King of Hell

by Melody Rose

  If I ever needed to be humbled, Lilith would remind me, Heaven was the place to send me.

  I said a mental farewell as the last bit of cognac coated the back of my throat. With a deep breath, I pushed myself up off my seat and worked my way slowly down the steps to the dark gray expanse of floor beneath me. After returning my glass gently to the bar, I looked up at my reflection in the mirror that ran the length of the wall. After straightening my tie, running my fingers through my hair, and bracing my hands against the bar top, I had to admit that there was nothing else I could do to delay this trip. One more deep breath and I was headed out the door.

  The Pearly Gates weren’t pearly. Not really. They were a pale silver, and they glistened impossibly bright in the perpetual sunlight. They were several stories tall, curved in a multitude of directions for an incredibly ornate presentation, and they were much wider than a gate needs to be. The angels definitely had a penchant for the dramatic. Either that or they were really banking on everyone on Earth suddenly changing their ways and flooding the Gates of Heaven.

  I chuckled to myself. That would never happen. I was way too busy down in Hell to think that would ever be possible.

  There were no fluffy clouds to walk on either, although the ground felt very cushy. The plush green grass underneath the gates rippled perfectly in the breeze, and the air temperature was so perfect, one would not even pay attention to it as they went about their day.

  Fun fact: The temperature up here actually adjusts to each individual’s preference. No more bickering with your spouse about the thermostat setting.

  As I approached, my presence caused the Gates to swing open automatically, slowly and dramatically, providing me access to the white stone pathway that led up to the largest castle one could imagine. It was a very long pathway, and as I walked, the castle began to loom over me. The castle had multiple spires, and the shingles covering the roof glistened an almost silver color in the perfect sunlight. The corners and edges of the building, as well as the window frames, all had ornate carvings decorating them. The building was enormous, and I knew it was twice as deep as it was wide. This was supposed to be impressive, but I never cared for it. It was too white and too ornate. It did, however, make me think of Asmodeus. If he could access this place, he would kick all the angels out and never leave.

  They say all dogs go to Heaven, and that’s true. The property was expansive, without limits, and I could never make the trip from the Gate to the front door of the castle without encountering at least one dog. They were always outside, running and playing, enjoying the endless sunshine. This was quite possibly the only thing I enjoyed about my trips up here.

  Today, a gorgeous Siberian Husky ran up to me, tail wagging, a stuffed bone the size of her entire body in her mouth. I crouched down and took a moment to pet her. Once she was content, I took the bone from her, and with all the power I could muster, sent the bone hurtling toward the horizon. The dog’s eyes lit up as she spun around to chase it, running as fast as she could until she was out of sight. I stood there for a moment in appreciation, before turning and resuming my trek to the front door.

  After I got my workout climbing the asinine amount of steps, the main doors swung open automatically before me, exposing a gorgeous carrera marble tile floor that extended the length and width of a football field with a double curved staircase on the far end.

  Section 105-FA-908-LP was up the stairs and down to the left. I knew exactly where it was, and I also knew it would be a hike. It didn’t help that my eyes took more time than usual to adjust to the bright whiteness of Heaven. Coming up from my dark basement into the sunlight was never pleasant, but it seemed to get increasingly worse with each visit.

  I walked up one side of the staircase, and by the time I reached the top, I was cursing the person who invented stairs. I didn’t know who they were. They weren’t in Hell, which was unfortunate since that would have been a simple punishment to set up on my end with endless hours of enjoyment.

  The halls up here had an almost clinical feel, probably because they were devoid of all color. White marble floors continued up here, catching the light and reflected it back at me, sending pain into the back of my retinas. The white painted walls with identical ‘dramatic’ sconces and moldings emphasized the monotonous feel. Even the wall decor was white. Sometimes you could tell they were feeling a bit festive and threw some light gray in there for contrast.

  Damn, it was easy to get lost up here. Everything looked the same.

  When I finally tracked down the right section, I saw the angel I was looking for immediately. He was sitting behind an old brown desk with rusted metal legs, his feet propped up on it, leaving back on the swiveling black office chair. He had the New York Times stretched open before him, obscuring his face, but I knew he was aware of my presence.

  “Luci!” a playful voice shouted, muffled from behind the newspaper. “I miss you, bro! Long time, no see!” The newspaper snapped downward, revealing Gabriel’s face. Gabriel was always clean-shaven, with light blue eyes and light brown hair that tended to take on a personality of its own. It was always easy to tell how he was feeling based on the condition of his hair.

  Today, Gabriel was in a good mood. He was grinning ear to ear, and his hair was still somewhat combed. He dropped the newspaper onto the table as he got to his feet. As he rose, he snapped his fingers, causing the desk, chair, and table to shimmer and vanish. Then he came in for a hug.

  My wings bristled at the thought, but I let the hug happen, anyway. I knew from previous experience that he would not take no for an answer. Gabriel was a hugger. He could have been worse things.

  “Hey, Gabe,” I said casually, knowing he hated the nickname. I needed to get my one jab in before getting down to business. “How’ve you been? How’re things?”

  “Oh, you know, the usual,” he remarked nonchalantly. “I’m sure you’ve noticed Michael visiting down by you more often. He’s been kind of a pain in the ass lately, and I think he has grown tired of me telling him to take a hike.”

  I hadn’t noticed Michael down by me lately. I wondered if that was because he was spending all of his time bothering Evelyn. I made a mental note to look into it when I returned.

  “So, what brings you up to my neck of Heaven?” Gabriel brushed off his lightly wrinkled white button-down and khakis, and then looked up at me expectantly.

  “I need to find a Filomena Hernandez. She should be in your section. I just want to obtain some information, is all.” I remained casual. I didn’t want anyone up here getting wind of the details as to why I found this trip necessary.

  “Well, as long as it’s not for nefarious means, then by all means! Follow me!” Gabriel spun on his heels and led me down a side hall, a bit narrower than the main strip I had just come from. The doors lining the hall were numbered, and when he finally landed on the correct door, her name was engraved on it. “Have fun, keep it clean, you know where to find me.” Gabriel winked and left me standing there in the hallway.

  I knocked twice and slowly pushed the door open to reveal a small, unimpressive living room. There was a young woman in there, sitting in a recliner, knitting what looked to be a baby blanket. She had her dark brown hair tied in a knot on top of her head, and she was wearing a white nightgown and matching slippers.

  “Filomena?” I asked delicately.

  The woman glanced up to look at me. Her eyes widened for a moment, and then she recovered before putting her knitting down and intertwining her fingers on her lap. She sighed in a way that betrayed that she had been expecting me.

  “You found me, Lucifer,” she said in acceptance. “How can I help you?”

  “May I have a seat?” I queried, attempting to be polite in the face of the potential answer to my biggest question yet.

  “I won’t say no,” she replied, gesturing to the loveseat adjacent to her.

  I took my seat and positioned myself to face her directly. “So, you know who I am?” I asked, genuinely curious.<
br />
  “Yes,” she replied, “and if you’re here, it could only be for one reason.”

  “Your son,” I said simply. Seeing no point in small talk, I opted to get right to it. “Who was his father?”

  Filomena smiled sadly. “His father. Knowing who his father is would make all the difference for you, wouldn’t it?”

  “It would, actually,” I responded patiently. “My existence depends on it.”

  “How many descendants?” she asked, her voice calm and smooth.

  “Excuse me?” I was confused.

  “Descendants. How many descendants did my son have?” This woman was still remarkably calm considering her present company. Then again, she was in Heaven, so that might have had something to do with it.

  “Well,” I explained, leaning forward and resting my elbows on my lap, fingers intertwined. “He had a son, who had a son, who had a daughter. Both sons are dead. The woman is the last of the bloodline.”

  “What did she do to you?” the woman asked, still cool as a cucumber. She hadn’t budged an inch.

  “What do you mean?” I wasn’t expecting that question.

  “What did she do?” Filomena continued a bit more insistently now. “You must have interacted with her to your detriment, or you wouldn’t be here in my room right now.”

  This woman knew. This woman knew exactly what I needed to know. I decided then and there I wasn’t leaving without my answer. I stood up and lifted my shirt, revealing the healing stitches that Lilith had so expertly done.

  The brunette lifted an eyebrow at the wound and looked up at me. “She would be my great-great-granddaughter, right?” Filomena asked with a bit more intensity in her voice.

  “That’s right,” I replied, waiting on pins and needles for the answer.

  “If I tell you,” she said with utter seriousness, “you have to promise not to hurt her. I realize I don’t have many options from this position, but she should not have to suffer for something she has no control over.”

  “I have absolutely no intention of hurting her,” I replied, easing myself back into the loveseat. “Well, so long as she doesn’t hurt me. I also want to ensure that no one else will be able to hurt me aside from her. I’ve never been hurt before, you see, so this new development concerns me greatly. I’m sure you can understand.”

  The woman sat and studied me for a moment, probably weighing her options, a mental pro and con list for revealing this information. It must be something good to go through such lengths to protect it.

  “Michael.” It was so faint, she may as well have whispered it.

  “Michael?” I asked for clarification. “What was Michael’s last name?”

  “No,” she whispered, as urgency crept into her voice, and she leaned forward in her seat, the first real movement she made since I had sat down. “Michael. The Archangel. Your brother.”

  The entire world as I knew it collapsed around me in that moment. “Michael,” I stated dumbly, trying to comprehend it. “Your son’s father was the Archangel Michael?”

  “Yes,” she admitted, and she blushed a bit as she did.

  “You created a Nephilim.”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s against the rules.”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s pretty much the biggest rule.”

  “Yes.” Then…

  “Wait, so I’m an uncle?!”

  Filomena threw her head back and laughed, my first glimpse into her personality since I had walked into the room. “Yes, I guess you are, or, err, were. I am sure he has passed by now.”

  “He has,” I informed her. “Actually, as I said, Evelyn is the last of the bloodline. She’s the only one left alive.”

  I sat there in silence for a moment, absorbing all of the information I had just discovered. A Nephilim came into being. That was pretty much the first rule Dad had laid down when he created the humans. We were not to have any relationships or even attempt to have any offspring. I wasn’t so surprised that the rule had been broken since I knew it would happen, eventually. I was more surprised it had taken this long to happen, but most of all, I was surprised by who did it.

  Michael, Dad’s new favorite, the one who obeyed all the rules and shunned anyone who dared question them, Michael, of all God’s angels, had a relationship with a human and created a Nephilim.

  This could have had disastrous consequences. If this child had gone off to cause mischief or had been put in a precarious predicament, his powers could have shaken the Earth, possibly ending it. This was an enormous secret. If Heaven had found out while he was alive, they would have imprisoned him for the safety of everyone. Depending on the level of his powers, they may have killed him.

  “I’m sorry,” I continued. “This is all quite a bit to process. So, what you’re saying is that Evelyn’s great grandfather was a Nephilim, which would make her… one-eighth Nephilim? That makes sense, I suppose. Her powers would be incredibly diluted after all those generations. I suppose you weren’t in a rush to tell anyone either if you wanted to protect Michael.”

  “Not so much Michael,” Filomena replied with amazing candor. “That relationship fizzled out very quickly. He was… not my type. I was much more interested in protecting my child. I knew the angels and all of the Heavenly Host would want to take him from me. Who knows what they would have done to him?”

  She frowned a bit as she focused on me. “I was also sure that Hell would rise up to try to claim him for their own as well. I figured that if I taught him how to control his powers and keep them under wraps, he stood a chance at living a long and healthy life, and he did. He got married, had a son, ran a successful business. No one ever came knocking on our door. I counted my blessings every day until the day I died. Truth be told, I always thought Michael was an ass. He is great to look at, though. I won’t deny him that.”

  “Did he teach his son the same thing?” I asked, beyond curious about the details. I didn’t know exactly what a Nephilim could do since one had never existed before. All I knew was that their powers were intensely strong, so much more so than mine or any other angel’s. It fascinated me, a possibility I hadn’t even considered.

  “Yes.” Filomena still remained calm in her chair. “Although there was an incident at a baseball game that resulted in my grandson breaking an arm. My son got to him right before the coach did and saw the bone healing itself. He told me he was able to position himself to hide the arm from the coach until it had healed completely. My grandson played it off like a champ, and no one knew.”

  I wondered where her son was now. If he was up here, did the angels know what he was? Was I the only one out of the loop? What if they found out about Evelyn?

  I stood up to leave. I needed to take the time to absorb this information fully. Something occurred to me, though, before I walked out. I stopped and turned back to face her.

  “How did you know who I am?” I asked. “And why are you not afraid of me?”

  She smiled sadly. “Michael came back, you know. After Andy was born. He was angry and afraid. Insisted that no one could find out, that the outcome would be deadly. He told me to protect our child at all costs and taught me how to recognize the angels and demons that walked among us so that I could avoid putting myself and Andy in a dangerous position. He described you in detail. He wanted to be sure that I could tell if you were coming for me. Maybe a prayer could reach him quickly enough to protect our son.”

  A nostalgic and far-away look came into her eyes. “You know, I never thought Michael much cared for me or for what him leaving suddenly would do to me. I never questioned it. Once he found out that he had a son, though, he became a completely different person. Andy’s father is a completely different man from the Michael I met. It was sweet. I wonder where Michael is these days. I wonder if he is okay, or if he knows where our son is.”

  “You haven’t seen him?” I inquired, surprised at this turn of events.

  “No,” she responded wistfully. “If he is up here, he
never checks in. He told me that would be the case, though, in the interest of protecting our secret. I’m okay with that. I don’t need to see him. I was simply curious.”

  I smiled at her. “He’s still the same ass he’s always been. Nothing’s changed.”

  She chuckled and did not look the least bit surprised.

  “Thank you for the information,” I continued. “Evelyn is safe, and I will ensure she stays that way.”

  “Thank you,” she said in a hushed, appreciative voice.

  I nodded slightly and let myself out. The walk back to Hell flew by. I barely paid any attention to my surroundings, as my mind was completely absorbed in the information I had just obtained. I found myself angry at Michael. He led the charge to kick me out of Heaven for daring to make my own choices, only to turn around and break the number one rule.

  When I stepped out onto the grass outside, I was surprised to have already covered such a great distance. A Cocker Spaniel ran past me and then doubled back, running in circles around my legs as I walked, but I did not have the mental awareness to entertain her beyond a few pets and a belly rub. I walked straight out of the Gates and headed back down to Hell, hoping my cognac glass was still where I left it.

  I was going to need it when I got there.

  15

  Evelyn

  Lilith had asked if I was okay getting back to my room on my own, and I had assured her I was, but now I was in the middle of a hallway, utterly and completely lost. Between the rooms constantly changing, and the monotonous appearance of the halls, it was very difficult to get a grasp on how things were set up down here. I felt much like I did every time I moved to a new unit when I was with the military. I had grown accustomed to learning the new streets and towns all across the country. Then again, I had technology at my disposal. I routinely went off the beaten path, getting lost on purpose, knowing that the GPS on my phone would always be able to get me back home. There wasn’t exactly a Hell GPS or demonic blueprint to cheat with down here, and as that realization sank in, the confidence I’d had when Lilith walked away quickly evaporated.