(Reaper POV)
This world was like nothing I’ve ever seen before, there is no “sky” just a roof so high you can’t even see it. And it was covered by thick red clouds, I don’t know if it rains here or not, but from what I felt like falling through that cloud It burns like hell, melted parts of my suit off. I was sent here after I blocked a bullet to save the life of a little girl. One moment I’m earth the next I’m in hell. I don’t know what’s waiting for me down here, but I’m ready for it.
“Ok “Reaper” I will take you on a tour of my castle and the pride ring. Just to get you accommodated, you’ll be here a while.” I could tell by the way he spoke he was smiling.
I go to walk out the dungeon like area we were in only for Lucifer to stop me. “Woah, woah there cowboy you can’t go prancing around my castle looking like that!” He pointed at me “So let’s get you a demonic makeover!”
“Why? And how?” I look at him with a confused expression “You're like 12 feet tall I don't think you’ll fit anywhere” I gesture at his height.
“HA, your funny kid. I don't actually look like this I just do this to scare the hell out of any poor bastard that ends up here”
He snaps his fingers, and the shadow starts to disappear revealing a man with pure white hair and two horns sticking out of his forehead. His bright yellow almost catlike eyes. If I didn’t know any better, I would think he was just a normal human. He looked to be around 6’0 and in his early twenties. He looked like a white-haired human, but with two big details. He has two pure White wings on his back and what looks like a halo on his head just that it was cracked and broken like it was shattered.
“What?” He looked at me his deep voice gone and replaced with a laid-back tone “Come on let's get you a new set of threads!” He smiles as he puts his hands on my shoulders and guides me out the door.
“Ok I’ll get my best tailor to make you an outfit of the highest quality” He looks at my face with his eyes squinted “Your hair on the other hand I’ll get someone to get rid of those white streaks” He ruffled my hair as we walked.
“Wait white streaks? What do you mean my hair is black? It doesn’t have white marks?” I fix my hair and stare at him.
“Hmm, looks like the cloud I pulled you through didn’t change you as much as a normal human. Normally when a human goes through the clouds, they get changed by the water inside and they demonize” He puts his hand to his chin and thinks “Normally you would have changed by now” I look at him confused by his remark.
He stands there for a few more seconds. But right as he goes to speak, we hear a loud explosion down the hallway and smoke and flames fill the hallway but the smoke is blue? Could it be a chemical fire? But who would be stupid enough to burn dangerous chemicals indoors?
“Oh god damn it Alice! What have I told you about blowing up my castle!” Lucifer shouted.
We rushed to the room, Lucifer waved his hand and the smoke dissipated revealing a woman wearing a black lab coat with her blue hair tied in a messy bun “My bad, I think I added to much Copper(I)chloride, gets a little......explosive” She nervously smiled.
“A little?? You blow up half the fucking lab!” Another voice in the room spoke.
Another woman walks through the smoke her hair was blonde and her lab coat was white her hair was styled in braids with roses going down them.
“Sorry Lucy but Alice being the clumsy fuck she is blew up the lab......again” She covered her face with her hands and sighed “For the 6th time this month. Could you be any more of a fuck-up?”
She dusted the ashes off her shoulder and went back to her “sciences” leaving all of us in the other room. While we were all left dumbfounded “What the hell is her problem?” Alice points to the other “scientist” Lucifer just rubs his temples in frustration. “You two are lucky you're my best scientists or I would have killed you both centuries ago! And stop calling me LUCY!” Lucifer snaps his fingers, and the wall fixes itself.
“Those two make my life dreadful” Lucifer fixes his hair and continues walking and I follow.
“So, who were those two?” I walked with Lucifer “They are very unsafe when it comes to their research and chemistry”
“They are my top scientists/researchers, and they are also some of the most IDIOTIC DEMONS I HAVE EVER MET!” Lucifer’s face goes blood red as he yells in their direction. “For the love of fuck those two are so annoying. They blow up the lab room every other week!” He calms down and we both keep walking.
“Anyway, just follow me and I’ll get you your new look” He points finger guns at me “You ready?”
I nod as he walks me through a door that leads to some sort of Tailor shop. The room was decorated with sleek wood walls and marble floors. It looked like this place was always in business. “Roxwell my man I have a new customer for you!” Lucifer pushes me forward and a tall man walks out from behind a counter. He was wearing a white and black tuxedo with a white fedora with a black feather to match. And his horns poking out from under “Aye look who it is the prince of darkness himself, what can in do you for you, your highness” He bows but not in a respectful way it was more like he was trying to mock him with it.
“Ok, quit you crap Roxwell this is important we have a new recruit!” He shoves me forward as Roxwell looks me up and down “I need you to make him an outfit to help him fit in.”
“Wait, new recruit? I never agreed to be a “new recruit” I just want to get out of here and go home” I turn to walk towards the door only for the two scientists to walk in.
“Mister Roxwell! We need your expertise in the art of clothing repairs” She smiled as she walked in “So, to make a long story short, Alice blew up the lab again. And ruined are lab coats and now we need new ones”
Roxwell sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose “You do know my job is to make and sell stuff that people request, not be your personal tailor” He took off his hat and looked at me “And you I don't think I’ve ever seen you around here before” he stuck his hand out “Nice to meet you I’m Roxwell the “Tailor” as Morningstar would put it”
I shake his hand and he pulls me into a hug “And welcome to Roxwell’s everything parlor, a stop and shop for whatever you need. Whether that be weapons, armor, or” he looks at Lucifer with an annoyed stare “clothes.” He let go of me and walked behind his desk and sat down “Now to business, what do you want?”
I stand there dumbfounded only to be knocked out of my thoughts by someone tapping my shoulder. I turned to see it was one of the scientists, judging by her blue hair she must be Alice. “So, what a good-looking guy like you doing in a place like this?” She looked me up and down as she bit her lip.
Lucifer interrupted her by pushing out the way and grabbing my shoulders and guiding me to Roxwells desk. “No, no I will not have you taint my new recruit with your weirdness!” He hisses at her, as Roxwell starts writing something down. “Ok, so may you PPLLLEEAASSEEE give him some new clothes?” He got on his knees begging.
Roxwell sighed as he stops writing “Fuckin hell man, get off the floor! I'll make him the damn outfit just calm down” Roxwell then goes into the back to grab something. While this is happening, Lucifer gets off the ground and his eyes light up “YAY! Thank you so much Rox-man I knew I could count on you."
“Don’t call me that!” Roxwell yells from the other room.
“Hey, I’m not weird you just don't understand my thought process” Alice remarks.
“For the last time I’m not a “new recruit” I just want to go get out of here! Now stop arguing and tell me how I leave?” I look at them with a dead serious face and they all stare back and start laughing?
“Hahahaha! Oh my god you are hilarious new guy hahahahaha!” Alice died of laughter.
“Wait, you actually think you can just *snicker* leave? Hahahaha!" Lucifer cackled.
They all just laughed at me. An endless wave of laughter coming from the three “What’s so funny? All I’m asking is you let me leave, that's all I want. I’m not staying here.” They continued laughing until Roxwell walks back over and hands me a blank piece of paper “What’s this for?”
“I need you to write down your measurements and your preferred fabric. And I’ll make it for you” Roxwell explained.
“I already told you I’m not staying here” I handed him back the paper and stormed out the door. I heard muffled words through the door, but I didn’t listen. I ran down the hallway moving past door after door looking for an exit, but this place was massive. I was making no progress, this place was just too big, and without a map or someone guiding me I had barely any chance of getting out.
I stop running and survey my surroundings. I look to be in some sort of “Grand Hall” with a spiral staircase leading to more floors. I contemplate where I'm going next until I hear a voice behind me. “Hey how’d you get in here?” I turned to see a group of 2 guards walking up to me. “Look I’m just trying to find a way out, could you help me with that?” I pleaded.
“Who are you?” One guard asks.
“And Were'd you come from?” Another asks.
“I’m just looking for a way out, can you just show me the way?” I keep shifting my head left and right keeping an eye out for anyone else coming this way.
“Well, you are fast!” Lucifer appeared behind me “But you can’t run away that easily”
“LORD LUCIFER” Both the guard's yell and salute.
“Yeah, yeah enough with the formality just can you help escort my friend here to training hall I would like to see how good he is.” Lucifer snapped his fingers and disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.
“You heard him, come on let's go” One of the guards grabs my arms.
“Hey, wait I never agreed to this!” I pulled my arm out of their hand.
I turned to run away but I felt a sharp pain in my lower abdomen. I looked to see a spear poking through my body. “You’ve got to be kidding me” I cough up blood as I pull the spear out of my body, blood pooling onto the floor.
“Woah, hardcore man!” The first guard just stares in amazement.
“That was pretty cool, I mean the way he just yanked the spear out without a second thought, epic!” The second guard exclaimed.
I grabbed my wound to try and stop the bleeding. I take off running deeper into this castle of horrors. “HEY, wait get back here!” Both guards started chasing me through the halls of the castle.
This is bad, my blood is leaving a trail for them to follow. I need to close this wound and fast. There spear keep raining down from above me how do they have so many spears? I lost them in the hallway. I ran to a random door and kicked it down revealing a boiler room? Why is there a boiler room in hell? Doesn’t matter I need to get moving.
Wait, maybe I can use this. I ran up to one of the exposed pipes and pressed my wound against the scolding hot pipe screaming out in pain as I cauterized the wound. The bleeding stopped but the pain intensified, with the bleeding taken care of now I have to escape this castle and not getting caught in the process. If only my stealth suit was working, but that acid cloud badly damaged it.
“Argh I need to fix this but how?......wait FIX! that's it I need to get back to Roxwell and have him fix this and then I can get out of here undetected” As I walk out the door, I hear the guards coming my way.
“The blood trail goes this way, and I heard him scream over here” I hear one of them shout.
Damn it, looks like I have to get rid of them first......I got it. I’ll you the room to my advantage. I grabbed a rench off the ground and started bursting the pipes.
Steam slowly starts to fill the room as the guards get closer. “The trail leads her- what the fuck?”
The other guard catches up and notices what happened. “Why is there steam coming out of that door?”
“What are you dumb? that's the boiler room” The first guard points at the door.
“Well, I’m not going in there” The second guard starts to walk away.
“HEY, get back here. We have to get him to the training hall or Lucifer will have us crucified!”
“Damn your right, but why does he have to be so insubordinate?”
They continued to bicker only for their conversation to be cut off as the door started to open. Steam started to fill the hallway making it difficult to see anything. “Oh, shit I think he’s trying to sneak past us” They both start to look back and forth trying to see through the mist.
Ok, I hope this works. I ran out through the mist past the guards and down the corridor. I follow my blood trail back to the main hall and retrace my steps back to Roxwell’s shop, I burst through the door slamming it shut behind me.
Roxwell jumps up from his seat in fright “Holy hell man you can’t just barge in here like that!” He sits back down and fixes himself. “Wait, aren’t you that boy Lucy brought in here like 5 minutes ago?”
I walked up to him and grabbed his suit’s collar lifting him out of his seat and slamming him against the wall. Judging by his reaction he wasn’t expecting this much strength from just a “boy” I pressed his back against the wall “I want you to fi-” I was cut off by the sound of screaming in the changing rooms.
“ARGHH, ROXWELL YOU LOUSY PERV!” two female voices echo through the room.
“Oh shit” Roxwell mutters.
The two scientists from earlier stomp their way out of the changing rooms and towards Roxwell’s desk with murderous intent in their eyes. “Why would you make our new outfits so revealing?!?” Alice yells, covering her chest with her arms.
“What have we told you about giving us such lewd clothing?!?!” The second scientist shouts.
“Ladies! If you’d please, I will explain everything after I'm down with this customer!” Roxwell starts to sweat profusely.
I stand there annoyed, as I hold Roxwell off the ground the two scientists turn the corner and notice me, as they do the peak their heads around the corner to eavesdrop.
“Look I don’t care what you're doing right now, I need you to fix my gear, NOW” I lift him higher against the wall as the girls watch on in awe. “So, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. So, which is it?”
I put Roxwell down and take a step back and calm down “Look I’m at my breaking point, I just want to go back to the living world. And now that I’m “dead” I can finally live a normal life away from the terrible things me and my team have done” I slow my breathing and sit up against the wall my breathing ground quieter and quieter.
“Woah kid stay with me, wait what- you've been bleeding. Shit someone call medical he’s hurt bad” That's was the last thing I heard before I passed out due to exhaustion.
I woke up hours later in some sort of med bay. I’m connected to a heartbeat monitor. I felt like I was on fire, there was something seriously wrong with me, but I could do nothing to stop it. My vision was blurry, it reminded me of Oracle and my creation. “Where am I?”
(Chapter 4 End)
