When Terzo opened his eyes, he immediately knew that something was wrong.
Something was very, very wrong.
The last thing he remembered was being interrupted from his Uno game with his brothers by Sister Imperator and their father bursting through the door to give them the news that they were going back on tour, all three of them - in full regalia -, before leaving them to take in the shocking and unsuspected surprise.
That was all that Terzo remembered, past that was... nothing.
Now, in the present, his head was killing him and his body ached, a strange feeling coursing through him as he sat up, his eyes screwed tightly shut tightly as his head throbbed.
"This is one hell of a hangover," Terzo groaned, dragging a gloved hand down his face, his eyes screwed tight in an attempt to fight back the headache. "I don't even remember what I'm hungover from."
Perhaps he and his brothers had partied too hard when celebrating the news, Secundo and him were always a dangerous combo when it came to partying.
"I don't know what kind of hangovers you've had, but you're definitely making me jealous for that kind of alcohol, you certainly can't get that around here!"
Terzo's eyes shot open as a mysterious voice chuckled from behind him, his head whipping around to see who was with him, his hands raising to protectively hover in front of his chest. Terzo jerked back in surprise before staring in surprise at what he saw before him.
The owner of the voice was a young-looking and slender man, dressed in a simple black muscle tee with a white scrawl of jagged words splayed across the chest - Terzo guessed it was the name of some death metal band considering the font but the ex-papa couldn't be bothered to decipher the text. The surprising part about his appearance was the bright trails of blood that streamed down his pale face, seemingly a never-ending drip-drip-drip of red liquid that originated high on his hairline, stealing down from a wound hidden behind a spike of black hair, making red streams that weave their way across his pale skin, dancing and twisting across each other before gathering together on his chin and dripping in beads down his neck before finally falling down onto the ground below him.
Speaking of the ground...
The ground Terzo was sitting on was covered in soft lush grass, stretching on in a blank expanse for what seemed like forever, as far as his eyes could see. Looking up, the sky was a flat plane of darkness, with no stars or moon in sight. On the horizon in the direction Terzo was facing was a darker area, a deep fog covering decaying ground that gradually faded into the softer lush grass that he was currently sitting upon. This landscape was familiar, sparking memories of Terzo's school teachings from years long since past...
"Are we..." Terzo looked around, teetering on the edge of understanding but refusing to believe in the obvious, "am I..?"
No, he couldn't be... how would...?
"Dead? In Hell?" The figure chuckled, extending a pale hand for Terzo to grasp. "Well, it seems you aren't such an idiot after all, that's more than you can say for most people I've met down here. Yes, welcome to Limbo, the outer circle of Hell where the hopeless and lost roam eternally, and I am here as your guide!" He finished with an extravagant bow and a dark chuckle. "It appears you weren't completely unknown on Earth, your soul got the nicer side of Limbo!"
In Hell... Terzo was dead, somehow.
And he would figure out the events that lay obscured and forgotten behind that 'somehow'.
"Well, my mysterious guide, may I ask your name?" Terzo accepted the offered hand, pulling himself to his feet and standing across from his guide. They were of similar heights, with Terzo just a slight bit taller.
"You're honestly taking this quite well, that's unusual." The man grinned, an eerie sight considering the still bleeding wound that covered his face in red, his smile displaying white teeth stained pink with blood. "I am Mary Goore, just another doomed soul, like you."
"So... what are you doing here? Do you just introduce yourself to every soul that arrives down here?"
"It gets quite boring out here," Mary Goore shrugged, "so I took up the job of guiding souls to their destination, resulting in you receiving my exciting and dashing company."
"Ah yes, my destination... how exactly do I find what section of Hell is meant for me?" Terzo hummed, wondering if there was a special place where those of his lineage, the Emeritus', resided. With their dedication to the Dark One and the blessings he had bestowed upon the Emeritus line, Terzo could hope. Perhaps the Dark One could shed some light on how Terzo died - and who was responsible. "Is this... 'Limbo', my destination?"
Terzo hadn't paid much attention to those school lessons, he wouldn't lie.
"Not necessarily. Limbo could be your destination, or it could be any of the other eight circles. That is, of course, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and finally," Mary Goore embellished his list with a flourish of his bare arms, "Treachery. As we travel I will be able to share visions of the present with you. They tend to be of meaningful moments, even if you don't understand how they're meaningful. They all help your soul understand the true meaning of things and achieve a semblance of peace which helps you to understand the best spot for your soul to live, heh, the rest of your eternal existence out in." Mary Goore quickly explained, Terzo's head spinning with all the newly received information. "And now that that's over with, may I get your name? It's only fair that I know who exactly I'm guiding."
"Ah, of course," Terzo inclined his head with his own flourish of a hand, a brief reminisce of his showman days, bowing his head to the blood-stained man. "I am Terzo, formally known as Papa Emeritus the Third."
"Ah, an Emeritus!" Mary's eyes widened in surprise before a grin split his face, an eerie sight considering the blood, "That explains why you ended up on this side of Limbo. Things just got a lot more interesting!"
"How so?" Terzo questioned, interested by the recognization of his lineage. He wasn't too familiar on how Emeritus' were treated in Hell, considering their... special status, some may say, so he was going to get any information he could.
"All of the Emeritus line are granted a personal audience with the Dark One himself, directly in the center of Hell, when they first arrive from tbe world of the living." Mary Goore was excited now, his eyes lighting up with glee as he explained the situation to Terzo. "You, the Emeritus line, are his favored helpers, so of course he would welcome you personally into Hell... if you survive the trip to the ninth circle, of course. The Dark One himself will probably influence the visions you are shown to guide your path, "Mary paused, his head tilting, "In fact, I feel that I can show you the present right now, if you wish."
"I... I suppose, alright?"
"Good, because if you said no it wouldn't have mattered. Price of traveling through Hell, I'm afraid. The visions come with the trip." Mary smirked, before taking a deep breath. Terzo blinked, watching as Mary Goore stilled, the pale man closing his eyes as he spoke indistinguishable words beneath his breath.
Suddenly, the man's eyes snapped open at a speed faster than what should have been possible, his once green eyes now a pure white - whiter than Nihil's - that seemed to stare through Terzo as his hand stretched out. Terzo kept himself from leaning back as Mary's hand neared his face, his fingers stretching out to gently touch his forehead, pressing against his skin and-
What...
Terzo jolted into another place, his mind whirling as new surroundings took place around him.
He felt cold, and it was like he was seeing through a filter, everything paler than usual and slightly faded and distorted if he wasn't looking at it directly. But he was on Earth, at least in a sense.
"Well, I'm glad that worked!" Mary's voice came from behind him. "That was my first time trying that! I'm pretty new to this whole guide thing, if you hadn't guessed."
Terzo didn't respond, too busy trying to take in what was going on around them.
They were in a mortuary, one Terzo recognized.
An embalming room, one Terzo had run around and hid in during games of hide-and-seek as a young child.
And the embalming table that he had once hidden under, giggling and shrieking when he was found, was certainly occupied.
Three open caskets lay at the edge of the room, two of them being occupied by bodies that had presumably already undergone the embalming process. Peaking over the top of the edges of the coffin were familiar miters, and the sight of them only made Terzo's heart sink lower, a feeling he fought back for a later time as he moved over to the embalming table.
He couldn't say that he hadn't somewhat expected this, considering the circumstances, he did die around the same time he was with his brothers, but... he hadn't been prepared to see their bodies lying dead in coffins, prepped for funerals.
"So what's going o-" Mary whisked up to Terzo's side, before letting out a hiss of sympathy as he took in what was going on on the embalming table. "Yikes. At least your body is still intact after whatever killed you, I suppose?"
"Sure," Terzo mumbled. He felt numb. Was that normal? He supposed there probably wasn't much that was 'normal' about watching your own body be embalmed, watching the blood that had once coursed through his veins flow down a drain only to be replaced by the unnatural green of embalming fluid, his body methodically prepared for viewing. "This is strange..."
"I can't blame ya for being freaked out," Mary peeked over Terzo's face, poking at his face paint - but his hand simply passed through the body as if he didn't exist, which Terzo supposed he really didn't, "I never saw my body in my visions when I was being guided. I suppose I should be glad for that now."
Leaving Mary to examine his corpse, Terzo moved over to return to the caskets, leaning over to see his older brothers. They had already been embalmed, their faces painted in the style they had worn during their respective eras as Papa and their corpses dressed up like dolls in their papal regalia. It looked like they were just sleeping, their eyes and mouths gently closed. Their features were relaxed, and they almost looked peaceful.
Almost.
"Yeesh." Mary swept up to Terzo's side, "From the similarities, I'm going to assume..?"
"My brothers." Terzo blankly stated, a heavy sigh escaping his lips. "I can't remember how I died or what event led up to my death, but I had hoped my brothers hadn't been involved..."
"I'm sorry," Mary rested his hand on Terzo's shoulder, "they'll be-"
"Is it done?" Mary was cut off by an impatient tone.
Terzo turned, his eyes wide as the familiar voice of Sister Imperator came from behind them.
She was standing in the doorway of the embalming room, dressed as impeccably as she always was, her arms crossed firmly across her chest. Strangely, she didn't seem to be in mourning... or affected at all by the deaths of three ex-Papas. Terzo hadn't expected much from the strict woman, but he had hoped for at least a shed tear or two, perhaps a brief moment of silence for them.
"Yes." The mortician nodded, drawing back to let Sister see the caskets. "They are ready for their viewings, and I have made them as close to the references you gave me as possible."
"Good." Sister paused, taking a slight step forward as she gazed upon the three caskets. "And nobody will be able to tell? Remember that fans will be inspecting them quite closely."
What...? Terzo's eyebrows drew together at Sister's words. Tell what? What was there to hide? And fans inspecting them? Was their funeral going to be open to the public?
"No. I've covered the puncture wounds well, to any viewer it would simply appear like they all suffered an unfortunate group heart attack, perhaps from stress or from lack of healthy living." The mortician bowed his head, "There is no evidence of foul-play... anymore."
No...
Terzo felt sick.
He hadn't died naturally, no, he had been murdered.
His brothers had been murdered.
"The vision is ending, I can feel it. Prepare yourself for the trip back... Terzo?" Mary was at his shoulder, trying to get his attention, but Terzo could only numbly stare at the coffins.
His brothers had been murdered. He had been murdered.
And from the sounds of it, Sister Imperator had played a part in it - and was directing a cover-up.
As his insides twisted and the mortuary began to fade away, being replaced with the scenery of Limbo, Terzo hissed out a final promise that nobody would hear.
"I am going to get my revenge, Sister."
Even if it was the last thing he ever did.