Share the Pain

Everything was ready for the ritual. A bizarre flame illuminated the otherwise cold, dark space with an eerie cobalt glow. Runes of meaning unknown to me were scrawled neatly in a complete circle around the hearth.

I placed the stag’s skull into the center of the frigid, blue blaze; the eyes smouldered to life with sinister radiance almost immediately, while recesses of the antlers darkened with ominous blight. No amount of preparation could keep the shiver from my spine as doubt and fear inevitably crept into my conscience; my self-loathing made it easy to ignore my instincts and I pushed ever onward.

I began to cite the unholy incantation, adding the few remaining ingredients as I went.

“Exsurge, daemon, excita. ego te voco, ut iussa facias mea. vicissim offero animam meam pro solutione. Exsurge, Xurzonath, ambula terram et perdes.”

The glyphs surrounding the fire lit with phosphorescence, a brief forewarning of arcane conditions successfully met.

The fiery skull rose, shadows forming into shape beneath it giving the summoned nightmare true form. I considered that my eyes were betraying me, that this was not real, but the uneasiness I felt as I gazed upon the forbidden visitor proved the contrary was true.

Towering, yet slender, a good portion of the fiend’s body was that of an incorporeal shade; unrecognizable due to mortal comprehension or lack of light, I did not know which. Apart from the fiery deer cranium that made up its head and humanoid-like physique, the only perceptible feature it possessed were bladed fingers extending from a wicked gauntlet. 

It had no mouth with which to speak and it communicated in a language I had never before learned, but I could hear its words and understand them all the same. 

Be it the foolishness or the hubris of mortals that betray them into summoning the likes of me, I may never know. But I thank you for freeing me, regardless the reason.

I stood staring at the incarnation of evil in bewilderment. Was I supposed to talk aloud, as was typical of humans such as myself? Did it communicate exclusively via telepathy, the way I had just understood its communication? What would I even say? However prepared you think you may be for such an extreme event, nothing comprehendible to the human experience could properly equip a mortal for the very notion of such abstruse and vile an incident.

Diabolical laughter consumed me and the cacophony only worsened as my hesitation persisted. 

I haven’t been summoned to this plane of existence in over three centuries, in fact my appearances have grown less and less frequent over time. I estimate this variety of ritual has become ever more esoteric over the years. You must have searched with great devotion over a prolonged period to discover such hidden secrets. Surely your motivation lies beyond merely gawking at me. What do you desire, mortal?

The voice, laden with dread and despair, had emphasized the word mortal in a frightening tone. I cleared my throat in an attempt to get words out without my voice cracking in humiliating fashion, such was my state of anxiety that I lacked all confidence in my vocal projection, amongst other things.

“I seek revenge that I cannot attain myself,” came the strongest reply I could muster.

Ah, yes. I had forgotten the willingness of humans to sacrifice everything for some semblance of temporal justice. You wish for someone’s death then? And what are you willing to pay?

“I do wish for this person’s death, but only with assurances that the individual will experience unparalleled pain and agony. In return, I will pay whatever price you name.”

Menacing laughter erupted once more.

Oh, I think that can be arranged. In fact, unparalleled pain and agony happen to be my specialty. But then, you already knew that little detail, did you not?

“I did,” I confessed.

Then you really must be a glutton for punishment by agreeing to any payment I see fit. Very well, I accept your terms. Unparalleled pain and agony for the being of your choosing in exchange for whatever I want that is within your power to grant. To show your consent, touch my hand.

Its manus rose upward and was offered to me in sacreligious ceremony; I took it in my own with some reluctance, realizing this would have been my final opportunity to turn back. The first touch brought instant regret as this entity was bound by despair itself. The only feeling relatable to a human’s sense of touch was that of chill; a cold hopelessness that expressed far more than the sensations offered by ice or snow. Accompanying this was a notion of my very essence draining away. As it slipped further and further from me, so too did my reality as I knew it. After a time, my former existence ceased and became a blur in my dead memories. Unfortunately, this meant my new plane of subsistence, if it could even be called that, materialized.

The first thing I noticed was the unbearable heat. The air was so hot that it singed hair across my entire body. I tried to take a deep breath, but choked down very little of the blistering oxygen as it scorched my mouth and throat. My eyes wanted to squint, but were held open by some torture device. My eyelids begged to shut, but were forced to stay open as my eyeballs roasted in their sockets.  I was propped up and strapped to some sort of iniquitous operating table, surrounded by instruments of pain. Across from me were more victims of this hellish cruelty, though they looked far more the subjects of torment than I felt at that moment. Most of them barely looked human. Their hair was completely gone, burned away by mere exposure to this atmosphere. Their skin was heavily scarred with burn, laceration and God knows what else. Their only movements were futile writhing to the incessant brutality inflicted upon them.

On the air, in addition to the scent of brimstone, were the endless cries of torture and punishment singing like a choir of demented cherubs. These destitute souls filled an endless void with only the fiery, volcanic skies providing a wretched backdrop for the abyssal realm.

The fiend I’d summoned that fateful day was present, an overseer of the agony taking place. He had not the appearance as I’d seen him use in the mortal plane, but his identity was somehow unmistakable. It was currently working over the being to my left. It met my gaze, it’s infernal eyes oozing evil, and smiled in a manner uncharacteristic of anything I’d yet seen here.

I stretched my peripheral vision to its very limit to see its current sufferer. It was the man I sought revenge on in what I’d known as my previous life. I couldn’t even remember his name now or what he’d done to wrong me. Still, a grin crept over my face and as I brought my eyes back front, the demon winked at me. For the remainder of eternity, it would be the last smile I would ever brandish.