"So as you can see, my dear, this is Hell." Alastor announced.
"What?" I replied, "So this isn't a dream, this is real?" I stopped for a moment, trying to comprehend what is happening.
"So, I'm dead?" I asked.
Alastor looked back at me, also stopping. He turned around, before pointing his cane before me. My vision once again filled with the symbols. I tried to wave them away, but it didn't help.
"What the hell was that?" I asked annoyed.
"I was just going through your past, looking for any reason for you being here." Alastor replied, "It's obvious you don't belong here."
"How's it obvious?" I asked sarcastically, "It's not like heaven's just a fundamentalist bigotry convention."
"It appears that way." Alastor replied bluntly.
I paused, so much had happened in so little time. And this man, I barely know him, yet for some reason I'm trusting him.
"I'm really dead aren't I?" I asked, almost whimpering.
"Yes, you are." Alastor replied bluntly.
"And I killed people." I added almost crying, "I'd never even thought of killing anyone before. Why did I kill two people?"
"Because you have power." Alastor replied, "Power like mine."
I stopped, and looked at him. My eyes began to soften as I felt a bit more comfortable in this place. He placed his thumb against my forehead, and as he did I felt power surge through my body and visions began to play, showing Alastor performing some of the things I'd done. But something else also hit me as the visions plays.
"You're not a good person, are you?" I asked, suspicious.
"You're in Hell my dear, no one here is." Alastor replied.
"If you're not a good person, then why are you helping me?" I asked, "Cause it's obviously not out of the good of your heart."
Alastor paused, looking like he was trying to figure out what to say.
"You're right." Alastor replied, throwing his hands into the air, his cane disappearing in the process, "It's not out of the good of my heart."
I smiled a bit, a victory won against someone who, judging by what I'd just done, was far stronger than me.
"I've been stuck in this pit for almost 80 years, and honestly, it can get very boring down here sometimes." Alastor replied, "And chances for entertained rarely come by."
"So, I'm the entertainment." I commented, annoyed "The dancing monkey, to say".
"No, you're the one that whips the dancing monkey." Alastor replied, his voice getting deeper, "We'll start with something simple."
Alastor formed a portal in a nearby wall and pulled me through. In an instant I was transported to the top of the clock tower I'd seen earlier. The city stretched as far as the eye could see, and I could define section of it pretty easily, like a downtown, a rural, and a few other sections. But what really caught my eye was explosions going off in the distance.
"Every year, after the cleanse, demons fight over control of areas of Hell." Alastor explained, "And this time, I want you to cause some mayhem about it."
"Are these demons, like hell spawn, or are they people who died?" I asked, not really focusing on what he said, and more concentrated on trying not to fall.
"People who have died." Alastor replied, quickly.
I nodded, before actually noticing what he had said.
"Hold up, I don't want to be associated with that." I exclaimed.
"I thought you might say that," Alastor replied, grinning, "and I've got an idea to get around that."
Before I could say anything, he pushed me in my chest and sent me falling off the clock tower. I instantly felt a weird mix of anger, and fear, as I hurtled towards the ground, unable to turn over to face it. Until I stopped, and I found myself sitting in a chair inside a building.
Looking around it looked like it had been designed to fit a 1920s aesthetic. And it didn't look much bigger than a city apartment, with the kitchen and living room in only separated by a half wall, but with two bedrooms. After only a few seconds Alastor appeared through another portal.
"Don't ever do that again." I yelled, my heart still racing from the fall.
"Why? It was quite amusing." Alastor replied, while sifting through books on a bookshelf.
He finally pulled one out with a twirl and handed it to me, but just before he could, he tossed it in the air and it turned into flame.
"If I help you, you'll be under my authority," Alastor explained, "My apprentice, to say."
He sounded like he was being careful with his words, pausing a second between each sentence. I looked at the ball of flame above his head, then back at him, where I saw he hand is hand out. I went to shake it, but my hand starting to glow made me pause.
"Do we have a deal?" Alastor asked, his voice becoming slightly distorted.
I reached for his hand, my hand glowing brighter with each movement, until I shook his hand and the glow went away. After I opened my eyes I found the book in my hands as Alastor turned away towards the kitchen.
The cover of the book said 'Basics of Eldritch Power' and as I opened it, I was surprised to find that it looked almost exactly like one of my school textbooks.
"Did you write this?" I asked.
"Not exactly." Alastor replied, as he prepared some food in the kitchen, "It's a book I've had since I was alive. It changes form, to make it most appealing and understandable to the reader." Alastor waved his hand in my direction, and the book changed style, "For instance, this is how I see it."
The book looked more antique, like something out of an old fashioned library, with few pictures, but they still looked like they were painted. The text was plain times new roman, with two columns of tightly packed text per page. In an instance it once again changed back into the textbook.
"Eldritch power, eh." I commented, "Is that the power comes from?"
"Yes." Alastor replied, "Not many people know this, but when demons die they go to a more… traditional type of hell. Which is where our power comes from."
I wondered why this hell was so 'tame'. I'd always been told that the hell I would end up going to was a torturous place. Guess that was half true.
"Do fundamentalists that do horrible things and die come to this hell?" I asked Alastor, "Like my dad was a fundamentalist Christian, but he also killed me, so would he go to heaven or hell."
Alastor paused for a moment, looking like he actually didn't know the answer.
"Well murder is a sure way to be sent here." Alastor replied, pausing again, "So I'd imagine yes."
I nodded, before going back to the book, half of the time I found myself barely paying attention, yet still remembering what it said. Must be another perk of this magical book. I flipped through it, looking for the page on portals. Once I found it, I found myself a bit worried, this would be harder than I thought.
"You want to be careful when practising." Alastor advised, "Different 'spells' can have similar actions."
I instantly stopped practising portal summoning. I slowly moved my hand to my side, trying to make sure I wasn't going to accidentally blow something up, or something. I even caught a quick peek of Alastor silently chuckling at what I was doing.
I looked back at the book, the summoning demonstration showed a hand palm-up clenched, then it opening and flicking palm down quickly. I tried it, failing to do anything, but finally I managed to get a small portal opened. I looked back at Alastor seeing if he'd noticed it, and found him sitting at a small table eating food.
The book then showed how to close a portal, which was pretty much the exact same but in reverse, and with opposite palm sides. I looked at the portal, and tried to close it, but this was apparently harder than opening it. I was eventually clenching my fist so hard I was drawing a bit of blood from my palm.
In frustration I did the opening hand movement again, but instead of a small portal like before, a huge portal roared open, with wind roaring into it. The area on the other side of the portal was all shades of red, and looked like it was in a cave. Quickly Alastor walked over to me, grinning like never before, and he waved his hand in the way explained and closed the portal.
"That's what happens when you open a portal using blood." Alastor explained, before walking back to his seat.
I looked through the book again, trying to find another thing to try, finally deciding on invisibility. The diagram showed hand movements mimicking pulling a veil over me. I tried this, and surprisingly got it right on the first try.
"Wow, I did it, I'm invisible." I exclaimed, which was met with slightly slow clapping from Alastor.
"Now turn yourself visible again." Alastor replied.
The book said to once again, do the opposite. I hope not everything is copy-paste-reverse in this thing. This time it took a couple of tries but I did eventually do it without any complications.
I looked at Alastor for approval, who was sipping tea out of an old-fashioned teacup, but he was looking at me with validation and approval. Maybe being here wasn't going to be so bad, maybe hell could actually be nice.