Chapter One
Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
Hell, ain't no bad place to be I said hell, ain't no bad place to be
Hell, ain't no bad place to be
You know that hell, ain't no bad place to be
Aaron moaned and crawled out of bed. He knew he shouldn't have taken the year off. At least he knew he should've kept up with training. Even the best had to practice. Of course Aaron didn't want to though. Vacations were for slacking off and sleeping on beach chairs under the sun getting a tan. Thanks to that, he was sore everywhere.
Aaron quickly ran his fingers through his short black hair and pulled on jeans and a t-shirt over his six foot four frame. Even though he hadn't been in Hell for a year, he was used to the heat. Aaron had made sure to stay in hot places so he wouldn't forget it.
Now, as he left his room, he wondered how he could've left. Sure ot take a break from killing angels, but Hell was beautiful. The red stalactites adn stalagmites made Hell, well Hell. The caves and the denizens living in them put the cherry on top. The lava was the chocolate sauce.
Aaron went to the training room adn went through his warmup routine. Then he really got down to work, working all his muscles. Anyone watching him would be amazed by how graceful he was.
When Aaron was done, he went to the Black Room to get his assignment for the day.
"How was your trip, Aaron?" Z asked Aaron, "Did you miss Hell?" Z was the closest thing Aaron considered a friend in Hell.
"Of course I missed Hell." Aaron replied.
"Ahh Mr. Aaron," Deb said as he walked up to her. "I trust you had an excellent vacation? Wonderful. There are a few angels lurking around one of our entrances. Terminate them all."
"Which one?" Aaron inquired.
"The one in Mount Faber. Leave as soon as possible. Z," She turned to address Z, "The angels killed our scouts searching for a gate to heaven, the idiot angels sent us their bodies. Go pick them up and dispose of them. The bodies, NOT the angels."
"Yes ma'am." Z said sulkily, shooting Aaron a jealous glance.
"I'll leave right away, Deb." Aaron said, leaving the Black room as Talon and Fang walked in.
"Gah! you'd think he'd be thoughtful enough to kill himself while he was away!" Fang sneered.
"Damn, this place was so much better without that icecube." Talon agreed.
"Just don't get in my way or I'll cut you into pieces so small an ant won't be able to eat it." Aaron said coldly.
"Freezie." Talon muttered as Aaron walked out of the room.
Aaron walked out of the cave adn into the cold air of Mount Faber. The cave was still below the tree line, but not by much.
Aaron walked deeper into the woods, listening. The cave closed behind him as if it was never there.
He crept forward on silent, shoeless feet. Soon, he heard the melodic voices of what could only be angels. Sure enough, there was a group of seven angels gathered by a river. They were discussing where the entrance to Hell may be. They were dressed for battle. Apparently, someone hadn't been careful when leaving the cave so the angels suspected there might be an entrance.
Suddenly the angels stopped talking.
"Come out, demon." an angel called in a hard voice, "We know you're there."
Aaron stepped out. "well, angel, you were wrong about the demon part, but I can still kill angels, regardless."
She gasped. "How could you? A human? surely you are no match for an angel!"
"We'll see about that. You're obviously a beginner." One second he was standing by a tree, the next he was beside the angel, his sword in her heart. Her eyes widened with shock, then she died.
Aaron whirled around and slashed the nearest angel. He fell to the ground bleeding gold blood.The next angel was ready with his sword. he parried Aaron's blow and put up a good fight but died quickly anyways. By now the other four angels were coming at him. Aaron caught the first angels blade in his hand. He hissed at the burning pain holy weapons caused him and held on. He yanked it out of the angels hand and threw it aside. He attacked the remaining three angels left in rage. He whipped around slashing here and there until all three were on the ground, dead. Aaron cleaned his blade on the armor of an angel. Then he put his burnt hand in the water, sighing as the cold water soothed the burn. Then, he got up to go back to Hell.
"What did the man look like, Tamara?" her grandfather asked.
"He- he was tall with dark hair and tanned skin. He w-was wearing black clothing. He had a s-sword that l-looking silvery-b-blue." Tamara responded shakily.
It was the day after the death of the angels. Tamara had witnessed the horrific scene and still was somewhat shocked.
"Oh." She said as an after thought. "He had red eyes."
"I knew it." her grandfather muttered. "He's back.
"Who's back? Do you mean....No you can't mean him!" Her father exclaimed.
"I'm afraid so, son. And it looks like he's hanging around here." Her grandfather replied.
"We have to stop him" Before this ets out of hand!" Her father shouted.
"Who are you talking about? The man I saw?" Tamara interrupted.
"Tamara," her father said softly. "that man, he's an angel slayer. He kills angels, as you already saw. But, adn I don't know if I'm right or not, I think he's the worst of them all, that is, the most notorious." (AUTHOR'S NOTE: whenever i hear the word 'notorious' i think of the lyrics 'cuz you're na na na na, na na na na notorious' ! lol sorry just had to say.)
"Really? But then wouldn't he just kill you if you tried to stop him?" she asked.
"Well it's obvious she got my brains." Tamara's mother said, walking into the room. "She's had enough of a scare already, Jon. Why don't you go outside or go somewhere else, Mari?" her mother said, dismissing her.
Tamara sighed and got up. She trudged to her room. She wanted to hear more of this man. She wasn't a little child anymore! She could handle things like this. She was almost seventeen now!
Tamara flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Her mind wandered. An idea formed in her head. She was going to find this angel slayer man. Who better to ask about him than him himself? And anyways, it would give her something to do in this boring little town.
Aaron wandered the caverns of Hell aimlessly. His black hair was wet from the shower he had taken as soon as he got back form his mission. He was glad that he was back in Hell, vacations were nice and all, but you never had anything to do. Aaron always liked doing things, adn there was plenty of things to do in Hell. Well, for the inhabitants of Hell anyways. They had something to do because they willingly lived here.
From wandering aimlessly, to bothering lesser demons, to attending the colloseum, or even fighting in it, to torturing the souls of the damned, yeah there was a lot to do here. Only the lucky ones who were trained got to hunt angels. It took six years of training to get accepted into the school, and ten years to finish.
The school was a violent place, only the strongest survived. Students were murdered by other students almost every day. That left only a few angel hunters, but they were enough because they survived the school. Aaron was on top of the list. he had been for sixteen years. Aaron wasn't the oldest of them all, though.
Soon, the days melted together like they had before his year off.
He'd get up, get dressed, work out, get and do his mission, entertain himself for a while then go to bed. Nothing overly exciting.
One day, as Aaron wandered the tunnels, a zanji demon flew up to him. Zanji demons delivered messages adn this particular one ws from the devil himself.
The demon relayed the message then flew off. Aaron picked up the pace and headed for the centre of Hell, Satan's throne room.
"Aaron," the Devil said, more like growled, in a deep gravelly voice. "I am pleased with you. it seems that going on a holiday didn't lower you skill at all."
"Thank you, my lord." Aaron said.
"For that, I have a special mission for you."
"Is that so, my lord?"
"Yes!" he snapped, "Anyways, it's not difficult at all, or it shouldn't be for you anyways. You'll be gone a while, so gather everything you need."
"How long is a while, my lord?" Aaron questioned.
"Don't question me!" Satan snapped, slamming his fist on the black bone throne. "I was getting to that. You'll be gone a couple weeks, maybe two, so be prepared. You will go to the surface and kill all the angels you come across. Simple and effective. It's really not that hard to affect them, so I expect a high body count."
"Yes my lord." Aaron turned to leave.
"Oh." The devil said as an afterthought, "I have a gift for you, Aaron."
Getting a gift from the devil was never a good thing,
"This is a charm," Satan said, holding up a necklace.
The necklace was a simple thing. It was a thin piece of black cord with a piece of metal hanging from it. it was in the shape of a star with a circle around it. There was an ice blue gem at the tip of each point and one in the middle.
"This will give you power over air. It is yours."
"What's the price? Eternal service? A foot massage?" Aaron asked sarcastically.
"Nothing is required. You hae already given me 77 years of excellent service. You are 101 years old now, a century. Many of my angel hunters don't make it to your age with your skill. You're the best and have been for a record time of sixteen years, so I'm giving you this. No tricks, I swear on Hell itself."
"Oh well, thanks my lord." Aaron said flattered. The Devil never lied when he swore on Hell.
"Yes. Now get to business."
Aaron walked outside into the fresh mountain air. He had decided to come here because he figured more angels would come to investigate. He felt teh wind tugging at his sweater, easily going through to his skin. He remembered the necklace Satan had given him. Aaron decided to try it out. He wasn't sure how though. He stared hard at the charm. Finally, with no other ideas, he raised his arms and closed his eyes and felt the wind. Not just with his body, with his soul.
aaron used his hands and mind to control the wind. First left, then right. Then Aaron got an idea. He used the wind the wind to lift himself. Aaron felt his feet leave the ground. Tentatively, he lifted himself higher.
The wind took him. It sent him flying over the mountain. aaron laughed an exhuberated laugh. To think, one of the devil's own, flying! He sent himself up adn let himself freefall. Then wind caught him, and he was up again. What a way to travel!
All to soon, it was over and Aaron had to get bac to work. He hadn't had that much fun in years. He felt as if he was one with the wind. He landed near the base of the mountain and set off. Using the wind against the angels would be useful.
Tamara ran. She had left the town in search of the mysterious angel hunter. Hopefully, she would find him. Her gold hair was tied back in a ponytail and she was wearing dark clothing and soft black boots. She softly through the woods. Tamara had seen what she thought were angels flying in the direction she was going in. If they were angels, there must be an angel hunter.
After a while, she found them. Real live angels! They were beautiful. They all wore gleaming white clothing that looked as if it were for battle. They had huge white wings that seemed to move on their own, stretching adn rustling by themselves. All the angels, there were four of them, were men, but that didn't make them any less beautiful. They were discussing something in their melodic voices.
Then, they stopped. A blond angel turned to where Tamara was hiding. "You can come out," he called softly, smiling, "we don't bite, you know."
Tamara stepped out of the bushes.
"Well aren't you a lovely lass," the red head said, "So, what are you here for?"
"Well, I ...umm... I saw you flying so I wanted to see if angels were really real." Tamara said, telling half the truth.
"Yeah?" the black haired on said, "Now that you know we're real, you get a wish."
"Well, there's nothing I can really think of right now..." Tamara sighed.
"Are you sure?" the red head asked, "maybe a bit of fun involving you and me naked?"
"Marshal! You can't say stuff like that!" the blond one scolded.
"What can I say, she's a lovely lass," Marshal protested.
"Umm, thanks but no thanks," Tamara said blushing furiously. "i'll just...umm...go now."
"Wait, wait," the black haired one said, "take this." he pulled a dagger out of his armor and handed it to her. "I think you should take this."
"You'll probably need this too," the brown haired one said quietly. He handed her a belt with a silver buckle on it. "For your dagger," he explained.
"Thanks." Tamara said.
"Yes. Now you can go. Use it well." the black haired one said.
"Okay."
"Just a word of warning," the blond oen said, "Be careful wherever you are and carry that dagger everywhere you go. Heaven and Hell are at war so you never know when you'll need it."
"Thanks again," Tamara said as she walked away. She hadn't walked very far when she heard the screams. Tamara raced back to the angels and saw them lying dead, gold blood everywhere. In the middle of the carnage was the man she had seen before. He wiped his blade on the clothes of the blond angel and then sheathed it.
Tamara took a deep breath adn stepped out of the bush. " Who-" she was cut off by the force of slamming into a tree.
"Don't mess with me, little girl." the man said, only he looked more like a boy, maybe twenty years old. He turned to walk away.
"Who are you?" Tamara asked, getting up.
He stopped and looked at her. His red eyes were cold and piercing "I told you not to mess with me, little girl."
"I'm not messing with you, I'm asking who you are." She said, meeting his red eyes with her green ones. "And I'm not a little girl."
"All I have to say is that you've got guts, little girl." he said, cold laughter in his voice, "But since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you. I'm an angel hunter, obviously."
"Yeah, but what's your name?" Tamara inquired.
"Why do you wanna know?" He asked suspiciously.
"Because it's nice to know the names of people you've met."
"We haven't met."
"Uh, yeah, smartie, we've met. It's hard to have a conversation with someone you haven't met before." She said indignantly.
"Well then, I'll leave." He turned around and started walking away.
"Wait!" She called.
"What?" He snapped.
"My name's Tamara."
"Wonderful. Now if you'll excuse me, I have angels to kill. And if you say anything else, you'll be joining them," He said, pointing at the bodies. Then he left.
"Stupid moronic idiot!" Tamara muttered to herself as she walked back home. "I can't believe that guy!"
"Tamara!" Her mother cried, racing towards her. "Where have you been?! You think you would've known better than to go into the woods." Her mother hugged her hard.
"Mom, I'm fine." Tamara said, wiggling out of her mothers embrace.
"I found her Jon, Ted!" her mother shouted.
"Did you, honey?" Tamara's father called back.
"Thank God you did, Adrianna!" her grandfather shouted back.
They met up in the woods and walked home together. Jon, Ted, and Adrianna kept asking if Tamara was alright and were worried about her.
Aaron flew, looking for angels. He was sure to stay low to the ground though, so that God wouldn't send a thunderbolt down at him.
He thought about the girl he met. Tamara. "What's her problem?" he muttered. "Whatever it is, it's not like I'll ever see her again."
He let the wind carry him, looking for angels.