The heart deep in my chest pounds hard and I draw the pistol from my side for protection. The cold steel balances the adrenaline that’s searing my veins in fear. A foreboding grips tight as I move deeper into the undergrowth. From the outside it looks a normal forest but in reality it almost seems hellish. The anxiety of the chase gives way to icy fingers clawing at my throat, making it hard to breath. Each panicked shot of the pistol behind as I run misses the ghastly target. John disperses into a cloud of black smoke and reappears seconds after the bullet passes. That eerie smile etches itself into my soul with each glance. I know he’s behind me but I can’t shake the feeling he’s everywhere. The evil permeating the air lends to the dark atmosphere of the forest, suffocating it.

Like a clumsy child, a broken tree on the ground half covered by dead leaves catches me, sending me tumbling into a stream at the bottom of a small ravine. The frigid autumn water keeps me conscious, or the adrenaline. I’m not sure. As the world bleeds through unfocused eyes, I see red flowing away with the water and a black cloud appears above me. I take a quick glance around looking for the pistol. Only to meet those glaring red eyes that pierce my soul. “Amos, oh Amos. You have to be the worst hunt I’ve ever had. You’ve gotta do better than that. Get up and run. Quickly now, little lamb. Before I lose my patience.” Before the thought even crosses my mind to move, he poofs into black smoke and reappears feet away continuously at random. Getting faster and putting more distance between us until I seem to be alone.

Whispered words echo loud from all directions. “You sure you’re a witch? In my experience, you seem a mere human. Easily to scare, and you have no power to fight. You’ve even lost your weapon, not that it’d be any use to you. Here, lets squeeze out every tasty drop of that fear hiding within you.” The sound of howling wolves and reverberating energy echo through the dark forest. My attention split between watching the forest and looking for the gun lost to dead leaves. The hissing whispers continue to instill anxiety, raising the hairs on my back. “Tick, tock. Tick, tock. How long before, life stops?” The sound of pulsating energy is louder now and I turn to face its direction. Four lights appear down stream. They begin small and bright, wisp shaped. Then expand into what look like tears in reality.

Heat shimmers around the tear with black smoke flowing out from the bottom. Occasional blue electric arcs connect the sides of the tear. The hole is a black void, like staring into an abyss. Four very hungry and angry monstrosities appear from the center. They look like some form of wolf, slowly appearing snout first from the tear, and snarling. Mangled black fur and rotting flesh fall in glops to the ground. Three have open wounds for eyes, the other’s only eye hangs by a thread. The larger no eyed one in the center howl's, and the other three join in unison. Their snouts point to ground before growling viciously and moving slowly toward me. I move to get up and run but sharp pain cuts through the adrenaline and shoots through my leg. The evil whispers echo again. “Four hell hounds circle injured prey. How will this birdie fly with no wings?”

Laughter echoes as sinister as the growling and snarling of the beasts. Using my hands to take the pressure off my legs, I push myself away from the vicious monsters. The largest one leaps into the air at me. Only one thought crosses my mind in that moment, “Is this how I die?” My body goes numb and time slows as the beast falls forward. A drop of saliva pools and sears the flesh of my shoulder like an acid drip. The rancid stench and heat of it’s breath beats at my face as it closes the gap. I brace for impact, only thinking of a weapon or some way out of this mess. At deaths door, I register the rustle of leaves only seconds after a familiar cold fills my hand. I haven’t time to think before muscle memory kicks in. My arm points up and I squeeze hard.

Disoriented by the sudden clap of thunder and blinding light, it takes a few seconds to register my surroundings. The hound’s corpse is heavy on my chest. It’s still gurgling, twitching, and trying to move. I quickly push it off and notice the other hell hounds frozen in place, staring me down and growling menacingly. My eyes catch the glint of the pistol sitting cozy in my hand. A puzzling realization to say the least. Watching to see if the hounds make a move, I get to my feet and lean against the closest tree. A whirlwind of black smoke wafts between the hounds, John rematerializes. “So, the little bird has claws after all.” His appearance has changed. He’s thinner with almost translucent white skin stretched taut over visible bone.

I point the gun at him, hoping I still have ammo. “You look like shit. Let me help you with a makeover.”

“Ah, come on. You’ve tried that, it doesn’t work. Consider my interest throughly piqued though.” He lifts a bony finger at me, “You manipulated Aeth.” It was both an accusation and a question.

I arch a brow, “The hell is Aeth?”

“In a word, quintessence. It’s the natural energy flowing through the universe.” His face twists in disgust. “In this world, witches and their ilk manipulate it. It’s what they call ‘magick.’ An earth plane bastardization of true sorcery.”

A snicker pushes through the pain, “Ha, and yet that bastardization locked you and all other worlds away.”

He reaches toward me and I feel a strong pull. Try as I might, the force is too strong. I lose balance and come flying toward him.

His thin, icy fingers grip my throat tight as he speaks. The voice deeply demonic, “Don’t presume you know anything. You’re naught but a babe learning to crawl. I could feed you to my hounds this second and you could do nothing.” He lifts the index finger of his other hand toward me. The long black fingernail extends until it touches my good shoulder. “I needed to know if you could be useful to me. Human weapons couldn’t stop a hell hound. You displayed witch potential summoning your weapon and infusing the ammo with Aeth. I’ve yet to find actual witches in this generation and thought they all died out. You should count yourself lucky. Humans don’t sustain for long, but witches.” He gives an approving grunt. “Mmm, Witches are so scrumptious. A true delicacy I can feed on for years thanks to their closeness to Aeth.”

The fingernail slowly pierces my shoulder. In defiance, I try to endure the pain and hold in the screams. It doesn’t last long before the pain is too overwhelming, my screams echo loud for no one to hear. It pierces all the way, I can feel it come through the back side. Drowsiness sets in, as if my entire life force is being drained. Vision blurs, my body stiffens, and speech is slurred. I can’t concentrate on what I’m saying, something about fucking him, or killing him, or maybe both. There’s a heat deep in my chest. It burns so hot it seems I’ll burn to ash. Thoughts are no longer coherent, just a jumble in my head. But this searing pain, it’s warm. Somehow soothing. As my consciousness dances in the twilight of death, something outside registers. Panic. John’s afraid of something.

One last hard push and I force my head up and eyes open. The air folds in heat waves and leaves, rock and other ground debris float toward the sky. A light with no origin source targets us, getting brighter and brighter by the second. It becomes so bright that closed eyes still see bright white. Fear wells up in my chest, I can’t tell if it’s mine or Johns feeding into me. My body tingles, feeling as if my soul is stretched far away from it. The a hard jolt slams my body into the soul. The light fades and I open my eyes. The forest is gone, replaced with a hell scape I couldn’t even dream up in nightmares. I’m standing on a balcony of bone and red stone. Before me is a barren wasteland in perpetual twilight, various demonic creatures fight, eat, and roam.

Some humans run from the demons, some hide. Many of the demons eat them, tearing apart limb by limb. Men, women and children of all kind are beaten, mutilated, molested, and in some cases raped by the monstrous beasts. I’ve never seen or dreamed of such horrors even in nightmares. My body heaves, I can’t keep the bile back and spew vomit off the side of the balcony. The pain in my shoulder brings me back to my previous situation, and I look back to see John kneeling before a throne. A human man, if you can call him that, sits upon the throne of obsidian and bone. His legs cross at the knees and his head rests on one fist, as if bored. He looks down at John, his demonic voice carrying like a king. “Gluttony, what a surprise. It seems I get two for the price of one.”