Life in Paintings

Chapter 40 - Pandemonium

Chapter 40 - Pandemonium

I'm not surprise that I wake up in literal Hell in the next painting.

I'm starting to figure out how this curse works. And if I'm in any way happy, I have to pay back tenfold.

Also, parts of me believes that the angel girl actually sent me to Gustave and I wasn't supposed to go to him, and in doing that, I made the one in charge of this curse angry.

Therefore, I have to pay.

So, I wake up standing in the middle of what feels like a volcano. And I should know what that feel like. I was there when the Vesuvius erupted.

Everything is black and red and menacing.

Everything looks and feels like it's on fire.

There seems to be no place where lands stops and sky starts. It's just dark and menacing everywhere.

There's a huge building in front of me. It almost looks like the British Parliament. I head inside and walk through it, staying close to the walls and the columns.

The place is completely empty. There's not furniture or ornaments. No sign of life. There is no life here. Just death.

I feel like I'm going to suffocate, but somehow it's also not hot. It's almost... freezing. I have no idea how to explain it.

I just know that everything about this place is wrong and I want to be out of here.

I could end this prematurely. I know how.

I also know how it goes when I take the easy way out though.

And I don't want to get in any more trouble. Especially since I want to see Gustave again.

So, I keep walking around.

There are other people here. Or angels maybe. I see shadows of winged creatures, paired with moans of pain.

I really don't like this place.

I'm a ball of anxiety. I feel like I'm in the middle of a horror movie at the point when you just know the big bad is going to appear and wreck everything and you're just the definition of freaking out.

At one point, I've walked through the building and now I'm on what feel like a board walk beside a river. But instead of being water, it's lava.

And there he is. The big bad. On the other side of the river, looking at his kingdom.

He's wearing a red cape and holding a lance with a shield. He looks like a Greek or Roman soldier almost.

He's got a helmet with horns. Or maybe they're his horns.

He's clearly the devil. That's the most logical explanation in this particular setting.

I feel my skin crawl. My whole body is filled with fear, the kind of fear I can't even explain. It's suffocating.

I can feel him staring right at me. I'm shaking. I feel like I'm about to throw up.

One second he's on the other side of the river, the next he's standing in front of me.

"You should not be here," he says in a soft, melodic voice.

It scares me more than it should, because this voice belongs to an angel. But it's not an angel in front of me.

Well... technically it used to be. The devil was an angel first if we follow the mythology after all.

"I'll be gone soon enough," I barely manage to say.

"Not soon enough for me," he replies, wrapping his hand around my throat and lifts me off my feet.

I struggle against his grip uselessly, gasping for air that will not reach my lungs.

I think this is how I'm going to die. And I think it's not that bad. I've been suffocated before.

But I'm wrong.

Instead, before I can even pass out, he throws me down the river of lava.

I don't die instantly. That's the worst thing about this.

I feel my skin melt and my bones burn, as my whole body disintegrates.

Every time I think I know my threshold of pain, and every time I'm surprised again.