The Ongoing Picture Challenge

The Orchestra in Hell

Trying to imagine Hell is different for each person. There are many different realms, and many different places to endure. Different levels for different sinful acts. Depending on whom you are and your personality, everyone's Hell is different. Based upon your fears, your hatreds, your life, and the things that cause you pain. Hell wasn't created to be a beautiful sun shiny picnic.

My Hell, though? Went a little something like this...

Deeper and deeper, my body fell into the Earth, crashing into rubble and thick layers of sediment. It was as though the world I had lived on was sucking me into it, and maybe it was just that. Flashes of evil terrifying monsters with eyes as red as blood with a million claws tore through the ground, chasing me as the world's gravity pulled me deeper and deeper, to the point of no return. I was falling fast and hard, of that I knew. The monsters varied in size and demeanor, color and shades, and what ghastly feature they had. All I saw was them and the brown of the dirt, and I felt as though I was being torn limb from limb, being eaten alive by Mother Nature herself. I was being pulverized and inhaled by land; when suddenly it stopped.

I was suspended in time, in space, in air. The monsters had vanished, as if a magic trick. I thought maybe now my fear could subside, I could feel relief and I would wake up cozy in my bed. Oh, how wrong I was.

It started with a gentle humming, a precise drumming, a rhythmic thumping. Beat by beat, the noise turned into sound turning into music. The most haunting sound I had ever heard pierced my ears. It was as though a symphony of screams, of horror, of nails on a chalk board, of bubbling water, malicious laughter. It was a symphony of true horror and haunt, but the noises were being created by a bow and strings, an orchestra. What kind of orchestra would create such malice?

I continued falling, crumpling and curling myself in a ball. I noticed the musty stench floating around me, but I didn't bother swishing it away. I had a feeling it wouldn't work anyhow. I allowed my long straight jet black hair to collapse over my face and eyes, hoping it would shield me from the terror that is to come. I heard heavy footsteps, and squawking of nasty big-winged birds, screeches, shrieks, and the ever present back ground choir of the orchestra, seeming to narrate the horrific scene unfolding around me.

Just then I felt a sharp pain sinking into my porcelain ghostly white arm, I quickly recoiled in pain, but the damage had been done. That venom shot through my body, causing me to flail around on the hard gray ground. I screamed for God to save me from whatever had just happened. I lay there in sheer pain as I heard a hissing noise, and something thick, large, wet, slimy, and slippery coast over my slender ankles.

Snakes were my greatest fear. But this wasn't an ordinary snake, but a snake with ten venomous eyes painted a deep deathly purple red with six acidic gleaming white fangs for striking its prey. That explains what bit me, yet it didn't ease my pain.

Confused and unsure of where I was, I continued with my pain and screaming for help, wanting out of this horrid place. This absolute horror where all of my greatest nightmares were being replayed and felt so real it was undeniable that it had to be. It had to be real.

For a minute my light sky blue eyes matched a few of the horrid snakes, and we both seemed held into each other’s gaze, until quick as a lightning bolt, it shot forward and bit into my neck.

My head lolled back and my hands tore into fists as I fought the feeling to go away. No remorse came, as my eyes blurred and fuzzed until falling completely into black, listening to the Damned Orchestra from Hell, knowing I'd relive this again soon...