Hell High

Chapter Three

"Hell High?" I asked, squinting at the guy. "As in, I'm in..." I looked around, taking in the red sky, and the radiating heat that was all around me, like a sauna. After a few seconds of adjustment, I heard them.

The screaming of torment was everywhere. There had to be millions of tortured souls calling for their loved ones, but I saw no one. Tears blossomed in my eyes.

The man was staring at me, his hands crossed over his scrawny chest, a smirk on his face. "Yes. You're in Hell. Well, a different version. A few levels higher, I guess. Doesn't mean you deserve this place, though." He added, seeing my bewildered look. "It's...difficult to explain. Follow me inside and I will try to shed some light," he winced, "on the subject."

Inside the school was much worse than outside. The walls were tinged with a dark red that suspiciously reminded me of blood. The hall was empty enough that if a single word was uttered, it would probably echo for days. Periodically, there would be doors to the left and right of me, their knobs slick was a sickly black substance that I wouldn't ever dare touch with my bare hand. It smelled of corpses in the rotting stage and I wished to plug my nose, but I knew that in time, I would get used to the odor. I ran my fingers against the wall and felt the sticky goo that would probably never come off my hands. Staring absentmindedly at it, I heard Lucifer whistle, and I ran to catch up.

A few meters ahead a repeat of my death flashed before my eyes. A small gasp escaped my lips as I stared at it, physically unable to move my eyes away from the gushing blood.  Lucifer seemed to notice it too, a small grin appearing on his devilishly handsome face.

"Not a nice way to die," he said, sounding slightly pleased with himself. "But I have to give credit to your murderer," squinting at Luke, who was cloaked in shadow, he added, "who even is that? I know all of the living, but I cannot remember a human like that..."

I stared at him, "his name was Luke." I felt obliged to tell him. "He'd just moved here."

"Interesting." he said, sounding annoyed, but genuinely curious. "I used to have a...difficult pupil, call it what you will,  by that name. Many millennia ago, he was a..." he stopped himself and glared at me. We had stopped walking for far too long, and he'd just realized. "We should keep going. I shall explain everything to you on the way."

We reached a stairway that seemed to reach as high as the sky. "Look." I said to him. "I shouldn't be here, it isn't my time. I'm just a teenager! I should be alive, worrying about my latest tests and what college I want to go to."

"Ah," he said amused, beginning to climb the stairs. I followed him. "I was wondering when you would say something like that. All but the elderly say that to my reapers. The elderly were polite." He mused melodically, staring into space. "Anyways," he said abruptly, "when someone who isn't at least thirty years old has died, they go to one of our schools. They range for ages such as, Phantom Preschool, Ethereal Elementary, and so on. Hell High is one of those places, as well as Angel Academy, which is where you will go if you graduate from this school. No one under the ages of thirty are given access to Heaven's gates."

"Why not?" I asked impulsively.

"Personally, I believe it is because when you are a mere teenager," he gestured to me, "you have not done anything that remotely defines your soul as good or evil. I mean, if God just let Saint Peter judge you...well...he hasn't visited earth since it was created. He wouldn't know that cheating was not a true crime and you would be sent to my domain. Does that make sense?"

Not really, the voice in my head said, but I yelled internally for it to shut up. "I guess."

He smiled, "good, good. At least you are not as idiotic as a few of the suckers I've met." He shook his head. "So, there are few choices after death. Immediately after death, you are sent to one of the schools based on your age. Should you pass all of your classes, you'll move up schools until you graduate from Angel Academy. Then you will be sent automatically to the Pearly Gates to be graded, so to speak. Depending on how you acted in your years of schooling, or," he added, "how nice you were in your times on earth. If Peter thinks you worthy of Heaven, he shall open the gates. If not," he grinned, "you end up in literal Hell. If you think this place is bad, you haven't met my bestie,  Alastair."