AN - Instead of going to the catacombs place Abbie ends up in the underworld. Writing Sleepy Hollow fanfic is hard because there is not a lot of solid world building and it really is a free for all. So to add some structure I am borrowing so bits for the movie Dogma, the video game Dragon's dogma and of course the Bible.

Chapter 1 - The Damned

Darkness.

Silence.

Emptiness.

Abbie was falling fast and deep the voices of her sister and companion became more and more distant as time went on. Soon she was enveloped by the cold, a chilling haunting feeling of solitude.

Abbie awoke, her with her face pressed against the cold hard concrete. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, Abbie stood up and surveyed her surroundings she was in a forest populated by stark naked white trees. Abbie gasped, she was in purgatory again. Her heart quickened, she put her hand to her chest to steady her breathing and focus her mind trying to remember what to do.

"The mirror, the mirror!" Abbie said. If she could find Andy she could find Moloch's lair and get to the mirror to contact everyone on the outside. "Remember don't eat anything or drink anything." She told herself. Abbie walked through the empty forest alone, she withdrew her gun from her holster and moved with caution as each moment she heard a sudden sound put her even more on edge. She kept moving and noticed that some trees showed signs of being burnt. Abbie reach out to touch one white branch of a tree and the wood crumbled to ash in her fingers.

The sound of a twig cracking echoed throughout the hollow forest, Abbie's body came to a still. Another crack and Abbie spun around and held up her gun readying to shoot. The blood drained from Abbie's face, there standing a few yards away from her was a pack of ugly diseased looking wolves. They snarled and barked angrily, the leader of the pack gave an order and the rest howled and began to chase after Abbie. Abbie fired her gun at the beasts hitting one of them in the head, the wolf hardly faltered and continued to stalk her. Abbie didn't hesitate to run as fast as possible, she jumped over logs and ducked under thick tree branches. The wolves were closing in she could hear them and smell them. Their rotting and poisoned flesh was a shock to the senses. Abbie prayed to the heavens that she would make it to the doll house, the safe haven that offered her some semblance of peace and sanity last time she was in purgatory.

Suddenly a large fireball came hurling towards her Abbie dropped to the ground avoiding the large blast, the wolf pack whimpered as their dry maggoty flesh was set aflame. Abbie looked up to see a man shaking his hands and hissing.

"Oh my god?" He gasped looking at Abbie. "You're a-" the growl of the remaining demonic wolf pack interrupted him. Abbie ran out of the way as the man hurled another fireball this one was larger it took out the rest of the pack. The pack leader howled as it died, surprisingly its body decomposed rapidly into a pile of bones and mushy flesh that emitted the foulest stench. "Fuck that stings bad!" the man cursed waving his hand. He looked at Abbie bewildered, as if he saw something truly magnificent a small smile crept onto his lips. He stepped towards her with the intent of offering her his hand to stand up.

"Stay away from me." Abbie raised her gun at him, she tried her best to sound firm and authoritative using her 'cop voice' but there were obvious tones of fear and worry just under the surface.

"What are- I just saved your life." the man said a little confused. Abbie kept her gun pointed at him. "Look, I don't want to hurt you but we need to leave now. You see those rotting corpses over there during this time of the day the feeders will start dropping from the sky and they are big. Really fucking big."

"What are you talking about?" Abbie was interrupted by the sound of something large hitting the ground so hard that trees in the surrounding area shook. The tall man swore once more.

"We need to go." He said with urgency, in a flash he moved forward to take Abbie's hand and ran. Abbie ran with him, she turned her head to look back at saw two large glowing eyes and the sounds of bones grinding and snapping and crunching. "Don't look back! Just keep running!"

"Where are we going?" Abbie asked.

"Somewhere safe." He replied. "A safe spot, those are hard to come by here." They reached a forest where the trees were thicker and darker and the air was warmer, the dark haired man ran to the let go of Abbie's hand. He removed the chain from his neck and threw it into the air, the pendant which was a silver emblem with an crescent moon and wing was consumed by a soft blue glow which made a large wooden door engraved in a mysterious symbols. The necklace dropped to the ground and the man quickly picked it up and put it back on. He opened the door and gestured for Abbie to enter. "Quick get in!" Abbie glared at the stranger, this was no place where helpful people were in abundance, she barely trusted Andy when she met him in purgatory and she had known him since high school. "Do you want to take your chances with them?" he asked pointing at the direction of the sounds of loud angry eating.

Abbie walked inside, the man pushed the heavy door shut behind them and used the silver padlock to ensure the door would go undetected. "Alright we should be good now." He turned around to see Abbie holding a gun to his face again. The man rolled his eyes and held up his hands

"Move inside." Abbie ordered the man complied and he walked in deeper into the stone building, the dim candle lighting revealed that the building was a small temple that had crumbling statues and cracked tiles and the stained glass windows looked as if they were stained with blood? It was too dark to tell.

"Um Miss night light, I don't want to trip and then you end up shooting me do you mind if I brighten up the place?" the man asked resisting the urge to laugh.

"Quiet!" Abbie said keeping the gun aimed to his chest. The man shrugged and moved inside where there was a little bit more candle light from the ceiling chandelier. It illuminated the man and Abbie could now see him really look at him. His hair was a shiny and as black as obsidian, straight and shoulder length and sleek and his skin was smooth light olive brown complexion. He had defined cheekbones that curved perfectly into a defined jaw line and his sharp eyes were a molten copper brown. The clothes he wore had seen better days perhaps. His coat had rips and tears and had dried blood. "Who are you?"

"My name is Reynard and you are..."

"None of your concern."

"Really, I would really love to know the name of the person I risked my own life to help." Reynard said.

"Well you'll have to excuse me Purgatory isn't exactly the place that is teaming with helpful people and until I deem you as not a threat to me then this how it will be. Whoever is running purgatory now has obviously made some new changes, I just need you to tell me where to find Moloch's old lair."

"Moloch? Purgatory?" Reynard furrowed his brow and gave Abbie a very confused look. He shook his head and his eyes softened. "Nightlight this isn't purgatory. We are in the underworld." Abbie lowered her gun she opened her mouth to say something but choked on her words, her gun slipped from her hands and onto the floor.

"H-hell?" Abbie whimpered. Her mind spiralled into numerous of thoughts. She was in hell. Abbie gasped short of breath. "Oh god I'm dead. I'm dead." Back in Pandora's nest she was ready to make sacrifice her safe to save Jenny and everybody she was prepared to do it. Throwing herself face first into danger had was becoming like second nature after purgatory, after going to past, after everything she would tell herself over and over again that she would make it back home. Reynard reached on hesitantly towards Abbie and placed his hand on her shoulder gently to offer comfort he was a little surprised that Abbie let him.

"I'm sorry, but you know there is some good news depending on how you look at it." Abbie frowned how could there possibly be good news. "You aren't dead you're your soul is still your own, I can see it you're glowing."

"What are you talking about?" Abbie sniffed.

"Dead mortals go to purgatory atone their sins and move on, hell is for the rejects and demons. The mortals who end up here either sold their soul to someone or made a pacts, were dragged down here or of course the ones who wanted to peak into another world. Seeing as you are still alive soul still attached..." he trailed off trying to deduce how exactly this mortal with a brightly glowing soul ended up in here. "What is your name?" Abbie remained silent unsure whether to trust him or not. She understood the rules of purgatory, not to drink or eat anything, don't trust anyone, all types of mind games would be deployed to break one's spirit. But hell was different monster, she didn't know the rules or what to expect, Sunday school always talked about the fiery lakes of hell but she hadn't seen any yet. If she told this man, this demon her name what could that mean? Too many children's books of hellish demons have control over important magic people once they knew their true name.

"No." Abbie said.

"No? Ok I get it this is hell after all and you don't know how things work. I'll just keep on calling you Nightlight." Reynard said with a smile. "Welcome to my home." He bent down to pick up Abbie's gun and handed it back to her. Abbie took it back from him and put it back in the holster she walked past him to sit down on one of the pews that wasn't broken. "Forgive me for the mess but someone tried to take this place from me and failed."Reynard picked up some fallen candle holder and lit them illuminating the room more.

Abbie could now see more of the temple. Everything looked so old, the stained glass windows were really the only things that were not covered with a thick layer of dust. There was a makeshift wooden bed made from torn curtains in the corner. At the altar there was an empty fountain. The far wall was decorated with a tapestry of wounded winged soldiers and dead bodies floating in a river of fire. There it is the infamous lake of fire and brimstone Abbie smiled as the memory of Mrs Baker's Sunday school came to mind. Also by the altar there was a stockpile of weapons laid out.

"I think I know how you got here, you are clearly from a witch background that you didn't know about. Your parent made a deal with a demon and that demon fell in love with you and brought you to hell to be his bride. But you escaped."

"Are you serious?" Abbie snapped turning to look at Reynard who was leaning against a pillar arms folded.

"No, I think I'm just desperate for some conversation that doesn't begin with a fight to the death. Sorry, you are a witch aren't you Nightlight I can sense the magic from you and something else." Reynard approached her to sit on the same bench she was on. "How did you end up here? Maybe you can get back the same way." Abbie sighed and leaned back.

"Why so you can hitch a ride a get out too?"

"Well this place isn't exactly the holiday inn of course I want to leave." Reynard shrugged.

"Reynard was it? Tell me why I should even trust you? I don't know what the rules for the underworld are, but trusting demons is a big no wherever you are." Abbie said sternly.

"Ok Nightlight that is true, in fact that is one of the big ones but if I wanted to harm you in any way I would have. Let's review the current events here. I saved you from pack of rotting wolves, provided you with shelter from the feeders and in all honesty your little pistol would not even have an effect on me or anything else here for that matter."

"Then why did you follow my orders."

"You needed to feel like you were in control you looked like a scared little lamb for the slaughter. Glowing as brightly as you do, your soul would be a welcomed feast to many demons here."

"But not to you."

"No, soul eating is not my thing." Reynard said with a slight harshness in his voice. He paused trying to collect himself and walked to the window resting his head on the glass. "I'm sorry. I've been here for too long."

"How long?" Abbie asked.

"What year is it?"

"2015."

"Holy shit it's only been two years. Fuck it feels like ten. That's how it is here. You don't want to be here for longer than you have to Nightlight, you don't want to be used to this. How did you end up down here?"

"I went through a really creepy looking tree. There was an explosion I thought it would kill me never thought I'd be down here."

"A tree to the underworld, you just jumped through it?"

"It was to save my sister." Abbie countered.

"No that's not it very noble it makes sense why you ended up on the island of Darisam in the forest there are many scary looking trees here."

"Island of Darisam?" Reynard gestured for her to come to the window. Abbie stood up to go where Reynard was standing he took her hand and placed it on the stained glass window, Abbie felt the window vibrate as it faded into a transparent window. Some of the mist outside had dissipated and blood rain was falling from black clouds. Not far from wherever they were Abbie could see it, a tall decaying castle towered above them perched on a treacherous mountain, with a large pale and unworldly tree growing from within.

"My God."Abbie breathed.

"Can't help you here." Reynard added. "Think about many of the religions on Earth, they mention some sort of underworld guarded by some sort of deity. Hell is a vast wasteland of pain and suffering, and getting past a guardian is unheard of except for here."

"Why, what's so different about this place?"

"This island is for warriors, demon armies, ruthless fighters fallen from grace. Even this little abbey was built by fallen angels on the losing side. From what I've heard this island is the best place to be."

"Why is that?"

"In that castle lies a guardian that will grant you back your soul and passage through a gate and back home if you best him in battle. Kur the dragon." Abbie gasped and removed her hand from the window.

"From the epic of Gilgamesh?" Abbie asked and Reynard nodded. "So you're saying that if I can make it to Kur, I can get back." Abbie sounded hopeful as she stared at the monstrous castle, it was an obstacle that she had to overcome. She looked back at Reynard who had been staring at her.

"That's right . However no one I've met has been able to make it to the top of the castle alone. What do you say Nightlight?" Reynard smirked and offered his hand Abbie shook it holding his steely gaze, she would trust this demon for now.