by James Knight
1. The Kingdom of Maggots
Billions of tiny naked bald men wriggle and squirm through a derelict mannequin factory.
2. The Sea of Knives
The crests of waves slice and slash. Maimed mermaids wail.
3. The Eye Moon
Envious mirrors ape the sun. An astronaut falls forever into open dust space.
4. The Box
A cranking noise, wheezing bellows. Nothing to see. Something tugs your sleeve.
5. The Circle of Perpetual Disaster
Glitchy re-enactments of historic horrors revolve, to the accompaniment of a hurdy-gurdy.
6. The Iron Forest
Rust hulks loom in fog and rain. Clattering wings are skittish around newcomers.
7. Satan's Administrative Headquarters
Those who run Hell are the most deeply damned. They sit in an open-plan labyrinth, fingers in knots.
8. The Egg
There is neither inside nor out, just opaque white space. Yellow bodies twist to form meaningless symbols.
9. The Palace of Reversals
The great and the good, the rich, the successful, crawl through unimaginable luxury, their insides hanging out.
10. The Cul-de-Sac
In the eternal, watchful twilight, clawed hands grasp net curtains.
11. The Punchman's Booth
A miniature Hell for the littluns (not to scale). Shrieks and screams express mirth and terror simultaneously.
12. The Core Scraper
A subterranean 666-storey building. The lights don't work but the gibbering denizens are luminescent.
13. Head Space
The door is impossible to find, though you're convinced it's here somewhere. You'll never stop looking.
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This 13 is dedicated to everyone who has ever suffered a severe adverse reaction to medicine for a minor ailment.
The full title was too long for Fictionaut. It is:
13 circles of Hell hidden from Dante but revealed to the Bird King in a series of hallucinations caused by medicine for a urinary tract infection
Oh, boy. * for the title alone.
Very trippy. Very.
As some character in a forgotten comic strip would have said, "gack".
Bill the Cat.
*
Dante would have been pleased at the inventive punishments, some appropriate to the offense.
"Maimed mermaids wail"
*
(I also like the names of the circles of Hell.)