I do not own any of the Cenobites, or Pinhead, or anything else in Hellraiser.

Birthday Wish

"Happy Birthday Patti!" My good friend Kelly held a small wrapped gift in front of me. We had been friends since High School, and, much to the amazement of those who knew us, were still friends.

I took the brightly wrapped gift from her and ripped the paper off eagerly. My gift was a small wooden trinket, which looked much like the top of the Lament Configuration box from the Hellraiser movies. A smile broke out on my face at the site of the configuration; I had been talking Kelly's ear off about the movies for weeks now. In my happiness, I acted a tad out of character and hugged her.

"I thought you'd like that." You could hear Kelly was smiling by the sound of her voice. "I found it in this little store on my last trip to Toronto. Supposedly," and here she smiled all the more broadly, "you could control the Ceno-whatsits for thirteen hours with this. Provided you could call them, of course." She added the last with a small laugh.

"They're Cenobites." I said while looking over the configuration with more interest. There were small differences between the wooden star in my hands and the top of the Lament Configuration box in the movies. I looked back up at her, "This is wonderful Kelly, thank you."

Kelly shrugged, "What are friends for?"

Later that night was my actual birthday "celebration", meaning that my family and I had a nice dinner, cake, and gave me gifts as well. The gift from my mother was a lovely garnet bracelet (my birthstone), from my father I got a DVD, and my brother gave me a card. When the cake was brought out to me, I held on tight to the gift Kelly had given me. I closed my eyes tightly as I breathed in to blow out the candles. 'I wish the gift Kelly had given me really worked.' All the lights in the house flickered on and off as I blew out the candle.

"Damn wind." My brother muttered to himself as he went down to the den to check and make sure none of the computers had been fried. I looked at the wooden star in my hand and wondered.

When I went to bed that night, I had forgotten about the lights. I was just getting ready to slip under the covers when the room started shaking. My light went out, but a pale, blue light illuminated the room. I had watched the Hellraiser movies often enough to know what to expect next. Sure enough, a large crack appeared in my wall and out stepped Pinhead and three of the other Cenobites; Chatter, a female with more piercings than any living person, as well as a skinned chest, and a Cenobite with leather straps across his eyes and mouth. All four of them briefly looked me over, and I felt a slight blush climb my face. I was dressed in a black satin pajama long sleeve top and pants, my red-blond hair hanging down my back. I'm rather surprised my jaw wasn't hanging open.

"Are you prepared for the pleasures of Hell, child?" Pinhead spoke, and I smiled briefly at the sound of his voice.

However, that passed quickly. "I didn't open any puzzle box. So why are you here?" I was looking from one to another of the Cenobites as I spoke, but my gaze eventually returned to their leader.

Pinhead's brow furrowed slightly. "No puzzle box?" His seemed to shake off his thought. "It is of no matter, you have called us and we are here for you." Chains shot out of the walls, aimed for the exposed flesh of my hands and face, but each and every one only came within a few centimeters of me. None of them ever touched me.

I visibly swallowed, then remembered the star still clutched in my hand. Gathering my courage, I looked at Chatter and did what no other creature in all the cosmos had likely ever done. I gave him a very unusual order. "Jump up and down on one foot." Then, miracle of miracles, Chatter did just that. The other Cenobites and I all stared at him for well over a minute before Pinhead scowled at his subordinate.

"Stop doing that now!" Pinhead's voice was filled with anger, but Chatter just kept jumping.

"Alright that's enough, you can stop." Chatter immediately stopped at my command. Then of course, all the Cenobites turned in my direction, none of them looking particularly happy.

"How did you accomplish this?" Pinhead's voice was pitched low, but the others backed away from him in fear.

"Ah…well…err…" I was trying to make a coherent sentence, but when that failed, I held up my gift from Kelly.

Pinhead looked at the star in my hand and walked forward for a closer look. When he reached out his hand to take it, a bolt of light shot from the star, forcing him back a step. "It seems we have no choice." He clenched his hand and stepped back from me before letting his hand hang back by his side. "What is it you want?" All anger and annoyance was cleared from his voice as he gazed at me with his depthless eyes.

I don't know that I had ever been happier in my life. Not only did I have Pinhead to play with, but also I had a group of Hell's own soldiers at my disposal. A smile, and not a friendly one, spread across my face. I couldn't help it. However, I did notice that Pinhead seemed more interested when he saw the look on my face.

"So, can we go anywhere?" I clasped my hands behind my back and batted my eyelashes at him.

"Anywhere that it is night." He indicated the large hole in the wall from which he and the others had come. "But be sure to keep track of the time. Should you still be in our domain when your charm runs out, your soul will be ours to keep for eternity."

I nodded happily and grabbed my watch from beside the bed. I had about twelve and a half hours to do all I planned. I believed it would be more than enough time. Once I felt I was ready, I walked without hesitation through the hole and into the labyrinth, the Cenobites coming after me.

Pinhead came up behind me; standing close enough that I could feel his leather robes through my pajamas. "And where is it you wish to go first child?"

I turned around, being sure not to back away from him in fear. Not moving my blue eyes from his black ones, I squared my shoulders. "I want to go to my grandmother's house. She kind of needs to disappear from the face of the planet." I said this with a certain level of venom in it, enough to earn a chuckle from the female Cenobite. Apparently satisfied for the moment, Pinhead stepped around me and began walking down one of the many hallways. I followed close behind, looking all about me as we walked. There were various rooms along the path we walked, and in each were various people in various stages and modes of torture. I was aware of the other three Cenobites watching me as I walked, but chose to ignore them for the moment, the wooden star still clutched tightly in my hand.

Finally we came to another wall, and it quickly tore itself open, allowing us entry. Pinhead motioned for me to go first, which I did happily, inclining my head to him as I walked past. Once past the wall, I stood in my grandmother's living room. It was as it had essentially always been with a couch, a love seat, and an armchair. The house itself, as always, didn't feel as though anyone lived within its walls. The Cenobites all walked into the living room behind me, looking around them in what could only be termed as boredom.

"Why are we here?" The female Cenobite sneered as she looked around the corner and into the kitchen.

"We're here so you can drag my nasty, mean, bitch of a grandmother into Hell where she belongs." I looked at the female and smiled. "Of course, since I have about twelve hours to kill, you can always take your time. She lives alone, after all, so no one will try to stop you."

"Not that it would do them any good." Pinhead said his face turned toward the stairs leading up to the rest of the house. Now that his attention was there, I could hear movement upstairs; apparently my grandmother had heard something and was coming to investigate. Pinhead turned to look at me, a small smile flitting across his mouth. "Of course, if that's what you want. But perhaps you should be more properly attired to greet your grandmother." He barely moved his wrist and I was momentarily covered in shadows. When they were gone, I was dressed in a full black leather outfit, two knives and a whip hanging from a belt around my waist. While I had none of the piercings or mutilations of the Cenobites, I was nearly as pale as them, so I almost looked as though I fit in with the group. Glancing at the mirror over the mantle, I saw that my lips were colored a deep blood red, while my hair was done up in a way I could never have managed on my own. Through the mirror, I saw my grandmother come down the last few stairs and enter the living room, a priceless look of shock on her face.

I smiled and turned to look at her. "Hello Granny Pat, how are you doing tonight? I was just out with some new friends and thought I would stop by and say hello."

Her face went livid, from rage or fear, I didn't know. "I don't know what you think you're doing but when your mother hears about this you are going to be in a world of trouble!" She made to go back up the stairs, but a flick of Pinhead's hand and a chain shot past me from behind and latched itself onto her right hand, pulling her more completely into the room. She screamed shrilly as another hook shot from the wall into her left hand, pulling her two arms taunt on either side of her. There were tears streaming down her face and she was whimpering. I walked forward to stand in front her, then smiled broadly.

"Don't worry Granny, you won't be off in Hell all alone for long. I'm going to send a few others there to keep you company." I wiped away a few of her tears. "Consider it repayment for all the hard work you put into destroying my relationship with my most treasured cousin." With that, I turned away from her, and walked over to Pinhead. "You guys can do whatever you want with her, but I get to watch and listen."

Pinhead looked at me quizzically as the other three moved toward my grandmother and she started to scream again. "Was her transgression toward you really so terrible?" He sounded curious as he watched me closely.

I returned his gaze for a moment before turning back to watch the torture of my grandmother before replying. "I will only let someone hurt me like that once."

I watched the Cenobites torture my grandmother for about an hour. They flayed her, disemboweled her, and dismembered her. Through all of it, she screamed, pleaded, apologized, and cried. I ignored all her words, hearing only the sound of her voice in anguish. To me, it was like a favorite song I had been looking for forever. The smile never left my face the whole time.

"Well, I think that's enough for right now." I stood up from where I'd been seated on her armchair. Upon my declaration, what remained of her was dragged through a ragged hole that opened in the wall beside her. Once she was gone, the house was as silent as when we had first arrived. The blood and gore was instantly cleared away, all traces of our presence gone as if it had never been. When the hole in the wall that we had first come through reopened, I wasted no time in going through the portal, followed by the Cenobites. They were no longer looking nearly so annoyed by my authority over them, but seemed to be enjoying themselves. This was understandable since they usually just appeared where the box was opened and took the one person who had solved the puzzle. This way, they were getting the fun of collecting more than one soul, and torturing them to an appreciative audience.

"So, where are we off to next?" Pinhead turned to look at me. I was fairly certain he was enjoying this unusual outing nearly as much as his subordinates.

"Well campers our next destination is the ever creepy Erie Pennsylvania. There we're going to visit my freak of a great aunt Karen." The female Cenobite, who I thought of as Pierce, clapped her hands together and smiled, while Chatter snapped his teeth together faster. A ghost of a smile was on Pinheads face as he turned and led the way down another hallway. This time, I walked next to him as we went, ignoring the various rooms we passed. Although he kept his gaze strait ahead, it was clear part of his attention was focused on me.

"A mortal walking the halls of the Labyrinth unafraid is an unheard occurrence." I glanced up at him, quite enjoying the sound of his calm voice. "You do realize that we will take your soul the moment we get the chance." I nodded slightly. "Then why are you still unafraid?"

I thought about that for a few moments while we walked, turning one-way and then another. Finally, "I don't know. I think part of it is satisfaction that I finally get to get revenge on those people I really want to." I determinedly looked down at the floor. "Besides that, if my time was going to run out, I would make one last command with my gift."

"That trinket may keep you safe for the moment, but no command you give will keep your soul safe when the time runs out." Pinhead actually sounded insulted.

"I don't mean I'd command that. I'm not an idiot you know." I looked back at Pinhead and he raised a studded eyebrow at me. "My command would have more to do with where I would spend my eternity here." I looked back down at the floor. Pinhead might have asked me more about what I meant, but we came to another wall that opened up into the house where my aunt was staying.

The house had changed a great deal since I had last been here. There were few furnishings, attributing to the fact that she had no doubt stolen them as soon as she deemed it easiest. The carpet was dirty, as were the walls, and a coating of dust covered the one small table in the room. The only light available was the blue light the Cenobites brought with them wherever they went. I stood listening in the house, but only silence greeted my presence. Undaunted, I walked out of the room and into the hall leading to the master bedroom. Sure enough, there lay Karen, blissfully dead to the world. I guessed that the open bottle of wine had something to do with that, but nothing was going to spoil my fun.

She was disoriented when I grabbed her wrist and pulled her off the bed and onto the floor. She was dressed in only a shirt, and I had to keep from gagging at the sight of how much of her fat, ugly body was visible to me. She actually sobered fairly quickly once she saw me, dressed to the nines in leather. She got hastily to her feet while I slipped away from her grasping hands and back into the room with the Cenobites.

"Now this one," I turned my attention to my "friends" as Karen walked into the room and stood there gaping at the sight of all of us, she may be ugly, and she may really show her years, but I'll guarantee she's a screamer." I smiled as I looked back at her. "Have fun guys."

Pinhead took no part in the torture this time; he let the other three have their fun. And fun did they have. Karen was louder and by far more verbal than my grandmother had been. Most of the words that came from her, in comparison to Pat, were curses and explenatives. She pleaded for her life plenty of times, but she never once apologized. Since this was the case, I let them torture her for more than two hours. At one point when she broke away from them even, I stepped forward and punched her as hard as possible, right square in the face. I left deep gouges in her flesh, long spikes having appeared suddenly on my gloved hand. I didn't question the gift, but walked back to where Pinhead stood and smiled sweetly at him, much to his amusement.

At the end of the torture session, the three Cenobites gathered the pieces of Karen up and tossed them carelessly into the doorway back into hell, where the five of us followed. Pierce, Chatter, and the blind and mute Cenobite were all having the time of their afterlives. They hadn't had this sort of an outing ever; being led around by a mortal girl and allowed to torture people I picked to their hearts content. And all this was possible, even though I hadn't opened the puzzle box!

"Where are we going next then Mistress?" Pierce was practically giggling she was so excited. The title she addressed me with earned her an odd look from both Pinhead and I, but we both ignored it, at least, for the moment.

"Well, next on my list of people who should suffer for all time is," I stretched out the last word as my answer were a prize on some twisted game show, "my great uncle Karl."

"Oh." Pierce practically cooed. "A man this time. How delicious." She smiled broadly, her lip piercings scraping against her teeth.

This time, it was Pierce who led the way down the winding hallways. She was eager for the next person to suffer, and the other two Cenobites followed closely behind, followed finally by both Pinhead and I. I kept close to Pinhead's side, looking down the side into the chasm that seemed to go on to the center of the earth. When part of the pathway crumbled, Pinhead grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to him to keep from falling to my certain death. This, of course, meant that we stopped on our way for a moment, giving me time to look up into his face in surprise.

His look was unreadable. "Until the time has run out, your life is safe while in my company."

I felt myself blush at his choice of words. Apparently the other Cenobites were unimportant to my welfare. Instead of asking about this, I mumbled a thank you and stepped away from him carefully, making sure my footing was secure. Oddly I thought to myself, that I had figured his body would be cold, while it was actually fairly warm. Not so warm as a living man, perhaps, but nowhere near as cold as a corpse. We silently continued onward after the other Cenobites, and found that they had stopped and were waiting for us at another blank wall.

Karl wasn't as much fun as the two people before him. He was older; more jaded, and had a bad heart. It was, however, entertaining to see them torture him and then shock his heart back into a working rhythm, and then repeat the process. After my uncle Karl, we made two more stops. The first was to my mother's bastard half-sister. She was in her wig store, and before the fun began she actually offered Pinhead and the other Cenobites wigs. Pinhead, being violently insulted, had her arms and all her hair ripped off. The others took their time slicing off bits of fat from her body before skinning her in strips (my idea). The last stop was to see an old friend from school. I didn't actually have her taken out of as much anger as I had all the others. In fact, I did it in part for her child, so that she couldn't possibly destroy the small child's life. Jennifer (that was her name) was small, very thin, but very resilient. By the time the Cenobites were done with her, I had only about four hours of time left.

Back in the labyrinth, I turned to Pierce, Chatter, and Bound. "I'm sorry to say this guys, but I don't have anyone else to take you three to torture. I actually want to ask Pinhead a few questions about the Labyrinth here, and maybe, "I looked over at him hopefully, "get a little bit of a tour."

The three Cenobites looked unhappy about this, but not angry. Pierce actually came over and patted me on the shoulder as a way to say farewell. Then the three of them melted into the shadows and corridors of the Labyrinth, likely to go and play with the five new additions to Hell. That left me alone with Pinhead, who stood stoic as ever looking at me.

"Okay, so, I was wondering if there was any way to see other people who happened to end up here after they had died." I smiled at him a bit awkwardly, somewhat nervous about the last few hours of immunity available to me.

"You were looking for someone in particular?" I nodded my head eagerly. "Who is it you wish to see?"

"Well, I was hoping to see my two grandfathers, my mother's father and my dad's father. They were both bona fide assholes of the highest caliber." I said this very matter-of-factly, which made Pinhead smile yet again.

"Very well, follow me." He turned down an inner hallway, one with close walls and no visible doors along the path. After some time had passed, we came to a balcony overlooking a chamber. Inside the chamber were two men, though they were sewn together and were hanging off the floor by several very large hooks. Regardless of the hooks imbedded in their bodies, the two men were arguing vehemently.

I was able to tell at a glance that they were my grandfathers, stuck together here in Hell as I had always hoped they were.

It didn't matter what they were arguing about, only that they were miserable together. They did stop their bickering when they looked up and saw Pinhead and I looking in on them. My father's father, Orion, didn't recognize me, since he had died when I was still very young. My mother's father, Larry, on the other hand knew me instantly, even in my current get-up. His jaw went slack with shock before he began sputtering.

"What are you doing here? The perfect little princess not as perfect as she was made out to be? Well Patti?" His voice rose as he spoke, and at the mention of my name, Orion recognized me as hi granddaughter.

"Patti? Is that you? Did you come here to free me from this horrible prison? I was put in here totally unfairly!" At this line I burst out laughing, which he didn't much appreciate. "Why you ungrateful little bitch! You're no doubt as much a whore as your m-," his next words were cut short as a chain shot out of the wall and went strait through his throat and larynx.

I looked over at Pinhead, but he didn't seem to have moved a muscle. Regardless, "I think you did that, and thank you for it." I looked down at the two of them, swinging in the air because they were both trying to shake their fists at me. "Can I go down and whip them for a while?" I fingered the whip sitting at my waist.

In answer, a staircase formed itself in front of me leading down into the room. I went down eagerly, the whip now in my hand. They hadn't done much to me personally in life, but they had both made my parent's lives miserable. Bearing this in mind, I unleashed my pent up frustration on them with countless lashes of the whip. I lost track of how much time was going by, watching as each hit of the whip raised welts and tore skin off of their bodies.

After a while, however, Pinhead grabbed my wrist. I turned to look at him, wondering at the interruption. However, I could see the face of my watch at the angle he held my arm, and I only had about twenty minutes left to get out of Hell or remain its resident forever.

Pinhead didn't relinquish hold of my wrist, but pulled me along behind him, up stairs and through various corridors. I didn't know where he was taking me, but after the night I'd had, I likely wouldn't have minded if he had taken me to his personal torture room. I still had my wooden star, and my last command stuck in my head if I ran out of time. But he didn't take me to a torture room. After several twists and turns, we went through an opening in a wall, and I stood back in my bedroom once again. I still had four minutes of time left to me.

I turned to Pinhead. "Why did you bring me back? You could have just let me continue what I was doing until my time was up."

Pinhead smiled. "As I said, while in my company your life was safe while you still had time left." His smile got a bit broader. "Besides, you gave us five new souls to play with for a while, so we don't have to have yours just now." He stepped closer to me. "I do have a question for you though." I looked at him expectantly. "What would your last command have been had you been stuck in the Labyrinth?"

Instead of telling him that, I gave him one last command. "Stand still and close your eyes." He looked at me oddly before complying, and I quickly stepped forward and carefully planted a soft kiss on his lips. When I stepped back he had opened his eyes, and was looked at me intensely, perhaps reconsidering having taken me back home.

As he started back to the opening that was slowly closing in my wall, I finally told him what my command would have been. "I would have commanded that I be yours and yours alone, and vise versa. I would want no one else to ever know my flesh." He turned to look at me briefly before the door closed, sealing him from my sight, and I from him. "Bye for now, Pinhead."