Dante's Inferno Chapter 1

It is a brisk, dark, starry night in deep in the woods of the rural southern United States. A squirrel sniffs the air and scurries away in the darkness as a pair of footsteps rapidly approaches. A young man runs swiftly and gracefully through the trees, as if the complete darkness has no impact on him. The young man is about 19 years of age, he is dressed in rags and on his feet are shackles with chains attached to them. As the boy runs, the shackles continue to bob up and down on his ankles, however even with blistered bare feet and abrasions from the cuffs the young man ignores the pain and perseveres, knowing that what chased him was the bigger problem.

In the distance was a group of slave owners, out to catch the runaway slave. Accompanying them were dogs, whose keen senses more than compensated for their owners' inability to see through the darkness. The young man, although very fast, was beginning to feel the effects of a sudden surge of adrenaline as well as malnourishment. He could hear the barking dogs and yelling men quickly approaching, he knew that if he was caught he was not going to get a beating, he was going to be hung publicly in order to serve as an example to any slaves that may have contemplated running away. The young man hid between a tree and a rock to recuperate for a few seconds, before finally rising back to his feet and sprinting once again.

Knowing the boy ran much faster than any of the men, the slave owners agreed to let one of the dogs loose to catch him, or hold him long enough for the others to catch up. One of the dogs was unchained and it ran at amazing speeds into the darkness and disappeared from the view of the slave owners. In no time the dog caught up to the slave and leapt aggressively at him. The slave had a spike of adrenaline and an overwhelming feeling of panic struck him. The dog bit his leg and latched on to his pants, cutting him slightly on his calf. The boy jerked his leg free. The dog jumped at him again, this time the boy pushed the dog off and punched it on the snout. The dog fell, brushed the attack off and began barking furiously. The dog suddenly charged at the slave again, the slave got bitten on his hand, he then grabbed the creature and threw it down a slope, that lead down to a grassy part of the woods. The dog fel l down deep, and it would take some time for it to climb back up, however his problems were far from over. The boy realized that the dogs' barks have alerted the rest of the mob to his direction. He could already see light from their torches in the darkness from a distance.

The slave attempted to run again, but now, with the bites he acquired from the dog and the exhaustion, the slave was completely depleted of energy; it really took a toll on him. Was this it? After his ancestors surviving several generations of slavery was this how he was going to die, at the hands of an angry mob? He began to run again, much slower and less graceful this time however. He continued to run, suddenly he stepped on uneven ground and fell onto the soil. There was no escape at this point, he was able to hear the mob's words clearly now "I think he went down that way!" he was going to die. He suddenly felt a hand pick him up; he braced himself for a beating, one that never came.

"Need a hand?" The voice said. It was a tall, pale, man with blonde hair, he had never seen him before, was he going to kill him? As the slave began to open his mouth the mysterious man threw him on his shoulders and with lightning quick speed carried the both of them on a sturdy branch high in one of the trees. Within a few seconds of them settling on the branch, the slave owners and dogs passed by the spot where he had just fallen, they looked around but confused. The dogs were not able to track them from there.

The young slave spoke to the mysterious stranger…

"Who- - who are you? You won 'nuh 'dem? You gonna kill me?"

The mysterious man replied with a smile on his face.

"If I was, you would not be alive right now, I guarantee it. Keep silent!"

The man's canine teeth elongated into fangs and he bit his thumb, cutting it open. The man then took the drop of blood on his thumb and placed it on the cuts on the slave's body; he flinched at first, but then accepted it. The man then told the slave to drink some of it, and he did. Suddenly, the cuts and scrapes healed up, his exhaustion was gone and the slave began to feel much better. He looked at the man inquisitively.

"What are you?" he asked.

The mysterious man smiled and without warning jumped down the high tree. The slave looked down at the ground from the tree with amazement and curiosity; he was able to see in the dark much better now than he ever was able to before. He observed the man interact with the slave owners. One of them began to talk to the man.

"You seen this nigger boy? He's 'bout ye high, came running fro-"

and before he could finish his sentence something happened that the slave boy has never seen anything like in his life. The mysterious man bit into the neck of the man talking with lightning speed, causing blood to gush everywhere. The other men began to yell!

"What the hell!"

As they pointed their shotguns at the stranger, he swiftly and effortlessly grabbed each of them at the barrel, snapped them in half, and threw them far, far off into the distance. He then proceeded to destroy each of the men one by one. He pulled out their organs, and ripped them in half, creating a bloodbath. The slave in the tree could not believe his eyes. The poor dogs suffered the same fate as they attempted to protect their masters, the stranger snapped their necks and threw their corpses to the ground. With a bloody grin on his face he looked up at the young man in the tree.

"Do you wanna come down now?"