A Different Kind of Hell

Welcome to Chaumala

Chapter 1: Dakota

I woke in a mushy field, the ground soft under my body and the rain fell along my body. It took a few moments for me to come back to myself, to realize that I was still human to open my eyes and figure out what is around me. The last thing I remember I was in New Orleans, having fun in Mardi Gras, and the place that I'm in right now... Yeah, this isn't New Orleans.

I can remember being at a street party and being led to a parlor of the "lady of the night" for a seance. I have no idea whom we might be contacting or whom we might pull back from "the beyond" but I never thought that it would end with me being here. I don't even know what was under me, but it squished when I moved, making my skin crawl.

"Just go babe, it'll be fun!" Jennifer shrieked.

"Talk to your brother, you know you want to!" Bambi whined

"You know you want to know if there's more to life than just this, do this!" Stefani cried out

And after that moment, here I was, flat on my back in a hellscape that only the worst of the world could imagine, a lake of literal hellfire next to me and bodies of all kinds around me. I had no weapons, not even a stick to my name, and the battle was still raging around me. I had no idea how I got here, and I had no idea what to do. Who is that?

I saw a figure running at me.

She landed on top of me with the weight of an entire freight train, no possible moving, not even a thought about it. Her wings flared out, and she stared down at me. Her eyes widened as I looked out at her wings, all feathers and golden outlines. She screamed down at me, in a language I didn't understand, and gave me all of her rages, screaming with drool dripping from her lips, screaming that I should know that I couldn't understand, but then she changed languages and I could understand her.

"How are you here?" "Why are you here?" "How can you be in this place?"

"I don't know!!" I screamed, "I have no idea where I am or how I got here!"

A sword across my neck made me shiver. There was nothing I could do but stay still.

"Explain yourself or die, mortal! Your blood will feed the machine that keeps us moving forward! How did you get here and why are you in this realm? Why are you in this place to deal with this situation?" she screamed in my face

"Get the fuck off of me, you psychotic battle angel! I don't know what's going on or where I am and you threatening to kill me unless you get answers that I don't have isn't helping anything! The last thing I knew I was in New Orleans, attending some fake seance in a fake psychic's parlor... and then I woke up here and you jumped on top of me!"

She pulled the sword from my neck and sat back on her knees, looking at me. She just looked at me and furrowed her brow, she took a moment and then stabbed her sword into the ground next to us. Her wings folded back and she crossed her arms over her chest, scanning the surrounding area before looking back down at me, looking very confused and wary. At that point, I realized while looking at her that the rain wasn't just rain as I watched it run down her pale face, it was blood. It was raining blood!

I sat up to my elbows and looked around at the scene that greeted me. There was a lake of fire that roiled and flared to my left, a set of mountains off to my right that looked like jagged shark's teeth, and behind, no, all around this woman sitting on my hips, I could see a massive battle going on. It looked like a medieval battle with everyone fighting hand to hand. I looked back at her, bewildered and very nervous all of a sudden. I had no way to navigate this place or get through the battle, I knew for a fact that I would die.