Every man's work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. – 1 Corinthians 3: 13-15
Chapter 5 – Stitched Together Guilts
During his long fall, Vito passes out. He wakes up at the bottom to see dozens upon dozens of people below him being tossed into the fires of this town. There are tons of reapers that look like angels of death. These are the beings that take these people from above and deliver them to their punishment. Besides these angels, there are some that look like the black cloaked figure that Vito saw before. People seem to come down here like how Vito did. They argue with the reaper in various languages including his own.
One of them says to the reaper, “I am a guilty man who deserves to be punished.”
“You are relatively innocent. You do not to be punished this severely,” it responds in a deep muffled voice.
“I do.”
“You know that you are lying to yourself.”
“I’m not! I know I’m a guilty man deserving of Hell.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am.”
“So be it then according to your will.”
The reaper takes the man and tosses him into the fiery lake. The sin in the souls of everyone in the flames burn them and make them suffer tremendously in them without the release of death until the last day of judgment. These reapers with demoralized heads and mannerisms appear to be the reapers of the people who judge themselves to be guilty. They are guilt reapers in some sense. Vito appears to be the only person in this crowd who doesn’t want to be thrown into the fire. He looks around and finds a narrow crevice in the rocks that appears to be the only exit.
“It’s like they say, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow gate’ or whatever,” he says to himself.
The rocks in the crevice jut out at him, which makes it both uncomfortable and painful to go through. At the end of the crevice, Vito finds himself in a crowd of stitched people. All of them stare at him and present to him their arms with their heads bowed. There appears to be a way out behind them, but they block the way. One of them holds out a knife. He takes the knife and thinks that he’s supposed to cut the stitches off them, but the stitches are too strong. While cutting, he notices the stitches on his own skin and the dark crimson liquid on his own hands. It’s as if he was the one who attached all of this excess corrupt skin on himself. Even his eyes are blinded with skin that’s stitched onto his face. He just somehow never noticed.
When Vito begins to cut, it feels as if he’s cutting the veins out of his own body and he’s only cut through a single stitch. He hesitates to cut another string as the pain can potentially be unbearable especially since there are so many stitches to cut all over his body. Vito then reminds himself of the kind of person he wants to be. The kind of person that makes the right decisions no matter how hard they are even if he has to put himself down. The right answer is clear. There are only two options in this situation. Either cut off the stitches and renew his life or suffer in eternal fire. Vito does what he does best and puts himself last in order to do what is clearly right.
With his knife, he cuts off every single stitch with each hurting exactly the same as the other. The pain doesn’t get any better as he goes on, but he does make good progress. In a matter of three agonizing minutes that feel more like an hour, Vito successfully cuts off all of the stitches on his body. The feeling is relieving as the weight of the extra skinned heavily weighed him down. He tosses the knife away and falls to his knees with a smile on his face. He then looks back up to see that the stitched people are gone and the way is clear. After going through to the next area, he comes across a small river of fire. Across the river is the road that leads out of town even though Vito hasn’t gone up in any way. It’s as if the town itself was just this bottom part of the earth.
The last obstacle is ahead of Vito, but he still feels nervous about what’s he’s going to experience. This is when he asks for strength and receives the confidence to go forward. Going through the lake of fire feels exactly what it sounds like except it gets easier as Vito gets to the end. The sin from his soul burns off and cleanses him. In the end, the flames stop burning him as the old him turns to ash as the new one is born. He then passes out at the end of the trials because of all the effort it took.
Vito wakes up in his car outside a small town not too far from where Ramoth-Gilead was. This small town looks nothing like that mysterious town. It’s a brisk morning with a clear sky and birds flying through the air. With seemingly no other instruction, he wonders what to do next. His eyes are then drawn to a letter that is in his windshield wiper.
It reads, “Your soul is purified, and the rest of your life lies before you. Be sure to live it well and in the right way or else you’ll have to repeat this process again. There’s also an afterlife burning as well if you are careful but not too careful. On another note, your family and friends are eagerly waiting for you and watching you. Be sure to make them proud.”
The letter makes Vito laugh a bit before he looks into the distance of a new day and drives off into it ready to face whatever challenges his life will bring him next.
The End
Another great song I had in mind for this story. It's pretty fitting for the end of it.
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