Prison By Jess Guanco

I knew it was hell the moment I entered it. It didn't look like any of the images of hell that I had seen when I was still alive. But I knew what it was even before the demons came to welcome us. The place was cold and gray with endless corridors that intersected one another. Every wall had several doors and from inside we could hear the moans of the eternally damned. Most of the people in the group I was being guided with looked horridly bewildered that they had ended up here. A corporate-looking gentleman who might have once been a politician was expressing his shock aloud. "Impossible," he muttered, while wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "I had helped so many people. There are families who now have proper homes thanks to me!" He glanced at our demon guide, hoping perhaps for some reaction, reconsideration or simply for the realization that there must have been some typographical error in the demon's who-goes-to-hell list. But the demon gave no sign that he heard the man, and he continued to walk forward, leading us through the gray labyrinth. There was another demon who followed warily behind us, perhaps to grab hold of anyone who attempted to escape. I didn't see the need for him; if one of us did try to run away, he'd never find his way out of this place anyway. They didn't look like frightful beings, those demons. Their dry and hairless skins were the color of dust, and they were both very tall and thin. Their noses were hooked and their ears were pointed. They were naked and genderless. I was probably the least frightened in the group. Everyone else was either trembling or in tears. I didn't feel anything. I knew this was where I would end up eventually. I had known it since the day I murdered Annelise. I still remember the accusation I had seen in her eyes even after I took her last breath away from her. We were lovers, Annelise and I. She worked in the mailroom of my office building and with her long, wavy hair and hips that swayed to a silent rhythm, she became the object of fantasy of all the men in the firm, although they dared not admit it. I didn't really give her much attention at first. She was young, feisty and too wild for my taste. But somehow, I became her target. And it wasn't long before I fell under her spell. I was an idiot; I admit that now. I led myself to actually believe that someone as desirable as her would ever be drawn to a middle-aged chump like me. I had already abandoned my wife Judith and my young daughters, Julie and Keela, just so I could spend my life with her when I found out she was also giving herself to two other men in the building. When I confronted Annelise in my office about the situation, she didn't even dare to deny it. In fact, she even seemed proud to be such a whore. "You didn't really think that our little fling was serious, did you?" she laughed, softly but shamelessly. "Eric, sometimes you can be so nave." I didn't think twice. In my blind fury I grasped at her neck and strangled her with all my strength. Tears swelled from her eyes and her face grew redder and redder as she struggled to release herself from my grip. But she was no match for me, and when I finally let her go, she fell to the floor

lifeless. It's not the most obscene way of killing a person, but it wasn't how she died that was repulsive. It was how I disposed of the evidence that could have detained me for life, that I knew would detain me for eternity. I borrowed the butcher knife from the pantry and painstakingly chopped her body into pieces that would fit several bags. Some parts of her could no longer be recognized. I disposed of her at a nearby creek in the hopes that no one would ever discover even just a piece of her. I cleaned up my own mess afterwards and made sure there was nothing left that could be used against me. But I couldn't run away from my come-uppance forever. I was always afraid to die after that incident, because I knew where I was headed afterwards. I looked at the faces of the people around me, and I wondered what crimes they could have committed to have earned a place here. One of them was a weary old woman who was the most fragile thing I had ever seen. It seemed inhumane to torture her in one of these chambers. But then again, this was hell. "First stop," said the demon guide, breaking the ice cold silence. We came to a halt at a steel door with a name posted on it: George Freely. It was then that I realized that all the doors we had passed by had names written on them. The politician guy made a shocked gasp. "W-why does that d-door have my n-name on it?" "Why shouldn't it?" replied the demon guide plainly. He knocked on the door three times and it screeched open. Inside there was darkness and the demon gestured toward it in an almost welcoming manner. "Now, if you please, Mr. Freely." George Freely went inside soundlessly and almost as if he was in a trance. The demon then closed the door behind him and locked it with a finger nail that was shaped like a key. "Let's move on," said the demon. We continued to walk, and behind us we heard screams of terror coming from George Freely's cell. It didn't take minutes before we reached the next door. It was at that moment that a chill passed through my entire body as I stared at a name that I knew very well: Eric Regus. The door was open before I realized it and the demon merely looked at me. In fact, everyone else's eyes were on me as well. The old woman's gentle face was also glaring at me scornfully. I stepped inside the dark chamber and could see nothing until the door was closed behind me. Then the room lit up, and I was in my small, messy office. I examined it carefully; it wasn't arranged like how it was on the last day I saw it. It reminded me of a situation that had happened years and years ago. A situation that I had so desperately tried to keep a secret from the world, but could not keep a secret from myself, or hell for that matter. And as I let my eyes move toward the corner of the room that I had dreadfully avoided looking at during the remainder of my life, I saw it. And I screamed.