Scare School

Chapter One

Hell. It's a perfectly nice place despite what most mortals think. Sure there was the never ending fire and brimstone but what did you expect when the demons and monsters that resided there were cold-blooded. The screams of the damned were actually a really popular screamo band from the 70s that only just recently began in the underworld and everyone already loved their music, so it was always played in almost every home you came across. Of course, the only houses that played it were in the upper and middle class districts in the Circles of Hell that could actually afford such things.

Sorry, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. The Circles of Hell are sections of the Underworld that have each a certain criteria in which a passing mortal is condemned to for the sins that they have committed and like what most texts believe, the worst the sin the deeper in you go. (Of course, it's only the mortals that get punished there; it's demons that actually dish out the punishments.) And in each ring there are three 'crusts', the Upper-crust is where all the high ranking demons go; the Center-crust is where the middle and lower ranking demons go; and the Lower-crust or the Slums are where the mortals reside.

In all apart from one Circle, the demons that live there are working class. The Ninth ring and the deepest circle of Hell being the domain of the nobles and of course, Satan himself at the top of the metaphorical food chain and ruler of Hell, they don't work (at least not in the way like the other Rings work) and instead rule over a Ring, one for each clan (typically named after their designated kingdom) and within each clan there are a couple of different families, each with their own unique abilities, power and so on and so forth to contribute to their clan. Thus, the inner ring is also the least populated, being that there is only nine clans, so most of the area are large expanses of land, leaving a good amount of space between each clan territory; which is perfect because like most countries they tend to clash at times. And when it does happen, the feuding members have plenty of room to cool off and plenty of land between them to fight on without causing any major damage to the surrounding villages and towns. But at this time, only one clan seems to be in an uproar and that was the Diablo family, one of the rulers of the Nine Circles and main branch of the Sloth clan.

Their territory is rather large in comparison to the other clans despite the infinite amount of space, seeing as rather surprisingly, they have some of the largest amount families in the entire Circle. Most people think it would be Lust because of their unending appetite for sexual pleasure, but it's this exact reason that they have a tradition of rendering themselves sterile to continue the act. But that was millennia ago when they were having an overpopulation crisis, but since then they have stopped the practice and discovered mortal means of birth control. But the reason that their population is one of the smallest, is because of their reluctance to have children and only really have them to continue their lines, making them only have 6 families in their clan in total.

The Sloth clan has about 20 families in their clan, when not counting their main branch. The families are spread out across the territory, surrounding the main family; this family is the leader and holds the people that rule over the Sloth ring. The manor that housed them was large, gray and slumped; the roofs slanted and rimmed with a royal gothic-styled trimming. Numerous thin, arched, glass windows with several thin frames parting them into little squares were scattered across the many walls of the building and it's in one window in the farthest wing to the west that we see our demon of the hour.

~0~

Ralph considered himself a perfectly fine demon, thank you very much, he had noble blood running through his veins, an awesome room, an awesome house with obedient servants, he was filthy rich and he could do whatever he wanted to do because of it. But of course, his parents thought otherwise. "He should come out of his room more often and socialize with the rest of us!" His mother would say. "He needs to stop getting into trouble for something so easily rectified as unaccomplished homework!" Complained his father. "You really need to get better grades, you're a prince for crying out loud, act like one!" Croaked his grandmother. "Stop being so lazy and get a life!" The last one is a favourite among the family.