As Giles' pained screams turned to whimpers, his eyes involuntarily opened as the scent in the air overwhelmed his senses.

Fire and brimstone.

The sight was devastating.

The shiver that traveled through him was from the horror of his current predicament, not a cold he would ever feel again. This revelation hit him hard.

Giles was naked, still wet from the shower he was enjoying when the pain had hit, and his soul was wrenched from his mortal body. He watched solemnly as the vapor billowed around him. The droplets on his body turned to steam from the unbearable heat of a thousand furnaces. Lying on the ground in the center circle of the devil's domain, Gilles felt every bump in the stone and the heat pouring through the air.

The punishment realm.

A low chuckle brought his attention to its source. Lucifer.

Gilles' head spun as the past twenty days sped through his mind in fast forward. Now that he was no longer in a mortal body, his soul knew exactly what went wrong.

The journal that was handed to him by his counselor all those days ago was loosely gripped in the hands of the devil himself.

"Upon your first arrival," Lucifer snickered in a condescending tone, "the shock of your circumstances may have overcome your ability to listen, so I will restate the rules given to you by your demon guide."

Gilles watched helplessly as the devil motioned to the nine doorways around the circle.

"The punishment realm is divided into levels. You may work your way up the levels through punishment and therapy. Once you clear level one, you may choose to reincarnate into the mortal realm, hoping that you do well and make it to paradise, or you may choose the void and destroy your soul forever."

The devil's voice had carried throughout this place. Looking around, Gilles noticed each doorway had a demon there, and his mind saw a pattern that had escaped him at his original entrance and during his brief change of levels.

How did I miss this? He thought.

The first three guards wore black trousers and button-down shirts. They leaned carelessly against each doorway. The next three, the ones Gilles had dealt with during his confinement, were dressed all in red with whips and swords adorning their outfits. But the final three-they were fire demons, which he had seen from afar but never encountered face to face. They appeared to have a human shape, covered in flames that originated from deep within.

"This deal is only available to levels one through six. A soul sent to a level below six means a permanent assignment. One must take a test to move from level four to level three. This test comprises twenty days of freedom in the mortal realm. Let us see how you did."

Lucifer opened the journal to the first page and read it aloud as Giles' face showed his confusion, then horror. The devil took his time, strolling around Gilles occasionally as he read slowly, knowing they had all eternity.

What would you do with twenty days of freedom?

Since this is the first time you have handed me a journal in my five centuries of confinement, I will guess that I am on the short list of 'contestants' in this horrendous game played by the demons and their master. Since this pen and journal will not allow me to lie (I attempted it just to see if it was allowed), you may as well know the truth of the matter.

I wish for my freedom to last forever--not only a mere twenty days. If you choose to send me back, my time on the mortal plane will not constitute causing havoc as others have done in the past. My simple goal will be to find a way out of this wicked place.

You and the other demons have taken great delight in 'pulling me down from my high horse' in the centuries that I've had the displeasure of calling this place my residence. Upon entry to the afterworld, I was told that I could move up levels and have the option to reincarnate or go to the void, but that was a lie. You have deliberately left me here on level 3 for two hundred years, no matter what I did during my punishment or continuous therapy.

If your goal was to break me, you failed.

While I now know that what I did in my human life was wrong, it is not fathomable that the punishment is hundreds of years of beatings and sitting through classes with cliches branded about. How did you expect anyone to learn the error of their ways with such infantile tactics? But I digress...

It was a noteworthy occurrence when someone did not return after their twenty days. While these were few and far between, they did happen. Some of my ridiculous cellmates wondered where they could have gotten to; however, I knew the answer. The deities sent them to the void or allowed them to try the mortal world again, with or without your permission.

It is the only option. We all would have heard the gossip if they had reverted to a different level.

Which means there is a way out.

When granted my twenty days of freedom in the mortal realm, I will locate that way out. I would rather go to the void and kill my soul than enter this place again willingly.

"I find it amusing that you thought you knew everything about my realm."

Lucifer chuckled at his statement. He paused and focused on Giles as the soul tried and failed to move into a sitting position.

"What's the matter, holy man? Does it hurt?"

(WP count 966)