CODEX Part 3: Between Heaven and Hell

“She’s not responding,”

Ezekiel has been calling Zoe for two hours straight, at every ten minutes. At first, he thought that she might be busy or that she might be in the bathroom but it’s been two hours already. He was relaxed at first but slowly became irritated and worried.

“She’s probably having some intense conversation with someone,” Eneizar started, his eyes moving on Mehrdir, who seemed to be thinking about a lot of things. Once he took that seat on the couch, he didn't move from it.

He arrived yesterday.

“Or she’s probably having sex with that guy,"

Everyone turned to Gakhas, with different expressions, of course.

“What guy?” Ezekiel asked, his curiosity endless, especially when it was about Zoe’s past.

“You know; the guy she liked when she was in her senior year. It seems everyone expected them to last, even after graduation,” Gakhas started to speak in a voice that pretty much mocked Carley, “I don’t know how he used to look at her, but now-“He chuckled and glanced at Mehrdir, “He definitely likes her,”

Once he finished his sentence, a loud noise came from Zoe’s room. It sounded like someone was trying desperately to get out but fell in the process. Mehrdir could feel his pride fall, as well.

“How was Zoe when you left her?” Iaosur was genuinely curious. He had something to tell her but he didn’t get the chance.

Gakhas hummed and scratched his cheek; he looked like a cat not a demon.

“They were playing with an Ouija board. I lost track of her afterwards. I’ve been called here to help with some small issue, in case you forgot,” The sloth demon retorted.

Oh, Ezekiel hated when Gakhas would get that smartass tone. He had only one job and he just left and forgot about it. He could have gone back after Jasper got retained but no!

Ezekiel sighed and rubbed his forehead. The angel said clearly that Zoe from now was a danger. What did that ‘now’ mean? He regained his confidence when he felt his phone vibrate in his hand. It was an unknown number.

“Yes?” He answered tiredly.

“Ezekiel Addams?”

The human frowned. The voice on the other side was breathing heavily into the phone and giving off that Taken feeling.

“Who’s this?” Ezekiel questioned the man on the other side; whoever he was, he was creepy.

“You may want to come and get your friend. She’s been telling me your name for a while now,"

Ezekiel’s eyes widened and out of reflex, he turned to Mehrdir. That could only mean Zoe was in trouble.

“Where is she?”

He heard the man say only three words.

“Follow her energy.”

His message was delivered so he hung up.

In his apartment, Terrance turned to his master after he did exactly what she told him to. His girlfriend’s dead body was still in the hall, blocking the entrance. It wasn’t a nice view, mostly because he actually stabbed her multiple times and the blood splashed all over the walls.

“Good boy. Now, come here,” She ordered him from the bed. She’s been spending a lot of time thinking about the next step in an ingenious evil plan.

The human walked to her without a word.

“Now, I want you to do a favor for me,” She started, her eyed darkening, “Go and kill everyone she was with yesterday.”

The human nodded, grabbed his knife and went on a killing rampage. She couldn't help but feel excited. The fun was only going to amplify when the others were going to find the massacre and the one responsible for it.

Once Ezekiel told the others about the call, they disappeared, each following their own pattern in unveiling the mystery.

Ezekiel called Chen and they embarked on the earliest train to Essex. While waiting for their stop, Chen pulled out his laptop and hacked the police database system; he really liked doing that, recently.

“Zek, how are we going to find her? She doesn’t have her name in the database so it’s impossible to track her down,” Chen huffed trying again but just like before, her name wouldn't appear anywhere.

Ezekiel sighed and leaned his head back. Everything he could think about was Michael’s so called order/advice.

“What about credit cards?”

Chen took the initiative but found nothing.

“She hasn’t used them. She didn’t buy anything at all,”

Ezekiel closed his eyes and sighed, “Maybe we should wait until the others find her trail,”

Chen rolled his eyes and punched his friend lightly in the ribs.

Ezekiel chuckled and rubbed the sore spot, feeling completely dried out, “Sorry, it’s just- I’m so tired mentally,”

Chen’s eyes softened and he closed the lid to his laptop, “Look, Zek. We’ve been going through a lot of things that I used to think are bullshit. You used to say how much you wanted to find out stuff about the afterlife and even worked at Chris’ shop. I guess none of us really imagined we’d be getting so deep into this, but we did! We have to accept the good and the bad of this life. We have to live every day like it’s the last day of our lives, because it might be! I learned that the hard way!”

Ezekiel opened his eyes and turned to Chen, “When did you become so wise?”

Chen bit the inside of his cheek and stared at his friend with an annoyed expression.

“I’m serious. I know it’s tiring, especially for you who goes crazy if something goes wrong but let’s face it; we love being with these selfish crazy bastards, we love the adventure and trouble that comes with them and we love Zoe.”

“She almost killed you,” Ezekiel added softly.

Chen scoffed, “Actually, she did kill me. I was dead for a few hours but she brought me back. Twice! I owe her trust. She’s my friend.”

Ezekiel sighed and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“So what do you plan to do?”

“Trust her now. Trust her judgment or at least, try to understand.” Chen’s sincerity and loyalty was really touching.

Until he opened the lid and saw something disturbing on his screen.

“I found her.” He frowned when he read the document, “She’s been hospitalized two days ago. She was brought in a very bad shape and she got a heart attack and died. But something is wrong here. It says that she’s been discharged 12 hours later.” Chen turned to his friend with confusion all over his face, “She left on her feet, like nothing happened in the first place,"

Ezekiel licked his lips, feeling a knot form in his stomach Before he got the courage to ask, “Who signed the papers for her?”

Chen turned back to his laptop and typed.

“Herself. She’s an adult so she signed the papers herself,”

Well, that was a boomer. She could have gone anywhere.

In Hell, there are a lot of places reeking of blood and death. As most people imagine, Hell isn’t just a pit anymore. Much like in the Upworld, demons are very greedy and want to have their own portion of land where they can do whatever they want. That's why the place split in eight domains. Whatever is left outside these domains is called void and is full of demons and souls that have nothing and can rot for eternity.

The fanciest, largest domain is Lucifer's. No one really dares to combat the importance of the first fallen angel. He resides in a manor and above the manor is a Hell hole. That means he can easily go wherever he wants and so can his demons. Most demons under him are beasts under a pretty cover. They are shallow and selfish but they ask before they kill. They are good informants and blend in anywhere. The whole domain is silent most of the time. Vanity demons create chaos outside of the domains, where they show their true nature.

Second best is Mammon. He does live like a prince. He has a castle and servants, also a room of gold since he loves shining things. He has a tendency to overreact.

He shares his domain with Beelzebub. That is the main reason why no one knows where Beelzebub's domain actually is. A large number of his current demons are from different domains. Greed demons tend to leave their master or go rogue for their own pleasure; they are easy to influence.

Beelzebub lives in a cave that looks pretty much like a shit hole yet he manages it very well. Most of his important belongings are in his domain, wherever that is. He hates Abaddon with his whole being because Abaddon tried to kill his former human lover. On the other side, he helped Abigor leave Belial and become a rogue demon. Beelzebub is the one who gave Adam, Eve and all other pre-Christian souls to Jesus. In exchange, no one knows what he got; that is his secret.

Satan and Leviathan have their domains close to each other so their demons bicker a lot. Satan's domain is bloody and loud while Leviathan prefers to torture his victims in between worlds. The gate of hell is practically the only thing that separates their domains. Souls are very troublesome when they don't get where they want to which gives Leviathan the freedom to get in and out of the purgatory, thus helping him gain souls.

Satan doesn't have any problem. Souls come to him and people sell their souls to his demons a lot; the ones who commit suicide also get to him, so he has plenty. It is a known fact that Satan despises Lucifer because humans tend to make them the same person. You never see the two in the same place.

Satan doesn’t like Belial and his ways of manipulating Lucifer into fighting angels. One might say that he’s scared to face an angel in a battle.

Belphegor has a small domain. It's probably the most chaotic because he doesn't bother to control his demons. However, most sloth demons are very smart and manipulative. They seem like they go in the Upworld only to satisfy their pleasures but they actually do work. Belphegor has quite a loyal crew; not even one demon left him; ever.

Belphegor has three demons that do everything in his place; one of them is Gakhas.

Asmodeus has two domains. His, which is practically the place he drawns in pleasures and Neverland. Neverland is as big as Lucifer's domain and the only sounds that come out of there are screams and groans.

One loud voice screaming for her life in Neverland is Zoe's. Asmodeus took her personally to a torture chamber and pushed her on a chair. He tied her hands and legs with chains before he got back in order to admire his work. She didn't even bother to escape because she knew she had no chance to get out of Neverland on her own.

The cell she was in looked more like a dungeon. It smelled bad and it looked like some kind of bad experiment took place in there. There was a table in the far corner with a few cans on it; she was sure there was blood in the cans.

Unfortunately, there was also a table near to the door with different utensils on it; torture utensils. Zoe gulped and turned her attention on Asmodeus. He tilted his head to the side and kept that ugly smile on his face as his eyes traveled over her body, choosing where to begin. He got closer and grabbed her feet. She frowned when he took her shoes off and threw them in the back.

"Much better," He commented.

She was left barefoot on cold stone; actually, the cell didn't have any windows but air was coming from somewhere because it was cold.

Asmodeus made a sign to a random demon and told him to start the fun. The demon grabbed a knife off the table and plunged it deep into her side. Her eyes widened but she didn't scream. It hurt like heck but she didn't want to give him the joy of hearing her scream.

Asmodeus didn't like that.

"Isn't this fun, Zoe?"

In return, she spat on his feet in spite and hatred.

Asmodeus' happy face dropped before he took the knife and plunged it in her chest, spinning it a little. Her eyes hardened and she spit out blood. It was horrible.

"Why don't you let me hear how fun this is?" He asked through gritted teeth.

She could barely move but she hit him in the forehead with her head. The slave demon immediately went to his master's aid.

"You little-" The hit was pretty hard and he was going to have a sign there but instead of being angry, he started to laugh.

She was confused how wicked someone could be. The demon prince threw the knife aside and took one step towards her.

"Leave us." He commanded. The demon left and locked the door behind him.

Zoe gulped when she saw his eyes. They were indeed the eyes of the owner of Neverland. She could see death written all over his face and it was terrifying.

In one swift motion, he punched her in the face. She wasn't used to that kind of treatment so she fell unconscious right away. Asmodeus couldn't have that happen so early so he touched her forehead and woke her with a jolt. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head close.

"You won't be able to faint anymore. You will feel every spark of fear and wave of pain." He hissed as he started to punch her and kick her like she was a boxing sack. Blood was oozing out of her nose and mouth while her hands were gripping the chair tightly.

After he got happy with the way her face seemed to be painted with blood, he walked towards the table. Whatever he took looked like a syringe containing something in it, some unknown substance. She couldn't see well but she felt him move her head to the side and plunge the syringe in her neck. Once the liquid slipped inside, her eyes widened and she screamed.

Asmodeus couldn't contain his happiness. He smirked as he prepared another dose, "Now you're finally enjoying it, huh?"

She wanted to faint, her eyes were rolling back and forth and she was in a situation where her body wanted to give up yet it couldn't. That was the worst torture.

She didn't know just how much time passed while being stabbed and scratched. After he heard her cry out, he called other demons that started to play with her and exercise different types of torture. The worst part was that she had to stay awake through it all.

At some point, one of the demons stabbed her close to her heart and she fainted. Asmodeus was in the back, enjoying every second of her pain, his eyes watching her carefully as the sounds of intense pain were filling the room. After how brave she seemed with her demons around, it was quite a pity to see her acting so weak. She wasn't fighting back at all; not that she could.

The demons were ready to wake her up when Asmodeus interfered, "Wait. Let her sleep and gain some kind of strength. This is getting boring,"

The demons nodded and left. The lust prince stared at her bloody figure for a few more minutes before he got called outside.

She probably fell unconscious because she woke up when she got splashed with water, or so she thought at first; she realized later that it was benzene and gripped the chair hard as she tried to prepare for the pain.

With a sick smirk on his face, Asmodeus lit her on fire. Her screams were very loud and could be heard echoing through the whole prison. It was scary, even for the other souls.

She didn't know for how long she squirmed in that seat but she never expected to get the kind of pain that would never cease, only increase. It was hard; she was living a never ending nightmare.

"Master, there's a vanity demon here," Asmodeus turned to the slave that interrupted his fun and ordered him to continue, "It's from Lucifer. He wants the human,"

The lust prince was visibly disappointed.

"Take her in her cell," He ordered his demons.

They nodded and took the chains off. She couldn't even stay on her feet and had to be dragged like a rag doll. It was both embarrassing and pitiful.

Once locked up safely in her old cell, she crawled near the wall and used it as support to get on her bottom. She looked bad and her clothes were torn apart; her hair was wet and some of it was burnt; her side hurt but not as bad as her chest. It was hard to breathe and move her right hand.

Zoe wished she was dead; for real.