God's Gone AWOL

[6] Hazel Labonte Goes to Hell

[EPISODE 6: SUNSHINE]

Hell had always been the smallest of the four realms, with a landscape that had only been painted using red and black colours. There was no sense of a sky overhead like there was in the other four realms— just an impenetrable red fog that hovered nearly a kilometre above the skyline, enclosing the area like some sort of cave. The entire populated area was really only the size of a larger city, with a towering forest of shiny black buildings making up the central hub, without any wretched suburbs to speak of. Large, crumbly black mountains void of any life stretched up on either side, embracing the demonic civilization in a sheltered hug. And a vast red ocean stretched along the city's waterfront, the empty red waters reaching endlessly beyond any line of sight. Truly, despite how small it was, Hell was quite beautiful in it's own way.

Nobody quite knew the story of the natural landscape. Everything had already been there when Lucifer first led the demons into the realm. They only built the city where it was convenient, leaving most of the area untouched otherwise. The mountains held a good amount of resources which could be harvested and then later put to use, but they were quite rough and always gave off a strange sort of steam as though they were hotter than the air. As a result, indigenous life had never cultivated there. But the mountains were still good for hiking and enjoying the view, so they were pretty popular among the citizens of Hell.

The ocean was equally as strange. Unlike the oceans of Earth, it had no moon (no Ophaniel) to affect the tides. And since the entire realm was basically one big, closed off cavern, there was no wind so the ocean was always completely still. If one were to drop a stone into the waters, the ripple would echo outwards for eternity. Nobody knew what was on the other side of the water, or if there was an end at all, and nobody had the time or energy to find out. There was no life in the ocean either. In fact, they used the upper end of the beach as a burial site for the bodies of fallen demons, burning them and releasing them into the water. The ocean was almost a deity of its own, one that nobody knew anything about. Very odd and mysterious, but overall very benevolent.

The urban areas were quite nice. The streets weren't the same as the streets in human cities because demons didn't exactly need to drive cars. They were much wider, and none of them ever went in straight lines, weaving and curving wherever it was convenient to do so. Each open street and narrow alley was paved with pretty black cobblestones, and cleaned at least once every twenty four hours in order to match the sleek glass look of the buildings above. Despite the chaotic direction and lack of boxy colonial mindsets, the whole place was actually very organized in its own way.

As for the buildings between those streets, although quite a few were used for civil purposes, many of those glass buildings towering up overhead were actually just living quarters. They were apartments... in a way. All of those apartments were the exact same size and layout, as though they were built using a cookie-cutter. And every single demon, regardless of physical power or influence, had to live in one, or at least have one listed under their name.

This was to make sure no sense of material superiority developed —or any superiority, really. Demonic culture was very much about aiding the collective. Since money and material lead to feelings of greed, which then inevitably lead to selfishness and narcissism, there was no sense of currency among the citizens of Hell. Their economy was measured in terms of resources and development. Everyone served the community not because they wished to gain anything, but simply because the community needed to be served. So everyone needed to work in the mines, clean the streets, fight in the war, distribute food, all that jazz. The system did not usually work for humans —who are too often susceptible to greed and a strange need to have everything now now now. But for the immortal demons, it had sustained society for well over a thousand years.