Hell and Retribution

A death row inmate has time to think. He fears dying. It isn’t so much that he is afraid of death. It isn’t even that he fears Hell. Well, maybe the idea of Hell is a little daunting. What he fears most is the idea that his victims will have their chance at retribution. Somewhere just beyond Purgatory, is another similar place where victims can re-visit their attackers with the tables turned in their favor. They have the opportunity to punish their assailant over and over again. You see, in this place, the deceased is still alive in their original form. This can be confusing to the deceased. He thinks he is dead, but he is living a Hell. And, where he is doesn’t look like Hell.

It is possible for a murderer to die multiple times. Each death can be more grueling than the last. By the time he actually enters the gates of Hell, he begs to be freed from the torture he suffers. He begs to be allowed to live his eternity in an inferno. The man who commits multiple murders is in for the long haul. The thing is, the murderer doesn’t need to be on death row to find this situation. It happens automatically. He doesn’t have to confess or be tried; he simply has to be. His victims will find him before he enters purgatory and judgment is rendered. They will render their own decisions on him.

The death-row inmate has already imagined the horrors associated with retribution. He gets no sleep for many nights because he is plagued with nightmares. He finally collapses into the sleep of the dead where he is racked by his own imagination. As horrible as it may seem to him, the real thing tends to be that much worse. Most victims, while wishing to kill their assailants, prefer slow and painful deaths. No mercy is shown since they, themselves, received no mercy from their attackers. Each time he dies, the murderer thinks this is the end. Not! He begins a new day just a few moments later.

He cannot hide and cannot call for help. There is no where to hide and no one to help. He must face his attackers as best that he can. With the repeated abuse and torture, he slowly loses his mind. He feels sanity slip away like thick pancake syrup served over flapjacks. Protests do nothing since his attackers are souls. They do not hear and do not feel. They did that when they were alive. Screams run off to echo in a continuous stream much as an unchecked faucet. Everything runs into the drain and out of sight when we forget to close the drain. No evidence exists once the water is turned off. No evidence exists of the screams either.

Murderers generally like to control their environments and their victims. In Retribution, all control is lost. He loses his mind, his stability, his power, and often times, his bodily functions as well. It must be a bitch to die a thousand deaths. And, you thought it was bad to be on death row…