Guardian

The fire was loud roaring on either side of us. I saw as Solomon changed. From wearing his school clothes to wearing all black.

"This would be the time to use your cell phone." he said to me.

I pulled it out and flipped it open. I pressed the red button and my body flamed up and then next thing I knew I was dressed in a black leather mini skirt with a tight top that showed my midrift and I had a black cropped black leather jacket. Black high heeled boots that came up over my knees and my hair had green streaks and I wore black leather fingerless gloves.

Solomon and I stood in front of a large cavern.

"Wow." he said to me.

I covered my stomach.

"Do all the girls in the underworld dress like sluts?" I asked him.

"It is the underworld." he said and shrugged and looked down.

"So we have to go down there?" I asked him looking at the fire rising.

"Just pretend you're sky diving but without a parachute." he said.

"On the count of three." I said to him.

"Three." he said and pulled me down with him.

We fell and I screamed. He was laughing like crazy.

"Don't let go!" I cried.

"Just hold on." he said to me.

We freefalled for about one minute even though it felt like a long time. The fall ended quickly. We landed on the coal colored ground. All around us was shops and buildings. Black and dark stores. People were walking totally ignoring us.

"Welcome to Hell, well one section of Hell." Solomon said and smiled.

I let go of his hand. I shivered like crazy.

" I thought Hell was a firey abiss runned by the devil?" I asked him.

"That's the last level we're still on level one. We need to go to level eight that's where my dad is." he said.

"Oh great does this involve more cliff diving?" I asked him.

He looked at me and smiled.

"No but we got to find an elevator." he said looking around.

I looked at the people. Actually they looked like ghosts. They're bodies were translusiant and they seemed to be wondering with chains attached to their bodies.

"Everyone's a ghost here?" I asked him.

"Level one belongs to lost souls. They may or may not find their way." he said and then grabbed my arm.

"That's sad." I said to him.

"They don't know that." he said.

"Where are we going?" I asked him.

"See that tower over there?" I asked him.

"Yeah." I said.

"There's an elevator in there we're taking it to go to level eight." he said to me.

One of the ghosts walked beside me.

"Spare soul?" it asked.

"Go away." Solomon grumbled it walked away.

"Did it asked for spare soul?" I asked him.

"Ghost hobos." Solomon said to me.

There was a lot to the underworld I didn't know about. Like the fact that the inside of most of the buildings looked like the inside of my mom's firm. Which is kind of cool and cozy at the same time. Solomon walked to the elevator and pressed the down button. We waited for it. The elevator was coming up from level seven.

"Do you know all the levels?" I asked him as the door slid open.

We walked in and he let go of my arm and pressed number -8.

"Yeah." he said and turned around.

I turned around and saw that it was a glass elevator. It went down slowly.

"Level two are for thieves, three belongs to people who died from addictions, four are murders. Five and Six are for weirdos like witches. Seven is for suicide victims and here's eight." he said.

"Phoenixes?" I asked him.

"Yeah, it's also known as the judgement corridor. This is where my dad and his court decides to send the lost souls on level one to one of the other levels or level nine. It depends how bad they are." he said walking out.

We walked out of the tower and level eight seemed more livelier. There were kids and adults walking around in similar outfits as Solomon's and my own. All were black. I guess this is what it felt like to be in a Goth convention.

Solomon held my hand.

"Why are you holding my hand?" I asked him.

"Lets just say that if you don't belong to me you're someone elses." he said to me.

"What everyone is pared off here?" I asked him.

"No but sooner or later you would be paired off. We need to go to the local bar to make sure the coast is clear to go to my place." Solomon said.

I saw someone break into a store and a group of kids ran in stealing stuff.

"Are you going to do anything?" I asked him.

"In this world. Stuff like that is a way of life." he said.

"Kind of like earth." I said and sighed.

"We try to make level eight feel like home." he said.

We walked down town to the local bar called the Red Horn. We walked in. It was packed filled with teens. Screaming and yelling having a good time. Some of them were giving the bartender a hard time. While others took care of themselves by getting their own drinks.

"Want something to drink?" Solomon asked me.

"Uh, what do they have?" I asked him.

He hopped behind the counter.

"Blood, and more blood." he said.

"No I'll pass." I said.

"Sorry, tonight's vampire night." he said hopping back over the counter.

"Well look who's back in town!" one guy said behind Solomon.

Solomon furrowed his brows.

"Rodney." He said through gritted fangs.

"Long time no see. How's the overworld? Brought any hot chicks down. Oh wait who would want to follow you?" Rodney asked smirking.

Rodney was built like a jock. Muscular with nice hair except it was black and slicked back. I didn't like Rodney the way he was annoying Solomon.

"Actually he did bring me back." I said standing up beside Solomon and putting my hand on my hips.

"What are you doing?" Solomon whispered to me.

"Well, aren't you gorgeous?" he asked pushing Solomon aside.

Solomon's eyes flickered black.

"I know." I said.

"How about you ditch the halfling and hang with me?" he asked touching my cheek.

"In your dreams." I said smacking his hand away.

"I like to play hard to get." he said pushing himself into me.

Solomon pushed Rodney into the table and held him down.

"Touch her again and I'll send you to level nine." he growled.

"O-okay sorry." Rodney said as Solomon pulled away.

"Earth changed you." Rodney said walking away and nodding in approval.

"How come you don't do that with bullies on earth?" I asked him smiling.

"This is my playing field." he said and smiled holding out his hand.

I took it and he pulled me through the crowd of teens to the VIP room. Let's just say it was literally steamy in there. I covered my eyes.

"Isn't it wrong to show this many signs of public affection?" I asked him.

" Just ignore it." he said stepping over a couple. That I nearly tripped on.

We left that room and were now in a calmer darker room. There was a monitor on the wall.

"Have a seat." Solomon said to me.

"There's no chairs..." Just as I said that. A chair showed up behind me.

I tested it and then sat in it. He took a seat next to me and pulled out a remote from under his seat.

"What's the monitor for?" I asked him.

"Watching what is going on." he said and clicked a button.

The monitor came on and there was a password lock on the monitor.

"Stupid parental locks." he said and typed in the code.

"What's the code?" I asked him.

"Stupid parental locks." he repeated.

I just rolled my eyes.

There were four options. He choice the fourth one a picture of a castle. The monitor grew large and covered the rest of the wall. It went dark and then it lit up.

"What are we looking at?" I asked him.

"It's my home." he said.

"That huge castle is your home?" I asked him.

"My room is that half of the castle and then there's the servants and so on." he said.

"What's going on outside?" I asked him looking at the fires.

"My half brother he's there. This isn't good at all. He's preparing for my father's demise." Solomon said sorrowfully.

"It'll be okay." I said not knowing if it would be.

"We got to go there. I got to see him." Solomon said pulling a bar over his head.

"Solomon where did that come from?" I asked him.

"You better pull that bar down too." he said.

I looked up and pulled it down.

"What is all this?" I asked him.

"The must've just installed the track here." he said.

"What track?" I asked him nervously.

Soon the monitor crumbled and disappeared.

"Hold on." Solomon said to me as our chairs started to move upward.

"Solomon where are we. What's going on?" I asked him.

"This is the ride to the castle." he said to me smiling.

"I don't do good on roller costers. I get sick." I said to him.

"Well don't worry it's only a sixty second round. It's just like sky diving..."

"Enough." I said.

I looked down as our train met the very top of the track. I looked down and saw that there was a hole in the ground. Solomon smiled at me.

"This is going to be great." he said.

The track released us.

"I wish I was hooooommmmeeee!" I cried as it went straight down into the ground.