The Entrance

John takes Alexandria and Jessica to an entrance, for an adventure. This adventure, is far worse than any nightmare they could conjure up!

The Entrance

These words John spoke to Jessica, they were cold. Not cold in the sense where he might be a cold blooded killer, but cold as if void of all emotion. For this brief moment, he did not appear human in anyway, outside his humanoid appearance.

Alexandria looked coldly at John, who didn’t appaear very happy. He wasn’t happy, but rather seemed concerned outside his cold demeanor. He pulled out two small cups, they were empty. Aside, he put forth two bottles, plastic in material, but dented, and smoked. Time was not good for these two bottles. One had red liquid, the other had green.

“”There are two drinks here, each one tastes different, just like the two purposes of the world.” John said, pointing to both, and now pushing the red one forth. “This red one here, oh how sweet does it taste upon your lips. I once sipped of it, and I regret this. This is the path that is comfortable. It is calm, it requires simplicity, and nothingness. You will never feel full. This is the path where both of you live. You have already been drinking from this drink.” he said, pushing forth the green drink. “Green is the colour of grass. The one pure thing left in this fallen world. It springs up, grows old, dies in the winter and comes back as the cycle of life, renewed, and reborn. Take your pick. Alexandria, you are free to choose at your leisure.”

“John, give me the red drink. I have no desire to change my life. It is perfect as can be with a beautiful and faithful wife!” she said. John poured the drink and looked to Jessica as he handed Alexandria the drink.

Jessica let out a light gasp, being pulled in two directions. Should she tell her? Or will she keep her secret? The lies she herself spung are being unwinded, as they are becoming more real to her than ever before. Alexandria rubbed her back to comfort her, not knowing what was truly wrong, but focused all her anger and distrust towards John.

“Jessica,” John said to get her attention off her past for even just a moment. “Take your pick, and pick your means. Comfortability and damnation, or discomfort, and eternal salvation.”

“John,” she said, tearing up, bowing her head. She couldn’t bear to look this man in the face. “I need to know the truth. I need to know if there is something beyond my selfish desires. John…” she clenched her teeth, bowing her head down yet again, grasping her hair tightly. “Is there more for me to know?”

“There is always more to know. Even I do not have all the answers Jessica. Know this well.” John said, taking out a glass. “Red, or green?”

“Give me the green. That is the only way to the truth I seek.” She said. “Please?”

“Certainly.” He said, pouring the green fluid into the glass. “Just know, this truth isn’t the truth you seek, it is the universal truth. There is no room for subjectification.” He slid the cup acros the table, and Jessica grabbed it before it could slip off the edge. He turned to Alexandria. “You are her wife aren’t you? Are you sure you would let her go this journey alone? When this journey, I barely came back from. I had my band with me during those days. And it scares me to go back, but go back with you I must.”

“Fine.” Alexandria said, her teeth grimacing under great pressure, as she knew she would never leave her wife’s side...as if she had a choice. She slid the red drink back to him, and he grabbed it. He gulped the last of his coffee, and poured the red drink into his cup. He poured the green liquid into her glass and slid it over.

She grabbed it, and she and her wife brought the cups to their lips. “Be careful now,” John said, halting them a moment. “In this place, you will see things you thought not possible. It has turned the skeptics into believers, and the Atheistic Christians into Martyrs!”

The two put their cups down, their hands never leaving the cup.

Alexandria’s eyes widened, and her cup chittered on the table. She looked into the glass, observing the tidal waves of ripples hitting one another, inside that cage. Inside the glass cage it was stuck, and the only way out, was to drink the entire thing.

Jessica looked curiously at the glass, inside. Her glass did not shake, she was sure, unlike her wife. “Yes John. I know, once I drink, there is no turning back.”

“Indeed, you are right. Jessica, drink.” John watched both, as Jessica drank it slowly, but Alexandria drank it quickly, to get it over with.

Jessica brought the glass down, noting the taste of the green drink. It did taste bitter, like rotting leaves. She looked at the coffee station, and heard Alexandria’s cries, wailing against her eardrum.

The coffee counter faded into black. Reality distorted all around her, black spirals came, and circled around everything, even the people, who did not seem to notice. With the exception of the coffee girl at the cashier, who touched on in elated joy.

She looked over to Jessica with a smile bigger than life. She waved, just before her arm distorted, swirling in nothingness. “Good luck! You will need it!”

Jessica awoke to the sound of uncontrolled whimpering. She looked on the ground and found herself sitting at the base of a tree. There was no light, the heavy clouds above veiled the stars and the moon. She saw no buildings. There was only the desolate, leaveless trees to keep her company, and of course the annoying whimpering of Alexandria, who held her knees to her chest as she leaned against a tree.

She put her hand on the soil, it was moist, but it did not have the consistency of soil. She looked down to see what she touched.

The ground was covered in a layer of blood. She took her hand up, her eyes crazy in horror as she saw the thick red substance drip from her hand back to the ground. She looked down to see the long faces engraved in the ground. These faces are unrecognizable, but what could be made out of them, they once belonged to humans, men and women alike. They are all the same.

“Haunting isn’t it?” She heard John say behind her. “

She turned to him and saw his face as serious as every. His face not only serious, but it is cold. She observed his hair, neatly tied behind in a ponytail. “Y...yes.” she stammered.

“And this isn’t even the first day. This is not even the first gate, nor the first door. All of these you see before you, just look!” He pointed down the path.

She followed his finger and observed, a sight collossal in evil. The road had cracks, within those cracks are flames! Burning and charring, cracking not with fire, but of the squeals of crying souls. She looked closely at the faces in the earth, they cry with never ending torment.

The trees, also made of flesh, the flesh of crying bodies who harmed each other, molded into one tree, and as a tree grows, their flesh stretches to no small degree, their limbs becoming the very branches the vultures pirched on. Their faces saddened with total torment, hopeless, as they will be the gate of those who failed, and died here.

“This isn’t Hell. Not yet.” John said, taking her hand, and pulling her up. He looked down on Alexandria, who struggled to get on her feet. “I can already tell, your wife may not get out of this, what I know you will.” He took Alexandria’s hand and lead them on the path. The path with so many sad memories, so many tortured souls.

With each step, came a screeching sound piercing their ears. The souls cried out for forgiveness in their never ending agony. Cries out, “Why must you torture us more! First we failed! Now we are stepped on in your never ending test! The feet of the unfortunate! Why O why merciless God! Can’t you just send us to Hell, and kill us already!”

The shakes in the earth were from voiceless cries, voiceless, because they will never reach who needs to be reached. Hopeless, and this fate is already damning, never to die, but suffer unending.

“John…” Jessica stammered as she clutched onto his strong arm, the arm capable of strumming power chords. He looked down to her, still carefully observing the road, as if afraid that he might get sucked in also! “Who are these...these faces melting in with one another in this road that they make up the road?”

“”These trees, these forests, everything is made of a living Damned Soul!” he said quickly. “It is a question we all asked and you are all the more human because of it. Now that you asked, this adventure I am taking you on, is one like a test. Those who fail, end up in here, rather those that fail the test, will almost always end up in Hell, to become part of what never should have been made. Those that fail, and die in the test, have been deemed unworthy to go back to their lives, and the torment of living through one death, is actually merciful, for in their minds, your reality would be their Hell, and thus double dip their fingers in Hell. Those that die, are those that you stand on. Those that you lean on, go on ahead, if you think I am lying to you, prick off that branch!”

The three of them stopped moving, and it was only then did Jessica question the motives of John. Now she was unsure if he meant to help, or meant to scar. There would be no telling, as his words grew mysterious, and incomprehensible.

Alexandria slowly, cautiously walked over to the nearest tree. She put her hand on the surprisingly smooth bark, and tore. There was a snap, following by a trio of squeals, all women. “Why! Damn you!”

Alexandria fell backward with the small part of the branch she ripped off. She looked at the branch, and blood poured from it, adding to the already bloody soil, to make room for more souls soon to become one with them. “Isn’t our decaying form enough? No certainly not! Your wrath is so great that even you would make us a part of your game God! I believe you now, but it is too late! I can’t ask for forgiveness. I am too hurt, too angered, and though I know my branch will never cease bleeding. I am without one arm!”

Jessica covered her mouth and wept for this pour soul, this poor creature who through failed tests, was damned not for her entire life, but for her eternity. It will never stop.

“John,” Jessica asked as they collected Alexandria and returned to the path, walking across abandoned, forgotten faces. The branches, now with a glimmering light, from the fire of torches ahead, could they see, the real make of the tree. They could clearly see the shining of human flesh, and the maggots that infested, and buried underneath their skins. “You said this place should never had been made...so why did God make such a place? I am assuming this is your god’s handiwork?”

Alexandria scoffed. “God? Really? God is a myth.” There was a howling in the air, and Alexandria could not help but to lean into John. As untrusting as he was to her, he knew his way around. She needed him around.

“He didn’t make this place.” John answered. They came to a small clearing, with seven pools. Each pool was filled with blood.

“Then is this the work of Satan?” Jessica asked.

John laughed. “Satan has no power here. Nor does he have power over me. He has no power to create, only to destroy in his bitter hate.”

“Then did this manifest somehow?” Jessica asked.

There was clinking and clanking. They looked, and what seemed to come from ancient times, times they knew, but seeing it in reality was all too much for the skeptic, who bent down again, crying.

Seven soldiers, clad in plate mail armor, the armor one would expect from King Arthur’s Court! They did not fight, they merely stood still. Jessica observed something, in between them all was a light. A red light, just as sinister as this place. The seven men, seemed to begin to mold into another.

Then Jessica noticed a peculiar thing. One of the men was still conscious, his heart damaged, but his body did not yet experience death. He tried to pull himself free, out of the tree he was turning into. Screaming. Screaming. “God my God! Forgive me!” He grunted, and coughed up blood. “I am not dead yet! Forgive me! Let me out so I can get to the other side!”

He fell silent, and the tree sucked him in, until only his face could be seen, and his limbs twisted and turned, creaked and then became the branches, splitting, and his screams only grew in intensity, and then it stopped.

“We created it.” John said. “Come. No more questions. We must get to the door.”

Jessica fell silent, and Alexandria was also silent. She heard a drum in the air, the thick pounding drum, much louder than the inevitable drum pounding. John pointed to a door, and a knight stood guard, his armor clinking with no small amount of fear, yet no small amount of courage.

John walked over the the knight. “What are you doing here? You are supposed to be taking the test with your platoon! Get back in or face your judgment!”

“This test I took, it is cruel. It is dangerous. What God above allows this! This evil place...surely there is not greater treachery.” The knight looked to them. “My fair maidens from another time, go! Run and never come back! Get away from this test, it will not prove yourselves to God! Run!”

Jessica clung onto Alexandria’s arm as they looked at the door, as if this evil place couldn’t get any darker. She looked at the top of the door, a skull, his mouth dripping with blood, from the victims inside. The screams echoing from that skull were of the dead, dying, failing, and those that made it. The doorway was not made of any wood, it was all deriven from human flesh, and not just the mere ripped skin of some unfortunate person, but the organs of those people. Intestines, liver, stomach, and lungs, all of these which once was in a person, had been maliciously ripped out to make this door!

“So I see you have made your decision.” John said, in an eerie voice. Spooky in this place, much spookier. “As to what God allows this place to exist, only the true high God allows it, and has made it his test. DO you think, we need to prove ourselves to God? He has his divine omnipotence! He already knows the answer to the questions we ask of him. This test isn’t for God, but it is for us! It was for you! Knight, you prevent and cause the stumbling of so many people that could have lovingly served. You have failed! This test, and with it, your only chance at salvation! Your body is now dead, your soul trying to survive for so long. Good bye!”

“What_” Before he could finish, a tree’s branch swing by, stealing the knight, and sucking him into it, becoming one with that tree. John sighed, and walked to the door, ignoring the knight whose soul so casually walked the gates of Hell for easily a thousand years, perhaps even more, but not much less.

Alexandria noticed the drop sword, and picked it up as they approached the door.

“Leave that.” John said. “You will not need it.”

Alexandria saw through John’s deceitful ways, and dropped it, only to pick it up when he wasn’t looking. Jessica didn’t even notice as they stepped on the stones of scattered organs. Liver, stomach, intestine, heart and lungs. This was only needed to make a door into Hell. Nothing more.

“Go ahead, step in.” John said.

Jessica went first, trying to ignore the squishing of the organs she stepped on, and felt guilty for defiling an already defiled Body! In just one moment after this, Alexandria stepped in with her. Shooting off an angry glare at John, who returned it.

The door shut behind them, and there was darkness. They hadn’t the foggiest idea of what to expect in Hell!

Author's Note

I am aware of some misspelling.
I am looking for imagery, character development, perhaps some dialogue as well.

Reviews

[Rafy T.Nym]

This chapter describes John a bit,actually enough to visualize him and his personality,that's unconditionally helpful.

There's less reality and more fantasy here.You can add some fantasy in the first chapter and some reality here to balance the storyline.The description is creepy but some thing could be more eerie if you add some more imagery.

The red drink and green drink theme reminds me of 'The matrix',but I know it's hard to find another way to enter into this kind of adventure.

After reading this chapter,I can't predict the ending anymore,my bad.

[Armanis]

Well the purpose of the fantasy vs reality was done intentionally. This is meant to be a sub center in which it always existed, but not everyone knows about it. So there was not meant to be a fantastical knowledge of this place.

So this is what I meant, and the balance of the story line is supposed to be unconventional as the narrator is even trying to wrap his head around it, never mind the protagonists which it is about.

The matrix part was partially an accident, then looked for other ways to symbolize it, and I couldn't really get around the color red or green.

The imagery- what do you think I need work on in that part? I know its really creepy, but what could I improve upon.

Out of Curiousity, what was your prediction of the ending?

[Rafy T.Nym]

I edited a paragraph for you,hope it helps-

"She looked on the ground and found herself sitting at the base of a tree.The tree was devoid of life when the flowers are born dead,as if symbolizing the place itself.Her curious eyes found the sight of heavy clouds veiling the stars and the moon.She saw no buildings but the isolated land which is illuminated by the darkness of dusky moon"

Jessica wasn't religious,right?I predicted she will turn into religious person just before she dies.But the storyline is different now.

[Armanis]

Okay this helps thank you