Where do I start?

  My name is Chima, and I'm not a good man. Let's just get that out of the way.

  No, I was not an orphan. I had parents, and an elder sister who beat me beyond discipline. Pummeled into shape, if you'd like. We were a criminal family. The criminal family.

  By the age of six, I could more than handle myself in a fight, and by the age of ten I was already a murderer. It was an initiation rite to officially become a member of the family.

  Don't get me wrong, I'm not a victim here. I mean I might have been at first, but if I could have gone back in time I wouldn't change a thing.

  I learnt how to fight early and I was peerless at it, except against my sister. She would always beat me up.

  Then how did I die?

  I don't know the answer to that either. All I know is that I was 38 when it happened. One minute I was on my bed sleeping, the next I was in an endless queue of at least a zillion people walking towards a huge clustered dark red smoke shaped in the form of a gigantic door.

  Died in my sleep?

  I doubt that. It wouldn't expin the deep bde wound in my chest.

  I was killed.

  But by who?

  Who is powerful and skilled enough to approach me, the greatest assassin on earth, and kill me without me knowing?

  Only one person comes to mind.

  "The number of people going to hell these days are seriously increasing" "Yeah. I wonder what they are doing these days to gather this much bad karma."

  It was then I noticed my surroundings. It was a dark cavernous pce with the only source of light been the flowing magma around. It seemed hotter than usual.

  "wait."

  "What is it?"

  "I think one of the inmates made eye contact with me"

  "What? That's impossible!"

  "I'm sure of it!"

  That would be me. I made eye contact with him when he sped pass me, but it was only for a brief second. Was I not supposed to make eye contact? I gnced to my left. The girl had a noose mark around her neck. She looked dead. Incapable of making eye contact.

  At that moment I felt a hand on my neck, and in the next second I was flicked high back like a piece of rag. My back made a loud contact with the ceiling but on nding back down my fellow 'inmates' broke my fall. They stood back up and continued walking like nothing happened.

  I too stood.

  "what are you?" I heard one of them ask as they approached me.

  I didn't answer. I just kept looking at them. They were humanoid but nothing like humans. With a head shaped like that of an alien, they sprout two fming horns on their foreheads. The commotion attracted more of their kind, but my fellow inmates just kept on walking, like one whose mind was missing.

  "what are you?" 'he' asked again.

  "I'm human" I replied, but my answer shocked them.

  "He speaks!" one of them screamed.

  "You are nothing like a human." the other said. "what are you?"

  " where am I? "

  "you know where you are"

  "I don't"

  They were now about 7 feet away from me. They look scary but fear has never been a part of me.

  I would have to make the first move. As supervisors, they must have a way of restraining me. If I give them the chance, I might end up in Hell. I don't want to go to hell. It would be well deserved, but rules apply only to the weak. I am anything but weak!

  "Fine. I will tell you" I said as they fell within arm’s reach. " I am..."

  "whatever you are thinking, it won't work."

  "what?"

  "I said--" I didn't even see him. It took less than a second for him to grab my throat, and crashed me heavily through the inmates, and smashed my back against the hard magma wall. About 20 feet covered in less than a second.

  "Now, how did someone so weak infiltrate Lord Beelzebub's territory?"

  His face was so close to me, and for the first time in my life, I thought I felt fear.

  "what's that blinking green light in his chest?"

  We both looked down. I couldn't see anything but apparently he could. His face turned curious, and in the next moment I could feel his hand penetrating my chest. I didn't feel pain. Just a weird feeling, especially when he grabbed what I assumed to be my heart.

  " I can't get it out." he said, and I could feel him trying.

  "What? Why? Move aside let me try." the other said, coming closer.

  "I can't. I can't free my hand"

  They all looked at me.

  I didn't know what was going on but I tried my best to keep a straight face.

  "Unhand me."

  "I'm not touching you" I said, almost ughing at the joke, and he didn't take that well.

  He released my throat, and with the free hand he hit my face, jerking my head back. My head hit the harden magma so hard that I would have sworn I heard something crack.

  "You are wasting your time. You know I feel no pain."

  He stared at me. Eyes so full of rage. It was satisfying. There's also something in there which I've seen so many times not to recognize : Fear.

  "I will get the Administrator" the other said, and in a second he disappeared, and reappeared again with an almost identical other. Just bigger and with an extra horn.

  "What are you?" the bigger one asked, face collected.

  "What I am is of little relevance to you. What I want should be the appropriate question."

  "...then what do you want?"

  "Send me back"

  "Back where?"

  "Back to earth"

  "Why?"

  I chuckled. "well I'm not ready to go to hell yet."

  There was a moment of silence.

  "No."

  It felt like it came out of nowhere. I just wanted to try my luck, but his initial silence gave me a hint that it was possible, so I expected him to try to negotiate, or at least py a trick or two. He is a demon after all, but he didn't.

  "Why?"

  "Take a look around." I did. "Do you notice the bck fre on each inmate?"

  I actually did notice it the first time, but I didn't think it was important.

  "Those are their life auras. Their karma. The more evil you do, the darker your aura becomes, the more good the lighter."

  "I get it. The bck ones belong to hell, what's your point?"

  He smiled. "I wish you can see yours right now"

  He brought a sword out of thin air, and began approaching me.

  "You don't want to do that." I said, trying to get back but was stopped by the wall.

  He reached me, and in a swift motion he cut off the arm of the demon attached to me. One strike cut, like a sharp knife through butter.

  The lesser demon crouched down, trying his best to hold back the bck blood pouring out. The higher demon joined him, pced his hands over it, and I saw rexation come upon the lesser demon face.

  "Now ," the bigger demon said, standing back up. "Feel like to talk now?"

  I didn't answer. I just stared back at him. Afraid, but trying not to show it. I was trapped in a pce where not even death was an escape. A man's worst nightmare.

  But then in that moment I noticed the panic amongst the crowd. Some were shifting back.

  "umm…sir," one of them spoke up. " I think something is wrong."

  They were pointing at my chest, while taking steps back. I looked down and I saw green light shinning out of my sliced chest.

  "Everybody get back. Now!" the higher demon barked.

  "We can't. There's a force field stopping us."

  I couldn't see anything but they do looked trapped with the way they were clustered at one end. Even the higher demon was panicking.

  "Open it."

  As slow and calm as I could. "No."

  "I said open it!"

  He smmed me harder than the lesser demon did before, almost imprisoning me into the wall. But it wasn't painful. It was satisfying. I began to ugh as he continued hitting me deeper into the wall.

  Harder.

  Harder.

  Harder.

  And then Kaboom!

  I guess that's how my journey started.