Sin and Penance Ch. 03 - Gehenna

Chapter 3 - Gehenna

Sin sat slouched over on her throne watching as the sinners were tortured or prepared for slavery. Her head kept lazily propped up by her right arm. It had been several hours now, and the Babel group was long gone. Sarah and Miranda were being arranged into a line of laborers that went on for miles. The Imps continued to poke and prod the sinners as the larger demons whipped them.

Jenna roasted on the spit, as giggling Imps slowly turned her over a pit of flame. She struggled against the chains, even though they drained her of vigor. The fire did not seem to burn her flesh, but sweat soaked her skin and dripped from her breasts. Otep inspected the girl, running her finger between her cleavage before sucking the sweat from the digit.

"She's far from done. I think she needs some marinade!"

The succubus called over Drenvia, one of her sisters, with a curl of her finger. Drenvia was dressed in even less than Otep, her entire body was bare except for the leather thong that covered her womanhood. Her nipples were pierced, with a chain that ran between them.

She had long flowing dark locks and the green eyes of her mortal father long dead.

Drenvia held a glass bottle of massage oil that she squirted onto her hands and began to lather onto Jenna's body as the Imps rotated her over the flame. The girl cursed and cried in protest as the demoness ran her hands over her sensitive parts. Drenvia responded by placing a golden apple in the sinner's mouth to gag her - The very same kind that Eve gave to Adam in the days of Eden.

"That's much better!" Exclaimed Drenvia as Otep went to inspect the other new arrivals.

She poked the girl's nose. "You look so delicious, I could just eat you right up!"

And she intended to, though the process for a succubus was far more spiritual than it was physical. No actual flesh would be ingested, they just got off on making such a show of it.

Cindy grasped the bars of the small cage she couldn't stand up in. It was hoisted up, along with millions of others, by a sea of Imp's who carried them up the foreboding mountain path, eventually disappearing over the horizon.

Sin watched as Katherine sobbed on a rack over hot coals. Her sisters were now melting candles over her tender breasts. The Princess then peered down to a pit beneath her, where Jasmond was tormenting Linda and Sadie with a red hot poker.

Despite the hot ground beneath her feet and Incubus that stood over her, lashing at her backside with a whip, it was obvious Jasmond took an extreme amount of pleasure in the act. She laughed maniacally before whispering tauntingly in their ears;

"Welcome to my world, girls."

The Princess let out a long, deep sigh of boredom. Sin had been entertained by the show for long enough, but now she was tired of hearing the screams. Her arousal had long since worn off. Unamused, she turned half heartedly to her advisor, far more concerned now with other matters.

"Azazel, how is Sintopia coming along?"

Azazel let out his own pained sigh of frustration.

"No more or less ready than it was two hours ago when you last asked, Your Infernal Highness."

Truthfully, Sin didn't want to come off as annoying, especially to Azazel. She liked him - Mostly because he let her do whatever she wanted - Within reason. Since Sin had grown her horns and matured into an adult demoness, her parents expected a lot more responsibility from her.

She thought that was "lame".

Things were much different from back when she was a spawnling. Sometimes, she wished to go back there. The Princess managed to contain her excitement for just a moment.

She got up from her throne and stood in awe over the vast city below her, erected in her honor by an endless supply of slaves.

"Sorry Azazel, I'm just excited. I can't wait till it's finished. It will be the finest city in Hell, dedicated to my majesty! No other shall match it, not in days future or past."

The Fallen Angel rolled his eyes.

"Don't you think it's a bit of an indulgence, Your Infernal Highness? This incessant need to keep making the city larger is very cumbersome."

Sin's grasp tightened around her trident. Flames rose from the top of the weapon. Her fists clenched as her veins flowed with fury. She wasn't often told no. The princess didn't like not getting her own way.

"Daddy said I could build my own city, my own way, Azazel! So, I'm going to build it the way that I want it!"

Azazel sighed. It was easier to let her have her own way. He didn't fear her wrath - He feared her fathers.

"Yes, Your Infernal Highness. Of course, Your Infernal Highness."

Sin's short attention span was quickly fixated on the line of sinners being marched up the mountain top. The sight of them was a perpetual reminder that everything here was hers and it never failed to lift her spirits. Her mood was easily swung at the best of times.

"Look at all these billions of cute slaves and all chained together, building my city. They all belong to me."

She looked down into the pit below them, where Colath was gleefully dealing punishment to the wicked souls there. They cried, sobbed and pleaded as they turned the crank for the furnace that fueled the fires, their feet baking against hot coals.

Her nipples hardened once more at the sight as her sadistic lust returned to her.

"Nothing better than seeing whips collide with their backs as they slave away, Azazel."

Azazel's manhood stood erect inside his robes. All demons savored the sight of sinners in pain as well as the damned in ecstacy. The Fallen were no exception.

"I certainly agree with you there, Your Infernal Highness."

Sin rubbed her chin in deep consideration.

"Not sure if I like the man slaves or the woman slaves better. I suppose the men work harder, but the women look so sexy in their chains and shackles."

As she spoke, Sarah Kennedy marched past her - The school girl's butt still burning from where the poker was placed inside it. It was apparent from the way she awkwardly hobbled behind Miranda in the slave line.

The cruel Princess giggled.

"Speaking of which, hello Sarah. Walking funny?"

Sarah's eyes went white when she saw her warden. The Princess terrified her, as did the idea that she now owned her.

"Oh god!" She cried.

Sin cackled wickedly at the school girl's words. The high pitched, devilish laugh billowed over the brimstone plateau.

"I am your god now, Sarah."

She spanked Sarah's pained butt as the girl was lead along up the mountain and to her palace of Anathema, where her siblings would break them into obedient slaves who worked without question. Sin hated Otep, but she had to admit, the bitch was good at her job.

That was one reason she'd made her Anathema's Slave Mistress.

The other was that she just liked telling her what to do.

Otep thought she was better than she was, just because she was older. The truth was deeper than that, but the siblings held a long standing rivalry that meant neither spent more time in the other's presence than was necessary.

WIth the excitement, Sin had lost her train of thought. She lifted her finger to her lip as she looked up into the black, smoke covered skies.

"Now, where was I? Oh yes, that's right!"

She turned to Azazel, raising her hands in the air like a conductor before a mighty and infernal orchestra.

"I want statues of me erected on every street corner, Azazel. And look at all this free labor - Don't tell me it can't be done."

Azazel shook his head and groaned again. He shuttered to have to explain it to her. He knew that Sin was far from thick. He didn't understand why she was so stubborn. Maybe, it was just because she was so spoiled. She couldn't understand the word 'no'. It was something her parents had clearly never taught her.

"Your Infernal Highness, with respect, what you request is an undertaking of titanic proportions. Can it be done? Certainly, but as for its practicality..."

Flames shot from Sin's trident. She slammed it against the ground as she bellowed with fury. She may have been far too old for temper tantrums, but she was clearly not above them.

"I don't care about how practical it is, Azazel! I want my bust on every corner of my city! I want everyone to be able to bask in the glory of their benevolent overlord!"

What the Princess wanted was nigh impossible. Every time the city's construction neared completion, Sin demanded that it be made bigger. She changed her mind about it almost everyday. Roads were dug up and diverted. Statues were relocated and buildings were given dozens more stories.

He tired of her incessant and ridiculous demands, the constant expansion of her city was about to cause the economy of Hell to collapse. If things kept up at the rate they were, it would collapse and Hell would be sent into recession - Which was just the kind of thing that Lucifer had left him with Sin to prevent.

'Keep an eye on her.' He said. 'Make sure she doesn't set the place on fire while I'm gone.'

Azazel groaned. It was a thankless task, but it was the one he'd been sworn to.

"Your Infernal Highness, the truth is that Sintopia is already stretching Hell's budget as it is..."

"Daddy said I could build my city however I wanted!"

Azazel didn't want to. He'd never hear the end of it - But on this, he'd have to put his foot down.

At least, until he got an approval from upper management.

"I'm sorry, Your Infernal Highness, but I'm going to have to seek His Majesty's blessing before I can make further changes to Sintopia's construction."

Thankfully, the Princess relented. But, she made sure that everyone around her knew she wasn't happy about it.

"Ugh! Fine!" Sin groaned. "Such bullshit! He put me in charge! You'd think that would give me the right to make one, teeny, tiny decision about my own hades-damn city? But no! I still have to wait on the word of that dictator."

Sin slammed her trident against the ground in an angst ridden fury.

"It's not fair!"

She stormed off, soaring with her wings above the phosphorus mountain towards her palace on its peak. It had been a hefty achievement of logistics to have it moved from the Gehenna capital of Tartarus, but it was more than worth it. Now the Princess Regent had her own fortress of solitude to watch over the construction of her great city in seclusion.

Azazel sent envoys to accompany the Regent, lest she cause more trouble for him while he went away to report to her father. With lift from his tattered wings, he took to the skies, relieved to be unburdened by the Princess, no matter how brief.

Sin's rule had so far been popular among the demonic legions. They greatly approved of her more "hands on" approach to torment, as opposed to the more symbolic and cerebral methods her father favored. But, she had her enemies too, and if the economy collapsed under her leadership, it could cause political instability.

Azazel had to make sure that didn't happen.

Otep growled as she led Miranda, Sarah and a cadre of other sinners up the mountain towards her sister's palace. She saw Sin's entourage a little ways up and rolled her eyes at the phallic monstrosity as it loomed over the mountain top.

"I don't have a palace." She grumbled enviously under her breath. "Just a dingy little den in Pandaemonium."

Otep hated being subordinate to her little sister and how pampered and entitled she was.

Unlike Sin, Otep got where she was through hard work and dedication. Like many of her brothers and sisters, she started cleaning the imp pens and literally shoveling shit.

That was two millennia ago, by the mortal count. Before Sin was born on the same day as Christ. Back when the Fallen Angel Astaroth was Grand Torturer. Otep got along with her much better.

'Damn Sin.' She thought, despite knowing that as a demon, she was already damned.

They had the same mother. It really stuck in her craw that just because Sin was born Lucifer's only daughter, she had everything handed to her. Titles, castles, armies, palaces and perhaps most affluently, her pick of the sinners in Hell as her slaves.

Otep thought it was bad enough when Sin was just the Grand Torturer, but with her mother and step-father topside in the mortal realm, they'd given her the free run of the place. It wasn't fair.

Astaroth had promised her the position before the prissy bitch was born and her father just gave it to her. Complaining to their mother was never an option; It was far from a secret that Lilith played favorites and regrettably hers was Sin.

Otep sighed irritably. She preferred it back in the days when her sister was a tiny spawnling she would hold in her arms and gently rock to sleep.

'She was much cuter then.' She thought. 'Before she could tell me what to do.'

The demoness would take out her frustration on the line of sinners, who her sister now owned and she was assigned as slave master to. It was a job she'd take tremendous pleasure in. Otep had to admit one thing about her sister, once Sin took over Gehenna - The tortures became alot more fun. And regardless of who her superior was, it was a role she was sworn and dedicated to. She wasn't about to neglect her responsibilities, unlike a certain younger sibling she could name.

Otep wasn't evil, at least not entirely. She just, as most demons did, deeply enjoyed tormenting the wicked - As well as causing mischief and mayhem. And as one of the Lilliam, sex was less a primal desire and more a dietary need. It was her nature. She couldn't help what she was.

Sarah and Miranda were marched behind Otep among hundreds of other sinners, damned like them. They were all naked, shackled and collared. Their nipples were pierced, with a chain that ran between them. Each was linked to the nipples of the sinner in front of them.

They all carried heavy tools over their shoulder that made the march that much more intolerable.

A sea of Imps frolicked at their feet, ceaselessly poking and prodding at their nether regions. Behind every sinner followed a demon, a succubus or incubus, shouting at them and whipping them forward. The demons cackled and cried. A dark, ominous feeling of dread coursed through her body, and she trembled at the sound.

'I knew I'd burn for this, But I did it anyway.' Sarah thought penitently, as she endured the perilous trek up the mountain. 'Guess it was a fair enough bid.'

The young woman hobbled up the mountain as fast as she could. The searing rocks lapped at her toes as the tips of tiny pitchforks bit at her backside and her nipples were tugged on from either side. The shovel was so heavy slung over her shoulder, but she didn't dare drop it.

Not just through fear of whatever terrible punishment awaited her - But out of her own sense of penitence.

Even as the ground baked her feet and sharp metal infrequently dug into her tender rump, all she could think about was the poor children she stole from and how the embezzled money may have helped their treatment. She thought she was so clever. She thought that nobody would ever catch her - And perhaps, if she hadn't died, they never would have.

But everyone dies someday, and sooner or later, Sarah had to face the music. In the months between the crime and the night she died, her dreams were tormented by an inferno, eternal and ceaseless. The faces of the souls that dwelt there, twisted in pleasure and pain.

She dreamt that she had a place there in the fire among the damned.

And now she was there, in that place. Fire all around her.

She'd take her punishment, whatever it was. She understood her place. She wondered about the hierarchy among sinners in Hell.

In mortal prisons, there were often inmates who got preferential treatment from the guards. Sometimes it was because they were penitent. Sometimes it was because they informed on other inmates.

She knew from history class that before the civil war, slavers had Head Slaves who had it better than the others. She wondered if maybe something similar existed in Hell. The Princess had told her that "acceptance makes it easier". Maybe that's what she meant. She'd still be paying for her sins, but it might be more tolerable at least.

The girl had been an overachiever when she was at school. When she set goals, she accomplished them. If she set her mind to something, there wasn't a single hurdle that she couldn't bound over.

When Sarah wanted to date Billy Sullivan from the Boys School across the road, she sabotaged his relationship with Linda Hiller. She spread rumors, weaving a convincing narrative through a web of lies and humiliation. She dug up old wounds from exes. She leaked naked selfies and even had her falsely arrested for selling marijuana.

Linda pleaded down to a possession charge and her fancy lawyer got her community service, but the damage was done. The Sullivans were practically Arkham royalty. They wouldn't let their son near a "dope slinging tramp" after that.

Needless to say, Linda had a big smile on her face over in Babel, knowing the bitter enemy who ruined her life was currently being roasted.

And when Sarah wanted to steal money from children with cancer, she "volunteered" to work in the "Cyber Contribution" department of a noteworthy charity.

Using an algorithm she bought from some Miskatonic IT dropouts of dubious character, Sarah set up a website that converted donations into untraceable crypto-currency - A portion of which, it funneled into her own Panamanian holding company.

The program converted the rest back into legal tender and transferred it into the charities accounts, her employers were none the wiser once she cooked the relevant books. She was a Math honor-student and had the highest grades in the whole school.

This would be no different from that. She might have been in Hell, but she could sink lower - If that's what it took.

'It'll just be like taking cancer money from children.' She thought, with a strange sense of dark humor despite her situation.

If anybody could make the best out of a bad situation, it was her. If she was in the shit, she would accept that. But she'd rather consign the shoveling, then shovel the shit herself.

Sarah looked up and saw a towering obelisk looming over the horizon, its twisting architecture peaking with a curve and not a point. The structure suggested a phallic fixation, but it nevertheless appeared menacing whenever its striking silhouette was cast over the mountain.

Dark fumes erupted out of the tower's top, and polluted an alien sun; Red, bloated and dying.

After she'd gotten a good glimpse of the ziggurat and the initial bout of dread its architecture conjured in her, her eighteen year old mind could only think one thing;

'Haha, it looks like a dick!'

Sarah giggled, but her joy was cut short by the lash of a whip against her backside. She resigned herself to the fact that things would get worse, before they got better.

"Ow!" She wailed, arching back in pain.

"I shouldn't be hearing you laugh, sinner." Spat the cruel demon as he whipped her.

This was a nightmare, only both Sarah and Miranda knew it wouldn't end.

The heat was getting to them. It was like they were locked in a sauna. They baked as their bodies soaked with sweat. The girls looked around as they were led on their perilous march up the mountain. As they did, they noticed something peculiar;

All the damned around them seemed beautiful and young. They saw handsome, well endowed men with athletic bodies and also stunning, busty maidens with angled curves. All as scared as they were and sweltering in the heat.

'Maybe being sexy is a sin.' She thought, feeling aroused.

The girl giggled quietly, hoping the demon wouldn't notice, but he did and flogged her buttocks soundly.

"What did I tell you before, sinner? Less laughing, more marching!"

Sarah sniffled as she felt the hot breath of a demon against her back. But curiously, her loins began to tingle. Even as the pitchforks poked her, and the ground baked her feet, she couldn't help but ogle at the sinner who struggled next to her.