Categories > Original > Fantasy > The Afterlife Unraveled
Chapter 4: Pride, Lust, and Free Will
Hey, it's been awhile since I last posted a chapter. I apologize to my loyal readers for having to wait longer to read the next chapter. I try to post once every week, but midterms and exams and papers got in the way. Sigh, what a pain! Obviously, writing stories is much more important than doing homework. (I'm a freshman at Kent State University and my major is art education.) Okay, no one cares about my rambling so I will continue with the story....
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A cool wind shook the moaning tree branches, and the air rippled among the tall grasses. A castle stood crumbling in the middle of the grassy valley. It sagged, vacant, a dark sore against the gray sky. The land was illuminated by a quiet sheen of light, but many shadows still fell along the edges. Melancholy souls roamed the desolate land, ignoring the new arrivals.
"This is Limbo, Level One," Charon announced, his voice sharp against the quiet surroundings. "This is where the boy will spend the rest of eternity."
Shawn viewed the place with apprehension. There was no punishment here, but it certainly wasn't a fun place for a little boy.
"Well, go on," Charon said with impatience, poking the boy with the end of his cane.
Shawn whimpered but said nothing. Sophia hugged the boy closely for the last time. No one said anything as there was nothing anyone could say. As Sophia hugged Shawn, he became more transparent and his features more hidden as if his face was under a cloth. He now was part of the landscape permanently. Sophia let him go, and quietly he went to walk the desolate valley forever.
Sadly, Alexander watched him go.
"He is not Shawn anymore," he observed. "Just a ghost of his former self."
The three of them left Shawn to turn to their own fate.
A gate appeared before them, floating just above the ground. The iron wrought skeleton gate slowly creaked open, allowing them to enter the second level.
Sophia, Alexander, and Charon walked into the second level on a high, rickety bridge that cut through the level. Below, a sea surged as the waves tossed and tormented the souls in its grasp.
"This is the level of the lustful. They are doomed to be molested by the sea of rage forever," Charon, their unexpected tour guide, told them.
Charon shook his head. "Lust is horrible thing."
Alexander looked at him to continue, but Charon did not elaborate.
"Why is it a horrible thing? I mean, it is the force that drives procreation."
"It is different for humans. Humans are always in heat and not for all the right reasons do they engage in sex. Mostly, it is to feed their unquenching lust that never is satisfied for long. They will go from partner to partner, the partner may even be unwilling, because they are addicted to the pleasure, but lust is a horrible thing. It leaves you burning on the outside, but cold on the inside. This is because the deeper force of humans is love, or the lack thereof. Love can be beautiful in its pure form, but when love is denied to an individual, he will find anything to fill the gap, but since nothing can ever fill the gap for long, the individual will fall a destructive cycle, searching endlessly for the love he can't have. He will fill it, maybe by living in excess, maybe by being greedy with wealth and power, maybe by being addicted to lust."
They continued carefully, trying not to slip and fall into the raging sea of screams and waves.
"Pride, lust, and free will," Sophia said soberly.
Alexander looked at her quickly. That was the first time that she has spoken since they first arrived in hell.
Charon nodded in agreement at what Sophia had said.
Alexander didn't know what Sophia was talking about, but before he could ask her, the next gate appeared.
The next level was for the punishment of the gluttons, those who lived life in excess, and now they sink in the foul mud and water. Sloshing and moaning, the souls are now totally devoid of any luxury. The rain keeps coming, never stopping, making the mud rise around them, making the mud rise to their mouth, their nose, their eyes.
"In the beginning of time, there was no hell. Only angels who served God's will. All the angels were equal, only inferior to God. God proclaimed that to show him respect, the angels must bow before him, and it was so. However, after the world of the humans was created, God ordered that the angels must also bow to the humans, because humans were superior to the angels. Some of the angels were angered at this because before they only had to bow to God, but now that order was changed. Some refused to bow to the humans. Some of this disobedience came from pride. They did not believe that these new creations were somehow superior to them.
Others looked into the human world and lusted after the human women. They intermarried and created a species of giants, Nephilim. Lucifer, one of the angels, prided himself that he was equal to God. Then, acting out of his free will, he schemed to share God's throne and persuaded other angels to join him. All of this was sinful and God was angered. He condemned Lucifer and the other angels who have sinned out of heaven. They were now the fallen angels, and Lucifer was their leader."
The next gate opened and they entered the Fourth Level, the level of the avaricious, those who have lived for wealth and who have hoarded greedily for themselves. Now they rolled massive stones up a high hill, only for the stones to fall back down to the bottom. They would always repeat this purposeless punishment.
"Pride, lust, and free will . . . those are the three sins of the angels and the three major sins that turn one away from God," Sophia finished.
The lightning seared the chaotic sky and the ground rumbled viciously. The massive stones rocked around violently, so the souls lost control of them and rushed down the hill after the stones as the storm cackled above them as if it was provoking more misery for its own amusement.
"But why those three?" Alexander asked as they continued walking.
"Pride, because when one's ego gets inflated, one thinks that he is like a god and will act as he sees fit, like Lucifer. Lust, because one is worshipping the body's desires and not God. Free will, because if one is acting out of his own, he is not acting out God's will and that is wrong."
"So, it's God's way or the highway, huh?" Alexander replied, half amused. "Then God is like a tyrant?"
Sophia instantly started to disagree with Alexander but stopped. "That could be argued. But God is merciful and loves everyone, including the sinners, and that is the difference between Him and other tyrants."
Another gate led them to the fifth level, those who had led a vengeful and hateful life. The putrid of hate oozed out of the black, sickly acid as the souls slopped through it, half eaten away. Some of the souls only floated in the acid, blowing bubbles in the acid as they scornfully sang their own lamentations. Others ripped and tore and snarled at each other, thrashing in the gunk of sewage.
"Well, I feel the love here," Alexander said sarcastically.
"They do have to repent for their sins on earth," Sophia retorted, some of her old spirit coming back.
Close by, two souls fought each other with their mouths full of venom. One pushed the other toward the passer-bys; the soul slid toward Sophia and grabbed her by the ankle. She screamed and tried in vain to break the wretched soul's grasp.
With rotten teeth and an acid stained tongue, the soul gasped, "You're the angel . . . heh, heh, that has joined us in HELL!"
The soul cackled viciously and started to grab Sophia with the other hand. Alexander quickly kicked the soul aside.
"Don't touch her!" Alexander shouted furiously.
The soul cringed for a moment but vengefully said, "You're no better off than her!"
Alexander's jaw clenched as he realized the truth. He started to lash out a reply, but Charon stopped him.
"Don't," he said firmly, using his cane to put a barrier between Alexander and the soul. "These souls feed on hate, and it will do no good to attract trouble. Besides, the City of Dis is before us." Now, Charon pointed in the near distance through an open gate. "It is Level Six, where heretics are eternally punished."
"How did that soul know about Sophia and me?" Alexander asked, returning to the previous topic.
Charon said offhandedly, "Everyone, even the lowest worm, knows about you two."
The acid swamps subsided into fire-burnt fields where smoke billowed off the land into the sky. Bonfires, fueled by coffins full of heretics, plagued the land. Some of the heretics were walking torches, appearing and disappearing in the heavy smog. The charred grass crunched beneath their feet as the three walked towards the City of Dis, Satan's city of glory. The city loomed before them; iron crusted high walls flickered with flames of the damned.
The high gate of the city opened to them, blood dripping, falling, licking its way down the iron bars.
"The Seven Level of hell . . ." Alexander's voice trailed off in terrific amazement.
Gushing, falling blood streamed down like red waterfalls into the pit of boiling blood. The blood churned and swirled, and the stench of the hot blood rose up in waves. Screeching like banshees, the Harpies, evil birds with human faces and squinted eyes, flapped and circled over head while seeking out their prey. One Harpy's chin dribbled with the blood of a soul whose insides were being torn out. Other Harpies perched on the twisted tree branches that grew out of the sides of the pit. These branches were littered with hundreds of swinging ropes that held souls by their necks. Inside the pit, islands of rock were a sort of refugee to the souls who tried to escape from the lava-like blood. On these islands, however, fights broke out between the souls and souls were continuously being tossed into the boiling sea of blood.
"The level of the murderers of others and of themselves," Charon said.
They stood on a small rock, barely enough room for the three of them. Alexander held Sophia close, so she wouldn't fall in. He realized that she was very cold to the touch; he looked down to see her face, and her face was speckled with blood.
"Why you so cold?" Alexander worried as he wiped away the blood. She did not answer but took her hand to her hair to brush it out of her face. With a sharp pain of realization, Alexander saw that Sophia was changing. Her fingers ended in claws, her teeth were fangs, and she ... she was so cold.
"Sophia," Alexander said softly, his heart in his throat. "You're changing...into a demon."
Her faded eyes looked into his. "I know...it's because I...cannot forgive God...how can he do this to me? Was my sin so terrible? Why..." she gulped, fighting down the tears.
Alexander was surprised at her amount of emotion. She was always matter-of-fact and dispassionate, but now....
"Look out!" Charon shouted at them as a Harpy swooped down upon them. It screeched as Charon kept it off with his cane. "Get out of here!"
It sideswiped the cane and grabbed Charon by the arm and dug its teeth in his neck. He flailed around, trying to throw it off.
Using his Grim Reaper powers, Alexander zapped the bird with his dark energy. It screamed bloody Mary, and everything, from Harpies to souls, turned in their direction.
"Idiot!" Charon yelled at him. "What did I tell you about using your powers! 'Don't attract attention'! Didn't I tell you that?!"
"Sorry that I was trying to save you from being devoured alive!" Alexander spat back.
With one, unified screech, the Harpies descended upon them.
"We got to get out of here!" Charon yelled desperately.
"Where's the gate?" Alexander asked, furiously searching around for it.
Suddenly, the gate appeared before them. The perfect timing did not escape them, and they were suspicious of why it only appeared now.
The Harpies swooped around it, not allowed to enter another level.
Seizing their chance, they walked through it; Charon hobbling, and Alexander carrying Sophia, for she was too weak to stand anymore.
Alexander set Sophia down on the stone cobbled ground. She was weaker now, and she took labored breaths. She couldn't lie flat on her back because lumps of wings started to grow. Not the feathery, white wings of heaven, but the black, scaly, ragged wings of the demons, the wings of hell.
"Sophia, I will save you from this fate," Alexander whispered.
Charon hobbled over to him, holding his wounded arm. "Don't you get it? You can't save her. You can't even save yourself. Sorry, you're not the hero of this story."
Alexander didn't pay attention to Charon. He propped Sophia's head on his shoulder, trying to ease her pain. He didn't pay attention to the antics of the sinful: the prostitutes, the pimps, the panhandlers, the fortune tellers, the thieves, in essence, the street sin. He didn't pay attention to his own aches of transformation. He only paid attention to Sophia's hand, her hand that laid on his chest, on his heart.
The last gate appeared before them. The gate to the Ninth Level, where Satan himself resided.
-End of Chapter 4-
For more information, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallen_angels
Seriously, you don't know how much research I had to do for this story.
Hey, it's been awhile since I last posted a chapter. I apologize to my loyal readers for having to wait longer to read the next chapter. I try to post once every week, but midterms and exams and papers got in the way. Sigh, what a pain! Obviously, writing stories is much more important than doing homework. (I'm a freshman at Kent State University and my major is art education.) Okay, no one cares about my rambling so I will continue with the story....
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A cool wind shook the moaning tree branches, and the air rippled among the tall grasses. A castle stood crumbling in the middle of the grassy valley. It sagged, vacant, a dark sore against the gray sky. The land was illuminated by a quiet sheen of light, but many shadows still fell along the edges. Melancholy souls roamed the desolate land, ignoring the new arrivals.
"This is Limbo, Level One," Charon announced, his voice sharp against the quiet surroundings. "This is where the boy will spend the rest of eternity."
Shawn viewed the place with apprehension. There was no punishment here, but it certainly wasn't a fun place for a little boy.
"Well, go on," Charon said with impatience, poking the boy with the end of his cane.
Shawn whimpered but said nothing. Sophia hugged the boy closely for the last time. No one said anything as there was nothing anyone could say. As Sophia hugged Shawn, he became more transparent and his features more hidden as if his face was under a cloth. He now was part of the landscape permanently. Sophia let him go, and quietly he went to walk the desolate valley forever.
Sadly, Alexander watched him go.
"He is not Shawn anymore," he observed. "Just a ghost of his former self."
The three of them left Shawn to turn to their own fate.
A gate appeared before them, floating just above the ground. The iron wrought skeleton gate slowly creaked open, allowing them to enter the second level.
Sophia, Alexander, and Charon walked into the second level on a high, rickety bridge that cut through the level. Below, a sea surged as the waves tossed and tormented the souls in its grasp.
"This is the level of the lustful. They are doomed to be molested by the sea of rage forever," Charon, their unexpected tour guide, told them.
Charon shook his head. "Lust is horrible thing."
Alexander looked at him to continue, but Charon did not elaborate.
"Why is it a horrible thing? I mean, it is the force that drives procreation."
"It is different for humans. Humans are always in heat and not for all the right reasons do they engage in sex. Mostly, it is to feed their unquenching lust that never is satisfied for long. They will go from partner to partner, the partner may even be unwilling, because they are addicted to the pleasure, but lust is a horrible thing. It leaves you burning on the outside, but cold on the inside. This is because the deeper force of humans is love, or the lack thereof. Love can be beautiful in its pure form, but when love is denied to an individual, he will find anything to fill the gap, but since nothing can ever fill the gap for long, the individual will fall a destructive cycle, searching endlessly for the love he can't have. He will fill it, maybe by living in excess, maybe by being greedy with wealth and power, maybe by being addicted to lust."
They continued carefully, trying not to slip and fall into the raging sea of screams and waves.
"Pride, lust, and free will," Sophia said soberly.
Alexander looked at her quickly. That was the first time that she has spoken since they first arrived in hell.
Charon nodded in agreement at what Sophia had said.
Alexander didn't know what Sophia was talking about, but before he could ask her, the next gate appeared.
The next level was for the punishment of the gluttons, those who lived life in excess, and now they sink in the foul mud and water. Sloshing and moaning, the souls are now totally devoid of any luxury. The rain keeps coming, never stopping, making the mud rise around them, making the mud rise to their mouth, their nose, their eyes.
"In the beginning of time, there was no hell. Only angels who served God's will. All the angels were equal, only inferior to God. God proclaimed that to show him respect, the angels must bow before him, and it was so. However, after the world of the humans was created, God ordered that the angels must also bow to the humans, because humans were superior to the angels. Some of the angels were angered at this because before they only had to bow to God, but now that order was changed. Some refused to bow to the humans. Some of this disobedience came from pride. They did not believe that these new creations were somehow superior to them.
Others looked into the human world and lusted after the human women. They intermarried and created a species of giants, Nephilim. Lucifer, one of the angels, prided himself that he was equal to God. Then, acting out of his free will, he schemed to share God's throne and persuaded other angels to join him. All of this was sinful and God was angered. He condemned Lucifer and the other angels who have sinned out of heaven. They were now the fallen angels, and Lucifer was their leader."
The next gate opened and they entered the Fourth Level, the level of the avaricious, those who have lived for wealth and who have hoarded greedily for themselves. Now they rolled massive stones up a high hill, only for the stones to fall back down to the bottom. They would always repeat this purposeless punishment.
"Pride, lust, and free will . . . those are the three sins of the angels and the three major sins that turn one away from God," Sophia finished.
The lightning seared the chaotic sky and the ground rumbled viciously. The massive stones rocked around violently, so the souls lost control of them and rushed down the hill after the stones as the storm cackled above them as if it was provoking more misery for its own amusement.
"But why those three?" Alexander asked as they continued walking.
"Pride, because when one's ego gets inflated, one thinks that he is like a god and will act as he sees fit, like Lucifer. Lust, because one is worshipping the body's desires and not God. Free will, because if one is acting out of his own, he is not acting out God's will and that is wrong."
"So, it's God's way or the highway, huh?" Alexander replied, half amused. "Then God is like a tyrant?"
Sophia instantly started to disagree with Alexander but stopped. "That could be argued. But God is merciful and loves everyone, including the sinners, and that is the difference between Him and other tyrants."
Another gate led them to the fifth level, those who had led a vengeful and hateful life. The putrid of hate oozed out of the black, sickly acid as the souls slopped through it, half eaten away. Some of the souls only floated in the acid, blowing bubbles in the acid as they scornfully sang their own lamentations. Others ripped and tore and snarled at each other, thrashing in the gunk of sewage.
"Well, I feel the love here," Alexander said sarcastically.
"They do have to repent for their sins on earth," Sophia retorted, some of her old spirit coming back.
Close by, two souls fought each other with their mouths full of venom. One pushed the other toward the passer-bys; the soul slid toward Sophia and grabbed her by the ankle. She screamed and tried in vain to break the wretched soul's grasp.
With rotten teeth and an acid stained tongue, the soul gasped, "You're the angel . . . heh, heh, that has joined us in HELL!"
The soul cackled viciously and started to grab Sophia with the other hand. Alexander quickly kicked the soul aside.
"Don't touch her!" Alexander shouted furiously.
The soul cringed for a moment but vengefully said, "You're no better off than her!"
Alexander's jaw clenched as he realized the truth. He started to lash out a reply, but Charon stopped him.
"Don't," he said firmly, using his cane to put a barrier between Alexander and the soul. "These souls feed on hate, and it will do no good to attract trouble. Besides, the City of Dis is before us." Now, Charon pointed in the near distance through an open gate. "It is Level Six, where heretics are eternally punished."
"How did that soul know about Sophia and me?" Alexander asked, returning to the previous topic.
Charon said offhandedly, "Everyone, even the lowest worm, knows about you two."
The acid swamps subsided into fire-burnt fields where smoke billowed off the land into the sky. Bonfires, fueled by coffins full of heretics, plagued the land. Some of the heretics were walking torches, appearing and disappearing in the heavy smog. The charred grass crunched beneath their feet as the three walked towards the City of Dis, Satan's city of glory. The city loomed before them; iron crusted high walls flickered with flames of the damned.
The high gate of the city opened to them, blood dripping, falling, licking its way down the iron bars.
"The Seven Level of hell . . ." Alexander's voice trailed off in terrific amazement.
Gushing, falling blood streamed down like red waterfalls into the pit of boiling blood. The blood churned and swirled, and the stench of the hot blood rose up in waves. Screeching like banshees, the Harpies, evil birds with human faces and squinted eyes, flapped and circled over head while seeking out their prey. One Harpy's chin dribbled with the blood of a soul whose insides were being torn out. Other Harpies perched on the twisted tree branches that grew out of the sides of the pit. These branches were littered with hundreds of swinging ropes that held souls by their necks. Inside the pit, islands of rock were a sort of refugee to the souls who tried to escape from the lava-like blood. On these islands, however, fights broke out between the souls and souls were continuously being tossed into the boiling sea of blood.
"The level of the murderers of others and of themselves," Charon said.
They stood on a small rock, barely enough room for the three of them. Alexander held Sophia close, so she wouldn't fall in. He realized that she was very cold to the touch; he looked down to see her face, and her face was speckled with blood.
"Why you so cold?" Alexander worried as he wiped away the blood. She did not answer but took her hand to her hair to brush it out of her face. With a sharp pain of realization, Alexander saw that Sophia was changing. Her fingers ended in claws, her teeth were fangs, and she ... she was so cold.
"Sophia," Alexander said softly, his heart in his throat. "You're changing...into a demon."
Her faded eyes looked into his. "I know...it's because I...cannot forgive God...how can he do this to me? Was my sin so terrible? Why..." she gulped, fighting down the tears.
Alexander was surprised at her amount of emotion. She was always matter-of-fact and dispassionate, but now....
"Look out!" Charon shouted at them as a Harpy swooped down upon them. It screeched as Charon kept it off with his cane. "Get out of here!"
It sideswiped the cane and grabbed Charon by the arm and dug its teeth in his neck. He flailed around, trying to throw it off.
Using his Grim Reaper powers, Alexander zapped the bird with his dark energy. It screamed bloody Mary, and everything, from Harpies to souls, turned in their direction.
"Idiot!" Charon yelled at him. "What did I tell you about using your powers! 'Don't attract attention'! Didn't I tell you that?!"
"Sorry that I was trying to save you from being devoured alive!" Alexander spat back.
With one, unified screech, the Harpies descended upon them.
"We got to get out of here!" Charon yelled desperately.
"Where's the gate?" Alexander asked, furiously searching around for it.
Suddenly, the gate appeared before them. The perfect timing did not escape them, and they were suspicious of why it only appeared now.
The Harpies swooped around it, not allowed to enter another level.
Seizing their chance, they walked through it; Charon hobbling, and Alexander carrying Sophia, for she was too weak to stand anymore.
Alexander set Sophia down on the stone cobbled ground. She was weaker now, and she took labored breaths. She couldn't lie flat on her back because lumps of wings started to grow. Not the feathery, white wings of heaven, but the black, scaly, ragged wings of the demons, the wings of hell.
"Sophia, I will save you from this fate," Alexander whispered.
Charon hobbled over to him, holding his wounded arm. "Don't you get it? You can't save her. You can't even save yourself. Sorry, you're not the hero of this story."
Alexander didn't pay attention to Charon. He propped Sophia's head on his shoulder, trying to ease her pain. He didn't pay attention to the antics of the sinful: the prostitutes, the pimps, the panhandlers, the fortune tellers, the thieves, in essence, the street sin. He didn't pay attention to his own aches of transformation. He only paid attention to Sophia's hand, her hand that laid on his chest, on his heart.
The last gate appeared before them. The gate to the Ninth Level, where Satan himself resided.
-End of Chapter 4-
For more information, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallen_angels
Seriously, you don't know how much research I had to do for this story.
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