Well, I'm back after a long absence. The remaining parts of this 3 part series will be posted in the coming days. All characters are over the age of 18. Most of them are spirits.
This is not Dante's "Inferno" plus perverted sex. Yes, I referenced Dante's take, and others, but I took artistic license with all of it. Just a heads up, readers, the last chapter is non-erotic. Yes, this story has a moral to it. If at any time you find the story too controversial for your tastes, well, there's plenty of other stories for you to read. Let's just leave it at that. As usual I wanna say, women be warned, this one is geared to the guys. I hope you all enjoy.
He awoke with a start.
He was on a rocky outcropping on a massive plain, inside an enormous cavern. Distant volcanoes belched smoke into the noxious air. Fire and magma shed an orange light through the blackness and gloom. Distant screams of agony could be heard above the sound of the wind.
"Yep, this is hell," he thought out loud.
His memory was blank. He didn't remember who he was, or even his own name. He didn't remember how he died.
He
Remembered
Nothing.
He looked down at his body. He was male. He was naked, and his body was corded with a massive set of muscles. It seemed wondrous and strange to be in possession of such a powerful physique. It made him feel calm despite the distant screams carried on the sulfuric winds.
He stood up and looked around.
"If this is hell, at least there aren't any lakes of fire," he muttered to himself reassuringly. "Maybe some volcanoes way far away, that I can handle." He let out a breath and looked down at his nakedness, clenching and unclenching his fists. He felt strength in his limbs that was definitely reassuring, but he wasn't sure it would save his exposed anatomy from searing fire.
Looking up, he realized that there were other threats to his being. A harpy with sharp teeth and curved talons.
Cursing, he ducked behind a rock. Peering from behind it, he took a second look at the creature. Half woman and half bird, it flapped its grotesque wings as it circled above. It was scanning the landscape, circling and circling.
He saw more of them, father away. There were at least a dozen, and other flying demons as well. Just then a blast of fire drew his eye to what seemed to be a dragon, flying low near the bottom of the hill. As he watched, it breathed a swirling cloud of fire onto the unfortunate souls in the valley, letting loose twenty seconds or so.
The harpy let out a cry. She had seen him.
"This way!" came a man's voice. "Hurry, take cover!"
He turned and quickly headed in the sound of the voice, stumbling over the hardened lava flow.
He didn't see where the voice came from, but there was an opening in the ground formed by the volcanic rock flow. He headed for it, and soon found himself in a small hole.
He hid there for a while, not sure what to do next. If he thought that he was dreaming, the painful jabs from the rock let him know it was not. It was better than what the demons might do to him though.
"Maybe you best lie low and come up with a plan," he told himself, doing his best once again to sound reassuring.
He was not convinced.
Days passed. Horrific noises floated by, until he wished his ears would stop hearing. The tiny cave was barely big enough for him to crouch in, but he was safer than out in the open.
He tried to think, but he seemed to lack any basis for thinking. No memories, no understanding of who he was, left him without any sort of plan. It was frustrating. After a few hours, he felt as though he would go mad. He snuck out of the hole and headed away from the fiery valley, towards a horizon cloaked in darkness.
He began to wonder what would become of him if he were found by the demons. Would they torture him on the spot, or burn him into some kind of cadaverous looking zombie? Would he be corralled into some other group of condemned souls, to be tortured en masse?
"Why!?" he cried, yelling at the stormy blackness above. "What did I do?!"
He could not remember his own name, but he did not think himself a bad person.
"You were not judged?" came a voice, nearby.
He turned and looked. He saw a man, strong and handsome, wearing an ornate leather belt, boots, and a loincloth.
"Are you the one who called out to me before?"
"Yes," said the man. He was of a rather muscular build himself, and wore an ornate leather belt, boots, and a loincloth. There was an other-worldliness to him. "I'm glad to see that you're still alright. Come this way, it's not safe on the hillside."
The man wore clothes at least, thought the newcomer. Perhaps he would know where to get some more. Encouraged by this, he followed the man towards the valley on the far side of the rise.
"Are we going to be okay?"
"As long as we put some distance between us and the fiery plains behind us," said the man. "By the way, the name is Rigel. What's yours?"
"I'm – I don't know my name."
"You don't remember?" the man offered, instantly understanding.
"No, I don't remember. The only thing I remember is a couple of hours ago, I woke up in – this is hell, isn't it? "
"Limbo, actually. The first layer of hell. Congratulations, it's the least awful layer. The place we left, Avernus, is not somewhere you want to be, and after Avernus, it's all downhill, trust me."
"What's going to happen to us?"
"You're alright. There's no endless torment here. Just keep away from the demons and things won't be so bad. This layer of hell is reserved for people who really did well in life, but just weren't saintly enough to actually get the thumbs up from St. Peter."
"What happened to purgatory?"
"Doesn't exist," Rigel replied with a chuckle. "This is the closest thing. So take heart, if you look around, and stay out of sight, you might find that you like some of the places here."
"Really?" He had never expected to hear something like that about a realm like Hell.