Raven

i

A petite peach haired woman sat atop a velvet, cream and soft gold colored chaise lounge, her legs laid on the plush cushion as one hand held her head propped up, the other holding a novel as she read. Various birds sat and flew around her, a tiny costa's hummingbird lying asleep on her hip, and another small plump horned lark sat atop her head, singing a high-pitched song.

The woman quietly hummed along, but both were abruptly cut off as the glass doors to her sanctuary were opened. She looked up, lowering her novel from view, still slightly ajar with her thumb keeping her place. The small hummingbird on her hip awakened, quietly squawking before fluttering its wings, flying away.

A seraphim stood at the doors. Jehoel, the woman was positive. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise, not expecting such a visitor. She elegantly rose to her feet, her bare toes curling at the contact of the cold, tiled white floor. Standing, she lightly patted off anything on her gown, before looking up to the fine seraphim, giving him a polite smile. He respectfully nodded at her, taking a small, quick glance around her aviary before looking back down at her.

"The Lord has summoned you."

***

The sky seemed endless. Pitch black with the slight gradient of a dark, maroon red, completely void of any stars, clouds, sun or moon. An endless nothing. Tall buildings littered the skyline, some almost modern, some more victorian. They were cleaned pristine, even from miles away you could see how they shined. Intimidating, showing off their clear presence.

Hale stood at the edge of his own building, where Stolas resides, his hands shoved in his trousers' pockets. The road he was on could hardly be called a road, rather an old cracking pavement with various old stains that could be anything from the blood of an undead to black soot of a killed demon. Hale breathed in, the familiar mixture of burning charcoal and meat, and the smell of blood- metallic, touching all his senses. The smell never changed. Sometimes the smell of metallic would overpower the others, sometimes it'd be the charcoal or flesh. A revolting smell, Hale could remember the first time the sense ever touched his nose. He nearly puked, his eyes watering. He's unsure when the smell became normal.

For a moment, Hale pondered on what hell used to be. When Lucifer was casted down, hell was made prepared for him by the Lord himself. 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels'. Hell clearly used to be something. Hale frowned, not sure how to process the possibility of the Lord himself throwing away one of his creations to be used to contain and torture even more of his personal creations.

Hale shook his head, not letting the thought stay for too long. He took a long look around him, taking note that he was the only demon in sight. The road might very well exist, but it was hardly used. The destroyed ground stretched on farther than what Hale could see, completely void of any other silhouette. Demons did not need to walk, yet it was a small joy that Hale had. He took one last lingering inhale, before breathing it back out, physically seeing it blown out around him. Hale turned on his heel, away from the direction he was facing, and began walking towards where the buildings slowly got smaller, less frequent.

He didn't know how long he walked till he finally starting seeing a slow gradient change. The sky slowly becoming more red, the dead green grass becoming less and less, instead turning into dark orange piles of sand. All the buildings were gone, now, only faint outlines of them in the sky behind Hale. Instead, much smaller buildings, perhaps like homes, took their place. They were mostly destroyed, bricks lying about them, rare that any glass or doors remained but even more rare that a building was intact enough to a second floor. Hale's vision was faintly impaired, as a slight wind carried the sand along with it, but he couldn't miss the random bouts of fire in various places. He squinted his eyes, attempting to get a slightly better look of the rising fire in the distance. It wasn't very big, for hell's standard, at least, but Hale could feel the warmth of the fire even from how far away he was. He walked past other, smaller bouts of fire, but completely ignored them. Instead, Hale focused on trying to spot another person. The area he was in was meant for normal, lowlife demons who didn't belong to legions or apart of the hierarchy like Hale was. Yet he hadn't seen a single demon.