Condemned

Chapter 1

My name is Leslie Hale, and I want to go to hell.

            That sounds a bit too dark, doesn’t it? Well, I should start from the beginning. The reason I want to be in that horrible place only spoken about by Christians and uptight, controlling parents.

            Well, I come from a family of three that includes my Mother, Father, and my annoying younger sister, Hannah. Since she was born, she’s been the center of attention and left me in the shadows to be ignored and simply forgotten. I’m just a stupid prepubescent girl that wants some attention, it’s simple. But denied that fact, I strive for it.

            And that means to reach out and do something extreme, like going to Hell to even get your parents to glance at you.

            They’ve always been busy. Mrs. Hale works in the fashion industry and is on business trips almost every waking moment. Mr. Hale has a boring, non-progressive desk job and is worn out by the same schedule every single day. And me, just a boring old soon-to-be teenager left alone to babysit a useless four year old.

I could really care less about what happened to my sister. She could fall down an elevator shaft or wander into the street to be ran over and mauled by a continuous stream of cars. Maybe then Leslie Hale would get some wanted attention. I mean, is it really that much to ask for?

            I’m at school when I get the idea to travel to Hell. To be a tourist. No, I’m just passing through. Oh, I’m from Earth, the decaying planet. You know, just your normal attention seeker, a sinner, whatever you’d like to call me. And yes, I am a thirteen year old girl. That doesn’t mean I’m not aware of sinners and what people say about Hell; about the fire and the burning. And no, I’m not afraid of merely visiting, or staying there for the rest of eternity.

Sounds like a needed vacation from this putrid society, if you ask me. But everyone is entitled to their shitty opinions.

Some say school is Hell, but I say it’s nothing close to it. Are the walls burning and bees crawling over your skin? Are you ripped to shreds by demons almost every day just because they’re simply bored and in need of entertainment? No? Then you don’t know what it’s really like. I wouldn’t know, either, since I’m not there yet. I haven’t earned it. But here, you can read all about this in this pamphlet. It will tell you everything you need to know about planning your trip to Hell and what you need to be allowed inside.

And if you are checked in, you can never leave even if you plead and cry. And really, it’s what you deserve if you check yourself into such a place.

At school, I have only a few friends, and they’re batshit insane. Their names are Briana and Noah. They talk about apocalypse theories almost every day. About fire raining from the sky or the sun going too close and burning us up. Human beings themselves rioting and killing each other and all of their leaders, running the streets and living like barbarians back in the stone age. Turning back time. Going against modern life. Rebelling. Adding some needed spice to their boring, useless lives. Whatever you’d like to call it. I don’t know which saying I’d prefer, but I’ve heard enough theories to write a goddamn book already.

They talk about humanity. Society. Authority. Control.

They’ve spoken about how to kill someone and hide the body so no one could find them, even with a heat sensor or a dog that could track scents. They’ve spoken about how to kill a man by pressing on a certain pressure point on their body. Making it seem like a suicide. Running away and changing your name. Killing yourself after you sin so you don’t have to worry about the police chasing you down. So you don’t have to live a life in prison until you die of a fight or exhaustion; murder.  

They’ve even went as far as planning a school shooting, murdering all of the students and then aiming the gun between their eyes to rid themselves of this horrible, sinful Earth.

I just listen. I sit there and listen to all of this as I silently eat my lunch. Simply sit and learn, they say. Takes notes, if you need to. But I don’t. I just remember what they say, because honestly, how can one not? When they’re talking about tying up and torturing the math teacher or suffocating the school’s jock, it’s hard not to listen.

And I take mental notes. In the back of my mind, until I really need them.

As you have gathered, we’re a grotesque group. We’re avoided. Jeered at. Scolded. Gibed. Teased. Whatever you want to call it, it’s up to you. But it’s nothing different in our everyday life.

“You need some meds,” one blindly blonde girl jeers at me.

“I know,” Leslie Hale replies.

“Come to the principal’s office, Leslie,” the math teacher says. “Again?” is the usual response, because when am I not being called in because of Briana and Noah’s fucked up antics? It’s only a part of my daily schedule.

It’s a surprise neither of them haven’t been checked into a mental hospital already. Because they sure need one.

Me? Oh, how kind of you to ask. No, I’ve never been to a mental hospital. My family doesn’t care about me, so why would they think of sending me to one?

It’s nothing, Leslie, you’re just stressed, Mr. Hale drones on as he stirs the spaghetti in the pot.

Go to extra help, you’re failing math and English, Mrs. Hale says, tapping away at her expensive phone.

I know, Leslie replies, I’m aware.

I’m fully aware. But I don’t care. Soon Leslie Hale won’t even be here.

She’ll be checked in for eternity at Hell Hotel come a few days. No need to worry about your precious, precious child which you love and adore. Oh, there’s no need to fret, Mr. and Mrs. Hale. She won’t be a parasite any longer.