Guard and Scythe

When Naughty Children are at Play

YO! I dedicate this to my friend (who is not on wattpad, but she still is pretty awesome) named Deh Audie Kitteh.

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 It is known even in the human realm, that there are seven circles of Hell. Seven is a sacred and mystic number, especially in religion. The seven last words of Christ, the Hebrews had seven names for God, the seven sacred planets to the Babalonians and Egyptians, the muslims believe there are seven heavens. And then there are The Seven Deadly Sins. Pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth.

These seven deadly sins relate to the circles of Hell, because they are the reasons why each human soul we capture is brought back to burn in one of the circles. While awaiting their eternal sentence, they wait inside the inner stone gates of the city, but once their place has been found in one of the circles, they are cast into the circle to suffer throughout the unending eternity.

The Seven Circles: first described by Dante through an allegory in his poem The Divine Comedy. Dante described the circles with amazing acuracy for a mortal, but failed to know of everything. While he believed that there were actually nine circles, there really are only seven.

Dante descibed what entering the city of Hell would be like. The damned being stung by hornets to represent their consciences, and maggots would drink their blood and tears. These were the souls that awaited their turn to be sentenced to their purgatory. Dante may have been a bit theatric, but he was very close to right on this one.

A great thick wall surrounds the City of the Damned, built from the ground of a thick black stone, with curling dead ivy and prickling wire crawling up on either side. I was built by the first fallen angels that once served Satan. After an existance of eternal night for so long, the fallen angels had long since crumbled to dust and scattered into the wind. The wall is one the last reminders of the fallen angel's existance. They have all disappeared.

When I think about these fallen angels, I feel a pang of sympathy. Those creatures that had known the glories of heaven, only to be cast away and sent to burn in eternal flames. It must have been so much worse for them, having gone from the beauty and love of heaven, to the dark lonely wastelands of Hell.

The wall has done it's duty in keeping the fresh souls caged up. There is no escape, and no one bothers to question that. It's hopeless.

The first circle: In reality, it lies only a half a day's journey from the city. Dante created a circle he called the first one, because there is no circle created for those who do not believe in heaven or God. Really, people who do not believe in God have done great things, and changed the world for the better good, while there are still so many sinners who have caused great evil, but were baptized and did things their violent deeds in God's name. Humans can be so ridiculous, so presumptious, believing that they know everything, and that their ways are the only right ones.

The real first circle is of those who were damned because of Lust.

Those who have let lust corrupt them are bound by chains and are hung across a vine of thorns and are blown around by an unending violent storm.

The second circle: while no great giant worm gaurds the circle another day's journey away, great large hounds the size of buildings sit on the outer banks of an icy river flowing along the edges of the circle's boundries. The icy river is green, and stretches out so far you'd mistake it for an ocean. The water burns like acid at the touch.

The circle belongs to the gluttons, who are stripped of their sense of sight- symbolizing the cold and selfish ways of their life. A steady rain of sleet falls from the sky, but there is not even wood to build a fire. The skin of the souls turns frosty and green like the river, and their black, eyeless sockets ooze with the muddy slush.