east of eden | (g)i-dle

21; shuhua

they were going to go to Heaven.

soyeon and soojin had spent hours putting together all the information they could find on Heaven and the dungeons of Heaven. minnie and shuhua sat down together for a full day drawing a detailed map of the Palace and putting together a plan to break into the dungeons.

they were going to use a dangerous route to Heaven. the route they had chosen was so difficult to pass through that no entity or being had used that way ever since the beginning of time when cain killed his brother abel.

they were going to venture through the land of nod, the land east of eden. it was the land of travellers, of sinners and of the monsters hidden from the rest of the world.

but it also had a direct connection to Heaven, if you knew where to go.

she pulled the map out of the leather bag beside her, marveling at minnie's small, neat handwriting and sketches.

"shuhua, we have to go now."

"where? i thought we were leaving tonight," shuhua asked.

minnie peeked her head through the doorway. "soyeon said we need to see someone before we leave. she told me it's important."

༻ ༒ ༺

shuhua looked around in amazement. "it's so beautiful here."

they had used a transportation method they had called an 'elevator' to get to one of the lowest floors in pandemonium. unlike all the other floors, the elevator opened up to reveal a wide corridor that looked like it came straight out of a mortal storybook.

the walls were made of dirt and dim lamps hung from the ceiling. strange looking plants grew from the walls, glowing and flourishing despite the lack of sunlight.

soyeon walked down the passage quickly, forcing minnie, soojin and shuhua to sprint to catch up to her.

after a little while of walking, the passage narrowed down and forced them to walk in a single file.

"where are you taking us, soyeon?" questioned soojin.

soyeon ignored the higher demon and continued, never losing her footing on the dirt floor despite wearing heels so high that shuhua's own feet ached when she thought about it.

they eventually found themselves at a dead-end, where they stopped, wondering what soyeon would do next.

soyeon approached the dirt wall and knocked on the dirt 6 times.

shuhua was expecting something miraculous to happen. would the dirt wall sprout plants, or collapse to let us pass?

nothing happened.

"is soyeon finally going crazy?" whispered soojin to minnie, who didn't respond.

after several minutes, the dirt wall disappeared, revealing a secret room behind the soil. a male demon stood at the entrance, towering over soyeon and had seemingly no fear nor respect for soyeon like the other demons in Hell did, looking at the ruler of Hell emotionlessly.

a black silk eyepatch covered one of his eyes, and he was missing an arm. his eye shone under the dim candlelight as he stepped to the side, allowing them to come in.

the wall of dirt came back up after they entered, sealing the only path that leads back to the elevator.

༻ ༒ ༺

the secret room was larger than shuhua had expected it to be.

the male demon swept past all of them, adding dried plants and a mixture of liquids from shelves so high that they touched the ceiling into a small cauldron suspended over a blue-purple flame.