The Unknown // Colby Brock

~~ Chapter Seven ~~

I found myself being actually nervous about walking on it, but that was only because of the holes. Knowing me, I would be falling down one of those very easily.

"Down there are the lowest of low," Colby explained as he motioned down the holes.

I dared to peek down one only to see a huge pen with god knows how many people inside. The screaming hit me like a truck, making me jerk back and flinch.

"Murderers, rapists, those kinds of people."

"What about the people who had a reason to kill someone?"

"Not my problem." He shrugged, hopping over one of the holes. I did the same, but my foot landed weirdly and almost made me fall, if it wasn't for the hands that grabbed my waist on either side. "Careful, you don't want to go down there."

"I figured," I breathed out.

He slowly stepped back and let go of me, then turned to continue walking like nothing happened. Eventually, we reached an area of cages filled with people, though these weren't screaming.

"These people didn't do much wrong, so they're not in as much pain."

"What did they do?" I questioned.

Colby pointed at one of the closest to the bars who was sitting with his head cradled in his lap. I noticed that the little clothes he had on were torn and burnt at the edges. Some part of me actually felt some remorse.

"He stole, a lot, but it didn't hurt anybody so he's put here."

I knelt down next to the cage, tilting my head to the side as the man shuffled back. He was afraid of me or the devil; either way, he had been accepted by the others in the cage. They almost hid him with their own bodies, blocking me off.

Something was bugging me.

"Where would I have gone?"

"You sure you want me to show you that?" Colby looked at me skeptically so I nodded. He bit his lip and reached forward, unexpectedly grabbing my hand before pulling me down the street-like structure ahead of us.

The devil was holding my hand...

"You were worse than those people, so you would have been put a level up. Be careful." His grip pulled me this way and that, dodging the fire sitting on the stairs as we went up to another level of hell where there weren't exactly screams, but people were definitely burning in pits of fire.

"If any of these people touch you, you will get burnt, so stick with me," he advised.

"What did everyone here do?"

"Most of these hurt but didn't kill a lot of people. You started fights for fun, so you definitely would have come up here."

I stared at the people in eternal pain because of something that I myself used to do in my life. Upset? Go out and beat someone up. Happy? Get drunk and likely end up beating someone up, too. Any mood would work...

We went down the stairs at the opposite end of the second level, which put us in front of a building I hadn't seen yet. It was tall and made of red bricks that disturbingly didn't look originally red. It took me a moment to spot Kevin standing at the door leaning casually against the wall, whistling over the screams coming from inside. It took him a moment to notice me, too.

"Arianna!" he exclaimed cheerfully. "Nice to see you're being let out of the house."

"Isn't it just," I teased, glancing at Colby, but he was just stood still with a straight face waiting for us. I squeezed his hand before letting go and walking up to Kevin, motioning inside. "How horrific does it look in there?"

"To me? Normal. But to you? Probably nightmare-worthy."

"Can I go in?"

"After I just said it's nightmare-worthy?"

I nodded.

"Depends what our king says."

Both of us looked at Colby, who checked the sky before gesturing for me to go.

"Well then, come on in." Kevin opened the door and led me inside. It was darker than in the mansion, and that made it twenty times more eerie. The place turned truly horrific when I saw the people sitting in lava and burning from waist down screaming their heads off, but never dying. I couldn't even imagine how painful that was...

"Wait a minute, wasn't Jake sent here?" I realised out loud.

"He was going to be, yes. This is the prison." Kevin pointed to the cage at the very end of the hallway then back to himself. "That's where the demons go if Colby sends them here. I've been in there once."

"For good reason," Colby pointed out, making me jump and turn around. He was stood at that end of the hall watching us and listening to our conversation with no signs of any kind of emotion whatsoever.

"Maybe." Kevin grinned.

"What did you do?"

"Sleep with one of the prisoners."

My eyebrows raised in complete shock as he nodded in confirmation. He slept with someone who didn't even understand what he actually was. I couldn't believe that, in part.

"Wait... do you guys not actually sleep with anyone? I never thought about that."

"No, not most of the time. Sometimes we get to them before they end up in one of the kennels, so technically it's not against the rules."

"That's weird," I admitted, visually cringing.

Kevin laughed at my reaction, spinning to head back towards the front door. "Who else am I going to bang down here?" He had kind of a good point...

When we got outside again, he slammed shut the door of the prison and leaned against the wall once more. I gave him a wave as a goodbye before joining with Colby to follow him back to the house. To my surprise, however, he grabbed my hand and flashed us away. The red turned into sort of a dark room that I had definitely been in before; his room.

"I didn't feel like walking all the way back," he said as he opened the door of his office.

I followed him inside only to see a huge book sitting open on the first page on the desk, and a pile of papers next to it.

"I have a lot of work to do so- "

"Do you want some help?" I blurted.

He looked at me a second then shook his head. "I have done this for centuries, Arianna, I do not need help," he assured, picking up a pen.

I watched as he started writing down the name of the person on the first paper. I glanced between him, the door, then the spare chair just beside his desk. What else did I have to do?

"Then don't mind if I give you some company."