Heaven and Hell

TWENTY-SIX

E X P E L L E D

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THE WINDS HELPED to push the bodies to shore, gushing waves sending flesh flying onto the sand. Dimitri did not need to move a muscle for the unconscious bodies to come to him one by one. When the first body hit his feet, he couldn't help but jerk backward in shock, eyes never leaving the unmoving body. It took what felt like forever, with his breath held and heart stopped, before the body twitched up into a sitting position, coughing up mouthfuls of water.

Following that first man, more started to awake, all hacking up water from their lungs. Some groaned in pain while others stared at the sky groggily, wondering what had just happened to them.

The first man, the one closest to Dimitri, thumped at his own chest a few times before smacking his lips. He glanced over at Dimitri's direction, eyebrows furrowed and forehead wrinkled.

"Excuse me, sir," he started, voice a little hoarse. "Where is this place?"

Dimitri continued to stare wide-eyed at the strange man, one whose name he was searching for through his mind. After all, only the dead and the immortal have the ability to enter Lucifer's carefully protected domain.

"You are in Hell," Dimitri answered slowly, gauging the man's reaction. "The land of demons."

As expected, the man did not take the news well. He scratched at his head, panic and alarm running clearly across his expression. Beads of perspiration were starting to trickle down the sides of his forehead as he scrambled onto his feet, patting the sand from his loose clothing.

"Impossible!" The man cried, "I've done only good all my life! I was never tempted by evil and the devil's ways. When I was alive, I was a mere farmer that gave to the world and offered to God. How is it that I am in Hell when I was just in Heaven minutes ago?"

It took a good minute but Dimitri finally remembered the man's name. Out of all the people that had died, out of all the names that Dimitri had seared into his memory and jotted onto a personal notebook of his, there was only one that matched the appearance of the man before him. He dipped his head down a little so that he could speak to the man at eye level, frowning.

"Apologies, Abel, but I think that you and all the other deceased had just been expelled from Heaven."

With nowhere for the deceased to go, Dimitri had no choice but to bring them towards the castle. Just before the large gates was a small forest, enough to provide shelter and cover for a few hundred people. On top of that, demons hardly roamed the surrounding lands of the castle and forest, aside from the rare few that had more courage than others. It was safer for the expelled souls to hide here than left stranded on the beach.

"Will you be alright?" Dimitri asked, a hand placed on Abel's shoulder as he spoke.

The man could only nod a few times in silence, eyes downcast and frown forlorn as he shuffled his feet. Ever since Dimitri had broken the news of the possibility of being kicked out of Heaven, that was all Abel did— silently lamenting his poor fate.

Seeing that Abel was silent, Dimitri dropped his hand back down to his side. Tucking them into the pockets of his pants, he took a couple of steps back in the direction of the castle.

"If there is nothing more, wait here. I will head in to ask about this change in the situation. I will be back with answers very soon." With that said, Dimitri turned to leave. However, he hadn't even taken two steps before he felt a pair of hands latched onto his wrist, almost begging him to stay.

"Mister, are you the devil?" It was a child, one that lingered with the group a little behind Dimitri and Abel when they were all headed for the forest. The little girl that gripped Dimitri's hand could not possibly be even a day over eight years old and yet there she was. Dead.