CHAPTER TWO

Anita's scream continued long enough that Clara was amazed she didn't need to stop for a breath. The man...Satan...watched bemusedly. Glenn was not so entertained.

“Stop it,” he said without force, but with authority. “Go any longer and someone's ears will bleed.” It wasn't how Clara would have handled it, but it did seem to work and the screams turned to sniffles. The second she was done, Miller spoke up.

“Are you fuckin' kidding me?” he shouted, stomping his foot again. It seemed to be a habit with him. “What the hell kind of joke is this? 'Cause I don't find it funny!”

“Really?” asked Satan. “That's too bad. Life's no fun if you can't find it funny. That's my motto anyway.”

For the first time, Marie spoke up, having cleaned her mouth as best she could with the back of her hand. “Life?” she asked. Clara was surprised. Despite her initial reaction, her voice was strong and clear. Loud too. “You claim that we're in Hell. One would assume that means we're dead given those circumstances.” Bizarrely, Clara thought she saw a hint of a smile on Marie's lips, but it was the kind of smile that was an imprint from a lot of smiles in a person's life.

Satan looked pleased by this. “Ooh, perhaps you're more interesting than your...messy introduction had led us to believe. Well, normally, you would be correct. But you six, you're different. You're something special. And perhaps more importantly, you're still alive.”

This, more than anything, snapped Anita out of her misery just a bit. “W-what do you mean?” she asked in a shaky voice.

Crossing his legs, Satan answered. “None of you belong here. Well, not yet at least.” He made eye contact with Glenn as he said this.

Glenn grunted. “You're being awfully vague.”

“Yes, well, comes with the job, I suppose. It serves me quite well when I journey out on...business ventures.” He chuckled at this and clearly seemed to think it was quite funny. None of them laughed. “Ugh, you're all too serious. How about we walk and talk?”

This turned out not to be a request. Without another word, Satan stood up and walked out a door that most definitely had not been there before. With not much in the way of options, they all followed him. Gabriel helped Marie to her feet and she quickly took the lead, Gabriel right behind her. Miller stomped along next, with Glenn taking a calculated spot in the middle. Anita shakily followed and Clara took up the rear. They stepped through the door and found themselves suddenly walking down the hall of what appeared to be a sinking cruise liner, with water up to their throats and rising quickly. Instinctively, they all panicked and took deep breaths. Miller ducked under the water, apparently attempting to swim, only to fall flat on his face and hit the floor.

“Ow!” he exclaimed. “What the hell?!” It was about this time that Clara realized that she couldn't actually feel the water, just like she couldn't feel the flame from before.

“The water isn't affecting us,” she stated with just a tinge of astonishment. Everyone released their breath, except for Gabriel; it seemed to take a minute for it to register with him.

“And why should it?” asked Satan's voice from the other side of a door down the hall. “You're with me and this isn't your hell.”

The six of them followed the voice and, through the door, found a ballroom, filled to the brim with water as well and hundreds upon thousands of people flailing around uselessly, clutching their throats, trying desperately to get any scrap of air they could.

A breathy “Oh my God” from Anita was all any of them managed. Almost instantly, Gabriel ran to the nearest person he could reach and tried to grab their leg. Clara wondered what he thought he might be able to do for them under the water, but she admired his desire to help, even if she didn't share it at the moment. It became a moot point though as his hand passed uselessly through the man's leg.

“No!” yelled Gabriel. He looked at the other five of them frantically. “C'mon you guys! We've gotta help them!” Clara went to him as a show of support, even though she knew they would be unable to do anything. The rest just looked horrified and stared. Except for Glenn. He just stared normally.

Appearing from nowhere next to Miller, Satan casually asked, “Supposing you could, which you can't by the way, are you sure you'd want to?”

Gabriel looked furious and the hint of stubble all over his face seemed to stand on end, insignificant follicle soldiers rising to his defense. His little beard did less good for his appearance than Glenn's. “Of course I would! That's what any good person would do!”

“Is that so?” asked Satan dismissively. “Even if the man you're trying to help was a serial rapist in life?” Gabriel's strong posture slumped and a confused look took over his face. “Because that's what that fellow is. Had his way with four women, and one young man, though he never bragged about that nearly so much. Had every intention of doing it again after his prison sentence was done, too. Never made it though, cause one of his former prizes shot him going to his trial. Last thing he ever did was spit blood on her, before he ended up here with me.” Gabriel was visibly shaken by this. “Still want to save him?”

“I...I...he, they don't...” he stammered out. “You're lying!” was what he settled on.

Satan shrugged. “Not outside the realm of possibility. Prince of Lies and all that. But not this time. Not that it matters. As you saw, you can't even touch them right now because you're here with me and, like I said before, this isn't your hell.”

“Meaning what exactly?” asked Glenn, annoyingly calmly. “Is there more than one Hell? And why does it matter that you're here?”

“Keep walking and I'll explain,” responded Satan, turning away once again. “You're partially right. Generally speaking, there is one Hell, capital H,” he began to explain. “All of you silly humans that can't control themselves end up down here with me, getting their eternal punishment and all that jazz.” He leaned back to Marie and half-whispered, “You'd be surprised how often the punishment is literally jazz.” He chuckled to himself again. Weirdly, Marie chuckled at this too. “Anyhoo, once they get down here, their punishment is determined and they get their own personal hell, lowercase this time, to spend eternity suffering through. Their own little universe made up of a what's what and who's who of whatever will cause them the most agony.” He turned and smiled before saying, “And I am very good at my job, though I often delegate this out to others.” Clara wondered who these others might be, but decided she probably didn't want to know.

“Didn't look too personal,” interrupted Miller. “Lotta people in there with him.” Satan passed another door. Now they were in a massive room, one that appeared to belong to a child. There were hundreds of men and women on their knees or cowering in fetal positions while someone that looked just enough like them to be a parent screamed at them and beat them. Clara felt bad for categorizing, but nevertheless decided she preferred this room to the last.

“You're exactly right. And that's partially why you're walking with me now. Corners have had to be cut and resources are running low, thanks in part to you lot.”

“What does that mean?” asked Clara. She had a feeling they were all going to become very familiar with that question as the conversation progressed.

Satan threw his arms out in an all-encompassing motion. In this case, it was now encompassing a room where people were being slowly eaten by giant ants. As soon as there was was no flesh left to eat, it would grow back and the process would continue. Clara felt her stomach turn at this. Generally speaking, she was not squeamish, but this was too much. She looked to Marie to see if she might have company in evacuating her stomach, but Marie now looked surprisingly put-together, so Clara did it alone. In the background, she noticed Gabriel vainly attempt to pull one of the ants away, unafraid of it, but his hands passed right through it again and he fell flat on his rear. Satan continued to talk as though nothing was happening.

“All this here? Everything you can and can't see? It comes from me.” He jabbed a finger at his own chest. “Of course, my underlings run the day-to-day of it all, but everything is created from my power. It is because you're in my proximity that you can't affect or be affected by any of it. If one of you were to wander too far off, well, things would be different.” He looked to Gabe. “But it would likely be less you 'saving' people and more of the ants eating you as well, so I suggest you stay close.” Gabe tried to look unfazed by this, but she could tell it did actually frighten him. “Anyway, the more people here, the more total agony, the more power I have to work with and the more fun I can have. Basically, the more people down here that belong here, the happier I am.” He spun around and pointed at each of them accusingly. “You all, you don't belong here. You're not even dead.” Clara heard a sigh of relief escape Anita's mouth, despite the fact he'd already told them that. “Since you're not supposed to be here and none of you have been judged, you're throwing my realm and, by extension, me, off my game. I'm weakened just by you being here.” He made a sweeping motion once again and pointed, drawing attention to a few hundred people being dissected alive, piece-by-piece, by identical surgeons. “Which is why we've got so many sharing space. Normally, everyone would get their own, tailor-made hell, customized for maximum discomfort. Some still do, but for many, they've got to make due with shared space and Generic McScientist here.” He snapped his fingers and all the doctors turned to them and took their surgeon's masks off, revealing identical faces, before going back to work.

Miller shuddered and just said, “Creepy.”

“I am a creature of meticulous detail. I do not like having to cut corners like this. I was...forced into my position here, but have grown to take great pride in it and I do not appreciate outside forces setting me back like this.” For the first time, there was noticeable anger in his voice and, oddly enough given that she was currently talking to the Devil himself, Clara felt her first real moment of fear from him.

“And who are these outside forces?” asked Clara, trying not to visibly show the fear.

“N-not us? Please, I didn't mean to do anything!” stammered Anita.

Satan sighed. “Relax, it wasn't you. Well, not this. Not directly anyway.”

“Then who?” asked Gabriel, rubbing his backside after his fall.

“Alas!” shouted Satan dramatically, “Even I cannot be sure. But you don't need to worry about that. You just need to stop draining my power.”

“What? How the, er, hell are we supposed to do that?” asked Miller.

“Simple. By leaving Hell and returning to the land of the living,” he answered nonchalantly. “Once you're no longer here, restraining my power, I will be able to to reach out to my earthly agents and find who has affronted me so and make sure they are punished accordingly. But you six only need to leave.”

“And we do that how?” questioned Glenn. “Do you just poof us back up to Earth?”

Satan dropped his head as though shamed. “Sadly, no. I have very little power on Earth and no capability to return any to it.”

“Stop giving such non-answers!” yelled Anita, surprising everyone, even Glenn. “How do we get out of here?”

“Why, my dear, you simply use the exit,” he said with a smile.

“There's an exit...out of Hell?” asked Gabriel skeptically.

“Of course. Every place needs and entrance and, thusly, an exit.”

Miller huffed. “Then point the way, man! I wanna get outta here ASAP!”

Once again, Satan feigned shame. “Sadly, it is not that easy. You see, much as I may have come to enjoy it, I was initially given this role as punishment. Perhaps you've heard the story. As such, I am forbidden from ever leaving. In fact, I am quite incapable of even finding the door. It was made so that even should I find its location, it would simply move. I would make a rather poor navigator in getting you there.”

Glenn let out an angry growl. “So not quite as simple as you said. Enough with this. If not from you, then how do we find the door?!”

Satan smiled again, as though he had some juicy secret he was about to finally share after having to hold it in for a long time. “You will need a guide. The only other person to ever arrive here as you did and, as such, the only other living soul here in Hell. He's been here for some time now. He will show you the way.”

Clara's eyebrow arched. “Wait, so someone else has been brought here alive like us? Who is he?”

The smile grew wider. “Oh, I am so glad you, of all people, asked, Clara.” The way he said her name made her heart pound. A cold shiver of anticipation ran through her body. “It's very appropriate as this man...” he paused dramatically, “...is your father!”

Everyone whipped their heads around to look at her and there were a couple of gasps. “What?” answered Clara, dumbfounded. “My father is alive. I just saw him three days ago at his place.”

Satan made a tut tut noise. “No, no. Not the man who adopted you. I mean your real father.” Now Clara joined the others in gasping.

Next Chapter: Chapter Three