Daniel's Inferno

The moment the door closed behind him, it was as if his mind moved from one body to another instantaneously.

He was suddenly sitting. He blinked, and realized that both of his arms and legs were bound in manacles. He looked to his left and saw that there was a man sitting next to him. Like Daniel he was naked; a fat, hairy man with manacles on his arms and ankles just like you. To your right, a dark-skinned man with a shaved head.

All three of you look up and get a better look at the room. It was massive and ancient. It kind of looked like the Roman Colosseum, with every bench populated with people that were all naked and shackled just like you. They were of every gender, race and age imaginable. The chains that were connected to all of their manacles snaked down like a water-wall, the chains obscuring the surface of the ground like a massive snake pit.

Speaking of, growing in the center of the room was what looked like a massive tree. It was bigger than any tree Daniel has ever seen. It was leafless and ash-colored, as if it had died and fossilized and has been so for centuries. Daniel's blood turns ice-cold when he saw what could only be described as a massive albino snake that nested in the branches.

Oozing through the mist from where the trunk of the tree stood came a cloaked figure. It cleared its throat, its voice sounding as though its esophagus had petrified like the tree.

"All rise for the infernal Judge Minos."

The giant snake's head came into view. A massive, boney, gnarly parody of a snake's head with cloudy eyes. A lump inked its way through the snake's massive body before it mades it sway to the throat. Like a rat trying to escape from the snake's stomach, a pale, humanoid creature with long hair, a bear as what looked like a crown on its head freed itself from the snake's mouth, the waist down held in place by the snake's teeth. Daniel only needed a moment to realize that this strange man-like growth that had just left the snake's body was actually a part of the snake itself.

"You have been judged guilty," said the Judge, almost smug in the farce of his ruling.

Suddenly, one of the humans stood up.

"Of what?" Said one of the naked prisoners on one of the colosseum's rows.

Suddenly, a cloaked figure similar to the one that announced the judge appeared and punched him across the face. The Judge smirked at the sound of the man's nose breaking.

"Why, being human, of course." The Judge gave a sadistic cackle. "You have been judged by God to be unworthy of his mercy. There will be no right to an appeal. There will be no more rights for you at all. There is no way out. There will be no ending for you all. Only punishment for this most horrible of crimes unending."

The Judge jerked his head. Two of the cloaked individuals grabbed a teenaged blonde woman by both of her arms. She was kicking and screaming, crying out for her mom as tears marked her face.

The Judge bent down, and it is at this moment that Daniel could get a better look at his face. It was the same color of white as the snake. His eyes were cloudy, indicating that he was blind, and it was when he sniffed at the woman did he see that he only had a cavernous hole where a nose should have been.

"You crashed your vehicle. Not premeditated, but the **** was still by our own hands. Woods of Suicide in the Seventh Circle."

Suddenly, the chains connected to her arms and legs tightened, and she was gone, having been dragged out of the colosseum by the chains, the only thing left of her being her screams echoing through the darkness.

And so it went. Each was picked up and dragged one at a time out of the bench before their most heinous crime was used to decide their fate. A very muscular man was sent to the Third Circle of Gluttony for being a fat kid in high school. A black man sent to the Seventh Circle of **** for killing a racist cop in self-defense. A hefty woman sent to the Sixth Circle of Heresy for her atheism.

It almost felt as though the whole thing was a cruel joke. The "retribution" grossly disproportionate and tyrannical.

Then, it was Daniel's turn. When the robed figures turned toward Daniel, he was already shaking and crying. He was to terrified that he could not even cry out for mercy, the robed figures taking him by the shoulders and brought him up to the monstrous judge.

The Judge's face was only inches away, his breath smelling of ****, as he took a big whiff, taking in the smell of his sins.