• I gasped aloud as the rock struck me in the calf, and gaped in horror at the demon stood before me. His horns flared with red excitement, and his brown straggled hair lay limp against his filthy face. I struggled against the chains, begging for release against the heavy restraints. My fingers screamed in protest as they touched the scalding metal that had long since cooked the flesh around my ankles.
    "Why?" I begged, "Please, before you kill me, tell me why!"
    The demon's arm snaked out and grabbed my long blonde hair. Where it was once silky and beautiful it was now dull and blood soaked. I cried in pain as he lifted my from the ground.
    "Kill you?" he laughed, his wretched breath washing over me, "Why would I kill such a precious commodity as you?"
    I didn't understand. I was just a girl.
    I screamed in agony as I felt the burn of a branding iron on my upper thigh.
    "There," laughed the demon, "Now everyone will know you're the property of Emperor Belial."
    He released my hair and I crashed to the floor, my thin white dress, stained with red and mud, ripping even more. My body ached and I tried to rise from the dirt.
    "Mulciber."
    A voice from around the corner of the dark and dirty room sounded out.
    The demon's eyes left me for a moment and flickered over to the doorway.
    "What?" he demanded.
    "Lord Morte wanted to know when the blue-eyed girl would be ready," informed the unseen messenger.
    "She is ready immediately," replied Mulciber.
    "Then prepare her," ordered the speaker, "Lord Morte does not want to present the Emperor with a filthy, ugly girl."
    "Have no fear," replied Mulciber, "The girl may look like a pathetic and dismal mortal now, but I shall have her looking like a goddess soon enough."
    "Insolent demon," snarled the speaker, "I never fear. Not even Emperor Belial."
    Footsteps faded as the speaker left, and I looked up in fright at the demon whose name was Mulciber.
    The disgusting beast turned around and walked towards the exit.
    "Get you breath back," taunted Mulciber, "You will never be as free as you are now, savour it."
    He left the room, and somehow I knew he would return. He would wash me and dress me up and give me to the Emperor like so many other poor girls, and I would last less than a week before the Emperor killed me in his temper. That was my fate, it seemed.
    Run.
    The male voice rung loud and dominant in my head. The imperative command urged me to do just that. If not for the heavy chains that prevented me even rising to my feet.
    Pull them, they should break. Run.
    I doubted this, but in my desperation, I grabbed the chains and pulled as hard as I could.
    And so they broke with ease.
    What was happening?
    I told you to run, you stupid child.
    So grateful for the man's help, I could not muster the will to correct him on the title of 'child' and so instead I rose to my aching feet, and ran.
    Turn left... do you see the light? That is the door. Do not stop running once you're outside.
    I trusted this voice. What did I have left to lose anyway? Better to die from this misjudgement than at the hands of the tyrannical Emperor.
    I saw the light of the open door and sprinted out of it, gasping in delight at the cold air hitting my sensitive face. The ground was covered in red dirt, yet in front of me stood a great forest, on an even greater mountain. I decided to take my chances. After all, nothing could be more dangerous than staying in that room. I burst through the shrubbery and began my ascent up the mountain.
    "What now?" I rasped.
    For now... Keep running.
    So I did.

    ~ To be continued ~