Heaven or Hell

“Eccolo! Prendetelo!” Another night in Rome, a party, people wearing masks, while you see firebreathers and jugglers and all kinds of people having a good time, enjoying the entertainment. Dancing.

"Abbiamo quasi preso!”

"Lui sta girando troppo veloce! E 'un demone!”

There’s a man running from the guards near the alleyway, he runs quickly towards the party.

“Basta! “Non ci andare!”

The guards are close to the party, they see him disappear, but the party is silent now, they now see the man on the rooftops.

He then says: “It was nice meeting you, but rather, I would leave Roma with this good piece of art, good-bye.” He spoke it in Italian, but some English men in the party understood also, and they’ve never studied a word of Italian before. But just as the people saw him, he disappeared soon after. The people in Rome of 1493 never saw him again.

***

It’s now the year 2006, and the people of America are hearing about this mysterious art thief that has been stealing everything from Italian art to French art, and is now going to target American art. The American people panicked, but some were excited. But one man named Dante was going to change it all; he was going to be the art thief, not the man from Italy. “Dante has God beside him, and Dante is known for being religious.” Dante has been known for going to church all the time, and he knows this. But tonight, he was going to sin and go to Hell for sure.

Tonight, at 11:00, both Dante and the Italian art thief will be going after the same piece of art, something from the Missoula Art Museum, a piece of art called Skyscapes. Dante has been collecting information on the thief, and he knows he’s going after this art, mainly for one reason. This man has sinned enough that he wants to look at the eyes of God through this art.

It’s 9:00; time is ticking faster and faster, wanting the same exciting thing to happen. Dante puts his equipment on, and brings a weapon to help against the art thief who is known for being a “demon of Hell.” He walks out, the art museum is 2 hours away, starts his car, and starts driving.



***



This man sitting in a hotel room watching himself on TV, becoming popular to the people of America, he sat on a chair, irritated.

“Merda,” he says, “ I never thought I would possibly become known to the world. I’ll have to be careful in the future.” Of course, the police and the news were all a joke to him, who could catch him? And if he was caught, he could always just disappear.

Except something felt different, like something horrible could happen to him. I must be getting a cold, he thought. It was winter after all.

He left the hotel room, with it’s key also, he returned the key to the lady in the front counter but as soon as he was about to go outside, a woman called “excuse me! What’s your name again?”

“What do you need it for?”

“To put it on my computer!” There is no need for yelling, he thought.

“Cecilio Antonio Esposito. There, you have it. Good-bye.”

And as he looked into the night sky, where snow was falling, he disappeared.



***

Dante, still driving, holding his cross with the hand that isn’t on the wheel, he started praying. Tonight was a clear road, everyone was watching for the demon art thief. As he neared the end the museum, he said “Amen.” Finishing his prayer. He exited out of his car and ran towards the museum, sure to sin.



***

A window broken by a fist, Cecilio entered the museum through it, making more noise, but he didn’t care. He was hungry for art; hungry for the sin that was making him aroused. Drooling, he was looking for it. Skyscapes. He ran… Ran into other pieces of art. This was his one chance of entering Paradise, Heaven, and God. To get the chance to serve his master, that one fallen angel who resides in Hell. He took his shirt off, and a pentagram, etched on his back, started to glow.



***



Dante entered the building, the cross around his neck started glowing under his shirt, he took it out, revealing a blue shine, he was close to the art. God had placed trust on him, but for what reason? Dante ran towards the place where Skyscapes was, he knew where to look, he had saw it during his visit during the art museum. He ran faster, but he wasn’t getting tired… “Is this God’s work?” he said, he continued running, running faster then he ever done before. A blue aura shimmering over Dante, God has placed trust in him.



***



The pentagram was still shining. Cecilio, panting, wanting Skyscapes. He wanted Paradise. He was going to destroy it, and make everyone in this world suffer. He was getting near, he could tell, the pentagram was shining brighter and brighter. He ran into the walls, damaging them. Cecilio’s powers were near out of control, and he kept on teleporting, he knew if he were near the painting, it would make him lose control of himself. He then stopped; something was coming nearer, weakening him. Cecilio looked for the source, but couldn’t find it.



***



Dante felt near, he was sure of it. There was a red glow. “There you are!” He saw the thief, drooling, and his shirt off. He ran towards the demon, and punched him. The fist was glowing blue strangely, but Dante had no care of it, for he knew God had placed an awkward trust with Dante for whatever reason. Possibly to stop this thing!? Dante though. Dante pulls out a pistol from his left pocket. “Don’t go near that picture, it’s mine!” The art thief got up, mouth bloodied by the punch. Dante exclaimed, “Stay right where you are! Who did Dante think he was? He was talking with someone who has powers that could kill him. Not only that, he was shaking, getting near Skyscapes made him excited. But he knew that he couldn’t go in there. Some strange reason, Skyscapes attracted both of them. But this man had his tongue out like some wild dog, and the pentagram on his back featured a red glow. This art thief… The thief teleported behind him, and started biting on his neck, trying to rip off Dante’s flesh, Dante yelped in pain. And fired a shot a point blank behind him, there was no more biting, but there was blood coming from his neck, he turned around, and saw the thief had been laying there on a bullet in his head.

Dante stared in amazement, he killed this man, and sinned, the cross wasn’t shining anymore, and Dante was sure of it. He killed this man, and God reverted him back to normal.

“You think this is fun and games kid?” The corpse stated. It slowly got back up, raising itself up the bullet still in his head. “Who the hell do you think you are, trying to kill me with a bullet, you’ve got spirit kid, but not a good enough damn one.” He was making a wide grin. Dante’s cross started shining, but he could feel what was going inside him, a state of dementia.

Dante started shooting random shots in order to battle this, some of the bullets hit, other times they missed. His mind was going haywire, he was going to be insane, but the cross shined brighter, and his dementia started slipping. However, the thief was closer to him then he thought, he could see black as he was blasted to a wall, and there was a sudden blackout.



***

Cecilo stared in amazement after kicking him with so much force, he forgot about Skyscapes, this man he fought with both mind and body was the real art, “You’re coming with me, I will own you like the dog you are.” He picked up the man, and exited out of the museum, and as he exited, he teleported away to his home, in Rome.