Chapter 5 The world beyond

(A chance to redeem a soul.)

Adam expected to burn. He expected fire to tear him apart, melt his eyes from their sockets, or worse better, a plunge into torment that would match the guilt clawing through his insides.

Instead, he felt... nothing!

No ground beneath his feet. No weight to his body. Just movement. Endless, directionless movement through a tunnel of shimmering darkness. Stars collapsed and reformed around him. Time twisted into knots he could feel but not see. He reached out his hand vanished into the void, reappearing moments later in a different place. He screamed, but no sound came.

Then it ended.

Abruptly.

He fell to solid ground. Cold. Wet. Metallic.

His breath came back in a gasp as if someone had been holding it for him.

He was lying on a massive stone floor. Around him: a cavern of shifting colour and geometry. Columns twisted into impossible angles. Walls made of glass and bone. High above, a ceiling stretched into a red sky filled with inverted constellations.

It was not Earth. It had to be the otherworld.

The three-robed figures stood in a triangle around him. Their masks now shimmered with faint inscriptions-ancient script that pulsed with living light.

"You stand in Eretheon," said the tallest, its voice echoing from every surface of the room.

"The Threshold City," whispered another. "Where cursed souls find either release... or purpose."

Adam rose to his knees. "Why am I here?"

"To decide," said the third. "You have been marked by Lucifer. That mark will grow. It will devour what is left of your will. And when it has eaten everything, you will become one of them."

Adam's hand instinctively went to his chest. A burning symbol had formulated under his skin. He could feel it pulsing like a second heart.

"I didn't ask for this."

The three figures said nothing. They waited.

"I just- I just wanted to live and love again," he said. "I didn't know what was happening. The woman back there... she... She... She was nice and welcoming but I didn't...-"

"You think love shields you from consequence?" one asked, cutting through his misery like a butcher. "Love can be the blade. The wound. The very door the demon walked through."

Adam clenched his fists. "You wanted life, and sex? Of all things? SEX? Look at yourself, can you even carry the weight of your own penis now? It's a foot and a half long! JESUS CHRIST!!"

It hit Adam hard, and embarrassment he couldn't hide from anyone. He never asked for but Lucifer had granted him the one desire he had before his death.

"Then what's the point? If it's already inside me why not just kill me?" Adam, who couldn't stand the mocking and shame, burst out in rage. A desire for real death was his wish but the figures turned slightly-almost imperceptibly-toward the far end of the hall. They assumed him, ignored his rage and simply said they had saved him from the real shame and danger.

"There." The third figure pointed at a wide archway that opened onto an obsidian bridge stretching over a chasm of lightless depth. "Beyond that is a city of broken towers."

Adam could see the massive stone statues watching over crumbling temples with fires that burned without smoke and creatures that moved like ink spilt into the water.

"That city is where you will find your path," the third figure continued "You are not the only one marked. And you are not the first to awaken."

Adam staggered to his feet, heart pounding.

"What do I have to do?" He asked as the three figures paused and then spoke in unison. "Find the Seer. She will show you the shape of your corruption. And perhaps... how to tear it out."

None seemed to be interested in judging him or punishing him as they gave him the last advice. "Be warned. Eretheon is not bound by your rules of reason. Time bends. Space lies. Your guilt will hunt you. And those who serve Lucifer will feel your presence."

"Wait," Adam said quickly. "Who are you?"

For a moment, the tall figure hesitated. Then it said, "We are the Unmade. We were like you. Before we cut out what made us human."

The three turned and began to dissolve into mist.

Before they vanished, one final whisper reached Adam's mind:

"Do not trust any reflection."

And then they were gone.

---

Adam stood there, alone once more, staring at the bridge that seemed to stretch endlessly into a city made of nightmares. He took a step forward. The stone beneath his feet throbbed like it was alive. Somewhere far below, a scream echoed-not one of fear, but of fury.

As he crossed the threshold, he felt it. A heavy pressure. A presence.Watching. Following.And not the Unmade. It was something older. Something that knew his name before he did.

But yet he walked for what felt like hours. His fate was predetermined and his destiny called unto him. Time twisted strangely here-his breath fogged even though he wasn't cold, and the sky never changed. Always the same crimson hue, like the hour before dusk had been stretched across eternity.

He passed beings-humanoid, mostly, but not quite. Some wore armour made of living stone. Others floated, headless, whispering into books that wrote themselves. Most ignored him. But one watched.

A child-like figure, hooded and barefoot, sitting on a broken fountain. Its face was shadowed, eyes glowing blue.

"New meat," it said.

Adam paused. "Excuse me?"

"Fresh blood," the child said with a grin that had far too many teeth. "Still smells of guilt and meat and soft thoughts. You'll burn out fast."

Adam stepped back. "What are you?"

The child laughed. "Nothing yet. Same as you."

And then the kid vanished in a blink. Not to be seen or heard. Leaving behind a haunting trail of fear in Adam's spine.

---

Finally, Adam arrived at the very first building in town. A vast stone staircase led down into a narrow alley flanked by black iron-like buildings. At the bottom: was a door carved with swirling runes. No windows. Just a brass handle shaped like a screaming Harpy.

He reached for it and then stopped. But The door opened on its own. And inside stood a woman. Tall. Cloaked in threads of shadow. Her hair was silver, her skin pale as marble. One eye was normal. The other was a swirling void.

"You're late," she said, turning away. "The mark has already started feeding."

Adam's heart raced. "Are you the Seer?"

She didn't answer at first. She walked to a brazier and tossed in a handful of powder that hissed and turned blue.

"You killed someone," she said, "but not of your own will. But with your own cock."

She turned to take another long look at his large penis before finishing her sentence, "You wear death like a borrowed coat."

Adam's fists clenched. "I need this thing out of me." It was a total embarrassment.

She looked at him for a long time, then again down at the log between his legs.

"No. You don't."

He froze. "What?"

"You think it's a curse. It's not. It's a gate. And the question is no longer whether you deserve it."

Her eye swirled again, and for a moment, Adam saw something behind her-a towering creature with antlers and a burning crown, staring at him from inside the darkness. It was a reflection.

"It's whether you'll survive what's on the other side."

She pointed toward the flame.

"Look."

Adam stepped closer. In the fire, an image appeared. Magdalene. But she was alive. Bound. Screaming. In a place of fire and torture.

"She's not dead," Adam whispered.

The Seer nodded. "Not entirely."

"Where is she?"

The Seer turned to him. "The demon took her soul. And now it waits. It knows you're here."

A silence grew in the room as the seer looked back again at Adam's penis and said, "The demon knows what you'll do to get her back."

Her eyes seemed to be fixed on Adam's point of interest as if it was luring her into the demonic influence to get a quickie.

"-Oh gosh, I wish I could stick his large pong inside me; so bad he has an Iblis mark. Such a waste of pleasure.-" The seer cursed silently before performing a quick magic that made her and the building disappear, leaving Adam alone and shaken in the middle of the busy Eretheon city.