Michael's POV

Shaun was technically my boss, but the Tyrant is the leader of every staff member and resident of the Bad Place and it's neighborhoods. Unfortunately the light-speed setting on the train made the trip only take thirty seconds. Before Shaun could say a smart remark, we were already in the burning hot lair of the Tyrant. Her home looks exactly how you'd expect it to look: an unfriendly dark rocky floor pathway leading to a big clearing, each side of the pathway and clearing was a steep fall into a pool of red lava, which was 1,000 times even hotter than the lava on Earth.

"The Tyrant's not stupid; she does know that all these events are your fault." Shaun pointed out. "With that said, you'll be going out there by yourself. Have fun."

I considered giving him a certain gesture, but if I was late for my meeting with the Tyrant, I would be in a world of hurt bigger than the one I was already expecting. I exited the train and walked as quickly as I could to the clearing, waiting for my ferocious leader to emerge from the lava. The minutes of silence passed by made me feel even more nervous, and I suspected that the Tyrant knew I was here, and that she was biding her time in order to make me feel worse than I already was.

Suddenly the earth began to shake so violently that I almost fell off the clearing. When the entire area that was bright thanks to the red lava suddenly turned pitch black, I looked away in fear.

"LOOK AT ME!" I heard the Tyrant's chaotic screech shake the entire room. I'd never been more afraid in that moment and I quickly looked at the Tyrant.

She certainly wasn't human, and she didn't even bother to take a human form. Her true form was a humongous body of shadows that could morph into any body type, but her head always stayed the same: a cow skull with long black horns and red piercing irises showing from the eye holes. I shrieked when the Tyrant slammed a shadowy claw on the clearing.

"I know Shaun too well to believe that the incompetent mistakes happening in his sector were his fault." The Tyrant began speaking. "The Janet that costed so much escaped the Bad Place with a resident under your watch, and I had to give the Monarch so many people to get a new one!"

"I k-know, and I'm so sorry." I began begging for my life in front of the Tyrant, but her face couldn't show emotion. Only her voice could.

"Shaun said that if this fails again, you are done. And you failed!" The Tyrant picked me up and held me in her shadowy hand inches from her skull face.

"Wait! I know how I can fix this! Jason Mendoza is easily changeable, so I can just choose another person to replace him!" I suggested.

"Who?" The Tyrant demanded. "You have ten seconds before I throw you in eternal torture you pathetic defect."

"Um..." I remembered Eleanor and Tahani's growing relationship and briefly considered bringing Tahani's sister into the mix...but that would only torture Tahani. Wait, maybe there was someone that just might be perfect for the role!

"Oh, Ali Diaz!" I told the Tyrant. "In Eleanor's history it said that she was her first girlfriend before she died of an accident that she blames Eleanor for to this day. Eleanor and Tahani are dating right now so I'm positive she could pull them apart!"

"Huh, maybe you're not so incompetent after all. That's not a compliment though, believe me." The Tyrant spat, dropping me back onto the clearing. "I will go get Ali from Neighborhood 66669B and we'll see what use she could be."

"Thanks for your mercy my powerful goddess." I bowed to the Tyrant before she scoffed and disappeared into the lava. A few moments later, the Tyrant reemerged with the shivering and sobbing teenage girl. It was clear that Ali was in the middle of being tortured as one of her lenses was broken and she was covered in mud, bugs, bruises, and blisters. I looked at her back where a bunch of syringe needles were stuck in and the Tyrant looked at the broken girl.

The Tyrant snapped her fingers, and all of Ali's injuries and dirtiness was gone. Ali gave a huge gasp for air, enjoying every second of being clean. In Ali's history, it was very clear that she had many disorders and issues that we used to torture her even more.

"What can I help you two with?" Ali asked, clearly grateful to not be dirty and covered in needles.

"My architect Michael here needs one more person for his Bad Place neighborhood and after some thought, we thought you'd be perfect for the role." The Tyrant explained. "The neighborhood only consists of three people that believe that they are in the Good Place: Chidi, Tahani Al-Jamil, and Eleanor Shellstrop."

Ali's eyes darkened as she bared her teeth.

"And do I get to make Eleanor suffer?" Ali growled, resentment clearly still there after many years.

"Yes, you do. And the thing is, they think they're in the Good Place, secretly torturing each other all the while." I explained to the bitter teenage girl. "The longer you can help keep up the charade, the longer you can live day by day not being tortured."

As if this tormented girl needed anymore motivation to get back at her ex.

"...really?" Ali whispered. I nodded and pointed to the traintracks.

"If you want to be that fourth person, just let me know and the Tyrant can send a train to take us there in an instant." I told her. Ali nodded her head vigorously.

"Nice! This was..." too easy. "...um, great progress. I guess we should go now-"

"Before you two leave, let me remind you that your soul will get torn apart and every part of your pathetic soul will suffer for all of your eternity if you fail me again! Understood?"The Tyrant brought her face closer to me, her bright red irises staring at me intensely.

"Absolutely!" I saluted to my leader as I heard the train arrive. I gestured to Ali and she sprung to life, following me.

Eleanor's POV

Tahani blinked many times, taking in what I had just said. I expected her to be angry or at least upset, but instead she looked extremely puzzled.

"I don't understand." You and me both miss. "I've heard your voice and you've had visions of me, and this was all before we even met each other. Why would that be possible if we weren't meant to be? I certainly wasn't meant to be with that man that was supposedly 'universally approved.'"

"That's true...well I'm stumped then." I sighed. "After all, I'm not a wonderful person. I put down so many people, and throughout my life I've only really cared about myself."

"Well...despite your flaws, I believe our connection has to mean something." Tahani insisted, despite me implying that I was taking someone else's spot in the Good Place. "But I'm sure that we've never met before the time in the pizza place..."

"We should kiss."

"What?" Tahani asked as I slapped my hands over my mouth.

"Um, I s-said that because I thought we could find out if our connection is romantic. That's what I thought it was at first." I suggested.

"Well...alright. I did also think our connection is-"

I pressed my lips against Tahani's, and almost collapsed when I was exposed to hundreds of memories that I didn't know I lost. That man I met outside the pizza place was my former teacher Chidi, and me and Tahani bickered from time to time, and Janet stole Jason because they're married! And she was saving him from this awful place...the Bad Place.

Tahani's eyes widened and she pulled away the kiss.

"We need to find Chidi!" My heart dropped as I realized that Tahani regained her memories, and probably regained her love towards Chidi.

"Why? Because you remembered that you love him?" The words slipped out of my mouth more bitterly than I expected. Tahani looked at me in shock.

"N-no, because he's the other part of this messed up torture experiment." Tahani responded awkwardly. "Would you prefer if he kept living in this miserable lie?"

"No." I admitted. Even if Tahani loves Chidi, that didn't change the fact that I believed that Chidi didn't deserve to suffer. And screw the Bad Place, I still thought that he was an amazing person.

Me and Tahani took off to find our dorky friend, even though we had no idea what we were going to do next.

Jason's POV

"Well, I have only $2 to my name. Kinda like I did while I was alive."

I gave the Janet in the maid outfit $120 dollars for coming across a set of her houses on the Monopoly. At least I didn't land on the purple suit Janet's hotel on Boardwalk. Thanks to her hotel, five of the Janets already lost, leaving us with my wife and librarian Janet as the only other players in the game.

Fortunately librarian Janet landed on my two houses on Baltic Avenue and she gave me $60. However as luck would have it, I landed on Boardwalk. Librarian Janet landed on Boardwalk and went bankrupt as well a few turns later. My wife and purple suit Janet were left.

My wife had Park Place however, and purple suit Janet landed on that. After a heated battle to see who would last the longest, the purple suit Janet won all the properties to no one's surprise.

"That game is rigged, even here." I told my wife. Janet seemed too happy holding me in her lap and playing with my hair to be thinking about the game we were playing. After a few minutes, a Janet with a rosy pink dress with a white bow in the center, lavender hair, and a red flower approached us.

"Hello, I am Janet Generation 25 Code A-0, Janet of the high and mighty Monarch herself. She is ready to see you two now." The Monarch's Janet lead us across the Janet Lounge till the three of us entered a glass elevator decorated with gems. The elevator went up at a really fast pace and we were in a beautiful garden after several seconds.

The elevator doors opened and the Monarch's Janet lead us through the beautiful garden full of plants that I've never seen before.

"The Monarch absolutely loves life, and her zoo is only one floor below." The Monarch's Janet explained. I had to remember to visit that zoo after all this chaos was over. We continued walking through the different kinds of flowers till we stopped at a tall figure sitting on a throne, hidden in a golden cloak.

"Janet Generation 25 Code Z-51 and Bad Place resident Jason Mendoza are here my clarity." The Monarch's Janet spoke to the tall figure.

"So they are..." The Monarch tossed the golden cloak off of herself and I was in awe. The Monarch was a tall lavender-skinned woman with long silky white hair, red shoes, a white robe, big pink eyes, a set of antennae, and six thin, long, golden, and white wings on on her back.

"Oh, it is a real Good Place Janet. What brings you two here? If my vengeful sister wanted to talk to me, couldn't she just send her Bad Place demons?" The Monarch asked.

"We weren't sent here my goddess, we escaped on a train after the demon Michael erased my husband's memories-" Janet gestured to me. "-as well as the memories of his friends in an experiment to emotionally torture and manipulate them for 1,000 years."

"...are you serious?" The Monarch revealed her set of razor-sharp teeth as she got up from her throne. "I want to see a projection screen of these events from your memory chip."

Janet showed that same projection that she used to help me remember our relationship and we stood there for a long time. It took so long that I sat down and asked the Monarch's Janet for Stupid Nick's wings. She disappeared and returned only moments later!

I was halfway through eating my favorite food when I saw the projection disappear from my wife's eyes and I heard the ground shake right after. I saw the Monarch get up, towering over all of us.

"My Janet, summona train set to light-speed to Bad Place neighborhood 12358W." The Monarch ordered. "I'm going to save those poor three souls and confront my sister about this."

"Of course my goddess." The Monarch's Janet disappeared.

Michael's POV

After the train made it back to my neighborhood, me and Ali went to the Good Plates to talk about what I planned for her. Although it wasn't easy for her to pay attention, given that she was scarfing down the first fresh plate of food that she's probably seen in years. But to no surprise, she listened to every single time I mentioned torturing Eleanor.

"Well, I don't have your file yet. But I know that you two dated before, so why you hate her so much?" I asked, secretly eager to bring out the hate boiling inside her.

"She cared so much about herself that she didn't save me...she's the reason I died." Ali growled. "It started when-"

"MICHAEL! It's the Monarch!"

"What?!" I shouted. "S-stay put Ali, I need to make sure she doesn't ruin everything."

Ali's POV

That dimwitted demon took off, expecting me to be a good girl and to stay put. But screw him! I didn't let my soul get torn apart over and over again just to delay this moment any longer.

It was time for Eleanor Shellstrop to pay for breaking my heart and letting me die