The Unknown // Colby Brock

~~ Chapter Two ~~

"Everybody to their stations or do something better with your time. Cassie, you stay and bring her with you." The devil snapped out his commands as if he had done it a million times before and ended the instructions by leaning back in his throne.

It seemed like everybody knew their place, which certainly wasn't there, in that room. Kevin and Corey had disappeared with Jake without me noticing, though.

"I'm sorry you're being roped into this, Arianna. I promise you he'll soften up the longer-"

"Cassidy, stop speaking," the devil snapped, causing Cassie to straighten up and come to a stop not far ahead of the throne.

"That's not even my name," she mumbled, but the devil didn't seem too interested.

"You, Arianna, are going to a room in this house, and you're going to stay there until I say that you can leave. Unfortunately, it looks like you're going to have to be trained, so we'll see what we can do about that."

"So you're grounding me to my room?" I questioned without hiding my annoyance. Getting grounded was for being on Earth with my parents and my sister, not for hell. I had to admit that the big mansion and the red skies through the window came up to my expectations - even the handsome king of hell himself - but the royal instructions seemed a little out of order.

"I'm keeping you out of my way since I don't need you around anyways," he replied through the same gritted teeth he'd used with Jake.

I simply stared at him in silence, which he seemed to like as he leaned back and got comfortable on the throne.

"Cassie, take her."

She didn't respond as she took my arm and led me toward the stairs. We climbed up at a slightly slower pace before turning down the hallway to the right. It was the same hallway that I had been through with Jake himself. We even stopped outside the same room I had left.

"This will be your room," Cassie explained. "As C- um, the devil said, you won't be able to leave unless he says so. You don't want him to catch you disobeying him, because you're the one who'll be in a hell of a lot of trouble."

"What's his problem with me?" I dared to ask, expecting some sort of glare or silence to follow, but instead Cassie smiled comfortingly at me and shook her head.

"He doesn't like it when we bring new people into the group because he wants it to be tight-knit, which it was, but after the incident, he barely completely trusts anyone anymore."

"I'm guessing I won't be told what the incident was?" I questioned, and Cassie shook her head.

She pulled me into my room, then to the closet where she drew back the curtain and revealed a lot of clothes, weirdly enough that I would have worn back on earth, too.

"So, Xepher took one look at you and made all of these," she said, "but sometimes hell has to host sort of a party with heaven as the guests, so don't touch this area unless we tell you that you should. Xepher will probably help you with that, anyway."

"Is everyone nice down here except for the devil?"

"Unless you get on our nerves, yes." She flashed a dangerous grin before heading back out into the hallway. She just barely glanced over her shoulder at me to say, "You might be in here for days, so watch the clock above the door. Have a good evening." She slammed the door on me.

I couldn't believe that I was not only in hell but also specifically chosen to be the one to supposedly replace someone who left. That's what all of this was about, it seemed. Somebody was in the group and left, and the devil had gotten so butt-hurt that he had essentially forbidden the prospect of anybody new arriving, in his eyes. So I was against the devil without even knowing it.