It was pitch black with the exception of a few lit torches that were positioned on the sides of the cavern walls. Hundreds of thoughts were running through my head, and one of those thoughts was, could this hideous place be the Hell that religious people talk about. I did not know for sure, but I had an eerie feeling that I might find out. I was directly positioned in the middle of the cavern and noticed multiple paths around me to choose from, but none of them seemed to lead upwards, they all lead further into the darkened depths of what I thought had to be Hell.

This is where I met Satarel, who accompanied me for my journey into the darkened depths of the unknown. Satarel had a long grayish or white beard and was clothed in a black robe. He had an enormous stature that was very intimidating, and must have stood at least thirteen feet tall, making me look like a midget.

He suddenly broke the silence and spoke out to me in a deep and distorted voice saying, “Mason Williams, do you believe in Hell, because that is where you are, in the fiery depths of Hell.”

“How do you know my name?” I replied.

“I have known about you before you were conceived, and have been waiting patiently for you to grow into a young adult so you can fulfill your destiny. You can call me Satarel, and I will help guide you on your journey.

“As you can see, there are two paths to choose from, but you must choose wisely, for when your journey has been completed you will know everything there is to know about the different levels of Hell, and all those who have been damned here for eternity. Choose poorly and you will leave this hideous place a lifeless Zombie, knowing not who you are, and having been stripped of all your emotions and memories.”

Choosing which path to take was not easy, but down one of the paths, I noticed a faint glow of light, so I had decided to take that path and work my way towards the dim light. Little did I know that it would turn out to be a much longer journey than I had ever expected. As soon as I had made it to the dim glowing light there was a set of steps that were leading further downwards into the fiery depths of Hell. I carefully made my way down the first level of steps and came upon a man whom Satarel said had been terribly lost in his life at one point in time, and chose to make some very bad decisions that had been unfortunately forced upon him. It seemed as if he was trying to stay afloat in what seemed to be a vast lake of black goo, maybe oil, and a void of what seemed to be nothingness. Nevertheless, he was able to speak out these words to me.

“We have all created this endless suffering ourselves, from our own free will and weakness, and will never be allowed to leave this atrocious place. We are to suffer in this god forsaken place for eternity for accepting the temptations of evil.”

I asked the man, “What have you done that was so atrocious that you have to spend eternity confined within the darkened depths of this god forsaken place?”

He replied, “I had robbed a liquor store, taking all the money from the cash register after killing the unarmed cashier.”

Satarel spoke out saying, “It is time to move along,” and I proceeded down the steps to the next level of Hell.

This level was filled with what seemed to be millions of horrible screams and voices all scrambled together. It was unbearable. Satarel must have used telepathy to inform me that the next person we were to encounter was damned to hear every judgmental thing that he had ever said to others throughout his lifetime. Once we got close, enough I asked the man, “What have you done to suffer here in the fiery depths of Hell for eternity?”

He replied, “I had mentally tortured my wife until she went insane, and had to be admitted into a mental institution.”

Our journey continued, this time it took even longer to get to the next level of Hell. When we arrived to the next level of Hell, it made sense why it had taken so much longer to get there. It was the darkest and most fearful level, created just to hold the worst sinners of all.

Satarel pointed out a woman who had been chained up to a cavern wall, and was pointing to the numerous demons that had been circling her ankles. As we moved closer to the woman, I noticed blood had covered her ankles. The demons circling her were devouring her legs like tiny insects. The woman never looked at neither me nor Satarel, which I thought was very strange. It was as if she could not see us at all. The woman had tears that were flowing down her cheeks as she screamed out in pain. As I watched her, she kept focused on the same location without moving an inch. I looked in the same direction that was drawing her attention to hopefully catch a glimpse of what she had been staring at since we arrived and noticed a child that was looking right back at her. Suddenly, the child began to run towards us, and as the child got closer, it began to resemble the little demons that circled the woman’s ankles.

Suddenly, the child spoke saying, “It is useless to try to help her.”

I noticed a look of hatred within the child’s face as I asked, “What has this woman done that was so atrocious that she has been damned to such punishment?”

The child ran off, disappearing within the darkness without ever saying a word.

At this point, I was more confused than ever. I knew that it would be awful to leave the woman chained up to be eaten alive by those little demons, but the child specifically said that I could not help her.