“But they do get out, don’t they?” He pulled my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it.
I nodded. “Tortured souls become abandoned because they push through the gate of Hell and go into an unauthorized sector they don’t belong in.”
“The ones that get out must be strong-willed.”
“They have to be to get out of Hell.” I reached my hand out into the void. “Are you ready to see the torture Gerlick has been enduring for the past three-hundred-something years?”
His already pale skin leached of any color, but he nodded. “Show me.”
I waved my hand across the space, pulling the veil down.
A dirt alley between two barely standing shacks covered in toxic waste surrounded us. Rats and cockroaches scampered about, fighting for whatever trash they could find. Rotting garbage pierced my nostrils, making my stomach roll.
The muffled sound of crying came from the back end of the alley, and I slipped a cautious glance toward Kai.
His jaw was tense, and his eyes were sharp as they bounced around the area until they landed where the sobs were coming from. There was someone under a ratty blanket, sobbing uncontrollably.
Kai took off toward it, and I rushed behind him. “Kai, slow down! I promise your sisters aren’t here,” I reassured him, gripping his arm as I finally caught up to him.
He jerked his arm from my hold, wild eyes snapping back toward the crying.
“Kai!” I moved my hands to his cheeks, forcing him to look at me. “Kai, that’s Gerlick.”
“Gerlick?” he growled, glowering down at the blanket with his lip curled in disgust. “Pathetic wanker.”
A demon appeared glamoured as a small little boy with big blue eyes and shaggy, long red hair. “Gerlick,” it hissed. “Why did you hurt me?”
“Get away, you stupid brat! I should have killed you when I had the chance. The stupid girls too. I know I should’ve started with that bitch of a mother of yours,” he spat out between sobs from under the blanket.
“But Daddy, won’t you play with me?” the demon sang to him, yanking the blanket off his frail, malnourished body. He was practically a skeleton with skin. “I’m hungry.”
Kai bent over coughing, and I reached over to rub his back as he dry heaved. The fabric of his shirt stuck to his skin from the humidity of the heart of Hell.
“We can leave,” I murmured. “I’m sorry. I thought this would help. Maybe I was fucked up thinking that.”
With my memories of Hell returning, I’d mistaken what was morally acceptable in the living realm.
Fuck.
I hoped I didn’t do more harm than good with Kai, but his past fucking tore me up inside. He deserved closure for the afterlife. He may have taken revenge on his father while he was alive, but I wanted him to know what happened to him after his death.
Kai shook his head, looking up at me with tears in his eyes. “I’ve never seen that bastard look the way we used to. It’s more than enough closure to know he will suffer like this indefinitely.”
I moved in front of him and slipped my arms around him, and he buried his face into the nape of my neck. His cool breath fanning over my skin sent a familiar chill through me.
I wondered what Kai’s bare body would feel like against mine before I stifled a groan. I had to chill. This wasnotthe time to be getting turned on.
He pulled away enough to watch the demon use his claws to grab Gerlick’s face, slicing his cheeks open as he drained life essence out of him completely.
Gerlick’s body smacked against the ground, cold, dead eyes wide with fear.
Then the room warped back to when he was curled up in a ball sobbing under the blanket.
The time loop made my head fucking spin, and I avoided coming to the heart of Hell for that reason.
Kai blinked rapidly until he caught his bearings. “What the fuck?”
“Heart of Hell’s time loop. The damned soul continuously lives their Hell on repeat with no sliver of rest.”
