Sitting together on the serpent's head, Nathan couldn't hold back his curiosity any longer. He finally asked the question that had been on his mind since his best-friend return.
"Buddy, where did you go, by the way?" he asked, his voice filled with genuine curiosity. He was eager to hear Vincent's account of his journey and the experiences that had led to his transformation during his absence.
Vincent chuckled, though his tone indicated the seriousness of his ordeal. 4
"I went somewhere worse than hell," he replied, trying to convey the brutality of his experience in the raptured realm. "That place isn't fit for living. Even hell would be better than that place."
Nathan could sense something deep in Vincent's reply. It was clear that his best friend had gone through an unimaginable ordeal. While Nathan had thought that what was happening on Earth was bad, seeing Vincent's calm reaction made him realize that the crisis they were in might not be as dire as his friend saw it.
