Hope and Hell

In hell, hope is your worst enemy.

 

“Hell? It’s alright…I suppose.  I mean…it is Hell, but really, when all Hope is abandoned that initial sting fades.

 

“And yet, there are so many here who still cling to it; the fools.  Don’t they know Hope is the enemy?  The Judas Cradle they all willingly choose to sit on?  What does it give them?  Do they think they’re getting out?  That they are the exception?  God’s mistake?  Hah!  They embrace to the Hope of a fallible god! 

 

“What other Hope is there?  Perhaps existence will come to an end, but would it help us here in Hell?  God doesn’t see us; we don’t exist.  So Hope is useless.  Hope is the great torture, makes us…conscious; conscious of pain -- and worse yet -- the lack of pain.  Was there a time I did not feel agony such as this?  No.  No, there couldn’t have been.  If there were then it would mean I wouldn’t have to feel vermin eating my re-growing flesh, or taste the s**t and tears rotting since Eve tasted fruit, or witness fires burning so bright I see every simultaneous suffering of Hell and Earth.  If this weren’t the only existence possible then there would be a reason that this is MY existence, and there would be someone to blame.  And since nothing exists but me and my pain, it must be my fault.  But how could I have prevented this if it has always been like this?  Exactly…exactly…that’s right…

“So...Hope.  Hope is the Devil’s true torture.  Not just ours, but his own.  You know why he is the King of the damned, right?  Because he’s just like us; a prisoner condemned, pretending to rule, and he has more Hope than anyone else here.  His hope fuels this place.  It was his Hope that created this place and imprisoned him here.  His was the greatest of all Hopes:  the Hope to be free of God.

 

“Some might call this pride, but what is pride but the Hope that our own existence matters?  The Hope that we might be Godly and beautiful and masters of our own souls?  And that is what the Devil Hoped for when he battled heaven and for what he still Hopes.  He has buried his head in his Hopes and listens to God with his a*s.  That half-goat b*****d is clueless and will never be free from Hope.  He did not balance on his cloven feet to etch Hell’s Prologue.  No, that must have been our merciful God’s work:  the creator’s last comforting words to the damned. 

 

“I heard an old woman screaming, ‘God save me!  God save me!’  I had to laugh.  You see, God can’t save anyone and the best thing he ever did for us is write the words on Hell’s gate.  It should be written on birth-room walls-or better yet-in the womb.  It might reduce the precocious children and the ambitious tyrants.  If they only knew how poisonous Hope is they probably wouldn’t try so damn hard and the world would be at peace.  We all struggle for our Hopes, thrashing and gnashing for that ‘something better.’  Then we die, go to Hell and continue the same farce. 

 

“There is no contentment to be found in Hope on Earth or in Hell.  God wants you to accept your misery; that is the closest you’ll ever get to Heaven.  The meek have the right idea: no pride, no hope.  They’re just sitting around waiting for redemption, and they are the only ones likely to get it.  The rest of us willful b******s are looking for Heaven on Earth in shopping malls, magazines, self-help books, and Christmas bonuses, but we’ll never see it; we can’t even imagine it, but we can imagine Hell.  So which do you think the “average shmo” should prepare for? From the corporate investor to the janitor, we’re all the same in God’s eyes: damned for our pride, our loves, our lusts, our wants, our dreams, our Hope.

 

“So, abandon all Hope because the only difference between life and death is that life ends.”

 

10/24/07

 

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Author's Note

Take it or leave it. My first "flash" fiction.

Reviews

[fallen_sueanne]

Take it :)

This is a little bit of the "right in your face" stuff, but honestly overall I really like it. Good job :)