Dead!

Chapter 50

Chapter 50

The first thing I noticed when I entered Hell was that it was scorching. I immediately took off my sweatshirt, leaving me in just a tank top and shorts, but I was still sweating. I heard footsteps following me, and I looked back and saw the three boys. "I didn't think that Hell would be so cold," Raj said, shivering.

"Hell's temperature is entirely dependent on whether you prefer hot or cold temperatures," Jack said through chattering teeth. "If you prefer heat, Hell will be freezing, but if you prefer the cold, it will be sweltering." Jack went over to Henri and held his hand. "Ooh, you're nice and warm."

"Hey Raj, do you want to borrow my sweatshirt?" I asked.

"I think I'm okay," Raj said.

"Okay," I replied. "Let me know if you change your mind." I took a good look at my surroundings. We appeared to be in a bookstore, albeit a very ugly one. The walls were a disgusting shade of greenish-brown, and the light shining through the window was just a little bit too bright. I went over to one of the shelves to see what was there, but all I found were a bunch of biographies of Justin Blubber, a bunch of copies of some fanfiction called "My Immortal," and a single copy of Dante's Inferno. This must be the bookstore that Jordan told me about, I thought.

"I'm so glad that I brought my own reading material," Jack noted.

"Yeah, you were smart," Raj said. "Hey, I found some postcards! Maybe I'll send one to my uncle." Raj looked to see how much the postcard was, and he was shocked. "Who charges twenty seven dollars for a postcard?"

"The price tags change so that the item you want to buy is just a little bit higher than the amount of money that you are carrying with you," Jack explained.

"That sucks," Raj said. "How do we get out of here?"

Henri looked over Jack's shoulder at the map. "It doesn't say," he said.

"That's because you're usually taken to the Sentencing Room from here, but that's not going to happen to us, since we're not supposed to be here in the first place," Jack said.

"Then what are we going to do?" Henri said. "Ask for directions?"

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," I said. I walked over to a man stacking copies of My Immortal. He looked fairly normal, with the exception of his left hand, which was shriveled and scaly. "Hey, do you work here?" I asked.

The man nodded. "I burned books during World War II, so the rulers of Hell thought it would be suitably ironic for me to work at a bookstore for all eternity. What are you doing here?"

"My friends and I just got a little lost," I said. "How do we get out of here?"

"If you haven't been sentenced yet, the portal will appear shortly," the man explained. "Otherwise, the door is over there. It will lead you to the first row of cells. Unfortunately, you'll have to walk all the way back to your cell, which could take a while."

"Okay, thank you," I said. I opened the door, and the four of us left the building. The ground outside the bookstore was rough and rocky with the occasional dying tree decorating the barren landscape, and although there was a pathway through the cells, it seemed to be going entirely uphill. Thankfully, we couldn't see inside the prison cells. I didn't want to know what kinds of tortures were going on in there.

Nevertheless, we began our climb. "This is going to take forever, isn't it?" Raj said.

"Yes, yes it will," Henri said.

Around that time, I finally finished my mocha frappuccino. I didn't see anywhere to throw it out, so I just hung onto it. I was feeling incredibly thirsty (something I hadn't really felt in Heaven), but I didn't see any water anywhere. "Are you sure we're going in the right direction?" I asked.

Jack opened up the map again. "The map says that we are, but judging by the architecture in this area, these cells were built in China during the 6th century B.C.E. I think we're lost, but speaking of Asian architecture, did you know that nine out of the ten of the world's tallest buildings are in Asia?"

"Seriously Jack?" I said. "We were trusting you with navigation."

"I told you that this map was incomplete," Jack said.

"There's a fork up ahead," Raj said. "The buildings to the left of the fork look more Roman, so let's turn there."

"That's actually a good idea," Jack said. We walked up to the fork and turned left, which did in fact get us much closer to where we needed to be. By this point, I was completely exhausted, dehydrated, and felt like I was about to pass out due to the immense heat. All I wanted was to lie down and get some water, but that was impossible. Besides, we wouldn't have to go too much further.

The four of us just kept climbing the hill until we found a small clearing behind one of the cells. We went over there, and saw the demons standing in a circle, and right in the middle of that circle was Maya.