Then something happened. A face appeared. It was not a face I wanted to see. It was not an ugly face; perhaps one would say it was well-favored. But I had the feeling it was a horrible face trying very hard to look like something that was not horrible. To put it simply, it was false. <\/p>\n
It spoke. “There is one who would speak to you. Someone you know well.” <\/p>\n
This was perhaps my second worst moment. Because he — it — showed me a face, one I knew well indeed. It was tear-streaked. The beautiful black hair had turned mostly gray. But I recognized my wife. <\/p>\n
I was about to reply when a familiar whisper said, “Remain silent. Do not speak.” So I said nothing. <\/p>\n
The face seemed puzzled, then it began slowly to change. “You have no feelings for your wife?” it asked. It had somehow become a less pleasing appearance and the voice now held an edge. “You will not be given another chance,” it said even more harshly. <\/p>\n
“Say nothing,” said the whisper. It was strange because I knew I did not have to obey the whisper, and I wanted to speak to my wife. But … I trusted the whisper. I knew the whisperer would not try to harm me, and I had no such confidence about the face before me. And finally a kind of anger welled up inside me, that this thing, whatever it was, would take advantage of my longing for my wife, and her longing for me. For I knew more and more certainly that it was evil and was trying to trap me or my wife or both of us. <\/p>\n
Then something really horrible happened. The face changed. It became a thing of nightmare. What is more, it touched me in every sense — smell, sight, hearing; I even tasted the horrible thing. I was sinking in a burning, fetid cesspool of corruption, a pit full of evil and death that seared me wherever I contacted it. As my shadowy head went under, I called out, “Jove! Be near me!” <\/p>\n
Suddenly the appearance was gone. I was back to the gray dungeon. <\/p>\n
I fell on my knees in gratitude. That is, the immaterial thing that bore my consciousness made a gesture that my consciousness interpreted as falling on my knees. <\/p>\n
The memory of some song in Greek I learned in my childhood rose to my mind: <\/p>\n
\nMost glorious of immortals, Zeus<\/i>
\nThe many named, almighty evermore,<\/i>
\nNature’s great Sovereign, ruling all by law<\/i>
\nHail to thee! On thee ’tis meet and right<\/i><\/p>\n
That mortals everywhere should call.<\/i>
\nFrom thee was our begetting; ours alone<\/i>
\nOf all that live and move upon the earth<\/i>
\nThe lot to bear God’s likeness.<\/i>
\nThee will I ever chant, thy power praise!<\/i>\n<\/p>\n
[From Cleanthe’s Hymn To Zeus<\/i>, translated by Frederick C. Grant] <\/p>\n
It was longer than that, but this was all I could remember. As I sang it my voice seemed to grow in power and fill the dungeon. Then I seemed to hear a faint echo, as if some ghostly voice joined my song. I took courage in knowing that I was not alone, even though I still could see and touch no one. <\/p>\n
… To Be Continued …. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One Man’s Rescue from Hell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13],"tags":[62],"class_list":["post-215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-serial","tag-harrowing","has-excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions\/1160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}