Devil in the Details

EIGHTEEN: The Descent into Hell - Pt. 2

I couldn't believe how beautiful everything around me was. The grass tickled my ankles, and there was a light breeze that smelled like sea spray even though there was no beach in sight.

"I feel like I'm dreaming," I murmured. There was definitely a part of me that wanted to stop walking further into Hell and instead lie down and sprawl on the grass. And maybe when I close my eyes, I'll wake up and this all will have been some horrific dream. Of course, that wasn't the case, but you can't fault a girl for wishing.

I was able to make out the cottage more and more as we grew nearer. It was a small thing with crisp white shutters, a cobblestone pathway, and a delicately tended garden in the front. When I reached the garden, I stopped to examine the plants, but realized soon enough that I didn't recognize any of them. There were orange flowers that looked like corkscrews reaching towards the sky, and green spheres that reminded me of oversized grapes about to burst.

"This place..." I mumbled, leaving the garden to finally walk inside.

My dentist back on Earth had purchased an old home to use as her office, converting the front living room into a waiting room for her patients. This cottage had a similar vibe. In the back of the house, I could make out a kitchen and a staircase leading up to what I assumed were bedrooms. But the front living room had been converted into a rather pleasant waiting room. There were couches and a few magazines littering the coffee table—all from 2006, I noticed—and a desk with a little brass sign with the word "Welcome!" engraved into it. The skinny old woman who sat behind the desk peered at me through cat-shaped glasses, and then beckoned me over with a grin and a fluttering of her hand. "Come in, dear! I don't bite, I promise!"

I didn't quite believe her, but I walked up to the desk nonetheless.

She licked a fingertip—her nails were painted a vivid red—and then flipped through a few pages of a small spiral notebook. "Name please?"

"Jessa Brown."

"And are you a new resident or just passing through?"

I blinked. "Sorry?"

"Are you dead or alive, dear? My sense of smell isn't as good as it once was."

"Alive." I paused, then added, "Hopefully."

She chuckled and flipped through a few more pages. "Is the Devil expecting you?"

"Yes, she should be."

"Wonderful. Makes things a lot simpler!" She continued flipping through the pages at a speed that was almost inhuman.

"Is there... something you're looking for?" I asked. There was a large part of me that still didn't quite trust this place or its inhabitants.

"Just trying to find your itinerary," she said, pausing from her work to give me a kind smile. "My home is the first stop everyone makes in the Underworld. If you're just visiting, you receive an itinerary for your journey to meet the Devil. If you're a new resident, you get assigned a job."

"A job?"

She nodded pleasantly.

I bit the inside of my cheek. "Are these jobs... unpleasant?"

The woman seemed shocked by the suggestion. "No, not at all!" She gestured around the room. "This is my job. I've been doing it for 55 years and love it everyday. You get to meet the most interesting folks."

"Like... murderers and stuff?" I asked, the question coming out of my mouth before I had a chance to censor myself.

The woman paused and looked at me confusedly. Then she let out a laugh. "Oh I'm sorry, honey! I've been down here so long, I forgot what you folks hear about in the upper world, that Hell is full of sinners and such. Those people—the murderers and such—they don't end up down here."