My friend, Carmelo and I are walking down the hall leaded by a women in heels that click every time she takes a step. We are about nine years old and we are on our way to the principles office. I was scared to see the tall man with the big belly and bald head because I know he was mad at me. Me and Carmelo where playing on the playground when three girls came up to us and said, "why do you dress like a boy?" the leader of the pack asked Carmelo. The truth is she did, she would wear camouflage shorts with a brown shirt that said, 'I like mud.' on it. The shirt was a hand-me-down from her brother. They couldn't afford any new clothes for her. Carmelo snaps back at her,
"why do you act like you rule the world?"
"because I'm great enough too." she says
"yeah you wish." I tell her and she pushes me to the ground so I stand up and kick her shin she yells in pain and then the teacher comes,
"what happened?" she comforts the greedy little girl,
"she kicked me." she tells her as she points to me, "and she was mean to me." she points at Carmelo.
"okay, you two are coming with me." the women grabs us by the wrists until we are inside then makes us walk behind her in shame but I had my head held high, I just confronted the meanest girl in our grade and honestly I won. That is how I feel now. I know he is mad at me. He hates me. The only difference from now and then is that I'm not scared. I more of limp to he Devil's chamber instead of walk. Every time I put pressure on my right leg it hurts. Andrew props me up some though so I can sorta walk. Its not long until we reach red leather doors that reach from the ground to to the ceiling of hell with gold trim and handles that have designs of people screaming and daemons hitting them with fire and I notice there is an engraving of people falling into a pit of fire which is hell. It's nice to see something other than black and red down here even though I hate the designs on it. He opens one half of the door and one of the devils servants opens the other one as it opens it makes a high pitched creaking noise that reminds me of someone scratching their nails against a black board. We all cover our ears.
"come in! Come in!" he calls for us. His chamber on the inside is red and black of course but he has gold trim across his room the walls are red and his throne is gold with red cushions that have black designs on them and I'm afraid to see the design because I believe it is like the design on his door. We walk in wondering why he wants to see us. He stands up and he is wearing a red with black lace armor and pants with a cape that is black on the outside and red on the inside. His shoes are black to match but also have knifes sticking out on each side of his shoes. He is about twelve feet tall and I have to look up at him constantly.
"so how was your trip?" he asks us as he walks down the steps from his throne to us and I can hear the knifes clang against the marble red floor.
I open my mouth to say the first thing that comes to my mind but drew puts his hand over my mouth so I wont.
"it was fine." drew tells him and then uncovers my mouth.
"good....... And I understand that you PLAYED with my soldiers."
"yes we did." Mack said
"did you have fun playing war?"
"What do you mean, playing war?" i ask him
"that was just a game." he runs faster than light to me and bends down to be three inches from my face and says, " now it's real."
We don't reply. I process what he said, "that was just a game. Now it's real." i guess all of this was a game to him and now it's the real thing, the real fight between me and him. Maybe he will leave my team out of it then.
"it's been real." I tell him. Then Andrew's grip on my arm tightens and he notices.
"I see, you two care for one another. Isn't that nice." he smiles then puts his hands between us and pries us apart leaving me alone.
"friends are burdens. They won't help you. They will leave you too die as they run off to save their own butts." he whispers in my ear. He is trying to get to me. To get me to think that it's true. No. I won't let him. These new friends of mine are here to help me. That why there are four on a team and not one. That's what god decided on.
"friends are not burdens. They are here to help. They won't let me die, they will let you die." I say through my teeth.
He laughs, "I wont die. Are you stupid or something? Look around you. You are alone and I'm right here so take your strike." he unlocks my cuffs and I reach for my gun only to find it gone. I reach into my pocket for a knife and am relieved to find them. I slide one out of its case and get a good grip on the handle of my four inch knife and strike at his gut but he moves too fast and I miss. His guards jump at me but he stops them.
He laughs and says, "what did I tell you?"
"I haven't lost yet." I say before I slice the knife about an inch deep in his forearm. His blood burns on my hand. Their blood is like acid. It reminds me of when his daemons cut me at my forearm even though mine was much worse than his now. The guards pounce at me and grab me by the arms before I can fight back and I kick and try to free my self but can't their grip is too strong. Drew runs to me only to have Hades punch his nose to stop him from helping me and he falls to the ground holding his nose with his hand which is now covered in blood.
"now we're even." I say to him as they drag me back from him but stop at a certain point so their "lord" can tell them what to do with me.
"burn her." he says through his grimace. Their hands start to heat at my arms and it feels like I just touched a hot stove top. I don't scream I won't give him the pleasure of hearing my scream. Not now anyway. I bite my tongue to hold in the scream. I hear my skin burn and crack from the heat but try to block it out. They pull me up to face him and he says, "I will torture you the worst. You will feel pain both ways."
I replay his words in my head, "you will feel pain both ways." what does that mean? Both ways? What's the second way?
"take her back to the dungeon and her 'friends'." he used air quotes around, friends. The guards drag me by my arms and my team follows behind with two more guards to follow. Once we get there they throw me onto my face on the dungeon floor.they drop off Mack in another dungeon two over from me, Conner in the one to my left, and Andrew in the one to my right. I sit against the wall and think about what he said to me but I can never figure out what he meant. My arms heat and they burn. I can't see what they look like its too dark but it's hard to ignore.
Tomorrow we will be tortured. I still don't know what he meant and won't until tomorrow. I'm not afraid or worried for me but for my friends. If anything happened to them, I can't even imagine the kind of pain that would bring me. I'm their leader. Number one. I'm suppose to help them not have them captured and tortured. We get dinner but it's grey glop of food and I can't identify what it is but it's food it's barely edible but it is and I need the food we all do. When I'm done eating I close my eyes and sleep but not for long because I wake up constantly only to the one question that is eating up my brain, "what did he mean?" I whisper to myself. I would pray tonight but there is nothing else I need to pray for.
