Introduction

What is hell? Where is hell? These are simple questions that humanity has been trying to answer for many thousands of years. And in the modern age, many are confused by the incredibly vast and differing answers to these questions. One very well known source is Dante's inferno, a story where Virgil, a poet who had been residing in the Limbo circle of hell, leads Dante through the levels of hell in a physical sense and he gives his account of his experience. Let's just clear this up right now: Hell is not a place. What silliness to think that one might experience agony without a body to experience it in the first place. Hell is somewhere many of us know all too well, and we send ourselves there and we pull ourselves out. Hell is not a place, but rather a state of mind. Our immoral actions do not send us to a horrible place when they die. They build up hell within reality with the consequences of their immoral actions. Not only that, but there are very distinct levels of hell that rest upon the actions of immoral people. Dante gave a metaphorical account of levels very similar to these that were more fitting for his time. And while it is metaphorical, the general concepts are spot on.

Here is your introduction.

Traveler, my name is Virgil. Not only known for being a fantastic poet (and my humbleness), but I am the one who led Dante through the levels of hell.

During his time, that was a preferred method of showing hell because of the bountiful symbolism and style of writing for that period of time. But times have changed. After many attempts to get the theory of hell across to the human race, I have decided that the best way to show you is for you to experience it yourself. You will become the scum of the earth. You will be a part of the many that have found their hell and feel the pain and suffering they have. When you enter each one, be sure to observe your thoughts and feelings, as they are just as real and graphic as the sights in Dante's hell. Feel the pain, find your surroundings, and seek out why those who suffer continue to bathe in their personal vat of hell and refuse to remove themselves. You will experience three distinct levels of hell:

• Addiction: You will experience what it is like to be a true junkie, as well as experience the horrible consequences of throwing your life away. Gluttony was a great example of addiction for Dante, but your example will be drugs. In the modern world, society understands that addictions manifest themselves in many ways whether it is food, drugs, or even sex. The most popular and deadly of these is certainly drugs, as they continue to destroy lives of all ages. Not only are the drugs deadly, but they can entirely engulf one's life. This isolates addicts from society, plummets their self worth, and ruins their body permanently.

• Wrath: You will be a modern day abusive husband and father. Your ungratefulness will lead you to hate everything in life including your job, your family, and yourself. The wrathful not only destroy the lives of others, but themselves as well. The destruction and abuse of others, especially innocents, comes from a deep horrifying pain within themselves. They tend to lose everything good in their lives, and hate themselves passionately.
• Murder: You will be a serial killer. Complete outcasts from society. Those who take the lives of others lose their humanity. They will never feel a part of society. All good is gone and replaced with horrifying emptiness. The only way to defend against the horrors one brings upon themselves when murdering innocents is to block it out. You will not have this privilege.

Be sure to keep an eye out for the things you experience that Dante's Inferno has symbolism for. While you will find no mystical creatures in this world, no lakes of fire, no Satan or Saints, you will find incredible similarity to that which I showed Dante. His experience was symbolic, but your experience... Why, it will be as real as you yourself.

Ready or not, I bring you to your first experience.

Meet Ed, 24 years old. After a long day of bingeing on LSD and Oxycodone, he ends up falling asleep at the junkyard he regularly steals from. You will be him when he wakes up.