The Devil's Opera

Hell's Tamer

AN: This chapter and the next few were requested by inquiete. Hope you like them and thank you for all of your reviews. You're the best!

"Out from the night, from the mists steps a figure. No one really knows his name for sure. He stands at 6'6" head and shoulders! Pray he never comes knocking at your door..." Ticket Keeper's raspy voice echoed Hell's carnival. He was not singing to any particular audience. On the contrary, he was singing to all of Hell itself and to any unlucky mortal whose soul had been caught up in the carnival's merciless spokes.

The reason he chose such a scary and warning tune for tonight's song was not to inspire fear into his listeners, but instead to warn them of what was coming. He wanted to cry out to them, to beg them to run and hide or to behave and understand the severities of their sin. But no, he knew better. Eons in Hell had taught him that mankind would never change. Not as long as God had the reigns. But as it seemed that God would be in control for quite awhile longer, Ticket Keeper could only warn the damned through songs, hoping against hope that they would hear.

Tonight's song was about his own personal assistant, Tamer. The Tamer functioned as Hell's entire police force, his bear-like physique and temperament keeping carnie and sinner alike in check. Tonight, Ticket Keeper had witnessed some foolish young woman attempting to steal jewelry off of one of the carnival's many stands. It had been a very clumsy attempt, the woman clearly not realizing that she was being watched at all times. Now she was going to pay the price for her sins. The Tamer was coming. If only she would repent! Cast away the jewels and beg for forgiveness! Perhaps she could escape the Tamer's wrath.

"Say that you once stole a gem or new jewelry," Ticket Keeper rumbled, hoping the words would reach the foolish woman in time. "But you can never manage to pay off eternal debts! He won't bother to write or to phone you He'll just rip the still-beating heart from your chest!" as these words left Ticket Keeper's aged, wrinkled lips, a sound like a knife scraping across stone echoed the carnival.

"Hell's Tamer! Hell's Tamer!" the singers were unseen, even by Ticket Keeper, but that didn't matter. A far more terrible sight was coming. It was Ticket Keeper's assistant himself, in the flesh, torn up and bloody as it was. He walked with a heavy step, lumbering slowly after the poor woman. As she continued to plunder and pillage, Tamer growled angrily. A Morningstar was slung over his shoulder, its chain rattling ominously.

Ah! At last! Now the woman noticed him! But too late. She finally caught a glimpse of Tamer's hulking and angry finger out of the corner of her eye and even though she was smart enough to know that she was in serious trouble, she was not smart enough to realize that it was over for her. She tried to run, but her stolen treasures weighed her down. Tamer did not need to increase his speed all that much in order to keep up with her.

"Now you can run, you can hide, you can try to. But he always has a way of finding you!" Ticket Keeper promised as the woman continued to flee, finally making it out of Tamer's line of sight. But the game wasn't over. No. It was only just beginning. "He will come at your weakest hour, when no one's around who might rescue you!"

"Hell's Tamer, Hell's Tamer!"

At last, the woman managed to escape into what she thought was an abandoned tent. She was breathing hard. If only she could cast aside the jewels! If only she would cast aside all of her earthly vices and sins! Then she would be light enough to escape! But no, clever as this woman was, it never once occurred to her that the only thing preventing her from escape was her own greed, weighing her down.

Tamer appeared suddenly in the opening of the tent. While the woman was still bent over, panting, Tamer continued to move with an eerily slow and confident stride. The woman heard him enter and she looked up, horrified. She began to beg for mercy, or help, anything! But no one was around to rescue her. As her pleas grew more frantic, Tamer only drew ever-closer, finally slinging his Morningstar off his shoulder.

"And none of us are free from this horror," Ticket Keeper sang sadly once Tamer finished his work, leaving behind smashed and torn up remains of what had once been a very beautiful woman. Now, she was scattered about in a squalor of her own blood and gold, lost in her own sin as pieces of her lay scattered across the floor. Tamer had gone, duty finished, but Ticket Keeper remained, inspecting the gory aftermath. "For many years ago, we all fell in debt. New salvation was needed to perfect our image, and until our debts are clear, we will live in fear of old-"

"Hell's Tamer! Hell's Tamer!"

As other, more minor carnies swept in to clean away the mess of the woman, Tamer continued to walk the carnival, his endless rounds still taken with severity and cruel efficiency. It was quite like the circular nature of life itself. As gruesome as this woman's death had been, no one was phased by it. They were all too used to it. It might've been the woman's first time here as an individual, but the story was still the same. It was a soul weighed down by green, sentenced to the lower pits of Hell because she was too heavy to ascend into God's kingdom. Then again, if the rumors were true, things were not much better Up Town than they were here down below. No, none of them would ever truly be free of the horror of God and his twisted creations. They would all perpetually live in fear of sin and so long as sin existed, as did a punishment, as did an avenging angel.

AN: So the Repo Man is an Avenging Angel of sorts...