3 Cheers For Sweet Revenge

Virgil led us into a large pulsating pink chamber. The walls were wet and slick, blood dripping from every mooring. It were as if we were inside of a giant heart.

"Both of you have done much in your mortal lives as well your afterlife, right Black?" Virgil said, giving him a teasing nudge in the arm.

"Get to the point, I did my part, I killed 1000 people to be with Ophelia again, so where is she?"

Virgil smiled, "In good time my boy! In good time! I first have to give Grey his sentence!"

Black crossed his arms in protest, "Tch!"

Virgil turned to me, his black eyes unblinking, "Listen closely now, you have killed many a person in your life, against your will yes, but for a fair price of compensation. Blood money you had obtained, and blood shall still be spilt. I am sorry, but your punishment will be of the upmost painful and severe. If it were up to me, I'd have you join my black parade, but it isn't up to me at this point."

Virgil almost sounded sad, his voice wavering like the wind in tall tree lines, in the reeds, in dead dismal fields.

"What is my punishment? I have been suffering almost all of my life, hell will make no difference to me."

"Rather stoic of you yes?" Virgil said, ushering me forward with a thin bony arm.

"C'mon man! Hurry up already!" Black said impatiently.

Virgil turned and cast Black a cold stare, silencing him.

"You must hang from the gallows of shame. Choked by a noose made of lies, pain, and torment, stereotypical of hell I know, but it is the best that I can do for you my boy! And each day, you shall hear the voices of treason and hatred in your ears, as the words strangle and lynch you eternally." Virgil said, sadly with a smile.

I shrugged, "What about Helena?"

He shook his head, "She will be ravished again and again by a horde of hellspawn, every entry and exit of her body shall be filled and tormented.."

Black burst out laughing at this point, his guffaws of hellish humor echoing off of the fleshy walls of our chamber.

Virgil calmly reached over and snapped Black's neck 180 degrees.

"Silence hellspawn! Know your place and rank here amongst the fallen and trampled still! Speak only when I say so, and laugh only when the humor sees fit!"

Black gasped and choked, he was able to twist his head back to it's normal posture.
He was silent, his hatred and anger burning in his eyes, but he obeyed.

I turned to Virgil, "This can't be! I'll gladly change places with her, let me take her bane for mine!"

Virgil shook his head again, "Bargains are not common-place nor permitted here in hell. But if bargain were to be struck, what would the offer be?"

"Aside from what I just said?"

He nodded.

"Hang her with me, next to me, I don't care what torment or torture I have to go through, just as long as we are together.." I said softly.

Virgil nodded, "It seems even in death and in hell, you still obtain a human heart and spirit. We cannot abolish that which will not ever exstinguish and die. You have your bargain, and we shall comply."

I tried to smile, but Virgil stopped me with a hand, "No, none of that here, or we shall renuig our last deal! Mind you kind Sir, no smiling or any sign of joy shall be shown here forth understood?"

I nodded, my eyes to the ground.

Virgil turned to Black, "And now for you outcast!"

Black gave Virgil his complete attention, a look of anxious dread in his eyes.

"I gave you a deal, you followed en suite. You have supplied hell with 1000 souls, both innocent and unclean. You have fulfilled your part of the bargain. I shall fulfill mine."

Virgil stepped away, and out of the shadows came a woman. She wore a faded tattered dress, tangled hair, and a grotesque looking gas mask.

"Who..who the fuck is that?!" Black screamed, pointing a finger at the woman before him.

"Why, that is your beloved Ophelia! How she waited and waited for you. But the pain of hellfire was too much for her poor soul and flesh, so she struck a bargain with me! If her torment could end, she would take up the role of a hellion, a high ranking officer of hell!"
Virgil said, beaming with pride.

"That wasn't our deal!" Black screamed.

"Of course it wasn't! It was Ophelia's deal that she made. Your love is no longer, but Mother War is among us now! See how beautiful she is?!"

I heard a loud, high pitched whistle, followed by a low drone, which I soon realized was Black's screaming.
He screamed as he pulled out his hair with his blood stained hands, his eyes wide and mad looking. His mouth was twisted into a primal rictus of pain, agony, suffering, and insanity.

Mother stood there, gazing blankly at him, she was indifferent.

"Come now Mother war, take your place in your domain of Hamburgshire, the killing fields outside of the city of Dis. There you shall raise hells army, from criminals, killers, soldiers, and the like. I would offer your once beloved to you as your first recruit, but you already have 1000 able bodied soldiers in your army now don't you?" Virgil said mockingly.

Mother war nodded, "Indeed, he did his work well!"

Black was on the ground now, writhing in his hatred and shock, still screaming.


Mother war yawned, she was bored with him. She stepped back into the shadows, and was gone.

"You may begin your sentencing," Virgil said softly, waving me off with a hand as he turned to Black.

"What about him?" I asked, pointing at the insane man before me.

"He'll get his due."

The words stung and burned my ears, the noose was tight and sculding hot. I could feel my neck stretching and straining under the weight of my dangling body. I would try to speak, but only gag and cough. My tongue was nailed to my cheek, and my eyes were sewn open with lie wire. This was hell.
She reached her hand out, grasping mine tightly, as she writhed and suffered next to me.
She gave my hand three hard squeezes...."I Love you".
I returned her squeeze, tears running down my cheeks. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her, dangling next to me, in just as much excruciating pain as me.
She tried to smile as best she could, but only tore her lips on the razor wire stitching of her lips.
A solitary tear ran down her cheek and landed gently on our entwined hands.

And for a split second...all of this pain didn't hurt so bad...


THE MELANCHOLY PENANCE OF CYRUS SINCLAIR (BLACK)

Black opened his eyes. He ached all over, his body felt cold and drained. He tried to move, but found himself anchored to the dark grown rust of hell's floor with all manner of hooks, wires, barbs, needles, and blades. He tried to move his left arm, only to tear a hole the size of a half dollar in him. He cried out, only to find his tongue was ripped from it's moorings.

He whimpered and tried to speak regardless of his handicap, but only blood bubbled out from his lips.
Then he heard her, her cries for help, to be saved. His Ophelia.
He had to save her, so they could escape, and be free to roam and kill again.

With much effort, pain, and grit, he pulled himself from his anchors and restraints, tearing out chunks and gobs of flesh from his body.
He made one agonizing step after another, his body falling apart little by little, until he was able to drag his bleeding broken body towards her voice.

It felt as though he had been walking for hours on end, dragging his chains and instruments of torture with him, in a bloody clanging parade of hellish juvelation.
How he wished he was dead.

When he came upon her, he rushed to her side, doing his best to calm her, to save her life.
She lay dying, and there she would die in his arms.

She would vanish, leaving her blood and intestines behind, where he had found her.
He could only sigh, try to steady his quivering lips as he choked back a tear.
He cursed himself and his fate.

He cursed himself even more, for this was the fifth time that he had ripped himself from his chamber of hatred, dragged himself half across hell, to find her dead body, only to be pulled kicking and screaming back to his place of orign.

He did not know what compelled him to do this act over and over, knowing well that at the end of his painwracked trek, he would find nothing but a corpse.

He readied himself now, to be yanked and dragged back to his chambers, so that he could do it all over again...and again...and again..or all eternity..

3 CHEERS FOR SWEET REVENGE.