Author's Notes(updated 25 April, 2006)
If you find this long-winded introduction a bit boring, please go ahead to the story!
The characters and original concept of Dogma are not mine, and credit for the idea behind this work lies fully with Kevin Smith.
I've watched Dogma several times over the past few weeks (a few select scenes several dozen times) as I tried to better understand the characters. I've also done a bit of background research to try and create a more interesting tale. If anyone has suggestions on how to improve, I look forward to hearing them.
We begin in the depths of Hell, with what I hope is the start of a suspenseful and surprise-filled story.
By the way, some of the characters and such don't show up until a few chapters in—so all you Bartleby and Loki fans don't worry—they are coming.
Please read and review!
Prologue
It was a strange sensation. Almost all things become more tolerable with time. Odors become less noticeable as the senses acclimate to them. The loud noises of a jet engine seem to fade into the background after hours of exposure. Even hunger and fatigue can be pushed to the back of the subconscious where they still exist, but no longer influence the mind.
But pain—pain was different. The incision of a sword or breaking of bones hurt more now than it had during their first years of torture. Hell was agony that could not be expressed, a circular existence of terror that saw flesh brutally ripped from the bone and then reattached, only to be torn free once more.
But the captors were too cruel to resort to pain alone. They did all that could be done to induce fear. Pain was physical, and no matter how terrible it became, only fear could attack the inner core of one's being.
For this reason, the most wicked of sinners were periodically allowed to roam freely through the bowels of hell, forever wondering when the next physical assault would take place. The break from torture was anything but a reprieve, as the victims were constantly surrounded by the smell of death and the screams of the wounded which permeated throughout the land of darkness. They rarely lasted long, though it was impossible to measure the passage of time in Hell.
Nonetheless, on this day it was long enough for them.