"THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED FROM GOOD INTENTIONS"
I fluttered my eyes open as the light from the window blinded my vision.
"Ugh," I groaned, rolling on the soft, fluffy bed.
Bed?
I sat up immediately, scanning my surroundings.
Oh, that's right—I was alive again!
I looked around the spacious room. I had barely registered it when I first came here, too eager to get some much-needed two-decade sleep. Constant torture for twenty long years does seem to take a toll on a person. I wonder why.
I stretched like a cat and got up from the bed, opening the tall window curtains wider, the bright light hitting my face. The view outside was spectacular. It seemed the building we were in was perched on some kind of hill in the middle of nowhere.
Speaking of "we," where the hell was Omari?
As if on cue, the doors opened and the tall man walked in.
Omari.
His face lit up with a sly smirk as he eyed me up and down. Only then did I realize—I was still naked.
"Damn, girl, Lucifer really knows his stuff," he said, stepping in with zero shame. "He literally gave you the body of a goddess. A total upgrade from your previous one."
I raised a brow, confused. "What the hell are you on about?" I asked, walking toward the mirror to take a look.
My eyes widened as I saw the goddess staring back at me from the mirror. Oh. Right. I had been given a new body—and boy, was this a sight for sore eyes.
"He definitely sent you here as a temptation," Omari continued. "I mean, I would absolutely go back to hell just for a taste of that."
"Wake up, dude. We've got work to do," I said, chuckling as I turned back to look at him. "Speaking of new bodies, yours doesn't look so different from the last one," I said, eyeing him down. This was the first time I was seeing him naked. When we met at the gate, we were both clothed.
"That's because it's still the last one. I was much older than you when we first met, remember? Yours needed changing to that of a 25-year-old. Mine is still 30."
"How come you get to keep yours, and I don't?" I asked, crossing my arms beneath my firm, soft, new set of breasts. Not that I didn't already know the answer.
"First of all, let's be honest—your nineteen-year-old body back then wasn't all that. Second, I died here. My body was never found and it wasn't burnt like yours. Even if yours wasn't, people already knew you were dead, so coming back to life would attract way more attention than slipping into a new body."
"Like a fucking zombie."
"Precisely," he said. "Third, and most importantly, I'm already built like a Greek god. It would be a waste to lose all of this."
His smirk widened. I rolled my eyes and walked toward the bathroom. He wasn't lying, though. His body really was built like a dark-skinned god. Made you want to run your tongue over it. First time I saw him, I could've sworn he'd taste like chocolate.
"Put some clothes on, Mr. Greek God. We've got work to do," I said, shutting the bathroom door behind me.
I walked straight to the shower in the large bathroom, turned the heater on, and closed my eyes as the warm liquid caressed my entire body. You'd think that after twenty years of being submerged into hot acidic liquid, I'd have a phobia for heat—but no. There was something about the way this water relaxed all my tensed nerves.
It's fucking good to be alive.
Omari and I had left hell together two days ago. Our bodies were still burnt beyond recognition when we were exiting the gate, so this was literally the first time we were seeing each other scar-free.
We had barely spoken at the time. I could see from his face that he was curious to know what was happening and why we'd interrupted his eternal suffering—but I said nothing. And he didn't ask.
When Lucinda asked us where we were going to stay while our bodies healed, he suggested his place. He was sure no one had discovered it, and that it remained unoccupied all these years.
He was right.
And that brings us to the present.
I walked out of the bathroom to see that he had placed clothes on the bed for me.
A pair of shorts and a tank top that did nothing to shield my huge boobs.
This pervert.
I walked downstairs and spotted him, seated with his eyes glued to a laptop.
"I didn't know you were such a pervert," I said as I approached him.
He looked up at me. "What?"
"Don't play dumb. Whatever happened to a huge T-shirt or something?" I said, gesturing to my outfit.
He rolled his eyes. "Don't flatter yourself. I only gave you what I could find. The rest of my clothes were eaten by rats."
Not knowing what else to say, I took a seat opposite him.
"I know you're wondering, but the reason you're here is—"
"No need. Cindy already filled me in."
"Oh."
"Yeah. I was glad to hear you needed me, cupcake."
"Since you already know why we're here, let's get to it," I said, ignoring his last comment. "Our first course of action is to gather information on the new world. A whole lot can happen in twenty years."
"Well, while you were busy sleeping for two whole days, I did some research on the 'new world.'"
"And what did you find?"
"A lot," he said, eyes returning to his laptop. "First of all, this laptop is now apparently extremely outdated. Second, my wealth is still intact."
"C'mon, man. What did you find about the world? You know—who's who?" I asked, trying not to sound impatient.
"Oh, that," he said, finally serious. "There's a new corporation that's technically been ruling the entire country—if not the world—through business for the past fifteen years."
I straightened up.
"I did a little research on your family, and your death—the much I could find with how limited this device seems to be—and it seems the owner of the corporation is somehow connected to the murder."
"How do you mean?"
"Well, looking at the mugshots of the men arrested for your parents' deaths—and yours—I noticed a similar tattoo. On their necks. Now checking the profile of the CEO of the corporation, I caught a glimpse of a tattoo written in italics on his wrist. The same thing."
My blood boiled. "What does it say?"
"Yosemite…"
"Those who kill," we both said.
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