The End in the Beginning

The wet grass dewed against Angel's back as she stretched across the lawn in front of her. Shivers rippled through her unnaturally thin form. Her clothes barely fit, jeans slipping low around her hips. How had she gotten so small? Already a petite-framed girl, the thinness didn't seem unnatural, but it was noticeable. Her clothes were covered in a dark splatter she didn't recognize. There were large splotches and little specs as well.

She shifted and lay her head fully into the grass, her thick, curly hair splayed around her. It was paler, and her blond highlights had grown out to the ends. When had her hair grown? It must have been down to her butt from the look of it. She reached up and brushed her tear-stained cheeks. She didn't remember crying.

She parted her fingers through the blades of grass, letting herself study the details of the night clouds and the stars above them and the nothingness above that. The quietness of it all was eerie. Aside from the sounds of crickets, there was nothing. Even the breeze didn't blow. She looked back at the house she came from, which was equally quiet. She didn't recognize it at all. Whose house was it?

She looked to her right, following the rows of cookie cutter houses down an endless street towards the night. They were barely visible in the dark, looming like monuments. The streetlamps left a strange glow everywhere, casting pretty sparkles across her naturally tanned skin. Nothing about her surroundings felt particularly real.

Looking left down the street was much the same. She felt alone in the vastness of it. And the quietness. She couldn't see a single soul. No one walking. No one in their windows. No lights flicking on as they watched tv. It was as if she were looking at a street of empty houses which made no sense. Perhaps if she closed her eyes, she something would become clear. Her long lashes fluttered. She really did feel exhausted. Why was she so tired?

She had just begun to lower her lids when a sudden sound startled her—it was a car door slamming shut. She snapped her eyes up to see a black Jeep in front of the house two doors down. Four pale figures in vests craned their necks, scanning for something. One bounded up the walkway of that house and burst through the door. She should have felt worried at least, but her head was quiet and tired. The other figures spread out between the houses, each heading for a door.

Another one suddenly kicked in the door of the house next to hers. She noticed the sound of crickets suddenly died in the air and everything became several degrees colder. Angel tensed but still didn't have the energy to move, watching as a figure approached her door. Boom, then silence. Anxiety started creeping into her. Why couldn't she move? Why couldn't she react at all? Who were these men? A few moments later the figure emerged, shouting "All clear inside" before looking toward the grass, "Wait! I've got something!"

The exhaustion strangled her senses, overwhelming her undernourished body to the point of unconsciousness. She couldn't hold her eyes open anymore as the figures surrounded her. A light blasted across her face then she felt a stab in the neck and the cold wave of sleep crashing over her. Her eyes closed just as a voice came near her face, "A human girl?", then sleep overcame her.

The men looked down at the small figure of a girl. She looked as if she hadn't eaten in a long while or slept, for that matter. The most disturbing part of her was the blood. She was covered in it. But she appeared to have no wounds so it wasn't her blood. Even though there were obvious signs of stress on her body, she was remarkably lovely. She had round, soft-looking lips, a delicate demeanor and symmetrical features. How had she ended up in the underworld? How had she ended up in the underworld, alive? It was practically impossible.

"What should we do?" Zero asked, clicking off his flashlight and shoving it into his vest pocket. He looked to the group's leader, Brazz.

"Uhh, shit. A human? A living human?" Daw asked to no one in particular. It shocked them all.

"Someone radio it in," Brazz insisted, tossing the empty sedative syringe into his black satchel. When no one moved he singled one of the men out, "Rig, radio it in, dammit."

The burlier one of the four, Rig, headed back to the jeep to call in the discovery to dispatch. Hell had become remarkably efficient in recent centuries. They had lots of modern advancements which made managing things easier. He struggled to remember the protocol on unauthorized visitors. Is that really what this was? No one would put themselves in hell. It just didn't happen. When he reached the radio, he punched in the right frequency and called in.

"Dispatch. Over."

"Copy. Dispatch here. Over."

"Dispatch, I need to call in...," he hesitated for a moment, trying to decide on the best protocol definition to fit this scenario, "I need to call in a breach. Over."

"Copy. A breach of what nature. Over."

"A human kind, dispatch. Over."

"Sorry repeat. Over."

"A human has breached a hell house. Over."

"Copy. Sector and house? Over."

"Sector 5927. House number as follows: 982-54364-512-23. Over."

"Copy. Noted. Return with offender. Over."

"Copy. Over."

Rig jumped back out of the jeep and headed towards the group where Zero and Daw were in the middle of a heated argument. He couldn't focus on that, instead he wondered what Hades would do with the girl, or to the girl. He wasn't one to take a breach lightly. In fact he was likely to be violent towards even the lightest offenders. He shuddered to think about it.

"We should have just put her back," Daw insisted taking several steps toward Zero, "Why call it in at all? What Hades doesn't know, won't kill us!"

"That's cruel," Zero gasped, "She's so small. And if you saw inside that house, you wouldn't wish that on anyone."

"It's not protocol to ignore a discovery," Brazz cut in, "So it was called in and that's final. Imagine if our king found this out for himself and wondered why he was never informed? Do you think death is the worst he can do Daw?"

That stopped the argument from going any further. And they both settled away from one another.

"Rig. Put the girl in the back of the jeep, let's get going," Brazz ordered, "We've disturbed enough houses tonight."

Rig lifted her body and was again shocked at how small she was. Up close, her beauty was even harder to deny and he couldn't help but feel swayed to be gentle with her.

It only took him a few long strides to reach the vehicle and with one hand holding her in place, he lowered the tailgate. With a small but gentle motion, he deposited her onto the padded floor area between their seats and closed the gate. One at a time, they each skirted around her tiny frame into their seats in the back and Brazz jumped into the front seat. No one had any inkling of what to do from that point forward but they knew, without a doubt, it would be a long night.