The Politics of Hell Read online



  The Politics of Hell

  By Shawn James

  Copyright ©2003, 2012

  Front cover art designed by and Copyright © 2012 Shawn James

  This is a work of fiction. All events, locations, institutions, themes, persons, characters and plot are completely fictional. Any resemblance to places or persons, living or deceased, are purely coincidental.

   

  Chapter 1

  There’s fire everywhere. Walls of blue flames have the goddess Isis surrounded. I’m about to incinerate her when I feel something cold and hard tear through my chest. It hurts so bad I scream in pain without thinking about it. In shock from the pain I close my eyes and mumble something I don’t remember when I crash to the ground. The fire tears at my flesh and then everything goes black.

  I open my eyes and I feel myself falling fast, falling deeper and deeper into the dark pit of Hell headed down into the flaming azure lake below. I try to make bat wings sprout from my back, but nothing happens. I try to make myself teleport to a nearby cliff, but I can’t. I grab for a ledge but my hand slips through it. As the heat gets hotter and hotter I start to panic. I frantically flail my arms up and down desperately hoping that they will break my fall. The fire begins to tear at my soul; I see the agonized faces of Seth and all those souls I tortured up close. I let out a terrified scream before I plunge into the burning lake.

  Then it all turns black again. I lay there for a long time balled up in a fetal position.

  My mind is blank during the long silence. When I start thinking my mind races. Four eons of past memories of ideas, concepts, laws, and events in my life are all running through my mind so fast that I feel like I’m about to go crazy trying to process them all. In a few moments the stream of memories ends and my mind clears. I start focusing on the questions I have regarding my recent death. If I landed in the lake, why isn’t the fire tearing at my flesh? Why aren’t the worms gnawing my body? How come I don’t hear any souls wailing in anguish around me? I wonder to myself if I actually hit the lake so hard that I busted Hell wide open. This could be the bottom of the lake without the fire in it.

  I stir out of my daze and take a moment to get over the trauma of falling into the pit. This can’t be Hell; the cool air swirling around me is just too sweet. The room is too quiet. I touch the spot between my breasts where the spear where the spear pierced it and the skin isn’t broken by a wound. I feel my heart thumping and gasp in shock. I’m alive!

  I start to feel my surroundings with my hands. The silken texture of the sheets I’m lying on tells me that I’m not in the lake of fire. If I’m not in Hell then where am I? More important than the question of where I am, who brought me here?

  I open my eyes and realize I’m lying on a bed under some some purple silk sheets. I squint making out the four posters on a cherry canopy bed. My eyes start to reclaim their focus as I peer down at the paisley pattern in the red rug under the bed. Wherever I am I’m in someone’s guest bedroom. And a nice one at that. Only the wealthiest men have furnishings like this in their homes.

  I hear heavy footsteps pounding into the floor outside. I slide out bed still feeling groggy from the near-death experience. In the moment I take to compose myself I realize I’m naked. It’s a good thing I’m not modest. I need answers from whoever is coming down that hallway and I’m going to get them from whoever it is.

  “Good. You’re awake.” The deep voiced stranger barks as he opens the door.

  The tall handsome burly bronze-skinned man dressed in a tailored Italian red suit, black shirt, and black Italian shoes steps into the room with my dress draped over his left forearm. As he gives me a smile with his bright brown eyes and straight white teeth I wonder if he is a demon or a human. He doesn’t have any yellow snake eyes, black horns or cloven nails on his hands and feet like other demons do. If he is a demon, he’s the strangest one I’ve ever seen.

  As the stranger approaches me, I turn and get a look at my reflection in the mirror on the door. The sight of my face appalls me. What happened to my horns? Why are my eyes brown? My teeth-where are my fangs? My hands-my feet they’re human!

  I have to calm down. I’m sure that the stranger will explain everything.

  I take a deep breath as he stops in front of me. He looks me up and down then gives me another smile. I hide my nervousness behind a smile. I can’t show him any weakness.

  “Could you explain what’s going on?” I ask.

  “I’ve saved your life.” He says.

  That can’t be possible; I know I was falling into the lake of fire. I felt the flames tearing at my soul. How could he possibly prevent me from meeting my final fate?

  “I felt myself falling into the lake of fire.”

  “Perhaps it was a dream you were having. You’ve been here recovering from your injuries for the past several days.”

  “That can’t be true. I was mortally wounded-”

  “True, you were fatally injured a few months ago. However, my agents were easily able to restore you to full health before bringing you to my palace.”

  “Your palace-this isn’t Hell.”

  “Perhaps it is. And perhaps it isn’t.”

  “Look, I need to know where I am. What is this place and who are you?” I demand.

  He smiles at me. “I expected you to know E’steem. After all you are quite erudite about the transpirings of these realms.”

  “How do you know my name? Are you…God?”

  He laughs at me. I give him a look. He laughs at me some more after seeing the awkward grimace on my face. When I scowl at him he decides to finally give me the answers to my questions.

  “For one who aspires to be a Lord, I’d think you would make it a point to know whose image you were made in.”

  That has to be a lie. When I performed the ritual a dragon dunked my head under the blood, and when I came out of the fountain I wasn’t looking like him. If he’s a demon then he’s using magic to cover his true identity. However, that doesn’t explain how he knows so much about me. Only Seth and the dragon know how I became a demon. Whoever this stranger is he must have privy to Hell’s secrets. The more questions I ask him the more queries I have for this intriguing stranger.

  “When I came out of the fountain I didn’t look like you.” I snarl.

  “Like you I can take many forms. To Eve I was a serpent, to you a dragon, and to men I am an angel of light. But this is my true form.”

  “We’re Demons. Our true forms are-”

  “Whatever I choose them to be. In my palace you’ll have no need of a terrifying visage to do your work.”

  “I never thought I was grotesque.”

  “You were always vein.”

  “How do you know so much about me?”

  “This is my realm. Nothing transpires here without me being aware of it.”

  “Then you are-”

  “Lucifer of course.”

  “Lord.” I say bowing before the Lord to show him his respect. He gestures his hand and I rise. I give him a thankful smile as he hands me my dress. It was agony standing around him naked for so long.

  “What do you wish of me Lord?” I ask slipping my dress over my head.

  “I have been observing your actions for some time now E’steem. The way you manipulated your foes in your attempt to attain Lordship was quite impressive.”

  “I didn’t manipulate-”

  “You knew what you were doing. You sought to bring the goddess Isis to Hell to kill her. While you manipulated her, you made it appear to Seth as if you were bringing her here for him to torment. You never broke face, not even when you were in the process of giving her the killing blow. None but me would have known you would have acquired Ladyship until the goddess h
ad died. It was an excellent scheme.”

  “Thank you Lord. If I’ve impressed you then I’ll assume that you’re going to allow me to take Seth’s place among your Elect.”

  “Then you would be wrong. Only one who can slay a god can be one of my Lords.”

  Great, he’s sending me to go serve one of the other Lords. If that happens I’ll be worse off than when I started. Under Seth I was free to do as I pleased due to the fact that his tail was too heavy to cross the bridge of dead men’s bones. The other Lords won’t give me that kind of independence. I’ve got to persuade him to give me Seth’s Lordship or all that plotting and planning I did to kill Isis will be for nothing.

  “You’re going to put me under another Lord- I don’t think that helps anything.” blurt.

  “True, Seth is dead.” Lucifer replies. “His inability to control you has shown me that he was unfit to be among my Elect. However what you do from here will be for me to decide.”

  “I don’t believe sending you to serve as harbinger for one of the other Lords would be an effective use of your skills E’steem.” Lucifer continues. “You have proven that your skills aren’t being utilized to your full potential as a herald. I need to find a place for you where you can be of better use to me.”

  “And where would that be Lord?”

  “For the interim you will work as my Librarian. You will remain here at my side taking notes, cataloging the books in my private library and studying texts. In a few weeks I will find you something more challenging for you to do.”

  “Being a Librarian isn’t a challenging way to use my skills. I was a scribe for Osiris.”

  “If this job doesn’t please you, you could always join Seth in the lake of fire.”

  “Where do you keep the pens?”

  Chapter 2

  E’steem showed a lot of promise in her quest to kill the goddess. It was the only reason why I spared her life. Out of all the demons in the old guard I believe she’s one of the few who will be able to adapt to my new operation on Earth. If she works as efficiently as she did as a herald for Seth, I see her as one of the senior executives of my new operation.

  Now that the last of the Lords has been dispatched of, Brent can ramp up the building of the infrastructure of my industrial complex. Once it’s in place I’ll have billions of souls for the taking.

   

  Chapter 3

  When Lucifer made me his Librarian, I expected to be following him around, taking a lot of notes, and researching things. However, since I got the job I haven’t done any writing or researching at all. In fact he hasn’t even been around to supervise me. During the three weeks I’ve been here he’s left me to fend for myself in this enormous palace.

  For the interim, I’ve been taking advantage of the autonomy my new position offers me. There are no servants around to care for the residence or even a pet dog or cat to play with. Since Lucifer has been gone I’ve been all over his palace looking for anything that will allow me to capitalize on this opportunity granted to me. That’s kept me so busy that I’ve barely had time to eat or sleep. So far I haven’t found anything that will help me in my quest for Ladyship. The palace is full of so many distracting temptations; that made it hard to concentrate on my goal. In the first two weeks here I got so caught up playing with Lucifer’s numerous toys that I almost forgot to take a good long tour of his library. When I got there a few days ago, the sheer volume of books almost overwhelmed me. There must have been a million books in the study alone and billions more in the main library. I didn’t know where to start, so I started with a book I was familiar with, the laws of Hell. According to the texts I’ve been given a very prestigious position, one with far more power than I ever had as a herald to Seth. As his scribe I’m one of the highest-ranking demons in Hell next to the Lords themselves. It seems I’ll have a lot of free time; In addition to cataloging his books all the Librarian really does is take notes when the Lords meet with Lucifer once a month. The Lord is often gone roaming the world destroying men’s’ souls and accusing righteous men of evil deeds. So I may yet find an opportunity to attain my Ladyship.

  Since I’ve had my fill of Lucifer’s pleasures, I’ve made myself a second home in the library. I’ve been researching the ancient texts looking for some long-lost offspring of the gods who is unaware of their immortal lineage. Unfortunately, I still haven’t found anyone to kill. It seems Isis was the last of the forgotten children of the gods. My quest for Ladyship will be a lot harder now. Now I’ll have to find a god and fight them face-to face in a battle to the death.

  I’m in the library reading about the Master when a flash of light startles me. I look up and see Lucifer staring down at me. I rise to greet him.

  “Lord, I was just reading about you.”

  “It seems you’ve made yourself comfortable in the short time while I was gone.”

  “Your house is very inviting-”

  “Have you been doing anything else other than drinking my wine and leaving rings in my bathtub?”

  I guess I’m caught. “I was bored. I had to find something to do. And that tub was clean when I got out of it.”

  He gives me a look. “Is this you first time visiting the library?”

  “I’ve spent some time here. I’ve been doing research on my title and how it regards to the laws of Hell.”

  He glares at me. “Don’t patronize me.”

  “That’s what I was reading about while you were gone.”

  “That’s not all you were reading. You were also reading about the families of the gods looking for another forgotten child of the gods to kill in your quest for Lordship.”

  He’s caught me. I’ll confess to my deeds but I’m going to find out to how he knew about what I was doing.

  “Were you spying on me?”

  “You don’t think I wouldn’t know what was transpiring in my own palace?” Lucifer demands.

  “I thought I’d get some privacy.”

  “And you did have that. I never invaded your baths.”

  “But you did spy on me.”

  “I wasn’t spying on you.” Lucifer continues. “I was testing you. I wanted to see what you would do if left to your own devices.”

  “And how did I do?”

  “I expected better of you.”

  “Better- I’m doing exactly what got me here.”

  “That’s the problem. You’re doing the exact same thing that led to your defeat at the hands of Isis.”

  “What’s wrong with that? I’m trying to capitalize on the opportunities available to me.”

  “You’re looking for things to come easy.” Lucifer continues. “You underestimate the resourcefulness of your foes. You think that by playing to their strengths you can take advantage of their weaknesses. A good strategy for a novice but you’ll need much more than strategy to stay competitive here.”

  “A novice-”

  “Yes a novice. Don’t make the mistake of using the tactics you used with Seth on me. I assure you they won’t work.”

  “I know my strategies must be quite effective.” I reply. They’ve gotten me to one of the highest-ranking positions in all of Hell. If they didn’t work I’d be an imp right now.”

  “You think you know the politics of this realm. You don’t really know what’s going on. It takes more than a charming smile and glib words to compete in the realm of the Elect.”

  “I’m not looking for anything to come easy. I’d work hard to be one of your Lords.”

  “I’m well aware of your ambitions E’steem. But are you aware of what you aspire to be? To be one of my Lords is a tremendous sacrifice.”

  “Look, I’ve taken many sacrifices to get this far. I’m willing to go even further to get power like yours.”

  “Are you sure that you want power? Or do you merely want the prestige and accoutrements a high title will offer you?”

  How dare he ask me such a question. “For the past two thousand years I was the one who kept Seth competitive a
mong the Lords of Hell. He was too busy obsessing over his brother to think about his place among demons.”

  “And you believe your hard work entitles you to his position?”

  “I’m smarter than Seth and I deserve to be at the table with the highest ranking demons making decisions. Not serving as a lackey to a blind fool so consumed with hatred that he neglected his duties to you.”

  “I’ve rewarded you for your hard work E’steem.” Lucifer continues. “You have a prestigious position full of privileges all other demons envy. Perhaps you should be content with what you have.”

  “I don’t want a consolation prize. I deserve to be a Lord.”

  “I want you think about what you desire. To be one of my Lords is to journey to the depths of an evil far darker than the most diabolical forms of depravity. To be one of my Lords you must do more than merely kill a god. You must compromise your morals, values, your very soul to be one of my elect.”

  “I’ve pledged loyalty to you. I believe that’s enough.”

  “True, you are loyal E’steem. But are you committed enough to sacrifice your own soul for your title?”

  I don’t say anything. I don’t have to say anything. My reputation speaks for itself. In my eons of living I have always committed myself to destroying all those around me in my quest for power. He should know that I’m dedicated; I betrayed my own master to join his elite cadre of demons.

  “I’ll give you some more time to think about it. I want you to truly assess the cost of what you aspire to be.”

  “You don’t have to give me any more time. I know what I want and I know I’m going to attain it. With or without your help.”

  “You really should think about this-”

  “You really should stop procrastinating. I’m beginning to wonder if you had any higher position for me other than being your glorified secretary.”

  He takes a moment to think about it. I think I’m persuading him to see things my way.

  Lucifer smiles at me. “Perhaps I underestimated you. Maybe I was hasty in promoting you to this position.”

  “You were.”

  “I will give you another chance to join my elect. Kill the goddess Isis and bring her body to me today.”