[M] The Darkness Down Below

[Violet]

As her body phased into a new place, Violet knew her time at Dante’s Abyss was over, and her parting gift was more than she could have asked for. In fact, it was one of those presents one usually shoved under the bed and forgot about for several years and then donate to the thrift store for some other unfortunate soul.

The abyss, it seems, had banished her to some sort of purgatory. Well, no, more like Victor Wolfe, that imp of a boy, banished her. She put some trust in him and he literally stabbed her in the back. Ironic, considering she’d been mulling over her trust issues all morning, and the moment she finally opened up to allowing herself to add to the group, to add safety to their numbers, it backfired.

She only had herself to blame, ultimately. This is what happened when you put trust in the wrong hands. The dog you fed will turn and bite yours right off. Mr. Wolfe was definitely on her shitlist. Game or no game, he had to have known what would have happened. How anybody could do such a thing to another person was beyond her, then again, she’d had to do some pretty crazy things herself to survive. The only difference was that she didn’t have to backstab someone to do it. Morals were a very subjective thing, apparently.

Her body completed the phasing in a matter of seconds, and wherever she was, it definitely wasn’t the lobby of Dante’s Abyss. It was a sort of palace, with red marble walls that shone like glass. Recesses were placed in calculated intervals, and what appeared to be lava flowed within them. Above her, a domed ceiling stretched upwards, with support beams that were hewn from black obsidian and carved in intricate curves and abstract figures. Nearly everything had a touch of gold flecked into it. Soft white light illuminated the dome and the room, glinting off of the gold flecks and making them sparkle like a million little diamonds.

The opulence boggled her. Where the hell was she?

The smell confused her even more. It was some sort of mixture between cookies and burnt caramel. She could taste it in the back of her throat, and there, she caught a little bit of something else…something noxious.

Violet made her way towards a far entryway that was framed in delicately carved ivory. Figures in various poses twisted their way up and around the framework, with jewels of different kinds worked in to accentuate what was starting to appear like a series of scenes. As she moved closer, her fingers running over the smooth material, she felt a strange energy pulsing just beneath the surface. It hummed along her fingers, down her arm, and up to her shoulder, sort of like a very mild electrical shock. The figures, she noticed, were not just random scenes, they were various poses of murder. One figure held another, its arm deep within the other’s chest. The head lulled to the side, nearly cut off. In another set of figures, half of one’s head was missing, while the other, with horns that seemed too big for its head, smiled with devilish glee. Her eyes roved over the other scenes, but she forced her gaze away.

Who the hell puts scenes of such gruesomeness in a place like this?

She began to walk quickly down a marble lined hallway, towards what appeared to be a split in the pathway. She took the left, and found herself looking down an even longer hall, this one narrow like those found in a cheap hotel. Big enough for a few people to walk abreast, but not much else. Doors were dispersed at even intervals, closed off to prying eyes. She doubted either of these was a way out, and probably didn’t lead to anything interesting. She skipped them and continued on, finding herself at another branch of hallways.

On and on it continued, branch after branch opened before her, seemingly giving her a choice, all promising to lead somewhere, but none of them lead anywhere except back to that strange room with the carved ivory framework, except now she was on the other side of where she started. It seemed it was just one big rectangle of pathways, regardless of what direction she took. She was only a little concerned. Okay, maybe a lot concerned. Was she just being obtuse, or was she just having bad luck with these pathways?

“Hello?” she finally called out. Perhaps someone would hear her and help her out. There was no reply, but she tried again a few more times, venturing towards the endless hallways of doors. Did the Abyss just goof and drop her off in an abandoned maze? It was a nice (sort of) maze, but a maze nonetheless. There should have been exit signs at least. The Fire Marshal would have a field day with this place.

The cookies and burnt sugar smell suddenly became overwhelming, and she lifted her shirt to cover her nose. “Christ, what the hell is that?”

Chuckling. Deep, masculine. Taunting.

“Hello?”

Silence. Her heart sped its beat just a little bit.

“Can we cut the creepy shit, please? Where am I?”

A cool breeze blew by her, ruffling her shirt. Where did that come from? Violet jerked her head around, looking for anything that would betray something or someone.

Then, before she could even process what was happening, the room plunged into darkness. Pure blackness enveloped her, and just as her panic began to increase, hands groped at her, pulling her backwards, encircling her. She let out a scream, but was cut off by a wad of cloth. She was being dragged by something, and by the ease in which they did so meant that whatever it was, it was large.

A door opened, and the breeze brushed her face as the door shut. The thing that drug her didn’t even stop, which meant someone else had opened it and closed it for them. Oh, Kami, what the hell did she get into?

Something hard and metallic was locked around her wrists, and then the distinct sound of chains. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Her mind and heart both raced as they tried to make sense of what was happening. She felt the chains wrap around her ankles, holding them in place. In one swift jerk, she was suddenly lifted off the floor and hung by the chains at her wrists.

A hand, large and rough, swept up her body, pausing in places that seemed to interest them. They hovered long over the edge of her ribcage and belly, playing along that bit of bone tenderly. Lips smacked loud and wet. More hands followed suit, three, four…eight hands. They tugged at her clothing, pulling it free from her jeans and running along the soft, bare flesh beneath.

“No…no…no!” she screamed as they all violated her person. Hands ripped and tore at her, peeling the thin material away from her body. They seemed to have trouble with the jeans, but those were only a momentary hindrance as one of the bigger hands balled into the thicker material and ripped it away.
The chains that held her hung against her bare skin, cold and unfeeling. She was fully exposed to whatever it was that lurked in the darkness.

The hands were so rough as they touched and poked along her flesh. Her eyes began to burn with tears that refused to fall. She would kill Victor if it was the last thing she ever did, one way or another!

Just as a scream began to bubble within her chest, fighting the tightness that constricted her throat, bright white light flooded the room, and she was suddenly face to face with monsters. She screamed.