A Heartbeat in Hell
The first thing he could feel was his heartbeat.
*thump-thump*
…
*thump-thump*
His first breath picked up an unfamiliar smell in the air. It was strong, almost rancid at first. But soon it took on a sickly-sweet aroma. Like a sugar cookie with formaldehyde sprinkles.
*thump-thump*
…
*thump-thump*
His eyes slowly fluttered open to a blurry red sky, like the one seen at dusk. But this was so ominously-colored. Maybe there was bad weather on the way?
*thump-thump*
…
*thump-thump*
His hand spread flat on the cold, hard ground as he began to rise. At first his limbs felt heavy as boulders, but eventually he was able to stand on two trembling legs. His head was still in a swirl, making his first steps a trial; an odd pang in the back of his skull was slowly spreading. He wondered if there was any place he could get an aspirin around here…wait…
Where exactly WAS here?
He shook his head, allowing his eyes and ears to fully regain function.
His reopened eyes were met with ruin and mutilation. Rundown buildings with shattered windows, some that had become towering infernos. What few cars that were on the streets were near totaled. A few of those were also on fire.
And then there were the bodies. Those of beings so disfigured he couldn't tell what was human and what was animal. These scenes of devastation seemed to go on for miles either way he looked.
And then he happened to glance up.
There he was truly greeted with an apocalyptic sky; red as blood and adorned with an odd shape that resembled a five-point star caught in a circle: a pentagram. Further away in the atmosphere was a small, white ball. The moon? Unlikely, as he didn't recall the moon having rings. Nor…wings? He certainly remembered those hadn't been there before.
Remember…
It had occurred to him that in his tumult, his mind was still going on basic. Only now did he begin to search for anything from before: memories, experiences, an identity.
…who was he again?
In the shattered glass strewn along the ground around him he saw the reflection of a young man, somewhere in his early to mid twenties; blue eyes, pitch black hair, and covered by a bright green hooded sweatshirt, jeans, and running shoes. Despite the damage surrounding him, he looked to be relatively unharmed.
Those eyes blinked back at him.
No recognition.
The reunion was interrupted when one of those enflamed vehicles came careening off the road, narrowly dodging where he was standing. Instead of running him down, the vehicle then rammed straight into the building standing behind. Already on the brink of collapse, the car had given it more than enough to come tumbling down, burying the area in brick and mortar. From out of the dust cloud, he stumbled onto the street, now covered head-to-toe in thick white plaster dust. Well, so much for 'unharmed'.
Letting out a cough, he took this as a sign that moving would be a smart idea; pulling his hood up, and brushing himself off the best he could along the way.
The streets didn't hadn't improved as he journeyed on. He heard screams, shouts of aggression, and even gunfire in the distance. As he made his way through the neighborhood, he heard a door open from one of the less damaged houses. He faced it, hoping to get some insight on the place he found himself in. But who or…whatever he met wasn't something he thought possible outside of a nightmare.
In the doorway stood something similar to a human, but at the same all wrong. Its skin was colored a grayish-blue, the neck was stretched far too long as it carried a small head with two large, black eyes. Those eyes, drifting at first, focused and saw this stranger standing a few feet from his door on the sidewalk. They then bared a set of jagged, razor-sharp teeth.
"Hey kid, fuck off my property!"
In a fright, he ran as fast as his still-waking legs could carry him with the eel creature giving chase.
"We ain't gonna be looted by you fucks anymore!"
Finding another alleyway to duck into, he jumped into a dumpster that he, at first, believed was empty. His pursuer, having just turned the corner, stopped for a moment, before proceeding further down the alley.
He sighed in a temporary relief, until the trash underneath him began to stir. From beneath, a thin arm emerged, followed by the face of a humanoid cockroach. Its beady eyes took in this stranger, and then winked.
"Hey there, cutie." It said in a voice that had…implications.
"Uh…nope!" He said leaping from the dumpster, and taking off again.
"Tease!" She said with a bug-fist raised.
He ran and ran, doing what he could to avoid these creatures. What WERE these things?! Was there some sort of Cronenberg-esque costume party happening somewhere? If that were the case, the whole town seemed to have been invited.
His pace slowed upon an area that otherwise seemed unusually quaint. It had a sort of turn of the century aesthetic to it. And unlike the rest of town, this place was less worse for wear. The same followed the few people he could see, outfitted in the suits and dresses of yesteryear. They 'looked' to be relatively normal citizens.
At first.
He came upon a trio of women blocking his way on the sidewalk, as they had been crouched over something. He went to try and ask for help, but froze in his tracks once the sound of something visceral met his ears. One of them rose up and turned to him, revealing a porcelain mask-like face with pitch black eyes and a mouth of dagger-like teeth that were drenched in blood. The other two had came up from what was left of their meal to see this new appetizer. All three bared their fangs into a grotesque smile.
At this, he booked it out of town so quickly that he could have left a trail of fire in his wake; his scream following just behind his mad dash. It was only once he was out of the neighborhood that he noticed a sign that read "Cannibal Town".
He stopped in what he assumed was the center of town, the populace now bustling full of those same creatures he had encountered before. Moles, birds, goats, lizards, fish; some more humanoid than others.
Then there were occasionally other creatures that passed along; shorter, humanoid things with bright red skin, black horns that were sometimes accented with white stripes.
Others he could only describe as looking rather similar to a mix between something human and canine; almost similar to werewolves in his mind.
Whatever they were, they all seemed to have it out for each other; getting into bloody scrapes using their fists, claws, fangs, knives, guns, and apparently some of them had access to explosives, judging by the constant booming in the background. Thankfully for the time being, no one seemed to notice him there.
He found a pole to lean against, slowly sinking to there ground where he would sit; covered in plaster, reeking of garbage, and finding it harder than ever to catch his breath. He clutched his chest, thinking if it became any tighter, he'd rip himself down the middle.
*Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump*
…
*Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump*
…
*Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump*
It was only as his breathing returned to normal that the noise of these odd going's on had slowly turned silent.
And silence was all there was.
The 'people' still went on fighting as if nothing was any different; guns still fired, blades still cut, bombs still exploded. He slowly rose to his feet, curious, but was at the same time growing more unnerved as this went on. The only sounds he could hear were of his heart beating in his chest and the air going in and out of his lungs.
He scanned the area, as if the source of whatever was causing the lack of sound would reveal itself, until he stopped. Something in the streets had subconsciously caught his attention; something that had truly made his blood run cold.
His eyes slowly moved onto a lone figure in the streets. Clad in a red coat, and standing perfectly still, it wore a large, conniving grin that would make the Cheshire Cat blush. And its dial-like pink eyes set in his direction, slowly ticking away the longer it stared.
His eyes immediately clenched shut, hoping to banish whatever he had seen away. Nothing good could come of someone like that. He was fortunate that no one in the city had taken notice of him yet, but this was attention he definitely didn't want.
When he opened them again, it was gone, and the sound of this world had returned. He sighed in relief, but the peace didn't last even a second, as the latest explosion had sounded. Much closer than the ones before, causing him to jump back to attention. He had to keep moving.
Unfortunately he was still standing in the middle of the road.
*HONK!*
*SCREECH!*
He hadn't even seen it coming. Not until it was too late. His eyes grew tight, waiting to the end.
*SLAM!*
The impact had sent him to the ground. Luckily, the vehicle had come to a near stop just before he was hit. It was still going to hurt later, but in any other case he would have been in much more trouble. His head still did receive quite a bump though, wincing as he touched the back of his head.
A door had opened. Great, he may not have been run down, but the driver may have planned to eat him. Or they'd try to seduce him. Or worse.
But instead, something else happened.
"Oh my gosh, are you okay?! I'm so sorry!"
To say this threw him off would have been an understatement.
His eyes revealed a young woman kneeling over him, wearing a look of concern rather than malevolence. The first thing that caught his attention was her ghostly white face. Complete with two red spots on her cheeks, eyes of bright yellow sclera and red irises, a little button nose, black lips and a head of long, blonde hair draped over a bright red tuxedo. Ironically, out of all of the 'people' he had come across today, this one looked to be the most ordinary.
"I…" He managed to breathe out.
"Here let me." She said, helping him pull himself up. "How's you head?"
"I-it's fine. Sorry I didn't-"
Another explosion cut him off as he jumped. One that was much too close, as it caused another building a block or two away to collapsed.
As he tried to take a few steps away, his vision became blurry, and he suddenly found himself stumbling to his knees again.
"Come on. It's gonna get worse out here." The woman offered as she came to his side again, leading him to the open door of a soft pink limousine. He started to follow along, but stopped just as he reached the door.
Of all of what he had seen today, what horrors awaited him with this person? What if the friendly face was all an act? He couldn't run this time, not when there was a war zone everywhere he turned.
The woman took note of this, and gave a reassuring smile.
"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."
He hadn't been sure of what it was at the time. Perhaps it was his adrenaline signaling him that it was close to crashing. Maybe it was the blood rushing to his head. But something in her eyes told him that this was genuine. And he likely wouldn't be getting another offer like this if he said no.
He slowly made his way into the car, with her following behind. Once inside, the vehicle began moving again, hopefully out of harms way. He made it to the seat in the middle, still keeping the strange woman in view just in case she did have ulterior motives.
"I wasn't expecting to drive into a turf war. I hoped things would've died down by now." The woman sighed, looking out the window with a sullen expression.
She turned to him, her face returning to that smile from before as she held out her hand. "Oh sorry, I'm Charlie."
He looked at Charlie's spectral hand, then back at her again, slowly reaching for her hand before shaking it gingerly.
"Is there any place you need to go?" She asked.
He simply stared at her. When the rest of this world only wanted to bring him harm, why was she the only one to show him kindness?
"Um…no. Actually, I…I don't really know where I am…"
Realization donned on the blonde's face.
"Oh, you must be new!" Her smile returned. "I know just the place!"
The limo changed direction, thankfully one with less explosives going off. But the outside world was still nothing but carnage and destruction as far as he could see; it didn't seem to matter where he turned to. Someone would be randomly stabbed, only to have their heads blown off by another. Where the police were, he hadn't a clue.
"So…" Charlie asked, as he turned to face her. "do you have a name?"
She leaned toward him; her smile starting to look a little TOO friendly. It was then he became aware of the two vampire fangs that her smile had revealed. That hadn't helped him feeling any less uneasy.
He tried to give a response, but still had a hard time finding which name in his head sounded right. Ben? Garrett? Fred? Tyler? Was his name Charlie too?
Charlie saw that he seemed to be having trouble and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's alright. A lot of people here can't remember their old names, its not that big a deal."
He wasn't sure what exactly she meant by 'old names', but he seemed determined to figure this out. There had to be something buried in his mind, anything that could reveal who he was. Just his name was all he had asked for.
And suddenly…
"…Connor."
"Connor?"
"Yeah I think…I think that's my name! My name's Connor!" He smiled; finally something was going his way.
"That's great!" Charlie cheered, pulling him in for a hug. Having not expected this, he tensed up. Though at the same time, his face had turned a soft pink.
"It's nice to meet you, Con-"
*thump-thump*
Charlie's eyes shot wide open. "nor…?"
Alright, here's the first of what I hope will be many, many chapters of 'A Heartbeat in Hell'. I am releasing this and the second chapter at once, though there will not be as consistent a release schedule as I would like. Regardless, I do hope you enjoy and consider sending a review my way.
And I do want to give special thanks to author 'animechick247', who's gone above and beyond helping me get this story off the ground. Everyone, once you're done here, please go read her works as well. I particularly enjoy her own Hazbin/Helluva story: 'La Vie en Rose', one that has served as inspiration for me over these last few months that I've spent creating this story.
Til then guys, happy reading. It's good to be back.