The Anti-Fairy Tales The Six Dream Hells Arc Part One

The First Hell

      Pheoshan woke in a dark village looking up at the dark sky. Hold on! She thought. That is the sky? There seems to be no clouds in the sky. If that is so, then where's the stars? She wondered as she developed parallels to the sky and the void of space.
      Her eyes slid down to the corners only to see the villagers walking to and fro with nothing but a grim and dead look on their indistinguishable faces that seemed to meld together in her head. Their eyes seemed to have died and given up on life or trying to escape a long time ago.
      Feeling their depression spilling into her she looked back at the buildings behind. They were old, small and cramped. They were lit by candlelight and had a crooked look to them. The doors were the same brown and had stairs leading down to them. They looked like the kind of buildings found in old Christmas films only without the snow.
      "Get off the road!" Shouted a man in a top hat in a heavy black suit and a British northern accent.
      Pheoshan raised her arms above her head, leaned back and propelled herself up, flipped and landed on her feet. She  jogged lightly over to him and spotted his dead brown eyes and hair.
      "Why? What's going on?" She asked clearly out of the loop and wanting to get to know the place better. That way she would find out how to get out of this dreamworld and back into the real one.
      "This Dream Hell's Dream Demon. That's what!" He said trying to sound lively but failing epically.
      "Right." She said not really understanding the situation but not wanting to sound too foolish. "So, who're you?"
      "Damon Hargreaves. Now who're you? They don't send nobody here for no good reason, you know. So why'd they send you here? After all you are a girl ain't you?" He questioned.
      "Al-" No! She was not her anymore. Alex Fistone was dead. "I mean Pheoshan Wolfhimestien. The v is actually a w and the sh is just s okay. I'm probably here because I refused to join the Demon King's side-"
      "What! You were offered a place on the Demon King Wolfox side and you refused!" He exclaimed with a definite distinct shock.
      "Yes, anyway it doesn't matter for I'm going to get out of here, in fact I'm determined to." She vowed.
      Damon bursted out laughing and hit Pheoshan on the back several times until he clutched his stomach as some internal pain forced him to stop as he wiped away a tear in the corner of his eye with his index finger. Which stirred up a mild rage in her as she started to feel mocked.
      "I'd say 'bless you' but if you're in here then there ain't any chance of that!" He laughed. "Blimey! I have not laughed like that in a long time."
      They then sat on the pavement as neither could be bothered to walk over to a bench. Pheoshan dug her heels into the curb. She leaned back and looked up at the starless sky, wondering if there was anything else out there, or was it all just a void?
      "Alright then Damon, so suppose I do kill the Demon of this Dream Hell, then what would happen?" She asked trying not to sound too sincere.
      "Oh, I wish that would happen..." He tailed off as he looked out in the distance. His eyes were back to the dull sorrowful state that resembled everyone in this Dream Hell.
      "Well what if it did?" She prompted, trying not to sound too impatient.
      "Then the you would have freedom as well as anyone you choose. Well apart from if you have eaten the black demon apple. Then who you chose would be free but you shall go to another Dream Hell." He explained. Pheoshan was disappointed by this but was already killing the part of her that cared.
      "Right, so just out of curiosity, how many Dream Hells are there?" She asked wanting to know how many Dream Demons she would have to kill.
      "There were seven." He explained.
      "'Were'?"
      "The seventh was destroyed by the Demon King Wolfox himself and, it is said that he ate the Dream Hell's Demon alive!" He told.
      Alarmed by this she knew that she would have to persue this later on after she had woken up. But all that registered on her face was a raised eyebrow.
      "Right." She said slowly as to conceal her fear. "So, where is this Dream Hell's Demon? So I might know where to go."
      "You're a mad'n' you. Well over there!"
      He pointed to a large castle-like Gothic mansion of black and shades of dark grey. It sat on a tall hill filled with dead ground and trees. With a graveyard surrounding the mansion.
      Pheoshan nodded and stood to her feet and turned in that direction.
      "Well better be off then." She sighed as she started to walk in that direction.
      "Wait! You're actually serious?" He exclaimed. Pheoshan turned to him and smiled cockily and nodded confidently.
      "I'm going to get out of here or die trying." She vowed with a light hearted tone. "Don't worry about me. I grew up in a dreamworld and I now have a fair few tricks that I picked up from the ones who woke me up. See!"
      Suddenly her clothes changed into red and black armor and in her hand was a kitana that matched.
      "See?" She said as she winked. She then closed her eyes again and imagined that she was at the Dream Demon's mansion. Opened her eyes to see the double doors in front of her. Congratulating herself she walked up confidently and out of spite she knocked on the already chipped door.
      They opened much to Pheoshan's mild surprise. She raised her eyebrow and half smirked as she entered the frey.
      Inside, much to her surprise was nothing but a spiralling stone staircase cut from the rock surrounding the walls.
      Steadying her heartbeat she traveled down them, keeping close to the walls as she descended. She looked up and down to minimize the chances of a surprise attack as the darkness embraced her as she went down lower and lower. By the time she was half way she started to wonder if the stairs were ever going to end or if the staircase went on forever, until she finally reached the bottom of the stairs. She then had to take a short break to recover the energy that the stairs had taken from her.
      As her eyes adjusted to the darkness she could see that ahead of her was a sloping cave-like corridor, not knowing how long the corridor was or what position it was in she refrained from imaging herself further in. Not knowing what it looked like she refrained from doing that too. So, when she gathered up her energy she stood up and, wanting to preserve her energy, walked in the hallway as it went down lower and lower. Soon she was using her muscles to both steady herself and to prevent her from going faster. She had to do this for what seemed like hours before she even saw a speak of light. As she came closer and closer she spotted that the light flickered which implied that it came from fire.
      She found herself gazing at a large chamber with hanging crevasses and the uneven walls were decorated with chains and below them bones of her predecessors that failed to kill the Dream Demon. The ground too was uneven and bone dry. Pheoshan knew that this fight was going to be a painful one.
      She barely walked out when a hand snatched her up from the ground forcing her head back in the process. She stabbed repeatedly the wrist that the hand belonged to before she imagined herself on the floor below. Barely taking a moment to rest she charged directly at the Dream Demon. The Dream Demon clearly was out of practice for it seemed to have no time to retaliate before she sliced the ankles. This prevented it from running as she jumped above the beast and dragged her kitana into the back of it's skull and the head fell.
      Pheoshan thought that she had victory until she heard the head of the Dream Demon laughing.
      "What weakness do you know that you have? And who do you want to be released?" It asked.
      "What?"
      "That is how you and anybody else gets out of my or the other Dream Hells." He explained tauntingly.
      "Alright, I'll call your bluff. I rush into fights too quickly and l'm releasing everyone and not one gets left behind!" She demanded as she sliced the head in half just to be sure that the thing was dead.