The Judaic Vision

"If something like this was actually true, why haven't they filled it with cement or something?" Danny said out loud to himself.

"You can't cover up evil." A voice answered.

Danny spun around, coming face to face with his companion from earlier that day. "What're you doin' here?" Danny asked shakily.

"What're you doing here?" She chuckled, a sound that made Danny shiver. "I got the feeling you'd be back, so I waited for you." She shrugged. "Not content with the stories, eh?" She asked.

"I just gotta know."

"Then go find out. But I warn you, Daniel, the only way to know for sure is to stand in the middle of the pit." She pointed to a half-decayed animal with maggots and flies swarming it.

Danny winced. "Okay." He made his way into the pit, then stood on top of the dead animal in the center. He waited. "How long am..." Danny called before he was sucked underneath the surface of the pit.

"Didn't believe me, eh?" Danny's companion retorted as horns sprouted from her head. She licked her lips with a newly forked tongue. "Be content with stories." She hissed.

* * *

Geihinnom was mentioned in the Bible as a valley through which ran the boundary between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The valley also served as the city dump; filled with animal carcasses and the corpses of criminals. It was also the site of Topheth, where child sacrifices were offered to Molech (a demon in the form of a half calf, half ox, or a demon depicted as a man with the head of a bull). Jeremiah prophesized that the valley would become a "valley of slaughter" and a resting place. For the Jewish people, this is hell.