The Devil's Broken Doll
The sight of it—swaying slightly in the furnace-breath, jaw hanging loose—drew a hush of hungry satisfaction from the watching demons.
This was a promise: you are never done paying. Judgement without end. Hell’s only gospel.
The demons roared approval. A few jostled each other, eager to see who he’d turn his attention to next. Some pressed their trophies closer to the edge of the walkways like offerings, their chained souls thrashing. Others knelt, foreheads pressed to hot iron, whispering little prayers of cruelty, asking to be chosen, to be used, to be noticed by the flame that ruled them. They prayed to him the way mortals once prayed to the heavens. Not for mercy. For proximity.