The Devil's Laugh

My eyes close, the night’s soothing caress guides my body into a slumber. The peaceful bliss helps my imagination ready itself, yet peace is short lived as the images of torment and suffering appear in cinema. Fires and lava swirl around to form a hell like scene. The Devil appears from his deceitful cloak. He is in mortal form, easily passes as one of us on the street. He reaches out and speaks, “Take my hand, and allow me to guide you to your darkest pleasures.” I hesitate, being programmed to despise him, yet my curiosity and interest urges me to step forward. “I am in a dream after all,” I assure myself. I reach and touch his forearm. I feel my body jolt forward flying through a portal of nothingness. I land on a rocky surface. It is hot, the air is bone dry, and the atmosphere is filled with screams, horrid haunting screeches. I walk toward the light, which seems to be deriving from a fire. The walls are glass, clear, yet darkened by the souls of mankind. They press against the crystal prison, begging for help, begging for an end. I realize now, that I am no longer in a dream, that the devil was not a figment but a tangible entity. I should be scared, but I am confident, confident that he and I are but the same. His familiarity with the ways of the world provides a disgusting comfort. The tunnel curves into a massive opening, an extravagant underground cave. Chandeliers made of humans light the room. Their skeletons still sway and fidget, trying to break free of their curse. The Devil sits upon his massive throne. Concubines lay beneath him blanketing the steps and foyer to his chair. They are not bound, nor chained, but appear to be enjoying the company of the dark lord. “Come closer my son, stand before your king.” He commands with a casual voice as if my calm demeanor fools him as I am willingly going to give myself to his torture. “Why am I here?” I ask. “The same reason all men come here, you are here to serve your eternal damnation. You mortals take life for granted and belittle its privilege. You are here to serve until you learn to kneel and ask for my guidance.” He replies has he drinks from a gold chalice while teasing one of his wives. “You are a god in your own right, are you not?” I reply. “A wise fool would claim.” He replies without giving an eye toward me. “Then you should know, I never kneel. Nor would I lower myself to ask for the assistance from a [God] trapped in his own lair.” He drops his chalice and turns to me with red piercing eyes. He stands from his throne pushing one of the girls aside. “You dare to defy my will, in my own dominion? Your ignorance will only make the condemning of your worthless soul that much sweeter. (he sniffs the air) Mmm, I can already taste your soul. Hopeless, worthless, my favorite flavors. You will get the same right as every one of you that finds himself in my clutches. You can ask for one thing and one thing only, excluding you avoiding to serve an eternity in Hell of course.” He circles around me testing my will. “I am not dead, how can I be serving you, when air still leaves my lungs, and my heart still beats?” I ask, annoying his temper. “Alive, dead, you humans are the same to the world either way. You have eyes but are blind, you breathe but gasp for air; you have machines that tell you what your heart beat looks like, but not one of you can convince me what your heart beats for. Alive or dead, when you waste every gift and talent, does it matter when I take you? When you live for nothing, does it matter that you have died for nothing?” He stops at my right side, trying to see my reaction, my emotions. I give him only ice. My skin does not even give the slightest flinch to his words, even though every syllable is born of truth. “A dagger, I will take a dagger for my one request.” I interrupt his glare. “A dagger? Ha, every single person has asked for one more chance to say goodbye to a family member, sleep with a whore, kill themselves in an elaborate fashion, but you want a dagger. Enya, bring me your dagger.” He calls to one of his wives. Enya sitting closest to his throne stands and removes her gown. Half naked she walks to me bearing a black dagger with a gold seam down the middle of the blade. She gets close and runs the blade down my left cheek, pressing just hard enough to trickle blood. Her eyes are dark blue, lifeless yet filled with every emotion known to existence. An eerie feeling swoops over me. “Ah, you feel that sorrow entering your heart, your soul is ready to transit to join the rest. It wants to be freed from its fleshly prison.” Before he can continue I drive the dagger into his chest. He shrieks in pain. His wives startled and shocked. I dig into his flesh with all my strength carving a circle. I see his heart, black with red veins. I grab it and tear it from his chest. The Devil drops to his knees, gasping for air, dumbfounded a mere mortal found his weakness. “You Gods think you are untouchable, yet you ignore the simple rules of the universe. Your immortality deceives you, it fools you into confusing it with invincibility. You are nothing but what you eat, you have spent millenniums feasting on weak men and infants. Their pathetic existence has weakened you. Like the ancestors before me who have escaped your doom, the ones that gained entry into their own Elysium, I will treat you like they have treated their enemies, by feasting on YOUR HEART!” I take a bite of his heart, expecting a sickening taste. His blood is sweet, his flesh has the texture of a beet. One bite was not enough, I gorged myself until my hands were wet with blood and saliva. “Now isn’t this the irony we are all bound by? You said for me to kneel yet you kneel, as the heartless demon you are. A day will come when these roles are reversed, but that day will be decided by me, and that is the power of a free man.” The Devil laughs as his wounds heal. He stands to gain his full strength. He puts his hand on my forehead, amused at this he still laughs. The room goes black, I feel myself floating swiftly in reverse. I can still hear his laughter. I feel the soft cushion of my bed, the cool air blowing from the fan. I sit up and look at my phone. Not a single minute has passed, time remained as when I closed my eyes. I stare out my window pondering what took place. I notice a dark figure on the nearby rooftop. It just stares at me. The Devil’s laugh once again fills my ears. It grows louder, then stops. The figure disappears into the nothing. Not a trace, but a memory forever burned into my brain.