The InBetween

Seventeen Steps Into The Abyss (Connie's POV)

Connie felt a pit of emptiness in her stomach when they descended the final steps. As they travelled Limbo for the entrance to hell, thoughts of her mother raced through her mind. She pondered about turning around and going upstairs to her again. I mean, she was giving up UTOPIA for this. Were Tyrone and Jacob worth this? Not to her, but when she looked at Miguel, the hope in his eyes even as they were facing the stone steps to Hell amazed her. That's when she reminded herself: She was doing this for closure. For Miguel, not Jacob and Tyrone. Miguel and Miguel only. Which was fine by her.

"Okay dear," Death smiled at Life madly, the kind of smile where you just can't wait to see your friend's poorly thought-out plan collapse in the most hilarious way "Run that plan by me one more time, please."

"So, we're gonna disguise as demons bringing in the last of the sacrifices. We'll be led to wherever they're keeping Tyrone and Jacob and once we find them, we'll abolish those disguise and bust out! Divine style!" Life said, grinning proudly about his plan.

Death chuckled "This should be entertaining."

"Wait, 'divine style?' What's that?" Miguel asked.

"You'll see." Life replied. Then he began his shapeshifting into a demon. He shrunk in size as red magic flowed around him, sprouting a tail and horns. His eyes changed into a venomous red color and his jumpsuit was replaced by a red color-themed tunic and trousers, with black boots and a cloak to match with a pentagon insignia on it. Death copied Life's actions and in minutes Miguel and Connie were cornered by two ferocious looking demons.

"Not bad." Miguel said. 

"Thanks!" Life chirped before taking Miguel's bag of necessities and with a puff of smoke, made it vanish.

"Hey!" the boy cried.

"It's not gone. Just concealed. To make the k********g more authentic." Death explained, shuffling his blood colored, almost reptilian wings about.

"I promise you'll get it back once we're in the clear and find your friends." Life consoled before pinning the boy's arms behind his back. Death did the same with Connie and the girl had to hold in her whimper from how violent the two were being.

Without any last words exchanged, the group disembarked the stairs toward stuffy, un-ending darkness. 

Connie felt herself break out into a heavy sweat, either from nerves or from the unrelenting heat they felt the closer they got. "Can I have my arm to wipe my forehead?" she asked her 'captor.' He set her left arm free and as much as she scrubbed her face her brow wouldn't dry. By the time they reached the end of the staircase the kids were already finding it hard to breathe.

"Try to stay calm guys," Life re-assured them. He looked over at his partner and coughed in the obvious type of way when your hinting at someone to either do something or just to get their attention. In this case it was Death he was trying to alert. The pale demon rolled his eyes and flipped his cloak a few times, allowing a bone-chilling breeze to hit the human pair. "That better?" He asked, but seemingly wasn't eager for an answer.

"I'm freezing." Miguel said.

"Death!" Life called nudgingly.

"Well it's not like this thing has temperature control!" He said defensively before taking Connie's arm back and leading the kids towards the gate.

These grand gates were made entirely of bones, skulls at the top used for decoration. Although they didn't have eye sockets, Connie couldn't bare to look too long in fear that something would be looking back.

Life forcefully pushed open the sturdy entrance and the four went through, braving it through the wastelands and quietly passing any dingy neighborhoods. At one point some sort of demon battle took place in the sky, tridents clashed and fire balls were tossed at innocent bystanders as the pair dueling in the sky cackled and tried to kill each other. "Just another day, I presume." Death commented at Hell's surprisingly unproductive day.

"Yeah," Life agreed "You'd think everybody would be preparing to make it to the hole or even the second ring what with the revival of Lilith and all."

"Maybe it's because they don't have all the sacrifices?" Connie estimated.

"I guess they don't," Death conquered "Not yet, at least."

Another while passed by until they made it to a grand central prison. "This is it," Life explained "Here is the place most souls would be waiting at until they get sent to lower rings."

"Is this where Jacob and Tyrone are being kept?" Miguel asked. Connie tried not to let his voice breaking get to her. To think she said in a fit of anger that they DESERVED to be in a place like this...

The prison house looked like a old monastery, wilting away as chips of stone fell off the sides. Two burly demons standing by the doors and glared at the four as if they were trying to shoot them.

"What do you fools think you're doing standing here?" One with tattoo's all over his face said.

"Hello fellow colleagues!" Life cheered as they walked closer "We're with the...uh...shadow-imp g**g? These two here are the pure souls to bring back our mommy dearest Lilith. We're just gonna walk in and put them with the other two for safe-keeping!"

If the guards didn't suspect them before, they certainly did now. Connie knew the plan would go side-ways the minute Life said 'mommy dearest.'

"Isn't it a SHADOW-IMP'S job to find the sacrifices?" The other guard with a mustache asked.

"Uh, yeah, usually. But y'know...we wanted to do it. You waited so long for the other pair of souls we thought 'Ugh, enough waiting. We'll find them ourselves!' And we did, you're welcome."

"He's telling the truth." The tattooed man remarked "Those stupid imps were made with one purpose and they still can't fulfill it right!" That caused the guards to break out in boisterous laughter.

Life laughed with them. Death only let out a chuckle. The same 'aha' he did when Life explained the plan, but far less enthusiastic. "Well, um, we'll just be taking these lambs inside now." Life said, pushing through the pair but was stopped abruptly. 

"You're a little too late I'm afraid." The mustachio man retorted.

"What- how are we late you guys don't close like- ever!" Life stammered through with nervous chuckles

"No, I mean the last two lambs have been taken care of."

"What does that mean?" Miguel was the one to speak up this time, much to everyone else's dismay. 

"It means, the pair have already been hauled off to the second ring," Mustache guard crouched to Miguel's height to taunt him more "You're friends have likely already been tied up for the s*******r in Lilith's dark castle. That is, if they weren't baked alive while on the way there."

"What does THAT mean?" He sounded worried before, but Connie was now detecting anger in his voice.

"Baked? It means the portal to the second ring cooked your friends ALIVE, boy! Well, not ALIVE when you really think about it, but you know what I mean."

"I wouldn't be surprised if the mutants of that ring ate their roasted flesh on arrival." The tatted up man joked.

"Yeah, I mean did you see that fat one? You KNOW he cooks nicely."

SLAP!

The mustached guard stared in disbelief as Miguel's red handprint slowly formed on his cheek. The shade matched Miguel's tone too, now beetroot with rage.

"WELL, we'll just take our sacrificial lambs to go then, huh? C'mon kids!" Life took Miguel's arm back but the guard demons were not done. Mustache man grabbed the boy by only his hoodie and managed to pull him out of Life's grasp. Life took out a scarlet trident he had concealed and pointed it at the guards. They did the same. Death stood back and awaited the fight.

"Uhm, a little help?" Life urged under his breath.

"There is a difference between participating and actually helping. I am only a participant."

"Are you serious?!" Connie muttered to the reaper.

"I only agreed to this plan because I wanted to see how Life was gonna pull it off. I never said anything about actively DOING things to help."

"You've done about dozen things already though!"

"Yeah but none of that involved much moving around."

Although Connie wanted desperately to help too, her feet only allowed her to stay put behind Death as Miguel, Life, Mustache man and tatted man dueled it out. The girl found it a bit unfair how the demons were mainly aiming for Miguel, but Life had him backed up at almost every strike. At one point when Life took on the two while using their tridents as swords Miguel snuck around and walloped the hairy demon over the head with his shoe. Being smaller meant he could get away a lot quicker, so when Mustachio chased Miguel the boy lead him far from the prison house.

Life meanwhile seemed okay, when he wasn't using the trident for fencing he used the tips to blast his enemy in the face. Despite that, Connie wanted to help. "Hand me the backpack." Connie asked the demon reaper.

"Why?"

"We need a diversion. Tyrone and Jacob don't have all day."

Death brought his hand out and suddenly with a 'poof' the bag Miguel brought was in sight and handed to her. She opened it to be met with hot air and steam leaving it, waltzing up into an oblivion. 

"What-"

"Those ice bags you packed didn't stand a chance." Death stated simply, watching on with the fight.

"But you made it DISSAPEAR."

"No, I CONCEALED it. It couldn't be seen, but it was still there the whole time."

As Connie rummaged through what they could find, she made a mental note NOT to let Death carry their stuff from now on. She pulled out a bottle of orange juice Miguel packed. She waved in the air and called for the men's attention "I bet you guards never get a break!"

Just with a brief glance in her direction, they were already spellbound by the fact she had an actual DRINK with her. "Forget this! Gimme!" Mustachio said before sprinting in Connie's direction. The girl threw the bottle as far as she could, leaving the two guards to fight for it like vultures fighting for scraps of flesh in the desert. Miguel walked back, shocked. "That wasn't our only-"

"Of course not! You packed them remember?" She gave one to Miguel and Life, offering to Death who declined "The orange leaves a distasteful color on my teeth afterward." He explained.

"Some help you were." Miguel muttered, chugging down the bottle. Connie couldn't blame him. He had bragged about drinking thirteen glasses of these before and understood how. It was so addictive.

"What? You couldn't handle them yourself?" Death teased.

"Of course I could!" Miguel snapped.

Death nodded with slight judgment and uncertainty "So, the second ring then, huh?"

"Seems most logical..." Life said. Connie could tell he was unsure his plan would work anymore.

"Hey, that was good fighting you guys did back there. And I'm certain Tyrone and Jacob haven't been eaten. We just gotta get to the second ring and find them in...what was it called again?"

"Lilith's dark castle," Death answered. "Let's go, we've got a lot of ground to cover before we make it to that portal."

As the four trudged on, Connie's brain replayed her fight with Miguel from hours prior. She didn't want to think about it, but she couldn't help but keep hearing what was probably the most horrible thing she's ever said: '...you and your stupid friends that I'm not even surprised are in hell.'

The fact Miguel didn't punch her in that moment, and instead begged for her help later just proved to her that the boy was leagues more mature than she could ever be.