Love Across the Hell Gates

It was hot. It was the kind of heat that made a man sweat, the kind of heat that made his clothes stick to him like he'd been dipped in tar. He had been. He had been on this mission for two days. Two days, trudging through hell and back, with no idea where he was going or what he was doing.

Lucian's time as an urchin as a child meant he was well accustomed to getting lost in foreign districts. The only difference now was that if he didn't find his way out of these woods quick enough, he would die. Not just get lost, but die. And there would be nothing anyone could do to save him from himself.

Lucian ducked beneath a low-hanging branch and pressed on into the woods. He had walked for hours with no sign of life, only trees and more trees. They all looked the same to Lucian and it was beginning to make him restless. If he didn't find Natalia soon, he knew his patience would run out and leave him alone to suffer the consequences of being down here so long.

"Natalia," Lucian said aloud to himself, "Where are you?"

The sun continued its relentless climb towards the sky while Lucian continued walking deeper into the wood until finally - finally! - he saw something break through the otherwise endless sameness of tree after tree after tree: a clearing not unlike the one in which Lucian found himself now in the middle of. A large rock sat in the center of the clearing with little growth around it save for a few flowers poking up between stones and even fewer birdsong breaking the silence with their presence. In any other circumstance, Lucian might have called it beautiful - but here, in this place where all light seemed to die and rot along every surface it touched, he had seen far more hideous things than this clearing could ever hope to be.

He hesitated for a moment before crossing over the threshold separating him from what lay beyond his own world and into whatever dark afterlife this godforsaken place had led him to this time.

"Natalia?" He called again. His voice echoed through the trees without care or concern for how loud it got or who may hear it or how long it stayed there or how far away it travelled once it left his mouth. No answer came back; only silence answered him in return as he continued forward into the center of the clearing where all his eyes were met with was that damned rock sticking up like some sort of beacon signaling home to lost sailors at sea who see nothing but water in every direction but feel compelled by some invisible force to pull them towards land they know they'll never reach anyway despite their best efforts because they're dead already and this is just some nightmarish purgatory before their final judgment.

Lucian stopped shouting inside his head when he realized that shouting aloud wasn't working either, and that his thoughts had wandered too far off. Lucian considered helping Natalia close the Hell Gates, even though she hadn't asked him for help yet. He knew she might need assistance, and he felt determined to be the ally she needs.

In the midst of these contemplations, Lucian shook off his thoughts when footsteps began sounding off somewhere nearby. Someone was approaching him with a bag filled with an assortment of items, obscured from view by the large rock between them. Lucian's imagination played tricks on him, considering the dangers lurking just beneath each step, in above, and around every corner of this hellish forest. The sound of footsteps brought him back into focus, his whole body shivering, shaking, and utterly terrified of who or what might appear before him.