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Friday, April 5, 2019

"An Empty Hell " by Ryan K



As the red gloom and mist clears before your eyes, a loud sarcastic clap starts to ring out from the distance. The claps get louder each time until finally, it sounds like the clapping is right in front of you, but the source is still obscured by heavy black-red smoke. 

“Bravo... well done” said a deep, sarcastic voice “I never would have imagined that someone like you would end up here.” 

The source of the voice starts to approach you, as he gets nearer you notice something strange about it. The man behind the voice has dark red skin clothed with a classy black tuxedo, viper-like yellow eyes, and white horns sticking out from his slicked back hair. The man in front of you is Satan. Shortly after you notice Satan stands in front of you, you come to the realization that you’ve ended up in Hell, in fact, THE deepest layer of Hell. 

“You see, this place was never intended for the likes of a human, in fact, you’re actually the first human to arrive in the pits of Hell. Now, you’re probably confused since that religion of yours describes this place as the place where all evil and demonic people end up. Well, I’m sorry (not really) to tell you this, but humans have had it wrong all this time. Hell wasn’t designed to be an eternal prison for just any old terrible person, it was designed for the WORST person to ever set foot on the Earth. That person is you. Now I know what you’re thinking, ‘But Mr. Satan how am I the worst person to exist? I haven’t done anything to harm anybody or anything. My intentions were always good. I don’t even curse. Please explain.’” 

You’re a bit offended and awestruck as Satan takes the words right out of your mouth in a patronizing and mocking tone. In truth, you were thinking exactly that. But come on, what were you expecting, he’s Satan, he can read your mind. Don’t be surprised. 

“Well, to be frank, even I find you to be quite a despicable person, and I’m frickin’ Satan. Sure you’ve never murdered anyone, harmed a fly, told a lie, or destroyed other’s lives in order to reach your selfish goals, but you have committed some of the worst moral crimes known to Earth. Here I have a little speaker that will list off your crimes to you.” 

Satan reaches down into his pocket and conjures an Ultimate EarsTM BluetoothTM speaker. Satan then pulls out his iPhone Rawr xD OwO and connects it to the speaker. He fiddles around with his phone for a bit and then playing an audio file that contains a play by play of your heinous crimes against humanity. Suddenly, a robotic female voice (similar to Siri’s) rings out from the speaker.
“Welcome to Hell! I am Satan’s personal sin evaluator, Diri. I will now begin evaluating and listing off the numerous sins that you have committed in your lifetime. I will begin by evaluating your life on Earth and the average severity of your crimes. It appears that you are the worst person to have ever existed on Earth, your crimes against humanity prove to be so heinous that they are even comparable to the dark lord himself. I will now list off some specifically severe crimes that you have committed, they are as follows. ‘Thinking it’s funny to shout out fake spoilers for films that people are planning to watch’, ‘Posting any form of Minion meme on Facebook’, ‘Singing along to every song on the radio while at work’, ‘Using your phone rather than talking with your friends when you are eating out’, ‘Texting while watching a movie and then being surprised when others become upset at you for it’, ‘Listening to music through a speaker while in public’, ‘Stopping in the middle of a sidewalk or street while others are walking behind you’, ‘Obnoxiously taking pictures of your food’, ‘Using the word ‘literally’ inappropriately’, ‘Blindly supporting companies with mediocre products and terrible ethics’, the list goes on and on.” 

After hearing about your consecutive crimes against humanity, you start to come to terms with your current situation. You start to understand that being an absolute prick to everybody around you, whether intentional or unintentional, will put you down there with the rest of Earth’s terrible people.
“Well not to worry, see I don’t plan on giving you an eternity of punishment and torture, in fact, I’m going to give you an opportunity to live out a much more meaningful existence. You see, I lied about Hell’s design, I was never supposed to receive any humans down here whatsoever, but somehow you ended up here. You see, your beloved creator never intended for me, the arbiter of all things bad to even get close to a human, he foresaw that if I were to influence a human that the Heavens themselves would potentially be flipped upside down. I am going to offer you an opportunity to join me in my quest for domination between the physical and metaphysical dimensions, for you and me will become an unstoppable duo according to prophecy. On the other hand, if you deny I’m going to condemn you to an eternity of pain and torture. Whaddya say? Do you want to help rule the multiverse? Okay, okay, I’m really just using that entire domination thing as an excuse, I really just want someone to talk to and interact with. In reality, I’m actually pretty lonely, there’s not much down here except me, myself, and I. My question still stands though, will you help me?” 

And in response, you gave the most mundane, generic response that one could think of when offered an opportunity of this magnitude.
You just said “Yeh, whatever I guess.” 

Finally, with that response, Stan disappeared with a snap and a puff of smoke. Later, Stan, along with the help of his new despicable friend would go on to rule across every dimension.

32 comments:

Noah Palmer said...

What a twist of from an ominous and scary tone to one of perfect comedy. Satan's funny personality and use of "Diri" were genius in the form of character building and I too would probably not like the main character. Good Job!

Xiaoqing Zhong said...

Amazing job, Ryan! I clicked open your story expecting something that would trigger my tear glands, but the what the story is actually about surprised me! I love your humorous analogies you used in your writing, and they added a final touch and perfected your story! Your story truly reflects our current society, and great job again!

OwO

-Xiaoqing Zhong P.4

Ivan Larrondo said...

I thought your story was going to be very grim by how it started off but it became more humorous as I kept reading. I found it funny when you included relatable scenarios of what people perform in reality and labeled these as the worst possible acts in all of humanity.

Anonymous said...

That was really an interesting roller coaster ride of sorts! The story also had an added effect for being that I know and talk to you nearly everyday. The addition of “deep” and “sarcastic” attributed to the voice of Satan made me imagine your voice as his all the while! Anyways a great read with an inverted expectation! -Joshua Kidwell

Melody Lin said...

Although we see Hell as a place we never want to be in, I found your story to be very funny! I enjoyed reading your story because it was an interesting twist to reasons someone might end up there. Good job!

Paul Aureus said...

Ryan, what a comedic piece. I loved how you made a parody of Hell and Satan. I was expecting a dark story but ended up with a less than serious meme. -Paul Aureus

Skylir Ford said...

First off, I really like how you implemented the rarely-used second person point of view, and I like how it wasn't repetitive or distracting away from the story. Second, I liked your work because I find it interesting to see how certain people think of/personify death and the afterlife(?), which I think you detailed magnificently and with an abundance of humor. Most of all, I enjoyed how you implemented humor into your piece to establish satire, and it truly made me think of the "heinous" things I do in my daily life, and how something so simple to one can seem so paramount to another. Great job!

Audrie Torres said...

Ryan, this was super funny- I really love the sarcastic tone of the narrator, and their nonchalance and easy acceptance towards their fate. I gotta admit- all those crimes Satan listed as 'heinous' im guilty of committing on more than one occasion. I can only hoped that I don't get condemned to hell for it. Amazing Job!

Anonymous said...

I would only expect such genius satire from you Ryan, the sins you mentioned are all things that irk me as well about social media. This is a very relatable piece and would also be quite a funny video idea for someone to make.

Alani Sullivan said...

From the start of the story,I really thought that it was going to be dark and scary in a sense, but the more I read, the more i began to laugh and enjoy iy. The comedy in it is just my style and shows how memes can be a story. It made me really rethink some of the things I do in my life that can get me into this exact place. Overall it was a great story. ~ Alani Sullivan

Sara An said...

Well, that was unexpected! I love how your story switched from such an ominous tone to a comedic one at the drop of a hat; it was a seamless transition and really added to the surprise factor. Also, the idea of having Hell be for only one person - the worse one to set foot on Earth - was a pretty creative and rather intriguing idea. (I have to agree with Diri; someone stopping in the middle of a busy sidewalk is definitely a horrific act against humanity itself.) Great job!

Evan To said...

I never knew Satan would be so chill about the worst person in the world being down there with him. Also, YES, you've described the very people I see everyday that annoy me to no bitter end and make me want to scream at them! P.S. I love the new model iPhone Rawr xD OwO.

Nicholas Santamaria said...

I really enjoyed this story! I thought your depiction of satan and hell were both really creative and it made me want to read even more.

Mason Song said...

Wow Ryan! This was an amazing blog piece! Your story completely made me think the opposite when reading it, thinking that Satan was really the worst nightmare anyone can face. You proved me wrong, and through this piece, it really lightened up the mood and portrayed Satan as more of a misunderstood creature than just pure evil, kinda like how people viewed the monster in Frankenstein when the monster initially wanted to embrace humanity. You portrayed the Satan as something we'd never imagine in the first place, using humor to express this. Nicely done!

Cedric Perez said...

I'm currently still trying to process what I just read. I loved your transition from a mysterious and dark tone to a very humorous and comedic piece overall. Moreover, I enjoyed your unique interpretation of Satan and the descriptive details, such as the way the character looks and speaks, that brought Satan's character to life. Great Work!

Jean Andre Molina said...

Hello Ryan, this a wonderful and well written piece, I really like how there was a shift of tone from serious and somewhat horrific to very comedic. When reading the opening lines, it gave me that horrific tone due to your distinct word choice which many of your word choice such as"gloom" and "red" gave that scary tone. However once Satan started to have dialogue that tone immediately shift to a comedic one, I really liked how you did that shift. Furthermore I found it ironic that a person who did not heavily sin went to the deepest level of hell, that allowed a comedic effect to form which made the story much more appealing. Finally, I really like the ending on how you mention the different "physical and metaphysical dimension" it kinda reminded about Dr. Strange, I don't know if that was an intentional allusion, but overall I liked it either way. Thank you Ryan for writing a amazing and well written piece!!
-Jean Andre Molina Period 4

Sandra Mae Samin said...

Haha I enjoyed this story a lot, and I appreciated what appeared to be satire on people today with their approaches to pop culture and their lack of manners. Wonderful story that was very funny and light despite revolving around so dark of a concept. Great Job!

Alysha Santiago said...

I am so pleasantly confused! I did not expect to be laughing at the end of this piece. Your writing was very abstract and refreshing, which is why I fell in love with this. The detail was very ominous and scary, but the humor added a very playful tone. I noticed how you were mocking society with this social commentary, but maybe also criticizing yourself too. Great job!

Mary Rykowski said...

The title of this story intrigued me, I was expecting to read some dark ominous story and I was pleasantly surprised when I read the exact opposite. I liked how you made Satan a humorous character. I loved the shift of tone at the beginning from one of mystery to that of a very comedic tone. Very well done!

Katy O'Hara said...

Ryan, I loved your story! I also really enjoyed how you changed the story up by making it more comedic but tied it in with the horror aspect. The descriptive words that you used were bone chilling when I was reading them! Great piece!

Johnny De La Cruz said...

Wow Ryan this story was really funny. I really enjoyed how you took a serious and scary topic such as death and Hell in a comedic approach to attack the people we all secretly despise. Your very funny and real examples were quite enlightening in showing that bad and evil don't always have to be applied to murder and stealing.

kayla holliman said...

i really enjoyed reading this and it was also very surprising that that story was very funny. i enjoyed all of the comedic elements throughout this story and how descriptive you were.

Anonymous said...

I was totally expecting this to be a very sharp critique of our existence on Earth, but it turned out to be one of the funniest things I've read all year. This truly is a complete 180 spin. Props to you for writing this! oWo

Bill said...

I love the twist you put on Hell, it was very surprising and made the story ten times more funny. Hell was always a place that I feared because of what others have told me and I could've never expected someone to interpret it in such an odd way.

Sara Harvey said...

I definitely did not expect a story like this when I clicked on the title. Your piece was really amusing, and I don't think I've ever read anything like it. I think the list of sins was extremely humorous, and really added to the drama of this being the last layer of hell. You really did a great job: it was well written and entertaining.

julia avalos said...

I really enjoyed your piece, it was very creative and entertaining. I also really enjoyed how when I was reading your piece that it played like a movie in my head. Thank you for sharing! (Julia Avalos)

Brooke Leslie said...

Ryan, Wow! Your twist really surprised me. The title and the first portion of your writing gave me every indication that the story would be dark and critical of traditional values. You took a frightening topic and gave it comic relief while simultaneously providing social commentary. Good job, that's definitely not easy to do.

- Brooke Leslie

Omar Sandoval said...

This is a great piece, I love the “sins” that were described to justify hell and the overall picture of Satan as laid back and almost friendly guy. My favorite part though is how much is said about the main character through their response, “Yeh, whatever I guess.”

Aaron Salazar said...

This should be revered as one of the greatest generic stories to ever exist. I'm definitely into this stuff just like I'm into the seasonal anime that I watch. I never expected you to create a dark story that this looked to be and my thoughts of you were right. This actually made me chuckle a bit. Thanks for the laugh.

Unknown said...

I appreciate the amount of creativity put into this piece. This is also very funny which makes it a compelling story that just completely makes you be totally invested in the story. -Julissa Saenz

Eric Chang said...

This was a very unique piece that I found very interesting and superb. You really fooled me during the intro I really thought it was going to be a short horror but instead you used the element of surprise to showcase that its actually a unique comedy that really engages the audience, great job. - Eric Chang

Anonymous said...

Ryan, I loved your work. It was satirical, witty, and funny. I loved your change in tone and freat use of imagery.
-Braden Bailey