Affair with the Devil

ent felt

churned, my pulse pounding in my ears as the darkness around me twisted and churned like a living thing. For a moment, I thou

somethin

r into its depths. And as the light grew stronger, the sensation of falling began to slow, my feet finding solid

air was thick with a strange, metallic taste, like the

the earth a deep, blood-red color, as if it had been scorched by some ancient fire. Jagged rocks jutted up from the ground like the broken bones of a long-d

vers down my spine. I could feel it in the air, in the ground bene

e?" I whispered, m

om behind me, calm and measure

faint wind, his eyes glowing with that same strange light I had seen before. There was no fear in h

choed, my voice barely more th

who only see part of the truth. This place... it's not fire and brimstone, not as you've been told.

mind reeling. "By choice

ed in the way you understand. Some are drawn here because they seek something more, something beyond the mortal

thoughts. I looked at him, searching his face for an

long ago, seeking something I thought I needed. But the truth of this place is that it shows you who you truly are. It strips away th

ce, but I hadn't fully understood what that meant, what I would h

The darkness here isn't just around you, it's inside you. You've always fel

nd I took a step back. "I don't

lt it, in your dreams, in the quiet moments when the world goes sti

o believe it. "I'm not like

pping closer. "This is where your jou

ed with fear, with the weight

re. "To embrace the truth of who you are. To step fully in

Darkness? I didn't want any of this. I hadn't asked for

s far. I had crossed the threshold into a world I didn't understand, but there was something

g to steady my racing heart

nd. "Then you will leave this place as you came, lost, incompl

down on me. There was no easy choice.

. "I don't know what I am. I don

s voice steady. "But only if you'r

pen, revealing a swirling mass of shadows and light. The air around us grew colder,

t. I had come this far. I had made my choice t

spered, the word

pproval, and he reached for

eath us gave way, and once again, we were falling, f