Sin and Penance Ch. 01

Mrs Warner looked at the ferry as it sat moored in the river of flame. She had seen over the months that it could carry a large amount of passengers despite the modest size of the simple vessel. Certainly, at least a few more than her group totaled.

And then, she feared that the ferryman might let others on board the vessel. The teacher wanted to save herself and the students from further humiliation - If that was at all possible.

When the wraith was done collecting the clothes, he pulled the sack shut and threw it back over his shoulder. The teacher tapped him politely on the shoulder and he turned around to face her, rather annoyed. She was still clutching her arm to her chest - Her knees crossed in a fruitless bout of modesty.

The woman's tone remained kind and polite, though trepidation cracked through in her voice.

"I'm sorry to bother you again Mr Charon, but I was wondering if you could please consider only taking my group on this trip? I don't want my students to feel more uncomfortable than they already are."

Somehow, Charon couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards her. In truth, she had been the first mortal who had been kind to him in over a thousand years. There were sinners in her group, but that wasn't her fault. The spectre gazed at her, in silent consideration. These girls didn't expect to end up here and it reasoned that there was no real need to group them with a loose collection of naked strangers.

The ones who deserved mistreatment would get it soon enough.

Charon found the teacher to be a sweet woman. He felt somewhat obligated to make her feel better about her untimely death and subsequent abandonment by the god she'd clearly wasted dedicating her entire life to.

"Twenty five is almost an entire load, anyway." Thought Charon. "Maybe if I'm generous, at the very least the trip will be more tolerable."

The spectre slowly nodded his head, as he showed the most mercy that he had in Millennia.

"I will grant your request ma'am."

Mrs Warner smiled genuinely. She kept her breasts covered with her left arm as she reached out to shake the spectre's hand with her right.

"Thank you, Mr Charon."

Charon rolled his fiery eyes and extended his skeletal hand. As Mrs Warner shook it, she could hear the joints of his bony digits crack against each other. It was unpleasant, but she didn't dare let it show. Charon stepped onto the raft-like vessel, and took his place at the back.

Mrs Warner awkwardly hobbled onto the ferry as she tried to keep her modesty. Her students giggled as they saw her bare backside, and her face was flush red once again. A little frustrated, and more than humiliated, Mrs Warner ushered the others quickly onto the boat. When the last of them were on board, Charon cast off from the river banks and began to row down stream.

The woman sat on one of the wooden benches, squeezed between two of her students. It was very crowded, and she couldn't help but think that her students being naked and pressed against each other for extended periods of time might give them impure thoughts. God certainly wouldn't let them into heaven if they developed - There was not a priest in sight to confess to.

Mrs Warner turned her head to Charon as he helmed the raft. She cleared her throat and perked her head up to get his attention.

"How long is the journey? Will I be able to speak to someone in charge?"

"It is not wise to speak to the ferryman while he is rowing, ma'am."

This was Charon being polite. If she was anybody else, he wouldn't have warned her.

He'd have just paddled her.

"N-no, of course not. S-sorry, Mr Charon."

As the twenty five women journeyed for hours down the fiery River Styx, they laid bare to the esoteric sights that the underworld had to offer.

They saw things that made them question their ever absent god.

They beheld the majesty of cyclopean ruins built ages before the heavens were forged.

They glimpsed into the horror that was the colossal bones of a Titan, slain by Zeus and his brother Hades in a time of myth.

They watched with muted giggles and curious intrigue as debaucherous souls writhed with pleasure in endless orgies of sex on the shores of the lands of Babel. They witnessed with horror and bated breath the lines of tormented sinners whipped and chained, screaming in pain and forced to dig endless pits for the foundations to a great infernal city.

The girls and their teacher finally reached their destination, and the sight that the pious Catholics met next as they peered over the boat filled them with great despair and terrible dread;

Towering before them on the rocks ahead, stretched a set of colossal black metal gates.

They stood miles high and were almost as wide. Many suffering were depicted on the gates. Their forms writhing and alive. Their metallic faces moaning in incredible bliss or terrible agony.

They were almost identical to the ones the girls had seen at the Rodin Museum during a field trip to Philadelphia last spring. That was how the girls recognized them.

In fiery letters - Clear to the girls even from their considerate distance - Read:

"Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

These were the Infernal Gates of Gehenna that lead to the Fields of the Nephilim - The Gates of Hell - The twisted counterpart to the Pearly Gates of Heaven and the Elysian Fields.

The innocent among their party frantically scrambled to recall their misdeeds. They were sure this was a terrible misunderstanding. But the seven deadly sinners among them sat silently. They each knew what they had done and why they deserved to be here. It didn't make it easier for them, though. If anything, it made it worse.

"D-Don't worry, ladies." Stammered Mrs Warner, the professional facade completely evaporating from her demeanor. "I-I'll just talk to one of the demons in charge."