Headaches & Hazbins: Book 1: New Kind of Life, New Kind of Hell

Chapter 2: Hell-O!

Hell, Pentagram City, 6 Months Later...

[A man with a worn, bloodied hoodie and a cracked gas mask around his neck sits against a building with a tin can next to him, it looks like Asher. His face looks dirtied and a bit bruised, his eyes are now a fiery red. In his current condition, he looks like some sort of beggar. Or a hobo. Whichever one's cleaner.]

Asher: (Inner Head) I've been in Hell for what I believe to be six months now. I've learned some important things in my time down here... The first thing I learned was-

[Asher then gets kicked in the face by some Random Demon and falls over to the side lifelessly.]

Random Demon: I guess beggars can be choosers! *Laughs*

[The Random Demon walks away leaving Asher lying on the ground.]

Asher: (Inner Head) That insult doesn't even make any sense...

[Asher sits up and brushes his hoodie off, he rubs his head where he was kicked.]

Asher: (Inner Head) As I was saying... The first thing I learned was that Demons down here don't take too kindly to beggars of any sort. Actually, I don't think Demons take too kindly to anyone... Everyone hates everyone for any reason... Well, it's Hell so I honestly don't know what I was expecting. Another thing I learned was that there's an actual economy or something like an economy down here... Which doesn't make much sense either since I'm pretty sure that this place works like an Anarchist wet dream because I haven't seen a single cop or law take effect since I got here. Which personally... I could care less about the cops.

[Asher stands up and picks up the tin can beside him. He shakes it around and grabs the few coins that lie inside it. He puts the coins into his pants pocket, tosses the tin can aside, and begins walking down the sidewalk.]

Asher: (Inner Head) The last thing I learned was... Shit... I forgot. Anyways, I live in a forest and am still barely alive... So to sum it all up, I'm having the time of my life.

[Asher continues walking down the sidewalk silently minding his own business.]

*BOOM*

[Then behind him, a building for absolutely zero reasons explodes. Everyone in the vicinity immediately begins running in the opposite direction of the explosion. Asher stops walking and calmly turns around to look at the burning building behind him. He reaches into his hoodie pocket and takes out a cigarette box, it looks empty. He then shakes the cigarette box allowing an upside-down cigarette to reveal itself. He takes the cigarette and places it in his mouth, then walks over to the burning building completely unfazed. He lowers his head allowing the raging fire to light his cigarette. He takes a puff and blows the smoke out adding it to the smoke already being created by the fire.]

Asher: (Inner Head) Oh, yea that's what it was. There are these things called Turf Wars, it's when two Demons fight each other over some territory in the city. They're pretty fucking dangerous to be around, almost got hit in the crossfire of one last week. So whenever you're near one you really need to focus on-

[Asher immediately turns around with a smile on his face and then runs as fast as he can in the opposite direction of the fire.]

Asher: -getting the fuck outta there! *Crazed Laughter*

[He runs down the block and takes a quick right down into another street, running past more Demons as he continues to run. He runs for a minute until he makes a left into an alleyway to hide.]

Asher: *Chukleing* Hehe... Turf Wars can get pretty fucking violent pretty fucking quickly... Too much chaos for me...

(Silence)