The Beginning
Jaime Johnesee
There were times when Apollyon wondered if being a demon was worth all the annoyance. This wasn’t one of those times, however. Humming the theme to Ice Castles she set to work skinning a swamp demon who had killed a human just because.
He had some information she needed and she was looking forward to getting it. If there was one thing she enjoyed about her demonic duties as the First Knight of Hell it was the torture.
No matter how bad her day got she knew she could always come to the torture cells, pick a victim, and just let it all out. She liked the catharsis and, let’s face it, the people she was torturing usually deserved it. Her preference was for what you might call wet work but she was equally as skilled in psychological torment.
She’d just peeled the skin off the swamp demon’s tail when, to Apollyon’s disappointment, he sang like a canary. She sighed and put her knife down as he rattled off the information she politely requested. Taking a quick look at her watch she saw that it had been only four and a half minutes. He was one of the weakest yet.
The honor of weakest came in the form of a rock troll who blurted everything he ever knew before she could even tie him into the chair. Many sang after being tied in but the rock troll was the only one who didn’t even get near the chair before spilling.
He had called it an immaculate sense of self preservation. Apollyon, Polly to her friends, begged to differ, she called it cowardly. Even though she was disappointed that she couldn’t play more she decided to be kindly and reward him for giving her all the information needed. She put on some polka music and turned to go, leaving him tied to the chair. She wanted to verify what he had told her before she let him loose.
Someone had escaped Hell with something that wasn’t theirs. Whatever it was, Lucifer wanted Hell’s second in command on it, so Polly knew it had to be big. She wasn’t taking any chances, not with this. She would track down every lead and make damn sure that both the escapee and what they stole were back in Lucifer’s hands as soon as possible.
“Please! Don’t do this. You can’t do this, it’s horrible!” The demon screamed as the polka played on.
“They don’t call it Hell because it’s pleasurable. Enjoy!” She turned and left the chamber with a skip to her step.
The oompahs from the music bled through the door and Polly cringed. She loathed polka music but, sometimes, it was extremely effective as a means of torture.
Sucks to be that guy.
As she walked along one of the many lakes of fire a soul reached out to her. She had once tried to help these souls –back when she was freshly fallen from Heaven and a bit naïve on how the whole Hell thing worked.
The soul she had pulled out immediately attempted to push her into the lake in its place. Polly hadn’t given the fiery damned another thought since. She was safe in the knowledge they were there for a reason.
As she moved she ruminated on how much she was going to enjoy torturing Demas later. She followed his trail and teleported to a little church that was not much more than a cult. A smile brightened her face as she stood in the church’s yard looking in through the window at a young woman washing dishes.
This is going to be fun.
***
If you want to know more about Apollyon you can read her story in Devil Dog Press’s Revelations series. The first book, Cast in Blood, is available now at
Amazon US:
And Amazon UK:
About Jaime
Jaime Johnesee lives in Michigan with her husband and two sons. She spent fourteen years as a zookeeper before shifting her focus to writing full time. Known for her horror comedy series, Bob the Zombie, she is currently authoring the paranormal horror mystery series, Samantha Reece Mysteries, for Devil Dog Press. You can find out more about Jaime at her website, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
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