Gambling

"Oh my, look at what the cat dragged in."

A tall caucasian man, dressed in a fine black suit, sat upon a tall black throne. The throne's height seemed to reach at least a story high but may have been closer to two and shone amid flashes of red lighting with a glossy crimson pulse.

The throne and the man were located upon a dark pillar, isolated from everything else that resided in this liminal place. Beyond the pillar and throne, in the sky, were magnificent ashen clouds, streaked in red lighting. Below the sky were enormous black pillars that held, similar to a beehive, a multitude of holes in which many hideous beings with wings would shoot out of only to come back with screaming figures in their claws.

Below these pillars were infinite red dunes littered in specks of fire like shattered glass or discarded cigarette buds. Here, in the dunes, dancing in the fires were humanoids screaming in pain and fright, running and ducking from the flying things that came periodically.

This was all the other man could see but knew that likely there was more than just this, much more.

Besides the tall man on the throne, there was another. He was older, perhaps in his forties or fifties. He had sallow skin and a protuberant belly, eyes littered in crows feet, not from natural age but alcohol and smoking. In fact, he seemed to have the look of someone who had once been handsome but could no longer be called as such. He also happened to be wearing a plaid suit.

"It's not everyday one such as yourself ends up on my doorstep." The man on the high throne licked his lips. "Your quite the catch, despite your current." The man on the high throne's lips curled. "State, you were once a very handsome figure, hardworking and righteous, so what's brought you here of all places?"

The man in the plaid suit opened his mouth, about to speak.

"Just kidding!" The man on the high throne cackled. "I know all about your father, mother, his leaving, her dying. All very standard stuff, honestly, you humans crack so easily. All it takes is a little dash of betrayal there, a little hint of misery here, and now you mine for eternity. Really, I'll never understand what he sees in you lot, except for a few."

"A few?"

The man on the high throne smiled. "Yes, a few, like you. If you weren't special you'd already be down on those dunes for a few hundred years, getting you flesh pecked and ripped off till you looked like a bag of bones, that is, until you were shuffled off to a more sorry places than this." The man on the high throne laughed. "Yet, here you are, before the great I."

"The great you?"

The man on the high throne frowned. "Why yes, the origin of all things evil, the ruler of down below, the great prince of darkness, the magnificent and glorious SATAN!" The pillar shook violently as the man on the high throne's voice reverberated across their dimension. Suddenly every winged beast below them looked up and screeched in unison, creating a deafening pitch that drowned out the suffering wails of every human on the sand.

"I, the man on the high throne, the ruler of down below, the equal foe to him, am offering you a chance for something better than those worthless things." The man on the high throne look down over his throne towards the humans on the dunes. "You have the chance to be something more, something powerful, to serve someone with absolute strength!"

The man in the plaid suit looked down. "Really, but what's so special about me for you to want me to serve you after death?"

The man on the high throne smirked. "Does that really matter? All you need to know is that if you don't take me up on my gracious offer, you will be spending eternity in torment and that if you do, you shall become something greater than what you are now, you'll be one of my most powerful vassals, set upon the world to do my bidding."

The man in the plaid suit stood there thinking.

"Do you really need to think so hard?" The man on the high throne's eyebrow began to twitch. Frowning he looked down on the man in the plaid suit. "Well, it seems you don't exactly understand the position you're in, so let me fix that for you, in a hundred years, we'll have this conversation again. Goodbye."

The man in the plaid suit's eyes widened. "Hey, wait!"

…

It was absolute misery, hell beyond the highest magnitude known to any living man or woman. After the man on the high throne had said goodbye, he had found himself stranded on the dunes like all the other miserable beings sent to this place. The first day his suit had burned off of his body like a moth's wing in flame. He was constantly burned alive, his feet charred and broken, but always his flesh would replenish itself and he would be subjected to the misery of the dunes once again. His eyes felt like they would melt at any moment, his lungs were charred and black. As far as he could see, the naked odious bodies of humanity were blackened with soot and tormented with fire.

The first year had truly been hell, but the next few decades had allowed him to grow numb to the pain despite the dune's ability to make him feel every ache and misery as if it were his first. He had been lucky the first few decades, escaping the talons of the beasts but by his sixtieth year, he was caught and dragged into their lair. He would not repeat what he had experienced but suffice it to say, he would never be the same again.

As he lay down on the red sand, his back scorching, his hair burning into crisps, his feet blackening into charcoal, he stared up at the ashen clouds and sighed. "I wonder how far up the sky stretches." Rolling over onto his stomach, the man laid his face across the sand. The stench of burning flesh rose up around his prone figure like a mist. "How much longer do I have here anyway, couldn't there have been checkers, or uno, or something? All I have to entertain myself is gambling. Speaking of, there goes one of the boys now." A few hundred feet away from the man, a beast flew away with a human in it's claws. Unlike the majority of those present in the dunes, he was cursing his bad luck and yelling about losing his shells."

As the man flew up in the sky beyond the wails of misery, a few faint chuckles could be heard.

"Shit, I was sure it would be Harkonen, he's plumper than all of us combined."

…

"Hmm?" The man looked up from his prone form. Normally he would have lain for days on end but the sudden disappearance of pain was so jarring that he couldn't exactly ignore the situation.

As he looked around, the man could vaguely remember that he had once been here before, then he saw the throne and up above, sitting on it, was a man in a suit. "Oh, it's you."

The man on the high throne's eyebrows rose. "Well, this is a first."

"Sorry, I didn't know you were so inexperienced."

The man on the high throne frowned. "And here I thought your punishment would evaporate any future cheek.

The man sighed. "Well, it certainly evaporated the present cheek, both of them. So, what do you want."

The man on the high throne's frown deepened but then it morphed into a grin. "No. I should have expected this, yes, you're perfect. I must have you."

"No thanks, I'm into girls." The man laid his face back down against the floor.

"Not women?"

"Shit." The man sighed. "Whatever."

The man on the high throne's frown returned. "Cheek is fine but disrespect, I will not allow."

Suddenly, against the man's will, his body was jerked up straight into the air, he was pushed forwards near the base of the throne and then forced into the floor in a kneeling pose, cracking his shins. His head was forced down onto the pillar, his arms near his two temples. He couldn't move.

"That's better." The man on the high throne smiled. "Now, how about it? Will you serve me?"

"Do I get out of here?"

"Yes, and so much more."

The man sighed. "Fine."

The man on the high throne grinned. "Very good. I'll see you after you die."

The man's eyebrows rose. "Wait, wha…"

…

Laying across the cold pavement of some back alley, memories suddenly came back to the man, he had been out on the town as he usually was when he grew lonely. Then he was mugged. He had given in of course, who wants to get shot in some shit hole, but apparently whoever mugged him didn't have such qualms. So now he laid next to a dark green dumpster and a discarded coke bottle under the stars of a full moon, tanning in his own puddle of blood.

"Fuck that guy."

…

Soon the man's consciousness had faded out of existence. Now, he was here. In a luxurious office. The walls were a monotone grey, unadorned and plain. There was a large mahogany desk in front of which he sat in a comfortable chair. Classical music played in the background and in the foreground, behind the desk, sat the man on the high throne.

"You tricked me."

"I'm the devil."

"Fair enough."

"It's not like you'd make it to heaven anyway, what with all those things you did after you mother's death, quite the perverted you aren't you." The devil smirked.

"At least I don't torture people for eternity."

"Of course not, you don't have the privilege, but you will."

The man shuffled in his seat. "I will?"

The devil smiled. "Of course, we signed a contract and I Never. Ever. Go back on my word. So I suppose I'll have to explain what you're supposed to do."

"That would be helpful."

"Do remember that you are now my subordinate and that I have your soul, I wouldn't be so cheeky if I were you."

"Well, I was tortured for a hundred years."

The devil smiled. "Would you like a few hundred more."

"…"

"Alright, where was I, ah yes, you're job. This should be fairly simple and fun for you. All you have to do is exist."

"Really?"

"Why yes. I'm going to insert you into a vessel of my choosing, in a world of my choosing, and then off you go. Have fun, enjoy it! If you were any other demon there'd be plenty of Strings attached but no, you are one of the special few I have chosen to grant a place of power among me, not through birth but merit. Congratulations."

"Wait, so what am I?"

"Why, a demon my boy. A dark lord of Hell! I think you've got a lot of potential, so go get em' as it were."

"Do I have any sort of domain then, legions?"

The devil laughed. "Not as of yet. Everyone would have a fit if I stole some of theirs and gave it to some former human. No you've got to earn those, but don't worry that will come with time. Anyways, you'll be reborn in another world, think of it as a free vacation!"

"Why do I feel like you're not telling me something?"

"…"

The man sighed. "Fine. So when do I leave?"

The devil grinned. "Now."