The Seven Realms of the Seven Devils

Chapter One: Portalistic Nightmare

I woke up sweating.

Sitting up on my bed, my chest rising and falling dramatically as I reach for my bottle of water just a few inches away. I look at the time on my alarm clock; 3:00am. It’s still dark outside with a shinny glow in the sky. The moon frowned down at me as the clouds swam before it, hiding its halo from the world.

I waved my hand through the air and watched as the curtains closed itself, shutting away the magical world beyond the moon. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to go back to bed, I grabbed my favorite towel and ran for the bathroom. The water was running when there was a sound outside of my bathroom door. Nobody was supposed to be here just me; Mom was on vacation with her friends in Bermuda and Dad was on a business trip in Japan. The noise must have been part of my imaginings, I tried to convince myself.

“Cut it out, Sum.” And so feeling foolish, I opened the bathroom door and peaked into the hallway. “Holly fuck!”

What used to be a hallway was now a portal. The darkest one I’ve seen yet. Rings of moonlight illuminated the rocky path towards whatever was on the other side. I didn’t hesitate, I never did. As I began to walk, it began to close in on me. What must have felt ten minutes to you, felt like ten months to me. The dark shadowed walls and its sickly sweet clawed fingers tear at my nightgown the closer I got.

At the end of the dark and whispery tunnel, a room expanded before me with men suited in armor of silver and women with ball gowns sewn of skin. Gargoyles flew above our head through a dark sky with two blood moons shinning its reddish glow upon our faces.

Something pulled at my leg, tiny clawed fingers grabbing my skin for support. When I looked down, I found myself locked in the eyes of a tiny gargoyle who grinned mischievously at me. Its skin was that of the color of pure mercury, its eyes green as the summer grass in July.

“Summer Snow,” the voice of a powerful man boomed through the room. The gargoyles ahead of my head stopped in midflight, eyes of adoration and worship fell on the faces of the men and women before me. Right there in the middle of a forest stoned room of dark brilliance sat a thrown of silver and in it sat the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. He wore a silver crown with emerald stones, the only color in the room besides the red of blood. Below the crown, blond hair as bright as the sun hung loose past his shoulders in a glow of brilliance. Ivory skin kissed with gold was dressed in silver armor. His high and chiseled sculptured cheeks were blessed with a pinkish blush and lips tainted with crimson were set in a grim line. When he spoke again, his voice had me in a strange trance I found myself unable to move. “Welcome to the realm of the Seven Devils.”

He was standing before me in a blink of an eye, a movement so sudden and out of nowhere that I found myself stumbling backwards towards the spiked ground. His hand grabbed mine and as we made contact our skin sizzled with energy. We both pulled away from each other but no longer feeling estranged. “Why am I here?”

His smile was a blessing from whatever Gods created him. I found myself entranced by his beauty. “Because you belong with me, ruling at my side.” He reached out to grab my hand, his face turning into one of my nightmares, a face that belonged to a dragon. I pulled away from him tripping on a stone as I did so. Falling back, I fell into the dark tunnel I had come from and in the blink of an eye, I was sprawled on my bathroom floor.