Trials of Morality

Matthew Ward had an adequate life. In fact, it was better than most. He had a good family, a beautiful wife, a nice house, and an adequate supply of money. He never did anything overly "bad." Yet, he still ended up here. "Here" was Hell, of course. Not the Hell overly religious zealots describe. No, it was his *own* personal hell. Every nightmare he every had were magnified by a thousand in this hell, and every fear he ever had manifiested into horrors. 

He had no idea why or how he managed to get here. He couldn't tell. It could have been weeks, months, or even years he'd been trapped here. He didn't know, because he had lost all track of time and space. He had been wandering here for as long as he could remember, trying to outrun the horrors of this damned landscape. 

As he was forcing his legs to carry on moving to escape the terror, he saw... something... it looked human, and it had on a jet black cloak. Ward smiled in relief, considering none of the beasts were ever clothed. His hope increased immensely, considering this could be his one chance of escaping this hell.

He pushed his legs so hard they strained under his massive increase in speed. He could feel the pain, but he didn't care. This *was* his escape.

As he kept getting nearer and nearer to the cloaked figure, he discovered that it was exactly... human. It was massive, which was odd because he saw it as the size of a normal human, and he hadn't thought he was so far away from the figure. 

As he got closer, the creature somehow discovered Ward's presence with the figure looking the opposite way.

"Hello, stranger," the figure said.

"How... how did you know I was here," Ward questioned.

"Oh, heh. Considering this is my realm, I know many things," it responded.

"I... your realm? Who... are you!," Ward demanded.

"Ah, yes. *I* am what many consider to be the incarnation of Death. What do they care you, Stranger?

"Ward... Matthew Ward."

"Well... Matthew Ward... make your self comfortable. I have some explaining to do."

Author's Note

This story has yet to be completed. Reviews of it so far would be nice. ;)

Reviews

[caesarkreshen]

I shall give to you the gift of activity.

Adequate is a funny word. Don't know if I like it twice.

Don't know if I like BAD. Could use a better word like WRONG, even.

Overly religious zealots seems like overkill. could just do religious zealots. Own personal hell, same idea.

Think you could play a lot with words in that way. "In this hell, every nightmare was magnified thousandfold, every fear manifested into horrors. " There is a certain way to relay information efficiently, and I can't explain exactly how it works, but it has to do with sound as well as aligning the important word. In that example I listed, while your original meaning may or may not be intact, it at least reads well and seems more powerful. Just an example, though.

I feel like I've written a lot of similar stuff. Hellish worlds and such. It's always a fun idea. Some people will call it cliche, but screw them. heh. I think just going through it and formatting it a little to make it more powerful word and sound-wise and keep going with it. Let your imagination do the writing. THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM HELL.

ha. Later dude.

[DJKRach]

A good beginning, as Man facing Death is such a common theme nowadays. I especially enjoy when Death is not portrayed as a cruel tyrant, but a comforting and understanding being, if not sadistic. Hoping to see more.