Chapter 1: She desires to shut it completely until faces the darkness himself.

The Fall.

Nancy's tears caught the city lights as she perched on the edge of the skyscraper, forty stories of emptiness beneath her dangling feet. The wind tugged at her hair, almost urging her forward.

"Perfect," she whispered, voice barely audible above the distant street noise. "No second chances from this height."

Her eyes closed, fingers loosening their grip on the concrete ledge. One moment of courage—or despair—was all it would take. The world had become too heavy, too cruel to bear any longer.

She leaned forward.

And fell.

*The impact never came.*

Instead, heat. Oppressive, suffocating heat that forced her eyes open. Gone was the city skyline, replaced by towering columns of obsidian rock and rivers of molten fire that cast an eerie crimson glow across a vast cavernous expanse.

Before her stood a throne fashioned from what appeared to be blackened bones, upon which sat a figure both beautiful and terrible. Not the cartoonish devil of human imagination, but something far more elegant and infinitely more terrifying. His skin was like polished onyx, eyes burning with the wisdom of eons.

"The jumper arrives," the Devil King's voice reverberated through the chamber, simultaneously a whisper and a roar. "How... predictable."

Around him, twisted creatures scurried about—some humanoid, others defying description—all pausing to observe the newcomer.

"Prepare a chamber for our guest," he commanded his minions, never taking his burning gaze from Nancy. "She believed she was escaping her torment." A smile curved his perfect lips. "How charmingly naive."

The Devil King rose from his throne with fluid grace, each step toward Nancy echoing through the vast chamber. His minions scattered like roaches from light, pressing themselves against the walls, eyes downcast in deference.

"Weak," he pronounced, the word cutting through her like a blade. "So very weak."

Nancy tried to back away but found herself rooted in place, unable to flee his approaching presence.

"Did you think it would be so easy?" The Devil King circled her, his height imposing as he towered over her trembling form. "That you could simply... opt out?"

He extended a hand—elegant fingers with nails like polished obsidian—and touched her cheek. The contact sent visions flooding through her mind: a broken body on pavement, surrounded by flashing lights. Paramedics working frantically. Blood pooling.

"You're not dead, Nancy." His voice softened to something almost like compassion, which somehow made it more terrifying. "Not yet."

She gasped, the realization hitting her harder than the pavement had. "I'm—"

"Suspended between worlds," he finished for her. "Your mortal form clings stubbornly to life, even now."

With a casual gesture, he conjured an image in the air between them—a hospital room where doctors hovered over a barely recognizable figure.

That's it for today...

This is my first time writing a story. I would be glad if you would support me.

Hope you would love the story. We will continue in the next chapter.

Till that, Bye. ☺️

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