A/N: This is a Hell Girl one shot fic, I wrote this when I finally watched seasons 1 and 2. After watching the last episode, a thought came to me; what would it be like if the Hell Girl was less apathetic..? This fic is based on that idea.
Part One: The Meeting
In the past months, my life was a living nightmare. My job at the Creative Arts and Photography demanded constant creativity. It can become very frustrating very fast when you ran out of ideas. As a newcomer to the business, I had a leisurely time doing what was expected of me. I had tons of ideas, but that was a long time ago. I realized that, like all things, ideas also do get scarce.
My boss.. Oh how I hate him. From the moment I started working for that bastard, I knew that there was something about him that made him.. evil. Every Employee under him shared the same opinion as mine. I could say with all my sanity in check, that the prick is loved by no one, save perhaps by his wife, but even then, I bet my month's salary that her love was conditional, after all, the old ass was rich. The one thing that was somewhat good about him was that he never showed favoritism; all of us employees were treated equally – like trash. Even the slightest bit of good that he has is still evil.
One day I couldn't take it anymore. I heard rumors of the hotline to hell, or more appropriately, the website that forwarded your vengeful desires to the hell girl, who was supposed to grant you vengeance, but at a price. At the time, I thought I was acting on behalf of my fellow employees, but I was only fooling myself. It was my own selfish desire for vengeance that was my main motive.
At 8:00 PM, I was lying on my bed, pondering whether I should contact the hell girl or not. Suddenly, the logical side of my brain started telling me that the hotline to hell was just a hoax, started perhaps by a lonely soul craving attention from his internet peers. But then, the more I thought about my boss, the more I wanted him punished for treating me and my co-workers inhumanely. I pondered again and again for hours until it was fifteen minutes to midnight. The right time to contact her was just minutes away.
It was a cool night, but I remember sweating profusely. My hands were trembling as I typed in the URL to her website. I hesitated before I pressed the 'Enter' key, I probably looked like a mannequin placed before a desktop computer. It was 11:59 PM, just a minute away. I tried to swallow, but my throat was dry. It felt like time slowed down as I watched the wall clock in my room; watched as the seconds ticked away, ever closer to midnight.
Then my wall clock chimed. It was time. It took forever for my index finger to reach the Enter key. At last, I pressed it, and I was shocked.
I couldn't believe it, the display on the browser said:
Error 404, server not found.
I started laughing. I must've looked insane. I couldn't contain my laughter. I was rolling all over the floor, laughing until tears fell from my eyes. I thought I was a fool to have believed in such farce, that I was incredibly gullible and stupid.
But a few moments later, I heard a strange buzzing noise in my head. I slowly got up from the floor and sat back down on my chair. And at that moment, I received the second shock for the night.
The website was there. It took a little while for my brain to process what was going on, but eventually I figured it out: My wall clock was off by a few minutes relative to the GMT.
I must've stared at the screen for a while with my mouth open, had a fly flew in and out of my pie-hole, I probably wouldn't have noticed. I took my hands and typed in my boss' name and I hit the enter key without hesitation. That was the first time that I met her.
"You called me?"
Her voice was dulcet and at the same time emotionless. Her big red eyes revealed nothing. Her pale skin seemed to glow in the moonlight. I didn't even realize that I had turned from the monitor and was looking at her. She seemed to approach me somehow, but I couldn't really tell. Before I knew it, she was right in front of me. For an awkward moment, I couldn't find my voice to speak to her.
I was shocked, relieved, anxious, awe-struck, and I felt a lot of other emotions jumbled together at the same time. She didn't seem annoyed at the fact that I took so long to answer her. In fact, I thought that she wasn't subjected to human feelings, seeing as she was a supernatural entity.
Finally, I answered.
"Yes, I did." I said.
"Here." She gave me a small straw doll with a string tied to its neck.
"If you truly wish to end the life of the person you hate, then you must untie the string on the doll." She continued,
"But be warned, if you do pull the string, you will in turn make a payment to me, when one person is cursed, two graves are dug. When you die, your soul automatically goes to hell, forever damned, never knowing what eternal paradise is like."
"I die as well?!" I asked her.
"No. But your soul goes to hell only when your life ends naturally or by chance."
"So this agreement will take effect only if I pull the string.."
"Yes. I will give you ample time to think this through. Farewell."
A second later, I find myself staring at the screen. The browser still displayed the '404' error, but I felt my hand was holding something soft, and I realized, I was still holding the straw doll.
The hell girl was real. I sat before my computer for a long time, trying to piece together the events that just took place. My logical brain kept telling me that it never happened, but my hand that was holding the straw doll told me otherwise..
Part Two: Indecision
There were only a few times in my life that I had completely changed my perspective on reality. Once happened when I was sixteen years old, it was a time when I was incredibly misguided and prideful. My father patiently taught me that everything was not about me, but rather, about the whole of humanity. He taught me in a way that made me understand completely, an event which rarely happens in classrooms.
The second time that my perspective changed was when I found out about the ordeal my boss was going through. Word had it that my boss was sick with a terminal disease, and that he had been battling this ordeal for two agonizing years. Everyone could tell that he was losing. Apparently, I was too blind not to notice.
Suddenly I had second thoughts about my desire for vengeance. I now looked at my boss in a different light. It was a shame that I only knew about his condition too late, but at least I understood him better. My heart weighed heavily at the thought that I was actually going to send him to hell, when he had only a short time to live.
The next day, I decided to forfeit my contract with the hell girl out of pity for my boss. I had no idea of how to contact her again, and thought it appropriate to revisit her website at the stroke of midnight, but then, it was unnecessary;she appeared before me in broad daylight. Words couldn't possibly describe how I felt at the suddenness of her appearance.
"I know of your thoughts." She simply said. So I thought it was unnecessary to explain to her of my intentions. I had made up my mind to forfeit the contract.
"You impress me. Never, for at least three hundred years, had a mortal forfeited an agreement with me."
Coldness touched my heart. I realized that she was capable of easily destroying me should she choose to do so. I stood rooted to the spot, waiting in fear of what she might do.
"It has been a long time indeed. And I thought that humanity was hopelessly selfish and evil."
I waited for her to finish, I was anxious to leave, but I knew better.
"A remorseful heart is better, in most cases. And for that…"
'Here it comes', I thought, 'this is the end for me.' As I stood there, waiting to be punished in some form, I noticed that she was giggling.
"Wha – " complete surprise was an appropriate description to what I felt.
She was still giggling as I looked at her, bewildered.
"Admirable, no doubt. It is indeed a nice change."
"But I, but I was –"
"Yes I know. You see, for the past centuries, I have been dragging souls, mostly kicking and screaming for their miserable lives, down to hell. Mostly, people who send their victims are full of hatred, and could care less about what happened to them."
I listened intently.
"But you are the first person to decide not to send a person to hell out of altruistic intent, for a long time. Most still prefer to send them to hell."
"I – suppose..."
"Indeed. " The hell girl now looked less emotionless, than when I first met her. This entity standing before me seemed like a completely different person.
My mind was immediately bombarded with images from her mind, like a fast-forwarded movie, but still comprehensible. I closed my eyes.
In one instance, I see her dragging souls to hell for an eternity. In another, I see her start to lose her human emotions as her task become tedious and repetitive. More images flooded my mind as I stood before her, making me understand how it must feel to lead a cursed life that is hers. When I opened my eyes, I understood completely.
She had been starved of normal human interaction for an inconceivable amount of time that her heart had turned ice cold. In essence, she was human, before she became the hell girl. A part of her was still attached to her mortal tendencies despite what she has become.
And she was impressed with my simple act of kindness. It was hard to believe, and then it hit me; she likes me.
"Now, you understand." She found it difficult to hide her long dormant emotions, which were now resurfacing after centuries of apathy. Her face flushed rosily. She suddenly looked pretty in her kimono.
"I do not know how to say this," she looked at me with those large, red eyes,
"But let me show you how I feel…"
I felt it before I saw it. She had kissed the tip of my nose, and then suddenly vanished.
I woke up suddenly, looking for the hell girl, and laughed to myself that I had been only dreaming. But then I felt a warm sensation at the tip of my nose, the feeling of a young girl's kiss. My hand happened upon a cherry blossom petal, the same kind of petal that had been part of the design on her kimono.
I couldn't believe it, but then I suppose it would be the nth time that I didn't, but the evidence was there. Cherry blossom trees didn't grow in my country…