Halos Melt : Shortie

Here we were, a classroom full of young angels, about to have a video-call class with the current residing power in Hell, the 666th Luciferian Lord, whom would be an "assistant professor" for our actual professor's lengthy six day lesson on Hell. Naturally, everyone was chattering excitedly as we waited for our in-room professor to start the call and class. "Shush! We're about to meet the most powerful devil alive, to see the very face of evil itself!" I exclaimed loudly. Everyone immediately shut up.

The professor seemed torn between sighing in relief and rolling his eyes in disbelief. Unable to pick one, he settled on doing both as he hit a button on the remote in his hand. The once black screen now flickered to life, revealing the devil to us for the first time in our lives. ...Except... "…He seems familiar," I said, thinking aloud without even thinking about it. Though I had spoken under my breath, the silence I had called for not just fifteen seconds ago allowed for everyone to easily hear me—including the devil whom felt strangely familiar to me.

A smile traipsed across his face, turning one corner of his mouth up just a little more than the other so that he almost appeared to be smirking. Blue eyes that were brighter than even the skys in Heaven fell to be half-lidded as he eyed me like I was a most delicious dinner. And then he spoke—and, oh God, what a voice he did have. “You seem a bit familiar to me, too,” he said in a voice that was bold but light and cool yet warm, “As a matter of fact, you look exactly like my next lover.”

A wave of shock accented by gasps and giggles worked swiftly through the room. The only one who didn't make such a noise was the professor, who simply groaned in annoyance and then glared at the devil. I myself had gasped, blushing as I abruptly averted my gaze, suddenly no longer caring to see the face of evil itself. Finally there was said evil itself, whom was giving off an almost inaudible chuckle as he observed everyone’s reactions to his words.

“Alright, class, settle down now! If you can’t keep yourselves calm for more than five seconds, I’m afraid we’ll just have to cancel this lesson!” the professor declared now. Now about half the room began to voice complaints at how quickly he was threatening to call it quits, whereas the other half had shut their traps right away. After about half a minute, though, everyone had settled down and a silence had settled over the classroom once more. “…Okay. Now, I’d like to intro—” the professor started now, but he was interrupted.

“Actually, Professor Minicky, I would rather like to introduce myself,” the devil interjected. The professor did not respond, simply drawing his mouth into a tight line as he stepped aside both literally and metaphorically. Wearing that bit of smile-smirk again, the devil’s eyes now roamed the classroom as he spoke. “Salutations, dear little future peacekeepers and peacemakers of the Heavens. It is quite an intense and intimate pleasure to meet all of you, most for the first time,” he said.

“I am the 666th Luciferian Lord, Lord of the Underworld, Lord of this World, Lord of Hell, Lord of Hades, Lord of the Flies, Prince of the Devils, Prince of the Power of Air, Prince of the Power of Darkness, The Father of Lies, The Wicked One, The Tempter, The Stranger, The Adversary, The Antichrist, The Beast, The Swine, The Serpent, The Leviathan, The Dragon, The Devil,” he said, announcing all of his titles with a devilish and sinful pride, “…But, you can just call me Heilel.”

“That would be “Mr. Heilel”,” the professor corrected him, “Now, class, I would like all of you to stand one at a time and introduce yourselves to Mr. Heilel.” Nobody said anything. Nobody even stood up. Nobody wanted to be the first one to be introduced to the devil.

Nobody except one, that is. Naturally, that one was me. Only after waiting to see if anyone else would jump at the chance to jump up and give their name did I jump up and speak up. “My name is Nein!” I declared. And with that I promptly sat back down before anyone could respond or even react. Hell, if none of my classmates had known my name before and neither Professor Minicky or Heilel had been looking out at the students, probably nobody would have even known I was the idiot that had made such an abrupt and brusque self-introductory announcement.

“…Alright, who is going to volunteer to introduce theirself next? Come now, Mr. Heilel doesn’t bite,” Professor Minicky spoke up after a moment when nobody followed up my introduction with one of their own.

“Oh, I actually do bite. I just couldn’t do so right now, what with the fact that I’m not physically present in the room,” Heilel said, not exactly helping to encourage the reluctant students to work up the courage to stand up and speak up. Obviously, still nobody else dared to make their introduction. So, since I didn’t want to sit in awkward not-exactly-silence for the entire lesson, I decided to push on.

“Do you really bite? Do all devils bite? Why would you bite somebody? Is it an aggressive and, or assertive thing, or just a lewd thing? Do you even actually bite persons, or just objects? How hard do you bite? Hard enough to leave a mark? Hard enough to draw blood, if you bit a person or animal? Do you like to chew on things, too? Are devils like dogs, and they just like to bite and chew on things?” I asked curiously.

“Yes, I do. No, but I know many who do. I, personally, enjoy the taste of others—particularly angels. It’s a bit of all three. I bite both. It depends on what or whom I’m biting. I always leave a mark, and I sometimes draw blood. I’m not much of a chewer, but more of a nibbler. While I wouldn’t say we’re like dogs, I also wouldn’t say we're not like dogs. What I will say, though, is that the thing I like to chew on most are partially melted halos,” Heilel replied without hesitating for even a brief instant.

There was a long pause now as every angel in the room, excluding the professor but including me, slowly turned their gaze up to their beloved halo, which floated just a few inches above the crown of their head. “….Halos melt?” I asked, my eyes falling down to the devil on the screen even as I now reached up to feel my halo, as though checking to make sure it was still there and still solid.

That was a brief pause now as the devil stared directly at me, and then that smirk of a smile that he’d had before returned to his face. “Oh, I suppose you younglings haven’t learned that yet. So, I suppose that is where we shall start our lesson. As the most important thing to any angel is their halo, how it is affected by outside forces is a most important thing to know,” he said.

“As you know, in the realm of Heaven, your halos are quite obviously solid. The lower you go in Heaven, the more translucent they become—but they never fully become invisible, and they always remain a solid mass. Now, in the realm of Earth, your halos, depending upon their quality and style, will turn into either a intangible gaseous mass that appears to glow or an insubstantial substance seeming to be a source of light,” he explained lightly.

“However, in the realm of Hell, while your halos will remain tangible, they will not remain solid. They will liquefy slowly but surely, melting away more and more the further you descend into Hell,” he went on, “But, of course, you needn’t worry about it even if your halo melts away entirely. After all, as long as you return to Heaven within six days, you’ll still possess the ability to create another halo from your body just as you did with your original one.”

“What if you haven’t returned to Heaven by day seven?” another angel asked, now speaking up only out of morbid curiosity.

“…Well, if you’re still in Hell by then, you’ll never be able to create yourself a halo again. Of course, that’s not to say that you won’t be able to have another halo. You can always go to one of those quaint little halo boutiques around Heaven and buy yourself a snazzy new halo. It just won’t be as personal or powerful as one created from your own body, and you’ll feel as though you lost an important part of yourself, your heart, and your life for the rest of your life,” Heilel replied in an almost tauntingly casual tone.



Time seemed to fly by during those six days. Before we knew it, we were on the final day, and the lesson was just a few short minutes from coming to an end. Or, so we had thought. “Now comes the part which we have all been waiting for,” Heilel said as he glanced at the clock on the wall.

“The farewells?” asked Govern, the student who had been second to dare speak to the devil on that first day.

“Actually, Mr. Heilel, the students haven’t known this part was coming. I felt that informing them would affect their performance during the course of this lesson, so I kept it a secret,” Professor Minicky stated flatly now. Several students now made curious sounds, but nobody dared to speak up and ask what the big secret was. So, as per my usual, I decided to go ahead and take the plunge.

“What activity or information could possibly be so influential yet be completed or covered in the last few minutes of the lesson?” I asked, raising my hand even though I didn’t wait to be called upon to make my inquiry.

Wearing his usual smirk of a smile, Heilel glanced from me to the professor. “May I, Professor Minicky?” he asked, then swiftly returning his gaze to me.

“I can’t really stop you, now can I?” the professor sighed, making a short “be my guest” gesture with his hand.

The devil did not respond, simply silently staring at me for a moment as his smile-smirk slowly became less of a smile and more of a smirk. “….This activity that is so influential is only so influential because it does not take place in the last few minutes of the lesson. As a matter of fact, it extends this lesson by about a week for a few of you. For the rest, though, the lesson is already over,” he explained, “So, when I say your name, I want you to stand and come to the front of the class.”

Now everyone was sitting up straight in their seats, all interest having been caught by Heilel’s words. What was he talking about? What was going on? How could the lesson be extended for some but not for others, when these past six days were supposed to cover everything we ever needed to know about Hell? If there was still more for us to learn, then the lesson should have been extended for the entire class, not just a select few.

“Govern,” Heilel now named the first student. There was a pause as everyone in the class shifted or turned in their seats to look at Govern. Only once all eyes in the room were on him did he muster up the courage to stand up and walk up to the front of the classroom, standing beside Professor Minicky.

“Emma,” the devil called out. Unlike Govern, the female angel immediately stood and moved to the front to stand by the professor—though she looked far more frightened than the male angel had. She actually looked like she was about to have a heart attack.

“Fickel,” Heilel called out. All eyes turned to the back left corner of the classroom, where….Fickel was fast asleep. There was a pause now as everyone expectantly stared at the slumbering boy, waiting for him to sense that he was being stared at and stir from his nap. When this did not happen after a few moments, the person in the seat beside his subtly kicked him in the shin and hissed as him to wake up and go up to the front. He did as told without question, not bothering to cover his mouth when he yawned as he stretched in various ways while making his way up to the front.

“Finale,” Heilel called. The boy whom had woken Fickel just now, now stood up and went to the front. “Final,” the devil called. The boy whom had been sitting in front of Fickel stood up and went to the front of the room. “Finally,” Heilel called out.  The boy whom sat in front of Finale and beside Final, and therefore was diagonally adjacent to Fickel’s seat, now rose and went to the front of the classroom.

“And, last but not least, Nein!” the devil declared, fixing his gaze on me. If it weren’t for the fact that he was staring right at me, I might have started to look around for who he had called before I actually realized he had called me. As it were, though, I realized right away, so I swiftly stood and went to join the other six selected students.

“And, with that, I must ask everyone who is still seated to now rise from your seats and depart from the room. The lesson is now over. Only those participating in this extracurricular activity may remain,” Professor Minicky announced. As the rest of the students slowly started to stand up and pack up there things to leave, I turned my attention and gaze to the devil on the large screen, only to find that his gaze already was fixed upon me—or, rather, was still fixed upon me.

The classroom was mostly silent as those who weren’t selected left. Many people glanced back at either the devil, the professor, or those of us who had been selected as they retreated from the room. Finally, it was just we eight angels and the single devil, the latter of which was not actually there in person. “Alright, boys and girl, if you would please be seated again; you can just sit in the front row for now, if you want,” Professor Minicky said.

All seven of us students swiftly and silently claimed seats in the front row, not wanting to take the time out to return to our assigned seats. We were all eager to know just what it was that we had been selected to participate in. “…Alright first of all, I would like you all to know that you are not by any means required to participate in this part of the program. While you have been given the privilege of participating, you are free to decline and depart at any time. However, whether or not you actually accept, I must ask that you not speak of this activity to anyone until after said activity is completed. Until then, anyone outside of this classroom whom needs to know anything shall be informed of it by myself and, or Mr. Heilel,” the professor stated, “Do you understand?”

“I understand,” I stated.

“I understand,” Emma and Govern echoed me.

“We understand,” Finale, Final and Finally simultaneously said.

“I got it,” Fickel said through a yawn he failed to squelch.

“You may do the honors, Mr. Heilel,” Professor Minicky said now before the devil even could ask permission.

Heilel didn’t speak right away, first giving the professor a nod of acknowledgement and thanks, then running his eyes along the seven of us young angels as he chuckled softly to himself. “…It’s going to be…something of a fieldtrip. Though, it will be more like fieldwork. Simply put, you seven have been selected to come stay in Hell for a while, under my care and guidance. Now that you have learned all about Hell, we’ll give you a chance to experience it—a chance that your classmates won’t receive for many years still to come,” the devil explained.

“From what Professor Minicky and I have observed these past six days, you seven seem to be the ones most prepared to go to Hell. Of course, if you don’t feel the same way, if you think you’re not ready for it yet, as the professor said, you may opt out of this. It won’t be held against you nor be an obstacle in your future career as a peacemaker or peacekeeper. After all, most of your classmates were deemed to be not yet ready for such an experience; so to have been selected is a great achievement even if you do decline before coming to Hell or depart from Hell before the trip is over,” he went on, seeming to sense our nervousness.

“H-How long would we be staying in Hell…?” Emma asked uncertainly. Instinctively all seven of us either glanced or reached up to our halos, recalling the fact that they would melt away after six days spent in Hell.

The devil chuckled again, smiling knowingly. “You needn’t worry about your halos melting. You will be leaving extremely early on your sixth day in Hell, so that there will be plenty of time to spare even if problems should arise,” he assured us, “Besides, what could possibly go wrong? Even though you’ll be in Hell, who in their right mind would dare to do anything to angels under the care of the devil himself?”

Silence settled over the room now. My six classmates were each glancing nervously at each other, wordlessly asking if they were brave enough to go. On the other hand, my attention and gaze were both still fixated on the devil. Even after what was almost a week of time, I couldn’t get over how he had seemed so oddly familiar on the day that was supposedly our first time meeting. Perhaps if I met him in person, I could figure out why he seemed so familiar to me. “I accept,” I said before I even felt fully resolved to do this.

My classmates all looked at me now, looking utterly awed that I had so easily made my decision. “That’s one. Any other takers?” Heilel asked, sounding more amused than curious.

“…I accept,” Fickel said now, seeming a bit uncertain.

“We three accept, too!” Finale exclaimed now, speaking both for himself and his brothers.

“Yeah, totally,” Final agreed.

“Finalise, Finalist, and Finality will be so jealous once this whole thing is over and we come home and tell them all about Hell,” Finally added lowly to his two siblings.

“Yeah, totally,” Final and Finale both agreed.

“Well, I can’t pass up on such a prime opportunity to further my education. After all, there is nothing like experiencing something firsthand,” Govern mused thoughtfully, “…So, I also shall accept.”

“…I don’t want to be the only one to decline. I guess I will accept, too,” Emma said, seeming even more uncertain than Fickel had, with her words being almost inaudibly soft.

“It seems that we have a full roster, then. Most excellent. I knew that I had picked the right ones,” Heilel said, that familiar smirk of a smile settling upon his face once more. It only now occurred to me that maybe going to Hell to stay with the current Luciferian Lord was not such a good idea. God only knew what I was getting myself into.



“Excuse me, Lady Mademoiselle, but when will Lord Heilel be showing up?” I asked as I boredly leaned my chair back from the table as far as I could without tipping over.

“I thought I told you all before that you may call me simply Heilel?” asked the person in question as he strolled right by me behind my back. I glanced over, catching sight of him. Much to my great surprise, I was greeted with the sight of his bare ass, as he was wearing assless chaps. I could hear Govern choke on his food and several of the others gasp, whilst Lady Mademoiselle swiftly told Emma to look away.

I myself just stared at Heilel’s bare ass in shock for several seconds—and then, as it finally registered in my mind just what I was looking at, my foot slipped from beneath the table. My eyes closed tightly on instinct as I prepared for impact…..but nothing happened. The oddity of me not crashing to the floor did not register with me until something softly brushed against my cheeks, sort of tickling me. As I reached up to brush whatever it was away, I opened my eyes, again finding a great surprise.

Heilel had noticed I lost my footing and managed to catch my chair just a few inches above the ground. Not yet having righted my chair, he was bent over low, putting his face just about a foot above mine. His long hair had fallen forward over his shoulders, and was dangling into my face, lightly brushing against my cheeks as he stared down at me. Most noteworthy of all was the fact that he was wearing that damn smile-smirk of his.

“Even better than sweeping someone off their feet, is catching someone when they fall,” he stated in a matter-of-fact and yet oddly sweet tone. With that he now straightened up and righted the chair with me still in it.

Govern, whom sat next to me and had only just now stopped choking, jumped up and bolted for the dining room exit. “I’m going to hurl!” he declared as he fled the room.

“I need to wash out my eyes!” Finale shouted, covering said eyes with his hands as he blindly raced after the other angel. Fickel said nothing, but followed after Finale as he clutched his crotch. I guess he was taking advantage of this opportunity to relieve himself.

“The hallway to the right, third door on the left!” Lady Mademoiselle shouted after the trio, as we had not yet had a tour of the château and thusly didn’t know where the nearest bathroom was. Once the trio were gone from the room, Lady Mademoiselle turned her attention to and wrath on Heilel. “Just what in Lucifer’s unholy name do you think you are doing, wearing those things when we have guests?!” she demanded, gesturing to Emma, who still had her eyes tightly shut and her face turned away.

“Made, come now, I’m supposed to be providing these younglings with an authentic experience of Hell. I can’t very well go changing how I act. It would deprive them of said experience,” Heilel all but purred the words as he leaned on and rested his head on the back of my chair. I was now slouching in my seat, not wanting for him to rest his head on top of my own.

“I am not telling you to change how you act. I am telling you to change your clothes. Because, while it is quite normal for you to go about dressed like that, you never wear such things when we have company. You should be providing these young angels with the regular experiences your guests receive, not the everyday experiences the rest of us have to tolerate,” she snapped, only now narrowing her eyes sharply.

“Alright. You have a point there. I’ll go get changed after we give the grand tour,” Heilel said with a sigh.

“You will go get changed now. I will not have you leading the tour in assless chaps, thusly forcing these poor children to look at your ass the entire time,” she growled, “And don’t you even argue with me. If you do not do as you’re told, I will personally drag you to your room, rip those clothes off of you, rips them to shreds, burn them to ashes, and then dress you in proper attire. And I will not be gentle around your genitals, either.”

“Okay, okay, you win. I’ll go get changed, you damned harpy,” Heilel grumbled, swiftly retreating from the room.

Lady Mademoiselle glared at him until he was gone, then turning her attention to Emma. “Emma, sweetie, it’s safe to look now,” she said, softly tapping the female angel on the shoulder to get her attention.

Emma peeked open one eye, glancing about swiftly to be positive the coast was clear before she opened her other eye and turned her gaze to the older female. “….Was he really wearing assless chaps? I didn’t see,” she said, now looking over at the rest of us.

“You’re lucky you didn’t see,” Final grunted.

“I’ll forever have that sight burned into my memory,” Finally added.

“At least you didn’t lose your vision,” Final said, in reference to Finale, whom still was absent and in the bathroom.

“At least I didn’t lose my lunch,” Finally chuckled, in reference to Govern, whom was also still absent.

“At least we didn’t lose our footing,” they both said, now glancing over me.

“His ass wasn’t that bad,” I said, the words slipping from my mouth before they had even gotten permission from my mind to go out. Everyone else now stared at me in shock, including Lady Mademoiselle. “…I-I’m just saying! I mean, someone’s got to stick up for his ass—er, for him,” I exclaimed in an attempt to defend my defense of Heilel. There was another pause as everyone stared at me, but now Final and Finally slowly started to smile in a way that was too angelic even for angels.

“So, you want to stick up for his ass, do you?” Final asked in what was simultaneously the most perverse and most immature way ever.

“Alright, that’s enough! I won’t put up with such perverse prattle! Not from a fully-developed devil, and certainly not from an adolescent angel!” Lady Mademoiselle snapped, rescuing me from my own poor choice of words. Final and Finally swiftly toned down their smiles, sat up straight, and folded their hands neatly in their lap in an attempt to look innocent. On the other hand, I shoved my plate away, laid my arms on the table, and laid my head in the cradle made by my arms. Shortly thereafter Finale, Fickel, and Govern returned, followed by Heilel. And then we went on our tour of Château d'Enfer.



“Daily Diary: day five. Hell is hot. I hate Hell. Where is a pool to swim in when you need one? Not that the bathtubs aren’t big enough to be pools here in the Castle of Hell, but I just can’t figure out how to turn the cold water on,” Finally read his diary entry for the day aloud to the rest of us. Professor Minicky had assigned us all the task of keeping diaries for our short stay in Hell, so that we could share them with the rest of the class when we got back, as well as reflect on this experience in our future years of training.

“You really should call it “Château d'Enfer”, since that is what this place is named,” Govern stated flatly.

“I can’t write “château” right, and I don’t want spelling errors in this diary when the professor is going to be reading it,” Finally grunted.

“My turn!” Finale declared all of the sudden, even as he jotted down a few additional things in his entry, “Daily Diary: day five. Dear Lord, being here in Hell, it really makes me appreciate my home in Heaven. I can hardly wait to return home, yet part of me is sad to say that tomorrow is the day I leave. It really has been a most fulfilling experience to meet Lord Heilel, Lady Mademoiselle, and all of the other Hellians I have meet in my short stay here. Hell is a more interesting and amazing place than I ever could have imagined. P.S. My brother doesn’t know how to spell “château”. I pray that he will overcome this obstacle in his life some day.”

“You are such a suck up,” I grunted.

“What was with that P.S. part?! Take that out! Not knowing how to spell “château” is not an obstacle in my life!” Finally shouted, chucking his diary at his brother.

“You’re not supposed to erase anything after you’ve written it!” Finale exclaimed, using his own diary to shield himself from his brother’s diary.

“You’re not supposed to use your diary as a weapon, either. You’re going to put someone’s eye out with that,” Emma added.

“I suppose it’s my turn,” Final said. He didn’t begin reading his entry for the day right away, first taking the time to pick Finally’s diary up off of the floor and fling it back at him. “Daily Diary: day five. It is day five. Since we’re going back to Heaven tomorrow, do I still have to do an entry then? Only God knows the answer to this,” he read aloud for us.

“Did even one of you do even a halfway decent entry for even one day?” Govern asked flatly.

“You have to wait to find out when the rest of the class does,” I stated flatly.

“Hey, my entry was decent! It’s a real thought-provoking pondering! Seriously, do you know why there aren’t any pools or how to turn the cold water on?” Finally demanded.

“My entry was decent, too! Not all of us have to do ten page long entries like you, you know!” Final declared.

“My entry was more than decent! I’ll admit the ending was a bit off, but it was to balance out how deep and meaningful the rest is!” Finale exclaimed.

“Also, Fickel’s wasn’t half bad,” I added now. The reason Fickel did not defend his own entry was that he had fallen asleep shortly after reading it, despite the fact that the guest bedroom we were all gathered in was not the one that he was staying in.

“Alright, alright, alright. Let’s just hear the next entry. Emma? Nein? Which one of you wants to go next?” Govern asked, glancing between Emma and I. I glanced over at Emma, not about to volunteer.

Emma was looking just as scared to speak up as she had on the day when we had all first accepted the invitation to go to Hell. “…W-What was that part about the whole class reading our diaries?” she asked after a long silence.

“Didn’t you hear the professor when he said after reading them all for himself, he would allow our classmates the chance to pass them around and read them during our Welcome Back From Hell party?” Finally asked curiously. Emma just shook her head no, now blushing deeply as he stared down at the diary she held in her hands.

“Why do you think he was so annoyed at me adding that P.S. to my entry just now?” Finale asked, arching an eyebrow curiously.

“He said it was because Professor Minicky would be reading it,” Emma mumbled, now fiddling with her diary as she continued to stare down at it. There was only one possible explanation for why she would act like this upon the realization that the entirety of the class would be allowed to read our diaries.

“You know, I won’t write or say anything about it, if you happen to erase and rewrite your entries,” I said lightly. Now what was going on dawned on the other four boys, who all became wid-eyed with shock as they tried to imagine just what Emma had written that was so embarrassing.

“We won’t say anything, either, if you’ll let us read the entries you have right now first!” Finale blurted out, speaking for both himself and his brothers.

“Hey, weren’t you just saying that you’re not allowed to erase anything?!” Govern demanded of the other boy.

“This is different! There is obviously something devastatingly private written in Emma’s journal! I cannot, in good conscience, force her to reveal whatever deep, dark secrets are written in that book to our countless classmates! However, I also cannot, in good conscience, allow her to erase her current entries until I know for a fact that they are not something that should be shared with the eager-to-learn minds of our fellow angels!” Finale declared.

“Breaking the rules, even if it is to help out a person, isn’t justified. Not when it’s not a life or death situation, at any rate,” Govern stated flatly.

“He’s right. I’m sorry. It’s my own fault. I never should have written down something I wasn’t comfortable with the whole world knowing about,” Emma whimpered, tears coming to her eyes as she clutched the diary hard to her chest.

“Look! Look at that! Are you willing to take responsibility for it when the rest of the class reads her diary, causing her to burst into tears and bolt from her own party, emotionally scarring her so badly that she quits pursuing her career as a peacemaker or peacekeeper, thusly depriving her of a happy life and a good future and depriving Heaven of a wonderful, hard-working angel, possibly resulting in a war breaking out?!” Final shouted at Govern as he pointed at Emma, somehow managing to turn this into the life or death situation which Govern felt was required for breaking the rules to be necessary.

Alright, this was getting a tad over-the-top. I heaved myself out of my seat, swiftly strolling over to Emma and snatching the diary away from her. Naturally, this caught everyone’s attention. “Okay, I have a new idea. Emma can write five new entries in her diary—but she can’t erase the old ones—as well as two different ones for tomorrow. The, when we get back to Heaven, Professor Minicky can read both sets of entries and determine if she has to show the originals or not. If he decides she can just show the second set, he can rip the first set out of the book for Emma to keep private and hidden,” I suggested, holding the diary up for all to see.

There was a moment of silence as everyone else thought this proposal over. “…Alright. I can agree to that,” Govern said finally.

“Do we get to still read her entries?” Finally asked curiously.

“No,” I stated flatly.

“Ah…um, I’ll….summarize it for you…very briefly…if you want…” Emma offered weakly, probably because she felt like she owed us something for giving her this chance to keep her privacy.

“You don’t need to, Emma. Whatever is in this, if it’s really so personal, it’s none of our business,” I said, now handing the female angel her diary back.

“Thank you, Nein, guys,” she said, smiling softly as she took the book back, returning to clutching it tightly to her chest.

“It was nothing,” Finally said in the most cocky way, as though he hadn’t just asked if we still got to invade her privacy by reading her diary.

“It certainly was for you, considering that you did absolutely nothing,” Govern stated, narrowing eyes at the other boy ever so slightly.

“Anywho, it’s Nein’s turn to read his entry! And it better be a good one, to make up for all of the obviously juicy details in Emma’s entry that we don’t get to know now,” Final stated.

“Well, if you want it to be good, I’ll have to read all of my entries,” I said lightly as I opened up my own diary now, “Daily Diary: day one. For details, see entry for day two. Daily Diary: day two. For details, see entry for day three. Daily Diary: day three. For details, see entry for day four. Daily Diary: day four. For details, see entry for day five. Daily Diary: day five. For details, see entry for day six.”

“Holy crap. Is that really all you have written?” Finale asked.

“And I thought Final’s entry was bad,” Govern grunted.

“Well, it’s not like we’re being graded on this. Besides, I figured it would be easier to catch the attention of the reader if I put next to nothing on every day but the last one,” I said, shrugging as I closed my book.

“I will admit, at least you won’t overwhelm our classmates with how much you wrote, unlike a certain person,” Finally said, not-so-subtly glancing at Govern.

“I cannot help it if my vocabulary is not limited by the fact that I cannot spell half of the words which I know the meaning of, unlike a certain person,” Govern stated flatly, returning the not-so-subtle glance.

“I’ll have you know that I can spell most of the words I know, you jerk!” Finally snapped.

“Well, before a fight breaks out, I think I’m going to take a bathroom break. If I don’t come back, it’s because I went to bed,” I said, using the corner of my diary to scratch an itch on my head as I made a break for the door.

“Sweet dreams, Nein,” Emma called after me.

“Sweet nightmares,” Finale called after me after her.

“Sweet imaginings,” Fickel said through a yawn, having woken up just in time to bid me goodnight.

“Same to you,” I called back to the three of them just before shutting the bedroom door behind myself. Alright. I had gotten out of there without any problems. Now was my chance. With those six distracted and with Lady Mademoiselle not hovering about as she assumed we were all going to sleep, I finally could have some alone time with Heilel and question him. This was the first and probably the last chance I would ever get to do so. It was now or never. There was just one minor problem…

I didn’t know where he was. Was it too early for the current Luciferian Lord to turn in for the night? It didn’t seem right that an old devil like him would go to bed as early young angels like us. If he wasn’t asleep, there was the possibility that he wasn’t even anywhere in the château or on its grounds. If he wasn’t on the ground or in the building, then there was no way I would ever find him. I couldn’t very well go out into Hell by myself, and I couldn’t simply get Lady Mademoiselle to take me to find him. Besides, I didn’t know where she was, either.

I was going to have to work with what little I did know. And what exactly did I know? I knew where his bedchamber was. He had been kind enough to include that in the grand tour given on day one. I also knew that he did eventually have to return to his bedroom. Even if he didn’t sleep between now and the morning, I was positive he would want to change clothes before seeing us off. So I just had to go to his bedroom and stay awake and wait.

It seemed like an easy enough plan. However, bold as I was, I was no more brave than the next angel my age. Wandering around the “Castle of Hell” all alone in the middle of the night was as scary as Hell—pun very much intended. Though it might have been better if I just went to my destination as swiftly as possible, I was too scared to run down the dark and lonely corridors when I didn’t know what might possibly be lurking in the shadows or around the next corner.

So, slowly but surely, I made my way to Heilel’s bedchamber, my hair standing on end and goosebumps decorating my skin. Thankfully, even after so many days spent in Hell, my halo had not melted away entirely, and so it still emitted a soft, holy light to keep the darkness at bay. I really had to consider myself lucky for that fact; especially considering that the only other one of my companions that still had a bit of their halo left was Emma. The other five had all had their halos melt away by or before day four.

Finally, after taking half an hour to make the trip that, in the daytime, would have taken only minutes, I was there. I entered the room, swiftly glancing about to make sure that he was not here as I closed the door behind myself. Once I was assured that I was, in fact, still alone, I dashed across the room and dove beneath the covers of his bed. Safety, at last! The safest place in Hell had to be the bed of the Luciferian Lord, right? Nobody would find me hiding in here, save for the man in question, whom I wanted to find me as I wanted to question him.

So, laying flat and still so as it was not easy to tell there was a person hidden beneath the plush comforter, I waited. And I waited. And I waited. And I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And then I waited even more. And finally I started feeling very sleepy, and I knew that I needed to do something to keep myself awake. So, since it was definitely way past midnight by now, as I had started my waiting sometime around nine at night, I decided it was technically day six and that I could therefore do my next and final entry for my daily diary assignment.

Pulling the pencil from the small pocket on the back cover of the book, I opened it to a fresh page, holding it up high enough that the little light my halo gave off would allow me to see what I was writing. Since I wanted to be positive I wouldn’t drift off, I figured I’d go ahead and read aloud what I was writing, because I had heard somewhere before that talking helps one stave off sleep. It was worth a shot.

“Daily Diary: day six… It is sometime after midnight, I’m sure…although I don’t know…the exact time…” I mumbled to myself, having to pause so as not to get ahead of myself by speaking faster than I could write, “I still have that same feeling…though, I suppose you don’t know….what I’m talking about, since…I haven’t been writing anything down…until now. The feeling that I’m talking about…is this strange feeling of…familiarity toward Heilel. I don’t….know why I feel it yet… I want to ask him about…it, but I haven’t yet had a…chance to talk to him in…private.”

“I am determined to question…him about it, though. Even…if it’s the last thing I do… I could almost say I would….give up my halo, if only…I could get some answers… Yeah, I know, it sounds crazy… I mean it, though. I am…just going insane with…wondering. I wonder all kinds of things… Did he mean it when he…said I seem familiar to him…too? Or was that just…a joke, such as he phrased it? …If this familiarity…is more than just a feeling…then where is it that I know…him from? And if it is merely…a feeling, then why is it…so strong, so overwhelming? …I don’t know. I don’t…have my answers yet. I…will soon, though, I pray,” I read as I wrote.

Putting that final period on the paper, I now paused, my pencil remaining over the period. What else should I write? What else could I write? I had been avoiding writing anything informative until I had all the information I wanted from Heilel. But I still didn’t have any answers to my questions, so what else was there to write now that I had already stated that I had these unanswered questions?

I removed my pencil from the paper now as I moved my hand to cover my mouth as I yawned. …Wait! That was it! I knew what I could write about! Stifling the rest of my yawn, I put my pencil back to the paper. “I’ve been having these.…peculiar dreams since coming…to Hell. They are… I don’t know how to say it….. It is like when humans…say that they can feel that they…have been touched by an angel;…only I feel that I have been…touched by a devil… It’s just a feeling, though… No, it’s less than a….feeling. It is just a…sensation caused by my…imagination. It is just…a dream,” I mumbled, yawning again as I wrote.

“Even if it…is just a dream, though…I want to describe it……” I mumbled, then trailing off both in my speaking and in my writing. If I was going to describe my dreams, I wanted to be detailed and accurate. Once more my pencil left the paper, this time to tap my bottom lip thoughtfully as I tried to recall said dreams. Giving off another yawn, I shifted slightly so as to get more comfortable. Before I knew it, I had drifted off.