Limbo.

Deep in the bowers of Hell, Mephisto sneered, clutching his robes tighter to keep himself warm in the ever-dropping temperatures of his realm. A week had gone by after the death of Vallar the vainglorious and already the results of her failure could be felt. Clutching at his chest, the demon lord ached after the experience.

Standing in a semi-circle in front of his throne and equally as disturbed by the loss of heat, the many demon lords that represented his realm gave their progress reports. Each reflected the worst corners of hell itself, nightmares made flesh that would have broken the will and hearts of men and women who fall into the abyss of the everlasting damned… Or at least they would have if it weren’t for them all being bundled up in winter clothing.

“The BLUE one up on Earth continues to thwart the flow of souls to our realm my master… Suicides have gone down another 5%, the orchards of the suicidal wither from a lack of screams and misery in the Seventh Circle.”

Murmuring to himself, Mephisto knew all to well WHY. Looking through a scrying pool near his throne, the red skinned demon grimaced when he spotted a man trying to jump into the way of a metro train in New York, only to be pulled away at the last second by a beautiful woman in silver hair who pinned him against a pillar and made out with him, his desire to end it all, well, ending. “Bah!”

“The Circle of Lustssss have resolved the territories of Vallar and Darrius my Lord.” Purred an arachnid looking creature, smiling over the reports of the orgy wars in that realm. “Salazar the Sadomasochistic is now the dominant ruler and awaitssss your orders.”

Shivering in his throne, Mephisto grumbled in annoyance, pulling his robes tighter. It was infuriating! This witch, this… Susan Storm had made a mockery of their nature, creating untold damage to the abyssal depths. Each circle of Hell had the same report; the seventh circle of Violence was down, the fourth circle Avarice was low, Betrayal, Fraudulence, all of them were running low on soul intake from that City. What’s worse was so far every demon he had sent to deal with her had come back empty handed or worse, made her even more powerful! Growling under his breath, the Demon Lord shivered, then he noticed something odd amongst his court. Standing among the many creatures of the damned was a man in a pressed grey khaki work pants and grey button shirt with tie, holding a note pad going over notes from the meeting.

“Who are you?”

Looking up and blinking, the man pocketed his pen and stepped forward. “Hello, I’m Bob, I’m a representative of the first circle… Limbo.”

“Limbo?!” Muttered the other demons, totally confused. “What do you have to report from Limbo? NOTHING happens in Limbo, that’s the point!”

“Yes, nothing new has happened in Limbo in less than 2000 years. What is there to report?”

Looking between Mephisto and the other demons, Bob made a face of discouragement before looking at his note pad and back at the lord of Hell. “Maybe its best to show you…”

*

Crossing the many realms of pain and misery to the farthest realm of Hell, Mephisto and his court followed the man through it all until they reached the borders of Limbo, the first Circle of Hell. The many demons that followed made various looks of disgust crossing into the dull coloured kingdom.

“Bleh, I hate this place, it’s so… BORING!”

A realm devoted to those who were not evil in life but not religious either, Limbo would have been best described as the ‘not so BAD Hell’. A place where no one knew suffering, but no one knew happiness either. Its denizens living an eternity of listless, unimportant daily affairs with nothing to really chat about, comment or complain. If the realm could be described in the first word that would come to mind it would have been ‘boring’... Though ‘okay’ was a pretty close second and ‘meh’ a good third.

Looking around, the demons found dozens of people crossing grey streets and sitting at grey benches, standing around in groups in grey coffee shops and bars; saying nothing, doing nothing, thinking nothing…

The demon from the Circle of Violence couldn’t take it anymore and stormed towards one of the bored looking people with a rusted cleaver in hand, bellowing out a war cry and swinging the blade overhead. It came down and struck the nearest soul in the head with the force of an avalanche, and harmlessly bounced off with a ‘squeak.’ Looking down at the axe, back at the drooling, snarling monster in front of him, the soul turned his attention back to the others. Roaring out in blind rage the demon struck again and again, his blood-stained blade reduced to the effectiveness of a Styrofoam bat before he was pulled away by Bob, crying like a child in the throes of a tantrum. “Please don’t do that here, its embarrassing.”

“What have you to show me amongst this realm of stagnation?”

“Over here sir, we’re coming around the corner to it… Now.”

Turning the grey coloured street, the group of demons came across something DEFINETELY new. The only patch of colour in the realm, it was a freshly wooded park with a cobblestone pathway arching from one green grassed hill to the other, surrounded by patches of trees with songbirds and friendly wildlife, a babbling brook and a pond where gold fish swam by the current and had bridges to look down at and feed the fish and local ducks. Off in the distance they could see an amphitheatre, a greenhouse, a children’s playpen with swings, a tennis court and swimming pool. For all intent and purposes a fully equipped city park… In a hellish city devoted to apathy and indifference, devoid of any colour or life. Eyeing the park and scribbling notes, another grey clad woman stood until her attention fell on Bob and the others, a look of boredom on her plain face as she pocketed her pen. “Lisa…” “Bob…” The two exchanged unamused glances before Lisa waved over to the colourful landscape in front of them.

“This area suddenly came into being about a week ago, as you can see it clashes with the décor we have with the rest of the city.” The grey skinned woman deadpanned; her eyes half open as if just barely awake to pay attention but too tired to care.

“Has anyone gone INTO this place?” Asked the withered husk of the pestilence demon, confused with the sudden clash of colour against the black and white realm.

“Several have, not many have returned, we’ve yet to understand why but most likely its because the place is new.”

“What happens when you go in?”

Looking to each other, Bob and Lisa sighed and decided to step into the colourful border of the park. The moment they did, their bodies and clothes took on colour and contrast, their eyes and faces becoming livelier with a sense of newfound joy before the two took each other’s hands and ran off into the pathway, laughing happily as they jogged out of sight. Looking over to his court with a frown, the demons looked to each other out of confusion. “Well? Whom among you will explore this abomination?”

Looking to each other again, the demons huddled together and began to play rock-paper-scissors to decide before Mephisto threw his arms up in the air in a huff of rage. “COWARDS! I’ll go in!” Storming his way past the threshold, Mephisto shuddered at the warm sense of positivity that fell over him, the only thing keeping him from breaking out into a smile was his anger and morbid sense of disgust. Making his way through the winding cobblestone path, he could hear songbirds fly overhead in the lush canopy of the trees, the sounds of people laughing and playing in a nearby field or making out on benches or against trees like love-struck teenagers.

Eventually he had passed by the arched stonework bridge that overlooked the goldfish filled lily pond, the flower filled hedge maze, the arboretum where children laughed and chased butterflies to what had to be the center of the park. There he found a rose garden, intricately patterned with shrubberies, hedges and decorative stones, there he found Bob and Lisa making out by a bench, the two suddenly finding existence not only bearable but pleasant again as Mephisto watched on and forced himself not to retch. There at the heart of the garden was a gazebo covered in blue flowered ivy and a single wicker chair with a folded paper on the seat. Plucking it off the chair, Mephisto read in fine lettering “Reserved for Susan Storm”

*

Stepping out of the colourful park and passing his court, Mephisto continued to walk, ignoring the confused questions of his demons even after they passed the threshold of the circle of Limbo into the fiery landscape of the rest of Hell. Stopping to breath in the toxic fumes and bask in the sounds of screams off in the distance, Mephisto pulled out a carton of cigarettes from his robes and lit a single drag. Breathing in a puff that nearly took out the entire cigarette in his mouth, Mephisto blew out the smoke and flicked the burned bud out into the molten abyss.

“Kor…” Steeling himself, Mephisto made his way through the second circle, his court gasping at the mention of the name their master whispered as they followed him.