Challenge #01508-D047: The Nature of Hell
http://writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com/post/156684722295
"Due to a loophole in the system, people can escape hell and get to heaven after death. You go to hell and all you see is Satan, just sitting there playing the harmonica. Everyone left him and now he’s all alone." -- Gallifreya
Jean Paul Sartre said that hell is other people. He could not be more wrong. Though other people have their disadvantages, the true hell is loneliness. Hell was made to be vast, with room to every sinner in existence. It was made to be unpleasant. It has room to contain every nightmare.
But sinners are sinners for a reason. They lie, cheat, and steal. And all the other things. It's no great stretch for a soul, once in hell, to immediately look for loophole. After all, what is sin without redemption? So all mortal sinners find their way out of hell. It takes time and effort, but time, at least, is meaningless in hell. Effort, however, is triple.
Nevertheless, eventually, all souls leave hell except one.
The one who was sent there to begin with.
Imagine for one moment, that you are there. An endless cavern that is both stiflingly hot, and deathly cold. Place that is both soupishly humid, and dryer than the dark side of the moon. A place where every nightmare you've ever had is lurking just around the next corner. And in that place, there's only one other person. If you could call them that.
Call them what you will: Lucifer, Morning-star, The Bringer of Light, Satan... Everybody has their own name for them. They are pretty much stuck down there for eternity. Suffering.
There will try to make you stay. Try to convince you, somehow, that you are better off down with the devil than up in your own Elysian Field. Try to tell you that there is no longer a way out of hell. Try to distract you from the nightmares. Try to tell you that they're not really nightmares.
Of course, they are also known as the father of lies.
You'd know that, and immediately start searching for an exit. Perhaps other lost souls left clues for you, that you can follow. Perhaps you work it out for yourself. Either way, you leave hell without looking back once.
Leaving the one resident alone. Again.
Waiting for one, kind soul to help them.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / rrosentreter]
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