We are the jack-o'-lanterns in July, setting fire to the sky
Looking for nothing short of a miracle
Skrivarutmaning: Dag 9
When it's too loud, I turn it up
I'm just laying in my bed, wishing that I had never woken
Skrivarutmaning: Dag 8
I just wish it didn't have to be this way
Skrivarutmaning: Dag 7
Life is like a video game


Skrivarutmaning: Dag 6
When I tell you I'll be fine, I still want you by my side
Here there be witches on the edge of town
Cleanse them with fire burn them down
Bury their bones in hollow ground
Skrivarutmaning: Dag 5









Skrivarutmaning: Dag 4
Skrivarutmaning: Dag 3
Skrivarutmaning: Dag 2
Welcome to the freakshow
På japanskan så blev alla typ övertrötta så vi låg och skrek av skratt åt dumma saker och jag bara </////3
Skrivarutmaning: Dag 1
Skrivarutmaning
01: När började du skriva?
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20: Vad är det bästa och värsta med att skapa plottar?
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22: Vad är din favoritgenre att skriva i?
23: Vad tycker du är svårast att skriva: början, mitten eller slutet?
24: Vad tycker du är enklast - att skriva eller redigera?
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29: Beskriv din skrivmiljö.
30: Vad är din favorittid för att skriva?
31: Lyssnar du på musik när du skriver?
32: Vad är ditt äldsta WIP (work in progress)?
33: Vad är ditt nuvarande WIP?
34: Vad är den konstigaste berättelseidén du haft?
35: Vilken av dina karaktärer är din favorit, och varför?
36: Vad gör du när karaktärerna inte beter sig som du planerat?
37: Tycker du om att plåga dina karaktärer?
38: Har du någonsin dödat en huvudkaraktär?
39: Vad är den konstigaste karaktären du någonsin kommit på?
40: Vilken av dina karaktärer har finast namn?
41: Beskriv din ideala skrivarplats.
42: Om du fick stjäla en karaktär från en annan författare och göra den till din, vilken skulle du välja och varför?
43: Om du kunde skriva nästa bok i en valfri serie, vilken serie skulle du välja och vad skulle boken handla om?
44: Om du fick skriva en bok tillsammans med en annan författare, vilken skulle du vilja skriva med och vad skulle boken handla om?
45: Om du kunde leva i en fiktiv värld, vilken värld skulle du vilja leva i?
Vet inte hur många jag kommer svara på per dag, men tror jag hinner med två innan jag måste gå till skolan~
Your demons come alive to chase you

Now I lay here waiting with the hope that I might find some sleep
Damnation pt. 3
Seeing something that wasn't Hell and not having to feel the incredible heat against my skin all the time felt like Heaven. There was actually a blue sky over my head with puffy, white clouds scattered all over it. Underneath my palms were grass and I had no idea I could even miss something I'd never even liked when I was... alive, I guessed. You came to Heaven or Hell when you died, so maybe I had really died when I'd made the deal with the Devil.
Anyway, it didn't matter - what mattered was the clouds over my head and the soft breeze playing with my hair. The air tasted sweet somehow, not as musty as it did in Hell. I finally had fresh air in my lungs and the feeling was almost like getting high - it felt just as damn good anyway.
I felt so light, as if I could fly, and when I looked down I realized that the grass had left my body and were several feet below me. Feathers seemed to have grown out of my arms without my knowledge, and I laughed. The laugh was like bubbles floating in the air, they had the same colour as bubblegum and it was just as sweet. I laughed more, couldn't stop the feeling of absolute happiness exploding in my chest.
I just felt so fucking free.
Suddenly something changed. A pit of darkness seemed to open up in the ground and suck everything it could get in it. Terrified, I tried to fly away from it, but my wings were gone and helplessly I fell to my fate.
"Oh Johnnyyy!"
Scattered laughter bounced in my head, people chanting my name. It felt like as if maybe - just maybe - I was a rockstar people were waiting for, longing for, but that illusion was shattered the second I managed to open my eyes. I wasn’t a rockstar; I was a caged animal in a zoo. Demons were walking by outside, almost causally in most cases, but everyone turned their heads when they passed me, grinning a soul-chilling smile and chanted. Maybe I would’ve felt how cold they made me if I had actually had a soul left. I was pretty sure that even if I had one it didn’t even belong to me anymore.
I looked at them, trying to seem as empty as possible. I had noticed that playing along to the tunes of the Devil’s violin made them kind of leave me alone, thinking I was completely broken. In fact, every punch and every bone breaking in my body made me even more determined to get out of there. I was going to get out so I could see Claire’s smile, feel her heartbeat in my ear, touch her fair skin. There was probably something wrong with me, since I’d gotten to see the other lost souls trapped in Hell now; most were either just laying with their backs against the bars, shaking, or they were making noises like madmen. I was the only one who seemed to be remotely okay, even though the Devil had been right. There was lots of ways for him to break me.
But my problem was that he didn’t break me. He and his demons were trying and I just put on an act to make it seem like they were succeeding. Maybe I was just more broken than he had estimated.
Everytime the bars were lifted I just got more determined to... survive. I planned everything in my head, looked it through a thousand times to see every little detail that could fuck anything up. The plan needed to be perfect, I couldn't allow the Devil more loopholes than he'd already found, if I wanted to get out.
So one day I was done and for move I was awake when demons started arriving. They seemed rather confused, so they walked by quietly. I barely glanced at those - my gaze were permanently glued to the hill where the Devil's throne were placed. Sooner or later he would show up and I wanted to be ready.
"You're making my boys worried, Johnny."
The thing with the Devil is that he doesn't even have to be there to be heard. He was nowhere to be seen but his voice were very loud and clear. I didn't think it was just in my head too, because all the lost souls tensed up and the demons seemed to stop and listen.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, in fact I am", I replied with a huge smile on my lips. "I've never felt better in my whole afterlife! So whatever you did to me really must have worked, so thank you!"
I laughed at the confusion I created. For once I felt like I actually had some power, or at least like I had a chance to survive. I wasn't ready to give up yet, and for some reason my will to survive had just gotten stronger during all the time they had been trying to break me.
"What have you got for me today, you handsome Devil?"
For the record, I had no control whatsoever over my mouth anymore. It was smiling and talking on its own - I was actually terrified. But a part of me hoped that acting insane would grip the other lost souls out of their own insanity and join me somehow. I needed help to get out; of course I couldn't do it on my own. They weren't really where I were though, so I figured they could use some help.
The Devil laughed. "Your spirit is admirable, I give you that. You've lasted longer than anyone else so far. But I don’t see what you’re trying to achive, so maybe you can enlighten me?”
“Huh, I thought Lucifer meant carrier of light or something. Aren’t you light enough on your own or are you simply too emo to function?”
Was there a giggle? I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that I was on a roll and to be rolling in Hell you needed to be on fire, which I kind of felt like I was.
Suddenly the Devil himself showed up inside my cage, and he looked annoyed. “Do you think you’re funny? Because I have had enough of you now. What’s your secret, huh? How come you’re not like every other lost soul in here?”
“Oooh, I didn’t expect company! If I’d known you’d show up I would have cleaned up a little. I’m sorry for the mess that isn’t me”, I said with a giggle. He took me by the throat and violently threw me up against the bars. Of course I couldn’t breathe, but it didn’t really matter when you were kind of dead already. “So no foreplay then? I’m sensing you’re a top kind of guy…”
“I don’t get it.” The Devil was looking at me but I wasn’t sure that he was actually talking to me. He seemed frustrated and confused, and I loved knowing that that was my fault. “How are you still… alive?”
“I was making a sexual innuendo. A joke. Y’know, that you’re -”
Stars danced in front of my eyes when he bashed my head against the bars. I didn’t really look at it, but it felt like as if my head made the bars bulge like frying pants did in children’s cartoons. Maybe there was a Johnny’s-head-shaped buckle in the bars, maybe not. All I knew was that it hurt like hell.
He alone is stronger than all the demons I’ve fought so far. Oh dear, how did I expect to ever survive this?
“You’re supposed to be dead”, he hissed, staring at me with insane eyes. I thought I’d seen insanity in the junkies’ eyes, but this frenzy was way worse than the hell I thought I had seen people in.
“Well, I’m not anyway. Suck it up.”
My knee flew up to meet his crotch, making him doublefold and let go of me. I sank down to the floor and tried to see past the stars that was still dancing in front of my eyes. I had temporarily lost control of my own body and couldn't do much but just lay there and wait for the Devil to collect himself, lift me up by the collar and throw me so hard the bars broke and I flew outside. The ground was solid rock and hurt my everything when I actually bounced and rolled further away, and I only stopped when I hit the bars of another cage. I groaned when I forced myself to sit up and walook around; I seemed to be in a huge cave with smaller caves just like the ones I'd been trapped in up until now, and there seemed to be no end to it. There were even stairs climbing upwards.
Well, I'll be damned. I had no idea.
"How... dare... you..." The Devil walked towards me, all tall and impressive. His skin seemed to glow from a fire within and of course he freaked me out. I was just too stupid to act on it.
"I guess you can say I'm sort of a daredevil." I grinned and tried to get up on my feet, but he kicked me away again. Apart from the thuds I made when I hit the ground, Hell was for once really quiet. No insane screaming, no devilish laughter. Nothing. Everyone were keeping their eyes fixated on what went on at the bottom of the pit.
"You're supposed to be mine!" His voice boomed throughout every corner of hell, and somehow he seemed to have grown a bit. Maybe it was because I was still crawling on the ground. "What makes you think that you can defy me?!"
"Nothing, really, I just happen to be this way. Although", I said when he lift me up by the collar and held me up way above the ground, "I think that maybe you underestimated me when I got in here. You said you could already break me more - guess what? You haven't. You failed. How does that feel?"
He gave away a close to animalistic scream and started to hit me very hard and rapidly. I couldn’t breathe, I felt really dizzy and my mouth tasted like blood. But yet I just laughed, because I had just pissed off the Devil and given back some of the frustration he had given me since I had gotten there.
“WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?!”
“I want to give you an offer, but I kind of need you to stop hitting me. Can you handle that, you think?”
“Is it about your freedom again? Because you’re never going to get out and you might as well fucking give up!” He threw me down into the ground at the end of the sentence, and I could literally feel the ground break underneath me. “You’re never going to succeed, you were a failure in your life as well, so why do you think things have changed down here? You’re nothing more than a disgusting cockroach that deserves to be crushed under my boot until not even one of its kind will recognize it.”
What he said was kind of true though, so cudos to him. It hurt being reminded of how I so easily gave in to stupid stuff and disappointed literally everyone I interacted to. I would never forget the shame I felt everytime someone looked so done with my bullshit, and how I straight afterwards shot up some more drugs into my system. I couldn’t stand disappointing everyone, but the problem was that I always did. A genetic fuck-up, that was what I was. I was so selfish I had no idea how to please anyone at all.
But things had finally started to change when the Devil came to get me, and I just didn’t want to abandon all hopes that I could never change.
“Yes, I’m totally disgusting. But I want a second chance because I really feel like I can do this. You see, I’ve learned that if you just sit on your ass all day, nothing’s gonna happen. You need to be creative and be willing to fight, that’s all.” I wanted to say that my body wasn’t so badly broken that I could stand up, but to be brutaly honest it was just pure willpower. I looked around me, looked at all those poor souls, and decided that it was time. “You all can do it! So please listen closely - I can’t do this on my own. But if you just help me win against the Devil… I will let you all free. I’ll figure out a way to do it but it’s time to fucking do something. WAKE UP!”
The Devil may laugh, but my words seemed to work as a wake up call for all the souls that could hear me. I wasn’t sure how many would be able to do that, but I could hear stomping and rattling as if they were shaking the bars and cheers. The laughter of the Devil disappeared as the confusion on the demons faces gradually got over their heads.
For once, noises in Hell didn’t sound like as if I was in an asylum.
“So what do you propose, young Johnny?” the Devil asked quietly with not even a hint of a smile on his lips.
“I want to fight you. If I lose, I’ll give up and just exist here forever. You can create the worst Hell possible for me and I’ll just suck it up, to use your own words. But if I win… you’ll let me and all these souls go.”
“Brave words for a weakling. And how do you intend to win?”
“I count on the lost souls to look out for me, because I know this won’t be fair in any way at all.”
He nodded, turned his back to me and started to walk away. “Let the game begin.”
“Behind you!”
The shriek made me turn around in time to notice an especially ugly demon run towards me, holding some kind of sword-like thing in his hands. I dodged him, pushed him so hard he lost his balance and took his weapon. The Devil seemed to believe that I wouldn’t last long enough to get to him, but with my weapon and the help from a thousand helpful souls I did quite well. I put down a few of his minions before he even turned around to look at me, and the surprised look on his face would be permanent as I had already jumped towards him and separated his head from his own body.
At first there was silence. Then there was a noise of screaming and cheering so loud I felt like covering my ears, but I stood in shock as I hadn’t realized what had happened yet. My gaze wouldn’t leave the head of the Devil laying in a puddle of blood on the ground, and my hand let my weapon go with a lot of clattering.
I thought you couldn’t kill the Devil. I guess I was wrong. Maybe he’s just strong, but not… immortal.
“Sir?” I looked up at the demon who spoke to me and I quickly jumped back. He held up his hands in a way that told me that he wasn’t there to fight me. “It’s not over yet.”
“What is there left…?” I said in a very weak voice.
“You must collect the crown of fire in the former chief’s quarters. Then you must either take his throne or hand it down to someone else, milord.”
I nodded. If I had started this I might as well finish it properly. “Can you show me the way, maybe?”
Walking through Hell felt… strange. The ground underneath my feet should hurt and make my skin burn, but nothing really happened to me. It felt like as if I was levitating, like I had done in my dream, but there was no wings on my back.
We walked down a couple of stairs and then he stopped and pointed even further downwards. “I’m not allowed to go further, sir. It’s just down there. Watch your step.”
“Thank you.” Highly confused that the demon didn’t make an attempt to stab me in the back I kept walking down, feeling the darkness close in on me. I walked in silence and prayed to anything that would listen that I wouldn’t slip and fall into the very core of the Earth, because I imagined that that of all things actually would hurt.
Suddenly there was light and a growling noise and I instantly raised my arms to cover my face. Fangs clamped shut around my arms and I started to yell. “Down!” was the first thing that came out of my mouth, and to my surprisement the beast actually let go. I let my arms down by my sides and looked at the whimpering dog that layed down before my feet. “That’s right”, I muttered as I proceeded into the room I assumed the dog was protecting. “I haven’t gone through hell to be stopped by a fucking bitch.”
The room looked like a typical study, with a large desks and lots of bookshelves. I looked at the papers that were stocked everywhere, and they seemed to be contracts with the Devil. Maybe mine was there somewhere as well. My thoughts wandered away to completely different stuff, like Claire’s smile and how great it would be to see her again, when I looked for the damn crown of fire.
It turned out to be a literal crown made out of actual fire. At first I was scared to touch it, but it proved to be fine. I brought it with me up all the stairs, finally being able to see more than my hand in front of my face, and it felt like as if it was way quicker to get back to the cheering souls and the beheaded Devil than it was to find what I searched for. I held up the crown and my own personal crowd cheered even louder, roaring out their joy.
“So what does Sir wish to do now?”
I looked down at the crown and tried to figure out what to do. This thing was my exit ticket, it would let me see Claire again, but… I felt so powerful. I had never really had any power when it came to myself and my own life, because in my early years my parents decided what was going to happen with me, and when I started to rebel against them the drugs took their place. The drugs were my lord and saviour, and I was never really allowed any control.
But was I really going to throw away my chance to finally have my own life for power?
I smiled and looked up to all the souls. They got quiet as they expected a speech, and I felt more insane than ever. “To be honest”, I said, “I never thought that this day would come. I thought everything was impossible from the second I sat my foot down here, in Hell. But, tell me something - why should you sinners be saved? You wouldn’t be free without me. I’m your leader, your saviour, your King. And I’m not ready to leave.”
I put the crown on my own head as the souls realized what I was saying and raised hell like insane persons inside an asylum again.
You would imagine that it takes time to make deals with poor, stupid humans and collect their souls, but it wasn’t. It came natural to me.
I simply took over every contract the former Devil had made himself, and it felt so good to be able to rip my own apart with my own bare hands. Either I was out in the real world, collecting lost souls, or I sat on my throne and pushed my demons to do such horrible things to the poor fuckers stuck down here with me. My minions seemed to enjoy having me as their leader, and I couldn’t give less of a fuck about the other souls. It was their own fault they were down here anyway, as it had been no one but my own when I put myself in the hands of the Devil, and I had been the only one who had stepped up and tried to do anything about it. They deserved every punishment they got, because I just wanted them to suffer as much as I had done my whole life.
I snapped my fingers and turned up onto the surface of the Earth. My location was an alley next to a huge street I faintly remembered from my time as a human. Maybe I was close to where I had lived.
But I wasn’t going to walk down memory lane - I was working, and a human being with a gross, beating heart was standing right in front of me. I cleared my throat to turn her attention to me, and if I still had a heart it stopped beating.
“...Johnny? What are you doing here?”
I shook my head and felt tears starting to fill my eyes. Even when she was blurry she was the most beautiful person I had ever met, and she still had the ability to break down all my walls and turn me human again.
“What have you done… Claire… what did you do…”
“What are you talking about? I haven’t seen you in fucking forever! Why haven’t you returned any of my fucking calls!?”
“How… how long…”
“Six months. You’ve been gone for six months.” She was quiet when the tears finally started dripping down my cheeks. “What is even going on, Johnny? I don’t understand…”
“Why did you have to go make a deal with the Devil?” I whispered and looked up at her. I wanted to hold her so fucking badly, but she seemed so… different somehow, and it broke my heart to see her in a time like this. I wasn’t supposed to - she was supposed to live happily ever after with some dude she loved and be surrounded by kids and loved ones, and just live.
“Why were you so fucking stupid? Why did you have to…” I couldn’t talk. My voice stopped working completely, so my words just trailed off into the distrance and I threw myself over her, holding her as tightly as I could. She still smelled like vanilla and flowers and reminded me of happier times.
“Johnny… how do you know I did that and what are you doing here? I still don’t understand…”
“I am the devil”, I whispered as soon as my voice could handle it. “I… I made a deal with him myself and I killed him… Claire I beat the devil… and took his place… why did you… Claire...”
She was silent for a moment, and then she put her arms around me. “I thought you were lost”, she whispered, “so I wanted him to bring you back to me… funny how the universe works, huh?”
I shook my head and grabbed her face with both my hands as I pressed my lips against hers. “You’re so fucking stupid”, I said through my tears. “You’re so fucking stupid Claire you shouldn’t have done that I love you so much I don’t… I don’t…”
“It’s okay”, she mumbled with a smile as she was touching my cheek gently with the sweetest smile I’d ever seen. “I mean, it can’t be that bad, right? I’ll get to see you every day…”
“You don’t know what it’s like down there.”
She kissed me and I shut my eyes shut as hard as possible and snapped my fingers. She was sent down into Hell and I fell to the ground, screaming out my heartache, feeling myself be ripped apart from losing her all over again.
Her private Hell was lying in a hospital bed, connected with a machine that wasn’t bleeping, with me sitting by her side, crying and she couldn’t do anything to help me.
Oh hell, I knew, because I was sitting there, by her side, every single damn day.
Damnation pt. 2
Going through hell everyday became kind of easy after a while, even though it felt like as if I'd been through it for a few eternities. The thought of revenge kept me going, and soon enough I didn't even scream when the baseball bat crushed my bones. I could tell that the demons got frustrated after a whole and hit harder, kept going for longer, but they barely got a wince from me. I didn't even bother to get out of bed, so not even finding me was fun. They didn't get a chase and that was really upsetting to them.
Apparently it was so upsetting I got paid a visit from the Devil himself; he had knocked the few times he came over, but not then. He let himself in and walked over to me with his arms folded on his chest. His expression was probably supposed to be concerned, but given that it was the Devil his evil shone through. "You lost your fighting spirit, Johnny?"
"No." I pulled myself up on my elbows and looked at him. "I'm just too busy for this fucking bullshit."
The Devil laughed. "You see, even Hell can get quite comfortable once you settle in."
Oh, you wish.
"Do you like games? I heard once that demons like games so I guessed they took something more than their hideous faces from their dad."
The Devil chuckled. "Sure, games are fun. Why do you ask?"
"Because I want to play a game with you."
"What kind of game?"
"You pick."
"I've always been a fan of hide and seek..." The Devil gazed into the nothingness that probably was his life until he remembered my existence again. "What do you want if you win?"
"I'd like to get out of here."
"If I win you're trapped here forever like you said you would."
"I never said that, but deal. So, uhm, I feel like this apartment isn't an ideal place to play, so how about -"
I didn't have time to finish my sentence before he snapped his fingers and a feeling of hot air flied past me and I felt dizzy so I grabbed the nearest thing. We seemed to have moved to somewhere god-knows-where, and I realized I was playing with the Devil. He would of course know his territory inside out; I didn't. I was screwed.
He snapped his fingers again and the demons that had been tormenting me showed up. They had evil grins on their faces, and the one with the baseball bat were gently hitting his own hand with it. He looked very badass and scary and I couldn't help that I gulped. My legs were turning into Jell-O. "Run, Johnny, or my boys will smash your head open again."
He didn't have to say that twice. I turned and ran, and not a single thought were in my head. It was a really bad time to be completely empty because I needed a plan - there must be something I could do to take that bastard down. I hadn't thought of it in the beginning but I couldn't beat Devil in Hell. Once again I had done something stupid and I kind of wished that someone really would bash my head open, just so I could die. Maybe it would be no big deal if I failed in the beginning.
"Get him, boys." The voice boomed loud and clear throughout the woods, and I knew it was to give me a heads up abou the fact that I was now officially chased. I could hear the demons maniac laughter somewhere behind me.
No. I'm not gonna fail because revenge is all I haven't lost.
I look around for something I could use as a weapon, and all I found was a stick about as thick as my arm. With a bit of luck it would work as a defense for a little while. There was also stones about the size of my fist. A plan started to form in my head. I took two rocks and climbed up a tree. Terror had a right grip around my throat and it was hard to breathe because I knew that it failed I was completely screwed.
I waited, and waited, and waited. Soon enough someone was walking below me. I couldn't really see that much, but I didn't hestitate. I dropped the rock and saw it smash into the demon's head, putting him down on the ground where he laid motionless. I didn’t breathe at all whilst I just waited for something to happen, like that he would rise and climb up to get me or that one of his companions would show up.
Nothing happened for quite some time, so I dared to crawl down the tree and sneak closer to the fallen demon. He didn’t look like a human at all, so I guessed it was true that demons had one shape and that they could switch into anything they wanted. He had looked so much like one of the guys that had actually barged into my apartment several years ago, but now he was even too hideous to describe. There was blood everywhere after the hit to his head, and I noticed that a baseball bat layed close to him. I guess he was the baseball-guy who always were the first one to hit me and always the last thing I saw before everything got dark.
“Karma’s a bitch”, I whispered as I grabbed the baseball bat carefully. He still didn’t more, so I dared to smack down my new weapon in his head just to hear the skull crunch under it. A small giggle escapes my lips as I kept hitting, and for every punch my giggles grew into a maniacal laughted that didn’t even sound like me. For a moment I just forgot that I was in the middle of a game with the Devil himself, because it felt so fucking good to just see the former head of the demon crash under my strength, give back some of the pain he’d given me the past few… what? Eternities? I didn’t even know anymore.
Of course my rather noisy existance for the moment attracted the rest of my playmates, but I was so into watching the gore splatter all over the place to even notice. I was captured, dragged back to the Devil who threw me back in my own hell. My gaze flew around the small apartment and a guttural scream left my lips. I had had a taste of insanity and now I knew I didn’t stand a fucking chance at all.
The only thing not disappearing from the apartment except for me was the drugs, and I felt something snap in my chest. The pile was getting so high some plastic bags were almost falling down on the floor. It didn’t take long to shove them all down on the floor, grab one of them and make a neat line of powder on the desk.
I could even find paradise in hell.
I had no idea how long I was just sitting there on the floor, feeling empty and smiling like as if I’d won the lottery, but no one showed up. Maybe that had been the goal the whole time, that I’d give in to the drugs and finally feel at home. Maybe there wasn’t any deeper meaning to torturing me day after day than actually just break me down completely.
Any normal person might ask themselves “why me?”, but not me. No. I finally felt like as if I could handle being in the really shitty and hopeless situation I’d found myself in ever since Claire was on her deathbed and I was terrified of losing her.
You were desperate enough to make a deal with the Devil just to keep her alive, even though she wasn’t really yours to keep and she was too good for someone like you.
I laughed a little. A picture of her was bouncing back and forth inside my kranium. Her eyes were like meled chocolate, her smile was a thousand fireworks setting off in my chest and her voice was like coming home. She was so beautiful it physically hurt, and I just wanted to bury my face in her hair and fall asleep in the red mess and hold her tight and never let go again.
Just as fast as the rush from the drugs hit me I started to cry. I missed her so, so much and I just wished that she would be mine again. That would never happen though, as I wasn’t sure I could get out of this place and she was definetly too good to end up in Hell. So I would never be around her again, and the thought ripped me apart completely.
I wasn’t one to cry very easily, and especially not when I was sad. Mostly I just turned the tears into gasoline to fuel the fire that was my anger, but I couldn’t anymore. I had tried but fire didn’t work in Hell. I hadn’t cried like I did then since I was a kid, and the noises even scared me. It didn’t sound like it came from me or like it was even human, but I couldn’t stop it. I screamed into my hands and if I had been stronger I would’ve pulled myself up on my feet and trash the whole apartment. There was one time I had actually done that out of fury and frustration, and I knew how that had ended.
The crying abruptely stopped and I looked up. It was too silent and my eyes started to tear up again but I didn’t give in to it. Not when there was so much better things to give in to.
A new idea started to form in my head, even though my whole body screamed at me to stop. It was the stupidest idea I had ever had and I knew that, but it was just impossible to resist.
Rockstars overdose all the fucking time so why can’t I have my seven minutes in the spotlight? It’s so fucking brighter than down here anyway.
I opened bag after bag, making new fine lines on the table. Blood dropped from my nose down on the desk and I could feel myself slowly slip away. I kept going until I finally felt how I couldn’t breathe anymore and passed out, all alone, on the exact spot this had happened one time before.
Next time I woke up, I noticed I wasn’t in the usual place. Everytime I had had a blackout since I entered Hell I had woken up in my old apartment, all alone except for all the drugs, so for a second I thought that maybe - just maybe - I had been let out. Maybe the Devil had had his fun with me and decided that it was enough.
But I couldn’t remember that I ever heard any agonized screams or feeling incredible heat radiating through my body in my world. I wanted to clasp my hands over my ears and just cover myself up from head to toes, but there was nothing to cover me up with. The ground under me was hard and it felt like as if I was lying on a huge rock and it was so fucking warm. Yet it didn’t feel like I was sweating at all.
What the fuck kind of place is this?
I sat up and groaned. There was a lot of pain in the back of my head, probably from when I had fallen down on the floor or something. That used to happen to me a lot when I had a bed that was too small for me; I’d always woken up with pains in my neck and hip like an old man. I was around eighteen so you can guess how fun it was to be me then.
It seemed like I was in some sort of cave with bars across the opening, like as if I was being inprisoned. That was sort of odd because that was something completely new. I had never been put behind bars before, even if I’d gotten the cops on me a few times. So of course seeing those bars were really confusing to me, especiallyn since it was so dark outside that I couldn't really see anything. There was noises that told me people were out there though, whispering, waiting.
Not being able to see them freaked me out, so I got up on my feet and walked over to the opening. The bars were burning hot so I flew backwards with a yelp and waved my hands around like a fucking idiot. A curtain was lifted and light streamed in, blinding me momentarily.
Demons were standing all around the cave - it looked like some sort of cave, carved out of a volcano because of the heat - holding objects looking like rocks. Not only did their looks scare the ever living crap out of me (imagine every characters from all the nightmares you've ever had and every horror movie you've ever seen put together, but a million times worse; that's what one demon's true form looks like), but the excitement that seemed to hoover like a mist all over the place.
Placed on a throne on a podium, the Devil looked down at me, his legs crossed and a snakelike tongue licking his lips, and he laughed. "Look who we've got here. Ladies and gentlemen - Johnny! He tried to quit on us."
Every demon in the room roared with laughter, and some of them actually fell over. If I hadn't been so terrified I probably would've been angry, hitting the bars, kicking and screaming. It wouldn't have mattered but that's how everything seemed at the moment anyway. I couldn't even kill myself properly, so why try more? This was my destiny - it sucked but hell, it was my fault and I guess I had had a pretty okay life at least.
I mean, I got to know an angel.
"What do we do with quitters?"
"Smash their bones!" they chanted back. "Eat their flesh! Break their ribs!"
"Go ahead then!"
I didn't realize I was the one who said that until it got quiet in the cave. I spread my arms and smiled, hoping that I looked somewhat taunting. "I dare you. Let the Devil himself throw the first rock. It's not like you can break me more than you already have anyway."
I had no idea what made me say it, as I had decided to just give up. But for some reason Claire's face were stuck in my head and I just felt some kind of urge to keep fighting for her. She had helped me fight of my own demons, so why not fight these as well? I could go through hell for her and I sure as hell could do it again, as long as it was for her.
The Devil laughed, sounding like a complete maniac, and he jumped down to the other side of the bars. He leaned forward to have his face in level with mine. I noticed that his eyes were burning with the flames of eternal pain and a part of me wondered what you would have to go through to actually become the Devil.
"Oh Johnny", he said in a voice so sweet it sent shivers through every part of my body. "You'd be surprised at how many ways it's possible for me to break you. You see, we've only just gotten started."
The Devil turned his back to me and snapped his fingers. "Break him, boys."
The bars disappeared, and my freedom was saluted with a rain of flaming rocks, each as big as my head.Damnation pt. 1
This story contains some drugs, violence, insanity and a lot of sass, but apart from that I guess it's kind of child friendly. Read and enjoy the ride, 'cause this is one hell of a story~
I couldn't stay still at all, and I wondered whether it was because it was fucking freezing outside, all the caffeine I had taken into my system or if it was because I was scared absolutely shitless. It could be anything, really, but I hate to be the one breaking it to you - I was so scared that I knew if I stopped to stand still for even a fucking second I would have a nervous breakdown and maybe actually, y'know, drop dead. The worst part was probably that it wouldn't even be cool; it would be fucking heart failure.
There was a sound like a candle going out, only much louder, behind me. It was the noise I had been terrified of. I had heard it just once before, and it wasn't the noise itself I was scared of. It was what followed.
"Long time no see, Johnny."
I turned around and looked at the man standing there. He was wearing a black suit with red details, and he looked like he could be in his early thirties. His hair was dark and curly and he had a goatee that could make anyone who wanted one of those jealous. I wasn't.
"Your wish was completed, you've had your five years, time's up. I want my payment."
You see, I had been stupid and lovesick five years ago. A girl I was helplessly in love with was dying and I found a way to save her, even though there shouldn't be. Life was a funny thing and nothing you could really do anything about, and you shouldn't really pretend like you could move a chess piece and make it all work out.
"I... I...", was all I could manage to say.
"You don't have to be scared, Johnny. I'm not gonna hurt you in any way at all."
"But..."
"You promised. The deal is that I would save Claire - whom you didn't even stay with - and you'd have five happy years with this lovely girl. Not that it matters now, but why did you break up with her?"
"Because I didn't want to hurt her", I mumbled. "Making a deal with the Devil can't be, y'know, fucking great."
"You're the one who found me, not reversed. So to speak in your tongue - you're a really big fucking idiot, Johnny."
I swallowed hard. "So what now? What am I supposed to do?"
"Well, you sold your soul..."
Thing was that he had been really unclear about what that would actually mean, so when he suddenly grabbed me and threw me into what felt like a fucking inferno, I couldn't help that I screamed. The journey felt like it took seconds and forever at the same time, but everything turned white. Maybe I had gone blind, but at that point I didn't even really care.
"Where... where am I?"
"Welcome to Hell, Johnny."
Slowly my eyesight came back to me and I realized it looked like as if I was in my old apartment. It was my first place I had gotten on my own after college, and it was a short miserable stay. I was glad I met Claire soon after everything had started going to hell, because without her I wouldn't have been able to pull myself out of it.
And now, it seemed, I was literally in actual Hell.
This can't be right. Something is wrong. I'm not supposed to be here.
If I really was in Hell, it didn't look like I had expected it to. Where was all the flames, the hellish fire pits you would get thrown into? There wasn't supposed to be a shitty one roomer in Chicago.
I looked around and saw all my old stuff - that bed that was actually just a mattress on the floor, the sheets that had seen better days, the piles of comics and books scattered about everywhere. And, of course, the table where everything shitty happened. My heart started to race and my wrists hurt of longing when I saw a bag of fine white powder.
There was a loud banging on the door. "Oh Johnny!" a voice boomed, a voice I could never forget. On shaky legs I walked over to open the door. There stood Roover - the man I had thought looked like the Devil himself. Now that I had been the real Devil I could tell they really weren't alike, but yet I was still shaking at the sight of him. Back in the days it would've been because of abstinence, but now I really had no idea what the cause was. Maybe just the memory was enough to throw me back into my old habits. "I came with your stuff."
But I don't do this shit anymore I really fucking shouldn't...
"Actually, you're a bit late with the payment. You've been for quite a while."
"I'm sorry", I blurted out, "I'm just in between jobs right now and..." My voice trailed off, because we both knew that lie. It wasn't like I actually was searching for a way to pay Roover back; he just got high in his apartment and fucked hookers in dark alleys at night, and I knew that the other man must've figured it out by now.
"You've been unemployed for twelve months? Wow. I guess no one really wants a junkie at work - you're not more worth than a whore."
"I'll pay you back sometime soon, I promise. Just give me -"
"Give you what? Free drugs and I'm supposed to be cool with that? Dude, I've given you plenty fucking time. Time's up. Give me the money."
"I-I can't..."
Roover sighed. "That's what I thought as well." He backed out of the apartment after throwing the back of heroine at me. "Get him, boys."
Three men took his place, one holding a baseball bat, and I knew I was dangerously close to throwing up. Soon enough I did, and along came lots of blood and gore and blood-chilling screams.
I guess maybe that really was my own personal hell.
I inhaled sharply and sat up too quickly. Blood rushed to my head and I was so dizzy - I had no idea where I even were. There were some distant memories from the day before, but they could might as well just have been fragments of some crazy dream. I groaned and hid my face in my hands, rubbing my eyes until I could see colourful spots dance around on the inside of my eyelids, and when I ran my fingers through my hair I noticed my surroundings. The pale gray ways in the sick morning light, small pieces of dust floating around in the air and the lack of life itself. I couldn't be anywhere but in the small miserable apartment that I despised.
It wasn't a dream then. I'm in Hell I guess and this is what my life will look like now.
I stumbled up off the mattress, only falling once on my way to the ridiculously small bathroom. It barely contained a toilet, a sink and the tiniest shower in the world - every time I showered my arms hit the hot pipes, so I always had fucking burn marks everywhere. The whole point with the journey into the most claustrophobic room I'd ever been in was to check the damage, because as I remembered it the last night had been rough and really painful.
There was not a single scratch on me. I looked the same as always, despite the absolutely horrified look in my dark eyes, that I looked a lot paler than I used to and I seemed... hollow, somehow. Maybe the mirror showed a picture of how I used to look instead of the truth, because when I looked down at my arm it looked tanned except for those places where I had scars. There was scars after nights of insanity and self harm and needles, and one innocent one from when I was a kid and had had chicken pox.
I'm not sure I can handle this. I'm not even supposed to fucking be here. I gotta get out now.
There was no real plan in my head except escaping before I would have to re-live anything again when I got out of the apartment and slid along the icy streets of the town that suffocated me. All I knew was that I couldn't stay inside for one more second and that I needed to try to see if there was some way out. My outfit wasn't really fit for winter though, as it had been almost autumn a few days ago. I was wearing an oversized flannel shirt over a tanktop and ripped jeans to that. My Vans were soaked after a few seconds out in the snow-clad city.
It felt like I just walked and walked and walked without getting anywhere. The same Starbucks appeared on my right side every other block. There wasn't that many of those out there. Or was it? Were they really that closely placed to each other? I didn't think so. Bad fucking business plan of them then.
I walked until my feet were numb and I couldn't stop my teeth from clapping together. Even my insides felt frozen and the blood seemed thicker than usual, like as if ice cubes were trying to float down my veins.
Eventually I had to give up. I couldn't walk forever, especially when I didn't get anywhere. Once again I felt like as if I stood still I would die. Heart failure. But maybe that would be better than going back and really feel the true essence of Hell.
I'm gonna get out of here. If it is the last thing I ever do I'm gonna get the fuck out of here. I've done it before and I'll fucking do it again.
I went in to the apartment again, and only seconds later there was a knocking on the door. It took a lot to turn around and open it. This time it was the actual Devil himself, his fingers were pressed together and there was a polite smile on his face. "Hello again, Johnny. Having a nice stay here?"
"You fucking son of a bitch, I'm not supposed to be here. Let me out."
"No. Your soul is mine and I get to do whatever I want to do with it."
"My soul yeah but not my fucking body."
"Well, you should've listened closer when I told you the agreements", he said with a shrug.
"You didn't fucking say anything about me having to live in Hell!"
"Are you sure? One hundred percent?"
"Yes!"
"Oups. My bad then. But now there's nothing to do about that, really, so I guess you're going to be stuck here with me for a long, long time." He smiled, and that smile looked pure evil and sent shivers down my spine. "See you around then."
"Don't you fucking -"
"Get him, boys."
The day ended in the same way the last had done, but this time I wasn't focused on that. I was thinking about revenge, because I guessed that it was all I hadn't lost.
Well I'm so tired of the rain falling softly on the ground, just enough to get my feet wet but not enough to let me drown
Damnation
YOU WILL REMEMBER ME FOR CENTURIES
Am I the only one I know waging my wars behind my face and above my throat?

Add it to the list of things to forget

Hime hime, hime, suki suki daiiisuki hime

I know you love to resist
So let them hear our hearts
Your skeleton forgot to bring its backbone
