Angeli

It was the year 1953. Sebastian Jones just got his PhD in psychology. He was on his way to London for a job interview.

I was reading my favourite poem, from Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven. I always get really sucked into it, but this time something got my attention.
A woman. And not just some woman, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
She wore a simple white dress, her blonde hair was pinned up and her lips were red as blood.
I hoped she would enter my cabin, but she walked right passed it.
I heard her heels click on, but then it stopped. As if she turned around.
Then my cabin door opened and there she was. Even though it was evening outside, it still looked like she was glowing.
I had never seen a women like her before, she looked so determined, so still.
“Do you mind if I take a seat?” she asked with a voice as sweet as honey.
She brought me off. I wasn’t prepared for such beauty.
“Oh, yes. Of course.”
She took the seat opposite to me.
I noticed I was staring at her, so I quickly looked down at my poems. They seemed so useless. All I want to do was look back up, to see if she was really there. As if she wasn’t a dream.
When I looked up, I saw she was staring at me. She quickly looked out the window, but changed her mind. Instead she started talking.
“How rude of me. My name is Angeli” she said, whilst holding her hand out. I shook it.
“ My name is Sebastian. Nice to meet you, Angeli. What a strange name you have. May I ask where are you from?”
She seemed startled, as if she didn’t know the answer.
A moment of silence passed.
“You don’t have to answer, if you don’t want to” I politely tried.
She nodded and smiled at me.
Out of nowhere the train stopped, in the middle of nowhere.
I took a look out the window, what just happened? There was nothing but darkness outside.
Then I looked at her. I’ve never seen someone so frightened. Her bright blue eyes pierced right trough me.
Suddenly the windows of our cabin broke, and I could hear all the other windows break as well. I let myself fall on the floor, in the hope this would be saver. But it wasn’t.
Ravens came flying in and dropped dead on the floor next to me.
One of the beaks scraped along my face, tearing it open and leaving it bleeding. And another scraped along my leg, tearing my trousers.
I put my hand on my cheek, trying to stop the bleeding. But the blood seeped right through.
A hand reached for my free hand. I looked up. Angeli was standing in the doorway. She helped me get up and took a look at my cheek.
“Ow, that’s not good. Not at all.” She said. She seemed worried.
“I’ll be fine, it’s just a scratch” I tried heroic.
“You might be a smart man, where you are from. But here you are food, and a scratch like that is very dangerous here.” She said, whilst looking around nervously.
I couldn’t breathe. What kind of world did I find myself in?
Then I heard a loud sound, as if someone broke something which wasn’t meant to be broken.
I didn’t have the time to find out where the sound came from, because Angeli started walking. I quickly followed.
Every cabin we walked passed had broken windows and dead ravens on the floor. Even the hallways were covered in ravens, and the walls were covered with black feathers. But luckily the ravens had stopped flying in.
Angeli walked so fast, and I just stumbled after her.
I took a look behind me and I realized it was a bad idea. I figured out what she was running from. There was a... What was it? It was too big to be a man, but too small to be a bear. It had large black wings and fire breathing demons on both sides. The little demons turned all the ravens into ashes and the curtains got on fire too. But they didn't seem bothered by the fire or smoke. The guy was kicking in every cabins door. He did not seem happy.
We entered the woman’s bathroom stall. Here, there were no ravens on the floor, probably because there were no windows.
Angeli locked the door. She took another look at my cheek. She sighed and started talking to herself in a weird language. I felt stupid, I couldn't understand her and I didn't know where we were. Even though I knew so much, I did not know what I needed to know.
She put a wet towel against my face.
“Keep this on it.” She looked me straight in the eye and added “If you want to live”
This wasn't helping, I felt even more frightened.
I think she could see how frightened I was, because she tried explaining some things.
“Okay, the man who is behind us? I saw you noticed him. Well... Ehm, let’s just say he is bad news. Don’t ever look him in the eye. Okay? Am I clear?”
I just nodded, even though I didn't understand her. This was too much information to process in such short notice. What was she talking about? Where were we? So many questions and no answers.
“You know what? No, you’re not clear. Please explain further, because I’m really lost.” I had to have some answers if I wanted to survive. She seemed nervous by the questions.
“I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but I’m really scared and I don’t know where I am and I...” I didn't get to finish my rattling, because her hand covered my mouth.
I could hear the man and his demons pass. There was smoke coming from underneath the door, but I didn't notice. I just stared right in her bright blue eyes and she stared right back.
When we couldn't hear them anymore, she removed her hand. She put her finger in front of her mouth, signing me to be quiet, and then she put her hand on the scratch on my cheek. I felt a weird sensation going through it and the pain ebbed away.
She nervously smiled at me and whispered: “I think you have some questions...”
That was an understatement. But I couldn't come up with one. She blew me away, her blue eyes, her blonde hair and her small hand on my cheek. I swallowed the tension away.
“Yes, actually I do. For example where are we? And who is that guy? And what kind of demons are those?” I whispered back.
She took a deep breath and I could hear her think.
“Where we are, good question. Well, I think you would call it hell. Yes, this is one of the many layers of hell... And that guy and his demons? He is after me, he is a devil? And his demons are not demons. Those are diragonu. I think you would call them dragons. They are a lot smaller here than in the other underworlds. But now we really have to go. We don’t have much time”.
I didn't want to go, but I had no choice but to follow her.
When we entered the hallway, all the ravens were gone. This seemed like a good thing to me.
“At least the ravens are gone. Now we can at least see the floor” I said happy-ish.
But she didn't seem happy at all. She just shook her head at me.
I quickly understood what she was talking about.
The walls were covered in dark shadows. And as we walked past them, they seemed to want to attack us. That wasn't even the worst thing. It was raining outside, no normal rain. No, it was raining blood and all I could hear was a girls scream.
One of the shadow monsters got a hold of my ankle. I tried to kick it off, but tripped instead.
Angeli broke one of the candleholders on the wall and held the candlelight to my ankle. The shadow monster made a weird sound and dissolved. She quickly helped me up.
“You have to watch out where you walk” she said worried. “If you want to live, we have to keep moving. You are slowing us down”. So we started running again.
Suddenly the train started shaking. She took a look outside, and dove against the wall. She pulled me aside her. What had she seen? What had scared her? This wasn't a good sign.
She just whispered: “more of them, we have to leave the vehicle”.
This seemed like a better option to me, than die on the train. That was until I saw where we were going, an endless pit of fire.
I looked in fear at Angeli.
“Just jump” she said.
“There’s no way in hell I’m jumping to my death!”
This made her smile. “Darling, we’re already in hell. So I suggest you jump. And you’re not jumping to your death. At least not if you hold on to me.”
This confused me, but I didn't have a choice because she grabbed me tightly and jumped.
I closed my eyes and felt gravity pull us down. Suddenly it stopped. I dared to open one eye and saw the fire beneath us, but it wasn't coming closer. I opened both my eyes and turned my head to see how Angeli was hanging on. What the...? She had wings?! Angel wings to be exact.
“This may offend you, but you’re a little heavier than I expected. I don’t know how long I’m able to...” she said, but she couldn't finish her sentence because something knocked us out of the sky. She let go of me and I fell. I kept on falling and falling.
Then I woke up in a bed. A nurse entered my room.
“Good morning mister Jones. How did you sleep?”
I sighed. No one ever believed me, when I told them the truth about what happened all those years ago. They thought I was crazy, so they put me in this hell hole.