Her eyes looked up at the sky, or at least where she had guessed it was. There was no direction in this world between worlds, with no sky to lift your head towards. The stillness of the air surrounded her as if it were trying to protect her from the evils of the Abyss, fighting off each starving ferocious dog of the void. Her heart remained untouched for so long here, only able to console itself with the white scarf wrapped neatly around her neck. It was the last thing she felt connected to, the only thing reminding her that she was still alive. As long as her heart was beating, she could continue on in hopes to be saved.

She could no longer remember how long it'd been since she first arrived here, perhaps time itself held no weight within the darkness. Perhaps mere days, a few years, or hundreds of millennia had passed by. Whatever the case, Silvia knew in her soul that she absolutely will not give up. She'd given up once before, betraying the love she carried within, and refused to do so once more. There was no way in Hell she'd ever betray her love again, it was completely unthinkable to her now.

The day she had left Victor behind was the day she had destroyed herself. If only she'd realized it sooner, that life was only worth living because of him. It didn't matter if she was wheelchair bound or completely bedridden, as long as Victor was there everything would work out in the end. As she looked up towards the black void sky, she reminisced of her time with her husband back on Earth. Every passing day flowed like honey, its sweetness overwhelming her heart until her final days. Even after her accident, Victor never once left her side. For her to betray him like this was absolutely unforgivable, and this she knew. If she were to ever see him again, she wasn't sure if she could ever do enough to apologize.

Silvia looked down at her hands, tears beginning to form in her eyes. It had been quite some time since she'd cried and wasn't entirely sure why she was beginning to do so. Perhaps the madness of the Abyss was beginning to seep into her mind, or she'd simply thought of her previous life as a human for too long. Whatever the case, her tears flowed quietly from her eyes, dripping upon her outstretched hands.

"He took everything from me..." It says, and no one but Silvia hears it.

As she watched the wanderers of the Abyss shuffle by her slowly, she looked into the growing crowd of damned souls, trying to find the source of the voice. The wanderers were usually quiet, only speaking aloud due to a disturbance amongst the void. When new arrivals appear within the Abyss, it sometimes causes a chain reaction of remembrance among the wanderers, forced to recall their tortured pasts as they feed from the hope of the newly cast down. The growing noise of shuffling feet and unintelligible whispering indicated someone had been cast down nearby, filling the other wanderers with a dying hope from the world of the living.

"He took... everything..." The same voice called out, and Silvia began to wonder whom it belonged to.

It was quite rare for the other wanderers to amass themselves such as this, their numbers growing stronger as they all seemed to head towards a singular goal. Becoming curious, she decided to follow several of the dark shadowy figures upon the black horizon, attempting to see what it is they all seemed so interested in.

As she caught up to the growing army of shuffling feet and damnation, she felt the emotion writhing from the lost souls as if they had been set ablaze by an unknown force. They'd never seemed this lively before, this seemed to be something new. As she stood unmoving, watching as the army of the damned passed her by, she heard a small thud from behind.

Turning around slowly to see what could've caused the noise, her eyes fell upon a particular demon. It had fallen to its knees before her, as if it recognized her. As it looked up to her, she watched intriguingly as it brought itself down to all fours, hiding its head in its hands as if it were attempting to cry. Its lack of eyes prevented this emotion from releasing itself, but nevertheless, a demon she didn't recognize had begun trying to cry before her.

For whatever reason, she felt the need to console this demon. She fully understood the pain of being trapped within the Abyss, and perhaps seeing her glistening blue eyes still wet with tears had caused the demon to remember its own trauma. Sadness was an emotion bottled up within the darkness, forgotten amongst the masses as to conceal their souls for the sake of survival.

"Are you alright? Can I help you in any way?" She asked, bringing herself to one knee as she knelt down next to the demon.

As soon as she had spoken, the demon's trembling body stiffened up like a board. What she'd said had somehow caused it to retract its sadness back within, becoming a firm and emotionless creature of the void. She wasn't sure if she'd said something wrong, but nevertheless, she laid a comforting hand upon the demon's shoulder. If she could help in any way possible, she'd try her best. She owed it to Victor to never again become cold and unavailable, and decided to start caring once more, starting with this demon upon its hands and knees before her.

She watched as it sat up slowly, returning to its previous kneeling position. For some reason, the demon seemed calmer than before, and had begun patting the dark ground next to it as if it wanted her to sit next to him.

Obliging slowly, Silvia sat down next to the peculiar demon. She wasn't sure why it was acting so strangely, but it was refreshing to see someone still hanging onto hope amongst the hopelessness of the wandering lost souls. This demon seemed to be just like her, waiting for a possible savior to come down and swoop them up. A notion of hope remained within each of them, and this she did recognize.

"What is your name?" She asked, yet was met with nothing but a silent nod of the head as if the demon had been waiting to confirm something.

It said nothing as it looked into her confused yet loving eyes, as if remembering the feelings of a past life. The demon stayed quiet as it began reaching into its left breast pocket, trying to pull something shiny and gold out as she watched on eagerly.

The demon brought forth a golden pocket watch, and Silvia looked down at the familiar device and wondered where she'd seen it before. It struck a chord in her heart, as if remembering a long forgotten memory clouded by the fog of the void. She couldn't quite place exactly why she felt this way, but something about the watch seemed so warm and comforting to her as it ticked softly with the passage of time. It seemed to be reminding her of the fact that time waits for no one, not even the dark expanse of the Abyss was safe from the forward march of time.

"Are you trying to show me something?" She asked as the demon began fiddling with the watch, trying to open it softly.

"I am." It said, and Silvia seemed to recognize the voice from someplace before. It was horrifyingly familiar, but for some reason she just could not remember whose voice this demon carried.

As the watch was about to pop open, another voice rang out amongst the void as if purposely trying to interrupt the two of them. It was a raspy and cruel tone, the voice was filled with a seething fury as it screamed out in agonizing hatred.

"He took... everything!! He took everything from me!! EVERYTHING!!" It bellowed, sending shockwaves of fear amongst the lively army of wanderers.

As quickly as the lost souls had felt the rays of hope shine down upon them, a wave of fear had soon after washed over their entire bodies as the wicked voice emanated from afar. Silvia felt chills run up and down her spine, as if the fear within her didn't know where to go or who to run from. Picking herself up from the ground quickly, she looked down at the demon upon the ground, expecting it to feel the same terror as she.

Looking down at the still demon, who hadn't moved from its spot upon the floor of darkness, she began to feel the same terror well up within now emanating from the dark figure next to her. The fear she felt from the voice was nothing compared to what she felt for the demon near her, but for some odd reason, she knew she had no reason to be afraid. It was as if the demon had responded to the cruelty of the voice, like it was now enraged at the thought of the voice alone.

"Si... I mean, you must come with me. The owner of that voice is someone not to be toyed with, we have to go now." The demon said, holding an outstretched hand towards Silvia as it stood up slowly.

"What do you mean we have to go? Are you new to the Abyss? There's... nowhere to go." She asked, still trying to remember just where she'd heard this demon's voice before. It was on the tip of her tongue, but she knew she'd never once met with a demon before.

Her time as angel was only spent with her husband after she'd ascended to Heaven. She had seen demons from afar before, but she had never gotten the courage to approach one in fear of a fight breaking out. Just the sight of an angel was enough to set most demons into a frenzy, and being a newly born angel she was sure she'd lose to even the weakest of enraged demons. It was quite peculiar how this particular demon didn't seem to be either afraid nor hateful towards her, and it was beginning to drive her quite mad with curiosity.

As she hesitantly let her curiosity take over, she clasped the hand of the dark figure before her. She didn't know exactly where they would run to, but felt as if this demon would keep her safe somehow. Its hands felt strong yet gentle to the touch as if its sole purpose was to protect her from the evils of this world, like a living impenetrable shield.

Silvia scanned the demon head to toe as she recognized yet another familiar feature of the odd creature, its clothing. The black wide-brimmed hat it dawned upon its head, the long dark trenchcoat, and the dark pants with black boots it wore all screamed at her to remember the origin of this demon. For the life of her, she tried to recall just where she'd seen this creature before, but it was as if the memories had been plucked from her head. She thought to herself that if only Victor were here, he'd know what to do.

He was the one person she knew she could always count on, and perhaps even he would be able to help her escape this nightmare of the Abyss. The demon before her was surely going to try, but she knew within her heart that the most they could do is run aimlessly among the expanse of darkness. To only survive amongst the nothingness was no life at all, and this she felt deep within her soul. If there were any chance at all of being saved, she knew it would never come in the form of just running away once more.

As Silvia prepared herself to run with the demon, she began to wonder why they hadn't moved from their spot at all. The voice from before had begun to scream out in anger, growing closer by the second as it searched for something or someone. If they were to make their escape they'd have to do it soon, or else the owner of the voice would catch up to them.

"Why are we not running!? Come on! Let's go!" She yelled frustratedly as she began tugging on the demon's hand as she tried to get it to escape with her.

It stayed quiet and still as the voice came ever so closer, revealing a large menacing shadow of a familiar monster upon the black horizon. A large bony protrusion ripped from its skull like an impaled dead warrior, the bone itself seemed to be larger than the body of the monster itself. Its grotesque rat-like features dripped with a thick dark blood as it made its way towards the two of them, spotting them from afar with its crazed burning white eyes.

"YOU!!" It screamed hoarsely, as if its voice had begun to fade from existence as the Abyss had fed upon the rage and frustration of the rat creature.

Silvia began pulling at the demon in the hat harder now, trying no longer to escape with him, but to release herself from its firm unmoving grasp.

"We have to go!" She cried out, but her pleas were met with silence once more.

As the demon in the hat looked towards the rat creature upon the horizon, it began to hobble slowly over to them as it used its bone protrusion like a makeshift cane. With each echoing thud of the bone, a shockwave of hatred entered the souls of all nearby. As if influenced by the hatred of the abomination, each wandering lost soul had begun to grow furious from the emanating waves of agonizing pain.

The demon in the hat said nothing as it watched the creature approach them with fury in its eyes and a sneering smile cursing the lips of its wielder. The only thing the demon seemed to care about was standing strong against the enemy before it, while never letting go of the hand of Silvia. As it looked over to its captive angel, it used its free hand to tuck the pocket watch back within its left breast pocket. The ticking of the watch seemed to slow as the rat creature grew closer, like even the watch itself didn't want the monster getting any closer than it already was.

As Silvia began tugging harder and harder at the demon, she noticed a small white light upon the horizon beginning to glow softly. The growing circle of light was approaching faster than the rat creature, and would soon reach the two of them within seconds. She watched in horror as the demon holding her hostage didn't seem to notice it, focusing on the rat creature instead.

Shutting her eyes in fear as the light enveloped the two of them, she heard the bellowing rat creature's voice begin to fade softly into the distance as if it were no longer there. Its last words sent a shock through her system, as if those very words held enough threat over her to send her into a deep state of detachment from life itself.

"I will burn even Yggdrasil itself to ash, if it means killing you!"

As the voice faded away entirely, Silvia slowly managed to open her eyes, fully expecting the rat creature to still be hobbling toward them with a ferocity in its milky white eyes. Looking around slowly, however, she began to feel tears form once more. The Abyss had all but vanished, leaving the dark void of nothingness behind as the colorful green and pink trees flowed softly above. Blue, yellow, orange, red, and purple-colored flowers lined the forest floor as she scanned her new environment with bewilderment.

Nothing but beauty remained within her eyes, filling her soul up with an overflowing amount of hope. A new beginning was upon her, and as she looked over to the demon standing next to her, she noticed it was still holding tightly to her hand as if afraid to let go. In its other hand, however, was the same golden pocket watch as before, only this time it was open. Staring back at her was the face of her former human self, and next to her in the photograph, was her husband Victor. He wore the same apparel as the demon next to her, and as Silvia looked on with wide eyes, she realized just why this demon seemed to be clutching her hand so tightly.