An excerpt with a view...

Excerpt from The Trial of Andrew Osher:

"The heat is suffocating and the pain, well it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I have no idea where I am. Screaming, sounds of horror and pain. Pleas to all within earshot not to come here, to tell their families not to desire this place.

There’s a man next to me whose skin is melting off his bones like wax. As horrified as I am at the sight, the fright intensifies when his skin regenerates and the process starts over again.

Screams seem to increase with every second, with every movement. There is no time here, time doesn’t exist, it’s just a penetrating realization that you are here, and you can’t escape. Time and space no longer exist. This place is the only place that exists.

I smell something behind me. When I turn to see what it is, I find another man covered in rotting boils, crying, drool running out of his mouth, and writhing in pain as the boils continue to surface. The sight makes my already tortured stomach retch, and agonizing spasms race throughout my body. As the heaving continues, I drop to my knees, doubled over in intense anguish wishing that it would stop, but it doesn’t. My only thought is to get a bit of water….

All around me I hear crying, screaming…but one voice seems to be getting closer. From my kneeling position, I look up and see a woman running toward me, gouging wildly at her face and eyes. “Please! Get them off me! Make them stop!” she yells hysterically. She rips at the shirt she is wearing, exposing her stomach and arms, and then falls to the ground. Bulges in her skin begin to appear as she is jerked to her feet by something that I’ve never seen before. I hear frightened whispers around me, “It’s a Taskmaster.” The bulges erupt and bugs begin to emerge from the open wounds.

Another Taskmaster goes by, dragging a man with no eyes. The man is grasping at the ground frantically trying to get a solid grip on anything that will keep him from his final destination. Crying, struggling, and clawing the ground with bloodied fingers to get away from the creature who has a vise-like grip on him, he screams out, “I did what I was supposed to! I never broke the law. I was a good person! Please! I don’t belong here! There must be some mistake!”

Still the screams continue and if possible, become more passionate, more desperate. I smell sulfur and burning hair and flesh. My skin crawls at the thought of people being burned alive and I have to wonder if that’s where the blind man is now.

The scenery around me suddenly begins to move, shapes change, and I find myself in another place. The stench has intensified to the point that it burns to breathe. The man who I had encountered earlier with the boils is now on his knees, hugging himself, his eyes bulging. His mouth opens, but no sound comes out. A look of intense horror comes over his face. I turn my head to see what has him so petrified, and then hear a scream of horror, but it’s not his scream.

It’s my own."

This is a vision of Hell that Andrew has in a dream. While he suspects this, he, being agnostic, chooses to ignore this and chalks it up to spoiled food or a bad B movie.

Now, understand this is one writer's version of what hell may look like, but most agree this is not the place one wants to end up after this life is over.

The Bible says that you have two options upon leaving this life...Heaven or Hell, and basically it's up to you which one you choose. It is your choice, not mine, not your parents and not your church or society's...it's yours. You can choose to accept Christ as your Savior and proceed Home when you die, or you can ignore the pleas of those who love you and don't want to see you cast into Hell for eternity. Trust me, the heat is nothing you want to deal with. You think Houston is hot in the summertime, with no a/c? Or Death Valley is unbearable in the middle of a summer's day? Try dealing with heat hotter than the sun...worms devouring you constantly...whatever gruesome thing you can dream up, its one thousand times worse there...and it never ends. You will curse the day you were born, curse our God in Heaven, and cry out to those who cared about you, and tried to convince you of Heaven's mercies and beauty and love, and ask them why they didn't try harder.

Still, the choice is yours. You choose where you want to be. Laugh if you want...tell me I'm narrow-minded...tell me I believe in fairy tales. Believe me, when the time comes and you've chosen the broad path to Hell, and you beg for even a drop of water, your pleas will be for naught.