•   Walking through my old, neighborhood park, I passed a tall, craggy maple tree. An aroma filled the air. Flowers mixed with incense and perfume, so ethereal I felt I could live on the scent alone. The tree loomed over the source of the fragrance which was a small hole in a mound of clay. Kneeling over the hole, I wriggled my finger into it trying to make it larger. Unsuccessful, I began digging ferociously trying capture the scent. Something gave way under my weight and the ground collapsed, sending me spiraling into the depths of darkness.

    I landed in a large cavern. There was no light, which I could perceive, even the hole I fell
    through seemed to have vanished. I was alone and confused; I sunk into misery. When it seemed like there was no hope, a tiny p***k of light caught my eyes. It seemed to be moving toward me when it flickered and vanished. In desperation I tripped and stumbled my way toward the place I last saw the light. I almost ran right into a large slab of stone standing upright in the middle of the cavern. This stele was as large as a small house and warm to the touch. As soon as I had placed my fingers on it, a torch instantly ignited. This was the light I had been following. The torch illuminated cuneiform incised into the stone. Peering at it, I read:

    Wo all who enter here, the slippery slope has led
    you on your path to darkness
    Wo unto him who knows the law and wasteth his days until consumed by death.
    Wo unto those who have broken a trust and
    formed the eternal bond of torment.
    Sinners of trust,
    The devil delighteth in you.


    Where was I? What were the engravings trying to tell me? I was so confused. Putting it out of my mind, I took the torch and began searching the edges of the room for an exit. The only thing besides the stone in the middle was a grand staircase at the far end of the room. This was perfect, except it led down. That wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but there was no other way, so I descended into greater darkness. Soon I entered an even greater room. I soon as I stepped into the room, a great weight fell upon my shoulders. I was suddenly aware of all my sins, from the worst of sin to the smallest lie. It was so intense, my knees buckled and I collapsed to the ground. It was smothering me. I began to choke and gasp for breath when a bright light descended upon me alleviating my pain.

    With the light, came understanding. No one had to tell me anything, but a pure truth entered my mind. I was in a place full of sin and there was no way out . . . No, that wasn’t right. I couldn’t get out on my own. I needed God’s grace or Satan’s cunning to help me return to earth. Satisfied with my knowledge, I allowed myself to glance around the room. The room was filled with dark shadows dotted with bright lights like the one by me. Wait, these weren’t just shadows or lights. These were the souls who died in ignorance, being taught by the souls that knew and had lived the truth. I saw a stream of shadows heading toward the stairs, some choosing to go up, others descending further. After they learned the truth, they could either accept it and be sent before God, or reject it and be sent to eternal misery.

    Pretty soon my light and teacher, left me. I tensed, ready to feel the weight of my sins press upon me again, but as long as I held onto the torch I felt nothing. The only two ways out of this room were either up or down the stairs. I knew there was nothing for me upstairs, so I continued my descent down the noble staircase.

    This next room was different from the last. There were no teaching lights flitting about or a sense of hope. This was a place of torture and punishment. What I saw, repulsed me. Along the walls figures were captured, unable to move as small rodents climbed over them, stealing their fingers and toes, and clawing out their eyes. They were stealing from the ones that stole. Among the figures, I spotted an actress who was familiar to me. It was Winona Ryder. She had escaped punishment in the world above, but now her soul was being tormented now. All of her fingers had been torn open and were bleeding freely. When the torch light fell across her face, her tongue was loosened and she began to talk to me. She began to whine and plead innocent to her crime.

    “Were you falsely accused?” I asked feigning innocence.
    “They accused me of stealing accessories and a dress for my personal gain, when I was only doing it to study for an acting role. I was planning on returning it after I was cast.”
    “The blood from your fingers, prove your guilt,” I sneered at the absurdity as I walked away.
    There was a large maze in the center of the room. I looked over the edge of the pit to watch the wandering prisoners to this endless labyrinth. I whistled down to a man who was drifting aimlessly from one trap to another. He slowly raised his head to look at me.
    “Who are you and what is your crime?” I hollered down to him.
    “My name is James Warren Jones, and my only crime is loving God.”
    “Explain yourself.”
    “I created a religion called The People’s Temple. In my religion through translation, my followers and I would all die together, and move to another planet for a life of bliss. It was ruined when the government tried to stop us. That is why I am here.”
    “Your mind is as twisted and corrupted as this maze you are trapped in. Because you led people into falseness, you will always be lead in false directions as you wander through an abysmal riddle.”

    Wandering around the edges of the maze were a mass of convoluted people. One group of people were forced on their knees with large boulders across their backs. While another group had their heads forced downward, never to look up again. I approached a member of the first group. He told me of his plight.

    “I was a young athletic man in my former life. I played tennis for fun and earned great wealth and prestige. I needed money to survive my lifestyle, or everything would have fallen apart. I admit not paying my taxes, but it was money I had earned and they were stealing it from me. They did not deserve it. So instead, I built my fine mansion and drove my nice cars, and in return I built up my prestige.”

    It sounded to me like greed, but something wasn’t right. I had to know more. I went to
    another soul and asked him, “what is your sin?”

    “Such a harsh word you use,” he smirked, “and to think I was going to help you leave this place.”
    Could he really help me?
    “Play me in a game of cards. If you win, I will show you the way out.”

    I agreed and he dealt out cards. As I was studying my cards, the torch light reflected of a hidden card up his sleeve. He tried to cheat me! I threw the cards in his face and walked away. Anger washed over me, but with it came understanding. These were the dishonest, cowering under the weight of their lies.

    The last group were the ones who were forced to look at the ground, hunched over and
    pitiful. Following the pattern of the room, this sin was easy to figure out. These were the souls who had continuously looked at others’ possessions and coveted after them. I recognized no one in the group and did not waste my time to talk to them.

    There was a large cliff at the end of the room. It was an easy, but slow climbed down the side. At the bottom of the cliff, I realized I was still at the top of a mountain. Bustling around me were people taking large boulders and dirt and moving them to a second smaller mountain not far away.

    “What are you building?” I asked the closest person to me.
    “A mountain,” she answered as she moved off.
    “Who would need to build a mountain when they already had one?” I wondered out loud.
    “It is our punishment for our slothful lives,” answered another, “We must move this
    mountain then turn around and move it back.”

    A continuous circle of hard labor, for those who had never worked before, makes sense. I moved on.

    I followed a small path that went through a small mossy patch and led to a darker cave. There was no one insight for miles and I was just enjoying walking when I heard a loud yelp.

    “Who’s there? Where are you?”
    “ I am below you. You are standing on me” There was no one there.
    “Show yourself!”
    “I can’t.”

    He went on to explain that his name was Tommy Lee, and it was his punishment to be
    invisible and be trodden over. All over the path I had been walking on, were the ones who had abused their loved ones. As they had made the victims feel invisible and battered, so must they be for eternity.

    I leapt off the path and continued my journey. I entered the cavern and gasped at how cold it was. I was thankful for my torch that kept me warm enough to keep moving. In the room I saw more people than I had seen thus far. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Every one of them was nothing but skin and bones. They wore what used to be fine apparel, but was now tattered rags and rusted jewelry. They walked about with unseeing eyes, searching for something. Rain, wind, and all sorts of weather pelted them and kept them raw and hard looking. I passed a man who was licking at the wall. As I passed, he glared at me with sunken eyes.

    “I am not a crook!” He growled and returned to licking up nothing.

    These were the rich and the greedy who kept their wealth while others suffered with
    starvation and faced the weather. I left the room shaking from cold and shock.

    The last room I entered was a forest of stalactites and stalagmites. Strewn among the stone trees were bodies pierced, by the sharp points. Most were straight through the heart, but some were held between two, a stalagmite through the groin and a stalactite through the head. The ones through the heart were those who had betrayed their most beloved spouse to commit adultery or divorced their spouse to pursue another. They had to suffer for the heartache felt by betraying the one they love. The others were those who had lusted after another’s spouse or had consumed their thoughts with pornography. The stones grew larger as I reached the center of the forest, which was marked by a large hole in the ground. I studied it, if I wanted to continue I had to go down it, but in doing so there was no turning back. I inhaled deeply and jumped into blackness.

    As I plunged down, I caught unto a slippery slope that led me quickly to the bottom. As I
    skidded to a stop in front of a large black lake, I noticed how thick and metallic the air was. I stood and studied my surroundings. The room was too skinny to circumnavigate the lake, but there was a small boat at the edge of the lake. I climbed aboard and began to paddle.

    As I flowed along, I noticed strange looking trees at the edge of the lake. Moving closer, I realized in horror they were not trees at all, but men frozen in time, standing like scarecrows staring into an abyss. Their wrists were slashed or their necks were bruised, some even had bullet wounds through there heads. These were the ones who had murdered themselves. Their wrists were spread wide and each had a chain bound to their wrists. Each chain held a man who was bound upside-down with their heads submerged in the lake. Some faces I recognized, like O.J. Simpson, and Mark Hacking. Blood dripped from every pore, scratch and teeth mark etched in their mangled bodies. That’s when I realized the lake was black from clotted blood. The thought made me sick and I
    collapsed onto the deck of the boat, retching over the side. What I saw there scared me more. There were faces in the bloody water. From among them peered, Boothe, Guiteau, Czolgosz, and Oswald. Each known for assassinating presidents. I curled up on my back looking at nothing, but the roof of the cave as I drifted onward.

    Eventually I hit land. I crawled out of my boat and shuddered as I inched forward. Screams soon pierced my ears which made my hair curl. All along my path bodies were strewn, writhing in agony. These were the most recognizable faces I had seen so far. These were the infamous men that committed the worst types of sins. Men like Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, were writhing in agony as they lived each last moment their mass victims had lived through. Their screams ripped through my bones and I witnessed their pain. I moved as quickly as I could to the exit which was a large arch. This had to be the end, there was no sin worse then genocide and mass murder. I was wrong.

    If the last room was sins about death, this room was sins about life. These were all people who had corrupted Gods great miracle of birth. Inside were those who had committed fornication, rape, and all sorts of whoredom. Because the committed sins of the flesh, each one of the souls had little or no flesh left. New comers, like Hugh Grant, still had flesh, but it was rotting and disintegrating before their eyes. I choked on the putrid air and dove into the next cavern with only barely glancing around.

    Waiting for me was a beast with three heads growing out of its back, each gnashing and growling like a mad beast. At once, the heads froze and glared at my intrusion. The normal head, placed on the neck where it should be, grinned and beckoned me in. This was Satan, the king of Hell, there was no doubt in my mind. As I took a step forward my torch went out.

    “Welcome to my lair, I’ve been waiting for you. I would like to introduce to you my other
    heads, if you will allow it,” he snickered, “Each feeds off of broken trusts and bonds that hold
    humanity together. The first is Dishonesty. He consumes all who have sinned against others in this manner. He is sneaky and consumes every man at least once in their lives. The next is Negligence. This is for others who have forsaken their responsibility to others in order to pursue their own desires. The last head is the most hungry of all, for it is only the ones who have fallen to the others, will he be able to grab them. He is the one for those who have taken God’s power into his own hands and have induced or taken away life.

    “And now to deal with you. You have willingly entered my presences and have treated my subjects with disdain and torment. I am afraid you owe me.”

    This was not what I had expected. I didn’t want to owe the Devil anything. Suddenly I was trapped in chains and couldn’t move. Satan’s laugh echoed through my head. I looked up and cried for help. All of a sudden, a light burst through the ceiling and split the Devil in two. I was instantly free from my bonds. Standing before me was the angel Michael. I stared in awe at him as he stared at me angrily. He didn’t have to say anything. I sought for help in the wrong place. It became evident to me that I should have turned to God the moment I was lost in darkness. I hung my head in shame. When I glanced up to see what St. Michael was doing, he was gone. I didn’t know what to do. Now I had lost both ways of escaping this cavern. I looked up and a light washed over me.

    The next thing I remember is waking up under the large maple trees, breathing in the beauties of a spring day.