cleaned up and freed from the wire mask she's quite pretty, though there's a hint of slight masculinity about the cleft in her little chin and the somewhat bony line of her jaw. Her thick black hair is cut in a short bob just beneath the earlobes and the bangs held back with pink-yellow-and-white Hello Pony barrettes.


"So" she inquires "What brings you here? It's not often I get visitors."

Diddy clears his throat, a hand laid on his chest. Talking is becoming an obvious effort for him.

"I've lost - something." The hand is stroking across his chest and upper abdomen absently, almost as if feeling around for something that it expects to find there.

"I believe it was brought here - to the island. And we were told you're the best guide.. "

"Ah! So that's it. Yeah - you were told right. Most things here are afraid of me - when I'm - loose. And I am grateful you brought down my lunch for me - I swore years ago that as soon as I got free I'd devour their livers, though it's a shame I could only do it once for each of them. They weren't cursed to regenerate each day like I was."

"Does it.. " Xey begins

"Hurt? Hell yes!! Hurts like burning screaming hell every time! You never get used to something like that. But I've just learned to - deal with it."

DeMonica stands and starts to hang the remaining pair of water jugs against her chest and Xey gets up to help her.

"Wait - waitwaitwait." The little girl raises a hand, shaking her head sardonically. She takes three little skipping steps and reaches up, lifts the water jugs off over DeMonica's head as the Amazon bends to allow it.

"If I'm to be your guide - you're going to have to listen to me. It's plain you don't know what the hell you're doing... sloppy sloppy sloppy!! I can't believe you made it this far!"

We exchange wondering glances, starting to smile. When she's good this girl is very very good.

"You're doing it all wrong - I could see that instantly as soon as you all appeared from the woods. Using way too much strength trying to restrain the zombie and carrying the entire load yourselves at the same time. Sloppy!"

She steps over to Muffin, who's still rather subdued but staring around morosely as if she's annoyed about something, and hangs the jugs around her slender neck.

"This is your powerhouse right here." She slaps Zombie-Muffin hard on the upper back, and strangely gets no reaction from her. If anyone else had done that there'd be a bleeding stump and screaming by now.

"Rather than fighting her, put her to work. She can carry the entire load easily - notice how strong she is?"

She takes up the blankets, which we've layered together and rolled into one compact bundle, and loops the rope around her upper back and then over the shoulders so it doesn't constrict Muffin's neck but the package hangs against her lower back neatly.

"This lightens the load for each of you, and at the same time it'll weigh this little speed freak down and make her a lot easier to control. Plus not to mention - when you run into some big scary monster out here you don't want to be carrying a bunch of crap - you'd better be ready to fight or run - fast!

"Speaking of which.. " she continues, looking around at us. "Do you have any weapons? Besides her I mean?"

We have to shrug embarrassedly. Perhaps she's right - we might have been foolish to come here unarmed and so ill-prepared. In my defense - I had no fucking idea where we were going at the time!


The little girl's eyes wander up and down DeMonica's strong and supple body (something I've been trying hard not to do lately) - perhaps a bit too lingeringly, and I swear I see the tip of that tiny pink tongue dart out briefly and wet her lips. At this point I honestly don't know what to make of this enigmatic creature we've linked our destiny to!

DeMonica's giving her the creeped-out look when suddenly those amazing ice blue eyes flicker toward me.

Damn it! She caught me looking again, and I wasn't even aware I was doing it - in fact I was trying NOT to!!

"Looking for something?"

Wow - no idea how to answer that - sarcasm is not what I expect from her!! And I know it's partly because she's a little freaked out about Sera looking her over a second ago - but I'm an easier target.

I'm looking at the ground - behind me. Dammit, I just turned my head away like a stupid angry child! What the hell is wrong with me? I did not even suspect jealously could still affect me, but it's having its way with me. Ugly head indeed.


" 'E's wonderin just what the 'ell 'appened when we both disappeared off into the woods together, aintcha mate?"

Xey.

Keep your damn mouth shut.

Mate.

Fuck! Where the hell is this COMING from??!! It's totally not like me!! I really hate myself right now.

And they're all staring at me, smiling coldly.

Fuck.


DeMonica steps up close - closer than she's been to me since - well, since that horseback ride. Definitely don't think about that now.

And even though I know she's about to do something I'm not going to like, still the closeness of her body is exciting - in a way I wish it wasn't right now.

Then her amazingly bright blue eyes lock on mine from inches away and I'm done for. Most of me is actually buying the sweet smiling look.

Her hand touches my thigh - what the hell... ? Should have just broke and run right there - took my chances with whatever lurks out in this hellish landscape - I think I might have been safer. But of course I'm frozen to the spot like a damn fool.

"What I'd like to know... " Crap. There it is - the teasing mocking tone I knew was coming but that I'm helpless against.

"Is what exactly you did for that good half an hour you were alone out in the woods - with these!?"

Her hand slides into my pocket - pulls out Zha_Zha's tightly rolled orange booty shorts - lifts them up right in front of my face, and with a flick of her supple lovely wrist unrolls them so they brush right against my skin, my nose and lips. Huge blue block letters spell out GOT ASS?

Right in my damn face.


Ok, too much!

Before I know what I'm doing I swat them out of her hand and to the ground.

Anger and embarrassment heat my face simultaneously.

But the potent musky aroma remains.

Damn it's potent and musky!

They laugh - their voices too high and shrill. Something in the pit of my stomach turns and breaks, starts leaking poison into me slowly.

I turn away, bend and snatch up the shorts.

"Dammit, we need these to get back into the Castle!"

"Oh yeah... THAT'S why you want them!" Her voice is cutting. "Wow, I can smell them from here... strong stuff!" DeMonica smirks. "But I guess it would be - after all she had to play Horsie in his lap - all the way to completion. Knocked him right out. And who knows how many times she might have.. completed - I'd say at least a few judging from that aroma... "

My hands are trying to roll them back up, stuff them into my pocket again and end this, but they're clumsy and stupid. She easily snatches them from me in a brisk efficient manner obviously designed to mimic Zha-Zha's.

"Here... it's a signal... give these to the stable boy... he'll take you to see me... " Imitating her voice..

And she slides the tightly rolled shorts back into my pocket - slowly, teasingly, making me feel every inch of it.

FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu


Dammit no not here not now no dammit fuck

And it begins - every scrape, every abrasion, every cut I got against her back this morning tearing open slowly.

Face probably purple now I speak:

"I washed myself. That's all. I needed to - I was a bloody mess. And besides - I couldn't - even if I wanted too. Too damn sore."

Probably the dumbest thing I could have said, but I'm not capable of anything better right now. And at least it gets the heat off. They laugh again, but it's clear it's over now.

I'm acutely aware of her brilliant eyes glancing at me several times over the next 10 minutes or so as we work - dammit I'm incapable of standing up straight! It hurts too damn much.

Oh she really did a number on me!

ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

"And what are you carrying?" Sera's right behind me now, standing on the altar on which I'm sitting - leaning forward to get her little face very close against my body, and sniffing at the rope of sausages slung over my shoulder and across my chest. Sniffing fast like a dog.

"This smells - delicious!" Her face registers bliss momentarily.

Suddenly she jams her head down against my back and starts licking her way up the rope of sausages - one long deliberate motion ending with her face inches from mine, eyes half- lidded as if in ecstasy, and that damn pink tongue teasing along her upper lip so close to mine I can feel it. And then with another quick dipping head movement she's licking her way up the side of my face, pressing hard into it and making a low growly nummy noise deep in her throat - obviously trying to shock and provoke me.

I break away and pull to the side fast, leaving her leaning assertively into the space I just vacated and making self-satisfied little chewing motions with a sweet smile. She leans in closer and her little arm slides down my chest and abdomen - wtf!?? In an eerie imitation of DeMonica last night she grasps the end piece of sausage, hanging there against my lap, slowly levers it upright, tightens her grip and twists several times hard from side to side, then plucks it off.

Why do people keep doing that??!!

She bares her teeth right next to my neck and clacks them together loudly twice, then barks out a quick laugh and spins away, lifts it to her little cannibal mouth and takes it down in three quick bites.

Moments later we're just about ready to move out again - but it's plain King Diddy not only can't walk anymore, he can't even stand up.

Little Sera looks around with a tiny forefinger pressed against her chin, taps it idly a few times, and reaches a fast conclusion.

"Got anymore rope?"

Xey pulls a small coil off that he's carrying over his shoulder and tosses it to the ground at her feet.

Sera selects a couple of long sturdy branches laying on the ground and puts DeMonica to work cutting them and pruning off the extra twigs, then has me and Xey tie them together with a few short cross-members into a long sledge that we then attach to Muffin's shoulders and pad with the two blankets.

But true to the frightening little girl's word, our Zombie-Muffin is more than equal to the task, easily pulling all the extra weight and still straining ahead powerfully. Even when we help Diddy onto the sledge and lash him to it securely.

Wow, talk about a pack-mule!

While we were busy with this task, Sera was fiddling with the empty water jugs and now has them lashed to the underside of the sledge. "Trust me - they'll come in handy later." She promises.

"And one final thing before we set off - "

She picks up the iron wire mask laying on the altar, steps before Muffin, and gently hinges it shut over her head. Astonishingly, she allows it without protest. Sera then clamps the hasped black iron collar into place and snaps the padlock shut to secure it - minus of course the short length of chain that's still secured to a ring set into the stone dais.

"She needs this more than I do." Sera says, smiling rather archly.

Personally I'm not so sure I agree.

^ I added a section to the last post - put it in a quote box so it's easy to find if you missed it before.

There were a lot of things bugging me about that last section - but I've gone through several times and done some editing and polishing up and now I think it flows a lot better and just works better. It's amazing sometimes how much difference it can make just to change a few words and move a sentence or two around. It can really save a whole section you thought was pure crap!

Fifteen

Sleeper

The scraggly dead woods fall away behind us and we cross several more miles of boulder-strewn smoking sulphur flats before again beginning a long rugged downhill grade. From his slanted palette Diddy motions me to step closer.

"Must be weird - " I muse "being dragged backwards through hell."

"Hah! And tied to a zombie!!" he laughs. "What happens to ME when we encounter one of these big scary monsters and everybody starts running and fighting - what the hell do I do?!!"

Sera is skipping along merrily in front, DeMonica and Xey behind her leading Muffin (who has again taken to snapping and foaming at everything) and me once again taking up the rear to keep an eye on king Diddy and largely so he has another human being to look at and talk to from time to time.

"Do be sure and tell me if something untoward happens where I can't see it will you dear boy - I'd hate for everything to go crazy and me laying here all strapped up not even knowing what's going on!"

"Mmm, well you may be interested in this... up ahead - way up ahead - there's a huge column of smoke - hundreds of times bigger than the ones we've seen. Or - it might actually be a lot of small ones all crowded together. I'll let you know when we get closer."

Serafiend is dropping back - still skipping happily but slowing to visit us.

"Thought I'd better tell you something.. " She says.

Then she suddenly skips sideways right into me, grabs another sausage link - twists it off and devours it in two gulps, belching and wiping her mouth on her black sleeve comically.

".. This sausage is excellent!" She smiles brightly, starts humming some little tune, and skips back up to the front.

I grumblingly re-adjust the rope of sausages so the end is hanging down in the back. Getting really tired of that.

Walking is a torment now that DeMonica has re-inflated my hypernormal lust and re-opened all the wounds. And I feel like everyone can see it plainly. And not a damn thing I can do about it but keep walking.

A few small creatures scatter from our path and break for cover - little slithering snakes and lizards and the like.

In a few moments Diddy motions me over again and asks if we're alone. We are - the rest are beyond earshot up ahead.

"That little demon child.. " He begins.

"Yeah, not sure what to make of her."

"Hah! Her!" his attempt at laughter turns into a quiet coughing fit. "What was it Xey said so recently - that's no girl mate. Not where it counts anyway." He looks down at his legs for a moment. His thighs, the spot he stared at troubledly after his spanking of the little savage.

"I felt it. Felt it - stir. No sausage this time. But it's more than just that. Her body may be that of a little girl - well mostly - but the spirit is masculine. And - older. Infinitely corrupted. I have a sense for these things."

He motions me even closer.

"That's also why I can tell what's going on with you three - all this soap opera stuff. It's not real. I mean it is - but it's exaggerated. It's not normal for you to be a jealous twit, is it? No, or for DeMonica to be petty and vengeful. And Xey - not sure what it's doing to him. But it's this place. It exerts a seeping influence that starts to break you down - finds some weakness and starts to exploit it. Activates primal emotions and amplifies them."

Of course! No wonder. That would explain it. None of us were like this before arriving here.

I hush him with a hand signal as Serafiend again drops back, still skipping gleefully. I shake my head with a wry grin, twist off a sausage and toss it to her before she can get within 20 feet. She snatches it out of the air with her teeth with a head movement too quick to see and gulps it down without chewing.

".. Our Virgil." Diddy says ironically. I look at him questioningly.

He laughs caustically, as if he doesn't expect me to understand.

"Virgil was a guide - spirit of an ancient poet who led Dante through the Inferno. Tell me something - have you noticed - about the terrain here.. ?

"Stretches of level ground separated by rugged hillsides. I haven't got a good look at the overall shape - but in Dante the Inferno was a series of descending concentric rings of level ground separated by sheer cliffs, leading down into the central pit. Each level represented different sins, and once finding his proper level nobody could leave it. The only way out was right down through the center - past Lucifer himself."

Interesting..

Now we've again reached level ground. Looming ever closer ahead is that massive field of rising smoke, and the air is getting hard to breathe.

I just wanted to take a moment to say how hot those "Hot chicks with washboard abs" pics are. Damn.
That's all for now. Still got some reading to catch up on.

^ WHOAH!! Avatar scared me there for a minute!!

... ok, still scaring me...

And inorite??!! Every time I'm on this page I have to scroll up and check em out again. Hawt!!

We start to angle to the right, and I can see that if we had continued in a straight line we would have encountered, not another downhill slope, but a massive trench a good four hundred feet across and I can't see how deep. Sera leads us on a course parallel to the edge of it, but a hundred feet away. When I explain this to Diddy he tells me he wants to talk to her. So I break off a sausage and wave it in the air next time she looks back. It's only moments before she drops back, skipping and humming.

"Why have we turned?" Diddy inquires.

"Trench. Can't walk across a trench. Gimme that delectable sausage!" I hold it up out of her reach.

"Why this way? Is there a bridge ahead, or some way to cross?"

Sera makes a grab for the sausage but I play keepaway.

She laughs and suddenly drops the whole little girl act - turns to Diddy. "No bridge. There used to be several, but the giants tore them all down, and every time somebody builds another one they do it again. They're very angry. Sometimes they throw boulders... that's why we need to stay away from the edge for as long as we can."

"As long as we can... implies that soon we won't be able to?"

"The Burning Field passes too close, and we can't walk through the Burning Field either, but there's a path between."

She makes a sudden grab for the sausage, but I snatch it away. She shoots me a look that from any other child would be merely petulant but from her it chills my blood. I quickly break the sausage and toss her half.

"So how do we cross, if there are no bridges?"

She sticks her arms straight out and starts running around tilting and dipping like an airplane, making propeller noises with her lips.

".. we fly. Alright, I won't ask." I toss her the rest of the sausage.

* * *

"Burning Field dead ahead!" Sera pus the emphasis on the first word - it's not a burning field, it's a burning field.

We've been gradually approaching the massive rising column of smoke up on the right, and now I can see it truly is coming from one gigantic source - a vast field stretching farther than I can see into the distance. The very ground itself seems to be burning - the sulphurous yellow stony soil that comprises this entire place. There's a monstrous, gigantic crackling and a hissing roar as the intense heat draws air in from all around to feed the conflagration.

I squint hard into the flickering, violently wavering orange/yellow glare and I can make out shapes - strange forms that seem to be partially buried.


human I breathe.

Sera laughs cruelly.

They're buried in all manner of strange twisted postures - some with only an arm or leg emerging, some only a head or a face or an elbow or a foot - maybe only a finger or two - and every piece of every body exposed to that intensely hot inferno is shuddering and twitching in unendurable agony.

Now I can begin to make out voices as well - almost lost in the colossal crackling of flames and the jet-engine roar of indrawn air. Those who are able - whose heads or at least mouths are free of the superheated soil are screaming and wailing and shrieking. Arms and legs and heads and torsos are flailing and slamming the ground senselessly all around, madly beating themselves against anything handy - including any nearby bodies or parts of bodies. None of them have any hair or clothing - and in the flickering eye-searing orange glare it looks like they might not have skin either.

Impossible to say really.

I seem to be partially in shock. Numb inside, but filled with a horrible fear and an unendurable trepidation and a need to do - something. To help. But how? There is no help for those condemned souls. I must simply keep walking, listening to their tortured cries and seeing their agonized writhings and feeling the intense almost unendurable heat of this infernal fire wash over me in waves. And just keep walking.

Ahead I see DeMonica huddled into Xey's arms, her head turned resolutely away from the suffering and screaming. For the first time she actually looks - weak. Almost like she might be crying. And I can't bear to see that any more than the unendurable vision beside us.

So I turn and look down instead into the pit.

Lol if it seems Hell suddenly got a lot more Hellish it's because I decided to research a little and found an amazing wiki page about the Inferno. Even just the brief descriptions of the various torments and sufferings is enough to make you say "Holy Crap!" and turbocharge your ideas for hell. Yes friends, for the most intense visions of physical human torture imaginable it's necessary to look to the towering geniuses of the past - and in particular the most devoutly Christian of them. Who better to imagine visions of undendurable sufferings and tortures?

And interestingly, I discovered there really were Harpies in the Inferno - hell I didn't know, I just threw them in randomly as more vaguely mythical monsters. They tormented the souls of suicides...

Also quite interesting and coincidental to me - I found the next monster I'm about to introduce (well, after the giants) was aslo a denizen of the Inferno. I won't say anymore though - don't want to spoil it. Oh this is gonna be good!

I am absolutely NOT following Dante's design for the Inferno here! Only borrowing from it however I feel like and mixing things up to make it my own and to make it work with the story.

Example - originally, after reading that wiki page I planned for the Burning Field to be this:

Those who committed simony are placed head-first in holes in
the rock (resembling baptismal fonts), with flames burning
on the soles of their feet

But it turned out to be rather dull so I combined it with the descriptions of sinners buried in all manner of contorted positions in a flat plain of ice, some partially emerging and some buried deep:


The results were much more interesting.

And I'm not in the slightest interested in the minutiae, such as which punishments are for which sins, or which take place on which levels. Shit, I'm just having fun with it!!

*Retroactive Edit*

I forgot to mention, but

as we walk along the edge of the trench we're hearing gigantic voices rumbling and thundering up from it. The voices of giants. We can't identify anything being said in English, but it could be because of the massive distortion of the titanic voices echoing and reverbrating in the trench.

Despite the fact that we can't understand any of them, we can clearly distinguish anguish and rage - there's an incredibly thunderous din of shouting and yelling and threatening sounds - as well as a continuous lamenting and occasional titanic sobbings.

There are also sounds of apocalyptic violence - great powerful blows and howls of pain. And at times a huge clashing as of boulders being thrown.

So yeah - that's been going on to our left for a while now, Mmmmmkay?

*Other Retroactive Edit*

To be inserted slightly before the LAST retroactive edit, during the description of the Burning Field - in fact right after these lines:

Arms and legs and heads and torsos are flailing and slamming the ground senselessly all around, madly beating themselves against anything handy - including any nearby bodies or parts of bodies. None of them have any hair or clothing - and in the flickering eye-searing orange glare it looks like they might not have skin either.

Impossible to say really.

Then moving among them I notice great huge balls rolling and bounding - propelled by the flailing convulsive movements of the limbs and torsos. They seem to be made of compacted barbed wire, glowing red hot! They range from basketball-sized to as large as medicine balls or even bigger. I spy one rolling ponderously in the distance that seems as large as a bus! And flung about by the spastic jerkings of the tormented souls they smash and strike devastatingly where they land, always amid the sea of writhing tortured flesh. When they near the edge of the burning field they turn back - moved perhaps by the powerful in-rushing of air which is sucking our hair and clothing in toward the heart of the raging hellfire, or perhaps by some other agency.

I notice Diddy turn his head to look closer at something on the ground near us. I look as well - to see a lone penis and scrotum emerging from the ground just at the very edge of the flame, where it doesn't burn quite as high or hot. Like the other visible body parts, the tormented penis twitches and shudders and writhes in the withering heat. I can't help but place a protective hand over my own in sympathy as I feel a terrified shudder run down my spine.

It's dim down there, but I can make out huge monstrous forms - vaguely human in outline though distorted and misshapen. They seem to range in size from maybe 20 feet tall to possibly 50 or 60 - at least the ones I can best make out. The trench itself looks to be about a hundred feet deep here, so I'm looking down quite a ways, but It doesn't feel safe at all - some of the bigger ones might be able to reach this high if they extend their arms.

But I start to notice that many of them are bound in various ways. Some are wrapped with many turnings of heavy chain which is bolted to the ground or the wall at multiple points around them, holding them in strange twisted positions. Some are partially buried similarly to the tormented souls in the Burning Field to our right - only awkwardly bent limbs or heads or buttocks visible above ground. And some seem to be free to roam and stomp and rage among the bound ones, smashing and rending them with lengths of massive chain like anchor chain or huge clubs or to dash boulders at them.

Also moving among them I see long thick-bodied serpents - can't quite make out if they're more like snakes or possibly long lizards with very short legs, but they occasionally spew gouts of fire from their mouths and lash the giants with tails studded with sharp spines that cause grievous wounds and copious bleeding.

The sight is so unsettling - so horrendously frightful, and the ground shaking and juddering to the calamitous tumult of their gigantic violence, that I cannot for long peer into their midst and must again lift my sight away from them.

And now, surrounded on both sides by this immense suffering and apocalyptic violence, I'm filled with an intolerable despair - my very soul seems to cry out in anguish that it cannot for long bear. Unable to look upon anything else now, I lock eyes with King Diddy, who perhaps doesn't realize how fortunate he is not to be able to see into the trench nor far into the field of suffering souls - and I know my face must be wracked with anguish even as his.

Oh why must we endure this? Just being here is torment beyond belief. It MUST end soon. I don't think I can withstand it much longer. I feel at any moment, utterly beyond my control, I will break down and begin to weep inconsolably or perhaps to scream and not be able to stop.

The others must feel the same, for our entire party is moving faster.

I cannot say how long we thread a horrific path between these extremes of pitiless torment, but after some time a low wall begins to rise up mercifully on our right, gradually growing taller as we progress, and cutting off the intolerable heat and noise of the Burning Field until after some distance it had become seemingly a solid cliff wall beside us.

*Teaser for today's upcoming section*

Wow, I'm really dragging our intrepid band of travelers through Hell, aren't I?

But so far they've only WITNESSED immense suffering and violence - it hasn't been personally visited upon them.

Not yet..

(Plus nifty monstrous guest appearance by another board regular)