I woke up the next day, the day known to the citizens of hell as "Heylelestad" (it might have corresponded to Tuesday in the mortal world, but I wasn't sure if the day-night cycle of hell or even Time itself corresponded to that of the mortal world).

I breathed in deeply, and then out to calm myself.

Time for eternal torment.

I only hoped my slave master wouldn't be cruel.

I blinked and frowned as I realized I didn't know what to do. Did I go to the lobby? Would they visit my room?

I got up and brushed my teeth, quickly doing my morning routine.

Then I heard a chime, which I was pretty sure was a doorbell.

I opened the door to reveal a woman with dark blue skin and four arms. Two of her arms were tapping at the air (her soul panel?) while one of the remaining arms was raised as if to knock and the other one was fixing her lapels.

"Ahem," she said, and I quickly tore my eyes from her distracting appendages. "My name is Ahuheya and I am here to inform you that you do not yet have a job."

"I'm aware, thanks," I said quietly.

"You may not know this, but..."

"I'm a slave now?" I asked with a forced smile.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "You're being consigned to servitude. You need semi-stable living conditions."

"Funny... when I can't die," I said. It was a very forward comment, and it wasn't something I usually did. But what did I have to lose? I lost my life. I would soon lose my own autonomy.

What did I have to lose anymore?

"Depressed, starving demons are quite the nuisance to this society," said Ahuheya airily, her face expressionless, two of her arms tapping away at the air, her idle arms folded. "It's better for everyone that demons have stable living conditions, and if you can't get a job then you need to be put somewhere so you can maintain a life. Now, come with me, please. We need to find you an overseer."

"You mean a slavemaster?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I said what I said," Ahuheya replied. "You do not need any possessions except personal ones."

You say personal possessions as if I just popped into hell with everything I liked with me, as small a list as that is, I thought. I was literally naked when I arrived. Everything 'personal' I've ever had is up in the mortal world.

I followed her out of my room and down to the front door of the hotel/apartment complex. 

"Have a nice one," said Selkeda boredly.

My lungs felt like they'd deflated. She didn't even care that I was being consigned into labor.

Joseph was correct. Very, very correct. There was a real caste system in this world, and it wasn't kind to us newbies.

We got into a large, steel pod with purple flames jetting from the back. Inside it was a lot like a car, and Ahuheya drove it with a floating steering wheel while I sat shotgun.

The journey didn't take long, and we stopped in front of a huge tower. Like most other buildings in hell, the dim red sky reflected off its windows and made it an unsettling reddish color, but unlike other buildings I felt a sense of foreboding as I looked up at it.

What awaited me in there?

Temperature didn't change much in hell (according to a book I read, it was usually unbearably hot but temperatures were magically modulated within the bounds of the city to minimize discomfort of its citizens) but I definitely felt warm as I walked in. I don't mean that it was actually warm, but I felt a pressure, a heavy weight settling on me, as I knew...

...this was my eternity.

I'd told it to myself so many times. I would be a slave for eternity.

But I just struggled to accept it.

To accept that I'd be here... forever.

However long that was.

Was this why people feared hell so? Clearly, the realm itself wasn't terrible. It had food, it had people, it had jobs.

But those who had committed the worst sins and regretted it... they became slaves to the higher classes. All because they regretted their sins.

Someone who didn't regret their crimes wouldn't be punished here in hell. They'd live their eternity scot-free. 

It was only those of us who had consciences that would suffer.

God was cruel. 

Why would He ever let a system such as this come into existence?

I guess even God was flawed.

But I always knew that. Any god would be flawed. 

Heck, God probably didn't even exist. Or at least, not the benevolent one advertised in churches.

In a world full of storms, deadly diseases, and cold-blooded psychopaths... the best god one could hope for was an evil one. And plenty of those had been thought up by many civilizations past.

"I hate you, Zeus," I said, looking at the sky, because it didn't really matter which god I invoked and which god really sat up there since I was already in hell, at the rock bottom. "You're a terrible god."

"O... kay," said Ahuheya, looking at me strangely. "Anyhow... I just found an overseer for you."

"What's their name?" I asked nervously.

"Giovanna Bianchi Boselli," she said.