Hell's Children
By Kelly Alexander
† His birth †
"Welcome to hell," a deep voice said. The voice was fuzzy, like hearing it through clogged ears.
"Wha?" was all that Max could say. He tried to sit up, but his body was stiff and slow.
"Welcome to hell," the voice said again a little clearer this time.
Max could see the man now, he was kind of a man at least. This demon-like creature stood at least seven feet tall, had dark skin that was tinted red, his eyes were the color of blood, and he had wings like a bat. His wings spread almost ten feet across, he looked excited. Max started to slowly flex all of his muscles, loosening them enough to sit up. The man's wings twitched in anticipation. "What am I doing in hell?" Max asked in a horse voice.
"I created you." The man smiled, revealing a mouth filled with razor-like teeth. He raised his arms to the dark cavern around him. "I am Satan, and this is my home. It is now your home as well."
Max looked around at his surroundings, taking them all in. The caver-like room was dimly lit, but he could see every detail as if it was in broad daylight. The walls were made of stone, as was the table he was laying on, the light was coming from flames on the wall. The flames looked as though they should be coming from torches, but they were just sort of floating there. Created by Satan? Max thought to himself.
Satan dropped his arms and looked seriously at Max. "You are my first born demon, created in the image of myself." He encouraged Max to sit up strait with a nudge on the back. "You have the strength of several dozen men," Satan raised Max's arm in the air, "The teeth of a predator," he lifted Max's chin, "And the wings of hell," Satan stepped behind Max and spread his enormous wings. His wing span was considerably smaller than Satan's, only about six feet across. Max stood up and spread his wings himself and examined them. They were a deep reddish-purple, with deep red veins.
He turned and looked at Satan with a devilish smile, showing off his teeth, but Satan was now looking at him with a puzzled look. Max's smile faded when he realized that he was looking up to see Satan, and he was several feet away. Satan was about seven foot nine, but Max, he was only about five foot five. Satan shrugged with a smile, "Travel size."
† Three decades later †
Max had been dealing with humans coming to hell for three decades, and always knew they deserved to be there. He hated humans, and their disgusting greedy behavior. They did nothing but take and take and take, and never felt any remorse for any of their sins. He had been to earth a couple of times, only to cure his boredom, and fill the quota for greedy souls in hell. He enjoyed killing humans, but he also enjoyed watching them, watching their reactions to every day life. He hated them, but was fascinated by their logic.
"Welcome to hell," Satan's familiar voice sounded in the distance of hell. Max remembered when Satan had greeted him like that, when he had created Max. He followed Satan's voice because he was curious as to what he had created this time.
"Wha?" A female voice came from the direction that Satan's had. Max approached Satan from behind, looking around his side. A woman was lying on the stone table that he was created on, and she was beautiful. She had bright blonde hair, a tall but petite figure, and bright red eyes. Her wings were larger than Max's, but she also looked as though she was about six feet tall.
Satan gave the woman the same speech he had given Max before he turned to Max and said, "Max, this is your sister Charlene, care for her until she is able to care for herself." Satan turned and started to walk away. "I have work to do; I've fallen behind because of this hobby." And he walked out of sight.
Charlene was now sitting up on the table, still to weak to walk. Max walked over to a stone wall and opened a closet-like door. He pulled out a long red dress with black fur at the wrists, the hem, and the neck. He pulled out a matching hat and underwear combination before walking over to Charlene. "Here," he said quietly as he handed her the underwear. She looked dazed, but put the bra and underwear on without saying a word. He walked over to her and said in a hushed voice, "Raise your arms." She looked up at him with her large red eyes; they seemed so innocent despite their unnatural red color. She quietly raised her arms as Max slipped the dress over her head and smoothed it out. The dress left her shoulders bare, but it seemed too look just right on her. He then stepped behind her and tucked her hair into the hat, leaving only a long strand to cover her right eye.
He was already growing attached to this newly born demon already. Everything about her was just screaming for his protection. He rested his hands on her shoulders and she leaned back to rest her head on his chest as he stood behind her. Max knew that their bond could never be severed.
† The thugs †
Max and Charlene were on earth having a little fun. They had hidden their wings and razor sharp teeth with human-like features and were roaming the stone streets looking for a good time. They walked into a bar and took seats on opposite side of the bar so they wouldn't look like a couple.
A woman walked up to Max and said, "Hey sugar. Are you Irish?" She put a hand on Max's bright red hair.
"Not exactly," Max replied as he gave her a devilish smile. It was obvious that his smile crept the woman out, but she seemed desperate enough to stay. She wasn't bad looking though, she was probably crazy. She sat down on the stool next to Max and he bought her a drink. She sat there and played with the collar of his black tee-shirt while he watch a group of men in the corner whisper and look at Charlene.
One of the men in the group walked over to Charlene and sat on the stool next to her, and the rest stepped outside. The man bought Charlene a drink and sat really close to her. By the time she had finished her drink, he had wrapped his arm around her waist and started whispering in her ear. The woman clinging to Max started playing with his ear, and he swatted her hand away. When he looked back at Charlene, she was getting up with the man and beginning to leave. Max knew something wasn't right, so he got up as well, leaving his cling-on confused.
When he stepped out of the bar, the men were gone, but Max could still hear them whispering near by. The man with Charlene led her down an ally, she was giggling as he fiddle with the patch of hair she had hanging out of her hat. Max followed them and watched from just around the corner.
"Hey, stop it," Charlene giggled as the man grabbed her ass. "I thought we were going to your place Cody."
Cody wrapped his arm around her waist again and said, "Well, this is my place to hang out."
"In a smelly old ally?" Charlene wrinkled her nose.
Cody laughed. Max began to grow angry; he hated the sound of human's laughter, especially this man's sadistic laugh. After Cody stopped laughing, his buddies came out from around the other end of the ally. Charlene took a step back from Cody, pulling herself from his grip with ease. The men were armed with rope, and knives. Charlene crouched low to the ground and snarled, it sounded like a tigers growl. The men Laughed and continued to approach her.
It took everything Max had to keep himself from killing them right then, but he knew that Charlene would most likely be able to take them herself.
The men approached slowly at fist, but suddenly charged her all at once. She bit the arm of a man with a long rope and kicked Cody in the shin hard enough to snap it in two, blood spraying everywhere. She wrestled with all of them for a while before one of them stabbed her in the ribs. Max couldn't stand to hear that scream, so he jumped out from around the corner, his wings spread wide, his teeth sharp as razors, and his eyes as red as hell. He roared a roar that none of the men had ever heard before. It had the power and volume of a lion, but the pitch of a bat.
All of the men froze for a few seconds as they stared at the demon. Cody stopped rocking on the ground with his shin and turned a sickly shade of white. Max launched at the man that stabbed Charlene and bit into his neck, tearing a large piece of his shoulder off. Max was then covered in the man's blood, and all of the others started running and screaming, Cody did his best to try and scoot away from Max. Max then launched at the next man and grabbed his wrist as he put his foot on the man's back and pulled. The man's arm came off with ease, spreading more blood throughout the ally. The next two men suffered similar fates.
Max then walked back into the ally where Charlene was, and Cody still frantically scooted. He walked past Charlene and picked Cody up by his upper arms and carried him into the middle of the street. A few people from the bar came out and in time to see Max raise Cody as high in the air as he could before slamming him as hard as he could into the ground. All that was left of Cody was a bloody pile of clothing and flesh, completely unrecognizable.
† Back in hell †
"I wouldn't have killed them you know," Charlene said as she finished dousing the blood from her dress.
"What?" Max said, totally shocked. He didn't care about the blood all over him.
"I would have left them mangled, but I wouldn't have killed them. They didn't deserve to die." She looked at the blood on Max that he didn't care about with disgust.
Max looked at her in awe. He hated the humans with a passion, and enjoyed every moment of killing and torturing them. "What?" he asked again at a loss of words.
"They were just looking for a good time, why did they need to die?" She shrugged.
Max became infuriated. "They were going to KILL you!!" Max shouted. This wasn't the first time that Max had yelled, Charlene shook at the volume of his voice, tears came to her red eyes. Max immediately felt guilt for making his sister upset. "Come here," Max said in a much more hushed voice as he opened his arms. She slowly walked over to Max and gave him a hug. He sat down on a large rock behind him and she sat on his lap and buried her face in his shoulder.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Max pet the top of her head, he felt terrible for making her feel as though she was the one that needed to apologize. He squeezed her in his arms and actually let tears fall from his own eyes as he held her. Max never wanted anything to happen to his little sister, he would die to keep her safe.
† Trouble †
"Hey!" Charlene called to Max from the other side of the human's house. They were on earth killing people to fill the quota again.
"What?!" Max called back. He was raiding the human's fridge for any kind of meat, not finding anything but tofu and rice. It was only vegetarians that lived in this house.
"I found something really cool! Come look!" She had an amazing voice.
Max sighed as he shut the door on the fridge, disappointed at the lack of meat. He walked up the stairs and down the long hallway to see through the bedroom door; Charlene was standing in the middle of the room holding a baby wrapped up in a big blue blanket. She was cradling the infant in her arms as if it were her own baby.
Max looked at the small human with disgust. "It's bald," He said as he made a face. It was a newly born human; he didn't like it at all.
"It's cute," she said as she touched it's little round nose. She looked up at Max with an almost pleading look on her face. It was almost as though she was asking to keep it.
Max knew that Charlene keeping the little sack of human flesh was going to be terrible, but he could never deny her anything she wanted. "It takes a lot to maintain a human fledgling, and I don't think Satan would enjoy a living human in hell." He was trying to talk her out of wanting to keep it.
"I'm sure he'd understand if I told him that it was a pet," She said looking at the baby again.
Max tried to come up with anything he could to keep that thing from going to hell with them, alive. "It's going to be a greedy, selfish, disgusting, human Charlene. Do you really want one of those sickening creatures?"
"Yes," was all she said before she walked out of the room. That had always been her way of saying the discussion was over.
Max groaned as he followed her out of the room.
† Entertainment and regret †
"Hades!" Charlene yelled as he grabbed her ass. Charlene had named him Hades shortly after they had returned to hell, and he had grown into a tall, strong human.
"Come on! Just one more time?" He pleaded. They had developed a sexual relationship sometime after he turned 19.
"No, I have work to do," She replied as she grabbed his hands and put them at his sides.
Max walked up to Hades and picked him up by the back of his shirt. "She said 'No.' Leave her be before you get another tattoo." Max never liked Hades, and enjoyed burning symbols of shame and humility into his body every time he did something wrong.
Hades just about shit himself when Max grabbed his shirt. "Alright, I'll leave her alone!" he squeaked.
"Leave him alone Max!" Charlene demanded on her way out of hell.
Max snarled and put Hades down. Hades feared Max to no end, so he decided to go to Charlene's room and hide until she returned.
Max had always hated Hades, and all other humans, but he was always amused by Hades' reactions when he messed with him mentally. Max went into his own room and laid down on his bed and remembered one of the times he had messed with Hades when he was 12.
"Stop it Max!" Hades screamed with hands over his ears. Max just sat there silently staring into his consciousness. Hades threw himself onto the floor and started bashing his head on the ground. "Leave me alone!" Max was putting thousands of images of humans he had killed into Hades head. He saw in his head a man standing alone in a dark room, most likely a basement, with fear in his eyes, and urine staining the front of his pants. He screamed as he saw the man's stomach be torn open, all of his organs falling to the floor as the man's eyes bulged and then went dead.
"Hades!" Charlene screamed as she walked into the room. Max stopped putting the images into Hades' head and smiled at his sister. Charlene knew what Max was doing to Hades. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked him. She sat on the floor next to Hades and he flung himself into her arms, bawling.
"It's good for him," Max responded with a shrug.
"You'll drive him crazy!" She almost screamed at Max.
Max was frustrated that she would care so much about the ridiculous waste of flesh. "He's already crazy."
Charlene picked Hades up and started to carry him from the room. "You're crazy," she spat before she left the room.
Max came out of his memory when he heard a knocking on his door. "Come in," he called, to lazy to get up at the moment.
Charlene opened the door cautiously and peaked around it rather than just walking in casually like she always did. She was only cautious coming into his room when she wanted to ask something that would possibly anger Max. He sat up and waved a hand telling her to come in. She walked into the room and slowly sat down on the bed next to Max. Max braced himself for bad news.
"Hey Max, I wanted to ask you something," Charlene said quietly as she looked at the floor and fidgeted with her dress.
Max could feel his stomach clench up. "What?"
"Well…" she started slowly. "You know how I've raised Hades from an infant, and we're really close?"
Max clenched his fists. He didn't say anything, but if this was going the way he thought it was, someone was going to get hurt. He nodded slowly.
"Well, we were thinking of taking our relationship to the next level," She shrugged.
"What next level?" Max asked through clenched teeth. He was fine with her using the human to fill her sexual needs, but in no way, shape, or form, was he okay with her having an intimate relationship with one of those greedy, self centered, disgusting, humans.
"We kind of wanted to have a human ceremony and get married, the human way." She finally looked up at Max, and for the first time, she was truly afraid of Max. She got up and stared down at him. He didn't have to say a word for her to know that there was no chance that he was going to give her his blessing.
Max stood up as well. He was almost a good foot shorter than Charlene, but she cowered when he stood. "You want to have a HUMAN bonding ceremony?" He took a step toward her, and she turned to run. Max grabbed Charlene's wings and yanked them down, hard. There was a loud ripping sound and she screamed the cry of a demon as she fell to the floor in pain. Her wings were limp and boneless.
Max was so furious that he decided to go to earth and take out some of his rage and guilt by killing a few humans.
† Hell †
Charlene had avoided Max for six months before she could even look at him again. He felt so terrible every time that she turned away, he almost cried. The guilt was so overwhelming, and he'd tried to apologize to her, but she wouldn't even listen to him. The way he had torn her wings, she'd never be able to fly again.
He spent most of his time on earth killing humans in those six months, because it was the only thing that could possibly calm him down after what he had done. Nothing he did seemed to take away the guilt, and he would get so mad at himself every time he saw Charlene. She hadn't let Max anywhere near Hades after what he did to her, he'd kill Hades.
Max decided to kill a few religious people one day, only to find a wedding rehearsal, and it was Charlene's. Hades was standing next to her, listening to the priest and waiting to say his vows. Max didn't react to this scene the way he thought he would, he stood back and watched as his sister practiced getting married in the human way. As they started to leave, Charlene walked strait up to Max and gave him a hug. She had known that he was standing there, and that was all she had needed to forgive him.
"Thank you brother," she whispered in his ear. Max just grunted. He still didn't approve, but he had hurt his sister enough. She pulled away from Max, but still kept her hands on his arms, and asked, "Would I be pushing it if I asked you to come to the real thing?"
"I guess." Max's chest tightened, but he managed to speak without hitting anybody. He sneered and looked away from Charlene's eyes because he really couldn't get over the guilt he had from hurting her.
She hugged him again, and without saying anything more she walked back to Hades, who had stayed as far away from Max as he possibly could. She kissed him on the cheek before they walked down the isle and out the door. Max glared at Hades and he didn't react the way he always did, he glared back. Max left the church and went to another in a city across the state to kill some religious people like he was already planning to do.
He spent all night killing people, both religious and otherwise. By the time of the wedding the next day, he had calmed himself a little bit, but it hadn't done much. He returned to the church and everyone was scattered around chatting. It hadn't begun, so everyone was mingling until it was time. Max couldn't Charlene anywhere, so he figured that she was getting ready.
On the other side of the room, someone caught Max's eye. It was Hades. He was talking to some man that they paid to be their and pretend to know them. Max tried to ignore his presence, because he was still feeling the urge to kill him brutally, but he couldn't stop staring at Hades. He hated Hades. He hated his selfish instincts, he hated his weakness, and he especially hated the way he had convince Charlene that he had a heart.
Hades looked around him and saw Max staring at him. He smiled and walked over to Max, ignoring the death stare that he was being given. "Hey," he said casually. "Thanks for being here man, it means a lot to Charlene." He went to put his hand on Max's shoulder, but then reconsidered.
Max just quietly snarled. He really didn't want Hades talking to him.
Hades looked at Max with a defined crease in his forehead. "Look Max, I know you don't like me, but Charlene and I are in love, and I don't want you to think that she's going to change her mind about what she wants."
Max snarled again and said, "You have no idea what she wants." Max took a step forward. "If you hurt her, even minimally, I'm going to rip your arms off, one at a time."
Hades' eye twitched, but he stood his ground. Hades puffed out his chest and said the stupidest thing that anyone ever said, "This bitch is mine now. Back off."
Max became so infuriated that he screamed his demonic roar and grabbed Hades by the neck. Max spread his wings and hovered about three feet off the ground. Everybody in the church started screaming and running when they saw him, but Max ignored them as he tore Hades head from his shoulders, dousing everything around them in blood. Max was overwhelmed with rage. He saw nothing but red as he dove at everybody in the church, killing them one at a time.
Carlene came running into the church and saw Max killing all of the guests. She looked around at the chaos trying to find Hades, and she found him dead. She ran to his headless body and dropped to her knees. Blood stained her sleek white wedding gown as she held Hades' dead body and sobbed.
Max was still in the process of killing everyone in the church when Charlene stood up and screamed her equally as demonic roar at him. He stopped mid air and turned to look at her. His eyes were crazed, and he was covered in blood. He panted deeply for a moment as he stared at his sister. Charlene roared at him again, challenging him to come get her, and he accepted her challenge.
Max dove at Charlene, and she didn't have a chance. He grabbed her upper arms and bit into her neck and tore, her head came off with ease. Her body fell to the floor and sizzled before dissolving into the floor. Max roared again and burst through the church doors in a blind rage, ready to kill whatever he saw.
† The plague †
Max killed thousands of people, he never stopped. He killed person after person, each of them meeting a different brutal death. He was nothing but a blind killer, walking the earth with no intention to spare a single soul. Satan was amused and pleased by Max's rage and killing. He watched Max from afar as he killed for almost a century.
The quota was almost doubled in hell for that century, and Satan didn't want Max to kill constantly after that point because he had to deal with every one of those souls, and it was getting a little tiring. Satan decided that it would be good if he came to Max and congratulated him for doing so well with filling the quota.
He walked up behind Max as he tore the scalp off a thin blonde woman. He put his hand on Max's shoulder and said calmly, "Congrats son, you've become the demon I intended you to be."
As soon as Max felt the hand on his shoulder he froze. Once Satan had finished what he had said, Max turned around and lunged at Satan. He hated Satan's love for humans. Satan enjoyed the fact that humans were so greedy and heartless, and he was the one who let Charlene keep that dreadful human Hades. He bit into Satan's shoulder and he screamed. Satan pushed Max off of him and used his claw-like nails to grab Max's left shoulder and rip a long gash all the way down to Max's right hip.
Max cried out in pain and fell to his knees. Satan laughed at Max's pain and turned to walk away. Max gripped his wound in pain until he became even more outraged and launched at Satan's back. This time Max bit directly into Satan's throat, pulling away from his body he took Satan's with. He was in such a blinded rage that he didn't stop there, he proceeded to tear every limb from Satan's body. Each bloody piece that flew from Satan's body landed on the ground and dissolved.
After Max had finished destroying Satan, he walked out into the woods and fell asleep because the wound was not bad enough to kill him, but it took all of his energy to heal it. When he woke up forty three years later, he no longer had the deep-seeded need to kill endlessly. His rage had subsided, but he could no longer return to hell, Satan was the only one that had the power to get him and Charlene to earth and back to hell.
He got up from the tree he was sitting under and walked into the small town near by. He folded his wings into his back and invited himself into a local hotel. From then on he spent his days watching humans, occasionally killing a few, and wandering the earth, waiting for someone willing to fight him without pissing themselves. †