Redemption lies within

It was another of that same dream, one that plays out every now and then ever since he had arrived in hell. Ever since he willingly chose to go to hell, to atone for the sins he had committed, all he ever needed was the knowledge that his lord, god and father in heaven loved him so.

And the love was there, as bright and warm as when his family welcomed him back like a prodigal son returning.

His eyes would open to a bright and blurry image of a burning fire as he picked himself up, his eyes would drift down to look at his hands to note all his afflictions were gone, but his attention was always brought back to an ever increasing flame of fire that threatened to engulf him in the midst of a cloudy room.

At once, the colorless flamed bloomed blue and gray, before exploding to encompass the entire area along with him, but he felt no pain. 

What he felt most prominently, was love. None of the flames that licked around his bare body burned him. His eyes honed in on the center of the area as the flame that exploded and ecompasses him and the area swirled back in on itself and became a pillar of white fire. It gently burned upwards, all the while he couldn't feel a muscle to push himself to walk forward.

Then, from within the flame, a voice of his and every human being spoke to him.

"Joshua…"

He wanted to reach out and touch the flame, as he felt an overwhelming sense of love in the words that called out his name, he knew who was calling out to him. He felt the words of his name spoken aloud in his soul, and knew….

An unnatural guttural caw of whatever hellspawn echoed into his room, prompting Joshua to open his burnt eyelids; blinking a few times, he let out a groan of discomfort as he moved to pick himself up from laying on his bare cot. With his 'condition', it really wouldn't matter if his choice of bedding was soft or not, the pain of his body was always present but his faith always powered him through the ever constant battle of his new body.

New being a rather apt descriptor, as now he had another reason to always replace his bandages every day.

As Joshua sat on the side of his cot hunched over to steady his breathing, he lifted his hand to look at his bandaged hand and arm; he had to go out of his way to buy specialized bandages to cover his sinner body to prevent what it does. Joshua's eyes wandered over to the nearby bedside table and noted he was running out of the bandages he had to buy with soul currency…a peculiar form of currency that was like the dollar bills he heard about of the old world before the bombs fell and caused fallout across the states. 

A curious thing it was, a convenient way to trade goods with bank notes compared to using bottle caps…

Random thought aside, Joshua inspected his hand once more and reached with his other hand to begin unraveling himself to replace the bandages once more with his last bit of gauze; he'd more than likely needed to visit his arms dealer.

Charlie,whilst wearing her satin red and black pajamas, stretched her arms up above her head as she walked through the hotel hallways, her destination being the kitchen to rummage up something for her to snack on before the day officially began; Bringing her arms back down while lifting one back up to cover her mouth as she briefly yawned, she idly smacked her lips a bit as she continued to walk.

Her attention was soon brought to the nearby door she was about to pass by, and if memory served her correctly, it was the room that Joshua was staying in for the foreseeable future. Charlie's awareness was now full on as her eyes wandered down when she saw a bright glow of red emit from beneath the crevice of the door, making her raise an eyebrow of curiosity while she reached up to scratch her head in bewilderment.

Shaking her head of the oddity, Charlie dispensed with her unease and forgoed to knock and check in on Joshua right as the red hot glow disappeared; just as she reached up to knock on the door however, the doorknob turned before the door was opened with Joshua on the other side having opened it himself.

Both shared direct eye contact, before Charlie retracted her arm from her near attempt to knock on Joshua's door, and went with clasping her hands nervously together with a smile, "Hey…uh…" she then unclasped her hands to reach up with one of her hands to rub the back of her head with a shy smile, "Uh…you doing alight?" she asked, while making passing curious glances into Joshua's room and noted that nothing was actually burnt by whatever anomaly she witnessed when the door was shut.

Having noticed Charlie's wandering eyes that led into his room, Joshua connected the dots and resolved to speak of the matter. "I was replacing the gauze over my body." he began to explain as he walked out while shutting his door behind him. Charlie backed away a bit to give the man some room as he walked out into the hallway

Lifting his arm up to show his hand, Joshua turned it a bit before clenching his hand into a fist as he looked at his wrapped appendages. "this…sinner's body of mine has a propensity to catch aflame." He explained, before relaxing his arm back down.

Charlie perked up a bit as she understood now, "Oh! Wow…uh…" She began to say as she inspected Joshua from head to toe a bit, "Uh, does it-" Charlie began to ask with a sympathetic gaze, only for Joshua to cut her off with a safe gaze of his own.

"It indeed, does hurt, The flames burn my body, it also takes great willpower to keep the flames from burning everything around me up in flames." Joshua said to Charlie with a firm gaze in his eyes.

Before Charlie could comment on the burnt man's situation, he shook his head and held his palm of to cease her from worry over his state of being, "The pain is only temporary from time to time mind you, but it is nothing compared to the love and faith that I have in the lord above." he said, before excusing himself, "Now I must be off, I have a few errands to run, and I need to stock up on a few things."

Charlie shook herself from her reverie, and followed after the man to catch up with him. "Do you need any help at all?" she asked in a simple manner as she walked beside the man that towered over her a bit. 

Keeping his gaze forward, Joshua let out a hum of thought, before speaking his mind on the matter, "I believe I'll be fine on my own, it'll be a busy day for me to visit all my suppliers, as well as schedule a meeting with one of my more prominent suppliers."

"Besides." Joshua said with a sideways look at Charlie as the two walked side by side towards the foyer of the hotel, "You should get ready for the day ahead, much work is to be done if you truly believe in this endeavor of yours." He recommended as he approached the front doors, while Charlie stopped midway.

"Well…" Charlie fidgeted in place as she waved off at Joshua, "Good luck and safe travels, I guess…" she bid Joshua a good day as he opened the doors and headed out.

As he held the door open to look back at Charlie, Joshua nodded at her, "I appreciate the concern, but you should worry about the sinners that cross paths with me. A follower of the bible I am, but a pacifist I am not." he said with a firm gaze in his eyes, before fully exiting out and shutting the door behind him, leaving Charlie to her own thoughts and self.

After a few silent seconds passed, and Charlie was about to form a full thought in her mind, she reached up to touch her lip in thought, "..." before shaking her head and turned to head to the kitchen. If the man was confident enough in his own skills to survive hell on his own, Charlie resolved to respect the man's wishes and get working on her own endeavor to get the hotel working in earnest.

Afterall, it's not like Joshua was the type to create some trouble on his own, right?