Angel and I sat down near the roof top entrance while Steven handed the stranger the sword. This was going to be interesting. And I was not referring to the fight. Steven looked at his opponent closely as he stepped back and pulled out a sword of his own. "I never meant to kill your student", Steven said. "He came after me. And he lost his head".
"You have dishonored me", Steven's opponent said. "You have to pay".
"It's your words", Steven said. "Not mine".
The opponent enraged charged our friend with a deadly vertical arc of his blade. Steven side stepped it and lifted his sword for an upward blow. The evil immortal saw it in time and stepped back. The fight was obviously going to last a while so I turned on the tape recorder and looked at Angel. "Tell me what hell was liked", I said. "Finish the story".
Angel looked at me as if I had gone mad. "You serious?", he asked. "Our friend is fighting…".
"And he will win", I concluded. "But I cannot wait anymore. Give me the story".
On those rare occasions Angel smiled as he looked at the battle.
Hell is a strange place. It is hard to describe, yet very simple to explain. Hell is one thing. The absence of good. It is full of misery and sorrow. Pain and suffering. Many people think it is a world filled with red demons and flames. I can say that is not that. It is a world were evil reigns supreme. It is a prison for demons. From where I was, my demon and my soul were considered as one. Another being to torture. The jailers were seven foot gargoyles . They distributed the demons into nine circles. The last was designed specially for humans. Those souls that had been sold to darkness. The others were for demons that you have only seen in your nightmares.
In my circle, the black jagged rocks burned at the bottom and froze on the top. There was no middle. Either you burn or you froze. I was chained to a wall and the jailers destroyed my body, mind and soul. The body was spiked and probed and burnt and frozen and cut and beaten. Every dingle device that would damage the skin that covered me was used.
At the same time my mind was injected with past memories. The damage that I caused. The extension of this. But in none of those was Buffy present. They knew she was the light of my hope. To see her again. Yet, they prevented me from doing so. It took al my power to preserve her memory intact.
As my mind and body deteriorated so did my soul. Slowly it wore me down to a point in which good and bad no longer had a meaning. Good memories disappeared. I lost complete sight of what I was and why I was there. But Buffy remained. The gargoyles tried to rip her away. But they couldn't. Even though the pain was unbearable. I held on to that face in my mind.
And it went on and on and on… for what seemed…. A thousand years.
Steven cut right through his opponents arms with his blade. The evil man screamed in pain as his flesh gushed out blood because of the wound. Even though the battle was amusing, I had more interest in Angel's words.
"So", I said. "Hell is not for humans but for demons".
Angel looked at me with that sly smile of his. "You are older than me", he said. "But I have seen more than you can ever imagine. Humans can be more evil than any demon. Those souls are the ones that are sold to darkness. That is where they end up".
"I see", I said as I turned off the tape recorder. I looked at the fight that was taking place before us. Steven was dominating the battle completely. He was sure of himself at that very moment. His opponent was staggering now. Steven looked at him sadly. He swung his blade horizontally making contact with the neck. The head flew right of the body. The evil man slumped lifelessly on the roof.
Angel and I stared at our friend. A small mist surrounded him. It came from his opponents body. All of the sudden, lightning struck our friend. Electricity started covering him. More bolts fell on him as if he were a conductor. He screamed in pain as the energy he had gained introduced itself into his body. I saw some street lights explode. Than… as abruptly it started, it stopped. Steven fell to his knees and shuddered. He than looked at us and offered a brave smile. "Man what a rush".