The Cryopod to Hell Classic is the original version of TCTH, written based on the original writing prompts, expanded into a full series, with 490 chapters of fun adventures. However, it is extremely flawed, with paper thin characters and plotlines that don’t resolve properly. It abruptly ends at the finale of Route C, and was never finished with a proper ending. Classic is best read after Refresh so you can appreciate where the story came from. As its own story, Classic has too many flaws for anyone to recommend reading first.
Something is bothering me. That might sound asinine, given the literal river of souls under my feet, but the river isn’t what I’m referring to. I’m being watched. Somewhere, in this hell, another presence gazes at me, evaluates me, and registers me as a threat. I can’t pinpoint where this feeling of mine comes from,…
My eyes nearly pop out of my skull, and my knees rattle in terror as I stare into the darkness behind me. The monster is in the distance, and it’s coming this way. I’m going to die. I can hear the bells tolling in the back of my mind. This is no time to rest,…
The adrenaline rush as my body trembles in terror eventually winds down, once I realize the footsteps are no longer audible behind me. Slowing to a tentative walk, I stare ahead into the corridor, always shining my flashlight forward, aside from when I check behind myself for jump-scares. The first thing I begin to realize…
I am not trembling in terror; I am not shaking in terror; I am spasming in terror. My bones click together violently as I hear the thing creeping around the bend behind me. You’re dead! It’s going to eat you, my mind screams in alarm. Tears pour down my face, but I dare not wipe…
Carefully, I shimmy my way past the statue. On the opposite side of the room is yet another door, though this one blends into the wall seamlessly. Its surface is bare, without any writing like the first one I stepped through. A thought occurs to me as I start to push it open. How am…
For a moment, I lose the ability to control my body. My legs give out, and I fall to the floor as I stare at the spot where that goddamned statue was just standing. I don’t feel like a human right now, as my eyes leap from one crevice of the room anywhere else. My…
"Just one last signature to confirm, Jason." Rebecca, one of the scientists in the room, smiles at me and tugs on her long, curly black hair. She hands me a clipboard with a legal form clamped onto it. I barely glance at the paper before writing my name down. My body feels a little numb;…
I don’t know what I expected. The door opens, and I see nothing. There’s a room somewhere in the darkness, but my eyes are useless at piercing the veil of shadow. Maybe if I could cast magic missile, that would change. Why can’t humanity of the year One Hundred Thousand pay the goddamn electric bill,…
The four of us sit at a table, bored out of our minds, as the minutes crawl along, slowly turning to hours. The hum of a janitor pushing along a machine to clean the floor mixes with the tranquility of a crowd walking past us, left and right, nobody speaking except in hushed voices. The…
A harsh metallic smell greets us as we arrive. A sickening sensation, as if we’ve landed on a ship in the middle of the ocean riding out a storm, courses through my insides. After a moment it passes, and I kneel down to regain my balance. "That was a rough one," Alpha comments dryly. Teleporting…
