Disclaimer: Here's the second part and just to help clear things up before there is any confusion Alex IS Kash. You'll have to ask Kash for an explanation of that, that's her story.

Luce started walking down the hallway and Kash and I moved forwards to follow. He began talking as we walked. "You might be interested to know that Pug is in charge of this floor."

"This floor? How many floors does this place have?"

"Ten. The farther down, the more evil the criminals are that reside there and the more tortutous the punishment."

Well Damn! "So how big of an asshole do you have to be to end up on the first floor?"

Luce stopped walking and turned to face me. His face was expressionless. "The first floor is where the demons live. It is also where MY private quarters are located." Oh shit! I had really put my foot in my mouth with that statement. Kash looked amused. Luce must have noticed the worry on my face. He just shrugged and said, "Relax. I'm not the least bit insulted by your comment. After all, I AM the Devil. My accommodations SHOULD be on the first floor." He gave me a cocky smile before he turned and started walking again. If he could accept the fact that he lived on the most evil floor in the place, then I guess I could too. I decided not to say anything else about that particular subject. I wanted to ask him what he meant about Pug being in charge of this floor. I needed to know just what he did for Luce to decide if I would be willing to give a relationship with him a try.

"What exactly is Pug in charge of?" I asked not really knowing if I wanted the answer.

"He's a soul purchaser. Without him my rooms would go empty," he said in an apathetic manner.

Ok that was all I needed to know. I am not going to date someone whose job in life is to supply the Devil with sous to torture. I stopped abruptly and for a moment the two hadn't realize I had quit walking. Kash was the first to notice. "What's wrong? You've got a horrified look on your face."

"I am ready to go back to your house now. I don't need to know anymore. There is NO way I am dating someone who picks up innocent souls and brings them to hell so they can be totured."

Luce spun around and I could see the anger in his eyes. My earlier comment, about him living on the evilest floor, hadn't bothered him, so I didn't understand why he was suddenly so mad. His voice reverberated as he spoke. "You humans and your stupid myths. You make up stories to explain what you don't understand instead of trying to seek out the truth. We DO NOT torture innocents here. You WILL NOT find any children behind any of these doors despite what your church may have taught you. Every resident here deserves any and all punishments they receive."

Some of his words were clipped as he spoke as if they left a foul taste in his mouth. Kash stepped next to him and put a hand on his arm. He glanced down at her and took a deep breath. I could feel him relax with her touch. His next words were much calmer. "Forgive me Alex, that is a sore subject with me."

"I apologize. I didn't mean to make you mad." My voice sounded small and uncertain but I felt the need to apologize. He is Kash's sweetheart and I didn't want to cause tension in our friendship by getting on his bad side. He looked like he was about to say something when his eyes focused on something behind me. I spun around, not wanting to be caught off guard in hell, to find Pug standing there. "What are you apologizing for?

I was sure the surprise showed on my face. Luce answered for me cause I seemed to momentarily have lost the ability to speak. "She was horrified when she found out what you did for a living and was apologizing for making an ignorant comment."

Pug cocked his head to the side, then looked towards Luce and back at me as if he didn't understand. "What's wrong with what I do?"

"She believes you *steal innocent* souls and bring them here to torment."

Pug's eyes widened. "I most certainly do not!"

"I said I was sorry for jumping to conclusions. If toturing innocents isn't what you do than why doesn't somebody explain it to me"

Luce spoke up immediately and I noticed a wicked gleam in his eye. I was betting I was about to be paid back for my little outburst. "Since it is Pug's position in question I believe I should let him explain the details. Kash and I will be in my private quarters. Pug can finish your tour. Just scream if you need anything." I opened my mouth to protest being left alone with Pug, but Luce and Kash vanished before I could even speak. I looked sideways at Pug and sighed. I was right, Luce was punishing me. The problem was I was a bit afraid I might enjoy the punishment.

We just stood there for a few minutes staring and sizing each other up. The silence was beginning to bother me. "So…are we just gonna stand here all day or are you going to show me around?"

His lips curled upwards in an evil grin. "There are plenty things I would like to show you, but I'll finish up your tour first." I gave him an 'in your dreams' look and motioned for him to lead the way. However, instead of moving forwards he held out his arm to me. I could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't going to budge until I took it so I placed my hand lightly against his skin.His arms were bare because of the sleeveless shirt he was wearing. I felt a slight jolt that turned to a tingle where my hand lay on his arm. I gasped and took a few deep breaths as I tried to get used to the sensation. "Is something wrong?"

I shook my head, determined not to let him know what kind of effect he was having on me. I concentrated on ignoring the feeling. "No, I'm fine. Shall we go?" He laughed and began walking, pulling me with him since he now had my hand on his arm. "Why is everything so quiet? I figured I'd hear people screaming or other terrible sounds like that."

He grinned at me. "Don't worry their are plenty of screams to be heard around here, but only if you want to. The rooms are all soundproof."

"What about the fire and heat? I expected it to be sweltering but I'm actually comfortable."

He put his other hand overtop of mine, I wasn't sure if he was flirting or trying to be reassuring. "The heat is only felt by the victims inside the rooms. The further down you go the hotter it gets. The holding rooms on this floor are about ninety degrees inside. By the time you get to the second floor the occupants inside the rooms are actually watching their flesh burn and fall off. It's quite an effective means of torture in itself."

I just looked at him. "I'm sure it is." The visual image I got made me shiver so I decided to move on with the questioning. "What did you mean by holding rooms?" I asked as we continued walking down the seemingly endless hallway.

"Maybe you'd like to check one out?" He gave me an evil smile.

I elbowed him in the side. "I don't think so."

"Have you at least decided to take me up on my offer and go out on a date with me? You've apparently talked to Luce and Kash about me or you wouldn't be here."

"I'm still not sure. Tell me more about what you do around here."

"Luce already told you that I'm in charge of this floor. Well, this is the floor where all the new souls are put while they await their sentence. Then we put them in one of the appropriate punishment rooms and they stay here for the sentence designated by Luce."

I stopped walking and turned so I was looking him right in the eyes. "Tell me the truth. Is it true that you don't hurt children here?"

His answer came out without a second thought. "I promise you we do not torture innocents, children fall into that category. You'll find no children being punished in these rooms."

"Now that that was clear, I wanted to learn exactly how he captured these souls. "Okay, how do you collect souls for Luce?"

"That's easy. There are plenty of deranged and twisted people on earth. I simply pick one and follow them for a while. When I catch them in the act of doing something really awful I arrange a little…accident if you will.. When they die, their soul tries to fly off towards heaven, but I capture it and bring it here. Then Luce punishes that soul however he sees fit. Come on, I'll show you some of the other floors." He snapped his fingers and an elevator appeared in the middle of the hall. The silver doors opened and we stepped inside. Soft music began playing as the doors closed.

Pug leaned forward and pressed one of the ten buttons on the wall. The light above the door flashed the number five and we stepped out. As soon as we did the elevator disappeared, going back to where ever it came from. Another hallway stretched out in front of us only I could feel and see a difference here compared to the tenth floor. The walls were a dark wood, almost black and the carpet was a deep burgundy, darker than old blood. This hall gave me the creeps and I shivered involuntarily. Pug wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close to his side. "Relax, nothing here can hurt you."

My voice was still shaky as I spoke. "What's different about this floor? It just feels creepy."

"This is the Luce's favorite floor, The Hall of Fear. Every person has a deep dark fear that they try to hide while they are living. Inside every one of these rooms the soul is trapped with their worst terror come to life." He put his hand on the first door we came to and opened it. I peeked my head inside, at Pug's insistence, and the view I got was horrifying. A man was running around the room screaming while a horribly deformed corpse chased him. "Stay away from me!," he kept yelling in the corpse's direction but it never stopped. Suddenly the floor seemed to open up and the man fell into what looked like a pit filled with more dead bodies come alive. I jumped back and found myself stopped by Pug's hand. "Don't panic it's all an illusion. The corpses you see are holograms of people he killed when he was living on earth. Demons don't do the actual torturing until after the fifth floor. Impressive isn't it?" I shook my head and squeezed my eyes shut. Pug got the hint and closed the door.

We walked on until Pug stopped further down the hallway. "You might get a kick out of this one."

He opened the door and I saw a woman stomping at the ground and wailing. The floor and surrounding walls were crawling with rats. I screamed, slammed the door shut myself and turned to wrap my arms around Pug, trying to force the sight out of my mind. I felt his arms wrap protectively around me and that made me realize what I had done. I pulled away and mumbled "I'm sorry."

He chuckled. "Don't be. Had I known I'd get this kind of reaction I would have showed you that room a while ago."

I gave him an evil look. "Don't play with me. I have a horrible fear of rats and..." I stopped myself at the realization that I was telling one of Satan's minions about my worst fears. Not smart!

He sensed my unease and put his hand on my shoulder. I looked up. "I'm trying to get you to go out on a date with me. Somehow I don't think locking you up in a room filled with rats is going to win me your affection." I couldn't help but laugh as I agreed with his statement. "Come on I'll show you one other floor and then we'll go find Luce and Kash…unless there's some other place you want to go. Maybe we could find an empty room somewhere."

"I don't think so. Don't you ever give up?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I've got all the time in the world. I'll just keep pestering you until you give in and go out with me. Why don't you make it easy on yourself and just say yes?"

I still wasn't quite sure if I wanted to go out with him or not. I racked my brain trying to think of another excuse to stall. "I can't exactly ask my parents to keep Ashley while I go on a date with a demon who works for the devil."

"So bring her with you."

"Oh no! I don't want her to like you and then things don't work out between us and she gets hurt. It's not fair to her."

"Fair enough. What if I arrange for a babysitter. Then would you at least go out to dinner with me?"

I thought about that for a minute. Would I reall be able to trust a demon to set up childcare for my only child? Would I be able to trust that person to watch her without hurting her? "Who would you get to keep her?"

"Come on I'll show you." He snapped his fingers and the elevator appeared again. He pushed the button for the first floor and I could feel the downward motion as we headed to the bottom of hell. Why were we going to the living quarters? I was about to ask when the bell let us know we had reached our destination. The doors opened and Pug escorted me out. This hallway wasn't empty. There were demons of all sizes and shapes walking through the corridors. I caught sight of two little green monsters ducking into one of the rooms. A second later a tall man with a long tail dragging behind him went inside the same door. I turned to Pug with a completely confused look on my face. "The tall man you just saw was Grunner. He and some of the others are in charge of watching after the children while their parent's..um..work. It's kind of like on the job daycare. Ashley would enjoy it. They can't get onto any of the other floors and no one’s going to hurt her here. I told you we value children. They grow up and help us run hell. Who knows, one day your daughter could be helping us run the place." He laughed.

I shivered at that thought. "I don't know. I'm real particular about who keeps my child. She's all I have." He took me by the hand and pulled me towards the door where the children had just disappeared moments earlier. When he opened it I couldn't believe my eyes. The room was full of about twelve or fifteen kids. They were obviously different ages…and different breeds. I caught sight of several adults supervising to make sure things didn't get out of hand. The children were involved in various activities. Some were playing in a giant sandbox and others were making mudpies. There was even a giant swing set. Off to one side they had a make believe dungeon set-up where one older child was stretching a doll on a pretend rack. I didn't mind the other activities but I didn't want Ashley playing with that. Pug introduced me to several of the caretakers and they all seemed nice enough even if they did look a bit strange. One woman was human looking, except for the two small horns on her forehead. I'll bet Ashley would be telling me some wild stories after a day spent in here. It looked safe though. I'd talk to Kash about it. If she said Ashley would be safe here then I trusted her word. I turned to Pug. "Let's go find Kash and Luce. I want to ask her opinion on something."

Pug didn't question me, which was a relief. I didn't think he'd like the fact that I thought he might be lying to me just so we could go out. He was standing next to me and he took a step closer. I was about to ask him what he was doing when he threw his arms around me and we vanished. It was just like when I had traveled with Luce earlier. We materialized in a hallway carpeted in thick black carpet. Unlike the hallway we had just been in there was no one around but Pug and I. There was a huge set of double doors in front of us. Pug knocked once and Luce's voice filled the air. "Come in." The doors swung open and Pug pulled me inside. Kash and Luce were sitting on a white leather sofa and looking quite cozy. There was a fire roaring in the fireplace. I was wondering when I'd see something burning around here. It seemed fitting that it would be in Luce's living room. Kash gave me a grin when the two of us walked in. Pug still had his arm around me from when we had traveled here. I stepped away, he didn't say anything but I had the impression I had hurt his feelings. I could tell him I was sorry later. Right now I needed to confirm what he had told me before I gave him my final answer about a date. "Kash can I talk to you a moment." She nodded her head and I added. "In private." Luce raised an eyebrow at my request. "If that's okay with you?", I asked him. He seemed happy that I had asked his opinion as he gave us permission with a nod of his head.

Kash stood up and walked towards a door across the room. She motioned me to follow. "We can talk in here. It's Luce's study." We went inside and she shut the door behind us. The study was even more lavishly furnished than the living room. There was a mahogany desk off to the side with a comfortable looking leather chair. Shelves of books lined the walls. I wondered if he had done that for Kash since she liked to read so much or if he had actually read all these books. Either way now I knew who to ask when I ran out of reading material. "You wanted to ask me about something?" Her voice brought me back to what I wanted to know.

"Actually, I have two questions for you. First, what do you know about the babysitters around here?"

Kash looked surprised and smiled at me, as though she'd had an amusing thought. "I can't believe he showed you that. I didn't think it would be on HIS tour." She stopped for a moment and then continued. "I would trust them to take care of my child, if I had one. Luce would severely punish someone if something happened to one of the children."

She continued to reassure me that Ashley would be completely safe there and I thanked her. It meant a lot to know my daughter would never come to harm here. Now for my second question. "Do you trust Pug?"

Her eyes widened and her smile grew even more, like she knew something I didn't. "You're really gonna go out with him aren't you?" She laughed and continued. "I trust him. He's a little wild but he's not dangerous to us. I think he'd be good for you… and Ashley. You need someone in your life that cares for you. It's obvious he's got the hots for you but I think it's more than that. You must be a real challenge cause I've never seen him chase after someone with this much determination before. Do you like him?" I looked down at the floor, not sure of how to respond.

I looked up. "Yeah, I think I do. He's nice looking but it's not just that. He hasn't been ugly or cruel tome in any way...at least not on purpose. He's a little pushy but in a cute way. He's nothing like some of the scum I've dated. I just don't know what to do? What are my parents going to say if they find out? I' so confused."

Kash walked over to me, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "You've got to stop worrying about what they think and start taking care of your needs. If you think he will make you happy make you happy, then I say go for it. One date at least, what can it hurt?" It wasn't hurting that I was worried about. I pushed the X-rated image away that sprang into my mind. Kash was looking at me funny, as if she knew what I had been thinking. She laughed and wrapped her arm around mine, pulling me to the door. "Come on let's go back out to the boys."

She opened the door and we found Pug and Luce sitting together engaged in a quiet conversation. When I stepped inside the living room they stopped talking altogether. Pug turned to look at me and I was betting I had been the topic of conversation. Oh well I might as well let Pug know the news. I walked over to stand in front of him. I held out my hand and he looked at it for a moment like it might burn. I smiled and said, "I won't bite…I promise."

His eyes lit back up with his normal mischief as he took my hand. "Oh I don't mind a little biting. Makes things more fun."

I laughed. "Come on, I want to tell you something." I pulled him to his feet and headed back towards Luce's study. His eyes widened as he realized I was voluntarily taking him somewhere where we could be alone. I shut the door and when I turned around his body was very close to mine. I looked up into his chocolate brown eyes and sighed. I could feel my body slightly trembling. I wasn't sure whether it was what I was about to do or just being this close to Pug. I raised up on tiptoe and leaned forward, pressing my hands to his chest for support until there was only about an inch separating our bodies. He tilted his head down until we were looking eye to eye. I whispered softly. "Yes" and then my lips met his.