Chapter 2

3 years ago

‘Dirt’ woke up. Eyes bleary, he blinked slowly, his mind dredging up his most recent memories. The floor beneath him was hard, smooth, much unlike the rough platform he used to lay on. The incessant moaning, the shuddering of pain...it had all stopped. A silence he was unused to permeated the air. The smell of wet dirt hit him, and a cold wind blew across his face.

Then he truly woke up.

Dirt scrambled to his feet, eyes rapidly darting as he assessed his immediate surroundings, the memories fresh in his mind. He’d met an angel, one that looked different, and the very same angel had knocked him unconscious, he now realised.

Heart thudding inside his chest, he saw that he was inside a wooden shack. It was clean. Dirt had never truly known what that had meant, being a denizen of hell all his life. Until now.

The walls were a smooth brown, reflecting the dim light from outside the open door. Not a speck of dirt lay in sight. Polished wood sparkled in the light.

He realised he was alone in this shack. A table sat at the far end , by the wall, and the door was wide open, letting in dim light from the clouded sky outside.

He didn’t recognise this place. And he knew this wasn’t hell. Granted, he had never really travelled through hell and seen all there was to see, but he doubted such a clean place existed there. His heart beat a little faster.

Walking outside carefully, he could see that the shack was surrounded by a small garden, the various colourful flowers shining with dew. The smell was extremely pleasing, and bees buzzed around, chasing each other.

The garden was walled off, with a wooden gate locked shut that led outside. He couldn’t see outside, with the wooden fences being tall and well stuck together. Vines crawled their way up around the fences and moss covered the gate.

He felt a tingling behind his neck. He was alone, for all purposes he could see, but the feeling didn’t go away. Scratching his neck, he walked over to the overlarge fence and looked up.

Memories came crashing down on him. The pain. The sorrow.

He instinctively knew what to do. Sorrow rushed out from his core, coiling around his legs. With muted surprise, he realised there was a lot more in his core now than he had initially thought.

He knelt down, tensing his legs, preparing to jump. His sister was waiting for him. He had to get back.

Then he felt a hand wrap around his shoulder.

He could not move.

Quite literally, his body refused to move. Fear boiled within him. He could move his eyes, he realised, as he tilted it to look to the side.

There was someone there, holding onto him. The man let go of his vice group, and Dirt stumbled to the ground, shaken.

On the ground, he could see the man clearly. Not the angel that had kidnapped him, he could tell that much.

The man’s eyes, hair and skin were an unsettling grey. He wore brown clothes, but they weren’t torn or dirtied, like the ones found worn in hell. His gaze was sharp, unforgiving, and it pinned Dirt to the ground.

He wet his lips.

“Come with me, boy”, he said, already walking towards the shack, not even bothering to look back. And why should he? Dirt had no choice in the matter.

His voice had been rough, gravelly. It remained Dirt of a knife scraping stone.

He slowly got back on his feet, and walked behind the man, towards the shack. He didn’t know what awaited him. Death, maybe? No that couldn’t be right, they would’ve killed him already, if that were the case. Experimentation? Would they tear open his body to poke around?

His fear reached a peak, then all of a sudden it wrapped around itself, numbing him. Huh.

Entering the shack, he was surprised to find the table was laden with stuff. When had that happened? Was it the man? He didn’t know what these were, but from the utterly tantalizing smell wafting from the table, he had a guess as to what it was.

Dishes. That was something the angels consumed. Food combined and worked upon to form something more delicious than the sum of its parts.

It was something that couldn’t even be fathomed, back In hell. There had been nothing to eat, save perhaps the herbs and shrubs that grew on one side of the city. But those had been...quite terrible, to say the least. Not much sustenance, some were downright poisonous, and they were guarded by a faction who’d taken over that area. Sorrow was more preferable.

But this? This was heaven. Saliva dripped from his mouth and he walked towards the table in trance, aware of the grey man standing besides it, but not caring. His stomach growled. Hunger? No. A primal need, perhaps.

He stood there, taking in the smells, wondering at the sight when he was suddenly jolted out of his trance by a rough voice.

“Sit down”, the man said, gesturing at a chair.

He pulled out a chair and sat down slowly, eyes locked on the man.

He stared back and uttered a single word.

“Eat”

And that was enough.

Dirt dug in. Flavours exploded inside his mouth, and he chewed greedily, unminding of the juices that dribbled down his face. He was quite literally face down on the plate, eating it with his mouth and quite occasionally, his grubby hands.

Tears flew down freely. This was the best thing that had ever happened to him. A small part of his brain was ashamed at what he was doing, succumbing to temptation instead of finding a way out. That was a very small part, drowned out by the rest of his brain screaming for more.

Dirt had experienced joy in his life before. Hell wasn’t a place where you found yourself pleased all the time, but as someone who had lived there all his life, he learned to take joy in the simplest of things, where he could find them.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

This was nothing like that. His heart thundered inside his chest, but this time it wasn’t due to fear or sorrow. It was due to a tidal rush of joy, of pleasure, that ravaged through his body. A part of his mind realised that food shouldn’t taste this good, else everyone would be eating it all the time, but he couldn’t bring himself to follow that thought. This. Was. Bliss.

And again, something broke inside of him. A small rush of a foreign energy rushed through his body, burning but cleansing, and passed along into his core.

A different core, he realised. It wasn’t the same one that contained his sorrow.

With a rush of feeling, his fear burgeoned. Something had happened to him, much like the other day, and he clenched his eyes shut, bracing for the transformation.

Nothing. Nothing at all.

Warily opening his eyes, he could see that he had consumed all the food in the table around where he was seated. A low chuckle from his right drew his eyes towards the grey man, who had a mirthful look in his eyes.

“A cursed one wields joy. If only those damned priests could see you now.”

Dirt didn’t know what he meant by that. He only knew that something significant had happened, something that would change his life forever. His mind went to thoughts of his sister, but he couldn’t voice his thoughts. Couldn’t bring himself to. Not in front of this man.

They looked at each other, silently.

Then the man spoke.

“What do they call you, boy?”

Dirt wet his lips. “Dirt”, he replied.

The man scowled. “The mud beneath my feet. A fitting name in the past, but no longer.”

The man paced around the room. Then he stopped, a wry smile forming on his lips.

“I shall call you kaleb.” The man turned to look at him. “This shall be your new name.”

“Where are we?” the question blurted out of his mouth, unbidden.

“Nowhere. It does not concern you right now.”

“I want to go back. Home.”

The words kept coming now. They leapt out of his mouth, each one bringing a new life to the flame of fear that lingered inside his chest.

This was real. He was away from home, away from his sister. Inside a shack with some stranger who worked with the angel who had kidnapped him.

Thoughts flew into his mind again, and he dreaded what was to come. What had been in that food? Some sort of drug? To make him fall unconscious?

Some part of him realised that there would be no need for this man to sedate him by food; he could easily overpower him like the gnat he was, but he didn’t linger on that.

The man smiled grimly.

“Kaleb. This shall be your new home. You have been given a chance most people in your position would kill for. Rejoice, child, for your so far meaningless life is about to find meaning.”

Dirt frowned. He was Dirt. Despite the overwhelming fear and the words of the man that had barely registered in his mind, no one was going to take that from him. It was who he was.

Thinking about it, the man was being surprisingly cordial. He’d given Dirt the best food he’d ever had in his miserable life, and hadn’t forced him to do anything, despite clearly having the power to do so.

Perhaps this man wanted voluntary agreement. For what, and why, he did not know.

And he didn’t want to know, either. He couldn’t leave his sister behind, no matter what. And if this guy was being nice all the way, perhaps he would even let him go. A quiet part of his brain chuckled at what it thought about that matter. There was no way the man would just let him go. But he pushed that thought aside roughly, and spoke.

“I-I can’t do whatever...whatever you want me to do...sir. My sister...I’ve got her to take care of. She’s sick.”

The man continued smiling. “How about we take care of her for you, then?”

Yeah, Dirt wasn’t stupid, at least not by much. Simple words couldn’t be trusted by themselves. He had no way to enforce the man’s word, so why even bother?

Apparently, the man had the same thought, so he walked over to Dirt smoothly, and stood in front of him. The movement had been fast, leaving no time for him to even react, for all it had seemed slow.

Dirt held his breath.

“Boy. Do you know what a binding oath is?”, the man whispered, looking down.

Dirt shook his head rigidly. He had never heard of that in his life.

“An oath can be made between two wielders of joy, an oath that binds the very soul itself. To violate it would mean dire consequences. Do you understand where I’m getting at?”

The man’s eyes were sharp as it stared into his.

Dirt gulped. “And...I’m a wielder? Of joy?”

“Yes, child, just a few minutes ago you broke into the nascent stage. Only a few find themselves with the potential to wield this power; count yourself lucky that you do.”

Dirt thought hard. A binding oath would reinforce the man’s promise, assuming he said the truth about it. And that was where it all started, wasn’t it? All the questions just boiled down to whether he could trust this person in front of him, at least marginally.

“And what do I do?”, he asked, biting his lip.

“You follow my orders. That is all I ask of you.”

“How can I even trust you? This whole...binding oath thing, how do I know you aren’t just making it up?”

The man had a glint in his eye, like he’d just reached the point in the conversation where he wanted to reach.

“We’ll take the oath together. Your perception of joy should have increased, so I’ll show you the bindings at my end and you can inspect them to see that they are identical to yours. Then naturally, you would know. If you are bound to your oath, then I should be to mine as well.”

Dirt knew this was the best deal he could get out of this. His mind had thought over it for a while, and while he realised the man could still double cross him somehow, there was nothing else to it. He wasn’t the one with the power here. He wasn’t in charge. The man was.

And refusing to accept this offer would probably end up badly for him.

Dirt gulped, then nodded.

The man actually showed teeth when he smiled this time.

“Wonderful. Let’s get started then.”

With that, the man closed his eyes, focusing. Dirt could feel the shimmer of power around the man, taking the form of a convoluted shape of lines and curves.

Then it turned visible. The force – the force of joy, burned brilliant white as it coiled in front of the man in that weird shape. Then a line extended from that shape and hovered close to him. The same weird shape formed at the end of the line, until there were two of them, one in front of Dirt, the other in front of the man, connected by a glowing line.

“Now then.” ,the man said, eyes opening. A small bead of sweat formed near his eyes, and Dirt watched it roll down. “Compare the two shapes, if you will. Know that they are the same. One goes for you, the other for me. This is...quite straining, so do it quickly.”

Dirt didn’t wait. He compared every single line and curve of the structures, making sure they were the same. He knew that it wasn’t all that conclusive of course. He didn’t know how joy worked, all he had going for was this man’s words. But he hoped the symmetry meant exactly what the man said. He couldn’t do anything even if it wasn’t. The man was in power here. All he could do was even his odds, if just a little bit.

“Now I shall make my oath. Mean every word you say. The oath will fail elsewise, sometimes with disastrous consequences.” The man squared his shoulders, and Dirt wondered whether the man was carefully considering his words. Ugh. Of course he would.

“I swear that I shall see to it your sister gets treated, and if possible, cured, with the best possible aid I can provide. Granted, it will be much better care than you could possibly provide right now. As long as you obey my orders, of course.”

Dirt considered that, and found it acceptable. So he spoke.

“And I swear that I shall follow your orders, so long as you treat my sister and does not bring her to jeopardy in any way or form.”

The joy in the air resonated with their oaths, both having found it acceptable. In a flash of blinding light, the structures vanished, and Dirt was forced to cover his eyes.

As he opened them, he could feel something settle onto his soul, binding it tightly. He suddenly found it quite hard to breathe.

“It’ll get better over time.”

Dirt looked over at the man, who had stopped smiling. His eyes had a dangerous glint to them.

Nervous, Dirt wondered what that meant. Then the man spoke.

“I so do love it when talking works out. Torturing you would have been terribly boring.”

Dirt just stood there, his heart hammering, his mind parsing the man’s statement when the man suddenly laughed.

It was high and mirthful, but it didn’t stop the fear in his heart from growing.

Dirt laughed along nervously, scratching his neck, wondering what he’d gotten himself to.

Then the man stopped laughing, and turned around to walk outside the shack.

“Come along, kaleb. I have much to show you.”

Gulping, Dirt – no, kaleb followed.

Angels, what have I done?