LIGHTNOVELONLINE “Hell and haven”
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Oriana pov
Darkness
She could not see since her eyes were closed.
quietness
She could not hear because her ears were deaf.
Peacfullness
She could not care for her; she was cold as stone.
All she knew was that she was floating. Flaoting in a liquid thicker than water. Floating for an enternety for as long as she could remember. There was no restlessness, no stress, or pain; all there was was completeness. She felt so whole as never before, that the piece that she had lost and just recently regained was never gone.
She felt as if she were sinking in this lake of perfection. Her senses were dull, her muscles stiff, and the mind...the mind was weak. There were no thoughts, no desires, and no dreams; all she cared about was continuing to float, to sink, and to wallow in the feeling of perfection.
Everything was all right.
With what little she could still sense, she felt herself sinking further, sinking into the dark lake of calm. She sank deeper and deeper; dark tentacles stretched out and surrounded her, embraced her, and continued to warp around her body, soul, and spirit. She could just stay here in this comfortable, warm nest; she didn't have to wake up. This was all she needed, wasn't it? How low could she sink? How far would it go, and when would it end? All these questions were not important, or where were they? Her memories where fading.
There was something that her tied-up mind had difficulty remembering, but it was there. It was a memory, one out of the time where she still held the name Ash, and one she did not want to lose.
It was her mother.
Out of all, her mother was the only one she could trust, the only one she cared about, and the only one she did not want to forget. After all, it was her mother who allowed her to live the life she had lived in that hell, which was more pleasurable than it could have been. All this hell cared about was whether you had the funds to live in it. Just the lack of those was a death sentence, for without them, you would die in the poisoned air outside. Of course, food and water were problems too, but what good would they do if you died before you could consume them?
It was her mothet that had lived for her; it was her that had brought her to this moment, and it was her that died just to give her a chance to live on. That memory was all she needed as motivation to try and open her eyes, but to her surprise, she was not able to; it was as if her eylids had been glued together. In a panic, she tried to move her arms to rub her eyes, but the tendrils that she had previously thought were a warm blessing now turned out to be her shackles.
They were stuck, and as she tried to release them, what had been a paradise just minutes ago collapsed on top of her. The silence was gone, and in its place there was a loud screeching sound like a long nail scraping across a chalky board. The wholeness was also gone, and instead of perfection, there was pain and restlessness. Her body wanted to go back, but her mind held out. She tore at the tentacles with all her might, and even though she was able to move them, she couldn't completely loosen them.
What followed was a never-ending struggle between her and the shackles that tied her down and tried with all their might to pull her into the lake below her. Her superhuman strength and her razor-sharp nails turned out to be useless when she tried to use them to break the bonds. The restraints were smart; as if they knew what she was going to do next, they anticipated her movements and reacted accordingly.
She felt her strength fading—something that should be impossible thanks to her nature as a vampire—but despite everything, her strength continued to fade. It was like a bad dream in that you did everything you could to escape from a monster, but no matter how much strength you used or how fast you ran, the distance didn't seem to increase.
She wanted to wake up and escape from this hell, leave this unpleasant place behind, and do everything she could to never end up here again, but the shackles wouldn't comply. She probably would have given up if she hadn't remembered her mother's face. The gentle smile, despite the intensity and honesty, couldn't hide the exhaustion. The dark circles under the eyes that spoke of long and sleepless nights, as well as the wrinkles that were not able to completely overshadow the former beauty but still showed that age, exhaustion, and tiredness.
I have to get out of here.
Newfound strength flowed through her, and after some effort, she was able to free one hand, which she immediately used to tug at her bonds. However, they weren't at all enthusiastic about what she was doing and tried to tie her arm, which had just been freed, back up, but now that she had freed her arm, the tentacles were still a difficult but not impossible obstacle.
After freeing her second hand, she tore the remains of the tentacle from her body. Only then did she notice that these had also made her legs immobile, but since she now had both hands at her disposal, she was freed. When she no longer felt the shackles, she took a short breather to calm down. Despite the calm, she was still alert for a new tentacle attack.
After this short pause in which she had caught herself again, she opened her closed eyes with the help of her hands. What she saw shocked her. She was swimming in a dark liquid that couldn't possibly be water because of how thick it was; it was dark, probably because she was deep underwater. The only light that broke through the dull darkness was a calming red glow that was almost impossible to see because of the depth of the lake.
Like a shipwrecked man on the verge of drowning, she swam upward with a decidedly animalistic urge. Dark tentacles shot out from the depths and tried to grab her, but she simply dodged. The red light became brighter and brighter; she thought she could almost see the surface of the water—only 20 meters, 15 meters, 10, 5,...
Snap
Something had grabbed her ankle; she tried to shake it off, but the aggressor was much stronger. She looked down just to see what was holding her and was shocked. In her shadow cast by the red light, she saw a female humanoid figure with bone white hair. She had reached out her hand to grab her ankle, which she now held in an iron grip. When she saw the figure extend her other hand to pull herself up on her leg, she reacted quickly, almost instinctively. A strong kick to the woman's face sent her reeling and caused her to let go of her ankle, which she was clutching so tightly.
She took advantage of her attacker's brief stumble and swam towards the surface as quickly as she could. With a force that was impossible for a human, she broke through the surface and landed safely on solid ground. When she looked around, she was shocked. It was dark; not a single star filled the night sky, but a large red moon provided enough light to be able to see her surroundings. What she had thought was a lake now turned out to be more of a red sea. One made of blood, there was no end to it no matter which direction she looked.
donk
donk
donk
She looked down where she felt the vibration; the surface of the Red Sea that she had just broken through so effortlessly now turned out to be solid ground. Hidden by the cloudy red, she was just able to make out a hand hitting the surface of the sea of blood from below. However, it seemed as if the hand wasn't able to come up, which gave her a lot of comfort. Now that she was safe but seemed to be on another dead end, she looked at the red moon. He was beautiful... He was round and blood red, and it was almost as if he were calling her.
The red in her field of vision blurred. She tried to concentrate on the outlines so as not to lose sight of the beautiful moon, and in fact, she was soon able to make out something again. However, it wasn't a moon. The attempt to concentrate further brought further results; the red veil over her eyes disappeared, and she recognized her surroundings.
She was in a dungeon where she had recently tortured the mercenary, but he was nowhere to be seen. Red decorated the walls and floor; all the furniture in the room was damaged, and pieces of meat lay on the floor. She tried to recall the events that happened here, but doing so brought forth a headache, which compelled her to stop. There was only one thing that got through her head without causing it to explode in pain. It was a question, and in a tone she would not normally use. A tone that she had used maybe once or twice after coming into this world.
She spoke out.
"What the fuck had happened?"
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