Storytelling Week 14: A Hellish Dream

Garrett didn’t know where he was. He was officially lost after trying to find his way for two hours. “Great,” Garrett said to himself. “I have no idea where the hell I am in these dark ass woods. Why did I think it would be a good idea to walk to this party…FIVE MILES AWAY?”

Illistration by Matthew Anderson. 

As Garrett was walking in what he thought was the right directions, he noticed a bright light in the distance. It was getting closer to him. He was officially freaked out, but kept walking towards the light. The closer it got he realized it was a man. Garrett was scared, but there was something familiar about this man. He got closer and closer and then he realized it was Michael Jackson, his favorite artist of all time. But wait…he was supposed to be dead.

Garrett rubbed his eyes and looked again, yep it was Michael all right. Michael told Garrett that he needed to lead his through a place that he must see in order to one day be in a better place. Garrett was hesitant. “The ghost of Michael Jackson was asking me to go somewhere with him…um hell no,” Garrett thought to himself.

But something inside of him told him to go with him. Michael explained on their journey that they were going to tour hell. Garrett was so confused and freaked out, but was also curious.

He agreed and walked with Michael further until they got to a gate that had inscripted on it “abandon all hope, you who enter here”. Garrett was scared but Michael explained that they were about to see the different levels of hell and the various reasons people ended up there. He told Garrett that he would see angry people, scary people, and people laying there content with where they are. Then they entered the first level.

Michael explained that people in this level were there for vanity. These people cared too much about what they looked like and not enough about the people they were. This level was sitting in chairs forced to look at themselves without blinking. Their eyes were bleeding and they were in so much pain. They moved on to the second level.

The second level was for people who spent too much time using cell phones. The people in this level were forced to constantly talk. Most of them couldn’t anymore so their throats were on fire. They looked so miserable, Garrett thought.

The third level was filled with gluttons, people who consumed too much junk food. They were forced to sit in heating lamps. Their skin was burning off and bleeding.

The fourth level was filled with liars, people who lied on the Internet and to one another. This level was forced to hear constant buzzing in their ears. Their ears were bleeding and they were crying from pain.

Garrett heard the buzzing. It was hurting his ears so bad. He couldn’t stand it. The buzzing got louder and louder. Garrett didn’t know why he was hearing this too. He started to shake back and forth. The buzzing is getting louder and louder. He just wanted it to stop.

Finally it stopped as Garrett opened his eyes and realized he had been dreaming. The buzzing was from his alarm clock. He looked around in a panic sweat and realized it was just a dream. He picked his Inferno book up off the floor. Garrett guessed he must have fallen asleep while reading for his test tomorrow. “I better be really ready for that test now,” Garrett said to himself.

Author’s Note: This week I read Dante’s Inferno. I read the book in high school and honestly enjoyed it. I thought it was a very interesting take on what hell might be like. And that is still true today. I enjoyed this condensed version and was glad I got to refresh my Inferno knowledge. For those of you who haven’t read Dante’s Inferno, is it a story about Dante who gets lost in the woods and runs into Virgil an old Italian poet and they take a journey through hell or inferno, the Italian word for hell. They encounter 12 different circles of hell and each circle has people who committed the same sins, as the circled progress the sins get worse. The first circle is the pagans and the last circle has Lucifer. So each circle get progressively worse and worse. I decided to write a very condensed version of the story because it is so long and would take forever to retell the whole thing and it also wouldn’t make much sense to just tell the story from one section. So that is how I decided to write mine this way. I wrote mine with a very modern approach. I think its interesting to take old stories and write them in a modern way. I also used sins that have more to do with modern society. I decided to end my story in a very different way, as a dream because I think it is a very interesting and shocking twist. In the original, Dante gets out of his tour of hell and returns to Earth. In my story, Garrett also leaves hell and returns to Earth just in a very different way. I hope you enjoy.

Bibliography: Inferno. Divine. Dante Alighieri. 1400.