FicWad

The petrified screams and a chilling, macabre laugh were the first things I heard, and yet it felt so welcoming to my ears.

Hell was my idea of heaven - ironic, really.

The blazing inferno of mixed fiery colours swirled dramatically and frantically around my entire body as my feet finally touched the floor, a whirling tornado of flames giving off what should be a blistering heat, and yet my skin remained perfectly smooth and pale.

I definitely felt a little out of place, but something about it felt like home. Maybe it was the fact that there was so much torture going on; the cries of souls who were desperately pleading for mercy. Perhaps if they'd spent their lives living like a good little Christian they wouldn't be getting their backs whipped with linear strips of pure fire.

But if there was one thing I didn't feel, it was regret. How could I regret something as beautiful as hell?

Red always had been my favourite color.

Stepping forward onto the red-hot ash, my bare feet sank a few centimetres, and yet again my skin did not burn. Immunity to fire - how cool was that?

So this was hell.

Screams continued to echo around the colossal underground cavern, ricocheting off the rocky, jagged walls; stalagmites and stalactites touched tips with each other; that burning, blood red was everywhere my blue eyes looked and that was reflected in my pupils, burning right into my soul.

And then He appeared.

With another swirl of the perplexing fiery wind, a figure appeared from the flurry of flames and stepped towards me - his hair as dirty as mine, his skin the same pale color that I had always hated about myself and he donned the exact same clothing that I was wearing. It was like staring at myself in a mirror, only this guy had my trademark smirk painted on his lips - there was identity theft in Hell?

"This is not right." I told myself, and the other figure stepped towards me again, that grin still plastered across his face, "that's me."
"Of course I'm you, you idiot." Came the reply - he sounded just like me too.
"But that's messed up."
"Like you, you mean?"

I frowned, but did not reply.

"Think about it, Mikey," the person told me, "Of all the things you’ve done - murder, theft, arson... Need I go on?"
My eyes rolled and I folded my arms over my chest, not looking too impressed. Who was this guy?
"What are you - my guilty conscience?"
"Something like that."

There was no stop in the begging that surrounded the two of us, but it hardly passed my ears as I stared out my new opponent - apparently myself.

"What do you want?"
"You."

I blinked, confusion suddenly spinning to my features as my other self grabbed my wrist firmly. Dazed, I struggled to get free but the grip was strong and before I knew it, the ground beneath my feet had opened and all I saw was a black abyss that seemed to go on forever.

But I didn't fall.

I clutched desperately onto the hand of the other person that looked like me as they kept a firm grip on my wrist, letting me dangle from the cliff edge, small stones becoming lose and dropping into an impeccable doom that I felt like I'd be plummeting towards if I let go.
"You see that, Mikey?" With reluctance, I looked down and gave a small nod before he continued, "that's the hole that represents the life you had on earth."

The blackness stared up at me like it was about to swallow me whole with pleasure.
All it was a black hole and I stared at the person with great uncertainty, and they just chuckled.

"Don't you see? You had nothing in your life because you pushed them all away, you lost them all and you destroyed everything that meant something to you."

I just swallowed and continued to stare.

"You are your own Devil."