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Casper closed her eyed, watching the visions as they came and went. It was fascinating if not horrifying. When Aku spoke the visions paused, listening to what he had to say. Casper stretched her legs out in front of her, blinking a few times.

“I guess they want to disbelieve that there’s something out there that is worse then the human mind.” Casper acknowledged. “And anything like you can be over come by that same human evil. It’s hard to say really.”

This was where Aku would thoughtfully thread his beard between a thumb and forefinger… if he wasn’t so effectively confined.

‘Hmph. I suppose human evil truly is a force to be reckoned with.’ The level of evil humans were capable of achieving was pretty impressive after all, even to a being like Aku. ‘Though I daresay the humans who call you sick would not be able to ignore ME so easily.’

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She hadn’t expected it, and it over took her faster then she could react anyway. It was cold, leaving her body to shiver, arms and legs pinned heavily down as she felt all breath escape her. Though her mouth was open, she couldn’t suck in a single breath of air.

It was like water but thicker, worse then water, heavier, pushing her down. Casper tried to move her hand up, but it was no use, realizing just how trapped she was and without air.

Casper closed her eyes despite it already being so dark.

The viscous black tar continued to move, sweeping Casper along with it and dragging her down into the depths of the pit. But just when she thought she might pass out from lack of oxygen, she was forced suddenly upward. A black spike burst from the surface of the tar pool and rose higher and higher, piercing upward into the darkness above the pool. 

Somewhere near the top of the spike, Casper was bound with arms spreadeagled in the center of a cross and held in place with tendrils of black coiled around her wrists. As she hung there on the stake, the pool of darkness below began to bubble as if someone had turned on a stove beneath it. Soon the bubbling grew louder and the air above was heating up rapidly. 

Before long, the bubbling tar was starting to glow a dull red and then orange. Flames arose on its surface and licked the base of the stake on which Casper was mounted. More and more flames followed suit as the fire began its ascent, climbing steadily higher.

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Down she went. Giving Aku a salute as she tumbled into the darkness. The echos of screams surrounded her in a cacophony of nonsense and noise, on top of her fall down she bounced off the edges of the pit here and there, taking damage.

Cuts and hard blunt force hit her as she fell. “Oof!”

A particular edge nailed her in the gut knocking the air out of her. However what she didn’t intend was for one of the ledges to be large enough to catch her, she landed with a flop and, what she was sure, was a busted wrist.

Yet here she was, in the pit of hate, reclining on a ledge surrounded by the cries of others. Yet, she lay there blinking, taking in her situation now. It was dark, and a little cold in this nook she found herself in. No other worries plagued her outside her wrist.

Sitting up, she shook her head, letting out a sigh. “Welp.”

She welcomed herself into the Pit of Hate.

And the Pit of Hate welcomed her with stifling darkness and ancient air that reeked of sulfur. All around her were the sounds of thick, bubbling liquid moving slow and unseen in the darkness. If she could see it, it would look like a vast cavern of black tar. Casper might have fallen on a stone outcropping above the stuff, but that wouldn’t last long.

Soon the tar climbed right up to where she sat, swallowing up the stone ledge of safety. Then it rolled up and over her body like an impossibly heavy blanket of viscous sludge. It moved and flowed like molten lava but it was icy cold as it covered her body.

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“Fine with me then.” she peered into the darkness. “Should I take a running start, Lord Aku? Or just fall on in with my arms out like that scene from the cinematic Titanic?” She stood on one foot with her arms out, mimicking jumping with a dive.

“Is there a bottom? How dark is it?”

“Ohhh, I don’t know,” he said. “How about you…”

                          “—FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF!”

Aku’s eyes widened with a maniacal gleam as he single-handedly swept her off the edge of the stone outcrop and into the yawning abyss. It would be a long, long drop as the darkness seemed to stretch on for miles into the earth. All the while, his crowing laughter echoed throughout. 

“HAAAAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHA!!” Foolish, weird human! 

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“Don’t know, maybe I just deserve to die.” she peered down into the depths. “ But you come up from down there a lot, I just want to see what resides in the dark.”

“I see. Then the worst punishment for you,” the demon grinned, “—is to continue living.” If it weren’t for the glint of pure malevolence in his eyes, his words might be mistaken for motivational speech bullcrap. But this was not the case, for Aku had punished mortals in the past with the curse of eternal life and he would happily do so again. 

Careful what you wish for, human. You may just receive the opposite.

“The Pit of Hate is where those who oppose me are sent to receive punishment until they have learned proper respect for Aku. They may remain there for as long as I see fit, even if it means forever.”

Still grinning—now with more teeth—Aku leaned closer to where Casper stood on the ledge overlooking the depths. “But if you are so curious about what resides in the dark, I could arrange for you to spend some time there.”

@deep-black-dreaming