Hell to Pay (Blood for Soul Book 1) Read online

  I interrupted him with a loud burp. “Conus, look at me. Look at this place. Look what you’ve done to me. You want to talk about maggots. Well, if it weren’t for a certain power leak, I’d still have them crawling inside of me.”

  “Leak?”

  I beamed at him. He was standing in a sweet spot. I made the symbols of the deity-trapper visible. Think of Egyptian hieroglyphics, maybe a bit more sophisticated due to the years of having nothing better to do but make them look cool. They glowed a light-blue upon activation. The truly shocked, fearful face—I felt it—of Conus made me feel like a happy little kid on Christmas day.

  “Epex, where did you learn this forbidden use—agh!” He breathed a little heavy. “If you do this, you’ll be chained to the depths, in a cage soldered to Ghost’s throne. You’ll be condemned to become Ghost or even Lucifer’s stool for an eternity. Possibly worse.”

  “Conus, your threats were empty from the beginning,” I said. I walked over to him. The deity-trapper had little effect on me, as it was charged with my own power. I poked the geezer in the chest. His wrinkles showed pretty well as a result of his frantic glare. Wrinkles that weren’t there before. His short beard began to smoke. “What’s the matter, can’t handle this without holy protection?” I heard his pale skin fizzle like the sound of a freshly opened soda pop. “Scream for me, Conus. You know the heat hurts.” I laughed.

  “Epex, you’ve made a big mistake and an enemy out of Paradise Realm. Trapping me here to be your torture tool will serve no purpose and just—”

  “Shut up!” I yelled. “You think what you’re feeling is Hell’s heat?” I spat next to his shoe. “My deity-trapper is a little different.”

  His eyes widened, realizing the situation. “No—no that can’t be possible! That’s impossible.” Conus was panicking the way I wanted him to. The trapper was sure to explode from eradicating someone of his stature, killing me too. I’d rather rest in peace while reincarnating, than be stuck in Hell. Screw that. Hell sucks.

  “With you dead, the lock on my powers will be undone,” I said. “Not that it matters anyway. The explosion should kill me too. I will have no regrets, knowing that I took you with me, asshole. If you can communicate with Paradise Realm, tell them that the first god-slayer has been born. Short lived, he served his purpose. Give them the finger while you’re at it.”

  “Epex…what happened to you?”

  I wagged a finger. “Bat shit insane. See you on the other side. Oh wait, I won’t.”

  Then it happened.

  The ground shook as if Yellowstone super volcano itself was here, ready to erupt in a spectacular explosion. I felt the pressure hit its limits, with Conus’s raw power being the catalyst.

  My vision was suddenly gorged with reds, oranges, whites, and dust. But…for some reason, I felt nothing. What should’ve been my body ripping to shreds instead propelled me upward into the sky, alive. Everything around me blurred, brightened, and turned into stars.

  That’s when I realized I was ascending to another realm, not dying. I felt hands grab my throat. “Screw you! I won’t let you throw me into the depths,” I yelled, throwing strong punches until the hands let go. The brightness, blurriness, and stars cleared seconds later. I found myself lying stomach-first on the middle of a paved road, gasping for breath.

  I slowly stood up, nearly stumbling, as if I was adjusting to gravity for the first time. I looked around but didn’t see Conus.

  Amazing cool winds complimented the perfect temperature. The blue skies felt like eye candy. The sound of real animals and insects soothed my ear— I appreciated it more than hungry demons. The smell of sulfur and brimstone no longer drowned my nostril. My body almost convulsed at the intake of untainted oxygen.

  There was a town up ahead, but for the most part this place looked like it partially belonged to a national forest.

  I couldn’t believe it. Somehow, I ascended to the human world. I had escaped Hell!

  Chapter Three

  I knew I probably looked like something out of a horror movie, so I did what anyone with my kind of power would do: abuse the hell out of it. And by that, I used it to undo all of the damage Hell had done to me. Ugh—too bad psychological damage can only be healed by therapy.

  I went deep into the forest before starting my cleanup. It’d be idiotic to risk Conus or any of his goons spotting me out in the open, screaming, “Look! Target right here.” I had declared myself a god-slayer for fuck’s sake. That’s simply more treason added onto prison break, among the list of other things.

  My full power was still locked —I’d have to figure out how to undo Conus’s spell later. Another stain to my shitload of problems. Whoop-de-fucking doo. Well, at least I won’t accidentally blast the damn planet to pieces. Bright side, people, bright side.

  I focused a tiny drop of leaked power into my hand, then manifested a small mirror to look at myself. Thanks to the healing, my skin was a dark tan, and lifelike. I had a light build, not too thin but still muscular. Black hair, blue eyes. I was actually pretty handsome.

  Thanks to the books I busted into Hell, I didn’t have to deal with the worries of being eight years out of time. Well, for the most part. I could hardly wait to get my hands on this smartphone I had read about. Video games and consoles, computers, and electronics—humans made some cool shit while I was away on my painful journey of time and space.

  I manifested a dentist-grade toothbrush and the world’s best toothpaste, along with clean water. Damn, I love the human world. Hell’s jacked-up laws negated most of my abilities. Here, I could manifest almost anything. I couldn’t overdo it, though—the last thing I wanted was to attract unwanted attention. Not with my full power locked like this.

  When I finished cleaning myself up, which involved manifesting and dissipating things such as heated water, clean clothes, shoes, soap, deodorant, and so on and then using power to clean what human products couldn’t do, I took a stroll to the town ahead. There weren’t many people out, even though the late afternoon sky prevailed. Not that I was on a human hunt or anything but even for a small town like this, shopping and socializing should be a thing. Right?

  That’s when I saw the problem, standing twenty yards ahead, whispering god knows what to each person he passed. They couldn’t see him but his powers influenced them. Someone was going to make a bad choice, go corrupt as the business head or manager.

  Well, it’s not like I cared. Humans were the reason I got thrown into Hell in the first place. The last thing I wanted to do was help them. In fact, I felt more obligated to destroy them instead.

  Lucifer didn’t seem to care whether I existed as I walked passed him. At least I thought he didn’t until I heard him utter, “Impressive for a demigod.”

  I stopped and turned around to look at him, but he was no longer there. No point in shouting “fuck off,” else it’d make me look crazy. He could only be present on earth for a limited time before his embedded angelic curse spiraled his happy ass back to Hell. It’d take him hours, maybe days to assemble the right power to get back to this realm. He was no threat to me.

  I explored the dank town for at least another hour. With “Satan” gone, people reappeared and those “silenced” turned back to normal. Unfortunately, anyone that already had his schemes or suggestions deeply implanted in their minds would eventually execute them unless cured by some angelic force or something.

  Nowadays, I was pretty sure that angels had no time for babysitting humans. They’d probably leave some of their special force in approved churches or something. Lazy fuckers. Not that I blamed them. Humans don’t deserve anything more than misery. They don’t even deserve my vengeance.

  I saw a bar ahead and nodded to myself. Always wanted to try alcoholic beverages, you know, to see what the fuss was about. Especially this product called beer.

  I opened the door and as I made my way to the bartender, some bald guy blocked my path. He was a huge fucker, so fat, I could’ve sworn he had three chins. And…. a
unibrow. He smelled of sweat…from standing there? It was cold in this bar!

  “Let me get some ID, kid,” he said.

  Shit. One thing I had read is that humans always seemed to keep proof of who they are in their pockets. The earth was full of frauds and not even good ones. I manifested a wallet inside of my pocket equipped with a fake driver’s license, fake credit card, and fake cash. I assumed I was in America—the fat guy, the bar, and the language gave the clues. Fat-ass inspected the ID then nodded, letting me pass, the unibrow seeming to swerve with the rolls on his forehead.

  “Dickbag,” I muttered as I treaded straight for the bartender. He looked at me, sharpness in his old eyes.

  “What’d you like, boss?”

  Hoh-oh, I like this guy already. “Let me get seven beers.”

  The old guy stared at me for a bit. I flashed him the cash. Sure, it was fake but real enough—cloned perfectly.

  “You sure this is the place for you?” he said, setting seven glass mugs in front of me.

  “Damn right.”

  The old man’s eyes widened and then a smile curled from the beard. “Interesting for someone of your statures.”

  “Statures? Don’t give someone like me that kind of credit,” I said.

  The old bartender poured a golden liquid that looked like piss into my glasses. I grabbed one, gave it a quick whiff to be sure, and took the first swallow of the beer.

  An odd bitterness hugged my tongue, but I craved more. It tasted so much better than anything I had in Hell, not that I had much to begin with. I mean, I fought the urge to eat the toothpaste I used to restore my mouth. Even that didn’t taste that great once I infused it with power, to dramatically accelerate the toothpaste’s effects and gain that commercial smile.

  The old bartender nodded. “I hope to see you around more. You’re welcome here anytime.”

  I chuckled. “As long as you keep the beer coming, I’ll be more than happy to stop by and keep you company, old man.”

  About twelve beers later, I was fumbling and tumbling my way out of the bar, with no real goal or purpose, just trashed. Note to self: if I have a something important to do, try not to go overboard on the beers…. or maybe I should. It’s not like I had anything to lose. Eight years lost in pure torture—yeah, I think I deserve this break.

  I drunkenly walked, limped, and tumbled my way toward the outskirts of this town on a nice and starry evening. Man, I killed some serious hours in the bar —could’ve sworn that I entered in the middle of the afternoon. If that was the case, I probably lost the count of the beers I devoured.

  Anyway, it was nice and cool, maybe about seventy degrees or so with a faint breeze kissing my face every second or so. I could not get enough of this realm, even drunk like this. People were either headed home, driving around, entering bars, or wrapping up their shopping. Peaceful. And nobody gave a shit whether I existed or not. They also didn’t try to kill me, which is a plus in my book. There’s no fun waking up with a nasty little dagger in my throat. I think love this place!

  Just then, I heard a feminine voice, up ahead.

  “Just look at you…look what you’ve done to yourself.”

  A bright light surrounded a girl with long blonde hair that draped down to her thighs. She was dressed in casual human clothing, pinkish flower shirt and blue jeans. Her arms were folded across her chest, glare locked on me.

  “And you are?” I said, testing the matter, in case she was talking to someone else.

  “Don’t act like you’re too drunk to recognize me, Epex,” she said, walking toward me, a supermodel-like prep in her step.

  I gazed at her for real this time, barely snapping out of my sloppiness, realizing who was tearing me a new one. If she found me already then that meant my location was compromised. But how? Maybe the ascending left an obvious mark of power-use as it faded. Maybe the girl was nearby and detected my arrival.

  How could I be so careless? Well to be fair, even my five C’s didn’t predict an ascension.

  “Eight years and you can’t even explain yourself to your fiancée?” I burped in response, the nice and long beer belch. “Ew. Let me fix this.” She snapped her fingers causing heavenly-light to briefly surround me. All of my drunkenness faded, leaving me fully aware, alert, and oh shit this is bad. Amelia, my pre-determined “love” of destiny had come for me.

  Chapter Four

  You know, I really hate the saying, “All good things must come to an end.” Why can’t they stick around? What, are they late for something?

  I gazed at Amelia, unsure of where to begin. She was about five feet, eight inches tall in comparison to my six feet two. Full lips, bright, sparkling green eyes, great rack—she’s a man’s dream girl. But not mine. I’d known her since the beginning.

  Everyone in Paradise Realm had a pre-determined love chosen for them at birth. Amelia—or should I say Princess Amelia of the Venus Clan was selected to be mine, to rule at my side.

  We were introduced at like age two, our fates decided for us by whatever invisible dickhead that called himself destiny. Even when I was sent to the human world, she still secretly visited, nearly every day after school. She wasn’t a horrible childhood friend but clingy, annoying, whiny, and too damn lovey-dovey. A few rare times she was my partner in crime—I could be a convincing little brat.

  The Hell prison was actually a break from that. Well, that’s not saying much. Kid Amelia was the only goddamn friend I had. If we were in different circumstances, we’d be catching up right now. Time is nothing to heavenly-beings—eight years being only an afterthought, showing itself through the physical changes of our bodies. Too bad we were on different sides of the fence and I wasn’t quite ready to throw in my hand just yet.

  Amelia stopped four feet from me with what appeared to be hope in her eyes.

  “Wow, you sure have grown, Amelia,” I said giving her the glance over, followed by a whistle. She briefly blushed. “I wish I could say it’s nice to see you again, but this bad feeling I got isn’t going away.”

  “What? No hug, no kisses, no ‘I’ve missed you, my love?’ Anything to make me believe that you’re innocent, Epex,” she said.

  I chuckled. “Well…I did miss you, a little. But as for Paradise Realm, or that I’m innocent, I’d be lying. Actually, I’m both innocent and not. Higher-ups don’t tend to believe in self-defense these days.”

  Amelia shook her head. “You’re wanted, dead or alive by Paradise Realm for breaking out of prison, attempting to murder Conus with a forbidden use of power, and declaring yourself a god-slayer. Epex, this is no joke. You’re a tier one target for treason and every hunter will be after you.”

  “Nothing I didn’t expect,” I said, my mood dropping.

  “But you can end this. Conus told them that if you willingly surrendered and publicly apologized, meaning every bit of it, he’d negate the charges and you’d only have to serve five years in Hell.”

  I laughed.

  “Please, Epex, think about it. You’re getting off a lot easi—”

  “Amelia, I know you’re a hunter,” I interrupted. “And in fact, you’re one of the more dangerous ones, tracking any ascending and descending flights, or odd use of power. You were the first one here and the fastest among them. And you’re hoping to end this without having to engage into combat but if so, you’re perfectly capable of kicking my ass, being trained and what not. But I won’t go back. Hell sucks.”

  “Epex, I want us to be together again—I’ve really missed you,” Amelia said. “Please be reasonable.”

  I frowned. “You know, during the eight years spent rotting in Hell, I’ve changed.” Before she could speak, I continued. “And I don’t mean a little change, we’re talking about big, major, psychological, so on. I’ve opened my eyes to what the world’s really like around me. And Amelia, I’m not going down without a fight.”

  “Epex, I really don’t want to fight you, I love—”

  “I don’t believe in the predetermined
love thing,” I said nonchalantly, knowing the words would sting.

  Her eyes widened. “You don’t mean that.” The pressure of intense power briefly flickered around my childhood friend.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I do,” I said. Now, you’re probably wondering: why am I poking the bear? Well, it’s fun. Paradise Realm is under the impression that I’m afraid of them, but after living in Hell for eight years, I was steeled. May as well make it as painfully annoying as possible to get me. Before Amelia say anything else, I made a run for it, yelling, “You may be hot but don’t act sexy.”

  You know, there’s nothing like getting the last sting of insults while running from someone who could easily kill you. Amelia was a spark of the past but I had to leave it that way. Most goddesses or female angels end up ridiculously goody two-shoed. None of them daring, like women of earth. It’s Paradise Realm, what can you expect?

  I raced through the town and right into the bar. “Seven more beers please.”

  Someone handed a wad of cash to the bartender. I looked to my right, eyes widening. Amelia sat down. Holy shit, that impossible speed...

  “Going to kill me in front of all of these people?” I said in a low voice.

  She turned to the old bartender. “I’ll have a small wine please. But don’t give this guy anymore beer. I’ve got words to speak to him.”

  “Ah, girlfriend is tarnishing your drinking, huh?” The bartender laughed.

  “She’s not my anything—”

  “Fiancée,” Amelia said, her voice nonchalant.

  “Oh boy,” the bartender said, placing a small glass in front of Amelia and filling it up with grape wine.

  “No,” I said.

  “Yes,” Amelia said. She downed her wine in one gulp and pulled me outside into a nearby ally.