Drop Me Please

I entered that region where neither star nor conscience shines, and where the air is thick as the ashes of burned vows.
And I said to myself: here is the place where a man is left alone with what he is. For there are no witnesses here, save
the abyss, and no judgment, save his own silence.

I walked alone among hills made of the sins of others, and every stone beneath my feet groaned like a soul that had
forgotten its own name. And there was neither morning nor evening there, but a steady twilight, in which even a prayer
sounds like an accusation.

My guide did not speak to me, for words in those lands are unnecessary. Only his cloak, dark as water under the moon,
showed the way — ever lower, ever closer to the heart of that emptiness which men call punishment, though it is only a
return to oneself.

And when I reached the final boundary, there was no flame there, no beast, no judge upon a throne. Only silence, like the
silence that stands between a heartbeat and death. And I understood: there is no need to seek hell outside oneself, for
it follows behind, patient as a hound that has been given a command, but not yet told the hour.



Fragment from \xabThe Book of the Silent Star\xbb, author unknown. \\\\