Hellish Retribution Ch. 01

Editor's note: this story contains scenes of non-consensual or reluctant sex.

Originally published on 02/22/19 in NonConsent/Reluctance.

Hellish Retribution is my first attempt at incorporating erotica into my fantasy writing. Thank you for all of the wonderful feedback I've received thus far, and I hope you enjoy!

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Elise raced down the hallways of the college as quickly as the professors would allow her to, right hand clutching a small metal device. Her green eyes gleamed with an almost childlike sense of glee as she slowed down to glance at the rectangular gadget she held.

"I can't believe that someone would just throw something like this away," she murmured thoughtfully to herself. Well, actually, she very well could believe it. This thing, which was so cleverly called a 'pinger,' was over a decade old at this point, and by all modern standards was considered completely useless. Its only function was to show your location on a GPS grid to anybody around you that carried the same device every time you pinged it. Impractical even in its time, but it was one of the first inventions using resources only found in Hell, so those who were interested in demonic science considered it a breakthrough.

Elise admired the dinosaur of a gadget for a moment longer before pocketing it, picking up the pace once more. She was en route to where her dad was, who was one of the professors that taught here. This college was one of the first to offer demonology as a complete course, and her dad was fortunate enough to land a job teaching it. And, after years of hard work, good references, and just a little bit of nepotism, Elise had been accepted into that very program.

Rounding the corner, her eyes landed on a group of students that she didn't recognize. They were huddled together in front of the classroom door, laughing at something that was blocked from her line of sight.

Sensing that the group was up to no good, Elise quickly made her presence known. "What the Hell are you doing?" she demanded, the heads of the bullies quickly snapping up to meet the source of the voice. She was very protective of her father, and this wasn't the first time that she had confronted another student that wanted to mess with him.

"Ah shit, it's the Richardson girl," one of the guys pointed out. At that signal, they scattered, allowing Elise to notice the piece of paper they taped onto the door. Figuring she knew what this was about, she hesitantly approached the door, confirming her suspicions as she read the paper the group had left behind.

WILKINS IS INNOCENT. RICHARDSON IS THE REAL DEMON HERE. HE DESERVED TO HAVE HIS WIFE SHOT.

Elise felt her cheeks flush with rage, angrily tearing down the hateful and ignorant message. Sinking to the floor, she began to rip the paper into shreds with shaking hands.

Russell Wilkins was a scientist who worked in a lab alongside Elise's father, Marcus Richardson, and her mother Elizabeth, where they studied some of the various lesser species of Hell. The demons were kept in enclosures that Dad had designed, which kept the beasts contained while various experiments were conducted on them.

Elise was there on the day of the accident, when the enclosures that protected nearly two hundred scientists failed, unleashing a large number of spiteful creatures to wreak havoc across the building. She was only a child then, but her keen interest in her parents' work led them to show her around some of the safe(r) areas of the lab. They were able to escape the building quickly when the attack began, and the only recollection Elise had of the event was of her mother trying to calm her down while her father ran back inside to help the others.

They were lucky. But many others, including Wilkins, were not. Elise didn't quite know what happened to her dad's old coworker, but he apparently received an injury so terrible that he was expected to die from it in those coming months. He grew to resent Marcus for what happened, blamed him for everything.

Elise had no memory of when Wilkins broke into their house and murdered Elizabeth, before turning the gun on himself. Marcus told her that she was already asleep by that time. But she couldn't even remember the events that would have happened after that, not the police sirens or the murder investigation or even the funeral. She just remembered waking up one day and accepting that Mom was gone. That part always hurt her the most. They used to be so close.

Without realizing it, tears had begun to stream down her cheeks. Elise wiped them away, taking a few minutes to compose herself and fixing her blonde hair so it tucked back behind her ears. The paper was pretty much confetti at this point, so she bundled the shreds in her fist before slowly returning to a standing position, using the wall for support. Once she made sure that there was no evidence of her crying, she quietly entered her dad's classroom.

The room was empty, except for Marcus, who sat at his desk waiting for his daughter, his nose buried in the pages of whatever nerd book he had this week. Elise greeted him with her usual "hi, Dad" whilst inconspicuously throwing the shreds of paper away. He didn't need to know about what had happened. It would just upset him.

Marcus returned his daughter's greeting with a warm smile, closing the book that he had been reading. It was no wonder where Elise got her appearance from. They both had a similar hair color (though Marcus's was always a darker blonde than his daughter) and the exact same shade of green eyes. Even their facial features were similar. The other professors liked to joke around with that, saying that Elise was 'the younger Richardson without a beard,' though right now he just had a bit of scruff from not shaving in the past week or so.

Noticing the device sticking out of her pocket, Marcus couldn't help but chuckle. "Oh my God, who gave you a pinger?" He questioned his daughter in a lighthearted manner. Tucking the book under his arm, the two of them began to head to the car. He realized that he was still wearing the lab coat that all of the college's science professors wore, but he figured that he'd just wash it and worry about bringing it back tomorrow.

"Eh, some professor did," Elise replied with a small shrug. "It's funny, though. You'd think that everybody would have gotten rid of these things by now because they're so damn useless."

Marcus let out an over exaggerated gasp at his daughter's scathing remark. "Hey, that's my pride and joy you're insulting there!"

"What, and I'm not?" Elise joked back, their playful banter helping to pick up her soured mood.

The two of them exited the college campus, where they were greeted by the light orange sky that signaled early evening. The sun reflected off of Elise's blonde hair, making it appear a few shades lighter than what it actually was.

"But anyway," Elise continued, "there's a second dot that appears somewhere southeast of here, right at the cliff edge. I guess that people really do hold onto these things."

Marcus frowned, brows furrowing at his daughter's words. "Huh, that's odd," he muttered to himself. The two of them walked in silence for a few more moments as they approached the car. "May I see it?"

Elise, surprised and concerned at her father's reaction, handed it over without hesitation. "Yea, sure. Is something wrong?" she inquired.

Marcus pressed the button below the GPS display, sending out a ping that searched for other nearby pingers. True to what Elise told him, there indeed was another device southeast of them. And it was exactly where he hoped it wouldn't be.

Feeling a slight pang in his stomach, he handed the device back to his daughter and buckled into the driver's side of the car. "That other pinger is located where the old lab was," he informed her, his voice wavering slightly at the end. "Before it was destroyed, we had a strict rule that we were not supposed to carry pingers with us inside the building. The lab was to remain a secret to the public." Gears turning in his head, he turned to look at Elise. "Did you recognize the professor that gave you the device?"

Elise frowned at the question. "No, not really. An old friend of Ms. Kathy's, I think, but I didn't know him personally. " Honestly, she believed that her father was just being paranoid, or that this was just some elaborate prank that someone was pulling to scare him. "Well, if it really bothers you that much, then let's go get it," she suggested, eyes lighting up at the prospect of rummaging through the ruins of her dad's old lab. It struck her that she couldn't remember a single thing about what it had looked like when her parents took her there.

"No, I'll go get it. You'll wait for me in the car," Marcus told her curtly. He recalled the old Hellgates on the walls and floors of the enclosures, which had been used to summon creatures and lowly demons for study. It was entirely possible that something found its way through one of those gates, and was now loose in the lab. He would not risk his daughter's life a second time.

Elise crossed her arms at her father's order. "Hey, you don't get to decide that, you know. I'm twenty and am certainly capable of taking care of myself!"

"Elise, I will not let you risk your life over some stupid pinger. You're-"

"And what makes you think that I'll let you risk yours!" Elise snapped back, frustrated that they were even having this argument. "If locating this rogue pinger is some sort of self-fulfillment bullshit quest that you believe you simply have to go through, then I'm gonna go with you!"

Elise glared at her father, who remained tensely silent throughout her yelling. His grip on the steering wheel was hard enough to turn his knuckles white.

Realizing that yelling would get her nowhere, she took a deep breath and managed to calm herself down a bit. "Look, Mom's gone, Dad. It's just the two of us anymore. We're all we have left." She smiled a bit, reaching over to drape her arm over her dad's shoulders. "We're a team, and teams explore the ruins of an old demonic lab in search of a stupid and obsolete device together."

Marcus sighed loudly, not once turning his attention from the road. "You really need to learn how to give better speeches," he muttered.

"But it worked, didn't it?" Elise said with a lopsided smile.

Another loud sigh, this one somehow more exasperated than the last. He could already tell that the fifteen-minute drive to the old lab was going to feel like an eternity.

*** *** ***

As the father and daughter duo approached the abandoned building, the atmosphere around them gradually began to change. In the distance, dark rain clouds could be seen, ever so slowly creeping closer to the dying sunlight. It was much darker than it was a few minutes prior to the college campus, and Elise was already using the flashlight on her phone.

Marcus scratched at his chin, a nervous tick of his, and unconsciously gripped his daughter's hand. "Remember, we're just going to see who planted the pinger. As soon as it's located, we're leaving. Got it?"

Elise nodded with a patient smile towards her father, gently pulling her hand away. "Yea yea, I got it," she assured him. "This place gives me the creeps, anyway. Feels like it's hard to breathe."

Relieved that his daughter was complying at least this much, Marcus began to make his way inside, constantly making sure that Elise was always close behind. He knew that it probably annoyed her, but it was a parent's job to worry over their children.

Once inside, Marcus was surprised to learn that the lab was actually in much less of a state of disrepair than he initially thought. Some of the windows no longer had glass in them, many of the machines were broken, and the floor and walls were ruined from water damage, but it was still in much better condition than what he was prepared to see. He supposed that the demons that had gotten loose and attacked that day never made it to the lobby.

"So, they left this large building alone for over a decade?" Elise mused, walking up to a curved table that was most likely used as a receptionist's desk. Other than a broken monitor and waterlogged desk chair, the table was empty. "You'd think the city would be quick to reclaim such a large property."

"Yes, if they didn't have to worry about the possibility of rogue demons," Marcus replied, doing his own search around the lobby. "And besides, very few people are qualified to construct and dismantle Hellgates. It took a lot of time and money to get the ones we have here, and I'm not going to be the one to take them all apart. Can't really do much here until those are gone." He shrugged, and, deeming that their mysterious pinger wasn't going to be found here, began to look down the hallway to his left. Down it was four steel doors, two on each side, dimly lit by a single emergency light. Fascinating for even that minuscule amount of electricity to be running for so long in an abandoned building.

Elise left the conversation alone, figuring that learning about the intricacies of a Hellgate was a topic better suited in the classroom. Turning to the hallway opposite from Marcus's, she was greeted with a nearly identical sight. Well, perhaps the occasional rust stain or piece of rubble was different, though it did have the same four-door, one emergency light layout. However, while every other door was firmly shut, the one on the far right of this side was wide open.

"Hey, Dad?" Elise called out to her father. "I think I may know where our pinger is."

Marcus turned away from the other hall and approached his daughter, frowning as he saw the open door. "Strange. These doors could only be opened with an electronic keycard and an alarm would go off if one was kept open for so long. Someone has definitely been here."

He went up to the door, Elise following close behind and cautiously peered into the entrance of the room. After a few seconds, he gave her a nod. "Looks like whoever was here is currently absent," he said. A sad expression slowly appeared on his face. "Elizabeth used to work in the lab right across from us. The botanical gardens. I wonder how those plants have been faring without any care for this long." Marcus peered over his daughter to the door behind her for a moment, a feeling of both nostalgia and sorrow welling in his heart.

Elise felt a pang at the mention of her mother, silently cursing the name of her murderer. She walked up to Marcus, giving him a strong hug which he gladly returned. "Maybe there will be something in there that can still be salvaged," she murmured. "We could raise it at home, have it grow in the backyard or something."

Marcus nodded with a gentle smile. "I'm sure your mother would appreciate that. That is if we can even get the door open in the first place." Tearing his gaze away from the door that separated him from his late wife's garden, he turned back to the room that was accessible to them. "Ah, this is where we housed our largest Hellgate," he explained, attempting to pick up the somber mood. "Third largest in the country at the time of its creation. I think it still would be if it was still active."

Elise's emerald eyes lit up with excitement, quickly shoving past her dad so she could see for herself. And what lay before her was definitely an impressive sight. The large, perfectly circular frame had been built into the center of the floor, with a radius that could probably hold her entire bedroom with room to spare. The tile around the inner edges charred and blackened with use, though it was unclear from a glance as to whether it could still be turned on.

"And what kind of demon did you want to bring to this innocent Earth that required such a massive Hellgate?" she asked incredulously, approaching it for a closer look.

Marcus winced slightly, putting a hand on his daughter's shoulder before she could get too close. Elise looked slightly annoyed at the protective dad mode but left it alone. "One of the biologists had discovered an unfamiliar creature while he was in Hell studying a herd of the region's native fauna" he started to explain, releasing his grip. "He allegedly noticed that one of the animals was almost entirely consumed by a large mass of tendrils, which made the rest of the demonic herd appear nervous. As they sedated the animal to try and identify this growth, it began to expand at an alarming rate, until it was nearly five times its original size."

Elise shuddered at the description. "No animal, whether they are of mortal or demonic origin, should have to live with such an awful sounding parasite," she said empathetically.

Marcus felt his heart grow heavy. "Some of them do," he muttered quietly to himself, before quickly regaining his composure. "With our current laws on the conservation of mass, such a thing should not be possible. The biologist's report shocked a lot of people, and it wasn't long until the other engineers and I were commissioned to construct a Hellgate large enough to bring this creature in for study. And an enclosure to keep it in, of course," he added, gesturing to the giant opaque glass wall to their right.

Elise looked a bit startled as she saw what her dad was pointing at, having been too intrigued with what was on the floor to have noticed it at first. It appeared as though the wall that had been separating this lab to the one next to it was destroyed, the only thing in between the two rooms being the large enclosure. Two sliding doors, one on either side, was all that connected both labs to this centerpiece.

"Wish we could see inside or into the other lab," she thought out loud, approaching the enclosure door. Pulling at the door, she found that it wouldn't budge. That was probably obvious.

"Well, as I hope you've learned from paying attention in class," Marcus began, walking up to the other end of the enclosure. "You can change the glass between clear and opaque. We installed a switch that, when turned on, turns the glass opaque." He stopped and frowned slightly at his statement, the gears spinning in his head. "But if it's turned on, then that would mean that the enclosure is receiving enough power to activate the mechanism..."

Locating the switch, Marcus flipped it down, watching as the wall turned clear in almost an instant. However, the room beyond the glass was pitch black, impossible to see anything more than what they had been looking at before.

The other change was that the door Elise was standing next to slid open, causing her to startle backward in shock. "Does the switch control the door too?" she asked.

Marcus shook his head, just as confused as his daughter was. "No, not at all. This switch is just for the window. The wiring doesn't reach the door." To prove his point, he turned it back on, the door remaining open.

The realization struck them both at the same time. They were not alone here.

"We need to go. Now," Marcus ordered, walking toward the exit with quick strides. "I'll contact the police and report an unidentified presence when we get home."

Elise nodded, turning to follow her father out of the room. "I agree. This isn't worth- Huh?" she gasped, feeling some sort limb coil around her wrist, slightly cool to the touch. "Dad!" she called in a panic, to which he came running. But before he could reach her, a second limb had wrapped around her waist, quickly yanking her into the dark enclosure. A moment later, she could hear the door slide closed.

There really isn't anything that can describe the fear of suddenly being locked inside a pitch black room and knowing that either someone or something is in there with you. Elise felt that whatever had pulled her in there release her, and she immediately started banging on the glass in a blind panic.

At the same time, the window once again became clear, and Elise could see Marcus's panicked expression next to the switch in the dimly lit room. "Dad! Can you hear me?" she yelled, seeing his head snap in her direction. She saw him yell her name, though she could barely hear it.