["You have it coming."]

When Dannie opened his eyes, all he could see was pitch black.

The perennial darkness made him doubt himself. Were his eyes really opened? Or did he go blind?

He moved his limbs, and they were perfectly functional. He tried to recollect on the previous events before he ended up in this strange place. The feint image of him walking down the streets at night back to his home came to mind, but strangely, aside from his personal details and the last memory, he couldn't recall anything else. His whole life but that one moment was just...gone.

And so, feeling his feet rooted to steady ground, he could only blindly proceed forward. The moment he stepped out, the floor glowed, and a straight path towards the centre, where a flat, round surface floated. With little choice left, he advanced cautiously.

A young girl stood in the centre, her golden curls pulled into a ponytail with a blue ribbon. She turned around at his approach, and offered a Cheshire grin.

"Hello!" her mellifluous voice ran with a soft tinkling to echo her words, and already, he could feel his guard lowering subconsciously. He kneeled down to the girl's height.

"Hi," his voice sounded deeper than he remembered. "Do you know where are we?"

The girl giggled. "Do you not remember what happened, mister? You died!"

The innocence in her voice as she broke the news sent a wave of dread crashing over him so hard he almost fell over. "W-What?"

The girl merely hummed as she patted at her white lace dress. "Well, that's not surprising. Some people lose their memories after they die, and that's why I'm here. I will guide you through to unravel your loss memories." Without waiting for his reply, she grabbed his bigger palm and pulled him forward with a force not of a child. He stumbled along with no chance of protest.

As they walked, the path in front continued to stretch, and panels of screens built themselves up on both sides. They were reconstructions of his memories, and as he watched, he began to recall bit by bit. He saw his parents, friends, relatives and himself growing up. He allowed a small smile to lift the corners of his lips. It was a pretty good life.

Without realising it, the girl had already released is hand, and he was walking past the flashes of his life with wonder etched onto his face. He felt so elated, seeing he had accomplished so much in life by the age of 20, and even getting married to the woman he loved and succeeded in building his own company like his uncle.

However, the pure white lustre began to fade into a shade of red the further he roamed.

He could see feint images of himself hunched over a desk stacked with papers upon papers. Wrinkles etched into grooves on his face, and his once vibrant hues of his features were now mere traces to a man who had sunk upon himself.

Everything was slowly coming back to him. Eyes glued to the screens, he moved on to the next to ascertain the pounding fear in his heart.

His company was facing bankruptcy. He submitted himself to the synthetic escape of alcohol. His wife whom he had loved so dearly fell victim to the savage beating ensued by his intoxicated state. Just when he thought his life had collapsed, a man appeared with an offer.

Desperate to get money, he sold himself to the devil and sank into the world of the black market.

It began with animals, and when the price of the animals he killed weren't enough to satisfy his debt, impatient, he moved on to humans.

Luring young women and kids with his charm, before brutally murdering them in an empty apartment became his stones to climb to wealth.

Finally, at the very last panel, he saw himself towering over his wife's body, a butcher knife edged with crimson in his hands. He had tried to escape from the police, but fell to his death as he clambered up the building he had bought with his newfound source of income.

Appalled and with everything back in his head, he whirled around to look back at the girl, but he found his legs sinking deep into thick red liquid. Above a platform a woman stood, the blue ribbon and golden locks now ever so familiar. His wife stared down at him as she stroked a black cat in her hands.

"Aleena!" he cried, waddling to the metal platform which seemed to be rising- or was it him who was sinking? "Please, my love. I never meant for this! I was desperate-!"

Aleena tilted her head. Her face held no sign of mercy. "And to all the lives you took? What will you say?"

All around him, hands emerged from the murky waters. Now a frenzy, he began clawing at the smooth wall of the platform. "I was wrong! I never should've done that! My dear, p-please! I'm begging you!"

"You are already dead. You have it coming, there's no return for all the sins you've committed. And I'm no Aleena." the voice that spoke no longer belonged to her. Her lips curled into a cruel smile, and her soft features shifted into something sinister that he found himself paralysed in fear with one look into her glowing yellow irises. "You shall receive your eternal punishment."

At her words, the grey cat languidly lifted its head. It's eyelids peeled open, revealing eerie red. And the hands around him shot up to grab his figure. His screams escalated- he could their nails digging into his skin everywhere, as they dragged him further and further below the waters. At last, his screeches cut off as soon as he vanished underwater.

The grey cat yawned and sank back into its crossed paws, napping as it awaited its next victim.

♧[29/5/2020]♧

Not sure what i'm writing anymore but oh well let's roll with it.

Feedbacks and criticisms are appreciated.

:)