“Are you going to catch me when I fall?”
She laughed. “I can try. You’re a little bit bigger than I am, but I think I can handle it.”
She walked over and stood beneath me. I released my grip on the sword and crashed into her. We both fell to the floor.
“Well thanks for breaking my fall, at least,” I said laughing.
“No problem,” she said with a smile. “Maybe next time we meet you can avoid hurting me?”
“I think I can try that!”
“So where did you get that sword?”
“I’d rather not say. It belongs to Charlie now.”
“Okay. So then why do you have it?”
“I have to give it to him, still. I think I might skip town afterwards though.”
“That’s not fair!”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you just got back! Don’t you want to spend any time with me before you just take off for your next destination?”
“I guess I can. You could always come with me.”
“Where are you going?”
“To the next level of Hell. I think it’s Greed, right?”
“That’s right. I guess I can come along with you, if you tell me where you got that sword from.”
I didn’t want to trust her about that, but at the same time, her body guards would help a lot. I did run into trouble more than occasionally.
“I stole it.”
“You stole it? From Charlie?”
“No. I went to Beelzebub’s tower and stole it.”
“WHAT!?”
“Yeah. Charlie made me.”
“Are you insane!? People that betray Beelzebub are never seen again! You have to get out of here as soon as possible!”
“I know. He already imprisoned me before I even did anything to him.”
“I warned you about him! I told you what he’s like! Why did you do that!?”
“I told you, Charlie made me!” She was starting to get on my nerves. She wasn’t my mother I didn’t think she had any right to tell me what to do or how to live.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you, but you have to understand what you just did. You basically challenged the Elohim of Gluttony to a man hunt. He’s going to hunt you down.”
“I doubt he knows that it was me that stole it. I’m sure he thinks that I’m still in prison.”
“I doubt it! Beelzebub always knows what’s going on in Gluttony. I don’t know how he does it. I don’t know if he has spies or what, but he always knows! Jon, you’re in a lot of trouble right now!”
“You don’t think I know that? I just broke out of the cell he put me in to spend eternity only to go back to his tower and steal from him! I just need to give this sword to Charlie and get out of Gluttony.”
“I can try to sneak you out, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to or not.”
“I’d appreciate any help at all.”
“You can count on me.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” She smiled at me and I walked to the back of the building. She started to follow me, but I gave her a “get away from me” look and she did.
“Charlie!” I yelled into the empty room.
“Do you have my sword?” Charlie’s deep voice came from behind me.
“It’s right here,” I said, holding the sword by the point of the blade.
He snatched the sword from my hands, holding it by the blade, as well. “I’m glad. Were there anymore complications?”
“Just a few, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
“Good.” His sinister smile crept onto his face. “So is this where you’ve been hiding?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
“Just curious. I didn’t know you were associating with one of Asmodeus’ lackeys.”
“I don’t think Callista is much of a lackey.”
“You would be surprised. I imagine that she reports much to the Elohim of Lust.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Why wouldn’t she?”
“I don’t know. I guess I never really thought about it.”
“Jon, I am surprised that your mortal ways have clouded your judgment. I thought that by now you would have figured out that your ideals of trust no longer apply to your life.”
I didn’t say anything to him. Charlie had a way of fracturing my happiness and sense of accomplishment. I think he enjoyed it.
“So where are you going after I leave?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“I think you have.”
“How would you know that? Have you been spying on me?”
“I don’t have time for such meager and trivial situations. You have been exiled from Lust and are a wanted man in Gluttony. There is only one place you can go. I suppose you could travel on through Greed, but I don’t see that happening. I think you will find Greed much to your liking. Then again, you have a way of making things more difficult for yourself.”
“What I do is none of your business! I do your jobs, and I would appreciate it if you left the rest of my life alone!”
“Your business is my business as long as you are under my employment! I have tolerated much from you, Jon. Do not make me regret my decisions or I will make you regret yours.”
“I’ll let you know when I’m ready for a new job.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I will contact you when I have a job ready for you, and you will get it done.”
“Whatever. Bye Charlie.”
He smiled and said, “Goodbye, Jon.” Then he put the sword through a loop on his belt, careful not to touch the hilt, and then he vanished.
Callista walked over to me. “Why do you let him treat you like that, Jon?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I responded. “I don’t really have a choice. If I make him too angry with me, I doubt he will help me.”
“Why do you need his help?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“No, I really do.”
“He is helping me return to Earth so that I can be with my wife again.”
“Oh. You’re right, I didn’t want to know. What’s so great about Earth anyway? I have a much better life here than I ever did there. No one can judge me here, and if they do, they wind up regretting it.”
“Exactly. I don’t want to live in a plane filled with fear and death anymore. I never did. Ever since I got to this godforsaken place I’ve wanted nothing more than to go back and change what I’ve done. I hate it here.”
“I see. Well I guess we should be going. The longer we wait, the more likely you are to get found out.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
“Okay, follow me.”
It had seemed to me that I had only spent precious little time in Gluttony, but more had happened to me there than I had liked. It was a nice feeling to know that I was leaving it behind, but at the same time, I was afraid of what I was going to be encountering in this brand new place known as Greed.
“I don’t live too far away from the border to Greed,” Callista began, “so it shouldn’t be too hard to get there. As long as we take the back roads, I think we’ll be safe.”
“I hope so,” I said. “I’m about tired of having to fight my way through things. I don’t really want to do that anymore.”
“I can understand that. I try to avoid all the fighting I can. Usually if you just seem tough, people will leave you alone.”
“Yeah, I think I know what you mean.”
“You should. I did it to you, after all.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, when we first met. Don’t you remember?”
“I guess so.”
“You have to remember that. You were on my building and I made you leave?”
“Yeah, I remember that. So you weren’t really going to kill me?”
“I didn’t say that. If you wouldn’t have left I probably would’ve. I’m glad I d
idn’t though.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s my building. I didn’t want you to just freeload.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“Why are you glad that you didn’t kill me?”
“I don’t know. Just because.”
“That’s not a real answer.”
“Maybe not, but that’s the answer you’re getting!” she laughed.
I chuckled and said, “I’m pretty glad you decided not to kill me, too.”
“I imagine you are.”
“So how long ‘till we get to Greed?”
“Not much further, now. Once we get there, the stairs are pretty long.”
“That’s okay. I’m used to walking up the stairs.”
“Did you have to work in a tall building in life?”
“Yeah. I worked on the 45th floor.”
“Forty-five floors!? That’s bigger than any building I ever saw in life.”
“Is that so? You must’ve been here for a long time.”
“You can say that again. I used to miss everything about Earth, but that passed after a while.”
“I hope that doesn’t happen to me.”
“Why not?”
“Because Earth is beautiful. I didn’t even realize how much everything meant to me until it was taken away. Every time I go back to Earth, I miss it even more.”
“Have you been there a lot?”
“A few times. Most of the time I ended running off on my own and forsaking my actual reason for being there.”
“I bet you got in trouble.”
“Well there are 2 levels of Hell that I’m no longer welcome in, does that say enough?”
She laughed, “I guess you have a point there. So you never told me about being imprisoned.”
“There isn’t much to say about it.”
“Sure there is.”
“Maybe. I don’t really know what to say about it.”
“Well, let’s start somewhere easy. How did it happen?”
“I went to tour his tower.”
“Why did you do that?” she interrupted.
“I had to find that sword. I couldn’t just waltz in there and take it, so I had to get a tour of it first.”
“So then what happened?”
“Well, we toured the entire tower and ended up on the top floor, which was his throne.”
“His throne? I’ve heard stories about that.”
“Like what?”
“That the throne is where he takes people to torture them to death.”
“Something like that. I almost died.”
“Did you?”
“Yeah. It was unbearable. I ended up passing out before I could, I guess.”
“So what happened after you left the throne?”
“I’m not sure. The next thing I knew I woke up in a small little dungeon.”
“A dungeon? Where? In Gluttony?”
“No. It was on Earth. I’m not sure where I was.”
“Really!?”
“Yeah. It was nice to be on Earth for a change. I actually ended up going to sleep and having a good dream instead of a nightmare. It was wonderful.”
“I don’t have dreams anymore.”
“I remember you telling me that.”
“You do?”
“Of course I do. I’ve got a pretty good memory.”
“I don’t. I can’t even remember much of my life.”
“That must be unfortunate.”
“Not really.”
“You don’t ever think about it?”
“It’s not that. I do think about it sometimes, but I think that I’d rather not know and be able to lead my life like I am now. If I knew what I was like before I died, then I’d probably struggle through Hell.”
“Maybe. I don’t struggle through, though. I use my life as inspiration of something better to keep me going. It helps me.”
“I can see that. So what happened after you woke up in the cell. I mean how’d you get out?”
“Oh that’s pretty interesting. I met a man in there. He couldn’t remember his name and I think he was in there for a long time. He said he was the former champion of Beelzebub before Ferrum took over.”
“He was? I thought Ferrum was the first.”
“Nope. This man was the first. After Ferrum came along, he was almost killed. Beelzebub ended up imprisoning him for losing the fight to Ferrum.”
“What was his name?”
“I said he couldn’t remember it, but he ended up taking the name Lucas.”
“Lucas? What did he look like?”
“He had dark hair and a full beard. He was about my size. I didn’t see him that much. The room was pitch-black and when we finally got out of there, he left pretty much immediately.”
“That’s too bad. How did you get out of there?”
“Well I found a small piece of metal and I tried picking the lock but I couldn’t get it to budge. So I tossed it to Lucas.”
“So he picked it?”
“After a while. Beelzebub had tortured him a lot. He was a little defeated. I had to talk to him a lot and convince him that he could, but eventually he did it and set me free as well.”
“Wow. I didn’t know you had it in you. You really are a great man.”
“I guess so. I’ve always had to motivate people at work in my life, so it wasn’t a big switch.”
“At least you were prepared for it. Still, being able to talk someone from the brink of giving up back to completely being ready for life, that’s pretty big.”
“If you say so.”
“So what happened after you left there? You said you were on Earth, how did you end back here?”
“I was. I was a ghost and I didn’t know where I was. I started walking and eventually I went to sleep and had that dream. That’s when Charlie found me and brought me back to Hell.”
“I bet you were pretty reluctant.”
“You would think so, but I didn’t know where I was and I figured Charlie would come for me after a while, anyway.”
“Does he usually?”
“He’s always there. I don’t know if it’s just me or what, but he’s always there when I’m on Earth.”
“I think it’s just you. I’ve met people before that have told me they spent centuries on Earth before anyone came for them.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah. They told me all sorts of stories about Earth. I think Earth is fascinating.”
“It’s great up there. I wish I could go back.”
“So why don’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You tell me all the time about how you go up there to work for Charlie, why don’t you just go up there more often?”
“I don’t know. I go up there as much as I can, but he doesn’t always have work for me, and when he does, I usually end up doing something else.”
“Why? You want to be with your wife, right?”
“Sure I do! That’s why I’m working for him in the first place.”
“So then why don’t you just do what he says and get there faster?”
“I don’t know. I guess I should.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment. She had a strange look on her face. She looked sad. I couldn’t understand why. She seemed happy with the life she was leading, as much as I disagreed with it. If she was happy doing all of the evil things that she was, then who was I to say something. I looked down at my feet and realized that we were on a set of dark marble like stairs. I looked back and found that while we had been talking, I hadn’t noticed that we were half way up the stairs to Greed. As soon as I realized it, the weight on my shoulders increased dramatically. I cringed and fell to my knees. My burden was catching up to me.
“You okay, Jon?” Callista asked.
“Yeah,” I said with a moan. “I think it’s just because we’re going deeper into Hell.”
“I guess you have
n’t done much traveling in Hell?”
“More than I would like, but less than I should’ve.”
“The longer you spend down here the less it hurts. You just sort of get used to being in pain all the time.”
“How can you stand to live like that?”
“I don’t know any other way. It’s not like it affects me less, I just don’t know what to compare it to. It seems normal now.”
“I can’t imagine feeling like this all the time. As soon as you get to Earth, it’s all gone. It feels wonderful to be in the light again.”
“I bet it does. I would like to visit there sometime.”
“Maybe you could come with me the next time I go.”
“I would like that. We should talk to Charlie about it the next time you see him.”
“I will. I have to warn you though, once you get there, you aren’t going to want to come back.”
She laughed and said, “I will just have to see for myself. Like I said, this is normal to me, it will probably be strange to see everything through new eyes.”
“Just wait, it’s the most magnificent thing you will ever see. It trumps everything you could possibly imagine about being down here.”
“I can’t wait to go on an adventure with you.”
“Why is that? Aren’t you plenty busy without me?”
“You would think so, but no. Everything gets pretty boring and mundane after you’ve done it enough.”
“I can understand that. I think it’s true about all things you could do. Everything is exciting at first, but it loses its luster after a while.”
“Plus you seem to get into some exciting situations on a regular basis.”
I laughed, “Yes, that’s very true. Not so much by choice, but it does happen a lot.”
We reached the top of the stairs and in the distance I could see a small settlement in Hell. I had made it to Greed.
“We have a few minutes before we reach the limits of Greed, is there anything I should know before we get there?” I asked.
“There are a couple things you should probably know about Greed, now that you mention it.”
“Okay, so what is it?”
“Well the Elohim that governs Greed is named Mammon. He rides a wolf and is on a par with Beelzebub as far as delighting in the suffering of you and me. He always lies, not matter what. You thought Asmodeus was bad? Just wait.”
“He rides a wolf?”
“Yes, and it’s a lot bigger than any wolf you’ll ever find on Earth. You can usually hear him coming though. Most of the roads in Greed are brick so you can hear the wolf’s claws striking the ground as it bounds through the city. It’s best to stay inside when you’re in Greed. Most of the time if the Elohim find you outside, they’ll make sure that you aren’t caught there again. So therefore, you aren’t going to find many people standing around like you will in the previous levels. If you want to get anything done in Greed, you better make some friends that will let you stay with them. You really want to avoid Mammon. I think he‘s worse than Beelzebub, although a lot of people will disagree with me. His wolf has a mind of its own and when it’s hungry, it‘ll eat whomever is closest, and Mammon will not stop him. I‘ve heard that his wolf has eaten one of Mammon‘s guards before.”
Hellbound: Chronicles Page 20