Hell is not a place

He gave the orders and the snake tried to make him a fool. As punishment for tricking his creation into eating the fruit from the tree of life, God took its wings away and turned it into a boiling winding river so it would carry the sinners’ souls in its body.

Here is where the misconception about hell started, it’s definitely hot, but not by fire. Sinners are daily drowning in their sins and regrets until they can find redemption and be freed, by being pure once again.

One soul, one precious life became purified and it was on its way to being reborn, but Gabriel, the messenger angel was curious to see the first one, so he descended from Heaven just to observe. The pure soul was attracted by his light and fell in love with him, refusing to part from her love to be reborn. The sneaky snake listening to that brought up a solution, so the soul could see her love once in a while and God would never know Gabriel descended.

-It’ssssss quite simple indeed. - A voice whispered in the back of their heads. - The girl can ssssstay and work for meee.

-I am not going to make a deal with you. - Gabriel puffed his chest - Snake. - He said with such disdain and disrespect that even his light flinched a bit.

-Do not talkk thissss way withhh me boyy. - Its tone was severe and the water boiled even more. - Ssshe can sssstay and work for meee, and youuu will not need to givee exxxxxplantions to Gooood.

The soul went to Gabriel and grabbed his arm, nodding her head in denial.

-Calmmm downnn, he willll vissssit. Willl youu not? - Never before an angel had so little love in his heart. Gabriel nodded, but this wasn’t the snake’s first time dealing with an angel.

-I muchhhh prefer wordssss. 

-Sure. I will visit. - Annoyed by his own words knowing he can’t break a promise, Gabriel freed his arm from her hands and took flight back to his home. 

-Know let meee showw yyyou your neww homeeee. - For some reason, maybe the pureness of her heart, the soul was not afraid.

348 years later

Death

I have one of the world’s most demanding careers of all time.

No personal time, no vacation, and the pay isn’t even that great. From time to time I start to wonder the reason why I’m still here, right when I’m about to give up and quit he shows up. My day, which is usually filled with dark and manual labor suddenly becomes bright and light. His presence is that powerful, unfortunately, his appearances are extremely rare, so my life is marked by daily boredom, after all, it is not every day that a soul becomes purified.

According to my memory, the last time that happened was about 348 years ago, the soul turned clean and was released from Coral’s body.

That was me. I was free but I fell for an angel and didn’t want to part from him, and taking this job was the only alternative left. Now I spend my days paddling a boat, watching people’s lives unfold from beginning to end and most of the time a little after. It’s a lot like watching television all day long, except you don’t get to choose the channel and there’s no popcorn.

The best part is their traditions, watching them being developed is interesting. My favorite things are birthdays! What a wonderful idea. A few years ago Coral caught me staring at this birthday party. “Makeeee a birrrthdayy wissssssh” it said “ I can’t. It is called BIRTHday for a reason and I was never born remember?” it came back a few moments later saying “ Youuuu can havvve the ssssame day asssss the humannn, makeeee a wissssh”, even though it didn’t count I knew exactly what to ask for. “A name. I want a name”, hours went by before it gave me one. “Deathhhh. I’ll name you Deathhh” “What does it mean” “Lasssst sssstep off endiing liffffe” “ Do you have a name?” “ Coralll”

That was 21 years ago. Its voice pulled me away from my thoughts.

-You haveeee work to do outsssside. -  My happiness must've been pretty obvious because I could hear the smile in its voice. - I willlll missss youu.

As if that’s possible, but I don’t say anything and just nod and walk to its margins.

The best days are when someone dies free of guilt, regret and with no heavy sins. Those days mean I can pick them up in the human world and then walk them to the gates of Heaven. This means not only I can take a stroll and do something different, but I also get to see Gabriel. His smile is for sure the best part.

This soul is doing the passage in a hospital, as most pure souls do others do it at home. I hate the smell of this place, some people have the audacity to say it smells like Death.

Finding the soul is usually pretty easy, it is the thing that looks like a person but very lost and confused. On second thought I hate hospitals in general, not just the smell, every corridor looks the same so I never really know where I’ve already looked. 

Every step is a little faster than the last. I need to find this soul. Hospitals are dangerous, people being born at all times and babies are empty vessels waiting for a soul to bring them consciousness. Once the soul is inside, there’s no way to remove it, no way other than killing it, of course, the corridor’s light flinched a bit, and I stopped walking. He is here, which means something is incredibly wrong. It flinched again, before I could move again someone pulled me by the arm, forcing me to face them.

-Hello love. - No light, even though he’s clearly an angel, his resemblance with Gabriel is astonishing, except for the eyes, yellow. No. Gold, his eyes look like golden marbles. - Sorry to interrupt your little work, but I need a favor only you can do.

Was it his presence I felt before? No, I couldn’t have been, Gabriel’s aura was too familiar for me to mistake it for someone else’s.

-How dare you to touch me? - Freeing myself from his grip was close to impossible but I did it, even though it feels like he let me go, but my pride would never let me admit to that.

-Listen, love, this can be very easy. You’ll do this one favor for me and we’re done. 

-You really believe that cocky smile of yours is going to convince me, don’t you? - I stepped away rolling my to that absurd angel, but I didn’t go very far cause he grabbed me again.

-I’m not someone you can turn your back to, keep that in mind in the future. Now let’s go, not asking anymore. - My pride became incredibly bruised since I could not pull my arm away as he dragged me through to the end of the hallway. - What’s your name by the way? I was always curious about Death’s name. Do you even have one? - 

I will punch right in the middle of his stupid face if I have the chance.

-Death is my name. Why do you think I answer to it? - I barked while trying to pull my arm again.

-I don’t know. Habit maybe? - Ok, punching his face is not enough, that sarcastic comment changed my mind, I’ll cut out his tongue.

We stopped in front of a small white door. There is a woman crying by the door.

-What are we doing here?

-You’ll see. - That smile couldn’t be a good sign. We stepped into a very white room, the lights were blinding even.

A vessel was placed on the table. I recognized her immediately, we’ve been sharing the same birthday date for years now. Was she the soul I came to pick up?

-Why are we here? - The question came weakly, not even sure how he heard me, but he did. He moved to take place between me and the vessel, too close I may add.

-You see love, Gabriel messed with something very important to me a really long time ago. - I moved away from him as he mentioned my angel. - And now it’s time for me to make it right. - His eyes, they changed. They were no longer golden, but red like blood. For the first time in my existence, I was afraid.

-What do I have to do with it? - Smiling at me, while his eyes turned back to gold he simply said:

-Everything.

I barely had a second to think, before he picked me up and pushed me in the vessel. The last thing I saw was Gabriel running in and setting the vessel on fire, but it was too late, I was already inside and he, the Archangel of God, had just killed someone. The next thing I know, there’s no air, my body is boiling and all I keep seeing is my eternal regret. Choosing to stay for someone who chose to set me on fire to save himself.

-Youuu are baaack. - Coral whispered in my head.

It looks like I’ll never leave this winding river again, drowning in my regret for all of eternity.