#waydownbelow

"Johnny."

Her voice called from the peaceful warmth of the outside world. The young woman’s voice was so familiar, and so welcoming, overshadowed only by the soft touch of her skin against his.

"Jooooohhhhnyyyy~" the voice called again, "wake up, lazy!" A small hand pressed against his chest, finally prompting him to open his eyes. Johnny sighed out with a tiny grin when he realized that he was still out in the warm meadow with the love of his life, Roxanne Simpson. Even back before she was his girl, and was only a step sister, Roxanne was always there for Johnny, regardless of what kind of trouble he got himself into.

Things weren’t always the easiest after his parents died, but that was a long time ago. So long as he had Roxie by his side, there was nothing that could stop the young daredevil from jumping any obstacle that life threw at him.

"I miss you," whispered Roxanne, breathing softly into his ear as she spoke, "nothing has ever been right since you left."

"But I’m right here," Johnny mumbled back with a slight raise of his eyebrow, "I’m not going anywhere, babe."

A warm breeze rolled through the meadow, further comforting the pair, though the brief relaxation shifted quickly when tears began to roll down the young woman’s cheeks.

"No, Johnny," she spoke through muffled sobs. Johnny couldn’t understand why she was crying, it was so sudden and unexplained. The tears running down the sides of her face began to thicken before filling themselves with a reddish tint. Johnny shrieked at the sight before reaching out to take her into his arms. What was going on?!

"You’re already gone." Her voice spoke one final time.

~

"Aw," a crackly, deep and bellowing voice spoke to him in a taunting tone of voice, causing Johnny’s eyes to shoot back open. The sound of clinking chains could be heard when he tried to move his hands. It was no good. Metallic restraints were tightly fastened around his wrists and ankles, he was stuck standing up and couldn’t move a muscle.

"How sweet," the familiar, crackling voice continued, "he was having a dream. Was it Roxanne again, lover boy?"

A battered, bleeding Johnny Blaze gasped out upon being reunited with the intense pain which racked his body. He weakly turned his head to the right to catch the sight of the demon who continued to chuckle in his ear. It was Azazel, the arch demon tasked with torturing him since he was brought here…

It was all coming back to Johnny, now. Was it a week ago— a month, a year since he was captured and brought to this place against his will? It was the place most feared by men and women the entire world over. People woke up from nightmares about being thrown into this place. For as far away as Johnny could see, the falling bodies of the damned spiraled down from the dark clouds above.

And the screams…

The screams never stopped.

Those who went through life with wickedness in their heart now found their way to the eternal abyss, where they would be tortured until the end of time. It felt ironic to Johnny that he was one of them. Every structure and bit of interior was sculpted with the charred remains of god-only-knew how many creatures. Some of the most horrific, demonic creatures imaginable ran rampant here.

The amount of evil in the air twisted and tore at Johnny’s insides. His ‘inner monster’ literally begged him for release with every passing moment, if only the chains binding him weren’t fashioned to suppress it…

Johnny was in Hell.

“Oh, Roxanne,” chuckled the thin, human-like demon with glowing, red eyes, “if only I could’ve been there when my boys found her. I hear it was…” He stopped to lean in so he could whisper into the immobile Johnny’s ear, “… Quite delicious.”

The demon ran a hand through his long, black hair to slick it back. Only the most powerful demons could control their own appearance, most often choosing to resemble attractive people so that they could lure members of the opposite gender into falling for their evil schemes. Johnny was no stranger to the way that the devil’s kingdom functioned.

"You know how this works," the arch-demon said with a sinister grin, "give me what I want and the torture will end." With that, Azazel tightened his grip around the long chain whip in his hand, thrusting it forward as hard as he could so that the tip slapped itself into Johnny’s back, burning and slicing straight through the flesh. His back was already covered in scorch marks from the previous torture. "Surrender it to us," the demon demanded again, "give us the Rider!"

Johnny jerked forward in pain as the whip tortured his backside again, almost gargling on his own blood that started to pool in his throat.

"Forget it," Johnny finally spoke through faint breath, "you’ll never have him. I don’t care if you torture me until there’s nothing left— this monster inside me exists to protect the innocent, and to slaughter nightmares like you." Johnny was furious, but cracked a small grin, "If you wanna see him so badly, let me out of these chains and I’ll make sure you two spend lots of quality time together."

Another hard whip to the back made Johnny scream wildly, small burst of fire could be seen in his pupils, followed by an extremely high-pitched, cackling laugh. “AZAZEL—” the Rider was trying to force its way out, even through the restricting spell of the cursed chains, it spoke to the demon through Johnny’s lips as if they knew one another well, “YOU… WILL… BURN!” The flames fell dormant again, with Johnny’s voice and limp body returning to normal.

This would never stop, but neither would Johnny. He was trapped in Hell, but he wasn’t dead. Sooner or later, the demons would drop their guard, and as soon as he saw his chance, the Rider would bring this entire dimension crumbling down… Starting with the abomination in front of him.

There might have been a point in time when Johnny Blaze would have done anything to free himself of his curse, but he would never surrender it to the forces of the underworld.

He was the Ghost Rider, and he would never give up.