The hard soil crunches against her hands. What if she fell off and tumbled into the ocean, knowing she couldn’t swim? Knowing sharks were in the water and they would smell her fresh blood? Knowing that even the tiniest action, like a scratch, would send her to the Underworld, a pale-faced ruler.

The moon was a coated white, a familiar aura that she could see before.

Her hands almost gave out, but she was almost there.

Almost there to a fountain of possibilities where rulers and supremes and royalty were beyond real. It would seem so real that she would mistake it for a dream. She could meet the ones of her dreams. Just like every night, sneaking into the abandoned alleyway, going through a secret cave, and climbing up the steep, beige mountain that lead to freedom. Led to imagination. Led to world domain and power.

Her hands were dusty, like a commoner sweeping the floor or picking fresh flowers from a garden. They were pale like a zombie, people often mistaking her for a vampire-or worse; a snowman. She shivered, the cold seeping down her spine and filling up her body. It was always like this. Maybe not on the inside, but it wasn’t a breeze to get there.

She traveled, taking gun shots and stabs and slaps and punches. She traveled through them all. Through the gods and questioners and the poor commoners who never knew what she really was.

Almost losing strength, she gripped tighter and there she had the ability to jump up and land face first into soil. And she did. The thunderous red sky boomed as the thunder echoes brightly, like a catchy chorus in a song. Like the mic drop in a essay. Like the deep, relatable hook in a poem.

Standing up, there she was. A big, black, brick building where when you came out, you could to be the ruler. The king. The queen. The royalty. The supreme. Where everyone if your childish dreams could come true. Her horns poked out in agony, her fangs burning her jawline. A tail and long wings finally bursting out the bottom of her back, she sighed in relief and walked off. For there she was. Her home. Her dreamland. Her everything she imagined since she was a hurting child.

The place where you could never turn back.

Hell.