Something Waits

'It burns here.'

That was my first lucid thought, as I gazed over the field of green before me. Bright sky, green grass, fresh air... a paradise, right?

No.

"It burns here. It hurts to breathe, I can't keep my eyes open," I said to nobody in particular. "I feel... heavy. Like it would take all my might to lift my foot and take a single step, and I don't have any might left to do so."

There were no trees here, no foliage other than grass. There was a light breeze blowing, brushing lightly against my skin and making me wince slightly in pain; I wasn't used to wind. In the distance I could see a storm brewing, no doubt bringing stronger winds and piercing rain with it.

I wasn't in my home any more. The portal I had stumbled into had closed behind me and I exited through it, leaving me standing here, lost. No longer was I surrounded by fire and debris. No longer did the peaceful screams of various lost lives pierce the air around me. Gone were the joyous sounds of explosions, wrath, and chaos. Here, there was nothing to make a sound besides myself.

Silence is loud; the lonelier you are, the louder it is, and the more it hurts your ears. I dropped to one knee, not knowing whether to scream or cover my ears.

'It hurts, it hurts...'

"WHY DOES IT HURT?!"

My scream did nothing but turn down the volume on the silence while the echo still lingered in the air. As the echo disappeared there came a rumble from the distance. A gaze towards the sky showed the storm to have moved a bit closer.

I was on both knees now, clutching my stomach in pain. I knew not where the pain came from, only that it was there and it HURT. I felt like the grass beneath me was cutting into my body; like the flowers were delivering masses upon masses of paper cuts in a desperate bid to reunite with the sun in the sky above.

Back home, I knew nothing of this sensation of pain; back home, I could not be hurt. It came with the territory: those born of the land could not be hurt by its innumerable tortures. Those foreign to the plane spent their days screaming in agony as the rest of us looked on with joyful faces.

Another breeze caught me, this one stronger than the first. I curled into a fetal position and ended up on my left side on the ground, writhing in anguish until it passed. The effort to guard against the pain took its toll upon me, and my eyes closed in exhaustion.

Dreams...

My kind don't dream.

But still, here I was, returned to my home, but feeling the same anguish as the strangers around me. As if I was too a stranger in my own home. The tortures of the land lashed out and caught me, like whips, lashing me to the ground and inflicting horror upon horror on my body. Fire burned brightly above me; instead of casting its normal healing warmth over me, its flame charred and boiled my flesh. I made to scream for help, but a mysterious aura slipped into my throat as I opened my mouth, grabbed hold of my throat from within, and started squeezing, cutting off my supply of air. I wanted to die.

My kind don't die.

Even without air, I remained alive and lucid enough to experience the barbarity of the actions against me. Others of my kind had gathered around me, pointing and jeering. One, brandishing a knife, stepped forward and grabbed a hold of one of my ears. I felt the blade against my skin briefly as he who I thought was my friend quickly sliced through my skin, severing my ear from my head. He flung the cartilage into the air, what little blood contained within splattering around, some catching me in the forehead.

I managed to open my eyes to reality once more. My forehead still felt wet. I was on my back in that accursed field, staring at the purple sky above me.

Lightning flashed above me, and I felt more wetness against my flesh. Rain... it had finally begun raining. I wondered just how long I had been asleep.

'My kind don't sleep...'

The rain continued for hours, and I remained still for the entire time. My position prevented the flowers from cutting me, and I felt no pain. The rain eliminated the silence that had permeated the field around me. I don't know yet if I fell asleep again, but I no longer dreamt.

Perhaps the being responsible for my displacement considered me punished enough, for as the rain ended, lightning struck the ground at my feet and opened another portal, the other side showing my home. What I thought was my home.

I stood at the doorway to the portal, watching lonely souls being tortured, feeling the fires of Hell once more beckoning me with their friendly grace, but I could not step forward.

'I still can't...'