I slid the blades out and stood still, lifeless. Contemplating my deed, how it would break the fundamental rules for my existence. I paused.

Should I do this?

Perhaps I should ask how long eternity is within this Hell? How many millenia of torture before the pain drove me insane and my life fade into a miasma of cruelty?

Clearly, there was no other option.

David Longman-Steele. As evil as the most vile creature here. A man who murdered not for position or profit, but for the mere joy of teasing the life from another human.

I focused, inwards. Around me the foul beasts circled, too frightened to attack and too hungry for my soul, to flee.

I sought out within me the shards of David’s soul. Saw the chains that strung between him and Hell. With my mind I chased them, herded them like cattle.

Screaming, as the last of the shards was forced into my little finger, I sliced it off. Red blood hissed on the heated sand, and where my finger fell a shadowy gate appeared.

A gate atuned only to me.