The knock brought me back to my senses. I wiped my tears as I slowly made my way to the huge iron doors. My brain must have been quite muddled for it took me a few moments to realize that this was the first time in twenty years that I had ever heard something from the other side of that door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWho is that?\u201d I croaked- my voice sore from the screaming and the crying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOpen the door.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I would have scoffed at those words. I would have laughed mirthlessly at those nonsensical words. I would have cruelly taunted the speaker for asking a prisoner to open the bars that imprisoned her. I would have done all those things, and more, if I only remembered how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I simply walked to the door, and opened it. No creaks, no strains due to corrosion- the door slid open as if it had been oiled only hours earlier. Of course, I paid no attention to this. In front of me stood the most remarkable creature I had ever set my eyes upon. It was tall and lean with perfectly toned muscles not entirely hidden by the pitch black suit. One could have mistaken It for a human at a first glance, but I couldn\u2019t discern Its gender. It was gorgeous-the kind of beauty I never knew could exist- the kind of beauty that belonged to angels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLucifer, \u201c I whispered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of my more preferred names, yes.\u201d With the famous devilish grin It pushed the door further and entered my prison. \u201cYou seem to have taken quite a liking to your new home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t know if it was because of the fact that I hadn\u2019t had a conversation in two decades or because I was in the presence of divinity, but I was at a loss for words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow did you know it was me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYour jailors told me that you would come for me one day.\u201d I pointed at the dark clouds of smoke retreating into the shadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAh! My unruly demons always give it away. Spoils the whole surprise. I just love it when I visit those who don\u2019t even know they\u2019re in Hell. The look on their faces,\u201d It cackled like a mischievous school kid, \u201cPrecious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It waited patiently as the clouds- no, demons- left the room and the two of us were alone. And then, without any further preamble, he asked, \u201cWhy did you stay? Don\u2019t get me wrong. I personally love this place. It\u2019s just that Hell isn\u2019t exactly built for the pleasure of anyone except me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWha-? I don\u2019t- Of course I don\u2019t like it here!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen why didn\u2019t you leave?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLeave? This is Hell! I was sent here! This is my punishment. You think I want to be tortured all day, every single day?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen why didn\u2019t you leave?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I took a deep breath. I did not even realise that I had been trembling. The door had been open all this time. I could have walked out any time I wanted. All those years of being cut up and burned and healed and cut up again- when I could have just walked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realise I could. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou never tried?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat happened to your daughter wasn\u2019t your fault.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And there it was. All those memories came flooding back to me. The memories that I had been trying to escape from by killing myself- and when that didn\u2019t work, signing up for an eternity of torture. Whatever it was that I had to go through- it wasn\u2019t enough. My Nina had it worse. And it was all my fault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow, the mongrels whose fault it really was? Trust me, when their time comes, I’ll take care of them real nice.” It’s voice was dangerously low and for the first time I felt afraid of It’s wrath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNina- is she- \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s voice turned gentle again. \u201cShe has moved on. A different birth, a different life. It\u2019s time for you to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI can\u2019t-\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you leave?\u201d he asked me one last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause I deserved to stay.\u201d I hadn\u2019t realised the truth behind those words until I said it out loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lucifer reached out and touched my forehead. I was engulfed in bright, divine light. Blissful ignorance washed over me as I lost all thoughts, intentions and recollections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have suffered enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– By Navyashree B, Third Year Department of Information Technology<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The knock brought me back to my senses. I wiped my tears as I slowly made my way to the huge iron doors. My brain must have been quite muddled for it took me a few moments to realize that this was the first time in twenty years that I had ever heard something from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,24,368],"tags":[116,370,369,96],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative","category-saahitya","category-story","tag-creative","tag-hell","tag-lucifer","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitk.acm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitk.acm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitk.acm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitk.acm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitk.acm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nitk.acm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1070,"href":"https:\/\/nitk.acm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions\/1070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitk.acm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitk.acm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitk.acm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}