The InBetween

Six Grueling Hours So Far... (Jacob's POV)

A land with no smiling, joy, and certainly no air conditioner or cool weather of the sort. Across the demonic wastelands and foggy urban areas there was a prison house holding captive dead souls waiting to be deported to the lower circles of hell for their heinous crimes. Well, some for heinous crimes, others for less fair reasons, but darker none the less...

"Please, please for the love of everything unholy. STOP CRYING!" the demon guard pleaded for the little ginger to end his wailing. That only invoked more tears. "Y-You YELLED at me! That's not nice!"

"Well you're being loud. Plus you wont stop crying so I'm gonna yell at you until you do!"

"Well if you yell at me I'm just gonna cry even more!"

The demon clenched her fists, pondering if she should strangle him and his friend right now. It'd certainly quiet down the crying. Just thinking of how his beetroot face would look as his breathing slowly hitched made the demon grin madly. She only refrained knowing it wouldn't really do anything seeing the prisoner was already dead. Jacob made a high-pitched wailing noise and the woman finally had enough. Without a second thought she back-handed the child right across his fat face. "Shut up!" She snapped. She didn't sign up for baby-sitting duty. Yet here she was anyway, once again ditched at the bottom of the barrel.

"Touch him again and I'll tie your tail in knots!" a voice from the corner came through shaky but stern. The demon turned and raised her hand but Tyrone didn't flinch. Instead he spat right in her pale, disgusting face. "EW, GROSS!" She shrieked, backing to the other side of the cell to wipe her face. "What is wrong with you children!?"

Jacob let out another high-pitched wail as his mind replayed the last few event from six hours ago. How did he get himself into this situation? He was a good kid. A good, Christian kid who dedicated all his nine years of living to the lord. He could've and WOULD'VE given more if it weren't cut short. What he truly couldn't grasp is how he ended up specifically HERE of all places.

It's all jumbled together in a horribly placed puzzle piece. It all started with attending a birthday party with his friends, laser tag in the woods. From there it gets confusing. Falling in the river - even if he can't remember it happening - meeting Connie and now suddenly they've been kidn*pped by things called 'shadow-imps', learned they were dead the whole time being lost in the forest and are now in a cell being babysat by some demon waiting to be deported to the second ring of hell where they were gonna play as a sacrificial lamb all in the name of the unholy mother of darkness, Lilith?

Like, can we take a few steps back please?

Jacob would've probably had a panic attack if Tyrone wasn't present with him. At the moment the string bean kid was in the corner, glaring at their captor and challenging her. "What's wrong with you? I thought the satanic forces treat their employees with as much respect they're due. For you it mustn't be much."

It fascinated Jacob how his friend wasn't scared. Sure, he was huddled up with his knees to his chest, but still had the guts to roast a demon.

She snarled at the children before slowly crawling up toward them, speaking in a scary, gremlin voice. "You wanna really know why YOU'RE here instead of any other kid?"

"Good god you're ugly." Tyrone's mouth spoke before his mind. The girl's cheeks flinted pink before backing away, still growling at the children. "You're ugly!" was all she could say.

"Good, take it back a few, than I might listen to what you're saying." Tyrone snarked again.

"TY!" Jacob warned

"Well she was coming up so close. I couldn't help it."

Jacob couldn't argue with his friend. Both because he couldn't afford to fight the only person on his side, and also because he was right. Looking at the girl was quite a task. She had pale, veiny skin with a deep scar crossing over the bridge of her nose. Her disheveled red hair only looked like more of a mess when it was down. In fact, it didn't look like hair. It looked like she saw a red bush she liked one day and adopted it as a wig. A pair of horns poked out of said bush. She wore a red tunic under a black caplet with a hoodie. Her trousers were tucked into her warrior boots which had the insignia of a pentagram on either side. A skinny tail wrapped itself around the demon's leg as she continued to try hide her embarrassment. 

"Got nothing left to spit at us, bushy?" Tyrone asked mockingly. The bushy haired woman just sank further into her knees as the scrawny kid laughed.

Eventually she'd had enough. Forming a smirk on her face, she asked the pair, "Do you boys know why your here?"

"Because you're mean?" Jacob guessed.

The bat-crazy woman just laughed "Because you're expendable!"

The boys stayed silent for a few moments. The demon relished in their doubt and fears. "That's right, you were picked for this prophecy because nobody would miss you."

Tyrone rolled his eyes "You're lying."

"We have a very precise system Tyrone, we selected four of you because barring your family of course, nobody would miss you."

Jacob joined in his friends denial "You are lying."

"Have I lied about anything else so far?"

Jacob hated to admit it, but she really hadn't lied about anything since they got here. This little devil told them where they were, how they got here and explained everything that was going to happen in the next several hours. None of it was pleasant to hear, but it cleared up the confusion and gave Jacob a bit of clarity knowing he wasn't just losing his mind.

"How would you know?" He asked instinctively. "How would you know about who would and would not miss us?"

"It's all in the prophecy," she said with a smirk "Just accept it and move on. You guys weren't popular in school, at home, anywhere else. I'm sure right now nobody's in a rush to find your bodies."

Now Jacob had heard enough. He covered his ears with his palms "Don't talk to me about that. People WILL find us."

"I imagine your bodies are just floating in that river. Completely alone with nobody bothered to look for you."

"Shush up." Jacob said shakily.

"Well, I guess in your case you'd be drifting at the bottom instead of floating." The imp quipped confidently.

That was the last straw for Jacob. But did he scream, attack, at least tell her off? No, the poor ginger began bawling all over again. Tyrone sighed heavily while the woman rattled her head thinking of how to shut him up this time. "Be quiet!" She yelled.

"Nobody would miss me?" The boy cried between hiccups. "How could nobody miss me? The great Jacob Green! Without me, who would Ms. Frey have to chase out of her kitchen every morning at church!"

The demon remembered the last tactic she used to shut Jacob up. She reached over and struck him, the boys wails died down instantly. She giggled to herself before a hand crept up and walloped her on the cheek. She flinched and crawled back in surprise to see Tyrone shooting daggers. "Unlike him, I don't care if you're technically a girl. I'll kick your a*s anyway."

The demon stood up and grabbed Tyrone by his shirt, wringing it around her fingers as she hoisted him off his feet. "Big talk for a string bean like you. You guys may not be able to die, but be damn well sure I'll make you hurt."

Before any t*****e was inflicted upon the boy, a shout could be heard through the steel door "CHAOS! Get those kids out to the wagons! Let's load them up and get them to the second ring!"

Chaos - so that's her name - smiled sadistically and dropped Tyrone to the floor. The boys looked up at her with a mix of hatred and cowardice. Chaos spoke with literal venom on her tongue.

"Time for the prophecy to launch."