Goodnight Scary Story 1

The Shaded Angel
DESCENT INTO HELL

by Ling ......

 I've all the demons of hell in my head;
My only salvation is to vent them on paper!
- de Sade, Quills I felt the anger within begin to change me. As my enemies threw themselves upon me, I began to grow stronger. As the mountain of bodies above me grow larger, the world began to grow dark. In the midst of all, I came to realize blind rage. In that moment I felt an immense strength explode through my being.

An arm entered my view and I wrapped my hand around it. I squeezed it and felt the skin buckle and the bone splinter. Feeding on my fury I pulled it towards me. A momentary pause, then with a sickening crunch it came free. I felt the power now. I fed on it like a hungry savage. Suddenly I was no longer afraid.

As the mass of limbs groped around me, I drew upon the anger, feeling it cursing through me. My skin tightened and closed my hands into hardened fists. With a guttural roar I began to swing them. Crunch, smash, snap. The sounds increased my frenzy. I began to move faster, hitting harder. My teeth grated together and I could feel that my mouth was contorted into crazy smile. Slowly the bodies began to disappear.

I began to grab and bite. I tasted blood, and it was like wine. I rendered limbs from the bodies around me, hearing the screams of agony and growling in glee. I felt my hand close around a head, and with a squeeze I sensed wetness between my fingers. I was moving faster, swinging my massive arms and fists like iron barrels. Gradually I wrung myself free from the bloody mass.

I grabbed a leg and swung the body, using the howling figure like a chain. Blood spewed across my face like an ocean spray. I was a madman, roaring like a wild beast. And then there was no one. I looked at my weapon and saw only the foot remained in my grasp. I took in my surroundings. The debris all around me was organic, but nothing was identifiable.

Crimson pools lapped at my feet, swirling around the piles of pulp. Had I succeeded? There was no one before me, yet I was still hungry for more. I craved the power that was within me, and it was not satiated. Was there no opponent? I bellowed up to the heavens and from my throat came the sound of thunder. The dark clouds parted from my cry and lightning flashed.

I found myself before an ashen temple of decaying stone. As I stood on the massive steps I sensed my inner fire. It told me to enter. At the opening I could see an enormous hall with no features other than a door at the other end. I wanted to pass through the door. I needed it; the very fiber of my being commanded it.

The door appeared to be of thick metal, riveted around the edge. It had no handle, and was recessed into the wall. I pounded my giant fists upon it, and no echo followed. I threw myself upon the door, kicking and punching it in a fury. Finally I managed to break the stone border and dug my fingers around the edge.

With a roar I heaved with all my might, my vision blurring red as blood seeped out of my sockets. There was an ear-splitting groan and I felt the door give slowly. I was jolted by a massive shock which threw me to the ground. I looked at the door and it was back in place, but then I realized I was no longer in the temple. I was also aware of new sensations.

I was in a rocky cave, and a strange reddish light shown through the near entrance. Looking down at my body I was finally aware of the changes. My skin had turned gray, and was thick and hard as stone. My massive hands had wide, flat fingers, with hairless knuckles capped with blunt spikes. My legs were wide and solid as granite; there were no toes on my feet.

I sensed that I had no nose, only a pair of nostrils recessed on my face. No hair on my head, no ears but a fissure on either side of my head. I had no neck, as my head was molded to my shoulders, which were broad and flat-topped like a mesa. I sensed that I could no speak, only growl and howl, and there was no thought in my head except rage. The power had consumed me.

I was now a beast of combat, and I was starved for gore. Lumbering toward the entrance, a new world awaited me. I was standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking a rock-strewn plain. The sky was alit in fire; tendrils of red and orange flame licked across the horizon. There were no clouds but balls of blackened smoke, as if from an explosion. And below me, down on the rocky field, awaited my rivals.

Five beasts alike stood in a half-circle, as if preparing for battle. Five beasts, all different in every way but all so unbelievably monstrous that no mortal eye could perceive them. In my mind’s eye I sensed their names and their attributes, and one by one I studied them.

There was the Zoar of Almath, a creature that stood ten thousand feet high and towered over all. Like a dinosaur it had an elongated body with a protracted tail that swung with the force of a tidal wave. From its shoulders sprouted five long necks which were capped with five human-like heads. Each head wailed and screeched with the sound of a thousand dying boars, and when they sang together the sound beat upon you like thunder. There was the Black Death, which was nothing more than an oily shroud surrounded by a mist of sinister shadows.

It attacked by sensation and not by force. The Praddlefont was vaguely humanoid, but far more menacing. Two blood-crusted blades pushed through his shoulders like wings of a damned angel. A crocodilian face held a large mouth with jagged teeth and a single bloody eye above the snout. The small, sinewy arms held oversized hands with bloody talons, as did the feet. It was covered with scales instead of skin and a rusty red mane of frizzled hair ran down its backside.

Cerberon was more hideous than his Greek counterpart; its many heads were adorned with spikes. Its immense tail ended with a huge gnarled club which swung wildly overhead. Last of all was an unsightly thing that was known only as the Foul. It had neither head nor the presence of a spine. It was merely a gigantic torso, to which countless human arms and legs were attached. They thrust about like insect antennae, have no sense or purpose.

The Foul laid on its side and where the chest was perceived there was an oozing flap which occasionally belched out a greenish, odorous gas.
And the five stood upon the charred earth, beckoning me to join them. As if an unseen force had realized my desire, I found myself beside them.

The fiery sky parted to reveal a black void above the atmosphere. An unseen presence was felt like a spectator above an arena. Suddenly the mass of us was gathered up together then flung upwards into the emptiness. I sensed the gravity begin to shift as light appeared in my vision. The ball of bodies fell sideways through a chasm in the side of a vertical cliff. We landed upon yet another open plain.

The sky here was yellow; there was light but no sun, and a black outline on the horizon. The ground was rocky here as well, but also covered with bones, some of humans, some of things not seen by human eyes. There was a strong smell of sulfur and death with burned the lungs and blurred my vision. The unseen presence was smothering, all around and encompassing. We at once knew our purpose, and with a mixture of growls and roars, we fell upon each other.

We tore open flesh, ripped apart limbs, smashed skulls and crushed bones. There was pain but no death, as we seemed to be unable to annihilate our adversaries. We did not tire, and the insurmountable rage and anger kept us nourished. Flesh was our food, blood was our drink.

Rage was our ecstasy; blood-thirst was our pleasure. There was nothing else to perceive except the mutilated bodies of our foes. We were locked in eternal battle. Time had no meaning, there was no dimension. There was no thought, no conscience, and no meaning, and no end.

The sounds of slaughter became a drone as the battle merged into infinity. Suddenly I was losing the power, the desire of bloodshed. My opponents seemed unfazed, but I persist with growing difficulty. Sparks of thought flash through my battered mind. The pain grew harder to bear as my fellow combatants turned the tide on me.

A soul was beginning to awaken within me, but there was no place for it. Slowly I became aware of my surroundings, and the tinge of fear crept up through my body. I had no sense of destination, no place to go, and yet I wanted to leave. Memories glowed like embers in the awakening fire in my mind. I had once been a man? What was I now? Conscience gave birth once again as I fashion simple thoughts.

Then, in a burst of awareness, I was awash with an old emotion- Hope. In my mind’s eye I imagined the door that I had passed through. In the image I saw it suddenly become fluid. A tremor began to rock the ground as I imagined a light breaking through the door. Though the rippling surface stepped a figure of exploding light.

As it came into view I saw that it was a woman. She had a head of long golden hair which flowed around her, brushing at her golden skin. She wore a golden robe that shined with a light of its own. In my mind she looked at me and smiled. I found myself before here at the cave entrance.

No words were spoken, but her smile engulfed me with love. She spread her arms about and gestured me to draw close. I felt unworthy of her presence, as she was so pure and innocent, but I complied. She took me in her arms and hugged me, and I felt the warmth of her spirit. The cave around me fell away and I was immersed in white light.

The feeling of love and warmth were so strong that I cried out in passion. A celestial choir sang out around me and I felt my body fade away. I looked into the eyes of my savior, and all pain and anger left me until I was nothing but a vessel of love.

The End