CHAPTER 12d There is a hell?   Hell was awful hot. I was feeling pretty toasty as I fell and fell and fell... It seemed the only thing down there in this bottomless pit was a hot fire that shot up from deep within, like a volcano spewing up its insides. Let me tell you, it hurt. You would think that after experiencing this constant, agonizing, eternal pain for a while you'd become desensitized, and eventually stop feeling anything. That works on earth, but not in Hell. It kept hurting and hurting as I just kept burning up. While I burned forever, I noticed the profile of a face in the darkness outside the fire. It was the most beautiful face I'd ever seen. It was Love incarnate, pure and wonderful -- the face of the Son. Then he turned his head, showing me the other profile, and I winced as the flames licked my soul. The image of pure Evil was burned in me, forever emblazoned, like the brand of a hot iron. I was trembling, about to burst, as if I were a delicate crystal being shattered by a piercing, horrible note of discordance. And then the face turned to look at me full on, and it was the face of age and wisdom -- the face of God, and he laughed and laughed at me. The laughter filled my existence, and if the burning fires hadn't assured me that this was truly Hell, that laughter certainly did. Far off in the distance I heard a tiny voice of hope calling my name. Slowly, I turned like a mindless, empty fool and saw Bo waving his hands to get my attention. I wanted to run to him, but I just stood there burning, and listening to that horrible laughter. I could still hear the thunderous laughter after Bo pulled me through the fire and we were standing in a thick, black void. My soul was steaming in the coolness, and slowly the aching pain subsided. "Thank goodness I finally got you out of there!" Bo gasped as the color came back into my face, and my brain was functioning once again. I nodded in agreement. "What was it like?" Bo asked softly. "Hell is hell," I sighed as my heart raced and pounded. "Thank goodness we're out it!" "Well, actually, we're still in Hell." I turned and watched the wisps of fire behind me fizzle and disappear. "We are?!!!" I gasped. "Well, yes. In this Scenario, Hell is an empty void that you have to spend all of eternity in...alone...so before I disappear and leave you to another scene of eternal misery, come over here and look at what I found." I was still feeling kind of groggy, so Bo dragged me over to a one-armed bandit floating in the vacuum. "Look, read the display...well, we don't have time -- you seem to still be a little disoriented. Basically it says if we hit the jackpot, we get to experience all the Heaven scenarios all over again." "Huh? I thought you said this is Hell." "Well, yeah. It's some dumb scenario that insists that if we get everything we want forever and ever, it will become so eternally boring that we'll go mad. You saw it on Twilight Zone once." I shrugged in disbelief. "Jack, let's give it a try. You remember how great it was. If that's Hell, let's go for it!" "Why don't you try it?" I suggested. I was starting to remember that episode, and it did turn out that pleasure forever could be torture. "I can't pull the lever. It's like King Arthur's sword Excalibar -- only you can pull it down..it's your dream, so it makes sense." Bo dragged me over, and, reluctantly, I pulled the lever. We watched together as the windows spun faster and faster. We waited to see three cherries, or pots of gold, or whatever was supposed to show up. But when they stopped spinning, it just said: "SORRY" "YOU" "LOSE!" The slot, where the prize was supposed to come pouring out, opened, and a page unraveled. "CHAPTER 12E! Our souls become One with the universe when we die!" It wrapped around us, and we suddenly became One with the Universe. Table of Contents | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter