Have you ever heard thousands of people screaming under water? Some of them constantly, some in fits and starts, some only in rare burst-pipe spasms of terror and despair?
I’m pretty sure this is Hell. Some version of it anyway, from some religion or sect of one I’ve never studied. I couldn’t tell you what exactly it was I did to put me here. I stole a few things, nothing big… I mean, we all do, right? I cheated on Helen three times, one-night stands. I didn’t even try to avoid that cat I ran over on the way home from the Strokes concert. I looked up a fifteen-year-old girl’s skirt at a picnic once and fantasized about it for years afterward. Take your pick?
It could be something I didn’t even know was a sin; maybe to get out of here I have to figure out what it was.
Woah. It's so hard to bring a "new" angle to the concept of Hell, and I think you captured that perfectly, especially in tapping into the damned soul trying to find a way out. The opening lines are especially chilling - and beautifully worked.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much :)
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