Terminal (Terminal trilogy #1)

6: Libra

"We have to take the elevator up to Pride, and then transfer to the pit line to get out of here," I said to Blake as we walked through Greed.

"The 'pit line'? I'm going to be very literal and assume you guys have a giant pit at one end of it."

"The only end, really. There's three elevator lines, one between floors, one that splits the place into thirds, and then... one to the pit. We have to take it to Earth."

"You know that you have to tell me a little more than that."

"There's two Earths."

"Fantastic," Blake said, pulling a face like he had long come to accept everything weird about Hell.

"One Earth is in the present, where we are. Heading up to the surface brings you there. It's also where Heaven is, and is entirely desolate."

"Now, that's not quite the Earth I know and love, but okay. What level of desolate do you mean? Post-apocalyptic wasteland or scattered, archaic ruins death zone?"

"There's no one left but the trees and angels," I explained. "Which is why we need to jump through a rift at the bottom of the pit. It'll take us to the Earth you're from- the past, stuck on a nineteen year cycle. At the end of which- about a week from now, actually- the Earth resets again."

"Can you maybe offer some reasoning as to why this is a thing? What went wrong?"

"Hell doesn't know why the cycles exist. There's been nine of them, but... most of how they work, or why they exist, is a mystery. Still, Earth is there, and that's where we want to go."

"Well, what happens after the end of the cycle?"

"Like I said: full reset. Everyone goes back in time to May fifth, nineteen years previous. No one remembers but the demons."

"You know, it's weird how I'd just about accepted Hell for everything it was, hellfire and office culture and the like. But suddenly you throw this curveball at me and I'm like- well, you toss me into a supernatural world and then present me with something sci-fi. Little off balancing!"

"There's not much technological about it."

"Still! Time travel!"

"Just... time."

"Ugh."

We came to the lobby area of Greed and I tapped the button for the executive elevator. I guess not working for Kell meant I should have seceded my right to use this thing, but man, I was too much of a sucker for glitz to do that.

Blake gave a nervous wave to the doorman. "Hey."

He was a frightening looking guy, I guess, the type who kept all of his non cumbersome demon bits exposed, meaning he had a soft green hue to his skin and three sets of jagged horns. His tongue was white and his teeth were like those of a deep sea fish.

Still, he looked silly in his golden buttoned and tasseled uniform. I'd never actually spoken with him before, but I'd grown fond of how the dull green scales on his hands contrasted with his bright red clothes.

"Don't speak to him while he's working." I batted Blake's hand out of the air as I took my customary place in the center of the shining elevator, back straight.

"Just trying to be polite." Blake nervously looked at the doorman, who continued to be an absolute professional and stand by the door.

The elevator stopped at Lust, and I moved over for whoever to get inside. However, no one came, and the doorman was keeping the doors wide open.