Chapter 1
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Note: Kendall is from "All my children." Claire, Nikki, Kelly, Sonja, and Marissa are from the same universe as my story "Slouching towards Bethlehem." Alex is from the movie "Dead husbands." Julianna is from the movie "Killing mommy." Britney is from the movie "Wilds things 2." Angel is from my story "Sanctuary." Karen, Cameron, and Amy are all new characters, there backstories will be revealed.
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Jewel: Ladies and gentlemen, 13 unlucky guests have been invited to Hell Manor. One has been designated as the murderer, her job is to murder each of the other 12 guests. If she succeeds, she gets a free pass out of Hell. If she fails, whoever is left standing gets that magic pass out of here. Who will win, stay tuned to find out.
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Among those watching Hell Manor was Satan himself, and the host from season 1. He was still a little sore about losing his job, but the boss had made his decision. He remembered Jewel, he couldn't remember if she was from the "Slouching towards Bethlehem" universe, or the "Left Behind" universe. Jewel had been on a reality show herself, where she played Russian Roulette. The first season or two there were only five contestants, and the gun had six chambers, since there were no deaths it was speculated that the original host palmed the bullet. Jewel became the host when a sixth player was added, and someone always died. As host she eventually said that if none of the five main players died, she would shoot herself on live television. Eventually she did exactly that and wound up in Hell. Now Jewel had taken the job as host of Hell Manor for season 2. Still, at least he was still involved on the show, there were certainly worse jobs in Hell.
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Jewel: Let me explain the rules to all of you one last time. One of you has been designated as the killer, she knows who she is. If she succeeds, she gets a free pass out of Hell. If she fails, whoever remains standing wins the prize. If you have suspicions about who the killer is, you can try to kill them. If you are wrong, you are eliminated. You can all vote on who you think the killer is. If it is unanimous, you all execute that person. You can challenge an opponent to a duel, and even if the loser was not the designated murderer, the winner is not punished for their mistake. After each death, there is a 15 minute delay, at which point I will announce if that person was the killer. It is now almost 6pm, time for dinner. The killings do not begin until at least midnight. Best of luck to all of you.
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The 13 guest sat down for dinner. Each of them wanted a pass out of Hell, but obviously not everyone could win. What surprised most of the contestants was that one of them, Marissa, was only 13. Marissa seemed to have noticed one of the other players, Nikki Calendar.
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Marissa: I'm sorry, but are you Nikki Calendar?
Nikki: Yes I am.
Marissa: I'm from your world, the "Slouching towards Bethlehem" world.
Nikki: Always nice to meet a fan.
Marissa: I was a fan of your music, not so much the other thing.
Angel: What did you do?
Kelly: She walked in on her boyfriend with another woman, shot and killed them both, before turning the gun on herself.
Nikki: That's true, how did you know that?
Kelly: I'm also from your world, and it kind of inspired me. My boyfriend Chris and I, our plan was to try and make it in the music world, work in a diner until our break came. If that failed we would just settle down into small town life and raise a family. But then president Mason said the world would end in four years, and Nikki Calendar got a lot of posthumous fame. So Chris and I decided to follow a similar path. We robbed banks, and handed out our CDs while doing it. We figured we would be dead soon anyway, and we were local celebrities for awhile. But then we were pulled over by the cops, I shot and killed the cop. But it turned out the cop had a kid in his car. I guess maybe he couldn't get daycare for the day, I hoped she would just stay in the car and hide. But seeing her father killed right in front of her, she tried to grab his gun and shoot me. So I shot and killed a 12 year old. After that, Chris and I knew the end was near, so we planned to rob another bank and to die in a shootout with the police. And that's how we died. I'm sure Chris is down here too, but I haven't seen him since, guess that's part of the torture. But I doubt I'm the only one in this room who hurt children.
Claire: No, you're not. I'm also from the "Slouching towards Bethlehem" universe. I worked for the CIA, mostly desk duty after I started a family. Then the plague came.
Marissa: There was a plague in our world?
Claire: Yeah, just before world war 3, which was a civil war in America. It was in November 2034.
Marissa: That was after my time.
Claire: Anyway, my kids got sick, they were dying in agony. So I put them out of their misery. I thought about killing myself, but instead I buried myself in my work. I was sent to North Korea after the war. Even though president Mason used a nuclear bomb against that country, he then sent teams in to try and rescue refugees, bring them to arks, maybe he was trying to placate his conscience. It was chaotic, and I got killed. Who wants to go next?
Alex: I'll go. I married my husband for money, then joined a conspiracy of wealthy women to murder each other's husbands. I joined with very little hesitation, murdered a man I didn't even know so that my husband would be killed. Sadly, our conspiracy was uncovered and I went to prison. I tried to recruit another woman to murder my husband, but she turned out to be an informant. At this point the possibility of being in prison the rest of my life became too much so I hanged myself.
Julianna: I'll go next. I also killed for money. I manipulated my parents and various boys for as long as I can remember. I murdered my father, and years later I planned to kill my mother and my sister and stage it as a murder suicide. I also killed another man when he figured out too much. Unfortunately I failed, and was sentenced to death. I didn't fight that, I wanted to be executed rather than life incarcerated.
Brittney: I'll go next. I had a plan, it was complex, we were pretty much all killing each other by the end. I killed three people, including poisoning my own mother. I also let an innocent man be executed for the murder of my girlfriend. Unlike you two, my plan to murder for money was successful, and I was the last woman standing.
Julianna: I guess congratulations are in order, more successful than me or Alex.
Kendall: And yet ironically none of you murdered children. If I'm being honest I wasn't above a little scheming. My story is somewhat long. When my mother was 14 she was raped, that's how she got pregnant with me. She put me up for adoption, my first set of parents were involved in a scam with a social worker, basically they were biling the state for three foster kids when they only had me, so I learned at an early age how to lie about my "imaginary" brother and sister. After that I bounced around various homes, some of whom abused me, one stole my virginity when I was 11. Eventually I ran away, did what I had to do to survive, theft, prostitution.
Claire: Who did you murder?
Kendall: Noone.
Claire: Really, you expect me to believe you're in Hell but you never actually murdered anyone?
Kendall: I think it was a lot of little things that got me sent here. I schemed to destroy the mother who abandoned me, but we eventually made peace. I once pointed a gun at the woman who stole my husband, Greenlee, but we all reconciled later. I cheated on everyone of my partners. After I was diagnosed with ALS, I found out I was pregnant. I didn't want to take the chance of my child inheriting this, so I had an abortion. And later, my 13 year old niece, Gabby, was molested, and became pregnant. And despite how I was conceived, I took Gabby for her abortion, held her hand the whole time. Eventually, my ALS became too much to handle, so I committed suicide. I'm not exactly sure what was the last straw, but a lot of little things got me sent to Hell.
Sonja: Well I for one am willing to believe you, I took wound up her without actually murdering anyone.
Marissa: Me too.
Angel: And me.
Karen: So why are you all in Hell like the rest of us?
Angel: In my case, I molested my little sister. The guilt was so bad I committed suicide.
Karen: So you didn't murder anyone, but you are a sexual predator?
Angel: Yes.
Sonja: Truth is, so am I. I was molested by an uncle when I was a child. I knew it was wrong, I fought the urges. But then, February 4th came. Yeah, I'm also from the "Slouching towards Bethlehem" universe. One night, we were both scared, so we took comfort in each other's arms.
Cameron: You molested a child?
Sonja: She was 16. She was also my daughter. And for the record it was all consensual.
Kendall: That doesn't make it okay.
Sonja: We dealt with our anxiety in an unorthodox way. When the war came, we were in a collectivist state, both worked at the factory.
Claire: So you were also traitors?
Sonja: It's only treason if your side loses.
Claire: Your side did lose.
Sonja: I know. By the end of the war, we knew things would be bad for us, so we committed suicide together. She went first, put a gun to her head. I wanted to make sure that, if she missed, that she wouldn't suffer for long.
Karen: I suppose I can't judge. I was one of the South Carolina 4.
Kendall: I think I heard of you guys, didn't they make a TV movie about you guys?
Karen: Two actually, one said we were innocent and just a victim of homophobic courts. The other said we were guilty and deserved to be incarcerated.
Marissa; What exactly did you do?
Karen: To be blunt we gang raped a girl in our college. She was part of a so called Christian fellowship group, who spoke out repeatedly against LGBT rights, so we took our revenge. We raped her, shot her, and she died from her injuries. We served four years in prison before president Scott, in her final days, commuted our sentence. So, who hasn't gone yet.
Cameron: I guess I am. I was a spoiled rich girl, a real hellraiser. I even robbed a bank as a teenager.
Marissa: I don't get it. If you already had a lot of money, why rob a bank?
Cameron: That's what my shrink and defense lawyer said, they said I was mentally ill, in need of treatment. But the truth was I wanted the thrill, didn't care who got hurt, or who got genuinely traumatized. Then I settled down, got married, had a daughter. One day, my daughter got sick. They say that a mother will do literally anything to save their child, but noone knows what they'll do until it happens. I did some things I'm not proud of.
Kendall: Like what?
Cameron: Organ harvesting, it's a zero sum game, suffice it to say I can understand why I was sent to Hell. But it worked, and my daughter survived. Truth is, I'd do it again.
Kendall: I guess I can understand. I had two kids, I suppose I would have done anything to protect them.
Amy: I never had kids, I wanted to but I died at 17.
Marissa; What did you do to get sent to Hell?
Amy: I was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. My friends, including my boyfriend, wanted to give me one last adventure. A cross country road trip to cross everything off my bucket list.
Marissa: I think I heard of you guys, you were known as the Monster Squad. You robbed four banks in one summer.
Amy: It was just two banks, and really I was the only one who robbed the first bank. We were low on cash, young and stupid, and the tumor caused me to act somewhat irrationally. My friends helped rob the second bank, I wanted them to have a nest egg. After I died, they could tell the police where it was in exchange for probation.
Kendall: Money bought their way out of jail, what a shock.
Amy: After the second robbery we were hiding in the woods, and we stumbled across a group of men who had kidnapped, and continually raped poor orphans and runaways. I murdered these men. We could have just freed the girls and left the rapists for the police, but I murdered them instead. So I'm a murderer but I never killed an innocent or a child. I think that just leaves you Marissa. Why was a 13 year old girl sent to Hell?
Marissa: I think I mentioned this but I am also from the "Slouching towards Bethlehem" universe. I knew I had less than a 2% chance of making it into an ark, and the prospect of starving or freezing to death terrified me. They were opening up mercy clinics to help euthanize people, but you had to be 18, or 16 if you had parental permission. I wanted to die, and I found a euthanasia activist who was willing to fight for my right to die. I think it wasn't just my attempt at suicide, but the fact that I was inspiring others that might have earned me a spot down here. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court.
Amy: Did you win?
Marissa: Depends how you look at it. On my way to the court a guy shot me. I'm not sure what his motive was. Maybe he was trying to help me in case the court ruled against me. Maybe he was a religious fanatic who was so opposed to suicide he would rather murder me. Or maybe he was just a pervert obsessed with a 13 year old girl. I got the death I wanted but wound up in Hell.