“You have questions.” The demon with the horns of a ram greets Silas as his soul materializes in hell.
Silas nods. He doesn’t want to talk to this demon anymore but there are questions that require answers and despite the uncertainty that the demon will give him any answers, Silas is desperate to know something definitive. He hopes that Dr. Parsons’s explanation is correct; he did not think he could become a religious man even if it would free him from his torment. Religion was tedious and full of scammers preying on the vulnerabilities of those seeking answers. Silas has never trusted religious institutions.
“I understand…” the demon starts.
“Do you understand more than you have told me before?” Silas interrupts the demon who smiles and nods sheepishly. “Is this place really for punishing bad people once their lives are over?”
The demon’s smile widens. “It seems someone has been doing some thinking. What makes you doubt that explanation? Was it the beast from the abyss? He gets no mention in any religious texts I’m familiar with.”
Silas takes a deep breath and says, “So this isn’t Christian hell, what is it then?”
The demon laughs. “Did I say this wasn’t Christian hell? Isn’t it everything you would expect from Christian hell? I mean, look at these horns.” It is obvious that the demon is enjoying every second of this.
“Will you tell me anything true?” Silas asks. He holds his exasperation, afraid to agitate the demon.
The demon thinks about this. He holds up a hand indicating that Silas should wait for him while he crosses his arms and ponders the question.
“If I do something for you, can you do something for me?”
Silas doesn’t hesitate, “Anything.” It could be a trap. Even if the demon does give him some clarity, the favor he apparently wants could be horrible for Silas. But he would do anything to get back to a normal life.
Silas’s quick acceptance makes the demon curious. “What have you got cooking up, sir? Are you emboldened to save humanity? Silly man. It is human nature, you all cannot separate yourselves from horrors. You are the horrors. If not for you all, we would probably have been sealed off here forever. But you call to us, each millenia growing louder as your numbers grow and your calluses thicken. It is true that humans can get used to anything. Cruelty is just another thing, and then it piles up unknowingly to overflowing like you all are now. This realm has planted roots in your world as a result. Thank you for the invitation by the way.”
Silas just listens. Maybe the demon is performing, but there is information in lies.
“I love the way you consider me,” the demon says seductively. “Am I giving anything away? Well, I will promise you a meeting with someone who can answer your questions if you will grant me one favor. To be determined. There are many things I would ask of you that would require you to better understand our current predicament, and I don’t want to spoil all of the surprises. So I will think on it and whatever I ask of you, Silas, you must agree to do as quickly as you agreed to this arrangement.”
Silas nods. He can’t touch me, Silas repeats to himself. It is the only way he can brace himself for whatever truth he is about to be privy to.
“Alright then,” the demon says with a smile. “Come with me.”
But just as he says it, Silas wakes up on the couch in Adam’s apartment. Adam is next to the couch on his knees.
“That was fifteen minutes,” Adam says.
Silas’s face crumbles with anger. “The demon was gonna show me something.”
“And you wanted to see it?”
Silas nods and gets up from the couch. He goes to the kitchen for a drink of water. It seems that Adam had only one glass in his entire apartment. He washes it out and drinks, then refills and does it again.
“He said that if not for humans, that realm would be sealed off.” Silas explains. “He could have just been talking, but he definitely knows more than he let’s on.”
“You’re going back?” Adam had watched Silas in his sleep and it looked like the man was in agony.
“Of course. And don’t wake me up this time. In fact, give me a sleeping pill or something.”
Adam nods slowly and disappears into his room, then reemerges with a small blue pill. He had told Silas how he used them to maximize his time in that better existence where even though things weren’t perfect, they were better than the life he knew.
Silas takes the pill and Adam decides that he can’t watch Silas in the agony that he had seen before. Adam takes a pill of his own and shortly after Silas dozes off, Adam follows suit and opens his eyes in what appears to be a jail cell, sitting next to his partner at the state bureau of investigations, a man named Manuel.
When Silas opens his eyes, the demon is annoyed, but still in good spirits.
“How do you always know where to find me?” Silas asks.
“I’m not like the other base demons of this realm, but I thought that you understood that by now.” The demon waves a hand for Silas to follow him, and Silas is relieved that they walk away from tortures.
This place seems to be underground. If there is a sky, Silas has never seen it. When he looks up, he doesn’t see a ceiling of rock, but it is so dark that he does not know if there is an upper limit. The walls of the realm that Silas has encountered suggest that he is in a large cave with different clearings, smaller rooms and hallways snaking off in different directions. The demon takes him in a direction that he has definitely never been before and he feels panic as the light dims darker and darker as they walk.
“Where are you taking me?” Silas asks. He can barely see the back of the man with horns just two feet in front of him.
“Are you getting nervous?” The demon chuckles.
Silas doesn’t answer. He can’t touch me, nothing down here can.
Soon, the light in the corridor returns, and it is brighter than anything he has ever seen in this place. Silas can see the corridor come to an end just ahead of the demon; it appears to lead to a bright room.
“We are here,” the demon says looking back over his shoulder.
Silas braces himself. If their past encounters with the inhabitants of hell were any indication, then this would be extremely difficult to bear.
Silas followed the demon into the room at the end of the corridor. It looks like the inside of a cave and there is a bright light emanating from the center. Silas can’t look directly at the source of the light, it is too bright, but he does catch a glimpse of what appears to be a shiny throne. The room is empty otherwise.
Silas has slid along one of the stone walls, guarding his eyes. He has lost sight of the demon, but he hears him say,
“This is as far as I go. Find me when you’re done here.”
Silas doesn’t see the demon leave, but calls out, “Hello!? Is anyone there?”
Silas notices the light dim, but even when it stops, it is still very bright in the stone room. Silas shields his eyes and he sees the throne. It has a high back and is made of ornate metals that bounce the light and make it shine like gold. He is standing behind it.
“Hello,” he asks again.
“They said I would never be disturbed.” The voice is feminine and there is a thick accent that Silas cannot place.
“Who are you?” He asks.
“Who am I?” The voice is insulted. “No one who belongs here would ask that question. Who are you?”
Silas moves slowly along the wall. He wants to put a face to the voice, but he doesn’t know what he will see. It could be something horrific, something terrible that he will only want to unsee but be unable. He eagerly answers the voice though, the thought of answers was too enticing.
“My name is Silas, and I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t know where I am…”
“Stop!” The voice yells, arresting Silas in his speech and movement. “Your voice is familiar, but you can’t be the man this voice belongs to. If you were, you’d know exactly where you are, and who I am.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
Silas watches the light move behind the high back of the throne, and then he can see it approaching him. He is petrified and closes his eyes, bracing himself for a disturbing encounter.
But he feels a warmth on the tip of his nose and on his cheeks that make him smile. The sweet smell of roses fills his nostrils and he is overcome with feelings of love. When he opens his eyes there is a woman with her face just inches from his own. The skin of her body glows like she is illuminated from the inside. A cloth drapes her body, but it too seems to be composed of light. Silas stares into her big eyes that are human, but composed of varying brightnesses of light.
“You look like him too,” the woman says. “But if you were him, your face would be melting.” The woman was suddenly very angry and she grabs his neck with her hand. It is hot and Silas is surprised that she can touch him. The woman is grinding her teeth and her eyes are angry.
“You must be related to him,” the woman says, loosening her grip. She pauses for a second, like she is taking a mental account of something, and then she looks contented. Silas collapses on the floor and he feels his neck burning where her hand had been.
“The man I know just had the skin ripped from his body.”
The woman saunters back to her throne.
“Leave before I kill you. Never return here.”
“But,” Silas struggles, “I came here for answers. What is this place?”
He crawls around the throne and is on his hands and knees at the woman’s feet.
“Are you his son, grandson? How long has it been?”
Silas shakes his head. “I don’t know who you’re talking about. Please, tell me what this place is. I can’t sleep, I always come here, please have mercy on me…”
The woman grabs Silas’s cheeks with two fingers and eyes him closely.
“I should know better,” she says. The light of her body intensifies and soon it is completely white.
Silas is blinded for a second, consumed by the white light, and then when the light subsides, he is no longer in hell. He is standing next to the woman who is not glowing. She is a tall woman with dark skin and she is dressed in traditional Ethiopian clothes. They are standing in the wilderness under the sun. Silas looks down at his own body and he does not recognize himself. He too is wearing traditional clothing.
“All of the suffering is your fault. You made me do it.” She looks at him and he can feel her hatred.
“I don’t remember,” Silas says, genuinely sad at whatever is upsetting the woman.
“You told me you loved me. I didn’t care about your love, but I believed you when you said you were sincere.”
As she talks, Silas watches a scene play out in front of them. The woman is young and beautiful among a crowd of people who stand behind her. She wears a headpiece like a crown and everyone next to and behind her shows her deference. But soon a contingent arrives with spears and shields. Leading them is a man who looks a lot like Silas.
“Do you remember this day?” the woman asks. “The day they accepted me as their Queen. The day you took control of the warriors to oppose me? I was so shocked. You were my biggest champion. We took power from the corrupt king together and you said I was made to lead the people. But it was all your political game. You couldn’t wait to stab me in the back.”
As she says this, Silas sees the soldiers attack. The woman defends who she can, she is a formidable fighter, but she is quickly overcome and pinned down by soldiers. Silas watched the man with his face kill her. When she is dead, a massacre commences and soon the scene before them fades and Silas and the woman appear to be standing in a black void. The woman points up at a tiny spot of light in the darkness that grows and grows; it is the bright light form of the woman.
“I was filled with so much hatred, so much vengeance as my soul tumbled away from the world I knew. I was devastated that I could not save anyone from the cruelties of our world. And I fell for long enough to be convinced that humans only know cruelty. I hated all of mankind by the time I landed in this place.”
As she said this, Silas watched her soul land on the floor of the cave where her throne was seated. Silas watches a horrible red, beast-like man approach the woman and help her to her feet.
“He told me that I could punish mankind for all of their cruelties toward one another. I just had to draw their souls to this place with my light. And I was more powerful than he could conceive. I brought every human that has ever lived to this place and those wretched beasts give them what they deserve.”
Silas and the woman are now the only two in the room. Silas is still kneeling before the woman.
“That wasn’t me.” Silas says.
“It was you. You are no better than your relative. If it wasn’t you, you could not be here now. You must be his spiritual twin and so are doomed to the same fate he suffered everyday of his life from the day I died until the day of his death.”
“But how is this possible that you bring every human souls to this place?”
The woman kicks Silas and he flies back against a wall of the cave.
“I am the Alia. I am the brightest light of all humanity. If only I knew what I was capable of before my death. But there is no need for regret. I will sit here for eternity and exact my revenge. And you Silas, like your relatives before you with the same callous selfishness, will see this place when you close your eyes for sleep and be burned here at your death.”
Silas is in pain and he is confused. “But I’m not my relative,” Silas struggles.
The woman, The Alia, stands from her throne and approaches Silas. “You stink just like him.”
Silas cowers, and then he wakes. He has peed his pants. And he feels burns on his body at place the Alia had touched his skin.
PRL Serials 