The Garden of Desire

Sage's foot hit nothing at one point, and she went tumbling down a tunnel she knew all too well. It was complete silence, and her hair whipped around her. Did this mean that she was dead? She hoped not. She couldn't bare to think of her parents' reactions if they walked in on her lifeless body. How would they know it was only temporary?

After a while she felt a familiar thump, and she knew she had reached the circle of hell she needed to be in. She stood up and brushed herself off. She looked around, but it was mostly empty. Some people were hanging on the trees, to which she averted her vision from, but no one was really around. She looked from left to right trying to figure out which way to go. Last time she had gone left, and she hadn't seen anything too special besides the auditorium. She figured that she better go right.

The slimey path eventually turned to marble, and as she walked the landscape got nicer and nicer. After a certain point there were no longer any trees, and the section off the path was filled with fluffy grass. She saw a few people lounging around, and some were reading and others drawing or painting. Some people were just wrestling, and they all looked happy. This was a huge change from the solemn mood she had encountered yesterday.

She stepped off the path and approached someone. "Can you point me to the garden of desire?"

He exchanged a look with the person next to him. "You're late for advanced training," he scolded.

Sage didn't know what this meant, but went along. "Just trying to get in some extra hours."

"Need a partner?"

Sage tried to look like she knew what he was talking about. "No, Daniel is my partner."

"Daniel?..."

Sage swallowed. She didn't know his last name. Was that considered suspicious? She remembered what Daniel had said about her not surviving hell with her personality. She rolled her eyes. "Of course you wouldn't know where the garden of desire is."

"Whatever. It's down a mile and then take a left at the lake."

Sage walked away, not saying thank you. She needed to blend in. She daydreamed during her walk to get herself through it, although it wasn't so bad in this area of hell. Everyone was enjoying themselves. The only thing that made this journey bad was the fact that her feet were calloused from being burned.

She could smell the lake halfway through her walk. It smelled like roses and lavender. She was obsessed with it. She kept breathing in deeply, and when she turned left and began to walk away from it again she wished that she wasn't. For a moment she didn't see why she couldn't hang around the body of water for a bit. It had been a sea green, with lilies floating on the top. For a moment she had forgotten what she came for.

When she saw Danny pacing she immediately remembered. She needed to find Kale.

Wet grass itched her feet as she approached Danny. All around them were trees with low hanging fruit. Sunlight drifted in between the branches, and a few butterflies floated below them. There was a slight cool breeze, and the petals on the daisies surrounding the floor were pushed back a bit as it continuously moved through.

"There you are," Danny said when he finally looked up from his shoes. He walked up to Sage. She could see that he had a few tiny freckles around his nose.

"Tell me what I need to do," Sage urged.

Danny looked around. There were people lounging this way and that.

"You're going to need to overthrow Luke," he mumbled under his breath. He glanced around after he said it.

"Are you sure?" How could she, someone who was not a demon, overthrow a demon?

Danny cleared his throat and pretended to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand as he spoke: "And you're going to have to go through the 9 circles to do it."

"9 circles?"

He changed to speaking at a normal volume. "This is lust. There's 8 others, so one for every sin."

Sage chewed her lip for a second, taking this all in. So she'd have to walk through 9 levels? "And you'll help me?"

Danny flinched. "What?"

"Will you help me over-"

Danny cleared his throat again as someone passed the two. "No," he said sternly.

Sage frowned.

He went back to speaking lowly. "Find the king of every circle. You'll have to prove yourself to every one. It's hard, but doable."

"How many people have succeeded at this?"

Danny sighed and looked around again, his hand scratching the back of his neck. He went to say something and then paused. "Good luck," he said finally. "And if you need any help, don't call me."

Sage's mouth dropped as he walked past her and through the trees.

She wasn't sure what to do in that moment. She wasn't entirely sure where she should go to get a portal back, or whether or not it would even work. She felt like screaming.

With a huff, she made her way out of the forest and to the main path. There were less people now.

She saw someone coming towards her in the distance. There were several people walking around them. One was talking with their hands wildly, and the guy in the center was paying his attention to them. Sage squinted. Was that Luke?

"Shit," she whispered. "Fuck." She sped walked in the other direction, hoping he wouldn't recognize her hair.

Sage couldn't tell if he was looking at her or not as she made her way down the path. She was afraid to look back. If she did and he was there, he might recognize her. If she didn't and kept walking, she might run into something unexpected. Either way she should've just told Danny to meet her at the entrance when she was last in hell. After a few minutes of internal debate, she looked back. The path was empty. She sighed in relief.

"You don't smell dead."

She jumped. The voice came from behind her. It was a boy. He had shaggy brown hair and dimples from his smile. He had a messenger bag on, and was wearing a green shirt and brown pants. He was really attractive.

Sage brushed her hair out of her face and stood up straight. "I might be dead."

The boy shook his head in amusement. "It's always the pretty ones that try to sneak into Hell."

Sage's eyes widened, to which the boy laughed.

"Let me see if I have anything for you," he said before looking in his messenger bag and digging around. It didn't look super full, but she could hear a bunch of papers being crumpled and moved around as he searched. Sage looked back impatiently. Would Luke be coming this way soon?

The boy smirked and handed her a folded piece of paper, and she took it reluctantly. "Who are you?" she asked, turning the paper over to see if there was anything on the back. When she looked up he was gone.

Sage tried to just forget the whole conversation and focused on reading whatever message she needed to receive. The last thing she needed to be doing was having questions. She sat down off the path and opened the letter, glancing up to see if anyone was coming as she did so. Her hands shook as she read it:

Forced to hell with a bad reaction

makes one fight and turn to action.

9 circles, they'll conquer them all.

4 will fail and 1 will fall.

1 is away completely unaware.

Don't even bother looking anywhere.

1st is limbo with all 5

last is lust where 1 will die.

One is Christ and will take over.

This one is the 4 leafed clover.

Their new rules will make you sick.

The 6th will come and make you pick.

Let this happen if they prove to you

that them in power will have to do.

They can

walk on water,

bend the air,

heal the deaf,

fix despair,

summon the 6th,

curse your heir.

Sage's eyebrows furrowed. She reread the paper, momentarily forgetting that she was in a rush. Did this mean that she would have to find the 4 other wards to start? She bit the nails on one of her hands, something she hadn't done in a long time. How could she find them in time to save Kale?

Someone came by, and she hurriedly folded the paper and stood up. They gave her a weird look, and she pretended to know where she was going as she walked away. She walked down the path until they were out of sight and then picked up the pace to a jog.

After five minutes she was sweaty and tired, and so she figured that it couldn't hurt to try to open a portal then and there. Worst case scenario was that she had to walk further back to leave.

She walked until she reached the pond, turned right, and then hid deep in the garden of desire. She squeezed her eyes shut, envisioning the same hole in the ceiling she had before, her heart pounding in her chest. When she felt the cold air against her head she knew she had succeeded, but she didn't know how to get out. She looked around, but there was nothing to climb that wouldn't allow her to be easily spotted leaving.

Figuring trying to just jump was better than nothing, she went for it, and to her surprise she was sucked back into the hole.

Sage gasped awake. There was a figure in front of her. She screamed.