Guide: How to survive hell

Keaton smiled at her words but he didn’t know if she would keep that promise. If she got out of here he would be happy for her, just having known her for such a small time. ”It’s fine, I don’t want to be the one keeping you here,” he said with a faint smile. Holding her hand was nice too. Something in him craved just to be close to her, but hell had made him wish for more than pain. Maybe she was simply just giving him a little light so that he could suffer more when she had left. It would be alright, he told himself, she would be with her friends and he would stay here like everything was back to normal. Samaira seemed a bit more spiteful than usual, so he was keeping his distance. Whatever her father had put him through, he knew that Samaira could do maybe ten times worse. At the mention of him joining the game he let go of Melania’s hand and held them up in front of him. ”I’m not that deranged, Sam,” he said, clearly not wanting to join whatever twisted game she had.

”Just because I don’t show worry, it doesn’t mean that I don’t worry – don’t confuse focus for neglect,” he said in a sharp yet calm tone. He wasn’t going to let her get to him, that would be what she wanted. Reginald joined Mariella as they left the room, looking back over his shoulders to give a glace at Melania. He still loved her, but it wasn’t the same love as he felt towards Mariella. She was like family at this point, and loosing her would take a hit on him, greater than he would like to admit. Keaton joined them in silence. As the siblings got out Mariella chose to go first and Reginald couldn’t hold back a smile. ”I’m counting on you,” he said looking at her. How he longed to keep her close, but that would take away his energy for the trials. When he himself was ready he stepped forward and let himself be put into his own mind.

Darkness at first, then a short flash of light. Reginald opened his eyes and got to his feet, looking around as the scenerie was blurry. He stumbled a bit forward before he stumbled into Anastasia. ”Ana,” he breathed out and put his hands around her. ”You left me,” her cold voice rang and he let go of her, stepping back to get a good look at his sister. ”What?” he said and looked around as they all seemed to appear. ”I was just a kid!” Sophie yelled at him, not stepping close to him. Reginald looked around confused as he walked over to Jamie. ”Jams? What’s going on?” he asked and Jamie pushed him back, showing his vampyric side as a warning. ”Couldn’t you just fucking disappear?” he heard Jamie’s voice yell. Reginald looked to his best friend Lion, standing next to Theo. ”Come on guys, this isn’t funny,” he said a bit in fear. ”You forgave her for shooting me! What kind of friend does that!” Theo yelled in anger. Reginald stumbled backwards as more of his friends kept yelling at him. ”You’ll never be good enough for my sister,” Lion yelled full of anger in his face.

”I’m disappointed, Reg, you didn’t go after me – didn’t even try,” Jasmine said stepping forward, Vanya next to her. ”We were like siblings, but you never once asked me how I was holding up,” Vanya snared showing her fangs. ”To think we are related is vomit inducing,” Jake said, appearing next to Vanya. ”Hey, come on now, I have always tried doing my best to get to you all,” he begged. ”Ha! Biggest lie of the century,” Valeria said crossing her arms. ”You’re a fucking douche,” Lucia chimed in. It was like the room was spinning, as he tried to focus. So many people were yelling at him, and he could barely make out half of it. ”You told me you loved me and hated lies, but clearly that love was a lie,” Melania said in a harsh tone walking closer threathening. Amaryllis stood forward with Karmena by her side. ”Look at the mess we’re in because of you,” the trybrid said. Karmena nodded. ”You can’t protect anyone even if you tried,” she said harshly.

Reginald tried running now, he needed to get away. He couldn’t stand this. All of his friends and family just turning on him. Blaming him for the things he knew he had failed at. He ran into the tall demon Baal who just looked to the vampire with a blank expression. ”I can keep Anastasia safer than you ever could,” he said coldly. Reginald turned around and saw Tiana and walked to her, kneeling down to look her in the eye. ”Please, Tia, not you too,” he begged. ”You killed my sister!” she yelled in anger, tears running down her cheeks. Eilish stood next to Tiana, placing a hand on the witch’s shoulder. ”And my best friend,” she said in a harsh and cold tone, fire burning behind her eyes. He got up from his knees and that’s when he saw her. His light and future. He ran to, embraced her and held her close, breathing in her scent. ”Ella,” he whispered, feeling his voice break. He pulled away and looked her in the eyes with a hopeful smile. ”I never loved you,” she said in a monotone voice. Reginald froze like everything in his world didn’t make sense anymore. Tears started falling as he clenched his fists. ”You’re lying,” he said. He turned to the others. He now saw the truth, the truth that these were not his friends. ”You’re all lying to me!” he yelled and with that everything disappeared.
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Keaton wasn’t saying he wasn’t strong, but he had seen more than enough of people who had failed the trials. He was clearly not motivated enough to join them in their games, and stood back as the three constestants went one by one to their first trial. He watched the screen, sitting down on the desk under the screens and looking at Samaira shortly. Her comment didn’t bother him much, and he just grinned at her. ”Do you think she and I are already a couple? How sweet and romantic of you,” he said a bit of sarcasm in his voice. He turned his head around to look at the three, pratical kids, playing this game. He liked seeing that siren go off of script, it showed a lot of power, and that earned serious respect in a rascal heart like Keaton’s. ”Besides, don’t you think you would miss me too much if I actually got through those games of yours?” he said in teasing, sending Samaira a small faint smile. He was not affected in hell like most people were, which had frustrated the spirits around him immensely.

The darkness around him shifted once more and he now saw Anastasia once more. However her scream echoed his head as her sister was in pain. He couldn’t do anything in this moment but freeze up and look at his sister screaming and squirming to get away from whatever was torturing her. ”Anastasia!” Reginald yelled as he hammered against the glass. Seeing her dried tears of blood on her face and her body mawled beyond recognizion. He looked around, trying to find a way to get to her. She needed to be safe. He could not allow anything else. However many times he screamed, he couldn’t reach her and he felt so powerless. He had tried everything at this point; smashing the glass window, trying to get to her; yelling and screaming, just so she could hear him. His body shook as he watched his sister getting torn apart infront of him. ”Please, Ana, listen to me; it’s going to be alright,” he begged and closed his eyes, reaching his hands out and leaning against the glass. He tried catching her gaze and when he thought he had it he smiled to her. ”I love you 3000, right? I love you 3000!” he yelled and suddenly the glass disappeared. His first instinct was to run to his sister and hold her close. Looking into her eyes he realized something. She wasn’t his sister, because his sister had a beating heart now. This one had none. He let go of the pretend sister and got to his feet as the surroundings again went dark.

Keaton sighed as he watched the screen. How Samaira found this entertainment, he would never understand. In stead he walked over to the siren sitting not far from them. ”They are doing great,” he just said, not really knowing what to say besides that. He sat down on the ground next to Melania and looked at the angel for a bit, removing a few strands of hair from her face. ”I couldn’t do what you guys are doing, that’s just the truth of it,” he said with a faint smile as he looked up at Mariella, a small grin appearing as he did. Then his gaze turned to Samaira once more. ”You mad, Sam?” he said with a cocky grin.

As the scenerie changed, Reginald let out a sigh of relief. How many trials were there? He wondered as a new scenerie appeared around him. His dark eyes darted around the place, but he was more careful this time. He breathed out as he recognized the place for once. His home back in his own time. He walked through the halls, looking at the paintings as he got to his father’s room. Out of habit he knocked. ”Dad?” he yelled as he opened the door. The room looked fine until he stepped into it. He saw Mariella and moved towards her slowly. ”You don’t have to do it Reg,” her voice pleaded. He shook his head, knowing what it meant. He couldn’t. ”No,” he said with a shivering lip. He moved to her, putting his arms around Mariella, even though it wasn’t her. ”I can’t hurt you, please,” he begged. Mariella stood still, calm and waiting. ”Then don’t – stay with me here forever,” she whispered, stroking his head. He closed his eyes, feeling the closeness of this Mariella. It was tempting, oh so tempting to just stay here. He moved his embrace from her and grabbed the siren’s chin, pulling her face up so he could look her in the face. ”I wish I could stay, I really wish – but there’s this amazing girl out there waiting for me,” he whispered with sad eyes. ”You are leaving me?” Mariella pleaded, tears streaming down her face. ”I need to break up with the fake you to be with the real you; the real you is so much better than what my own mind can imagine,” he said with a pained expression. This was pure torture. Mariella cried and Reginald felt himself walking away from her. ”REGGIE STAY!” Mariella pleaded, screaming and crying. Reginald felt his body shake, and he wanted to run straight back to her, but he kept walking away from her into the nothingness. Then the room got dark once more and he felt himself slowly waking up in his body.

Keaton smiled at Samaira and winked at her. ”You know I love it when you talk dirty to me,” he said with a teasing grin. She might fool others, but he could see through that facade. Maybe she hadn’t noticed how far under her skin he had gotten, but he would never disclose anything to others about that. He liked Samaira, even though she was meant to be the one tormenting his soul for eternity. It was a friendship-ish. ”I’m not saying it’s a weakness to recognize my limitations, would you?” he asked Mariella. He fell silent as he watched the screen of Reginald and Melania. He believed in them somehow, but he wasn’t going to show obvious cheering. ”Never liked that british stuff, I’ll have some coffee though,” he said with a sly grin, and then looked to Melania on the ground. He could hear the vampire behind him waking up and he moved away, sitting closer to Samaira.

He must have been sleep walking or something, not sure if he made it to where he wanted or not. It felt like he finally came to his senses when he was already walking in the direction of his sister. His body wasnt burning and the mark felt completely normal. He exhaled and put a hand shortly to his chest as he made a shortly pained expression at the memory of the pain. He got to where Samaira was having her games and it seemed like most of his joy had been drained out of him, but he wasnt empty, he looked awfully the same, just somewhat different. He looked at the tea pot and grabbed a cup as he poured himself some tea. He looked at Sam and took a sip, "Whenever you are done with your games, I'd like to take them back to the real world, if you dont mind," he then said as he blew away from steam from the tea. He didnt even really like tea, but he could never refuse a cup from his sister. He didnt look at either Reginald or Melania, only his sister. He barely noticed that Mariella was already out of the picture. It seemed that he had gotten here just in time for the games to end.
He moved over to a wall and started painting his portal sign, here in hell he didnt really need to use his blood, he could just draw it in the air and it would appear. He turned his eyes to his sister. "You can just let them through this, it'll take them where they need to be." he said as he finished his cup and placed a hand on Samaira's shoulder as he looked into her eyes, "I'll come visit you soon, Sam" he assured her. Normally he would have used a sweet word, but he knew that it would make her seem weaker in the others eyes, and he didnt want that. They didnt have to know that Samaira and he was on good terms, would should they? He gave her shouler a short squeeze and walked over to the portal, stopping right before he walked through it, "The tea was lovely as always. Till then, sister." he said as his eyes shortly went to Keaton to give him a nod. He turned back to the portal and stepped through it, with the words he was going to say on the other side, it would open as soon as one of the future kids walked near it.

”No coffee? Now that’s pure torture,” said Keaton with a small grin, and let the two family members bicker. He really didn’t care either way, but he kept watching the screen of Melania, looking over to her body from time to time. He swallowed, actually scared of what might happen if the poor girl didn’t snap out of it. He heard as Samaira sent Mariella back and just in time for the vampire to wake up. Maybe it was best to just stay quiet and let the queen of hell play her mind games. They were being sent home soon, however he still wondered if this meant that Melania was going to fail or win this round. The games weren’t always black and white, but rather up to interpretation.

Reginald moved his body slowly up to a sitting position as he looked around a bit disoriented. Samaira’s greeting he ignored, but he looked to her as she said Mariella had failed. He looked her in the eye, and a faint smile showed on his lips. ”You’re lying,” he said silently and breathed out. At least Mariella was safe. That was more than he could have hoped for, until it dawned on him that Melania hadn’t woken up yet. He turned his eyes to the angel, watching her as she looked so peaceful. He looked to the screen and saw his friend hurting, and that just made the whole ordeal worse. He got up to his knees and turned towards Melania. He was afraid to touch her down here, so he simply watched her. Samaira spewed an order at one of her men, and he watched as the man failed to follow her orders. Melania was getting unstable and Samaira now looked to Reginald, demanding that he would get her out. He swallowed, trying to find his voice. ”Lania?” he said carefully, getting a little closer. ”Lania, it’s Reggie – can you please hear me?” he said looking at his friend. He looked to Samaira, unsure if it was working, but he knew he had to keep on trying. ”Can you remember the night I told you I liked you?” he said with a faint smile on his lips. ”You of all people know I can’t stop loving people that get close to me like you did,” he said. ”I need my favorite angel to come back home with me,” Reginald said and carefully brushed his fingers over her hand, trying his best not to absorb any of her energy. She needed that for her battle. ”I need the ones I love to be with me always – we promised we would be there for each other,” he said in a serious tone. ”It’s about time you hold on to that promise,” he said in a begging tone.