"Okay, come on," I say, "We can't keep putting this off anymore. We don't have to pull Ariel out yet, but we do need to talk to the devil and see if he's going to keep working now that we're in charge instead of the previous guys."

"Yeah, you're right," Aaron says.

We walk over to the podium from the very beginning and I whisper.

"Take us to hell."

There's a flash of light and in a second we're transported just inside the gates of hell. A small path stretches out in front of us. We look at each other for a minute and begin to walk down it.

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The Devil

I can't believe this! The new gods have been up there for at least a few weeks so far and they can't even be bothered to send somebody down to talk to me! I'm the God damned Devil, for crying out loud! Lord of Darkness and Master of Hell!

I could just leave this place and shut the whole thing down! They're so lucky I love my job and wouldn't do that.

But they don't know that! For all they know, I left as soon as they showed up. I swear, if one of them doesn't get their sorry butt down here in the next few days, I will march right up there to that garden of theirs and let them know exactly what I think of this!

I just wish I could get one of them down here, just to punish them a little bit. Then maybe, they would get the message. What else could they be doing right now? Seriously?! Did they just forget that hell exists?! Did they forget about me completely?! I swear if they just forgot about me!

Ugh! I really need to torture something a little bit. I wonder if I should actually just go up there now. No, no. I remember what happened the last time I tried that. I'll give them three more days, and if I don't hear from them in all that time, I will make them experience the true meaning of hell.

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Back to Damien

We get to the end of this path and see a woman with fairy wings sitting at a desk working on something.

"Um, hi," I say.

"Hello," she says, "Welcome to Hell. Do you have an appointment?"

"Um, no. We're here to see the devil. We're in charge of the new set of gods. We wanted to talk to him about how we're going to proceed once our new world is completed."

She looks up at us in surprise and whispers into a small object in her hand.

"Ah, yes. He's been waiting to talk to you two. You can head into his office right through that door. Good luck in there."

We step up to the door and walk in. I look up at the devil and almost immediately see into his eyes. Oh God! I'm instantly filled with pure and indescribable terror. I hear the screams of every being in hell. I feel my entire body completely frozen. I see the faces of every innocent, who has ever suffered, crying out in anguish. I hear the demons of my past mistakes yelling at me. The sense of dread fills and consumes every fiber of my being. I open my mouth like I should be screaming, but I can't even do that. It's so horrible, but no matter what I can't force myself to look away.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, he moves his head and his eyes are torn away from mine. I almost collapse to the ground in relief as soon as I can't see them anymore. I put my head in my hands and I can feel myself shaking like a leaf. I glance at Aaron and see that he's had more or less the same reaction. He looks just as horrified as I feel. His eyes are wide and his face has gone completely pale.

I can't even try to comfort him because I'm still struggling to breathe after that experience. He glances at me and I can tell he feels the same towards me.

"Um, Mr. Um, Satan, sir?" I say, trying to regain some of my composure, "We, um, we came here today to talk to you about the future of hell with the new set of gods. From what your secretary told us, it sounds like you already knew that a new set had arrived and we need to talk to you about how we're going to carry on with our new world."

"Okay, then talk," Satan says in a gravelly voice that I can feel to my core.

"Well, first of all, do you want to continue running hell for us now? I mean it's fine if you don't, but we just need to know in case we need to find someone else to do this if you don't want to anymore. Not that someone else could do your job better, but you know, we just needed to know."

"Stop," he cuts me off, "I will continue running hell. I've been doing this job for millennia. I could have left weeks ago. You sir, are very lucky that I love my job, or you'd be stuck trying to find a replacement that simply doesn't exist. And before you ask, you are not to interfere with any part of hell without me specifically telling you that I agree to it. If you try to break that rule, I will place you in the ninth circle and keep you there until the next set of gods comes out."

"Okay, that's fine. Also a couple days ago I sent one of our gods who broke the rules down here for a few days of punishment. I just want to know if you're okay with me doing that. Also, are we going to be able to get her back at any point or are you just going to keep her down here until you decide we can have her back?"

"YOU WHAT?!" He yells and glares down at me with those horrible eyes.

It's even worse now. He's angry and everything from before is amplified by about a hundred times. Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Oh God! This is too much! Kill me! Just stop doing this! This hurts too much! Make it stop! Kill me! Just kill me! Make it stop!

"YOU CAN'T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO COME AND TALK TO ME UNTIL WEEKS AFTER YOUR ARRIVAL AND YET YOU HAVE THE GALL TO ASK ME TO PUNISH ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO DOESN'T EVEN BELONG IN HELL! ON TOP OF THAT, YOU DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO COME AND TELL ME UNTIL DAYS AFTER YOU DID IT?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF HOW DISRESPECTFUL THAT IS! I AM LORD OF HELL! I HAVE BEEN HERE LONGER THAN EVEN THE LAST SET OF GODS HAVE EXISTED! DO YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE ME ANGRY!? BECAUSE IF YOU DO, THEN YOU KEEP THIS UP, AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!"

Kill me! Kill me! Kill me! Make it stop! This hurts too much! End it! Just end it! Please! Oh God!

"ANSWER ME!"

"I-I'm s-so s-sorry! I d-didn't m-mean-"

I can't finish. He glares at me a bit harder for a minute and everything amplifies again. Then he turns away and I collapse to my knees. I put my head in my hands. I'm shaking and crying, and I can't even think about stopping. I can't move. I can't look up. I can't force myself to do anything. I can barely draw in the air anymore.

"You'll get your child back when I'm good and ready," he says, "Now get out of my sight."

I still can't force myself to move. I try for a minute and Aaron grabs my arm and kind of pulls me to my feet. We both stumble back out of the room. We see the woman from before sitting at her desk. She clearly heard the shouting and gives us an apologetic look.

"Yikes," she says, "You must have really made him mad to get that kind of reaction. You're lucky he didn't throw you down into the ninth circle from the sounds of it."

I nod.

"Th-thank you, miss," I stammer as Aaron and I walk back down the path towards the gates.

The shock starts to wear off a little as we get further away from the devil, but I'm still shaking and can barely focus enough to walk in a straight line. I look over at Aaron and see that he's not doing much better. His face is still completely white and he's shaking just like I am. I also can see he's doing his best to hold back tears, but it's not working. His eyes are wet and he's visibly crying. I can tell he's trying not to for my sake, but he just can't stop them from flowing.

Neither of us can bring ourselves to say anything. We just walk down the path until we get to the gates. We look at each other and instantly know that we can't go back like this. For the others' sake, we shouldn't let them see us like this. We both sink down to the ground and sit with our backs to the gate.

I can't say anything, and I don't think Aaron can either. The tears are still flowing from his eyes. I'm still shaking badly and can only barely breathe properly. What did we just get ourselves into? What happens if we ever have to ask the devil for something?! We can't work together after this. Especially if this is how we react to just being in the same room with him for a few minutes.

What am I doing? I can't be a god. I definitely can't be a leader to the new gods. Maybe I should just stay here. If I can't even handle talking to Satan even with Aaron in the room with me, I shouldn't be trying to lead all of them I couldn't even handle those two guys who were fighting before.

Aaron had to save me. He's a better leader. If he can go back and lead them, they'll all probably be better off. I can't go back there, but I can't stay here either. I can't even die! Oh God! What's wrong with me?! Why couldn't I just be born a normal person?! I could have died centuries before the end of the world would even come! Why me?! I don't deserve to be a god. I should just go into hell and stay in one of the circles. I can just stay there and let things take their course.

I shouldn't have been a god. I shouldn't have made myself into a leader. That much, at least, is my fault. Why did I have to do this to myself and all of them? I'm not good enough at this to be a leader. I'll probably never be good enough, I've literally had centuries to mature and get ready for something to happen, but I still can't do this. I'm never going to be good enough to be a good leader.

That's what I have to do. I have to make Aaron the new leader. At least he's able to stay more calm in these situations. He's better than me. They'll all be better off if he takes over.

I look over at Aaron to tell him this and see that he's curled into a ball and is shaking violently. I feel my eyes widen and start to hear that he's also uncontrollably sobbing.

"Aaron?" I say, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He doesn't say anything and pulls away from my hand.

"Aaron are you okay?" I ask.

He shakes his head slightly without looking up.

"I'm sorry," I say, "It's my fault that this happened. I was the one who got angry and sent Ariel down here. I was the one who thought I could handle being in charge. I had to have you come down here with me! I couldn't handle talking to the devil! I was the one who wanted to put off talking to him! Without me, you would have prevented all of this from happening. You wouldn't be in this state if it wasn't for me. I'm so, so sorry, Aaron. Everything was my fault, and I want you to know that I couldn't have asked for a better partner than you. I'm sorry I put you through all of this."

"It's not your fault," he says, "I was the one who told you to wait to come down here after you sent Ariel down here. It was my idea to spend our time on something else. And here, when I finally come down here to talk to the devil, when we were having an absolutely crucial talk with someone very important who was already angry at us, I couldn't even say anything! I completely froze in there! I was useless when it really counted! At least you could say something! I can't become a leader. I don't even think I can go back. Someone else can take over for me. You deserve a better partner than me."

He curls back into his ball and continues to cry.

Wait, what? Aaron's always been the calm one. He's supposed to be the one who actually knows what he's doing! He's been the only thing letting me do anything good for the entire time we've been in power.

Ugh! How is it that I've been alive for centuries and yet I still don't know how to deal with this?! We can't go back right now. How do we fix this? How can we fix this?!

Why can't our positions be reversed. If they were, Aaron would know exactly how to deal with this.

Okay. What would Aaron do if I was the one reacting the way he is?

What would Aaron do?

I don't know.

I wonder if we even experienced the same thing when we looked into Satan's eyes. I saw the worst of my past reflected back at me for part of that. I wonder what it is that he saw during that part.

Come on! What would he do to help me?

He would try to make me feel better. But, how?! I don't know. I still have to try though.

"Aaron? What did you see, you know? When we looked into his eyes?"

He doesn't answer.

"I saw parts of my past in his eyes," I continue, "I saw the worst things I've ever done, the worst that ever happened to me, the worst I've seen happen. Did you get that too?"

He nods slightly, but doesn't look up. He isn't shaking anymore, but he's still curled into a tight ball.

"You know Aaron, I've killed quite a few people in my day. I was in the military at different times over the years. Ha, I don't even remember half the countries I fought for. I knew I couldn't die, so I was never scared. I was always so careful to make sure no one ever caught on. I saw all of the guys I killed in that thing's eyes. I saw all of my buddies that got killed. I saw the guys' families too. They screamed at me so much. How all this was my fault because I killed them. I saw my family in there too. I hadn't seen them in so long, but I never thought we would meet again like this. I hated watching them die. I don't even want to describe to you the kinds of things I saw happening to all of those poor souls. It was so horrible, especially combined with everything else from his eyes. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

"I saw my family dying horribly in a fire," he says, pulling his head up and staring straight ahead, "I hadn't thought about that for so long. It happened way back in the 18th century, back when I was still young. That's how I found out I was immortal. They all burned to death right in front of me. I burned a little bit too, but it didn't kill me. I tried to get them out, but I was only eight years old. I wasn't strong enough to pull any of them out of the house. I finally ran out of the house. My burns healed almost instantly. I knew something wasn't right and I ran as far away as I could as fast as I could. Everyone in town thought I had died too. I didn't even find out until weeks later. I couldn't go back home.

"I got married several years later, had a couple kids. Two kids got sick and died before they were even ten years old. The wife and the other kid lived fairly well, but they still died. I couldn't do anything, but I couldn't follow them either. Eventually I had to fake my own death and leave. I hated watching people die. That's all that's happened, the entire time I've been alive. I saw it all in his eyes. I saw everything I did wrong, every person that I couldn't help, my whole family that I'll never see again."

There are still tears in his eyes, he's barely holding them back, but at least he seems to be getting a little bit better. He suddenly turns and puts his arms around me. I hug him back and we sit in silence and mutual sorrow for a moment.

"You know," I say, "It's not your fault you were born this way. It's not anyone's fault that we specifically ended up this way. It doesn't seem like anyone really likes being one of us. I think we got chosen randomly. There's no guarantee that we'll be able to do a good job at this. But, we should at least try. I mean, if we don't try, we'll never know how we would have done, and in any case the others are probably better off with us leading them than without us."

He nods.

"I know, I'm sorry I let this happen."

"It's not your fault."

He hugs me a bit tighter.

"The others will be worried if we don't go back sometime soon," I say.

"Can we just stay here for a bit longer?"

I hug him a little tighter.

"Of course," I say quietly.

We stayed there, no one came looking for us. We were completely alone next to the gates of hell. I don't know how long we stayed there like that. We must have fallen asleep at some point and we both wake up the next morning.

We get up, look at each other, and join hands. I put my hand on the gate.

"Take us back to the garden," I say.

There's a flash of light, and in an instant, we're back at the podium just as the sun is rising in the distance. It's a brilliant orange and red, mixed with softer shades of pink and purple. The others probably aren't even awake yet. We stand there, watching the sunrise in quiet awe, with only a slight lingering sadness as the light of day slowly appears before us.