Vapula wasted no time getting to hell. A personal portal made in his ‘home’ on Earth, and he found himself in his office below. He moved and went to his own miniature throne room. He forcibly called all his thirty-six legions back to hell to stand before him. Vapula stood in his true demonic form, he had the tail and hindquarters of a lion, with a lion’s mane, he had black burnt Griffin style wings, the wings of a former Cherub, and scars where two of his four heads were cut off, the lion and the man combining to make his new face.
“SILENCE!” He roared and waited for his legions to silent down; which took a bit of time, thirty-six legions, with five thousand demons in each legion. And they each were seated based upon rank, the lowest in the back, human made demons mostly, and the higher ranked up front, the former Thrones. Finally, when all was settled, he spoke with his power. “Queen Sophia Pendragon saved me. They damned her to hell. I want you all to find the legion tasked with breaking her. And get her. If she must be in hell, she will be in my realm of hell. FIND HER! BRING HER TO ME!”
“YES, MY LORD!” His legions yelled. They knew that by pleasing Vapula, they would get the more choice assignments. They also may kill each other for them, but that really did not concern Vapula, he would just replace them with human souls that turned.
“Make sure those on assignment know their new orders when they are back. NOW GO!” The thirty-six legions, minus a few, all went to all corners of hell seeking Sophia Pendragon.
Vapula sat down hard on this throne. He knew he would have to have a meeting with Satan, Lucifer, The Light-bringer, to get the soul of Sophia Pendragon.
“I just hope Satan is in an angelic mood,” Vapula snorted at his own poor joke, that celestial being long ago left his Angel of Worship ways behind.
In another part of hell, they hung Sophia Pendragon upon a stake. Demons had lined up to torture her; after all, it is what Barbatos’s legions were famous for, torture. Barbatos was the one in charge of turning souls to demons, and he loved his job. After he turned them, Beelzebub would assign them to their legion. The entire system was corrupt and ran upon trades, bribes, and outright murders. But that is what made Hell exciting. Barbatos stood with Beelzebub as he watched this soul closely. “Something isn’t right with this soul, Beelzebub,” he drawled out while taking a drink of his dark bitter coffee.
Beelzebub looked at the soul and tilted their head. “What do you mean? It looks like a normal new human soul-ish.” They wrote a few more things down on the clipboard they were using to keep notes on other souls. Once they turned, they had to go to training, and then be assigned. “I was thinking of giving her to Vapula once we turned her. He has been requesting new souls. She would be good for lust. Vapula always could control those attached to the deadly sins.”
Barbatos laughed, “of course he does, he used to lead Thrones and Virtues up in Heaven. I don’t know, he still owes me a few souls.”
Beelzebub shrugged, “he is always one of the best legions to give human turned demons. Highest survival rate.” They turned back to this soul. “What is she? A few days old?”
Barbatos shook his head. “EXACTLY! The–ish, and she looks new! It has been a bit of time. Most souls that come here may have a spot or two of pureness left. We are HELL for a reason. But the black tar of sin takes up most of a Hell bound person’s soul, but this one, this one, really doesn’t have any tar. In fact, the bit she has comes from giving orders in wars, killing her husband to protect her child and herself, and the healed bit from the original sin. I looked her up; and I just couldn’t figure out how she was here until I looked.” Barbatos thrusts a folder to Beelzebub. “Look at it!”
Beelzebub sputtered as they looked at the last page. Right there written in infernal ink: Sophia Pendragon Soul Status: SAINTED/DAMNED Damning done by Principality. Death: Sacrifice to save a life. Last act: Killed the Principality that took her life and threatened another. Beelzebub looked to Barbatos, “tell me this is false.” At the shake of Barbatos head Beelzebub screamed, “AN ANGEL DAMNED A SAINT?! Whatever for?! They make the worst of demons; they even can move up and have legions of their own!”
“I don’t really know, I mean yes, they killed a Principality as the last act, so the damning had to come before that, and with her death being an act of sacrifice that should have been a one-way ticket to those pearly gates, and an eternity of boredom.”
Beelzebub looked at the sainted soul that they now knew had been down here already a couple hundred Hell years. “What do we do?”
“We try to break a sainted soul.”
“Has that ever been done?”
Barbatos snorted and shook his head. “Upstairs loves them too much, sends angels to protect them, generally. Makes sure none of them are tainted enough for Hell. Never heard of an angel damning a saint. But they were human; they should break as any other.”
Beelzebub turned to him, “But what will it make to take a sainted soul and turning it into a human-made demon?”
Barbatos looked at Beelzebub and with no humor responded the only way he knew how with that loaded question. “Pray not a being that takes our jobs. You take something that pure…”
“And you get us.” Beelzebub finished the sentence as a shiver went down his back. “If she turns, whoever’s legion she will be in will have a new leader.”
Barbatos smirked at that, “well, it is a good thing Vapula will get her when she breaks.”
Beelzebub knew exactly why Barbatos hated Vapula, and the demon could not be blamed. Not with all the envy, lust, pride, greed, and wrath that fill their very corrupted graces now. But honestly, Beelzebub and Vapula were not even friends anymore, let alone lovers any longer. Had not been even before the fall, when Beelzebub had found Barbatos and Vapula had found another angel.
Barbatos looked to the sainted soul, “sometimes I wonder if that entire war was worth all this.”
“Bit late to back out now.”
“Please, Heaven is boring. Angels rarely get to go to Earth. And as demons, we can do what we like above, it is why lower-level ones never come back and make a life up there, sending us souls and the like. As long as we get reports and souls, we don’t give a flying shit.”
“Oh, it has nothing to do with the idiots are killed by those few angels that get to protect Earth?”
“Good riddance. Stupid demons don’t make for an efficient business. I can’t wait until the humans go Corporate.”
“You and me both.”
Barbatos turned back to the legions of his, “HEY YOU!” He yelled out. “You had your turn! Back of the line or find another soul! Bloody Burning Hell Hounds, you would think they never seen a new soul.”
“Well, even as a sainted soul, it is strange that she hasn’t screamed.”
“Well, if anything can break her, it is hell.” He turns back to watch Sophia. She is silent, her head bowed as her arms are stretched above her, she is stripped, and blood runs down her body. They have been very creative in their torture methods, healing her and staring over again. “Perhaps, she doesn’t feel the pain. The last bit of protection from her white soul…” Barbatos muttered to himself.
Just at that moment Sophia lifted her head and looked Barbatos in the eyes, Barbatos shivered. “I would even pray to HER that she doesn’t become something worse than us. Because that soul… That soul of hers isn’t normal.”
Beelzebub had to agree, they shivered and moved away, after all there were files to go through and souls to collect and torture in their own legions. After all, Hell does not sleep…
Vapula was annoyed, and by that his personal assistant would attest to, meant he was bloody furious, and someone was about to die. Or be tortured. Or be fired, and by that, it meant, well… death. Hell did not have a severance package, it did not have unemployment, if a demon did not please their boss it ended in one of two ways, torture until they were a better demon, or full destruction of the soul. What exactly annoyed this Prince of Hell?
The fact it was three Earth years later, or three Hell centuries later and there was no word which legion had Sophia Pendragon. He threw a file into the out bin. Seriously, with how fast Hell worked down here, one would wonder what made Earth worth spending so much time on.
The answer was simple.
It was amazing.
There was so much up there, from the ever-changing humans, who would soon catch up. After all, they changed so fast. Countries were born and killed in blinks of the demon’s eyes.
Right now, he is stuck in hell and doing work. He looked up at the clocks upon the wall. There are three of them, one for the time passing upon Earth. One for the time passing in Hell, the third clock he keeps covered, it would make up the set of three, and speak of the time that has passed in Heaven. Many do not keep it covered. He did because he did not want the reminder of how much time he could have had with a certain still angel. One that is bouncing around Earth. Risking THE FALL. Vapula prays still to Her that Raziel never falls. It is the only pray he still says to her.
He is finally brought out of his thoughts by Beliah, his personal assistant. “My Lord, we have found her. But there is an issue, my Lord.”
Vapula drops his pen and sits back. He would tell them to stop calling him Lord, but honestly all he has down here is a power trip. And he is thankful Hell was far more advanced than Earth. If it was not, well, they would be a lot less effective. Probably still crawling out of the Sulphur pits. He shuddered at that thought. “Shockingly, it only took three centuries, what with how hell has expanded. So, who has her? Beleth? Semyezn?”
“No, it is much worse.”
“Asmodeus? Ose?”
“Worse.”
“Oh, come on! Is it Gadreel and his complaining of immigration or his singing?”
“Barbatos and Beelzebub.”
“Fuck. I still owe Barbatos a virgin. And Beelzebub, well, the less said about our… relationship, the better. Fuck. Get me a meeting with Lucifer as soon as possible and send a few legends to find me a virgin. Maybe Barbatos will give her to me.”
“I will contact Jegudiel and get a meeting with Lucifer. I will also send seven legends to Earth.” Belial bowed and left before Vapula could take his temper out at her.
Vapula sat back and threw a hell dagger at the wall where pictures of the other leaders of hell were pinned, and their spots in the hierarchy. The dagger burned through a picture of Barbatos. “Always know one’s enemies.” He snapped his fingers and the picture of Barbatos was now fixed. He looked at the image of Lucifer. The smug bastard. If it had not been for his actions at a few words from Vapula himself, the guilt of those words would not have made Vapula fall, leaving Raziel. Leaving that angel that…
He shook his head and turned back to his desk. No. He had not seen, well talked to, Raziel since the incident where, Vapula, may, the key word being MAY, have burned down Alexandria in what is now known as 48 B.C. Raziel was furious when Vapula showed up at the library as it was burning.
They had their worst fight then, literal fight, swords and true forms were shown as they fought. Even Vapula could not tell the Angel of Secrets why the library needed to be burned. And Vapula had to burn it. If he had not…
It would have signed Heaven’s end. With those certain scrolls destroyed by a fire started by pouring holy oils and a small hell flame, it prevented both Hell and Heaven from destroying the other for good. Even God had some secrets from the Keeper of Secrets, that the Keeper of Knowledge had access to, and vice versa.
Vapula took a deep breath. He would at least get the mortal soul under his control. He went back to the paperwork.
Kris Charles - Author 