Oh my God. But he wasn’t here.

I was still in shock as I surveyed where I was. Hell. It was so hot, I felt if I didn’t find a way out soon I would melt.

There was only one word to describe it as I took in my surroundings. Destruction. Every object broken and burning. Everything. was decorated with flames that seemed to burn endlessly, filling the air with ash, smoke and heat.

I shivered. My biggest fear a reality.

For a second I felt weakened and saw my hand disappear and reappear. I flexed my hand, unsure of what it meant. Was I adjusting to my new surroundings? What was going on?

“Tessa?”

The sound of my name from a soft broken voice in amongst the soft crackling of constant burning. My eyes widened. I knew that voice. Slowly, I turned to face the owner of the voice. Wanting to be anywhere but there for more than one reason now.

He was the last person I wanted to see. His face so familiar as he it had haunted me in my nightmares, again and again.

“Father?”

He moved closer but I stepped back.

His skin was dry, the muscles in his body were sunken in. I could still see my father in the skeletal form. His eyes were red and filled with sadness. My heart hardened. I couldn’t feel sympathetic toward him, all I could feel was the anger that had simmered inside me for the last seven years.

He was the reason I was stuck here now. Granted Damien had been the one to actually kill me to send me to hell but the man, or whatever he was now, in front of me was the cause of the accident.

If it hadn’t been for his selfish actions, my mom and sister would still be alive and I wouldn’t have spent the last seven years battling with a demon to survive.

I felt a moment of bleak emotion. The finality of where I stood and the repercussions. It made it difficult not to hate the father that had caused all of this more. His selfish actions had destroyed my life and caused me so much pain I still couldn’t quantify it.

“Tessa,” he murmured, moving closer. He reached out a hand to me. The affection and love in his eyes was too much to take.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No.”

He retracted his hand slowly as the realization that his actions had changed my feelings for him. In that one action he had gone from a hero to the villain. I was far too emotional to be able to list all the valid reasons why I didn’t want anything to do with him. I had never wished for a missed moment with him like I had for my mother and sister.

He had driven us off the bridge, he had planned his actions. My mother, sister and I had been oblivious until it was too late.

I didn’t even want to know why. It hadn’t mattered. There was no way for him to explain away his selfish action that day. There was no was to justify what he had done.

Maybe to others they could forgive his actions for a man tormented by his mind but to me he had murdered my mother and sister. His actions had led to so much pain, torment, and worry for me I couldn’t look at him without feeling hatred for him.

“Tessa.” There was no hope, only resignation his voice.

“Don’t say my name. You lost that right years ago.” I took a deep heated breath, feeling it burn in my lungs. “Do you know what you put me through? Do you even understand what you did….to mom...to…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence. It was too much emotion to be able to talk. The emotion lodged in my throat and I fought the urge to cry. My throat burned and my eyelids stung but I refused to cry.

I had cried too many tears over what I had lost, all those years ago.

The old feelings of betrayal washed over the new betrayal I had just experienced. It would impact my ability to trust people again. Maybe that didn’t matter anymore. I was in hell and there was no escape.

He hung his head but I refused to all myself to feel any sympathy or empathy for him. He had shown none for me, my mom or my sister.

“You’re here,” he murmured when his eyes lifted to meet mine.

“Yes. I’m here,” I expelled with annoyance. “And it’s all your fault. Do you know how long I’ve been tormented by a demon to try and drag me here?”

He remained silent. His eyes soft on me.

“I might not have been here but it’s been hell.” The irony was not lost on me.

Would it have been easier to have just given in? To have avoided the betrayal, I didn’t believe I would ever be able to get over.

Damien. My heart broke at the same time my anger resurfaced. I was torn between hating and loving him. Even now, after what he had done my heart still ached for him. He had played me so well, I hadn’t doubted him for a second. I had been such a fool.

Remembering how vulnerable I had been with him. I had trusted him, when I shouldn’t have. I was disgusted with myself, at having fallen for him so fast.

And now I was on my own, in hell for eternity with the father hated for what he had done to me.

There was a sharp scream and the sound of screeching. It was so sudden, my heart hammered in my chest as I tried to figure out where the noise had originated.

My father closed the distance between us and grabbed my hand. “We need to get out of here.”

Fear was the only reason I did t yank my hand free from his hot hold.

He limped walked quickly and I hurried beside him trying to keep the fear from taking over and immobilising me. The screech echoed again through the thick burning air and what sounded like wings flapping.

I risked one look over my shoulder to see a dark form with wings off in the distance but it was catching up to us with each passing second.

I hurried beside the man I didn’t want anything to do with, too afraid to stand on my own and hoping that he had a way to hide from the dark flying form who seemed to be after us.

Was it after me or my father? I didn’t want to stop to ask.

We rounded a large pile of junk and then my father stopped to lift something up and shoved me behind it.

While he held the large piece of metal he put his finger over his mouth at me. I was too fearful to ask question. In a panic, I followed his instruction and allowed him to place the large piece of metal over me. It lodged against around me, keeping me cocooned in the darkness as the screeching neared.

I strained to hear what was happening as the wings drew closer, eventually do close I believed the being had landed only a few feet away from where my father had hidden. What if they found me? My heart raced. I couldn’t think about it. I couldn’t contemplate the fear of what it would do to me.

“I want the girl.” The voice rasped, sending shivers down my spine. “Where is she?”

My blood ran cold.

“She is so weak. She won’t be much fun.” It was my father talking.

There were a few moments of silence.

“Are you going to entertain me?” The dark winged thing asked, almost playfully but I knew it entailed something truly horrible.

“I will do whatever you want,” my father promised with resigned tone.

My hand flattened against the metal as I wrestled between what I wanted to do and the fear that kept me from moving.

I argued that if it hadn’t been for my father’s actions I wouldn’t be in the situation. But there was another part of me that argued that when I had been given the choice to live or die, I had been the one to make the choice, not my father.

As much as I wanted him to take the blame for everything, I couldn’t.

I shoved the metal piece that had kept me hidden and it clanked against the ground as the winged demon turned to face me with an evil smile.

My father hung his head in defeat.