Short Notice

Jaylinn's Perspective

"Go."

I stand there confused for a moment. Which, considering the circumstances, probably isn't the best idea in the world.

He grabs my wrist and drags me along. I try to pull back, but his grip is strong, and he is very, very fast. I try to keep up but it's mostly just him pulling me the entire way.

"I told you to run." He says through deep breaths. We were still running, but it was almost as if I could withstand more than him, so that was pretty cool. I have more tolerance than a scary demon! Success! But then again, I was barely running. He was doing all the work.

"So, are we there yet?" I ask, breathing heavily.

"This isn't a time for jokes, you idiot!" He yells at me. I mean, it wasn't a joke, but okay, sure.

"Where...are we going...anyway?" I ask, struggling to form words. We had been running for so, so long. Imagine what poor Oakley would have to go through...she couldn't handle ten minutes...

"Somewhere, that's for sure." He mutters tiredly. "We should be there soon. I hope."

"Oh...okay..." I say, coughing. My throat is so, so soar, it's hard to describe it. I really want water.

As we finally reach our 'destination' everything starts to be less dark. It's still dark, obviously, it's y'know, Hell, but I can see what's happening now. And I can also see my kidnapper.

He has milky brown hair, maybe slightly darker, and darkish skin. His eyes are yellow, but now that I can see him more clearly, they don't seem as untrustworthy and evil as Caspian's do. This guy's eyes seem sweeter, more caring. I don't really know how I picked up on that, but since I only had one person to compare this guy's eyes to, it seemed obvious. He was wearing a mask covering his mouth, and the same kind of outfit that Caspian was wearing. It looked waiter-esc, as if he could just write down your order in a second.

"What?" He asks, glaring at me. I look away quickly.

"Um, can I have some water? I'm really thirsty." I cough. My throat is still really soar, thanks for asking.

"No. Suck it up. You're in Hell, you're not going to get everything you want, sorry." He says. I can tell he's trying to be mean, but it almost seems like he's guilty about it.

"So, um, anyway, what's your name?" I ask, quickly changing the subject.

"Asher." He mutters solemnly.

"Oh. That's a nice name, um, I'm, uh, Jaylinn. Nice to meet you, aha..." I murmur, trying not to be super awkward. I extend my hand out, but he pushes it away.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too. Anyway, I need your story." He demands. I take a step back.

"Um, uh, okay...Sure..." I laugh shakily. "I can trust you, right...?" I ask. Just making sure. You can lie to that question all you want, but like, I don't know. It's better than nothing right?

He didn't even respond. He just looked at me, glaring.

"Okay, yeah, I can trust you, sure, thanks..." I mutter. I start telling him my story from the beginning. From when I met Oakley and whatnot. He's an attentive listener, and never really interrupts, unless he's very confused about something.

The only weird thing about him, was that every time I mentioned Caspian in some form or another, he made a 'Kill him.' facial expression. It seemed he really hated Caspian. Seemed we had one thing in common. Or I guess Caspian also wanted to kill me, too, so I guess we all had that thing in common. Nice.

"So, um, then this stuff happened, so um, yeah. That's fun..." I finished awkwardly. He seemed a bit lost for a minute. His face was distressed, but he quickly covered it up. "What were we running from, anyway? You never really gave me an explanation..." I asked.

"Oh. Yeah, I'm not exactly sure. I could sense it was powerful, and it looked deadly, so that's really all you need to know--" He started, before he is rudely interrupted by me.

"We need to kill it."

"Wait what? This is Hell, you can't exactly kill stuff. The best you can do it like, rip it apart. Besides, why?" He exclaims. I get an idea.

"We need to stop it because it's a threat to this world. Although, I guess everything is. And even though we don't know what it is, we know it's bad, right? That should be enough to try and stop it!" I say, getting confidence.

"Wait...there are so, so many flaws in your plan. First of all, who gives a damn if we stop it or not. This is Punishment. The place where sucky, stupid people go. And, I know you're just acting like this is for a good cause, but I saw you have that panic attack, and I know you don't ever wanna stay here ever again. Killing some random thing isn't going to get yourself to Paradise, sadly. Also, one more thing, your example of 'we can kill it if it's bad' is so, so stupid. Just because you say something bad to someone doesn't mean you should be tortured for all of eternity...and that's why this system is stupid." He explains. I understand where he's coming from, and it seems he wants to help, or at least change some things, so all I need to do now is convince him to fix this whole mess with me—

But he interrupts my thoughts by saying, "I'll do it. I'll help."

Okay, hi, I know last time it said that Caspian couldn't help Oakley because he had a '24/7 job' but basically, Asher, (the new guy) doesn't really do anything, other than sit around, trying to help some people that need it. He did torture people, and kill people, and whatnot, but he doesn't anymore because he was 'too nice' or whatever and got kicked out. Sorry if that was confusing. I made him yesterday so I don't have a lot of plot for him. (Hi...it's been a few weeks and I have much more backstory for Asher, so I guess, I don't know, stick with that for now, although I changed it quite a bit.) Anyway, sorry this chapter probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but just know I didn't have a lot of plot for it. Just some explanation, which is a lot of the book right now. Anyway, Asher is also arosexual/aromantic, so basically, he doesn't love anyone, romantically or sexually. So no shipping him with anyone. I don't know why I had to put that out there, it's just that Jaylinn and Asher are like partners in crime for the next few chapters, so, I don't know, don't ship them, I guess. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter at least a tiny bit. (Damn. I would be very surprised if anyone at all read this much, since it's all so pointless. I do really wonder why my ending paragraphs are so long.)