’’Yes...she did all those terrible things, even at that age...’’

Corrine stepped into the main office area, frowning slightly as she moved towards the direction of that noise.

It was coming from within her inner office as she drew closer, wondering who or what could possibly be inside.

’’I know I have nothing yet to prove it but you all have to believe me when I say that I am the victim here.’’

She hesitated from behind the door of her inner office when the noise sounded like some recording or video playing but she really wasn’t sure what it was. She thought of stepping out and calling whoever guard was on night duty to come and help her figure out what it was.

Even without knowing what that noise was about, it made her heart race and gave her this uneasy feeling and a slight warning within her to turn around.

But Corrine had never been one to back away from fear. She hated feeling helpless more than she feared danger itself.

She turned to a corner of the main office and pulled out one of the knives she had hid before in one of the flower pots for self–defense the time she confronted her new intern concerning the picture she found on the internet about Marcus Laundry.

She pulled the knife and hid it behind her back as she approached the door of her inner office once more. Curving her hands around the silver knob, she turned it gently and the door opened wide enough for her to see certain parts of her inner office.

’’She is a monster. One that shouldn’t be left roaming about the society freely.’’

Even with the little opening she created with the door, she could still see nothing from this angle. But the recording was louder, clearer than before now that she was close.

Corrine opened the door wide enough and took one tiny step in. Her hands still clenched hard around the knob of the door as her heart picked up a pounding beat.

’’Yesterday it was me and my family. Tomorrow it could be any of you watching this.’’

Corrine eased her hands away from the door knob and walked in fully to see clearly what was saying rubbish.

On her table sat a dark laptop underneath the fluorescent light of her table lamp. Its back was turned to her and it seemed to be the one producing that voice that was so unfamiliar.

The laptop wasn’t hers.

Hell, she had no idea where it came from.

Click, clack.

She paused in the middle of the room, her hands tight around her knife as she sensed another formidable presence in the room.

The reason her heart beat so restlessly against her chest.

She turned slowly as the voice coming from the laptop began to cry profusely, adding to the thrill that already existed around her.

By her right, a window was opened as the night wind blew in with a loud shrill.

Corrine couldn’t even swallow the hard lump that formed in her throat at the sight of the thin figure, staring blankly through the window.

She wasn’t as tall as she was and looked so malnourished in those dark heels that looked two sizes bigger than her. The skirt she wore didn’t fully cover the bruises and old scars around her short, thin legs. She was wearing a dark, oversized hello kitty hoodie on top of that skirt, and her hair a rich brown hair cascaded down her back in dark waves.

The shadow of the moonlight highlighted the visible part of her face.

Corrine watched as those small, pale lips quivered and moved as if mimicking the voice coming out of the laptop.

’’She is not to be trusted. Not to be pitied. Hell, she deserves to die!’’

Corrine couldn’t even move. Hell, the knife fell from her hands, tumbling down beside her with a hard, clanking sound. One powerful enough to send shivers down her spine as she stared at the girl.

’’She deserves to die...she deserves to die...she deserve to die—-ahhh!’’ The girl mumbled to herself, trembling before letting out that short, agonising scream of pain. One that paralysed all of Corrine’s five senses, freezing her still to a spot.

Then the voice from the laptop continued, grabbing Corrine’s attention this time. She moved, trembling as she did so. A lone tear trickled down the side of her face as she heard the voice take in deep breaths, crying and sobbing in-between.

’’I am Racheal Green. ’’

There was a sudden interference in the signal that went quickly followed by a gripping silence. One that couldn’t be broken by the sound of a knife against a tiled floor, the sound of a million glass breaking all at once or the sound of a terrifying bomblast.

Corrine didn’t know how badly still she was or the aching in her chest for fresh air intake as she stared morbidly at the laptop as if just realizing something she didn’t know she was capable of figuring it out all at once.

Call it buried guilt slowly crawling its way up to the light as the silence stretched longer than normal, waiting for the next life changing thing to be said.

’’The survivor of the Hong Kong incident that took place sixteen years ago.’’

Another tear slid silently down her opposite cheek.

Her heart splitting into two or rather it was pierced right in the middle as she was led slowly to her breaking point.

’’And I have come this night to tell everyone the truth about that night.’’

☆☆☆

Hell was a really cold, cold place.

Believe it or not.

It was an infinite realm that belonged to the red dragon but created by the Divine beings that ruled the universe.

It had nine realms and each realm built on top and showered with the cursed snow both day and night.

Only the elite and favoured demons stay at the top realms, being nourished consistently by the blessings of the red dragon. While the disappointing ones remain at the gutters, striving for the light and very close to the bottomless pit. The intense fiery depths of the nine realms, the center and core of Hell where mortal souls are being tortured and abused without rest.

They were the demons with the pitchforks and the very characters of many nightmares. The ones who gut out the throats of sinners and give Hell its interesting title of being a place of endless moaning and gnashing of teeth.

Horrid and disfigured demons dwelled there, living in abject poverty and misery along with the banished souls from heaven.

The highest four realms belonged to the beautiful ones. The carefree and the spoiled. The ones who barely step a foot in the mortal realm or sent on special missions to rain chaos. They were the most powerful yet only a few had seen the Great Red Dragon.