Hell Above, Heaven Below: Chapter 2 – Descending Upward

Chapter 2 – Descending Upward

It takes Cupido almost half a day to recover from his injuries, but when he does, he sees that he’s in a shack laying in a bed with some bandages.

“Where am I? Am I alive?” he says to himself as he shakes his head and making sure he’s awake, “I’m alive…I’m alive!” Cupido thanks the God that his parents would pray to as he begins to seriously believe in Him. “But wait…that means that…mom and dad could be alive too.” He gets up and looks at his suit jacket that has been patched up with various different patterns and colors. The same thing has happened to his pants. “What child did this to my outfit? Whatever. It’s not like I’m going to need it. I’m never going to deal with that society ever again. I’d rather go to the under…ground.”

As Cupido exits the shack, he sees that he’s in the underground in a town full of shacks and weirdly dressed people. The lights of the city from above give the city light along with some of the lamps they have lit up. Before he can leave, the girl who saved him sees him as she is coming back home and pushes him back inside. She’s a skinny girl with a half-shaved head with her hair being colored purple and black.

“What are you doing up? You must rest,” she says.

“Who are you? I need to-”

“You need to rest,” the girl says as she forces him to lie down on the bed.

The feeling of being forced to lie down on a bed by a girl who’s dressed in raggedy clothing makes Cupido feel uncomfortable.

“Get off me! Who are you?”

“My name is Amora. I saved your life when you fell from above.”

“Thank you for that, but can you give me some space?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Why should I? I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“Do people here usually get this close to strangers and lay on top of them?”

“No, it’s something that close friends and couples do, and we’re supposed to be together.”

“What makes you think that we’re supposed to be together? I don’t even know you.”

“Because God told a priest who I talk to.”

Cupido looks at Amora as if she’s crazy and if she’d be a girl that he’d like to be with.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I trust in God.”

“How do you know that you’re not being tricked? My parents told me that one of the devil’s greatest tricks is to pretend that he is God.”

“I’m sure of it because you fell out of the sky and because you have this.”

Amora takes out Cupido’s hacking device from underneath the bed.

“My hacking device! Give it to me!” When Cupido gets his device from Amora, he checks it to see if it is critically damaged, but it seems to be in working condition. “Thank you, God, for this second miracle. What makes you think that this is part of the reason that we’re meant to be together, Amora?”

“Because the last people that lead us out of here had the same kind of device that you did.”

“The same people? What were these people like?”

“They told us the same thing about the devil pretending to be God. They also told us that they had a son on the surface. They said that he would eventually come to his senses and follow them.”

Something about what Amora says strikes Cupido and makes his eyes teary as he imagines his parent’s hope for him and how right they were.

“What happened to them? Where are they?”

“They used their device to open the way to the purifying zone. They told us they could only hold the gate open for so long, but some of us went back to get our stuff. By the time we came back, the gate was closed, so we’ve been waiting for another person with a device like yours.”

“Why didn’t your people bring your stuff with you to begin with?”

“Because they told us not to since it would make the journey harder and we doubted their ability to open the way to the purifying zone. So, will you help us?”

“I can’t go back to the surface nor do I want to so I guess I will since it’s better than staying here.”

“Yes! Thank you! I knew you were the one we were waiting for!” Amora says while hugging Cupido.

“Okay, okay! But we have to have some space before we can be in a relationship.”

“You don’t have a choice in that.”

“What?!”

“God wants us to be together so that’s how it’s going to be.”

“Wait, hold on-!” Amora gently kisses Cupido on the lips and his head becomes cloudy for a second before he says, “You can’t just kiss me like!”

“Why not? You’re mine now and I am yours.”

“Why did it feel familiar?” Cupido says to himself while touching his lips, “You weren’t kissing me while I was sleeping, were you?”

“I, um, might have been practicing with you while you were sleeping. There’s nothing wrong-”

Cupido finally pushes Amora away and walks out the door.

“Right. I need to take a walk.”

“Hold on. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Cupido walks into the town while trying to shake Amora off his arm, but since she’s so persistent, he lets her hold his arm. The people in the town are taking their stuff while some argue about staying and how much they should take. Eventually, Cupido finds a priest.

The priest says to him, “Thank God you are awake. We’ve been waiting for your arrival.”

“Amora told me everything. Your people look like they’re in a rush.”

“That’s right. Some people haven’t even taken their things and are waiting by the gate. There’s also the demons from above that take us away from our homes to enslave us.”

“I now know that they act like demons, but are they? I thought demons have horns instead of crowns.”

“Those crowns are their horns. Real angels look very different from them. Now, we must hurry to the gate to reach the purifying zone.”

Cupido walks with Amora and the people from her town through the sewers until they reach the gate. The people there thank Cupido for arriving when he did especially since some were starting to lose hope. He takes a look at the gate and activates his hacking device.

“Hmm. It doesn’t look that hard to open so far. I guess no one thought that anyone would be able to open it,” Cupido says to himself.

“Is it difficult to get a device like yours?” Amora asks.

“You have to be upper middle class or live in a family that hacks like me. The people who use stuff like this aren’t always good.”

“But you are.”

“If you say so. I screwed over many people with this thing to get my way.”

“And now you’re using it to help people. This is your redemption.”

“I hope so.” The gate opens and the people of the town cheer before they go through it. “My parents weren’t lying when they said this gate stays open for so long. It’s hard programmed to slam shut when the gate reaches the roof so we have to move.” As they go further past the gate, Cupido asks Amora, “So what’s special about this purifying zone that will lead us to a better place? I thought it was only a place where the city above reprocesses the waste and makes it into different stuff.”

“Oh no, it’s not that kind of purifying place. It’s a place we have to go through to purify our souls so that we can move on to a better place.”

“That sounds strange, but since mom and dad were right about most things, I should trust them on this too. What’s in this better place anyway?”

“Unlike the surface, the place we’re going to is ruled by God and His angels.”

“Okay, so?”

“God is goodness and truth itself so He will treat us well unlike the devil.”

“If God is goodness and truth itself, then why does He let the devil have control over the surface and underground?”

“Because we separate ourselves from Him, but since He’s merciful, He helps us get to Him.”

“I haven’t been a servant of God for my entire life and you’re trying to say that He’s using me to help you?”

“You don’t think that God helped you get here?”

“No, in fact, I can’t think of another explanation, but still. You seem like better people than I do. Why should we be on the same path together?”

“We all have our sins and weaknesses that we deal with. We’ll become stronger and better together.”

Cupido feels more comfortable being with Amora now in the sense of being friends. Before he knows it, he hears the sound of the gate slam down behind him. The sound is so loud that the angels from above come down from secret entrances.

One of them says, “Cease your useless quest, submit to us, and we will give you an honest existence above. Refuse and you will suffer in jail for all eternity. The path you walk will only lead you to more suffering and even your death.”

“I refuse,” Cupido says without really thinking leading to other people refusing as well.

“So be it then. Round them up!”

The angels try to grab who they can as the people scatter and run away. Cupido and Amora run and keep each other safe as it seems like the angels are targeting Cupido as if they know it was him who opened the gate. In the meantime, the townspeople who get caught are the ones with the most to carry while some throw away their possessions so they can run faster or use them to defend themselves. The angels keep chasing the group until they reach a place where the only way forward is to slide down into the darkness with a small light at the bottom. For some reason, it feels oddly warm in this area.

“We have to slide down!” Cupido says.

“I’m…I’m scared,” Amora says while holding tightly onto him.

Looking around, Cupido sees that no one is sliding down even though more people are getting taken away. He then looks around for any other possible way out and finds none.

Knowing but hating what he has to do, he says to Amora, “Hold on to me.”

Cupido picks her off her feet and she says, “What are you doing?”

“Just promise that you won’t hate me.”

“I won’t but-woah!”

Cupido jumps and slides down into the darkness with Amora screaming and holding onto him. The other townspeople and even the angels are astonished by his bravery and have to stop to look at each other before acting. Some of the townspeople slide down with them with either their spouses or children in their arms or run back the way they came hoping to find another way out. Meanwhile, Cupido and Amora have reached the bottom and have landed on a pile of dirty mattresses that have broken their fall. Amora kisses Cupido then slaps him.

“What was that for?” he asks.

“For saving us but also scaring me.”

“You’re welcome, but what fresh mess have we found ourselves in now.”

“This is it. The purifying zone.”

They seem to be in a factory of some kind with all kinds of machinery processing trash. Flames sprout out from underneath them as they burn the trash and are let out by the machines.

“This is the purifying zone?! This is the place where they get rid of trash!” Cupido says.

“It’s where the ‘trash’ of our souls has to be cleaned to move on to a place where sin doesn’t exist. Come on.”

“Tch. The only way is forward I guess.”

Amora and Cupido make their way through the factory on unstable platforms. The townspeople that have managed to make it down here with their possessions make the unstable platforms even more unstable as some of the platforms fall under their weight while others have their possessions burned from the flames below them and fall as they try to save their things. As this happens, Amora and Cupido continue to lead everyone forward and unknowingly act as their hope. The platforms become smaller and smaller until they become beams that lead to ladders.

“How are people supposed to move around down here?” Amora asks herself.

“No one is really meant to be down here. It’s all automated and controlled from above,” Cupido answers, “Or at least that’s what I think.”

As they continue, those who continue to have possessions on them fall more often. The intense flames and heat make it hard to continue forward and concentrate, however, the dangerous situation and close exit encourage them to keep going a little further. This, of all times, is when Amora slips and almost falls. Cupido catches her arm. He struggles to lift her up and keep his own balance on the beams. The townspeople cheer on Cupido to lift her up while some of them tell him to let her go.

“Let me go and save yourself, Cupido. You can’t save us both,” Amora says.

“Heh, what happened to being so sure that God wanted us to be together?” Cupido says with a reassuring smile as he keeps trying to lift her up.

“I…I enjoyed our time together. Maybe it was meant to be short.”

“Oh please. If your faith in God saving you is so low, then it’s no wonder why we’re here together. Let me show you how it’s supposed to be done.”

Cupido somehow lifts up Amora and puts her on his back to the amazement of all the townspeople.

He then kisses Amora before saying, “Don’t ask how I did it because I have no clue. Let’s go everyone!”

Cupido then leads everyone to the ladder and up into the light. A comforting and strange light that almost blinds him as he enters it.