Treachery

We made our way back to the closet door which held access to final destination. I look to Charley and asked him if he was ready to move on. He hesitated for a moment, but nonetheless he nodded yes. I reached for the door and upon opening the door a gust of freezing winds blew into our faces. We bid our farewell to our ferryman, Phlegyas, and entered the ninth circle of Hell, treachery.

It was a barren ice land. We had stepped onto a frozen lake with nothing to keep us warm. As Charley shivered he turned me and said, "Why is it so cold in this circle? I thought that Hell was home to the heat of eternal flames? This place is as cold as an icicle!"

I laughed "Ha! You aren't the first to believe that Hell was such a place. Many before you and many after have the same misconception that Hell is where you go to burn. That's wrong. The deepest, darkest level of Hell is actually overbearingly cold. As you can see, we are on top of a ginormous lake that is entirely frozen. Too bad you didn't get to bring your coat!"

After Charley accepted the fact that there was nothing he could do about the freezing conditions, we made our way around. At first Charley didn't notice what was beneath the ice. He kept asking where all the souls were and saying that there was no one here, but us. "Look below you", I said.

He looked down and to his surprise were all the souls trapped in this circle. There were four concentric circles beneath the ice corresponding to the seriousness of the crimes committed. At the bottom was the worst of them all. It was reserved for the man who betrayed God himself, Judas Iscariot. Although I would've loved for Charley to meet the treacherous man of all, we simply did not have time. So we settled for someone just as treacherous, but not to God. Instead he betrayed his city, his fans, and his family. You guessed it. Kevin Durant was the person I had in mind for Charley, so we went on about searching for him.

After several minutes, we finally found him buried beneath the ice. I summoned flames at the tip on my fingers and thawed Kevin Durant out. To my surprise, Charley didn't notice that I could've made some fire for him to keep warm this whole time. Once Durant was thawed out completely, I explained to him Charley's situation and why he was here. Durant agreed to speak to us, so we settled down on the ice and he began to explain what caused him to end up in such a horrendous circle.

"Now I don't know if you're a big basketball fan or not, Charley, but I used to play on one of the best teams in the NBA. The National Basketball Association. My team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, was the epitome of my basketball career. I flourished under their coaching staff and personal trainers, but I betrayed them all in the end. In the 2015-2016 playoff run, we went up against the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. My team held a 3-1 lead against the reigning champions, but blew that lead and got booted out of the playoffs. That when it happened. That's when I made my decision and left my team to play for the team we lost against in the playoffs. I betrayed my teammates, my coach, my fans, my city. Everyone hated me, especially my former teammate, Russell Westbrook. People called me a coward for joining the team we couldn't beat just to win a championship. My former teammates went at my throat every time we stepped onto the same court together. My ex-fans booed so loud every night I came back to Oklahoma and I don't blame them. I never got the courage to go back to my former team and ended up retiring in a Golden State Warriors jersey. Then I died of natural causes and now I'm here. Stuck beneath the ice forever. Never being able to move. Never being able to talk."

"Thanks for enlightening us with your story, Durant, but it's time for you to go back into the ice", I said. He reluctantly made his way back down into his eternal home and the ice above him regenerated to seal him back into the lake.

I then turned to Charley and said, "Do you understand now? If you commit the sin of lust then you perish in flames for eternity. If you commit the sin of wrath then you will be stuck in an endless loop of fighting with other wrathful souls. If you commit the sin of treachery then you will be frozen below this lake for all eternity without freedom of movement. Reflect on the sins you have previously committed and learn from them."

Charley was in shock, but I knew that he understood the consequences. "It's time for you to go home, Charley. It's way past your bedtime!" So we made our way back to the familiar closet door. I opened it up, only this time to Charley's room. We bid farewell to each other and I told him that the next time I see him better be in death.

Now that I finished my business with Charley, on to the next sinner!

Author's Note

After Dante and Virgil escape the fifth circle of Wrath, they make their way down to final circle of treachery. When they get to this level they find themselves within a large frozen lake. This lake turns out to be the river of Cocytus, one of the five major rivers in Hell. The sinners in this circle are trapped within the ice itself because of their treacherous sins. The lake itself is divided into four concentric rings of traitors corresponding, in order of severity, to betrayal of family ties, betrayal of community ties, betrayal of guests, and betrayal of lords. In this circle Dante and Virgil meet various traitors such as Cain, Antenor, Count Ugolino, Ptolemy, and of course Judas Iscariot. In my rendition of this circle, I wanted to keep everything mostly the same. Death and Charley go about and acknowledge Judas, but only really get to meet Kevin Durant. I chose this person in particular because of how much he impacts our society today. Everyone labels him as betraying the Oklahoma City Thunder and I thought it was a perfect fit for this circle. It also provided a comedic taste. Hell is usually envisioned as fiery and hot, but it is actually cold in Dante's Inferno. I wanted to keep this aspect the same and even had Charley and Death have a little conversation about it.

Bibliography

Dante's Inferno translation by Tony Kline