Page 78 of Evil Hearts

Chapter Three

Coming to, nothingmakes sense.

Thick fog parts at my feet as I step forward, walking down a dark road lined with burning trees. I stumble over something in the road and glance down at what appears to be bones.

Where am I?

What’s happening to me?

Is this another dream?

Rubbing my eyes, I blink.

“Wake up,” I whisper. “This isn’t real.”

Looking closer at the trees, I shudder at the sight before me. They aren’t trees at all, they’re bodies wound together, burning alive.

Bile hits the back of my throat, and I drop to my knees and retch at the putrid scent of burning flesh and the echoes of their screams. Pressing my hands to my ears does nothing to shut out the sinister sound.

Hoofbeats sound in the distance, cutting over the noise of the violent screams of agony.

I don’t want to die today. I inhale, breathing through my nose and exhale out my mouth to steady my racing heart and catch my breath.

“Run, little wolf. Run,” the voices screech at me.

I take off in a dead sprint, having no clue what I’m running from or to.

The smoke rises, clouding my vision.

The hoofbeats grow closer and I dare to glance back over my shoulder, not seeing a horse at all, but the snout of a large dog or wolf. A hound. A hellhound with its canine’s foaming and snapping as it gives chase.

“Wake up. Wake up,” I pant as I continue to run for my life past the burning souls. My foot catches on the open mouth of a skull and go down on all fours, hearing the gnashing of the beast’s teeth coming for me when the road opens and swallows me.

I freefall into the void. There’s nothing but utter darkness and my soundless scream as I fall further and further into nothingness. Closing my eyes, I can’t help but wonder if this is what death is?

Elevator music plays in my head and when I open my eyes, I’m seated in a waiting room next to a small red-skinned man with horns protruding from his head.

What the fuck?

“What are you looking at?” He snarls at me, blowing smoke from his pointy ears.

“No-nothing.”

“Next,” a female voice calls, and I follow the sound to a secretary seated behind a desk. The black, gold lettered sign hanging on the wall behind her says Hell’s Holdings LLC. At first glance, she appears normal, but then I notice the fork in her tongue when she speaks and the way her skin shimmers under the fluorescent lighting as though she has the scales of a lizard.

Only when I approach her do I realize that the candy dish on her desk doesn’t hold anything sweet. She pops a bug between her lips and the crunching sound has my stomach going queasy. Yuck. She smiles at me and there’s a leg or antenna stuck between her teeth.

“Name?”

“Daciana Meva.”

She clicks on her keyboard and the smile on her face stretches into an unnatural state, nearly touching her ears. “The Prince of Darkness will see you now.”

“I’m sorry. Who? What is this place?”

She blinks at me, and I realize her pupils are vertical like that of a reptile.

“Go to the big black door at the end of the hall. Do not enter any other room.” Her forked tongue slithers out of her mouth and she hisses in warning.

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