"I can't do this anymore," Lukas said.
"Do what?"
"Be with you," he said, messing with his long brown hair.
His words hit me like a bullet straight to the heart. But as quickly as I felt sadness, did I feel an all-consuming rage. It felt like flames licked my skin and my insides.
"You can't leave me!" I screamed.
He started to run from me, but I grabbed his wrist with a strength I didn't know I had. I heard the bones in his wrist break in my hands and he screamed like bloody murder.
"Shut up!" I yelled, and all I could see was fire and flames and fury.
I covered his mouth with my hand, but he thrashed around. I pushed him and his head hit the side of my vanity.
I stood, stunned, looking at Lukas' lifeless body until I felt the ground shake under me.
The floor opened up, spewing flames as it opened up. Out of the flames was a tall boy who didn't look much older than me, I was 18 at the time.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"My name is Damon," he said and straightened his posture. "I'm a butler of sorts."
"Of sorts?"
"You'll see," he said. "Now, if you'll follow me."
He held his white-gloved hand out to me, but I was hesitant to take it. I looked to Lukas' lifeless body and realized I didn't have a choice. If I didn't go with Damon, I'd be going to jail. I grabbed his hand.
"Very well," he said, and he pulled me into the flames.
We were suddenly in an elevator that had six-hundred and sixty-six floors on it. He pressed the buttons in a certain order and the elevator shot down so fast I fell to the ground. The elevator stopped and he helped me up.
The elevator doors opened up, and we both stepped into what looked like nothing. It was darkness, save for wispy cotton-like things flying through the air..
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Limbo," he said. "For the unbaptised...the pagans...those who don't belong anywhere else."
"Wait--limbo as in...?"
"Yes, as in Hell," he said. "Come now."
I followed him as we got back into the elevator. It went down a floor and the doors opened up.
This place looked like a state fair with all the fried foods and sweets, with a mud pit in the middle. Pigs sat at the food stands, gorging himself with food, and other pigs wallowed in the mug.
"Gluttony," I said.
"Exactly," he said before we got into the elevator again.
"Is there a reason I'm getting a tour of Hell?" I asked, but he didn't reply. He just pressed the next button.
He didn't step out this town. We just watched from the elevator. This looked like a burlesque club, and the audience was filled with beds. I'll spare you the details.
Damon pressed a button and winked at me.
We went down one more floor and he held his hand out. I shrugged and grabbed it, and stepped out of the elevator. It looked like a set from a scripted wrestling match on TV. There was a massive cage in the middle, and an audience surrounded it.
"Here," Damon said.
I turned to Damon and he handed me a sword. "What is this?"
"I showed you the circles above yours so perhaps make you feel better about your new home," he said.
I took the sword.
"Fight, Eva, fight for the rest of your life," he said. "Welcome to the circle of Wrath, your little slice of home sweet Hell."
Author's Note:
This week I read Kali the Mother, which mentioned The Divine Comedy which included The Inferno. I know a lot about The Inferno because I am currently taking a class about it!
In my Storybook, Kali will be visiting the underworld, so I wanted to start world building and make the Underworld that she will go to. This underworld is actually a combination of the world in The Inferno and from the second part of The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio.
My version has more emphasis on the seven deadly sins and has a more modern veneer.
