Leah's hell

There was a fucking lava river flowing under her! What the hell was this bridge made of?

Leah didn't feel any hotter at all. She was leaning in the rail of the bridge looking bellow. She could smell sulfur but then again her entire being was all around normal temperature. Not too hot, not too cold.

She had just woken up precisely at that bridge. She had been surprised to wake up at all. She should have been dead.

Was she hallucinating? The bullet could have just razzed her brain and she could have been seeing things from loss of blood. But if she had been left for dead in a alley, she could die any minute now, from blood loss. She needed to wake up!

Proceeding to ignore her surroundings she started to try to wake herself up. She grabbed a little of skin and squeezed; she bit her hand with similar results. She felt some pain yes, but she was still in the same place looking up to an orange sky.

Orange sky? That was new.

Whatever. Shrugging she tried to think of another way to wake herself up. Maybe altering her brain, somehow? She remembered reading somewhere that praying could change some kind of neurological working. However she couldn't remember the last time she prayed. And what would she pray: please let me wake up?

Hmm. Not bad. Leah got in her knees in the middle of the bridge, joined her hands and started her mantra of please let me wake up. Her knees started hurting. She was considering a change to a meditative position like the lotus, when a quite rude fellow interrupted her.

-Are you seriously praying in the middle of Hell?

Leah looked at him. He looked sane. He was in jeans, had a black t shirt and he looked like he was in a stroll.

-Straightly speaking, I think, I'm meditating and not praying. I just have the wrong pose.

-Oh. Then that's okay, I guess – said sarcastically the guy. He should be around twenty years old. – Are you new here?

-I just woke up. I think I'm hallucinating and I want to return to reality right now. Anything you can add up?

-Yeeeesss! First, you are dead, not hallucinating. Second, in case you didn't hear me the first time, in are in Hell, capiche?

-Are you freaking kidding me? How is this hell? Where are the screams, the fire and the tormented souls? This place is a freaking desert! Besides, the lava river is kind off pretty.

The guy laughed.

- You have that point right. At least, the river is pretty.

Leah made a grimace and got up from her awkward position. She looked around and didn't see anyone else.

-So, do you have a habit of taking strolls through uninhabited places of Hell or something? – asked Leah.

- I was bored – responded the guy.

- Can I take it to mean, that Hell is not as bad as they painted it?

-They?

- Etruscans, Catholics and the rest.

The guy shrugged – I have no idea how do they think of hell. From what you said they just put in that story all that they could think off as scary and then mixed it. It sounds like a horror story. Just think of this as the afterlife without the prejudices of your image of hell, ok?

-But how can it have the same name?

- In the past, a long, a long time ago there was some kind of god on earth called Hades; Is dominion was the afterlife, Hell. We liked that story and adopted that name. So. all rulers in this place use the name Hades as a title.

-And what about heaven? I was the victim here. If hell exists, shouldn't heaven exist too? Therefore, shouldn't I be in heaven?

-Oh, that. Heaven doesn't exist. – The guy seemed to be getting restless and was looking for something in his pants pockets.

-At all? What about the angels, god, and the eternal fight between heaven and hell?

-Total crap. – He found a cigarette and put it in his lips – Are you disappointed?

-Not really. I never liked the church. However the stories about the fallen angels where entertaining.

The guy lit is smoke and then looked at her – Sometimes we like to do cosplaying with horns, wings and tails. Just to see the look on the newbie's faces. I'm sorry to say it, but you have missed it. Oh, and the lava river is also made to make people realize they are dead. – He leaned in the railing, looking at her and smoking.

Leah sit down on the floor heavily – Am I really dead? I know that the probability of being alive is low but damn, can't you give me some hope?

-You know. You are actually more accepting of this than most. How did you die?

Leah made a shape of a gun with her hand and pointed to her. Then looked at him thinking of what he could be thinking – It wasn't suicide, you know. I suffered an attempted murder.

The guy snorted – Noting attempted about that. Was it a robbery? – He send some ashes to a river and turned to her again.

Leah shook her head – I pissed off someone big and didn't run fast or far enough. –Leah sighed – I guess if I am really dead I don't need to continue running. That's good. I was kind of getting tired of that situation.

There was silence. Seemed like he didn't know how to answer that. Leah smiled and asked – So, how does Hell work?