Callisto made her way through the barren landscape of the 2nd circle... slowly at first, her head tilting left... right... silence surprising her at first. This wasn't ... by far the deepest or busiest level of hell where outrageous pain, shrieking and screaming could often be heard at such levels where it actually brought Callisto's ears to scolding her for being there in the first place, but this was the land of the Succubi. This was a layer generally composed of the indecent and the thrillingly exotic.<br/><br/>Moaning... groaning... sighing... gasping... Callisto used to hear it all simply upon entering the area. There was a scent given... an aura present and now... well... it had been significantly diminished. She made her way through the chasms and caves of the hive-like structure composed of stone and earth. Throughout this circle... there were innumerable caves and isolated paths which looped in several directions which formed make-shift chambers and quite often, these 'chambers' were utilized by the varying demons to torment the prey produced to this particular level.<br/><br/>As with several of the levels... bolts, shackles, restricting devices of many kinds decorated the stone walls and pathways. Chains which inspired rumours of how hellfire itself could forge the toughest and thickest metals were scattered throughout the entire location. Callisto always did enjoy this particular circle because of how the chains were such marvellous restraints. This circle, more than any other really did thrive on the drive of the prey brought within to want to move... to object... to feel some kind of aching freedom for much longer than any other circle because of the nature of the torture that went on down here.<br/><br/>Only now... moving from place to place along various paths, Callisto found the relative silence to almost be annoying.<br/><br/><em><strong>"Honey-... I'm home."</strong></em>she spoke playfully, announcing her return to no one in particular. She continued along a separate trail... her body doing several make-shift circles as she advanced herself, her eyes scanning upwards along the stone chasms for indications of movement within the crevices that could be seen. Of course... the sound would hit her long before anything would come into view here.<br/><br/>Normally, she felt an immense refreshing of her strength as she'd enter this circle. The lust being harvested in this vast area fuelled her like heat from a hot bath saturating her skin. Right now however, while not completely barren, it was considerably reduced. She continued to move... her palm lifted delicately before her, the soft flesh of her hand erupting into a sizzling ball of flame. The fire caused her no discomfort, the flames danced and bent in her palm like pedals of a flower under an intense breeze.<br/><br/>With a subtle motion to the right... the dancing flower of flame seemed to leap from her palm and cascade down towards a cluster of stone and dirt. Generally... fires didn't last too long in this circle unless intrinsically designed to do so but Callisto had a way with fire that many could compare to an artist's use of paint and paper. She watched as the fire grew, no naturally explicable reason for it... in this place, the place itself as much as the demons and people who frequented it were often beyond the realm of what was 'naturally explicable'. The fire grew... almost on command of Callisto's desire and the flames danced brilliantly as she crouched down and spent some time listening...<em>just... listening.</em><br/><br/>Her eyes continued to dart around the large chasm... left to right... up... down. She observed the relative silence which she had generally needed to leave Hell to listen to. She often came and went in a burst of flame moving effortlessly between circles of hell and temples, fortresses and castles of barren wastelands left in the midst of roaming armies she'd influence on earth itself.<br/><br/>It was just a matter of time before someone would hear her anyway... and Callisto didn't have much of a reputation of being the 'quiet' type. She was certainly loyal to her queen, but often because doing so just happened to further her own needs even more. Callisto was one very powerful being with a fairly large ego preventing her from accepting a very servile attitude and yet... she had the playfulness of a child that went hand in hand with a superiority she generally exuded.<br/><br/>She was not cold and condescending as was a very common mix among people with a superiority complex... Callisto was very playful... very interactive and her attitude and power seemed to keep her very aware of the fact that she could come across as relatively annoying.<br/><br/>"You know... there's a passage in the Bible that says that at some point in time, the Lamb of God is going to return and empty all of us into an eternal Lake of Fire." She continued to speak... her palms outstretched towards her fire, at first glance, looking like she was warming them, but upon closer inspection, anyone watching Callisto crouched by her make-shift fireplace would be able to see that the flames of her fire twirled, swayed and tended to float several directions, the flames themselves seemed to form a series of images responding to the slight twitching of Callisto's fingers and the tilting of her wrists... until her fireplace was composed of several strands of flickering flames but also thickly displayed amidst them was an illusion... an image created of flame within the flames.<br/><br/>(http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/fire_5.jpg)<br/><br/><br/>"-... And I just wanted to say... Just like Christians don't like the prank of their loved ones setting out clothing in a way designed to make them think the ***rapture*** happened...I'm not necessarily finding this to be...<em>funny</em>."<br/><br/>(http://images1.fanpop.com/images/photos/2000000/callisto-xena-vs-callisto-2024828-1200-951.jpg)<br/><br/><br/>------------------------------------------<br/><br/>***Rapture***<br/><br/>This was in context to the event foretold in the Bible when God will come back and take everyone who believes in him. The book of Thessalonians leaves Christians with the image that God will take his followers on earth immediately and their clothing will fall to the ground as they are snatched up to spend Eternity with him in heaven. This is referred to as a 'Rapture' and it's bent to cause alot of chaos as the Antichrist rises because all the Christians that are flying Airplanes, driving cars... operating heavy machinery... when all these Christians are taken up in the 'Rapture'... there's going to be a Global catastrophe of accidents that occur.<br/><br/>The 'joke' she referred to is that sometimes, there's a prank played where people lay out their clothes in a way that it looks like they were wearing it, then were 'taken' causing their clothes to fall to the ground. This is a prank based on the fear that if you are 'left behind'... you've got to survive through the 'Tribulation Period'. (The Tribulation period is the years where Satan (and the Antichrist, his puppet) emerge as a one-world-ruler making it necessary to pledge loyalty to him to be a 'citizen of the world'. This is where the '666' comes in and everything.<br/><br/>The Bible verse is actually: "It was given unto him to make war on the saints, and to conquer them." so there's this great fear that during the Tribulation period, to be a Christian means you literally will be killed. It will be like a 'Nero' era of Rome... if you're a Christian, you will be 'fair game' to be killed and anything of yours is 'prize potential' to anyone willing to kill you for not being a member of the 'World System' set up by the Antichrist.<br/><br/>Anyway... that's where this whole prank stems from... being 'Left Behind' and the idea of clothes being neatly tossed to the ground in a certain way as to indicate that someone wearing those clothes could have been snatched up by the hand of God in the blink of an eye.<br/><br/>-... Heh... just thought I should give a reference. :-P<br/><br/>- Kristen -<br/><br/>--------------------------------------------------