Page 488 of Evil Hearts

“Do you like what you see?” Belraxas asked in an almost hopeful tone. “I am not a ruler here, but I have power. More than you could imagine.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off the suffering. The people here, their faces contorted in agony, were beyond saving. They were broken, consumed by their own sins. But even as I felt a twinge of disgust, a strange fascination began to bloom within me. There was something beautiful in the destruction. Something raw and powerful.

“I don’t think I could ever do this, Balraxas,” I admitted. Yes, I was a serial killer. Yes, I doled out my own form of torture in the human realm. But this? This was something so much more.

Belraxas’s eyes glittered with something darker. “You could, Lena. If you chose to. You could be here with me. I could show you how to wield power... true power.”

I didn’t answer him right away. His offer hung in the air, heavy with promise. And for the first time in a long while, I felt a tug—an allure—toward the very thing I had always run from.

The place I knew I would end up at regardless of my current decision, andhim.

As we continued through the horrors of the underworld, Belraxas spoke of what awaited me if I chose to stay. The power, the freedom. He promised me an existence without limits, where my darkest desires would have no boundary. Where I could be more than just a mortal killer.

But the words, the promises, they lingered in my mind like tar with a bitter aftertaste. Could I ever truly let go of my life—the one I had carefully built in the mortal world. Was I ready to leave behind everything I knew, the dominion I created for those who deserved the worst possible death for an eternal darkness of Hell? Where would I truly even stand down here among the others who were probably more wicked than I was?

“Balraxas,” I said, my voice barely audible over the screams in the distance. “I’m not ready to give up everything. Not yet.”

Belraxas stopped walking and turned to face me. “You don’t have to decide now, Lena. But know this—a decisionwillhave to be made.”

I met his gaze, the weight of his words sinking into me. And for the first time, I wondered if I could accept his offer if a specific demon didn’t come with it.

Our walk blurred into a strange mix of intoxication and horror. Every time I took a step further into his world, I felt both trappedand free. The underworld, with all its torment, its suffering, became something I started to crave. And I blamed Balraxas for it.

The screams, the wailing souls, the endless fire—each step through the underworld felt like a slow dance with madness. Wasn’t I already teetering on the precipice anyway? But there was something else, too, something darker—a presence that clung to me, pressing against my chest until I could barely breathe.

I’d always thought I was comfortable with death. I’d taken lives with the cold precision of a surgeon, carving through the world with a calm, steady hand. But the longer I was with Belraxas, the more I began to question the comfort of my mortal existence and the apathy that began to creep into my soul after each kill.

Bloodlust was a craving, an itch that no mortal indulgence could soothe. But now, in the grip of this hellscape, I found myself faced with a far darker, deeper hunger.

“Lena,” Belraxas whispered against my ear from behind, his voice low and filled with a strange reverence. “You were never meant to walk among the living. You belong in the underworld, where your darkness can truly thrive. Beside me, with my cocks buried in you for all eternity.”

I closed my eyes, the weight of his words settling over me like a suffocating blanket. I had lived in the shadows, feeding off the fear of others, but I had always known there was something more—something waiting for me in the abyss.

But there was still something tethering me to the mortal world. Something unfinished.

“Belraxas,” I said softly, my voice trembling from vulnerability I finally acknowledged, “what happens when we’ve consumed it all? What happens when there’s nothing left to destroy?”

He smiled, a twisted grin that barely touched his eyes. “There is always something to destroy, Lena. The world is full of broken things. Full of souls crying out for their reckoning.”

I stared at him, his words sinking deep into my bones. Was I ready to leave behind everything I had ever known? To become a part of something so much bigger, so much darker?

Chapter 8: The Final Temptation

Though I hadno love for Belraxas—no illusions about his true intentions—I could not deny the hold he had over me. His power, his unyielding confidence, and the sheer weight of his existence were intoxicating. He didn’t speak of love; he spoke of power, of control, of darkness. He didn’t want me because he cared for me. He wanted me because I was a weapon—something with the potential to match his own dark nature—as well as a need to satiate the hunger that now grew within him.

It was an addiction. And we were both codependent.

At times, I would see flashes of something in him. There were moments, brief as they were, where I could almost imagine he felt something for me. A strange fascination that went beyond the admiration for my coldness. But those moments were fleeting, swallowed by the eternal darkness he served. He was a demon, after all, and demons did not love. They devoured.

His manipulations were subtle, like a spider weaving a web. At first, I resisted. I told myself I would not be some pawn in his game. But the more time I spent with him, the more I felt myself drawn to him. The things he said—the promises he made—sounded too good to be true. His words wrapped around me like chains, and I found myself unable to break free.

I wasn’t ready to admit it, but I began to see the beauty in the chaos he thrived in. There was no mercy here. No rules. Just endless torment and power beyond anything I could ever achieve as a mortal.

“You’re wasting your time with these fleeting pleasures, Lena,” he said, his voice a smooth caress, like the hiss of a serpent in the dark. “In the underworld, you could have it all. You could have me.”

The temptation grew. It wrapped around me, slowly at first, until I couldn’t breathe without feeling it, the pull of hellfire, the promise of eternity, of suffering—ofmore.

And yet, there was still a part of me, a small, stubborn part, that held onto the mortal world. The world where I could still taste blood, feel the rush of the kill, and watch the terror in their eyes before the end came. It wasn’t finished yet. Not by a long shot.

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