Jonas took a few moments to peruse the pre-installed applications, but he found nothing that seemed to differ from a normal phone, not even his contact list that was empty.
"Mr. Duran," began Jonas, "Could you use this phone to contact someone, say not on the same floor?" and this caused Mr. Duran to look awkward.
"Yes," he began, "But you need special clearance."
"What do you mean?" asked Jonas. He had been expecting to be disappointed.
"There are special people who are not Commoners, and these people have access to various privileges like even leaving their floor and journeying to different places in Hell," but seeing the hopeful look in Jonas' eyes he added, "Becoming one of these people is difficult and dangerous, you'll want to give up the idea."
"Dangerous?" asked Jonas, "I'm going to the first floor. What do I have to worry about besides being robbed?"
"Uh," began Mr. Duran, "Best-case scenario is a quick death."
"And the worst case?" Jonas asked.
"There's also a chance of being kidnapped, locked in a cage by a pervert, and then they will rape and torture you for all of eternity," Mr. Duran scratched his head.
"Anything else?" Jonas asked, and his expression looked disgusted.
"Just don't join any gangs, or involve yourself with shady individuals," Mr. Duran explained, "Also if you run into a Maldread, you should just count yourself already dead."
"What's a Maldread?"
"A Maldread is someone who has lost their mind because of sin," Mr. Duran looked horrified at the thought, "It's a very nasty creature that is put to death as soon as one appears."
"But I don't understand," said Jonas, "What do you mean they lost their mind from sin?"
"I won't go into the details," Mr. Duran sighed, "Evil people turn into evil creatures when they lose control."
"Why are there evil people on the first floor of Hell?"
"What stops you from being a killer as soon as you enter the first floor?" Mr. Duran asked, "The government only cares about what you did when you were alive, not what you do after the fact."
"That's sort of fucked up, isn't it?" Jonas could not believe his ears.
"Maybe so," Mr. Duran shrugged his shoulders, "I don't make the rules, I just follow them," he added, "Anyway, for every dangerous location in Hell, there is one that is safe, so do not worry."
"What about the police?" Jonas asked, "Don't the cops protect people?"
"There is no law enforcement in Hell," the demon said, "Once you arrive, you're on your own," but he added, "I should mention that causing big disturbances is one way to get the government involved though, and anytime the government gets involved, bad things happen to those troublemakers," and Jonas went silent as he contemplated this new information, and he found it almost unbelievable how unfair the rules of Hell were.
"What about evil people from other floors," Jonas had deduced, "You said special people could leave the floor they are on, and if that's true, couldn't an absolute monster just become one of those special people, and come to the first floor?"
"Yes, they can," Mr. Duran gave him a dark look, "A decent person can become quite twisted once they've lived in Hell for some time. It seems like the environment erodes whatever good nature they had inside themselves until they turn into a monster."
"What a nightmare," Jonas crossed his arms and stared at the wall. There were so many emotions running rampant in his heart, and he was having a hard time processing them all. Everything he had ever thought he knew about the afterlife was wrong. There was no Heaven, and perhaps there was not even a God.
Maybe Jonas needed to lose his foolish notion that there was a great and powerful deity that looked after him. He had always maintained a casual relationship with religion, and he figured that by being a decent person and not causing trouble for others; he would have had a warm welcome outside the pearly gates. Jonas felt like he was missing something, and there was a growing emptiness inside that he could only realize was his acceptance of the fact that God was dead. Perhaps the great creator never existed to begin with.
"Okay, okay," Mr. Duran said as he checked his hell phone, "You must go now, I have other clients to see," he gestured to a metal door just next to the window where the fat demon had resumed his game session.
"Just through there?" Jonas asked with some hesitancy.
"Yes," said Mr. Duran, "The Overworld is through that entrance."
"Thanks for all your help," said Jonas as he began stepping towards the door.
"This is what I do, but I want to wish you good luck, and I hope you make the best of your new life, goodbye Mr. Ariel," as Mr. Duran said his final goodbye, Jonas watched as the exit door slid open.
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Behind the door was a thin translucent barrier that seemed to distort the image it was reflecting from the other side. Jonas stepped forward and touched it with his fingers and found he could go through. With one last look at his demonic lawyer, Jonas stepped through the barrier and vanished from sight.
"Where did you open the gate?" Mr. Duran asked.
"Sun City slums," said the fat demon, and this caused Mr. Duran to feel like giving him a good kick. Of course, Jonas did not know that the slums of any city in Hell were one of the worst places to be.
Stepping through the barrier, Jonas seemed to have just walked through thin air. Looking around at his surroundings, his mouth fell agape.
The first thing he noticed was the vast sky that was a pale red color, just like the skin of a demon, and dotted through the sky were crimson clouds, and among the clouds was a white sun that seemed to be just as large and proficient as the one back on Earth.
The next thing he noticed was that he appeared to be in what looked like a human ghetto. Graffiti covered the worn-down buildings, while unkempt blood-red grass and human trash littered the sides of the pathways, and people were pushing their faces up against their dirty windows, all of them containing unfriendly expressions.
"Poverty in Hell makes sense," said Jonas under his breath, as he ignored the unfriendly gawking and began walking down a larger path that he assumed was a major road.
If it wasn't for the assortment of strange colors, the lack of vehicles, and the smell of death lingering around each alleyway, Jonas would have assumed he was still on Earth. The Overworld was not a place filled with volcanoes and burning fires. Instead, he saw skyscrapers far in the distance, and if he looked closely, he could make out magnificent-looking apartment buildings that appeared only as dots in the background.
What he wanted was to find something like a coffee shop so he could collect his thoughts, and he pulled out his hell phone. Opening the application called Map, the screen showed his GPS location, and he noticed a little red arrow that must have been him. He was in a place called Sun City, in a district called the Southside. Using two fingers to scroll out as far as he could, it took him thirty seconds just to see the shape and size of the first floor of Hell, and what he saw shocked him.
The Overworld contained two vast continents. One of them was named the Outlands and it was in the shape of a ring. The second continent was named Inland, and it was in the shape of a round island that sat right in the middle of the ring. The two continents reminded Jonas of an eyeball, and the map gave him the creeps. It was as if some evil, worldly deity was staring at him through his phone screen.
There were also two scarlet bodies of water. One of them was called the Sanguinic Sea and it divided the Inland from the Outlands. The other was much larger, it was called the Sanguinic Ocean and it surrounded the Outlands and spread endlessly.
Four rivers divided Inland into four equal quadrants, they conjoined at a smaller body of water called Lake Lilith. There was a tiny island that occupied Lake Lilith, and it was labeled Sin City, Jonas soon realized it to be the capital city of the Overworld.
There were thousands of cities, and even Sun City had an estimated population of three hundred million people. It would take Jonas at least a hundred years just to walk a full circle around the entire Outlands. It was a world that was far beyond his imagination, and he felt like it was almost surreal that a continent could have such a shape, and that so many shades of red could occupy a map.
Exhaling a breath of wonder, Jonas put the sheer size of his new world in the back of his mind as he typed into a search bar, 'Coffee Shop' and to his surprise, the map zoomed back into his location and showed him one store that matched his description, a place down the street that was called Crispy Screams, 'Crispy Screams?' Jonas scrunched his eyebrows, 'It must be a coincidence.'
Following the directions on his map, he continued to walk towards his destination, all while avoiding unfriendly eye contact and trying his best to mind his own business. About twenty minutes later, he found the shabby-looking coffee shop. Entering inside, the smell of baked goods and roasted coffee beans greeted him, and this was surprising because Jonas assumed no one needed food while in Hell, but it made sense that a physical body would require sustenance.
"Welcome to Crispy Screams. How can I take your order?" a teenager said as Jonas approached the counter. Nothing about Jonas' appearance seemed to shock the part-timer who looked bored out of his mind.
"Uh," began Jonas as he realized he didn't have any money, "I'm waiting for someone, so I'll just order later," he lied, but the teen gave a lazy nod of his head. Taking a seat at an empty booth by the window, Jonas pulled out his hell phone once more. 'I need more information,' he opened the help application. Scrolling down through the questions, he stopped and opened one that asked, 'What Should I Do When I've Arrived in Hell?' and Jonas read the top-rated answer.
'Welcome to Hell, friend, although this strange world may feel overwhelming, you need to take your time and keep your wits about you. The first thing you need to remember is that although everything seems just as you remember it back on Earth, the standard of living in Hell is perilous, and I would say that some of the worse locations are like living through the Middle Ages, while others are like a war-torn country.'
Jonas continued to read the large blurb, his thumb scrolling the touch screen. 'Once you've arrived, try to find a secure location, and then take the time to explore your hell phone, which has many useful applications that can help you in your time of need. In Hell, things are not free, and just like in your previous life, there is a type of currency used to purchase goods and services. We call this currency Sin Stones, and we can collect, store, and transfer them via the banking application of our hell phone.'
Jonas went back to his home screen and began searching through his pre-installed applications until he found one that gave him access to his bank. Clicking on it brought him to a page that showed he had zero Sin Stones available in his account, and he also noticed that he could transfer money to other people, or accept transfers from people, along with a few other useful features that most banking applications would allow. Switching back to the help app, he continued to read through the article, trying to get an idea of what he should be doing.
'I need to find Drake,' he thought, as the memory of his brother caused his stomach to turn. Jonas was not an idiot, and he knew his brother better than anyone else. All those cruel things that Drake had said, Jonas knew he did not mean a single word of them, and he was being a foolish older brother, trying to put Jonas' best interests at heart, as he had always done their entire lives. 'I'm still going to kick him right in the ass.'
The pain in his stomach had subsided, but there was a competitive fire in his belly growing when he thought about finding his brother and paying him back in full. 'To find Drake, I need to leave the first floor, but to leave this floor, I need to be one of those special people that Mr. Duran talked about.'
Jonas sighed as he continued to read through various questions, looking for anything that might match what he wanted to know. After ten minutes of surfing the app, Jonas found his first clue into how he was going to meet his brother.