James Ward Kirk Fiction Presents

Go to Hell!

How often have you heard that phrase used? It’s one of the worst things to say to one of our fellow human beings with connotations of fearful, miserable and prolonged pain, either physical or psychological.

Hell, that concept of a place of eternal damnation, where pitchfork wielding devils plague our very posteriors with the flames of cleansing fire, is that real? Many of the ancient cultures on Earth seemed to think so. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Vikings, but also the Chinese, each had their own variety of an afterlife, filled with agony and demonic creatures to dispense a kind of divine retribution for the sins we committed during our lives.

But there is another side to Hell. There is redemption. There is the chance, no matter how small, that our souls are saved through the cleansing fires and torments of that place. But it’s not the redemption itself that inspires us. It’s hope, the thought that somehow, somewhere, a benevolent God watches over us and shows us the mercy and forgiveness that we cannot give ourselves.

So what if you achieve redemption? Is it an automatic ticket into heaven? Or do you enter the next level of torment, to be judged once again, in a never ending journey?

Established and new authors attempt to answer some of these questions in this excellent anthology. And for now I’ll skip my further contemplations and bid you: Welcome to Hell!

 

Table of Contents

POETRY
Timothy Frasier – Tribulation; Condemned
Brian Rosenberger – Hell at the Gates; Bleeding Mercury; Aftershock
David S. Pointer – One is the Deadliest Number; Rituals-n-Robes; Certain Holy Products
Nathan J.D.L. Rowark – Unending Battle of Self
Neil Leckman – Where Goest Thou?; They Call
David Frazier – Describe Hell; Hellish; Winner; Little Nippers; A Lost Bet
Matthew Wilson – Fair Trade; The Party; King Cruel; The Letter; The Letter II
Scott Frederick Hargrave – In the Ruins of the Broken Cathedral
Roberta Guillory – BLOODY; INSANITY; THE ROSE
The Bard of Blasphemy – DEEP WITHIN THE LAIR OF THE ANCIENT WORM
Patricia Anabel – Devil’s Queen; Devil’s Dance
Christopher Hivner – Black Wings; Dance, Marionette, Dance; Among the Trees

 
FLASH FICTION
Ron Koppelberger – Out and In
Gregory A. Carter – To Hell and Back
Brianna Stoddard – Bridget Bishop
A. B. Stephens – Da Nada Gate Apartments; Mary’s Letter to David; Reba
A. D. Moore – Friends List
Christopher Hivner – Soliloquy

SHORT STORIES
Ken Goldman – Purgatory, Lakeside
David James Keaton – Hell
A.B. & Cindy Stephens – Impulse Control
Paula D. Ashe – Because You Watched
James Ward Kirk – The Rose Garden
Murphy Edwards & James Ward Kirk – Me and Sister Mercy
R. Todd Woodstock – The Message
Allen Griffin – The Eyes of God
A. B. Stephens – Justine
Thomas Malafarina – Bordello of the Bizarre
Clint Smith – What Happens in Hell, Stays in Hell
Paul DeThroe – A Cold Day in Hell
Chantal Noordeloos – Tiffany’s Model Affair
A. B. Stephens – The Complex
Marija Elektra Rodriguez – The Cult of Persephone
Dale Hollin – The Gospel of Pilate
Christopher Hivner – Soul Rape
Paul DeThroe – Knocking on Satan’s Door
Chantal Noordeloos – Only Forgotten
Timothy Frasier – Rebellious