The Devil Wore A Brown Suit

two

Chapter Two

Topside was a huge tropical land. It was beautiful. There were fruit trees, beautiful lakes, and amazing shorelines. Topside was a wonderland for humanity. They designed it to give them everything they could want.

The garden was full of fruits and vegetables. The garden is where they found Venus.

After the battle, she found her way to the gates of the garden. Angels no longer protected it. They left it abandoned.

She had to find a place to hide. She knew they marked her for death. She wanted to survive for her children. The garden would provide her sanctuary until she could find a way into the underworld to rejoin Lucifer and the children.

 The garden was still just as majestic as the day they created it. Venus had been there when the garden was formed. She watched as they put each tree in its place. She knew every rock in the garden. This was not her first or second trip to the garden. She had been here many times.

Koko spotted the garden. He flew in to look for Venus. Venus was easy to spot. She was as bright as the sun and the moon. She illuminated everything around her. She was still beautiful even without her wings. She ran to Koko.

 “Are they alive?” she cried. Koko grabbed Venus up.

“There is no time Venus we have to get back to the underworld. Your children are waiting.”

 Venus held on to Koko tightly. He tried to fly Venus out of the garden, but they trapped her in there. The garden had bound her. She could not leave.

“Koko, let's go. What is happening?” Venus knew what was going on. She knew the portals and realms of topside were all spelled to either keep you in or out. They spelled the garden to keep humans in. Venus was no longer an angel. She could not leave.

“I cannot leave Koko. I cannot leave!” She screamed.

Koko was the only one who could carry her through the portal, and Gabriel was the only one who could bring her out of the garden.

“Listen to me, Venus. We will figure out a way to get you out. It might take time. I need to return to the children. We will be back. I promise.“ Koko kissed her on the forehead.

He headed to the portal. He sounded a trumpet to alert the others, and down the portal, he went. He did not understand how he would explain this to Lucifer. He knew he would try to go to her. If he tried to leave, it could destroy him. The children needed him. He could not tell him the truth. He had to lie.

When the four landed in the underworld, Lucifer was waiting at the gate. Koko was crying.      

“She is no longer with us, Lucifer. Venus is gone.”

“Venus is gone,” The words echoed. The entire underworld believed it. Koko had no choice telling his lie. At least that's what he told himself.

Daniel and Izzy grew in the underworld. They were vibrant children. The underworld was just like any other place.

Families living and working in the underworld were just like families living on the topside or in the golden city. You were born; you grew just not ancient; you lived, loved, got into trouble; you were heartbroken; you grew to be the people you were supposed to be.

Everyone had a job. Lucifer became the keeper of the underworld, a ruler, the king, the manager, so to speak. He was the CEO of the underworld. He handled all the business. He was the judge and the jury. If you had a dispute, you went to him. You want to move you go to him. You wanted to leave, TOUGH!

 He was a heart-broken soul raising children and running the underworld. He was constantly being blamed for every wrongdoing on the topside. He was unsure who was causing so much trouble topside, but he was busy raising children without their mother and trying to keep his small community happy.

Bowen was his right hand. Bowen had a job he did very well. He was the soul that made sure you paid for all your wrongdoing on the topside. Not every soul landed with Bowen. Some went to other places to other people.

Some just went into the darkness. If you were bad, if you murdered or r***d, you ended up with him. Bowen had a gift for making you wish you could change everything you ever did in life. He was good.

Bowen took Daniel under his wing. Daniel was a good soul. He was tormented at times. He would act out, running through other people's torments. He liked to stir things up a bit, a common thing for a teen.

Daniel was over 2000 years old. It was time to grow up a bit. Time is different in the underworld. 2000 years old is like being 20. Bowen had tons of patients with Daniel. He called him by his real name often. Damnation. He would usually give Bowen a side-eye. But then he would smile and return to his work.

 He started Daniel off as a jailer and soon moved him into the realm with him.

 “Men have great evil in their hearts, Damnation, and they have to answer for it. It keeps the balance.” Bowen would tell Daniel this almost every single day.

Daniel understood. He knew heartache well. He kept a picture of his mother with him always in a small locket around his neck. It was a beautiful relic shaped like a raven. The necklace was gold the raven was black. It held her hair and a picture of her when she was very young.

He blamed no one for what happened; he just dealt with it. He took to the underworld and thrived mischievously, but he thrived. He worried about his sister and father constantly. He hid those emotions behind a tough exterior.

Daniel was good. He stayed under Bowen constantly. Bowen was like his father. Bowen loved him. Labith and Bowen had taken it upon themselves to help raise both children.

 They flew them in, and they stayed with them forever.

Izzy was her baby, her Perdition. Izzy was more of a loner. She loved every one. She learned everything she could from people who landed in the underworld from the topside. She loved them all. She would visit the void. Some people put themselves in the underworld.

They are so lost they cannot cope with their lives or what they did in life, and even though they could be granted asylum in the golden city, they choose the void. It’s odd how little we think of ourselves. It was always heartbreaking to her.

She would go to them. Most ignored her at first, but they would eventually open up to her. They all did. Her talents were amazing. Izzy could make anyone laugh, even the gatekeeper KOKO. She was so angelic.

She was often asked if she was an angel. “We all are,” she would often reply. “We are all angels, some fallen, some stolen, and some just lost, but we are all angels here.”

The underworld was not hell. Bowen was hell. Among these souls in the underworld, there were angels. Izzy was so right. Everyone was there for different reasons.

Not everyone was a lost soul. Sometimes we punish ourselves more than anyone else ever could. Sometimes we punish ourselves right into an eternal void. Izzy wanted to comfort those people. Help them see who they are.

The ones in the void could be sent back to try again on the topside. Most never forgave enough to leave. Izzy tried so hard with them. It was her mission in life. To help those who felt abandoned. She wanted them to have a second chance on the topside.

She was a ray of light, just like her mother. She carried a locket of her mother, but it differed from Daniel’s. Her locket was her mother's bracelet. As a child, she would wear it in her hair. As she grew, she fashioned it into a locket. It was solid silver with a small raven indention on the back. She never took it off. She kept her mother close to her heart.