Circles In Hell

"Not everyone gets what they deserve"

Theodore wanted to die. At least, that's what he thought. He had been feeling miserable for the past few years, and it just got worse, and worse. It was becoming unbearable. It was getting to the point where he couldn't take it anymore. Of course, like anyone else, he wondered what would happen if he did die. Would anyone miss him? Who would attend his funeral? How would people react when they learned about his death? These are things that everyone would like to know, but very few people actually get to learn. Theodore decided he would be one of those people who learn how people react.

Theodore had been a very active person for his seventeen years of life. He loved taking up new skills and hobbies. For whatever reason, they all involved sharp objects. He got into axe and knife throwing, archery, fencing, sword fighting. He was active, and he was dedicated. He nearly perfected all of these. You might be confused about what this has to do with anything, but you'll understand later.

Theodore had also been very popular. He was wildly handsome; tall, tan, with sea green eyes and wavy brown hair. He had many friends, all of them as active and well liked as he was. But Theodore was still unsatisfied. His depression kept coming in, more and more every day. He finally decided that he would do something about it all. He wouldn't kill himself, not yet, at least. He would fake his death, he decided, and see if anyone actually cared.

This is something that Theodore had been thinking about for a while. He knew what he had to do. He knew how he was going to do it. He had everything planned. Of course, he couldn't do this himself. He asked his most trust-worthy friend, David, to help him with his elaborated plan. It did take some convincing, as David did not want to help his best friend fake his own death, but after some convincing, David agreed. This job was something that he did not trust his parents with, so he didn't ask them. He was planning on even trying to convince them that he had died as well.

Theodore's plan was to convince everyone that he had committed suicide. He jumped off a bridge. David was the witness. David did all he could to prevent Theodore from jumping, but Theodore caught David off guard, and there was nothing David could do about it. It was at about one in the morning, and there were no other witnesses. The body was never found. David was a good actor. He truly pulled it off, and he did so incredibly well. Everybody bought it.

Unfortunately, Theodore's parents did not really care all that much about their son's death. This was something that Theodore wasn't very surprised about. They had never really cared that much about him. They cared much more about his younger sister, Laura. Theodore had always cared for his younger sister, but at her young age, she didn't really understand the concepts of life and death, the concepts of love, and what it would feel like to lose somebody. Theodore figured that his leaving would not affect her sister as much as others. If it turns out it did, then he might feel a little guilt, but as she was the favorite of the two siblings, he really wouldn't feel all that bad.

The local burial home planned a funeral. As it wasn't funded, the best they could do would be to place a small stone in their burial grounds, with his name, birth date, and supposed death date. They planned a small ceremony as well, as a mourning session, for anyone who wanted to come. This is what Theodore planned to attend, from a distance. It was on a Saturday afternoon, so there was no excuse for anyone not to go.

The day of the ceremony had come. Theodore went the same day, pretending to go mourn the death of someone else, at someone else's tombstone. He glanced up every few minutes, but nobody showed up. Nobody except David. It was part of the elaborate plan. Theodore glanced at his watch. It was the right time. It was the right day. Yet nobody was there. After an hour, when nobody showed up, Theodore accepted that nobody, excluding David, had actually cared about him. A tear formed in the corner of his eye, and he sat down, putting his back to the tombstone of this complete stranger, and put his head between his knees.

David walked over to him, put his hand on Theodore's shoulder, and told him that they should get going. David got no response. David considered staying with Theodore, but he had decided that Theodore needed some alone time. David, who wasn't as affected by the absence of people as Theodore was, walked swiftly away. Theodore, however, stayed there, for most of the night. He had many thoughts run through his head. After a little time, Theodore stood up, and stared at the tombstone he had been sitting on. The name reads, "Joshua Arnolds. Birthday - Unknown. Death Day - Unknown. 'Not everyone gets what they deserve.' -- Unknown"

This quote, on a completely random tombstone, affected Theodore. He realized how true it was. He thought about it, how this man, Joshua Arnolds, did not get the honor of being recognized. He felt a sudden connection with this dead man. He recognized what they have in common - they exist, but only to themselves. Not to others. Not everyone gets what they deserve. Not everyone gets what they deserve. Not everyone gets what they deserve. Theodore decided that he will take this quote, and rebel against it. He knew it was true, but he will make it so that some people will get exactly what they deserve.

Theodore knew what he had to do. Of course, it wasn't quite the right time to do anything yet. He walked back to David's apartment, with thoughts running through his head. Of course, he had to keep his new plan a secret. David only agreed to help with Theodore's original plan as long as nobody got hurt. Nobody could know about this, not even David. Theodore reached David's apartment, and he was there, still, at two in the morning, waiting nervously.

Theodore kept up his act of depression, despite his new plan. He ignored David and his questions of where he had been for the past few hours, and walked into the guest bedroom, and passed out on the bed.

During the night, his heart stopped.

His soul descended.

Into a world, similar to the real one, yet this one is not real.

The Unknown Truth about this world that Theodore never truly finds out is that he had died, and had descended to Hell. Here, he could continue with his plan, without truly hurting anyone. To relive the day, that is about to follow, is his punishment, and he will have this punishment for the rest of time. Unless, of course, something happened, and it stopped affecting Theodore. In which case, Harasee, the Angel of Death, will do something much worse. He doesn't want to do that, but if it becomes necessary, He shall.

Theodore suspected nothing of his own death. He continued with his plan, when he woke up the next morning. in this hellishly real world. He continued to ignore David. He walked out of the apartment, and headed over to his family's house. He needed the tools of the arts he had mastered over the years, which are stacked, neatly, in the garage. The pin number for the garage door has, as Theodore had suspected, not been changed in the few days since Theodore's alleged death. He got in, took his tools, and escaped, without anyone noticing. With luck, his family wouldn't notice they were missing for a couple days. If all went according to plan, he would be able to return them later that day, and nobody would know what had happened.

Despite Theodore being wildly popular in school, he had a small group of friends, made up of six select people. The group had been friends all his life, but as he got older, and his body had changed, he started to suspect that his friends were using him to be popular, not to be his actual friend. He brought this up to them a couple times, but they all denied it, every time. Theodore didn't like this suspicion he had. He hoped it wasn't real, but he wasn't sure. He had no way of proving it. Until now. When none of his old friends attended his funeral, it was all the proof they needed to show that they didn't really care about Theodore at all.

He was mad. He wanted revenge for this. Theodore didn't get what he felt he deserved, which was respect, so he shall give his old friends what they deserve: payback. He was going to give them what he was supposed to have administered to himself a few days ago: death. At this point, Theodore didn't care about making it look like a suicide, he just wanted them dead. He knew where they all lived, he knew all their darkest secrets.

The details of his killings aren't necessary. All that needs to be said is that he accomplished what he had set out to do. At the end of the day, he had the blood of six nearly innocent kids on his hands, and had everything back to normal. The weapons he had used had been cleaned and returned to the garage of his parents. The bodies had been found by their parents, and murder was suspected. Nobody had known who it was, yet, but that does not matter, as Theodore is punished to relive this day for the rest of time, as a punishment for what he was planning on doing but was not able to. Little would Theodore know, when he would go to sleep, expecting to wake up the next morning, with the police at his door, ready to take him away, none of that would actually happen. He would wake up, and learn, somehow, that the kids he had brutally murdered, without a thought of regret, would be alive and well. They would have no memory of the previous day's experience. He would receive no explanation for this, but Theodore knew what he thought he had to do.

Theodore did, indeed, wake up the following morning. He was surprised that the police hadn't found out that he was the murderer. He did nothing to cover it up, and he knew it. He planned on running away this day, attempting an escape from the police. Theodore had always been a smart person, but he had made a stupid mistake. On his way to escape, he decided he would go to the school, listen to the passerby, assuming they would all be talking about the deaths of six of the best students the school has ever had. Alas, he heard nothing. This brought him joy, thinking that they are receiving the same amount of care that he had, but then, in a few minutes, he learned why. His friends were still alive, walking together in a small group, somehow, like nothing had ever happened.

In case of self defense, Theodore did keep a few weapons on him. He pulled out a pistol, and with all the years of training, swiftly and smoothly, once again, slaughtered the six students. He then sprinted away, all the passerby shocked, running around in fear, hoping that they would not be the next target. They had no reason to fear, Theodore was not after them. He wanted his betrayers gone. As he had the day before, he had successfully accomplished his task. Now, Theodore would be free, so to speak, to flee. He had an idea of travelling to Iceland, become a hermit, and never be heard from again.

As Theodore was escaping, he had realized that he was becoming continuously more tired. He ignored it, and kept on running. Eventually, he collapsed and passed out in the middle of the street. As this is a personal hellscape, the surrounding people didn't care, as they weren't real. Theodore, however, woke up shortly, back in David's flat, with no idea on how he got there. Although he still doesn't know what exactly is going on, he knows he is in some sort of Groundhog Day scenario. He doesn't understand how this is possible, but he knows what he needs to do every day. Every day, he goes out, and kills the six students, whom he is convinced had betrayed him. Every night, or some time shortly after the killing, he passes out, and always wakes back up in the guest bedroom of David's flat. For what would be weeks, made up of consecutive days that are always almost exactly the same, Theodore was filled with anger and rage, and killed them without a second thought. Harasee had known this would happen. This wasn't yet the punishment. The punishment had come when Theodore had started to feel guilty about the killings. He started to realize that the students didn't deserve death. They were only doing what many people would've done; they wanted to be popular, they wanted to be liked. They were using Theodore's popularity to do that. While that wasn't exactly moral, the punishment they deserve isn't death, not that harsh.

Theodore had realized this, although it did take a while. His killings came in stages; the first one was anger, rage. Theodore killed with passion, over, and over again, without any doubt of what he knew he was doing. Then came guilt, when he realized that they didn't deserve this. Then came sadness, because he really didn't want to do this. Then came misery of doing this every day, continuously, slaving over this task of slaughtering innocent students. Even though Theodore didn't want to do this, he felt this irresistible urge to go out and do it again. It was an urge that was physically impossible to resist, so in the end, he had accepted it.

This wasn't the punishment that Harasee had wanted. The Lord of Darkness decided to take his punishment up a notch. He needed to make it worse, One night, in his hellscape, while sleeping, soon to wake up, Harasee gave Theodore life once again.

His soul ascended.

He was given life, right back into the world that he had left what felt like years ago. It was the same night that Theodore's heart had stopped, so, to everyone else in the real world, Theodore had only been truly dead for a few moments. As Theodore wakes up and performs his daily tasks, after doing them for such a long time, it became more of a habit then a punishment. For once, Theodore hadn't noticed that the irresistible urge to murder was gone. He was free. But unfortunately, Theodore hadn't felt that it was gone.

When Theodore was in his personal hellscape, he killed in every way that he felt was possible. So, he created a pattern. He killed in a different manner every day, but eventually his methods did repeat. Harasee's choice of returning Theodore to this world this day was no accident.

Theodore's method this day was the same as it was on the first day he had done it. He went to his family's house and stole the weapons from the garage. Theodore met each and every student after school near their home. He ruthlessly, but still with guilt, murdered them, and .... he returned the weapons to the garage. Once he learned his daily performances consisted of becoming a cold blooded murder, he no issue washing away the blood of his victims. He then returned to David's flat, fell asleep, and was ready to wake up the next day and repeat his "tasks."

The second day's task was death by pistol. But as Theodore went to where the students would be, and have been, every day, but this one time they didn't arrive. Instead, he was met by sorrowed, mourning faces, everyone talking about how six of the most popular students have been murdered. No suspect, but there is a path. Theodore realized what had happened. The Groundhog Day "spell" had been broken. This time, Theodore had truly killed them. And for once, they were going to stay dead. Theodore was broken....now, and this was something he couldn't fix. As Theodore had experienced these days in his hellscape, he knew David wouldn't be home when Theodore returned. So he went back, left a note, that said one thing: "Not everyone gets what they deserve."

Theodore knew what he had to do. He had to end it all, just how he was expected to do it originally. He knew exactly where to go.

One thing that David lied about was the bridge that Theodore had allegedly jumped off of. David said that there were no cameras. It was a lie. There was. In the security room of a building nearby, that had cameras pointed towards the bridge, a worker spotted a teen walking towards the bridge. This wasn't any different, but this worker had seen thousands of teens walk across this bridge. But something about this one kid was different. His pace, the way his head was pointed. It was purposeful, but depressing. When the worker realized the teen's plan, it was too late. He watched, helplessly, as the teen climbed the short fence to prevent anyone from doing it, and hurled himself off the edge.

The end.