Chương 12: The Temptation of Nibera: A Test of Faith and Endurance

A leap of faith? A nose dive into the unknown. Mankind's progressions into the future? Through sometimes adjudged as a clear vision by people of faith, Yet uncertain. A strong believe of what is to come/ will be, which is yet seen. Beliefs founded on nothing, to give birth to something… this is a leap of faith. Believers and none believers alike use the term "leap of faith". The credit goes to those leaps, each calculated step, risk and sometimes with rewards. All of it is to those leaps… a leap of faith… but it begs the question, if all of that is faith… Then what is hope? And can you have faith without hope? or hope … without faith?

"Wake up boy!"

"Wah- who?... Who's there"

"It's me boy, it's me. Come on, open your eyes and see for yourself"

"Old… Old man?"

"Oh, thank god your awake"

He gives a sigh of relief

"I was worried you weren't going to wake up"

"Where"

I try to sit up

"Argh!"

"Take it easy boy that hell gate did a number on us, you need to take it easy and recover first"

"But"

I take a look around with a grim expression on my face and that's because I noticed we were in cages. On top the cages had chains resting on them and one particular chain holding our cage over a foggy bottom. Around us had more cages with more people all around us. The sight of prison bars around me with no sight of a top or a bottom led me to ask

"Just where in the hell are we?"

A voice from behind me responds

"You already have the answer. Where else other than hell could we be. Ed"

"Cayafaz!? You made it"

"Off course I did and its about time you woke up. Thought you were going to be asleep forever, the old man was really worried about you"

"You know you know my name now Cayafaz, you can stop calling me old man and just call me William"

"There's no chance in hell id do that old man. Calling you old mans just to fun to give up, let Eddy call you William"

"Nah I think I'll call him mister Will instead"

He sighs in disappointment

"You just don't know how to please people do you? But thank you Edward for agreeing to call me by my name"

"It isn't a problem at all sir. but now I have to ask"

I and Mr. William turn to Cayafaz

"Why are you in chains?"

Cayafaz is barely hovering over the prison bared floor. His arms are held up by chains dangling from the top of the cage, his body bruised with whip marks, his clothes ruined and the top left side of his glasses broken.

"What happened to you?"

"Well you see Ed our friend Cayafaz decided to display his rebellious side once we crossed over"

"What's the point of trying to act nice huh?"

He shouts his next words loudly drawing attention to himself as if wanting to get into trouble

"I MEAN I'M ALREADY IN HELL!"

You want to argue and tell him he should still behave and maybe they might spare him, but if hell is anything like it was on the outside, there's a fat chance that isn't really going to help us. There's no point in trying to play nice when your already in hell. But Mr. William refused to be downed by this outcome and instead found a way to show us a bright side to things

"At least we made it pass the gate, right? That's definitely something to be happy about in all of this"

Cayafaz laughs lightly

"He's right you know. We totally showed those Harpy how badass we are. And thanks to that deal she made with her captain she can't come after us anymore which means we're home free"

"I'm just glad I didn't get eaten"

Cayafaz responds to me with

"I'm sure she would have had food poisoning, you look like you taste terrible"

"Hey!"

Mr. William looks at me, I look at him, we both look at Cayafaz and all burst into laughter. This was the kind of horse play we needed, the kind that turns a grim situation into something playful but there's always someone to ruin the fun

"Wow. You all seem pretty positive. For people who missed rapture and are now stuck in hell"

Says a lady in a hood behind us in the left corner of the cage. I turn my back to get a look at her and Cayafaz stares at her clearly pissed off.

"What?"

Cayafaz asked in an agitated tone. She takes her hood back and reveals a stunning blond-haired beauty. Her eyes crystal blue and her lips cherry blossom pink, I'm stunned by the reveal of this beauty and when she turns to look at me her gaze captures me, but Cayafaz isn't fazed. She moves closer to us but keeps a reasonable distance then says

"You're in hell, at the end of the world, with nothing left and here you guys are forming new bonds. Making friend's as if nothing's wrong"

Cayafaz responds

"And so? What's the problem?"

"My problem is I don't think you appreciate the level of seriousness in this situation, or just where you are and how bad things are. But how can you when you've been asleep for two weeks. The clown said "I wont torture anyone not conscious to appreciate it" so you've been enjoying sweet dreams while the rest of us suffered"

Cayafaz shouts at her saying

"Shut up!"

"What? Did I tell him anything wrong?"

"If I weren't chained up I would"

Mr. William stops his outbursts and tells him to calm down. In my shock I turn to Mr. William to ask him

"Is this true?"

"Don't listen to her Ed she doesn't know what she's saying! She's just bitter because"

I cut Cayafaz off and ask Mr. William one last time

"Is this true?"

Mr. William sighs and replies

"Yes. Yes, it's true"

"I see"

A harpy suddenly appears at our cage and our attention is fixed on her. To my surprise it's the Captain of the Harpy, Nibera. Her face is overjoyed for some reason and her tail feathers flap around in excitement as she shrieks with joy and holds her cheeks

"I can't believe it! It's you! You made it, you actually made it!"

"Oh, captain Nibera"

"I'm so happy to see that the hell gate didn't kill you"

"I'm pretty happy too"

"It's just too bad we won't be able to talk now your awake. There's no time because Pen wants you now, so he can start with your torture"

"Wait…What?"

"But don't worry. If you survived the hell gates you should be able to handle a little bit of torture" She says with a smile on her face. I ask again

"Wait… what?!" Cayafaz answers me saying

"It's true. The moment you wake up a Harpy is to inform the clown of your recovery so he can begin the two weeks of torture you missed out on. It sucks I know"

The girl from earlier Whispers loudly "He owes us that much if you ask me"

Cayafaz irritated and fed up with her tries to break his chains, aggressively asking her

"What did you say!"

"Cayafaz! Its fine, really. It's not fair that I've been asleep while you all suffered and there's no excuse for that. The worlds collapsed so there's no special treatment, before judgement we are all equal so I'll take equal punishment"

Nibera, impressed with my speech says. "Spoken like a true hero, the one who rallies the rest. But your smarter than that Ed"

The lock on the cage snaps and the door of the cage comes flying off the hinges and into our floating prison. Nibera slowly but gracefully flaps her wings and gently sets her feet on the floor as she approaches me so slowly. Everyone is in awe of her commanding presence, no one dares to stand in her way or even think to attack her and get out of the cage. No one even moves and with every step she takes towards me I take one backwards.

"Come on Ed you really shouldn't make a girl feel so self-conscious about herself, don't you like me?" My back hits the end of the cage, she uses her arm to trap me in a corner, I've got nowhere to go

"I'm no succubus but there has to be something about me you like? Ill give my all to you if it can convince you to stop this nonsense and just accept it, or maybe you prefer men?"

She envelops my face in her cleavage, she takes both my hands trying to struggle for space and guides them down her body, her slender waist and flat tommy all the way to her ass. She places my left hand under her left cheek and right on top of it. She whispers in my ears softly

"It's okay. You can do whatever you want to me if that's what it takes"

"I…Don't want…Urgh… Any…Argh…Any of this! Aaaaaaaaargh!"

I struggle for a bit but after a while I manage to escape her grasp and get some much-needed space between us

"I don't want any of that Miss Nibera… What did you mean when you said if you could convince me to accept it? Accept what?"

"Just call me Nibera" She sighs heavily "Edward. The things they are going to do to you here… the things he is going to do to you here, they will be wicked and will be by far the worst pain you've ever felt. There's even a chance you might not survive the torture… So, I was hoping I could convince you to take the mark and come spend your time with me. You don't have to suffer like them, you don't have to be so stubborn, just take the mark and you won't have to be tortured and you and I can have all our fun together"

"I see. Thank you for your concern Nibera, but I simply can't allow myself to take on that mark. Even if it will end the suffering physically another suffering will haunt me till the end of my days. I will pull through no matter what I'm put through and come out of it with a smile on my face, because I have someone who's waiting for me and I can't afford to disappoint"

"You really know how to disappoint a woman Ed. And here I had hopes for you, thinking you were smart. But don't worry, this isn't the end for us. You will be mine soon one way or the other I just have to wait for you and see how long it will take till you break. I wonder how long you will be able to keep that smile on your face…Ed. Your smart so I know you will come around eventually"

She says as she walks out of the cage with the same grace she used to walk in. Her wings spread at the opening reflecting her radiant colors as she's prepared to take off. She turns her head back and takes a good look at me and say's

"Oh, and Ed, just in case something or someone should give you the idea to escape from this place. Don't! Because no matter how I like you I'd have to kill you and I'd hate to do that. So, I'll let you in on a little secret"

"What's that" I said while gulping down saliva