BURN IN HADES by Michael L. Martin Jr.

than she had. She personally witnessed them annihilate foolish spirits who’d tried to break into paradise. Even those souls with wings would be shot down before they could fly halfway up the wall, and beyond that, only a barbot could get close enough to the scorching sky to completely scale the wall, but if she could get in, anyone could get in.
    Their great wall was less a security measure than a means to obscure their awareness of the real world—the underworld. No matter how many positive mind tricks or denial acrobatics they performed, they were in the underworld just like everyone else. She’d be delighted to reveal the harsh reality to them and watch the shock grace their eyes. She’d devour their dismay.
    From her perspective, the A’raf was a shiny prison gate. They could polish it up however they wished, but a cage is a cage. They had signed up for voluntary incarceration. It was as if the deities built the A’raf so many years ago simply to boost morale and force the righteous to feel grateful for what puny afterlives they all had. That way none of them would begin to think of their deficiencies, because they didn’t really have anything to begin with. Paradise was just a small area of the underworld, and the righteous were locked in and protecting nothing special.
    Diamond Tooth guided the hellhound up to the A’raf.
    “Turn away or burn, demon,” a voice boomed from within the great wall before she got too close. The guards hid behind an impenetrable veil and sounded as if they spoke through a speaking-trumpet.
    “I have a divine sanction,” she said and waved her lumenite back and forth blindly. The glow of the rare stone pulsated with every color in the visible spectrum and hummed like a soul detached from its spirit.
    “You stole it,” said the guard.
    “No sir, it was given to me.”
    “Sanction or no sanction, no demons allowed in paradise.”
    “According to the Divine Laws, the righteous are permitted to issue a single lumenite to an underworlder that they deem fit for ascension. The guards of the A’raf are obligated to acknowledge this sanction, and never are they to deny passage to any lumenite possessor or they too shall be denied paradise by the Lord.”
    Several seconds of silence passed before the guard spoke again. “Approach the A’raf slowly.”
    She trotted the hellhound the rest of the way and met the wall.
    “Pass your lumenite through the A’raf for authentication.”
    She reached her entire hand into the wall up to her arm. The wall rippled like water but felt solid around her wrist. A hand snatched the pass from her from inside.
    “May the Great Goddess have mercy on the soul that gave you this,” said the guard.
    “Oh, I’m sure she won’t mind,” said Diamond Tooth. “That’s how you got your cushy job isn’t it? Don’t pretend like you’re so different from me. We’re exactly the same, except I’m out here and you’re in there.”
    “Hellhounds are forbidden beyond A’raf.”
    “But they’re so cute and cuddly.” She scratched the hound behind its ear. Her finger tangled in its matted hair. She left the saddle on its back. She’d steal another one if she needed it. She jabbed her tiger claws into the hellhound’s hind parts. The mangy mutt howled and trotted off into the underworld.
    “You may proceed,” said the guard. “Step through.”
    She stepped through the wall as if it weren’t there at all and appeared on the other side instantly, as though walking through a doorway to the next room. It was like going from a nice dark room into a room that was much too bright.
    Light hit her at all angles. It illuminated from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, touching everything on its side of the A’raf with rays of pure, despicable love.
    She almost turned back to leave. She shielded her eyes with her hand from the shimmering grass and forest before her, and paced through the roads and trails, squinting. Her drying eyes felt like they would