The First Day into Hell

Jessica and Alexandria learn of the adventure John had in store for them. In the entrance of Hell they traveled through the first layer, meeting Mammon the demon

The First Day

Neither Jessica nor Alexandria could see two feet in front of them. They could barely see each other, and held onto each other’s arms, to never be separated. There was an eerie whisper, and the sound of relentless hammers. The screams grew much louder in crescendo!

“John! What now?” Jessica cried. “Where are you?”

“You will not need it. I told you.” His voice echoed through the hidden door. Jessica quivered, for she didn’t know how to take his words. There was disappointment in his voice.

“Why do you betray us! What have we done to earn your distrust?” Jessica called back to him.

“Why don’t you ask your loving wife!” He said, his voice growing to a growl, deep and menacing. “Two lesbian lovers; one true, one false yet both are very false! Let your sin reveal itself, and behold your eerie torments! The scars of memories are more harmful than you can tell. You can’t trust yourself. Who can?

“What did you do?!” Jessica scolded Alexandria. Her tone more of fear than of anger. The thoughts raced, the voices only being filled with the eerie screams coming from below, at the bottom of the stairs they stood on.

“I don’t know.” Alexandria said.

“Lies.” John whispered rather coldly. “Does your lover lie to you?”

Alexandria held secrets from Jessica too. One could only imagine the distrust Jessica now has for her wife...but is she much better? She knows she has far more secrets capable of dismantling any relationship they had.

“She took the knight’s sword.” John said answering for her. “She can’t own up to the truth so I will answer for her. She didn’t think I saw it. I did. She didn’t think you saw it. You didn’t. But with love like yours, you should already have known her intentions. Did you not think that you would be able to tell of your wife’s true intentions!?” Jessica looked to where she thought Alexandria’s face was. She knew something was wrong...something was off. “Why do you think the church is against your lifestyle? Because it doesn’t always work, and almost even less successful than the traditional! The two have you, have failed the first test. By far, the first test is the easiest! You have FAILED!” he growled. “Enter in, all hope abandon. For your lesbian love will be tested, and stretched so far you thought it could not be stretched this far!”

Jessica fell to her knees, bowing her head. Her eyes widened. Her ears became teary in disbelief. Broken was she with his words. His breath hammered at her soul, breaking her spirit and soul, Be knowing nothing of this confusion in her mind.

Alexandria said to Jessica, “Jessica my dear. it will be fine. I know those honeyed words are getting me to move my feet.”

John said to us, “Time’s a wastin’. You have questions that need to be answered. These questions cannot be answered in utter silence or in sloth.”

Jessica wiped the tears from her eyes as Alexandria lifted her up. Slowly they stepped on each step, and the tears went rolling down like a mighty river of great pain. There is no going back. Only forward. There was nothing but darkness, and the annoying screams of suffering.

There was a light. It was dim, but now Jessica could see her lover’s face. “Let’s go. I want to get out of this foul place as soon as possible.” she said.

They walked towards the light. The source of the light is unknown, there really is nothing to give any sort of light to the naked eye. It just was.

Walking further along those accursed steps, she found the door. A rotting door, full of rotting wood, but smelling with the rotting flesh underneath, and almost certainly from behind that door! This is but one door, it was deformed and twisted, wryed even with the rotting branch that made its perimeter.

The rotting breath of this door assaulted their sense of smell. Plugging their noses, their own faces twisted with their own expression of disgust, their hair standing on their ends, and the breath of the door breathed on them, fogging Jessica’s spectacles. Flies buzzed around the blood, dried not dripping wet!

Above the door, twisted in rusty iron, there hung a plank. On that plank read a message. If these two lesbian lovers didn’t learn anything within the last hour, read into the signs, and without John to guide them, as cruel as he was to leave them, read the signs! Read them all, no matter how subtle! Jessica read it aloud, “The first door isn’t ajar. Behold your first set of torments. Mammon welcomes thee first! His torture will fit thy punishment!”

Jessica had become disgruntled, and her wife quivered, shaking back and forth their fear, for they both couldn’t stand to be fearful at the same time. She wondered if she should really open this door. Choices are already made, the past, the present and finally the future! Jessica opened the door, and it pricked her finger, blood dripping down.

Alexandria saw it and went over to her. “Are you okay dear? This wound isn’t too deep I hope?”

“No. It...it isn’t.” she said, using some of her cloth to cover up the wound. “We just need to get going.”

The door swung open, with it cackling. Not squeaking or squealing but cackling! A laughing door! As if the place had not already broken their nerve and sanity, now even inanimate objects are alive!

They stepped into the belly of this beast, whatever beast that was. It was hot! The humidity was greater, and much more unbearable than any summer day they had experienced. Heat rose up, steam and smoke darkening from the cracks of the earth and reached the sky that was not a sky! It all collected in smog, hiding whatever watched from above!

They walked into the brown earth, above a hill, they found something. In it was so evil, words can hardly express but do my best I must! Lines, of countless men and women, and children killed at birth, for they were the ones willing to kill for what they did not have.

They were whipped by this large wolf, his whips made with the fire of his tail. He growled and snarled at the men who relentlessly struggled to grab sacks of gold left on the ground. Still trying to take their vices with them.

Jessica and Alexandria gasped, covering their mouths. They looked at the men and women in torture, they felt no compassion for them, for they did not even want to think about such suffering on their behalf.

This wolf, he had fangs of black soot, his lips with white flame, and his hair, orange and red fire. His tail were his weapons. His tongue also of soot, just like the blackness of his soul, more cruel than John’s. This wolf was made of fiery rage, and nothing could contain it. His essence was in this part of Hell, He was everywhere.

Jessica and Alexandria tried to climb back away from the wolf, to get back to the door they carelessly opened. With the amount of care they put into opening that door, it was never enough!

“GET IN THE LINE!” the wolf roared its might roar, so fierce, it would put the greatest lion to shame! “I am Mammon the demon! Get in line ye terrible whelps!” A whip was cast from the flame. The whip from the tail latched onto them both, burning into their sides. They screamed with the screaming orchestra that was hell! The whip brought them to face the fire that was Mammon the wolf! “Who be ye two? Here to enter my home!”

Alexandria looked down, despite the pain. She could not cry for the fire was so hot, it evaporated before they left the eyelids. “I...I am Alexandria.” She said, trying to cry and rip herself free, only to burn her hands. “This is my wife, Jessica. We came here through deceit from one named John. It is against our will to be here, or at the very least mine. We are...Helpless. Can you send us home.” She pleaded to an unmerciful demon, in times of trouble, making friends with demons are far more acceptable than accepting the trials to make oneself better!

Mammon cackled, his spit like flames cast onto them. They screamed, and it seemed to elate him. Rain of fire hit them like hot coals, making the torment all the more unbearable! It burnt against flesh and bone. This was the first scar of their adventure. The journey underneath, John told them the truth. He did not lie that it would be hard for them to bear. Torment. Pain. Suffering; it all began after the door. The first test they failed, what lay in store for them now?

“I am Mammon the demon! Pick up thy gold and march now! Prepare ye thy funeral!” His demonic voice echoed in their ears. His tone was even harsher than his spit! His tail whipped them, and they collided into hot pelting sands! They tried to get up. and the torment only grew with complexity as the hot sands burned off their shoes!

They both found a large sack, each with their names engraved on a tag! It waas tied to iron chains, and it was empty like the terribly unfortunate souls that were doomed here.

It all started. The testing began under Mammon the Demon! It began to rain! But not water. Oh no. This was to be far more cruel! No lifting up, it would all become worse. There would be no rain water to wet their lips.

The rain that fell were hot coins, gold coins! They hit them, and the others. When hit, they burned against their skin, leaving their mark. They collected the coins, and put them in our sacks, and pulled on, only to collect more of them as they fell, increasing the weight of their burdens. These were their vices. Greed! Greed was what got them in such high places on Earth. Jessica in her high paying accountant job, and Alexandria, the successful sales person she became!

Mammon whipped everyone with his tail, striking everyone who still desired to pick up the coins. They were his coins after all. One does not sit idly by when people take something that is ever so precious.

His tail ripped flesh, and healed it so the victims wouldn’t bleed out, to mainstay their suffering! To prolong it, so they wouldn’t die. This hell was to be repetitive, without letting up on dishing out the punishment for their sins. The fires burned the weary, especially those devoured by Mammon’s fiery breath. With each coin, came a whip, came a scream, came peril. None would receive any dowry. All labor spent here gathering coins are pointless. Rewards are not received.

One lash per coin, over and over again. Whatever they had to endure, they could endure for a full sack of wealth! Was there a price to great for the sinner’s dice? The flesh of the victims seared into the skies, burning to ash. Only those who finally found the courage to drop, was the burden lessened. Just like those like Alexandria, and Jessica.

They never let go of the sack, but stopped picking up the coins. This lack of whipping proved enough for them to go on. Letting go of their greed was what allowed them piece as they approached the sandy hill, looking at the red horizon in anguish.

“Get goin’! Up that hill! No one will do it for you! Only with your own will. There is no quick path, not bus, train, car or carriage that will carry you. Only your own two feet, until they burn to ash!” Mammon the demon said to them.

Jessica looked down to her feet and noticed not only her barefeet. It was black, not its usual color. It cracked! There was little resemblance of what it was and then back to dust did it return. Her feet charred so much her weight crashed down on it, breaking her own feet. There was nothing left but a now burning stump on her ankles. She dropped her bag and fell on her knees, which had very little resistance on the fire! She cried  agonizing screams for her unbearable anguish to end! The only thing she noticed

Alexandria tried to lift her up, her teeth clenched and grinded as she tried to bite back the pain, if only for a little bit. She needed to be strong, when Jessica was weak, and weak she was, upon the brink of being broken by this second test. Of course the other test was easy in comparison, and perhaps it would have been best to leave the sword, to see their guide...their deceiver! Jessica cried, and looked down the mountain towards many more victims in the basin.

She saw many people she knew to be rich, CEO’s, politicians from the past. They all suffered, and it seems like time is good to these poor souls. Alexandria began to wonder if they knew they were dead. Many of these people were known, respected. These were good people. These were bad people, but all the more guilty of their own slavery to their greed. Was Jessica and Alexandria just as guilty as they? Yes! They are!

“Pull thine own weight! Go down on that hill!” Mammon said, his fiery wrath ushering them forth like he was their master, and they were his slaves.

Upon running, and stumbling, Jessica noticed wagons filled with gold. They weren’t just gems. These were materialistic things. They easily captivated the minds of humans! She noticed, that many men dropped their sacks, for they could not pass up this opportunity! They became mindless; walking flesh without a soul. Only the pain of this pain to remind them. Oh this excruciating pain!

All of the feet became dust on the earth, soot rising up to sting the noses of Jessica and Alexandria. Dust they had become. Feet, they could no longer be called for they were now nothing! Some who were compelled, if there was any sense left, they dropped the gold!

Yet again, there was another rain storm of fiery coins. They were hotter than before, and they hurt much more! Flesh, hide, bone, ivory, nothing was spared from this hellish wrath! Those who refused to forsake their gold were rained down upon relentlessly. Jessica noticed the unrelenting greed, how insatiable they had become to it. They refused to drop, and those who felt had the strength, took the opportunity to collect the rain.

Jessica looked into her sack. What she saw tormented her for she had never told Alexandria about any of her lecherous passions. She saw toys, packages, pills, magazines, and even more haunting, a note. In this note, was an accusation that struck her more severe than even the fire could. Physical pain can be ignored, but a blow to the heart is eternal! In it, it read, “You attention w***e. How does it feel to be so weak you have to hide you adultery from your wife! You cheated on your wife. How can you expect to love anyone but yourself and your own selfish desires!”

Jessica fell on her knees, ignoring the searing heat to them. She was in disbelief, this was the closest thing to Hell she ever wanted to get to, and it only gets worse! How could it possibly get any worse!?

She glanced over to Alexandria, who said nothing. She didn’t have to. The look on her face said everything; showed everything for she looked into the vices of her own sack of gold! Inside her face, was written with regret. “Why did I come here?” She asked herself, looking to the red sky.

“To be with me, one last time.” Jessica said to her wife. Through the misty horrors of Hell, she was glad they made this far. “Alexandria, We must go in farther.”

They continued to carry their burdens, towards the door where many men shoved to open. They entered the void, screaming, and the men tried to answer a seemingly impossible riddle. They all gave the wrong answers, and were sent to various parts of hell. Some were frozen, and their remains melted into oblivion. Others were pulled under in fiery chains; some were even taken by a flying demon, casting them to another place in this fiery realm. And others, were entirely consumed by Mammon’s burning breath!

This other door, was not made of human flesh. For once this was a relief for the lesbian couple. It was instead, made of blood stained bones, sharpened for stabbing. Above there was a skull, a happy skull. One who was immune to Mammon’s wrath! “This riddle, part two it has. Part one, is simple. part two, very little understand! Here it goes, beware your toes! Heh heh heh heh! I have four legs in the morning. Then two in the afternoon. Three legs before slumber. What am I?”

Alexandria struggled to speak, for she already knew the answer. It was an old one. “Human. Child in the morning. Adult in the afternoon, and in the evening, an older man with a cane.” she answered.

“The easy part answered. Second part, here it comes. Now which are you?” it said in an eerily voice.

Jessica and Alexandria looked to each other in total confusion. This was part of a riddle that acted more like a question. They didn’t know where to begin, and time was running out as their ankles began to give, turning to dust like their feet.

“Could this be a riddle regarding wisdom or maturity?” Alexandria said, turning to me.

“I don’t know.” Jessica answered, thinking on the Oedipus Rex Complex. The answer is unknown, and there could only be two possible answers. “Knowing how riddles work, it can’t be the adult. It has to either be the baby or the elder man. It isn’t obvious.” she sighed, barely able to manage. “Alexandria, this may be where we have to part ways. You answer, and then I will give my answer.”

“Jessica no.” she wept, taking a blow to the heart, her heart breaking in two. It could never be said if it was out of a selfish love, or if she just didn’t want to be alone in this hell. “What answer we give, we both give. One path, and one path only. We have chosen to walk through this Hell, or whatever it is. Where you go I will go, where you stay I go.”

Jessica bowed her head, and stayed silent. I cannot focus. This agony...I love my wife...but there has to be something more. John told me she would not get out of this what I would. The answer she gives...may very well be the wrong way for me to go...unless...That might be it.

“Fine!” Alexandria said, turning to the door that slayed so many lives. “I am the older man with the cane!”

The door laughed as it opened. Behind the door was more fire, and Alexandria stepped back away from the door. Barbed chains struck out, wrapping around her in every way. Striking her, forcing her to bleed. Oh how brutal the knots came to be.

Alexandria screamed as her blood sprayed into the roaring fires. She pulled onto Jessica, in one last effort not to be alone from her. Jessica tried to pull her wife back, knowing she would do the same for her.

“Let go you fool! Or suffer the fate!” this demonic voice screamed from the other side of the door.

“Don’t let go of my hand!” Alexandria screamed in desperation, her voice cracking. There was little moisture in her body, and what little was left, certainly couldn’t be spared for the voice.

“So then, thou hast chosen thy fate!” A fiery sword swept up from one of the cracks, through the ashes of charred feet. Especially the feet of Jessica’s and Alexandria’s which lay there, in the first layer of Hell for eternity. It sliced through Alexandria’s wrist. Jessica hell back holding her lover’s hand, watching it crumble to dust in her own. She looked up very briefly to see her wife one last time, screaming through the door, undoubtedly scratching her already decaying throat. The door shut.

Jessica stood up, ignoring the pain, as it seemed to become somewhat normal, and less severe. She looked right at the door, and it said, “Answer the question or die!”

“The only possible answer could be a Child. I am the child.” she answered, which of course made no sense whatsoever. It was the only one left.

“Correct!” the skull answered, and the door opened. There was no Hell fire on the other side. It was abandoned coldness, a frozen tundra never ending. It was colder than ice, she stepped through, and it grew colder and colder, stealing her warmth. She went Deeper, and Colder into Hell!

Reviews

[Rafy T.Nym]

Though this chapter resembles the previous chapter for it's 'Chaotic theme',the flow of storyline is better than the previous one.The description is less complicated giving readers opportunity to think rationally.

The punishments got actual cause and classification,that's a wise decision.

There are some descriptions in this chapter which is written in first person's p.o.v,but I guess it should be in third person's.You might want to edit that.

Best of luck for future chapters.