The Inferno Dream

by Andrea Churchill

A story I wrote from a project based on Dante's Inferno and Paradiso

I have dreamt something beautiful. A story, more or less, which taught me something I shall never forget. I, Andrea, will never go down the path of darkness after seeing the horrors that eternity can grant me. I say this now, and I feel sure of it that I will not make the mistakes that will hinder my future. In time I do fear that sin could possible enter my life without my consent or slip into my course due to my naïve nature, but I hope the newfound knowledge from which the infamous yet deranged Doctor has shown me will help me see the mistakes before it is too late.

In my dream I was walking through a bright green meadow, with soft clean grass and wildflowers fulfilling each side of the stone path I took. I wore a vintage, yellow and white pinstripe dress and a large straw sun hat. I wore a necklace of an ankh, the Egyptian cross which symbolized empowerment, infinite knowledge, and eternity. I saw nothing but fields of this meadow from all sides around me, except for ahead of me, in which there was something more. At the end of my path ahead of me was a great, bountiful cherry tree, with pink flowers falling off and flowing in the wind. The sun shone warmly on me and as I peered into the distance I saw there was someone standing by the tree, waiting for me to arrive. I continued on my path, running now, and I could not wait to reach the end and greet my inviting figure, when something stopped me. In my path were three flowers. The first one was a yellow rose. It was tall, beautiful, and bright, but something about the color hindered me from plucking it. The thorns on it sides were threatening, and made me take a step back. The love I wished to embrace was corrupt, and this flower showed me there was danger in my path of love. For some this could be infidelity or adultery, an overwhelming amount of lust, too little of it, the inability to love, being in love with only the idea of love…it could be anything. Next to that yellow rose stood a tall, powerful sunflower stretching its petals to the sky. It looked to be beautiful, and happy to be growing in this meadow and to be directly in front of my path, next to this rose. However, it was not yellow but instead a purple-black color, which gave me the feeling of a false or masked reality. The beauty, the pride, the general happiness of this flower was not clear, and it made me feel a little depressed inside. The sadness that came off this flower of false delight, of fake joy made me take yet another step back, causing me to have fear of what lay at the end of my path. And next to that sunflower was a third and final flower, a forget-me-not, bright and blue in color with an even brighter yellow center. I felt so dreamy to gaze upon this flower, and I even touched the silky petals with the tips of my fingers. They were the most beautiful of the three flowers, and the blue color made me feel warm inside. However, there was something about the yellow center of the forget-me-not that showed the corruption of this flower which seemed to be perfect. Like the other two flowers, this one symbolized what stood in my way. The forget-me-not, enriching my fantasies, my daydreams with its splendid grace was not apt. It showed ignorance—I did not want to acknowledge a reality in the slightest. Its beauty was too much for it to be real, but I must see the truth in order to live the truth, the way in which I needed to live. Fantasies and worlds-of-my-own hindered me from seeing the facts and making proper decisions, and I knew I needed to fix that.

Just as I had realized this, a man appeared in front of me, almost magically. He was tall and thin, almost lanky. He looked nervous and anxious, self-conscious and even scared. He had dapper auburn hair and thick sideburns, with a long, slightly sweaty face. He had defined features, warm brown eyes, and wore a proper black Victorian gentleman's suit. I recognized him instantly as Dr. Henry Jekyll, the man bent on taking the evil out of man, but instead gave himself up to his evil counterpart, which due to his miscalculations was not removed from him but only separated.

"Andrea," he began, "Do not be afraid of what lies ahead of you on your journey to the eternal beauty and happiness. These flowers, though small and unimportant as they may seem, could encumber you from your final wish. I will guide you, teach you, and show you the consequences of nine different, sinful lives you could live. This journey will stick with you, and be carried with you through all worlds."

I told him I was grateful for his teachings, and he took my hand. Unafraid, I allowed him to lead me to the first of nine lives (I felt myself a cat) in which I was forbidden to take. The meadow soon disappeared.

In place of the bright glorious meadow became a shady, dismal street nearby docks which looked over a dark but strong and powerful river. In front of my guide and I lay an apartment which was ominous of many wicked instants to come.

"Follow me, and I will show you the first life—the life of the selfish and the vain. These sinners care for no one but themselves, and take pride in this very sin. These unfortunately corrupt moral souls take advantage of items (taking more than is needed), and take advantage of others. These are the sinners who believe they are more important than everyone else, and take care of no one else. Dorian Grey is one soul who has been found to sin as such. He was vain and cared more of beauty than morality. His fate is the same of what will come of you, if you follow this path." I sensed in his tone that he was not talking of some shriveled, dreadful portrait.

Again I took his hand and he led me to the door of the apartment. He knocked thrice and a small door opened, only for inside eyes to peer out. They were eyes that were all too familiar. A few seconds passed, and as the door opened my suspicions were confirmed. It was I who stood there, dressed in fantastic Victorian garments. The look upon my face was disgust; my twin looked at Henry and me as if we were sewer rats.

"Hello." My doppelganger spoke.

"Ms. Churchill?" Henry answered in response.

"I am indeed."

"We came by way of the light, the meadow of love and pleasure. We have come to visit you in search of truth."

"I've seen what they say is truth and I do not hold it in high regard. I do not follow what lies they shove down my throat—I'm not interested."

I peered at the woman before me, who I could slightly recognize. She spoke of such revulsion in anyone telling her what to do. She seemed to be not influenced in the slightest of what others say is right and wrong. I do have that morality, but I was intrigued to know this woman more. There was something about her that I have not quite seen yet.

"Andrea." I spoke, addressing to myself. The other me peered and saw the resemblance, as if she may have thought me a distant and strikingly resembling relative. She called my name back to me in a taken-aback tone, and finally agreed to let us both in.

She led Henry and me through the front doors and up two flights of stairs. Paintings walled all around us, but one painting was missing. I kept getting the notion of déjà vu, like I had been to this place before. After we were led up the stairs we came to an open library. Each wall was lined with shelves, and no space was empty on each shelf. A book took every spot. I got the immediate notion that this character of my possible future had an infinite knowledge. It makes sense that one who was so vain would have a reason to think it was morally correct—an individual should never think them vain if they are far from the worlds most superior. The character before me was not only beautiful, but visibly smart, and I would assume talented by no less degree.

The woman sat down in a velvet chair in the center of the room, as Henry and I conversed. I was truly and madly devoted into finding out more of this young woman. I consistently felt a connection between her and I, or a recognition. I know I have not seen any more figures of sin than her, but this one in particular was almost…promising.

She spoke of seeing too much in her life to shock easily, and her tone was eloquent and perfect and soothing, inviting and gifted. She had a flattering tongue and she spoke of 'experience' and invincibility. She crossed her legs and placed her arms on the arm rests of the chair gracefully—her complete stature was enviable. I found myself thinking if I wished to sin, I would wish to be vain.

At that instance, as if Dr. Jekyll knew or could read my thoughts, the older version of me fell unconscious to the floor.

"What did you do?" I asked, frantically to my leader. He spoke down upon the body before us.

"I must show you what will become of this vain, selfish woman—your possible futures if you chose to go down a path of complete and utter egotistical demeanor.

What then happened I wish I could not say, but I must record the event. What happened was thus: a demon emerged from the ground below. It did not look like your normal demon. It was not red, clad with horns and razor sharp teeth and claws. It looked like a human, actually. It was a very beautiful creature, however one could tell it did not carry innocence. It was not male and not female, almost like a mixture of both genders. It could pass for a man or a woman, similar to the being of the constant gender-changing immortal Orlando . This strange and unfamiliar demon grasped onto my vain self and with its touch she came back to consciousness. She gasped for air but could not seem to move her body. It looked like she was strained to stand there, with the demon before her, frozen by some unidentified power.

The demon's punishment for her sin was as such: the creature, with the nail of its finger, scratched against my doppelganger's face until blood appeared. Dr. Jekyll had his arm in front of me, as if to keep me from interfering. I felt myself frozen too, as if I was cursed to watch. The demon dug its finger under her skin and the victim before me moaned in pain lightly. The demon started to peel and cut the skin off her face, slowly—I soon released that the demon was in fact, skinning her alive. The more the demon continued, the more the woman before me screamed and there was blood everywhere. Dripping down what was left of her skin, her Victorian garments, and made a small puddle eventually on the floor below. All I saw was red. Bright red and heaps of flesh the demon collected in its stained hands. I was horrified to hear the screams, the blood-curdling screams of who possibly could have been me. The woman could not move and was forced to endure the pain. How she survived this event I couldn't tell. Some power was obviously at force to keep her alive for the loss of blood along with too many other factors would have ended this life. This woman was cursed to suffer, and I was cursed to witness and suffer, though at a greatly lesser extent. It was like watching a horror movie, except it was real. There was so much blood…so much red.

I stood there, shocked. The beautiful woman I saw not too long ago was now this creature, this being covered in bright red muscle (it was as if I was looking at a real life diagram of the muscular system). I felt the need to look away but I felt this strange power forcing me not to. When the demon was finished skinning and stripping this woman alive, oh…to say what was done next. The punishment was not over. Henry spoke to me, softly.

"This version of you was vain, was selfish, thought no skin was tougher and thicker than hers, and thought no one better than she. She was forced to give up the skin she believed was most important to mankind."

This I can connect to her sin. This hellish punishment was right for her guilt, but it was not enough. The woman's eyes were bulging. From the lack of skin her appearance and anatomy was grotesque, yes, but the fact that her eyes were wide from terror and extreme pain made her look more horrifying. The demon raised the heaps of flesh to her mouth and forced her to eat it, to eat her own skin. Henry continued.

"This sinner is forced to eat her own flesh, forced to consume what she thought, wrongly, was the most handsome, the most essential. She is forced to consume her skin, just how she consumed the idea that she was Godly."

I watched the entire process. I watched the chewing, the swallowing, the gagging, and I had to gag myself. Watching the consumption was worse…much worse than the skinning. I was afraid to continue on this journey. I wanted to say I had learned my lesson, but I knew there was so much more to come.

The scene disappeared. The demon and the sinner of vanity, pride, and selfishness were gone. Dr. Jekyll and I had entered the next life. We were in an urban area, in the middle of some street. It did not seem to be modern time, but certainly later than the previous life. I felt the pattern—as we progressed into each life, time moved forward. Now it seemed to be sometime around 1890-1910.

"Where are we now?" I asked, already thinking of the consequence that I would eventually have to witness.

"The second life you shall not live is the life of one who allows them to be manipulated, by drugs and the mental corruption that comes with it."

I was a bit taken aback by the second sin. I told my confusion to my guide.

"Henry, why is it a sinful act to do drugs? I do not do drugs myself for it is an unhealthy act, but I do not believe to do so is a sin. Please help me understand."

We started walking as he explained to me. "It is not simply the drugs that are the crime. It is the madness. I myself sinned in this way, along with one quite familiar to you— Griffin ."

My eyes lit up when he mentioned the renowned and brilliant research scientist who discovered a formula to make a human being invisible, but he is somewhat of a psychopath, possibly from the frustration of not being able to turn visible again. I listened intently to Henry's words and had much curiosity. He said he was a sinner of this crime—did that mean he faced the punishment? Dr. Henry Jekyll is a dead man, so the question pondered upon me.

"Insanity is not a sin, but Griffin and I brought it upon us with the madness of our ideas. I had a dream that was too surreal to be created without consequence. I wanted to remove the evil from mankind; I realize now that the evil inside us balances the good in us. It is a unity and a harmony that is necessary, and I disturbed that peace. You must be wondering if I endured the consequence of this sin. Yes I did…but I do not need to live it for all eternity, for I realize my mistake. Griffin was not so fortunate."

I shivered for a split second.

"So," I asked. "The sin isn't really giving into drugs and madness, its choosing the decision to challenge something that is unnatural to challenge? What about Griffin ? What was so wrong about trying to become invisible?"

"Yes in a way," he answered to my first question. "And as for Griffin , I don't know. And that is exactly why he still suffers."

I tried to ponder it. Griffin could almost pass for sinning both this one and the previous sin I witnessed. He thought himself Godly, and superior, and thought very lowly of mankind. I asked my leader, "What happens when someone commits two or more sins? Do they endure both consequences?"

"They endure the worse of the two…or more." He replied. I shivered once again, and felt sorry for Griffin , wherever he was in this strange dream universe of mine, suffering a pain I would soon witness upon myself.

We walked into another apartment building, and seemed to whisk through the walls like ghosts until we came to the correct location. There I stood, again, in the room, surrounded by smoke and gaudy, obnoxious shouts. I was the one shouting.

"It can work, it can work! They will see that I was right! It is better to try and fail, then not try at all, that's what I always said! They told me a life was impossible the way I wanted to live it, but I've proven them wrong! They will see my revenge! My creation is magnificent—I will build an army! I will overtake that island and renew my place as the Creator! Their God! I—"

"I'm confused." I whispered in Dr. Jekyll's ear. This ranting made no sense. I was trying to decipher what my guide meant about this sin. Those who chose against humanity, those who wished to defy human nature. Those who tried to break the balance and harmony in life itself…I can see the sinful act in it. I myself am very spiritual, very in tune with the balance of nature. Anyone who throws off that balance does not deserve to rise above.

"This is the life you lead, if you wrongly chose the path to defy human nature. You speak in similar tones to Dr. Frankenstein. You speak of life, and creation."

I heard myself speak of creations, and The Creator, and an island…I remember a story I used to love about a scientist who created human drones, and they inhabited an island. It was a bit like The Island of Dr. Moreau in a way. I believe Dr. Moreau would have been charged with this sin as well. I braced myself for the consequence for this sin, and I was actually curious. This was strange to feel, considering I was so horrified during the previous one.

My second doppelganger started throwing things around and smashing things. I was literally insane. It was cool to watch. I had this look in my eyes: it was a mixture of excitement, and thrill, and insanity and malevolence. I don't think this journey was working too much, because I was feeling pretty jealous of these future sinning selves of mine. I thought it was so cool to see myself insane. It was like watching a movie, and the woman before me was an actor; it was I acting the role. I saw the insanity like it was something easy to describe. I felt the realness of it. And it was real.

I watched myself grab a few texts from a desk, and Henry raised his arm. My doppelganger shrieked, and sunk down into the floor. Two demons appeared this time. They did not look like the first demon at all. They were black as if stained by coal, and I could almost hear voices, telling me, warning me of their malice. I felt very uncomfortable. It was a different and strange feeling that I did not have as I watched the last curse.

The two demons surrounded the sinner and seemed to be setting the curse upon her poor soul. The two demons grasped their hands out visciously and each ripped an eyeball out from her socket. Red liquid squirted right and left, and I took a few steps back, grossed out.

"Because she could not see her wrongdoing, because she could not see the harm she has done to nature, she does not deserve to see." Henry said.

Next, the demons took steps back and let their curse take place. The blind, mad woman began to hear voices. I knew this, because I heard them too. I was somehow connected to the sinner—we were in fact the same being. The voices were whispers at first, then transformed into screams. Terrible, high-pitched, shivering screams they were. They were screams and voices I recognized. The sinner before me cried, and shouted out, holding her ears for the noises to stop.

"Because she ruined harmony, she will hear the result of her wrongdoings. The screams she will hear, instead of songs."

Finally, the last part of the punishment was as such: there was something bright, something beautiful, like a soul floating about before the sinner. It was just out of reach. She must have felt it, because she tried to grab it, but could not reach far enough. Something held her back to move forward and take it. It was simply an orb of glittering light, but Henry told me otherwise.

"It is beauty, and harmony that lies before her. It is forgiveness and accord she cannot grasp, which she had done so in real life. In life she did not use her senses, her intuition with nature and humanity. Therefore, she loses her senses and suffers for all eternity with this repeated punishment, moving like a broken record, unable to play a melody."

It was not as gory as the first punishment, but it was still difficult to watch. A horror movie for sure, still one that would give me nightmares (taking out of consideration that this was likely a nightmare in itself).

The scene disappeared and Henry and I were alone. He spoke to me, "The third life I will simply describe to you, and you will view the punishment. There is too much of this life to see, so much sin that we do not have the time to view. The third life is that of revenge. Those who allow themselves to be taken over by anger and hatred fit this life and the consequence you will soon see. Two men you know, one named Nemo and the other Iago, have had to suffer. Neither of them has redeemed themselves. Tell me, as I know you have felt you have connected to the previous sinners, the previous women derived from your inner darkness; do you feel you have been tempted by revenge and anger? Tempted to get back at the people who have hurt you?"

"Yes." I said, with no doubt and no hesitation. Yes I did feel a pull towards revenge, and again I embraced myself for the consequence I had to witness for this sin of mine.

"Very well, then you will see the pain and suffering that revenge will cause you."

Before me appeared again myself, but the scowl on my face was no doubt one of experience. Anger filled this doppelganger and again I felt uncomfortable, but in a sense that I was a bit afraid I would become a victim of my own revenge. Henry and I watched as three bright red demons appeared. The scene dramatically changed for the floor below us, in-between Henry and I and my evil twin and her demons, fell and became a deep pit. I jumped but Henry kept me safe. I peered down and I saw at the bottom of the pit. Down below at the bottom were thousands of needles pointed upwards. I shivered and knew what I was soon to witness.

Before she met that fate, my sinful self had another curse to come. The three demons stood about her and dug their claws into her skin, and she winced from the pain. She formed an odd look about her face; it was an unfamiliar mixture of pain and confusion. I was confused as well with this expression, and I turned to Henry to ask what was going on, but he stopped me before I spoke and said "Watch."

The sinner moaned and eventually screeched in pain, as I saw the cloth over her abdomen began to seep red. She screamed, and the cloth ripped as these things squirmed out. She had been ripped from the inside-out with what looked like tentacles, like that of a squid or octopus, but they were metal and sharp and jagged like blades. The tentacles flung around and grew, ripping her abdomen wider and wider. Then, the demons finally pushed her into the pit of needles and she fell face first. I winced, and Henry held me closer so I wouldn't fall myself. I immediately saw the symbolism in the curse. The tentacles stood for the uncontrollable anger bursting from the inside out, and the needles stood for every tiny itty bitty little event that pricked her and tempted the anger and the revenge. I thought about how easy it was to watch this event occur, like it had hardly any effect on me. It is hard to say I was not sympathetic or grossed out, but I believe I took it better than I was supposed to. I saw it in Henry's eyes, that he was disappointed in the result of his guidance. He told me,

"The next life will be hard for you to watch. It is the most grotesque consequence of the lives, and you know in the back of your mind what that is. You know what is coming."

I thought about it, and immediately felt terrified. "Yes," I said. "I know."

And we disappeared into the next life.

I imagined what only I knew, and I felt a pang of something unidentified. As Henry and I walked into the Emergency-Room-from-Hell, he said to me, "You will be watching yourself undergo the surgery…not who you keep thinking of. Not him."

I nod my head. "I know. Seeing myself go through this pain may be better for me than to see Duff, however."

"I considered that." Henry answered. "Duff Killigan was the most obvious sinner of this kind of life. You want to make yourself believe it was not his fault, or that others brought it upon him by force or without his consent, but many do not see his faults and feel sympathy. He was an unlikeable man."

I nod again, with tears forming in my eyes. I suffered too many tears with Duff, whom I held close to my heart. "Go ahead, tell me the sin."

Henry nod. "Very well."

He began to speak as the scene appeared before us. Four metal demons walked in with my body, screaming and squirming like a madwoman. They forced my body onto a metal surgical table, and strapped down each limb and the torso, and we got the immediate feel that we were watching an event from a mental institution.

"The fourth life is for those with a rigid hardness." Henry began. "It is for those who show no emotion, no weakness, but only anger. It is the extremity for someone who keeps up a wall against others. To bottle up emotions, to not cry, not feel sympathy, not smile, not laugh or feel kindness, hardens someone to the core. Andrea—if one shows no softness, it can easily lead you down a life that will not end well. It will lead to a lonely…cold life."

He finished saying this as the metal demons held down my body, who was screaming, and turned on the saws and the alien-like machines. The saws were brought down upon each and every part of my twin, and the worst, highest, loudest screams were made. They were tools specially designed for torture. The machines dug into flesh and got under the skin, covering every inch, covering like a literal second layer of skin underneath; a second skin made of cold, hard metal. Needles were stuck in everywhere, inside the broken bone, and a serum was injected inside the bone, and inside each organ, and everything turned to metal. The transition was more torturous, more lethal than any possible condition. It was torturous to watch, and was making me cry and scream. The worst of all this, watching the curses was to see the facial expressions I made throughout each. But this one—it was too terrible for words.

Henry spoke to me again. "As you can see…the hardness inside was taken literally…her body was turned to pure metal. An alteration that is more painful than any human experience. It is like breaking, smashing every bone in the body…pulling the bones apart, crumbling them with infectious hands."

I sniffed. I had no words. I felt like hiding behind my guide.

He looked at me for a few moments. "Are you ready to move on?"

The screaming was still ringing through my ears. "Yes…please."

Again we disappeared, and I was afraid for the next life I was to be shown, which was supposedly worse. However, I highly doubt it could be worse than what I just saw.

As we moved into the next life, I realized something. The sins, the lives, as we progressed into them, seemed less and less likely to be lives I would live. The first life, the second life, the third and fourth life…they were sins I seemed connected to and somewhat likely to commit if I had indeed gone down those roads, but the first was more likely than the second, the second more likely than the third, and so on. I predict by the ninth life, it would be a sin I would never dare to commit.

Henry and I moved on, and we came to be standing in a company building. I darted my eyes about and easily spotted myself, sitting in a chair, lazily. I had headphones on and could hear the music from them, and recognized the song Take It Easy by Saadi. I was also eating something…a doughnut or some sort of sweet I believe. Perhaps a cupcake.

"The fifth life is for those who don't do work and get the same credit as those who excel, and also for those who do not realize true potential. It is also a place for those who take advantage of the weak. If you live a life, Andrea, of not working up to your potential, of being lazy, a sloth; or if you are in charge of judging whether others are hard workers or not and choose to make everyone equal, all with the same benefits…you will suffer a pain you know much about."

I had felt the need to gulp. When Dr. Jekyll first introduced the sin, I knew right away it was a sin I could never commit. I am the very opposite of what he was telling me, but I wondered what punishment he said I have suffered before.

Five demons appeared. They came to be in odd forms. They looked crazy, with odd shapes and colors upon them, and I can honestly say I never saw stranger beings. They surrounded my fifth doppelganger and she hardly even seemed to see them. Henry told me later on that the demons represented forms of stress and hard work. The demons pushed her out of her chair and began to beat and whip her. Strangely, the torture didn't seem to bother her at first but after a while, possibly five minutes into the beating, she began to feel some recognition and pain. At this time the sinner got up and sat down at her work computer, and began typing. The demons morphed and changed throughout the time she worked, and Henry and I seemed to be standing there for hours. It was a long, extending period of time. It felt boring and interesting at the same time. I watched the expressions of my twin's face and they changed from pain as she cried and happiness and excitement as she smiled. The work was a journey through blood, sweat and tears. Through the time the demons had more and more effect on her, and eventually her work seemed to be finished. Her expression was so satisfied and happy and wonderful that I looked to Henry, very confused as to how this event was torture.

Henry pointed as the demon deleted the entire work that took so much time and effort. I had immediate recognition when Henry spoke of me experiencing that pain. It was the worst possible torture I have ever and possibly could go through in real life ( ). The other me screamed and cried and the demons forced her to do it over again. I pondered, thinking 'Why me…this is something that is supposed to happen to those who sin for doing absolutely no work, and it happens to me when I overwork.'

I also seemed to realize something—again, as we progressed through the lives, the torture changes from physical to emotional pain. I kept trying to predict, with this theory, what the ninth life would be. I was dying to find out, but then again, I was afraid from what I didn't know. I had no idea what was coming. I did realize, however, that Henry's message was coming across. I thought about what life would be like for me if I lived through any of these sins, and logically I knew I would come across pain and sorrow and anguish…I patiently waited, nevertheless, to see all 9 lives.

Again we transitioned. We stood on top of a rocky, deep cliff. So deep, when I looked down I could not see the bottom. All I could see was darkness. The cliff was not a part of a beautiful scene, but instead the nature around us was dark, murky, misty, and gloomy. I got the impression we were in some mysterious jungle, or perhaps a haunted graveyard or ancient ruin site. It was actually kind of cool, and I was strangely getting into this whole 9 lives of sin thing, despite the fact that I was terrified of witnessing something painful.

Henry sighed and looked as if he was bored. "The sixth sin is something you are least likely to commit, and this I am proud of."

We looked over to see five demons who each resembled Two-Face from the Batman comics. I became confused as Henry left my side and walked over to the five demons, and I only realized the sense of him acting as the sixth demon when he helped the others torture my sixth sinning twin.

First, Henry took a knife and carved out my eyeballs like was done in the second curse. I let out a disgusted sound, then all the six "demons" pushed her off the cliff. She fell eternally against the rocks and the stone and hit every sharp edge and corner, and I had a still, confused look upon my face. I was watching with this expression when Henry came back to me again.

"Err…what exactly was this sin?" I asked, extremely curious.

"Judgment." He said. I looked up at him. "Judgment was the sin; those who judge others and stereotype them and do not give them an ear to hear the truth. Because they do not care to see past what they want to see, they lose their eyesight. They fall against rocks eternally; they fall eternally for they have put others down. They have not given a chance to anyone. However, the physical pain comes in small part to their punishment. As they fall, as they hit the sharp rocks and open up their abdomens, as their scarred limbs are cut off bit by bit, inside the back of their heads holds the guilt and realization. Those who have judged in their lives hold the most guilt of all the sinners. Judgment is a common sin, and sadly many people do it. People are taught sometimes to think certain ways. People are trained by those around them to put down others who are different from their own selves. Universally people see Blacks, Hispanics, and Homosexuals as common situations in which judgment occurs. Many people do not see past that. Many people do not realize that judgment occurs during several other instances. Some may argue that judgment is not in the fault of the sinner, but that is an argument all in itself. The emotion the sinner feels during punishment is usually hindered by the pain they suffer, therefore it is almost impossible to recollect one's thoughts and realize their fault. But when one falls, despite all pain, when one falls everything negative goes away and the mind flows. And an easy topic for the mind to wander to is that of guilt and justice. The emotional pain a judger suffers is worse than the actual physical pain…in summary, what goes through their heads is 'I was so stupid to have done such a sin, and now I must eternally suffer for something that I could have easily avoided.'" He turned to me. "Do you understand?"

I nod slowly. "Yes I suppose so…I understand what you mean about how people don't realize that judgment occurs outside of race and that sort of thing. I know exactly how that feels."

"I know you do." He responded, bowing his head to me in sympathy. "The seventh life awaits Andrea."

I sighed and locked my arm in his and we faded into the next verve.

"This next life is one you feel strongly about, just as how you've felt about the last two lives. It is something you have some experience with."

I knew the sin almost immediately as soon as I took in the scene before us. We stood in a dry, barren field scattered with parched tanned bushes and brown grasses. A wooden cross was lying in the middle of the field, and seven demons, all in different forms to mock different religious aspects, nailed my seventh twin to the cross. I watched the pain occur as nails were driven into palms and soles, and Henry spoke again.

"The curse is not always being nailed to a cross to emphasize the Catholic religion; other forms of the torture are given to relate to other religions, but I thought I would show you this specific one based on your religious experience. As you probably have guessed, the seventh sin is for those who shove religion and religious beliefs down other's throats. It is for those who truly, madly believe their religion is the truth, and will not accept or respect any other beliefs or possibilities. It is similar to judgment in a way. As judgers felt guilt as they fell, the seventh sinners hang there on the cross feeling doubt. They think; 'If I am being punished for trying to enforce my religion, does that mean I was wrong? That my God does not exist after all?' You can easily imagine the mental anguish they feel for living an eternal punishment, when during all their life they have done nothing but think they were to be going to a heaven. To live all your life believing in something that you now find out may not be true, is obviously a terror to imagine. However they cannot redeem themselves—it is not a matter of what is right or what is wrong, or what religion is the truest one. It is a matter of learning to respect others beliefs and accepting that not everyone wishes to follow your own personal religion."

I nod and agreed to the sin and its punishment, just as I had for the previous two sins. I was finding this journey easy to go through, for I saw no need to truly listen. I knew I felt strongly about each of these recently previous sins, and that I would never commit them. I was getting a little bored, even. But Dr. Jekyll knew this, and had something coming for me to strike me at the end of this journey.

Again we moved to the second-to-last life I was asked not to live. I predicted it would once again be a life I would never live, but surprisingly it was a sin I felt a little hazy over. It was a sin I was most likely not to live, but it wasn't a sin I would most definitely not live. It was a sin I could not promise on, and this shook me. It made me fearful, again, of what the ninth life could be.

We stood before the curse in progress. My eighth doppelganger had to endure one of the worst punishments. The scene before us was life itself, or what seemed to be like life. The doctor told me it was made to parallel life, the curse. My cursed twin, we watched, lived in a world that did not look much different from reality. The curse was one I somewhat had experience with. Henry told me of the sin and its punishment, in detail.

"The eighth and second-to-last sin is for those who let aspiration get in the way of judgment." He glanced at me for a moment before continuing. "It is a life for those who are too naïve, and those who will not allow themselves to see the truth because they do not want to. Lenny is someone you know who suffers the curse of this sin. He did not want to believe what Teddy told him, and so he lied to himself and caused himself a lot of trouble for it. Because they lived their lives blindly, made poor decisions, and did not wish to see the truth, the punishment for them comes in three parts. The first is they lose their eyesight." Henry turned to me again. "As you have noticed, this is another of many instances in which a sinner loses sight. For your understanding, this is done for the purpose of your own personal regard. You value sight."

I nod my head and agreed. I had wondered why the loss of eyesight was so abundant, but now I saw the reasoning behind it.

"Right…the second part is in their 'afterlife', which is played in real life almost exactly, decisions are made for them by the eight demons that look over the punishment. There is no independence, even in the smallest decisions. The third part is that they are never told the truth. They are told lies, and a lack of trust and much paranoia are common internal, emotional pains the sinner faces."

I thought about this and thought it was a terrible life to live. I knew what it was like to live without independence, but the way Dr. Jekyll described this sin made me shiver. It was obviously far worse than anything I could face, and was frightened into never wanting to live the life which would bring me to it. The doctor seemed satisfied with this response. However, we had one last life to see. I took a deep breath, and was ready. With this, Jekyll took me to see the very last of my journey.

As the last life was shown before me, I felt instantly confused. My ninth twin was not present. The sinner in front of me was not myself. It was a man who looked very familiar. I could not pinpoint his identity, but his suffering hurt me. In fact, it soon became unbearable to watch. Nine red demons surrounded him. I could not see with my eyes, but I could feel the pain. The man had a hand over his heart and I could see the physical pain in his eyes. His heart hurt; it felt swollen, broken, pressured. It was complete emotional anguish that cursed him. The emotional pain became the physical pain. I could feel the headache, the dry eyes from losing so many tears, the sore throat, the heartache, the jaw ache—everything. It was worse than seeing myself endure any pain I have seen so far. It was fascinating. As I watched this man go through this pain, I started to feel the pain too. Not a twin, not a doppelganger—me. The demons sauntered over to me as I felt the headache, the dry eyes, the sore throat, the heartache, and the jaw ache. Everything hurt, but what hurt the most was the feeling of my heart like it was being squeezed and constrained. Henry spoke to me softly, as I cried out from the curse.

"The ninth life is for those who break hearts. You have not done so, Andrea. You have not sinned in this manner. But I thought it would be…sufficient for you to feel the pain yourself. I figured that by this, you would truly learn never to go down the ninth path of malice. The pain of a broken heart is worse than any other pain out there. Love is a special thing that is not to be tainted with. It causes more anguish, and more happiness than any other. Humans are a fascinating creature in that they can feel love itself. Human emotion precedes all other substantial feeling. Do you feel that pain, Andrea? Do you?"

I knew by this point who the man was. He was the one who was waiting for me by the cherry tree in the meadow.

"Have you learned your lesson through these nine lives? The point is not to feel threatened by the pain of eternity. You are not to keep yourself from sinning because you wish to avoid the pain. The point is to realize that a life of sinning will lead to consequence…in your waking life."

"I know," I cried. "I understand. I have learned."

"Good." He responded. "Then we can move on."

I felt the pain slowly going away, and I could stand. I looked at him. "Move on? I thought there were only nine lives you wished to show me."

"There were. But now since I have shown you consequence of living a life of sin, I must now show you the reward of living a life of virtue."

This took my surprise a little, and I gave a small smile. I let him lead the way into what I thought would be a normal heaven experience, the typical cloud-nine ordeal, but I was proven wrong. Henry took me to a place that was so unusual yet so satisfying. Like the eighth sin, the world around me was like life itself. The good doctor led me through the streets of Wantagh like I was out of this strange world of sin and virtue and curses and magic, and back home again. The neighbors didn't seem to see me, however. I asked Henry about this.

"Your reward is to watch over life as it continues after your end." He said. "You are almost in a ghostly form, among the living but not visible or audible or present. There are some beings out there who hold the power to contact the non-living of course—those who can speak to the dead, the physics, the ghost whispers, whatever you wish to call them. Being a ghost, being able to see life is what would please you most…isn't that right Andrea?"

I nod my head and made sense of the fact. I didn't want to move on, and be a part of any kind of 'heaven' where I was 'set free'. I wanted to be as close to life as possible. I have an immense fear of death and the end of life. Being a ghost, being able to 'live' among the living sounded like the best reward possible for an afterlife.

"And, as a bonus," Henry smirked, "you are given infinite knowledge and clarity. All certainties are known. People live about their lives trying to find the meaning of everything and the answers to the spiritual world, magic, and everything else. After death you get all the answers."

"Sounds like a good enough deal to me." I smiled in return. "Thank you for showing me this lesson. I don't think I will ever forget."

"Of course."

I pounded fists with Dr. Jekyll, and enthrallingly I found ourselves back in the meadow. I looked down and I was standing right on top of the three flowers. I had nearly ruined them. The destruction made me smile a little.

I thanked Dr. Jekyll once again and turned to continue on my path. In the distance still stood the enormous cherry tree, and underneath stood the man from the ninth life. I had a big smile upon my face, and ran. Nothing could stop me.

I awoke feeling warm and comfortable. I felt uplifted, renewed, and blissful. Though I knew it was all only a dream, I couldn't help but feel a bit strange from it all. I felt a little lost, almost as if I didn't recognize my room or the world I was in. I adjusted quickly, though it did surprise me, hence, when I got out of bed and found an ankh necklace around my neck and flower petals at the bottom of my feet.

I huffed, thinking 'Henry was right'. That journey really did stick with me. I just hope my lesson would be enough to lead me to the happiness I was ordained to conquer. Life is a road you have to ride, and getting past the obstacles in the road wasn't going to be easy. Now that I know what lay at the end of the road, I learned at least one thing: though I may not have a guarantee to know how to live my life without sin and complete merit, I sure as hell have the motivation to. I do not want to die. But then again…who does?