Walking into Hell

The days rolled by, and Axel started to wonder whether Marcus will make him stay there in paradise land; he wished he would just make him work in one of their companies, but didn't think Marcus would be fine with it. Knowing Marcus, he would keep Axel close to him until he achieved his objectives, whatever they may be.

A week was left before the appointed time, and Axel had his hands full with the household stuff in case he had to stay with Marcus at their home. The most expected outcome was the Sogris Hills, which takes its name after the city. Axel even went to the extent of almost asking the lady next door who ran a bakery to stay with them; Axel didn't want to leave his mother behind, and alone at that. Luckily, that day, he had an eventful visit from his aunt Clara, Lily's elder sister, who also lost her husband a few years back; she lived a few cities away from them and had come to visit Lily and Axel for a few days after she heard about Benny's death.

'Lady luck shines on me again.' Axel thought to himself. If his thoughts had a face, he would be smirking with a mischievous look in his eyes. "Oh! Aunt Clara, what a pleasant surprise! How are you doing?" Axel spoke with a smile on his face and affectionate eyes, completely concealing his intentions of finding his prey.

Axel had little memories of Clara; she visited them once or twice a year and stayed for a while, and Axel knew she had a sweet spot for him, and he was dead set on using it to its utmost limits. 'Aunt Clara, you are a lifesaver. I am sorry, but you might have to change your residence here.' Axel's heart was in the right place; he knew that Clara had been living alone, and without a child, she felt uncomfortable with living with her in-laws. It would be a good choice for her to move into their house so that she and his mother could keep each other company.

Axel made lunch for three for the first time that day; it was a new experience for him. 'Is this how it would feel to cook for all of us if dad was still here?' Axel asked himself. Axel set the table for three. He called his mother and aunt to eat their dinner, and Axel pretended not to have noticed the reddish eyes of both sisters when they came out of the room and started serving them food. Lily, on the other hand, tried hard to avoid thinking about Benny's absence when she saw the table set for three.

"Why don't you stay with us, Aunt Clara? It would be nice to have you here." Axel asked with his best pleading puppy dog eyes. But Clara's eyes were regretful as she gently brushed it off by telling Axel to stop with his flattery. 'Did I jump the gun a bit too soon?' Axel felt like he had wasted his chance; he didn't want to force her, so he decided on his former plan of convincing the bakery lady. "I am fine with it." Lily said this to both Axel and Clara's surprise, but her expression didn't change a bit. Looking at Clara's reaction, he understood that there was some kind of tension between them, but he didn't bother with that; what mattered now was his chance to win her over.

"See? Even Mom is fine with it. Just make up your mind already! I'll even let you use my room when I start working in the Paradise lands." Axel looked into his mother's eyes to see her reaction, but it seemed like she had already read Axel like a book the moment he asked Clara to stay. "How sweet of you, Axel? To keep looking after your mother like this." Clara found it obvious what Axel was going for, but she still found it adorable.

Axel turned red in embarrassment and stuffed his mouth with food. Clara looked sad, as if she were guilty of even being there. "Well, I think it's not that big of a deal; I am living by myself anyway, and I like your cooking, Axel." At the second part, she changed her tone to surprise; she just wanted to change the subject. Axel got what he wanted, and though he was curious about the story that was left unsaid, he knew it wasn't a good one and stayed put. "Of course it is! You have no idea how much I practiced for it," Axel brags with a smug look on his face.

Clara went back the next day to pack up the important stuff; she didn't have much, so she decided to give them off to a nearby charity group and took back only the important and valuable stuff like documents and a few small jewels she had for emergencies. She came back to Sogris in three days. And by the time she returned, Axel had found a few trustworthy shops and people and introduced his mother to their stores and shops, most of which were food-related.

The day was finally upon Axel—the day he had to leave his home and go along with Marcus. He had a hard time keeping Lily and Clara at home and stopping them from coming to send him off, where they might run into Marcus and his men; Axel was dead against that idea. He bid his farewell among rivers of tears, an infinite list of things to keep in his mind, and countless reminders to look after his health. Axel put up a strong front, but when he was sure he was outside his mother's sight, Axel started to tear up and constantly wiped it off with his shirt sleeves. He felt terrible, but what choice did he have? His instincts were screaming at him to never let his family get caught up in Marcus' attention.

When he reached the place, he saw Marcus, his men, and a few other men there who also seemed to have been recruited by him. Marcus was talking to one of his men when he noticed Axel walking in with a backpack. "Hey, kid! You actually made it here by yourself. I was actually looking forward to having a meal at your house before leaving and escorting you personally on our way back," Marcus said, shifting his gaze to Axel, who still felt ominous about everything about him. Though what he said sounded like he actually cared about Axel, none in that group actually bought that crap.

"No! It would have been a burden for you, so I came by myself." Axel matched his tone and replied to him the same way he did. He didn't forget to put a smile on his face, just like Marcus, but the next moment, Axel heard a ringing in his ear, and the world started to spin around him, and he was wobbling. Marcus didn't take a liking to Axel's reply and slapped his face in the blink of an eye with a thud, and his hands were big enough to cover his whole face. Everyone else halted whatever they were doing and stood quietly, even his own men. No one did a thing for a while, and there was only silence. Axel regained his balance and looked at Marcus with a look of fear, confusion, and submission. Marcus took a deep breath and went back to smiling.

"There was a mosquito on your cheek." Axel, who was utterly terrified of Marcus, didn't dare to provoke him again. "Yeah, thank you." That put Marcus in a good mood. "Hey, Billy! I'll tag along with this kid on our way back; you go ahead," Marcus told the man he was talking to earlier. Shivers ran down Axel's spine like they never had before. He wanted to cry; he wanted to run; he wished he had gone the long way home the other day; he wanted to escape, yet he couldn't do a single thing because he knew it would be pointless and had already resigned himself to whatever misery he was about to face.

A while after they started moving to the Sogris Hills, Marcus was walking in the back with his arms over Axel's shoulder; he was coming quietly beside him after Marcus' treatment. "Why the long face? Did something bad happen? Or... do you miss your home already?" Axel just nodded, looking at the ground. He felt like he would be strangled to death at any moment and was extremely wary of Marcus' mood. "And, by the way, did you kill our captain Drake?"

Marcus, who had acted like a happy-go-lucky till now, suddenly dropped his entire act and looked like a serpent about to kill and swallow its prey. Axel felt like he was suffocating to even breathe; his legs felt like straws about to break; and he couldn't even think; he felt like he was about to die. While the rest of the group slowly went up the hills, Axel was held back by Marcus, and in a minute, it was just them and the forest, and the sun was about to go down. Axel was the prey standing in front of his predator; depending on Marcus' decision, he could brace himself for a world of abuse in the future or brace himself to move on to the afterworld. But the choice wasn't even his; he was completely overwhelmed with fear.

"Aren't you going to answer?" It wasn't a question but a warning, and Axel was too scared to even think of a single word. "Now... tell me whether you did or did not kill Drake, the man I asked you about the other day." Even if his mind went blank, his body knew exactly what to do to live. He shook his head.

"I will be observing you for a "long" while, until I am sure you weren't the cause of his death, and until then you will be under my "personal care," "If I find out that you were the actual reason, or if you run away, you might have to say goodbye to your mother too, got it?"

Axel was horrified and felt like he had lost everything the moment Marcus hinted at his mother. Axel wished to keep his mother away from Marcus, but now that both their lives depend on how Axel acts from now on, he feels like the weight of the whole world is crushing his body into smithereens.

Axel and Marcus reached the camp, and it seemed that Marcus was actually the king of the bunch. While the others who were brought along with him were sent to dorms, Axel was taken along with Marcus to his cabin. The cabin was more than enough for two people to live more than just comfortably, just not lavishly. Axel didn't do a thing; he didn't put his bag down, he didn't move around, and he didn't utter a word.

"You will be my personal butler, and you will look after the cabin and run errands that I give you; this will be your job. I am not a monster; I will pay what I promised you." This was the first time he heard Marcus talk like a sane person. You will sleep on the couch for now, till you get a mattress to put on the floor, and I am reminding you just in case you try to pull something under my nose... Markus' tone felt like a snake hissing before it bites. He just stopped the sentence; he didn't have to complete it. Axel knew what Marcus was capable of, if not worse; he didn't want to put his mother's life at risk. "Yes sir!" Axel answered without even thinking; he didn't have a choice anyway.

A few days went by, and Axel had started to learn to do his jobs, but he felt others avoiding him like a plague, and the reason was an obvious one: he was under Marcus' radar, and not a single sane person would want Marcus to even vaguely identify them. That wasn't all; Marcus had done a thorough check-up on him; he even knew he cooks well. Axel was alarmingly shocked when Marcus told him to cook for him, as if he already knew for a fact that he cooks well. Axel's brain went wild, listing out every possible candidate who could have given him the information, but what he was sure of was that it was definitely one of his neighbors. With no option given, Axel started to cook, and Marcus; requests kept getting harder and harder. Axel made it a goal to find the person who sold his family to a brute like Marcus.

Once he planned a bonfire behind the camp and was drinking with a few of his men who seemed close to him, and two of the six men were squad leaders, excluding Marcus, who was a captain. Marcus ordered Axel to cook a lot of food, and by a lot, he meant prepare enough food for twenty people, all by himself. And the worst part was that everyone in that group was clearly above him; he didn't have the leisure to get on their bad side.

When Axel joined there, on his first day, he was informed about the hierarchy in the Reapers; it started with 'The Father', or the big boss of the Reapers, followed by the five pillars: commanders, captains, squad leaders, squad members, and members. The servants were non-members who just worked as maids and butlers.

Things went from bad to a nightmare that day. Marcus, who was drunk, suddenly got enraged and started beating up Axel. He screamed that Axel was the reason for Drake's death, and if he had just told them the other day, he could have saved him. Marcus went on rambling while beating Axel. First a punch to his stomach, a knee to his stomach, a slap on one side, and a kick on the other, and it continued for not more than three minutes, but for Axel, who was beaten to the point he lost consciousness, it felt like hours had passed before he was thankful for losing consciousness, not realizing he was still being beaten. While all this happened, none of Marcus' 'friends' stepped in; it was more like they didn't want to get involved with him when he was enraged.