“Callista,” I began, “leave it alone. This is between me and Charlie. Please, don’t get involved with him.”
“Listen to him,” Charlie advised. “Now, as for you Jon; as I said I’ve been watching you. There are many Elohim who would pay handsomely for you head. This time, you will not be under the protection of another Elohim. You have forfeited the coverage of those formerly protecting you and you have thinned my patience past the breaking point. You must answer for your indiscretions.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “How am I going to answer for them?” I started to think of all the Elohim that would be anxiously waiting for me. I could picture a pit of them swarming around, waiting for Charlie to drop me in. I could imagine them tearing me apart limb from limb. The worst part is that he had already captured me and there was no running from this.
“The policies of Hell are to be abided by,” he began. “I cannot overrule them.”
“Very well,” I accepted. “Can I make a request?”
“If I so see fit?” he answered.
“Please, let Callista go,” I asked. “She didn’t have anything to do with this. She’s innocent.”
“Jon, no!” Callista shouted. “If you’re going down for this then so am I!”
“I see no problem with that,” he accepted.
I looked over at her. She was frowning with tears beginning to well in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something and as she did, Charlie waved his hand and she was gone.
“So what’s next?” I asked.
“It often astounds me how naïve you truly are, mortal,” he said.
“You’ve won, Charlie. Get on with it.”
“You will be going to a place where few mortals are unlucky enough to see. Most humans think of Hell as a prison. What would you think if I told you there was a prison within the confines of this cave?”
“Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised. After all I’ve seen, very little surprises me anymore.”
“I imagine not, Jon.”
Charlie had a bigger smile on his face than I had ever seen him have before. Truthfully I was surprised that there would be a prison, and I was not ready to see it. I had finally made it to a point of almost comfort in Hell. The comfort was about to be taken away just as easily as I had gained it and there was nothing I could do. Yet again, I had been defeated. I imagined that’s what Charlie was so happy about. He had defeated me.
“Are we going?” I asked softly.
“Indeed we are, Jon,” Charlie said as he lifted his hand.
The world went black for only a second and as it returned I was in the prison. We were standing in the middle of a massive stone building. There were prison cells, just like on Earth, surrounding me. There were no doors in or out, and no windows on any of the cells. It was filled with people; there were no empty cells I could see. I couldn’t be sure because the cell blocks stretched far beyond what I could see. I could hear them all crying or lashing out in rage. There was a putrid smell filling the room. It smelled as if there were something dead sitting for weeks inside a hot room with no ventilation.
Charlie grabbed my arm and started to pull me along. I trudged very begrudgingly. We walked for some time until I could neither see the beginning nor the end of the building and then we stopped.
“This is it, Jon,” Charlie began. “This is where you will be waiting.”
“Waiting for what?” I curiously asked.
“You’ll be waiting for the tribunal to determine your fate. They are the ones that decide the fate of those that transgress in Hell. You thought I or even the other Elohim were bad, wait until you are in front of them.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“I suppose, but make it quick.”
“Why now? Why have you let me get away with so much, but the sword, you couldn’t let that go?”
“Jon, I’ve long awaited this day. Since the first time you betrayed my trust in you, I had a feeling your journey would end this way. I’m ecstatic that I am the one bringing you here.”
I didn’t respond. We turned and Charlie walked me over to what was going to be my cell. He placed his hand on the door and his hand began to glow red. It opened and I marched in. There was another person sitting on the floor in the cell. He was quiet and had his head down. He didn’t pay attention to what was happening. I turned and Charlie’s hand grew red again as the door closed.
“Don’t worry, Jon,” Charlie began. “I’ll make sure to make Callista aware of what happened with Phillip.”
“No!” I screamed as he let out a maniacal laugh and disappeared. Despite the fact I assumed I would never see her again, I didn’t want her to think badly of me. The way she looked at me made me feel special again. I couldn’t let that be the way things ended. I’d never see her again. I’d never see Shannon again. I felt like a failure.
I looked around the room. There was a single bed, the prisoner, still sitting with his head down, and there was a mirror on the wall. I walked over to the mirror and stared at the disfigured face in front of me. It was covered in a layer of filth. I reached my hand up and wiped a streak through it revealing what I looked like to everyone else. My skin was as pale as snow. My veins showed through like blue worms scurrying through my flesh. My eyes were glazed over and my cheeks were gaunt. I stared at my pale green eyes in the mirror. I had only one thought: Revenge.
Hellbound: Chronicles Page 26
