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Time is short.”
    Serena felt the firm grip of the angel’s hand on her shoulder. She considered resisting, but realized that it was futile. After all, where could she run, even if she did manage to evade him?
    As she was ushered along down the corridor, she glanced into some of the cells. They were all the same, about 8 feet on a side. They contained neither beds nor chairs, and no comfort facilities of any kind. They held not so much as a rock to set upon. They were totally barren cubicles, and only a few were empty. There were men and women of all ages and races here, representing every region of the world. They cried out in many languages yet to a common theme, lamenting a life lost, and an opportunity gone forever.
    “This place is like some sort of medieval dungeon,” Serena said.
    “Of course,” replied the angel. “Most of those who have occupied it are from times past. They were better able to relate to its architecture, and the dread it engendered. Your history is replete with such places. Satan knows this well, and has utilized it to prey upon your fears.”
    Again, Serena gazed about this dreadful place, breathed in the atmosphere of gloom and despair, then looked at her hands, her feet. “I don’t get it, why does it all have to be so real? I mean, I’m dead, my body is probably laying in a morgue somewhere back on Earth.” She pinched herself, felt the tiny prick. “I have a heartbeat; I still feel; I have a body; how can that all be? I’ve got to be nothing more than a disembodied spirit, a ghost.”
    “Yes, this is all true,” confirmed the angel, “you would be no more than a disembodied spirit were it not for the mercy of God. It is God who has allowed you to retain a state of consciousness. He has given you the body you now inhabit, a body that, in appearance, is much like the one you possessed in life.”
    “You also said that most of outer darkness was a zone of nothingness, right?”
    “Yes, we traveled through it on our way to this place,” confirmed the angel. “Very little of it is otherwise.”
    “But it just doesn’t make sense. God is supposed to be merciful, right? You said there were some souls that satan couldn’t find, souls that were allowed to drift free in outer darkness until the Day of Judgment. Wouldn’t it be more merciful to just leave me as a disembodied spirit, allow me to drift in this outer darkness of yours? At least I’d be at peace. Was I that bad, that sinful in my lifetime? Why give me a body that satan can torture, and then drop me off right at his doorstep?”
    “Because it has been decided that this is how it shall be,” replied the angel. “That should be enough for you. Nonetheless, as I said, a countless number of spirits do drift through outer darkness, for it is a realm of spirits. Those spirits of the dead wander aimlessly through the abyss in a sort of dream state, a sleep that shall last until the day of their final judgment. They are hardly conscious of the darkness that engulfs them.”
    “But not me.”
    “No, not you,” continued the angel. “You are different from those who sleep. In this place you have retained a physical form. The body you seem to possess is similar in many ways to the one you possessed in life, yet in other ways, it is very different. If you are to remain conscious in this realm, you will need a physical form for the sake of your own sanity. God has provided you with that. All of your senses still function. In this new body, you can still enjoy the pleasures of eating and drinking, as well as the bliss of sleep. You can feel warmth and cold, pain and pleasure, sense the odors and tastes of the world around you, just as you did on Earth. God, in His wisdom, has given you this body to make the transition into the realm beyond life less traumatic, more akin to your Earthly experiences. Yet, unlike your Earthly body, this new body is incapable of a second death. No matter how severely it might be injured, it will