Untold Trials

Trial By Fire

mood music : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDZZkoUQux8
Chapter tag warnings: mentions and descriptions of violence, blood, and vomit (kept minimal as possible but still there)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Dark visions swam behind their eyes, visions of slaughter and suffering, the scent of blood hanging in the air, and when they looked down it was their hands covered in blood. It was their fault, they had failed somehow. The few times they woke they were thrashing and crying out, someone holding them down, but they never saw a face and so their mind assumed the worst. Had they been captured? Would they be used to hurt others somehow? They couldn't bear the thought. They watched on in horror as their own arm lifted and then brought their blade down on another faceless innocent whose name they'd never learn. Were they already dead? Was this what Hell was like? When next they woke it was to purge their bowls of quite possibly everything they've ever eaten or drank, eyes dry from crying in their sleep. They take in the sound of the storm raging outside, and the sight of a fire, a bed, and the bucket they spewed into. The puke turned to blood then and their hands were covered in it once more, but this time it came from their own body. Red flared up brightly and they raised their head to take in the figure shrouded in darkness. Fear consumed them at the sight. The dark cloak about them fluttered and flapped about in a nonexistent wind as they took a step closer, they turned and ran. Their sense of self seemed to split off into three more 'selves' that all ran in the same direction but seemed to be different perspectives. Each of them were hunted down and slain by the apparent angel of death until there was only one. Just as the others they found themselves trapped at a dead end and they turned, fear building as the man or beast approached calmly and raised their blade.

At the last moment they raised their arms and found a blade to be in their own hand, just barely stopping the blade from cutting them down, but the reaper kept pressing with strength that seemed beyond that of mortal men. Their legs buckled and they dropped to a knee, still fighting against their demise. When it seems as if they would lose they suddenly felt the ground give way beneath them, the blade being dropped and sailing off down into darkness as they scrambled to catch themselves. When they did they found they were back on the cliff, rain pouring down on them once more as the angel of death stood above them on the cliff, watching them struggle. The water seemed heavier this time, like hands gripping on and pulling at them. The angels' cloak flowed around them, beautiful, terrifying... They knew if they climbed up the angel would end them this time, so in an act of defiance against their fate.. They released the rock cliff, falling back into the abyss and watching the darkness of the angel and the burning red of their blade fade away to nothing.

Nothing greeted them but the cold and dark.