corner of Hell

There is a door in the corner of Hell. On rare
occasions, the inhabitants of Hell are allowed to pass
through it.

On the other side is a room. And in that room is
everything anyone’s heart can desire. Here are
beautiful women, eager to please the men who come
through. Here are handsome men looking to give
attention to the women. Here is the finest wine, the
most perfect music, the most pristine forests. Here
are the loved ones lost, now found again. Here is
power, success, wealth and all the things people
crave. Most importantly of, here the inhabitants can
comfort each other and find solace in another’s
understanding. In this room are forged bonds that tie
the souls of the lost together, for only the lost can
really know each others’ suffering. In that shared
pain, there is a connection that can happen no other
way.

In this room, the condemned may eat, drink, and taste
whatever their deepest longings are. But it is still
Hell, after all. So although the tortured may taste
everything, they may posses nothing. The yearning of
the soul to be with a lover – to offer and receive
comfort – is expressed and touched here, but never
fully satisfied. Since, in the end, the time in this
room is limited. And the inhabitants of Hell must
return to their torment. Bonds forged so deep into the
soul that they change it, these bonds are snapped. The
finest of wine is tasted, but never consumed. The
loved, comforted for a brief instant, fall back to the
worst of suffering, erasing the comfort.

The reason for this room is simple. Without it, Hell
has no variation. People loose sanity in the constant,
eternal torment. But the loss of sanity is an escape.
The relentlessness of the pain becomes almost a
comfort. But it is Hell, after all. Such comforts,
such escapes are not permitted. So the room gives the
briefest of hopes in a place where all hope had been
abandoned. The room breaks the routine. It steals the
hopelessness, and replaces it with broken hope, which
is far worse. It heals the soul, then rips it apart
again. It takes all that it gives and more.

Yet some inhabitants of Hell still seek it out. Some
of the unlearned yearn for it, are taken in by its
illusion. Some never learn.

Others fear it. They harden themselves against it, but
know that they will fail. It is the step of cool
ground that gives a moment’s release while walking
across the hot coals. And in that moment’s release, it
causes the coals to sear that much deeper.

The room is known by many different names.
On the door, there is a small sign giving the correct
name of the room.
It reads: “earth”.