Pitch Black

I couldn't believe my eyes. I even blinked several times to see if my eyes weren't just playing tricks on my because of the stress on my body. "L... Lynn?" I said, reaching out to touch her face and make sure it wasn't some sort of odd apparition. Sure enough, my fingers brushed against her pale, cold cheeks. He hand touched mine, and I was convinced it was real.

"What are you doing here?" Lynn asked me. "You shouldn't be here."

"I know I shouldn't. But I... I was dragged down. By a Blood Society member..."

"How?" She asked, furrowing her brow. "By who?"

"Mimi Diable." I answered, the name traveling off my tongue like scorching water.

"Ms. Diable... She's my mentor." Lynn gave a small, bitter laugh. "She helped me out of these cells, but I end up having to be the Blood Society men's plaything like she is..." A disgusted look crossed her face. "We need to get you out of here. Stay quiet."

"You're-you're helping me out?" I asked. "But what if you get punished? What if you get sent back-" She shushed me, looking around to make sure no one was there to see. Using the keys on her belt, she unlocked my cell and opened the door. People who saw began moaning and groaning for her to let them out of their cells as well, growing louder and louder.

"SHUT UP YOU PIECES OF FILTH!" Lynn roared at them with a sort of hellish fury. "Unless you all want to go to the torture chambers along with him as well!"

Everyone was immediately silenced. I was almost at a loss for words. "Quickly." She grabbed my hand and led me out of the cell chamber. I looked back and felt my heart sink for the defeated look on all the prisoner's faces.

Lynn took me to the door Beelzebub had pointed out when I first came to hell, where Blood Society's council meetings were held and where prisoners were banned from. She opened it slightly, and then quickly positioned herself so that she was right in front of me. "Stay close to the wall, and keep your mouth shut." She warned. We went through the door.

What met me was the exact scenario of what I saw when I was in Christopher's book of memories. A huge, dark room with millions of dark figured lining the seats, overlooking a huge space where the accused stood to be judged. No one was there now, but the room quietly hummed as the council members talked. The portly, angry-looking man in the curly white wig was where I had seen him before, talking seriously to some members and shuffling papers. Lynn inched along the wall, careful to make sure her back was pressed against me enough so that no one would see.

"Lynn!" A voice roared. Lynn and I both turned to see that the portly man had his tiny-eyed gaze fixed on her.

"Sir!" Lynn said, standing and full attention and pressing me further to the wall.

"Did you tend to the prisoners and to Belial?" His voice rang out loudly seemingly without any effort on his part.

"Yes, sir, he is taken care of. His second whipping of the day was carried out as planned." Lynn said with convincing confidence.

"Good, good... Carry on." The man then turned back to his papers.

I felt Lynn's body slack with relief, and she moved along the wall to a hallway only lit by two or three dull ceiling lamps. She went to a door labeled, "WOMEN'S QUARTERS 3-19", and knocked. No answer came, and she entered it, leading me quickly inside.

What she led me in was a room that had a glowing red tint to it, hung with red cloths and curtains, and red candles burning a warm scent into the room. There were a few hard-looking beds laden with red pillows and sheets lined against the walls. Lynn sat on one of them and sighed.

"Where are we?" I asked as I took a seat next to her.

"This is where some of the women come to do their dirty work and planning." She explained to answer my curious stare around the room. "The women of the Blood Society additionally act as free prostitutes to the men whenever they feel they need a quick fuck, and help with the torturing and dragging people down." She threw the whip down on the floor. "Men just come in whenever they like and we have to give them what they want if one of us is available... even then, they don't even have to come in here. If they're horny and they see a woman in the corridor... Mimi's the head overseer, and even then she abuses us as well..." she sighed, and her voice slightly shook as she spoke next. "It's bloody horrible being here, but at least it's better than sitting in a cell all the time... not that the bad memories of life don't flood through my brain every hour of the day..." She shuddered slightly, and a tear escaped her eye. I could tell just by the look in her face, the defeated way in which she was holding herself, the sad look in her eyes that she had been abused endlessly down here, both mentally and physically. I noticed that parts of her body had dark bruises on it, and it made me furious. I put a reassuring hand on her back, and she looked at me and mustered a smile as best as she could.

"We have to get you out of here." She said in a hushed whisper. "I know the precise way we can get you out. It can be so if someone was dragged down unfairly, but it's tricky."

"But, then that means, you must come too. You can get us both out." I said.

She kept her smile, but shook her head. "No... I can't. I've been damned ever since I was twelve."

"What do you mean? You haven't sinned at all in your life, Lynn." I gave her a serious stare, not wanting to believe what she would say next. "You deserve to go to Heaven, right Lynn? Right?"

Tears began to stream down her eyes. "Not at all... Not at all... my parents, they... they didn't die on their own..."

"Lynn, stop, that's not true." I half-begged her. "Please, stop!"

But she continued anyway. "It was midnight, I had just turned twelve... and... and I already had a history of mental illness... schizophrenia. I thought I had gotten over it, I really did... All three of us did. But it was still there, secretly... and the voice, small and comforting little voice told me that they didn't love me, they only wanted to hurt me. It said 'hurt them first.' I was so mad, I destroyed the house while they were asleep, and I got a knife from the kitchen and went into their room... they were sleeping so soundly..." by then her eyes were red, puffy, and flooding with tears, and her voice shook so bad I could hardly understand her. "I-I got my mum first... I was th-the last thing she saw... and then my dad woke up and I-I put the knife to his throat, an-and he fell...blood was everywhere and it was a-all over me and them and their eyes were wide open looking at me... and it drove me crazy... I begged and screamed and cried but they just kept looking at me, a-and I... I wanted to die with them, but the voice l-left me... it left, when I thought it would be there for me like it promised. But I never heard it again... never... a-an-and now that I'm dead, it... it came back. And it never leaves. And all it does is tell me I killed them, I'm a monster... and big green eyes always haunt me in my sleep... and blood is dripping off them... and the knife is still there, and.... I... I can't leave. God, I want to leave but I can't, Jack... I can't... I can't..." She then threw her hands up and shielded her face. "DON'T LOOK AT ME!" she shrieked, sobbing. "I'm a monster... don't look at me, please, I never wanted you to know, I don't want you to see me like this..."

I couldn't believe what I had heard. I still needed time to wrap my head around it. Nonetheless, I took her hands and lowered them from her face.

"I promise you..." I said slowly. "We will get out of here. But we need to get someone else out, too."

"Who?" Lynn said, gazing at me intently. "Who do we need to get?"

"Christo-er, Xavier."

"What? But... Jack, I thought you hated him!"

"I did, Lynn... but now... it's so much more different..." I bit my lip, wondering if I should just come out and say it to her.

"Different how?" She pressed. "How is it-"

She was stopped short as a loud knock shook the door in it's frame. "Lynn?! Open this door!!"

"Quick, hide!!" Lynn whispered as the doorknob rattled. She pushed me into a nearby closet and shut it until there was a crack I peeped through. I saw Lynn quickly go to the door and unlock it.

"What did I tell you about locking the damned door?" Mimi Diable approached Lynn menacingly, wearing the same outfit Lynn was garbed in and holding a whip. "You are still an apprentice, therefore are not allowed to have privacy, do you understand me?!"

"Yes, Mimi." Lynn said in the same confidence she had addressed the judge. Mimi sneered at her before going to a vanity near the beds and looking through the drawers.

"A couple nice Blood Society gentleman are coming by later on. I promised them a good time, and they have short tempers, so you better do whatever they ask of you." She said, taking out makeup and redoing hers in the vanity mirror. "If you complain about being sore afterwards I'll give you something to complain about. I'm tired of your constant whining. Understand?!" She barked the last word, scaring Lynn, who nodded vigorously. "Good... and if you're not there by the time I bring them by, I'll have your head." She said in a sweet voice as she finished her makeup and replaced it back into the drawer.

"Yes, Mimi..." Lynn said sheepishly.

"Good girl." Mimi began to check her body in the mirror. "Hmm... do you think I should wear a tighter corset?" She asked, inspecting her already overly-exposed breasts and thin waistline. "I should, shouldn't I? I will." She advanced to the closet, and I held my breath, pressing my back against the clothes behind me. Her hand was on the doorknob-

"Mimi you look exquisite already!" Lynn piped up. "You couldn't look more appetizing."

Mimi turned around. "Really? You think so? Hm..." She glanced down at her body again. "Alright." She walked away from the closet, took her whip, and went to the door. "Remember, be here when I bring these men." She warned. The she turned and shut the door with a snap. Lynn sighed as I stepped out of the closet. When I saw her, she looked extremely upset, and her face scrunched up and facing downwards in the way I used to remember when she was struggling to keep herself from crying.

"Lynn..." I extended and arm towards her, and she looked up and reached out to grab it. Soon she was in my arms, sobbing quietly.

"I hate this..." she said. "I hate these clothes, I hate it here, I hate her, I just hate it..." she said in a broken voice. "I used to think Huntington's was hell, but now... I see it's much worse..." she looked up with puffy red eyes, and a small smile began to glimmer at the edges of her lips. "But you're here, Jack... I never though I'd see you again. I can get you out of here so you don't have to suffer like me. You made me so happy just being here with me, like how it used to be... but after all this, we still can't be together..."

Her words stirred something within me. Sadness? Sinking? I realized that by her words, she still loved me... but I no longer felt the same, and I felt terrible. Did I tell her? Did I tell her that I had come down here because I fell in love with someone whom I used to hate more than anything in this world?

I pulled away from Lynn slightly. "Lynn, I... we... we need to get out." I said, faltering. "There could be a way to get all three of us out. We just have to ask Xavier."

"I will never for the life of me understand why you need to help him." Lynn said, shaking her head. "I better get an explanation on the way. But for now, let's get you clothes." Lynn went to the closet and rummaged through it until she pulled out a black mask and a black leather outfit. "Put these on, these will keep you concealed." She threw the clothes towards me and I slipped them on. The mask was hard to see through in such a dark place, but it would have to do. Getting her whip, Lynn and I exited the room on our way back to the prisoner cells.

As we walked through the corridors of Hell, many men jeered at Lynn and threw out the nastiest insults and comments to her I've ever heard. She just kept looking straight ahead as if they didn't even phase her, but I knew her well enough to know that they did. One woman stopped us and abruptly stood in front of Lynn, her heavily-done eyebrow raised.

"Lynn, who is this?" She asked.

"It's one of my gentleman friends, Karen." Lynn said.

"Well, never thought you'd score a gentleman friend, Lynn. He looks pretty fit too." The woman named Karen walked over to me. "When you want a real time, come over to 4-10 sometime, slim." She smirked and walked back off. I felt disgusted. I wanted nothing more than to just leave this place.

Lynn and I finally came to the cells. As we walked to the high security cell at the end of the hall, people at the side cells looked at us in utter fear. I wanted so much to just calm them, to tell them there was nothing to fear and that we would help them escape, but there was no way to do that. And I couldn't rightly do so. I didn't know which people deserved to be there, or were dragged down by Blood Society members. Still, it was horrible to feel the stares of sadness and fright at us, but the quicker we moved, the sooner we'd be out.

Lynn went to her belt of keys and unlocked the high security door. We went inside and entered what appeared to be a darkroom. She flipped on a light, and it appeared as a spotlight on one thing in the dead center of the room.

Christopher was there, naked, chained, and on his knees. His head was down, and his hair, brunette now, had grown long and tangled. It looked as if he had been mumbling to himself before he looked up and revealed sunken gray eyes, and gaunt skin. He looked skinnier than I had last seen him, and scars, cuts, and bruises covered his body.

"This cell was made specially for him." Lynn said in a sad voice. "He's been considered a danger to everyone for a long time."

As soon as he saw us, he immediately put his head back down, and began to shake violently, and curled up. Forgetting myself, I threw the mask off my face and ran to him, then held him in a tight embrace. He stopped shaking and looked at me. His terrified shocking gray eyes widened.

"Jack? You... came back for me?" He asked. " But how did you..."

"Shush. Don't worry about it." I said in a reassuring voice. "I'm here." Caught in the moment, he guided my lips to his and kissed me with the passion of sadness and love. I hugged him tighter as we kissed, having not kissed him for such a long time, it felt like the very first time I had kissed him-

"Oh...Jack..."

We both turned, and with another sinking feeling I remembered that Lynn was still in the room with us. She looked between the both of us, and looked like she had just gotten blown over the head with a hammer. I opened my mouth to utter a weak explanation, but she put a hand up, and nodded silently with a tear going down her cheek and a small smile on her lips. She understood. But she wasn't happy about it.

Without another word, she went over and unlocked Xavier's chains. They fell to the ground, revealing dark bruises around his wrists and ankles. He rubbed them, relieved. "Miss Lynn, I owe you." He said. "Now, to get out of here..."

"Only Jack can get out." Lynn said sadly. "He hasn't murdered anyone."

"That's true." He stood shakily to his feet. "But I do know a way out for all of us."

"What?" Lynn said, widening her eyes at him. "But... that's impossible, there can't be any-"

"Yes, there can." He said. "There's a hidden trapdoor behind the Master's thrown leading out of here. If we can reach it, then we're saved."

"How do you know this?" Lynn asked him.

"I saw on my second time down. But only a high-rank Blood Society member has a key. If we can get the keys from a high-ranker, we can escape."

"Wouldn't Mimi have one, Lynn?" I asked.

"Yes, but I don't know where she is... I could find someone who does though." Quickly, she ran out of the cell room, closing the door slightly. Christopher and I ran to the door to peak through the crack she left. We saw that she waited outside in a very revealing pose, her legs spread wide apart. Soon she caught the attention of a Blood Society man, who went up to her smiling maliciously.

"Well, now, what do we have here?" He asked, approaching her. "Another one of Mimi's little dirty girls out to find a man?"

"What else would I be hear for, handsome?" She asked, biting her lip slightly and smiling. "I was just looking for a taker for later on. Mimi will be there as well. Are you in?"

"Well, I will be later, that's for sure."

Lynn gave a sort of forced giggle before putting herself against him and feeling him up. "Get yourself nice and excited, dear. I promise you'll have quite a time..." her hand slid down to his belt line, where it met a set of keys, which she as quietly as she could slipped off and clipped on her belt. He seemed too distracted to notice though.

"Yes, ma'am" he said, grinning and slapping her backside before withdrawing and winking. "I have work to attend to but all that stress better be lifted later on."

"Will do," she said in a provocative voice as she left. Once he was a good distance away, she ducked back into the cell room, shuddering.

"God..." she said, hugging herself. "I'm glad I finally get to get away from that."

"As do I..." Christopher said. "Men like him come into my cell to torture me in more ways than one..." He shook his head and blinked. "But now's the hard part. Getting out of here."

""We'll have to be quick and quiet." Lynn said, peeping out the door. "Luckily there are no guards out. Come on!"

We followed her out to the end of the corridor. We passed all the screaming and moaning chambers of the prisoners in their cells, their hopelessness filling us one by one. We had passed two chambers before a loud shrieking noise filled the air. An alarm type sound.

Soon, we were surrounded by thousands of Blood Society members.

"Shit," Christopher said under his breath. "I should have known the chains were connected to the security system."

"RUN!" Lynn screeched. All three of us bolted to the door. The members darted around us, lashing out with their whips. One whip caught me by the arm in a slapping, searing pain, and wound around my arm, nearly taking me to its owner had I not been jerked away sharply by Christopher. We ran hard and fast through each of the door,and as we did many moans and groans of the prisoners hell mixed in with the angry shouts of the Blood Society members. We all finally made it to the throne room, but the throne was empty. We made a dash for the door, but stopped in our tracks, and not by will.

A dark fog filled the room rapidly, casting a suffocating feeling on all of us. Things got darker and darker, and soon a pair of small red eyes broke the fog, and formed a dark, tall, menacing body. We fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for air as the fog closed in on us tighter. The eyes seemed to make things worse, taking all the life from my body, unblinking, terrifying. They were eyes I thought I would never see if I lived to be a million, and the feeling they imposed on me were the wost I had experienced yet.

"Foolish immortals." The dark figure said in a deep and blood-chilling voice. "To think you can escape my kingdom so easily? Tsk, tsk... you must pay for your sins, so I think proper punishment is in order..." then followed horrible, cruel laughter. I had lost all hope as I had air, and I began to crumble to the ground, broken...

Suddenly, I felt an unnatural force on my back push me extremely hard, my air passages began to clear up, and I opened my eyes. I was out of the fog cloud, along with Christopher, and he was regaining himself and was back on his feet. Lynn was coughing and hacking in the fog. I couldn't see her, but I heard her grunt and something glinted in the air. Christopher caught it, grabbed my hand, and began to run to the door behind the throne. I looked back and shouted Lynn's name, but the reply I got was a horrid scream as the Bloody Society closed in on her, whipping her mercilessly and Lord knows what else.

Some of the members chased us to the door. Christopher fumbled with the key a little, but managed to get the door open. We met a long staircase, and up above we could see nothing. Still, we raced up those steps, our breaths coming out in short bursts, my chest feeling as though it were going to burst, as we went up those seemingly endless steps. We heard the inhumane hissing and growling of the Blood Society right behind us. I felt whips slap at my back and heels, making it that more painful to run. It seemed like forever before we got to what I guessed was the top of the stairs.

The last thing I remember was seeing Christopher push onto the top, a door opening letting in a dull light, and everything fading to pitch black.