Episode Six

I looked down to my hands. They were the same black as the rest of the people here. The glaringly white clothes I had worn earlier had been turned to a dark gray and were charred round the edges. I rubbed the edge of my sleeve against my cheek. Soot covered its grayness to black. How would she be able to find me?

            I looked up over the lip of the boat, careful to keep my fingers away from the flames that licked its rim. We had traveled out of sight from the masses of people into a tunnel. Dark stones surrounded us on our sides. The light of the fire that we traveled on lit up the space. It was tight and the heat unbearable. From every direction the air danced around us. Having no way to escape, the heat battered our already raw and brittle bodies. I could see a far off opening blinking as fire whipped up to obscure my view. A lump jerked out from under me and caused me to throw my hand outwards towards the flames. I sucked in a breath and as I rubbed my singed knuckles I looked down to my left where a small person was huddled against many other bodies.

            “Sorry about that.” I heard a masculine voice shout out above the groans of the other boat riders. His nationality was obscured by the soot and ash that covered his body. Black rags barely clung to his body in threads and the whites of his eyes seemed to engulf me as I looked down at him.

            “But my legs were going numb, mate.” He spoke in a thick accent. I sat stunned as He reached out a dirty hand and flashed me a grin. His white teeth stood out against his face like brilliant stars in an inky sky.

            “The names Brian.” He said as he grabbed the hand that was closest to him and gave it a hardy jerk. He looked around then and laughed. “Eternal damnation and lake of fire, eh?” He flashed another grin. “If I knew it was true, I guess I would have gone a bit easier on the gin and lassies!”

            I felt myself smirk slightly. I opened my mouth to speak but at that moment we reached the opening within the tunnel and the world opened up around us. It was as if we had been traveling down the throat of hell and had just reached the pits of its stomach.

            All around us fire stretched across the earth. Smoke filled the air and I choked back a cough, stretching my filthy shirt across my mouth and nose. My eyes watered, leaving thin white streaks down my cheeks before the heat evaporated its moisture.

            We were quickly drifting into the middle of a vast fiery reservoir. Orange shadows danced across the boat casting strange shadows across the faces of the rest of the boat riders. Across the lake I could see what seemed to be a forest. Thick bushes and trees stood out in the horizon. Smoke and embers lined the branches just as a thick snowfall would in the winter.

            The boat traveled faster now, the ferry man huffing as he swung the pole down into the fire to shove us along our path. I wondered how it was that the pole, which seemed to be made of an old aged wood didn’t burn up within the flames. I looked over at Brian, my new comrade, to see him staring at the ever growing forest with a look of horror. I followed his gaze and I fought the urge to jump into the lake of fire in an attempt to escape.

            As we rocked our way towards the forest and the trees began to look over us, new horrors began to emerge from the thick smoke that rolled its way through the trees and towards us. First I could only see shadows running through the smoke. Then an arm or two found its way into the clearer air. As we thudded to a halt as the bottom of the boat ground against the shore, we could hear a wail coming from in between the dead charred trees.

            The next moment a body emerged from the forest. Running towards us, flames engulfing its torso, face blackened and its mouth open as a scream ripped from its lungs. With its arms out in front of it the person ran blindly onto the small beach that separated the forest and the lake. I gasped and stood up on the boat to see over the pile of bodies in front of me. The person ran along the edge of the trees, suddenly its shrieks were cut short and fiery arms jumped out from behind a tree and grabbed a hold of the burning soul. It was silent once again as the two bodies disappeared once again into the smoke filled tree line.

            “Welcome to Hell.” the ferryman grinned as I looked up into his face. He swung his pole out from the lake and swung it towards the crowd, using it to herd us off of the boat. Most everyone on the boat had been placid and unmoving during the ride but seeing the horrible scene that had played out before them they did not want to leave the relative safety of the boat. Few clung to the sides of the ship, wailing as tears evaporated before they had a chance to give relief to their chapped skin.  

            The pole hit me at hip length as I had been standing up. The force was more then I had anticipated and I took a faltering step back. I felt my calves hit the side of the boat and my arms grabbed at thin air as I toppled backwards, falling to the sand on the beach. The sand itself felt as if I had landed on the eye of a stove, heated from fire all around it. I hopped to my feet and stood motionless, hovering between the boat and the smoking trees behind me. I felt as though eyes were on me, waiting for me to step close enough for the ghouls to grab me and drag me in.

            I stood watching as more people on the boat fell to the beach. Others desperately clung to its lips, before being beaten off by the ferryman, who had now begun to cackle, his laughter sounding like the crackle of an open hearth. One man, whose gender could only be known from the torn shirt he wore that showed off a hard lined chest grabbed onto the pole and with all of his strength attempted to remove the pole from the ferryman’s hands, with a grunt he strained but the ferryman jerked the object from the man’s grip and then shoved it into his gut. The man grunted and wheezed before falling backwards, over the short side of the boat and into the fiery lake behind him.

            The occupants on the boat now tore across the beach in all directions, as the ferryman shoved off and began to drift away down the lake. His silhouette soon blotted out by flames that jumped into the air. We were alone on the beach now; blocked on one end by an impassable lake of fire and on the other held a forest which held something far more terrifying then I feared.

            How could Alice have made it this far? How could I possibly know that she was still out there? How was I going to get past this?

Reviews

[gombeggar]

u need to do a grammer edit...and the scene of the man or person needs to be re-worked for pronouns and a bit of word confusion there

interesting imagining of hell on yer part...the ferry man concept has always amused me

[Craig2591]

Damn! This is some powerful writing. Your description is very vivid. This is Hell!

"wailing as tears evaporated before they had a chance to give relief to their chapped skin." Wow!

Some of your best writing yet.

[Tabitha t]

maybe I should take vacation more often then? I am glad you enjoyed this and I will post more soon

[Craig2591]

Maybe I'm wrong, but it's almost as if you took more time with this chapter. Maybe the vacation made you more relaxed and able to express yourself better. I could really feel the heat that he was experiencing.

[Tabitha t]

I did feel more relaxed this time around for sure, though it took less amount of time then usual. either way I am glad that you saw a definite improvement and I hop that continues the rest of the story.