A walk Along the Styx

I walk along the banks of the river Styx gazing out across the blackness of the swells and the white rapids that seldom pierce the dark, every so often a bony hand pushes above the surface fighting the strong undercurrent pulling them along in an endless loop of despair and lost hope.  It has been so long since I have ventured from the cold and solemn darkness of my realm. I have not walked among you, the living in a very long time. I miss the bustle and the hopes, I miss the dreams that swell within the minds of Humanity.  It is quite entertaining and also heartwarming to be witness to such a rich array of diverse thought and emotion. Sometimes I feel a swell of pity for what most will end up as. Decaying corpses unable to move beyond the veil.

So few, such a minuscule amount have ever escaped my realm. So many cannot let go. Those who have come here are lost to the recesses of time. Here time has no meaning. A day and a millennia are one and the same, only I feel the linear flow of the ages and it has made these old bleached bones weary.  To have the ability to cross from one world to the other can be an emotional and truly painful experience.  Upon my travels among the living I have seen many pass from your world to mine, they become something else, something devoid of humanity.  Everything they once were is stripped away when the realization is seen.  When their life is presented to them it drives them to blanket themselves in the darkness lest their true selves see the light of day and all of their most secret thoughts and actions be laid bare.  This may seem to you a trivial matter that cannot possibly pull countless humans into a self made quagmire of torture and despair, but when you leave your body you can no longer bury the truth you can no longer ignore it or move on from it, it is ever present.  A constant companion holding you in the irons of your own guilt.

It is said that humans must pay for their sins, that there is a creature of eternal torment and pain holding them prisoner in a literal hell dimension.  Endlessly tormented by the demons that inhabit that place.  So much of your entertainment and religion are devoted to showing the guilty what awaits them.  I have been her since the beginning of time and have never witnessed the so called "Prince of Lies" he does not exist, he is but a creation of religions and governments seeking to control the people through fear, the only thing keeping the lost souls here are themselves.  I pray one day I will walk upon the bare shores and empty water of this place secure in the knowledge that all humans have been able to face the dread that torments them and have moved on to a better place.

You have your serial killers and child rapists and you delight in the thought of eternal torment for them, the never ending torture they will face at the hands of some evil entity forever punishing them for the sins they committed while alive.  Yet no human will ever be able to grasp what true eternity means, none will ever experience it.  If you truly want to try and understand what my realm is like then sequester yourself in the most silent and dark room you can find.  Sit there for one hour and you will understand, now add to that the knowledge that you are dead, the reality that you can no longer hide from the most mundane of misdeeds.  Feel the dread of every thought, every moment, every emotion plays endlessly across your mind.  You are unable to stop the procession, you are unable to turn away from it.  A never ending march of memory, regret, lost love and emotion.  Try to imagine all of this and you will not even come close to what each soul has trapped themselves in.

My advice dear friends, do not hide from yourself, in the end you will have to face the truth of who you are and I have never witnessed in all the eons I have existed a person who has faced with bravery or joy what they are presented.