[Betray, Leadership]

  ‘Hit the Road Jack’ I heard the song before Frida and I had even gotten back into my room. I hugged her and kissed her goodbye and hurried back, where my three traveling companions were waiting for me. I stowed my knapsack in the same room, right by the tower entrance portal.

  They were surprised to see me back, none of them could hear the singing, which explains why half the house hadn’t come down to find out who was singing in the middle of the night.

  They might not have heard the song, but they all could see the golden glowing portal. I hefted on the knapsack and touched the portal. I was standing right next to the chasm, that Draco had informed me was an illusion, Darco and Harry came into being, right next to me followed by Groucho.

  “Draco I can’t believe that is an illusion.”

  “Yes I must admit, even I’m impressed by how well the illusion works. Harry, go stand in the middle of the chasm will you.”

  “No way Draco, that doesn’t look like an illusion, it looks like a real chasm, hundreds of feet deep.”

  “Harry, you said to me that you agree, I, the ancient and powerful dragon, was the leader and you agreed to do as I say. So middle of the chasm or back through the portal, please.”

  “Fine be like that, I didn’t think you’d send me to my death in the first scene.”

  “You’ll be fine Harry, this is a trust exercise, we all need to trust one another and we've only just met.”

  Harry walked about ten feet out into the chasm and appeared to be standing on thin air.

  “Jaq, you are next please.”

  “No, no, no. I never agreed to a lifetime inducing nightmares of falling to my death.”

  “Come on Jaq, I sent Harry first so you could see for yourself that it’s perfectly safe. One day you may need to get across this quickly, you prove to yourself now that it’s safe, then you’ll be safe in the future as well. Come on it’s here because it’s your biggest fear but it doesn’t have to be, go out there and encourage her Groucho.”

  He walked out and stood next to Harry.

  “Come on Jaq, get out here.”

  I walked forward, but my foot didn’t float; it sank a couple of inches and hit a solid surface. I looked down and backpedaled.

  Groucho yelled, “If I had such a pretty girl waiting for me, I wouldn’t screw around, I’d just walk out here. Mind over matter. You're going to let a chimp beat you to the other side. Forget this I’ll go back and play with Frida’s impressive knockers, while her girlfriend wets herself on the edge of an illusion.”

  That did it, I went out there after him, he was laughing and had climbed up a palm tree on the other side of the chasm.

  “Okay come on back, the door is actually on this side of the chasm.” Draco yelled.

  We crossed back over, I felt better about it, but certainly didn’t enjoy it. Draco led us to a small stone wall where he showed me three stones to push and the sequence to push them in. I did it and another golden portal opened in this stone wall. I touched it and was in the non descriptive castle on the landing where I'd last eaten the peas. Draco, Harry and Groucho soon joined me and we climbed to the next level.

  The setup was exactly as before I could smell the horrid peas before I entered the room. I checked if the door in the back was locked, hoping to avoid eating the disgusting things. I also didn’t want to get scolded by Draco for wasting time so I picked up the spoon, scooped up some peas, held my nose and chewed. I heard the door click open. I stepped into a completely black room, lit by a dim red light. Groucho, Harry and Draco came through the portal and were standing besides me. A young woman in a long red choir gown stepped up to a pulpit.

  “Are you Jacqueline Holland? And are those two with you?”

  “Yes I am and yes they are.”

  “Welcome to hell, I have to go over your file here. It says here that you are a lesbian,, is that correct?”

  “Yes it is.”

  “That’s not allowed here, if you have any sexual contact with any females while you are here you will be punished. If the two males you brought with you break any of our rules you will be punished. Do you still want to allow them entry?”

  “Yes I do.”

  “You are booked into a beach bungalow. Step through the doorway, your bible study partner is in the next room, if you do not follow their directions you will be punished, do you understand?”

  “Yes I do. Can I ask a question, I’m looking for someone, how can I find out if they are here?”

  “Trying to contact individuals you knew before entering hell is forbidden, if you try to do so you will be punished. Do you understand?”

  “Proceed to the next room.”

  “Hi, Jacqueline, I’m Peter your bible study partner, who are these fine gentlemen?”

  “Peter, please call me Jaq.”

  “Sorry no can do Jacqueline, we’re bible study partners, we can’t get familiar with one another. If we do..”

  “Let me guess, we’ll be punished.”

  “Yes that’s correct, we don’t want to get punished do we. I’ve never been punished and I don’t want to start now.”

  “Peter you’ve never been punished, that's very impressive, what are we supposed to do now?”

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  “Next we proceed next door to the mall to pick up supplies. Did you bring your bible from home Jacqueline?”

  “No Peter, I was an agnostic, I didn’t own a bible.”

  “Don’t you worry Jacqueline, we’ll get you a really nice leather bound copy at the mall.”

  We went to the mall, it had two stores, a book store and a stationary store. We picked up three bibles, marking tabs and notebooks to write notes, Prayer Journals, Bible Commentaries, Bible Study Guides. This place really was starting to feel like hell. The entire selection of the bookstore was Bibles, Bible Commentaries and Bible Study Guides.

  Then we went to a bus stop in front of the mall, everything was either concrete or blacktop or building. I hadn’t seen a tree or blade of grass since we'd arrived. It was very hot waiting for the bus, hot as hell one may say. Finally a belching diesel bus pulled to a stop and we all got on. After about an hour, Peter got up, told us to get ready for our stop was next.

  We walked about four blocks from the bus stop to our beach bungalow. Our beach was mud and that was appropriate because the ‘beach’ was attached to a swamp. The kitchen contained an ancient looking refrigerator and a wood stove. At least we had running water, but that smelled of sulfur. The bungalow itself inside was smaller and way more neglected then my bungalow in heaven.

  “Make yourselves at home, rest and relax, I’ll be back in two hours and escort you to the first bible study.”

  “Peter, what if we don't want to go to bible study?”

  “Oh, you have to go, if you don’t go, we’ll be punished.”

  “I’m sorry Peter, I don’t believe that the stuff in the bible is real. I think if I went to the bible study, I’d get you in worse trouble than not going at all. Maybe you should go see if you could pair up with someone who’d cause less trouble for you.”

  “But I asked for a hard to save soul, and they gave me you. If I try to return you, I’ll lose all sorts of points, it’ll take years. Jaq, if you just try, I’m sure you’ll see the light. God loves you Jaq, he wants me to save you.”

  “I’ll tell you what, you keep calling me Jaq, and explain this point system and this one time, I’ll go with you to bible study.”

  “Great I explain the point system on the walk to bible study, it’s a long walk and that will give us something to talk about. I’m so glad you’re interested.”

  Peter left and the three of us had a strategy meeting.

  “Draco nobody noticed you at all, I was worried when Harry could see you.”

  “Yes Jaq that’s true but we haven’t met anyone powerful yet.”

  “In Heaven the whole ponzi scheme was run by the door keeper Elias, you don’t think the doorkeeper had much power?”

  “No not at all, this Peter is a joke, nobody at that two store mall had any magic powers at all.”

  “Well they’re probably all scared of magic, all that ‘shalt not suffer a witch to live stuff.”

  “What gets me is this feels like a personal hell to me, I am so opposed to religion and that seems to be the only activity here. But I think we might be able to push back at the people who live here, they all seem so docile, everything seems to be forbidden and punishment we need to find out what it is and if we can exploit it somehow. All the stuff that I learned about hell on earth seems wrong. What I knew about hell was you were sent there to pay for your sins, while you were there you’d be punished for eternity.”

  “Jaq, that’d take a large labor force, in heaven we had a huge pool of labor, I’d take care of ten to twenty masters a day, driving them from spot to spot. This place, each store in the mall, one employee. The rundown bus, one driver for fifty people.”

  “That’s good Harry, maybe they have a labor shortage. Maybe I could get a job logging people in, or real estate, anything that’d allow me into their records. I can’t crowdsource looking for granddad like I did in heaven.”

  “Jaq, I can search for him from the air, during the day, that way I can observe the inner workings of this place from above, see if they have a large police or army force to enforce order.”

  “I’ll have a look into the swamp, it strikes me as odd and I’ll easily be able to go around jumping or swinging from tree to tree.”

  “Thanks Draco, thanks Groucho. Harry, while I’m at bible study do you want to walk around the neighborhood and charm some neighbors then pump them for information.”

  “That sounds good Jaq.”

  Then Peter arrived back, so I set out for bible study.

  “So Peter the points system, I guess the main question is what can you buy with the points?”

  “You can purchase your way into heaven for fifteen thousand points, although once you get to heaven, you have to work to earn your rightful place. But you’re working in paradise, the bungalows are along the ocean. There a glittering city of chrome and glass, it truly is elysium”

  “Is it run by Elias?”

  “Yes, how did you know?”

  “I kind of destroyed it, it was a scam. The workers, Harry was one of the workers, it was going to take him at least twenty two thousand years. The actual residents of heaven were cruel to the workers, sometimes demanding sex from them. I know this seems like a betrayal, but I’m not lying. Ask Harry about his former life there, he worked for over five hundred years.”

  “I can’t believe it, this is awful, so what are you doing here? Are you planning on destroying hell too?”

  “No, I’m just looking for my granddad, that’s why I went to heaven too. The workers there told me he’d left forty nine years ago. I thought he might have come here, so I just need to access some records to see if he’s here now or if he ever was.”

  “You can’t, it’s forbidden, you’ll be punished.”

  “Everybody keeps saying you’ll be punished, but what exactly is the punishment?”

  “You’ll lose points that you worked for to get into heaven.”

  “Like I said, the last time I was there it was in chaos, the workers learned that they were being cheated so they refused to work anymore and the whole thing collapsed. How many points do you have?”

  “Fourteen thousand nine hundred and three. If I converted you, I was to get one hundred points and advance into heaven.”

  “I’m sorry Peter, you’ve been cheated and lied to.”

  Then we arrived at the bible study group.