Hell (Part Four of the Purgatory Series)

Chapter Four: Survivor

Chapter Four: Survivor

Purgatory had been a war zone under Mara's control. But he had survived it. He had once thought himself strong enough to endure anything. Not this.

This was unbearable.

David had been telling the truth when he said Purgatory reflected the souls of the people in it. And the souls he had forced into their eternal afterlife were grieving.

Thanks to his actions and Thea's spell, the nephilim had to stay in Purgatory forever. They were all stuck here permanently unless a kind, charitable witch decided to help by removing the spell that kept them from leaving and lifted them out one by one. Not likely.

All the sadness and resentment they were feeling, added with the remaining cambion hostility, created a horrible existence. The old layout of Purgatory was gone, and in its place was a foreign, unfamiliar, impossible to navigate terrain. During the weeks he had been stuck here, he hadn't been able to find any sanctuary or safe place. It had become a maze, a trap impossible to escape, and the walls constantly shifted. Some rooms would disappear entirely or lead to steep drop offs into bottomless pits. And the rain. The rain was constant. It was driving him mad. That, and the loneliness.

Helena and Altair had abandoned him, refusing to help the person who had damned them all to this fate. He didn't blame them. Others of his kind were sometimes even violent if they saw him. And the cambion were always hunting him, especially now that they knew he could be hurt.

Roran pulled his hood down over his face and tried, and failed, to ignore the constant, pouring rain. Feeling sorry for himself wasn't helping anyone. He curled up in a dark corner and tried, again, to contact Adrienne. The witch had helped him before, but he hadn't been kind to her when they last spoke. Not to mention, he figured she was probably still by her mother's side despite the fact she was working with Lucifer. But he had to try. She was his only hope at getting out of here and fixing this mess.

Adrienne had given him a spell to contact her, but he had already tried a dozen times with no results. Either she was ignoring him or the spell she had given him during their last adventure in Purgatory was fake. It was unlikely she had lied about the spell though. She had liked him then and had wanted him to contact her.

A deep rumble shook the ground beneath him. The maze was shifting again. Before he could get off the ground and prepare himself, Roran was falling. There was nothing to latch onto, no walls, no rocks. He was falling straight down into what seemed to be a bottomless pit.

Just as he closed his eyes and resigned himself to his fate, a hand latched onto his wrist and lifted him up. Roran opened his eyes to see the very last person he would have expected - Jelani.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He shouted as soon as his feet were on solid ground.

"Saving your ass, apparently," he replied, with obvious regret. "I've run out of other options."

Roran narrowed his eyes and pulled out a blade. "How are you even alive? How did you know where to find me? And what do you mean, 'run out of options'?"

Jelani let out a long sigh and rubbed his temples. "I had almost forgotten how annoying you are," was his response. "But fine. I'm alive because I made a deal, Adrienne found you, not me, and I've run out of options to save Thea on my own and I need your help."

The last few words came out of him in a strangled tone, as if it physically hurt him to say them.

"We need to hurry. Adrienne only gave me thirty minutes," he added, before sprinting away.

Roran stood staring after him for several seconds before following. At this point he was pretty sure he was dreaming, but decided to just go with it. Even though he had never wanted to see Jelani again, it wasn't as bad as some of the nightmares he'd had recently. But honestly, if his brain was imagining Jelani as his savior then there was something terribly wrong with him. Maybe he had a concussion? Or a brain-eating parasite?