@Ozzyy 23 December 2021 more from that month

The Devil's Reward [WP]You look down at your mangled body among the burning wreckage, and then back up at the angels coming to take you to paradise. Then a burning hook of brimstone shoots out of the ground, sinking into you and pulling you into the abyss. ***** *The good die young.* Then perhaps, I had become a saint at some point in my life. Or maybe my definition and views of good and bad were wrong because I could have sworn that I was the textbook definition of a supervillain or bad guy. Why? Because I was that guy. The guy that took candy from babies, the guy that stole from the rich and poor and kept it for himself, the self-centered guy, the guy that did not think the family was an exception when considering people to scam; I could fill a warehouse with the list of the bad things I was, and to be honest, I did not care. I always felt disgusted anytime I thought about how other people reasoned. What made them think that everyone else had their best interests in mind? How did they think that people got to the top, if not by stepping on others and using them as unwilling stepping stones or rungs on the ladder to success? In this life, progress can only be made by using people. Some call it business deals, some call it employment; there were different names built for sugarcoating and hiding the true nature of this action, but in the end, it all boiled down to the act of using people. The only thing that made people 'bad' was when they refused to be used. And that was exactly what made me a 'bad' person. I loved to take, but I didn't want to give. The people at the top didn't record any losses, they just kept on talking while leaving their giving at the barest minimum until it was so little, it was negligible. For me to occupy the top, I had to make that my creed. And by so doing, I became evil. But I never did reach the top. I hovered around at the level of being comfortable, but being stinking reach eluded me no matter how much I tried. It seemed that the powers that existed meaning the rich, did not want to allow me to exist in the same echelon, and no progress was made. Up until the plane crash, I wasted my life being evil without seeing any results for it. I was on another flight trip to try and secure a major business deal; being resigned to my fate, I didn't see any chances of success, just another disappointment like I was used to by then. The only difference this time was that I never made it. Midair, the engines all failed simultaneously, and for once in my life, I screamed as the plane crashed into the middle of a busy street before erupting in a burst of flames. For a moment, all was quiet and dark, and I thought I had died. But then my eyes opened, and OI stood, feeling lighter than I had for years. Around me were blood and gore and rubble, limbs, heads, torsos, but I was still alive. It was a rebirth. It was a second chance- No, I was dead. As I looked down, I realized I was floating, and then I turned and looked back at the carnage from which I had come forth. And there it was, under another seat, the head facing backward having been twisted in a 180-degree direction, the bones on the hand broken and my spine clearly having been snapped in half, judging by how my best bent forward over the head of the chair that crushed me. My corpse was badly burned and looking so grotesque, I would not have been able to identify it if it was not mine. I just knew my body, asides from the clothes I was wearing, the rich crop of hair, or what was left of it, that showed how vain I was in the sense that it was meticulously treated each morning. An endless routine, but all of it was vanity because now I was dead. "At death, every man becomes a philosopher," a light, beautiful voice said. I turned to see two angels stare at me, the halo of light behind their heads making their facial features a bit obscure. On closer inspection, I could see that they were in fact, beautiful beings. "It's only natural to have a lot to think about after you die, but it is time to transition. I was quiet as they lifted me by both my arms and began to carry me upwards. Actually, no, I was dumbfounded, because I knew that if the whole heaven-hell stuff was real, then I was hellbound by all means. It felt like a dream. For the first time in my life, things were about to go right for me. A taste of the undeserved grace that preachers always spoke of. A chance at - A fiery hook burst out from the earth, a chain soaked in lava tied to it. I groaned and screamed as it pierced through my thing, pulling me from their arms and into the abyss it came from. I was used to disappointment, but this was another level of despair because I had heard what hell was like. And then I landed in a lake of fire, screaming as the heat cooked me inside out and did not stop, my flesh regenerating for another round of roasting any time it was about to be extinguished. "I'm sure you did not have plans of a life in paradise," a dark, cloaked figure said as it stabbed me with a pitchfork before pushing me inside the lake, holding me down and laughing as I drowned a thousand times in the white-hot fires. "All sinners must die, and when they do, they come to hell. A hell worse than those they ever caused their victims on earth." This was my new reality. This was a reward fit for a devil like me. ***** THE END.