I have declined payout for this post as it is just the story so far for Henry Monde, If you are interested in the story, please keep an eye out for updates on this post every Monday :-)
The Judge
"What do you mean that the passing isn't complete? The preening weasel is dead, it cant be any more clear cut than that!"
The judge was a small man, he didn't really want to be here, he had planned on going away with his family this weekend but someone had gotten sick and here he was having to argue with a psychopath and explain a rule that had hardly ever been invoked.
It had never happened in his lifetime, but it was now his mess to clear up. It was fairly clear cut though, one of the siblings had to kill the other in the arena to be declared winner. Since Henry had been killed by some assassin and not by Luna then the passing was not complete. Simple but complicated as this father and son were soon to find out.
He was luckier than most small men, he was a judge and would not be pushed around by this family no matter how important they were, he had the full might of the emperor behind him and no one was going to push him around.
He spoke slowly and with no small amount of menace. "It would serve you well to remember who you address", a chill fell over the room and for a moment time appeared to stop for everyone. Luna had stepped over a line and in the next few moments he had to find a way back over that line and he had to find it quick.
"Your Grace", began Lunas father. "Please forgive my son, he forgets who he addresses, he is young and is quick to temper". There was a slight thawing in the room.
The judge relaxed and continued, "This has happened before on occasion, but certainly not in my lifetime or remembering. There is a clause in the passing to allow for such a situation, it is normally invoked where a sibling dies by another hand other than a family member in the arena"
"and what would this clause be?" Luna asked. His father glared at him, Luna locked gaze for a brief second, but was quick to avert his eyes and he added to his request "if you would be so kind judge, I would appreciate your judgement on this matter"
"It is a rule that has been invoked rarely" the judge paused, he was going to enjoy this and took a sip of his drink.
"The male parent and sibling must battle in the arena to satisfy the passing."
There was a stunned silence in the room. Luna always knew, that he would have to kill his father to assume full title and ownership of the Monde family empire, but he did not expect to have to face him in the arena, that was a very different matter altogether, the old man was hard as nails and as dangerous as any man (or woman for that matter) that Luna had ever met. The passing with Henry was kindergarden compared to this upcoming battle....
Father and son
My sons lifeless eyes stare at me, I killed him, the fool of a boy.
I have never minded dying, God knows I have seen enough death to last me many lifetimes and I always thought that Luna would eventually kill me, but he was a fool and at the end and he deserved to die.
The fool had me, he was stronger and younger than me, I had the experience but he was just so fast and skilful, my heart could have exploded with pride, I was down and all he had to do was finish me quickly and I would have been gone.
The two lessons I had thought that had been hammered into his thick skull were to act quickly without mercy and remember that there is no more a dangerous creature than one that is wounded and cornered, Henry would have gutted me like a fish, suppose he was more like me than I cared to admit.
I was down and finished, but this fool paused, God only knows what went through his head, but at that moment I knew that he would be the destruction of house Monde, I could not allow myself to be killed and let him continue the house, I had a small dagger in my boot and with one quick move I had it out and sliced him from groin to sternum, his inards fell over me and for a moment I couldn't see, but it mattered not. I stood up lifting the hammer that he had chosen for the passing and I finished him, without a second thought.
There was a massive cheer in the arena, no one had expceted me to win, but all that I could hear was the sound of the crunch as I crushed my sons skull. Time froze and for a brief moment my life with my first born child crashed through my mind and threatened to engulf me. I remembered it all, his birth, his first hunt, his first animal kill and the images of him in battle as he slashed and hammered his way through any army filled my mind, but this was not the time for such thoughts, he was weak and he was gone, it was hard, but then so was this life.
The cheers in the arena slowed to silence, I stood up and looked up at the Judge, he looked down at this father and his dead son and in a loud voice declared the passing complete and with that final pronouncement the world faded and I fell unconscious to the ground....
The wooden Cart
My name is Henry Monde and I am dead, I actually don't know how long I have been dead, could be years, could be days, it is hard to figure out how time passes here, no sun, no moon, no day no night....only the scalding heat.
Oh I forgot to say, I think that that I may be in hell, or at least something that resembles it, so for the moment I am calling it hell. If truth actually be told, it isn't that bad, well apart from one thing that those bastards did to me.
You see when I was alive I was tall, good looking and a real ladies man. It seems that here in hell the powers that be have decided that I am small and fat, and I have an intense and quite horrific smell emanating from every pore of my body, but the strange thing is that my face is totally recognizable fatter and a bit squashed but I still remember my face from my life. All things considered it is not a great look but a bit like the heat, you get used to the smell and I try to avoid mirrors where I can so my appearance doesn't matter that much, it is amazing what you can get used to.
It is hard to explain what I have been doing for the last few days/weeks/months....as I said it is hard to gauge time here. People or parts of people arrive every day in a large woodencart and I literally put them back together into rather fearsome animals that are then used by the rather beautiful lady Melanie in her various wars here in Hell. To be honest, I actually haven't left this building since I died and have spent most of my time learning how to create and build bigger, stronger and fiercer animals for my good lady Melanie.
This day started like every other day, the wooden cart appeared with the sloppy remnants of body parts, if nothing else I am methodical, I like to line up all the parts so that I know what I am working with for the day.
Legs then arms, feet then hands, eyes, teeth, torso's and then finally the heads. I always leave the heads till last because they try and speak to me, most of them beg and plead and cry and ask where they, are after a while it becomes background noise, and I have learned to ignore them.
But today was different......I hear my name being called
"Henry....Henry....is that you, what happened to you? where am I?"
The voice sounds familiar I find it harder and harder to remember how it was when I was alive but there are still memories here and there a bit like dreams but some stronger than others.
I pick up the head and look at it, the head is caved in and one eye has kind of popped out of the skull, at a time I would have felt sick, but nowadays this is just normal and I get the idea that I might put an eagles eye into the remaining socket so that this animal will have better sight.
"Henry....Henry...if that is you, what has happened to me?"
I am trying hard to remember who this is, it is definitely someone that I knew when I was alive, but I just can't remember who it was.
"I was in the arena, we were fighting, I had him, I fucking had him and then all I remember is pain, my leg went from underneath me and then a blinding headache...where am I?"
It is hard for most of them to comprehend where they are, one minute they are living and the next minute they are so much spare parts for me, most of the time I just rip out the tongue and be done with it, but this one is different. I am trying to remember just who this head belonged to.
I have a vague feeling that we were related in some way, but a bit like a dream fading in the morning, the more I chase it the faster it flee's.
The head continues to talk
"Something feels wrong, where am I, is this a hospital?"
and so it goes on...in a minute the screaming will start as he figures out that he is only a head talking and his body is long gone....I reach for the pliers, I've had enough of this, one snip of the tongue and the head will stop talking.
"Henry, please help me"....the head continues...."please"...."where am I"
It is always the same, despite what they see they can not truly comprehend that they are dead and they are going to spend eternity as some kind of animal in hell, being dead kind of desensitizes you to these things and to be honest I am just glad that I am not one of them, it does take the sting out of my current abhorrent appearance after all anything is better that than being one of these poor wretches.
"Henry, it's me Luna....your brother....help me NOW!"
And then suddenly as if a dam has burst, I remember him, my brother Luna, he made my life hell for most of my living years, this head in front of me once belonged to the bane of my living life...oh how I am going to enjoy this one...no tongue cutting for Luna...I want to hear every whimper and cry as I tell him that is is absolutely screwed for the rest of eternity......
The Assasin
The house of Monde lay in tatters on the arena floor, he stood up and left his seat, his work was done. The result of many years of planning had finally started to come together and the plans that his masters had hatched many years ago were beginning to come to fruition.
He looked around and saw that the two soldiers were standing to attention and waiting for him. A wise man always thinks about his safety, which was why he had three other soldiers dressed in civilian clothes walking behind him camouflaged as part of the crowd.
Every loose end had been tied up bar one....
The Assassin pulled on her boots, she was going to get her payment for killing Henry Monde. At the back of her mind, she worried about getting the payment, she always worried. It was her job to kill people when they least expected, people didn't like to hand over money and would kill to avoid it. This job was different, she had been working with these employers for the last few months and had been paid promptly without any danger, why should this time be different she thought? She had done exceptional work and every assignment had been carried out without a single mistake.
But still....complacency killed many people better than her. There was nothing she could do about this feeling, just swallow it and go and collect her money. She walked to the door and stopped. The window...what was wrong with her, there had been no problems before, better to be a living fool than a dead one. In a moment she was out of the window and climbing down the building towards the ground.
She landed silently and looked around, there was no-one here except an old beggar across the street. She had a brief look at him, one arm missing, both legs broken and smashed, he did not pose a threat, he was on his own but muttering something to an imaginary friend.
Across the road the beggar spoke to a face in the gutter, he whispered "she climbed out of the window and is walking across the road".....the gutter answered "Damn, she was meant to walk down the stairs" the face disappeared as it ran through the underground sewers to tell it's boss that she had came out another way and did not come down those stairs.
The Assassin relaxed a little, she would not be going back to that Inn again, she had left the gold coins on the bed and now just had to collect her money. They had suggested another Inn to pick up her payment, but she had not liked the enclosed spaces and hidden dangers that such a place afforded, when she suggested the main town square, they had agreed without question, had they agreed to easily? She always worried, it was part of her job, and that was why she had survived so long.
She walked to the square, there were four small roads entering the square with buildings around it, plenty of people moving around, these crowds were good for hiding in, but they could also hide other dangers, she tensed a little again.
The exchange was to happen at the north of the square under a statue of some forgotten hero. She scanned the crowd for anything untoward, moving slowly she looked to see if anyone moved with her, she changed direction quickly to see if anyone moved with her and sprinted towards the other side of the square.
The drops splashed across her face, she looked up no clouds, only sunshine...where had the rain come from? She wiped it from her face and saw the scarlet stains of blood, a women to her right fell down screaming with an arrow in her chest.
The next few moments would determine the rest of her life, in a moment the screams and panic would begin and she had some chance to escape in the panic, she rolled forward and zigged to the right and then left, another arrow narrowly missed her.
As people saw the dead woman , the screaming began, this chaos would help her.
As she ran away trying to get out of the square another person else took an arrow for her, today must be her lucky day, she thought. She was nearly at the edge of the square when the soldiers arrived.
A loud voice carried above the chaos.
The assassin of Henry Monde is in this square and we will find her.
Her heart literally stopped, it was a trap, more men arrived, by her count there were at least 15 mounted soldiers and a dozen foot soldiers arriving in the square. The crowd like sheep had begun to slow and calm. Her options were diminishing all to quickly, she saw an open door and quickly walked into it.
It was a bakery and as she ran in a dozen bakers scattered as this woman ran in with her sword raised, she ran through looking for a back entrance, there it was, freedom...but it was bolted and barred shut, she crashed against it, again, again... it started to shatter and splinter... A few more hits with the sword and she would be out and free.
That same voice that had announced her existence earlier in the square boomed an order...
Archers Fire!!
The assassin turned, time slowed, there were at least eight of them, they were taking no chances, four holding crossbows and another four covering the exit. They must have followed her in. She spun and rolled towards a table, the arrows missed... She took out two throwing stars from her pouch and let loose, two archers fell. She rolled again, this time one arrow met its target hitting her in the leg. It had torn across her thigh but had not embedded.
She turned and threw her final star at an archer, it clanged harmlessly against the wall, she saw that more archers had entered.
The voice boomed even louder
For the love of all the God's finish the bitch.
Four more arrows slashed through the air, this time the Assassin was not so lucky, three hit their mark, one deep into her leg, the other through he hand and a third one shot out and through her side, she stumbled forward and felt someone pull at her hair. Sudden pain and then she felt like she was floating, she tried to kick or punch, but nothing, she looked at the face of one of those bastard soldiers and went to spit at it.
The soldier looked at the Assassins head and for a moment thought that it was going to say something, it didn't.
Here's that bitches head, she killed two of us, I wish that I could have taken my time with her and made her suffer for that.
And with that he threw the Assassins head towards his sergeant.
Lilith
The slave poured them a glass of the finest wine hell had to offer.
There were seven prince's in hell and Belphegor was one of them, this Prince of hell took a sup of his wine and pondered for moment before speaking "You were lucky you managed to get to him before any of the others felt him here".
Lilith sat looking at the glass of wine as if in a trance, she did not like that she had to include Belphegor in her plans, each of the seven prince's had their own glamour and deceits, Belphegor had the power of discovery and she had used it to good use, for it was Belphegor that had discovered Henry Monde and his potential.
All demons liked the sound of their own voice, Prince Belphegor liked his voice more than most, his drone continued and for the most part the wine drowned it out.
Liliths eyes narrowed, her wings flapped ever so slightly, the offer or threat was about to come.
"My lady Lilith, if any of the other prince's find out what you are doing, I will not be able to help you, Asmodeus has spoken already about an intuition that he has and that there is something amiss in our domain"
The word "you" was not lost on Lilith, how she despised him, she had to be careful, Henry Monde was the key and now was not the time for the pleasure of killing this fool.
"My Lord Belphegor, if OUR plan succeeds you may be in a position to take the throne from Lucifer, for the moment Asmodeus only has an intuition and nothing else." she paused and looked into the Ruby red eyes of her lover and caressed his face "Our plan is good, Monde has no idea of his power, we must have patience and courage if we want to see this plan through to its conclusion"
For a moment she imagined killing him and watching the blood drain from his body, how she would enjoy the look on his face when that time came.
But before she could do that she had the not so simple task of becoming the one true ruler of Hell and with Henry Monde in her power, she might just succeed....