Bargain (Not Met) (JungHope)

Deal with a Demon: Expounded

Hoseok probably should have been wary with his choice of company, since he was in Hell and all. But, for some inexplicable reason, Hoseok found himself almost calmed by Yoongi. Maybe it was just the post-breakdown syndrome talking. Hoseok wasn't in any hurry to find out; to be left wandering the depths of Hell all alone again.

They walked about and talked about nothing in particular—passing comments on a city structure here, burning inquiries about Hell lore there.

It was so...normal. So tame and tranquil. The complete opposite of what Hoseok imagined a tour of Hell to be. If he had been doing it by himself without a mild local to point out the dos and don'ts of Hell life, he probably would have found his soul in the pits of a demon's stomach. So, he was glad to have Yoongi around to keep him sane from the stares of the wandering souls.

Speaking of...

"Why do they keep staring at me?" Hoseok asked, interrupting Yoongi's run-down of the history behind the statue of Lucifer they stood in front of. "The...shadows, I mean," Hoseok elaborated when Yoongi turned toward him with a blank stare.

Hoseok watched as Yoongi gave a broad sweep of their surroundings. "They're curious," he said plainly as he met Hoseok's gaze. He shrugged when Hoseok returned his explanation with a frown. "The last live soul to come down here was some seven thousand years ago," he continued. "None of them were here for that visit, so now they're crazing over yours."

Hoseok hummed. "I'm guessing you were around back then? Since you're not acting like them." Hoseok ended his statement with a jerk of his thumb toward a cluster of souls that moaned and groaned at Hoseok's every move.

"Yeah, you could say that," Yoongi said. "It's been a while, so my memory's fuzzy." He rubbed the back of his neck and sent his gaze skyward as he pondered in thought. "I think it was...a kid. A boy. Younger than you," he continued after a beat. "He didn't wander down here by accident. He was looking for something—no, no, it was definitely someone."

Yoongi halted and stayed silent for a long moment. Hoseok thought he had lost his train of thought and was ready to remind him when Yoongi suddenly shook his head. "Nah, it's no good," he said with a sigh. "I can't remember what that little squirt was after."

"Your age is really starting to show," Hoseok said with a laugh.

Yoongi waved him off with a flippant hand. "Please. I doubt that half of the demons that were there would remember even that much."

"Now that I think about it, demons are immortal, right? Isn't overpopulation a problem down here?" Hoseok asked.

"That's why we have annual lynching sprees."

"Please tell me that's a joke."

Yoongi motioned his hand to a far-off slab of concrete with indistinguishable inscribing. "Gaze upon our history and marvel at our cruelty."

Hoseok held his hands up in hasty refusal. "I'll pass." His eyes flitted over to the slab before settling on Yoongi's bemused ones. "What are the requirements for getting lynched, then?"

Yoongi held up his index finger. "There's only one requirement for that, actually: not consuming a single soul for an entire year." He threw his hands up in nonchalant admittance. "Hence why a bunch of slacker newbies never make it past their first year down here."

"What happens to the demons killed? Since this is the afterlife, where else do they have to go?"

"Purgatory."

"Wouldn't that just want to make even more demons slack off?"

"Oh, no, you misunderstand. Since they've already been sentenced to Hell, there's no way Heaven's letting them in. So, they're stuck there. For all of eternity."