An Angel In Hell: Chapter 1

            Aria the angel danced before the Devil. Dressed in a way that she would never have dressed had she been free, moving with the new, sensuous movements that she'd recently been taught by a succubus for this very purpose.

            Lucifer tipped his head back as he drained his wineglass for the fifth time. He seemed to have a special talent for holding his alcohol well. The succubus at his side immediately refilled his glass.

            Aria's eyes remained downcast as the Fallen ones joined in a sordid embrace. The music to which she danced floated through the air without interruption or pause. A spell by the Devil had brought the music into existence, and he was the only one who could silence it. Until it was silenced, she was magically bound as a marionette to keep on dancing forever, no matter how hungry, thirsty, weary, or aching she was.

            "We'll be having company tonight, my dove," the Satan commented to Aria off-handedly during a break in their kiss. "I want you to go get some sleep, so that you're well rsted for the evening." He snapped his fingers, causing the music to vanish, then returned his attentions to the succubus on his lap.

            Aria, still keeping her gaze averted from the two, swayed unsteadily for a moment before she tottered off through the maze of hallways in this mansion to the cell he had assigned to her. She closed the door behind her, as always, then let herself collapse onto the bed and close her eyes. Her feet ached like they'd never ached before. She wriggled under the black blankets of her bed, trying to get as comfortable as possible in the uncomfortable jewelry and clothes. She would have changed them if she were allowed to do so, but the Devil had made it abundantly clear that she was never to alter her own appearance without explicit permission from him.

            Perhaps it seemed strange that she did not worry or wonder about the guest who would be coming for dinner that evening. She had been imprisoned here long enough to know that worrying did no good. She didn't know if she'd reached her present state of only half her former emotional capacity from exhaustion, lack of orientation, or desensitization. She shuddered at the thought that she was getting used to this kind of life, but then again, why shouldn't she get used to it when it was going to be her reality for the rest of her life, probably eternity?

            She was far too tired to stay awake for much longer, so she soon drifted into a sound, deep sleep. For the first time in a long time, though she couldn't say how long it had been since this sunless abyss had confounded her sense of time, she dreamed.

            She dreamed of her husband, Jasper, the demon with whom she'd fallen in love, and who'd fallen in love with her in return. Through love, he had ascended, shedding his demonic habits and transforming into an angel. In her dream, she sat with him on the bed inside their heavenly home. His arm was around her waist and her head lay against his shoulder as they talked and laughed, merely enjoying each other's presence. Then their eyes met in a moment of pure bliss, and they both leaned in to each other for a kiss---

            Their lips never met. Aria awoke before they'd kissed. She was startled to find herself awake in this vile place. For a moment or two, she could not remember anything. Then it all flooded back. Her eyes burned with tears, and she turned her face into her pillow to stifle her sobs. She missed Jasper with every bone in her body. She ached for them, for what could have been, for what should have been, for what would have been, if Lucifer had not interfered. Anger at Lucifer crept upon her, but she quickly banished the feeling, holding fast to her strong love for Jasper. After all, if she should for even just one moment cease to love him, she would perish immediately. It was her love for a demon that protected her from spontaneous combustion while she resided down here in Sheol.

            This being the case, she tried to always keep her love for him at the forefront of her mind, but it was a difficult thing to do without her sorrow at having lost him consuming her entirely and causing her to dissolve into tears. She was here by choice, in part, after all. She wasn't the one who'd been kidnapped; Jasper had. She'd made a deal with Satan that would free Jasper, but only at the cost of herself. In return for Jasper's freedom and for the Devil's word that he'd never interfere with her husband again, Aria had paid a steep price: she'd surrendered all of her freedom and all of her rights to Lucifer, enslaving herself to him for no less than eternity; she'd surrendered her voice to him, so that she could no long speak or sing or scream, though she could laugh with humor or groan in pain or sigh with despair or gasp with shock; all of Jasper's memories of Aria, his love for Aria, and his angelhood would also be removed. Aria had haggled with the Devil for hours over this deal, and that was the best she could get. Jasper had then been brought in, and with no explanation whatsoever, Lucifer had pulled off Jasper's wedding ring; with it went his memories, his love, and his divinity. Within moments, the transformation was complete, and before the old Jasper could even see Aria, Lucifer had transported him far away. Lucifer removed Aria's wedding ring as well, and with it went her voice and her freedom.

            How long had it been---months? weeks? years?---since that fateful hour? Aria had never seen Jasper again, but she kept her love alive inside her heart. There was hope of them being together again, however faint and slim that hope might be. If any piece of their deal was broken, the entire contract unraveled, and everything was undone. They wouldn't get their wedding rings back necessarily, but everything the wedding rings had taken from them would be returned. On the flipside, if either of them managed to possess their wedding ring and put it back on, the other ring would magically return to the one's spouse and they would both regain all that they had lost. Aria had long been engaged in a careful, subtle search for where Lucifer might have hidden the wedding rings. It was her only chance of ever seeing Jasper again, after all. She needed something to keep her alive, and for now, she was running on hope; she head given herself entirely to Satan: her rights, her freedoms, her body, her mind, even parts of her will. But he would never rule her heart, and he would never rule the part of her will that still strove to be rejoined to her soulmate.

            She forced herself to stop crying. Satan always punished her horribly whenever she cried. Not that he'd ever . . . taken advantage of her, which surprised, relieved, and unnerved Aria, for she would have expected him to have done so by now. He had every right to, after all; maybe he simply preferred not to mate with girls who acted as his own puppets. Or perhaps he simply preferred his experienced, exquisite, exceptionally gorgeous succubus to an innocent like herself. Or maybe . . . maybe she'd ceased to be beautiful, after so much harsh treatment for so long. She rarely ate and only ever ate very little, slept rarely; bathed only occasionally, and always under the cold, supervising eye of either Satan or Enat, his succubus slave. Aria, unable to ask what deal the succubus had made with the Devil that had resulted in her enslavement, knew nothing about her or her history. Even so, the woman's openly sexual behavior and utter lack of shamelessness disturbed and repulsed the angel.

            Aria rolled over, pulling the blankets tightly around herself again, pretending that she was enveloped by Jasper's embrace as she closed her eyes. Soon, she was back to sleep.