The man stood naked on broken glass, chains that disappeared into the darkness above tugged at his arms. A red-skinned demon shoved another spike into the man's side, driving it deep into his flesh. The man screamed for mercy as the demon picked up another barbed spike. If the man had still been of mortal flesh and bone he would surely have perished by now. Instead, as a soul damned to Hell, the man merely felt the pain and torment of his properly assigned punishment.
I stood next to the demon, watching as yet another spike sunk into the man's body. "The more you scream and protest, the longer this will last," I said. I moved over to stand next to the man and put a comforting hand on his back. Laying my head on his shoulders, my golden hair draped onto his chest. Sometimes the damned required a little human contact and comfort to help them along to salvation.
"Deep down, you know why you are here. You know this is necessary. You know this is what you deserve. You merely have to accept it and salvation can be yours." I rubbed a gentle hand upon his chest. Then I took a couple of spikes from the demon and staked one right where the man's heart would be. "Accept your punishment to be forgiven, and to forgive yourself," I said as I pulled away from his body.
The man howled, cursing everyone and everything: his parents, his teachers, his enemies, his friends, his situation, the demons, Satan, God, even me. Finally his breath ran out and he hung his head, panting. After a minute, slowly he raised his head and looked to me. "I'm sorry, Susan, you know I didn't mean that. It's just the pain talking. It's just so, so hard." He tried to smile but only managed a slight grimace.
"Susan, may I request the pleasure of your company for a moment?" came another voice from behind me, a deep, low voice that held the air of aristocracy.
I put a hand on the naked man's and smiled. "Everyone works through their sins at their own pace." I leaned in to whisper into his ear. "In fact, it took me almost 1000 years to work through mine." Then I nodded to the demon who picked up another spike to resume the soul's cleansing.
I fixed my hair, tying it loosely and then headed in the direction the voice came. Though my soul was cleansed, as long as I resided in Hell I wasn't entirely free of its torments. Flames licked at my bare skin while broken glass and thorns dug into my feet. Smoke impeded my vision and clogged my lungs. All of it though was just a minor inconvenience compared to the tortures I'd previously endured.
Eventually the smoke cleared and standing in front of me was an immaculately dressed man in a red suit. Black, slicked back hair and a salesman's smile, he could've been one of any number of men I'd known while still alive. It was the short horns and the whip-thin tail that gave away his true identity as Satan, ruler of Hell. That, and the fact that he was the only person wearing clothes.
"Ahh, Susan, thank you for coming to see me," he said, spreading his arms wide. I stepped into the embrace politely. He was, after all, the ruler of Hell. "Come Susan, walk with me for a while." He kept a hand wrapped around my waist and turned us toward a path.
"Of course, my Lord," I said already familiar with the same old conversation to be had. As we took our first steps along the path, a peace washed over me as being in Satan's presence dispelled the constant dull pain all souls endured in Hell. It was probably easier to converse with souls if they were comfortable and not screaming. "I already know what you're going to ask, as you have asked every few months for the last three centuries," I said before He could make his proposal.
"As I've asked for five centuries now," Satan corrected. "But still I do need to make the offer less I find myself in violation of the covenant between He and I. So, once again I ask. Susan, your soul has been cleansed and you are free to ascend to Paradise. Heaven welcomes you if you so choose." As He spoke, a bright light appeared in the sky overhead. A warmth enveloped me, not like the heat of the flames of Hell but the loving embrace of a parent holding a child tight whether just returning after a day of school or several years away - the eternal love that never falters. I wrapped my arms around my body and sunk to the ground as tears filled my eyes. Even after all these centuries, nothing compared to it. I knew that after it left me I wouldn't be able to recall the feeling even in my memories.
I savored the feeling for a minute more before stepping out of the light. "Sorry, I refuse to go," I said. Slowly the light dimmed, and the warmth faded.
Satan walked back next to me and took my hand, leading me back to the path. "In this matter I must have some guidance: why do you and others of your race continue to refuse Heaven's invitation?" Satan inquired as we continued along the path again.
It was true that once a soul was redeemed and truly repentant they would be invited into Heaven. It was also true that more and more humans were choosing to stay behind. "Though we face the daily torments of Hell's climate, we're safe from the tortures of the demons as they cannot touch a good soul. And once you get used to that aspect, Hell really isn't so bad," I said, looking out over the world around us. Red-skinned demons, both male and female of all shapes and sizes tortured humans as far as the eye could see. Mixed in among them though were other humans like myself, cleansed souls that refused Heaven's invitation and chose instead to remain in Hell to help our sisters and brothers to redeem themselves too. "Besides, helping our fellow man is its own reward and should be reason enough for any of us to stay," I added.
Satan released my hand and turned to me. "Good, I'm glad to hear that. And here I was thinking that it might have something to with a rebellion."
I felt my body tense for a moment and took several deep breaths to calm it. "Rebellion, my Lord," I asked.
"You forget that I am still an angel. Lucifer, the first of the Fallen. Though I reside Below, I still do have contacts in the halls of my Father. I've heard rumors that some of your people have taken an interest in the holy arms my siblings carry, to the point that they've been seen donning them. Golden armor. Swords. Spears. Shields. Some even going missing." Black feathered wings spread from behind his back. The two points on his forehead grew to full length horns, curling back above his head. A fractured halo appeared above his head. Fire danced in his eyes and I began to feel the flames once again lick at my skin. "I've even heard a rumor that some of those missing weapons may have ended up in My domain. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you Susan?"
"Shit," I said before letting out a high-pitched whistle. Being naked at all times didn't allow us many places to conceal weapons on our person. That was one of the main reasons we stayed so close to the demons and assisted in the tortures - access to weapons. At my signal, dozens more let out a whistle, followed by hundreds more, then thousands more and so on until all of my agents were activated. They picked up black spikes or barbed whips or any other improvised weapon lying about and turned them on the demons, or freed the tortured souls and added them to our ranks.
Satan looked about at my rebellion. "What have you done?"
I took the opportunity to reach behind my back and pull a black spike hidden within the weaves of my hair. "Just following your example, my Lord. After all, better to rule in Hell," I said as I thrust the spike at his chest.
The spike struck true and I buried it into Satan's chest. Then He laughed. "What did you hope to accomplish with your effort? Did you really believe a weapon forged in Hell could harm me? I'm no mere demon. I am the Lord of this realm!" He exclaimed proudly as he spread his arms wide as to show the spike did him no harm.
I sank down to my knees and lowered my head. "Merely a distraction, my Lord," I said, grabbing a handful of Hell soil and tossing it at Satan's face. Instinctively, He raised his arms to shields his eyes from the mixture of dirt, ground glass, and shit.
Then the golden light of dawn rising erupted from behind the fallen angel. We both looked, squinting to see past the light radiating from the exposed angel blade. Another man with manacles clamped around his wrists but chains severed stood in the light. He held the sword two-handed and raised above his head. "Get thee behind me, Satan!" the man shouted, bringing the sword down in a vertical chop.
Sensing the immediate danger of the angel blade and the unsheathing of multiple angelic weapons in the hands of damned souls, Satan retreated from our fight. With Satan gone, the naked man looked to me. "Sorry, I missed. What do we do now?" he asked as he sheathed the sword and the glow disappeared with it.
I lifted myself off the ground. All around us and probably throughout the rest of Hell, damned souls armed with stolen demonic devices and smuggled angelic arms fought against the legions of Hell. Though we outnumbered them, the demons were better equipped and suited for fighting in these conditions. Not to mention Satan had escaped our assassination attempt, leaving the ruler of Hell somewhere on the battlefield for the enemy.
I shook my head. "We were found out sooner than I'd planned and forced to act before all of our pieces were in place. I think we'll need to retreat for now. Let as many as you can know that we're falling back to the wild lands on the outskirts of Hell. The places Satan does not fully control, where the monsters still roam. From there we shall stage our rebellion." I looked up to the sky, to that point in the darkness where I last saw the light of Heaven shine through. "We can only hope that our sisters and brothers in Heaven have not been found out yet, too."
Prompted from Reddit Writing Prompts: (summarized) You go to Hell but realize it isn't so bad and people are staying. My original idea ended at the first half of the story, making it a sort of wholesome (at least compared to what I usually write). I mean, could you imagine, people staying behind in Hell just to help stragers they'd never known in life toward redemption? This was kinda inspired by the Incarnations of Immortality series I'm reading, I think. I'm not to that particular book yet, but I think this is kind of relatable to the situation the character finds himself. Then as I was writing, my brain went off on a tangent and I ended up with the next half of "maybe they're actually plotting a rebellion to take over hell, that seems like a jackass human thing to do." Then I remembered about the other story I wrote a while back about humans attempting to take over Heaven, so I put in that connection at the end of the story (if you didn't read it, congrats! it wasn't that good. If for some dumb reason you are interested, I think it was called Jailbreak or something). I think if I was a better writer, I would've stuck with just that first idea as there's probably a lot more I could've done with that. Umm... I'm just trying to think if there's anything else I want to say about this one. I know, compared to the last two or three stories, I don't think this one is on par with those ones, but (like a junkie trying to get clean for the 14th time) I am once again trying to get one story posted a week so I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with this one.
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