School is, personally, already a Hell in itself. What with all the expectations and work and forced social interaction, why wouldn't it be? My personal Hell is in fact, where I am shipped off to every day at the ungodly hour of half past five in the morning. Since I view it that way, it's not at all hard for me to imagine it into the fashion of Dante's version of Hell which he explains in his first installment of his trilogy, Divine Comedy.
Here thee, here thee, as I take you into my Hell where the tortured screams of the students can be heard from the very walls.
----
You open your eyes and every color that isn't the shade of the back of your eyelids is interesting to you. 'Where am I?' you think. The air is stiff and makes you unpleasantly hot and sticky and despite the heat, your cold fingers tremble for an unknown reason. You sit up cautiously and look around. The first thing you notice is an arc above you, bearing words in a language foreign to you. The sky tells of confused weather and it looks like it's about to rain but the sun is beating down on you. You look to your right and there, you see me.
Well, hello there. My name is not important but you should know this: I have been instructed to bring you here, to Hell. Come, do not make haste. He will be waiting for you.
You do not know who 'he' is or much of what I'm talking about. But you follow me because I'm all you've got. You pick yourself up off the dusty ground, barely being able to stand properly and together, we walk up to the large arc and below it, there is a big gate. You ask me, "what does that say? Those words on the arc?" and I reply, "it says 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.'" You gulp audibly. You see me open a small circular flap on the gate and whisper something incomprehensible to whoever was on the other side.
And then.
The gates open with an eerie creak, your stomach drops. I put my hand on your back, ushering you forward. You ask me where I'm taking you but I keep quiet, not replying. We travel on foot for you don't know how long. Time works differently in Hell than your mundane world. The place looks desolated as we pass by a building, which says 'JAICA' on top with bold red letters. You can hear pained screams coming from the doors inside and you try your best to block out the sound. We make a left turn from there and walked some more. Another left turn and we went into a building, 'MALIKSI' engraved on it in rusty bronze letters. We walk up the steps and I lead you on to an opening, a view of most of the place visible.
I clap my hands once, twice, and a cloud of smoke shrouds the place. When it clears, you see slaves. They're working everywhere, cleaning out gutters, dusting places we've passed. The new, more morbid aura surrounds you and you pity them.
"This, mortal, is the first circle of Hell. The proud. They remain unseen unless wanted to be seen. They do work, but are unacknowledged, their ego not stroked unlike they're used to it being," I say simply. You remain frozen, still watching the scene around and I think you wouldn't be able to tear your eyes away if I didn't clap my hands once more, covering the slaves in glamour again.
We walk down the steps, and out into the open once again. You worry about bumping into an invisible slave on the way to our next destination. We walk left and take a right turn. We enter a building and in it, the smell of food hits you instantly. The scent has your mouth watering. It smells of baked bread and cookie dough and roast beef and a hundred other scrumptious meals you could think of at once. And you wonder why a place like this would be in Hell.
We walk further in and then you can see why.
"Second circle. For the gluttonous. They're forced to feed these pigs for the rest of their lives while they starve, skin and bones for the rest of their life. If they ever try to eat anything, they'll get eaten right back," I explained. The 'pigs' I was talking about weren't really pigs. They were, you noticed, very large creatures. Red skin, a menacing face, horns protruding from their heads. Demons.
I tug you along, away from the place and as we leave the place, you find yourself not missing the pleasant smell of it at all.
We move along and I leave you fearfully wondering what's next. It didn't take us long to reach the third circle, it was just beside the second one. We went back around the side of the building that housed the second circle and went up a small ramp that lead to the 'JAICA' building you remember we passed. We enter the first door we pass. You can hear screaming and pounding and it makes you frightened. You wonder what kind of violent act is going on in there. I mutter something, an incantation, and the noise coming from the other side of the door silences. You hear the faint dragging of something, you can't really tell what. I open the door but I cover your eyes before you can see anything. I take a hold of your wrist and lead you inside and the place smells of blood and sweat and tears. I remove my hand.
You see tortured souls, their whole bodies wrapped in a tight white bandage-like cloth. There were stains of blood on them and the walls looked scratched-on and worn out and it was as if they'd cave in right at the very minute."This is the third circle. The desperate," I say and you tilt your head to the side in confusion. You ask me what their punishment is. I laugh, "it is unknown what their punishment is. It's forbidden to be spoken of."
A cold shiver runs up your spine. "It must be pretty bad considering all the wailing," you say quietly, in fear that if you'd speak louder, they'd start making those horrid noises again. I shrug and we leave the room. As soon as I close the door, the noises startle you again.
To be honest, that place gave me the creeps too so I walked quicker moving onto our next destination, quite a distance beside the third circle. I open the door and before you could step in, I extend an arm across you, preventing you from entering. I tell you to step back and you do, as do I. We take one, two, three steps back and the door grows larger as if invisible hands were stretching its sides. You notice that a mirror covers it and you see your and my reflection staring right back at us. I say something in an undertone and this time you try to listen. "Patefacio a malo falsi," you hear me say. You don't know what it means.
And then, the mirror ceased to be so. It was now a glass, revealing what was in the room. You see souls kneeling over on the floor, their teeth yellow from the snakes they were throwing up. Demons whip them and they seemed to be yelling something at the souls.
"Fourth circle. It's where the dishonest go, snakes slithering out of their throats while they are whipped to kingdom come."
You nod, and I whisper something yet again, the mirror covering the door once more and before the door could shrink back to normal size, you see your reflection, paler than before and definitely looking scared. I smirk. We continue on and I walk you out of the 'JAICA' building. We walk up to the side of the second circle and the path narrows. To your right, you see a green-walled building and we walk up to it. This one has double doors, you note, unlike the other ones. I open them and the second we step in, a soul bumps into you, not even apologizing. It was chaos. Everyone talked quickly and loudly, running around everywhere, papers strewn in random places of the room. You hear cries of pain and you realize just then that there's broken glass on the floor, wounding their feet and that you and I are floating, just a foot above the ground.
"These are the slothful, in the fifth circle," I pause for a moment and you tear your eyes away from the sight and look at me, "you know, it's true what they say that the devil controls your mind when you're not doing anything. That's why they're all here. A voice in their head is keeping them thinking they have to do something so they're forced to run around the place tearing everything apart thinking that whatever it is is in this room. The broken glass just adds to the fun." I grin wickedly and you bite your lip. We leave the room, our feet back on the ground and we're on our way once more.
I walk confidently, I've been through this place a thousand times before. But you look like you can barely lift your feet forward. We walk until we reach a yellow two-story building. Each floor had just one door. We walk up to the door in the first floor and you hear muffled sounds coming from inside. I ask if you can hold yourself together well. You don't reply so I take that as a yes. I turn the knob and the door opens. We step inside and your eyes widen in fear and shock. On the walls, you see limbs and heads pinned, organs in jars on the floor and blood painting the floors and walls. Your mouth is agape in horror and a silent scream almost escapes you.
"Sixth circle. It's for the violent. I don't think I need to explain what happens here," I say and you nod your head slowly, quickly removing your presence from the room. I lead you to one end of the first floor where the sight of limbs pinned to the wall greets us.
"Would you like to go first?" I ask, gesturing to the wall.
"Is this how we're getting up? We're going to climb these. . .these things?" You ask, your voice squeaking slightly.
"Yes, how else are we getting up?"
"No way, I'm not doing that!" You say and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at your cowardice.
"What a pussy," I say under my breath and with a wave of my hand, we're on the second floor. You breath heavily, not used to the sensation of apparition. It felt like you were on fire, white-hot temperature burning your lungs. Worst two seconds of your life.
We go over to the only door on the second floor and I tell you not to go in. You don't say anything. I open the door, which was larger than the other doors we've seen and inside you see souls lunging at each other, tearing each other apart and hugging parts of each other close to them. Skin, bones, teeth, eyes, limbs, fingernails. It was truly horrifying.
"The seventh circle for the greedy. They're desperate for possession of anything at all and so they basically claw at each other, looking for parts they can say are 'theirs,'" I explain. With a wave of my hand, the door closes. I apparate us back to the first floor and right after, you glare at me.
"I don't like that thing you do. . .that transporting thing," you say.
I shrug and I walk once again to the eighth destination. You follow me, naturally, and we walk down the pathway in front of the two-story building. I lead you as we take a right. We keep going forward until we come across a big empty slab of concrete with a roof over it. There was nothing, no one, in it but you and I and you wonder where the door is. You don't even have to ask for me to answer.
"Blink your eyes three times. Each blink should be two seconds long," I command and you obey because after all, there's no point in not doing what I say.
You blink your eyes thrice and around you, you see the flicker of a light and then, the whole place bursts into flames. All you can see is orange and red and yellow fire. And then, the flames die down to reveal what appeared to be heaven. Clouds were what they walked on and you see merry angels everywhere. You wonder what's wrong with this place. Everything seemed to be fine.
"This," I say, "is the eighth circle of Hell. Fraud. Looks like paradise, right?"
You nod your head, your smile a gentle curve of your lips. Presumably from seeing something so nice when you've been through so many horrible places previously.
"Well, it's all fake," I say, my smile sadistic, "all these angels are just cover-ups. All illusions. The souls are inside of them, experiencing the worst pain imaginable and they can't make it stop. No matter how much they try to cry for help, the illusion blocks it out and anyone who comes here will think it's a nice, happy place. When really, it's not."
With a wave of my hand, the illusion dissipates. It's time for the final circle of hell. I grin wickedly to myself as I walk with you down the pathway leading out. We follow the path, and we come across a field. We walk to the other side of it and I glance at you. You're being all nonchalant, you're much more calm now than before. Maybe it was the comfort of seeing heaven, fake though it is. I should have grabbed one of the 'angels' and tore apart its' skin and let you see the damned soul living in it. That would have shaken you up a bit.
We stand at the edge of a deep hole now and I explain to you.
"This is the final circle. The ninth circle. For the deceitful, the cheaters, betrayers," I say and my eyes trail over to you. You won't take your eyes off of the hole on the ground.
"What's down there?" you ask.
I smirk. "In your time on Earth, mortal, you've been quite mischievous. You want to know what's down there? Find out yourself."
Those were the last words you've heard anyone say before I push you down onto the hole and I hear you screaming and begging for your life. I laugh menacingly. 'All in a day's job,' I think.
Here thee, here thee, as I take you into my Hell where the tortured screams of the students can be heard from the very walls.
----
You open your eyes and every color that isn't the shade of the back of your eyelids is interesting to you. 'Where am I?' you think. The air is stiff and makes you unpleasantly hot and sticky and despite the heat, your cold fingers tremble for an unknown reason. You sit up cautiously and look around. The first thing you notice is an arc above you, bearing words in a language foreign to you. The sky tells of confused weather and it looks like it's about to rain but the sun is beating down on you. You look to your right and there, you see me.
Well, hello there. My name is not important but you should know this: I have been instructed to bring you here, to Hell. Come, do not make haste. He will be waiting for you.
You do not know who 'he' is or much of what I'm talking about. But you follow me because I'm all you've got. You pick yourself up off the dusty ground, barely being able to stand properly and together, we walk up to the large arc and below it, there is a big gate. You ask me, "what does that say? Those words on the arc?" and I reply, "it says 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.'" You gulp audibly. You see me open a small circular flap on the gate and whisper something incomprehensible to whoever was on the other side.
And then.
The gates open with an eerie creak, your stomach drops. I put my hand on your back, ushering you forward. You ask me where I'm taking you but I keep quiet, not replying. We travel on foot for you don't know how long. Time works differently in Hell than your mundane world. The place looks desolated as we pass by a building, which says 'JAICA' on top with bold red letters. You can hear pained screams coming from the doors inside and you try your best to block out the sound. We make a left turn from there and walked some more. Another left turn and we went into a building, 'MALIKSI' engraved on it in rusty bronze letters. We walk up the steps and I lead you on to an opening, a view of most of the place visible.
I clap my hands once, twice, and a cloud of smoke shrouds the place. When it clears, you see slaves. They're working everywhere, cleaning out gutters, dusting places we've passed. The new, more morbid aura surrounds you and you pity them.
"This, mortal, is the first circle of Hell. The proud. They remain unseen unless wanted to be seen. They do work, but are unacknowledged, their ego not stroked unlike they're used to it being," I say simply. You remain frozen, still watching the scene around and I think you wouldn't be able to tear your eyes away if I didn't clap my hands once more, covering the slaves in glamour again.
We walk down the steps, and out into the open once again. You worry about bumping into an invisible slave on the way to our next destination. We walk left and take a right turn. We enter a building and in it, the smell of food hits you instantly. The scent has your mouth watering. It smells of baked bread and cookie dough and roast beef and a hundred other scrumptious meals you could think of at once. And you wonder why a place like this would be in Hell.
We walk further in and then you can see why.
"Second circle. For the gluttonous. They're forced to feed these pigs for the rest of their lives while they starve, skin and bones for the rest of their life. If they ever try to eat anything, they'll get eaten right back," I explained. The 'pigs' I was talking about weren't really pigs. They were, you noticed, very large creatures. Red skin, a menacing face, horns protruding from their heads. Demons.
I tug you along, away from the place and as we leave the place, you find yourself not missing the pleasant smell of it at all.
We move along and I leave you fearfully wondering what's next. It didn't take us long to reach the third circle, it was just beside the second one. We went back around the side of the building that housed the second circle and went up a small ramp that lead to the 'JAICA' building you remember we passed. We enter the first door we pass. You can hear screaming and pounding and it makes you frightened. You wonder what kind of violent act is going on in there. I mutter something, an incantation, and the noise coming from the other side of the door silences. You hear the faint dragging of something, you can't really tell what. I open the door but I cover your eyes before you can see anything. I take a hold of your wrist and lead you inside and the place smells of blood and sweat and tears. I remove my hand.
You see tortured souls, their whole bodies wrapped in a tight white bandage-like cloth. There were stains of blood on them and the walls looked scratched-on and worn out and it was as if they'd cave in right at the very minute."This is the third circle. The desperate," I say and you tilt your head to the side in confusion. You ask me what their punishment is. I laugh, "it is unknown what their punishment is. It's forbidden to be spoken of."
A cold shiver runs up your spine. "It must be pretty bad considering all the wailing," you say quietly, in fear that if you'd speak louder, they'd start making those horrid noises again. I shrug and we leave the room. As soon as I close the door, the noises startle you again.
To be honest, that place gave me the creeps too so I walked quicker moving onto our next destination, quite a distance beside the third circle. I open the door and before you could step in, I extend an arm across you, preventing you from entering. I tell you to step back and you do, as do I. We take one, two, three steps back and the door grows larger as if invisible hands were stretching its sides. You notice that a mirror covers it and you see your and my reflection staring right back at us. I say something in an undertone and this time you try to listen. "Patefacio a malo falsi," you hear me say. You don't know what it means.
And then, the mirror ceased to be so. It was now a glass, revealing what was in the room. You see souls kneeling over on the floor, their teeth yellow from the snakes they were throwing up. Demons whip them and they seemed to be yelling something at the souls.
"Fourth circle. It's where the dishonest go, snakes slithering out of their throats while they are whipped to kingdom come."
You nod, and I whisper something yet again, the mirror covering the door once more and before the door could shrink back to normal size, you see your reflection, paler than before and definitely looking scared. I smirk. We continue on and I walk you out of the 'JAICA' building. We walk up to the side of the second circle and the path narrows. To your right, you see a green-walled building and we walk up to it. This one has double doors, you note, unlike the other ones. I open them and the second we step in, a soul bumps into you, not even apologizing. It was chaos. Everyone talked quickly and loudly, running around everywhere, papers strewn in random places of the room. You hear cries of pain and you realize just then that there's broken glass on the floor, wounding their feet and that you and I are floating, just a foot above the ground.
"These are the slothful, in the fifth circle," I pause for a moment and you tear your eyes away from the sight and look at me, "you know, it's true what they say that the devil controls your mind when you're not doing anything. That's why they're all here. A voice in their head is keeping them thinking they have to do something so they're forced to run around the place tearing everything apart thinking that whatever it is is in this room. The broken glass just adds to the fun." I grin wickedly and you bite your lip. We leave the room, our feet back on the ground and we're on our way once more.
I walk confidently, I've been through this place a thousand times before. But you look like you can barely lift your feet forward. We walk until we reach a yellow two-story building. Each floor had just one door. We walk up to the door in the first floor and you hear muffled sounds coming from inside. I ask if you can hold yourself together well. You don't reply so I take that as a yes. I turn the knob and the door opens. We step inside and your eyes widen in fear and shock. On the walls, you see limbs and heads pinned, organs in jars on the floor and blood painting the floors and walls. Your mouth is agape in horror and a silent scream almost escapes you.
"Sixth circle. It's for the violent. I don't think I need to explain what happens here," I say and you nod your head slowly, quickly removing your presence from the room. I lead you to one end of the first floor where the sight of limbs pinned to the wall greets us.
"Would you like to go first?" I ask, gesturing to the wall.
"Is this how we're getting up? We're going to climb these. . .these things?" You ask, your voice squeaking slightly.
"Yes, how else are we getting up?"
"No way, I'm not doing that!" You say and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at your cowardice.
"What a pussy," I say under my breath and with a wave of my hand, we're on the second floor. You breath heavily, not used to the sensation of apparition. It felt like you were on fire, white-hot temperature burning your lungs. Worst two seconds of your life.
We go over to the only door on the second floor and I tell you not to go in. You don't say anything. I open the door, which was larger than the other doors we've seen and inside you see souls lunging at each other, tearing each other apart and hugging parts of each other close to them. Skin, bones, teeth, eyes, limbs, fingernails. It was truly horrifying.
"The seventh circle for the greedy. They're desperate for possession of anything at all and so they basically claw at each other, looking for parts they can say are 'theirs,'" I explain. With a wave of my hand, the door closes. I apparate us back to the first floor and right after, you glare at me.
"I don't like that thing you do. . .that transporting thing," you say.
I shrug and I walk once again to the eighth destination. You follow me, naturally, and we walk down the pathway in front of the two-story building. I lead you as we take a right. We keep going forward until we come across a big empty slab of concrete with a roof over it. There was nothing, no one, in it but you and I and you wonder where the door is. You don't even have to ask for me to answer.
"Blink your eyes three times. Each blink should be two seconds long," I command and you obey because after all, there's no point in not doing what I say.
You blink your eyes thrice and around you, you see the flicker of a light and then, the whole place bursts into flames. All you can see is orange and red and yellow fire. And then, the flames die down to reveal what appeared to be heaven. Clouds were what they walked on and you see merry angels everywhere. You wonder what's wrong with this place. Everything seemed to be fine.
"This," I say, "is the eighth circle of Hell. Fraud. Looks like paradise, right?"
You nod your head, your smile a gentle curve of your lips. Presumably from seeing something so nice when you've been through so many horrible places previously.
"Well, it's all fake," I say, my smile sadistic, "all these angels are just cover-ups. All illusions. The souls are inside of them, experiencing the worst pain imaginable and they can't make it stop. No matter how much they try to cry for help, the illusion blocks it out and anyone who comes here will think it's a nice, happy place. When really, it's not."
With a wave of my hand, the illusion dissipates. It's time for the final circle of hell. I grin wickedly to myself as I walk with you down the pathway leading out. We follow the path, and we come across a field. We walk to the other side of it and I glance at you. You're being all nonchalant, you're much more calm now than before. Maybe it was the comfort of seeing heaven, fake though it is. I should have grabbed one of the 'angels' and tore apart its' skin and let you see the damned soul living in it. That would have shaken you up a bit.
We stand at the edge of a deep hole now and I explain to you.
"This is the final circle. The ninth circle. For the deceitful, the cheaters, betrayers," I say and my eyes trail over to you. You won't take your eyes off of the hole on the ground.
"What's down there?" you ask.
I smirk. "In your time on Earth, mortal, you've been quite mischievous. You want to know what's down there? Find out yourself."
Those were the last words you've heard anyone say before I push you down onto the hole and I hear you screaming and begging for your life. I laugh menacingly. 'All in a day's job,' I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment