Well kudos to hello captain for reviewing every chapter, and seeing as she asked so nicely, here's chapter 6. I'm glad to see most people are enjoying this rather macabre tale and as always, you're reviews are appreciated.

BTW, I read over the last chapter and I just want to say that I wasn't making any references to myself incase people thought I was being big headed.

Chapter 6: The first circle of hell

Jobe let out a groan as the world around him slowly shifted into focus. This was the third time he'd been knocked unconscious today. Pondering if this could cause brain damage, he got to his feet and looked up.

The fog was more like a low cloud as it hung over his head. The side of the great ravine could only be traced for a few meters before, like everything else here, it was swallowed like the fog. Jobe scooped up the metal pole, tucking it into his belt before sinking his hands into the walls sides. There was no way he was just going to stay here and rot.

Jobe's hand seemed to dig into the soil like surface more like dry sand than earth. With his other hand, he reached out and grabbed onto the slice of rock that jutted from the edge. He balanced his feet on a pipe and reached for another piece of rock to pull him up with.

"Just…a…little…further." He stretched his arm out as far as he could to the point it felt like his fingers were going to pop put their sockets. He wasn't going to be defeated by a big hole. He shot his arm out again.

"Gottcha!" He grinned triumphantly as he felt his digests lock around it. Now all he had to do was pull he up and grab onto the next ledge.

SHLOOP

Jobe's face cracked as the rock seemed to crumble into grit in his hand. He felt himself tumble backwards and could do nothing to stop it but desperately clawed the air for something to hold onto. But of course, there was nothing.

His back hit the ground, causing a small cloud of dust to rush out from underneath him. For a moment, Jobe just lay there, a small groan building up in his throat. He leapt up and let the growl explode into a full out roar, flinging the remaining rock at the wall that defied him.

"FUCK!!!" He kicked the earth beneath his feet, sending even more dust into the air.

Why did every thing have to be so hard? Would it have killed Phil to wait in the car for Jobe to wake up?

Jobe let out another shout, scuffing his feet savagely against the ground. He would give anything to be at home with Julia, watching some crap, made for TV movie. This was all that crazy woman's fault. Things had been fairly normal until she showed up.

"Ghhuurrr…"

Jobe looked up from the small dent he'd made in the ground with his now extremely dirty shoe. All that anger seemed to defuse through his skin like sweat as a new feeling filled his heart.

Fear.

The other side of the ravine seemed to recede back into darkness as the bottom half had been eroded back like a cave. Water slowly trickled down the wall, dripping from the over hanging edge with a hollow 'pat' as it hit the ground. There was something lurking in that dark recess.

Jobe pulled the metal pole from his belt, slinging it over his shoulder like a baseball player. The noise came again, like a heavy smoker trying to clear their throat of sticky bile. Jobe shifted his feet in agitation as he heard what ever it was wading through the mud.

"Come on out." Jobe heard the tremble in his voice in this ridicules attempt to assure him self that there was nothing to be afraid of.

'Why not prove it to you're self, huh? Go on, turn on the flashlight. There's probably nothing there. Just you're overactive imagination going into overdrive.'

He let one hand drop from the comforting grip of the pole and fumbled feverishly for the torch in his chest pocket, clipping it on the front of his shirt. He shut his eyes, praying that the small voice he'd come to hate was right. With a small prayer, he pressed the small button and a beam of light shot from the bulb, illuminating the recess with harsh artificial light.

What stood before him was no figment of his imagination.

The ally-man stood hunched over, like a deer caught in the headlights. It glared at Jobe with that horrible blank face and for a moment, it's writhing fingers lay still as it silently looked Jobe over. A small area of it's damp, decomposing skin glistened in the torchlight as it straitened up.

Somehow, seeing the twisted being before him, the unknown seemed a lot less terrifying.

His hand very quickly locked back onto the pole but it seemed to slip through his fingers as layers of sweat lubricated it.

'shloop'

It pulled it's feet up from the muddy pool, making a sick sucking noise as water rushed to fill the gap. It shuffled closer, it's head started shaking in nervous anticipation. It leapt at him, screaming, and Jobe let the pole fly, bringing it crashing down on it's head. It fell face first into the mud and with out thinking, Jobe stamped down on it's frail neck, forcing it's head even deeper into the mud. The ally-man's legs writhed as it tried to get up but they merely slipped in the mud. It's movements were like some hideous fish flopping about out of water.

It didn't tire as it's movement grew even more frantic. What if these things didn't need oxygen? Jobe looked down at the head that was almost completely submerged in mud, resting his pole against it like a golfer lining up for a shot. He brought it up, over his shoulders and then struck the head with all his might. There was a crack and a muffeled scream bubbled up from the mud. The ally-man gave one final jerk before lying still.

Jobe sighed, straightening up. Looking down at it, he didn't even bother asking how such a thing was possible. Jobe walked past it into the recess, letting the small beam of light guide him.

He almost missed it at first, for at the back of the alcove was a door, built into the wall of earth. It was covered by so many layers of dirt and rust that it blended right in. Jobe didn't quite believe it was there at first, thinking that he'd finally gone insane after all he'd seen, but he blinked and it was still there.

Jobe waded over to the heavy door, almost snatching the door handle in his eagerness to get out of this hole. It refused to move in his hands. He tried again, almost slicing his hand open as it slipped off the handle.

It almost felt as though something inside him had broken. All that was between him and getting out of here was this door that stubbornly refused to move.

'There's no way I could break this down, either.' He thought to himself as he ran his fingers over it. It felt like it was made out of iron or something and the pole in his now trembling hand wasn't going to do much to it.

His finger stopped as it danced over the door. He re-traced the area that it had just been resting on. Here it was again, that deep grove his fingers had tripped over. Jobe set the pole down and began rubbing furiously at the door. Layers of rust peeled off in his hands, like some serpent shedding it's skin.

He stepped back to admire his work, trying to ignore the stabs of pain that surged through his now raw hands.

'The first door to Paradise'

Well this didn't bode well but that wouldn't stop him from getting the hell out of here. There was some kind of display like the face of a clock beneath the words with carefully drawn numbers around the outside. Instead of hands, there were another two circles drawn within each other.

The memory of the letter he'd found in the house came back to him.

"The first door to Paradise will open when the earth stands at three, casting a dark shadow over the moon…" So what did that mean? He had to sit around and wait for the next lunar eclipse? Jobe walked up to the diagram. In the center of it was a small golden ball, Representing the sun maybe? He scanned the other two circles and sure enough, each had a small ball in them as well. The blue ball in the second ring was probably meant to be the earth while the white one in the outer ring was the moon.

"Great, what now?" he asked himself. He tried to move the middle ring, and for a moment, Jobe though it was going to refuse to budge against the layers of rust that had clogged it up. With a groan, it slipped from it's resting place, allowing Jobe to rotate it into the section that came under 'three'.

So far so good, now all he had to do was the same for the outer ring so that the earth was between the sun and moon. As Jobe rotated the outer ring into position, there was an audible click from within the heavy door. Jobe couldn't help but grin, even if what waited for him on the other side of the door could tear him up like tissue paper.