Her tone took on a sinister inflection as Roana darted back to the door, primal instinct kicking in to flee from the situation. She didn’t know what was wrong with Josephine, but she wasn’t going to stick around and have a discussion about it. Now wasn’t the time to try and talk sense into her. 

Roana’s fingertips touched the door before it was slammed by her friend, who now stared her down with a predatory gaze as her wavy hair hung around her in disarray. 

‘She’s fast,’ Roana kicked into survival mode and Josephine charged at her.  

Due to the close proximity of their forms, Roana couldn’t evade her in time and tripped.  As she did so, her foot hooked around Josephine’s ankle and brought the mentally unstable girl down on her. The two of them crashed to the ground and Roana could feel the pain of the curvy girl’s heavier form colliding with her own, small frame. Josephine straddled her and attempted to punch her in the face. Roana moved her head as her friend’s fist grazed her cheek. 

“Go to the great beyond!” Josephine declared and attempted to punch the struggling girl below her.

Roana moved her head again to evade another blow that slammed into the floor below her with a dull thud. Her adrenaline surged through her body and she struggled to get Josephine off of her. She didn’t know who this person was who was holding her down and accosting her, but she was no friend of hers. Friends do not try to murder each other, and in a flurry of confusion and a split-second decision she fought against her harder than before.

Josephine continued to try and punch her over and over again. Some of her hits landed, sending sharp blows of pain through the smaller girl.  It was as if Josephine was driven by some savage, animalistic desire to inflict pain on her.

“You can’t escape me! Seize the moment, Roana!” Her voice was void of sanity and she drew her fist back to punch Roana again.

The dark-haired girl managed to get her foot out from under her assailant and kicked Josephine in the stomach with a powerful strike. It took all of the energy that she could muster but at this point she was fighting for her life. At the same time Josephine’s fist came down and managed to strike her in the head.

She had left herself open.

‘I’m so stupid. Why do I not think about things before I do them?’ The blow made contact with her and suddenly, everything went numb and all she could hear was a faint ringing. It was as if her senses were all cut off simultaneously.

Terrified blue eyes looked up to see Josephine’s lips curl into a sinister smile. “I’m glad you finally realized your fate. Now I’ll show you the ultimate purgatory, a beautiful world of blood.”

Josephine’s words were blurred, as if she was being submerged underwater. Green, unstable eyes stared her down as everything around her turned black and she gave into the darkness that encompassed her.

Roana knew at this moment that she was going to die.

Cold.

It was as if she was being hugged by the ice itself. It was a type of cold that struck her to the core and sent a wave of pain through her body. From above, Roana could feel snowflakes descending upon her and kissing her skin, reinforcing the cold around her and magnifying those feelings. Her eyelids clenched before slowly fluttering open to see nothing but snowfall.

The sky was pitch black and desolate of clouds or even the very sun itself.  Somehow, despite this, she could see the snowfall with clarity as well as her surroundings.  She had been laying there a while, snow piled up around her. When she rose up, the snow flew up in a powder around her and behind her was a perfect hole that her body fit into.

Her skin was cold, nearly numb to the touch and snow embedded itself in her clothes and hair.  It was quiet and all she could hear was the blowing of the wind.  Roana glanced around her to see nothing but snowy plains and the occasional pine tree. The trees were covered with snow accumulation. It was as if wherever she was, it had been snowing for quite a while.

How long had she been out? How did she get here? Why were the skies so black? Where was Josephine? Why didn’t she kill her? Did someone stop her? If so, then why did they take her here?  Roana didn’t have her mask on, so it must have been removed. Now, she was out in the elements with only a dress, petticoat, and boots.  Turning to each side, she attempted to find her mask.

Cold hands felt around in the fine ice, dispersing it everywhere as she made an attempt to try and locate the garment, but she couldn’t find it.

Maybe whoever put her there took it.

She could faintly hear the sound of what seemed like a river and noticed that the land was carved out a few feet away from her. Water was rushing through it as the wind continued to whistle through the plains. Roana rose up; her joints ached from being exposed to the cold for a prolonged period of time. The girl walked over to the river to see if she could follow it to lead to some eventual source.

However, when she approached the riverside her eyes lit up in realization and horror. The rushing of fluid she heard that she thought was water was in fact, blood. The viscous substance washed over the rocks and left a red film behind.  Copper, salt and iron wafted in the air and the sight of it made her feel ill.

‘Where am I? Is this what Josephine meant by ‘the ultimate purgatory’? Maybe I shouldn’t have underestimated Red’s words. It appears to be more than a rumor,’ her thoughts merged and she took a few steps back from the ghastly river.

Was she in hell? Did Josephine get possessed by Gladys only to drag her down into the underworld? Roana’s stomach lurched in a fit of emotion and she fought back the bile that threatened its way up her esophagus.

‘Mother…I’m sorry for not heeding your advice. I will listen to you in the future. If I ever get out of here, that is,’ Roana turned and took off running through the snow.  Faster and faster her feet carried her past tree upon tree. The unforgiving weather beat her in the face and she squinted and put her forearm over her brows to ward it off.  She ran for what seemed like hours, only to find that nothing ever surfaced.

The land never changed in any type of way. Everything was flat and all of the sparsely scattered trees began to all look the same. It was as if she were running through an endless loop.  Still, she was determined to get out of this snowy hell.

Wherever this was, the weather had been completely off for the time of year.  Snow shouldn’t have been present at all in the midst of spring like this.  It was a fleeting thought as she began to breathe heavily, exhaling visible steam. Her feet continued to carry her and snow clumped on the hem of her dress.

It seemed endless.

Her legs gave out and sent her body crashing into the snow below. Roana laid there as it accumulated on her body.  She panted into the ground and her form shook from being overworked.  Her legs were in even more pain, amplified by the chill of the air biting into her bones.

‘This is unbelievable. I don’t see a way out of here. I just keep running, but all I see is snow and trees,’ Roana slowly pulled herself up and stumbled to her feet.  Her legs were unsteady like a newborn foal and the snow below her moved about in clouds as she tried to keep her footing.

Blue eyes glanced up and widened to find an atrocious sight before her. She covered her mouth and gasped as she took a step back. Above her was a ceiling composed of corpses in all stages of decay, suspended by what seemed like overgrown vines. They were in various, contorted positions. Fluids occasionally dripped from them but never seemed to make it to the ground.  Their eye sockets were hollowed out and blood ran down their sunken in and discolored faces.

Suddenly, the river of blood made perfect sense.

‘What the hell is this sickening place? It’s like an eternity of death and blood. These people are frozen. I don’t even want to know how they got up there.’ Roana tried to run towards a tree that she saw far off in the distance.  

She concentrated on that tree and darted off, determined to reach it but it was as if she were running in place. No matter how much she tried, the tree never got any closer despite the ground moving under her feet.  Faster and faster her feet ran, one in front of the other. Roana pushed herself to keep going, tried to run at top speed to reach her focal point, but it never grew nearer.

‘What’s this? I keep seeing the same thing, no matter which way I run,’ Roana stopped and glanced back up at the bodies that loomed above her like macabre baby mobiles. ‘It’s the exact same.’

She felt herself losing hope. Roana was trapped in this pit of despair, never to escape with no way out laying anywhere in sight.  She was frozen in time, stuck in the static of time and no matter what actions she took she wasn’t getting out any time soon.  Her heart slammed against her sternum which caused a pain in her chest. She attempted to calm her panicked breath and took off in a different direction. The constant running had taken a toll on her body. She continued to release labored breaths. Her heart rate increased as she tried to make sense of everything around her.

Her feet planted themselves in the snow and she stopped again, out of breath. Roana’s body ached too badly to carry on. She glanced up at the collection of corpses to find that they remained as static as everything else did around her. The girl was lost in an enigma. The disgusting sensation lingered in her body as the smell of rot contaminated the air.  It twisted her insides and her eyes stung. The vomiting sensation was induced as she continued to stare at the lifeless hulls suspended above her that dripped their filth onto this snowy world.

Everything grew fuzzy and she felt herself lose her footing. Roana was far too weak to keep her feet on the ground and felt weightless against the snow. Her vision was failing and she felt herself fade into unconsciousness. Just as she was on the cusp of blacking out, she could have sworn that she saw the outline of a figure that stood out against the white snow.

It was the figure of a plague doctor.