Chapter 3: The Reality

Stepping into the doorway, he looked back to Violet.

“You ready, Darling?”

His glance moved over his shoulders, meeting her eyes.

“I’m ready”

Her face still hot from the tension at that moment, they continued out of the door.

The night passed as they fell fast asleep on opposite ends of the couch, then the next morning arrived.

Violet wakes up, beads of sweat pooling down her face as flashes of her dream shoot through her mind.

Lucien’s hands were between her thighs, his lips on her neck, their exposed bodies pressed up against each other.

“Did that happen?..” She thought to herself.

“Morning.”

A happy voice peeked from behind the kitchen counter.

“Good morning”

Violet mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

“Can souls still dream in the afterlife?”

She asked, rolling off of the couch, and walking towards the bar.

“Well, it’s not dreaming as mortals do.”

He said, watching her take a seat as he pulls a pan of fluffy eggs off of the stove.

“But yes you can dream, it’s more of an extension of your wants and desires, I suppose that would be the best way to put it, why?”

She feels the lump form in her chest, as she takes a bite of toast sitting on a plate in front of her.

“No reason, just thought that I had a dream but wasn’t sure.”

“Oh, alright then”

He looked her in the eyes, he could tell there was something more but decided not to push it.

“I figured we could grab a coffee before getting you adjusted.”

Lucien walks to the counter, towel over his shoulder, scooping the eggs from the pan onto the plate in front of her.

“Coffee sounds great, I didn’t think hangovers existed in the afterlife, you learn something new every day.”

She giggles and begins finishing up her breakfast.

“Let me get dressed and we can head to” She trails off “Where are we going again?”

“Well, we have a job to do, so we got to go do it” He laughs looking her over.

“Go get dressed, I’ll fill you in on the way.”

Violet finishes getting ready and gets her things together before heading out with Lucien.

“Hey before we grab a coffee, could we drop my things off at my place?”

“Oh, of course, we have a few things to grab for your first day anyways.”

Upon arriving Violet and Lucien make their way through the front door.

“Here you go” He pulls out what looks very similar to a cellphone “You’ll need this for work.”

“We have phones too. I’m starting to think that earth was hell.”

She laughed, opening up the phone to see a lot of ‘apps’ and ‘games’ as well as a few phone numbers.

“Honestly I believe it was much worse.” He looked almost concerned “I spent some time there and the things I saw were awful, at least down here we get to punish the bad people.”

The look on his face lightened.

“What do you mean by punishing?”

“That depends on your job, me and you do a little bit of everything, Silas does what mortals refer to as ‘torture’ but all he does is take the worst of scum and give them what they deserve, Arielle and Amias help souls figure everything out once they arrive, It’s almost therapeutic.”

She nods, understanding the things she may have to see, but happy to know that people eventually get justice and knows she gets to help those like herself who never got justice in life.

Chills go down her spine flashing back on the memories of her life and the things she had seen.

Seeing the color flush from her face, Lucien became concerned.

“Are you alright? Darling.”

Regaining her focus, she exhaled deeply.

“Yes, I’m fine, but why do you call me ‘Darling’?”

“I’m not sure, honestly it just felt right, if you’d like me to stop I can.”

He shot her an understanding smile to assure her.

“No, please keep doing it, it’s comforting.”

Though slightly deeper, the redness in his cheeks blended well with his smooth skin.

“We should be going, we’re starting from the bottom and working our way up, I will warn you though.”

The warm look in his eyes suddenly grew cold.

“The things you will see… Well, it’s going to be disturbing, but I want to assure you that everyone down there truly deserves whatever they’re getting.”

She nodded, she understood, but there was a lump in her throat that she couldn’t shake.

What did they consider to be a sin?

The passing minutes felt as if they were fading as they made their way down into the cells.

Coming upon a large iron door, Lucien took Violet’s hand in his.

“If you feel that things are becoming too much, just let me know and I’ll get you out of there.”

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Violet gripped his hand and steadied herself before entering the tall building.

The door creaked as Lucien pushed it open and began moving forward.

The sound of screams seemed to echo through the halls, the chipped stone walls, towering over her felt ominous.

The sound of their footfall bounced against the walls, breaking the silence between them.

They began to round the corner, catching a glimpse of the dark gray-black tufts of hair, and the chipped goat-like horns.

“Silas!” Lucien raised his voice slightly, seeing Silas wash the blood from his hands over a sink.

This was an everyday job to them unlike the mortal realm, they were used to the disturbing scenes you would only see in the worst of horror films.

“Lucien, I see you and the new assistant have made it down here, I do apologize for the noise and everything; I realize it’s going to take some getting used to.”

Silas seemed sorry for the situation she had approached, but Violet didn't seem phased, keeping Lucien’s reassurance in the front of her mind, all she needed to know was that these people had done terrible things.

But it still worried her, growing up in a religious town, she had always heard ‘Sins’ in terms of homosexuality and disobeying your parents, so she wondered if these people did deserve this.

“Lucien...” she tugged against his arm “when we leave, can we talk?”

“Of course”

He was concerned, seeing her eyes staring straight at the man’s body, hanging by his arms.

“Are you okay? Is it too much? Should we leave?”

He began to panic, unsure of how she would view them after this.

“I’m fine, I just want to ask some more questions when we finish here.”

She did her best to give a reassuring nod and smile.

“So, Silas, I’m just showing Violet here the ropes and where to go, I’ll usually be with her as we’re assigned together, but I thought it would be good to show her where our ‘team’ was, just in case.”

“Oh! Yeah, great idea, this is where I always am, and he should’ve put my name in your phone with the rest of the team, so if you can’t find me here then you can give me a call.”

Silas spoke to Violet with ease before turning his attention back to Lucien.

“Well, I’ve got to get back, lots of work and only one me.”

He lifted his arms and bowed slightly before turning his attention back toward the man against the wall.

Questions ran through her mind as they left the building and eventually made their way back toward the coffee shop to meet with Arielle and Amias.

“So, you said you had some things you wanted to talk about?”

Lucien asked, Pushing the glass door open for her.

“Yes, I have some more questions before I continue this, you kept telling me that those people deserve what they’re getting but-”

“But you aren't sure that they are, and you’re worried that someone is suffering for no reason? Am I right?”

“Growing up I was told that everything was a sin. Being gay, having premarital sex, cursing, not believing God, and much more”

She sighed looking down as she took her seat at the table.

“I just don’t believe those things are a reason to suffer for eternity.”

Lucien stifled a laugh, he understood why she would worry but he couldn’t help himself after hearing the ignorant things mortals told each other.

“If we put people in cells because of that, Hell would just be one giant prison, us included.”

He laid his hand over hers and smiled.

“We would never hate a being for loving something else, and as far as God, he understands why people don’t believe in him. There’s a lot of sins in the world, but they aren’t the things you were told.”

She felt relieved hearing him explain that to her.

“So, what are sins?”

She asked almost hesitantly.

“Honestly not many and they’re pretty much common sense I would think.”

He leaned back in his seat as the waitress put their coffee in front of them.

“Murder of course, and not in the sense of self-defense. Abusing another person or living being, slavery, I’m still unsure as to why that even existed for so long. forcing someone do to something against their will such as forcing religion onto others, forcing away a person's right to their body, or sexual acts.”

She nodded slowly as he spoke.

“Those are to name a few, but most are just common sense as I said.”

“The man, when we saw Silas, what did he do?”

She knew she probably didn’t want to hear the answer, but something inside her wanted to know that he was getting what he deserved.

“He killed a woman for turning him down, so every time he says no, Silas makes it worse.”

Shock filled her body, she wanted to deny that things like that happened, but she knew it was true.

“Good, he’s getting what he deserves.”

He raised his brow in surprise and took a sip from the hot coffee.

“Really?”

She slid the coffee closer to her and poured it into the small container of cream before stirring it around.

“Are you surprised?”

Lucien shifted in his seat, the tension coming from Violet wasn’t usual.

“Well, I won’t lie to you, it wasn’t what I expected.”

Violet’s eyes fixed on her coffee; her mind seemed to slow for the first time in a long time.

“I’m sure there’s a lot of things people don’t expect of me.”

She looked up to meet his gaze and he was smiling at her, she expected shock or disappointment but instead, she was met with warmth.

Nobody else had given that to her, but the spark in his eye made her begin to realize, she was falling for him.

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