What did purgatory look like?
In abstract terms, perhaps it was a mountain of blades and a sea of flames, with more flames than blades. Most movies and TV shows depicted hell and purgatory as scorching volcanic worlds. More concretely, coal mines were purgatory on earth, as were villages where people were trafficked. The old society and slave societies were purgatory on earth, too.
To me, all of that had felt far away. The word purgatory had been nothing more than a distant, exaggerated metaphor.
But now, I was truly experiencing what purgatory meant.
The crying, the shouts, the screams, the wails... They were far worse than any suffering I had ever heard.
None of the victims I had encountered in paranormal incidents had ever made such utterly heartrending sounds.
I had never heard anything like them before.
They spread from my eardrums to my brain and heart, through every limb and bone, until it seemed even my soul was vibrating in resonance with them.
This was no longer simply hearing sounds that made me uncomfortable. Every one of my senses was being dominated by them, and each was wracked with a tearing pain.
It was almost as bad as when my side effects flared up.
I couldn't focus my thoughts. I could only feel the pain. It was as if those sounds were affecting me, as if I were experiencing the suffering of the people making them.
What were they going through? The anguish of parting from loved ones? Physical torture? Or some other kind of torment?
I couldn't imagine it, but the thought wouldn't leave me. It was as if, in that brief moment, I had experienced every kind of suffering in the world and beyond it.
My consciousness briefly shut down, only to be jolted awake by