A
plain stretched out before me, void and lifeless.
Is this Hell? I wondered.
Something must have gone wrong. In the first place, I had told Sadie to go
to Hell, so what I was doing there was quite beyond me. But even when I’d said
it, I hadn’t meant it literally. Obviously. Who does? I must have been really
concentrating, though; I was pretty mad. Still, that didn’t explain how I ended
up there.
But there I was, on that void and lifeless plain. I looked around. The ground
was the texture of dry soil, a sort of faded mushroom shade that reminded me
of retirement residence walls, and was dotted with blackened stumps. The sky
was the same taupe colour, but smooth. That was it. Void, as I said.
I began walking. I didn’t know where I was headed, or if there even was a
place to head. But what else could I do? My watch had stopped working and
there was no sun, nothing to separate day from night, so I wasn’t sure how long
I walked but at some point, the sound of a throat clearing interrupted my
thoughts.
Was that me? I wondered. But I kind of knew it wasn’t. I mean, I wasn’t crazy.
“It’s not actually Hell, you know,” said the voice which had moments ago
cleared itself. It — he — sounded indignant.
“Ok,” I replied cautiously, looking around. “Who are you?”
“Is that really the question you’d like to ask me? If I granted you one question,
would that be your choice? You should think carefully before you speak. Don’t
just go blurting things out as they pop into your head.”