FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

To Hell and Back

_ _

There was darkness. Nothing. And then came the light.

It had happened in less than a blink of an eye. We had been on the interstate, but it was a remote part that only had one lane in either direction. There had only been one thin yellow line that divided traffic, and it had been faded enough to be difficult to see in the night even with the high beams on.

I remember the truck. It had been coming from the other direction, a bright light off in the distance. As soon as Jake, my love, had turned off the high beams, the lights turned and blinded us. He had tried to swerve the car out of the way, but I only remember that the light had been extinguished.

And now here I was. A new light appeared before me, bright but painless, and then it started to take form. Clouds appeared, and I looked down to see that I was standing on one. Impossible, but there it was.

There were blue skies and clouds, puffy and somehow solid. There was only one place like this. Heaven.

I took a step, lifting my right leg, and set it down, the bare scales tapping against the solid yet mushy cloud. I reached down and touched the white mass, and it felt...indescribable. Soft, like fine fur, but about as firm as a marshmallow. It was really comfy, actually.

When I had leaned down to touch the cloud, I realized that I was naked. There wasn't another soul in sight, however, and I supposed it didn't matter. But that bothered me too. Where were my grandparents? If I had really died and went to heaven, then where was my love? Where was Jake? Did he survive the crash somehow?

I felt my heart sink a little. I knew it wasn't right to wish he had died too, but I didn't want to be away from him. I would wait, and I was sure he would, but I wouldn't hold it against him if he found another.

Jake was a tough-looking, big, muscular, and a hot red piece of dragon. But he was a gentle giant, and he had suffered from depression for I don't know how long. He was so close to the brink, ready to jump off the edge of despair, until I found him and pulled him back.

I remember how I had a high school crush on him so many years ago. I was just a geeky blue dragon, and I had hated physical education class except for the fact that I could see Jake's magnificently sculpted body in the locker room. I remember how he would always smile, but he never took any notice of me. I had often stared at him, secretly, of course. I had always languished over how I couldn't touch his sleek black hair, or feel the soft scales lining his chiseled stomach. At least he knew my name, a little benefit my geekiness provided since he would often ask me for help on schoolwork.

He was a cheery fellow back then, and I would've never guessed that he would fall so low. When I had graduated, he went away to some faraway college, and I had to force my mind off of him. Since then, I had tried to find someone else in college, but nobody had been interested in anything more than one night stands.

A year after I had graduated from college, our high school class held a five year reunion in the school's indoor basketball gym. It was there that I saw Jake again, but the smile that he had always carried was gone. I had gone up to him to greet him, maybe make some small talk, but he didn't seem interested.

"What's wrong?" I had asked.

"My life," he had said.

"Will you be alright?"

"I don't know. You should go enjoy the party."

God, I was so stupid back then. Something was horribly wrong, but I didn't have the guts to ask. Instead, I had just nodded meekly and left. I still liked him then, and I had wanted to ask him out, but it had still been too difficult.

I had kept my eye on him throughout the party though. He had seemed like a zombie, wandering around and only conversing when people bumped into him. Some time during the reunion party, I had seen him leave the building. I had followed, sneaking my way out, and caught sight of him walking towards the outdoor football stadium. I had kept to the side of the bleachers to stay out of his sight, but I couldn't stay hidden once I saw him at the top of the bleachers. There was only a short waist-height wall that kept people from toppling over, but I saw him place a foot on top of the wall, and his expression, both now and throughout the party, had made it clear what he wanted to do. We were both dragons, sure, but we were of the wingless variety, and even if he had them I knew he wasn't up here to take flight.

I remember running up bleachers while practically screaming at him not to do it.

He had turned his head around, but he only frowned. He didn't take his foot of the wall.

"Wait!" I had yelled out, "Don't jump! Don't do it!" He had hesitated when he heard my voice, and it had bought enough time for me to leap up the benches and grapple onto his tail. "Jake! Whatever it is, you can work it out!"

He had looked down at me, and our eyes met. "Nick?"

I hugged his tail tighter. "Don't do it, please, don't do it."

I had felt his clawed hand touch my hair. "Nick," he had said, "you don't know how hard it is to keep living like this."

"Like what?"

"My life's a mess. You don't need to know. Let me go."

"Jake, I do need to know, please, let me help you."

"Why do you care?"

I had tossed away all my fears. If I had stopped him there, he would've just tried again later. I had to make sure he would be alright, so I had to do the one thing I had been too shy to do all throughout high school.

I had let go of his tail, but then I pulled him into a hug before moving my head back. "Because," I had said, "I've always wanted to do this, but I was too afraid." And then I kissed him, my muzzle locking over his.

When I had ended the kiss, he asked me, "You...did?"

"Always. I've always wanted to be more than your tutor, Jake."

"I - I see."

"Will you come down with me, please?"

He had glanced over the wall one time before looking back into my eyes. "Okay."

That was how I had saved him from himself. We had gone on dates after, and he had explained how screwed up he had gotten in college. He told me about how he had gone deep into drugs, and his grades had dropped. He had been kicked out of the university, and his family was on the edge of cutting off support to him. His life was in shambles, and he had believed that there was no reason left for him to want to live. Until I came along.

He had admitted that he sort of liked me in high school too, but he was open about how I wasn't exactly at the top of his list. But everyone else had been assholes, it turned out, and he was happy that I genuinely cared about him. We had gone out some more and before long, we were both in love.

His cheery disposition took a while to restore, but it had come back. It took a year, but he had turned back into the old Jake I knew, and I loved him even more. We would go everywhere, our tails twined together, red around blue, and all our friends would remark about what a cute couple we made. We would make love together, our bodies melded as one, and we were content. But there were still times when his depression would come back, and I had always stayed by his side to keep him from drowning in it.

I was still leaning down and touching the cloud, but the memories started making it difficult to care about how comfy and odd it was. I bent my knees and kneeled down, my tail keeping me from falling backwards, and started thinking about what could've happened in the accident.

It couldn't make any sense. I was in the passenger seat and the truck had come over from our left side. If I had died, then it would've been impossible for the truck to have missed Jake. But he could've died for all I knew since I hadn't seen a single other soul in this place.

And then one appeared right in front of me. There was a wisp of light, and then there was a tigress, robed like a goddess, that stood gracefully. She leaned down and extended her paw to me, the long sleeves of her robe covering half of it, and I took hold of it. She lightly tugged at my hand, so I stood up, my eyes watching her whiskers.

Once I was up, she let go of my hand and took a step back, and then I could see her marvelous fur pattern. "Nicholas Deran," she said, "welcome to Heaven."

Obviously I was overwhelmed with questions, but I managed to ask only a couple. "Heaven? So I really am dead? The Christians were right? Where is everyone else?"

She smiled. "You are. And they weren't totally correct. Anyone, as long as they were a good person, can enter Heaven, not just the devout. What you see here is the default appearance of Heaven created based on your unconscious idea of it. For most people, that's the image of fluffy clouds, but you can change anything you want here if you will it."

I looked to her side and tried it out. I thought of a skyscraper piercing through the sky, and sure enough, the top of a tall skyscraper pierced its way through the clouds and protruded towards, well, the heavens. "Cool," I muttered.

"And if you want," the female tiger continued, "I can take you to see other souls. I'm Lenora, by the way, your guide. If you're ever lost, just wish for me to appear."

"I can see anyone? Famous people?"

She smiled and nodded. "As long as they're in Heaven. Some lines are long, though. Take my hand again."

I did so, and then a bright light enveloped me again. When it faded, I was still holding onto Lenora's paw, but now there was a house in front of us. The house was decorated with colorful leaves, and there was a river that snaked through the right side. A small stream broke off from the river, and it passed under a little bridge that formed one of the steps up into the house. The trickle of water flowed on to my left, flowers blooming around it, and traveled well beyond my sight into a beautiful forest.

She tugged at my clawed hands again, and I saw my arm had a sleeve over it. My eyes tracked up, and I saw that I was wearing the clothes I had when I was in the car. It was by her will, I supposed, and she tugged again, so I let her guide me into the house. When we entered, I was hit by a very familiar smell, something I hadn't smelled in years. Decades. Muffins. Baked muffins. There was only one person I knew that made muffins smell so good.

Lenora led me around a corner, and then I saw two dragons in the kitchen. One was grey, and the other was blue, but her scales were a brighter blue than mine. They were the colors of my grandparents on my father's side, but they didn't look like what I expected.

I had seen their old photo albums, however, and I recognized them from their old college photos. They had been high school sweethearts, something I wished I had let myself do with Jake, and here they were in front of my eyes looking like they had in college, not a dull scale on them. They were busy moving around the kitchen, grandpa mixing eggs while grandma was setting a timer, and her favorite pink apron that she had worn all the time in life was slightly folded over the kitchen counter, not a stain on it.

"Visitor," Lenora said. She disappeared, leaving me alone with my grandparents.

My eyes started feeling heavy. They had passed away when I was little, and it took me forever to understand that they weren't coming back. My mother promised me I would go where they went eventually, but death never really made sense to children, and I was no exception.

But here I was. They turned their heads toward me, and I could see a mixture of happiness and surprise in their faces. "Mammy? Grampapa?"

They stopped what they were doing and ran up to me, their arms wide, and took me into an embrace. Grandpa was the grey one, and he actually had wings, but they hadn't passed on to my father. His wings curled around the three of us, and then I was overfilled with joy.

"Nicky," my grandma said, "what are you doing here so soon? What happened?"

I sniffed. "Mammy, it was a car accident, but I'm so happy to see you again. And you, Grampapa."

Mammy hugged me tighter. "Oh Nicky, we're so sorry."

"Not right," my grandpa said. "Parents shouldn't be burying their children."

"Life can be such a cruel thing," Mammy said. "We're sorry for leaving you when you were so little, Nicky."

It was becoming very difficult to choke back my tears. "I - I didn't understand then. But mom was right. I got to see you again."

I heard her chuckle slightly. "Your mother was always a sweet girl."

"James was lucky to find her," Grampapa said.

My grandpa lifted his wings away, and then Mammy placed her hands on my shoulders. "Children shouldn't have to wait for their parents either. We're so sorry."

I looked into my grandmother's deep brown eyes. They were young and youthful again, but they had the experience of an entire life time behind them. It was impossible to hold back anymore, and I cried against one of her arms.

With difficulty, I asked, "Can't I just, just skip time ahead?"

"I'm sorry dear," she said, "but there are some things in Heaven you can't control. Time is one of them. And only He can create true souls. Cheer up, Nicky, let me get you a muffin."

I was crying like a little hatchling, so I figured I might as well talk like one. "What kind?" I asked.

"Your favorite, chocolate chip!"

"Okay."

She patted me on the head, softly swirling her palm around my hair. "We'll be here for you, don't be afraid. Like your mother said, just pretend you're on a very long vacation."

I nodded my head, and I saw her go back to the kitchen with grandpa through my watery eyes. I watched them bake together, and I was happy to see them again, but there was sadness beneath the joy. I wouldn't be able to see my parents, my sister, or any of my friends for a long time, but I wished them all a long and happy life.

Yet, there was one person whose fate I needed to know. I needed to know. Jake.

There I stood for a while. I had managed to stop most of the flow of water out of my eyes, and I concentrated only on good things like the smell that Mammy's muffins were making. I really took childhood for granted: ignorance was bliss, and knowing the truths of life, and its end, had been a hard lesson to learn. Philosophical thoughts helped push away the image of Jake, but he was always there, pushing back. Did he survive or not?

I had stood for longer than I thought, apparently, since Mammy soon appeared in front of me with a fresh muffin in her hand. I took it and took a bite, and I almost immediately felt better. The sweet pastry melted in my mouth, and the chocolate bits were like those exotic foreign chocolates I'd only get as special presents from Jake. In any case, the muffin was almost as good as any Mammy had made in life, nostalgia being the only factor balancing the scale the other way.

That was an odd thing, though. Did people still need to eat in Heaven? Why were my grandparents baking when they could've just conjured up a perfect muffin? I asked these questions to Mammy after eating the entire muffin, and she smiled at me.

"What would be the fun in that? Besides, sometimes imperfection is what makes something good." She chuckled a bit, and then continued, "Although, I did cheat a little and use Belgian chocolates."

"It's good no matter what," I said, "because it's made by you and grandpa."

She patted me on the shoulder. "Thank you, Nicky. Anyway, people don't have to eat, but it's still a fun thing to do. Gluttony isn't as deadly a sin as they say."

I smiled too. "That's good, otherwise dad would be in trouble."

Mammy let out a laugh. "I'll never understand how that boy could eat so much and stay so skinny."

Another tear managed to squeeze itself past my attempt to seal my eyes. "I'll miss him. I'll miss everyone."

Mammy brushed her hand against my wet cheek and wiped the water away. "You're welcome to stay with us until we're all reunited again."

"Thank you, grandma."

She gave me another sweet hug, and I heard the sound of sizzling as grandpa was cooking up something that smelled like pork.

"Ah," I said, "do you mind if I go outside for some air? I need some time to think."

"Of course," Mammy said.

She let me go, and then I walked back out of the house. I sat down on the front porch and stared out, the house in the middle of a quiet forest. The little river made a calming sound as it passed around the house, and I just looked in front, the trees majestic and full of luscious color.

A leaf fell onto the top of my muzzle and I brushed it off. Everything felt like it happened so quickly, and there was no chance this was a dream. Things were too vivid, too real, and there was no reason to believe that I wasn't dead. The lights of the truck that killed me were real, I knew that. Maybe I was in a coma, but it didn't matter. I wasn't anywhere that could be interpreted as normal, that was for sure.

I felt like there was a battle inside my heart. Happiness and sadness tore at each other, and it left me in a state of lonely confusion. I curled my tail around and hugged it, pretending it was Jake's, while trying to find peace.

A few minutes later, I felt a paw against my shoulder. I turned my head around and saw Lenora again, the tigress giving me a warm smile.

"Hey," she said, "you okay? Family reunions are usually on my list of happy things to show, but in cases like yours, well, yeah."

I nodded weakly, my arms still wrapped around my tail. "It's still happy," I said, "but there's a lot of grief too. But I'm as well as I can be, I guess."

"I can't pretend to understand," she said, "but you have my sympathy."

"Thanks."

She moved in front of me, standing over the little bridge that the stream passed under, and offered her paw again. "Come, come, I'm your guide, and there's still more of Heaven to show. Let's try to take your mind off the negative thoughts, yeah?"

I reached out for it. "Alright."

She led me a little forward, and then she paused. A door appeared before us, plain and wooden, and it stood in its own frame on the grass. She opened it and it didn't fall, like magic, and then she led me through it.

When I passed through, I was floating on nothing, and I grappled onto Lenora in fear. We were in a massive hall, and there were doors that looked like the one we passed through lining the sides and the roof. It felt like the size of a jet hangar, and the hall seemed to go on forever both ways.

"Relax," she said. "You can't die again. We're in the Hall of Souls."

"C-can we, umm, go down onto the floor?"

"Will it, and it shall be done."

I shut my eyes and thought of the cold floor pressing against my feet. When I reopened them, I was on the floor looking down the great hall of doors. I looked up, and Lenora was floating down with complete serenity. When she flew down and stepped next to me, she smiled again. "It's okay, I get that reaction a lot."

"I wish I had wings like my grandpa does."

"Yeah, I don't get it from those dragons." She chuckled. "Ruins my fun!"

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be guiding me?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I can't have fun doing my job, does it? Anyway, we're here in the Hall of Souls. Think of any person, and you can be transported to their portion of Heaven."

"Anyone? Wait, how come you were able to take me to my grandparents without going through here?"

"I'm a guide. I can do that. You can move instantly to people close to you too, just think it when you're in your place. Otherwise, just wish for the door to appear, step through, and let the Hall's sorting system take you where you want to go. And if you ever have any questions, you can think of me and I'll appear to help."

That was a weird system, but I suppose it worked. It was almost like everyone had their own holodecks on a starship, like in Star Trek. Actually, it was pretty cool after I thought about it a bit.

I turned my head and caught a little blue sparkle in my vision, down the other side of the hall. "What's that?" I asked.

"The light? That, that's something for you once you've grown tired of eternity. Nobody knows what's beyond that door, but He has said that there was something more wondrous than any of us could fathom."

Now I was a bit confused. "Heaven isn't our final resting place?"

She shook her head. "Absolutely not. There is more beyond, and like life, this is just another step."

"Can we come back?"

"No. It is the door you take once you are bored of immortality, and it is the equivalent of dying again. You can go whenever you'd like. Some people go after a few hundred years, some have stayed here for thousands and still haven't stepped through."

"Okay. It sounds scary to me."

"Well you wouldn't have to worry about it for a long time. Anyway, if you want to try visiting a celebrity, feel free to think of one. I'll follow you to make sure you don't get lost."

I shook my head. "No. There's one person I want to see right now, more than anyone. Where is Jake Kollins? Did he survive the crash?"

Lenora's fur seemed to tense with her body, and she sighed. I started to feel a bit of dread. "Are you sure you wouldn't want to go see your favorite actor or something first?"

"No, I want to see Jake. He's my mate. Is he still alive?"

She closed her eyes for a few seconds, and I was really afraid of what she was going to say. If he were alive, then I didn't know how I'd be able to wait so long, but I didn't wish Jake to have a short life either.

When Lenora opened her eyes, she said, "No, he didn't survive the crash."

I knew I should've felt bad for wanting him to be dead, but I really just wanted us to be together again. "Alright," I said, "so I'll just think of his name and we'll be there, right?"

"Umm, hmm, I don't know how to break this to you, but that's not going to work."

"Why?"

"Jake is in Hell."

I stood frozen for nearly a minute to let that process through my mind. I must've spent another minute wondering how and why my sweet red dragon was in Hell. He was always kind, even when he was a tough-looking high schooler, and there was nothing he had done that could've warranted that.

But my more immediate concern was to see him. So I asked, "W-what does that mean? Can I still see him?"

She nodded with her eyes shut. "You have visitation rights, but he can't leave Hell."

A mix of emotion flew through me, and I nearly knocked her over when I desperately clung to her arm. "Why? Why is he there?"

"That's not my place to answer. If you want me to take you to him, I will guide you, and then you can ask him yourself."

"Now. I want to go now."

"Very well. Hold on to me, and don't let go until I say it's okay to."

I didn't say anything back. Instead, I just hugged onto her, some of her exposed fur tickling my scales. She took at as an affirmation, and then it seemed as if the doors around us turned into blurred streaks.

A few seconds later, we were in front of a black gate. I pulled off of Lenora and looked at the massive gate. I took a quick glance behind and saw the Hall of Souls, but the blue glint was still visible despite the distance that I presumed we traveled.

I turned back around and saw Lenora walk up, and then the black gate opened with a deep groan that seemed to echo down the entire hall. There was nothing but pitch black in the widening opening, and a chill ran up my tail and up my spine. For a moment, I was afraid to tread into that darkness, to walk through the gates of Hell, but I had to. My Jake was in there somewhere, and I had to find him. I didn't know what I'd do after, but I had to find him.

She extended her paw to me again, and I held onto it. "Try not to let go," she said.

I tightened my grip. "Believe me, I'll try my best."

She smiled once more before taking us into the darkness, her paw being the only thing assuring me that I was not lost in the lightless way. The gate shut behind us when we passed, and all light ceased.

The floor felt solid and cold as if I was walking on glass, but there was nothing but blackness around me. Lenora's furry paw, along with the comforting warmth from that paw, was the only thing that kept me from curling up and cowering in fear. We walked forward for some number of seconds, seconds that felt like minutes, before she stopped.

"This time," she said, "we will fall. Hold on to me if you want."

I hugged her tightly while still trying to be modest, but I think my shivering let her know how scared I really was.

She comforted me by wrapping her arms behind me, and I let my snout rest on her shoulder, her warmth a reaffirmation of existence. "Poor thing," she said, "we're not even in Hell yet."

"We're not?"

"After the fall. Do you want to go back?"

I had to admit that I did think about her offer for a second. But there was no choice to make. I couldn't leave Jake in this place alone with who knows what that goes on down there. And I had to know why he was there at all.

Was it perhaps the cause of his depressions? Or maybe it was because of his depressions? In any case, I had to go down into Hell. "No," I said, "I need to see him, and he needs me. He's not down there because he wanted to kill himself, is he?"

"No," Lenora replied. "One, he didn't actually go through with it. Two, it wouldn't matter anyway. Like I said before, anyone with a good heart will go to Heaven, and small sins can be overlooked. And don't play the whole guessing game, please. This is something I can't answer for you."

"Okay, fine. Take us down."

"Brace yourself."

The glass floor felt like it dissipated into air, and then there was nothing but a free-falling sensation. Wind flew through me, and I held on to Lenora like a vice. My shirt tried to flap up, but the front of it was pressed too tightly against the tigress's robe to fly anywhere.

We fell for several seconds that were too long too count. My snout hung over Lenora's shoulder, and I dared too take a peek over her back down. There was a white square below that grew larger as we approached, and it appeared as if that was our intended landing spot. More seconds passed, and the white square grew rapidly until its horizons reached infinity.

We landed softly, somehow. The white turned out to be ice and snow, and there was stuff instead of nothing. It felt like it should've been cold, but I was as comfortable as I was in Heaven.

Satisfied that we weren't going to fall through the ground, I let go of Lenora and saw a halo had appeared over her head. It seemed to project a faint light over her body, and she saw me stare curiously at it.

"You have one too," she said. "Our halos are usually invisible and incorporeal, but they appear here in Hell to designate our statuses. They will allow us to walk through Hell unhindered, so don't be afraid of anything."

"Okay," I said. "That's why it doesn't feel cold? My feet are stepping on ice."

"Yes. This is the first level of Hell. People who are sentenced here generally stole something from someone else in high quantities."

"I suppose pirating music doesn't count?"

"Large quantities. I'm talking tens of thousands of dollars. Heaven would be rather empty if all the good people that just wanted some free music were gone. Here you'll find market scammers, pyramid schemers, and, of course, many politicians."

I almost cracked a smile at the last one. "Okay. What now, then?"

"We go to the Stairs of Judgement. Then we go to the level your friend is on."

"He's not my friend. He's my mate."

"Alright, your mate. Walk with me, and try to ignore the damned."

I wasn't sure what she meant by that, but it soon became clear as we traveled through the winterlands. There were other souls here, and nearly all of them were curled up and shivering from the freezing cold. They had nothing on them, and even the ones with fur instead of scale or skin seemed to suffer all the same. Sometimes they'd try and reach for us while begging for help, and it was hard to tolerate the suffering.

"They caused many others to suffer in life," Lenora said. "Now they must know the same. The bitter cold will cleanse their souls of this sin."

I opted to think her way so I could justify leaving them alone.

"The very fact that you're considering helping them," she added, "is why you belong in Heaven."

"Jake would've wanted to help them too."

"Perhaps, but, well, you will know when he tells you."

I refrained from playing the guessing game again and just let silence be my reply. We walked on, wading through huddled shivering bodies, until at last we reached a spiraling staircase that wrapped around a large column.

"How much more do we have to walk?" I asked.

"Not much. We're taking the elevator."

"Oh," I said as a hidden sliding door opened a room inside the column.

We stepped inside and there was a creature straight out of myth, only far more anthropomorphic and much more passive than I remember ever having been depicted. He wore black robes that seemed like the mirror opposite of Lenora's, and his three heads jutted out of an extra-wide neck hole, all of them expressionless. I could guess the three-headed canine's name as soon as I saw him.

"Cerberus," Lenora said, "good to see you again."

All three of the dog's heads bowed, and then the middle one lifted back up to speak. "Likewise." The head took a glance at me. "Another one today?"

"I have a good feeling about this one," she said.

I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, and I knew I shouldn't ask.

All of the heads growled a bit, and then the middle head spoke again. "Which level?"

"Level four."

The head snorted while the others seemed to grin. "Unlikely. But very well."

While Lenora was too maternal for me to ask for answers, the dog was too menacing to even approach for a question. I stayed back in the elevator behind the tigress and waited, my curiosity quelled by command and fear. Still, I thought it was kind of humorous that such a fearsome and ferocious creature from myth and legend was here, calm and reduced to the status of an elevator attendant.

I stayed behind Lenora and waited. The elevator moved down, steadily with a light hum, and we stopped a minute later.

Before the door opened again, Lenora placed her paw on my shoulder and looked at me straight in the eyes. "Now," she said, "nobody and nothing can hurt you here. Don't worry about what you might see. You will still worry, but remember what I said."

I supposed this part of Hell wasn't going to be pleasant, so I nodded my head.

"Name?" Cerberus asked.

Lenora looked away from my eyes. "Jake Kollins."

Some faint glimmer seemed to pass between their eyes, and then the dog said, "There's your path."

"Thank you."

The elevator door opened, and then I saw the typical mythological depiction of Hell. There was fire, a great wall of flame, in the distance. In the area before the wall, there were bodies, smoldering and covered in ash, but whole and not mutilated. Many moaned in agony, but none seemed able to move more than their fingers. Lenora moved towards the opening, but I hesitated for a moment. I was here, literally two steps from Hell, and that fear that almost drove me to flee when we were in the darkness dropping came back. Yet, the same sight gave me more resolve. Jake was in here somewhere, and I wouldn't let him be lost alone.

"This part of the level is their reprieve," Lenora said as we exited the elevator. "Even they deserve a respite from hellfire, despite the sins that taint their souls."

The ground tilted as soon as she finished explaining, and then the powerless bodies at the edge rolled into the fire. Behind us, there was darkness as if existence ceased beyond the elevator, but then more bodies rolled out from the darkness to take the place of those that went into the fire.

"This level is a plane," my guide continued. "The ground will tilt, and those at the far edge will roll to this edge where they may find some peace from suffering."

Fur, scale, and skin appeared and disappeared, and some souls bumped into us on their way down. After a while, the ground returned to level, and they bodies stopped cycling through.

I looked down on the floor. There was a dragon, a lion, a stag, and a black wolf around my dimly illuminated feet. They all seemed like they were trying to reach for my toes, aside from the wolf, but they had no energy or strength to do anything more than tap against my claws.

"Help us," they said, groaning in chorus. I felt pity for them, but I knew they must've done something to deserve it.

As if echoing my thoughts, the wolf, his black fur covered in soot, coughed and said, "Don't listen to them. They all deserve to be here. As do I."

Before I could say anything back, Lenora walked in front of me and beckoned at me to follow her. We walked together, tip-toeing between the bodies, but I couldn't help look back one more time at the wolf. The soot was indiscernable from his fur at a distance, but I saw him still looking at me, and our gazes met for a single second before I felt Lenora pull me ahead.

I couldn't let Jake stay here. He didn't do anything to deserve this. He deserved to be in Heaven. He was a strong athletic dragon in high school, and I remembered how he protected me once from a half-drunk jock. The damned coyote showed up to school blaming me for his awful test scores when clearly he hadn't studied the homework solutions I had helped write for him. He had cornered me during lunch, and I was lucky that Jake had come looking for me to help him on his math homework.

Even after my sexy buff red dragon hero pulled the coyote off and threw him onto the ground, he was still a gentle person. He hadn't retaliated by beating the shit out of him, not at all. The coyote had gotten away with a verbal warning, but it had apparently been enough since that coyote never gave me any trouble again.

And it wasn't just because I helped him on his schoolwork. I've heard stories of him keeping other geeky kids like me safe from the jerks in our school. Since Jake was, obviously, a great athlete in our school, nobody messed with him.

I never really understood what happened to him in college. He was the happiest guy I knew in high school, and I don't remember a time I didn't see him smiling or laughing, even while we were busy smiting his horrible algebra homework. He told me about how he had landed in with a bad crowd, but I never figured out why or how he would've done such things, even if peer pressure was involved.

I sighed as we approached the wall of fire. Surely drug use wasn't a sin, and Jake had otherwise always been a paragon of goodness both when we were in school and after I saved him from himself. I loved him more than anything, and he loved me with the same heated intensity. I was going to walk straight into the fires of Hell so I could save him again, if I could.

"Is there any way," I asked, "any at all?"

Lenora didn't turn her head back to face me. "For what?"

"To get him out of here? Is it possible? He doesn't deserve this."

"I can't answer that. Come on. Our halos will protect us from the fire."

I should've expected that. I sighed again. "Fine."

She took the first step in, and I saw the fire part around her. Her halo seemed to glow brighter, like someone pumped more voltage into a LED light, and the basking light around her warded off the leaping flames. The same happened to me, I assume, as I followed her into the red field of suffering.

I tried to focus only on the tigress's glowing back, but sometimes my eyes would glance down, curiosity pulling them to see. I would see bodies writhing on the floor. They looked like they were screaming in agony, but their sounds were drowned out by the roaring flames.

Jake didn't deserve this. I had to get him out of here, if there was any way I could. And if I couldn't, then, well, I don't know what I'll do. I don't know. But Heaven wouldn't be paradise for me without him.

Lenora led me through, her light cutting through the fire like a sharp knife through butter. I felt no heat from the fire, no pain, not even a little from convection or radiation. I was a dragon, but there were sweat glands on top of my head, under my hair, and I was definitely sweating, but it wasn't from the fire. My heart was thumping against my chest, and I was scared and invigorated at the same time.

The further we delved into the fires of Hell, the more I couldn't keep deluding myself. The wolf's words kept echoing into my ears, and I couldn't shirk from the fact that Jake was down here for a reason. He had done something, in college no doubt, that sent him here. But what had he done? Would knowing make me hate him? No. I loved him too much. If he had done something terrible, I knew he would've regretted it. I had tried to pry into those dark years he kept hidden to himself before, but every time I tried he would fall into a depression again, and he'd always cry himself to sleep while holding onto my arm in bed. I stopped asking him, but now I needed to know. For both our sakes.

Lost in my thoughts, I almost walked right into Lenora when she stopped moving forward. I halted with less than a whisker length between us, and she jerked back when she turned her head around.

"Sorry," I said, "wasn't paying attention."

"It's okay. This is personal. Intimate. He's right up ahead, just keep walking forward. I'll leave you two alone."

"How long can I stay?"

"Until you can no longer stand it here."

"Okay."

"Just think of summoning me when you want to leave."

"Alright."

She gently put her paw on my shoulder, and she seemed very motherly. "Make him remember, but you will be tested too. If you truly love him, then hold onto that bond. If you cannot accept him after, then you do not love him."

"I do love him."

"Now you must prove it."

Without another opportunity for questions, Lenora disappeared. The fire in front of me closed up, and I had to cut through it again with my light. It only took a few more steps to finally see him.

His scales were darkened with ash. That was how I could see him, otherwise he would've blended right in with the fire around him. He was lying on the floor, like the others, and his eyes were clenched shut. He was in pain, and no heavenly protection could guard me from the hurt I felt when I saw him like that.

I rushed down to my Jake, and I knelt over his body. My light touched him, and it warded the hellfire away. We were left in a little circle of calm, the raging flames continuing to surge around us. I looked at his head and brought my hand over his muzzle to wipe off all the dark smudge covering his usually vibrant scales. It didn't seem to get my hand dirty since the soot seemed to disintegrate when I touched it, so cleaned most of his head off before he started to stir.

I leaned down and slid my snout next to his, my eyes starting to water from seeing my mate like this. "Wake up," I whispered. I retreated back a bit, but I stayed hunched over his body. My light bathed over him, and it seemed like it was restoring him, albeit slowly. "Jake, please wake up."

His sharp ears seemed to wiggle a bit, and then his mouth moved. "That voice," he said, his breaths almost gasping. "Nick?"

"Jake. It's me, Jake, it's me."

I saw his eyes open, and then we stared at each other like we hadn't seen each other in months.

"Where, what happened?"

"We were driving. Remember the truck?"

"It," he said, pausing to think. "It hit us, didn't it?"

"It did."

"You're an angel?"

I assumed he noticed the halo over my head. "We died."

"I'm dreaming."

"You're not."

"I must be. Everything hurt until you came."

"You're not in a dream, Jake."

"I'm in a coma in the hospital, then."

I leaned down again and kissed him. He opened his mouth and received my tongue, but I only gave him a gentle, loving kiss, not the rough sort I liked to gift when we made love. After a few seconds, I pulled back. "Did that feel like a dream?"

"No," he said, "I suppose not."

"We're dead. The truck killed us."

"Then where are we?"

There wasn't any point in beating around the bush. "We're in Hell."

He swiveled his head around and saw the fires around us. Then he looked back at me, and I saw him focus on my halo. His eyes leveled to mine after a while, but then he shut them. "I see," he said. "Why are you here?"

"To find out why you're here."

"I've felt nothing but pain since life. I know why. You made it into Heaven, didn't you?"

"It's not Heaven without you. Please, Jake, tell me why you're not up there with me."

"It hurts. But I'll endure it. As long as I know you're in a better place. Ignorance is bliss, Nicky. It'll be better if you didn't know."

God, I couldn't stand it for much longer. I sat down next to him and tried to lift him up. I managed, a rather impressive feat considering his bulk, but he had to lean into my embrace when we sat cross-legged. I clenched my arms tightly around him, feeling him, and I never wanted to let go. My muzzle rested on his shoulder, and I tried to keep my tone down so that I didn't sound like I was trying to command him. If he really didn't want to tell me what he had done to warrant his placement here, then I'd be okay with it. "Please, tell me. I can't live without knowing why you're suffering. Please." I started crying, my tears sliding down my cheek and onto his shoulder.

He was able to move his arm now, and I felt them wrap around my back like mine were doing to him. "Okay," he said. "I don't want you to hate me. But if you feel disgusted with me after, I understand."

"You're the kindest person I've ever known. One blemish won't change that."

I heard him sigh. "It was in college. You know how fucked up I was then."

I wasn't crying as much, but I was still tearing up. "You just needed help, and nobody helped you."

"God," he said, "things would've been so different if I had realized that my soul mate had been so close to me. I was such a stupid idiot."

I sniffed. "I should've just come out to you in high school, but I was afraid."

"You were a nice guy. Shy, but nice and friendly when approached. I chose proven douchebags over you. I was an idiot."

"Don't blame yourself, Jake. We got together in the end, and we love each other. That's all that matters."

I heard him sigh again. "You know the story. I started taking drugs. My grades dropped. I took more drugs to feel better. My grades dropped more. The cycle went on and on."

"I know."

"But there had to be a bottom. An end. Either I had to stop taking drugs or I had to get kicked out of college."

"You did both, I know."

"But I didn't tell you why I stopped touching that shit. The last time I was high..."

There was a long pause, and I had to push him to continue. "What happened?"

"I was with some guy, another dragon, that got me some hardcore stuff. We got high, and I mean really high. I saw things, funny things, cool things, and freakish things. I saw a thing come at me, and I remember I lashed out at it. When I woke up the next day, the dragon was dead. Clawed to death. My claws."

"You killed him."

"I'm a murderer. I ran away, and since the dude was a known crack dealer, I assume the police just wrote it off."

"But it wasn't your fault. You didn't do it intentionally. I knew you couldn't have done anything bad willfully."

"I still did it. I fucked up. And now you have to live without me."

I hugged him even tighter and started weeping again. "I won't do it. I won't leave you here. I'd rather burn with you than live in eternal bliss alone."

"You still love me? Even knowing the truth?"

I was crying enough to make trails of tears go down Jake's entire back. "Of course I love you. Nothing's changed, except now I know why you were depressed."

"Blood for blood," he whispered. "I couldn't live with myself. At least until you gave me a reason to keep living."

I was sure he was starting to cry too since I could feel water running along my shoulders too. "It was an accident," I said. "You made some wrong choices, but it wasn't all your fault. It's not right, I say. If it is, then everyone that's accidentally killed someone in a car crash should be down here."

"Driving is an innocent enough activity. I don't think getting zinged out is."

"Someone told me that good people will go to Heaven."

"That's why you're there."

"That's why you should be there with me."

"We don't have that choice."

I started gliding an arm up his back. "I have a choice."

"What do you mean?"

I reached up and wrapped my clawed hands around the halo floating just above my horns. "I choose to stay with you."

The halo felt like warm iron when I grasped onto it, but I tried anyway. I pulled as hard as I could, and then I felt the thing snap like it were made of plastic. The light around us faded, but I knew my choice. The fires crept closer to us as my light faded, and I kept hugging my mate, prepared for the consequences of my decision.

Before the flames engulfed us, I managed to say one last thing. "I love you."

I felt his arms tighten around me. "I know. I love you too."

Red yellow came at us, angry flames swirling and ready to swallow us up. But I never felt the heat. There was nothing but darkness again, but this time I could feel Jake's body touching mine. There was warmth in this pitch black. I tried to speak, but no sound came out of my mouth. But I wasn't afraid. Not as long as my mate stayed in my arms. We didn't move, we didn't want to be separated. We were floating in the darkness for some time, but eventually I felt tired. I shut my eyes and nothing perceptively changed: black was replaced with black, but then I slept.

I dreamt of life. Life with my parents, my friends, and my love. Parties, video games, school, all these things fleeted before me, and my memories passed by like I was skimming through a history book about my life.

When I woke up, I was in a bed, both my arms touching a familiar scaly texture. I opened my eyes, and I saw Jake in bed with me, still sleeping. I swiveled my head around and saw our room in our home, and it felt like I had lived through a terrible nightmare. It was our room, and I looked over Jake's naked body at the clock on the table next to our bed. It was morning.

Jake started stirring, so I encouraged him. "Wake up, sleepyhead."

He took a deep breath, his muscular chest expanding in tune, and opened his eyes. He saw me, looked around like I had, and then looked back at me. "Hey, morning?"

"Yeah," I said. "I had an awful dream."

"Really? What was it about?"

"We died. And I went to Heaven without you."

"T-that's strange."

Was it a really dream? It seemed that way. I guess it was. "Yeah, it felt so real too. I saw my grandparents. I found you in the end though."

"That's sweet. I had a bad nightmare."

I raised my eyebrow. "About?"

"I, uhh, I'd rather not talk about it."

That was strange, but I thought nothing of it. I didn't want to know what was real or not yet. All I cared about was that Jake was here with me. "Okay, sweetie."

I was still a bit groggy from waking up. It was odd though. I didn't feel hungry or thirsty, and I didn't feel like I needed to go to the bathroom. Instead of getting up, I just let myself stay in bed, my hands lightly rubbing over my red dragon's abs and taking pleasure in every zenith and crevice.

He rolled partly over and put his strong hand behind my head, pressing against my hair. He pulled my head towards his, and then we kissed. While our tongues mingled, our tails curled around each other, and I tried to use the tip of my tail to tickle the webbed spines on the end of his tail.

We moaned in pleasure as we shared our mouths, and I could feel the heat between us rising. Jake broke the kiss after what felt like minutes, and then he slid the hand behind my head up and between my horns, petting my hair lovingly, before letting it slide down the top of my muzzle.

"Good morning," he said.

We smiled at each other as our eyes stayed fixed looking into each others soul. "Good morning," I replied.

Jake purred as I kept rubbing his sculpted stomach. "Very good morning," he said.

I let my eyes wander away from his deep blue ones, their irises almost the same shade as my scales, and let them drift down his chest, down his belly, and to his crotch. Sure enough, there was a little bit of black starting to slide out of his sheath, and I became a little more aggressive in my massage. "Someone's feeling raunchy this morning."

He grunted and said, "It's not my fault. Someone's hands are making me feel good."

I moved my hands up and started rubbing his hard pecs. "I'll give all your muscles a good massage."

"I'd settle with only one."

"Which one?"

He chuckled. "You know which one, you naughty little dragon."

"Hey, I don't like being called little. I'm big where it counts!"

He grinned. "That I personally know."

"I love you so damn much."

"You know I love you more."

"I'd go to Hell and back for you."

He seemed to freeze when I said that. As if I hadn't been dreaming. But then he released a breath and relaxed. "I'd do the same for you."

"I know you would. Now stay down and relax."

He let a rumble be his response, and he straightened up onto his back, a pillow lifting his head slightly. I moved my hands around to feel all his built up muscles, a product of his athletic training, and I felt myself becoming heated with arousal as my hands glided past his arms and abs again. I slid down some more, but I left his now hardened black length alone, the entire thing as black as his hair and an inch longer than mine. Still, even with his larger body and tool, Jake liked to be on the bottom more. He wanted to please me above all, and that was only one aspect of his kindness.

I enjoyed it both ways though. I loved it when he filled me with his warmth, and he was always slow and sensual when doing it with me. We never acted like wild rough animals. We made love, not sex.

This time, however, I was undoubtedly going to be on top, so I wanted to keep the passion for as long as possible. I left his most sensitive parts untouched and continued massaging down his legs, the muscles even thicker and more powerful there. Past his feet, I kept my hands sliding down his tail until I reached the tip of it. He had webbing there, like some dragons had on their entire backs, and it was a sort of exciting spot for him. I rubbed my hands over the frills and massaged the thinner membrane between my hands, and I felt his body twitch. He moaned on and on, and I kept the pressure on, moving around the entire tail tip until I had massaged every square inch of that webbing.

I was hard when I finished, my blood fueled by my mate's moaning. I crawled up the bed and kneeled down, my knees tucked near his arm pits, and I directed my crotch up to Jake's muzzle. "Not too much," I said. "Just enough to lube."

He had already swallowed my length into his maw by the time I finished talking, so he replied with an affirmative grunt. His limber dragon tongue swirled around my member, but I knew he wasn't trying to hit the really sensitive spots. That would make me come too fast, and there was no sense in that. I felt him build up a bit of saliva, and then he washed my cock with the natural lubricant.

He grunted again after, signaling he was done, so I pulled out of his mouth. The warmness quickly became cold, and I looked down to see a strand of the lube sticking on the tip of my length. It broke off and drooled down onto his chest after I pulled too far, and then I crawled down so that my head was level with his tail hole.

I teased him a little and let my tongue slither out and lightly lap along his black cock. I did lick the more sensitive parts though, and he grunted at my attacks. I didn't linger too long, however, and moved on to his balls. I lapped at them like candy, and then I took one entirely into my mouth, suckling on it, before taking the other in. Jake never stopped making lewd noises as I played with him.

But I couldn't keep torturing him, so I moved on to the main course. I stuck out my tongue and plunged my snout against his tail hole. His balls rested on the top of my muzzle, and my nose was overwhelmed with the smell of Jake and his maleness. I wanted him so very badly now, but I wasn't going to hasten our love making session.

I let my tongue slither into his insides, wetting and lubing his passage along the way, until I had gone as deep as I could reach. My dragon tongue was nowhere as thick as my member so there wasn't much internal resistance, and I was able to dig all the way rather quickly.

When my tongue returned into my mouth, I pulled my head back, letting Jake's heavy balls fall off the edge of my snout, and then I crawled back up the bed until my waist was aligned with his. I ground my red cock against his black one for a few thrusts, and then I let it slide between his balls before lowering myself all the way to his rear.

"Ready?" I asked.

He gave me a grunt and raised his strong legs to give me a better opening, and then I nodded. I lowered my hips and plunged into his waiting hole. His saliva on my cock met with my saliva in his passage, and together they made the entry easy yet pleasurable. My pointed head slipped into him without a problem, and then his ring closed under my glans which made me feel a sharp twinge of pleasure. That spot right beneath my head was a good spot to touch, and he knew it. I felt him flexing his anal muscles so that they would keep gripping that part, and it just felt ridiculously good.

I couldn't stay there forever, though. He'd probably be able to make me release like that, but then I wouldn't be able to share my pleasure with him. I pushed forward more and let half of my length slide in, his warmness enveloping me and sending heat and pleasure up my entire body.

Jake was no lazy bottom. He kept flexing his inner muscles and pushed back against me to try and take me deeper, and I could feel the smooth membrane of his tail webbing pressing against my lower back, trying to encourage me to take him fully.

So I did. I slid all the way into him, touching him in his pleasure spot inside, and then I grunted and let my upper body drop onto my elbows at the perfect height to let my head settle against his shoulder.

"Ungh," I said, "I love you so much."

Jake's arms went behind my neck and pulled my entire upper body down so that I was mostly lying on top of him. Our hearts were racing, and I could feel them pounding in sync together, our chests only slightly off level.

He licked the side of my neck, and then I started the rhythm of love. My hips went back, pulling out until only the glans of my member stayed inside his rear, and then I plunged back in, only slightly faster than the first time.

I kept the pace, slow and steady. The pleasure rose linearly, never hasted to spike unexpectingly. That was our way to love. Rough fucking was for animals and one night stands, not for us.

The rhythm slowly sped up over several minutes, and before I knew it I could hear a clacking sound from above me. I glanced up and almost chuckled when I saw Jake's horns banging against the bed's end. It was another reason to not fuck him senselessly. Fixing the end and, potentially, the wall would've been annoying.

As we kept going, I raised myself on one arm and lifted my upper body up so that my head could reach his. He knew what I was doing and helped crane his head down so that we could kiss while we had sex, my tongue entwining with his while my cock repeatedly bumped against his prostrate. We were so truly in love that the passion hadn't faded a single bit, and I knew it never would.

We were connected as much as physically possible, and our souls were joined as one. It took us a while to find each other, but when we did, we knew we would never let go.

I had my muzzle locked against his until my arm became too tired to keep myself up, so I had to pull back. The pleasure in my loins had built up by then, and I was nearly ready to burst. I used my other arm to lift my upper body entirely up, and then I fell onto that elbow so that my tired hand could help give a part of Jake I had mostly neglected some attention.

I grabbed his incredibly stiff cock and started pumping it in time with my thrusts. I focused on his head at first, my thumb pressing all around the tapered crown, before moving down to the thick bottom side of it. It was my attempt to make him spurt first, a more delicate method, but I went back to raw pumping, albeit slow, when it was clear to me that I was going to reach my peak first.

Pleasure surged from the tip of my tail and flowed throughout my body. I wrapped it tightly around Jake's tail, and in the throes of climax I managed to pull his tail off my back with the shear reflex effect of orgasm. My balls tensed as their contents were ready to be spilled, and then I came with a tamed roar while giving my mate the ultimate physical symbol of my love to him: my seed, my very essence.

I felt my thick seed flow through my shaft, coating the inside of my mate white with love. While my hand kept on rubbing Jake's black dragon cock, its pace became erratic as pleasure overwhelmed my senses and flooded any direction my brain tried to send out.

My body wasn't obeying commands, but it was still able to process sensory input. I heard Jake moan my name, and then I felt the organ my hand was wrapped around start to thicken and pulse. I felt the underside become harder as his seed flowed through it, and I knew he had come.

I was still in the middle of my climax, however, and I couldn't control the rate that I was pumping his throbbing cock. It was faster than I would've liked, but as long as he felt good then I supposed it was okay. When I started to reach my afterglow stage, he was still cumming, but I felt the stream weaken. After a few more moments, his shots became dribbles, and the last of his seed dribbled out and slid down the top of his cock before pooling onto my hand.

After the thick shaft in my hand stopped twitching, I pulled my arm up and drew my claws up to my nose. I inhaled and took in the deep male musk before I slipped my tongue out of my mouth and licked it up. I had tasted Jake's seed before, and it never failed to satisfy me. It was salty, but there was a bit of sweetness in his rich fluid, and I lapped up all of it while my own source of seed started shrinking in Jake's tail hole.

When I finished cleaning my hand, I pulled out of my mate. A small amount of my love spilled out, but it was nothing either of us would mind. Our bed usually took a bunch of stains before we'd wash it anyway.

I wanted more of his precious life making fluid, and there was plenty all over his body to satisfy me. I slathered my tongue all over Jake's chiseled body and drank down all the white painted on his red scales, my dexterous tongue both rough yet sensual. His scales had a pleasant texture to them that made it addictive to lick him, and I made sure to let my tongue dig into the crevices made by his abs and pecs so I could take up the seed that liked to coagulate there.

He was delicious, and when I picked up the last significant amount from his body I kept it in my mouth instead of swallowing it. I crawled up the bed and kissed my red dragon again, our mouths sharing his essence, and we stayed together for a long time.

Our hands were never idle. They rubbed and caressed everything: muzzle, neck, muscle, and hair. Our bodies belonged to each other and our souls were one, bound by love stronger than any I knew.

Eventually we finished, and I got up off the bed. He mewled at my departure, but there were things to be done. Life to be lived. "I'll go make you breakfast," I said. "Okay?"

"Alright," he said. "Love you."

"Love you back," I said with a content smile.

I started moving away, but I was yanked back. Then I realized our tails were still twisted together, and Jake laughed while he untangled his from mine. After he unwrapped them, he fell back onto his pillow and kept chuckling. "Sorry," he said.

I couldn't help but let out a joyful laugh.

When I left our room, I walked down the hall to the kitchen. There was nothing on the way that hinted there was anything different, but as soon as I stepped into the kitchen I saw a familiar tigress holding a pan over the stove, and it felt like someone turned off the mute button. There was sizzling, and there was the smell of cooking and eggs.

The tigress seemed like she felt my presence since she turned around before I could even speak. "Good morning, Nicholas," she said.

I stood there dumbfounded. "Lenora?"

She nodded with a smile. "That's me!"

"I don't understand, it wasn't a dream?"

"It wasn't. You're in Heaven now, and Jake is with you."

"Then what happened? I was in Hell, and I found Jake, and-"

"You rescued him."

"How?"

She seemed to smile even wider, her whiskers becoming less densely packed. "There is one thing that cleanses sin instantly. Love. Not just any love, not even family love is enough. True love. The kind that binds two souls as mates forever."

I almost wanted to hug her in joy. "Jake and me?"

"Yeah. It's rarer than you think. But I knew you had a chance. Most people would rather see a dead celebrity than try to find their partners in Hell, you know. I knew you were special when you refused."

"Gee, uh, thanks."

She gave me a curt nod. "When you tried to sacrifice your chance at paradise to burn with him, that sent you both to Heaven."

"Ah," I said. I gestured my hands towards our surroundings. "That explains this."

"Yeah," she said. "And hey, I'm still your guide, so if you ever have any other questions, just think of me."

"Alright."

"I made you guys some breakfast, so go ahead and dig in when he wakes up."

"Oh, yeah, I'll go get him. Say, we still sleep in Heaven?"

She nodded. "Souls need rest too. In life, your bodies were made to match this requirement. That's why studying sleep is a bit hard to do scientifically."

That sort of made sense, I guess. I never did understand why we needed to sleep. I mean, if we ate food, shouldn't that give us energy? I guess sleep restored spirit energy, or whatever Lenora meant. "That makes sense," I replied.

"Cool. I'll leave you guys alone now. But before I leave, here's something for you." She reached out her paw, and then a picture frame appeared on it.

I took it and looked at it. I recognized it. It was the last family photo I had taken. My parents stood behind Jake and me, and my little sister was kneeling next to me. God, I wanted to cry again. My parents were so happy I had found someone that loved me, and they had welcomed Jake warmly into our family. It would be a while before we could be reunited like in the picture again, and that saddened me. But at least we could do it now, and Jake wouldn't be lost in that field of fire.

"Hey," Lenora said. "Cheer up. You're in Heaven, after all."

"I know, it's just that, well, I miss them."

"Be patient. Just be patient."

"Yeah. Thanks, Lenora."

"No need. Just doing my job. Your parents left that on your grave. That's why it was sent to you. I'm sort of just the postman. Err, postwoman."

"Well, still. Thanks. For believing in us and everything."

"You're welcome. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my cooking! Gotta go now, have another appointment with another newbie."

"Aww, can't you stay? I'm sure Jake would like to meet you."

She laughed. "It's another dragon. Similar issue. Call me back in a few hours, and I'll be happy to come. For now, you can be his guide."

"Okay."

"Until next time," she said, and then she disappeared.

The stove turned itself off, and then I set the picture down on a nearby table. I took a deep breath, and then it finally dawned on me. I was in Heaven, and so was the love of my life. We could go do anything now, together. It also meant Jake was in Hell and he had killed someone before.

But it was an accident, and it had happened in the lowest part of his life. I loved him too much to worry about it now. And our love wiped his slate clean according to whatever god there was, so I didn't dwell on it for more than a few seconds. I suppose it was like he confessed to me, and I forgave him so that purified his soul. It didn't matter now. We were both in Heaven, and there was no negative thought that lingered. "Besides," I muttered to myself, "sometimes its the imperfections that make something good." It was that secret that dragged him nearly to suicide, and it was that imperfection that led him to me.

I hopped back to our room, skipping with energy. When I went back in, Jake was still staring happily up at the wall, his belly slick and glistening with my saliva and his leftover seed. "Heya Jake," I said. "Want to go out and see Rondo?"

He tilted his head towards me, pointed his eyes toward mine, and raised an eye ridge. "Your favorite actor? Isn't he dead?"

I smiled. "Yeah. It's a long story."

But it was a happy one.

---

Dang, it took me way too long to finish this one, and it ended up being a lot longer than I had anticipated. Feedback and comments are super appreciated! Now I really gotta get back to my series, haha!

Thanks for reading!