Ring… ring… ring… ring…
*click*
"Yello?"
"I've heard a lot about you, about your skills."
"Well… you have, now have you? I must say. That's a rather interestin' way t'start a call. Also, it's quite the honor, hearin' that from ya…"
"Why do you think I've called you? Just to try and raise your ego? I wouldn't waste my time, or yours, if I wasn't calling for a real reason."
"I figured as much." The figure remarked, loading his gun. "Only thing is, and I mean no disrespect by this, sir. But I'm kinda on a job right now…"
"Name your price. Then double it. Then double that. Then triple that." The voice spoke matter-of-factly. "That's what I'll pay you in advance for this job."
"Well, I'd have t'be a lunatic not t'take you up on this…" The figure laughed, cracking his neck before chuckling darkly. "I'll have to let me client know her job will have to wait… Now, how's about you tell me who yer lookin' for?"
Needless to say, despite Rosie being a twisted woman of twisted passions, she wasn't against a diplomatic solution to their current predicament. She wanted to turn Dawg in as much as the next demon, but also… didn't. Something about him owing her for this was just so appealing! Yet now, she and Charlie remained locked in an argument in another room while Dawg recovered. Despite their points, neither one had made a decent argument yet, so they decided to do the most 'logical' thing, and ask Mad Dawg.
"Yes, but- He's gone." Rosie blinked, surprised. She had continued her argument as she opened the door, and her words made Charlie jump to attention from where she was.
"What?!" Charlie rushed into the room where Dawg had been restrained, to find the thorns and vines shredded, and a note lying on the floor.
'I HAS PLAN! BIG BRAIN WORK WELL! – MD'
"Oh… crap…" Charlie cursed.
Two blasts from a shotgun snapped Delilah to attention, and possibly to fear as she whirled around, hearing everything… go quiet. The clamouring crowd of wretches and scum who swarmed the cathedral, crying out for salvation, or anger, condemning her for being 'with them' all seemed to have backed off, as if something had scared them into silence. She frowned, having a feeling she only knew one who could do this, and her assumptions were confirmed when the doors creaked open, and Mad Dawg entered the cathedral, all by himself.
"Who brought him in?" Delilah asked, looking around as she fully intended to honour the word of the Father.
"I did!" Mad Dawg grinned, proud of himself. "I'm turning myself in."
"What!? No! You can't!" Delilah snapped, shocked by Dawg's statement. "You can't! You're not-"
"I ain't claiming it." Mad Dawg said, swiping the book from Delilah and slamming it down before scratching a name into it. There was a golden flash, and the book was gone…
"I'm giving it away." He said, looking to Delilah. "So… you wanted me? Here I am."
Delilah's face was hilarious to Dawg. She seemed so angry, so offended, yet also amazed by his ingenuity. As if this was something she hadn't even begun to think of! Still, she collected herself, masterfully reining in her anger, and nodded.
"Very well. Come, my child." Delilah remarked, pulling Dawg away to another room while the hordes of demons screamed threats after them.
"So, y'mind telling me WHAT IN THE ACTUAL DEEP-FIRED CRAB TESTICLES YOU WERE THINKING?!" Mad Dawg demanded once they were alone. "If you wanted to talk to me, fine! Why the hell did you get all of hell coming after me?!"
"Child, this is your one chance." Delilah said sternly. "Princess Charlotte's plan of redemption doesn't work. I think you know this, and yet you cling to it due to your better nature."
"How do you know that?"
"These beings had their chance, and they turned their backs on his word. Don't you think that if any of them wanted redemption, that they would've been able to seek it without a hotel or a therapist who's the daughter of the devil?!"
"Well, yeah. But-"
"Haven't you yourself admitted that you deserve to be down here? Didn't you run away from her? Please, tell me. If she truly cared, if her plan for redemption truly worked, wouldn't she have sought you out and helped you, even in your time of pain?"
"…no. She wouldn't." Mad Dawg muttered, and Delilah smiled at Dawg's realization, until Mad Dawg looked over his shoulder at her. "Because that wasn't her job."
"Excuse me?!"
"That wasn't her job! Isn't the whole point of your Bosses plan about people accepting they've messed up?!" Mad Dawg asked, raising a brow.
"It is not your place to question the Father's plans!"
"I'm not!" Mad Dawg snapped, cutting the Angel off. "I'm questioning YOU, and to my annoyance, the devil has given me straighter answers than you have!" Before Delilah could protest, Dawg shut her down again. "If you're SOOOOOO determined to prove your right, how about you ANSWER my questions, huh?! Why didn't the soul-leaving-hell-thing work last time!?"
"I don't know! All I know is if you go through he hotel, we may both face a terrible fate, and-" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Mad Dawg looked at her, realization dawning on him.
"So that's what this is all about…" Mad Dawg muttered, anger rising in his eyes. "This wasn't about helping me, this wasn't about saving an innocent soul, this was about saving your own lying ass!"
"It is not wise to accuse an Angel of such things, child." Delilah replied coldly.
"I thought accusations could be disproven." Dawg retorted. "I'm doing what you're not. Speaking truth."
"YOU speak truth!?" Delilah snapped, rounding on Dawg, her sudden shift in demeanor making Dawg take a step back in shock. "Was it not YOU who lied to your own family about your survival for YEARS?! Was it not YOU who lied to your own team, your friends, about your true origin!? Was it not YOU who lied about your true past to the demons you claim are helping you!?
"Yes! And I'll ADMIT to all of that!"
"Kace Horatio Constantine, will you LISTEN TO ME!?" Delilah demanded, and Dawg stared at her using his full name. He wanted to ask how she learned that name, but right now he couldn't find his voice. "This isn't about your narrow concept of truth and reality! This has to do with protecting you!"
"From what?!"
"From what's to come should you continue down this path! To protect you from what the fallen one has planned for you!"
"SPEAK. CLEARLY." Mad Dawg demanded, sick and tired of hearing Delilah's run-around's and over-dressed explanations. Delilah bit her lip, and inhaled sharply, before sighing deeply. She summoned some sort of power, and then Dawg and the Angel disappeared.
When the pair re-appeared, Mad Dawg scoffed in annoyance. Ready to keep fighting with the angel, and her inability to give him a straight answer. However, Delilah motioned around herself, as if telling Dawg to look around, and when he did, it was… confusing. All around them seemed to be pipes, or chains and wires, all of it running and twisting about in a messy jumbling of lines that would give most I.T. workers a heart attack at the thought of having to try and organize it all.
"Is this supposed to mean something?" Mad Dawg asked, refusing to let his guard down.
"Yes." Delilah nodded. "But I know telling you won't do you any good, so I'm asking you to find out for yourself."
"Okay, you've completely lost me."
"Follow this path, and all with be revealed." Delilah said, motioning towards a path behind Dawg which he hadn't noticed before. "You need not worry, little one. Straying from the path will not cause you death, it simply will make your journey longer."
"And why should I do this?"
"Do you seek answers?"
"Yes!"
"Then you have your reason, right there." Delilah spoke, suddenly beginning to fade away to nothing. "I will await your return, child." And a few moments later, it was as if she hadn't been there at all.
"Hang on, wait a sec!" Mad Dawg shouted. But no one was there. He growled, looking around, trying to figure out where he was, and if there was some sort of exit. But he couldn't explain why, but he felt… weak. It was as if his body was sapped of its normal energy, and now he was forced to do everything with great effort. He also noticed he didn't have his weapons with him, or his bag. So, he reasoned to himself, he was going into this totally blind and totally alone. And if there was ever a time when he figured the horned idiot in charge had some sort of super-evil-plan set up for him, this definitely seemed like it.
Finally, Dawg resolved himself to whatever came next, and with a sigh, set off towards the path. He had no clue what awaited him at the end of this path, all he knew was he needed answers. He needed a plan. But he couldn't really make one without the other, so as much as he didn't want to admit to it, he knew he had to go through with this.
He descended into what seemed like a forest, quietly walking as the leaves crunched under his feet. The trees were odd, all barren and dead, yet many of them bore apples, hanging down, temptingly.
"Good thing I hate apples." Mad Dawg thought. "Aside from cider, and crisp, and pie... But I never wanna drink that stuff again for as long as I'm dead!"
Dawg kept walking, looking around as he did so. He expected memories to appear, voices to call out to him, but… nothing. It was silent, and oddly, that was both comforting and maddening. It allowed Dawg to think, to really think. To take every conversation he had with Delilah into consideration. The problem he faced was thus; he trusted her. She was an angel! Like, a literal angel. That couldn't just be faked… but, why didn't her powers work!? Why was he still stuck down here?! If all this stuff was true, and he was an unjudged soul, shouldn't he just… disappear? Wouldn't God realize this and grab him from hell and take him up to trial? Was he even dead?!
What if he was? What if he had already gone to trial, and was found corrupt? And then… all of this… everything he experienced… was hell…
That thought terrified Dawg. Probably more than the concept of being in heck itself. What if his struggle, his journey, all of it… was just part of the show? And he was destined to do this forever?
"I don't deserve this!" Mad Dawg mentally shouted, then clawed at his arm. "No… damn it… do I?"
It was then, that Dawg heard the rumbling of thunder coming from above, and he shuddered, looking back forward as he kept walking. It could've been a few minutes, or a few days for all he knew. But the darkness kept growing in front of him, swallowing everything except for the decaying trees which surrounded him. At one part, Dawg considered slashing some of them, to mark where he had been, but he decided against it, feeling like that wouldn't help him. So, he finally settled on singing quietly to himself, choosing of all things, a song Wrench used to jam to while building/destroying things.
"Have we become or always been… Just the pawns up on the board? So be entertained. Try to avoid the truth that's blasting in your eyes… Have I changed things? Still I fear the answer's no. In this f**ked-up world, in which I feel I stand alone…~"
Eventually, he heard something or someone moving, and he froze, looking around him in both preparation and panic. He knew he was in a bad spot right now. Despite having pretty good eyesight, he didn't have night-vision. At least, this form didn't. So, he had to reply based on the sound he was hearing,
"All this hate that I feel for you… My one true enemy… Once was blind but now I see… It makes me question: Why do we choose to live this way? I try to free my mind from, what's not meant to be… It makes me question why…"
The noise returned, and Mad Dawg saw something… off. He was now holding an umbrella at a bus stop, and Lilith stood next to him, as rain poured down around them. Dawg wanted to ask what was happening, but Lilith looked to him first.
"Please, follow me." Lilith spoke in a soft tone. Mad Dawg scowled, but followed behind her regardless, knowing there really was no other option. They walked along an old lava stone pathway, but then the path turned to dirt, and dirt turned to nothing. They walked into what looked like a forest made out of nothing but trees made of jagged thorns. There was a stench about it, a stench like something beyond death. Mad Dawg had smelt it before, and he remembered where and why…
"If you do this… you'll always be a monster…"
Damn him.
The next thing Mad Dawg knew, Lilith was gone.
"OH. JOY."
Still, Mad Dawg pressed on, deciding if this is where the answers Delilah wanted him to see were, he'd get to them. No matter what!
"Piss off Lilith." Mad Dawg scowled.
"You're mistaken." The woman remarked. "I'm not Lilith, or have you already forgotten me, Beta?"
"Whoever you are, do me a favor and piss off." Mad Dawg snarled, not looking at the woman who sat next to him. Under the thorn and thistle trees, Mad Dawg sat in silence, anger and fear concocting some sort or unknown emotion which left him feeling oddly empty. As if he had hit the ceiling of what he could feel for both anger and sadness.
"Is that any way to talk to your better?"
"Sorry, you didn't pay me enough to join into your doma-fetish."
"Look at me, you self-serving brat." A familiar voice ordered, and Dawg looked over to see…
"Moira?"
"Hmph. So you do remember me." The scientist scoffed, indignantly.
"Sadly, yeah." Mad Dawg rolled his eyes, then smirked. "So. How's hell been for you?"
"Dreadful, knowing that I had to share it with you." Moira scoffed.
"Uh-huh."
The two sat in silence, until Mad Dawg looked over to the scientist.
"Hey, Mom?"
"You will never address me as such, understood?!"
"Hey. Science slut." Mad Dawg corrected himself. "How did you think this would end?"
"As it should. You, exterminated, and me moving onto my next experiment."
"Ooooooooofffffffff…" Mad Dawg laughed, earning an irate glare from the scientist. Dawg got up, and kept walking. He knew this wasn't the real Moira, and he decided not to give her any more of his time.
"You honestly think you weren't their tool? Their weapon?" Moira asked, her voice echoing in the murky-black abyss that Dawg found himself struggling to walk through. "Through everything that happened, you honestly believe you were more than just… a creature? They kept you around like a pet. You were nothing to them but a weapon to aim at their enemies and unleash. You were what you were meant to be from the start! What you were created to be!"
"I am… what I am…" Mad Dawg growled. "But I am what I chose to be, I chose to be more…"
"Oh, you did? You chose to be more, darling? Look around you. If you were 'more' than what you claim to be, why are you here? Why were you left to rot?"
"Because… I made choices…" Mad Dawg hissed, pulling his arm free from an invisible force and pushing his way through the blackness, returning to the forest of thorns. Off to one side, he could see Twig and the other cultists walking through the woods. "Wait. Is that still canon? I thought that was just a dream…"
There was no answer. Predictably.
Mad Dawg kept walking, the thorns scraping and cutting into him as he walked, leaving a trail of blood behind him. It didn't hurt, at least, it didn't hurt compared to everything else he had endured as of late, and even before coming down here… The thorns kept coming, and Dawg kept walking through them. His skin was lacerated and mutilated as he pushed onwards, leaving a long, thick trail of blood behind him as he walked.
"Why do you hurt yourself? Do you believe this is penance for your sins?"
"I… don't… know…" Mad Dawg slowly admitted, wiping blood from his fur as he kept pushing forward. As the vines got thicker and the wounds got deeper, Dawg simply growled, pushing forward and forward out of some stubborn refusal to quit, until he literally couldn't go another step. Growling, Dawg ripped his way through, coating the inky blackness with his dark, twisted blood.
Finally, to his annoyance, he saw the devil standing in a clearing. Sighing heavily, Dawg kept walking, pushing the devil to the side. However, he wasn't expecting the devil to run after him…
"Hey. Hey! Stop! Stop!" The devil ordered, then sighed. "All right. Fine. You win." To Mad Dawg's surprise, he removed his hat, and returned to his faux-human form, he wore surprisingly casual clothing and seemed almost… broken as he stood in front of Mad Dawg, holding his hands up. "No more tricks, no more lies, no more temptation. Just you and me. Can you please stop for one minute and listen to me?!"
Mad Dawg didn't know why, but he stopped.
"You lied to me." The devil said flatly.
"Do you have any idea how little that narrows down what you're angry over?" Mad Dawg flatly replied, not turning back to face the devil.
"You said you wouldn't go back to the hotel. Yet you did. If you went back to apologize to my daughter, fine. But you went back, and you stayed there."
"And?" Mad Dawg asked.
"And you told me you wouldn't. I thought your word meant something."
"I thought you said no tricks or temptation." Mad Dawg countered, and the devil realized… oof, Dawg had almost outplayed him. He shook his head to collect his thoughts.
"Whatever. My point is, you said you wouldn't go back-"
"I don't give a damn what you think." Mad Dawg cut him off. "You're satan. You literally are the devil, the guy who tempted humanity and all that neat-o burrito stuff. I'd be an idiot if I took anything you said as 'real' or even as anything but a threat or trap. And you clearly don't care about Charlie, so why should you care what happens between her and I?"
"Yet you stopped."
"Thirty seconds."
"No, no… I don't think so. You're not gonna walk away unless I say something that angers you. Maybe you're more twisted than I anticipated, or maybe you're purer than I thought. Why else would you have stopped?"
"Because I'm trying to figure out why the king of heck is practically begging me to stop what I'm doing." Mad Dawg admitted with a shrug.
"Well… here's why." lucifer admitted. "Whether you want to believe this or not, I do care for Charlie. She's my daughter! There are many things she still needs to learn and seems to refuse to learn. But the truth is, the two of you are heading for a disastrous path, and I don't want to see my daughter hurt."
"How so?"
"You can't trust Delilah, she's using you." The devil admitted, and Dawg scoffed, now looking back with an unimpressed look in his eyes.
"Oh, really? The devil doesn't like angels? Wow. I never would've guessed."
"Is that your only answer?"
"Maybe, why?" Mad Dawg asked.
"If you don't believe me, why are you still here? If you believe her so much, why are you still talking to me?"
Something stung. Dawg couldn't say what, but he realized that something just… stung. Why hadn't he walked away? Was it because of the bounty on his head? Because Delilah didn't give him straight answers? Because she couldn't get him out of hell?
"Kace, Delilah is using you towards something bad. I don't know what it is, but she's beyond powerful enough to take you out of hell. Yet she hasn't. Why?"
"I… I'd kinda like the answer to that, too." Mad Dawg conceded.
"She's using you." The devil insisted. "I don't know what for, but I'm asking you. Please. Just walk away."
"What am I supposed to do, lou?" Mad Dawg asked, looking to the fallen angel with a raised brow. "I'm an unjudged. What am I supposed to do?"
"Mad Dawg… I'm offering you something I've barely offered even my most prestigious servants. If you wish to remain in hell, I can set you up in the badlands, you'll have supplies, a home, you can contact Charlotte and the others, everything you could want."
"What if I wanna go home?"
"…"
"Okay, never mind. Let's say I take this deal. What do you want from me in return?" Mad Dawg asked with a frown.
"Stop." lucifer shrugged. "Stop what you're doing, and turn around. This path is only going to lead you to a worse destination. You may find answers, or you may find nothing but agony."
"Kinda sounds like what I've got right now." Mad Dawg growled.
"Kace." lucifer spoke, seeming a mixture of tired, and calm. "I know you hate me. I know you have no reason to trust me. But I'm trying to give you the answers you seek. What you'll find down there won't help your case with the angels."
"…you're so full of shit, satan." Mad Dawg muttered, pushing the devil to the side and continuing towards the light.
"Mad Dawg! MAD DAWG!" The devil yelled after him. "Please! You don't want to do this! For your own sake…!" His cries got quieter and quieter as Dawg entered the final cave, finding the source of light. And there… was nothing.
"What the fu-" Mad Dawg cursed, but stopped when he saw an odd hole in the ground. It almost looked like a key hole, and Dawg's mind set to work, trying to think of an improvised key, or lockpicking tool. Then, it dawned on him. "Claws."
It took a minute, but Dawg managed to turn the device in the ground until it seemed to lock into something, and to his surprise, a spiral stone staircase began to form around him, heading deeper into the cave. Raising a brow, he headed deeper into the darkness, listening to his breathing to try and keep him calm. Shockingly, torches began lighting up as he descended, and eventually, the somewhat cramped (for a demon his size) staircase became wider and wider, until eventually it was as if he was standing in a canyon. Albeit an incredibly narrow canyon, as he could barely walk left or right…
"Long, long ago… there was an angel." A voice spoke up, and the torches showed a gathering of angels around a figure who seemed to be taller than the wall allowed. Surrounding him were several angels which were depicted higher-up than the others.
"She was a beauty unlike any the world had ever seen…" Another voice spoke up from the silence, revealing a picture of a baby painted/carved into the other side of the wall.
"This angel walked on God's holy mountain and was anointed to serve God as a member of the guardian cherubim, among the highest rank of angels in God's holy host second only to the one known as Seraphim." The first voice spoke again as another drawing was shown.
"Her smile could brighten any cloudy day, all of heaven smiled with her when she did so." The second voice spoke up, showing a drawing/painting of a little girl with a halo.
"In fact, Scripture asserts that the Angel started out as "blameless" in all their ways, and as the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…"
"She was perfect, in every sense of the word. Kind, and caring in a world which didn't know the meaning of those words." The second voice, a male's voice, Dawg now realized, spoke up again. However, the words gave Dawg pause. He thought they were talking about heaven and all that… how did HEAVEN not know about love and kindness?
Yet, all was not perfect. Despite all this Angel was given, the power, the beauty, and the love of a caring Father, they became so consumed with pride over their God-given splendour that they became corrupt and violent, no longer willing to serve under God."
"She became caught in a war which was not her own, trapped forever in a life which she did not ask for, and did not deserve. A life of suffering and pain, which no amount of kindness would save them from."
"This sense of superiority led the Angel to use their free will to scheme to be greater than God, and to assemble an army of angels to help them carry out that plot." The female voice spoke, showing the angel with a few others, seemingly attempting to attack God. Dawg paused, thinking about what was being said, and began to piece everything together.
"Everything she had was ripped away from her, taken by a cruel and uncaring world, leaving her to suffer. Until… she decided she had enough. She set out on what many would consider a fool's dream, to save those she now found herself surrounded by." As the second voice (Dawg having a pretty good idea who was speaking…) talked, he saw another painting, depicting the woman holding… something, as she was surrounded by lanky, shadowy monsters.
"God gave this Angel a chance, but lucifer, the morning star, refused to shed his sinful ways. For such, he was cast out from Heaven, and fell into the fiery pits of hell. With no one to accompany him but his servants, his wife, and unborn child."
"So, she set to helping those who needed it, at any cost." The second voice continued, concluding with a painting of the Hazbin Hotel.
"Interesting backstories, but is there a purpose to this?" Mad Dawg asked, a little annoyed.
"You have so many questions, yet so few answers." The first voice, one which Dawg assumed to be Delilah's, spoke again. "It is about time you were given answers."
"Mad Dawg." The second voice spoke, and Dawg assume it to be the devils. "This isn't something you can take back. If you do this, there's no going back."
"He's the father of all lies." Mad Dawg told himself. "Everything he says or does is a lie! Why Should I believe a word from him!?"
"But at the same time, Delilah couldn't get me outta here when we first met… and they always say the best lies have truth hidden in them, like a chocolate chip cookie with three raisins just to screw with someone… Man. Sitara made AMAZING oatmeal raisin cookies… I really need to get her to write down that recipe and- GAH! Focus, you idiot!" He cursed himself. Before finally resolving to something very, very stupid.
"Hey. Virus." Mad Dawg remarked. "What do you think I should do.
"AhHahAHAhAHahAhAHaHAHahA!" Virus' twisted metallic laughter echoed through the halls, cutting into Dawg's mind. "nICE trY, mAd DAwG! bUT yOU aIn'T gOnNa GeT A reSponse fROm mE! nOT oN this oNe!"
"Really? The one time I actually wanna hear your stupid voice, and you're saying… NOTHING?"
"bECaUSE, GEniUS. if I TeLL YoU WHat i gENUInElY ThInK, yoU'Ll do The oppOsItE! anD if I tElL YOu WhAt nOt to DO, yOU'Ll ThinK I'M usiNG rEvErsE PSyChOlogY On yoU! NO MaTTeR WhaT cHoIcE i maKe, YOU'LL neVeR rEALly TaKe iT!"
As bemoaned as he was to admit to it, Mad Dawg knew Virus was right. Those were… his exact thoughts, actually. That was creepy.
"Well, screw it." Dawg sighed, grabbing a torch and heading down into the inky blackness. Heavy emphasis on the 'ink' part, as while Dawg descended, he felt liquid wash over his entire body, until he was submerged in… something, skeletal frail fish dart about, their mouths agape and eyes listless. One of the weirder things was that Dawg didn't feel like he was drowning, in fact, the stairs kept going. As he kept walking, it felt… fine. Aside from being underwater…
Finally, Dawg no longer felt like he was going down, he felt like he was going up, but then, the road flattened, and a door stood before him.
"Last chan-" Mad Dawg began, before grabbing the door and throwing it open. Tired of these 'games', tired of these 'stories', all he wanted were answers.
The room was odd, it seemed massive, and the wires and tubes all cumulated into something over the side of a cliff that Dawg couldn't see. But the room felt freezing, as if this was the absolute coldest the world could be. Beyond Mei's ice walls, beyond Canada's winters, just… cold.
Finally, Dawg approached the cliff, feeling the cold quickly shift to heat, then back to cold, as if the fires of hell and the ice of something else were in eternal combat, clashing with one another for true supremacy. When he looked down into the abyss, he stumbled back in terror. There were… people down there. They seemed to be impaled through every inch of skin, the wires and tubes pulling something out from them, some sort of energy which rippled upwards towards the ceiling.
"What… is… this…" Mad Dawg whispered, horror overtaking his body.
"These are the ones who were 'redeemed' by Charlie's hotel." Delilah spoke, grimly.
"…what…?" Mad Dawg whispered, feeling like he had been stabbed.
"Do you truly believe the devil would ever allow souls to escape his land?" Delilah asked, looking to Mad Dawg with a saddened expression. It was akin to a parent telling their child Santa wasn't real. (Which Dawg called B.S. on, because he had met Santa, and helped him at one point.) "Those who exit hell through the hotel, are sent down here, to oblivion. Their souls are reduced to nothing but ash, and their very essence is drained from them so they may forever be used to fuel the fallen one's powers."
Mad Dawg watched in shocked silence as the figures below continued to have… something drained from them, some sort of power, some sort of energy which was sucked upwards into the wires and tubes, and carried away somewhere. Stumbling backwards, all Mad Dawg could do was fight to remain standing, a fight he lost as he fell to the ground in terror, crawling away as the true horror of everything came crashing down on him
"Help."
"Mercy."
"Save me…"
. It was then that he began to hear voices- no, whisper- no, cries for help. Cries from voices that had given up long ago, and now all they could do was scream in silence.
"I was good…"
"Why, Lord…?"
"What Did I do wrong…?"
"Please, let me go…"
"My parents are waiting at home…"
"Make… it stop…"
"I never meant to…"
"What… what are-" He began, but shook his head, now fighting to collect his thoughts. "Delilah… please, for once, give me a straight answer. I'm begging you…" He finally found his voice, and forced out the question he knew he had to ask.
"Yes, child?"
"Does Charlie…?"
"No. She doesn't know of this." Delilah sighed, shaking her head. "She believes that the ones she redeems are taken to heaven. She has no idea what her father truly does to those who are 'redeemed'."
"This is so wrong. How can God do this!?"
"They had their lives, they had their chances, and they chose to only seek redemption when it benefitted them." Delilah scoffed, clearly disliking the souls strapped below. "They are the worst kind of sinner, someone who changes only when it will benefit them. God could not allow them into his embrace, for they showed not true remorse."
"This- this-this is terrible! Charlie- she-she-she-she has… She needs to know the truth!" Mad Dawg exclaimed in a panic, and Delilah rounded on him, angrily.
"If you tell her the truth, you'll ruin EVERYTHING!" Delilah snapped, angered. However, Dawg refused to back down from this. "What do you think will happen if hell finds out what happens to those who seek 'redemption'!? What do you think will happen to CHAROLETTE if demons find out what happens at her hotel!? Do you think they'll be merciful? Do you think they'll care if she knew the truth or not!?"
"It's the right thing to do!" Mad Dawg protested.
"She will face an eternity of fates worse than death!"
"I won't let that happen to her!" Mad Dawg shouted.
"WHY DO YOU CARE FOR HER?!" Delilah demanded, losing her composed edge and fully snapping. "SHE IS THE DAUGHTER OF THE dEVIL, AND YET YOU'D THROW YOUR OWN CHANCE AT REDEMPTION AWAY FOR HER?!"
"She's my friend! Despite what you think, I'm not just a case study to her!"
"Do you wish to see your family again!?"
"Yes!"
"How much are you willing to sacrifice to get that?!"
"Anything!"
"Then this is the sacrifice you must make!"
Those words stopped Dawg dead in his tracks. All the anger, all the drive and fury seemed to disappear in an instant as he took in those words. Eight words. That was all it took to stop him. Once again, Dawg felt fear, and he didn't know what to do about it.
"You want the truth? Here it is." Delilah said sternly. "You couldn't leave hell the first time we met, because you didn't want too. Either because you wanted to believe in Charlie's plans, or you secretly wished to stay in a horrible place, you were the reason you couldn't leave. Now, if leaving is truly what you desire, you must truly repent."
"But-"
"Do you wish to prevent your own annihilation?!" Delilah demanded.
"Yes!"
"Then your only goal should be to control the flow of information! Unless you want to see my brethren conquer and pillage-"
"No!"
"Then remove the lie, and protect, hell." Delilah finished, before her face softened. "Souls are at stake here, Mad Dawg. Angel Dusts', your Boss', Charlotte's."
Mad Dawg didn't reply.
"She's well-intentioned. But the worst of actions often begin with the best of intentions." The Angel spoke quietly.
"So, what do you want me to do?" Mad Dawg quietly asked.
"You have to destroy the hotel." Delilah said, seriously. "With it gone, more souls will not be subjected to this face. But, if you don't destroy it within the time I give you now, you will remain down here, forever."
"WHAT?!" Mad Dawg screamed, terror taking over his entire body. He wanted to protest, to scream, to tell her there wasn't a chance in heck he'd do that! But Delilah was already gone, and a heavy weight appeared on his arm. Looking down, Dawg saw a clock now affixed to his arm, already ticking down towards its final time.
41:59:58…
Tick
41:59:57…
Tock
41:59:56…
Tick
41:59:55…
Tock
So, Dawg's finally seen what 'hell' truly can be like. Now, he's got one of the hardest choices he can possibly make… and not a lot of time to decide! As the clock ticks down, Dawg has to decide, once and for all, who he's living for. Himself, or his 'friends'?
Unfortunately, neither seems like a great option.
