"Tyed" Up In Harper's Tales
A young girl in the back of the crowd glances around the Third Circle of Hell, not half interested in The Guide's explanation of their surroundings, though her ears perk up a bit when he mentions a club. Someone standing beside her begins to cough and hack in the girl's direction, not bothering to cover his or her diseased mouth. The girl turns sharply to scold the sickly individual, only to come face to face with a large, burly man's blood-shot eyes. She turns away quickly in fear and surprise, and her jaw drops as a tattered mess of a car screeches to a stop in front of the crowd, the engine giving an unpromising Boom! just before smoke begins billowing from under the hood of the ragged automobile. The girl mutters, "There is NO way I'm riding in that thing, this guide guy is ludicrous.." She rolls her eyes as The Guide insists that everyone will fit comfortably in the newly arrived limo and starts to pile people into it. Considering this her long-awaited chance to escape the gruesome tour, she pushes past the coughing man and scampers off into the nearby shadows. With her hand over her mouth to muffle her proud, plentiful giggles, she watches the members of the audience climb one by one into the limo, The Guide standing by the car door and pointing out each of their seats. After the last person has found a seat in the vehicle, The Guide turns his gaze directly toward the shadows that hide the girl, staring directly into her eyes. The girl holds her breath in horror, staring back and praying that she hasn't been caught. With a barely readable smirk, The Guide climbs into the car, saying "There now, sprouts. Off we go," never taking his eyes off her hiding place until he shuts the door. She sighs in relief as the limo groans into motion, driving off at increasing speed in the opposite direction. Wiping the nervous sweat from her brow, the girl attempts to lean back against the cool stone wall, only to find that she stumbles straight through it, landing on her back in the middle of an entirely different chamber. She scrambles to her feet after regaining her senses, and looks frantically about the new area. In front and behind her she sees endless darkness, a darkness deeper than any she's ever experienced, a darkness deep enough to make her swear then and there that she would never venture into it. To each of her sides she finds deep, steamy pits of jade green flames. She hears daunting, demonic cackles echoing from the pits, followed by horrifying screams of terror that speak of unbearable, torturous pain. Overcome with fear, she runs to the center of the room, not quite crazy about either of her options and wishing that she had never run off. At least The Guide knew where he was going and how to avoid danger in such a place. That had to be better than the position she had herself in now. She pauses during her nervous breakdown to notice a small, catlike creature with large, innocent, almost cartoonish eyes and dark and light green striped fur covering its entire body. She reaches out to touch the creature, cooing softly to it, "Aw, little kitty, are you lost, too?" Just before her hands touch its soft fur, the thing narrows its once sweet eyes into a threatening, demonic expression; opens its mouth wide to reveal an impressive set of long, gleaming green fangs; and lunges at her hand, snapping shut on the sleeve of her sweater and ripping the entire thing off, slurping it into its mouth like spaghetti and gulping it down. After burping with pleasure, the catlike creature takes one look at the girl's t-shirt and goes for it with a snarl. She grabs a nearby rock and holds it in front of her as a shield, only to watch the cat crunch down on it, sending tiny pebbles and dust everywhere after shattering it with those horribly powerful teeth. As she begins to back away from the cat, she feels something pulling at her jeans and looks down at her right foot, finding a second cat trying to eat her nearly new Abercrombie Super Low Rise Semi-Flare jeans. "Oh no you don't!" she cries, giving the new cat a kick and sending it into the nearby pit, hissing and yelping as the glowing green lava envelopes it. Smiling with accomplishment, the girl starts to back away from the first cat, but hears a sudden shuffling behind her. She turns around slowly, hesitantly, her breath catching in her throat when she sees an endless flock of the clothes-consuming critters glaring at her and bearing their teeth in anger. "S-s-s-sorry...?" she stammers, turning and running like mad in the opposite direction... into that sea of darkness. The seconds pass as hours in her mind as she bounds away from her foes, so she can't tell how long she flees before she feels a horrible impact against her side and falls sprawled out awkwardly on the floor of Hell. She comes to her senses slowly, hearing a car door open and a familiar voice assure, "Worry not, everyone, I'm sure it's just a minor malfunction we have out here.." The Guide grasps her upper arms and heaves her to her feet, saying with a chuckle, "I knew we'd be running into you somewhere in these parts... I just didn't guess we'd actually run into you." He laughs amusedly, dusting her off and leading her to the car door. "B-but.. But wait!" she tries to explain, "The cats-.. They-.. They ate my sweater and-.." The Guide smirks, guiding her into the limo, "Riiiight.... Here you are, watch your head. Now don't go running off like that again or I may have to take some drastic measures.." He mutters to himself with a sly grin, "..More drastic than sending my little kitty cats after you and hitting you with the car..." The girl, after sitting in her given place in the car, which happens to be right on top of an extremely uncomfortable belt buckle, feels the limo start to move in a surprisingly smooth manner given its outward appearance. Hearing a disgusting hack and feeling something grossly wet spray against her arm, the girl glances to her left, finding her old coughing friend right next to her, staring blankly at her with those droopy, blood-shot eyes. Rolling her eyes and looking down at her feet as she tries to edge away from the disgusting, sick old hobo she mutters aggitatedly, "Great.. juuuust great..."