City of Sinners

Chapter 3

“Ugh,” I held my head.

What has happened? My head is throbbing painfully as I hold it with the left of my hand. What happened earlier? The pinching pain in my head seems to make me forget everything that has happened.

But, as far as I can remember, I was waiting for the Vultures to appear in the outskirts of the city because of the War of the Bird. That’s it; and then here I am, laying my back on something cold, rough, and hard? Was I lying on the ground? Does the War of the Birds already ended?

Ah, s**t. I failed to help the Vultures.

Now, with another grunt, I slowly stood up. Slowly, I also opened my eyes which seems to have been glued by something.

My vision is blurry. But through its blur, I can see the silhouette color of the surroundings.

Red.

Red? Seeing the color from my blurry vision, my head throbbed harder and more painful. It felt like there was something that I should remember, but I could not.

But when my eyesight has finally adjusted, I started to remember everything. With horror gleaming on my eyes, I covered my mouth to restrict the scream that was about to escape from my throat.

The redness of the surrounding … it’s not just red. It’s … the color of dancing fire and splashing thousand-fahrenheit molten rocks.

It’s the color of hell.

“Hello?” I instinctively called. Now that I am finally awake, and that I have seen my surroundings, I finally remembered what has happened earlier.

The War of Birds hasn’t ended yet. In fact, I didn’t even know if it actually started. It was because of that giant heavenly body that had fallen from the sky.

Because of the meteor that had fell to the city, collided to the ground, and exploded.

Damn it.

My body was shaking as soon as I remembered the earlier thing that had happened. There was a pearl of tears forming from my eyes as I remember where it had directly hit.

At the city hall. At where my father was found on this usual day.

No, my Dad is alive. He wasn’t … he wasn’t … damn it.

“Hello, anyone here?” I asked. I brushed the tears that had run through my cheeks.

My body was aching. It was full of wounds and the uncomfortable sensation of blazing fire was eating my skin.

“Hello, anyone?” I repeated. “I f*****g need your help.”

I was about to lose hope. There was no one answering through my calls. From that kind of explosion that I remember, all hell broke loose, but there is a very thin chance that other people will survive. Me surviving is already a miracle. But I don’t think that I would be able to survive for a longer time because my strength was flushed down. My energy was drained. my throat was dry and I f*****g need water.

As I was about to lie my body back to the ground, I saw a silhouette of a woman not far from me. She was slowly walking. She must have not seen me yet because the direction of where she will go is towards my left side.

Because of that, I unhesitatingly called her. “Hello! Someone needs help here!”

You know, I can hear my voice cracked and dry, but that doesn’t stop me from calling her. I need help. I want to survive. I still f*****g want to live.

After my call, I finally saw the woman turning towards my direction. I sighed. Finally, someone was here to help me. There was a big thorn in my chest that was relieved from being thrust.

“Over here,” I said, waving my hand. I wasn’t sure if she could see me. But with all the swelling redness of the place and all the dancing blazes of fire, she might probably see me. Because hello, I can see her. Though she’s just a clump of shadow.

She walked towards me. I waited.

However, in the middle of her walk, she suddenly stopped. I thought she was just checking on something, but when two minutes passed and she is still not moving, my chest started to pound hard.

“H-Hello?” I called her, “can you see me?”

But she wasn’t moving. f**k.

“Hello, I am here. Just walk straight ahead and you will finally see me. You only have to do a few more steps. Please, I badly need your help.”

But instead of forwarding, I have clearly seen the woman turning her back against me.

“No, wait. I am here. P-Please, don’t, don’t ... f**k! I need your help, don’t just turn your back on me!”

I have lost my patience. Sometimes, I am having these kinds of anger issues that I always want to get rid of. But I couldn’t. Whenever I felt the need to be angry, I could not control myself. Because who would not, especially to this woman? I’ve been begging for her to help me, and she seems like she could do it, but instead, she just turned her back on me, as if it was okay for her to leave me dead? How cruel could that be?

Blaze of fire suddenly erupted in my surroundings. It was circular in form. A ring of fire. I was inside of it, and the woman in my front too. Because of that, I was able to see her real body. She was wearing a white dress. But because of the fire and the earlier explosion, her white dress was burnt and filled with too much dirt.

“Hey,” I called, “I’m sorry about that, but please, I badly need your help.”

Then the woman started to move her body. At first, she twisted her arms. Sound of popping bones cracked through the extremely hot place. She then twisted her neck, as if there was something that wanted to get out of it. She bent her body: chest and tummy were facing upwards, and her head was looking at me upside down position. As if she was playing a Limbo Rock game. She maintained her body bent as she placed her hand on the ground, like a four-legged creature. She smiled at me and I almost screamed in fear as blood flowed from her mouth through her inverted face, covering her cheeks, until her forehead.

Now I could not contain my fear when the woman again moved. With a smile, with the blood that covers her face, with the bent body, she walked towards me. Slowly. Like a crab. She laughed peculiarly--her voice was thin and high, but the second came, it became low and grumbling.

“H-Help,” I muttered.

I know for a fact that my energy was down. But I pulled whatever was left to me, and crawled away from her. She was walking slowly. Until I felt I didn't have any space to move away from anymore. The circular fire that surrounds me would burn me to death.

“f**k, Help! Help me!”

The woman’s laugh started to become louder. Higher.

“Help!” I continued. “Please f*****g help me.”

Now the woman’s laugh stopped. Because of that, I gathered my courage and looked at her.

I regret it. She wasn’t smiling at me anymore, but she was still looking at me. Serious. Mouth partially parted. Her eyes were craving. Her blood from the mouth was dripping as if it was her saliva.

She was looking at me as if I was food. A delicious form of fresh and luscious human meat.

The silence was eating my calmness. My heart was raging.

Until she screamed. She crawled towards me faster than before, and her mouth suddenly became larger and filled with a hundred thorns of teeth. It was opened, and she was about to eat me whole. Damn it!

I couldn't help myself but to close my eyes. But just after a few second that passed, the woman’s scream became a shriek of cry. Curious, I opened my eyes. The first thing that I saw was the head of the woman rolling on the ground. Her body was wriggling, as if it couldn’t accept that her head was detached. Severed.

I covered my mouth. s**t, what the hell was happening. This … this is hell!

I was trying to calm my panicked breathing when I saw a pair of feet standing in my front. Beside it was a silver sword which blood was dripping down. Slowly, I lifted my gaze.

“Sitri.”

Tears gushed out of my eyes as I saw the face of a familiar man.

“Valour,” I called him.

“Are you okay?” he asked me. He sat down and looked at me straight in my face. I can see the noticeable worry on his face.

With that, I nodded. “I’m--I’m okay,” I said. “T-Thank you for saving me.”

He worriedly smiled at me, and then he hugged me. “I’m glad that you’re alive. I’ve been looking for you for a whole day already.”

“Whole day? That means I’ve been unconscious for one whole day already?”

“Probably. Let’s go”

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To the safe zone. There the gangs are camping.”

“There are others that survived?”

Valour nodded. “Most of those that were on the outskirts of the city when the falling of the meteor happened, have survived.”

“That’s… that’s good to hear.”

Valour supported me to stand. But because of the weakening of my knees, I couldn’t bear to stand for a minute or two. With that, Valour decided to carry me on his back. He let me hold the lightsword that he was carrying so that whenever we meet creatures like what I have encountered earlier, I could defend the both of us.

Still, I was confused about what was happening, but Valour said I should trust him. He will fill me in on every detail as soon as we reach the safe zone he was telling me about.

But as we were about to start moving, a sudden explosion occurred not far from us.

“What was that?” I asked through whispers. We ducked through the ground so that the after-wave of the explosion would not reach us.

“I don’t know,” Valour answered.

When we’re certain that the explosion had calmed down, we slowly rose up. Still, he was carrying me on his back. We looked towards the direction where the explosion came from.

And we saw something. I don’t know, but for me it was terrifying.

“So it’s true,” said Valour.

“True? About what?”

“What Gaston told us about. The legend.”

“Legend? What legend was that?” I asked. My curiosity was eating the cat inside my chest.

“The legend. Meteor. Game. City. The book of Inferno by Dante Alighieri. The Circles of Hell.”

Silence wafted through us. “Quick, we need to get out of here as soon as possible.”

I nodded. Silently, I watched the dancing of the fire in front. Behind those blazing fire, a giant arc was standing. There was something that was written on that arc in shades of neon-red colors;

First Circle of Hell: Limbo