johnny ringo. || cte

one - welcome johnny.

"Hahaha... well look what we have here boys!!"

Johnny looked around to see rows of tall guards standing in lines that seemed unbreakable, giving him no way to possibly escape.

"Everyone give a warm welcome to... Johnny!"

A man wearing a long black coat and a dark plague doctor mask howled to all of his imtimidating guards whom Johnny now realized were also wearing the masks.

"What do you say we show Johnny a thing or two about what it's like to die!?"

Johnny had a terrified look on his face and soon realized that he was strapped down to a chair in the center of the hardly litten room. He was surrounded by the guards.

"Haha I'm only kidding kid! You're already dead!"

All of the guards roared with their paranormal sounding laughter while Johnny's face went from terrified to something even worse. He was completely stunned now.

"Who are you?! Where am I?!" Johnny yelled out sounding helpless.

"Calm down, young one! Your questions will all be answered in time!" the man/thing said, not yet identifying himself.

"Well what do you want from me?!" Johnny called out, now sounding even more anxious.

"I can't tell you that, but i can tell you this,
I go by a variety of names. You may know me as Lucifer, .." he said, now starting to circle Johnny, ".. or Satan, or even the Devil.
But whatever name you know me by, just know that I am the king of Hell.. and well, welcome to it." He extended his arm and gestured to their surroundings.

There was nothing but endless fire that seemed to go on for miles. They were no longer in the hardly litten room with the guards. They were now physicallly with the flames.

"How did that happen?!" Johnny asked, also noticing that he was no longer strapped down to the chair.

"Thats the power of Hell" Satan said.

"So what you're saying is... I died and came to Hell?!"

"Well of course you did, you did kill yourself..."

"I killed myself?!?!"

"Yes you did. Gun to the brain, such a fool proof way, haha!"

"Wait but.. I didn't want to die! I wasn't thinking!" Johnny said, breaking into sobs. "You've got to help me!"

Satan laughed as if he'd heard that plea before. "Maybe you should have thought about that before you put a bullet through your skull, kid."

Johnny was now full on crying. "This cant be happening. I have a girlfriend. I can't leave her, we're engaged!" he said, almost to himself.

Satan sighed and said "Well, there is something i can do..."

"What? Anything! Does it mean I can see Samantha again?!"

"It does. But you will have to make a deal with me."

Johnny always heard that "one should never make deals with the Devil" but he felt it was a risk worth taking for Samantha. "What kind of deal?"

"Well sort of like... a trade. Your soul to me in return for your life back."

"What does you having my soul mean for me?!" Johnny didnt like the sound of "selling your soul to Satan". It sounded scary to him.

"Basically you'd be becoming my servant, my 'employee' in your terms."

"So I'd like, work for you? You'd be my boss?"

"Exactly... But i prefer the term 'Master".

"Okay then, Master," Johnny said sarcastically, "what would I be doing for you?"

"Possessions, in this case : injecting mind control serum into runaways, killings, you know, things you'd imagine Satan doing."

"So you're saying I'd have to kill people?!"

"Unless you want to remain dead... and never see your girlfriend again.."

"Can I just see her once.. to know that this is all real and you're not tricking me?"

"Fine, but you won't be able to talk to her, just see her."

"Okay, anythi-", before he could finish, he was standing outside the house he and Samantha had bought together. The house that had the beautiful flower garden in the front that was left in ruins when the new fallout had hit. The house with the big glass window in the front that saw right into the living room. The house that- Johnny stopped thinking when he saw Samantha in the living room. With another man. Kissing him.

Johnny was furious. She could replace him that easily?

Just then, Satan appeared next to him. "I can see you're pretty mad, huh?"

"Of course I'm mad!!"

"Mad enough to kill someone?"

"You can say that again.."

"Great. Your first job is to kill the man she's with."

"What do you mean kill him? Like shoot him?"

"If that's how you want to do it... I'm not picky."

"If I shoot him, will I be able to talk to her?"

"I guess you'll just have to find out.."

A gun then appeared in Johnny's hands. It was a type of gun he had never seen before.

He looked down at the gun and felt it in his hands. It was not a new feeling. It was a suprisingly comfortable feeling. He'd remembered he was a police officer in his life and had used a gun occasionally.

He looked into the big glass window and stared at the man. He was young, blonde. He had a lot of life left in him, yet Johnny still hesitantly held up the gun. He aimed it at the man and without thinking, shot.

Right through the glass. Right during their mid-kiss. He fell to the floor. Dead.

Samantha looked down at the man. She was shocked, stunned, terrified. Johnny couldnt hear her but her could see her fall to her knees, screaming and crying. She then pulled out her phone and dialled what she assumed was the police, or Satan's guards.

Before Johnny could see anything else, he and Satan were back in the hardly litten room.

"Good work on your first task, kid."

Johnny was silent, still in shock that he actually killed that man. That young man. Around the same age as him.

"Oh and one more thing." Satan handed Johnny his own plague doctor mask. "Wear this while completing all of your tasks."