Hell's Silencing: Forsaken Innocence

"I cannot believe I was ignored for the past four hundred sixty years!" Bellowed the female voice as the sword continued to vibrate.

"Please, calm down." Flora squeaked, "It won't do any good if you yell, Onikiri."

"Fine! Just let me say things on occasion, okay?!" Onikiri shouted.

Flora nodded before turning to the door where Ren broke down that gate. She had to admit, he was very handsome. But now wasn't the time to daydream. She limped out of the room, seeing no need to stand still and argue with her sword, as insane as it sounded. A long, bloody hallway greeted them, darkness obscuring what the lantern's glow failed to reach.

Looking both ways, Flora armed herself with the spear again before trudging to her left.

Untold sorrow once more rang in her mind.

The lantern began dimming again as a huge, incomprehensible darkness began lumping together in front of her.

"Maybe this was a bad idea." Onikiri chimed.

Flora nodded and turned around. She limped away as fast as she could, noticing the lantern was regaining its former glow.

The same thing happened at the other end of the hallway--in short, she had to go back to the room she found herself in. But instead of grimy tiles and wire fencing, she found herself in an entirely different room. Bodies upon bodies made the entire framework now, some were burned, some emaciated, some still dripping with fresh blood. One was bound in chains, dangling from the ceiling like some sick decoration. An umbilical cord served as a pinata rope for the demented, and the owner was very much pony-like despite having no skin to speak of.

The darkness cut Flora off from the hallway.

"Maybe this was a very bad idea." Onikiri commented.

Flora shook her head in agreement, rolling her eyes in doing so.

The creature in shackles began jerking itself, screaming in semi-feminine torment as the cord swayed to and fro. But out of all the screams one word struck Flora's ears harder than Mr. Cackles did.

"Sister...."

Flora shook her head again in disbelief. She had no siblings to speak of, unless dad went and cheated willy-nilly. But he didn't and was damn well honest, so that was crossed out of the millions of possibilities of having another sibling.

"Sister...."

"What do you want?" Flora said, her voice muffled because of the spear.

"Sister....remove...my chains...from your heart..."

Flora suddenly found herself surrounded by more monsters that emerged from the darkness. They stood on horse legs that were bent the right angles and they had spikes surrounding their right arm stump as a pendulum's blade ended the margins of the left. They had a mask on their muzzles--gas masks no less. A series of box-like ornaments concealed the beasts' special parts in such a way it was never seen unless the box was removed.

"Thank God for undergarments," Flora commented as she found more pendulum beasts.

There were four beasts in total, and each had a shackle on its wrist.

All four of them rushed in on the poor, injured mare. The largest of all was also the smartest: he used the smallest monster's arm to remove the boxes before the other three were eviscerated.

The chains of the supposed sibling, save for the one on the right wrist, clattered to the ground. It was dangling so low Flora could've reached it if her hoof wasn't twisted. Her eyes dilated when she saw a familiar thing dangling in the wind on the pendulum beast.

Flora turned the lantern off on purpose to avoid looking at what the boxes were hiding. The creature roared in pain as it tried to find the mare in the darkness. A series of awful crunching sound were heard shortly after, and it made Flora wince.

"It's safe to turn the light on now, sister..."

The mare pushed the button and the lantern returned to life. She nearly jumped out of her pelt in shock.

Staring back at her was a unicorn that bore an eerily uncanny resemblance to her. His short mane and his grey eyes were much the same, only more attuned to a male. In fact, the only two differences between them was that Flora had a bunch of luggage on her body and the supposed sibling--which looked more like a doppelganger--had the aforementioned horn. His pelt was much cleaner than Flora's crimson body.

"Sister....it's been so long...why have I gone ignored?" The stallion asked, ears flat and tears starting to twinkle in his eyes.

Flora was bewildered. She put the strings of the spear onto her body before speaking again. "I mean no offense, but I do not have a sibling."

"You were lied to, sister..." The stallion heaved, his tears becoming heavier with each passing second.

".....lied to?" Flora asked, now noticing her own voice sounded in the same sad chord as that of her doppelganger's.

The stallion nodded. "Please, sister, you have to believe me. You have to understand what I say if we get out of this mess...."

Flora's lips were trembling as though she were going to sob. All she could do was nod.

"Thank you, sister...but there must be something we could do to seal the deal." The stallion sighed.

Flora fell onto the ground with her forelegs covering her face. This was a bad dream! No, not bad, it was god-forsaken, down-right, Hell-trodden awful!

The stallion stroked a hoof through his sibling's mane as she wept.

"We have to push onwards." The stallion sighed, helping his sister up. "Now's not the time to mourn."

"Where do we go?" Flora whimpered, "Where do we hide?"

The stallion lowered his horn and tapped the mare's forehead with it. A faint pink glow surrounded it...and Flora closed her eyes.

A flash brighter than the lantern enveloped the room and in mere seconds it dissipated.

The mare opened her eyes. her body felt much better. She put her hurt hoof on the ground. No pain at all.

The darkness released its grip on the hallway.

"Follow the leader..." Called a child's voice from beyond.