Pitch Black

It's a terrible thing to die in such a way. Shot, and having betrayed the love of your life as your last act.

But it's even worse to watch, to feel them die, and have your soul dragged to Hell along with them.

I thought that dying would be just that; dying. You didn't see, didn't feel, didn't hear. You weren't anything anymore. You were just nothing.

But as soon as I blacked out, I woke once again, with a hole in my chest and in my heart.

The first things I noticed was that my body ached. It was stifling hot. I rose to my feet, realizing I was completely bare. My chest was hurting.

In front of me I saw a tall, dark, hooded figure, just like the one I had seen in Christopher's memories. That was when I was certain I was dead and in Hell. It was all I could do to stop from shaking in fear.

"Jack Dorian Winstead," the figure's voice boomed. "You know why you are here."

I didn't know how to reply. Yes, I knew; I was unfairly dragged down by a Hell creature. But it didn't seem the appropriate time to say such, so I simply nodded.

"You are to spend the rest of eternity here. You will suffer greatly as well, with no chance of a second try from the Council. Start your journey..." The figure pointed a long, bony, sharp-nailed hand to something behind me. I looked, and behind me on the other side of the long, stone bridge was a sort of line. In this line were shivering, scared looking naked men and women, and at the head of them all, a gangly, skinny, mean-looking man holding a whip. I slowly walked towards the line, anticipating what was to happen to me. The man looked down his nose at the bitter, whimpering subjects.

"Stop that sniveling," he said harshly. "You all chose this path did you not? Follow me, I'll give ya the grand tour..." The line began to walk after him, making sure not to fall behind. I noticed that on his back he had wings. "By the way, you're all to call me Master Beelzebub. You'll be seein' me a lot during your stay here, but for many different purposes..." He chuckled sinisterly. As we walked, we drew closer to a door, which he made all of us walk in front of him first, him whipping a few stragglers as well. When we went through this, he entered another section.

Here, I heard drawn out sounds of moaning and passion, but in a very painful tone. on sides of us were cells in which women and men were kept, but the cells were filled with flames as the men and women screamed. It seemed the moaning never ceased, as they were mixed in with screams of the tortured. At the very bottom, there were also people screaming, but more flames licked their bodies more fiercely, and it appeared as though the flames were pushing them around endlessly, like a hurricane, never ceasing to put them down. The sound of it all chilled my bones to the core.

"Welcome to the first step of Purgatory," the man at the head of the line said. "Lust, where the souls of the damned come to cleanse themselves of their non self control. You see those cells to the left and right there? Those souls are being purged temporarily to move up to the other big man. Those flames die down once in a while. But the ones down there..." he indicated the screaming people being whipped about by the flames. "They don't have a chance. The flames continue endlessly. They did something terrible that can't be forgiven. Imagine," the man smirked and looked to the line. "I believe this would be one of your stops." He stepped forward to a young, scared-looking woman. She was very beautiful, but on closer inspection it appeared that her crotch and breast areas was discolored and blackened and very shriveled. Beelzebub looked over her disdainfully.

"Cora Greensford." He said. "You've done some pretty nasty things, eh? Anything that came along, you would fuck in an instant. Too bad it came to bite you in the arse, then, you lost all your pretty little assets. This'll probably burn more than what you caught." He smirked at her, and we all saw tears roll down her eyes and her body begin to shake. In a quick movement, he grabbed her by her shoulders and pushed her over the bridge. Her scream echoed off the walls as she fell, and the fire caught her and begun whipping her about like all the rest.

"See how she was?" Beelzebub said, acting as if he didn't just push someone into a raging fire. "See what happens? Once ya get sent down here for good, your body tells on you. Tells ya how ya died. Can't hide it, it's all out for us to see. What she used for her sin is apparent to all of us." He chuckled as he led the line onto the next door at the end of the bridge. "Nothing more embarrassing than that."

He went through the second door, and in this one, there was just a row of two tables. At these tables were many people who were all waling through stuffed mouths as they forced themselves to eat plate after plate of disgusting-looking food. Most of it was moldy, rancid, or curdling, yet these people continued to stuff it into their mouths, whimpering and crying pitifully.

"Second step of Purgatory!" Beelzebub announced. "Gluttony! Here, people pay for their gluttonous deeds by eating their fill of the food they'd rather not have. Once you sit down, you can never get up and you force yourself to eat this rubbish. Terrible punishment indeed. The ones at the table are here for eternity, but the ones in the cells, temporary." He swept the crowd with squinting eyes, and suddenly pointed. ""You! Kennith Mannor!" A rather large man amongst us began to shiver and whimper just as the last woman had before stepping up.

"Well, look at this porker here, everyone!" Beelzebub said, chuckling. He flicked the man on his nose, and a pig snout reappeared in place of where his nose had been. Beelzebub took him by his shoulder, and over to one of the tables. The poor man instantly dove his face into the plate in front of him and began eating like a swine.

"Enjoy it." Beelzebub spat as he took his place in front of the line once again and led us through five more sections, which were greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. I saw horrific scenes I thought I would never see my entire life, of people screaming and wailing in angst with horrific inflictions cast upon their bodies, men burning in a sea of treasures that were searing against their bodies and sticking to them. Women having to relive scenes of their past lovers being taken by women they had set out to kill, not being able to forget their deeds. People dragging heavy chains behind them as they walked, only to have the chains get heavier and heavier. It was like many paintings and drawings I had seen in church books Christopher had and pointed out, ancient and famous paintings.

Christopher...

The line dwindled down until myself and a couple others were left to follow Beelzebub through many passages and hallways. We were led down a sort of downward incline, and the screams of the tortured were less prominent, and the heat from the fire down below was less intense. The change in the atmosphere unnerved me, if possible, even more. Beelzebub looked behind.

"Hmm, this is the last of you, eh?" He said. "You all are what we referred to as, "The Captured." He opened the final door in front of him, and what came was a cold room just filled with dark cells. It was almost completely quiet in this room, and the only sounds being heard were whimpers as other men in the room cracked their whips in the cells of people who even uttered the tiniest sound. "It has to be completely quiet so the inmates can relive their worst moments in silence."

"Right here is where we put the people who have murdered or been taken by one of the Blood Society, who's just next door. That's off limits, of course, but just to tell you, the Blood Society's full of our kind that just like to fuck up people's lives and drag em down to Hell. The First Hell Creatures if you will. They love drinking blood and are considered the second-in-commands to the big guy himself, and have access to the living world and Hell just to drag poor suckers like you down here in human bodies. Extremely exclusive as well. You'll see lots of em during your eternity stay here." He led us into this room, and I noticed at the very, very end of the long hallway in the room was a single, bolted-down door. "That's where the Blood Society keeps their most repeated offender. Had to make a special little room for him, best not want to get too close near that door. Alright, you bleeders, start lining up for your cell!"

At this point he started putting us into our cells. I had burning curiosity for the door that led to the high-security, but my curiosity was cut off too soon. As soon as I was locked into the cell, horrible visions began to seep steadily into my head. Images of watching Christopher die, gashing his back just to lengthen his time to live, watching him on the train floor struggling as the burning in his back weakened him. I had to cover my own mouth to stop from wailing, and tears began to leak from my eyes. I crumpled on the cell floor, feeling defeated, broken, lost, and scared. I realized, that because of everything that had happened, it had ended like this.

I was to spend eternity, in this cell, my soul to relive these horrible moments and suffer. Forever.