I'm a normal person. I've always been a normal person. There's never been anything special about me. My parents both work in normal jobs. They're both retail workers at our local Fairprice. We're not that well off, but we make do. It's a good life. Completely, absolutely, perfectly normal. my friends are just normal people, nothing special. What I'm trying to say is that I am completely normal. Or so I thought until I met a certain red man.
It was the day right before my end-of-year Latin test. I was pretty bad at Latin, and since this test was worth 45% of my total grade, it was my last chance to salvage my half-dead Latin grade. Surrounded by tottering towers of thick dictionaries, worksheets, and textbooks, I sat studying until my eyelids felt weighted. Engrossed in the complicated Latin words, I took no notice of the time. By the time I looked up from my work, it was just past midnight. Looking out my window, I realized that the usual glimmering lights of the streetlights and lamps outside weren't there. in my tired, half-boiled state, I could not be bothered to ponder what this meant. Rubbing my exhausted eyes, I stood up to get another can of Red Bull from my stash in my desk drawer. Yes, like every other high school student, I keep Red Bull in my desk drawer. You know, for emergencies. Taking a sip, I looked back down at the words I was trying to translate. My ever-faithful companion, Google Translate, had failed to identify the words. When I had typed them in, my entire phone crashed. Hence, I was forced to translate them manually, with the use of multiple dictionaries. However, after about half an hour of scouring, I simply couldn't find any of the words. I thought to myself, maybe reading them out will help. Oh, what a mistake that was.
"Et Accersi," I squinted closer at the strange words, "In antiquis est, respondendum causa. That doesn't make any sense," I muttered.
"Oh, but it does," came a voice from behind me.
Whipping around, I saw a rather strange sight. A man was sitting on my bed. Not any man that I knew. He looked weird as well, with his red skin and black tuxedo. He wore a top hat and his mouth was curved into a crooked smile. Bright, sparkly eyes glittered at me from under the brim of his large top hat. When he stood up, I realized that he had a small, thin tail, ending in a sharp-looking point. he walked over to my desk.
"Now then, why did you call me?" he peered down at the book I was looking at, "Ah, Latin. I've always loved Latin and I'm fairly accomplished at it. Do you want some help?"
In all honesty, it kind of felt like someone had jammed something down my larynx, preventing me from speaking at the sight of this weird... well I didn't know what it was. Dumbfounded, I could do nothing but nod my head.
"Okay then, let's get to it," he clapped joyfully, "First up, we can't have you working too late, so let's just stop time real quick," he snapped his fingers, and everything around me slowed to a stop, "also we can't have you falling asleep when you've got a Latin test tomorrow. Have some coffee, much healthier than Red Bull," With a twirl of his fingers, he made appear a tall, frothy glass of coffee.
I've snapped, I thought, I've done too much Latin and have probably dozed off. This is all just a rather odd dream. I thought to speak up, but my larynx still seemed clog, so all I managed was a strangle whimper of confusion. Instead, I consented with taking a long, deep swig of the coffee. It was rich and creamy, just the way I liked it.
"Well, with all that set, why don't we get started on this Latin?" he drew up a chair (quite literally, he drew a chair in the air, and one appeared) and set down next to me.
I finally found my voice.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I assumed you would know," he looked taken aback, "After all, you're the one who summoned me,"
"No, I didn't," I replied, feeling rather wrong-footed.
"You did. You said the words, see," He pointed at the words I had been trying to translate earlier.
I smacked my head. Of course, that was the reason. It was the reason for a lot of problems. Can't communicate with your grandparents? Latin. Your overall grade's being pulled down? Latin. You accidentally summoned a random stranger with a tail and red skin? Still just Latin.
"Anyways, I am the ancient one spoken of in scrolls and literature of long past. Eternally loyal servant of Hades and punisher of the wicked; my name," (his eyes twinkled), "is Satan. But you can just call me Nate, everyone does!"
Dumbstruck and quite terrified, I sat frozen on my seat. This was Satan? The foe of God and man, the master of witches, and the tempter of sinners? The apocalyptic beast, the destroyer of souls? The one who I had grown up hearing terrifying stories about? The one that my mother used to use to scare me into doing my homework?
And he was in my bedroom?
But... wait. This didn't seem like Satan. The stories described him as a huge beast, with long fangs and huge claws, and an unconcealable aura that made everyone around him cripple in fear and a mouth twisted into a grimace of fury. However, the man in front of me looked nothing like that. He practically radiated friendliness, and he was just regular-sized. With crinkle lines around the corners of his eyes, which just proved that he smiled often, and there was something about him that just made me want to trust him. But, just in case, I decided not to let my guard down.
***
After a lot of studying, we were finally done. Once we were done packing up, I looked up at Satan (or Nate) and mumbled, "Just out of curiosity, why did you help me instead of you know, killing me?"
Nate put his face in front of mine and, grinning whispered softly, "Because I haven't seen another of my kind for ages,"
It took a minute for this to set in.
"What do you mean," I said slowly, "'another of your kind'?"
Nate opened a portal next to me, "Come with me. Hades will explain everything. All I can tell you is this: the fate of Hell itself hangs in the balance. If you don't come and help us, it will collapse, taking the whole world with it,"
In a daze, I followed Nate through the portal, his words spinning in my head. Another of his kind? Hades? Collapse? This night was just getting weirder and weirder. It felt like a dream, but surely, I couldn't have this vivid of a dream.
When I stumbled through the portal, I found myself in a beautiful moonlit flower field. A babbling brook gurgled on my left, with the moonlight reflecting off of its surface and forming a thousand rainbows, and an apple grove was in front of me. In the trees, I saw birds and animals of all kinds strutting around. A loud cluck alerted me to the presence of a curious-looking bird who was currently nudging me and looking up at me with wide eyes. Surely that wasn't a dodo bird? They went extinct ages and ages ago, yet there was one right here, poking me with its beak. Unable to believe what I was seeing, I picked up the bird in wonder, despite its squawks of protest. It was fairly light and very soft. It sorts of felt like a plush toy of Mickey Mouse I had had when I was younger.
"What is this place?" I wondered out loud.
"This," Nate spread his arms out, is Hell. And you're the first person to come down here in centuries. Come on, let's go to the palace,"
"This is Hell?" I followed Nate through the apple grove, "But it looks so... nice. Everyone always tells me that hell is a horrible place, with fire everywhere, and pain and misery in the air,"
"Yes, that's just what the gods want you to believe. You see, when humans are afraid of hell, they won't do bad things, leading to less trouble for the gods. However, the spirits that do end up here are not punished, but rather are rehabilitated. This way, they can be on their way up to heaven, ready for either rebirth or a peaceful afterlife," Nate explained. Before I could say anything or ask any questions, Nate stopped at the gates of a black brimstone castle. When I looked up to observe the castle, I saw a man pacing on the balcony of the second floor. "Let us not dawdle any further. Hades will be excited to meet you,"
With that, he let out a piercing whistle, and the gates opened to let us in. Nate stepped in, beckoning for me to follow.
I hesitated. This seemed wrong. The number one thing that I was had always relied on in my life was how normal it was. Sure, it was boring from time to time, but at least it wasn't confusing. It made sense. However, tonight, all sensibility and normality had been thrown out of the window. In all honesty, I didn't want to go on. I just wanted to go back to my normal, simple life in Singapore, unbothered by, well, anything.
At the same time, something deep inside me told me I had to do this. Like Nate had said when I had first met him, the fate of the whole world was in my hands. If I stopped there and just walked away, the entire world would apparently collapse. I didn't want that. But at the same time, I still didn't want to go in.
These two thoughts warred in my head for a while. Finally, I made my decision and stepped through the gates.
As the gates closed behind me, I had a sinking sense of finality, as though I had made an unbreakable commitment.