The words were like ice fragments impaled against his chest, his insides tightened and he he felt numb again. The word Hell echoed through his head, this couldn't be true right?

He would remember dying, right?

Still, he was Shizuo Heiwajima, he was indestructible. What could have killed him at the age of twenty-five?

Part of him said to believe his eyes, to believe he was going to be rotting in Hell for eternity; but he couldn't ignore the fact that the odds were completely against it.

He was a single college student, living with his best-friends, an underground doctor and his wife. Where did he go wrong?

The pounding in Shizuo's chest accelerated when the beast stood up and started for him. He couldn't possibly beat the devil, could he?

"Damn humans, "he growled, he had a gruff voice and talked as if something was caught in the back of his throat. The devil had a strange appearance, not to different from the stereotypical look given to him on Earth.

He looked like a goat on two feet, except completely red and seven feet off the ground. He walked with a strange limp and his hooves made an unpleasant noise against the metallic floor.

The floor was stained a crimson color and Shizuo couldn't tell if it was the actual color or blood. Shizuo's head felt heavy with questions, and he started to grow stressful, he wished he had a cigarette to calm his nerves.

"Hey human," the beast spat, his foul breathe slapped Shizuo across the face and broke him out of his trance.

"How did I die?" he blurted out.

He mentally slapped himself and suddenly found the room's furniture interesting. Just as he expected the devil's malicious laughter erupted through the room, holding a note for seven seconds.

"All you humans are the same with your stupid questions," he commented, continuing on with his laughter. Shizuo on the other hand found none of it amusing; he clenched his fist, and tried to stop himself from getting angry.

"Answer the question."

At the sound of Shizuo's cold tone, the devil stopped laughing; he stared at Shizuo for a while before turning around in unease.

"My name is Cassius, I'm the ruler of the underworld, Shizuo Heiwajima I've been waiting many years for you to be thrown in here-"

"I don't care who you are, I just want to know how and why this is happening," Shizuo spat cutting off Cassius. Cassius frowned taking a seat on one of his sofas.

"You died from lung cancer," he answered a minute later staring at anything but Shizuo. The blonde glared at Cassius, who was facing the other direction.

"Lung cancer? I lived with a doctor, surely he would have noticed something," Shizuo said in irritation.

"Did you now, well since you're here, he couldn't have known would he?" Cassius shot back.

Damn you, Shinra."

Shizuo studied the room as Cassius devoured human anatomy. Shizuo saw why this room belonged to Cassius, he was given full view to what was happening outside.

The pitch sky spat balls of fire upon the humans who're trapped underneath it. Humans fell from the sky along with the raging balls of fire, he could hear the faint screaming of the people.

Why wasn't he down there with them?

"Cassius?"

At the sound of his name, the beast looked up from his food and at the source of the voice.

"Why aren't I down there?"

Cassius furrowed his unibrow, and chewed the leftover of his food slowly.

"Truth is Shizuo, I've been waiting many years for you to join me in Hell."

"What?"

"Unfortunately, I can only increase and give powers to humans, I don't have any of my own." Cassius didn't know if he should have told Shizuo that in there current position, but the blonde made no attempt to attack him.

"Couldn't you have used anyone else?"

"Actually, no, you are one of the two people I had the ability to give powers to," he informed the blonde.

Shizuo wanted to ask why it was only them, but he had another question in mind.

"Who is this other person, where can I find them?" Shizuo asked eagerly, he hoped that it wasn't someone as annoying as Cassius and as useless as the humans.

"This person isn't here with us, he took the deal," Cassius said with a smirk, he quickly took a bite out of freshly burnt human to hide his happiness.

"The deal?"

Yes, the deal," Cassius said happiness lingering in his voice.

"Well, what's the deal?" Shizuo spat impatiently.

Cassius sneered and quickly took another great bite of his food to hide it.

"I can give you back your humanity, another chance at life, but under one condition." Cassius couldn't hide the malicious grin on his face as Shizuo's face brightened up at the sound of another chance.

"Anything, anything to have another chance," Shizuo breathed, the darkness that fogged his mind started to fade.

"If I send you back to the human world, you mustn't fall in love."

It stopped, the clearing was gone once again, only gray clouds. He couldn't fall in love? What was the point of humanity without it?

One of the reasons he wanted to go back was to have that feeling, and for some special person to return it.

Cassius studied the blonde's hopeless expression; if Shizuo didn't take this deal, everything would be for nothing, his plan would be ruined, and he wasn't going to put up with it.

"Shizuo, look outside that glass window there," Cassius's raspy voice rang through Shizuo's ears once again. The blonde turned his head to the direction of the glass wall, he disliked the window, it was the same one he had watched the humans suffer he wasn't going to do it.

"Go on," Cassius's horrible breathe practically pushed Shizuo towards the window as he backed away from the beast. He towered over Shizuo looking down at the human's with glee.

Thousands upon thousands of humans lying on the boiling ground, flipping around like fish out of water. They were being burnt until a solid, white object replaced their flesh, their screams became faint and barely audible.

Flames shot up from the ground randomly, smirking at the burning people. The same sickening smirk was shared with Cassius.

"Do you really want to live this kind of life, forever?" He'd whisper for the hundredth time in Shizuo's ear, as he circled around him.

It was as if a barrel of spiders were crawling down his spine, he practically felt the people's pain shooting through his back, arm, legs. Cassius's whispers didn't help at all.

"Forever is a long time Shizuo, who knows, maybe you'll become like me someday." That struck a core, Shizuo eyes widened just at the thought of being a sadistic monster like Cassius.

He looked down once again at the people withering in pain. Maybe this was an opportunity, a chance to try and live a life that won't get him back in Hell.

"I started out like you, disgusted by this fire burning these innocent people, let me tell you something. They are far from innocent and they deserve-"

"I'll do it," Shizuo interrupted knowing what Cassius was going to say next. Cassius mouth formed into an 'o'.

"I'll take the deal," Shizuo repeated to the beast to confirm his choice. He closed his eyes at the view of more humans falling from the sky.

Hopefully, I'm making the right choice, he thought.

A/N: I want to thank bleach-freak95, BlackDragon41, and max-sunny AK-47 for the lovely reviews. You guys are awesome! For everyone who added this to their alert and/or favorite list, y'all are great!

Finding Cassius's name was the most difficult thing this chapter. It's been changed several times and I finally found this one, I wasn't too happy about it at first but it grew on me. It means empty or hollow and pronounced Cas-ee-us.

Again, thank you for reading.