Chapter 2

Jason awoke with a frigid feeling in his lungs.

As his eyes adjusted, he noticed his face was flecked with snowflakes.

It quickly became obvious he wasn't in his brother’s room.
How the hell did I get outside? He thought, rising slowly to his feet.

Despite the ebbing of his bruised cheek and his confusion, at the very least, the snowfall was peaceful.

The ringing in his head was gone.

…

Things felt okay for a moment as Jason walked through the snowy expanse, hazily trying to recall any familiarity with the area.

I don't think there's anywhere in the neighbourhood this empty. Where the hell did Yuzo drag me…?

Wait a second.

It's April.

His feeling of comfort quickly melted away.

Shit.

Jason's chest began to rise and fall rapidly, before abruptly falling into his stomach.

Before the young man could process the situation, it had gone from bad to worse. He could hear heavy footsteps coming towards him from behind.

No way.

Jason turned slowly, his heart in his stomach. A giant… pig-man?

His face quickly changed from a look of horror to confusion: it had the face of a farm pig, but that was the only thing he could see as somewhat normal.

Its muscles were all wrong; its shoulders were longer than they should be, going down to its big, grimy hands. Its arms hung loose, as if they were boneless.

Jason maintained eye contact with the creature as it approached him, dragging its deformed arms in the snow. The first thing that came to his mind was the obvious:

Run.

Jason slowly started moving back from the creature, taking care to not startle it. “Hey, man..?”

For a moment, the swine-man halted its march, stopping to tilt its head, never losing eye contact. It hadn't blinked once.

Then it screeched, slamming its fists into the ground in a horrible display of their flexibility that made Jason gag.

Guess he’s not much of a talker. Jason mumbled to himself bitterly. He had realised that running didn't seem like an option.

I'm not in the mood for whatever nonsense is going on here, so I'll end this quick.

Jason put his arms up, getting ready to square off with the creature. A deep breath heralded a sudden wave of adrenaline.

At a breakneck speed that can only be gained from years of conditioning, he lunged in with a left hook, swinging into the pig-head monster’s neck, causing it to stagger.

The punch was enough to knock the swine-man to the side, its torso bending briefly freakishly before snapping back into place.

Jason then struck the creature's skull, making a grotesque cracking sound, as if he were breaking fingers.

In nearly a blink of an eye, a final loud snap could be heard as Jason cracked the creature across its jaw. Black blood spattered the snow, and the swine-man fell limp, cratering into the ground.

Shows you for messing with a D1 athlete instead of picking off nerds.

In the same way he was taught to finish off prey when hunting, he raised his foot to stomp the creature’s neck.

As Jason’s sneaker was about to land on its throat, though, The creature looked at him through a leathery, empty socket.

For that moment, all Jason saw was a pig, like he was at a farm on a field trip.

Flinching for a moment, Jason pulled his foot away from the swine-man.

If it's smart, it won’t get back up anyway.

Jason started sprinting as quickly as he could into the woods ahead, opposite the direction the creature came from.

Before being able to take more than a few steps, though, a guttural squeal roared from behind him.

The creature, with a single swing of its arm and a guttural tear, flung its arm from its body, slamming its fist into Jason’s back with enough force to take him off his feet.

Jason hit the rocks on the ground hard, a crunching in his chest leading to blood immediately leaking from his nose and filling his mouth.

He could no longer move.

The swine-man, now towering over Jason’s paralysed body, dripping blood from its severed arm, lifted its remaining hand over its head.

For a flash, Yuzo’s face crossed Jason’s mind.

“You’re a real monster, you know that…?”

Jason growled in agony as he reached around him, fighting pain and numbness to reach for something, anything, to use as a weapon.

Found it.

The sound of stone breaking flesh and bone echoed in the air, followed by a screech. In a fraction of a moment, a rock flew through the pig’s eye and lodged in its brain cavity.

Immediately upon impact, the creature fell back dead.

Jason, as blood fell from his nose, desperately tried to choke air into his lungs.

He lay in the snow motionlessly; the white sheet below him was now coated in the red of blood as his eyes narrowed to the black sky.

Dammit, an amputated arm is a pathetic way to go out, even if this entire situation is bullshit.

At least… I’m taking that thing with me.

These were the final words in Jason’s mind as his consciousness drifted off. He started to drift off as the ground below pulled him down.

…

"Rise, Jason Raja."

Jason, in the moments before the light in his eyes dimmed, looked above his head to see a woman. Or at least the shape of one.

Her body was made of what looked like solid space: a black void filled with cracks of light creating intricate patterns across what would be her skin, covered by a robe of suspended moonlight.

She towered above him, looking down with three glowing white eyes.

The woman’s voice seemed to echo all around Jason, and yet. Her tone, though, was soft: almost familiar.

Slowly and deliberately, she lowered her arm to Jason’s forehead, tapping it lightly with a feather-light hand, barely corporeal.
Well, either I'm dead or I'm dreaming, because this DEFINITELY isn't happening. Jason chuckled to himself, choking once more on the blood dripping from his mouth.

Her eyes simply narrowed at his attempt at humour. In an instant, Jason bolted upright, gasping hard.

“You have been very casual for one faced with so much beyond your frame of comprehension, dear boy. I'm impressed; you are resilient for a human.”

“What? Who..?” Jason spoke as he gasped, breathing still shallow.

“I am the Goddess of Death, Ukali-no-Mikoto. And you, dear boy, are in the realm of Naraka.”

“... So, I'm in hell?” he said, laughing in disbelief as he looked up to the goddess. Definitely dreaming.

“Not quite,” Ukali said, lifting the boy’s gaunt face to meet her own. “There is no torture here beyond that which is inflicted by oneself. The beings here will incarnate in another world eventually.”

“The thing that just tried to kill me seemed pretty “demon-from-hell”-y, to me. I would have been dead if it weren’t for… Whatever just happened.” His breath steadied, as his face softened. “...Thanks, by the way.”

Jason, despite his shock, bowed his head to the goddess on instinct.

“You will come to understand this place in time, dear boy. For now though, I request a favour. I require your assistance in sending some… rogue souls from this realm to the next.”

“...I’m just a college student; how is that remotely in my depth? If that thing is the level of what you’re asking,” Jason laughed dryly as he stood, putting his hands in his pockets. “You should find someone else to help you out.”

“You are a dead man walking, boy. It just happens to help that we are compatible, and thus I can use you as a conduit to meddle. For now though, your brother being stuck here should be sufficiently grounding,” she said simply as her hand tightened on his face.

Yuzo.

“Yuzo’s here too? Where is he?” Nonsensically, Jason began to look around him in a panic. Ukali simply took his face into her hands, causing him to flinch.

“I am not sure, but I will help you find him; simply trust me and be patient. In the meantime, I will give you the means to survive Naraka. Show me your arm, please.”

Softly, Ukali moved her hands from Jason's face out in front of him, gesturing for him to roll his letterman jacket sleeve up.

Hesitantly, he pulled up his sleeve before reaching out his arm to the goddess, letting her run her index finger across his wrist.

As she traced her finger up his forearm, black patterns the same colour as her void-like skin started forming along his veins, creating geometric patterns.

The markings glowed for a moment with a resonant hue before flashing briefly with a white light. And then, nothing.

Jason looked up at the goddess, looking briefly at his wrist, then back to her.

“What did you do? I don’t really feel any different.”

“A gift; it will help you survive.” Gently, she released Jason's arm.

“How is this going to help me find my brother? Is it a map or something? “C’mon miss, I need something here!”

Jason desperately reached for the goddess’ wrist, but to no avail. His hand slipped right through, which was met with a sad narrowing of Ukali’s eyes.

“I apologise. I cannot answer your questions or help you more than this. But know, Jason Raja, that I will be with you.”

Fading into stardust, the goddess then faded into the darkness of the sky, leaving behind only the smell of ash and a trace of light that blended into the night sky.

“I have absolute faith in you, my dear.”

Although just a piece of her seemed to linger in the marking on Jason's arm, as quickly as Ukali had come, she was gone.

Jason stood still for a while, inhaling the cold air of the clearing he had found himself in. Her last words rang in his head. Words he hadn't heard from anyone since-

The thought caught in his mind like a stuck word in his throat.

Jason fell back on the stones once more. For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, he felt a tear fall down his face, stinging in the cold.

This is real, isn't it.