“Heaven and Hell do not exist”

By: JaMez! (7.11.06)

 

Disclaimer: The characters in this story are MINE! Though they are loosely based on real people [*ahem*]… please don’t steal my story! Ask first!  ^_^

 

 

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

 

 

            “Am I dead?”

 

A figure loomed above me as I craned my head back to glimpse its face.

 

            “Yes,” a booming voice replied, the echoes of the answer reverberating through the cavernous area I resided in.

 

The figure was all black, like a shadow, a being neither solid not transparent but yet both. Gender undeterminable, even its black face gave no sign as to who or what the androgynous voice belonged to.

 

            “Are you and angel?”

 

            “No,” came the voice.

 

            “Then you are devil?”

 

            “No,” it simply said again.

 

I puzzled over this momentarily until the voice spoke again, this time with more then one word.

 

            “Heaven and Hell do not exist. You are no learning the great mystery of life, young Jacob; there is nothing after death that makes everything you did in life worthwhile. All your good deeds did not get you into Heaven, nor did all your sins bring you to any Hell. There is nothing after death… nothing but me.”

 

            “Then… what are you,” I hesitantly asked.

 

            “I have no name, no race, no age. I am everything, yet nothing at all. All that is certain is I exist.”

 

Musing over this quietly, I began walking amongst the landscape that surrounded me. I realized suddenly that it kept changing – shimmering mirage images of landscapes and rooms periodically distorted and then disappeared, only to be replaced by a new imaginary place. I turned back to it.

 

            “But why exist if there is nothing?”

 

            “I have purpose.”

 

            “What purpose could you possibly serve here?!”

 

            “Look around,” it said, sweeping what I assumed was an arm out to gesture around, “do you see anyone else here”

 

I shake my head ‘no.’

 

            “Where do they go then? Surely you are not the only person to die, little Jacob.”

A knotted pit of fear and dread settled in my stomach at that moment.

 

            “They must go somewhere, and that is why I exist with a purpose: I take care of the dead souls like you that gather here after they die.”

 

            “But… how?”

The thing’s face contorted and a pair of glowing eyes opened along with a smiling mouth full of black, pointed, glinting teeth.

 

            “I eat them.”

 

I had only time to scream before the soul eater grabbed my frail body in its claws and threw me up into its mouth, swallowing me whole.