An RP by NekoLen and Tachigami

Forewarning:

This RP contains violence and disturbing scenes.

Lucius' demonic form was a terrifying thing to the prisoners. A malnourished goat form for feet and legs, gradually evolving into what looked to be a half-decomposed body with a spine forced into a curve at the neck, a head that resembled a bull skull with long, dangerous-looking horns twisting backward from above black eye sockets. From his thin, bony back black feather-and-leather wings protruded, dragging the ground like his large claw-like hands.

This form was necessary outside the prison. As the warden, so to say, Lucius's place was here, scaring away underlings that were useless in torture and useless in convictions, or to capture and return escaped souls to the prison. His human side appeared far too soft to strike fear into the hearts of the wicked, and this nine-foot-tall, ugly creature instead was a very good fit for a warden of this hellscape, a world resembling Earth, but its skies seemed to be suspended in near-twilight eternally.

From the double doors a man was dragged, screaming wordlessly as his deliverer took him to trial. He would, of course, be found guilty of his crimes while alive. What other verdict was there? Lucius would never see this man again, just like everyone else, man or woman, who came this way. And they all did. The prison was massive, after all. New arrivals were found in the field nearby, usually wandering blindly as they generated in this realm. Though it was impossible to see in this form, Lucius was in pain. He wanted to leave. But he was useless as a torturer, even though he knew these people were guilty of their charges, always guilty. He simply couldn't bring himself to harm those that could have, at one time, been saved this eternal punishment.

Darius woke with a start, his head was hurting and he felt like he was burning from the inside out. Groggily, he fought to sit. As he searched his surroundings, the horror slowly sunk in. He had thought it was a bad dream, this place. When he was placed into a tiny cage like cell by terrifying abominations, he had blacked out from the fright. Part of him had hoped it was a nightmare, and that he'd wake in his own bed. His heart sunk when he remembered the world he had been taken from. He had no one, he was alone, but at least he wasn't here.
He rubbed his eyes, trying to get his hazy brain to work. The shock from waking in this place was getting to him and he felt vomit in his throat. He tried to stand, but his shaking legs would not allow it. "Help! Someone! Please! Where am I?!" he screamed towards the metal door. A tiny slot opened and let in a dim red light. The smell of rotting flesh and brimstone assaulted Darius' nostrils. A shadow blocked the opening and a creature growled menacingly from beyond.
"Shut up sinner, you have no hope here." Darius squealed in fright and cowered against the moist, clammy walls. Where in the world was he?

Sometimes the newly dead were unconscious. Shock addled their brains so badly they couldn't handle it, and at the presence of the retrievers, passed out and had to be carried to the prison. But one... it didn't feel right. Lucius felt something pull, something cold slide down his twisted spine. Focusing, he willed his secondary form to come out. The skull fell off his head, hissing as it formed a cluster of white maggots that began to fry from the inside out. His arms shortened, his goat legs straightened and his cloven hooves stretched. Popping, cracking, and a series of snaps sounded as his kind human form arranged itself, showing tight, dark red clothes, a young face, and pure white hair that looked to be singed along the edges, as if he'd put his head over fire for a bit too long.

Stepping into the prison, he was met with the foyer, a large area that didn't house prisoners waiting for a sentence. It resembled a run-down hospital reception area, with three hallways. One to the left, to the right, and to the front. But the lingering feeling came from the left. He went that way, down the very, very long hallway. A third of the way down, he paused, waving away one of the guards. The demon grumbled as he walked away, hooves clattering on the loose tile. Gazing in, Lucius was very shocked to see a living human. A living, breathing human.

"You, there." He pointed through the bars. "What's your name?"

Darius had gone quiet, the shock had made it hard to think straight. He knew that somehow, this had something to do with the man he had made friends with. His face was the last thing he could remember, beyond this horrorfying place. He started as he heard another voice demand to know his name. A very human looking hand pointed at him through the bars. Hope lit in his chest. Maybe he could reason with this thing.
"I'm... Darius..." he said tiredly, feeling exhausted from all the terror this place was putting him through. It put thoughts in his head and made him relive those days he had lived with Todd. "Please... Who are you? Where... Where am I?" He found himself begging the thing standing on the other side of the door. His blind hope gave him the courage to question it.

"Darius..." Lucius considered the name. So similar to his. But it wasn't in his mind. The names of every conviction were in his mind, but this name didn't fit this face, this body, this soul. He still had his soul. That cold shard of ice sliding up and down his spine was the presence of a living human soul, misplaced somehow. No one was in this wing. Only he and Darius. He stepped through the bars, the usually immobile things separating for Lucius. "I want you to calm down." He said easily. "Though it's difficult to do so at this time, I'm more than sure. You've been transported to what the living calls Hell. This underworld torments and tortures the sinners and evil-hearted, those who misused their life while they had it."

He looked away, out to the hall. No one was there. "You've been mistakenly imprisoned, it appears. Darius, soon you will be tried in a high court, found guilty, and tortured. Being a human, it might raise controversy, but knowing the overseer demons, they'll not want to talk it over."

Speechless, Darius stared at the humanoid standing before him. He could sense, that even though it looked human, it wasn't like him. It still calmed him slightly to be talking to something familiar and non-threatening. He stared long and hard at the creature, hoping he was joking. How could he be in Hell? It didn't exist... Even if he was in Hell... How did he get there? He wasn't a bad person, he had never hurt anyone in his life.
"What... What do you mean....?" he asked, confused and panicked. "I... I never did anything... How did I get here?" Everything he had been pondering over poured out in a string of questions. He thought he heard talking, but he knew it wasn't coming from outside. It was in his mind. He found himself clutching his head and crying, being forced back into the nightmare of Todd beating him once more. "No... I can't... I can't..." He begged, choking on tears and vomit that burned in his throat.

Lucius's yellow-red eyes widened, and he stepped forward, pulling him away from the wall and keeping him steady. "Look at me. Calm down. You don't have time to panic. No time to question. You were probably sent here by a demon in your world, possibly in disguise as a human. They need no reason to send you here, rather than do so out of boredom or spite, falsely befriend you and after they've gained your trust, can easily open a tear between Earth and Hell and send you here. Sometimes you're destroyed immediately and your soul goes into Limbo---other times, you survive long enough to come here. I don't remember a time we had a human here, especially one that doesn't belong here."

He made Darius look straight at him. "But you must know: Heaven and Hell is real. Without one, the other can't exist. Without both, the world as you know it can't exist. Demons are known to take on human form, as I am now, enter your world, and whisk playthings back here to watch struggle, and eventually be killed. But I'd rather not see that. Keep calm, and do as I say---maybe you'll be able to escape."

Darius stared deeply into the demon's eyes, shuddering at the fire he saw within. He remembered he had seen that once. He removed the demon's hands from his face and doubled up, breathing heavily. Why would this happen to him? His life had been always full of trouble, but now this?
"His name was Draven. That's what he told me anyway," he whispered, finally remembering the last face he saw before he woke up here. "I thought he was being nice... I'd just finished a relationship and he invited me over for dinner..." Beyond that he couldn't remember. He looked back up at the demon. "How do I know I can trust you? You're just like him aren't you?" he demanded, still near hyperventilation.

Lucius stepped back, and went through the bars again. "You don't have anyone else to trust here." He said sternly. "The other demons would be thrilled to have you. I could let you go to the trial, where you'd be found guilty. They'd test your human body to its limits, so they could see how much abuse you could take before giving out and dying. Draven is my sibling, known to go to the world of the living quite a bit. He probably saw you as weak and easily manipulated, as demons see everyone, though your mind was fragile, easily cracked."

He put a hand on the bar. "You have no bargaining chip here. Hell is populated by devils, demons, the worst creatures you could ever possibly imagine, and more. If you don't want to trust me, I'll let you be taken by the guard when they come for you. But if you stay here, you'll have a bad wait. The guards like to... er... do things to the prisoners you may not enjoy." He twisted the burnt ends of his hair and looked up. "I felt sorry for you, a living being here where no living creature should be. I risk my title here to offer help, and you repay me with cynicism and suspicion. If anyone should be wary, it's me. How do I know you're human, after all?" He tilted his head to the side and crossed his arms.

"I'm sorry!" Darius cried, stumbling to the bars and grasping the demon's wrist through the bars. "Please don't leave me here!" Tears welled up in his eyes again and he collapsed to the ground, clutching the creature's clothes. "Please... I don't deserve this. I've already been through Hell and back." the voices started up in his head again. He saw his ex's smug face as he choked him, calling him offensive names as Darius tried to struggle. "NO! NO! Stop it, please stop it!" he screamed, falling into a fetal position on the ground.

Lucius wrenched open the cell door with a quick word that sounded like a snake's hiss, and brought the young man to sit up as he fell to the human's level. "Quiet!" He growled. "Quiet, now! Watch me." He forced Darius' eyes open, and stared into them. Then he heard them, voices. Offensive names, hissed threats and angry calls. "Take these thoughts away." He muttered, and pressed his forehead against Darius's. "Take the voices away. Take them, take them away." He gasped, the voices filling his head, growing louder, echoing and bouncing like a rubber ball, expanding, filling everything Lucius could ever consider. Then it popped. A silent explosion, followed by silence. "Your memories are strong." He whispered. "Strong, recent. But you don't have to be overtaken by them anymore. Not right now. This suspension should hold for a while." He moved back, rubbing his head. It ached terribly.

"If you do want to get out, you have to trust me. And only me." Lucius stood and offered a hand. "This world is meant to play on everything you know, fear, and hope for. Shadows can show you lies, built on your hope. They can torment you in body and mind, but none of it is real. Focus on everything not hidden by shadows. They can kill you, if you let them."

The voices subsided and all that was left was Darius' own thoughts. He blinked up at the demon, holding out his hands. Slowly he reached out and grabbed the out stretched hand. His legs were still heavy, but with some effort he managed to stand. He nodded slowly.
"If I have to trust you... What can I call you?" he asked, struggling next to the demon. He rubbed his fore head where it had connected before. It was slightly warm, but not burning. "Those voices..." he started, lost in thought. What is happening to me? Why am I here? Why me? Haven't I suffered enough?

Lucius steeled himself against the young man's pull as he stood. "You can... call me Lucius." He replied. "Let's get away from the formalities, now, Darius. We'd better leave the prison before the court's guard comes to collect you." He pulled Darius out of the cell and pushed him along, down the hall as quickly as possible without either of them falling.

Halfway down the hall, something crashed, seemingly from above. Lucius stopped suddenly. "Oh, my." He muttered. "That's a bad sound..." Stepping close to Darius, he patted the human's shoulder. "I don't want you trying to run off. Not unless I say so, and only until I say so. This world is unpredictab---" The banging came again, this time shuddering the entire structure. The lights above their head shivered, and blinked.

Jumping from the noise, Darius leant heavily against Lucius. He stared about for the cause of the sound, his heart thumping loudly in his chest. "What... What is it?" he breathed loudly. He started to shiver, feeling inexplicably cold, his breath caming out as mist. "It's so..." but before he could say a word, the banging sounded closer. The sound of several hooves and claws scuttling over stone came from the hall in front of them. Demonic voices that chilled Darius to the bone drifted towards them. They were speaking a tongue that he didn't understand. "What's..."
Suddenly, from the darkness three shadows appeared. One short creature with long spindly legs, like that of a spider, an impossibly tall and thin creature with feet like a bull and an average creature with large, cruel looking taloned feet were making their way down the stone hallway. The banging sounded louder behind them and they stopped, turning around and pulling a heavy rusty chain. A shadowy hulking figure thumped behind them. Darius' heart stopped.
It was a huge lizard-like creature, with massive legs like tree trunks and claws so sharp and vicious looking that they sliced through the stone like it was dirt. It's elogenated snout was filled with needle sharp black teeth, and a thin red tongue flickered between them. It didn't have any visible eyes, and it's flesh-coloured scales leaked all sorts of horrible looking liquid. Darius covered his mouth and nose as the smell of a million rotting corpses hit them.
"Big ugly brute, why did we have to move it today?" the short demon growled in his language, tugging the chain hard.
"You heard the Master, he has to be exercised after such a large meal," the tall one replied, holding on to the cahin with its pale fingers. Darius shuddered again. They hadn't yet seen them, but they were getting closer. He looked to Lucius, wanting to know what to do next.

Lucius shook his head. "Aww, no, no. The guard dog." He hissed. "If either of the guards see me trying to get you out, we're both down for the count. Go in there." He pushed Darius into one of the empty cells beside them, and pulled the door closed. "I'll take care of them, but you'd better not move or Mobius will see you, and he's mindless. He'll attack at once." Closing the cell, it made a bang that was viciously loud. Shivering, Lucius closed his eyes, focusing on his secondary form, his true form. a cracking, popping of rearranging bones and stretching of flesh as his arms grew longer, his clothes seeming to melt into his skin as his legs twisted, feet shortened, rolling in on themselves to form hooves once more. Blood flew as his wings began to escape his back and his spine cracked, popped, and made that same S-shape. His face grew long, and maggots seemed to crawl up from the inside of Lucius' skin, forming the skull that took the place of his otherwise human face. His wings shook, feathers wet and plastered with blood, revealing his horns as they exploded from his back, twisting to face the ground.

The guards started at his presence, their near-nonexistent eyes focusing hard. The guard dog, Mobius, growled, its claws grasping at the ground. "Lucius. Has Master given you permission to be away from your post?"

"Master has no control over the warden of the prison." Lucius's voice seemed to have an ethereal echo, and a hissing anger hiding his true voice.

"Maybe so." The thin one laughed, and it sounded like a screech, mixed with a crying child and nails on a blackboard. "But Mobius needs his walk. And maybe a snack. How about the little one Cavalier just brought in?" The tall demon indicated the second one.

"I'll let you near him when I'm dead." Lucius put his hands on the ground, which wasn't difficult, considering his bent posture and especially long, very large hands and claws.

Screeching with delight, the three demons laughed horribly. "But, Lucius, you never were alive!" the thin demon screeched in its horrible high-pitched voice. "Why are you guarding it like this?"
Cavalier touched the thin one's arm, and said in a voice that sounded like dead leaves rustling in a dry breeze, "Drago, the warden has all the right to guard his prisoners." The short one nodded in agreement, being the slimy little yes-man it always was. "You must really want to see this one suffer. Your brother brought him here from the human world, did he not?"

Darius hid in the cell, holding his breath so he didn't gag on the smell of the demons. He heard their unearthly voices speaking in a language he couldn't understand and shuddered again. He tried to get their appearances out of his head, but they were burnt into his retinas like some sort of red hot brand. He realised that if he was going to get out of here alive, he'd probably have no sanity left.

Lucius shook his head hard. "Regardless of what my brother did!" He screeched. The skull that was his head snapped like an alligator mouth. "My brother and I are different beings! He leaves you to do the grunt work while he frets about with little human girls and boys. I find that hardly fair. This creature is mine, and I will do as I see fit with it!"

"Ahhh, and what might that be, Lucius?" Drago asked. The guard dog, Mobius, shook its head.

"I will protect this creature, this human, and allow him to go back to his world, that of the living. I refuse to harm a living soul, one that has yet to be judged by God."

Cavalier's sigh sounded like the air breaks of a big rig. "Lucius, he has no warrant here."

"He does to me. Judge not, lest ye be judged. This human boy has yet to be judged by the Creator. I will not allow you to do so in place." Lucius stepped forward, placing the cell behind him a safe enough distance. These two were meant to corral fearful lost souls before their secondary judgment, not fight a demon. Lucius was made warden for a reason, after all. They wouldn't choose a weakling. Even Mobius couldn't stand up to Lucius. Being the Devil's legitimate son had a few perks, but his brother could more or less match him in power. Intelligence was another story.

Drago prepared himself for a fight, but was halted by Cavalier's outstretched hand. Always the thinker of the three, he knew that any fight now would not end well for his cronies. He barked at Drago and the short one to take Mobius away from here. Mumbling dark threats and curses under his breath, Drago dragged the heavy chain, forcing the dog to follow with large thumping steps. Cavalier considered Lucius for a long time, stroking his long, pale face.
"Just because you are Master's son, does not mean you can get away with this. The human belongs to us now, and we will never, never let it escape our grasp." The demon's grin widened insanely, showing no teeth, nothing but a deep, black hole. "Once everyone finds out about this, even daddy won't help you. You'll be punished, wiped from existence. Is a stupid human soul worth that, Lucius?" Cavalier grinner even wider, leaning in close to Lucius's face and blowing his hot, foetid breath over him.

In the cell, Darius heard the large creature get dragged away. He peeked through the bars to see if the demented creatures had left. He sighted the thin one talking with another, one he didn't see before. Its hulking form seemed defensive, as if it was fighting with the tall one. Is that...? He looked away, trying not to imagine that kind face as that creature. I have to get out of here.

Lucius snorted as the demon's breath hit him. The humidity poked the fire within him. With a high screech, Lucius grabbed the thin demon by its neck and smashed it to the ground, getting on top of him and spreading his wings wide. "It means everything to me!" He screamed, voice shuddering the tile beneath him. "I'll never let you or anyone corrupt this innocent human soul, not while it has a chance to return to its life, not when it can be saved from you bastards! I could kill you in a moment, Cavalier. I could kill you and take care of Mobius and Drago, and no one would ever know. I could eat your rotting corpses and you'd never be missed. They'd get new guards, a new dog. Daddy won't think twice about it."

Cavalier's face had fallen, the hole of a mouth round, like a hole into nothing. "Lucius. You know we'd not harm your precious... love."

Lucius opened his skeletal mouth, snapping Cavalier's neck. Then he closed his mouth over his head, swallowing it whole and backing away. Drago and Mobius had long gone. They'd find the body of Cavalier soon enough. Carefully, Lucius stood straight and started to return to normal. The cracking, popping of his bones back into place and his hooves returning to human feet covered with dark red boots. His skin paled, the skull fell and once again returned to maggots that fried into the ground, his wings falling into piles and twisting into his back. Lucius sighed. Demons tasted disgusting.

Darius peered through the bars again, after hearing the fight. He saw that Lucius was standing as a human once more. He felt somewhat relieved, even though feeling happy in this place was nearly impossible. "Are they gone?" he whispered loud enough for Lucius to hear. The light was dim, so anything further than a couple or meters (feet?) was in shadow. Darius couldn't be sure if the demons had left or not.

Lucius nodded, making a disgusted face and spatting the taste from his mouth. It was reminiscent of fried rotten meat covered in seawater and mold. "Yes, they're... gone. Come on out, we have to leave the prison at once." He opened the cell door and let Darius out. "You couldn't understand any of that, could you?" He asked. "Our language is a type of backwards Latin, but I never do know whether the living can understand what a demon says." Then again, he'd never come to meet a living soul here. The rest were souls, and regardless of what language they spoke, demons, devils, and humans always understood one another.

Darius shook his head and hugged himself as he stepped out of the cell. "No, it was creepy sounding," he said. "It gave me the...." He stopped mid-sentence, sighting the headless body lying on the stone floor. He glanced quickly up at Lucius. "You...?" he tried not to get scared, but he had never seen death before. He backed away from the body and panted heavily. "Let's get out of here," he repeated what Lucius had said.

Lucius put his hand on Darius's back and pushed him along. "Yes, I did that. I'm sorry if you saw any of it. Demons are spawned often enough, and killed in place from random fighting. But they're beneath devils, which can have two forms, that of their original birth appearance, and a human look they take on to walk the world of the living." They made it to the entrance, and Lucius pushed the door. Glancing out, he found no one around, and brought Darius with him.

"You have to stay as close to me as possible." Lucius said as they skirted the edge of the building. It was old, sooty brick with only one floor it seemed, but the prison extended into a massive labyrinth below the ground. An old, seemingly-abandoned road stretched through what looked like a sparse woods, and a couple cars rested, rust-toned and tireless, at either side. "Stay right beside me, okay? If you get too far away or too close to something I don't see, you'll be snatched up or killed."

Darius nodded and clung to Lucius. He thought about what the demon had told him and realised that the hulking thing he had seen before was Lucius after all. That would make him a devil. He glanced up at Lucius' face, wondering what his demonic self looked like. He shuddered to think that the friendly face wasn't really what Lucius was.
"So... the thing that took me here... Was a devil..." he said, infering that he knew what Lucius really was. Again he tried to forget that Lucius wasn't human. He was his only chance of escape, his salvation. In Darius' eyes, Lucius was an angel.

Lucius put a protective arm around Darius's shoulder as they went down the street. It would be more dangerous to simply go right into the woods, but they may be run off the road by the court's retrievers. "Yes, that'd make me a devil." He answered truthfully. The only really truthful devil. "My brother... is less than devil, but a bit more than demon. Lucifer is the Master, the very first devil, a fallen angel cast out of Heaven. Lucifer impregnated a human woman, a prostitute, on one of his trips to the living world. He stayed around to collect me, but didn't realize she'd started loving him. He had to kill her before cutting me out and bringing me here."

He paused. Why was he revealing this? Perhaps it was what little humanity in him that was prodding him along, forcing him to speak. "I lost most of my humanity in the transition from your world to this world, though I retained basic human emotion, pity, and sympathy. Lucifer decided on another, more ruthless son. But he settled on a female demon. Now my brother, Draven, is more demon than devil, but can take on the form of a human for a limited amount of time, several days, before the stress forces him back into a rather demonic appearance. I was born, however, in the skin of a devil, a thing that is meant to look horrible and disgusting to instill fear in the wicked souls sent here, and allow me to freely use what powers I have. Being the Master's son, I have many, but use few."

Glancing up, Lucius stared at the sky. The screech of a harpy pierced the air, but they were prominent. Oftentimes they came flying from the Suicide Forests to grab up wandering human souls that managed to escape their punishment. Should they find a tear, a portal, back to the world of the living, they could have a chance to do good, and perhaps avoid Hell the next time they died. However, the harpies made sure that was a very, very rare occurrence.