Earlier that day…
"I hate marshmallows!" exclaimed Azrael loud enough to echo, as he spat a tiny pink marshmallow into the river Styx. Why did they always have to ruin the best cereals with marshmallows? Azrael had his arm, almost to the elbow, buried in a box of Boo Berry cereal. He'd withdraw his arm, discard the marshmallows, and then eat the pieces that vaguely resembled a blueberry flavor. Not technically eat, of course. He didn't have a stomach or anything that even remotely resembled a digestive system. He'd chew until the flavor was gone, then spit the blue/green mush that remained out. Sometimes, however, a marshmallow would slip by and get popped into his mouth with the cereal bits. Then, it'd go sailing back out, usually with a flurry of obscenities. Later, Cerberus would wander by and happily suck up the marshmallows almost like a vacuum.
Right now, though, Azrael finished the entire box of cereal while sitting alone on a rock at the bank of the river. He had his white shirt unbuttoned, his recently acquired "The Devil Made Me Do It" t-shirt was underneath. He dropped the empty box off to the side, then licked the sand-like cereal remains from his fingers. His hat lay, upturned to his other side. Inside of it was a pair of sunglasses. All along the ground were hundreds maybe even thousands of marshmallows, pink, blue, white, and purple. Joining those were no less than twenty empty cereal boxes. Boo Berry, Frankenberry, Fruit Brute, Yummy Mummy, Smurfberry Crunch, and even a box of Ghostbusters cereal. Most of those cereals didn't even exist on Earth anymore, but as it's been said, things pertaining to the realm of demons and angels didn't necessarily correspond to the time frame that the mortals adhere to. As far as he was concerned, though, Azrael just had to have his fix of sugary sweetness.
Things had changed slightly in the Pit since his trouble making former angel friends had arrived. Former in that they were no longer angels. And, former that they weren't really his friends anymore. It wasn't like they were necessarily enemies, in a place like this you needed all the non-enemies that you could get. It was just that they didn't really see each other much. An occasional card game here and there was about it. They preferred to keep the company of the rowdy atheists who frequented Friar Rush's bar. And, they were chummy with a few of the demons as well. There was Kobal, who fancied himself a DJ though he wasn't very good at it. Murmur, who was Hell's one and only Neil Diamond impersonator. Dr. Uphir, the only underworld resident who bothered to learn how to treat an injured demon… hence the designation of Doctor. He'd even once seen Melchom with them, that sniveling little toady. And, of course, there was Hela. Hela was Loki's half demon daughter that stemmed from an unfortunate incident that happened way, way back in the days when angels could have children. It's not a pretty story and it's end results were one of many reasons why Azrael tries his best to keep what he does outside of the Pit mostly to himself. Actually, he didn't completely know the story of Hela, he just knew that the Powers were less than pleased. Bartleby wasn't exactly thrilled either.
Azrael preferred to keep company with only one person – himself. Actually, that wasn't entirely true. He didn't even like keeping company with himself, but he couldn't do much about that. That is, not until the opportunity presented itself again to negate existence. But, who knew if and when that was going to happen.
The change in the Pit being that there were more gatherings amongst those who'd been wise enough to figure out the loop hole of the Pit. Apparently, Bartleby and Loki were having some sort of get together tonight… most likely another drunken party… in the City of Dis. They were humans now; they could get drunk. Dead humans, but humans none the less. Azrael wondered if they could do everything humans could do. He pondered that for a moment, before realizing how envious he felt. He shook the thought away before he debated too hard over what he was envious of exactly.
He hadn't been invited. His former angel friends hadn't even so much as mentioned it in passing when he saw them yesterday. He'd only found out when he bumped into Murmur, who said something about the gathering during an explanation as to why he was wearing a sequined shirt. And, that was why Azrael had retreated to comfort that was sugary breakfast cereals. Not that he really cared either way.
Alcohol had little more effect than water, but sugar was a different story. Candy was his favorite. And, the closer to pure sugar the better. He could eat sugar by the spoonful, and had on occasion. But, dry cereal was more his comfort food. There was something about those little hard marshmallows that he despised though.
He was a demon who had been depressed and more than slightly crazy for millions of years. Suicide was not an option. He'd been deemed unworthy of even death. It was physically impossible from him to cry about his problems. And, who'd want to be subject to a weeping demon, anyway? He couldn't sleep it away. There wasn't much he could do. But, there was one thing he could turn to; those little colored puffs of corn with pseudo fruit flavors. He approximated that he could easily go through a metric ton of cereal in a mortal year, if not more.
He usually shifted his depression into other emotions such as anger, or… well, pretty much just anger. On occasion lust might make an appearance or one of the other old stand-byes. But, if sadness or loneliness crept their way back in, he'd muffle it with several boxes of Boo Berry or one of his other favorites. That was how he distracted himself from his feelings.
He was an artist… 'was' being the key word. He hadn't created anything of value in almost the entire span of human existence. What was the point? Anything in the Pit was sure to decay. The abyss that was the human portions of Hell didn't exactly inspire creativity. At least not to someone who had to look at that filth almost every single day of eternity.
The Hell that is common place was and is a human construct. The world, the universe even, would have been so much better had God left well enough alone. If She'd never created man, the great war wouldn't have had a cause to happen. Or, even, if it had eventually happened, there would be no suffering 'below'. There would be the cold and darkness. The infinite sadness that comes with being one of the fallen. But, there would be no stench, no wailing, no flames, no… well, none of the other stuff that goes on in the Pit.
Azrael shuddered just thinking of what was happening on just on the other side of the river, past the stone wall. He had done some pretty underhanded and malicious things over the years, but nothing like what the other demons were capable of. The things he had to see daily were such that if a living human so much as looked at it for no more than two minutes, they would drop dead. When he had allowed Bethany to see what he was trying to escape from, he made sure not to let her look for more than a few seconds. Otherwise, he'd have had a dead scion on his hands; which probably would have been a good thing at the time.
The images were always in his mind, no matter where he went or what he did. The smell was there also. And, quite possibly worst of all, the screaming. The wailing and crying of the tortured souls were always in his head. Sometimes he couldn't hear the sound of his own thoughts for the sounds of suffering. Not just in Hell, it was there all the time. The pain and misery of the mortal souls was like a plague.
The only time the sound was dimmed was when They filled his head with the sounds of Their multiple voices, telling him to do what They wished. They were calling to him now, telling him that it was time to check on the great enemy of the underworld. Not that he wanted to go, but some things he was obliged to do. Anything was better than hanging by his feet for the rest of eternity, which was Their favorite punishment to threaten him with. Though on some days, he thought maybe forced solitude, albeit upside down solitude, might not be such a bad thing.
