Ninth Circle

This is a flash fiction piece I wrote a few weeks ago that I recently tried to submit to my university's literary magazine. Unfortunately, it was declined but I really enjoyed writing it so I thought I would share it here on my blog! It is a piece inspired by Dante and the primal forces of nature.

I awake to the sound of distant thudding. It is rhythmic and slow enough that I can count the beats. The hair-raising sound of glacial ice cracking causes me to stir. My eyelids are heavy with fatigue and I struggle to keep them open.

The sky is dark, clear, and starless. As I shift my gaze downwards I perceive an enormous ice sheet the hue of a blackish-blue bruise that stretches out as far as I can see.

I roll onto my stomach, stiff and cold. My bare hands shake as I touch the frost beneath my fingers. Standing slowly, I look in all directions. I realize that I am stranded in a frozen wasteland.

How did I get here? That was the question pounding in my mind like a pulse. I step forward shakily. The ice beneath me appears solid but I do not trust its structure. My breath comes out in large white puffs. Behind the dissipating vapor I see abnormal shapes protruding from the ice.

I tread over to investigate and find that human beings have been trapped within the cold crystal. They’re alive but not living. They are stuck beneath the ice sheet yet their bloodshot eyes keep moving in panic, begging for a sign of escape. Their mouths are ajar in silent screams.

As I approach, I notice that the rhythmic bumping is being caused by these helpless bodies kicking and fighting in the icy water. Their doomed expressions show that they’ve long since given up but their bodies remain in motion.

I begin to run. I hurry past the bodies and watch as their faces bob underneath the hellish glass. It is an arctic graveyard trapped beneath eternal blue midnight.

I gasp but with each breath I feel the coldness seep down my throat and into my body. I run faster, desperate to find a way out when suddenly, I fall. My body hits the frigid cobalt water. I attempt to swim back to the surface but am horrified to learn that it has become solid. There is no way out. I have become a prisoner of the coldest depths of Hell.