Author's Notes

I Changed the guide for Dante as he goes through the circles of hell from Virgil (a fellow poet like the original Dante) to Johnny, who is also the Grim Reaper as to give him so kind of modern significance as to how he would know his way around Hell and acts as a transition for Michael who also dies from (currently) mysterious circumstances. The first circle in the original story is also a meadow full of many philosophers and poets all that Dante knew, and he went to converse with them in the original telling as well. For this adaptation, I changed the First circle to focus more on the aspect of great thinkers only being there as there is not much time to dwell on each individual circle due to the large number of total circles, but just enough to highlight a famous person or specific aspect of each circle. The second circle in the original story is also the Lust circle, where Dante does not take the same approach as Michael and spends time in the circle where he meets historical figures from his time such as Cleopatra and Francesca da Rimini, who tell the party the tales of how lust got the best of them in their time on Earth. For this adaptation, I changed the stand-out appearance of the First circle to be Albert Einstein as he would be considered a great thinker of the time and would be dead at the time of the book taking place. For this adaptation, I changed the second circle to seem more like a Las Vegas style area where apparently a large number of Kennedy's go out and fraternize, but there is not an in-depth description of what's going on due to Michael being a "boy," as well as length and appropriate content. Much of the third circle is similar to the original telling as their is a sludge-like rain with the Great Three-Headed Dog, Cerberus, guarding the circle. This circle is known as gluttony where people who were "habitually greedy," were sent. In the original telling Dante and Virgil get through the third circle by filling each of Cerberus' mouths with mud. The next circle was known as greed where those who had "intense and selfish desire for something" in their time on Earth were sent. Much like my retelling the inhabitants had large money-bag-shaped weights as well as the large overseer who is known as Plutus or Dis. This was the god of wealth back in Dante's time when writing this as it was symbolic to the circle's inhabitants. The fifth circle was known as wraith where those who were angry all of the time in their past life. In the original story, this circle is a swamp with waters from the River Styx that had a layer of slime on the surface where everyone fought on the top layer of sludge. To end the third page, our two protagonists are heading to the sixth circle known as heresy which had flaming coffins for its inhabitants.