Chapter Twelve: Kingdom for an Empty King:

Our kingdom is Hell as you humans call it. I won’t even try to lie. Yes, I am the ruler of Hell. But, it doesn’t look like what you humans love to picture it as. There is fire, but it’s not everywhere. It’s not a pretty as Heaven, I can tell you that. It is hard to create something out of nothing at times. I had to learn that the hard way.

Sure, we made a kingdom the first time. But, from the beginning there were problems. The ground wasn’t strong enough to hold us all. One step caused several cracks. When big chunks fell into the nothingness, I could tell that something was wrong. It was time to get back to work. I looked around and saw a kingdom falling to pieces. My followers looked to me to give them a permanent home. Where was I going to start? Father made it all look so easy.

It took me three days to try and get the ground stable. I tried everything that I had learned from Father. The first few times just drained the life out of the ground. Earthquakes followed. My body felt really weak for days on end. I passed out at one point.

When I got the ground stable, the rest had to follow. I had my ups and downs with building this kingdom. So many things would break after I would fix them. Every time I would turn around, something else needed to be fixed. I was going crazy here.

“Let us help,” some of my followers said. I gave off a pain-filled laugh. At this point, I was willing to try anything.

“Fine,” I said. “You can help me out.” They were happy to help build my kingdom. They came to me for ideas and my opinion.

“How does this look?” they would ask.

“Fine,” I said. They would happily add on more pieces. I found myself surprised at how fast our kingdom was growing. Inspired, I had to jump in and add some of my own touches to it. I think I surprised my followers.

“My lord,” a female follower said. “You don’t have to do this.” I turned to her with a smile on my face.

“I can’t sit back and let you do all of the work,” I said. “I feel that I have to get up and add my own stamp to this place.” She smiled with red cheeks.

“Oh, I guess you’re right,” she said. I rolled up my sleeves and smashed my fist against a wall made of rocks. It came crashing down behind me. I picked up the pieces and made a street. The little follower covered her agape mouth.

“Amazing!” she said, gasping. I didn’t think it was. We all could do that. Father made us all like him after all. Of course we would have some of his powers. It’s like genetics, really.

Our kingdom was finished in a year. Well what do you know? We built a kingdom out of nothing. See Father? We can survive without you! The finishing touch came as a surprise to me. A couple of my younger followers found me in the blackened forest they created.

“Our leader!” they said. “Come quick! There something that we want to show you!” I sat up from the spongy black moss.

“Hm?” I asked. The little children grabbed me by the hands.

“Come on!” one of them said. They pulled me to my feet and led me out of my secret place.

“Whoa! Slow down there!” I said. “Geez!” My little followers giggled as we walked through the woods. I tried to guess what they were trying to show me.

“Okay, what are you trying to show me?” I asked. One of the followers turned and smiled at me.

“You will have to see,” he said. I shrugged my shoulders.

“Okay, okay,” I said. We walked along a cobblestone road for about twenty miles. The whole time, the children smiled and giggled to themselves. I raised my eyebrow.

“You won’t tell me what it is until we get there, will you?” I asked. The children smiled and shook their heads.

“Okay,” I said. At the end of the road, we came to a complete stop. The little followers turned to me, grinning.

“Look at we all did!” the little girl said. I looked up and my jaw dropped. We stood in front of a big black castle. The tallest towers touched the gray skies. The gates were wide open and waiting for us.

“Want to see what’s inside?” the little boy asked.

“Sure,” I said. I followed the little followers into the castle. Inside, the rest of them stood up and applauded. I didn’t know what to think as the children led me further into a room of black and purple. Floating silver candles let the room. Up ahead there was a throne of purple and red.

“Is that for me?” I asked.

“Yes,” the children said.

“Would you like to sit in it?” the little girl said.

“Sure,” I said. I walked up to the throne and took a seat. My followers bowed down before me.

“How is it, my lord?” the little girl asked. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Nice,” I said. “I think I like it.” And just like that, I sealed my position as king of Hell.