HADES

They torment me, the demons in the night. They know my sins, they see my blithe, and they refuse to let up, hovering around me. Seeking to destroy me in the times I have no strength. I see them; hear them mocking crudely in the dark, laughing at me, tearing my flesh with thorns.

Die die die! They growl about the room and in fierce shivers I make my way off the bed to the kitchen, pulling the blade slowly from the wooden holder, backing into a corner to obediently slash my wrists. They are attacking my mind; it is the only way they can enter.

I close my eyes as the voices whisper and I feel my soul being dragged off to hell. There is a nagging sound and an awful stench, and I am hurled out into a train like lukewarm vomit, something venomous that would only destroy nature. I look about the metal car, holding tightly to the rails as the contraption swoops like a plane on the winding tracks through a tunnel of raging fire.

A voice thundered hissing like a serpent in the desert, accusing me of all sorts of evils. I was certain now; my fate made evident, in Hades was where I would forever dwell. No Heavenly abode, just this hot stale atmosphere of nothingness. I ached now as my being flashed between worlds, the essence of death mirroring deep emptiness and I knew GOD would never hear me, at least not now. I should have called on Him so long ago. It was naught but torture, a grave misfortune that I had become the spoils of myself.

The train stopped and there was the strong smell of burning flesh and I was flung out into a cart of soot. I thought the ride was over, but it had only just begun. They had come laughing pushing me down a dark isle like a baby in a toy wagon. My hair singed on my head, the stifling heat blinding me. It was the voice again loud and mocking “I knew you wouldn’t make--too weak, unfocused. He isn’t proud of you, but I am.”

The tears that came to my eyes turned to steam and I seemed to swell beyond my usual size. “Don’t worry love you wont die, you are here to spend ETERNITY with me.” A certain severe laughter echoed down the tunnel as the cart overturned and I lay sprawled on my face in an inferno that was consuming my whole body, cremating me, ashing my bones. My voice resounded shrill cries and scream that bore the aural image of a child having a bad dream and then there he was, the beast, jeering me.

There was a scalding heat from his presence as if years in the damning furnace had changed his complexion from brown to flamboyant red. He was a walking radiator, burning grief in the lives of the redeemed. "Welcome," he said "this is my domain." My body hissed beneath the cosmic splash of the water that fell from an opening above my head, it felt like acid rain burning holes through me. I laughed and that scared me, but the reality I had come to know was certainly not one to laugh about. It was the dawn of a new year and I was in hell, and I wondered if GOD could help me. I wanted to scream, to call out a name I could not remember, a name I had no righ to say.

I had gone through my trial, but there was only one prosecuter at my judgement, no defender, a jury of demons, and a grueling snake for a judge. "To the dungeon," he pronounced "take her to the dungeon, so she can BURN some more." The floors shook and a loud voice roared "Let her alone satan, you have no claims to her soul." I was picked from the hot pavement by soft, cold hands. My soul took flight over a calm blue-green ocean that mirrowed the thin reflection of an angel holding me in his hand. I paniced with fright at the sight of the large wings and the glory that shone around me from him. " Fear not, your Father loves you, and He wants you to know that only He can mend your soul. HE is the potter, He chose you and not you HIM, He is reaching out to you, just take his hand. JUST TAKE HIS HAND."