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“Please,” the sinner said again.
“Nope.” Crowley shrugged. “There’s no hope for you.”
“I am not asking for hope.”
“Good. You’re really in the wrong place for hope.”
Nodding in appreciation, Crowley admired the man’s predicament. Sometimes, he felt for the poor souls he brought here. Sometimes, he understood their deed. Now, however, pity was far from his mind. After all, he knew that every single one of the hellfire forged chains that bound the sinner to his cage stood for an act of greed that made his fellow humans suffer. And there were many chains. Too many to count.
A creative punishment. Probably Dagon’s idea. She was the only one beside Crowley down here who had a creative streak in her cursed soul.
Again, the man’s voice ripped Crowley out of his thoughts.
“It’s not about me,” he said.
Crowley looked at the chains, then into the sinner’s file and back at the sinner. He raised his brows and answered with a dark smile, “Well, that would be a first, wouldn’t it?”
“It’s about my friend,” the sinner said unfazed. “My colleague…business partner… he’s much like me.”
“Well, in that case, I suppose you’ll see him soon.”
“I hope not too soon,” the sinner said. “He’s younger than me. Much younger. He was a young lad when I took him under my wing. A child almost. I became the father he never had.”
Again, Crowley’s gaze fell on the file.
“Poor bastard,” he said drily.
“Yes!” cried the sinner. “He deserved a better father. I led him on this path. It’s my fault he is heading right this way. Please…”
Crowley hesitated. He had accompanied mankind from the beginning. Soon he had realised that every man was shaped by the fathers he knew… for better or worse.
The sinner begged, “Just… let me warn him.”
Worrying his bottom lip with his teeth, Crowley contemplated the request. Finally, Crowley turned to the sinner with a strict expression and pointed a finger at him.
“There is no hope for you,” he said. “None.”
“I know.” The sinner nodded.
“I can’t free you,” Crowley said. “But I can lengthen the chains so you can reach Earth. And I know some people who might be able to help.”
With tears, falling from his empty eyes, the sinner thanked him, before rushing away, the heavy chains rattling behind him. As Crowley pulled him back an hour later, binding the sinner close to the cage bars again, the sinner was much calmer, smiling even, despite the grim fate awaiting him.
“Thank you for your kindn…” the sinner began but Crowley hissed at him.
“Don’t… not the place for that.”
Silently, the man nodded his acknowledgement. When Crowley closed the hanging cage, a subtle movement caught his eye. One of the chains rattled, slowly first but ever faster, until it finally snapped, pulled away and vanished into the endless voids of Hell.
The sinner didn’t appear to notice. He just smiled and stared into the vastness around him.
Well, one chain of countless hardly made a difference, right? So no need to report it.
With relief, Crowley noted that his time down here was done anyway and he was due to return to Earth. As he walked away, he threw one last glance over his shoulder.
“Happy eternity, Jacob Marley.“