Robert W. Smith

World Literature
2nd Period
Creative Canto

Canto 35

Circle 10: The Guilty

The Portal and Manifestation

Moving past the necrotic creation that was sitting upside down, Robert saw a passage to the left of the river. Slowly he turned to Virgil, whom was still his guide at the moment.
"Where does that passage lead?" he asked, curious as to where it would take them, although he knew that they needed to climb up the path next to the river.
"That path is new to me." said Virgil, not knowing how it got there, since the past times he had traveled through hell, it had not been there. "We should start climbing, for Beatrice is waiting for us." he continued.
But Robert was curious, as all humans tend to be. "I would like to see where it it is a continuation of the inferno that we just passed through."
That is impossible, thought Virgil, but who was he to argue with Robert. He was only a guide, and if taking Robert that extra mile meant that much to the young man, then he would do so.
"Let us go," he said, taking stride ahead of the boy. As they approached the entrance of the cave, Virgil turned his head towards the path that they were supposed to travel. I hope that Beatrice won't mind this, he thought, and then turned to Robert. "After you I guess." he said.
Robert looked back to Virgil as he took a few steps towards the arching entrance. Slowly, as he moved into it, he could feel a coolness touching his face. The obsidian rock that seemed to arc above Robert's head began to glow green, and an archway formed. Robert took a step back looking at the rock as it melted, reshaped itself, and then suddenly formed into stone blocks that would curve upwards with the texture that seemed smooth, until it reached the very top. There was a block there, and where the two sides of the archway met, the block continued to glow a green hue. Suddenly, it seemed like a mirror went up, a silver blob of cool gel spaced itself up and around the interior of the arch until it had filled it up. The green box at the top began to gain a red haze towards the center, and before Robert's and Virgil's very eyes, the red turned to blood, and then engrained itself within the block, forming seven words.
"Thee who enter here, shall be Flesh," read Virgil. "This is quite I have never even seen this before."
Robert reached his hand forwards to let the tips of his fingers touch the cold silvery gel that seemed to reflect all that stood before it. As Robert did this, suddenly the gel seemed to stretch forth onto his arm. He yelped, and attempted to pull himself away from the arch, but it was to late, and the more he struggled the more the gel grew onto him.
"Robert." said Virgil, and quickly moved towards him to grab him. The shade's hands touched Robert's arm, and then suddenly the gel grew over onto the shade. A searing pain overtook the mind of the creature that had led Robert this far. His scream echoed through Robert's ears as the silver gel encompassed him. It enraptured his body, and then pulled him through. Virgil, whom was suffering an immense pain, suddenly fell to the ground. As he did, his skin began to shave off. It was like he was dying, but he was a shade, and it didn't make sense to him. All he knew was that after his skin fell off of his latent body, the blood vessels became visible, and his muscles, as well as his nerves were able to be seen. His facial visage was one of horror, for all his blood slowly started to drain out of his body, and then slide towards the Arch, which the gel within it consumed the blood. His skin withered away into dust, and as his blood finished flooding out of his body, the light yellow plasma soon followed. Out of Virgil's nasal cavities flowed putrid mucus, and his body cavity suddenly burst outwards. The entrails that landed outside of him suddenly began to snake around his bones. His intestines split open, and his stomach began to shrivel up as the acid within it seeped forth. Finally his intestines and muscles squeezed his bones so hard that they all broke. His eyes slipped out of their sockets, and rolled down into the gel. The shade was then gone from the afterlife. His mind ceased to exist as his brain deteriorated.
On the other side of the portal, Robert was tossed forwards, and slammed into the cold hard ground. Slowly, he picked himself up, his bruises becoming apparent on his arms, and legs as where the gel had squeezed to keep him from escaping. Turning around, he could see through the gel, as it became transparent, and he laid his eyes on what remained of his guide.
A rotting odor filled his nostrils, as it beckoned his stomach to release the bile within. Doubling over, Robert fell to his knees, and opened his mouth, the bile and acidic slime oozing from his esophagus to the ground in front of him.
"Now that wasn't very nice," a voice said behind him. "Who do you think is going to clean that up?" The voice was almost that of a little girl, but then the second Robert stood up holding his stomach, and turning around, he could easily see that it was not a little girl.
Wiping his mouth, he bestowed his eyes upon a man, who was tall, and gaunt. The smile cracked wide on the man's face, as he was nude. There was one thing that Robert was confused about. The creature had no testicles.
"You're wondering why I have no organs of creation?" he asked slowly, almost as if reading Robert's mind. "Because, I am a reflection of your own life. All of that guilt that you have inside of me who I am now, and it reflects your being. You will never have children, so I have no organs of back to my original question, who do you think is going to clean up that nasty mess that you just made after witnessing the remains of your guide through hell?"
"Certainly not me," said Robert, grinning. The man was quite good looking with the exception of his minor problem, which the reason had just been revealed. Having short jet-black hair, as well as the tips being dyed blue. His eyes were that of a green flavor, and his skin tones were those of a tan shade, not to dark, but not light enough to be called fair- skinned.
"Is that so?" he asked, approaching Robert. "I could make you." he started saying, the put his arm around Robert pulling him close to him. "Lick it up." he finished, then nipping at Robert's nose. The flirting that seemed to be going on portrayed something that should have been punished by the second round of the seventh circle. Robert was quite surprised by what had happened, so surprised that he took a minor step back, his shoe landing in his own bile.
" are you?" he asked slowly. "Are you a shade?" He needed to know, because if this man in front of him was a shade, then there was no way he could possibly have done what he had just done.
"Good question, I am not a shade.I happen to be a human. That shade that has been desecrated behind once my guide." he said. "And now that shade is dead, and it is up to me to guide you where he could not."
" I thought that you just said you were made from my guilt?" Robert asked the creature. "You can't be human if you were made from my are you?"
"Very perceptive young man. You caught me, how wise of you. I guess that schizophrenia does help your perception that, or skew it so far out that your guesses are lucky." he said. "I am not human, and that guide there didn't guide me. I am a manifestation of your interiors as I had stated before. You can call me I shall be your guide through this nice little tour of your guilt, and the people of the tenth circle of one that Satan does not control."
"If he doesn't control a part of hell, then where did this come from?" asked Robert. "Who does control it?"
"Does Satan control what lies in his Vestibule? What lies in the lair of the opportunist? No, he does not, that is controlled by a name which I shall not utter here." countered the manifestation. "But I can tell you this, the people whom feel the same guilt as you are trapped here. Each of them happened to be just like you, and traveled through hell, just as you shades were killed just as poor old Virgil was they became trapped just as you are now trapped. This is the tenth circle, the circle that punishes those that have been led through hell feeling guilty about one thing or another. They are all beings of flesh, much like get to the circle, they had to be led by someone like me.a manifestation of their of them have gotten through the circle you you don't die of your guilt die of some other bizarre creation that may lurk here."
"Do I have a choice?" asked Robert. It was his last simple question for the manifestation, which he now had to call his guide.
"Not really, unless you want to try going back through that portal, and ending up like your old always have a choice, whether it be to live or to die, doesn't matter to me which you choose, 'cause either way, I will not you do survive."
"Well then, since I obviously don't have a choice, and since your not going to give me any other options." said Robert, whom looked up into the emerald green pupils of his new guide. "We should get going then, now shouldn't we?"
"Yet again I had left that up to you, but now since you have so happily decided that we should go, I'll take the lead." said Scion, whom then reached his delicate hand out to gently clasp Robert's own hand. "Would you like me to call you Robert? Or do you prefer Bob?"
"Manifestation, you should know my nickname," said Robert. "Or rather, Scion, you should know it."
"I said I was a manifestation, not an exact eccentric copy of you," he said. "But nice try at being Mr. have a nice long route and set of trials ahead of us, better keep up the pace."
As the manifestation named Scion began to lead Robert down the halls, he answered him simply by saying, "You can call me Bob." Then the stone corridors began to sparkle ever so gently, creating an ethereal glow to light the path of the manifestation and human that created him.

Round I: The Guilty to Others

Finally after making about an hour's time, the pathway opened up into a large crevice that blocked their path. "Ah yes, it seems that your guilt has created this as a punishment for you within the first circle." said Scion.
"And how do you propose getting across?" asked Bob.
As he asked that, a large rumbling noise could be heard, and then Bob looked down into the crevice. Lining the walls were the faces of the souls that had been killed on their journey through the tenth circle, the circle of guilt. Their moans began to make the floor shake, as thousands of them were trapped by their guilt inside the stone. The stone symbolized the millions of tons of guilt that had driven them to their death. As they moaned under the heavy weight that they were made out of, a large shriek came from above the human and his guide. Looking upwards, there seemed to be a darkness that was closing in, and engulfing the ethereal glow that had once lit the area they were in.
Bob's eyes widened as the darkness seemed to enrapture him and his manifestation. The cloud or darkness seemed to start making Bob choke, and he could feel it sucking the air out of his lungs as the weight of it was pushing down on him.
"This is the first round of the tenth circle, The Guilty to Others," Scion said, his voice sounding clear of the darkness. Slowly he pushed through the darkness, and wrapped his arms around Bob. The embrace that the poor soul could feel was tight, and full of care. Something he was not expecting. "Now, the souls you saw that were in the stone, they symbolize the millions of people that were driven from life by their guilt due to something they did to affect someone else," he said, his warm breath tickling Bob's nose.
His breath having been squeezed out of him, he didn't know what to do. If he didn't do anything fast, he would end up suffocating in his manifestation's arms. "What is it that pursues you inside, that you feel guilty for doing?" whispered Scion. "Let it out, what you don't want to be guilty for doing, even though you thought it was your fault."
How can I let it out if I can't talk, he thought. Then it hit him, he knew what he felt guilty for doing, and he didn't know what to do about it. The guilt came from an event that happened five years ago, He didn't believe she could survive, and so he kept thinking she would die. His own flesh and blood, the woman that bore him, his mother had died of cancer five years prior to his journey through hell. And he felt guilty for not believing that she would live. He was angered by the thoughts, and then the pain of suffocation was burning up inside his chest. He needed air, the darkness was clouding his mind, and he needed air.
"LET IT OUT!!!" screamed Scion, and then Bob could feel his body growing weak. "I should have believed in her, and I didn't!" yelled Bob inside his head. "If I had only believed in her, then she would have lived. I wish so badly to see her again, and tell her I am sorry for not believing in her." A tear ran down his cheek, and Scion could hear his every thought. The thoughts seemed to form into a silent prayer of desperation, and Scion sent his wishes up along with it.
Just as the last of strength seemed to be within Bob's heart, a blinding white light ripped through the darkness, and lit the cave up, along with the ethereal glow that had once lined the walls. As Bob and his manifestation and guide shut their eyes to avoid being completely blinded, a large gust of air flew directly into Bob's nostrils, filling up his lungs with the breath of life. A screech pierced their ears finally as the light grew so bright that it seemed to burn through the eyelids of the two. Then the light dimmed down. Scion was embracing Bob so tightly, that he almost pushed the breath out of Bob that had been given to him.
Scion slowly pulled away, and the two of them opened their eyes, to see what had suddenly torn the darkness in half. Beholden before them was a sight that had not been seen by Bob in five years. It was a young woman, long brown hair settled gently over her left shoulder. Her eyes of blue and green seemed wolf like, and cunning in appearance, with a dancing of delightfulness spinning in her pupils. Her body was slender, she had lost weight since she had died, but her physique was marvelous nonetheless. Clad in a sparkling crystalline armor, she floated there over the crevice, and in her right hand, whose arm was outstretched, a beautifully gleaming sword sat. Stretching out of her back, the two grand wings with dove's feathers softer than air, spread out, slowly flapping as to keep her body hovering in position. Her brilliance and radiance shown the crevice walls, and the stone faces looked up to her in a completely pious awe.
Behind the two that looked up to her, was a hideous creature. His tone was black, as were the tentacles that enraptured his body. The monster that was apparently guarding the tenth circle sat before the pair, opposing the bright light that emitted from the angelic entity within their foresight. His gnarled grin became increasingly apparent as a thin blood red line stretched across the orb that could have been his head. His glossy brown eyes slowly opened, but seemed to reflect the light, and became a brighter mahogany hue. The coarseness of his shattered arms seemed rough, as though they had been ravaged many times over, and were scarred with bluish warts growing on the green decayed skin. His lower body just seemed to fade away into the ever-present smog that seemed to be slithering across the ground, but ceasing where the light began.
"?" said Bob, his eyes still glued on the seraphim that had bestowed life upon him again. Scion seemed a little more worried about the creature of darkness, but he knew that Bob had to overcome this test if he ever wanted to gain access to purgatory, and then to God's Divine Light.
The angel let her face turn to a soft visage of motherly compassion that is until the beast moved forwards. When it began to move, she took her leave from the position over the crevice, and quickly made haste to fly in between the creature and her biotic son.
"Get back!" she said, as a black tentacle unraveled from around the creature, and struck at her. The thin blade of her sword swung easily into a parry, blocking the tentacle, then moved forwards to thrust it through the tentacle. As she did this, the white light seemed to burn everything it struck in its path, a great red flame surging forth cindered the rest of the tentacle of the beast.
Her voice was powerful, as was her body. She had died a weakling, but was risen an archangel, as her son had seen in his hallucinatory episodes. But unaware to her, the creature was formed from Bob's own guilt, and was much stronger than even the ultimate evil. No need to speak of his entrapment in the ice, for this beast was not trapped in ice, and could easily take on a hundred angels. It was just playing with the mother of the son that its power came from.
Scion moved up next to his follower, and whispered in his ear, "Tell her about your guilt, release it, and she might just win." No body needed to say that to Bob twice, for as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he moved up to his mother, and embraced her as she stood ready to defend him.
"I'm so sorry mom, I should have believed in you, I should have," he said, the tears trailing down his face as he buried it in her armored bosom. She placed her left arm around him, and held him close as the creature in front of her began to let his cloud of darkness grow outwards to encircle the three beings.
But even as it did this, it could feel its powers dispersing, as the archangel, Lady Jane, looked down to her son and said, "It is if you had believed in me, I would have passed was my time, and there was nothing you could have done to change that. You shouldn't feel guilty for something that was destined by the fates to happen.I still love you as much as I did, even knowing that you never believed in me."
Suddenly, it felt as if a heavy weight was lifted from Bob's heart, and he just continued to sob. He didn't want his mother leaving him again, and he knew that he needed to tell her somehow. He didn't want to lose her again, now that she had come and answered his prayers. But even as these thoughts passed through his mind, he could feel her body weight shifting, and adjusting to suit the needs of her goal. She quickly pushed Bob away, yelling to Scion, "Grab hold of him!" And as she did, Scion moved behind Bob, and embraced him in a protective fashion, bending him over, so as not to see what was about to happen.
The Archangel, Lady Jane, let the black smog encircle her, and then began to glow brightly once more. Her body became furious with vengeance for the creature had tried to kill her own flesh, her descendent. As the heavenly energies gathered in her body, she felt the black smog swiftly pulling the air from her lungs. Her blazing love gave her enough energy to stab her sword down into the ground, which in turn caused an earthquake to shake the cliff beneath Scion and Bob. As Scion held Bob in his arms protectively, the seemed to fall downwards, somehow landing on the opposite side of the crevice.
Bob's head hit the ground, rendering him unconscious, so as all hell was breaking loose in the cave, he was picked up and carried through the tunnels to safety by his guide. The Archangel felt the last of her vibrant life pulled swiftly from her soul, and her radiant light put to darkness as it had once died when her life on earth ended.

Round II: The Guilty to One's Beliefs

Slowly opening his eyes, he felt the cool drip of water touching his forehead, and then wiping the blood from the cut away. He was so bewildered by the sight that lay before him, he didn't know quite what to say. It was like, he was in a pearly white room, and the light of God was shining upon him, but his guide was there as well, tending to his wounds.
" am I?" he asked slowly. "Where is my mom?" The questions were answered just by what he saw, and could tell that his mother was no longer with him, and that he was in the light of God.
Scion looked to him, and then asked, "This is not what you believe, is it? Aren't you atheist?" His eyes looked deeply into Bob's, and then Bob looked back.
"I am atheist.I do not believe in God, but alas, this cannot be the light of God?" he said, stunned. Suddenly, his beliefs wavered, and he couldn't understand it at all. Suddenly, the guilt of believing something that could be false hit him head on. He was in the place that was a blasphemy of his own beliefs. How could he have not believed in something that he was sitting in?
"You feel guilty for not believing in something that suddenly you see?" questioned Scion, his wisdom coming from the mind of his creator. "You should not feel guilty for what you believe in. If you are athiestical, then this should not waver your beliefs, or make you feel guilty for your opinions, and will only feed that demon's are in the second round of the Tenth Circle, The Guilty to One's Beliefs."
Realizing this, Bob didn't know what to do, if he were to suddenly repent for not believing, the guilt of not believing would set upon him like hounds on a fox, but if he stood up for his beliefs in no higher being, then he would not feel guilty. But it was so convincing, for his body to feel the warmth of love, and beauty of the place. But there was something else; something else was tugging at the edge of his mind.
All this whiteness, the pearly ivory colors around him. He thought there would be more than that. Like some form of light that was a symbol, but he couldn't tell where the light was being emitted. There should have been some sort of source in the majestic hallway.
"There has to be more that this," he said, his eyes suddenly catching one little spot of darkness on the ground. It was more like a speck of dirt, or an ant that rolled over and died.
Scion's eyes followed down to see the speck that Bob's eyes had trailed off to, and immediately pushed the human back, covering him with his own body. The blast that followed sent the two of them spinning into a wall, and the stench of the cave once again filled their senses. The whiteness faded away into the dim lighting of the cave walls, and the creature of darkness siphoned up out of the area that the shockwave had been released from.
"Dang it," said Scion, looking back towards the creature. Slowly he picked Bob up, who had lost consciousness once again due to a bang on the head, and began to run down the corridors. "I am supposed to be guiding him, not carrying him!" he yelled in his thoughts.
The creature began to move swiftly after the manifestation, and launched its powerful tentacles directly towards Scion's legs. One followed the other in a steady pace, as the nude male was much stronger than he put out, considering someone with an immensely strong will created him. But his legs could not make enough haste to escape being tripped by the long black extremities of the creature of shadows.
He fell flat onto the ground, letting himself cover Bob, who was awakened from his coma by the sense that his manifestation was in trouble. He looked up, and then figured out what to do next.
"I do not believe in God, and I am not guilty for not believing," he stated strongly, his voice booming and echoing through the halls towards the creature. As his oration reached the tiny ears of the creature, he felt his strength dwindling away once more, but not enough to stop him.
Scion slowly pushed himself up, and felt the cold tentacle wrap around his ankle. "Gah!" he stammered as he suddenly began to get pulled across the rough stone floor. The cuts and bruises became apparent on his body, as the red marks and blue splotches began to form on his battered skin.
Bob leaped towards Scion, and grabbed his outstretched hand. Unfortunately, this only caused the two of them to be pulled towards the creature of darkness together. As they were being pulled, Bob reached out with his left hand, and grabbed a stone that was just sitting there lazily. Letting go of Scion's hand, he quickly stood up, and then darted at the tentacle, slamming the stone down onto it. As he did, the creature let out a whining noise, and then reeled backwards, retracting its grasp on Scion's ankle.
"Come on!" yelled Bob, as he quickly pulled Scion up off the dirty ground. Gripping the wrist of his guide, he ran down the hallway, almost dragging the manifestation behind him. Scion seemed to be more pacifistic as he was being dragged along.
"Aren't you going to face it?" he asked almost falling as he managed to slip his hand out of Bob's grasp.
"I can't defeat that thing, not even my mother could kill it. Apparently she isn't here anymore, so I can only speculate on what happened!" he yelled back at the creature he created.
As the two of them turned around, it became known that they weren't even being chased by it. It wasn't even behind them anymore.
"Where did it go?" he asked, his heart starting to beat faster and faster as the fear was closing its hand around his mind. The thought of that creature just disappearing was completely insane, but then again, so was the fact that they were in hell.
"What if there is a god?" a voice suddenly said. "There could be, how can you not believe in one? There is a fifty percent chance that there is one." The voice continued taunting. This perplexed Scion, for he had no idea where it was coming from, and he had also thought that they were out of the second round. Apparently they weren't.
"You do hear that as well, don't you?" asked Bob. This caught Scion's attention, and he turned his head to see a grimacing look of terror on the face of his follower.
"What do you mean by that?" he asked.
"Search my thoughts, you seem to do it quite often, so why don't you do it now?" said the human, quite sarcastically as well.
"He is schizophrenic, he hears voices," said the mysterious voice, the tune going from a male's deep bass to a female's soprano, almost as if it was singing the words right up the note scale. This sent shivers down the spines of the two individuals whom happened to be looking around, wondering where the voice was emitting. It seemed to be coming from every which way, and at the same time from inside the heads of the two.
"Well isn't that something to be proud of," noted Scion, letting his eyes drift all over the place within the hallway that the two were standing. Then something caught his eye. There was a stone that was protruding out of the walls more than any other stone, and it slowly was extending outwards, the tip of it pointing towards Bob's stomach. "Get down!" he yelled, moving quickly to push Bob out of the way. As his hands managed to push the human forwards, almost thrusting him to the ground, the spike immediately extended outwards. A sickening sound echoed the halls as the rock stabbed through the manifestation, and then retracted back into the wall, pulling out the kidney along with the two tubes that connected it to the bladder and digestive track.
As the blood seemed to pour out of the manifestation, three more spikes flew from the walls, and stabbed the creature set before them. Opening his mouth, he attempted to scream something to Bob, but instead a gurgling sound was formed, as the blood rose up and out of his mouth to pour down his face. Bob on the other hand, had managed to get up in time to see the other three spikes penetrate his guide, the throat, chest, and leg.
"Scion!" screamed Bob as he dove over to grab one of the retracting spikes. As he did, the other spikes suddenly pulled themselves back, and melted into the walls. The manifestation fell to the ground. But then something strange began to happen. The blood that had sprayed onto the ground began to move back towards the body of the guide. His body literally began to heal back up, and then fix itself.
But even as this was happening, Bob didn't realize that there was one more spike left to shoot outwards. And when this spike shot directly outwards, the voice that had been taunting him let out a tremendous laugh, and the human's blood spilled to the ground.
Deep within the neurons of Bob's brain, even as his body was being drained of blood, a single though flashed through his mind. It was a picture of a boy, one who had become the first love of his life, and he never even met the kid. "Mark," he thought, the pain in his chest unbearable. As he was thinking this, suddenly the rock shattered. Scion stood up, fully healed, and witnessed, as some invisible force seemed to pick Bob up after he fell to the ground.
Then something truly amazing happened. A young man, about Bob's age suddenly materialized, holding Bob within his arms. He was a little taller than Bob, and his slick hair was draped over his eyes slightly. He was nude as well, but his arms wrapped around Bob, holding him close. The hair that seemed to be on his arms, almost hinted the fact that he was not fully human. A lycanthrope was the species of creature that was cradling the poor human in his arms when he stood up.
"Come with me," he said to Scion. "My love and care for him shall be his savior now. Those stones in the walls, shall never be reanimated." The young man then picked Bob up, and began to walk down the corridor of the circle. "The guilt that you have within you," continued Mark, looking down to his love. "Will keep you here. There is no higher power, for we are all destined to have our own beliefs. Don't let the voices in your head tell you differently. Don't be guilty for what you believe in, or you will never survive."
The blood continued to drizzle down his body; Mark reached an area that forked off into two ways. "One way is to the third round and the other is towards a place that can heal him. I will take him to that place, and then I must face the creature of darkness that torments him. He cannot face his sins alone, for he does not have the strength, but once he can conquer the things he feels guilty for, only then he will be able to take on that beast." said Mark, and then began to walk down the left tunnel, followed by Scion, whom just kept his mouth shut, and listened to all the lycanthrope had to say.
After about a minute or two, the corridor opened up into a room, which had a pool of water, that was fairly shallow, but deep enough to submerge the body of the fallen human; Mark did just that. He knelt down, and then dipped the body of his love into the water. While he did this, the water began to give off a greenish aura, and that aura wrapped around the lycanthrope, and his burden. Slowly but surely, the flesh that had been penetrated began to regenerate, and Mark, using his energies within him, pushed his love deep into Bob's body, restarting his heart, and finishing the mending process.
Slowly Bob's eyes fluttered open, and he looked up to see Mark sitting next to him in the water, cradling him in his arms. A tear ran down Bob's cheek, as he reached up, and embraced the lycanthrope with every bit of strength in his body.
Then as quickly as the green aura had been expelled from the water, it fled back into it, and the water was its normal clear color again.
"I must go take care of this demon that pursues you," said Mark, his voice sympathetic, and protective. He let Bob finish the hug, and then rose from the water, turning about face to see the darkening of the tunnel happening once more. "Scion, get Bob out of here, quickly, while I hold this beast off." Mark said glancing over to the manifestation.
Scion nodded, and quickly went over to Bob, picking him up, and cradling him as Mark had just been doing. Then he moved quickly down the hallway, before the darkness could stop him in his tracks. After running until he got to the fork in the tunnels again, he set Bob down, whom looked back towards the other tunnel.
The blast of heat that followed was amazing, and Scion managed to move Bob out of the way, and down into the other tunnel. A loud scream of pain echoed through the hallways, and then a dead silence followed. Bob was no longer feeling any guilt for being atheist, because he knew that if there were a God, he would have intervened instead of Mark having to give his life.
"Lets go," said Bob. Scion nodded in silence, and then took the lead down the final corridor that would lead them to the final round of the tenth circle of hell.

Round III: The Guilty to One's Self

The stench of the corridor that they were following was quite a dreary one. Putrid odors like this usually came from the dead rotting in their graves. Scion lead Bob into the final circle, where suddenly the hallway opened up into a bridge that went over a roaring pit of loud screams.
As the duo looked down to the ground, they could see that it was an endless pool of people crawling all over each other, and their body parts mixed and mangled within themselves. Their screams penetrated the silence that had followed the fiery doom that Mark sustained, and the ears of a dog would go deaf from the screams of increasing pain.
"Why are they all mangled?" asked Bob, looking over the edge of the bridge.
"It is because the guilt that they have about themselves makes them so confused, and makes their insides become mangled with pain," he said. "Do you feel any guilt?"
"Inside myself?" asked Bob.
"Yes, do you feel guilty about who you are?" questioned Scion, going more in depth about it.
"No," stated Bob, the lie hanging on his tongue, almost jumping out to bite Scion.
"Uh huh, well, until you lose that guilt inside of you, you'll never get through this round." commented Scion, for he knew Bob was lying the instant he said no.
Already the insides of the human were mangling with guilt, the guilt that he had just lied to Scion about having.
"So, what is it you're guilty about?" questioned Scion, knowing full well that if he kept pushing the matter, Bob would break down eventually as he had with the other rounds.
"Why do you get the feeling that I am guilty?" replied Bob, his pulse increasing, and the beads of sweat beginning to travel down his forehead into his brow.
"Because, you're sweating," said Scion. "Obviously you lied to me, or else your wouldn't be sweating and your knee wouldn't be trembling like it is at the moment."
Indeed Bob had not even noticed that his knee had begun to tremble, due to the fact that it was one of his nervous habits. The screams were beginning to irritate him, and he looked back down to the creatures that were mixing bodies, and becoming one large puddle of flesh. He was quite surprised that out of the various rounds in this circle, he had not seen one face he recognized, like the other circles. Then he turned around to look at the entrance they had just come from. This circle was indeed stranger than any of the others.
The guilt inside him seemed to be boiling up, and he wanted to speak of it, but he was afraid of ridicule, as he had always gotten from others when he spoke of what he felt guilty about. People would always say to him, "Can't you just stop feeling guilty for once in your life!" And Bob would have nothing to reply to them with, because he did feel guilty.
He knew that his fear would draw the creature of darkness soon enough, and he knew that he would have to face it. "Scion, I feel guilty about being a I do die, I will end up most likely being in the seventh circle of hell, the third round.I'll be in the burning desert.I don't know why I fell guilty about this, because I know it is who I am, but my dad kept trying to tell me I was straight, and he got it so pounded into my head, that I just don't think I should be gay, even though I know for a fact I am," he said.
Scion looked back to him, his eyes staring directly into Bob's. "That is nothing to feel guilty about, it is who you are." he said, and then turned around. The darkness was beginning to flood the room, and the screams were starting to die down. "Here it comes.I wonder who will save you this time." he stated, knowing all to well, that Bob couldn't give up his guilt without the help of some other soul.
Suddenly the grotesque creature appeared before them, and then grinned. It held out a scarred arm, and within its grasp was the charred body of the lycanthrope that had saved Bob. A simple flick of the wrist sent the body spiraling down into the fleshy mass, which it was soon assimilated into.
"Now is the time for you to get one of your friends, or relatives to save you!" said Scion, taking a step back, his face grimacing in fear.
One face did pop up inside the mind of the human. But the strange part about it was that he had no idea who the man was. He looked to be about the age of 22, but somehow Bob could tell that he was older. About the same height as him, the man had a Sagittarius tattooed on the front of his waist, near his hip. He was nude, as was Mark, and on his right arm there was another tattoo of what looked like vines wrapping around in a bracelet about the center of his bicep. His chest was well defined, and he had a natural six-pack in his stomach. He looked to be part Hispanic of some sort, and his hair was a smooth glossy black, with the bangs sort of flicked up.
As he felt the presence of the man, it became clear to him that this was the final person who would help him make it through the final round of the tenth circle. A bright yellow light bursted through the ceiling, and the man descended upon the darkness. There was only one thing that was different about him than the man portrayed in Bob's mind. He had two massive wings, scaled, and it seemed as though he was a dracon, part dragon, and part human.
"You are not alone." he said to Bob. "You should not feel guilty for who you are, and if you do, then you will not survive." And then, as Bob saw him descend to land gently on the bridge, in between him and his guide, and the creature of evil.
"I will protect you cannot fall in love with me as you had done are flawless in my eyes, but your age betrays my own." he continued. It was at this moment, that Bob finally forgot his guiltiness for himself, and he became confidant in who he was. The words of the dracon had seemingly saved his soul from the death of the tenth circle.
The creature of darkness in front of him screamed in horror, and the bridge became immensely brittle, then broke out from underneath the human, his guide, and the dracon.
Immediately, the dracon swooped down, grabbing Bob, and then pulling Scion up with a tail that extended from his buttocks. Flapping his wings, he pulled himself up towards the darkness, and a great light seemed to slash downwards. The creature of darkness fell into two separate halves, each descending into the pit of mangled flesh. When it touched the pit, the flesh turned to stone, and the beast ceased to exist.
The dracon slowly flew them to the opposite doorway, which he then set them down, and Scion took the lead again. The dracon followed them, until they reached a similar portal as the one that Bob had entered through.
Questions plagued the mind of the human, and he turned to see the dracon's wings, tail, and scales disappearing, forming him into a full human. "Why did I not recognize anyone in the rounds of that main sinners?" asked Bob, perplexed as to why in the first nine circles he had seen and recognized people he knew.
"The reason is simple," said Scion, who knew all to well that this was a question, which had sprouted forth in the mind of his creator. "Because you were the main sinner. These were your sins, and you so valiantly, with the help of some people, managed to pass through the rounds. And now you can move on to going to purgatory. The creature of darkness was the only thing stopping you, and you defeated it by being punished each round, and then conceding to your feelings, killing the guilt within you, and summoning someone from your life to help you out."
The dracon looked at the guide, and then back to Bob. "I will go with him to purgatory, since he does not know the way. I will take him there myself." said the dracon. "I am Joe by the way."
With that being said, Bob, whom now understood the point of the tenth circle, and understood the guardian, and the sinner, which was himself, passed through the gates, with Joe at his side. The manifestation simply dispersed into a billion particles, which flooded back into the body of the human restoring him to his full status, and allowing him to see clearer. Then with Joe along side him, he made the journey up the rocks next to the river of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, until they reached their final destination.

The End