Soulless

Summary: Forty years ago, a bargain was made that allowed the Undertaker power of darkness. Now, the entity he made the bargain with wants her payment: his soul. My spin on Greek Mythology and Dante's Inferno.

Prologue

There are nine layers in the Underworld; all but one have their own forms of torture and punishment for those unworthy of access to Heaven, Tartarus being the exception. On every level there is an entity that is in charge of what happens, an enforcer if you will. They report to me and only me. My name, you ask? Be patient and wait, dear reader, and you will learn it.

There are few mortals who know of me and fewer still who have met me in person. Those who have are often the ones I bargain with. I give them gifts and powers beyond any recognition, but only for a limited time, and I get their soul. Rather simple, really. There had never been one single mortal who had escaped my bargain with his or her soul. If they've been bad enough, though, like Caroline Lawson for example, they get sent to the lower levels of The Underworld to be punished accordingly. Others, like her daughter Annabelle Lawson, who did little wrong over her life-time except commit incest, get sent to the River Styx to be bored and lonely for the rest of eternity.

The worst of the worst get sent to Caina, to me, and I dish out punishment. Some, like Mark Calaway, end up bargaining for their soul in those precious moments they have before I throw the book at them, sometimes literally. The story I'm going to tell you is a story I quite enjoy. I've told this to my disciples, and Hades and Persephone find it particularly funny. The beginning…? Well…