[ WP ] A device has been invented that allows the user to gaze upon Heaven or Hell . Hell is terrifying , and those who see it often need counselling . But their terror pales compared to those who witness God 's domain .

Hell did n't impress, not at first glance. There were a lot of line-ups. Souls waiting their turns for whatever was what. It looked mostly like boredom, well boredom punctuated by terror. The `` whatever was what'' part could make you shit your pants. Most people could n't watch for more than a few seconds without feeling panic. 
 
 I'm kind of a psycho, so I paid close attention. It took me hours to figure out what was going on. 
 
 Hell was a recycling center. A soul consigned to hell would go through the process. Its flaws would be torn away. It's errors diminished. It looked horrific, it probably felt just as bad. But by the end of that long, long process a newly refurbished soul would be returned to earth to try again. 
 
 Hell was dank and spattered as much as any earthly garbage processing plant. But it was what it was. And most souls make at least one trip through that landscape. 
 
 If you use the viewer on yourself you can see where your trips through hell had changed you. The places where previous flaws had been burned away. 
 
 Heaven was less scrutable at first. Souls sat and watched. They looked `` down'' on earth and hell and made plans. They marked themselves where they needed improvement. They played this world and the hell beneath like a chess board. And as you watched you'd spot the occasional diver. Someone, plan complete, falling to earth to inhabit a new body. To be born. 
 
 Others said they saw boredom. Others said they saw a claustrophobic terror or a subtle unwinding. That was there too. It all depends on where you pay your attention. 
 
 I kept looking, focusing deeper. Beneath hell lay a midden where the refuse burned bright and hot, squirming dreams and aspirations writhing like freshly severed lizard tails as their component energy was liberated. 
 
 Then I looked up beyond heaven to see the hardest, sharpest souls. Pure duty. Pure mission. Pure strategy. The waste cut away. The needs purged. Their essence perfectly in tune with their creator, with _our_ creator. 
 
 Possessed of just enough empathy to be effective, possessed by piety and duty and a thousand virtues. In selfless fulfillment; the finished souls flew beyond my sight... ammunition spent by God, to fall upon some distant enemy. 
 

