I’m a 23-year-old guy studying software engineering. I live with my girlfriend Zoe in a small village near Zurich.
It all started one weeks ago when Zoe noticed a soft sobbing outside our house at 2 am. We shrugged it off as a cat or something.
The next morning, when I left the house to go to uni, I saw something dripping off the front door. It had a strong scent to it, I immediately thought of blood, but it was… light gray.
Zoe was already off to work, and I hadn’t had time to clean it, so I just left it there. When I came back home it was gone, I asked Zoe if she had cleaned it, but she didn’t know what I was talking about.
When we ate dinner, the sobbing started again, gentle, but clear. We looked out the window to where the sobbing came from, but there was nothing. It didn’t stop until 2:30 am.
The next morning I saw the blood again, not on the door but on the handle, and when I came back from uni it was gone. As my girlfriend again didn’t see anything, I started to get a little freaked out.
And again at exactly 6 pm it started, we knew it wasn’t a cat, but it wasn’t human either or any other animal we knew of. Looking out the window… nothing…
So Zoe went out the house to look for whatever was making the sound. When she came back, she had that strange look on her face, like she had seen hell. When I asked her what she saw, she just stared at me for a while, then finally she said something “girl”, “dead girl”.
As I walked to the front door to get a look myself, Zoe stood in front of me and wasn’t letting me through. “Don’t” she said. “What’s wrong?” I asked, to what she replied with one word “evil”.
Now I realized that her voice was all messed up, and she had that empty look in her eyes.
And again, at 6pm the sobbing started, but it was different this time, it wasn’t soft anymore but hard and screeching. It kept us awake until 2:30am when it just stopped, when I tried to sleep I felt something staring at me with an empty gaze. I turned around and saw Zoe sitting in our bed, just staring at me. “Why are you staring at me” I asked. She didn’t reply, but she laid down. I don’t know if she closed her eyes that night, but I was able to sleep.
My alarm rang at 6:30 am, usually at this time Zoe is already off to work, but not today. I saw her lying next to me with her eyes wide open, just staring at the ceiling. “You’re late honey” I said to what she jumped out the bed immediately.
As we left the house, the blood was there again, but this time Zoe saw it as well. “What is that?” she asked as she stretched out her arm to touch it. As her finger made contact with it, it just… vanished, but her face returned to normal.
Fast-forward to the evening. 6:25pm we were having dinner, five minutes later it started again as expected.
But this time it was different. The sobbing didn’t come from outside our house, but from inside. Equally freaked out, we looked at each other, not saying a word.
Suddenly the sobbing stopped and it started singing. “lalalalala la lalalalala la”
“tap tap tap” it was coming closer
“lalalalala la lalalalala la”
The singing stopped, replaced with a soft laughter.
“BOO”
It screamed as it peaked around the corner staring directly at us. Again… it started laughing. It was a small girl, completely white but pitch black eyes. She looked… dead… She started to grin.
As soon as she stepped fully into the doorway, I… I passed out. Again laughing, but this time it was echoing as I lost consciousness. The next thing I remember was nothingness, standing next to me was Zoe. We’re both staring into the dark. As I took a step forward, I had that feeling in my stomach as if I was falling off a cliff.
With a loud bang, the darkness turned into hell… literally. Embedded into the walls, there were people screaming and gripping into air, trying to escape.
Walking through the corridors of hell, I saw Zoe… in the walls between all the others, trying to grab me. I ran to her, wanting to help her get out of the walls.
“DON’T!” she screamed. “Don’t touch me!” I stopped, almost tripping over my own feet.
“Why?” I asked.
“If you touch me, you will be sucked into the walls as well.”
“You have to find a way out of here.” she said.
“What about you?” I almost screamed
“There is no hope for her” a deep strange voice said.
Shocked, I looked to the direction the voice came from. It stepped into my vision, it was a man. Completely white but with pitch black eyes, just like the girl that sent us here.
“WHO ARE YOU?” I asked him.
He started laughing softly “I don’t have a name, but I think humans would call me… Satan” he said.
“Are… are we dead?” I asked.
“No” he replied. “Then why are we… in hell” I asked.
“You met my daughter, she likes to send people here.”
“Sometimes she brings people like you, people that shouldn’t be here.” he said.
“Well, if we shouldn’t be here, let us go.” I said angrily.
He started laughing again.
“I will let you go, if you can beat me in a game.”
“What game?” I asked .
“It’s easy, but you have to follow a set of rules, if you break a rule, you’re doomed, if you follow the rules but loose, I will let you go, but I keep your girlfriend, if you follow the rules and win, I will let you both go.”
“We’re going to walk through hell, and I’m going to ask you a question, you have three lives, if you answer correctly, the game continues, if you give the wrong answer, you loose a live.”
“So… what are the rules” I said.
“One, don’t touch anything.”
“Two, don’t look anyone directly into their eyes.”
“Three, don’t look behind you.”
“Four, don’t talk to anyone besides me.”
“Are you ready?” he asked
“I am.” I replied, so we started walking.
I answered the first question correctly.
Something started laughing behind me, I had to keep myself from turning around and looking for what is laughing.
Second question… “correct” he said.
Again… laughing behind me going from right to left and fading out.
Third question… “not correct”
Someone ran behind me from left to right.
Fourth… “correct”
Laughter…
Fifth… “wrong”
Running… but this time closer.
Sixth… “correct”
“BOO” someone screamed, followed by soft laughter. It was a boy, completely white with black eyes, just as the girl and Satan.
He laughed as I stared into his eyes. It was just darkness in his eyes, evil darkness.
We continued the questions until we reached Satan’s palace. “We’re done” he said. “So… will you let us go now?” I asked. “One more question”
“What did you see in the eyes of my son” he asked.
“Darkness, but it felt evil, very, very evil…” Wait… for me to know that, I had to look behind me…
Shit…
As I looked at Satan, he just stared at me with a huge grin on his face.