It had been a rough night, it had taken hours of exhausting clock-watching and an almost unbearable amount of pain coming from the back of his eye sockets, before he'd eventually fallen asleep. Although he would of swapped the inconvenience of insomnia in in own bedroom giving what he faced now. He'd awoken to find himself on the floor of a vast cave.
The air was thick and stifling and there was an oppressing odour of sulphur. The only light was coming from a lone torch hung on the wall sending out it's flickering orange glow across the sheer rock wall that rose behind him with no ceiling in sight. How had he got there, and more to the point, where the hell was he?
Maybe that was actually more accurate than he cared to contemplate, he had been feeling really hot and shivery before he'd eventually dropped off.
Maybe this was it! Maybe he'd actually died and this was what religion warned everyone about, what all men feared . . . Maybe this was hell!
Maybe this was it! Maybe he'd actually died and this was what religion warned everyone about, what all men feared . . . Maybe this was hell!
The cave almost had it's own presence as if it was a living, breathing creature. The stench sulphur was overwhelming, at least he hoped it was sulphur, otherwise there was an awful lot of rotting flesh somewhere.
Then there was a loud voice, it came from inside the darkness ahead of him and bounced all around the cave walls. The voice was rich, thick and silky and it was the kind of voice that made you think of honey being poured over satin sheets.
“Welcome”
“Who are you?”, he asked, trying to keep his composure.
“You know who I am.” the thing answered.
“So you're the devil are you?”, He stuttered with a nervous laugh, trying his best to sound he was being ludicrous.
[Silence]
“So, if you are why me? I’ve lived a pretty good life. I've got a clean sheet so to speak. . . . So I'm definitely dead then?” He asked hopefully.
The silence took over the space as his words died out. It seemed like an hour went by before the response came.
“What did you expect?”
The voice was penetrating but patient. “I don’t know . . . I never really believed in any of this stuff”, he uttered before adding “Is that why I am here?”
[Silence]
He nervously continued, “Of course if you are the devil, they say the greatest trick you ever pulled was convincing the world that you don’t exist!”
“No," the velvety voice replied, "the greatest trick I ever pulled was convincing the world that there's an alternative”
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