Devil Ash Days (Devil Ash Saga) (15 page)

“Relax, pops! I’ve got money this time!” Aura held up a 500 skorch coin for the owner to see.

“I don’t care, you’re nothing but trouble!”

“But I’ve gone straight now, I promise.” Aura held up his flame-wing pin for everyone to see. “You see this? This means I’m working for the Royal Family now! Get used to this symbol, because you’ll be seeing it a lot!” The owner grumbled a
bunch and swore under his breath, but he left them alone. They found an unoccupied booth by a window overlooking the pier, and Aura ordered a drink.

Thirty minutes passed, Ash reading his book and Aura flitting about the establishment hitting on every cute girl that happened to walk in. Throwing his money around didn’t help; in fact, it did just the opposite. Aura offered to buy drinks for a few ladies, keeping the girls occupied just lo
ng enough for them to down the drinks and split. He’d already burned through 500 skorch when his buzz started wearing off and he began to wonder what Ash was up to.

Ash had hoped for an interesting history lesson on the sea in Hell, but didn’t find much. He learned that it was a freshwater ocean, and that one hundred and fifty-one expeditions had been launched in Hell’s history to ex
plore the vast expanse of water in an attempt to find the other side. Not a single ship had ever returned. Nowadays, ship’s captains stayed within range of the artificial sun above the kingdom, fearful of leaving its safety and becoming lost at sea. Furthermore, fearsome demons inhabited the ocean, making even the harbor dangerous on occasion. Just skimming over a few of the book’s sections on the aquatic demon-life, Ash shuddered at the thought of being stranded in the middle of the ocean at the mercy of those monsters.

He was sipping on a glass of juice when Aura, finally giving up on the girls in the restaurant, came back to his table. His look of disappointment was obvious, and with a tiresome sigh he said, “What do you think? Shall we move on?”

Ash was just finishing up reading about East Hell and had moved onto the section detailing West Hell. That particular section of the kingdom was built, apparently, around and through a series of canyons and cliffs. Dwellings were built right into the sides of the rocky cliffs there. Ash thought it would be an amazing sight.

“Yeah, I’m ready to move on,” he
said. “I want to see West Hell now.” He slammed the rest of his drink and stood up. “I think I need change for this,” he said, pulling one of his 500 skorch coins out of his pocket.

“Don’t worry about it,” Aura told him. He pulled out a 1 skorch coin and set it on the table. “You see, pops?” he called to the owner. “I’m paying this time!” The old man waved him off like a nuisance, glad that he wouldn’t be bothering the female patrons anymore. The two stepped outside to a steadily shrinking sun.

“How about we pass through South Hell? I can show you some of my old haunts,” Aura said.

Ash thought about it, but didn’t want to pass through the sketchy Southern Section when it was getting darker.
He made up an excuse to avoid the area. “That’s okay,” he told him, “I saw most of it when Shiva and I were searching for you. Plus it looks like it’s faster to pass back through the North.” He started to pull the book out to show Aura the map, but Aura cut him off before he could do so.

“If we’re going back through North
Hell, I know a neat place we should stop in at.”

“Oh,” Ash said. “What kind of place is it?” He’d begun to have his doubts on Aura’s priorities during this so-called tour.

“It’s an educational establishment. Trust me when I say you will learn things there that you can’t learn anywhere else!”

The ‘educational establishment’ Aura had in mind was less of an educational establishment and more of a bar. The Negative Divide Bar and Grill, to be exact.

“Negative…divide.” Ash remembered those words from somewhere. There was an entire chapter dedicated to it in his book. “Will this really be educational?”

“Of course! Come on,” Aura replied, pulling Ash along by his coat sleeve.

The Negative Divide Bar and Grill was called so because it was, simply put, a theme restaurant. It was dark on the inside with only the minimal amount of lighting. Candles placed along the walls and set at tables glowed a purplish dark color, probably to simulate what a tainted soul would look like. A pianist in the corner played a somber, eerie tune while a trio of women sang “oohs” and “aahs” for ambience.

“I’ve never actually been here, but I keep hearing good things about it,” Aura said. “This looks cool! Don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” Ash half-heartedly agreed. “Cool.” It was hard to make out the pages in his book with the low level of lighting, even with his awesome devil eyes. They sat at a table and Ash held the book closer to the candlelight. The servers wore tight, black outfits that had the bones of a skeleton painted on with glowing paint, so as to light up in the dark for that extra ‘spooky’ touch. Most of the female servers wore skirts and tanktops, with the glowing bones painted right onto their bodies.

“Yoohoo!” Aura called out to a group of the waitresses nearby. “Would one of you cuties like to take my order?” The girls all quarreled over which one of them would get to serve the idiot. In the end, a beautiful blonde waitress came over to them.

While Aura worked his mojo on her (which she cooed and fawned over in an attempt to receive a better tip) Ash caught up on some actual information. According to the history book, the Negative Divide had been on Hell even longer than the Devils, being the place God discarded souls that had become worn and tainted. It was an enormous canyon-like gash that cut across Hell for hundreds of miles. From the measurements given, Ash guessed it was even larger than the Grand Canyon on Earth. It was actually much,
much
larger.

As with the ocean, expeditions had been launched to collect more data on the Negative Divide. They didn’t send nearly as many devils down inside it, because once anyone fell below the thick clouds of tainted soul energy, they were lost to the world and doomed to never return. They learned very quickly:
Do not enter the Negative Divide!
So instead they quenched their thirst for knowledge by simply walking along the sides, taking great care not to fall in.

No one had ever found where it ended. They’d always had to turn back after being swarmed by demons. Only a handful of devils could claim that they’d flown to the other side. It was too risky for most to attempt, and there was nothing on the other side to be found except for more demons. As terrifying a concept as it was, it piqued Ash’s curiosity. He hoped that some day he could see the real thing, instead of this crappy theme restaurant.

“You learning a lot?” Aura asked, after the waitress abandoned him to go get more drinks. Not that Aura needed another.

“Actually, I am,” Ash said, though he decided not to mention that it was ‘Hell in My Pocket’ that was the source of information, and
not
the establishment they were in.

“That’s great,” Aura said in a tone that indicated he didn’t care in the slightest. “Why don’t you loosen up now and have a drink?
Here, try a tainted soul.” He slid one of his many beverages across the table to Ash.

“I don’t know,”
Ash said, eyeing the mug. “Is there a legal drinking age in Hell? Where I come from it’s twenty-one, and I’m underage.”

“You’re not even
twenty-one
years old?” Aura asked in disbelief.

“Nope. I’m eighteen.”

Aura almost fell out of his chair. Whether that was due to his disbelief or because he’d had one too many drinks, was unclear. “First of all, there is no such thing as a ‘legal’ drinking age here,” Aura told him. “And second of all, I can’t believe you’re so young!”

“You can’t be much older than me, though!” Ash
said. Indeed, it was hard to say who the older one was among them. Aura didn’t look any older than him, really. Definitely not older than twenty-five.

“I don’t remember my exact age,” Aura
said. “But I know that I’m almost forty!”

“
Years?!”
Ash couldn’t believe his eyes or ears. How could Aura be nearly forty years old? It didn’t make sense! Unless… “How long do devils live for?”

“About five-hundred years or so,” Aura said. Ash’s jaw practically dropped to the floor.

That’s right,
Ash recalled,
Goddard said he was two hundred years old! And he doesn’t even look older than forty! If Aura is almost forty, and looks my age, then… The way devils age is complicated.

Suddenly, his mind was swimming with concerns. Since he’d become a half-devil, did that mean his life expectancy went up as well? Would he live to see five hundred? Would he be confined to humanity’s life expectancy? Or would he live to an age somewhere in the middle, maybe around two hundred years? Only time would tell, but it was nerve-wracking to say the least.

“Then what about Shiva?” he asked, thinking the same must be true for her, even though she appeared to be his age as well.

“I think I’m a little older than her,” Aura said. “She’s probably thirty-something.” So many questions abounded in Ash’s mind, but the waitress returned, interrupting their conversation with more drinks and a platter of some kind of food that Aura had ordered. “Here, try one of these!” Aura offered, changing the subject completely.

The foodstuff in question looked like meatballs, although they were covered in a strange dark sauce. Ash stabbed one with a fork and nibbled on it. He couldn’t believe his mouth! The taste! The flavor! It was so much better than anything he’d eaten yet! As he scarfed another and washed it down with the drink Aura offered him, he realized that food outside of the castle must be better than the free spread the castle’s cafeteria had to offer. The uses of spices, sauces, condiments and compliments made the meals so much better. It was obvious that with the castle giving away food for free to all its ‘employees’, little thought or effort was put into making the food actually
taste good.
 

By the time the pair emerged from The Negative Divide Bar and Grill, the artificial sun had already shrunk to half its former size. Ash was insistent on seeing West Hell before sun-out, so the two made tracks in that direction. The border was clearly marked with giant rock formations holding up a large sign that read “Welcome to the West Side”.

After passing into the West
, the terrain changed rapidly. Instead of flat land, it was entirely rocky and uneven. Everywhere Ash looked, buildings were carved into enormous rocks that were too large to move. Instead of wood or concrete, standalone structures appeared to be made out of dried clay. That, or they were simply carved right into the many raised rocky ridges and canyons that made up West Hell. It all reminded Ash of the old western movies he’d sometimes watch on TV.

Vegetation was limited throughout the kingdom, but some of the houses and buildings in the Northern and Eastern sections had flowers or trees adorning their yards. Here in the Western section, the only plant-life to be found was cacti. The pair headed towards the largest cliff they could see. It would have been easy to fly up to the top, but Ash was adamant about walking along one of the many roadways carved into the side of the cliff.

Ash noticed many of the men carried pickaxes and other various tools out of necessity. Along the way, they encountered several food stands and vendor carts peddling various items. One of the food vendors was even selling fresh flame-rainer meat! Ash bought a kebab of the demon dragon, and as he ate the delicious delicacy, he wondered if it came from one of the creature’s
he’d
knocked out of the sky.

‘Hell in My Pocket’ claimed that the West Side was the last section of Hell to be developed, as well as the area requiring the most work. Dynamite was used to blast away large rocks and parts of the canyon, and much of the land was still being developed today. The area that the canyons covered was vast, and when fully developed it would become the biggest section of the kingdom. Of course, they were still hundreds of years from accomplishing full development. This is also why the giant wall did not fully encompass
West Hell, as the many cliffs and mountain ranges complicated matters.

Lo and behold, at the top of the canyon was a small selection of shops and – to Aura’s delight – another bar. They sat near an opening carved in the wall, watching the diminishing sun paint the horizon a brilliant orange. The view from the top was spectacular, almost
as incredible as the view from above, except no effort was required this time as Ash and Aura sat sipping their drinks and admiring the view. Not a bad way for anyone to wrap up a long day in Hell.

As they gazed out at the setting sun, tears began to well in Ash’s eyes. He couldn’t help himself, staring out at the kingdom of Hell, thinking this was going to be his new home. He’d never see his mother or his friends again. He’d never lead a normal, human life. He might even be killed by demons if he didn’t learn to fight better. In a peaceful, serene moment like this it was hard to avoid thinking of such things. This was no video game; this was his
life.

He wiped the tears before they could fall, but Aura managed to catch a glimpse. “Everything okay?” he asked
.

“Ah, yeah,” Ash tried to answer, wiping his face with his jacket sleeve. “It’s just… all of this. It’s been a little harder on me than I care to admit.”