01Heaven and Hell by Kenneth Zeigler

Author:Kenneth Zeigler [Zeigler, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780768495492
Publisher: Destiny Image
Published: 2012-05-15T19:07:50+00:00

chapter fifteen

EXCRUCIATING pain; it had become the center point of her existence, dominating her entire being, as surely as the flaming black sea dominated her world from horizon to horizon. Its cruel currents had swept Serena far from the barren brown cliffs of the shore and into the endless, heaving nightmare beyond. Eventually, those currents had carried her from the land of eternal daylight into the sea of eternal night. Serena remembered her final sunset, as the bloated red orb sank below the horizon never to rise again.

The sky overhead faded, first to a pale gray then to black, until only a narrow band of amber stretched across the lonely horizon, giving evidence to a red sun far beyond. Yet, that bow of light was fading as she was carried deeper into eternal night. Only the flames illuminated her surroundings now. Not that there was anything to see beyond the black boiling ooze, heaving and churning in an endless dance of suffering.

Her once beautiful skin had become a reddish brown hide, covered with boils and sores that erupted and healed in a never-ending cycle of destruction and regeneration, as her body’s incredible healing power fought an eternal battle with the scalding black oil that engulfed her. Beneath her burnt flesh, her blood boiled within her veins, giving rise to its own unique pain, a pain which penetrated to the depths of her being.

The portions of her body above the roiling black liquid fared no better, for they were scorched, and occasionally charred by the terrible flames that swept randomly across its surface. Her long, beautiful hair had been totally burned away; leaving only inflamed and scarred flesh covering her head. She had no eyebrows or eyelashes, for the parts of her body that could be burned away had been.

She thrashed about in crazed pain. There was no respite and no rest, only the continuing torment that ripped her humanity from her, leaving only her base animal instincts. Those instincts told her to do anything to escape, yet escape was impossible. Yes, therein was the source of her escalating desperation, a desperation that would lead inevitably to madness.

How long had she been here? Only an instant compared to the eternity that stretched before her, and that realization alone was driving her toward insanity. If only the heat would increase, consume her utterly, destroying both body and soul. Nothingness would be infinitely preferable to this. But that nothingness would never come, for her existence would stretch into infinity. The human spirit was eternal and, thus, so would be her suffering.

She tried to think of Chris, to dwell on the love that they shared in life, but love had been drained from her. There was no room for love in her heart. It had been replaced by fear, regret, and grief, the emotions which dominated this place. Those emotions seemed like tangible entities. The sulfurous air, the boiling sea, the flames, they were all infused with it, and their abundance penetrated everything, even to the depths of her soul.

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