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And I mean everywhere. On the walls. On the floor. Even the damn ceiling, where a man is stuck in a spiderweb and screaming for help. There’s a huge spider resting right next to him.

Sorry man, I can’t help you.

You see, spiders are cool, if they respect my personal boundaries. I doubt that will happen here. I feel something on my feet, and I glance down to see a spider trying to make its way up my pants. I let out a scream, but cover my mouth. I flick the spider off and try not to throw up. My skin prickles. I look up to see if the spider or the man noticed me. They did not. Whew.

Honestly, does Aiden really need me? I can come back for him later.

“Yeah, I’m not staying. There is no way I am doing this. Nope,” I whisper to myself.

I turn around to go back through the door, but it’s gone. Damn. I really have no choice now. I look around at the spiders and send a prayer to no one in particular.

Taking a deep breath, I think about my plan. All I have to do is make it to the other side. I can see the door to get out of here. I should just make a run for it. But what if that disrupts the spiders too much? Slowly might be the best way. If one of them bites me though, I will lose my shit.

Lifting my left foot, I gently kick away the spiders, then begin my journey forward. I hold my breath as I walk through the trenches. When I am halfway through, I feel something on my shoulder. I turn my head to the side and see a giant hairy spider on me. I scream and hit the spider off, tripping over my feet in the process. I fall to the ground, causing my life to get ten times worse. Hundreds of spiders are racing to me. Crawling over me. I’m trying to hit them off, but it’s not useful. I look up to see I’ve caught the attention of the giant spider. He is quickly climbing down the wall.

The giant spider leaps off the wall towards me. I pull out my knife, pointing it at the spider. With spiders crawling all over me and the giant beast in the air, I do the only thing that any desperate person would in this situation—I say a prayer hoping the universe will finally give me a fucking break.

Please God, the universe, whoever is listening, just help me this one time. I don’t have any more tricks in my back pocket.

To my complete shock, everything freezes. The giant spider is in the air. The mini spiders stopped crawling all over me. Well, that will do it. Not wasting time or questioning what happened, I dust off all the creepy crawlers and race towards the door. I step on as many spiders as possible as payback for my misery.

When I reach the door, I grab the knob and twist it open and cautiously walk through. My previous experiences have taught me that anything is possible in Hell. I squint my eyes as it adjusts to the dimmer light in the room. I see Aiden in the middle of the room and I smile in relief. Finally, I’ve made it to him.

“Aiden!” I yell out. But he doesn’t react. The bottom falls out of my stomach as I take in my surroundings. He is in the same position that I last saw him. Arms tied behind his back and in his chair. This is different though. I remember us all being in the conference room in the Heaven department, but his Hell is missing a lot of things.

In his version, there is just him tied up, and me on the ground holding my chest. Tears are running down his eyes and he is repeatedly calling out my name. I whisper, “I love—” then I disappear. The light in his eyes just vanishes. He drops in defeat, and then the scene restarts again. I pop back up already wounded and holding my chest. My god. This is absolute torture. Watching someone you love die over and over again.

Pained by what I am seeing, I run up to him. I drop to my knees next to him and grab his face to look at me. He forces it out of my grip, turning it to face the version of me that is dying over and over again.

“Aiden! It’s me. I’m okay,” I beg, but it’s like he doesn’t see me. I shuffle to get behind him. I untie the restraints and throw the rope across the room.

I move back in front of him, crawl on top of his lap and grab his face again, forcing him to look at me. “Aiden! You need to snap out of this!” I yell. I’m getting frustrated with every second that passes. I thought my presence enough would’ve snapped him out of it.

I shove my hands through his hair, yank his head forward and slam my mouth onto his. He doesn’t react at first. His mouth is stiff and unreactive. Then, I’m roughly pushed away. I land on my ass with a grunt in pain. Before I can react, I’m yanked forward and pressed into a soft, warm chest. Aiden’s arms wrap around me, and he shoves his face against my throat.

“Are you real?” he whispers into my neck. I let out a breath of relief. If kissing him didn’t work, we would’ve been stuck in Hell forever.

“Yeah. My ass hurts from you just shoving me,” I reply jokingly.

He leans back and examines me. His hand lands on my chest where it should’ve been glowing gold. He looks up to me.

“How?” he asks, his grip on me tightening. I lift my arm to show him the scythe tattoo that is still there. It is almost gone.

“You protected me, Aiden,” I inform him. If it wasn’t for this tattoo, I would not be here.

His eyes are tormented as he admits, “I failed you. I should’ve never taken my eyes off you. I should’ve known they would find us.” I roughly yank his ear.

“Ow! What the fuck was that for.” He glares at me.

“Could’ve, should’ve, would’ve!” I yell, losing patience with him blaming himself for my choices. “You did your best. You were trying to get us food, for goodness sake. It was the only moment we were separated. The only place I may have possibly been safer was up your ass at that point.”

His mouth twitches. “Okay, I get it.”

I nod. “Good. Now, let’s save Taevian.” I move to get off his lap, but he stops me.

“I love you, my Joy,” he whispers. My heart squeezes every time he says, ‘my Joy’.

I place my forehead against his and close my eyes. “I would walk through Hell for the rest of eternity if it led to you. I love you too.”