I've spent two weeks in Hell. The screams of the guilty being tortured is becoming a lullaby to soothe me to sleep, which isn't that insane when you'd think about how worrying it would be to hear the guilty silent. The screams ceasing, has become my worst nightmare. The fear of the unknown, used to be hell, heaven and the weird noise inside my wardrobe. I did meet that girl though, she was quite lovely.
"Are you going to eat?" The ruby red man asked me from the end of the table. My eyes met his, and saw he was halfway down with his chicken. His eyes glossed over my food as his fork twirled.
Two maids stood on either side of the table, one bodyguard stood next to me and one next to Adrian. It was peaceful in the dining room. Everything was quiet, it's always ordered to by Adrian that we eat after our food is checked. It's strange having someone eat your food before you can, they prod around and have many tests just so I won't run the slightest fever, Adrian too.
"Yes. Sorry, I was thinking." Adrian stabbed his chicken and ate it quickly, like he was starving. I knew he couldn't get hungry though, he just ate to be nice to me or when he had nothing else to do. Maybe he does get hungry, once every three centuries.
"Well. Then I guess it's the third century." I glared at him.
"Was I right?" Adrian didn't answer. He kept eating, so I joined him.
This devil child never stops eating, it's making me seem fat. Speaking of demon kid, I'm one hundred percent certain it's a boy just cause of much of a dick he is to me. Constant kicking causing me to throw up only blood, become hungry at any time, constipation, the constant need to murder innocent people and heartburn. I'm joking about the murder. Maybe. The long walks around hell do make it less unbearable, I go see Gerry a lot and Irwin walks with me on his breaks when Adrian leaves for meeting. I wish they joined us for dinner but our free times clash a lot, I could ask for their schedules to change but I've never seen Gerry happier then when he's doing his job and I'd hate for him to get cranky over change.
"Is your food, alright, love?"
"It's delicious." I let my eyes wander again, only to find Lilith is one of the maids on my right, closest to the entrance. The old maid's entire foot was cut off, so now she's wandering hell with her stub foot. I blinked twice at her, an attempt to not show favouritism towards the young maid. Adrian warned me that I would take a liking and protective stance towards Lilith, it's a normal thing for a mortal in hell. Every woman not too busy being tortured feel a need to protect anyone they find to be young, this was the place of everyones nightmares, after all.
I made Lilith my personal maid, she brings me everything I want and lets me rant about my mortal life without her complaint. Adrian heard from one of the demons she was found double checking food for poison, but only my plate which was heart warming even if it almost killed her since Adrian thought she was poisoning me herself. In return for Lilith doing all this and more, she gets five minutes without the ball and chain every month and a two minute shower every week. It was the best I could get for her.
Lilith blinked twice back.
"I'm finished." Adrian announced, his voice booming. The maid on my left scrambled for Adrian's plate, and looked over to me. My plate was empty, even though I know it was full just a minute ago.
"Take my plate too, please." The maid came over to my side of the long table and grabbed mine before taking a few steps back.
"Anything else?" She asked, kindly.
Adrian looked at me expectantly. I shook my head. For now, the child slept.
"That will be all." She bowed and said something about it being an honour to serve us. The maids then left as Adrian stood, like it was a command. I stayed seated.
There were a lot of pointless rules here, one of them being that the woman in charge must stay seated as the man in charge came to her side of the table. No matter how long it took.
Adrian tried to subtly walk fast to keep me from waiting, he then reached out his hand as he did some strange bow where his left hand was behind his back, his back almost flat as his left leg was a bit away and bent, like his right leg, his right arm was higher then the rest of his body but low enough for me to grab. It was a funny sight. We rose at the same time, and I put my arm through his as we started our daily walk together around hell.
"Where to first, my lady?" Adrian jokingly smiled. Our bodyguard followed two steps behind us. I hadn't bother to learn their names or which one belonged to me (We had one body guard each if we were together, each being the strongest in Hell), I couldn't tell the difference. They were similar in height, wore the same armour and mask. I didn't even know how they got into Hell in the first place, or got this job.
We stood at the entrance, waiting for the heavily boarded door to open and let the screams commence.
"What time is it?" I asked, realising I left my watch in my room when I chose to wear this fancy dress. It was the only clothes I had found, and I kept forgetting to ask for more. The dress was an 1865 ball gown, but with a modern twist as it was more revealing at the top, and quite tight for someone who looks like they've gone to their grandmothers for Christmas. Still, Adrian liked it despite the fact I look like a homeless person shoved into a dress. On the bright side, unlike on Earth my hair doesn't stick out like fire in a pond, but more like a needle in a hay stack.
"Time doesn't work here, my dear."
I rolled my eyes, "Earth time then, please."
"11:50am." I smiled, as well I could. I did feel excited though, lightly. "What?" Adrian asked, as my skin got warmer as the doors opened.
"Gerwyn, his shift started an hour ago. Could we see him? He's always fun to talk to."
"I'm surprised you could notice you enjoyed talking to him."
"Rude." Adrian chuckled, and we began walking.
"Of course." The screams got louder the further we walked along the bridge. "Do you know the way back here by heart now?" He asked, making small talk.
"No. But it's a massive castle, enough said."
We walked in silence, since we couldn't talk anyway it was lovely to just be there. Carrying the next king felt special, especially when it's being carried inside of me.
Within five minutes we arrived, to Gerry laughing like the world is ending and he's gone crazy.
This section, in particular was for pedophiles, and as I recently discovered when you have served your eternity you rule and punish those who served the same crimes as you. Only if you, and only you, believe you're learnt your lesson. Hell is a prison, of which the limits are set by your subconscious. Punishment, however, is by those in charge of you normally always those who suffer the same charges.
This, is no exception for Gerwyn, and his brother.
Although Irwin was no pedophile, he was in fact a kidnapper, robbing families of their children and their children of a normal home. He'd take children from their homes when they were no older than three, he'd raise them until they were no older than eighteen (not kindly, might I add, as he worked alongside his brother). This meant they were more than guaranteed to develop Stockholm syndrome towards Irwin, who provided him a place of comfort, whom they victims thought were being treated fairly by. It was an unfair game in which the children always lost, and the brothers always won. Knowing they both have served their sentence, and now punish those who did the same, makes me feel safer around them.
I shouldn't expect to meet anyone here who is 100% safe, this is hell. I'll deal with what I'm given. Even if it is a psycho kidnapper and a pedophile, with selfish intent.
"Ah! My Queen!" Gerry smiled as I approached his station. He opened his arms to hug me, and reluctantly let him. Anything to make him feel like he's in my good books, it's funny to watch him dance around and do my bidding.
Adrian chuckled, he seemed to hear me.
"Prynhawn da, Gerry." I could hear the gears in his head turning and he quickly scrambled for a welsh phrase.
"Sut dych chi?" He pronounced more poorly than a racist American attempting to do a Chinese accent.
"Gwych, diolch." I didn't bother asking how he was, as Adrian quickly moved on to talking about politics, a subject I've been told since a child I should never be apart of. I did my best to listen, just to spite them but I got tired quickly as I have no knowledge of this realm, even with the books I entertain myself with.
"Have you decide where the child will be raised?" Gerry asked, reminding me I hadn't thought of how I wanted it to be raised. Does a court interfere? A Hell court?
"He will be raised here. Where his mind can be fixated on what he needs to know." My head tilted at a twenty degree angle.
"You must be joking. I agree with raising him in hell, as this is where he will rein, but a good king is a wise king. A wise king is one that knows everything about his people, or prisoners, including where they came from. If he is raised on Earth he will know more than needs to be. He could be the greatest king to ever live. He needs to be great enough to take over earth if he wanted, but wise enough to know why he shouldn't." I argued, Gerry took a step back and pretended he wasn't listening.
"You just want to raise him where you were born." Adrian shot back, "You're letting your feelings get in the way of raising our son to be the best."
"That's the beauty of my pregnancy, dear Adrian. I can't have passionate feelings that favour my side. I'm using pure logic and reason, you are not." I grabbed his arm. "You have more hormones than me, right now." I said, knowing this punches a nerve in any man. To be less than a women, is the greatest fear a man will ever know. Less than woman is the mud under her feet.
"As right as you are," I love those words. "How would this work? Like a human custody?"
"If I may," Gerry joined in. "The person we have working as you may reach the CEO position once you return back to earth, so you'll be busy unless you quit-"
"Never." I said sterner than a horse. My job was my life.
"Exactly. You'll be busy. Lucifer is the king of hell, he makes up his schedule but he still has unavoidable tasks, now, from what I've noticed most tasks he has during earth school time. He could go to school there, you could pick up the child and bring him back here. Where he can be with the both of you. Time moves slower here as well, so it's unlikely you'll miss out on sleep, my Queen." Gerwin looked quite proud of himself, which was fair. It wasn't a bad idea.
I put my lips into almost a duck face as thought it over. I felt Adrian staring as he read my mind, searching for what I thought about the idea.
"I like it." I admitted to Adrian, looking over to him.
"It is an excellent plan. We should do it." Adrian never took his eyes off me. He looked at me fondly, and I unconsciously looked back with dead eyes. We stared for longer. Adrian stared out of love. I stared in confusion, searching for some memory with him. It came out blanker than a white canvas though.
"Diolch, Gerwin. It's an gwych plan." With no one else to speak Welsh too, I liked to over speak it with Gerwin. Made me feel safe.
"Dim problem, fy Frenhines." Even if his welsh wasn't very good.
"Lets go, Thallia." Adrian held out his arm, his elbow sticking out towards me.
"Dabria." I corrected, slipping my arm through his.
"Hwyl." Gerwin yelled, as he turned his attention back to the guilty. If I told you what these criminals were getting, you'd believe it wasn't enough. It doesn't matter though, because how they were treated was too gruesome for anyone to know of. Their ear piercing screams said a billion words.
No punishment was made, with a single demon believing it was too little. If they believed it to be too much, on the other hand, they were to shut their damned mouth. No punishment was too severe for the wicked and the evil.
"Irwin next?"
We seemed to almost float as we travelled towards Irwin's punishment chambers, as I liked to call them, everyone either moved out of our way or were forced too. They bowed as though a force pushed them to their knees. If it weren't for the constant screams of distress I'd say everyone silenced as we walked by, like God himself shushed the world into silence. It was breathtaking to be apart of something so silent. To be the cause of people's silence and their bows. To hold, what was almost like a soul of the people in the palm of my hand was exhilarating and dare I say, powerful. Holding a million pounds would never feel as empowering as the will of a room in your grasp.
We arrived at Irwin's fun house to see him just finishing up, and another taking his place. He waved when he caught sight of us.
"You've seen my brother already, I take it?" We nodded. "Yeah, I gathered. Queen Dabria already seems in a better mood." Nothing about me has changed. I know this because Gerry's talk did not make me any happier than usual today, it simply resolved a question.
"Now that you've told me your secret, being smart won't get you anywhere with me, Irwin." I mocked.
He smiled like he regretted trying, but his eyes showed his determination was as powerful as a mountain. "I know, my Queen. It was worth a shot, though. I won't stop trying to get that job." I did always like determination and a stubborn bastard, though.
"I figured that. Anyway, I just got done here and I was about to go back to earth for my break. You guys want to join?" I looked to Adrian, something I've learnt is that sexism is more alive than ever here. I need Adrian with me to get me anywhere down here, even the damned kitchen.
"No, we're going to stay down here, I have a couple meetings." Adrian insisted, not even asking my first.
"Yeah and I want to finish watching the film I started." I knew I had no other option then to stay here. Sure I could take my bodyguards, but Adrian has confirmed his stress over my death and going home a couple days ago. I asked if I could go back to my home to do my work, and he gave me a two hour rant about the dangers of death experienced at work, getting to work, and at home. This four hour rant didn't include the probability I survive each and every instances, that was added on at the end, during his three and a half hour rant.
As much as I tried to fall asleep or ignore him, I focused on every word as though it was life changing. I blame the demon baby for making me listen.
"Ok, then. I guess I'll see you when I see you." Irwin smiled, before turning on his heel.
"Shall we go?" Adrian put his arm out again. I felt a strong pit form in my stomach, and my first thought was period pains until I realised the obvious.
"You go ahead. I want to feel the warmth on my skin, a little longer, before we get back. Don't get a lot of sun in Wales." Adrian chuckled, before he began to walk away.
The pit in my stomach became stronger. It felt almost identically to a weight that had been forced down my throat and was now using my stomach as a hammock. The feeling began to make me feel sick, and my head began to pound like my brain was escaping through my forehead. My knees trembled beneath me as this unfamiliar feeling washed over me, drowning me. I could barely hear the voice in my head telling me to run. It got louder and louder till it boomed through my head, I wanted to listen but the weight in my stomach and feeling in my head kept my feet glued to the ground. The voice, somehow became louder.
A stentorian scream seemed to becoming from outside my own head, and it took my a second to realise it was Adrian.
It took me another second to reasling what he was shouting.
And one more to take in my surroundings.
Then, it all pieced together like a puzzle.
I turned my head to my right, as a man with eyes full of fire barreling towards me with more intent than a lion hunting its prey.
Suddenly Adrian's scream pierced the sky as he shouted,
"Grab him! He has a knife!"