He landed on a carpet

Esau was suddenly sitting on a fancy red carpet. It was as if he blinked and missed the entire journey through the portal, from the moment he got swallowed up to then. Of the portal they egressed there was no sign. Belial was already on her feet, looking around and trying to get her bearings. She then turned to Esau.

"Oh there you are, you're finally here. Good, follow me then."

Esau's legs obeyed without question, and did as he was told. They were in what seemed to be a stone keep, with large, drafty open areas held up by polished pillars. Hovering candles lined the walls, illuminating tempting paintings that seemed to beg to be looked at, depicting scenes of beautiful naked women, delicious looking food, vast wealth, victorious battles, and other desires of man.

"Don't get too close to them, or you'll be sucked in," she said, "they lie."

Esau gulped as they suddenly turned into grotesque imagery; beautiful women became shrivelled crones oozing with disease, feasts turned to human waste and decay, vast wealth turned into powerless poverty, victorious battles turned to devastating defeat, and by that point Esau turned away and shielded his eyes. He couldn't bear to look at them any longer.

"Lazy demons, they just 'hang' around all day, heh." She chuckled at her own joke, but stopped once she realised she was the only one. They continued on, and the keep seemed to twist and bend in unnatural ways. Corridors that seemed to go on forever were the norm, as were things that seemed impossible; ceilings becoming floors, floors becoming ceilings, doors that lead to rooms they were already in, that sort of thing. They wandered for a very long time, but how long exactly Esau wasn't sure. Might've been weeks, might've been minutes. They passed by other chambers that split off to the sides, closed off by heavy doors. Some were fancy bedrooms, seemingly untouched for centuries, while some were butcheries, where demons cut and sliced meat that worryingly resembled human; but most of them were in dungeons, where demons tortured and **** souls of the damned on racks and pillories and other infernal contraptions. The lost souls wailed, but their voices stopped just at the doorframe, unable to escape.

"This keep is quite neat don't you think?" Bell said, pulling him away from the scenery, "I bet you didn't know that even castles can sin."

"They can?"

"Yup! Everything in this realm sinned one way or another. Our bread and wine caused someone to ****, clothes are riddled with disease, even the stones and rocks either fell on someone or were used to bash someone's head in."

"What about those candles?"

"Evil bees."

Esau grimaced. That was so incredibly stupid that it couldn't be true. He chalked that one up to her lying to him.

"So what did this place do exactly?"

"It was hit by an earthquake and it collapsed on a couple hundred humans."

"Surely that couldn't have been the keep's fault!"

"Well, yeah, it seems like it, until you realise the keep asked for an earthquake."

He paused. "Hell makes no sense."

"You're only starting to realise that now?"

He thought for a moment. "So what did you do to get into Hell?"

She stopped walking, and turned around to face Esau. "Didn't your parents ever tell you it's rude to ask a lady personal questions?"

"Oh sorry!"

"Don't be, everyone is rude in Hell." She sighed, crossing her arms. "I guess I can tell you. To give you the short version, I didn't rise to my full potential."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well," she continued to walk, "basically, I had a grand destiny to save some people or other, but instead I became a cobbler."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know! How was I supposed to know I had a grand destiny?! Oh but Samael sure made sure to tell me when I died! 'You're worthless' this, 'you've failed' that! And humans wonder why everyone here resents the big honcho. Pfah! I guess all that drinking, whoring and gambling I did didn't help my case, but still."

"Sorry. That seems rather unfair."

"Again, don't be. It all happened before your long dead ancestors were born, so who cares."

They walked in silence. Before long, the halls they walked were gradually filled with more and more demons, until there were so many it was hard to walk. Bell stayed close to him so they wouldn't get seperated.

"Damn, the line is always so fucking long." The crowd didn't move at all, and when it finally did it was hardly noticeable. "We're going to be here for a very long time."

"Like how long?"

"Oh it all depends. Could be a day or two, could be a century."

"A century?!" Esau exclaimed loudly. "What does it depend on?"

"How fast the line ahead of this one is."

"There's another line?!"

"Yeah, this is just the line for that line."

"Oh my god..."

"Relax, that other line is much shorter. It depends how thorough the King is being."

"I'm going to die in this line, aren't I?"