TARTERUS - HELL

TWO.

CRAS/TOMORROW 

it wasn't actually the next day like you lot have. At a guess it was probably an Earth month or two later.

I opened my eyes and it was tomorrow. It always amazed me that today became tomorrow when my eyes opened after I slept. See, we don't actually have daytime and night time like you folk that live on a round ball and travel around a small star. Although Pa did try to make it look like we had day and night. I should explain our days aren't like your days. Our days could be long or short depending on what was happening at the time. Also, nights could be long or short. I asked Pa and he said on Earth they follow the rise and fall of the sun and the planet going around the sun, as I'm sure you all know.... For starters we don't live on a planet, as I said earlier, we live on or in a Black Hole, where time could play tricks. I'm not sure where we live, but it ain't on a planet. Pa has always been a bit cagey 'bout it. It's a bit like what John Milton described in Paradise Lost and how he said our palace was called Pandemonium. Boy was he amazed when he rocked by to be judged by Pa before he went on. The Hell he described was a horrible place. Hell, and Pa had a bad reputation, especially when we got to see movies and TV. Those places were awful and especially how they depicted Pa. Fair enough, he occasionally was a flaming dude, but mostly he was not horrible to look at.

Look I know I ramble, but I have to keep explaining about things that I'm sure you have no idea about. If I'm wrong go and read something else ─

A mighty bound and I was in the bathroom. Warm water from the shower covered me and I washed my body with a special body wash my Ma, gave me last birthday. It smelt heavenly like her or how I imagined how she would smell. She and Pa split like peas just after Red was bred. She only ever gave me a present, usually some beauty product, every now and again. She never gave Red anything, but Pa would have something for him and pretend it was from Ma. Every birthday we would both get presents and I always wondered why some of them were beauty products and others weren't. Red had a lot of model motor vehicles on shelves in his study. Later I found out it was mostly Pa and then it made sense. I always sent Ma a Thank you card that I had made. I addressed the envelope to Madame Dea Mornington. I never put in the address because Pa had couriers who presented it to her. A return impersonal typed note was sent back to me. Pa would mumble something chronic when he read the reply. Only occasionally would a personal signature be on the note. Usually it would be a secretary that sent it. I always made excuses for her in my head saying she had such a busy life that she had little time to respond personally. I never said anything out loud because Pa would be extra upset for a few days afterwards.

Remembrance time again

Pa had given me a special drink to remove any memory of Ma. I later found out it was made from the juice of the Lotus flower. It tasted really nice and I sucked it out of a bottle. I was still into drinking from a bottle with a teat. As I finished any memory of Ma vanished. This was when I was still little. Pa cared for Red; he even fed him special milk from his breasts, he had transformed himself into female until Red was given solid food. I remembered it vividly when Pa became female. I also remember screaming and asking for my father. This strange woman with Pa's eyes and face dressed in a flowing gown had my brother attached to her breast and Red was sucking madly. She bent down and gathered me up and sat me on her knee. She kissed my cheeks and said with Pa's voice that she loved me. I began to giggle, Pa giggled also. Later when I was older, I asked Pa why Ma had left us and he fed Red. Pa shook his head and said I should ask Mother when I meet her. He cared for both my bro and me when little and we were bathed in a big tub. He wouldn't let the demons do anything for us except follow us around to prevent us being hurt when he was judging extra bad dudes. Big fans were used when Pa judged bad spirits, especially those that had fiddled with little boys and girls. It didn't matter what species or what planet they came from the punishment was always the same. Even though I'm saying that, I'm kinda using my imagination a bit because Red and I have only ever seen what Pa had done to three dudes, one day. Two were human and one was an animal type a bit like a giraffe. He had a super long neck. We accidently came across the three strung up in one of the side chambers. The dogs ate their dangle bits. Boy did they scream and howl. They then had little, teeny, weenie, vermise crawl up into their bottom holes and in their ears. Vermise were like maggots and as they settled, they ate the dudes from inside out. Pa had a special black jar with lid that he kept the creatures in. It was kept in a room that disappeared after Pa got what he wanted. We didn't find that room even though Red and I searched. Not only did he keep the maggots he also kept other stuff that was used for, I assumed, torture. As the dudes were eaten to nearly everything the bits that remained was gulped eagerly by the hounds. They would sit underneath and wait until the bloated maggots fell down into their open jaws. Not a crumb remained. I reckon if those mortals only knew what was in store for them, they would have thought twice before interfering with little ones.