Jesus in Hell Day 1 Part 2: Released From the Chains

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Previous Chapter: Day 1 Part 1

A horrifying leech-like creature, with inward curling teeth, suddenly lunges at you.  

You are "the man in the black hat" - except you're not wearing a hat now.  

You're chained to a rock by thick shackles.  But there's something brushing against your face - like a small flying insect - but it's glowing.  A firefly?  You toss your head, knocking it away.  Suddenly something glimmers: falling seemingly out of nowhere, something gold-metallic is there, sticking up out of the dirt.  

The leech-like thing is coming closer.  

With effort, you kick the metal thing up onto your own chest.  Now you can see what it is: a key!  

The leech-thing jumps on your chest, right next to the key, and starts sucking your blood.

You shudder at the vile creature that is draining you in disgust, but then manage to bring your face even closer to the small, horrifying monster.  You grab the key with your teeth and, wincing in pain, manage to unlock one of your shackles.  Immediately, you pull the wriggling, maggot-like creature off of you and throw as far as you can, sending it flying perhaps 20 feet away.  

Then you set to work, unlocking the rest of your chains.  

You finally break free, and step away from the uncomfortable rock to which you were chained.  

To your surprise, the chains seem to come to life!  The manacles are like little jaws, and they're snapping at you, trying to re-encircle your wrists and ankles.  Fortunately, when you step away, they cannot escape the rock.  You're free!

Just then, the little leech-thing wriggles back into view.  It sways left and right, seeming to be watching you, weighing you up, gauging its chances against you.  Suddenly it lunges forward, leaping through the air at you.

But you're too fast for it.  You catch it in mid-air.  It cries out a blood-curdling little wail as you shove it down onto the rock with one hand and then pound it with your other fist, squishing it into a disgusting splatter.

Your shoulders relax as you breath a sigh of relief.  But then you look down at the rock - something catches your eye.  Something... moving.  As you watch in abject horror, confusion, and just a hint of fascination, the repulsive creature, pulverized into pulp on the rock, seems to be slowly reforming.  

"What?" you mutter under your breath, paralyzed for a moment in bewilderment as if hypnotized.  You instinctively step back from the horror, making your way down a dim, gray, dusty path, through a world of shadows.  As you step away, you see the foul thing gradually accelerating its healing as if time were rewinding.  It's definitely coming back to life.  You turn and walk more quickly, panic spreading across your face.

Just when you think you've gotten away, there's another one of those horrible leech-things.  And then two more.  

Soon, you're running - you don't know where.  Anything to get away from those blood-sucking creatures.

Something shoots out from the darkness: another living shackle on a chain.  It's got a little face and everything.  And it clamps around your left wrist, holding you tight, and allowing the little leech-creatures to catch up.  Fortunately, you manage to get the key in, right between its eyes, and it is forced to let go, allowing you to keep running.

Now you are running down the gray path, with living manacles shooting out from every direction.  You're dodging them and running from the blood-suckers, simultaneously.  But now more blood-sucking leech things are coming at you from further down the path.

You hear a voice from in front of you: "Where are you going, my little pretties?  Oh my pets, what's got you so excited?"

Squinting in the darkness, you see a horrible sight in front of you.  There's a decaying human being, little more than a skeleton, wearing a black hat.  The leech-things are coming out of an open wound in its belly, and all heading towards you.  

"Ah," says the skeleton, "What's this I see here?  Fresh meat?"  He looks directly at you as he pulls a knife out of his poncho-like cloak, and glowers at you, menacing and licking his lips.  

You spring into action, punching and kicking the skeleton, who topples over easily.  You take his black hat.  You put it on.  You smile.  It feels... right.

You continue to make your way down the gray path, slashing at the worms and avoiding the living shackles.

You get to another rock, where another person is chained up, and worms are devouring their body.  Using your key, you manage to get them free.  

"Thank you so much!" cries the person, running in terror.

The four chains on the rock spring to life and start snapping at you.  You dodge them easily.  But these are more resourceful than the ones that held you.  They push themselves down into the ground and lift up the entire rock, like little legs.  The whole rock starts chasing after you.  When it gets close enough to you, two of the chains reach out to try to grab you.

You run past the rock, and continue down the gray path.  Along the way are more moving rocks, with living chains, as well as more leech-like creatures.  And then more skeletons that you have to fight, hand-to-hand.

Eventually, you get to another skeleton-like person, who is sitting, leaning up against a rock, unchained.  Just then, right behind you come a large number of the leech-like creatures.

"Oh," he says, looking at you.  "Look what we have, here.  Here! Take this!” He holds out an amulet.  “You can use this to ward them away.”  He gestures toward the leech-like things.  “We call them the worms.  They're attracted to your sin. And that's some juicy sin you've got there. You're a thief, aren't you? Yes, I can smell it from here. A violent thief, too. I smell murder – I'm not sure if you did the murdering, but there's definitely an air of murder about you. And not just you. You were part of a gang, weren't you? Ha, ha, haaa... a new gangster down here. How delicious. They're going to eat you alive... or, excuse me, not alive... Heh heh heh.  As for me, oh, don't worry about me.  I'm used to it."  

And with that, he walks right out into the crowd of worms, which immediately begin devouring him.

You have obtained the amulet!  It looks almost like a police badge, with a cross at the very center.  It seems to emit some kind of Light.

You hear some kind of horrible howling, like the bellow of an enormous beast. 

50 feet away, beyond your sight, there's a shadowy figure creeping up on you.  There's something glinting in his hand... a blade!