[Yudhishthira stumbles forward out of the portal and falls to the ground. He looks down at the ground and realizes he is lying on a pile of mutilated bodies that are being burned alive. He quickly stands up and regains his composure when he realizes that he is undoubtedly in the Bad Place. Somehow, the six-foot-high flames that engulf the Bad Place do not affect him. He can hardly see his surroundings because of the tall flames. All he can hear is the gut-wrenching screams of the Bad Place residents being tortured. Peering through the flames, he can faintly make out the shape of a river with what seem to be large rocks lined along the banks of the river. He walks towards the river to climb a rock, but as he approaches he smells a foul odor. He takes a closer look and sees that the rocks are actually piles of bodies, and the river is flowing with the blood of the tortured inhabitants of the Bad Place. He climbs the pile of bodies to look for his loved ones.]YUDHISHTHIRA [defeated and cringing in disgust]: I can barely recognize the faces of these unfortunate people. There is no way I will ever be able to find Draupadi and my brothers. DRAUPADI [screaming]: Yudhishthira! Help me! Please!YUDHISHTHIRA [looks in the direction of Draupadi’s cry and sees her tied to a post with flames swallowing her]: Draupadi! I’m coming to save you![Yudhishthira jumps off the pile of bodies and looks for a way to cross the bloody river.]CHITRAGUPTA [arrives through the portal and starts running towards Yudhishthira]: Yudhishthira! Stop! You have to come back with me now! If you don't, you could be stuck here forever like your family![Yudhishthira looks for a way around the river, but can’t see a place to cross through the giant flames. He sees Chitragupta approaching quickly and begins to accept defeat once again. When Chitragupta is almost to Yudhishthira, a giant bird-like creature swoops down, grabs Yudhishthira, and flies away with him. While soaring through the air above the Bad Place, the creature bites down on Yudhishthira’s arm and realizes that he does not taste like rotting flesh. The creature releases its grip and Yudhishthira falls out of the air onto the ground. A pile of bodies breaks his fall. He looks up and sees that the bird dropped him right next to the rest of the Pandavas.]YUDHISHTHIRA [runs up to hug his brothers despite their filthiness]: Brothers, something is wrong. Duryodhana and all of his wicked brothers are in the Good Place, but you guys and Draupadi are here suffering in the Bad Place. [remembering Draupadi] Oh no, where is Draupadi? We have to find her!ARJUNA: It's hopeless, Yudhishthira. When each of our earthly lives came to an end, we were sent to the Good Place. Just like you, we saw Duryodhana on the throne surrounded by the Kauravas, but not our fallen loved ones. We all tried to rescue the others, but none of us realized it was a one-way train. Now we are stuck in the Bad Place enduring this torture until our next rebirth. YUDHISHTHIRA: Wait, what train?BHIMA: We all snuck on a train while we were in the Good Place that took us here.YUDHISHTHIRA: Then there is still some hope. The door I came through to get here is a portal to Chitragupta's office. We have to find Draupadi and try to get out of here. BHIMA: I know where she is. I hear her screams constantly.[The Pandavas follow Bhima to Draupadi. When they approach, she is unconscious and still tied to a pole.]YUDHISHTHIRA: Is she dead?!ARJUNA: You can't die in the Bad Place. That would make the suffering too easy to escape. She fainted from the pain of being burned alive. When she regains consciousness, her torture will continue. YUDHISHTHIRA: Why is she tied to this pole?BHIMA: The Bad Place is diabolically ironic like that. Since she was born from flames on Earth, her consciousness here begins and ends in flames.DRAUPADI [awakens, gasping for air]: Yudhishthira! Please help me![Yudhishthira unties Draupadi and helps her stand, but she collapses. Yudhishthira throws Draupadi over his shoulder.]YUDHISHTHIRA: Brothers, follow me! The portal I came through is the only way I know out of the Bad Place.NAKULA: Are you sure we can go through it?BHIMA: I hope the portal isn't one-way like the train.SAHADEVA [shouting]: Isn’t that Chitragupta running towards us?!YUDHISHTHIRA [with urgency in his voice]: This door is the only hope we have. If we want to try it we have to go now! Run![The Pandavas sprint with all their might towards the door to the Good Place. Chitragupta tails closely behind them.] ARJUNA [uttering his words between his heavy panting]: Yudhishthira, we are weak after being tortured for so long! We are never going to outrun Chitragupta!YUDHISHTHIRA: Brothers, take Draupadi and go to the door. It is just across the river of blood. I am going to distract Chitragupta so you guys can make it. Go![The brothers carry Draupadi and run towards the portal. Yudhishthira starts running in the opposite direction so Chitragupta will chase him instead.]CHITRAGUPTA: Yudhishthira! Please stop running! You are endangering yourself! [Yudhishthira looks back towards his brothers and sees them approaching the door. The Pandavas look back at Yudhishthira. Yudhishthira nods at them, and the brothers open the door and walk through it with Draupadi in their arms. Yudhishthira stops running and surrenders to Chitragupta.]CHITRAGUPTA [firmly grabs Yudhishthira’s shoulder]: You are coming with me. [Chitragupta pushes a button and transports himself and Yudhishthira out of the Bad Place and into Chitragupta’s office, where the other Pandavas and Draupadi are already handcuffed to chairs that are bolted into the ground. Chitragupta sits Yudhishthira down next to them and handcuffs him to a chair as well.]CHITRAGUPTA: You guys shouldn’t have pulled a stunt like that. Now I have to get the big boss...[Chitragupta disappears, leaving the Pandavas and Draupadi handcuffed in his office awaiting the boss.]Author's Note: This story is primarily based on The Afterlife portion of the Mahabharata from Donald A. Mackenzie's Indian Myth and Legend (1913). For this story, I included the imagery of foul and mutilated corpses from the original, but interpreted the boiling river from the original story as a river flowing with the blood of the damned. I also included the motif of flames burning the damned like in the original story, but made the flames more widespread to create a greater obstacle for Yudhishthira to overcome. In my story, the flames do not burn Yudhishthira because the flames only burn those that belong in the Bad Place, and Yudhishthira still belonged to the Good Place at that point. The original story mentions "fierce birds of prey" that eat human flesh, so I incorporated these bird-like creatures in my story. These birds tried to eat Yudhishthira's flesh, but the birds could taste that Yudhishthira didn't belong in the Bad Place and dropped him. The Birth of Draupadi portion of the Donald A. Mackenzie's Indian Myth and Legend (1913) tells the story of how Draupadi and her brother were born out of sacrificial flames. In my story, the Bad Place twists Draupadi's birth story to torture her.
Just like in the original story, Yudhishthira lost hope when he saw the conditions of hell, but regained hope when he heard the cries of Draupadi and his brothers. In the story, Yudhishthira's loved ones just want his comfort, and Yudhishthira tells the celestial being that he wants to stay. In my story, Yudhishthira takes on a more active role by actually trying to save his loved ones and put an end to their suffering. The train that the other Pandava brothers took to get to the bad place is similar to the train in The Good Place that runs between the Good and Bad Place in the show, and also reminded me of the train that Shiva rode into the sky in the Arjuna and Shiva portion of the Donald A. Mackenzie's Indian Myth and Legend (1913). Here, the other Pandavas also attempt to enter the Bad Place and save the others that died before them.