The Underworld
“I’m an Amazonian,” Tatania pointed out strongly in a determined tone. “Do you know what could happen if you inject that stuff into me?” she questioning hoping that it was not the same result as was befalling the pathetic human females.
“You are just saying that,” the lead Ghost replied not answering Tatania’s question.
“What?” Tatania asked bluntly. “Why would I do that?” she pressed sharply.
“So we won’t inject you,” the lead Ghost replied sharply. “We found you in the humanoid complex. You were enjoying one of their potions. It won’t work lady, you aren’t Amazonian. Gag this wench,” it snapped angrily, not finding this deception very amusing.
The Ghost that gagged Tatania looked at the lead Ghost straight on as it fastened the device over her mouth. “Dusk, do you know what this stuff would do to an Amazonian?” it asked softly.
“Yes, it would turn her into Shadow. But, that’s not a problem. She isn’t an Amazonian,” Dusk insisted firmly.
Dusk slammed the injection devices into the collar. Tatania tried to struggle free in an attempt to get away from the liquid. But it was no good. The liquid started to penetrate her skin through the tiny spikes. The liquid was the reproductive liquid given out by the Ghosts when they mated. When entered into a human woman it would totally take control of her mind, turning her into a walking zombie by dissolving her mind. However, if it were injected into the women from other tribes, like Tatania, it would have various effects. The Ghosts had only done that once before. That time it had killed the Amazonian woman they injected. That was why they preferred the human female. They could guarantee results with them.
Tatania swung her legs trying to escape. She suddenly started to shake as the liquid did its work. It felt like her brain was going to explode. She tried to let out a piercing scream, but it was trapped behind the gag. Suddenly she stopped. Her blonde hair started to burn black. Dusk looked at the injection devices in his hands with a look of panic.
“She was an Amazonian. Let’s just hope that the stuff kills her like it did with the last one. If not, we’ve got ourselves a new leader,” he said to himself with dismay.
Tatania continued to shake. Her hair had turned completely black now. She closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them again they were completely black. Black as coal. Her face went a pale white and lost all colour. Her nails started to turn black, both on her hands and her feet. The one on her hands started to grow until they were about an inch long. Suddenly an outfit appeared on her naked body. There was a cape that fastened around her neck. It hung right down to the ground. She was wearing a short black skirt, about the same size as the leather slave wrap. Her legs were covered with black fishnet stockings. On her feet appeared black high-heeled boots with pointed silver toecaps. Her breasts were covered with something like the top of a bikini. This was black. A fishnet kind of stocking attached this bikini top to the little skirt. Heavy black make-up appeared over her eyes, which made it look like she was wearing a mask. A thick band covered her eyes then from the side of the eyes a long line went down to the middle of her cheek. Suddenly another line came from the other side of her eyes right next to the nose to form a triangle. Once it had made this triangle shape it was blacked in. This was done on both sides. Her lips were covered with black lipstick. Suddenly she stopped shaking, the liquid had finished its work. Tatania broke the wrist manacles strongly. She snapped the collar away her neck. She ate the gag that had been placed over her mouth. She slowly floated down to the floor. The Ghosts backed away as Tatania walked forward. She stood with her hands on her hips triumphantly.
“I’m Shadow. Queen and Dark Empress of the Night Ghosts. You will all obey me now,” she proclaimed at the top of her voice.
As soon as she spoke those words, the cycle began again. It had taken place for an endless number of times. Shadow only had a brief moment of sentience before Tatania returned to be transformed again. Tatania went through the living nightmare of pain, burning and soul destruction with no memory of the previous times. The nightmare remained just as fresh and just as horrifying as the first time that it happened. In that way, she would never become numb to the nightmare feelings the transformation brought with it. This occasion was different to the others. At the end of this transformation, Shadow fought back. She did not say the same phrase that she had repeated over and over again. Instead she did not say a word. She looked around the deep cavern with her cold solid black eyes. For the first time, she saw the cavern for what it truly was on this occasion. A mirage. A false reality. As she floated away from the centre of the cavern, the image reverted back to the screaming Tatania held in the chains. Shadow had managed to use her black witch powers to draw herself out of the nightmare. Tatania’s soul was left in the tortured state of being constantly transformed, but the essence or ‘soul’ of Shadow was now separated from this nightmare. A wicked grin came on to her face. This was an out of body experience with one hell of a difference. The ‘thing’ that was now out of body was the pure evil blackness that had made Shadow such a powerful being. A physical form did not bind it anymore. The cloud was free to roam. It was free to destroy. It was free to take over anything or anyone it pleased. The thing that we would call ‘character’ was still inside this cloud. It still held the wicked persona of Shadow and the cruel intentions that she had harboured inside of her constantly. The cloud held bad intentions towards one person in particular. Larna Fox. The cloud could now see the true wall of the hell room and the door to the hell corridor. This was usually well hidden to the victim being tormented for eternity inside the room. It floated to the door. It passed right through the false reality and passed through the wall of the room. It started looking for a target to take over. It basically had an idea that there was a commanding presence somewhere in the Underworld labyrinth of hell corridors, but had no idea where to start looking. It floated through the corridors quickly.
There was a ‘commanding officer’ to this complex. It was not the atypical vision of the Devil, Lucifer, as would normally be associated to an Underworld known as hell corridors. Instead this realm was overseen by the figure that represents death in certain cultures, including the artistic world. The Grim Reaper. The skeletal figure dressed in a long cloak that hides its true form in shadow prowled up and down the monitoring room. He was in complete control over the corridors and hell rooms. It was the Reaper that chose the nightmare that would chase the new arrival down. He was also responsible for the scans of the memory to make sure the worst nightmare experience was selected for the hell room. The Reaper could be challenged by anyone at anytime. If a soul challenged the Reaper then it was basically challenging the fact that it has passed over to the other side. The challenge could be different and was tailored to the individual person making it. The Reaper always managed to pick a challenge that was just out of reach to achieve. He did not want to lose souls. If the challenge were lost then the soul would be trapped in a limbo existence for eternity. To some that was a better end than being locked inside the hell room facing the nightmare. The Reaper watched its monitoring stations closely. He normally did not have to worry about the hell rooms. They could take care of themselves. Once inside, a soul never got out. His attention was concentrated on to the corridors themselves. New arrivals could be left alone for a short period of time. He was more worried about those that had survived for a lengthy period of time. A tiny ‘scoreboard’ like device gave him a read out of the time that each soul had spent in the corridors. When they reached close to the time limit then the Reaper started to concentrate all of the nightmare images and monsters on to those. He hated to lose them to the world above. He had managed to keep most of them down. His attention was suddenly drawn to the cloud now floating through his corridor. It had not registered on one of the soul monitors. It was not one of his. He tracked it back to a hell room. He suddenly realised what had happened. When the cloud had passed through the solid wall into the corridor, the Reaper knew that there was a problem. This was a problem that he had never had to deal with before. If he was right about this cloud then it was possible that it held more power inside of it than he had. That was a dangerous situation for him to be in. This cloud could very easily take control of the hell rooms and unleash all manner of nightmares up to the realm above. The Reaper watched the monitors closely as the cloud advanced through the corridors swiftly.
He sensed that the cloud almost knew where to go. The cloud was not diverted from a straight path to the monitoring station. The Reaper watched on, as it was not stopped by anything that crossed its path. All manner of nightmares had passed by the cloud, but it had simply passed right through them. Immediately after it had passed through the wall of the monitoring room, the cloud changed shape and took on the silhouette shape of a woman. The figure had all of the curves in the right places and had quite well built upper body. It did not have any features though. The cloud simply formed a black outline of a person giving the appearance like a shadow against a wall. The ‘cloud woman’ placed her hands on her hips slowly. The Reaper moved into the middle of the room calmly. He had never been one to show anxiety or nerves, but he needed to find out if his fears about this cloud were true.
“Where have you come from?” the Reaper asked in a deep booming voice that was designed to put a stone cold fear into people.
“Don’t you know?” the cloud woman said in a rather throaty yet sexy tone of voice. “Don’t you know everything that goes on in this—” the voice paused while it took a quick glance around the complex, “—hell,” it concluded lightly.
“I know that you escaped from a hell room. And that you are the spirit essence of a creature created by a race known as Night Ghosts,” the Reaper responded sharply. “However, I need to understand how you managed to do that,” he pointed out firmly.
“Creature?” the female voice said menacingly. “You should take a look in the mirror before you start calling me a creature,” she continued sharply. “I think you need to be very careful how you deal with me. It would appear that I am more powerful than you in this environment. I have passed through the walls of your prison. The laughable creatures that roam through your corridors just passed through me. If they are all that you have got to offer in resistance then I am surprise it took me so long to escape from my nightmare,” she concluded strongly.
“I could show you what power I have, but let me warn you, no one or no thing has managed to even come close to beating me,” the Reaper expressed sternly as his skeletal features disappeared back into the shadows that the hood cast over his head.
“That sounds like a challenge,” she expressed firmly. “This sounds interesting. I accept the challenge,” she finished.
Both characters disappeared from the monitoring room in the blink of an eye.
They both reappeared in a bright white room. The Reaper remained looking the same, but the cloud had now taken on Shadow’s appearance. Shadow looked down at her body with a beaming smile on her face.
“I have missed this,” she said as she stretched out her arms high above her head and felt her body and muscles straining and flexing. “You just cannot beat having a physical form to enjoy all of the wicked sensations on offer,” she added in her throaty voice.
“You had better make the most of it. You will not be in that form for long,” the Reaper warned strongly trying not to show the slight anxiety that he was feeling about facing the dangerous unknown power standing in front of him.
Shadow started to run her hands up and down her body enjoying the feelings running through her. She was almost driving herself on towards a sexual high. There was also a second objective of the small sex show that she was starting to put on. Shadow was trying to tease the Reaper into making a move as well as exploring the feelings that she had missed for so long. Despite being an evil and wicked creature right through to her core, Shadow also had a desire for the dark nature of perverted sexual responses. During her previous adventures with Larna, she had usually been involved with all manner of dark sexual fantasies included bondage and discipline and lesbian acts. Her activities had started to get dark and more perverted as she explored and pushed the limits of what her own depraved mind could come up with. Having the black magic powers to conjure up any manner of restraint or torture device meant that the only limit to her cruelty and perversion was in what her own mind could come up with. The Reaper coughed slightly as he started pacing up and down. Shadow just ignored him as she continued to stroke her hands over her body. She started playing with her breasts, pushing them up and squeezing them out through the small leather bikini top she was wearing. Her breasts were extremely ample, so there was plenty for her to play with. The Reaper was not really interested. These games were juvenile. They were certainly not distracting him from the main reason they were here.
“We both may have the whole of eternity to play out this challenge, but I would rather see this ended sooner rather than later if you do not mind,” the Reaper expressed as he stopped walking and glared at Shadow with a fierce look coming from below the hood. “Don’t you want to know what your challenge is or are you too busy playing with yourself?” he asked as he paced backward and forward in front of the black witch.
Shadow slowly stopped moving her hands over her body. She started to glare down her nose at the cloaked figure warning him that she would be ready in her own time and would not be rushed. The expression on her face was one of disgust and resentment that she had been disturbed from her self-indulgent groping. The Reaper started shaking his head.
“I have to wonder, for all of your posturing and bravado, whether you are as bad as you think you are,” he stated in a — I think you are bluffing — tone of voice. “I heard that the dangerous Shadow should not be pushed around. You haven’t shown me anything to confirm that,” the Reaper expressed. He would have had a wry smile on his face had he had the cheek muscles to display it. As it was, the skeletal features just held the same cold blankness.
Shadow moved up right into the Reaper’s face, standing toe-to-toe with the ‘figure of death’ with an angry and bitter look on her face. She resented that.
“I accepted your challenge, so do not push your luck. I have a feeling that even you would have some trouble matching my power and ability,” Shadow stated coldly. “Just tell me what I have got to do and watch as I wipe the floor with you,” she added bluntly.
“Then what?” the Reaper asked sharply. “You do realise what the reward is for beating me. It is not the fact that you return to the living world. No one can challenge death and return from the dead. Not even a powerful being like you. If you beat me then you will find yourself purified and living eternity in the world of light,” he added looking around him. “Just think, you could spend eternity in an environment like this,” he stated waving his arm around at the bright white room round them.
Shadow looked around her. It was bland. It was boring. The whiteness was starting to blind her and made her feel slightly sick.
“All of this pure, white goodness is making me feel sick,” Shadow stated with a wry grin on her face. “This is a reward? This would be a nightmare!” she added shaking her head. “I suppose I spend an eternity inside a hell room if I lose,” she finished bluntly.
“If you lose, then you will be wiped out of existence,” the Reaper expressed with a wicked laugh running through the sentence. “So, you choose,” he stated with a beaming smile. He thought that he had all of the bases covered. He could not see Shadow wanting to win and end up in this environment. That only left the option for her to lose.
Shadow did not like being pushed into a corner. Dangerous things happened when she was pushed into a corner. Shadow had never been predictable. She usually found the third option when only two were presented. She was a black witch and could use her dark powers to conjure up the third option to meet and suit her own desires and needs. She just smiled wicked at the Reaper without saying a word.
In the blink of an eye Shadow stepped forward. Shadow had been standing toe-to-toe with the Reaper. Stepping forward meant she walked straight into him. Her black mist substance surrounded the Reaper completely, engulfing him and trapping him inside the cloud. The Reaper had no escape. Within a few seconds, he disappeared. Shadow had completely absorbed him into her. Shadow had had that ability from the very beginning. The moment that she touched someone, she could suck him or her into the black mist substance that was at her core. Shadow could then use the skills of the person absorbed as if they were her own. Or, she could take on their appearance by using her shape-shifting capabilities. Shadow looked around the whiteness with a deep disgust on her face. She quickly disappeared from this room. She returned to the monitoring room. Her eyes flashed to the control monitors. Those did not really interest her anymore. While she found it slightly enjoyable to watch the suffering taking place on the screens, she had something or someone else on her mind that distracted her. Larna Fox. Larna had been the driving force for her escaping the hell room. She had been the driving force for her challenging the Reaper. Larna Fox had been the one person to stand in her way from taking over time and ruling the universe. Shadow knew that Larna would not be able to stop her now. She had all of the powers of the Grim Reaper. She could control who died and when. But, that was not enough. She used to be able to do that when she was a force in the living world. She wanted to have that living world power back. She now understood how that was possible. The Reaper’s knowledge was running through her mind like an encyclopaedia. She moved to the control panels and started to move her hands over some of the panels. The images on the monitors suddenly started to change. They went from monitoring the hell rooms, to monitoring the living world. The Reaper did not use this function. Shadow only used it to focus on one individual. Larna. She watched as Larna battled against Tony Johnston in a warehouse scene. The fight moved on into the water. Shadow watched closely. She had a gut feeling that Tony was not going to succeed. When Larna fired at the boat and Tony was sent flying into the wall of the warehouse, Shadow sighed deeply. She could stand incompetence. She glanced over her shoulder towards the entrance to the monitoring room. Without hesitating she spun around and floated to the door. She went straight out in the corridor. She wanted to pay Johnston a little visit. He was the last one to fight with Fox. He was sure to have some new information.
Johnston looked around the corridor with a pale expression on his face. He was not a big powerful man. His build could only be classed as medium. He could definitely not command an authority position without the need of weapons to back him up. In the hell corridors, he did not have that luxury. He almost soiled himself when he saw Shadow floating towards him. He had never seen such a nightmare combination of stunning woman and frightening appearance. Shadow went straight across to him. She placed her hand around his throat and drove him back into the wall. Johnston was quivering like a little baby.
“No wonder Larna managed to beat you so easily. You’re a waste of my time,” Shadow growled as she lifted Johnston off his feet by several inches.
“You know Larna Fox?” Johnston managed to splutter finding that hard to believe. “Where am I? Who are you? What is happening?” he asked so fully of questions.
Shadow just found that boring and irrelevant. “She also sent me to this place. You are dead Tony Johnston. These are the hell corridors. And, luckily for you, I found you first before your nightmare did. Now, you can be safe in the knowledge that all you know about Larna Fox will still be used against her to destroy her,” Shadow expressed in her usual deep throated voice.
“I don’t understand,” Johnston stated in confusion while trying to work out what was happening to him.
“Let me show you. Embrace the darkness,” Shadow said as she moved forward into Johnston.
Johnston was trapped inside Shadow’s black mist just like the Reaper had been. The result was exactly the same. Johnston was trapped inside the mist. Within seconds he had been absorbed into Shadow’s mist. A wicked wry smile came on to her face when Johnston’s knowledge became part of her own. She now had most of the information she needed to launch her revenge attack on Larna. Shadow quickly returned to the monitoring room. That was where she would be able to launch the attack. Once inside her attention went straight back to the monitor that has been focused on to the living world. It had been programmed to follow Larna wherever she went. Shadow moved to the chair in front of this monitor and sat down slowly. She watched the monitor like a child watching the first television programme they had ever seen. She had to wait for the right moment to strike. At that moment, she just had to watch what Larna closely, trying to pick up on the slightest chance she could.
Shadow, who had been killed by Larna in a previous adventure, uses her black magic powers to escape from the Hellroom that she was trapped inside. Again using her magic, she invades Larna’s dreams and swaps places with her soul, trapping Larna in the afterlife inside Shadow’s body.