It was the beginning of a new day, according to the glowing satanic circle in the middle of the sky which shined light across all of Sinner City. A two headed monstrosity that somewhat resembled a pigeon landed on the roof of Barbed Wire's apartment block. After pecking at the edge it stood on, nibbling on a few tiny pieces of stone, it unleashed a monstrous shriek that echoed for a mile around the bird's perimeter.

Sunset, unfortunately, was one of the many victims of the demon's tyrannical screech and shot up from her spot on the couch. She swiftly jumped towards the window and opened it up, checking to see if the world was already going to end. Fortunately, there seemed to be no gigantic monsters in the sky to ruin her day, which just left Sunset to wonder where that horrible noise came from.

As she looked around, she heard the sounds of slurping coming from beside her. She turned her head to see Barb behind the kitchen counter, dressed in a dark grey dress robe, drinking from a white mug with an unknown black substance inside.

Barb raised her mug in a greeting manner. "Mornin'," she calmly said.

Sunset just shifted her eyes between Barb and the window with a very concerned look. Eventually, she pointed a finger out towards the window. "What was that?" she asked, afraid for the answer.

"That sound? Just a bird," Barb replied, taking another gulp of her drink. "They're pretty loud."

"Uh, no kidding they're loud. I almost had a heart attack hearing that!"

Barb snorted quietly at the Hell student's exaggeration. "Relax, Sunny. You'll get used to it." She slurped at her drink once again. "You want some coffee?"

Sunset showed surprise at the mention of coffee. But then again, this was Hell, so she was keeping herself wary. "Like, actual coffee? Like ground or lattes?"

Barb shrugged. "Just... coffee."

Sunset let her guard down against Barb's calm nature. She figured that the demoness must not be too much of a morning person. "Sure. I'll take a cup."

Sunset walked towards the counter as Barb turned around and looked out another mug from a high up shelf. "How you like it?" Barb asked.

"Two teaspoons and milk," Sunset replied, taking a seat on one of the three stools.

The water was boiled and Barb made Sunset's order. Once the warm liquid was well mixed, Barb slid the fresh mug of coffee across the counter and into Sunset's hand.

Sunset raised the mug slowly, staring deep into the light brown pool, just in case there was that one little detail to it that spelled out danger.

Having her creation be watched intently, Barb began getting annoyed. "Oh for the love of- it's just coffee!" she blurted out, her patience wearing thin. "Alright? No pranks. It's too early for that shit right now, so just drink it."

Not wanting to get on Barb's bad side by not drinking, Sunset brought the brim to her lips and she took a small sip, preparing for the absolute worst. She gave it a minute before the disaster settled in. However, after a bit of time, nothing happened. The drink didn't seem to be spiked with fire flakes like she feared. Sunset then took a bigger sip to get more of the taste in her mouth, and there was no catch to it. It really was just coffee. And it was good coffee at that.

"Mm. This is really nice," Sunset complimented, a small smile forming on her face. "Thank you."

"See? Nothing else to it," Barb said.

Sunset's smile turned into one of embarrassment. "Heh. Sorry. Guess I'm still kinda... cautious." She nervously giggled.

Barb rested her elbows on the counter, casting Sunset a devious smile. "Hah! Listen girl, you think I was bad to you, then you really don't wanna know what I've done to others."

Sunset now looked scared. "Yeah. I don't think I do." And she hoped she wouldn't have to experience the same later.

As the demonesses continued to drink their morning coffee, a thought from last night sprung to Barb's mind. "So, you were saying that you wanted to find Satan for a way outta Hell, huh? When do you plan on leaving for that perilous journey?"

Sunset swallowed a gulp that was in her mouth. "Well, just after this coffee actually."

Barb just looked at Sunset sadly. "Aww. Already? Leaving so soon?"

Sunset sat more up straight as she tried to collect her words. "Look, I really appreciate you letting me stay for the night, but I wasn't going to stay for long. I want to be in Hell for as least time as possible. So if I want to do that, I gotta start now."

Barb gripped her mug with both hands. "Well... if you're sure, then I guess I can't stop you," Barb said quietly.

"Thank you."

They both continued drinking with Sunset's mind being set in stone and Barb's being quite lost in thought.

The girls both walked out of the apartment block together with Barb staying by the door and Sunset going down the steps that lead into the apartment.

Sunset turned back and looked at her one-off flatmate. She casted Barbed Wire a kind smile and waved goodbye before she began taking the first few steps into her new journey.

Barb returned the wave with still quite a disappointed look. "Hey, if you're ever back, it's number sixteen, Firelin Street. Remember that."

"I will. Thanks Barb," Sunset finished. She turned away from Barb and continued walking down the street, finally, and officially, beginning her journey through Hell. This was either going to be easy or, for lack of a better word, hell. But Sunset knew that she was a strong enough girl to handle it.

It didn't even take half an hour, but already Sunset couldn't handle this. On her trek to find the way out of the city, she was completely lost in this red concrete jungle. Every street looked the exact same. Not only that, but the city was also humongous! Sunset didn't know where exactly in the city she was, whether she was in the middle or closer to the outskirts, but she was somehow still surrounded by skyscrapers.

Sunset was almost certain that she was going in circles too. Already she has had to take a few double takes due to not immediately seeing the differences between streets, that were right next to eachother, like Scythe Street and Scythes Street. Who was even coming up with these names?! It was driving Sunset insane just trying to think about it.

There was the idea to ask one of the locals for directions again, but she didn't really feel like potentially going through the trouble of angering another demon by unintentionally making fun of them. At this point, however, Sunset wasn't sure if she even had a choice.

She could also just try going in one direction and seeing where that would lead her. It was probably her safest bet, it was just the matter of if it is even the correct direction to go in.

"I'm never getting out of this city," Sunset said quietly to herself.

She looked around herself, searching for the best path to walk continuously forward. The path that was to the left of her current position looked as though it had more promise, so she decided that this will be the path she takes and began walking again.

As she walked, Sunset ensured that she always kept on the same path, which was made pretty difficult with the hundreds of demons that loved to barge past her, causing her to spin around a whole lot. Sunset wasn't even given time to collect her thoughts before more demons barged past her again and again and again. Walking through the moving maze of sinners felt like a greater challenge now.

As she tried making her way past the crowd, she would be constantly met with horrible things being said to her.

"Watch where you're going!"

"You blind or something, jackass?!"

"Get the fuck out of my way!"

It wasn't nice for Sunset to endure to say the least, but she knew that she had to press on further. She could almost be at the end, or be getting further away. She would soon find out.

After a while longer of walking in a straight line, Sunset was finally sure now that she was reaching the end now. In the distance, she could see where the buildings seem to end, and there is an orange light emanating from the ground just ahead. This looked like this was it, and it only took Sunset...

She had lost track of the time at that point, but it was certainly a long time.

Anyway, Sunset continued her journey for just a while longer, and soon enough, she had finally reached the edge of Sinner City. Now the only problem is the giant ocean of lava that apparently surrounded the city.

Sunset inched towards the edge, ensuring that she didn't fall off, and noticed that the city was elevated pretty high above the lava. If Sunset were to take a guess at that moment, she'd say it was about a fifty foot drop.

Now the issue to resolve, how was she to get across? 'It's probably more likely that demons aren't immune to fire and lava. I don't think I want to take the risk to find out if TV actually lied to me,' Sunset thought as she backed away from the edge.

It was time to think of a plan. Sunset tapped her foot as she thought of possible solutions. Perhaps there were lavaproof boats? None that she could see at the moment. Air transport? She definitely didn't have the money for that. She looked at her surroundings once again and almost immediately her eyes were drawn towards a possible solution.

"Maybe I could get across that bridge," Sunset said to herself with a smile. Just further down the road there was a red bridge. It was so long that Sunset couldn't even see the end of it, but it looked intact and sturdy, so it was probably her safest bet.

She walked the distance between her and the bridge, which took her another few minutes, and she was at the entrance to the bridge. There looked to be six lanes on each side of the bridge, with trucks, that were glowing purple for some reason, constantly coming in or leaving the city. Luckily though, there was a pavement on the sides that she could take. So Sunset took a step closer and-

"Stop right there!" someone yelled at Sunset.

Sunset turned around and saw a small, green and pretty overweight looking demon poking out the window of his small booth, holding a hand out towards her as if to stop her.

Sunset wasn't sure what to do, so she just stood in her walking position while glancing left and right to see if anyone else was around her. Eventually, she pointed to herself with a worried grin.

"Yes you, come here!" the uniformed demon instructed.

Sunset closed the gap between the two of them, standing just outside the window of this tiny booth.

"Where do you think you're going?" the demon asked.

"Am I not allowed to cross the bridge?" Sunset returned with another question, crossing her arms.

"Not without a permit, you're not. As the border patrol officer, I can't let you leave the city legally without one. That, and you also don't have the repellent on you it seems."

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "What would I need a repellent for?"

The demon cop threw a thumb in the direction of the lava. "Outside of the city is the home to a giant demon known as the 'Wormillium'. Not much is known about the creature, but it is said that it has a million teeth that can grind through the bones of any demon, leaving no trace of them left! It's one of the biggest monstrosities ever known in Hell."

Sunset looked towards the lava, and lo and behold, in the distance she saw the body of some beast poking out of the surface of the lava. She looked up to then see another bird like demon flying out of the city. After it had flown quite a distance away, from the lava shot up a huge worm creature. It cried out a loud and deep roar as its mouth opened wide, revealing many rows of razor sharp teeth, and swallowed the bird whole. It slowly crashed back down into the molten ocean, sending waves of lava to shoot upwards, but luckily none landed near the bridge.

Sunset froze in terror. Her face was wide eyed with her mouth hanging open with shock. She was really that close to being eaten alive by that thing, if it hadn't been for this demon stopping her.

"Yeah... That's the kinda stuff that will happen if you don't have the repellent. It's scary shit," the patrol officer told her. "If you want a permit and the repellent, you're gonna need to get them from town hall, but only if you've a good enough reason for leaving. You do have one, right?"

Sunset attempted to look away from where she saw the worm demon had struck, but as she turned her head, her eyes barely moved along with her. "Sure I do," she said hesitantly. "Though, what is considered a good reason if you don't mind me asking?"

The patrol officer just returned with a small shrug. "I just let people in and out. I don't get told why I should other than having a form waved in front of me. If you're lucky, you'll be the next."

It now looks like Sunset had to make her way back through the city for a quick stop. "Then I'll just go get one. Don't you go anywhere," Sunset playfully said before leaving the demon cop.

"I haven't left this spot in the last thirty years," the border patrol demon quietly said with a look of exhaustion.

Sunset's next destination was now the city's town hall. That would not be so bad if she had any sort of a clue of where she was even going. She didn't even remember if the path she was taking now was the one she passed before. So much of this city looked the exact same!

Sunset was still trying to hold back the urge to ask for directions, which was evenly matched with her fear of the thousands of demon strangers that she has passed since her arrival. Every demon that Sunset has met so far had quite an amount of aggressiveness to them, and not one them seemed trustworthy at all. But just maybe, she may find a hint of luck and meet an actually friendly demon...

...who is only in Hell because of the sins they had commited. The odds were not on Sunset's side, which was intelligently decided by her, but it a little luck she may get just what she needed.

Sunset just thought, 'Screw it,' and approached the closest demon to her. "Excuse me, do you know where town hall is?" she asked.

The demon she had asked turned around and looked at her. The demon putting his hands in his pockets, he said with a heavy Australian accent, "Ye just gotta go find Da'kwoods Pa'k, and around the otha' side of it you'll find a big buildin' with a bell towa'. That's th' town hall."

"Which street is this down?" Sunset then asked.

The demon pointed behind him at his left. "Down that one. Then take a third right, then a left and you'll find Da'kwoods Pa'k."

Sunset smiled as she began walking in the direction she was told, turning back to wave at the helpful demon. "Thanks a tonne for your help!"

"No problem, mate," the demon said before getting back to his day.

Progress was finally getting made. Soon enough Sunset can leave this hellhole and then it's all just a trek to find the lair, or whatever he lives in, of the devil himself.

Sunset ensured that she carefully followed the kind man's directions as she walked. She just had to find what sounded like the city's big park. Just had to find a place with red trees and grass, if she was going off of the consistency of red that is splattered around every inch of the city.

Eventually, Sunset found the park, and what she was not expecting was that the plant life was gigantic! The trees stood high at around forty to fifty feet. They were even growing over the fence with vines wrapping around the metal bars. This was no park. This was a jungle!

Sunset approached the park and tried to look through the trees to see if the park was populated at all, but with the lack of care clearly shown for the park forest, all she could see was darkness inside and could hear nothing else but birds chirping and the light sound of a cricket chirping. Crickets were apparently a thing in Hell too.

It looked like a mission to try and get through the park... so she just went around it. "As if I'm ever going in there," she said as she confidently strutted on the path on the other side of the park fence. Sunset did not take her eyes away from the dark depths of the park however, as she hoped that maybe someone was really inside and she was foolish to not take what may have been a shortcut. She didn't focus on what could have been, though. Sunset had made her decision and she was going with it, especially what with how close she was to the town hall now.

Sunset came around the corner of the park and was met with a horrible revelation: road works. Sunset had barely seen a demon drive a car and there were road works?! What was worse that beyond the work that was being done, Sunset could see the building with the clock. This was her destination and these maniacs just had to stop her!

There were a few worker demons over by the works. Sunset approached them, not realising the annoyed look that was plastered onto her face. One of the workers noticed Sunset and held a hand out towards her, stopping Sunset in her tracks.

"Step away from the site, ma'am. We're very busy working here," the worker told to Sunset.

Sunset just stood with her arms crossed. "I need to get to town hall. Anyway I could get through, please?" she asked.

"Sorry, ma'am. Only way to town hall is through the park." The worker pointed in the direction Sunset had just come from.

Sunset loud out a loud groan. "You have GOT to be kidding me!" She turned around and stomped her way back to the park's entrance, grumbling something under her breath.

"Ey, Digger. What's with her?" another worker called out from the construction zone.

Digger just gave a shrug. "Meh. Who knows. Back to work now, demons!"

Still grumbling annoyances, Sunset's pace did not falter as she turned into the park. Not even to dramatically look up at the entrance sign as she would prepare to endure whatever lurked within the darkness of the forest. There was none of that.

"Making me walk all the way back here because they just had to also close the sidewalk!" Sunset said as she followed the dirt path in the dark park.

As Sunset continued down the path, it became harder and harder to see as it seemed that this park had no light source. Or at least the lampposts that were scattered around the park were not lit up. The trees all gathered and their branches and leaves completely blocked out the sky above, preventing any light from shining through. All the light that Sunset really had was from the entrance, which wouldn't last her this whole journey.

As Sunset quickly, and angrily, paced through the park, she continued to mumble to herself. "...and now I'm having to walk through this stupid, dumb, dark park after being told to turn back and now-" Sunset then finally paid attention to her current surroundings, and realised she could not see any of it. "And now I'm lost!"

Sunset would then go to spend an embarrassing amount of time wandering around blindly. Tree roots were kicked, cobwebs were walked into, mud puddles were fallen into, and she could swear that a two-headed squirrel tried to bite her tail off. On a few occasions Sunset would finally see a light, walk towards and it turns out it was just the entrance again. Sunset was going nowhere.

However, through trial and error, and guiding herself with the park's fence, Sunset eventually found the exit she needed. She pulled herself into the outside light and laid on the ground, face up and out of breath. She gave a weak fist bump in the air.

The worker demon from before, Digger, walked into Sunset's line of sight, sipping on a steaming cup of coffee. "You made it. Well done!"

"No... thanks... to you," Sunset said inbetween puffs.

Digger held up his hands defensively. "Hey, it's not my fault you didn't decide to go around the other side." He then walked away from Sunset. "Dumbass," he said once he was out of earshot.

"The... other side?" Sunset asked herself. She picked herself up from the ground and sat upright, looking to the opposite side of the road works. It was empty. Sunset could have just gone around the park, and she spent all that time trying to go through... "You. Have got. To be KIDDING ME!"

This day was not exactly going Sunset's way. Progress was rocky. Very rocky. But she seemed to be getting there. She walked into the town hall as a dirty, sweaty mess. She trudged herself up to the reception, holding up all of her weight on her hands that sat flat on the desk. She brought her head up to look at the female demon that sat on the other side of the glass, quickly typing away at her computer.

The female demon turned away from her screen to look at Sunset. She was immediately caught off guard by Sunset's... poor condition. "Uuh... can I help you, ma'am?"

"Is this the place where I talk to someone about getting a repellent for the Wormillion?" Sunset asked.

"Are you referring the 'Wormillium'? Yes, this is where demons would get their permit for the repellent." The receptionist pulled out a few papers and handed them to Sunset through a gap in the glass. "If you just state your business on these forms, then you can have your repellent and access outside of the city."

Sunset took the forms and had a look through everything. She was confused as she looked through the contents the pages had, talking more than just reasons for leaving like that border patrol demon had told her.

"Uuh... is there by any chance that I can have the repellent even if I don't have my own business?" Sunset asked, hoping for a good answer.

The receptionist lady raised a sharp eyebrow at Sunset's question. "I beg you're pardon? Why do you want access to leave the city?"

Sunset paused, afraid to answer. "To just leave?"

"Miss, the repellent is meant for protection of delivered goods and resources or for expanding businesses across more of Hell. We do not pass it around to any demon that wishes to move or have a vacation!" the receptionist explained sternly. "So, either you state your real business for even needing the repellent, or you leave before I call security."

Sunset quickly passed the papers back through the glass, causing them to crumple and wrinkle, and rushed back out of the building.

Barbed Wire sat in her apartment watching TV as she tossed a handful of cheese balls into her mouth. She didnt really understand what she was watching, she had just flipped through some channels and chose one at random.

"And now for the weather report." the TV spoke.

But suddenly her door buzzer started ringing. Barb rose up from her seat and went to pick up the phone that sat close by to her front door.

Barbed Wire leaned against the wall as she held the phone against her ear. "Hello, Barbed Wire speaking."

"Hey Barb, it's Sunset," Sunset greeted embarrassingly.

Barb's eyes gave a cheeky grin which Sunset couldn't see. "Well, well, well. Look who's back already. So, did your plan not go so well?"

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Can I come back in please?"

Barb pushed a button that was under where the phone would sit and hung up the phone. On Sunset's side, the door to the block of flats give a buzzing sound, indicating that it was open. Sunset climbed back up to Barb's apartment, where Barb stood by the door awaiting for Sunset's arrival, still wearing the grin on her face. Sunset just rolled her eyes at Barb.

"It looks like someone failed to mention about the giant monster that blocked the city's exit," Sunset said nonchalantly, crossing her arms.

Barb just gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Must have slipped my mind. But as I kind of expected, your little plan seemed to go up in flames. So, what's the big plan now, Sunny?" Barb asked.

Sunset rubbed the length of her right arm. "I may have to take up on your advice and..." She sighed. "...find a job." She wasn't excited to have to work again, but it seemed that Sunset didn't have much of a choice anymore.

To Sunset's delight, Barb ditched the sly smile and looked at Sunset with more genuine eyes. "Well cool. What kinda job were you thinking about? Paper girl, cashier?" Barb looked up and down Sunset's body. "Stripper?"

Sunset gave a shocked facial expression. "What?! No!" she exclaimed as she suddenly began blushing hard.

"Well think, dammit. What were you good at back on the surface?"

Sunset gave a slight shrug. "I dunno. My first job was being a waitress at a sushi restaurant. So... any fast food places nearby that's hiring?"

I've got an announcement to make here... the entire story of Volume 1 is now planned out! I've got a bunch of new plans at the ready for Sunset and Barb and I think it'll come around to be my greatest project ever.

All of this volume's chapters are laid out and are at the ready right now to be written on. These may take quite a while to make, but I cannot wait for when the real meat of the story arrives.

As for the name of the volume... it's blurred on the cover for a reason. It's kind of a big spoiler for now, and you'll have to wait until later before I can reveal it.

All that said, I hope you've enjoyed the chapter. See you for the next one. Hopefully these Author's Notes aren't so long from here on out.