Murmurs and whispers spread throughout the cavern.
“Hell is a necessity,” God continued. “As always, the punishment must fit the crime. Now, instead of being led by a fallen one with evil in his heart, you will be led by someone of my choosing. There will no longer be senseless killing for power or title in this place. You will be ruled by one who has proven himself worthy in my eyes. He will be fair and just, but don’t upset him too badly…he can be nasty.”
A man appeared next to God. His short dark hair, dark eyes, and muscular body gave him the look of someone fitting for Hell’s throne. The long, black wings he sported on his back helped too. “He has earned his way to this seat and I trust him with the power it holds. He shall rule over you. You will grant him all the respect and authority due to him, as he is sanctioned by me.”
All of the leaders fell to one knee in front of their new leader. He was nervous and still wasn’t too sure about this job God himself had given him, but he would do it. He would make God proud of him. A hand landed softly on his shoulder and words that were spoken to his heart rather than his ears came to him. “I am already proud of you.”
Ash turned and looked over his shoulder to admire his wings once again. “Oh, I, um,” he started.
God laughed. “They are truly some of my best work,” he offered. “The gift I give you is created in my love. They hold all the power you will ever need. Treat them well and they shall never fail you.” With that thought, he was gone, and Ash was left to admire his beautiful gift. He was a leader, an angel, and still, his heart was heavy. It was as if something was missing from his life, but he didn’t know what it was. Lele was going to be safe from now on. His parent’s murderer had been punished. He had a monumental task in front of him and he knew he would do his best, but he had a suspicion that the empty feeling in his heart wasn’t going to go away. He recognized it as loneliness. It was a part of his life that he had accepted long ago, and he knew it wasn’t about to change. However, this was different. He felt as if he were longing for something very specific, someone specific, however, he didn’t have a clue who or what; and that bothered him more than he cared to admit.
CHAPTER ONE
“Welcome to Hell, Sir,” a gnarly little man said to Ash. He dropped to one knee and bowed his head, and Ash could see the balding crown of the little thing’s head. “I am but your humble servant.” His joints were all twice the normal size for his small frame and the skin seemed to hang off his bones.
Ash stared at the thing. He supposed at one point, it used to be a man. He wondered what this particular soul had done to land himself in Hell. And the whole bowing thing? That was just too much and was going to have to stop. Now. “Stand,” Ash said quietly. “You will no longer bow to me.”
“I don’t understand,” the man said. “You are our king now. We must bow to you.”
Ash shook his head. “I am no king. I am just your leader. The only person you will bow to from now on is God.”
The little man rose shakily to his feet. “As you wish.”
“What is your name?” Ash asked him.
“Malicai,” he said.
“Well, Mali,” Ash said with a sad smile, “how about we get started and you show me around?”
The little man’s face lit up. Not only had his new leader asked for his help, but he had given him a nickname. That was already better than his previous employer. “It would be my honor,” he beamed. When he smiled, Ash saw that his teeth, what few he had, were rotted and falling apart. He resisted the urge to cringe.
“Might as well get started,” Ash mumbled to no one in particular. He had been given a new job by the highest authority and he intended to do it to the best of his ability. On his many trips to Hell over his adult life, he had never wandered too far into it. He figured that if he was going to run it, he needed to see all of it.
“Right this way,” Mali said, moving faster than Ash would have thought the little guy could. They walked through a dark corridor that twisted and turned several times. Ash palmed the amulet on his neck. It had been his way of transporting to and from Hell before he became a permanent resident. He hoped it would still work. He was nearly positive he was going to get lost, and that wouldn’t be a good thing. Not here. Not ever.
Finally, after about ten minutes of walking, there was a light of sorts at the end of the tunnel. Ash steeled his will as they got closer. At the end of the corridor, the light was coming from a blazing fire. The same fire that he had seen when he had been shot and flat lined. His heart kicked up a notch or two. This was it. He was going to die.
Or was he already dead? Dead men didn’t have heartbeats as far as he knew, and he sure as hell had one. It was thumping in his ears at a hundred miles an hour.
“Do not fear the flames,” Mali told him. “They are just for show. They won’t hurt you.”
Ash raised a skeptical brow. Those harmless flames sure felt hot. Hotter the closer they got to them. He watched as Mali walked right up to the flames and then into them. The little man just disappeared into the fire.
“Well?” Mali’s voice asked. “Come on.”
Ash took a deep breath. He forced his feet to move and stepped into the flames. He was surrounded by fiery orange and yellow light, but Mali had been right. It was hot, but he was unharmed. He walked further until the flames were behind him. In front of him was what looked like an ordinary elevator.
“I hope you don’t mind, I already pushed the button,” Mali told him. Ash shook his head. It wasn’t as if he knew where he was going anyway.
“Is that an elevator?” Ash asked him.
“Yep. Sure beats taking the stairs,” Mali answered. An elevator. In Hell. And Stairs. Because… why wouldn’t there be?
There was a ding and then the metal doors opened. Ash stepped in behind Mali. The top and sides were mirrored and for the first time, Ash got a good look at his wings. They moved as he did, flowing like black ink.
“So where do you want to start?” Mali asked as the doors closed, shaking Ash out of his admiration.
“I don’t know to be honest,” Ash told him. “I need to see it all.”
“Ok, then,” the man said. “We can start at the top and work our way down.” He pushed the button for level one. Ash noticed that there were nine numbered buttons and one that just had an “O” on it.
“What is on that floor?” Ash asked, pointing to the O.
“Oh, that’s your office,” Mali said.
“And the others?”
“Well,” Mali turned to face Ash and looked up at him. “They really didn’t tell you anything, did they?”
“No, not really,” Ash admitted.
“Hell is constructed of ten levels. There is the administrative level where your office is and all the databases, plus your living quarters. Then there are levels one through nine. Each level houses a different breed of sinner and each one is unique to the crime committed.”
“Like in Dante’s poem,” Ash mumbled.
“Sort of,” Mali said. “You heard of the seven deadly sins?”
“Yeah,” Ash said.
“Well, seven levels are devoted to them. The other two are for murders and crimes against children.” Mali shook his head. “You’ll see.”
Just then, the elevator dinged and the doors opened to a vast hallway. Ash thought it looked like an office waiting area. Hell was an office? Really?
“Come,” Mali said, stepping out of the elevator.
Ash followed him. They walked through the waiting area and came to a set of sturdy steel doors. There was an electrical panel on the wall beside them. “You gotta put your hand on the panel,” Mali told him. Ash did it. As soon as he placed his hand on the panel, there was a beep and then the doors clicked.
“It’s palm recognition. Not just anyone can walk into each sanction,” Mali told him.
“Right,” Ash said. He had to admit, Hell was far more hi-tech than he thought it would be. He pushed at the doors, which opened eas
ily.
Mali was on his right, and as soon as the doors were all the way open, he said, “This is Sloth.”
CHAPTER TWO
SLOTH
Ash swallowed back the bile that threatened the back of his throat when he saw what was on the other side of the doors. It was as if he had stepped outside, but in a different world. The sky was black without a star to be seen, and the ground was dirt with sparse scatterings of grass and weeds. The weeds grew tall, but the trees had no leaves.
On the ground, everywhere, were huge slugs. They lumbered in their movements, the slick slime their bodies produced doing nothing to aid in their journey. Ash had walked into the sanction before he realized it. He got close to one of the slug-things, only to realize that it had the face of a human woman.
“What the fuck?” Ash grumbled out.
“This is where the criminally lazy go after death,” Mali told him. “These are the people who didn’t ever do anything for anyone, including themselves. Couch potatoes, Mamma’s boys, and chronic welfare people.”
“I didn’t know welfare was a crime,” Ash said with a shake of his head.
“It’s not,” Mali told him. “But for a person to believe they are entitled to it and never even try to provide for themselves or their families is. These are the people who wouldn’t get off their asses to save their own child from drowning.”
“I see,” Ash said quietly. “And this is their punishment? To be a slug?”
Mali chuckled. “Not exactly. Or rather, it isn’t the whole punishment. Let me see if I can get Rogue out here to talk to you.”
“Who is Rogue?”
“He is the Keeper of Sloth,” Mali said, as if Ash should have already known that bit of info. “Rogue!” he shouted into the realm, “Get your ass out here and meet our new leader!”
There was a thunderous pounding of footsteps that got louder as he approached. Rogue was a huge, beast of a man. Ash had to will his feet to stay put, as the enormous man got closer. Rogue barreled at high speeds right for them, a huge cloud of dust kicking up in his wake.
Just before he would have plowed into Ash and Mali, Rogue came to an instant halt mere inches from Ash. Immediately, the giant took a knee in front of Ash. Oh no, Ash thought, not again. He took a moment to look at the top of Rogue’s head, knowing he would likely never see it again. Rogue was bald on top, with skin that looked a bit like worn leather. It had a slightly brown tint to it. That wasn’t the interesting part. The pair of curled horns that sat atop either side of his head was. They were black as night and reminded Ash of ram horns.
“It is an honor, my Liege,” Rogue said with his head bowed.
Ash rolled his eyes. “Thanks, but please stand up. No bowing to me.”
Rogue lifted his huge head and two solid black eyes bored into Ash’s. “I don’t understand,” he said.
“I don’t want anyone bowing to me. I’m your boss, just like any other job.” Ash explained yet again how he felt it was wrong for the keepers to bow to him.
“As you wish,” Rogue answered and stood to his full height. Ash was right in his earlier assessment. The man was huge. Actually, Rogue was a demon. His dark skin, black eyes, and well, the horns, pretty much made that clear. He stood a good foot taller than Ash’s six feet four and was twice as thick. His shoulders were as wide as a kitchen table and his exposed belly was nothing but muscle, with more muscle underneath. “What shall I call you?” he asked.
“Ash will do just fine,” Ash answered him. “You run this place?”
Rogue nodded his head. “Yep. Ever since the dawn of time.”
Ash nodded. “So, what did you do to earn your position?” he asked.
Rogue laughed heartily. It was a rolling, thunderous laugh that vibrated in Ash’s chest. When he opened his mouth, Ash could see the huge fangs and sharp teeth that lined his gums. “I didn’t do anything. I was created for this.”
“I see,” Ash replied. It made sense. Many demons were created by God, some by Lucifer. “Who was your maker?”
Rogue grinned at him. “Same as yours. The big man whipped me up out of sugar and spice.”
Mali snickered.
“What? You got something to add to that, little man?” Rogue snapped at Mali.
“Nope,” he replied. “Why don’t you show Ash what really goes on here?”
“That might be interesting,” Ash agreed. “Are these souls condemned to be slugs forever?”
“Something like that,” Rogue answered. “But you gotta add some fun into the mix every now and again.”
Ash wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “At the risk of eating my words, what exactly do you mean?”
“Here,” Rogue said, pulling a small black box out of his pocket, “let me show you.” He pressed a couple of buttons on what looked like a TV remote and the ground started to shake under their feet. “Hang on; this is going to be fun.”
Ash watched as the heads of all the slugs picked up. They could feel the ground shaking and some of them cried out. Then, Ash saw what was causing it. A dinosaur was beating feet in their direction. Not just any dinosaur, but a tyrannosaurus Rex!
Rogue was grinning from ear to ear by that point. “No worries, Boss, Tinker Bell won’t eat you.”
At that moment, all Ash could think about was the keeper of Sloth named the freaking T-Rex, Tinker Bell.
Ash watched as the Rex pounded through the field of slugs. Some of the souls tried to run away, but they couldn’t, they just couldn’t move fast enough. Ash saw the Rex grab one up in his mouth. He closed his eyes as the beast’s jaws snapped shut on the soul. He knew by the gurgling noise that this particular soul was now dino dinner.
“Come on! You worthless sacks of slime! It’s a freaking T-Rex! His brain is the size of a walnut! He has puny arms! Just get up and move your asses!” Rogue bellowed into the air.
Ash couldn’t watch anymore. He was fighting to keep the contents of his stomach in his body. Rogue and Mali just laughed though.
After it was over, Rogue put a hand on Ash’s shoulder. “You see, these people wouldn’t make a move to help anyone in life, not even themselves. Their punishment in death is to be helpless.”
Ash shuddered.
“Every day I let Tinker Bell out, and every day she eats a few slugs. Tomorrow, everyone will be back for another round. Except, no one remembers what happened before. A new day, a new terror.” Rogue’s chest puffed out as he spoke. “And to think, all of this could have been avoided for some of them, if they had only repented and changed their ways. Hell, all they had to do was try.”
Ash shook his head. That was gross. Just gross.
“Well, come on Boss,” Mali said as he turned for the exit. “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”
“It was nice meeting you,” Ash said to Rogue and stuck out his hand.
Rogue took Ash’s hand in his much larger one and shook it enthusiastically. “Same here. Come on by anytime,” he said with a wide grin.
As soon as the beast let go of his hand, Ash turned to follow Mali.
CHAPTER THREE
Elizabeth Rone tossed her jacket into her locker and pulled her lab coat out. She closed the locker door a bit harder than she meant to, but whatever. It did the job. She pulled the lab coat on over her pink and white scrubs and checked the pockets to make sure she had everything she needed.
Pens. Paper. Tape. Yep. That should just about do it.
She pulled her hair back into a snug ponytail at the base of her head and walked briskly to the elevator doors. She pushed the button and waited for the doors to open. This was different for her. For the first five years of her career as a doctor, she had worked trauma in the ER. She had always wanted to be a doctor and the ER never failed to keep her on her feet.
That was, until about six months ago.
A severe, debilitating depression had settled on her all at once. She barely had the will to get out of bed, much less make repeated attempts to save the lives of the people who rolled
into her ER. Gunshot victims were the worst.
She didn’t understand why, but she felt the overwhelming urge to save every one of them. When the body was too damaged to survive and the person died, Elizabeth took it hard. Every time. She went home in tears and had nightmares about it. Every time. She was an emotional wreck and she didn’t have a clue what to do about it.
She had even sought out the help of a therapist, who told her that she needed to find something that brought her joy. The only problem with that was, there wasn’t anything.
She finally decided a change was in order. She was a medical doctor first, but she also had all the necessary credentials to be an OB-GYN. After about two months of struggling, she asked for a transfer. It only took a few weeks to get her out of the ER and into Labor and Delivery.
She thought that maybe bringing new life into the world would be far less depressing than losing patients every day. And, she was a certified Trauma Surgeon. Perfect combination.
The move had helped some, but every day Elizabeth wandered the halls of the hospital, wondering what it was that was missing in her life. She felt the pain of loss as if she had lost someone she loved. But that didn’t happen. She hadn’t lost anyone. She couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that she was missing something. Something big, something that should be as plain as the nose on her face. And it hurt. Hurt so bad it was a physical pain in her chest. At one point, she got herself checked out by a cardiovascular physician, just to make sure.
Her heart was in perfect condition. Her therapist and her doctor agreed; she was having anxiety attacks. Elizabeth was a doctor herself so she knew that wasn’t exactly right either, but it was something she could blame the pain on, something that might help explain the sudden urges she had to cry or throw something at some unsuspecting jerk’s head.
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