Death's Pet 4

Part 7

  Hell is a strange place depending on which part you are in. Some parts are typical of what most would think it would look like, all hell fire and the damned every which way. Other areas look like vacation spots for the rich and famous. Lush forest to white sandy beaches. Though the horrors in these lush luxury spots are even worse than where all the hellfire is at. Then there are the gray areas. All color has leeched from these parts, like when Mort and I have gone to visit Yama, but there is an unnatural silence that surrounds it. Literally no sound can be heard, which makes it great for sneaking up on prey, unless I'm the one being snuck up on.

  It's the grey areas that I avoid at first. With three mischievous and destructive souls, they are more than likely seeking out the more populated areas of Hell. I was beginning to wish I would have talked with Mortimer more about the souls instead of high tailing out of Lucifer's office. Were the three souls together or separately causing havoc? Where were they last seen? Why had I not paid better attention when they were discussing all of this?

  Hesitating for just a moment, I decide to visit the grey areas when I noticed no extreme disturbances in the 'main' areas of hell.

  The funny thing about the grey areas... no one talks about them. Everyone else is concerned of where they will be placed and what will happen on judgement day. No one talks about those souls that are lost or confused. Or even those who are still waiting for judgement. No one talks about how some souls, even after judgement, go to the grey areas, where if they can't find their way out that they will stay forgotten. It can be seen by some a worse punishment than an eternity of being physically tortured.

  It's the grey areas that I dislike and fear the most. I know at the very least two beings know of what I've done, that I consumed a soul, a soul that will never be more, in life or the after.... Their very existents will be forgotten because I of what I did. Others assume or know that I took more than what I was suppose too, but only two know the sins that mark and will follow me to my own grave one day. And it's in these grey areas that they will come to haunt me.

  As I step into the mist of the grey, a shudder runs through me. I know that already something is aware of my presence. I can only hope that I can get in and out of this place before it finds me.

  I search high and low. Slipping in amongst the lost, confused, and forgotten souls as discretely as I can. Sometimes they see me, a momentary distraction in their misery and others do not notice me at all, too consumed in their grief and turmoil.

  Things are calm in the grey. No unusual havoc in the area. But there is also no unusual chaos in other areas I've searched either....

  What could be going on? Between the Devil and Mort, I almost expected something like a world war going on out here, but... there is nothing but silence... could it be a calm before a storm then?

  An ear-splitting scream nearby has me grinding my fangs against each other and sending every hair on my skin skyward. Without thinking I rush off in the direction of the disturbance as the volume of the scream increases.

  When I find the source of the screaming soul, I don't quite register the scene before me.

  Three souls before me. Two standing, one on the ground in a dramatic pose. All of them wear a mask of sorrow and yet mischief plays in their eyes. All of them immediately know when I arrive even though I know for sure I blend into the mist with my coloring.

  The tallest souls speak first without seemingly looking at anything in particular but I notice its eyes sweep over ever so casually the spot I crouched at. "Little one, little one, come to seek. Little one, little one, come to play or tell on us naughty kids? Little one, little one, have you come to tattle on us or eat our souls?"