Darkness everywhere

Nothing but darkness. Darkness everywhere. Esau felt like he was falling, yet he could clearly feel the floor under him. A dark pit of worry sprouted in his stomach; something wasn't right with this place.

"Hey. Hey asshole." He felt something poke him in the stomach. "Oh right, your kind needs light to see."

Suddenly there was a glow that filled the entirety of Esau's vision. It took a moment to adjust. He recoiled and skittered backwards when he saw the mysterious person that poked him.

She was short, about four feet tall. She had a strange, sour face with no nose, covered with green bangs. Her thick skin was peach colored, but that was where the relative normality ended. One of her arms, instead of ending with a hand, had a large claw, jutting with strange protrusions. On her head were two horns, and trailing behind her was a long, thick tail. She was a demon. Or more specifically, an imp, judging from her stature.

"Ah, you are awake. You're lucky I found you, and not say, pretty much anyone else."

"W-what? W-here am I?" Esau stammered, "where's my mother? What happened?" He thought for a moment; she probably didn't know who he was talking about. "Queen Excelcia, have you seen her?"

"A prince? Boy, you really are lucky I found you." She sat on a rock opposite him. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. In fact, you could probably help me. Now how about you ask me questions one at a time."

Esau rubbed his forehead with a pained expression on his face. "Alright... Alright. Where am I?"

"Yeesh, you're not gonna like this," she shrugged nonchalantly, "you're in Gehinnom, or Hell for you humans."

"Hell?"

"Ayup."

"Oh. Oh shit. That's bad."

"I think for you bad is an understatement."

He rested his face in his palm. He felt like crying, but this wasn't really the moment to do that. He gritted his teeth, and thought of another question. "Alright. Who are you?

"The name's Belial, but just call me Bell."

Esau mused for a moment. "Did you really just give me your real name?"

"Hm?" She looked confused for a moment, but then snapped back. "Oh right, that. That's mostly traditional. That only really works for the older, antediluvian demons. They really like their stupid rules. I'm relatively young, at least by Hell standards, so you won't have any control over me by just knowing my name."

"Right..." He looked around, but wasn't able to gleam much more then that he was in a stone cavern of some kind. "You said I could help you. How?"

"Well, to put it bluntly," she hesitated, but then blurted it out pleadingly, "Hell is the pits! I don't want to be here anymore!"

The sudden outburst caught him by surprise. "Why? If anything could like living in hell, I thought it'd be demons."

"You're such an idiot. Do you really think anyone likes it in hell? It's literal ! Why do you think we're here in the first place? The big honcho above just decided to give us a relaxing vacation for our sins?" She grunted. "I didn't even partake in the original sin. I mean sure, I've sinned a little... okay, maybe more than a little, but still! Not to mention that the other demons pick on me for actually wearing clothes, ugh. Not my fault I'm not some kind of immodest whore like them! But I'm getting side tracked here. So here's the deal, I help you out, and in return you help me get out of hell. How's that sound?"

She clicked her fingers. As if by magic, a piece of parchment appeared in his hands, stating the terms of the deal in big, bold letters. He squinted at the imp.

"Demons are notorious for making bad deals. Why should I trust you?"

"It's in bold letters for a reason! You can see it yourself; it's clear as day, and there's no small print."

"Hm, you do have a point."