Dancing with Demons

Dancing with Demons

He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all the liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

-Revelations 21: 6-8

And the cowardly shall be cast into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, the prison of molten casts, the eternal ring of hell fire; immortality spares no man too coward to face the great I Am.




To Whom it May Concern-

                   I am done. There is nothing left for me in this world and I am leaving. Don't be sad about my passing, I wouldn't want anyone else to grieve over me. Like anyone would anyway. I'm just another face in the crowd. Someone that will soon disappear from all memory. Life isn't fair, never has been, never will be. I'm sorry to those who will cry over me but what is done is done. Things have fallen apart and there's no putting them back together. I'm leaving now. Enjoy the rest of your life.

Eric Phelps

He put the pen down and leaned back, looking at the letter he had just wrote. He had meant for it to be philisophical, but for some reason he knew that no one would see it that way. No matter how much he could try to convince them otherwise, everyone would always see him as being just another depressed teenager lost to suicide. Maybe there was a bit of truth to that title, but they didn't know. They didn't know what life had been like for him. How could they? Everyone else had good lives. Everyone was happy and smiled. No, they'd never understand him. And he didn't want to deal with it. This was the only solution. Yep, the only way out.

The trigger was pulled.




There wasn't much after that. There wasn't thought, emotions, emptiness. There was no everlasting darkness that covered everything. It was just nothing. A gap in the flow of everything. But he couldn't think upon that gap. He couldn't ponder the meaning of the nothingness because it was just that, it was nothing. It was life coming to an end; death. That's all there is to it, it was death. There wasn't time in the nothing. Time didn't exist. Nothing did.

But then the blackness came. In a place where nothing should have reigned supreme, blackness started to sweep through. Bit by bit, he was able to acknowledge the blackness. He was able to tell that he was surrounded by darkness and everything he had while living was gone. He couldn't feel anything. All he knew was that the blackness was around him. He couldn't be happy about it nor could he be sad. He just knew.

"Eric." What was that? A new something that triggered a different sense. Hearing. He was hearing something. A sound, a voice. It was a voice and it had said something in a language. His language and the something that it had said had been his name. Someone was calling him. Eric Phelps, that was him.

When the realization of who he was came back to him, so did everything else. It came back in a wave of distraught panic and energy. He immediately began to hear things, see things, smell and taste things. He opened his eyes but was surrounded by darkness, less thick, but still evident. Panic coursed through him as memory started to flood back. His life, growing up, and then the day he died. He remembered pulling the trigger. But how was this possible? How was any of this possible? He was dead. He had died! This wasn't possible, it couldn't be.

"Eric, I know you can hear me, I can feel your panic. Get out here already." The voice again. It was deep, demanding and strong. It held authority. Eric listened to the voice, moving his body little by little. He was stiff and sore, but after a while he was able to move his hands up. He found that his hands met with a wooden frame. It was lined with something soft. He panicked again and let out a yell. The harshness of his voice surprised him. "Oh for the love of Lucifer." Came the voice again and this time he heard something hit the wooden frame his hands were pressed against. In mere seconds, there was a creaking and then he was greeted by the sight of the moon and stars. The sky! He was seeing the sky.

"Sit up now, boy. I've got a lot of work to do." Eric did as he was told. He sat up and then shakily found his way to his feet. He looked around. He was in a grassy knoll. Trees surrounded the small valley and all around him were big stones. Graves. A graveyard. He turned around and looked at the stone right next to him.

Here lies
Eric Phelps
loving son
good friend.
1985-2003

"Holy Lord." Eric managed to spit out of his mouth. He took a step back.

"It's too late to ask help from him, boy." Eric turned around quickly, finding a man squating next to the hole he was standing in. He was wearing a pair of black pants, a black sleeveless shirt, and black straps up and down his arms. He had straight cut blonde hair and a small goatee. His eyes were dark and Eric couldn't tell what color they were. A bag lay off to the side and he had a knife strapped to one leg. "Hello." The man smiled, his grin was forced, but it looked unearthly natural on him.

"Who are you?" Eric asked, taking a step backwards until his back was against the edge of his grave.

The man let out a laugh before standing up and holding his hands out to the sides, his palms up. "Well I'm Hades, friend of Lucifer, spawn of Satan, Lord of the underworold. Pleased to meet you." Hades leaned down and held out his hand. Eric just eyed the hand and looked back up at him.

"Am I dead?"

Hades' shoulders dropped and he sighed. "Why don't they ever just say, 'Hello Hades! I've always wanted to meet you!' or 'Hades? Wow, you're the most all powerful being in the second death!'" Hades paused, eyeing Eric before forcing his hand further for Eric to accept it. "Yes, you died once, but you're name wasn't in the book of life so you died again and now you're here in the eternal ring of hell fire where the pain is brutal and the torture is unforgiving...haven't you ever read the book?"

"What book?"

"What book? What book! He asks me what book. The bible, boy, come on now." Hades finally reached down and grabbed Eric by the scruff of his shirt. He pulled him out of the grave and brushed him off. "I must have been later than I thought, you're starting to rot. Here, let me fix that ear of yours."

Hades touched Eric's ear and suddenly there was warmth there. Eric didn't flinch away, he was trying to process everything over in his mind. So he died once, his name was left off of some other book so he died again and now he was alive again? It didn't make sense. "So, I'm dead, right?"

Hades paused while he was brushing dirt off Eric's clothes to look up at him. "You're second dead." When Eric shook his head in confusion, Hades stood up straight and said, "Living dead? The undead? Immortal? Come on, there has to be something you know." Eric just shrugged. "Vampire?"

"I'm a vampire!?" Eric shouted, his eyes wide in disbelief.

"Ah, I knew you'd recognize something." Hades grinned again and turned around, leaning down to his bag. He pulled something out of it. It was a large book. He pulled a pen out of his bag as well and opened the book to a page. "Now, let me explain something here before you go off asking more stupid questions. The book of life is what God uses to let people into heaven. You know, sort of like an invitation only type of thing. People get their names in that book by being goodie two shoes in life, get it? No, didn't think you would. Okay, let me explain it this way. There are a few things that can get your name taken out of the book of life. You can be a liar, though it all depends on the extent of your lie because for real, who doesn't tell a white lie here and there, right? So liars, murderers, the sexually explicit, witches, people who don't acknowledge God Almighty, and cowards aren't allowed in heaven. Your name isn't on the list because you, my friend, are a coward." With that, Hades sat down cross legged and began turning the pages of the book.

"I'm not a coward." Eric said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Hades looked up, frowning a little. "Yes you are. You took your own life. Too coward to face what life was going to throw your way. Don't worry, there are a ton of people like you in the eternal hell fire. Anyway, back to the point. Because your name wasn't in the book of life, it came here, to the book of death." Hades pointed to the book in his lap.

Eric sighed and looked around. He sat down on the ground next to Hades and watched as he flipped through the book. "This isn't exactly what I pictured the afterlife as being." He whispered.

"Never is. Everyone expects some big fancy shmancy shindig. I mean, Heaven's all right, it's got a nice beach area and stuff. But everyone expects torture chambers and dungeons in hell when really we're just like everyone else. It's just really hot there you know with all the lava and stuff. You get used to it after a while though. It's like a giant sauna. You know, we're not that bad. Ah, here you are."

Hades pointed to the book. Eric leaned over and read his name. He bit his lower lip and then sat back. "So what does that mean? I'm going to hell?"

"Heck no. Hell's reserved for the super nasty. Murderers and the such. They like it better down there any way, staged fights and such. It may sound swell, but it gets a little rowdy down there. No, you've sinned, but not that much. So you're staying right here, among the living." Hades held out his hands.

"But I'll still be dead?" Eric asked.

"Undead--ah, vampire I mean." Hades reached for his pen and held it out to Eric. "Sign here please, we have to check you in so you don't get lost in the sands of eternity, you know, the basics."

Eric took the pen and signed his name. As soon as he did, his name flashed a bright red. Flames formed in his pen marks and Eric sat back, watching as the flames glowed. He looked at Hades, only to see that Hades' eyes were glowing the same fire orange. But soon, it was over and Hades closed the book with a smile. He turned to look at Eric. "Great! You're all signed in. Welcome to the world of the undead."

"Wait!" Eric said when Hades got up to leave. "What am I suppose to do? I mean, you said I was a vampire and stuff, but what does that mean? Am I like vampires you see in movies or what?"

Hades sighed. He walked over to Eric and put a hand on his shoulder. "As much as you try to hide secrets of oblivion from the mortals, they always dig their noses too deep into our business. Vampires are basically the same thing that you see in the movies. But there are a few basic rules you need to follow. Number one, no sunlight. There's that whole nasty self combustion thing. Number two, when you feed, do it from the neck or the wrist. Anywhere else and it will just taste bad. Oh, and you'll know when to stop so you don't kill them. Their blood will turn gross. God also gave you the ability to clear a mortal's mind of your presense in their memory. That's a fun trick. You should try it out a few times to get it right. And number three, this ones a biggie so pay attention, no matter what little oddities they say in movies and such, the only thing that you need to survive is a coffin, so you better take that thing with you."

Eric turned around and looked at his grave. The coffin lid was still open. He shook his head and turned around, but Hades was gone. "Wait! Wait, what am I suppose to do now?" But there was no answer. Eric threw his arms up in exasperation. He walked over to his grave and reached down, pulling on the coffin until it came out. "Great. Now what? He didn't tell me how to do anything. What in the hell am I suppose to do now?"

"You're not in hell, my friend," Hades' voice vame to Eric's head. "You're a step above it."

The End

Hehe, I thought that I'd make this story a little fun. I made a lot of bible references in it, but hopefully it was all explained.