...child in the gate!” he explains.

“Wait… It’s been like half a day…” she says, eyebrow raise high.

“EXACTLY!” Isaiah shouts.

“You’re serious?” Sarah asks.

“No, I’m fucking joking. Of course I’m serious! What would even be the point of a lie like that?”

Isaiah explains what’s going on to Sarah on the way out of the woods. He tells her how the boy ate the fruit of knowledge and was led to the gate for his own protection. He explain how he needs her help to track the passage the boy used to cross the gate.

Agreeing to help, they...

...out of the other still focused on the black hole. This copy is distorted. Somehow different. Subtle deformities. The eyes aren’t quite right. The nose isn’t quite right. It’s a monster. He spreads his arms out and a glowing yellow field of light divides him from Isaiah and Sarah. They stare at each other, as if communicating a telepathic message they both face the field and fire, but nothing happens.

“Can you move us through...

...what the hell is going on?” Isaiah asks.

“Seth has spoken your name…” Ref says from within Isaiah’s mind.

“THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!” his heart races. Isaiah’s palms are instantly sweaty. The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stand on end. Suspended midair, he turns to the church. Sarah visibly sees the fear crawling on the surface of Isaiah’s skin, that’s enough to send her into a panic, and to also look where he...

...You kill us? He won’t even do his own dirty work. Has his little bitch doing it?” Isaiah look away from him. “Brainwashed jackass,” he says.

“Watch your mouth fool! It is you who is brainwashed!” the priest says. “Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Abe-“

“HOV!” Isaiah yells out, interrupting the priest.

Sarah giggles quietly in her spot.

The priest takes a moment of silence before saying, “Abraham.”

“Is it now?” Isaiah asks. “Thought that name was for those following the light.”

“I suppose now is as good a time as any to exercise sin and rid the earth of evils such as yourselves,” Abraham says.

“Forgive me, Designer, for what I must do,” Sarah says.

“No need to bluff girl. Your shackles...

... continues to ask. Hopeful. But as the hours gather and all that exists is this place within the ring of fire, separate from the rest of the universe, hope withers and he goes catatonic.

Curled into the fetal position he stays in the center of the ring for hours and hours. And then a day. And then two days. And then three.

A week in this prison of emptiness, this most awful of places, Sebastian gets up. He’s still trapped. The screams are infinite. Everywhere. Everything.

And two weeks go by. Sebastian has not yet seen or heard anything but the screams and the roars and the gargling and the tortured pain.

And three weeks go by. Sebastian screams in agony. In hate. In anger for being aware of being in this place. Stuck in this hell. He’s attempted...