Several years ago, Thea's aunt had told her, "Jesus may love you, but the rest of us are getting really tired of your crap."

And now she -- after what felt like years, but was probably only hours -- was beginning to understand. Because honestly? She was getting tired of her crap as well.

"Why am I like this?" Thea snapped, as she recovered from yet another panic attack.

Yes, she was covered in muck and grime. Sure, she also was possibly dead. Or undead? And a vampire. In an afterlife filled with terrifying monsters...

Oh, God.

She crouched down with her hands on her knees and took several deep breaths.

"I can get through this. I can," she reassured herself. "I just have to face my fears and do the things a normal person would do."

But after standing up and looking around, Thea felt herself begin to panic again. Nothing about this place was comforting or familiar. Walls of rough, grey stone and a floor of dirt gave her no clues of where to go or how to get out. There was no sky or sun, just more rock. Occasionally randomly placed fires and magma from cracks in the rock offered some light, but only enough to make things even more shadowy and terrifying. And more often than not, there was no light at all and she could only feel her way around, hoping she didn't run into anything monstrous.

"If I'm a vampire, why am I not superhuman?" She snarled under her breath. "I should at least be able to see in the dark. This is some bullcrap."

"You must be new here," a voice called from the shadows.

Not knowing how to react, but remembering the clawed hands grabbing her a few hours ago, Thea dropped down into her best fighting stance.

A skinny, normal-looking, guy in a polo and khaki pants emerged from the dark. He certainly didn't look like a monster, but she still didn't trust him, whether he looked like Jake from State Farm or not.

"What are you doing?" He said with a laugh. He pointed to her defensive stance.

"Don't come any closer," Thea warned. "I'll fight you if I have to."

"You look like you're squatting to take a crap." He laughed again. "You won't be winning any fights like that."

Thea glared at him and tried not to feel humiliated as well as terrified, but he was probably right. She had never been in a fight in her life, so she had no idea what she was doing.

"Listen," he began again, "I'm David. You don't have to be afraid of me. I won't hurt you."

Thea didn't move a muscle. She didn't trust people even when they were alive and normal. She certainly didn't trust undead guys who popped up out of the shadows suspiciously.

He took a few steps forward and she took several steps back. He sighed.

"Look, I can tell you're freaked out, but you should come with me. It will be safer for you," he said, holding out his hand.

"Nope," Thea said, shaking her head. "Nope, nope, nope. I do not go into dark places with strangers, and certainly not strange monsters."

David frowned and dropped his hand. "I'm not a monster -- I'm a shapeshifter."

Thea raised an eyebrow. "So...you can look like anything?"

He nodded.

"So, yeah, you're a monster," she argued. "This may not even be your real face for all I know. You could have killed a guy and took his face. You could look like anything under there."

His eyes narrowed, but instead of lashing out, he took a deep breath and stepped back. "You're still scared, I get it. And I don't want to make things worse for you, but you should know, I'm probably one of the few nice guys you'll meet here. The rest are going to try to attack you. You don't stand a chance on your own. You don't even know how to fight."

Now not only was she embarrassed and scared, but her pride was hurt. Which in her history, had not been the best combination for making good decisions. This was no exception.

Instead of hearing him out any longer, Thea turned and ran the opposite direction. She heard him shout once after her, but apparently he didn't follow because after she got winded and stopped, he never appeared again behind her.

"Freaking creepy blonde youths, appearing out of the dark," she muttered. "What is this, Children of the Corn?"

Thankfully, at the very least, her frustration at him and her brief run had served the purpose of distracting her from her anxiety. The interaction also educated her on a new type of monster here: shapeshifters.

Pausing next to a magma crack in the rock, Thea tried to catch her breath and think of what to do next. She refused to accept that she was stuck here for eternity. There had to be a way out.

Remembering the soulless, dark eyes of the king and his bloody teeth, Thea felt her chest tighten and her breath falter. She couldn't stay here.

There had to be a way out.

The sound of scraping footsteps had her freezing in place like a deer in headlights. Golden eyes peeked around the corner at her, but this monster's features were shrouded in too much darkness to see. What she did notice was the tell-tale shine of pointed teeth when it grinned at her.

Realizing her fighting stance earlier hadn't worked, this time Thea drew herself up to her full height and squared her shoulders.

"A vampire?" The creature gurgled. When it breathed it often grunted, as if drawing a deep breath was painful. "In goblin territory? Someone is either brave or stupid."

"I'm not scared of you," Thea snapped in return.

It wheezed out a laugh and turned back the way it came. At first she thought it planned to leave, but then she noticed more and more yellow eyes popping up out of the darkness.

"Still feeling brave?" It asked. The others surrounding it laughed, that same wheezing, gurgled sound, and it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

Without warning they all lunged at her, moving more quickly than anything she ever knew was possible. Teeth and claws tore at her skin and clothes. Thea used all the energy she had left to duck underneath the fray and sprint back the way she came.

They gave chase for longer than she anticipated and when she eventually collapsed she could only pray nothing else tried to attack her. Dried blood from the bites and scratches coated her arms and face and if she had had any energy left, Thea might have been filled with anxiety over it. As it was, she only had enough strength to lift herself up into a hole carved into the wall and hide.