What’s New?

Hi there. Yeah, I know. It’s been a gazillion years since I’ve been on here. I’m sure I’ll get into it eventually, but the basic story is that I’ve had very low motivation for several months now, especially in terms of my writing. I am writing at least something every day, still keeping up with my 300 words at least daily. Many of them have been journal entries or brainstorming on ideas I’m working on. Getting ready for this year’s NaNo again (yeah, my last entry was about last year’s and now another one is just around the corner).

In the meantime, here is something different. At the most recent meeting of the Pocono Liars Club, I brought up a story I wrote for an English class my senior year of high school, in April 1998. After reading Dante, we had the option of writing our own version of hell. Here is my somewhat embarrassing offering. And if you laugh (you will), understand I was 17. Enjoy!

A Vision of Hell

Michael Karpe – 4/14/1998 – 2,030 words

I thought I knew it all. I knew how good and bad life could be. But I was mistaken. I was starting to age, my strides coming harder, yet bringing me further as Time’s gravity carried down the slope of age. In my stupidity, I called this process torture and asked if there was a God. If there was, how could a righteous man, such as myself, be subjected to such torture.

I needed to be shown the light by some other source. All of what is about to come happened to me in my sleep. Some called me crazy for believing what was so obviously a dream, but I hold to my beliefs. This was shown to me for a reason.

A night on the town with some friends from work had ended. In my stupor, I crashed on the bed, deep in self-pity and regret of things gone long ago. Seconds after I had closed my eyes, they re-opened.

Before me was a dark field. I had seen plains like this in my childhood, standing amongst crops that had been poisoned out by Man’s chemicals. The field was devoid of all life. It spelled out the word death very clearly. My eyes were drawn to the sky, which was gray and cloud-ridden. On the horizon, far away, I saw what appeared to be a tunnel of light leading to the stars. Everything in my soul told me to go there.

My steps came slowly. Small, filthy rats and snakes crawled around on the ground. After some distance, I came upon a vast crevice in the dark ground. Never before had the earth been cracked this deep. I was sure it went down forever, but fog blocked my sight. The crevice went left and right for as long as I could see. I was stuck. No further could I go.

Light filled the air around me and the disgusting creatures at my feet fled. I looked up to see the face of my eldest brother. He had died years ago in a terrible accident. Tears began to fall from my face.

“Brother,” he said, “you have strayed from the path of the good. I have come to you in hopes of taking any thoughts of blaspheme from your head. Take my hand, and I will show you what true torture is. You will see that your life is very good, indeed.”

I took my brother’s hand and he carried me into the foggy crevice. I was frightened at first, but he showed me I didn’t need to fear. After some time, we came to the floor. There, my eyes were met with an immense group of nude people, standing on a furry black carpet. The carpet shot high into the air, as if dusted in the wind. The sinners standing there were shot into the air.

“These are the lustful souls, brother. As their flights of lust dominated their life, so they must remain in Hell.” I was puzzled, but my brother grabbed me and off we flew into the dark fog.

After some distance, the fog began to clear again. Before me were thousands of sinners standing before a great rounded cliff. While filled with rage, they attempted to climb onto each other to get to the top.

“Money has led to many sins, brother. Amongst these souls are embezzlers, cheaters, and sellers of office.” Close by, one sinner passed the half-way mark up the cliff. His tears dripped down his face. I cried out in terror as a terrible demon, black as night with the features of every foul beast known to man approached. The demon produced a long sword, which he stabbed into the back of the climber. The sinner screamed in pain and fell amongst his peers.

At that, my brother picked me up and brought me through the fog. After a few minutes, a vast lake became clear to me. It met a large cliff. As we descended, I focused on millions of sinners floating near the cliff.

“Here are the evil counselors. They spoke evil thoughts. Do you see that jet of slime shooting from the cliff? That is their guilt which drowns them for eternity.”

I saw what he spoke of. A hug outcropping of the smooth cliff was half-hidden by a waterfall of blood, slime, and every other putrid liquid known to man. I still did not understand where I was.

Again we flew. My feet touched upon a large field covered with huge jutting structures, shaped like rotten trees. Some distance away, a never-ending fight was under way. Millions of sinners ran from menacing demons, clawing each other in the process. I saw one sinner torn to pieces, and then return just as quickly.

“The wrathful are punished here. They were consumed by anger. Now they must show it forever. Notice how close they get to that lake you see.” My brother pointed to the distance. There, I saw a crimson lake that went out for miles into the fog. I knew right away it had to be blood. Peering into the lake, I noticed souls swimming around, being terrorized by demons of fire.

“Brother,” I asked, “who are those sinners who are tormented by blood and fire down below?”

“Those are the murderers. They lived for blood, so they stay bathed in what they created. Furthermore, each one down below feels all the pain and sorrow they caused both in their victims and the ones their victims left behind. Come down with me.”

We floated down to the murderers. Swimming in the blood, I saw Hitler, Dahmer, and other faces I recognized from books. Every soul there screamed out in pain, and cried in sorrow.

Once again, we floated away. Another great field met my feet. Thousands of sinners ran around, crouched on their knees. Every so often, they would eat from the ground, which bled and convulsed when they chewed it. My gaze met the eyes of a sinner. As he wolfed down pieces of the ground, he exploded. It seemed his stomach had reached its capacity.

“These must be the gluttons, right?” I asked.

“Yes. Their constant hunger was their sin.” As I was picked up again, I noticed hundred of other souls rushing to the remains of the exploded body. They began picking at them and eating the remains as he reformed in the middle of it to fight them off.

After some minutes, we landed. “Behold the greedy,” my brother told me. I saw a field covered with maggots and worms. Nude souls ran about collecting great heaps of the bugs, only to be beaten by another soul who wished to steal them back again.

“Greed was as ugly in life as it is in Hell. They never realized the lack of value of the material they were collecting. Maybe now they do.”

Through the fog we went into the middle of two huge cliffs. On each side were souls clawing their way into the sides. Suddenly, the cliffs began to move together in a huge cataclysmal earthquake.

“These are panders and seducers. They disgraced love in life. Now they are forever crushed against each other, since their crimes were very similar.”

“Brother, how do these cliffs return to their state? What drives them together?” I was very confused about what was going on.

“You will understand soon, brother.”

We flew to a great cave, in which I saw great formations hung in rows. The cave went down for farther than I could tell.

“These are the betrayers. You may not recognize many, but there is Benedict Arnold, traitor to his nation. Also, there are the biblical figures of Cain and Judas. Their betrayal is known by all. In this cave, souls feel the pain of everyone they betrayed.”

I stared in awe until suddenly, the cave began to collapse. My brother took me high into the black fog.

“Brother,” I pleaded, “please make it clear to me. What is going on?”

“Let the fog dissipate and maybe from this great height you will be able to tell.”

The black clouds swept away and I looked down in fear. I saw a demon. He was uglier than anything I had ever seen. Fur covered his body, which was stretched out on the floor of the crevice. It was the largest thing I had ever seen. He had to be miles long. I knew he had to be Satan.

“Behold Satan, brother. Now you will understand the nature of Hell. All sinners in Hell are punished on Satan’s body. Since he directly rebelled against God, he is stuck here for eternity, covered with all the world’s sins. Notice how their places on his body can be tied in with their sin.

“Look to his wings, flapping about. The souls being tossed are the lustful and carnal. They are forever thrown in the air, much as their carnal appetites aimlessly strayed in the air.

“Those on his hoofs are the embezzlers. They try to climb up the ladder of success by unnatural means, standing on each other only to be stabbed in the back and ripped back down.

“There around his head is the lake of tears, in which the evil counselors float. The jet of slime coming from his ear covers them in guilt. As they fed evil thoughts into peoples’ ears in life, now they are covered by the evil pus and blood streaming from Satan’s ears.

“Notice his one hand is stuck in a fist. That fist forms the cliffs around the lake of blood on which the wrathful engage in their eternal brawl. The blood of all the sinners pours off of his body to collect around his hand, where the murderers are punished.

“On his other hand are the greedy. Notice how that hand is open, as if grabbing for money. The maggots the souls collect can be seen as the meaningless material wealth they craved so greatly.

“His stomach holds the gluttons. In their constant hunger, they eat Satan’s flesh. Over-indulging was their sin, so they over-eat the incarnation of sin, Satan, forever.

“There between his legs are the panders and seducers. They are clung to his loins. In life they defiled love and treated it like garbage. For eternity, they must be constantly crushed between Satan’s loins– loins that never produced another being out of love.

“That cave we left so suddenly was, of course, Satan’s mouth. The betrayers are among the worst sinners in this place, so they are constantly chewed into pieces by that vile mouth, stuck with feeling all the pain they caused.”

“Brother, who are those down there, on his chest,” I asked, spotting a collection of sinners on Satan’s upper chest.

“Those are the sinners you need to see the most.”

We descended onto Satan’s chest. Before us was a great hill, which I knew to be his nipple. Around it were hordes of souls running about in constant thirst. They clawed at their throats, wishing for moisture. As if on cue, the hill erupted. A black oil poured forth and the sinners drank from the river it created. Seconds after they took the first sip, they all began to fall in excruciating pain.

“These sinners are the blasphemers, brother. What they drink is the Milk of Evil coming from the nipple of Satan. This foul nourishment feeds them the thoughts they had in life. They thirsted for the truth and found it in the poisonous thoughts of Satan. They went against God, and often denied his existence. They are now like his children.

“Brother, I bring you here to show you what kind of fate you will have if you don’t return to the righteous path. Please, do not bring yourself to this place.”

I awoke in a cold sweat. The trip seemed so real that I had no doubt it really happened. Never before had such a vision come to me. It has caused me to renew my faith in many ways. I will never again question God and I will never again think my life is as torturous as I once thought.