Welcome to Hell

In total, Eve has created 206 hells, About 1 for every 10 heavenly realm worlds. Souls can access each one through an elevator located at the center of each realm city during the weekends. Turen and Xing Yue had arrived relatively early to the elevators that Saturday and thus along with 3000 other residents squeezing into a park-sized elevator, arrived quite early to hell.

"Woahh…" Turen whispered to himself when the doors finally opened after a 10-minute ride downward.

People from all over the world, from different time periods, wearing an array of different clothes, walked down the large central plaza of Hell 200 that stretched nearly a mile in width and endlessly in length branching to thousands of side streets with signs leading to various buildings along the way. Stalls for food, alcohol, and drugs were found everywhere throughout the plaza manned by robots handing these things out like candy. The only lights that could be seen were the lamp lights sporadically spread across the street making it feel like night all the time.

"You want some mushrooms?" Xing Yue asked pointing to one of the stalls where a robot was casually handing out bags of psilocybin.

"You get your nerves back here, so they will actually affect your mind."

"I mean we can. But can't we just get mushrooms back in the heavenly realm?"

"Nah nah, these are different, they're magical." Xing Yue said with a grin as she led Turen to the stall.

"Please enjoy," the robot said handing both Xing Yue and Turen a bag. As it did, Xing Yue immediately popped one of the mushrooms into her mouth.

"Try one,"

"I don't understand; what makes these magi… Ewwwwww."

Turen immediately spat the mushroom back out. As he did, a robot went over to clean up the substances from the ground.

"Nah nah, just eat them all at once, trust me they're magical."

"I don't know if I can, that was disgusting," Turen said still trying to clear his mouth.

"We have this available in juice form as well," the robot that had been cleaning said taking out a bottle of juice and handing it to Turen.

"Oh yeah drink that, drink that, it's magical."

Turen felt the peer pressure from Xing Yue's wide eyes staring at him. Gulping, he began downing the juice.

"Hmmm… not bad. A bit refreshing."

"Ahahaha, ahahahahaha."

"What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing heh-heh," Xing Yue giggled, "How about some alcohol next?"

-1 Hour Later-

"What… what… who…"

"Yes?"

"Who… How…"

"Yes?"

"Who I am?"

Xing Yue cracked up looking at Turen's face as he stared blankly into the flashing lights of some disco balls. After a bit of drinking, a bit of eating, and a bit of smoking unknown substances, the two of them made their way to one of the dance clubs. There, souls dressed up in all sorts of stylish and scandalous attire danced to the beat of the music.

As the music played, Turen was in another world entirely as the environment of the nightclub morbed in his mind appearing as nothing more than rough color splashes.

"Turen are you alright?"

"Who… who you are?"

"Bwhahahaha alright alright you've had too much. I'll get some sobering spray, you gonna be alright by yourself?"

"Why…"

"Yes?

"Why?"

"Yes?"

"Whyyyy aaarrreeee yooouuuuu taaalllkkkiiinnngggg sooooo faaaassstttttt"

"I'm not, you're just tripping."

"Whaaaattttt"

"Iiiiii saaaaiiiiidddddd I'lllll geeetttt soooommeeee spraaaayyyyy tooooo sooobbbeeerrr youuuu uppppp."

"Ohhhhhhh oooookkkaayyyy."

Xing Yue chuckled again as she got up from her seat. Turen was left alone now with just his thoughts.

"Is this real life? Maybe it's just fantasy. Am I really just in a coma right now? Maybe this whole thing is a dream. A hell where you party? Even for an introvert that doesn't seem right. How is any of this real? How can I be sure anything is real? Maybe I'm not real."

"Hey, you're Turen, right? Xiao Turen?"

"Did that cat just talk to me?" Turen thought staring at a couple of paws waving in front of him.

"Hello?"

"What? What is he saying? No no, he's probably just meowing and I'm hearing things, that must be it."

He continued to stare blankly at the cat.

"Turen? Turen can you hear me?"

"Meee…. Meeeee"

"Turen?"

"Meow."

"Jeez, what did that devil girl feed you."

The cat manifested from seemingly nowhere a small grey spray bottle. It raised it up in the air and sprayed it onto Turen's face.

"Huh, what? Where am I?"

In an instant, the psychedelic substances cleared from Turen's mind.

"Ahem, like I was saying," the cat continued, "You're..."

"Holy crap a talking cat!" Turen shouted. A warm fuzzy feeling still pulsed through his body. The spray had wiped out everything except the alcohol still in his system.

"You're literally in hell right now and you're surprised by a talking cat? Humans really are built differently nowadays."

"Are… are you god?"

"Aheh no, but some mistake me as such," the cat chuckled, "You are Xiao Turen are you not?"

"Woah what? How do you know my name?"

"That doesn't matter. Turen would you stand up from your seat and follow me? There is something I would like you to see."

"I don't know…" Turen said eyes squinting, "Can I really trust a talking cat?"

"Yes, yes you can. And even if you can't, what option seems more fun to you. Following a talking cat? Or not following a talking cat."

"Hmm… that is pretty good logic, wait, but what about Xing Yue?"

"It'll only take a minute; you can just say you went to the bathroom."

"Oh okay, let's go!"

He stood up and followed the cat out of the nightclub.

As they continued to walk, Turen noticed that no one else was paying any attention to the cat despite the fact no other animals were in the area, or in all of hell and heaven for that matter.

"Yo…" he said to a random man on the street pointing to the cat.

"You see that cat right? He's talking to me."

The man gave him a weird look before bursting out in laughter.

"Ahahahaha yeah, I've definitely been that high before too."

After the man walked away, the cat got up onto Turen's shoulders.

"Only you can see me Turen," the cat said raising a paw to point Turen in the direction which he should go.

"Uh okay… but where are we going magical cat? You're not going to rob me are you?"

"If you'll remember Turen, money does not exist in this realm. And it is not where we are going, but who we are going to."

"Is this some sort of riddle? I suck at riddles. Shoot, is the answer a pun?"

"Don't think too hard about it," the cat said, "just follow the magical cat. Like Alice or Neo, or whatever's popular in your media. You're a writer right?"

"Oh yeah, that was one of my favorite stories. You know in the original story, Alice supposedly took some… ohhhhhhhhh…."

"Ahem okay, we're here."

Without even realizing it, the cat had led Turen to a part of the road with seemingly no one in sight. In front of them appeared a large tree and a single old deteriorating building.

"Up here," the cat said climbing off Turen's shoulders.

"Wha… what?"

Turen looked up at the tree where the cat sat on a branch.

"I think I'm too drunk to… wait what?"

Like magic, Turen began floating upwards into the tree.

"Grab a branch," the cat said. Turen did just that as the cat clapped its paws and Turen's gravity returned to normal.

"What are we…"

"Quiet," the cat said. It pointed towards the ground. There, walking towards the old deteriorating building appeared a brunette woman in a lab coat with glasses on.

"Ro… Rosa?"

"Follow her," the cat whispered to Turen.

"But…"

"Are you going to question a magical cat?"

The cat waved its paws and Turen suddenly fell to the ground again. As he did, he saw Rosa enter the deteriorating building.

"What?!?! I don't know cat it looks…"

But as Turen looked back up at the tree, he saw the cat had disappeared. As he looked around at his surroundings, he realized he had no idea where he was anymore or how to get back to the nightclub. Not only that, but his memories were now for some reason foggy. How did he even get there?

"Wait… I was just at the club and… something… someone..."

The only thing he could remember was that for some reason, he needed to go into the deteriorating building in front of him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xing Yue stood in line waiting for the sobering spray. The effects of the psilocybin still persisted in her brain as intrusive thoughts began to consume her.

"You'll always be alone; he'll just abandon you too."

"Stop, no, I…" She whispered to herself

"He's not even a soul, he'll forget you when he goes back."

"No, but, we can make memories"

"So what, those times will be meaningless. Your life is meaningless."

"That's not a reason to not try."

"Of course it is! It's easier to give up."

"No, I'm…"

"You're what? You're nothing. That's why you're a devil"

"NOOOOO."

"Here is your spray."

"Huh?"

Xing Yue looked up as she heard a robotic voice.

"Here is your spray."

She didn't realize she had made it already to the start of the line.

"Hey hurry the fuck up, my head is killing me." Someone behind her shouted. Quickly, she grabbed the bottle from the robot and sprayed some on herself. Her head immediately cleared as she began walking back towards the nightclub.

Intrusive thoughts never truly go away though. Not with a past like hers. They persisted in the back of her mind, like a benign tumor, that could at any point turn deadly. When was the last time she felt happiness like she had the past day or so with Turen? When was the last time she genuinely smiled? She just hoped from the bottom of her heart, he wouldn't..."

"Disappear," she whispered as she returned to the table she had left Turen at. A table now empty.

"Did he go to the bathroom? No, he wasn't sober enough for that. Maybe he wandered off on his own? No, there's no way. But what if…"

"You think he awoke from his coma?"

Suddenly from under the table popped the same magical cat that had been with Turen minutes ago. She blinked a few times as memories began flooding back into her head. She then sighed looking at the cat with an annoyed expression.

"Oh… you again?"

"Why how rude dear Xing Yue. Is that any way to treat a cute cat?"

"Sorry, not in the mood. What do you want?"

The cat chuckled.

"It is not what I want Xing Yue, but what you want. You were here with another soul just now no?"

"You know where he is?"

"Oh, I just guided him on a little quest you see."

Xing Yue groaned. She knew this cat too well to know it always wanted to lead people places. The cat smiled as Xing Yue got up and followed it out of the club.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rosa flicked on the lights as she entered the deteriorating building. Inside was a long well-lit tunnel that she walked down until she reached the end where there was a door. She opened that door and...

"Oh my, you're early."

Many throughout history have depicted God in different forms. In many cultures, they say God does not even have a face and is simply present in everything. To Earth's Goddess Eve, however, this seemed a little inconvenient to depict properly. She was often jealous of the forms the creators of the other planets and dimensions were able to take. Just like the structures of heaven modeled after the structures of earth, humans were not created in the god's image, but rather, the goddess created her image from what others thoughts of her.

Therefore, when Rosa came into the room to greet Eve, her figure was exactly what you'd expect for a being of heaven. She wore all-white robes with a halo above her head. On her back were large wings that served no purpose other than aesthetics since she could already fly. She donned long blonde hair and dark brown eyes. She had a tan skin tone trying to imitate a mix of every human race. Her image had changed plenty throughout the years with this current iteration being the cultivation of modern images of God. The only thing consistent about her appearance was a perfectly symmetrical face and perfect body proportions that would fit the beauty standards of any culture. She also had in her hand, a tablet that she was messing around with.

"Did you expect me not to be?"

"Not by this much, I was in the middle of something important."

Rosa looked closer at the tablet, it appeared the goddess was looking up funny pictures of cats.

"Ohhhhh they're just so cute, aren't they? The other deities are jealous of this one I tell you!"

"They're very cute Eve..."

"Just look at this one hahaha. It's Mr. Fuzzyton. Just look at him being so angry about taking a shower. Ahhhhh Mr. Fuzzyton, but it's good for you."

"Right… so anyways, what is this whole ending humanity thing about?"

Eve sighed closing her tablet and setting it down on the table next to her.

"Do you understand the concept of "happiness", Rosa?"

"I have a vague idea but it is a very human concept is it not? One that was only created in the last hundred or so years. I feel from my observations; it is not something other animals concern themselves with."

"Right you are dear Rosa, it is such an arbitrary and ambiguous concept that I can hardly grasp my mind around it. Some say it's the possession of money. Some say it's the pursuit of dreams. How does one even keep track of such a thing? Luckily, we goddesses have a much more concrete concept that better measures what our creatures view as 'happiness'."

"Which is?"

"Morality satisfaction!"

"Huh?"

"Allow me to explain. So unlike all these arbitrary concepts, morality satisfaction is quite a binary one. It just makes everything so much easier to manage. It's the standard measurement after all for this so-called 'happiness' concept that all the deities use."

"I think I have an idea where this is going, but please explain more."

"Right so, morality satisfaction is the binary measure for whether or not if given the choice, a human would choose to stay in their current life or be reborn into another realm. You understand?"

"Sort of. Isn't that just a measure of if humans are suicidal or not?"

"Mmm… close but not exactly. Of all the things on Earth, what is it you think humans fear the most? Spiders? Clowns? Stage Fright?"

"Death I presume?"

"Precisely Rosa! More specifically the unknown, not knowing what will happen next. I dare say that that is the number 1 reason in fact, why more people are not suicidal."

Rosa thought about this for a moment.

"Are you sure? While the fear of death motivates many to keep living, do most people not have something in life to look forward to? A goal, a relation, something to achieve?"

"You'd think that but the data I have collected recently has not shown this at all."

She opened her tablet.

"You see, recently I have been talking with my other realm managers to have their devil girls project in some human dreams an image of the heavenly realm. And let me tell you something.

She pulled up a graph on her tablet.

"70% of subjects were crying when they woke up. Crying. Can you believe it? They want to believe so badly such a place exists and is waiting for them after death. So as much as I want to believe your premise, the data says otherwise. More people nowadays prefer to be rebirthed than to continue living their current lives."

Rosa eyebrows raised again.

"I see. This is an interesting graph, but what do you plan to do then?"

A smirk appeared on Eve's face.

"What do you think I'm planning?"

"I can't think of anything except…"

"That's right!" Eve said, "as I said before, I'm going to end all of humanity!"

"WHAT! You can't!"

A loud voice suddenly shouted as coming into the door behind Rosa was a still drunk Turen who tripped as he walked in.