Horror House Presents

The Hellfire Ripper

I didn't want a stag party let's be clear on that, but when my wife-to-be Brooke found out that my friend Ryan was planning one she insisted I go. It was planned for the night before my wedding in the 400-year-old mansion near West Wycombe Caves, better known as the Hellfire Caves because of their use by members of the Hellfire Club in the middle of the 18th century. Of course, as soon as Ryan found out about this he used his various connections to gain us access to them after hours. I thought his plan was for us to just have a few drinks and have a laugh, but boy was I wrong.

"Gentlemen, well all know why we are here" Ryan announced, swaying from side to side in the cave. "We are here because our friend, no our best friend and brother Josh thinks it is a good idea to get married. He's going to be leaving us as a free man and entering the world of marriage. A world where he can only sleep with one woman."A chorus of boos erupted from my eight friends who stood around me in the cave, which only made Ryan shout louder. "A world where he will have to ask permission to party with his friends, a world where he will have to call the same woman darling and dear while she drags him around shopping every weekend. But we are not here to celebrate that, no. We are here to give our friend the best send-off for him as we can because of tomorrow his life as he knows it is over. So let's all raise our glasses to Josh and his leash holder the amazing Brooke Peterson. May he enjoy his life as a whipped bitch."

"Whipped bitch! Whipped bitch! Whipped Bitch!" my friends all chanted, knocking back whatever drink they had remaining in their glasses.

With my drink finished I held my hand up to silence the group. "Shhh, the whipped bitch wants to speak!" Ryan's voice boomed out around the cave bringing everyone to silence.

"As you know I have known many of you for as long as I remember and I couldn't think of a better way to spend my last night of freedom, although someone may need to explain why here."

Ryan smiled, he was wondering when I friend would ask him why he picked some strange caves to host a stag party.

Throwing his voice Ryan explained, "Oh well, that's because of what I have planned for tonight's entertainment. Gather round and let me spin you a yarn. Back in 1748, a man called Baron Francis Dashwood started work on excavating the caves and soon after he invited his club to join him here for meetings. That club was the legendary Hellfire Club." Ryan climbed on top of a crate of beer and retrieved a bag, revealing an old book with a piece of paper stuck out of the top. " For those of you who don't know what the Hellfire club was, you are in for a surprise. The club was said to hold pagan ceremonies, worshipping the old Gods of a forgotten time. But they did more than that, the story goes that they would sacrifice animals, have wild sex parties with local girls and even talk to the devil. A story from the club's time in Ireland says that one night they were having one of their meetings, playing cards when a strange man came to visit. He sat down at the table and it was only then that one member noticed the man had the legs of the goat, he was the devil. Now you would be in your rights to say that this was just a tale, a legend attached to a club of rich, bored men but I have here a book that belonged to a member and tonight we are going to send our friend to hell"

The room went silent before bursting out into cheers. Nervously I looked around at my friends, at the same time looking for an exit. I wasn't a religious man but didn't like where things were heading.

"Now over here is where club members would perform a ritual to send a member to hell to communicate with the devil. If he was able to prove it then he lived, if not well things are sketchy on that. So Josh we can't just send you to hell and bring you back without you proving you were there, so we want you to steal something. A certain jewel that was a gift from a club member to the devil himself. You will go to the devil's den and retrieve the jewel and we will bring you back, ending the greatest stag party ever and making you a few quid when you sell it on. No men blindfold the man who is lucky enough to meet our master and garner your robes as the last and final meeting of the new Hellfire Club is in session."

Before I had a chance to protest a thick black blindfold was tied around my head and I felt hands grabbing at my arms pulling me further into the cave. I had no idea where they were leading me but suddenly I was stopped. My heart pounded in my chest and I felt my body sweat even though in the late summer evening the cave was cool. I did my best to calm myself as I felt the sudden heat of fire all around me. I didn't know at the time that I was standing inside a circle of fire in a room used by the original members to summon the devil.

Suddenly I heard a booming voice in front of me, or at least that's what I thought, it was hard to tell in the confines of the cave. I knew the owner though, it was Ryan, there was no doubting it. He spoke confidently and clearly, almost like he had practised or worse conducted the ritual before. "We the members of the new Hellfire Club call upon Satan, our lord and master, the one true God to hear our words. With this sacrifice we request our brother Joshua McClean be welcomed until your kingdom until he is called back to our realm. May you grant our request and welcome our brother, your servant into your realm."

Then the cave went quiet, I couldn't hear anything apart from the rapid breathes coming from my own body as well as the flickering of the flames that surrounded me. No one spoke, but I knew they were there. I could feel their eyes watching me, waiting to see if anything had happened. Of course no one, not even Ryan thought anything would. It was a joke, a joke dreamed up because he found the book while researching the local area of my wedding.

I had no clue how long I stood there, not daring to move when suddenly the cave came alive with a deafening high pitch squeal. I heard someone scream but I had no idea who it was. Then I felt the heat from the fire increase, the flames shooting up above my head. I didn't have to see them, I could feel the heat as they danced closer and closer to my face, then suddenly it was over and all went silent once again and I found my body collapsing to the stone floor and I passed out.

When I came to I could see nothing but darkness around me and I clawed at my face to remove the blindfold but it was gone. In a panic, I wondered if I had gone blind, had I hit my head? Maybe I did fall hard. But Then it hit me, that I was underground and the torches we carried had probably just gone out during the commotion.

Quickly I searched for my phone in my pockets but I soon remembered that I had left it in my hotel room, a stag rule to stop me from being tempted to call Brooke. I swore at myself for allowing myself to go along with such a stupid rule.

The lack of a phone left me having to use my other senses to overcome my lack of sight. Trying to calm myself I closed my eyes and tried to gauge an understanding of my surroundings. The smell was the first thing I noticed, it was retched and rotting, a smell like thousands of rotting eggs had been cracked all at once, I was amazed that I missed it before. I mean how can so many people not notice such a disgusting smell?

Next, I noticed the heat and not from the summer's high humidity combined with being underground. No, this was different, more intense, more like standing next to a roaring bonfire. But if such a fire was close by then why couldn't I see any flames? Nothing was making sense to me. Suddenly terrifying scream echoed off the walls around me, causing my body to react.

I was scared, more scared than I had ever been in my life, I just wanted to get out, and after a fight with my own body a willed myself to move, pushing myself forward only to find my way was stopped by a wall. I turned the other way into another wall then another, I had the overwhelming feeling of the walls closing in around me but how was that possible? How could I be trapped when I was in a wide part of a tunnel. I kept feeling the walls, the warm stone rough under my hands, I can feel it cutting my palms more and more I panic. Then, suddenly my hand falls through a void and I feel a tunnel, it's not wide but it's the only way out.

Breathing in I squeezed my body into the gap, I had to walk sideways, the walls pressing in against my body. I knew if it got any tighter I would be stuck, never to see the light of day again, but I kept moving. I have no idea how long I was squeezed into the tight passage before I suddenly saw light coming from some flickering flames in the distance. The light restored hope that I could escape and I found myself moving quicker, ignoring the pain of the rough rock cutting into my back and chest. But the closer I got to the flickering flames, the more the rotten smell increased and so did the heat.

As the light from the flames got brighter the tunnel opened up and turned a slight angle and I was finally free. What greeted me however was much worse than being trapped, I was in hell. I knew it as soon as I saw the flames coming up from deep pits, dancing wildly around paths of rock that winded through the flames. The horror didn't end there.

The closest wall was maybe 100 feet from where I stood and as I stepped out I could see that the wall ran higher above, me so high that it was impossible to see the roof of the cave, but the wall wasn't solid. Instead, it was covered in small caves isolated from the world below. I couldn't see any way to get up to them, but there must have been a way as I could see a woman chained naked to the wall of the closest cave. Stood in front of her was a winged creature

who seemed to be taking joy from cutting the woman's naked breasts with its sharp nails. I was so close that I could see blood dripping down her stomach, before parting at her thighs to carry on its journey to the floor. She must have been in so much pain yet her eyes betrayed no fear or pain, just sadness and when they locked on mine I saw nothing, it was like I wasn't even there.

In the distance I could see another opening and quickly made my way for it, ignoring the screams around me. If that was where I would find the devil's den, then that was where I was going to go, I mean if your friends send you to hell you may as well prove it.

It didn't take long to get there, I paused at the entrance, peering around the wall. I could see a large cavern filled with piles of what could only be described as treasure. Gold, jewels, gold-plated guns, various weapons, paintings, statues, anything you could imagine to be treasure was there, but no devil. Taking one final deep breath of the foul air I stepped into the cave, searching for it as fast as I could. I had no idea what I was looking for, I know Ryan told me to retrieve a necklace but there were so many I would have had no chance of finding the right one.

Then out of the darkness, I could hear talking, a deep male voice speaking a strange language that I couldn't understand. The voice though was hypnotic and I found my body uncontrollably moving towards the source. Every step I took it got louder and louder but still, I couldn't stop. Then suddenly I found myself bending down to pick something up and I felt my body overcome by a feeling of dread like something was inside of me. Inside I was screaming as my mind played out some of the worst scenes of humanity, Hitler, the Black Death, and the sinking of the Titanic. I felt the people's pain, I could feel them calling out in pain as they died horribly, and then it was over. My mind went dark and once again my lifeless body fell to the floor.

When I woke up I was back in the Hellfire Cave but something was different, something was wrong.

"Josh, where have you been? What happened to..." Ryan said before he was suddenly stopped by the knife slitting his throat in one swift movement.

I could feel myself smile as his warm blood squirted out from his throat onto my face as he fell to the floor. I fought my body for control it was no good, I had no control.

The evil voice I heard in the cave was now inside me, controlling me and no matter what I did I couldn't stop it. I wanted to tell my friends to run but I couldn't and when Sam stepped forward to help Ryan I slashed down with the knife across his face, the knife puncturing down to his brain killing him instantly.

The rest of my friends who were momentarily stunned all dived at me, but I watched as my body killed them one by one, painting the walls with their blood, covering myself in their blood. That was the last thing I remember of that dreadful night.

The next day when we didn't turn up for a wedding my friends were found dead in the cave and I was assumed to be the killer. The police assumed it was me and the press labelled me the Hellfire Ripper and a massive manhunt across the country found nothing because I was gone, I was in hell.

It was never explained to me why that dreadful night happened, or why the knife called out for me. For me, my forever torture was for my friends to take their revenge on me for eternity, one by one cutting my flesh with that very knife. It's been 100 years now, and just like that woman I saw during my first visit to hell, I no longer scream, I no longer cry, I just face my punishment known for eternity as the Hellfire Ripper.