Demons Lurking in the Dark

Chapter Four

     I took a deep breath and nodded, "What do you n-need me to do?"

    "First, I need to bring you somewhere."

     "What do you mean?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. I knew today would be torturous but I never thought that I could lose my mom, forever.

       The demon snapped itself out of my mother's body, causing it to fall to the floor. I looked at the corpse and frowned. Seeing my mother like this just brought back too many memories of my dad. I couldn't imagine having the same thing happen to my mother as well.

     I took a deep breath before turning to view the demon. A fiery aroma filled the air around him, smoke flooding the room. He had fiery, deep red eyes and red skin from what I could see through the smoke cloud.

     Smoke began to flood my lungs as it filled the room. A fire burned beneath my feet, burning a hole through my socks. I felt myself run out of fresh air, smoke flooding into my bloodstream. I slowly opened my eyes and watched as the smoke faded but the fires continued to rage.

      "W-Where are we?" I coughed out.

    "You mortals are so dramatic. It's just a little smoke," He rolled his eyes as he looked off in the distance. "We're at the core of the earth."

    "Why are we here?" I asked looking around.

     The ground was made out of an igneous rock, slowly tearing further into my socks. Coal was lined against the walls, fires roaring on top. Waterfalls of molten lava burned off in the distance, ash floating around it. Small fires flamed along the ceiling as we headed down.

    " Well, this is where you go when you die," He replied.

    "What?! Everyone has to come here?!"

    "Not everyone. Only those who do bad. Your family's curse means everyone in your family automatically comes here," He replied.

     "Great, so I'm doomed."

     "Yay!" The demon smiled.

     "Wait, so my dads here?" I asked, suddenly excited.

     "He was a glitch in the system. We don't exactly know where he is..." The demon replied. "He's not registered as neither a happy ending nor a bad."

     "How can you lose a spirit?!" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

     "When you die, you come to the gatekeepers. The gatekeepers have been analyzing you for your whole life, recording every thought, every action, every word, and they come up with a percentage. Your percentage is how good of a person you were. Anything less than 70%, you get sent here." He explained as we walked.

   "So what do you do here?"

    "Come on," He said as he headed forward to a dead end. He slowly placed his skeleton tight hand on the wall. The wall began shaking till it fell apart.

     We walked into a room surrounded by glowing red fires and ashes sprouting everywhere. Spirit floated around with a chain ball wrapped around their ankle as they shoveled up piles of coal, throwing it into a big oven.

    "W-What is this?"

    "This is the coal room. Here everyone provides the coal that lights the flames around here. If the flames go out, life on earth dies. We provide the heat," He explained.

    "Isn't the sun what provides the heat?"

    "No. The sun is just a giant light bulb. It only gives off slight heat. That's why when it's dark outside, you don't die. We provide heat so there's still heat on earth. The only reason you can't walk on the sun is because you'd go blind, not because you'd burst into flames. You guys are all nitwits on earth," He shook his head annoyed.

   "What happens when the earth dies?" I asked.

   "Earth dies? What other stupid junk have those earthlings taught you?!" He rolled his eyes, "Dummies! The earth doesn't die, the oxygen just goes away. The film between earth and space slowly thins over time causing the oxygen supply to go away over time. So everyone dies," He bluntly explained.

   "Oh..." I replied.

    "Next is the cafeteria," he said and led me forward. "All they make here is stew. It's not that bad in my opinion but I've also had to eat it for 16 billion years so I may just be used to it."

    "So this is another job?" I asked.

    "Yeah. Any animals that have done bad are used for the stew."

    "I see," I replied. I guess I could have expected worse than that. I mean we all for the most part eat animals anyway. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a vegan here.

    "Then we have the sleeping chambers," He said and led me into a room.

     "You really did mean chamber," I gulped. All around me were glass tubes filled with lava.

    "Mhm," He said, "But remember you're already dead so you don't have to worry about dying. You'd just have to worry about the pain."

    "Right." I looked around a little more, shocked I'd be here one day. My family members were all already here. Somewhere in these halls of pain. I couldn't believe that all of this was true. "Is there more?"

     "Of course there is, but I'm not allowed to show you. I can't allow for the living to see certain rooms or I'd be exterminated by Dethartam," He shivered.

    "Who is Dethartam?"

     He gasped, "How dare I hear those words come from your mouth! He's the king of death and extermination! If you displease him, you are sent to an even worse place. One I can't tell you of as I'd be sent there as well."

     I narrowed my eyes. I never imagined the afterlife was like this. I had always felt like I went through the worst every year on Halloween but I hadn't ever thought that my Halloween was some people's every day.

     I watched the demon snap one last time. The smoke surrounded me once again as the flames roared. I kept telling myself over and over again that the smoke would fade and I'd be back and it worked. I opened my eyes again to be back in my mother's bedroom. I looked over at her corpse and knew I could get through today for her. I had to. I had to get her back.

     "What do I need to do?"

    "Well back in the underworld, we have a little problem. There's a coal problem so this year, I'm going to have you help me work it out," He said.

    I nodded, "Okay, What do I need to do?"

     The red light of the demon slowly began to fade. "Darn it! I'll be back in a bit, Dethartum needs me!"

     He emitted a huge cloud of smoke and heat before disappearing into thin air. I took one more look at my mother before looking away. I couldn't think of the fact my mother might be trapped there for eternity after today if I don't do everything right.