Hell's Silencing: Forsaken Innocence

Flora looked though her current possessions. A Heart Key, a Golden Cross Key, a book written in Japanese, a 28-pack of batteries that was currently missing eight, a medipack, two notes, a Hellish Knife, Pyramid Head's Spear, an electric lantern, a toy horse, a Ruby Rhombus Ring, an Obsidian Ring, Ren's Charm, the radio...and who'd forget Onikiri even though she wasn't technically a possession now? Now content with her belongings, she replayed all the events that had happened so far in her mind.

Her first kill.

Tsuyu.

Mr. Cackles and Pyramid Head.

The siren and world shifting.

Ren.

Meeting her alleged sibling.

Realizing she had a horn.

More monsters annoying Tsuyu.

A chase that nearly resulted in death.

A house.

And the most recent: being kissed on the lips by another mare--this one from Hell itself.

She shook the memories away and tried the door that led into the building that was the elementary school and found it locked. But she saw something carved into the knob.

A valentine's heart.

She took out the Heart Key out and jammed it into the lock before turning it. Click.

Bingo.

She pushed the door open with a hoof and stepped inside, the cold of the ashen snow only starting to get on her nerves. The building was strangely warm inside, so Flora guessed the buildings in the town at least worked to some given extent. Damn herself for failing to notice this earlier. Trotting further down the hall, the door slammed shut behind her. The hallway was cut short by a very massive mirror.

The mare then noticed something else: just after she'd used the Claw Key to enter the storage compartment of that restaurant, she ran head-first into a mirror and that was when the world proceeded its gruesome metamorphosis. She'd also met that...Crimson Executioner--as she'd come to call it--in that world, meaning...

"Great, here we go again." Flora hissed as she touched the mirror with a hoof.

The siren began blaring again. And soon enough, the floor became dirtier and more horrid. The walls were replaced with that familiar grating. Blood and feathers began drifting down.

And then, the lantern went out for no reason whatsoever.

Then, its glow returned and so did the smells of death.

She turned around, only to find herself flying into a wall. The static started ringing again, and approaching the light was the reason why. It was about her height and it walked on all fours, but its skin was white and wrinkled. It maybe had eyes, but the wrinkles perhaps obscured them. A mouthful of serpent tongues in place of teeth opened wide just for her. Its ears were so laden with more wrinkles they drooped on the sides of its head. It didn't have a mane or tail, let alone a flank tattoo. Its wrinkle-heavy hooves looked much more like deformed suction cups, and the skin on its head and spinal column looked very tight--almost like they were weighed down by the wrinkles.

A bizarre familiarity hung in the air around this beast. Flora got up and ran away into an adjacent hall, finding the creature hot on her tail. It was as fast--perhaps faster--than she was, and her speed came only in short bursts. She wasn't built at all to run--especially since she had so much luggage on her person.

She turned into yet another hall as a second, black wrinkle monster joined the first in tailing her. The same thing happened when a third appeared. This one was a hue of brown.

And then...she butted right into the Crimson Executioner. She was trapped now.

The three wrinkle monsters crept up behind her and all three pounced her, hooves beating into her body repeatedly. She screamed in pain, psychic power failing her once more.

"What should we do to her?" Asked the white wrinkle beast, pausing his punches.

"I dunno. Any sssssssssuggessssstionssssss?" Asked the second, turning its head to the black one.

Flora's ears perked. These monsters had...talked?

"Fuck her up real good!" Called the black one as he picked the mare up and threw her across the hall. The other two ran after her as she flew headfirst into a wall with a sickening crack.

And then the pains that came with the Executioner decided to show up and make it all worse. She was already fucked, and that fact beat itself into her mind.

Until a man's voice stopped everything by merely existing in a shout. It sounded...somewhat hoarse.

Opening one eye, she saw balls of the hottest, raging fire rush at the wrinkle monsters. Once they collided, the wrinkles were pushed back quite a ways but didn't find themselves flying at all. In front of the injured mare was another figure.

"Back away from the mare." Hissed the figure, the echo of a hoof stomping onto the grimy tile making itself known to the world.

"She'sssssss oursssssss to do with assssss we pleassssse!" Shouted the white wrinkle.

"Yesssss! You do not ssssssee what pleasuressssss she'll bring to usssss!" Bellowed the brown one.

"He workssssss for the Jigoku Shoujo! Retreat! Retreat!" Called the black one. All three wrinkles turned tail and fled from the sight of Flora's savior. The Executioner decided to follow them rather than stand his ground for no reason at all.

The pains that were brought as a bonus just by seeing the Executioner had faded back into the nothingness from whence they came. The bruises and headache brought by the wrinkles, however, didn't cease at all. The static fell silent.

The savior, a brownish stallion, helped her onto her hooves. He had a white hat and looked very much like the grumpy old man in the book, complete with scrunched eyes and no discernible mane. On his head sat a horn of blackest charcoal; another straw doll of the same color on his haunches. His hooves were also blackened.

"I do suppose you ran into my mistress." Sighed the stallion in a composed manner.

Flora nodded. "And she went and kissed me on the lips too!"

The stallion's ears perked. "Say wha?"

"I feel ashamed about her kissing me..." Flora squeaked, her ears flat.

The stallion pet her head with a hoof. "She may seem cold at first, and being turned into a unicorn has ticked her off beyond Hell's own wrath. But she's quite decent as long as one doesn't get on her bad side."

"Hell hath no fury like an angry woman." Flora quoted, her mood lightened somewhat by the statement.

The stallion chuckled, a grin on his muzzle. "Name's Wanyudo. I should mention that when she kisses ya, it's supposed to mean something good will happen in the future."

"And you know this how?" Flora asked, cocking her head to the side and raising a brow.

Wanyudo shut up.

"Let's change the subject." Flora sighed, seeing what was written all over his face.

"The town's been fucking with me left and right. Can't leave these damn mirrors." Wanyudo stated in defeat.

"I can travel freely through them. I dunno why. Maybe I should help." Flora offered with a grin.

"Well, kiddo, let's just go our separate ways for now. Trust me, it's nice to chat and all, but there are bigger fish to fry." Wanyudo chimed before he bounded off into the darkness again.

Flora could not deny it. Wanyudo was right.

But just where was she to go in this school? Better yet, how was she going to help Ai and her friends make it out safely? Would it even be possible now?