Pain...

Pain was the only thing he felt as he woke up, his hands stabbed through with hooks connected to short chains bolted to a nearby brick wall. His feet, well really the empty spot between his ankle and his achilles tendon, were nailed together.

His eyes, too bloody to see through, his mouth, drier than a desert, his body...burning and not just in a metaphorical way. From the young man's perspective there was a burning fire embering his organs.

Out of his dry and cracked lips he managed to breathe one defiant word, a name, the name of the person he wanted to see more than anybody else in the entire world.

"Clare"

This young man had died, and he was now burning in hell.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The last thing that he remembered was being struck by a large pole of some sort, afterwards he felt another large object pierce into his back and then out his chest, as he looked down he noticed that it was an arm.

He turned around and saw Priscilla standing behind him with an emotionless stare… and a missing arm.

His vision began to darken and fade, before long he began to feel like he was falling.

As soon as he opened his eyes… he woke up here.

He looked around, he found himself surrounded by four brick walls, one of which had a barred and locked door.

The room looked moist and humid, moss seemed to seep in from the edges of the bricks. There seemed to be a quiet dripping sound coming from above him.

The young man- Raki- slowly looked down at his hands, his neck shook with pain as he moved it. The fire he felt seemed to burn harder with every movement, honing in on the muscles that were being used.

He lightly groaned as his head finally reached its destination and he saw his hands.

They were hooked in alright, but he knew that if he rotated his hands just right then he could free them.

As he slowly rotated his right hand his muscles burned like the embers. He opened his mouth which only caused more burning. He let out a strained cry as pain overwhelmed his body.

At last as his hand was only inches away from being free, the hook seemed to jerk itself back, twisting Raki's arm and making the hole in his hand even bigger.

Raki let out a pained yell. "WHY! WHERE AM I! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING!"

He closed his eyes and began to weep "Why is this happening to me…"

Suddenly he heard footsteps, coming from up above him of all places. From what he could tell the person was running and wearing metal boots.

He looked up and saw a gaping hole in the roof above him. Suddenly a figure quickly appeared.

"Hey!" the figure shouted out excitedly. From what Raki could tell it came from a woman. Her voice was brash yet powerful.

"Hello? Where am I?" begged Raki "What is this place!? Why am I here?" The figure gave no response, instead she just looked down at him. As Raki's eyes adjusted to the light he saw that she was wearing a full suit of armor and she had a large sword on her back.

"Are you… Human?" asked the woman.

"What kind of question is that? Of course I am!" Thought Raki. At last Raki opened his mouth to respond "Uh… yea?"

"That's strange…" she responded "I've run over this rooftop a thousand times before, and in all my years of being here I have never encountered another human." Her voice began to fade out towards the end of her sentence.

"Can you help me out?" he asked, holding up his hooked hands.

"Oh my god… you really are a human…" she mumbled to herself.

"Please! What are you talking about? How do I get out of here?" He begged

The strange woman looked to her left with caution, then back down at the young man. "So you woke up with the hooks this time huh? So did I. Is this your first time with them?" she asked with curiosity.

"First time with what?! I have no idea what's happening! Where am I?" He shouted

"Look, I'll be down in a moment, I will explain everything then." The woman said while taking off her left gauntlet. "As for those hooks, and that bolt in your foot… well there isn't an easy way of taking them off, you are going to have to rip your hands and feet off of them." She explained while holding up her left hand showing a large wound that divided the left side of her hand in half.

"WHAT! How am I supposed to do that?" Cried the young man. Suddenly he heard a loud boom from the roof of the building.

The woman looked off towards the source of the noise "Oh shit! I've gotta go! Get out of there as fast as you can, find a weapon and head for the center plaza! If I'm not there you need to run back here do you understand?" she said frantically.

"Uhh- I'm not- (Sigh) I think I do…" he said nervously

"Good" responded the woman. I've gotta go, see you then!" she said standing up and running off. Shortly there after Raki heard loud booming footsteps seem to chase after her.

Raki looked down at his hands. He took a deep breath and began to slowly pull his hands away from the chains. His arms burnt like a thousand suns but he kept at it. It hurt like, for lack of better word, hell… but slowly his flesh began to tear away.

He let out cries of pain as his hand was slowly ripped apart.

Inch after inch tore away until...

He had successfully freed his left hand. The side of it was now torn in two, he expected his hand to collapse but amazingly it didn't. He wasn't even bleeding, the only blood he lost was the blood contained in the ripped off part of his hand. The wound had to have torn at least three tendons, but miraculously he was still able to move his fingers.

He did the same thing with his right hand, only this time he was able to use his left hand to assist him.

At last he put both hands on the large nail that was lodged between his achilles tendon and his ankle. He pulled with all his might, he began to cry out in pain. At last he managed to rip out the nail, cutting his achilles tendon along the way, yet miraculously he was still able to use his legs.

He stood up, that burning feeling returned. He groaned with pain as he slowly made his way to the iron door. He pushed on it expecting it to not budge… however to his surprise it just swung right open.

He slowly walked out of his cell, limping along the way due to the burning sensation that followed with every movement.

In front of him was a long hallway with prison cells all to his left, to his right were barred windows that looked into a large green room. He moved closer to them so he could get a better look. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw a tail whip around the corner of the room.

He moved back and continued down the hallway. Suddenly he heard a loud BANG to his left. His head jolted to that direction where he was greeted from behind bars by a snarling head who skin appeared to be burned off. The creature's sunken eyes shined yellow and his teeth gnarled at Raki hungrily.

It had the shape of a human but there was absolutely nothing human about him.

Shortly thereafter a large metal object shot out though the metal bars, the creature was holding a small Straight Sword, he had barely missed Raki's chest.

Acting purely on instinct Raki punched the creature in the face causing it to drop it's sword. Raki leaned down and picked up the weapon, evaluating its weight.

The zombie slammed its head into the bars once again, without so much as a second thought Raki shoved the sword through the monster's head, killing it instantly.

Slowly it's body began to disappear and turn into dust, as it did this a strange light came from its chest and moved towards Raki's chest. For whatever reason, that burning feeling in Raki's body seemed to be ever so slightly mitigated.

He continued on down the hallway, his movements became just a little bit easier.

He made his way through more hallways until eventually he approached a ladder, holding his sword with his teeth he began to climb up, his muscles ached and burned with each step. At last he reached the top and in one last agonizing motion he lifted himself out of the hole and onto solid ground, where he rolled onto his back and looked up at the sky"

He didn't take time to carefully look at his surroundings, but from what he could tell he was outside, he was lying on grass, and he was surrounded by three large walls and a large door.

He laid there for a minute, staring at the sky, rather than the light blue that he was used to, the sky now appeared to be a greyish red.

He began to think for a moment, he hadn't stopped to think about his situation since he first woke up in that cell. The truth had seemed to be slowly been dawning on him with every passing moment, but in reality he really knew all along.

"I'm dead… That pole, her arm, I bled out…. I died…."

He looked around himself. "And from the looks of it… I have arrived in hell…" tears began to flow into his eyes. "I'm a failure... I accomplished nothing… all I wanted to do was protect her, all I wanted to do was just SEE her but I couldn't even accomplish that!" He wept. "I a failure"

Suddenly his words were interrupted by a light cough from behind him. He sat up and spun around, laying down against the wall opposite of him was the woman in armor, and to his surprise she was...bleeding.

She began to speak up "I think you are being just a little too hard on yourself… Everyone dies… eventually." she chuckled

He stood up and rushed to her side.

"Are you alright? You're bleeding!" he exclaimed

She coughed once again, he couldn't see her face from behind her helmet.

"I'll be fine now…" she stated weakly. "I was hoping you would show up…" she coughed as blood began to see out her helmet.

"What can I do?" Raki plead

She pointed one hand weakly towards a pile of ashes with a sword sticking out the top. "I'm too weak to walk...I need you to take me over there…" she managed to say, her voice strained by the wound in her stomach.

Raki looked back at her "Why? Whats so impo-"

"JUST DO IT!" she strained.

Raki did as he was told and brought the woman to her feet. He walked her over to the pile of ashes.

The woman brought herself to her knees and placed one hand on top of the sword. Suddenly the ashes became alight and a powerful energy seemed to glow through the sword, swirling around the strange woman. Raki looked back at her stomach and saw that her wound was healed.

"How did you do that?" He asked curiously. "And why were you bleeding?" "How did that heal your wound?"

The woman looked back at him and raised one finger to shush him. "One question at a time." she said.

Raki looked around. "Where are we?"

"I think you know the answer to that…" she said

"Hell…" he responded

"Yup"

"Earlier, what did you mean by 'Is this your first time?"

"Everytime you die in this place you just kind of reset… you wake back up in one of these cells, each one has a different way of keeping you there. In one cell the moss in the walls grow spikes and impale you to keep you there, in another cell your arms and legs are nailed to the wall, the list goes on. The one you woke up with was an easy one trust me." She lectured

"So you can die in this place?"

"Yes"

"But earlier when I was freeing my hands and feet I wasn't bleeding" He showed her his hands.

"You don't bleed in this place… at least not most of the time" she explained

"But you were bleeding?" he pointed out

"That is because I was embered"

"What does that mean?"

"As you kill the creatures of this realm you become a little more powerful, that burning feeling begins to fade. If you become strong enough, the pain goes away completely, your heart will begin to beat again and your blood will flow."

"That sounds nice" said Raki

"The downside is that it makes you easier to kill" She explained

"Oh… and that fire you just lit?"

"I don't know where these things come from, or who put them here, but all I know is that they heal you"

Raki stared at the fire for a moment, then he looked back at the woman

"How long have you been here?" he asked politely

The woman stared at him for a moment through the slit in her helmet's visor.

"How about after you help me kill the warden and escape from this prison, I can tell you everything about me, sound good?" she said slyly

Raki thought for a moment "Phss Warden? Sounds like a piece of cake" He put his hand out in front of him. "You've got a deal… but can you at least tell me your name?"

She took off her helmet to reveal flowing, beautiful, wavy platinum blonde hair and silver eyes. A small smirk appeared on her face.

"I guess that's fair." she said with a grin, as she took Raki's hand and shook it.

"My name is Teresa of the Faint smile… now lets go kill that Warden…"