I pushed the door to the garage open and turned sideways to fit through it with my guitar strapped around my shoulder.

"Scott, you made it." Came a feminin cry of triumph.

I gave the three girls in the room a wave as I got close. "Jessica didn't show up?"

"Nope, not answering her phone either." Jaz fiddled with her bass guitar as she spoke. Jaz was the epitome of the big titty goth girlfriend, complete with dark make-up; except, she wasn't my girlfriend. We were best friends, and had been since we were three. We did everything together and hung out nearly everyday. We'd even dated for a time in high-school, went far enough that we'd taken each other's virginity. But, it wasn't meant to be. We were better as friends and stopped dating to preserve that friendship. Later, Jaz discovered that she was a lesbian, so I imagine that had a hand in it.

"That's the fourth time in two months that she's skipped out on practice with no warning." Becca said. Becca and Jaz were sisters, their father had been in a famous metal band back in the day and both became metal heads by default. The two were very different. While Jaz was goth, Becca walked the line between metal and punk.

"She's probably sleeping with your boyfriend, again." Jaz said

Becca stared daggers at her. "That happened one time, and he was drunk. He thought she was me."

"You keep telling yourself that." Jaz replied

I ignored the bickering between the sisters and said "Hi Haley" with a small wave.

"Hi Scott" she said back in a small voice. Haley was very quiet and rarely spoke. She could talk just fine if you engage her in a conversation but she is very shy; especially in groups or around strangers. When the music starts though, she transforms into one of the most talented and animated drummers you'll ever see. She was in a relationship with Jaz and Jaz did most of the talking for them.

"Hey, Becca." Jaz prodded, "we should kick Jessica out and make Scott a permanent part of the band."

"But it's an all girl band." Becca shot back.

"Every time Jessica flakes out we have to call up Scott. He always shows up, and he's a better musician than she is."

"Jaz, Cinomed is an all girl band, Scott doesn't have boobs or a pussy."

"Hear that Scott, you need surgery to fix your condition." Jaz said with a wink at me.

"I'm good." I said with a chuckle. I quickly finished tuning my guitar while the others waited for me. Then I asked, “what do you guys want to play today?”

Jaz glanced at her watch before saying, “lets just jam for a bit”. She then hit the button on the wall to open the two-car-wide door to the large garage. Her heavy bass riffs began to blast through her amp and soon after, the rest of us joined in.

I had to roll my eyes. Directly across the street was the local branch of the Church of the Rising Sun. The church was notorious for being hyper-conservative. They were famously responsible for the burning of records and books that contained anything sacrilegious back in the day. Though that was many decades ago they still tout the line that, anything that isn’t godly, is satanic.

Knowing Jaz, it was no accident that today’s practice just happened to be scheduled in the middle of a sunday afternoon, while the church was having some kind of picnic. I could see at least sixty people all staring at us with a frown while we jammed out some fairly hardcore death metal. After a few minutes of play Jaz decided to taunt them further by moving to the door in her full gothic outfit and make-up where she started to do hip thrusts with her bass guitar in-time with the beat of the music.

She was very deliberately and obviously antagonizing the church, not something new, and it was working. As I watched, six people crossed the road to come over to us, the youngest was still more than twice any of our ages. When they got close Becca, Haley and I stopped playing but Jaz kept on while she stared down the group, but they waited her out. Eventually she stopped playing and said “What do yall want?”

One of the older women stepped forward and asked “would it be possible for you to play your devil music some other time? We have children out here after all.”

“No. Now get the fuck out of here.” Jaz shot right back at her without missing a beat.

The old woman then turned to Haley and said, “dear sweet Haley, your father was a wonderful pastor while he was still alive. Surely you must have some of his kindness still within you. Would you please consider coming to our picnic?”

The girl went white and shrank into herself. “You leave my girlfriend alone, you old hag.” Jaz spat at the old woman with more venom than I'd ever heard from her. She got in the woman's face and started laying into the woman.

I couldn’t help but standby in a stupor and watch as the conflict continued to escalate. Then the sight of a man standing behind the group caught my attention. Unlike the rest of his fellows, this man was as still as a cat. He didn’t wring his hands or shift from one foot to the other, but his eyes shone and he wore a wicked grin. As I watched him he raised both hands into the air above his head and his eyes began to glow. “You wish to serve the devil?” his voice boomed like thunder and everyone turned to look at him. Jaz’s mouth snapped shut as light began to glow in the man’s palms. “Then I shall send you to your master.” The light flashed, and everything went dark.

**************************************

I sat up before I was fully aware that I had been asleep. I cracked one eye, then the other before opening both. I immediately shut them. I could not be seeing, what I thought I was seeing. But the sharp smell of sulfur confirmed it. Opening both eyes again I began to look around. Jaz, Becca and Haley were all unconscious, but breathing, and laying within ten feet of me. I guess that was a minor relief, but it was immediately eclipsed by the fact that the four of us were on a rocky crag that floated lazily down a river of molten lava.

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The black rock beneath my palms was hot, but not scalding. It was about thirty feet across and the molten river at least twice that. Beyond the river was a twisted and blasted landscape of gray desert, gray mountains and gray cloudy skies. Cracks and fissures occasionally dotted the lowlands, red light glowing from within. No tree or bush or blade of grass could be seen anywhere. Lightning flashed overhead randomly and the smell of sulfur permeated the air.

Deciding this was a dream and I was asleep, I promptly closed my eyes and laid back down. For about three minutes I had thought it was working. But when I heard Jaz gasp and say “Those motherfuckers.” I decided I couldn’t keep pretending and sat back up. “They sent us to hell.” Jaz said with exasperation while looking right at me.

Within ten minutes all four of us were awake. “Could this really be hell?” Becca asked as she spun in circles and looked out.

“Nope, this is heaven. The bible just mixed the two up.” Jaz said, sarcastically.

“Jaz, not the time for that shit.” Becca snapped back at her.

“What do we do now?” Haley asked in her small voice

“I don’t know.” Jaz admitted. “If I’d ever thought it was possible for them to send us straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect two-hundred dollars; I never would have picked a fight with them.”

“Much good that does us now, hindsight being what it is.” I said. “Don’t we have to be dead to go to hell?” I asked

“Look” Becca said excitedly as she pointed to a structure of some kind mostly obscured by a mountain ridge several miles away.

“But how do we get to it?” Jaz asked no one in particular as she eyed the river around us.

“Newton’s third law. Every action has an equal opposite reaction.” Becca said and stooped, picked up a rock about twice the size of my head. She hurled it away from her with all the strength she could muster. It sailed out and splashed into the river of fire, but it had worked, we were closer to the shore with the structure. The rest of us followed her example and after a few minutes we had grounded our floating rock.

"You're such a nerd." Jaz said with a teasing smile.

"Lucky for you." Becca shot back

I wasn’t totally convinced this was hell. There were no screams or demons or blood. It was just empty and silent all around us. The heat from the environment was oppressive enough to keep Jaz’s mouth relatively still as we set out towards the structure. Before the end of the first hour my throat was burning from breathing the caustic air and by the time we reached the structure all four of us were badly in need of water.

The structure turned out to be a tower of some type and it was alone, with no other structures within sight. It was sixty feet in diameter and at least three times as high. Made of some kind of stone and it had at one time, statues of gargoyles or some other kind of animal lining the top, but it was so sandblasted that the statues were unrecognizable. The tower leaned slightly to one side and one door lay on the ground, fallen from its hinges.

The girls bunched up behind me and I peaked my head. No slavering jaws, no hideous sights of torture or mutilation. Just silence and darkness inside. The air was noticeably cooler inside and I entered cautiously, the girls trailing after me. It was hard to see at first but our eyes quickly adjusted to the gloom. The entire tower was one big hollow room. Windows high above let in enough light to make out what was inside of it and Haley let out a startled squeak before burying her face in Jaz’s back. Directly opposite the entrance was a massive demon. It didn’t move and I eventually realized that it was a statue.

Jaz must have realized the same thing because I heard her say, “Don’t worry baby, it’s just a statue.” The smaller girl slowly peaked out over the Goth’s shoulder. Between the statue and us was a pedestal and an arch of some type. I got closer and looked up at the statue. It was incredibly detailed and horrifying to look at. It was a large demon with two legs, arms, and wings; horns coming off its head and a mouth with finger long teeth and a head tilted back in a savage roar.

Lightning flashed outside and for a moment it looked as though the eyes glowed on the demon. It was dressed in ruby red plate armor that looked entirely too badass and I reached out a hand to touch it. Symbols along the statue’s base lit up in a cascading ring. Before I could snatch my hand back the statue's eyes really did light up, and it began to move.

I stumbled backward, but was brought up short when I bumped into Becca. She was frozen in place, beside her Jaz and Haley also stood unmoving and I forced myself to look up at the statue that was now looming over me. Its head was tilled and it looked at me with confusion. “You do not belong here mortal.” It said with a deep rumbling voice that didn’t sound hostile in the least. “Who are you?”

“Uh, hi. My name is Scott Simmons.” I stammered

“And tell me Scott Simmons, why are you here, in this place?” The demon asked with a wave of one mighty arm.

“We were on Earth, in a very small town in Idaho called Odett. There is a church there called the Church of the Rising Sun-”

“Rising Sun!” the demon hissed in anger and its eyes flared brightly; momentarily shifting from yellow to red.

“Yeah, well. We kind of pissed them off, and they sent us here. This was the only structure that we've seen since we got here.” I explained rapidly.

“The Rising Sun are a blight on all worlds.” The demon grumbled. “They are a cult that seeks complete domination and dominion. How did you incur their ire?”

The girls were still frozen but I was discovering that I wasn’t actually terrified of this demon. Sure he looked more intimidating than anything I'd ever seen, but he was actually quite easy to talk to. “We’re musicians, the four of us, and we were playing some loud music they didn’t like and when they came over to yell at us, we got into a fight-”

“A fight?” The demon looked surprised, “you would fight them?”

“Well yeah. If they were here I'd kick their ass for this,” I said while swinging a fist in the air.

The demon leaned back and appeared to consider this for a moment. “Scott Simmons, I am Azgollan, the Sentinel of Wrath. If you would fight the Rising Sun, then I would consider you an ally. I will grant you a portion of my power. Use it to protect your concubines and to fight the Rising Sun.” Its eyes began to glow a brilliant red and a beam of energy shot from its eyes to hit me in the chest. I felt like I was going to explode as fire coursed through my veins. Eventually I stopped screaming and came down from the rush of energy flowing into me.

“I have given you demon blood infused with my power. You will find that you are a far superior warrior now. Your speed, strength and senses are all enhanced. Let your emotions, especially your fury, fuel your power and you will know strength beyond your imaginings. Use these gifts well. I will open a gateway to the world of Tesenvere. You will find my weapon, Destroyer, within my temple. I will ensure the previous guardian is aware that you are coming for it. Destroyer will amplify my power within you.

The Rising Sun has a burgeoning presence there and they do not yet have complete control. Hone your skills as a warrior, find allies and eliminate the Rising Sun. There are many Demon Gates like this one to be found throughout Tesenvere. Find them, the demons within will help you.”

My brain grabbed desperately, trying to make sense of what he was saying. "Wrath? Like the seven deadly sins?"

"The church calls them sins, but they are in reality a mirrored virtue. Wrath, Envy, Sloth, Lust, Greed, Pride and Gluttony. These can be virtues of good through the proper lens. It is for the follower to define that, and walk the righteous path. Wrath for example can be righteous fury, a force for justice and a path of retribution. Seek the other Demon Gates, Sentinels of Sin and their artifacts of power. You will learn more and grow your power."

Before I could respond the arch flared to life, within its loop was a green forest and before I knew it, all four of us were tumbling through.