Dantes Inferno

Student’s Name

Instructor’s Name

Course Title

Date

Dantes Inferno

It was a warm and tensed day. I could not decipher the time of the day, week, month or year since everything in hell appeared unusual. I found myself meandering through the corridors of hell. It was neither morning nor evening since we are talking about a place where light or darkness does not change anything. I do not think that I ever sensed a change in time for the entire period I was in the world of those who are divinely condemned to live in hell. Everything happened so slowly and I sensed that every person who inhabited hell wished that things could move much faster since this would ease the pain they were going through somehow.

The place known as hell looked like a massive playfield. There were thousands of circular cubicles and each of them housed people who were condemned for engaging in similar kind of sins. The cubicles were arranged in rows. In between the rows, there were small paths which I believed were reserved for visitors like me. The cubicles had a small door and the sinners had the freedom to move around their rooms. The floor of the massive playfield was glowing. At first, one could think that the glowing was a form of decoration. However, upon a closer look, one could see that the glowing was as a result of a mild yet painful fire that was coming underneath the surface.

I toured several cubicles as I sought to familiarize myself with the environment that I found myself in. In my meandering, I encountered many people a few of them looked familiar but the majority were total strangers to me. However, all the persons that inhabited the cubicles of hell wanted to talk to me. One of the people I encountered in the second cubicle was a female prostitute whom I had known very well since she ran her sex work business in the town that I grew up in. Her name was Mercy.

When Mercy set her eyes on me, she quickly ran towards me and one of the angels of the devil allowed her to join me in the hallway which was the only part of the large playfield that did not contain the inferno. The following is the conversation that ensued after Mercy joined me in the hallway.

Mercy: So, how come you are not joining your fellow condemned sinners?

Me: I do not know how I came here but I am sure I am yet to be condemned. So how did you end up here?
Mercy: I am being punished for working as a prostitute while on earth and splitting many families, stealing from my clients, and causing many children to suffer.

Me: So you think you were justly condemned.

Mercy: Yes! But I somehow think that my actions were justified. Besides, I was condemned for the actions of people whom I never had direct contact with.

Me: What do you mean?

Mercy: Imagine being told that a child somewhere ended up being a murderer because he did not have a chance to grow up in a loving and violent-free home since his parents divorced after his father starting sleeping with me. I thought that the good book preached about every person carrying his cross.

Me: I do not know what to say about that. Anyway, how is your experience here?
Mercy: Saying that the experience is horrible is an understatement. But since you are not condemned to hell make sure that you tell every living prostitute that you will meet that he/she will be in for a big trouble upon dying. I think it is time to go to a place I now call home.

Those were the last words from Mercy before a devil's angel whisked her into the cubicle that she had emanated from.