Chapter 3

Loretta had stepped out onto a hillside, overlooking a broad red valley, under a bright yellowish green sky. This Dimension's heavy orange sun crushed down on her, feeling like its edge was pressed against the ground. A few brown, cumulous clouds were gathered around the jagged peaks of a dark mountain range that rose on her left, stretching in a line to where it's furthest peaks rose above the far horizon. The third mountain furthest from where she stood was an active volcano, with black smoke rising out of its rumbling crater. This was the source of the distant rumbling that caused the ground beneath her feet to tremble.

A hot, dry breeze blew, and heat wave mirage puddles shimmered on the path, that came out of the jungle, and went through a field of red grass and weeds.

The path now consisted of crushed, gray gravel. It went a few hundred feet, to where it reached a two lane, black asphalt road. Just before the path reached the road, the gravel widened out into a parking lot in front of a bright yellow thatched cabana on the right, with a sign identifying the establishment as

"Cannibal Snacks."

A Cadillac Convertible was the only vehicle in the parking lot. A small number of cars and trucks passed along the roadway at irregular intervals.

Cannibal Snacks was a lunch stand, with four tables under a thatched roof. There were vending machines, dispensing snacks and drinks, at the back of the cabana. One table was occupied by three anxious looking young women in their mid teens. Each girl was dressed in only a pair of slacks and sneakers, and had a mug containing a red liquid with a foamy head, on the table in front of her. Their handbags lay beside their drinks. As Loretta approached them, the three girls looked at her uneasily.

She came up to them and said, "Hi. I'm Loretta Carolton."

The three forced nervous smiles. Two of them were blonde. The other had curly dark hair, and wore glasses.

"Hi Loretta." One of the blondes spoke with a trembling voice. "I'm Julianna Collins."

The other blonde spoke just as nervously. "I'm Kate Nellington."

The dark haired girl with the glasses was as tense as the other two. She said, "Wendy Edelstein here."

Loretta again said, "Hi." Then she said, "I come from L.A. But I first arrived there from Sangreville, California."

The three remained tense.

Julianna told her, "Beverly Hills here."

"Sangreville?" Wendy spoke, "You came from the Hellmouth?"

"That's what some people call Sangreville; but it's really not all that bad."

"I wasn't talking about Sangreville." She pointed back along the way Loretta had just come. "I meant the Hellmouth right over there."

Loretta looked back toward the Jungle. Above the opening that she'd just stepped through, she saw a sign saying,

"From Beneath You

it Devours"

Loretta said, "I used to hear that saying a lot, when I lived in Sangreville."

The girl name Kate said, "It's even more accurate here."

"Will one of you please tell me," Loretta asked, "Exactly where is 'here'?"

Wendy told her, "We are at the edge of a Demonic Dimension, Loretta. Welcome to Beelzebubia."

Loretta nodded, "I was afraid of that. Last night I was watching a travel show on the Demon Network. I made a wish..."

"You too huh?" Julianna said, "So did we. Then we spoke the name 'Beelzebub' three times. That was three weeks ago."

"Now we've had enough!" Kate told her, "They want to make us fight each other to the death, as women gladiators!"

Wendy added, "While dressed in only our shoes!"

Loretta said, "I think I'm gonna be taking part in that myself; but I'm gonna be able to handle it."

"Sure." said Julianna. "That's 'cause you belong here. We don't. You're gonna try to kill strangers, who are gonna be trying to kill you. But the people in charge of us, want us to kill each other, and we're just not gonna do that."

Kate told her, "We're on our way back to Beverly Hills, and our boy-friends. We've been looking for a way out, and we were told about this spot."

"This spot?" Loretta asked, "Where you might get devoured from beneath? And that's not just a figure of speech. There's quicksand, and giant plants that eat people, and who knows how many head-hunters!"

"It's worth the risk," Kate told her.

Julianna and Wendy both nodded in agreement.

Kate added, "And so is my boyfriend Kevin."

Julianna said, "And so is Ted. My boyfriend."

Wendy added, "And Gregory Ramsey," she smiled nervously "who I'd like to be my boyfriend."

"And then there's his sister Paula." Kate spoke. "Paula Ramsey came here with us from Beverly Hills. She's got a thing for Kevin too, and she was going back with us. She went on into the jungle first. She said she was going on ahead, to scout it out for us. I think she's just gone on ahead, to reach Kevin first."

Julianna said, "She and Paula would have fought to the death over Kevin, if he was here."

"But he's not!" Kate shouted, "He's back in Beverly Hills, along with Ted and Gregory!"

Now Loretta told the three, "If any of you try to go through there," She pointed back along the trail. "there's a strong chance that none of you will live to meet any of your boyfriends again."

Wendy told Loretta, "You just made it through there alive."

Loretta told her, "But your friend Paula Ramsey didn't!"

Wendy gasped and all three of them looked horrified.

Now Julianna pointed. "And you're holding Paula's handbag!"

Loretta took two steps back.

Julianna's voice was angry. "And you're wearing her slacks! And that looks like her sneakers on your feet!"

Loretta backed up another step.

Julianna asked angrily, "Did you kill her?"

Loretta shook her head. "No! No! She was already dead! A giant plant was eating her!"

The three girls from Beverly Hills got up out of their chairs, looking angry.

They moved around the table and began to approach Loretta. She took a few more steps back.

Kate shouted, "A giant plant my ass! What'd it spit out her clothes, 'cause they're inedible?"

"That's how it looked to me."

Loretta heard a loud twang behind her back. An arrow zoomed past her, striking Kate directly between her breasts. Kate cried out and fell dead.

From behind her, Loretta heard a woman shout with a voice that sounded familiar. "You pussies leave her alone!"

Julianna and Wendy faced the jungle, from where the arrow had been shot. They both looked terrified.

Loretta turned to see what terrified them.

A woman in her early twenties approached them along the gravel trail. Her hair was black, and she had a hard expression on her face. She carried a crossbow in both hands. A quiver of arrows was slung over her left shoulder, with its strap going between her bare breasts. All she wore was a pair of black shorts. A machete and three shrunken heads were tied on her belt. She had sneakers on her feet.

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She raised the crossbow and shouted. "Get out of the way Loretta!"

Loretta backed away from Wendy and Julianna.

The woman shot the crossbow again. An arrow stabbed deep through Wendy's chest.

She screamed and died.

Julianna stood trembling, with her hands at her side.

"We weren't gonna hurt her!" She pleaded. "We were just talking."

"That's not what this is about! Nobody told you pussies that you can leave! Now none of you are leaving!"

The woman shot the crossbow again. This third arrow stabbed the squealing

Julianna through the heart killing her.

Loretta stood trembling above the bodies of the girls from Beverly Hills, while the woman who lowered the crossbow, walked up to the unkilled Loretta.

"Relax Loretta." She said, "These pussies are dead. Nobody's doing you any harm while I'm around."

Loretta said, "Sylvia?"

"That's right." The woman told her, "And everything between you and me's gonna be okay from now on."

Loretta stood with her hands open toward the dead girls. She spoke with a shaky voice.

"You said you were killing them so they couldn't leave. Is this what you'll do to me, if I try to leave?"

"Anyone who tries to kill you'll get killed by me first. These three pussies were wussies. You're not. If you were, there'd now be four dead pussies lying here; but you don't belong with them. You're okay as far as I can see."

"Thank you. I think."

Now Sylvia rested the crossbow across her right shoulder, holding it in her right hand.

She said, "Before you and me get going, I think you ought to go to the ladies room around the side, and get yourself cleaned up. When we get to Beelzebubapolis, you'll want to look presentable."

"Presentable?"

"Well right now, you look like you had a rough time in the jungle."

"I did." The woman told her, "I sank into quicksand over my boobs."

"Looks that way, both below and above 'em. Hate to say it, but if I was a guy, there's no way I'd want to fuck you."

Loretta hurried around the corner of the cabana, where there was a pair of restrooms. She went in the ladies room, turned on the light, and looked in the mirror.

"Eeeew! Gross!" She laughed, "She's right! I wouldn’t want to fuck me either."

She cleaned herself up as best she could at the sink. Then she stepped back outside.

Sylvia was seated at a different table, from where the girls from Beverly Hills had sat. She was drinking the same red foamy beverage that they'd been drinking, from a mug.

The dead girls remained where they'd fallen, with the arrows sticking out of their chests; but their heads were gone.

Loretta asked Sylvia, "You chopped their heads off?"

The woman looked in the direction of the convertible. "They're in the back seat, in a clear plastic bag. Once we get to Beelzebubapolis, I'll have 'em shrunk, so you can hang 'em on your belt."

"You want me to wear shrunken heads on my belt?"

"Well you want to be properly accessorized, don't you?"

"Accessorized?"

"Right." Sylvia told her, "In this Dimension a woman just doesn't go any place without at least one shrunken head on her belt."

"Of course not!" Loretta smiled. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

Then Sylvia gulped down the last few mouthfuls from the mug, stood up and pointed toward the table where the three dead girls had been seated.

"They won't be needing those handbags anymore, so let's grab 'em. See what money or ATM cards they were carrying, and if we might be able to use 'em."

"What?"

"Same thing you were just doin' back there in the jungle; or so I just overheard."

Loretta asked, "You mean killing people and stealing from them isn't against the law here?"

"Nah." Sylvia leered. "Here in Beelzebubia, it's everyone for himself, or herself; or for whatever gang you're a member of."

"Oh. I see. Does that mean you want to make me a member of your gang?"

"You'd be a welcome addition," Sylvia said, "but the one who sent me here to meet you might have other plans."

"Someone sent you to meet me? They knew I was coming?"

"You want to grab those handbags Loretta?"

Loretta stepped around the bodies of the dead girls, went over to the table, and picked up all three of their handbags, while Sylvia went over to the convertible, opened the left front door, slid in behind the wheel and shut the door.

Whichever one of the dead girls had been driving, she'd left the key in the ignition. Sylvia started the engine. Loretta came over carrying all three handbags, got into the right front seat and shut the door, while Sylvia put the car into gear.

Loretta looked back at the three corpses. "What about them?"

"Don't worry. 'From beneath them it devours.'" Sylvia grinned. "They're good looking pussy, and here in Beelzebubia, good looking pussy like them and us, are every Thing's favorite food."

"Us?"

Sylvia halted the car at the edge of the parking lot. Then she made a left turn, and drove along the winding, two lane, asphalt road, pass-ing under the branches of tall trees that were thick with broad red leaves, and drove past farmland, where growing red crops had been planted in rows.

Loretta had dropped two of the handbags at her feet, beside the one she'd picked up in the jungle. Now she was going through the one on her lap.

"You're right." She said, "This one's got lots of cash, and more than a dozen credit and debit cards. I just can't find their pin numbers."

"No problem girl." Sylvia told her, "I know someone who can find that out for us, for a small percentage."

"What am I doing?" Loretta dropped the wallet she'd been holding, back in the handbag and snapped it shut. "I've only been in this Demon Dimension for about an hour, and I'm already turning into a major class A felon?"

Sylvia chuckled. "Like I said Loretta, you're no wussy pussy, like those Beverly Hills bimbos. They won't be needing them any more. You're okay and fine with me; and you'll be that way with all the okay people here."

Now Loretta said, "So this is where you've been. After you broke out of jail a year ago, no one's had any idea of what became of you."

"I didn't actually 'break out'." Sylvia told her. "I was broken out. You see, I was on my bunk in my cell, watching some rerun on the TV that was facing my cell. Then without me doing a thing, the picture changed, and I was watching the Demon Network. There was this Travel Show that was exploring Beelzebubia.

There was a tour show hostess, and a message came on saying, 'Wouldn't you love to have her job?'

"I was sitting in a prison cell, so of course I said yes. I also said that I didn't really want her job, but I'd have loved to be where she was."

Loretta asked, "Did you repeat the name of Beelzebub three times?"

"So you know how it works?"

The woman nodded. "Same thing happened to me; except that I was in my living room in L.A., not a prison cell; and it looks like I do have her job; but her job ended with her getting killed."

Sylvia said, "I suppose that means that you want to get back to L.A., quick as a bunny, don't you?"

"Yeah. If staying here's gonna get me killed, I do; but if I try to leave, won't that get me killed too, like those three pussies back there? I can't believe I just said that word."

"It doesn't have to be that way girl. I know some people, who might be able to help get you a real job, instead of just some temporary gig."

"A real job?" Loretta said, "Back in L.A. I was working full time for Demon Investigators."

Sylvia told her, "I'm sure you'll have no problem fitting right in here."

"I'm not sure if I want to 'fit right in'."

"Give it a chance Loretta. You might actually get to like it here in Beelzebubia, so much that you won't want to go back. I know I don't, and that's not just 'cause I'd be going back to jail. I know that Beelzebubia's got a stupid sounding name, but that don't really matter. What matters is that this is my kind of Dimension; and Beelzebubapolis is my kind of town. You might get to feel the same way yourself. What do you think?"

Loretta said, "What do I think? I think I'm gonna be a dead TV Travel Show Hostess, by the end of the week!"

Sylvia told her, "Don't be so sure."

Loretta told her, "When the message asked if I'd love to have her job, I didn't just say yes. I said, 'You better believe it! I'd be living good, eating good, and sleeping really good, and if I do end up as a sexy corpse, it'd be worth it.'"

"Like I said Loretta girl, Beelzebubapolis is your kind of town."

"But I was joking! I didn't really mean it!"